Chapter 42.3- And so the Dragons Danced

XXXXXX- TOJI

Natsu had one great talent in life. It was killing. Zhufu and Maki might have tried to dress it up with pretty words because they never truly understood his best friend. Natsu was a born killer, and it showed in the way he fought Iroh and Jeong-Jeong. Even though they seemed equally matched to most, Toji could tell there was a sharpness in Natsu’s movements. A hunger and savagery that neither of the older men had in them. Jeong-Jeong fought like an artist but Natsu’s art was fighting.

He bent almost to his waist to dodge around a powerful fist from General Iroh and turned the bend into a smooth backflip to avoid a flame missile from Jeong-Jeong that sought to take advantage of his seemingly occupied state. Toji smirked at that. Natsu had a degree of spatial awareness that none could ever match. It was like he had eyes at the back of his head sometimes, the way he could tell what was happening around him. He spun up from the backflip and shot right at Jeong-Jeong. The white haired man pursed his lips before flaring his hands to lift a wall of flames to ward off Natsu’s approach. As if!

Natsu cut through the flames like the son of Agni he was and came face to face with his former Master. The man stepped backwards, and in a second, Iroh was there to help. He met Natsu blow for blow for a second, but Toji could see the way he winced when blocking Natsu’s punch with his forearm. Natsu hit harder than anyone Toji had ever met and he did it relentlessly. He dodged around the General’s retaliatory palm strike and lashed out with a kick aimed at his head, matched with fire aplenty.

With a twist of the wrist that Toji had to commend, the old man deflected both the powerful driving kick and the flames that came along with it. Natsu’s old master darted around the wider old man and aimed a powerful fire blast at Natsu’s head with his fist. Natsu turned to the flames at almost the last second and allowed his body drop to the floor into a split. The flames went over his head while Natsu rose from the floor with an uppercut aimed right for the older general. He stepped backwards in a flurry of expert footwork and opened his mouth, showing us why he was called the Dragon of the West, and spewing out a sea of flames. Natsu then proceeded to do something that had Toji doubting his eyes. He was used to the bullshit to some extent but this was just a completely new level.

He breathed in and proceeded to swallow the flames that Iroh spewed out. Both Jeong-Jeong and Iroh froze at the sight just as Toji did. Even Natsu himself seemed shocked that he worked and then that shock turned into a smirk. He jumped at the old General and the man scurried backwards like he had just realised the truth of the situation. He was prey, nothing more, and Natsu was the baddest predator of them all.