Chapter 13.1- And so the Dragons Danced

It was pandemonium. Utter, total, and complete pandemonium. “Natsu, run with me” my commanding officer’s voice was nearly drowned out by the sound of slamming stone and blasts of fire, as we huddled and tried to get from one end of the encampment to the other. Major General Sung ran a tight camp. Everything was close together, packed, and ready to move at a moment’s. Notice. That was his preferred method pop conducting warfare. Strike hard, strike fast, and leave chaos in your wake, he’d proudly proclaimed to all the new recruits during yesterday’s orientation. We’d gone to bed, and woken up in the m middle of the night to this.

“Major, what are we going to do” I shouted back at him, struggling to even hear myself above the chaos. Of the battlefield. Because that is what the camp had turned into in the last few minutes. The earthbenders were tactical in their attack. Smart. They’d picked this time of night precisely because it was when guards were most likely to be at their most lax. The last few hours before sunrise. Firebenders as a whole were weaker in the night than in the daytime, and to make things worse, it was a cold night. Almost like nature herself had conspired to make this as hard for us as possible.

“Look out” a voice shouted from somewhere. I turned around, and was only saved from having my head caved in by that single warning. I bent at the waist and dodged the swing of the hammer from the man on his Ostrich-horse. His metal armour jiggled and rumbled as he made his pass, laughing all the while. I scowled and pushed myself to my feet, sending several lances of fire right at him. Almost like he had eyes at the back of his head, he turned his horse to face me at the exact right moment for the firebolts to miss him, continuing their flight into the night no doubt about to set some facility or the other on fire. The worse part about the attack was that being forced to fight in cramped quarters like this meant that the bulk of the damage to our resources and supplies were being done by our own benders. The earth Kingdom army officers just had to dodge our attacks at the right time.

My scowl deepened as I took a different stance. Resting on the tips of my toes as I clenched my fist before freeing the first two fingers on each hand. If I was going to succeed here, I’d have to be precise. Precise and deadly. He squared up to me before getting off his horse, landing with a noticeable rumble on the ground. My opponent was big, that was the first thing I noticed. At least seven feet tall, and with biceps that looked bigger than my head. Bigger than most men I’d ever seen. Bigger than every man I’d seen outside of the Fire Nation’s travelling circus. ‘The first thing you have to note about the Earth Kingdom Army is that those fuckers are big’ had been one of the first things Tal had told me after we’d been introduced. He was also a student at The Academy, but had graduated almost eight years ago. The fact that he was still a Major wasn’t the best indication of his competence, but he was friendly and had actually bothered to be o help to me. I searched for him with my eyes, unable to find him with my peripheral vision as I made sure to keep the big bastard in front of me in focus. That was going to be his nickname for whatever remained of his short life.

“The armour’s still new I see. No scratches or dings. That’s a pretty face as well. I’d have heard about it if any of the men had seen you before. You’re new then. Probably a new recruit. It’s sad that you get to face me in your first battle, Kid. I’ll make it quick, don’t worry. Trust Papa to take care of you” He said, bursting into laughter at the end. His bearded face scrunched in on itself as he narrowed his bright green eyes at me. The eyes that reflected the flames raging all around us, almost like emeralds. His hands were folded around his chest again. He wasn’t taking me seriously. I rested on my heels for a second and took off, running right at him.

The ground I ran on began to quake for a few seconds before a wall raised itself right in my path. At least twelve feet tall, it covered him from my sight. “Tch. Too little, too late” I whispered to myself as I took a running leap and ran two steps up the wall before cresting it in its entirety. The boulder that had been sent at me was nothing unexpected. Of course he was going to use the time to prepare something. So had I. With a shout of exertion, I thrust my fist at the boulder, allowing the concentrated flame within to smash through the boulder, letting the smaller rocks bounce off against my armour before I landed on the ground, facing my opponent again. The two boulders he sent at me were child’s play to dodge, light on my feet as I was.

“You’re a slippery one, aren’t you you, brat? Well, let’s see how long that’s going to last” He said voice loud, and demeanour relaxed. The second time I bolted forwards, it was with fire at my heels. The explosive flames let me blitz him with my speed, moving too quickly for him to react as I crossed the last hundred metres between us in less time than it would have taken him to count to five. My flying kick, unfortunately, failed to connect but it achieved its secondary goal in that it forced him to move. He skirted backwards, taking a single step to dodge out of the way of the kick. I reoriented myself in midair, using blasts of flames from my hands as propulsions and attempted to punch his light out. Just like with the first attack, he again leaned out of the way.

His hammer swung upwards, threatening to smash my head to pieces, and only another blast of flames from my feet helped me generate the needed thrust to dodge the attack and roll backwards before landing on my feet. Quick footed as always, I shot several lances of orange flames from the tips of my fingers, attempting to pierce through his armour and cook him from within. A stomp of his foot on the ground and a massive wall appeared, taking all my attacks with only a slight darkening to show for it.

I prepared to skirt around the wall when a sudden whistle sounded out from somewhere. It must have meant something to my opponent since the wall was suddenly flying at me. I calculated the distance and waited until the last possible second before twisting my body and jumping over the wall, laying almost parallel to it as we flew past each other. When I landed, I was met with the sight of my opponent riding away on his horse.

“Just going to run away?” I shouted after him, trying to trigger him into staying.

“First lesson kid, this is what we call a tactical retreat. Don’t die in the meantime. I’ll finish you off myself” He said, riding away too quickly for me to do anything to stop him. Damn, that horse sure could move. Even carrying around that huge lump of metal and muscle.

XXXXX

“Fuck, you survived the Mountain” a voice suddenly said from behind me. I whirled around, startled, only to come face to face with Tal.

“Where’d you come from?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at the older man. He’d been nowhere to be found a few short moments ago.

“Around. But that isn’t important. What is important is that you just survived the Mountain. No one is going to believe this, my friend. We have to tell the Boss.” He said, dragging me forwards towards the Command Tent, one of the few things with no discernible damage. Around us, infantrymen scurried about with buckets of water hurrying to put out the fires before the entire camp ended up aflame.

A/N; And so it begi