Lubbock VS Toph

Lubbock VS Toph is the thirteenth battle of Sinnovalos' BuildYourBattles series.

## Description / Connections

*S1E13: Akame ga Kill! VS Avatar: The Last Airbender: They may be better on the defensive, but I'm going to put them head to head. If Night Raid were to follow a hit placed on the Earthbender's head, would Lubbock succeed in collecting?*

## Fight

Location: Gaoling Arena (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

"Toph, I'm really not comfortable leaving you to face him alone. A larger group have a better chance, right? Besides, they're assassins; what if they don't honour the deal of a one on one duel?" Katara said, relaying her concerns. Toph smiled softly. "You're starting to sound like my parents; I'll catch up with you in a bit." she responded, stepping inside the arena. "Good luck, Toph! But you better come back." Aang started as the rock door closed behind her. "Otherwise I gotta find a new Earthbending teacher..." he grumbled.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the arena, Lubbock stood with his arms raised, hands clasped behind the back of his head. Leone stood beside him. "Sooo, Lub... You ready for this blind date?" she teased. Lubbock smirked, as he double checked the attachment of Crosstail's glove, pulling it tight. "Should be a piece of cake. I think any way. I'm sure the mangas exaggerated the skills of blind people anyway."

"Yeah, well you better hope so." Leone said, a bit more formal this time. "After all, if she is able to train the Avatar, then there's more a chance of losing them to the Empire than there is him fighting against it. Remember what the contact told us; Imperial guards had been financing the Earthbending tournaments. If the Minister is putting himself out of pocket to fund it, you know damn well he's getting *something* out of it."

"And you think that something is... the Avatar?" Toph asked, intruding on the little pep talk. "Yeah, something like that. If not him, then he's certainly interesting in enlisting you. Of course, you're probably too blin-" an eerie silence washed away the closing of Lubbock's sentence as he trailed off, looking over into space. "I, er..."

"That's okay. Now I don't feel as bad about embarrassing you." Toph said, coldly. Leone smirked, and turned to flee. "Good luck, Lub. Try not to die!" she added, pouncing out of the ring. Lubbock began stringing together some World Severing Strings, as Toph calmly waited for him to make the opening attack.

**FIGHT!**

Lubbock began to run around the arena, while aware of Toph's blindness, he had no real knowledge of how good her other senses actually were. He hopped off the sides of the stands, before landing a few feet in front of her. "Okay, not much of a mover then." he concluded, as he took a step to his right and coiled two daggers with his World Severing Strings. Toph finally acted, raising one foot, and then kicking out with it - launching a small ground based attack, tearing the floor out from beneath Lubbock. The assassin leapt back, but Toph had him where she wanted him. Hearing where he had pushed off from, she threw a large boulder in the air, forcing Lubbock to think fast and jam a spear into it. He then dragged the boulder down, before landing in front of it. Toph had now moved several paces and kicked Lubbock onto the boulder. The Night Raid assassin pulled himself together, jumping over the boulder before quickly realising his error. Toph punted the boulder forwards, sending Lubbock scrambling as he dove for safety. "Man, I gotta get ahead of this..." Lubbock complained aloud, through gritted teeth. "Just because I am blind, does not mean I cannot see you." she informed him, as she brought a stone disc to her hand.

"Thanks for the insight." Lubbock said, smugly. "But I think I'll cope just fine!" he added, coiling his strings wildly as they sourrounded the Earthbender. Toph could hear the noises all around her, and she distributed her disc, aiming for the source of the noises. But Lubbock proved a resourceful foe, blocking the attack by binding strings into an armour form around his stomach. Now the Night Raid assassin felt he had an opening, and threw several strings forward, attempting to seize her in their grip. Toph pulled back, ducking the first snake like thread before raising a pillar of Earth to her right, cancelling out the follow ups. She then used three more pillars, boxing herself in and baiting Lubbock to have to attack from the top of the barricade. He coiled Cross Tail again, into a large spear, with a little extra give, treating it as a harpoon. He scaled the side of the wall, looking down where Toph had hidden herself. Typically, she was not there. A tell tale burrow suggested she had dug down beneath the barricade, and she used her Earthbending powers to trip Lubbock into the trap. The walls then began to cave in, falling down on Lubbock. "NO!" he cried, desperately raising his arms to protect himself.

Toph reemerged from the burrows, dusting herself off. But, though the dust had barely settled, her senses were as clear as ever. "How did he survive that?" she asked, looking across asa web of World Severing Strings shielded Lubbock's body. "My Imperial Arms, the World Severing Strings." Lubbock coughed, as he made his way to his feet. "They're not the most intimidating looking, but they will not be broken. They can survive the power of other Imperial Arms, then they'll damn well survive a *bit of* *dirt!*" he panted, and then wiped the mud from his face. "So, here we go again." he added. Toph nodded, before kicking a small fissure towards Lubbock, who quickly jumped into the air and formed up a javelin with the strings. "You're done!" he called, hurling the weapon down at her. Toph turned side on as the attack went by the front of her face. She then decided to level the playing field; if she couldn't see, why should *he* be able to? With a two handed push, she scattered dust and dirt into the air, serving almost as a smokescreen as she summoned two large boulders and rolled them along the floor. Lubbock just about heard the first one coming, and jumped on top of it, but he fell between the pair as the second one rolled onward. He shot up and created a barrier, holding back the boulder with some effort.

Toph kicked the boulder into life again, but Lubbock was holding on. But then he felt something tug at his glove. One of the other strings was being tested, and it was behind him! The first boulder was precariously positioned on the edge of the arena, with strings preventing its fall. With a smile, Lubbock flicked a finger, and brought back the first boulder, smashing it into the one he and Toph were jostling for possession over. The impact knocked Toph back a few feet, and sent her skidding across the floor. She reacted fast, hearing Lubbock come in from the right. She blocked his stab attempt with a disc of earth, before kicking the assassin in the stomach. Lubbock skidded across the floor, smashing his back into the boulders. He turned around, and coiled Cross Tail around a chunk of debris, as he began spinning them as if they were nunchucks. "Let's see just how good you *really* are." he said, testingly. He leapt around Toph, who was tracking his every landing. She knew his pattern by now; front, left, right, behind, front, left, right, "*behind"* she voiced, turning and kicking the earth slab out of Lubbock's hand. But Lubbock was not fazed; that had been the plan the entire time! "Gotcha." he confirmed, as he snagged Cross Tail around her extended leg, pulling it from her body.

**KO!**

Toph gasped, her jaw agape as the realisation sank in. She began panting, and hissing in pain as blood pooled on the mud beneath her. Lubbock took a dagger, face of stone. "Sorry." he said, before plunging it into the heart of the Blind Bandit, ending her reign. He walked off the other end of the arena, as Aang managed to break a way in - too late. "No... TOPH!" he cried, generating a small storm inside the arena, in Avatar form. The storm spread, tearing down the buildings in the nearby streets.

## Conclusion

(Cues: Night Raid Appears)

**LUBBOCK WINS!**

## Trivia

* This battle was published on 16th January 2020.
* The final blow was based on two Akame ga Kill battles:
	+ The plan to let an opponent disarm you came from Akame's battle with one of the Rakshasa Demons - Ibara wherein he took Murasame and the weapon negatively reacted to him.
	+ Lubbock disarming the limb from an opponent is what he did to Syura in the anime.
* Storylinewise, this took place inbetween Toph running away from home and when they were pursued by Azula.
* The storm set up by Aang will be the reason for a future battle.
* There are more Akame ga Kill VS Avatar: The Last Airbender battles planned.