A sizable chunk of rock hurtled toward . I slid beneath it — left foot forward, pivot through the left side, and unleash a stream of fire from both hands on the exhale.
The maneuver worked. Instead of crushing between the arena floor and the massive boulder flying overhead, the girl, sensing the approaching heat, was forced to hastily raise a wall to shield herself. Normally, this was the mont I'd toss one of my little bombs while the enemy blocked their own vision, but we were fighting fair here. And besides, what kind of "blocked vision" could possibly matter against an opponent who was already blind?
So instead, I kept pouring flas at her while simultaneously trying to circle around. The Blind Bandit was forced to keep defending herself, slowly walling herself in more and more.
And now she should—
Yep!
The section of floor beneath suddenly jerked upward, clearly trying to launch out of the ring, but I'd expected that. Calmly, I slid aside, letting the spike pass beside without even considering weakening either the pressure of my flas or the speed of my movent.
Another attempt — but this ti she tried to fling together with a much larger section of the floor itself. That one forced to jump, interrupting my attack for a brief instant, but only for an instant. The flas licking across the stone wall protecting the girl hadn't even had ti to fade. My hands had barely touched solid ground, my body was only just preparing for the roll that followed, and already another torrent of fire erupted from my leg, sweeping across Toph's shelter in a broad arc.
Use the body's montum now, finish the spin with a twist of the torso, push off with my fingertips — and I was standing again, blasting her cover with a fifteen-foot flathrower burst.
The wall of her "shelter" suddenly tore loose and ca flying toward like so gigantic flyswatter, threatening not only to knock out of the ring but to do to exactly what an actual flyswatter did to flies. It was fast, but I'd seen that move plenty of tis before. It was one of the standard earthbender tactics against firebenders — if the firebender hesitated and failed to get off the line of attack, both the stream of fla and its creator would simply be crushed together.
I didn't hesitate. I slipped aside on instinct and, just as instinctively, nearly burned Toph's face off, managing to pull back the stream of fire at the very last second. That gave her enough ti to throw up another wall.
That was the difference between us. In terms of "pure bending," she was unquestionably more skilled. Her control over her elent and the sheer variety of her techniques far surpassed mine. But she knew nothing about the firebending itself. She had no real combat experience beyond tournant fighting, whereas I, thanks to the Spirit of Knowledge, understood perfectly well what she was about to do at almost any given mont — and I had more than enough genuine battlefield experience besides.
Toph compensated for this sowhat by tracking my movents through her "echolocation," but it still wasn't enough. Without understanding what firebending was capable of, you simply couldn't react properly. Then again, I'd already ntioned that.
The other problem was that earthbending demanded constant focus. You couldn't simultaneously hurl a wall at your enemy and raise a new one beside yourself. To begin doing the second, you first had to stop doing the first. The gap might be tiny, but I didn't move like a turtle either.
As a result, at one point I simply forced her to wrap herself completely inside a cocoon of earth and began slowly roasting it. Let her not relax. There wasn't exactly much air in there either, so she'd have to co out soon and surrender.
Or use one of the favorite tricks of every remotely experienced earthbender: Earth Swimming.
Judging by how all movent inside the baking sphere suddenly ceased, she'd chosen exactly that option.
I managed to react to the upward strike in ti since I'd been expecting sothing like it, though not that close and not that fast, so I failed to block it completely. Need more training.
Bright red, panting, sweaty, and lightly smoked, the girl literally burst up from beneath my feet and very delivered catastrophic damage to an extrely important part of my anatomy. Fortunately, I managed to clamp my knees together in ti.
The male half of the audience collectively tensed up for one horrifying mont before letting out a synchronized sigh of relief. Even so, pain still shot through my legs, and I tried very hard not to think about what would've happened if I hadn't blocked the strike.
At that mont, I had every opportunity to end the fight. The girl was close and off-balance. One light hit to the head and she'd lose consciousness. Or I could simply grab her by the scruff of the neck and throw her out of the arena.
But I hadn't co here for money, and certainly not to boost my ego by beating a blind child. The fight could help establish contact with her, but actually defeating her was out of the question. She was still a child, after all, and she'd take a loss badly — personally and emotionally — and by extension, she'd reject the one who handed it to her. So…
I deliberately did nothing, allowing her to continue her attack.
And she didn't disappoint !
A pillar of earth slamd into my chest (ow. That was definitely going to leave a bruise.Honestly, I had a rather negative opinion of heavy objects colliding with my ribcage in general), sending flying out of the ring.
Only, I couldn't afford to lose either. She wouldn't respect if I did. So while airborne, I grabbed onto… sothing. Heh.
Though there was just one tiny complication. Said "sothing" was, firstly, shrieking, secondly, extrely light, and thirdly, sowhat squirmy.
Thus, in our bizarre tangle, both I and the screaming object exited the ring together.
The landing wasn't exactly pleasant, but it wasn't all that brutal either. There was soft sand below us. (And anyone who doubted sand was soft was more than welco to try landing on granite flooring instead and experience the difference firsthand.)
"Oof… That was painf—"
At that exact mont, my captured "passenger" landed squarely on my chest.
(End of Chapter)
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