Chapter 53.3- And so the Dragons Danced

I counted those around me, taking note of their positions and actions as the first of my imperial guard landed. They moved to take positions around me as we struck almost as one. “The man who manages to kill more than me gets a castle and lands” I said to them before I jumped into the fray again. My first victim ended up being little more than a boy. He was only two or so years younger than I was, and that meant he wouldn’t be old enough to drive, or even drink in the world I came from. In this one, he was old enough to die at my hands without a fight. One.

The next was a man with a long ponytail that bent water with a flair that added extra aesthetic value to his moments. It mattered little. Amy movements were nowhere near as beautiful. I did not flick my wrists with quite the same flourish, and I did not dance from foot to foot as I moved, instead I marched, jogged, and ran. Still, when we clashed, he was the one who fell to the floor with half his body burnt down to the bone. Two. I spread my fingers in front of me, creating a shield of green flames as I had been forced to turn down the heat once my men began landing.

These water benders favoured ice to direct water attacks— most likely as a resole of their experiences in the environment in much the same way as the water benders in the Swampy Forest bent plants rather than water directly. The ice evaporated, and I took the heat of my flames, turning it into a lance, and sending my reverse attack. My would be killer rose a wall of ice before him, showing he was let to learn properly. He would never get the chance to fix that though, as my flame lance cut through the ice and speared straight into his chest. I took a breath and breathed out a torrent of flames, spinning on my feet to make sure the fire was sent in every direction as I noted that the waterbenders had begun to spring the trap they thought they had been leading me towards.

I took another breath even as I noticed that most of them had been able to either shield, dodge, or somehow parry my attack. I smiled before I bent backwards a the waist to avoid a cutting arc of water from a middle-aged man as broad as Sparky Sparky Boom Man had been, but somehow even taller, and much more handsome. I jumped over the next arc, before I flipped in the air and sent fire from my feet in his direction. He took a step forward and someone turning the ground I was about to land on into water and sent that water up towards me with a series of sharp tendrils aiming to turn me into a pincushion. I reacted faster than I could think- flames building my feet and shooting me backwards and away from the attack.