Carved In Rock || ATLA

Burn Butcher Burn

The Guru/ TheCrossroads of Destiny

"What for d'you yearn? It's the point of no return. After everything we did, we saw, you turned your back on me. What for d'you yearn? Watch that butcher burn." - Joseph Trapanese & Joey Batey

🌊 ⛰ 🔥 🌪
Previously

The entire block erupted in terror the moment a member of the Dai Li crumpled in the streets with a knife buried in his thigh. From the rooftops above his comrades unleashed hell as he bled. The majority of the people who lived in the Lower Ring were displaced war refugees, a good bit of them having witnessed the violence firsthand. The fighting brought back the worst memories for so many, men and women alike screaming for their families as they fled.

Long Feng had either learned from his last attempt to bring the Prince back under heel or he was just simply that desperate to send his men out to attack Kyojuro in the open like this. Lava was a destructive and hellacious force, one that was hard to control and could grow with a mind of its own once it was unleashed if it remained unchecked. Kyojuro wouldn't risk utilizing his trump card to its full potential in these crowded city streets.

Luckily for the lavabender, Roshi had been damn quick on the draw. While the injured agent's blood glittered beneath the moonlight, the noodle maker reached for the Prince and hauled him over the counter to duck in cover as stone pelted the spot where the young man had just sat. Rock slammed into the wood of the counter so hard the logs splintered under the force, spitting up dust and debris.

Kyojuro kicked himself for letting his guard down so quickly after the Grand Secretariats' arrest because fuck if it wasn't like Long Feng to attempt to arrange a coup right beneath the and Kuei's noses. The Prince gathered stone in his hand, levitating it between its palms until it shifted into a molten throwing star. He popped up above the counter long enough to sling it with all his might and anger at the usurpers. The men rolled to the side to avoid the spray as the lava hit the tiles. One dropped to the ground to help pull his wounded comrade back into the shadows while the remaining agent pulled a set of handcuffs on a long chain from behind his robes to whip in the direction of the Prince. When the metal wrapped around one of Kyojuro's wrists, Roshi too rose from beneath the counter and heaved a heavy cleaving knife down. The chain broke just beneath the cuff, leaving the boy free to use both hands to focus on the gloves on the agent. Before the attacker knew what was happening, Kyojuro willed the stone to melt. Panic flashed behind the agent's eyes as he just barely shook out of the rock gloves before his flesh and bones could be consumed by the spreading lava.

Not waiting on the next attack to come Roshi reached beneath the counter into a box only he knew about. The street was soon covered by a layer of thick haze as the smoke bombs he tossed into the chaos erupted. "Go!" He barked at the boy. "Out the back, now!"

"But-"

"But nothing!" Roshi snapped. "You think if these couple of goonies are here for you they aren't gonna go after that brother of yours too?"

Kyojuro felt the very blood inside his body run cold. Kuei. He hadn't thought about Kuei.

"Shit." He whispered. He pulled Roshi back down beneath the counter as the onslaught of charging stone commenced once more around them. "You get out of here too. You go home, you get Usagi and you take her to that house in the Middle Ring whether she wants to go or not. Your ownership of the house won't have been officially notarized yet so it'll be harder to track you down there, plus the Dai Li is far less likely to cause a scene there than they are here. Until one of us comes to you personally, you keep your heads down and your mouths shut, don't draw attention to yourself."

"Quit wasting time sitting here telling me what to do, I know how to keep me and my family safe boy. Now go!" Roshi didn't look into the street as he tossed another handful of smoke bombs over his shoulder.