43: Sage vs Swordsman.

Shisui and Zuko stood several feet apart, both holding weapons made from the elements they could bend: two swords in Zuko's hands and a two-meter spear in Shisui's. 

Without waiting too long, the two lunged at each other, their weapons colliding. Though Shisui's spear suffered a bit from the high temperature of Zuko's blades, the Sage kept his weapon solid.

With a twist of his spear, Shisui pushed Zuko's blades away and thrust his weapon forward, attempting to spear the Prince. But Zuko reacted quickly, spitting flames from his mouth hot enough to melt part of the weapon, giving him time to retreat several steps. 

"Looks like Uncle Iroh's teachings were not lost," Shisui said, quickly rebuilding his spear before spinning it with such force that the snow on the ground was kicked up by the wind. 

"I never stop training. You seem to have rubbed that eagerness off on me," Zuko replied with a smile on his face before narrowing his eyes. 

Zuko squatted a little, then changed the way he held his swords, turning the tips inward like teeth. Then, two jets of orange flame erupted from his feet, propelling him forward. 

At his side, Shisui spun his spear before his feet, covered in whirlpools of water, and propelled him forward. The wind howled as his spear spun as fast as a drill, even emitting a characteristic whirring sound as it did so. 

Zuko swung his weapons forward, placing them in an X in front of him, and though Shisui's spinning spear pushed him back a bit, the flames shooting from his feet seemed to take on new life, causing the Prince to push further forward, slowly pushing the Sage back. 

Bits of flame and shards of ice flew out, Zuko taking advantage of Shisui's lack of support to deflect his spear before swinging his right arm at Shisui. 

His sword quickly turned into a whip and swung wildly at Shisui. Noticing this, Shisui simply raised his hand sharply, creating a wall of ice.

Although the ice was quickly cut off by the fire whip, Shisui had enough time to regain his stance, holding his spear with both hands, and droplets of water began to swirl on the tip of the spear. 

"Flood Dragon!" Shisui forcefully thrust his spear forward, his muscles completely tense, and even the tip of his spear created a ring of water vapor. 

When the ice wall was destroyed by Zuko, the sonic boom caused by Shisui's attack served as a sign to onlookers of the great power of the impending attack. The Prince was also skilled, able to create a solid wall of fire to protect himself.

The collision of the ice spear with the wall of fire caused shockwaves that sent the snow on the ground flying. The spear crashed through the wall and hit Zuko squarely. 

The Prince's body went flying, but he quickly spun in the air, his feet spewing fire to balance himself. On his chest, a breastplate of orange fire was full of cracks, something he had created at the last moment to protect himself. 

Though his chest ached and he was slightly short of breath, Zuko landed on his feet on the ground and again created a weapon, but this time, it was only a sword. Zuko took a drawn stance, ready to continue the fight. 

Shisui lunged at Zuko, his spear aimed at the Prince, his weapon twisting like a poisonous snake, trying to stab him, and the speed of the stabs created the visual effect of multiple attacks at once. 

"Sunrise!" Zuko shouted as he drew his sword, creating a trail of fire that seemed to resemble the sun just rising in the morning.

This trail collided with Shisui's swift attacks, shattering them. Next, Zuko held his weapon in both hands, raised it high, then brought it down in one swift motion. 

A crescent of flame erupted from his sword and flew straight at Shisui, who just laughed before lunging forward with more force. His weapon collided with Zuko's Flying Slash, shattering it but also destroying his ice-made weapon. 

Zuko's sword also lost its form from the attack, so they both dropped their weapons before simply going into their respective elements. Zuko lunged forward, creating a concentrated jet of flames, while Shisui created a vortex of water that contained the flames. 

Then Shisui began to gather all the water around him, including all the water from one of the drops floating behind him, and soon he was outlining in detail a huge five-clawed oriental dragon. 

The huge elemental creature seemed to have extremely bright blue eyes and even seemed to have a hint of wisdom as Shisui's bend placed his water construct behind him. 

"Show-off," Zuko said, noticing the strange smile on his friend's face before joining in. 

Under Shisui's guidance, the others had tried many things, and the Benders began to try to replicate certain animals or creatures using their elements. While Shisui and Azula had the easiest time, each having a dragon or hawk, the others took a while. 

As a Prince and descendant of an Avatar, Zuko's talent was with swords, but he had found his way of controlling fire, and soon the flames he created stirred and took the form of a creature.

A Jinwu, or a three-legged golden crow that represented the sun. It didn't matter which creature your element represented but how you used it. The creature whose flames were in a solidified state opened its wings, causing the temperature to rise quite a bit. 

As if both elemental constructs were reacting to each other, the two roared into the air before being propelled by their creators and colliding in midair. Hot water vapor erupted from the collision, but soon, the incipient hot mist was fanned by the raven's massive wings, avoiding being caught by Shisui's waterbending. 

The two giants then began a constant battle in the air before Shisui and Zuko switched weapons again, only to collide again in the melee. 

Zuko's movements were quite quick, using his sword to close the distance between himself and Shisui and swinging his fire sword directly at the Sage's neck. 

But Shisui, not to be outdone, tilted his head before striking with the blunt side of his spear, hitting Zuko in the chest, but he managed to create flames with his free hand to avoid suffering such a side. 

