One hell of a day at Serpent's Pass!

[SHIRO TAKAHASHI]

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[atrb=background,http://i54.tinypic.com/5x0jfs.png] Shiro's eyes widened when he heard the name 'unagi' and quickly looked down. He saw the shadow of the serpent swim by and slowly disappear before Iza kicked a rock into the water. When she did, he glared at her before pulling out his katana and holding it in his left hand. With his right hand, Shiro unhooked one of the water sacks he hid under his cloak and pulled a good deal of the water from them, then making a water glove so to speak around his hands. "Why did you do that!? We could have snuck away, but no, you had to kick a rock and hit the damn thing in the head!" he yelled, making his water link with the water below them and jumping onto it. It was hard to stand on, but he was able to at least stand there and use it as a temporary transpiration around the serpent and onto the path again if it attacked him. "Oi, Saza, what can you do, because you better do it or you're gonna die, thanks to Iza over there!" he called out to the man, whipping some water around his sword and acting as an extension of his arms. He used the water to keep the bit he was standing on more stable and watched the serpent. It was bigger than an Unagi, but it had a similar demeanor about it that made him think about it's weaknesses and if they were the same. word count: 252 Shiro's Color Code: 0080FF total count: 1616 notes: Finally getting to the good part! HAZAH!

[SAZA]

Saza glared at Iza in this instance the younger kid was right. They could have run away, but not for long there encounter with this creature was bound to happen. Saza’s eyes widened when that twitching turned into water bending, it was unexpected on this front, and when Shiro asked him what he could do he smiled. His hands moved quickly as he took his fighting stance there was no point to his knives they would merely clink off this things armor.

He stepped to the side his range free of both people and Let lose a series of ferocious punches, each one exploding into fire launching forth volley of flames. The kid may have saw him as the less of a threat compared to Iza but he was going to guess that status just got reviewed. “Don’t worry about me I have my own tricks water bender!”

Saza couldn’t help but feel the irony of this situation he was standing side by side with not just a fire bender but a water bender as well. two cultures which were almost complete opposites of offensive to defensive working together. He kind of liked this idea. It was in his mind profitable trade to all sides. He was the shield and they were the cannons. It almost made him wish that man could join his crew.

[IZA]

Iza simply chuckled as the creature towered over them. The soulless eyes glaring down at the pathetic humans that dared walk into its domain! Iza stared back into those eyes and then looked back at the boys, Saza was fire blasting the hell at the creature who's moist, and hard skin absorbed much of the impact but the scales started to crisp from the fire causing the serpent to screech and slither the burning part under water, cooling the pre-blistered flesh. It released a screech that pierced the air as the tail lashed upward striking out at Shiro.

Lucky for the trio this creature was not an Unagi so it did not have a hydro blast attack! As the tail attacked at Shiro the head lunged at Saza, mouth gapped open tongue lashing around swiftly, a strike from that could easily snap a man's spine. Iza moved away from her companions simply watching the creature, waiting for a moment... Shiro was a waterbender who used a sword, an extra extension of himself that would be useful against that tail, whilst Saza was a fire bender who could easily make that creature swallow more then it could chew.

"Hmm what should i do?" she muttered tapping her chin with the hilt of one of her swords, she glanced at the water and sighed, she could not swim after the monster... "i guess i can just copy Saza" she decided and with a rather elegant twirl slashed her swords downward and outward releasing a flare-wave of fire at the beast.

