Six months had passed since Avatar Korra stopped the Earth Empire from destroying Republic City. In that time the United Republic of Nations had managed to route nearly every remaining stronghold and battle group loyal to Kuvira. Only one remained, and with the Avatar and Asami back from the Spirit World and her closest friends to follow, the world watched in eager anticipation as the last remnant of that awful war was broken apart.
"I'm just saying, these guys were doing fine without Team Avatar." Mako said as he continued on his line of conversation. "Not that I don't want to help out, but at some point we have to let the world take care of itself or else it's only gonna rely on you for everything, Korra."
"I doubt that, Mako." Asami replied, glancing over at the scarf clad man with a doubtful expression to match her words. "They've been doing just fine without Korra, like you said. We're just here to show our support."
"Plus it's been a while since I got to do any real bending." Korra said, her pent up energy apparent to all. Asami rolled her eyes and smirked but Bolin was far more encouraging.
"And besides all of that, Team Avatar doesn't sit stuff out!" He shouted, pumping a fist into the air. "You know... other than the last six months, but everyone was tired. You know, from the almost dying thing."
The group all laughed together. A sudden wind blew through the trees and gave Korra a start. She looked back over her shoulder, toward a distant mountain and narrowed her eyes. She couldn't put her finger on it, but she felt a strong impulse to turn right around and head for the base of that mountain. Still, first thing was first, she had to lend her hand in the battle for the last Earth Empire stronghold. Spooky feelings could wait until later.
"Incoming!" An Earth Empire soldier shouted as a spear of fire knocked him off the short wall. "We can't hold them forever at this rate."
"We can't hold them period." Came a calm voice. A young soldier strode out of the keep, cracking his neck as he walked toward the main gate. His short black hair was swept back by the wind, has bright blue eyes a stark contrast to the dark scowl he wore. "Our so-called Great Uniter has been defeated, her secret weapon destroyed and everyone not in this very fort have either deserted, been arrested or killed. There is no holding out. There is only to fight to the death or find a way to escape. I know what option is left to me. How about the rest of you?"
"Rally to the Bulwark!" One of the officers shouted. The soldiers all formed ranks behind the young man, chanting 'Bulwark, Bulwark, Bulwark' over and over again. The benders at the top of the walls pushed the weighted stones down, into their silos, causing the old gate to creak open on their outdated wheels. As the gate fully opened the Bulwark, as he was known, stared down his nose at a young woman with bright blue eyes, much like his, short black hair and the dark skin of a water tribe member. Her blue garb helped to hint at who she was.
"So the Avatar comes to claim us." Bulwark muttered, a slight smirk cracking at the corners of his mouth.
Korra glared at the young man at the head of the Earth Empire's remnant force. He looked to be around the age of her and all her friends, yet these seasoned warriors were gathering around him like he was their leader.
"So that's the Bulwark..." Bolin stated, crossing his arms.
"You know him?" Asami asked as she studied the young man who'd come to a halt, along with the rest of his force.
"I met him once." Bolin replied with a sigh. "Back when Kuvira was still my boss. She'd given him a promotion for single-handedly 'convincing' one of the cities to rejoin the Earth Kingdom. He turned the promotion down, arguing that he had no desire to be an officer. This didn't go over so well with Kuvira, so she stuck him in some backwater fort to get back at him."
"And here he is, now." Korra said and began walking forward. Team Avatar flanked her sides and the massive army of the United Republic of Nations marched in behind them, all converging on the much smaller Earth Bender force. "Bulwark! Surrender your forces and..."
"Nope." The Bulwark called out, interrupting the Avatar.
"You realize if you don't surrender we'll be forced to..." Korra continued, only to be interrupted again.
"Don't care." The Bulwark replied.
"This is your last chance, Bulwark." Korra snapped, her temper building. "Surrender and no harm will..."
"You hard of hearing?" The Bulwark asked. Korra grunted loudly and made to shout a fiery, and rather immature retort when the Bulwark began running toward the United Republic army.
He jumped up and slammed on the ground with both feet. Two huge stone slabs, bigger than any Korra had seen get bent before, popped out of the ground. Though she couldn't see exactly how he was moving, she knew those stone walls were about to head their way.
"Get out of the way!" Korra shouted. Everyone at the front either turned to flank or took cover of their own and waited. And waited. No attack came. Korra approached the wall and slammed her fists forward, splitting the stone wall closest to her in half. The Bulwark was nowhere in sight, even if his army was.
"Korra, watch out!" Asami shouted as the ground opened up to her right. Had he tunneled under the walls to surprise attack her?
The Avatar leaped backward, swiping a ball of fire into the hole that had been created. The Bulwark answered her attack as the ground she landed on shot high into the air, throwing Korra to the ground. She rolled forward, putting up a wall of her own to block the next attack only to be struck in the back by a flying rock and thrown into her own wall. Team Avatar rushed in to aid their friend as the Bulwark ripped open another hole in the ground and finally showed himself.
