Chapter 42.5- And so the Dragons Danced

They dragged the whips to hold him still and Natsu was forced to stand with his hands outstretched as the earthbender shoved his arms into the ground. They came up with rocky gauntlets around them. Toji leaned over the railing to get a better view as the earthbender began to run at his friend.

Sighing at his show coming to an end, he turned and picked up his staff, testing the balance for a second before he prepared to turn the earthbender into a kebab just as he was about to toss it though, he felt himself freeze in place. Natsu had turned to him and was staring daggers into him. “Don’t you dare” his friend said and Toji took the warning for hat it was and put down the weapon. The earthbender reached Natsu and landed a powerful punch right to his friend’s midsection, making him spit out blood.

“I’m going to enjoy this” The earthbender said before landing another punch to Natsu’s head. Toji was impressed that the punch hadn’t knocked out a tooth or two and began to wonder how long his friend was going to take this one for before he got his answer. Iroh and Jeong-Jeong were at oppposite ends of the garden, each one dragging at the fire whips that kept Natsu’s hands bound. The earthbender came around for the next punch and this time, Natsu was ready. Right before the punch landed, Natsu dodged underneath it. The flames bidning him turned an ethereal green that forced both men to let go with screams of pain.

Natsu brought the flame whips back around and tried to use them to tear through the earthbender’s body, but only ended up succeeding in getting a nasty cut into the man’s side as he used his bending to push himself off of the floor and backwards away from Natsu. Toji’s friend snarled at the miss before he was set upon from both side by the firebenders. As one, they unleashed powerful blasts aimed at him. Natsu spread his arms out before cycling them like a windmill, creating some sort of fire shield that blocked both attacks but surrounded him in a tornado of green flames.

The fire tornado became smaller and smaller until Natsu became visible again, and Toji could see that he was gathering the flames and concentrating them into a single spinning ball in his grip. Like a shot from a canon, he fire it right at the Earthbender in front of him. The man set his mouth into a grimace before he lifted multiple earthen walls from the ground and tried to use them to block the attack. It didn’t matter. The green fireball tore through the earth walls before hitting the earthbender center mass and exploding into a fire ball that hurt Toji’s eyes to look at.

One down, Natsu seemed to be getting into the groove of things as he shot at his former mater at full speed. The man managed to block the first fire punch sent his way but was forced to dodge away from an arc of green flames Natsu created with a roundhouse kick.