[SHIRO TAKAHASHI]

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[atrb=background,http://i54.tinypic.com/5x0jfs.png] Shiro was surprised and a bit distracted when Saza started firebending. He figured that the woman was a bender, but the man as well? He was too distracted, that he didn't notice the serpent's tail coming toward him, but luckily for him, Iza had just fired two blasts from her swords, hitting the tail and deflecting it away from him to land in the water. "Thanks Iza, I owe you one!" he called out, coming back to reality and smirking. This thing may not be an unagi, but it had the same physiology as one, which gave him an idea. "Saza, if you can keep it form attacking me, I think I know a way to stop this thing in it's tracks, long enough for us to escape, think you can do it!?" Shiro called out, floating around the serpent as it whipped it's head around away from Saza in pain from the blasts Iza sent it's way. While moving, away from it's head, he quickly moved his sword back to it's scabbard and focused on manipulating the water, doing his best to turn the surface he was standing on into ice to give him more balance. After finally getting it into a solid ice, he shot two links of water to the beast's fins. Unfortunately, this wasn't the best plan without knowing what either of the others would do, or for the simple fact that this was NOT an unagi, thus it didn't like having things attached to it's fin. As soon as the water connected, the beast jerked it's head and pulled Shiro off his little platform, which disappeared into water and fell back into the main current. "Crap!" Shiro yelled, as he was sent flying into the air above the beast's head. He desperately tried to keep the water he had latched onto the fin from dissipating, but it wasn't working so well. "I could use a little help here!" he called out, replacing the water as fast as he could, to keep himself from being sent flying, either into the shallow water, or into the rather sharp rocks of the mountain. word count: 369 Shiro's Color Code: 0080FF total count: 2045 notes: Boy, who ever knew that riding a giant sea serpent could be so dangerous!?

[SAZA]

Saza watched as Shiro was thrown into the air. he laughed slightly but now was not the time to laugh at the sight of someone being thrown into the air. he breathed in and brought his hand to his mouth letting out a stream of flame, his name sake the reason he was called the flame thrower pirate.

Saza breathed out his flames and then fell to his knees coughing it seemed his wounds weren’t fully recovered. The sinking of the Windrunner had only happened so many days ago. His ribs were still heavily bruised and it was messing up his breathing, and since fire bending drew its power from the breath he was not as strong as he could be. “Shiro get out of the water. we have a better chance on dry land!”

Saza couldn’t do much in his condition to help. He sent forth fire as he could but with every burst he just felt weaker his bruises hurting with every punch. But still he did his best. he let loose as much as power as he could. But it was a fleeting gesture. He sighed just hoping there offensive was enough.

The Serpent recoiled from the flames of both Iza and Saza as it began to retreat but as it sank back down it sent out its tail in a lash towards Iza. “Iza watch out!”

[IZA]

Iza glared at Saza for breathing fire, and was proven right for her glaring when he showed signs of pain. He was an idiot, most people were idiots. This whole situation was going to end badly unless something happened, something big... the beast could retreat yes, but it would just come back.. the group was not even a quarter into the pass! It could retreat and return, unless they did something to really scare it off. "what to do what to do what to do.." she muttered slightly dropping her guard and glancing around.

It was Saza's voice that allowed her to react in time. Iza looked over just as the tail was about to crash into her, leaping to the side then striking out at the tail sending a flare of fire from her swords. The first tip of the flares touched the beast, causing it to react violently sliding the tail directly at Iza catching her hard in the middle. "tch!" she grunted and instead of just letting the tail fire her away she latched herself to the tail gripping the tail with her arms using her swords to act as a brace from where her arms could not reach around.

"....bad idea" she squeaked as the tail suddenly stopped and with a sharp jerk Iza found herself underwater. Iza twisted her body wrapping her legs around as best she could clamping her thighs to the armored scales still using her swords to keep a brace as well. All she could do was think, and remind herself not to breath in the water.. it was not air. She thought about how she could die right now... and how that would be lame! She breathed out slowly through her nose, the rushing of the water around her making her dizzy and not know if she was up or down. The blades of her swords turned bright red as they heated up, the water bubbling around them as Iza forced them to remain heated in the cool water.

With a sharp tug she pressed the heated blades harder against the scales of the monster causing it to abruptly stop and with a sudden rush that whip lashed Iza upward she felt the coolness of the water leave her and then felt that sickening dropping feeling toward whatever was below her. The light of the day, and the dizziness of forgetting to breath caused her to become confused of where she was, but she knew she was falling.

