Koudo: Koudo rotated his shoulders, and rolled his neck. With his back towards Cross and the woman that had initiated all this change going on, Koudo took the time to inspect himself. He was about a couple inches taller, and he could see that his hair had gotten longer and gone through a color change. It was weird to see, honestly. He didn't suspect fully becoming himself would facilitate cosmetic changes such as this.
"You're both fucking stupid."
He said, turning his head only to look at the two individuals in which he stood in the company of, and sparing them a full on view of his majestic nudity. Any aura Koudo was exuding didn't tell about anything but the wholeness he was feeling. His previously callous demeanor had melted away as well, perhaps caused by the change to a semi-dragonic form in the first place. He could hear the disregard for him in Cross' voice, figured it was rightfully so, but to expect him to just leave was damn foolish.
"When has there ever been a point where I left the battlefield, left a comrade, in the heat because I had something else on my mind when something important was at stake? When have I ever not pulled through or stuck in when the battle was important, not to me but to someone else? You already established that we're not rivals, not friends, that 'you're better than me.' Why should I care about the emotional journey of a man, calling himself my brother, who's never cared about one of my own, even now, and has finally expressed he hates me?"
He had previously remained silent when Cross expressed the feelings he had towards Koudo. It hadn't been for his lack of care for the situation at hand, or his disregard for the individual in question. He had really been sitting there, absorbing everything that was said, while diagnosing himself, and trying to suss out how he felt in response. There'd been a lot of things that he'd wanted to say, but knew, even if he didn't understand the reason, that Cross dealing with the woman down here was more important than having a group therapy session. Now, he had the time, since the assassin above chose to wait patiently for their eventual demise.
"I'm not going to leave you here to face this alone, because it's important and I still think of you as a comrade, only so, as I always have and as you had established, a long time ago, you wanted it to be. So while you say you hate me I want you to really think if it's me you hate, or your feelings of inferiority towards me."
He turned back around to face the hole they had come down from, and roared like the beast he was. Within the primal sound of Koudo's dragon roar that carried through the hole and out into the open air of the Geyser Pass, he emitted small amounts of his infestation chakra meant to only attach to people he identified as allies, Cross and H.E.R. They wouldn't feel like he was imposing his will on them, or trying to take control of them, but it was meant to inspire a more powerful sense of confidence in them for the battle ahead, like a friendly pat on the back to reassure that there was someone there. With it embracing them, they would eventually find the power of their respective techniques to be enhanced to new limits with negligible drains to their energy sources. A supplemental drain would come from Koudo's massively increased reserves instead. An ability only capable if Koudo trusted the people he fought alongside.
"After this, I'll stop bothering you."
He said, without a glance over his shoulder towards the other two, and manifested simple wings of chakra to zip right up the hole and out of the bottom of the geyser. They weren't the wings of his dragon form, but they'd get the job done. He'd act as the vanguard.