"So... I know how this is going to end, but I have to ask..." He said, getting a raised eyebrow from the Avatar. "Do you always do this? You know, lure your opponent into a false sense of security by getting hit on purpose? Oh, or are you just rusty?"
Korra gritted her teeth and sent a burst of air at the young man. The Bulwark moved in a way she'd never seen before and the earth rose up in front of him, though it looked like he'd made some sort of cone. It was until he bent the earth back toward the group with a much smaller hole at the end die she realize what he'd done. Before she could warn the others her air burst shot through the funnel he'd created and pierced back out of it. What had been a debilitating ball of air had just become a possibly deadly spear of wind. Bolin had either seen it coming or was just lucky and spreading that luck around. He lifted a wall of stone in front of Team Avatar, curving the barrier around them so the wind would deflect around them instead of punch through the wall.
"Alright, Bolin!" Korra cheered. Just as he was about to comment something characteristically modest the wall flew back and knocked them all on the ground. The Bulwark was continuing his attack and doing a good job of keeping everyone at bay. His attacks were dangerous, to be sure, but every time someone attacked him he built a defense that was almost the end of his attacker. "So I guess he's got that nickname for a reason."
"Yeah, I'll say." Mako muttered as her threw a bolt of lightning in the Bulwark's direction. The young earth bender leaped to the side, rolling in the air before landing and sending a pillar of stone into the air. As it came back down he used the pillar as a shield while he threw chunks of it at Team Avatar, bring his defense down piece by piece until the pillar was gone. It was all the team could do to avoid all the attacks. The Bulwark looked over his shoulder at the cheering Earth Empire soldiers as they chanted his nickname. Not wanting to miss all the excitement, they began to join the fray, and so, too, did the Republic Army.
The fighting was chaotic. People were thrown left and right by either side, the wounded and the dead climbing in number. Team Avatar had broken off to lend a hand to the Republic of Nations army while Korra continued to contend with the Bulwark.
"You don't even look tired." She said, glaring at the earth bender. "What's your secret?"
"My secret?" The Bulwark echoed as he ran at Korra and caught her off guard as he closed with her and began fighting with his hands and feet instead of bending. "There's no secret. You just aren't that good."
"I've managed to defeat a lot more dangerous threats than you!" She snapped, blocking most of his punches and kicks, though of few of them caught her in the side. She was quietly thankful that he didn't seem to know how to chi block, but he still packed quite a punch for his unimpressive size.
"Yeah, because of your Avatar powers." He replied, unimpressed. "Kuvira took you down outside Zaofu and rumor has it you couldn't do your glowing eye trick at the time."
"So what are you saying?" Korra snarled, stomping on the ground to make a pillar of stone throw the Bulwark into the air. "Without Raava I'm nothing?"
"I have no idea what a raava is." He replied, breaking apart of the massive rock off and sending it back down at the avatar, followed swiftly by himself. "But without that clear advantage you have, you are definitely nothing."
Korra had heard enough. She activated the Avatar state and hurled a massive wave of fire at the Bulwark. He seemed almost completely unphased as he tore the ground open behind him and dove in. As the ground closed back up, Korra looked all around, waiting for him to attack. Seconds went by. Then a minute. Then two. The avatar soon realized that this dangerous bender had no intention of surfacing and tore into the ground herself to find him.
Bolin dropped to a knee in fatigue, wiping the sweat off his brow and let out a loud sigh. He took a sip of water from his canteen and tossed it to Mako, who took a drink and then repeated the throw to Asami.
"How much of the Bulwark guy do you think she left?" Bolin said with a tired laugh.
"Apparently none..." Mako said as he saw the Avatar walking toward them through the settling dust. The battle was over but Korra had no unconscious earth bender over her shoulder. "Did... did you...?"
"No, I didn't kill him." Korra scoffed. "He... got away."
"Really?" Asami said. "From you? But how?"
"He must have tunneled away when he dove underground." Korra replied with a sigh. "I'd expected another sneak attack so I didn't follow him until it was too late."
"Hey." Asami called, placing a hand on Korra's shoulder, sensing she was getting tensed up at the topic. "It's alright. We'll get him."
Korra placed her hand over Asami's and gave her a tired smile and a nod.
"Oh yeah, totally." Bolin interjected, standing up as he caught his breath. "A bender like him is bound to stand out. And given his reputation, I doubt a lot of folks will have trouble recognizing him, even if he lays low and doesn't bend. He'll turn up and Team Avatar will swoop in and take him down."
Mako smirked and nodded his agreement with his brothers words. Team Avatar sat back, looking at the line of Earth Empire prisoners being lead to answer for their crimes with real satisfaction. The war was now, officially over.