[color=7bcdc8][center][h2]Huo[/h2][hr][/center][/color]

[i][color=7bcdc8]There will come a day, Huo, that you're going to have to fight for your home...[/color][/i]

Huo quickly sprung into action, launching the whip immediately at the first of the large chunks of pillar coming his direction. The jet of water quickly pushed the projectile out of the way, and Huo spun around with his hands outstretched to form a new whip from the ocean behind him. He was able to spin and hit the second stone, knocking it just off course enough to impact the ground a mere foot to his left. However, Huo was out of time. He just barely managed to lift his arms to shield his face as the third stone hit him dead-center, sending the waterbender spinning and landing on his face on the shore. The pain was extraordinary, his nerves ablaze with desperate pleas for relief that would go unanswered. He could feel his heart beating through his extremities as pushed himself up onto his hands and knees. He turned a gaze up towards the captain, who just seemed to smile in sadistic amusement.

[i][color=7bcdc8]... I know it's not in your nature to fight. You want there to be another way...[/color][/i]

Huo pushed himself up to his feet, and immediately threw two sweeps of his arms towards the captain. In response, two jets of water shot forth from the ocean behind Huo at the captain. The captain planted his feet in a wide stance and lifted up both arms to his sides, creating two small barriers to block the attacks shortly before they landed. The water splashed against the rock, but lacked the force to even make a dent in the flimsy barriers. Huo didn't let up, though. He swept his arms in slightly wider arcs, curving jets of water around the barriers towards the Captain, but the captain simply pulled his arms back. The earth shields moved to block the new attacks as well, to which Huo fired a water whip down the open center towards the captain. Huo's opponent merely smirked, took a forceful step forward, and a new barrier blocked the whip. The waterbender lost sight of his target behind the barrier for a moment... but only just a moment. Before he knew it, the new barrier lifted off the ground by an inch and was punched forward by the captain. Huo tried to sweep up a wave of water in front of him to create some sort of shield, but it proved fruitless: the large slab broke through the wave and knocked Huo onto his ass.

[i][color=7bcdc8]... you'll plead, or reason, or beg...[/color][/i]

Huo spun around onto his belly, waves lapping up into his face and burning his fresh wounds. He gritted his teeth, only to find his mouth full of liquid already. He spat out its contents, opening his eyes weakly to see a cloud of red in the sea foam. His mouth tasted like iron and salt, as Huo once again tried to push himself onto his hands and knees. He felt the slight rumbling of the ground, and didn't even look up as he saw a shadow pass over him. His muscles burned as another slab was slammed onto his back with force. Huo's face was bashed into the sand, a fresh wave scooping saltwater into his mouth mid-gasp. His fingers dug into the sand, a desperate ploy for leverage to try and push himself up... but the weight was burdensome. He closed his eyes, unable to breath nor lift himself up in that instant.

[i][color=7bcdc8]... but the catgator ignores the cries of the fish. Some folks won't listen to words...[/color][/i]

Huo felt, underneath his fingers in the sand, water pooling around them. In a desperate instant, he flexed his fingers. Water poured up from underneath the sand in a jet, catching Huo's palms. His upper torso bent up, the slab suddenly hoisted off his back and into the shallow shore behind him as he sat up on his knees. The waterbender watched the smug expression of the captain fade, the latter shifting back into a strong power stance. Huo, on the other hand, had lifted himself up onto one knee. He pressed one forearm into that knee, lifted himself up to his feet, and readjusted the leaf hat on his head. Huo's breathing was labored, and his arms hung to his side. He stood motionless, watching as the captain slammed one foot into the ground. Five vase-sized hunks of rock lifted out of the ground and hung in the air in front of the trained earthbender. The smug, toying expression was gone.

Huo waited until he saw the flexing of muscle in his opponent before he acted. The second the standoff was over, Huo lifted his right hand to send a large jet of water from the ocean propelling the stone slab forward in a high arc. The captain launched one rock straight forward. Huo spun around the projectile, using the arcing movement to pull up a wave from the ocean under his feet. He rode the wave upwards and towards his left, to which the captain responded by firing two of his ready rocks towards the moving target. Huo's arms dipped into the wave, and two jets of water cloaked themselves around his arms. Huo lifted these new water-tentacles up and lashed the ends of them around the new projectiles. With a mid-air spin, Huo used momentum to launch the two rocks back towards the captain. In a panic, the latter fired his last two projectiles to intercept. A cloud of earthen debris obscured the captain's vision for a moment, but not enough that he didn't notice the slab from before was plummeting towards him. The captain raised an fist, launching a pillar of stone to shatter the slab into pieces.

[i][color=7bcdc8]... some folks need to be taught some manners, swamp style.[/color][/i]

The captain didn't notice how quickly Huo had closed the distance until it was too late. Huo had let one of the tentacles splash into the ground, and instead focused all his attention on his right arm. Huo rolled on the ground at the captain's feet, and rocketed up on his heels into a flying uppercut. The jet of water around his right arm propelled upward in front of his fist, enveloping the captain's torso and legs in a bubble of water. Huo's exhaled as the uppercut knocked the soldier just off his feet, and the blowing wind immediately began to freeze the water. Within the blink of an eye, the Earth Kingdom soldier's limbs and body were immobilized in a tomb of ice. His head was exposed, and the immediate outrage on his face was satisfying for Huo to see. The waterbender stumbled backwards, head still reeling from the sizable hits he had taken moments ago.

After taking a second to absorb his surroundings again, Huo filtered out the barking orders of the temporarily restrained captain. His eyes darted towards the direction he had seen the lady with the painted sword run off to. The ice wasn't going to last long... and he was sure a cheap trick like that wasn't going to work on him twice in a row.