Chapter 237: Twilight (7)
'Chase this feeling,' Zuko repeated Nik's advice like a divine chant and the more he focused on this 'feeling' the greater his 'returns' got— A sense of experience. The first time Zuko felt strange. The second time he affirmed that he was indeed onto something and after that... Zuko could not focus on it fully. Not with having to deal with a dragon's attack at consistent intervals!
A DRAGON!
Zuko's mind was numb to it already. A tiny part of him wondered how many benders it takes to even defeat one of these creatures but he cannot dwell on it.
*Whoosh*
Again Zuko is faced with a massive breath of fire. While the attack may look simple, it's far from it. This is no longer a mere matter of defending and deflecting the breath of fire with his firebending. For this one moment, Zuko fails to produce any fire from his fist. He's tired. His muscles and extended arm tremble. They've been doing this for hours and the sun has set long ago.
The massive breath of fire illuminates the valley and Zuko's glimmering golden eyes reflect this unforgiving hill of fire rushing in his direction. It's almost blinding. In fact, Zuko used Iroh's method of healing the stress of the muscles and tendons an hour ago, and now, Zuko feels he would fall.
But once again he chases the feeling and when no flame emerges from the flat but trained end of his closed fist... he loosens his hand. In doing so, he ironically grabs onto this fleeting sensation finally.
*Whoosh*
Moving his hand gently, Zuko feels extraordinarily connected to the fire that aims to end him and he slides his hand across the air. Extraordinarily so, the fire under the red dragon's control moves to Zuko's will and dissipates midair and only now Zuko realizes how his clothes are fully drenched and he falls back on his butt with an exhausted groan.
"What... was that?" He gasps while feeling the exhaustion brought on by the withdrawal of his chi. He's completely spent.
The Red Dragon does not answer the youth but glances at him for a second longer and begins to fly around the hill tirelessly as Nik, equally exhausted if not more, sighs deeply and pats Zuko's shoulder.
Knowing what Nik was about to say, Zuko merely sighs, too, "It's fine. I didn't think I'd last this long... though, I wish I got to stay a bit longer. I realize now... somehow, the dragons are teaching us."
Yet, instead of speaking, Nik sets a pot of water in front of Zuko and a large serving of dried jerky kept as emergency rations. Surprising Zuko further, Nik chuckles weakly, "Then stay. You'll recover physically quickly enough since you didn't move all that much while dealing with the fire attacks. I'll deal with the next few rounds but I can't continue for too long on my own either."
Zuko looks at Nik's tired visage and bites back his words. In fact, dealing with the physical attacks from the dragons is far more taxing. Not only does Nik needs to use the elements but he also needs to keep his body on the move constantly.
Nodding, Zuko gulps down water from the pot and slowly starts to eat while Nik calms his breathing.
'Zuko's a real surprise,' he glances at the prince discreetly, 'From keeping sane under Ozai's torture to being the greatest sponge ever in accepting the teachings of the Dragon...'
Nik had seen Zuko's progress increasing at a pace noticeable to the naked eye. Not only did Zuko get more and more refined in his use of firebending but he even managed to acquire control of fire from the dragons. This is the first thing the dragons did to the eternal fire that the duo brought in the first place.
Nik is the same. His understanding of firebending is deepening beyond what the texts in the library can explain or what Iroh can teach. Some experiences must be FELT and that's what the dragons are doing— Teaching through sensation.
But when it comes to 'absorbing' this teaching, Nik isn't as good as Zuko. While Nik only thought Azula to be the prodigy in the family... it would seem that he was incorrect. The entire living royal lineage seems to be talented in their own rights.
'Yet... the Dragons are taking it easy...' Nik narrows his eyes. Is it really easy to take control of fire from the dragons? Zuko achieved it now but Nik believes that the dragons would increase their control over it once again.
It's like bloodbending. When two bloodbenders face each other, the winner is decided by the spirituality of the fighters. And Nik did not consider himself or Zuko more spiritual than dragons. Not at the moment, at least.
'So how do I make them acknowledge me?' Nik considers this deeply. There is no way he is retreating after putting in the hours. And having Zuko secure his back now feels more of a necessity than anything.
'They're too powerful to be defeated unless I use more fatal bending skills. Bloodbending doesn't work on them. I tried already. My only option is my amateurish lavabending but... that would force the dragons to take their attacks up a notch, too. Till now, they are still dancing around but I fear that if they attack for serious, I'd be out of options...'
Nik counts the time in his head. The dragons are about to attack once more. This time, Nik feels both the Dragons' gazes fall onto him as if they have decided to let Zuko off until he's resting. It's clear that these 'masters' of the Sun Warriors are humanely intelligent and compassionate enough to not force the duo to their wit's end by still attacking Zuko.
And this compassion is the reason why Nik chose not to push their buttons by using Lavabending.
'Or should I just use Firebending alone?' This is another thing Nik noticed that could be the reason why he had lower 'returns' when the dragons attacked him. He was a bit reliant on earthbending to stop the physical attacks.
'I can hold out for another hour. It would be great training if I knew my life wasn't on the line but my chi is getting exhausted, too,' Nik snickers internally for a moment and eases the tension in his body using firebending once more. The sweat on his body dries and evaporates at a visible speed and covers him in a small wave of mist as both the dragons roar and aim at him. But this time, for once, their pattern of attack changes.
