3rd Person POV

Within one of the royal palace’s training rooms, Azula’s family sat in preparation for Nathan’s fight. Said person was currently doing leg stretches on one side of the room, and on the other side were the Imperial Soldiers conversing amongst themselves.

Nathan cracked his neck. 'Can't start a fight without doing my stretching routine first.'

Smiling, Azula sat to her father’s right while Zuko sat to their mother’s left. On each side were two servants waiting for their beck and call, as well as another set of guards.

“I didn’t expect you to bring our children,” Ozai said. “Shouldn’t they be in their firebending class?”

“They wanted to see you. But after I told them about Nathan’s wager, they ended up wanting to watch the fight as well.”

“Hmm. Fine. They will have an extra hour of firebending training for the next week.”

“Aw…” Zuko quietly groaned in disappointment. 

“Mom, do you think Nathan will win?” Azula asked, not minding the extra training. Improving her firebending was one of the few ways her father would praise her.

“I think he has a good chance,” Ursa placidly said 

Ozai scoffed. “You think he’ll actually be able to defeat three Imperial Soldiers?” 

Ursa merely smiled and said nothing in response.

“I told those three to show no mercy. Let’s see that boy grin when he has three firebenders simultaneously attacking him relentlessly. A non-bender teaching my children martial arts… The thought alone disgusts me,” Ozai quietly muttered, frowning. 

Shocked by his words, Ursa turned towards Ozai. Despite what Nathan had shown them before coming here, she still wasn’t certain of his victory. In the end, all she could do was hold her hands together and hope he would at least lose without any severe injuries. 

Azula looked at her father curiously. While she didn’t disagree with his decision, she didn’t agree either. If Nathan were to attain victory somehow, she’d rather have a martial arts teacher that was intact and alive. But by doing this, they might also be able to see a more interesting fight.

“Are both sides ready?” When they Nathan and his opponents nodded, Ozai raised his hand. “The bout will begin when my hand falls.”

Nathan entered his southpaw boxing stance. Loosely holding his left leading hand up and his right hand lowered while setting his feet shoulders-width apart. He led with his right foot and measured the distance he needed to cross to get in range of them before concentrating. He was a tad nervous about getting hit with fire, but he knew that as long as he didn't mess up, he would be fine.

On the other side, the three firebenders separated and distanced themselves equally in an arc formation and entered their own stances.  

‘Making me deal with attacks from the left, right, and center? How predictable.’ Amused, Nathan smirked as he committed their stances to memory and decided on which one to target first. He had been brimming with confidence since his test run on the tree, and he now had a better grasp of what he was capable of.

‘I’m going to squeeze as much as I can from this fight, because I don’t think I’ll be able to see firebending from Imperial Soldiers for a long time after this. Now come on. Show me all your moves so I can copy them.’

Everyone could feel the tension in the room, ready to erupt at any moment.

Ozai abruptly lowered his hand, signalling the start of the fight. 

“Begin!”

The firebenders instantly began their assault, sending large streams and waves of flame at Nathan. Seeing that he was making no effort to dodge, Ozai had a smirk of anticipation on his face, but it immediately vanished when Nathan began bobbing, weaving, and sidestepping with skillful footwork.

To the shock of everyone watching, none of the firebenders’ attacks could even touch his clothes. Nathan was too nimble on his feet and moved in seemingly random patterns, causing his opponents to start second-guessing their decisions. And when the firebender to his right froze just a second longer than the others, he pounced.

‘My turn!’ 

With a short burst of speed, Nathan crossed ten meters in half a second, dashing towards the firebender as soon as the man paused. He saw the firebender’s eyes widen in surprise beneath the helmet. Putting his whole body weight into the punch, he struck with a right hook into the guy's torso.

Feeling a bone or two break with a sickening sound, the man grunted in pain and agony. The powerful blow launched him into his teammate in the center. His comrade tried catching him, but the extra momentum sent them rolling on the floor. 

Their third teammate stood in awe of what had happened in just three seconds. ‘Who the hell is this kid? He’s a monster.’

A fire of competitiveness burned within the man as he realised this may be the first time a non-bender had challenged him this much. With renewed vigour, he sent a flurry of fire towards Nathan, trying to buy time for his friends to recover. 

Still evading attacks and quite literally feeling the heat of the battle, Nathan knew what the man was doing and he let it happen. He still wanted to see what else they got, and the fight was the most fun he’s had in a while.