As he broke free, Zuko realized that his legs were being held back by strands of water created by Shisui, and though he was able to free himself in a brief moment, the pause was enough for Shisui to leap at him. 

From the air, he swung his spear, not to stab, but to use it as a club. Zuko could only raise his sword, and the clash of the two weapons caused the ground beneath the Prince to crack, sinking him several inches into the ground. 

Zuko kicked at Shisui, throwing a crescent of fire at him, but the wise man simply smiled before his spear turned to water and then turned into a snake. 

This water snake collided with the jet of fire and vaporized. Shisui then used the remaining water vapor to transform it back into two ice daggers, which he soon held in his hands. 

Zuko's hand shook from the force he had to resist and drive through his body, even causing him to lose control of the Sun Crow he had created slightly, but he was able to quickly recover on all fronts. 

Seeing that Shisui had ice daggers in his hands, Zuko shook his shoulders before the sword he was holding disappeared. Then, jets of fire resembling blowtorches came out of his hands before he struck a pose similar to the one Shisui was holding. 

"You know I learned how to use daggers from Mai, right?" asked Zuko before using chi to increase his speed and accelerate toward Shisui. 

"Yes, but I have to give you some advantages, don't I?" With the reverse grip of the ice daggers, Zuko and Shisui began a much closer exchange. 

Aside from failed attempts to cut or burn each other, their bodies had withstood powerful kicks from the other. Their exchange seemed more like a show of skill than a fight, and since it was a friendly encounter, neither wanted to do any real damage to the other.

Otherwise, they would have used more dangerous techniques and deadlier skills, but both were enjoying their current battle. Even their elemental creations were gradually dissolved, and their weapons were eliminated.

All that remained were their martial arts and the elements they could bend, using them subtly or occasionally to perform various physical skills. 

In one such exchange, the two punched each other in the face, Shisui's fist powered by steam, while Zuko's hand was covered with a fiery gauntlet.

After that, the two separated, noticing that the other was full of bruises, especially bruises. Drops of water covered Shisui, allowing him to recover, while fire covered Zuko's wounds, allowing him to heal as well. 

"Hey, can you bend lightning?" Shisui asked suddenly, causing Zuko to blink several times before nodding. 

"Yes," and without waiting for Shisui's answer, Zuko already had two of his fingers shooting blue electric sparks. 

Seeing Zuko's intention to attack him with lightning, Shisui also pulled out a waterbending technique he had been preparing for some time. A sphere of ice appeared from his open palm. 

Soon, the sphere began to spin in opposite directions, and soon Shisui was beding the water around the spinning ice core, adding ice blades to it. Zuko had seen this technique before but did not understand why Shisui was using it this time. 

"Hey, other than plants, ink, mud, and bending certain other things, for example..." at this point, Shisui moved his lips to say the remaining contents after 'mud', including his life-bending and blood-bending, the latter still depending on the full moon, Shisui spoke out loud again. 

"What can I use? I still have some creative ideas, but if I want to fight with your lightning, this technique is perfect," Shisui said, his black hair constantly dancing due to the air caused by the strange spinning technique in his hand. 

The ice core was surrounded by dense ice blades, a technique inspired by a certain technique he saw in his past life. For more power, he even emitted motes of chi from his body, adding them to the spinning object in his hand. 

"I'm not as skilled as Azula with lightning, but..." accepting Shisui's answer, Zuko directed the lightning into his fingers, covering his entire hand with it. 

Soon, a screeching sound similar to thousands of birds chirping caused Shisui to raise an eyebrow. Years ago, he had shared some ideas of techniques with Azula and Zuko, but the complexity of the lightning was unusually high, so he never expected to see something similar to Chidori in his life. 

Shisui couldn't help but cluck his tongue at that, but a broad smile also appeared on his face, and without wasting any more time, he forcefully threw the ice disk in his hand. 

Zuko, on the other hand, released the lightning in his hand, and the unusually concentrated electricity, perhaps following Zuko's habit of solidifying fire, spread out like a blue line. 

Zuko had put a lot of his chi into that attack, having noticed that Shisui was doing the same with his attack. So, both projectiles were overloaded. 

In full view of the fighters and the spectators, the two attacks collided. Soon, a half sphere of ice mixed with blue electricity began to spin on the ground. Soon, everything calmed down, and only a large crater was left on the frozen ground. Zuko looked at Shisui, who looked back at him. 

"I didn't think you would react like this," Shisui said, although Zuko could tell that his friend's smile was full of happiness, as if he had discovered something very interesting. 

"Your face says that what you care about is destruction." Zuko pointed out the crux of the matter, causing Shisui to nod. 

"Did you put a lot of chi into that weird beam line? I could feel it; it seemed to react with my chi, and this came up. Do you know what this means? Combined attacks!" exclaimed Shisui excitedly, even putting his hand on the Prince's shoulder. 

"I already knew that the elements help and hinder each other, but I never thought that the clash of supercharged attacks with chi could be so powerful. Just imagine the possibilities," Shisui began to whisper to Zuko as if he were a demon. 

Shisui's golden eyes were especially terrifying because of the spiritual glow they held, and Zuko thought he saw the reflection of the young Shisui in the adult form of his friend. 

'You never change, my friend,' Zuko thought before being drawn in by the prospect of the supercharged chi attacks.

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AN: I'm still sick, lol, and this battle is descriptive, loool. 14k collections, wooooo