Homeplot, Part Two: Journey to the Capital City

[irisewiththesun]

It's still a little surreal, having four people from the island there with Zuko as he heads into days that could change everything for the world he knows, and for his nation. It’s surreal just being home again, even though he knows that it’s not real - it feels real, not like a dream at all, and that makes Zuko want to keep from screwing anything

Comments

[noblerworld]

Seifer's pretty sure the key to winning this kind of battle is speed, though he'd have a hell of a better chance if he had the advantage of surprise too. Something to bear in mind, he needed to hit a bender fast before they even knew he was coming. He couldn't compete unless he was up close.

As it was, he was still moving, dodging as much as he could, as he tried to drive forward until he was within blade's reach of Zuko but it wasn't happening, there's too much fire in his way and every time he drove forward there was another blast forcing him back. His only hopes were either that he could keep this up longer than Zuko could or else he could find some way to break his opponent's concentration, to get his focus off this duel for the split second needed.

Not for the first time, his eyes darted to look at their audience. If one of them could just draw Zuko's attention for a moment then Seifer thought he could take advantage. He just had to try and make that happen.

Perhaps, when they do this for real, working with a team might actually be useful for once.

He waited for the smoke to clear enough for Zuko to see him clearly as he moved between balls of flame and then he drew back his arm and hurled his gun-blade straight at the watching crowd. He was pretty sure they could all dodge it and hopefully it would distract Zuko's attention from Seifer charging straight at him, aiming to tackle him to the ground, one arm around his neck and the other pinning back his hands.

[irisewiththesun]

Seifer's putting up a good fight, which Zuko is impressed by if unsurprised. It's possible for a nonbender to fight a bender, it just takes knowing what you're up against, and that's what Zuko's trying to do with these sparring sessions. He's aware, too, of Seifer's tendency towards the underhanded, after all the times they've sparred back on the island.

What Zuko isn't prepared for is Seifer pulling something that reminds him so much of his sister.

"What are you doing?" Zuko yells, shocked and indignant, aiming his next blast at the gunblade in an effort to deflect it away from its intended target, even as said target scatters. He realizes his mistake too late, though, as he sees Seifer barreling right in his direction.

He lets out a grunt of a yell as he's knocked to the ground and pinned, but he doesn't try to struggle. What Seifer needs to learn is that Zuko can still Firebend with his hands pinned. He blows out a breath through his nose, releasing a cloud of steam, and then twists his hands around and clamps them onto Seifer's wrists before heating them up to the temperature of hot coals.

[noblerworld]

So things learned. Speed is all important. The best way to hit a bender is when they're concentrating elsewhere and, now, that the only way to capture one was after you slit their throat. It was just a shame he only carried the one weapon.

Seifer gave a grunt of pain as Zuko heated up his wrists and tried to jerk them free, letting Zuko struggle out of his grip entirely in the process.

[irisewiththesun]

The second he's able to Zuko frees himself and immediately flips away, putting distance between himself and Seifer. "Not bad," he says, producing fire daggers from each clenched fist as he waits to see what Seifer will do next.

[noblerworld]

Seifer worked a lot on his upper body strength but he was far from a great hand to hand fighter and, with his gun-blade too far away to grab, that was advantage Zuko. Still, if he was going to lose, he was going to go down fighting.

"No chance of you looking towards Arya again, is there?" he asked with a smirk as he advanced, hand balled into fists. "Because things were going much better for me with you turned the other way."

[irisewiththesun]

"Not gonna happen," Zuko replies, not taking his eyes off Seifer as gives a shake of his fists and the fire daggers lengthen.

[noblerworld]

"Shame."

And then he charged, trying to sidestep thoe daggers and deliver a right hook to Zuko's face. The problem was he needed to connect a lot of times to break Zuko's concentration where as Zuko only needed to connect once. One of those daggers held against his neck would give Seifer no choice but to surrender.

[irisewiththesun]

Zuko doesn't keep the daggers, though. The instant he sees Seifer start to move, he opens and clenches his hands and they disappear, to be replaced by two long, snakelike whips of flame. With a flick of his wrists, they lash out, licking at the air.

[noblerworld]

Which didn't change much, from Seifer's point of view. If they hit him it was still game over, it just made things slightly harder now Zuko had a longer reach. So he kept moving, diving to ground early to try and duck under the whips and take away Zuko's legs.