[SHIRO TAKAHASHI]

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[atrb=background,http://i54.tinypic.com/5x0jfs.png] As soon as Iza stabbed the beasts tail, it's head jerked once more towards her and it calmed down enough for Shiro to get on it's head. He looked at the top of it, then looked over to say thanks to Iza, but when he saw she wasn't there, he found it much more difficult to concentrate at disabling the beast. He felt another jerk from it's head and it roared out in pain as it whipped it's tail up, sending Iza into the air heading right for the sharp rocks along the pass. Without thinking, Shiro jumped off the serpent's head and used what little water that remained in the water sacks he kept on his back to grab Iza and pull her away from the rocks while he fell. Once she was safely away from the sharp rocks, he let her fall a good three feet onto the beaten path, and did his best to try and gather up enough water from bellow him to help him come back up to the path. The problem with this, was that the serpent was now even madder than it had been before. While falling, Shiro could tell that he was feeling more and more sickened from having been on the beast's head and being whipped around by it a few minutes before. "Great, I'm going to die while being sick, that seems like a great way to go," he thought to himself as he closed his eyes and focused on the water some more. Only to have the beasts tail whip through the bit he had gathered, splitting his resources in half. Deciding that was the best he could do, Shiro gathered up two long tentacle like bit's of water and hardened them into picks, then slammed them into the wall beside him. As he slowly came to a stop, he was surprised that the serpent didn't attack him. "Maybe it doesn't know I'm down here? If that's why, then it'll give me a chance to catch my breath from riding the damned thing," he thought, closing his eyes again and taking a few deep breaths. Once he was sure he could move again without feeling sick, he started climbing up the rocky side of the pass, while watching the serpent. It couldn't see him, or it was too busy focusing on the other two to bother with him. "Wait, that's it!" he said aloud, climbing a few more feet, then doing his best to turn around and watch. When the serpent was in a steady line with him, he yelled up to the other two. "Saza, Iza, keep it from going anywhere, I'm going to try and take this thing down, or at least stop it long enough for us to get away!" He yelled, taking a deep breath. It was now or never, and if he couldn't pull off this technique, then they'd be dead for sure. word count: 508 Shiro's Color Code: 0080FF total count: 3474 notes: Wow, Shiro is going to have to do his best if he doesn't want to get killed, or let anyone else get killed... Good luck Shiro! XD

[SAZA]

This was insane; Saza had thought the word insanity didn’t really sum up the craziness of it all. He watched as Iza was thrown wild, and recognized that if she were to hit the ground she would be able to survive. Luckily the water bender was faster then he was in reacting. But he shook that off. he would save her life another day. Hearing the commands of the water bender Shiro. Was he kidding keep its attention? This thing barley had an attention span.

Saza reached into his bag and pulled out his knives at first he had believed that they were useless but he was starting to get a plan in his mind. His bag had a few supplies but what he needed were their. He drew his throwing knives knowing that one of these would need replacing vary shortly he pulled out a small leather patch. Lamp oil He secured the small bag to the knife.

Saza had to adjust for the added weight of the oil on his knife but as he threw his aim shot true. Instead of aiming for the creature the knife had went just over its head. he punched letting loose fire as fast as he could and the two collided. The leather exploded from the heat showering the serpent with flaming oil. It was a trick he had once used to attack a small trade vessel and he was always glad when things he learned in the field went to practical use.“What ever your doing do it now!”

[IZA]

Iza coughed as she struck the ground, shaking her head water flying off and her ponytail limp instead of spiky. "tch" she grunted standing up her armor feeling heavier then usual. She sighed adjusting it as best she could the cloth under the plating full of water. It was like carrying another Iza on her back. She sighed and started to heat up her body to try and dry herself only to cough up water. She blinked and looked around the serpent was still there, and so were the boys. She groaned a bit wobbling over and grabbing one of her swords off the ground and then finding the other and glaring at the blur that was the serpent.