‘Show me some more firebending!’ 

Meanwhile, Ozai and his family were so engrossed in watching the fight that some of them had their jaws drop. 

“Did you see how far that guy flew? That was awesome!” Zuko cheered. 

Ursa chuckled and patted his head. Most of her worry had disappeared in the first thirty seconds of the fight, having been replaced with relief. “It really was awesome. What do you think, Ozai? Still have doubts about his skill?”

“He’s a skilled fighter, I admit. But the fight isn’t over yet.”

While she would usually agree with her father, Azula begged to differ this time around. Nathan looked like he was half-serious and half-enjoying the fight, but the firebenders looked like they were fighting with their lives on the line. 

‘They hadn’t even touched him, for goodness' sake,’ she thought while rolling her eyes. ‘They’re being completely dominated, and I don’t see a way for them to win this. Oh? What’s that they’re doing?’

The three firebenders stuck close together. They formed a line and thrust forward their arms with clenched fists, combining their attack and sending a gigantic blast of fire towards Nathan.

‘He’s completely cornered!” Azula sub-consciously leaned forward on her seat in suspense. ‘How is he going to dodge that?’

Nathan watched the wall of flame shooting towards him and remained unperturbed. He quickly ran forward before jumping high above the wall of flames.

The firebenders hadn’t noticed him until it was too late. In a single second, Nathan landed on the middle firebender’s chest, crashing him into the ground. At the same time, he grabbed the other two by their helmets and slammed their heads together.

‘...That might have been a bit overboard.’ Nathan mentally shrugged. ‘Meh. They’ll recover eventually. I’m more surprised I haven’t already killed them with how much force I was hitting them with. I held back, but they took the punches like champs, so I guess people here really are more durable.’

As their beaten, unconscious bodies fell and piled up on the ground, Nathan looked towards Ozai expectantly.

“I win.”

“So you did…” Ozai closed his eyes for a moment of thought. “Very well. You have won the wager. It would tarnish my honour and reputation as a prince of the Fire Nation if I didn’t hold my end of the deal. I hereby appoint you to be my children’s martial arts teacher for the foreseeable future. In addition to that, I will allow you to use your current room as if it was yours and pay you three times the appropriate amount for your position.”

Nathan mentally fist pumped. ‘Hell yeah! Now I can start saving up money for travelling and other expenses in the future. Maybe I should look for one of those eel hounds for travelling or that thing that can paralyse creatures with its tongue. Both of them could be useful. Either one is probably gonna be expensive to buy and take care of, though, so the money will be a big help.’

“However,” Ozai held a hand up, curbing Nathan’s enthusiasm. “I want to add another condition.”

“Another condition? What is it?” 

“You’ll know when a scroll arrives in your room. All the details will be there.” Ozai stood and turned to one of the servants. “You two. Have those three weaklings taken care of.”

Bowing, the male servant nodded with a smile. “As you wish, Prince Ozai.”

They all watched as Ozai wordlessly left the room along with his guards. 

‘He’s pissed.’ Nathan thought in amusement, noticing Ozai’s clenched jaw and balled fists. But after seeing Azula and Zuko’s disappointed faces, he pitied them. ‘He didn’t even give a “bye” or a “see you later”. Not even to his wife. For a guy that wants to become Fire Lord, he’s a really cold father and husband.’

“Excuse me. Could you please step aside?” One of the servants politely asked. 

“Oh shit. My bad,” Nathan said, getting off of the firebender he was still standing on. “Do you want help with that? I can carry them pretty easily.”

“Let us take care of it. I’m sure you are very tired due to your fight.”

Nathan wasn’t even warmed up. The fight only lasted around five minutes. But from the tone of the servant, it sounded like he was politely telling him to fuck off.

Nathan shrugged his shoulders. “Alright. Suit yourself.”

“That was incredible, Nathan,” Ursa said with a smile. Zuko and Azula were right beside her.

"Thanks Ursa."

“I’ve never seen anyone move like that before. Is that martial art common where you’re from?” 

“Something like that. It’s just some normal bare-handed punching that I tweaked.”

“Well, regardless, Zuko and Azula are looking forward to learning from you."

With newfound respect for Nathan, the children gave him the national Fire Nation salute.

“We greet our teacher.”