Chapter 42.4- And so the Dragons Danced

As Natsu chased him, Iroh slammed his foot on the ground with a lot more force than he needed to, obviously some form of signal for Jeong-Jeong to do something. But instead of Natsu’s master, the ground in front of Natsu exploded as someone jumped out of the hole and dove right on Natsu, slamming Toji’s best friend into the ground. Obviously an earth bender, the man was a giant easily nearly as tall as the Mountain and about as muscular. His upper body was bare, and he wore only a light green knee-length shorts with overlapping panels to protect his dignity.

He grabbed a hold of Natsu’s face with his hand and used that to push his head deeper into the ground. Natsu seemed to strain against the grip but could barely get any leverage. The ground around him began to rise to enclose him then, reminding Toji of the state they’d found Natsu in after that bastard Bumi had had his way with him. But Natsu had grown by leaps and bounds since then. Not only that, but he’d practiced this exact situation with Toph.

He was almost fully enclosed within the earthen prison when the entire thing exploded and sent the earth bender flying. The man sailed through the air for a few feet before landing on the ground smoothly. Even as he tried to play it off, Toji’s keen eyes could see the reddening on the skin around his left palm. It progressed up his wrist before stopping at the bracer that he wore. He had a brown bracer with metallic studs around each wrist and each ankle. He was dressed shockingly similarly to that mad bastard Bumi, and the longer Toji looked at him, the more similarities he could see.

“And who are you supposed to be?” There was a false lightness to Natsu’s tone as he stood up to stare at the three men who had taken their stances opposite him.

“You took everything from me” The Earthbender said before stomping on the ground and sending a giant javelin of pure stone right at him. Natsu turned, allowing the earth missile to miss him.

“I don’t even know who you are” He replied with a confused tilt of his head.

“You will” the earthbender replied and all four of them exploded in motion at the same time. Both Iroh and Jeong-Joeng’s fire attacks went practically ignored as Natsu dodged around them in his chase of the earthbender. The man stood his ground which displayed bravery tat Toji commended, even if he knew it would avail him little. He stomped the ground and multiple boulders flew into the air under his command.

He held them aloft by holding his arms up before pushing said arms out at Natsu and sending the boulders flying at him. Natsu smirked and in a move that Toji had come to learn was one of his favourites, created two fire whips- one on each hand. With the whips, he slashed through the boulders like they were made of paper, but before he could do anything else, both Iroh and Jeong-Jeong darted in from the sides and grabbed a hold of the ends of the whip.

Toji watched as the whips flared for a second before they suddenly went from originating from Natsu’s clenched palms to creating tendrils that wrapped around his wrists.