She saw the flash of the explosion form Saza's attack, "... You better have the coin to replace that oil!" she shouted coughing up more water. She vaguely remembered hearing Shiro wanting the fire benders to be distractions, but she remembered enough to start doing something! She sheathed up her swords and got into a traditional stance and then started to do a few sliding steps forward and some sharp punches to unleash a flare of fire at the serpents.

Iza hoped the waterbender had a good bloody plan, or this serpent was just going to get more and more upset! With a mix of her flame punches she twirled her body and blasted a flame from her foot then returned to punching fire. "WATERBENDER DO SOMETHING NOW!"

[SHIRO TAKAHASHI]

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[atrb=background,http://i54.tinypic.com/5x0jfs.png] Shiro saw the flash from Saza's attack, and then the flashes of fire being shot from Iza. The serpent got a little closer to the wall, and this was his chance. He aimed at a high enough spot on the serpent that if it continued to attack they'd have a good chance to hit it, and lept from the cliff side he was hanging from, bringing the ice with him and turning it into water around his left hand. While flying toward the beast, he drew his sword with his right, and waterbended his water glove around the blade, then up to the tip. He counted silently in his head as he got closer to the beast, and when he was just about to hit it, he drew his sword back in a piercing motion, and bended the water into a solid, spiral shaped icicle, going along the tip. "One... Two... Three!" he counted, striking within the first second of his count. As soon as he reached three, the ice turned back into water, but it had done it's job. He punched a rather large hole into the beast's armor, and blood was slowly dripping from it as his sword dove deeper into the beast. With a roar, the serpent whipped it's head around, causing Shiro once again to feel the effects of his motion sickness, and jump from it's body with his sword. This time, he was lucky enough to land on the path, however not on his feet, and causing him to roll backwards into the passages mountainside. "Ugh, I hate riding that thing, it's CRAZIER than an Unagi!" he shouted out of frustration as he rested against the mountainside and rubbed his head. He had a head ache, felt sick to his stomach from the beasts wild actions, and now he had aches and pains all over his body that he wished would just go away, along with the serpent. "Aim for the hole! It's armor is either weaker there or it's just plain gone!" he called out, keeping his eyes closed and hoping that they weren't going to just run and leave him there in his condition. word count: 369 Shiro's Color Code: 0080FF total count: 3843 notes: That's the only time Shiro can use that in this post until after nightfall and a full 24 hours of time in the RP... I think it was a good time, don't you?

[SAZA]

Saza sighed watching the serpent be impaled and recoiled as it shreaked in pain. It began to move off it was retreating and hell if they kept at it they would kill it. Saza held up his hand. And made a fist, but couldn’t find the strength to strike. The serpent was hurt; badly it was already moving in retreat it wouldn’t bother them again. To attack now would be only to kill it. He stepped back unable to make another strike.

Saza’s words came slowly out of his mouth. A level of resoning that he didn’t want to bring out.“Don’t… Don’t attack its backing off! We’ve won this… its to hurt to continue this fight. Its backing off to attack now would mean only to kill it!”

Saza watched as it began to move off it wanted to get away. it was hurt, it only attacked the ships for food, and territory it was an animal after all. Saza stood down watching as it fled. It would go down to the bottom of this area nurse its wound, feed on fish till it got better, it would take maybe a month but it would live.

It was weird that he wanted this creature to live, he had never saved a life or even cared about a life of any animal before. Yet watching this creature and its deathly beauty he wanted it to live. He wanted it to run away.“Let it go… let it live!”

[IZA]

Iza winced as she saw the attack on the beast, something she felt was a bit much... Hearing the thing scream like it was in agony made Iza frown. The body thrashed in pain as blood dripped from the hole. "... So sad" she whispered but as she was thinking this was sad she was creating a large fireball ready to finish off the beast. Killing it would make sure it would back off for good, and then remove the threat of this pass.

But then she heard Saza and paused still holding the orb of fire. "..." she looked at the beast, it was slinking away hissing at them in extreme pain tongue lopped out as it shuddered a bit. Iza shrugged her shoulders and clapped her hands the orb of fire flaring out and disappearing. "I won't kill a creature so pathetic and yet still smarter then some annoying kid" she stated
randomly then smirked punching the air sending a flare of fire hitting the beast in the nose causing it to screech.

