Ultra Instinct Employee

Liberal Arts

Finally, a day off. Clay felt like he both needed and deserved a break from literally everything life had to offer him. He knew exactly how to spend his day off— streaming movies on his tablet and watching them from a hot bath.

"Out of bath salts..." Clay said to himself, sighing a little bit. This day, as one of the only times a year he got time off, had to be perfect. So, he opted to get dressed and head to the store.

~~~

He was fast, but her brush was faster. With every move, Vidiri managed to match everything he was, halting every blow. The two were locked deep in what we like to call battle stasis. Every punch thrown was met with a block, with neither party showing any signs of stopping. Still, one wrong move— just one misstep and...

He finally got a hit through, punching Vidiri clean in the nose and knocking her back a couple blocks.

"Foolish artist!" He called. "You think you can stand up to me!? For I am Hydrox, the original cookie favored by milk!"

Hydrox was quite the cookie alright. His head was just two chocolate biscuit wafers with vanilla cream in between. He wore black suit pants with a white shirt tucked into them and a black tie, keeping with the penguin color scheme of the sandwich cookie.

Vidiri reached for her paintbrush, crying out in pain as her hand was stomped on.

"Foolish female... you believe you still have a chance..." He chuckled. "Quite foolish, really. But here's some advice."

Hydrox grabbed Vidiri by her shirt's shoulders, lifting her up and clean off the ground.

"Know when you've lost."

She yelped as Hydrox threw her straight into the air, jumping up after her and kicking her square in her chest, launching her through a bus which would immediately explode as a result, killing almost everyone on board.

Almost.

Once the smoke cleared enough for him to see, Clay looked around to find himself still sitting in his bus seat. However, the seat has been flung into the side of a concrete post, wedged into the very rock it was made of. He looked down at his lap to see Vidiri, struggling to keep herself awake.

"I... couldn't beat him..." she muttered, weakly. "Run... please..."

"I'm sorry, did I hurt your friend?" Hydrox asked teasingly, nearly at the level one insults another at a playground.

"No."

Clay stared at Hydrox unphased, moving Vidiri slightly so he could get up, pick her up and place her in the chair.

"I'm just here for bath salt."

Clay began to walk away, but not before Hydrox grabbed him by the arm, turning him around punching his... face... oh dear. When Hydrox punched Clay, his hand was stopped IMMEDIATELY by Clay's chest.  He tried not to show that it hurt, though.

"I mean, I didn't want the smoke but..." Clay started. "If you insist..."

Long story short, Hydrox was literally in the ground when Clay was done with him. He went back to Vidiri, who had managed to stay conscious through that whole thing.

"I'm gonna get my salts now." Said Clay. "If you help me pick them out, I can drop you off by the hospital after."

"My... brush..." gasped Vidiri. Clay picked up her paintbrush and handed it to her, which immediately healed her wounds. Her skin and clothes quite literally molted immediately,

Revealing an unscathed Vidiri underneath.

"Gross," reacted Clay.

"You must let me learn from you!" Vidiri exclaimed.

"Huh?"

"As you can see, I am but a lowly liberal arts student. I have the paintbrush because they're called liberal ARTS. I was just bested by a cookie, yet you... with just one hit..."

"Wanna come by then?" Clay asked. "I'll have chips."

"You'd invite me to your house... so I might learn from you... even though we've just met?"

"I need new friends anyway. Just let me get my salts first."