Walking a bit farther on the bridge to keep Zuko from getting attacked accidentally, Nik observes both the dragons coiling around each other and then attacking him with their mouths wide open as air burns in front of them.
Instead of red-orange fire illuminating the valley, both of their mouths breathe out massive balls of blue flames!
It illuminates the valley in its haunting color as Zuko's and the other Sun Warrior's eyes widen yet Nik exhales quietly and loosens his stance.
'So, they would interchange their attacks if two individuals are taking the trial but choose to attack in the same medium against the same individual.'
Now Nik COULD do the same thing as Zuko did. While Zuko absorbed this feeling quickly, Nik was already an expert before he stepped into this valley and worked his way upto be a master firebender. But that would also make it so that the dragons would attack him harder the next time, as seen in how their fire changed into blue once Zuko took control of the red one.
So, clenching his fist, Nik lets both blasts of blue flames travel toward him before his fist and the base of his feet eject pressurized flames and he flies high up into the sky, dodging the flames at once.
'Huh?'
Nik frowns. The build-up of the understanding of the fire that should travel to him at this point is all but gone. Instead, Nik feels the pressure of wind behind him and his eyes widen as he comes to a disturbing possibility.
The Dragons are going to keep attacking him.
The Dragons are not teaching HIM.
'I... got lucky that I brought Zuko,' Nik doesn't even look behind as he uses Airbending alongside the jets of fire to propel himself further and quicker as he feels a dragon's jaw snapping right behind him while the corner of his eye catches a red tail swinging at him.
"Nik!"
Zuko shouts out loud but Nik doesn't have the time to respond as he brings out a tub's worth of water from his personal space to create a wide ring of sharp, pressurized water attack that deflects the tail of the dragon.
"Just rest!" Nik shouts once he catches his breath and instead of waiting for the dragons to recompose themselves by flying around with their giant bodies, Nik decides instantly to throw caution to the wind. He only misunderstood the Dragon's compassion for Zuko extending to himself. Now that he understands it's not the same case where he wasn't even the actual beneficiary of their understanding of the fire but a mere after-thought, he sheds his fear of pushing the dragons' buttons and chases the blue one.
Jumping on top of the hill, Nik pushes out his fist and the ground around him sizzles as lava bubbles forth.
Adopting a loose pattern of waterbending, Nik raises a wave of lava that instantly intimidates the two dragons as they put in a bit more space while Nik begins to hurl portions of lava at the two dragons!
*Tssss*
*Ksshaaaa*
A small portion of lava lands on the red dragon's left wing. Fire, they could tackle, but not lava. It struck the dragon's wing as it roared in pain and shot a breath of fire that smashed into the wall of lava, causing it to explode near Nik but this time he just fell from the hill to evade the attack entirely and then use firebending to control his fall once more. Quickly standing on the slope of the hill, Nik creates another wave of lava but the two dragons choose to go into offensive, too.
'If I knew this beforehand, I would have attacked them wholeheartedly while at my best...' Nik groans internally. He's pushing himself beyond belief now that he knew that the quicker he puts an end to this, the better his chances are to gain Raat's essence.
When the blue dragon breathes out a massive ball of blue flames, Nik catches the red dragon coiling more deliberately as arcs of electricity flicker around its two horns.
'That... is not fucking GOOD!' Nik's eyes widen and he slams his foot while letting go of the offensive entirely and sinking into the earth of the hill. Mere moments later—
*Crackle*
*Boom*
A massive arc of lightning strikes the area where Nik stood, causing the lava around the region to splash out alongside large chunks of torn rock while Nik emerges from the ground on the other side of the hill with cold sweat dripping down his forehead.
Hurriedly pulling out a few fist-sized chunks of earth, Nik runs around the mountain while raising his speed to the maximum using airbending—
*Kshaaaa*
The mouth of the blue dragon is open wide in the path Nik is traveling but he doesn't feel surprised at this moment. Instead, Nik doesn't avoid the incoming breath of blue flames but raises a wall of earth that knocks up the dragon's jaw and closes its mouth while jumping and slapping his palms together.
*Tsss*
The area underneath the dragon barely turns into lava but it has already flown away.
"Tch..."
Nik clicks his tongue. His lack of expertise in Lavabending is not due to a lack of motivation but there are no excuses at the moment. If he knew how to bend Lava better, he would have gotten concrete results now.
*Whoosh*
Nik throws the chunks of sharpened rock into the Red Dragon's face as it tried to bite him from above.
*Chhk*
One of the sharpened 'pebbles' catches the dragon in its left eye but it doesn't faze the dragon at all.
Its giant mouth is almost upon Nik as he sucks in a breath of cold air and raises tens of sharp earthen spikes from the hill to stab into the flying dragon. These spikes fail to stab into the red dragon but they do knock it away from its course and Nik soon balances himself on one of these spikes while trying to catch his breath...
But the Blue Dragon would attack at this very moment and stop Nik from achieving its goal.
These two dragons, after their initial loss to lavabending, would not let Nik convert any more lava at all. They are sharp enough to notice that Nik isn't well-versed with lavabending or airbending as much as he is well-versed in other bending arts and try to catch him off-guard during these moments.
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Alternate Title: Dragons to Nik— Welcome to Thunder Dome; All Valley Dragon Tournament; Crouching Dragon, Hidden Dragon; Mistaken Compassion; Dragons Love Dem Imperials; Nik's the Side Mission for Dragons.
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