"Go away!" Iza shouted and the beast hissed and slithered underwater. "See? all we had to do was ask it to go away" she smiled pushing her wet bangs from her face. She coughed a bit looking at the duo of men, "I suggest we move.. there could be more of those things and that could have been a baby!" Iza pointed this out as she started walking holding her hand against her stomach knowing she was going to have one hell of a bruise.

[SHIRO TAKAHASHI]

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[atrb=background,http://i54.tinypic.com/5x0jfs.png] Shiro sighed a little, taking a couple more deep breaths as the pain in his head, and stomach both started to subside and he slowly opened his eyes. He saw the serpent swimming away after being hit with a fireball in the nose, then slowly stood up. "Ugh, remind me never to do that again," he said, bracing himself against the wall before picking up his sword from the ground. He looked around him, Iza was soaked to the bone, Saza seemed to be finding it hard to do much more than feel sorry for the serpent, and they were both safe from the serpent. "Sorry, I didn't think that would do so much damage, I've only ever tested it on rocks, and I can only hold it for about three seconds," Shiro said, looking at the blood slowly rising to the surface of the water, and the blood on his sword. "The last time I used that I had to get a new sword in fact..." he added, remembering how it had shattered and also sent Shiro flying. Though, he had used it on a piece of metal, thinking that it would be strong enough to break it. In retrospect, it was, the metal did have a large hole in it, but he didn't think he would use the attack in battle, especially so soon. "Iza, let me help with that, the armor and the water must be really annoying and heavy," Shiro noted, walking up to her and bending the water out of her clothes and back into the water below them. "There, that should help a good deal, does it?" word count: 276 Shiro's Color Code: 0080FF total count: 4119 notes: Well, the battle is over, for now. I think it's time to have a nice little chat between the group, don't you?

[SAZA]

Saza smiled for a moment as he watched the creature swim to the depths below. It would live, and that gave Saza a sense of accomplishment.. But for now that wasn’t the problem. They had expended a lot of time and energy trying to scare off that creature, and now that it would not be back for some time he felt it was necessary that they continue to move. At least until nightfall.

Saza regrouped with the others nodding to Iza and then turning to Shiro.“You’re a water bender? That’s intresting I thought they were only in the north pole, or that weird little tribe in the south… haven’t heard of any in the earth kingdoms… although I did once make a raid on the south pole still that’s not changing the fact… why are you in the earth kingdoms?”

Saza wasn’t being judgmental; in all truth he just hadn’t expected him to be a water bender. Then again he probably could say the same thing about a fire bending pirate in the earth kingdom. He shrugged and continued on. in the end Shiro’s origin story didn’t change a thing. Ether he told it or he did not.“come on it will be dark soon lets try and find a nice elevated place to sleep.”

[IZA]

Iza flailed a bit as she felt the water being pulled off of her clothing, it felt weird and a bit violating! She snorted rubbing her nose and pulling her hair tie out letting her hair fall for a moment fluffing it up a bit before tying it back up. Well that was a bath in a way, but she would rather have one that was not so violent. "Thank you" she stated calmly looking over each blade, glad the blades were not warped by using them, the water must have helped. She smiled a bit and put them back in their sheathes.

"hey you apparently never been in a swamp" she declared about Saza with a chuckle skipping a bit up the trail, finally reaching a ramp section that would take them to a higher level just like Shiro wanted. That attack had drained Iza of much of her energy and she winced holding her stomach again spitting up a bit of blood. "ow" she grunted but glanced back, and putting up her mask before either guy would notice hopefully. Last thing she wanted was attention.

"We can make a camp up at a plateau, it'll be safe and we can relax" she called over her shoulder to the boys. She held her stomach still wanting to play her lute but figured holding her stomach was more important right now. She could not really check her injuries in front of these guys anyway, barely wore anything under the armor and that made her think she SHOULD get a new outfit, maybe.. yeah maybe.