Chapter 19.4- And so the Dragons Danced

An empty palace meant that there was no reason for Natsu to waste any time in his approach. He had to be quick, and deadly. He knew that in the next two hours, the city would com under attack from his compatriots in the fire nation army. He had to be ready to kill Bumi once that happened. He immediately disregarded his original plan of sneaking into the King’s bedroom and ending his life while he slept. Natsu was many things, but a murderer was not one of them. There is no honour in killing a man while he sleeps, he thought to himself. 

Even what he was doing now was dubious enough on its own, but he had to compromise between common sense and his principles. He was working hard, moving around the castle to set as many traps as possible. He hadn’t thought about it, but when he left the cabbage merchant, the man had simply passed him a bag. Natsu’s best guess was that it was from Sung. The contents were entirely standard issue military equipment, after all. It was a basic trap making kit taking to the extreme. And Natsu did indeed take it rot the extreme. 

He prowled the dark stone halls like a predator. His prey slept in the rooms above, oblivious to his machinations. He worked to ensure every square inch of the castle was booby trapped to his taste. He worked to make sure that when he and the King finally fought, he’d be the one with the home field advantage. 

Hours passed, and he’d exhausted his supply a scarce few minutes ago as he waited to send the signal to attack. Sung had assured him that the army would always be two hours behind.

“Hey there” he heard from behind him. 

The blast of fire flew from his fist before he even saw who had spoken as he whirled around with the speed of man possessed with an ungodly panic. The fire hit nothing but the wall. 

“Testy, testy. Aren’t yo-“ The words stopped as he lashed out with an arc of fire from his feet. Once again, the flames met no target beyond the palace’s black stone. 

“Little fire bender” This time, the voice came from the left, right at the edge of his vision. His flames found no one to feast upon ad he called them forth. 

Now, he was beginning to understand just what the situation was. The next time he heard the voice, it came from behind him again. This time, he did not bother to attack and just turned to face his opponent. Hunched over in a slouch that Natsu’s Grandfather would have had me whipped for, stood the old king. Wearing nothing but a pair of green shorts that clashed terribly with the grey in his hair, the man looked like no vision of a great warrior. His muscles flexed as he lifted his hand to pick at his ears, exposing a ludicrous amount of underarm hair as an aside. Everything about the king seemed to represent the peak of earth bending, if taken to a different extreme than the boulder had been. 

He was the very definition of lean muscle. Every part of his aged frame was racked with muscle. When he made minor movements, it was like I could hear his bones strain under the weight of all that muscle. His manner was uncouth and rough in the way one expected earthbenders to be. 

“King Bumi. It’s an honour to meet you. I am Natsu of the Fire nation” I said in greeting. The fact that I was here to fight him didn’t mean that I had to be rude about it. I was raised in a manor by the best etiquette teachers in the fire nation. I wouldn’t bring shame to my breeding. 

“You little brat. What a greeting. Nice one. I’ll play along. So what brings you here, Natsu of the Fire Nation?” He asked, talking more to himself than me until the last sentence where his eyes trained themselves on me like a hawk. 

“I’m here to get your head, King Bumi. Please cooperate and don’t make this any harder than it needs to be?” He burst into laughter. Full blown laughter that took over his body. I saw the opportunity so I took it. I lashed out with my hands, sending a lance of fire screaming right at him. 

The fire screamed, but my instincts screamed louder as I jumped away from where I’d been standing. In that exact spot, was a single spike of stone, defiantly lifted towards the heavens at an angle. That spike would have punctured my chest with ease. Where Bumi had been, was nothing. He was back to the little disappearing act. 

“Can we just fight each other man to man?” I asked, slightly exasperated and done with the tricks already. 

“No. Fight me man to stone” Bumi’s voice came from the left but by the time I had turned, he’d gone underground again. Fuck this. 
I turned to the left, and went through the stances at my absolute top speed. When I felt the energies separate as they had under my control over a hundred times in the last few months, I lashed out with it. Tearing the sky asunder with a powerful bolt of lightning. 

“Was there a point to that, Natsu the Thunderer?” Bumi asked, from right in front of me this time. 

“So you’ve heard of me. Good." I replied, not answering the question. He’d find out for himself in a few minutes either way. 

“I thought you’d be taller”

“You’re shorter than I am” I said sarcastically. 

“I’m almost a hundred years older than you are, boy” He snarked back. 

Whatever he was going to say next was overshadowed by the sounds of explosions going off as entire sections of the Great Wall surrounding Omashu began to fall down. The walls had been given the epithet great, but they shared little in common with the walls of Ba Sing Se. The fact that a single bender was able to bend the wall open on a daily basis was a sign that spoke to that. Unlike the great Kingdom, this was nothing but a mere city. 

“So that was what the signal was for, ey? You people never learn” He said, turning around and showing me his back so he could jump away. 

My attack was sent before I even made the choice. The bolt of fire was dodged with contemptuous ease as Bumi turned to me with none of the humour that had previously been on his face. Good. We were on the same page now. 

The spike that was sent for my chest shattered as I lit my fist aflame and punched right at it. It was the consolation prize I had after months of trying to figure out combustion bending. I still could not do what my ancestor had been able to. But I could, at the very list, imbue a shit ton of concussive force in my fists, using fire bending. It necessitated a shift in how I approached combat, but it was nothing I was unable to do. 

We looked at each other, face to face. Both of us could feel it now. Only one of us would leave here alive. He had to hurry to save his people. I had to stop him to save mine. My fingers twitched, unseen threads coming to life. There was a barely audible twang, and Natsu felt a twinge of disappointment run through his chest as the arrow failed to find its target. With almost languid movements, Bumi’s head moved out of the way in time for the crossbow bolt to sail past his head with no contact. 

“Your traps are cute” The earth bending master said before he stomped down on the ground. 

A/N; Another update. Yeah, the chapters are going to be long but hopefully this is well written.