Rising Ashes

The Kingdom of Flames' Resident Fuck-Up

If he gets out of this alive, Bakugou swears on the forsaken Gods themselves he will find a way to overthrow Endeavor's kingdom and slaughter every single member of the vexatious knights making up his King's Guard. It's because of those assholes he's been running for almost an hour now; longer than he's ever consecutively run before in his life. Gods, how he plans to make them pay.

Bakugou Katsuki is a lot of things. He is rude, he is cruel, he is disrespectful, but he isn't stupid. He knows when he's out-numbered in a fight. But he also isn't a coward. Bakugou can take them on if he wanted to. He just... doesn't want to at the moment. Anyway, there are more pressing matters at hand. For example: escaping.

The ash blond famously dubbed "Barbarian King" knew entering the Kingdom of Flames was a mistake before he even did it. King Endeavor is a poor excuse for a human and a bastard of a king. The story of how that self-righteous flaming piece of shit ever rose to the throne in the first place is one Bakugou has yet to hear, but he doesn't doubt he'll find it overwhelmingly stupid.

The only reason he set foot in that Gods-forsaken kingdom was because of their market. The trading is best in the Kingdom of Flames; the entire land knows that. And Bakugou's been in desperate need of supplies for days now.

Bakugou has bounties hanging over his head in several kingdoms; his own included. It came as no surprise that, when a gust of wind from one of the King's Guard's presentations blew his hood back, he was immediately recognized and chased after.

Speaking of being chased...

The ash blond rolls his eyes as he crouches low and runs his hand along the ground, explosions shaking the packed earth and flinging clouds of dust and dirt clods straight into his pursuers' eyes. He hears the faint sounds of spluttering and crying out in surprise over the heavy thumping of his heart. A cruel smirk forms on his face.

"Halt!" yells a particularly irritating knight. Bakugou doesn't, obviously, but the knight goes on commanding him anyway. "You cannot outrun us forever, Barbarian King! King Endeavor wants your head!"

"Oh, yeah?!" Bakugou sneers. "Why doesn't he come and cut it from my own damn neck then?!"

Not even a second later, the ash blond slams into a heavily armored chest face-first and flies backwards into the ground. His head pounds painfully, a steady trickle of blood dripping from his nose. In a daze, Bakugou reaches up to gingerly touch it. He looks at the culprit incredulously. Speak of the devil and he shall arrive.

King Endeavor bends down to grip the Barbarian's collar and pick him up like he would a sack of potatoes. The latter grits his teeth, wraps his warming palms around the former's wrist, and spits a glob of blood that had spilled into his mouth right in the flaming bastard's face.

"The Barbarian King is a child?" he scoffs, tone full of disgust as he flicks it off his cheeks. "I am a king. You are just a boy cursed with power he doesn't deserve."

"You're no king of mine," Bakugou snaps. The ash blond thrashes wildly in Endeavor's grip, explosions detonating against his skin and feet kicking at anywhere they can reach. He then reaches as far as he can and punches Endeavor directly in a stupid turquoise eye of his. With a roar of anger, Endeavor throws Bakugou like a rag doll. His back hits a tree with a sickening crunch.

Bakugou, eyes wide, is shaking as he slowly pushes himself back up. Trembling, even. Stabs of pain shoot through his body at every inch of movement. He gnaws on the inside of his cheek to creep from crying out all to keep his dignity. Well, as much dignity a person can still have after being manhandled like that. It's undeniable: he has broken ribs.

He manages to stand once again. The ash blond sways slightly and has to plant his feet firmer into the ground, but he stands nevertheless. Bakugou meets Endeavor's eyes. Smoldering behind those cerulean eyes is nothing but condensed fury.

Bakugou launches himself at Endeavor. At the last second, he detonates an explosion in the latter's face and soars over his head, coming down on the other side to land another blast. The smokescreen isn't a good enough distraction for Endeavor, though. He's a seasoned fighter, one who has gone through more battles than years Bakugou has been alive. Fire engulfs the man's fist as he shoots a stream of burning flames at the ash blond. Eyes wide, he blasts himself to the side. Neither of their attacks land.

"You're not worth my efforts," the so-called king bellows. "Who knew the Barbarian King would be such a disappointment?" Endeavor turns his back on Bakugou. That's his first mistake. His second is not paying more attention to his surroundings. Bakugou awaits the coming explosion with a smirk.

Before Endeavor threw him into that Gods-forsaken tree, Bakugou dropped a vial of his sweat on the ground. He planned for it to detonate on impact, but for whatever reason, it didn't. However, when Endeavor turns back around, he brings his foot down directly atop the vial.

The following boom is deafening. It isn't for Bakugou, seeing as his body has built up a natural immunity after years of explosions close to his eardrums, but it sure as hell must be for King Endeavor and his King's Guard.

Without giving any of them a chance to recover, Bakugou launches himself at Endeavor screaming his trademark catchphrase of "DIE!" The ash blond detonates two explosions against the Kingdom of Flames' resident fuck-up's back. Endeavor falters forward as Bakugou wraps his arms around the former's neck and yanks them up.

Endeavor increases the output of the flames around his head, but Bakugou just buries his face in the man's back and produces more explosions to dance along his skin painfully. Ash coats the two hotheads substantially.

"Don't just stand there, you idiots!" Endeavor barks at his Guard. A stab of panic—and pain—shoots through Bakugou once again. He won't be able to overpower all of them whilst keeping Endeavor relatively incapacitated.

Endeavor, without Bakugou realizing, managed to maneuvered them around so their backs are to a tree, and promptly propels himself backwards against it with those stupid flames of his. For the second time that day (Second! Bakugou had gone through his entire life without getting rammed into trees and now, in one day, it's happened twice!), the ash blond feels the breath leave his lungs as he collides with a sturdy tree.

He can't help it; Bakugou slides off. He can't fucking breathe. He gets so infuriatingly close to drawing in blessed oxygen, only for his lungs to just prance away once more. Breathe, breathe, breathe—

Endeavor doesn't give him time to recuperate. He orders his Guard to incapacitate Bakugou with restraints custom made specially for the Barbarian King. Then, King Endeavor of the Kingdom of Flames, rears his fist back and slams it into Bakugou's face.

His world fades to black.