Chapter 41.5- And so the Dragons Danced

“A painting?” Jeong-Jeong asked, also jumping out the window and taking his stance in front of me.

“This duel we are about to fight- you think it ends with the three of us. No, this is one that is going to go down in history.”

“How arrogant” Iroh said, jumping out of the window as well and joining Jeong-Jeong and I in the Earth king’s Rock garden. I silently noted the way they stood apart from each other, their stances not quite coming together in the way it would have if they had trained to fight as a team. They hadn’t. They had completely different styles of fighting, I noted.

Iroh prepared Sozin’s style- long sweeping movements and powerful blasts of fire. Jeong-Jeong? Well, Jeong-Jeong fought like an artist. It was his thing. He believed that fire could be more than a tool for destruction and that showed in the way he fought. Both their stances showed their preferences just as I was certain that mine showed my own preference for direct combat and tendency to switch between any of the established forms and katas at will. That was the difference between them and me. They were both most assuredly powerful benders, but I had an advantage they didn’t. I was born a firebending prodigy, and that meant there wasn’t a single firebending style known to our people that I hadn’t learned.

Iroh moved first, jumping in the air for a second before landing with his left foot forward. His left fist left its position near his waist to lash out in a punch that sent a lancing flame bullet my way. I spun into a kick and blocked his lance with a fire sweep of my own. Like that first exchange had been a signal, we erupted into movement at the same time.

XXXX- TOJI ZENIN

He stared down the man, Piandao. He was a skilled fighter, the wily old man. Not as good as he used to be though, and it showed.

“You’ve come far, Toji” the man said, sword still stubbornly clutched in his hands.

“So have you. In a different way, perhaps.”

“You mock me” The man’s anger still remained just as sharp and as focused as it had ever been. Easier to rouse, as well.

“I do. What’re you gonna do about it?” Toji said, almost casually leaning against his spear.

The man rose like a vengeful spirit and sliced through the air with his sword faster than most would have been able to follow. Not Toji though, he stepped backwards to allow the attack miss before spinning his spear and shoving the blunt end into his former Master’s midsection. The man fell to his knees, clutching at his stomach. But his grip around his sword remained tight.

‘Never drop your weapon’ along with the sound of a wooden sword smashing into his wrist rang through Toji’s head as he watched the man that had taught him so much fail to mount a proper defence.

He came again, indomitable as ever, but a sweep of his spear later and Toji had sent the man into the ground. He spun his spear around one last time. They’d been fighting for about fifteen minutes now. It was a testament to what the old man had once been that he had managed to even last that long, but their bodies were human in the end and age came for them all. He took a step closer and moved his head to the side to allow the throwing knife the old man hid in his sleeves to pass his head instead of sinking into his eye.

“I would have enjoyed fighting you in your prime. Maybe Natsu himself would have even managed to get a good fight out of you, but we’re long passed that. Goodbye” He said taking a final step closer and lifting his spear to deliver the finishing blow. Things went wrong instantly as Piandao’s legs lashed out with a strength Toji did not expect the older man to still possess and tripped him down to the floor. Both men wrestled in the ground for a few seconds until Piandao froze suddenly. He stared down at his former pupil with shock in his eyes as he blade that Toji hid in his own sleeve stabbed through his ribcage and into his heart.