AN: This chapter is my first attempt to really show a younger Iroh who is recognizable as a rather less wise and more ruthless version of his canonical character, since here I'm showing him in battle rather than in a more peaceful setting. Hopefully it works!
Chapter 3: A Legend Begins
The attack on the Earth Kingdom fortress began conventionally enough. Fire Nation siege engines were wheeled within range and, at the order of the field commanders, began to lob balls of flaming pitch towards the walls. Because of the walls' height, the projectiles failed to clear them, instead smashing directly into the stone face. The Earth Kingdom soldiers laughed at first at what seemed to them to be the attackers' folly, but when the fireballs impacted they exploded with tremendous force, tearing great chunks out of the wall. Iroh and his commanders had ordered them tightly packed with explosives before they were launched.
The fortress's commander, though, only shook his head disappointedly as he watched the display from the tower window. "Even if he keeps that up all night, it won't bring the walls down," he muttered to himself. "And if he's any kind of general, he'll know we won't let him do that. What's your game, Prince Iroh?"
"Sir?" his second asked from behind him. "What are your orders?"
The commander shook his head and turned from the window. "It's time we show them that they're not the only ones adept and ranged warfare. Return fire." The second saluted quickly and hurried off to transmit the order.
Moments later, the earthbenders who lined the walls raised their hands and gave mighty heaves, wrenching the huge stone disks that had lain embedded in the courtyard free and causing them to rise above their heads. The soldiers took careful aim and then let the disks fly free; they crashed near the Fire Nation siege engines and rolled, destroying several of them and scattering the soldiers who stood nearby. Several still remained standing, and the attackers gathered themselves and returned fire, blasting several more holes in the wall. Again the stone disks rained down on them from above, joined by some loose rubble; this time almost all of the siege engines were either struck or forced to pull back to a safer range.
The Fire Nation ranks then slowly broke apart, and from among them came a team of great war rhinos, dragging behind them an immense black-iron machine that was tipped with a massive spike and spouted steam from vents in the rear. The commander's eyes widened at the sight; this device was unlike anything he'd ever seen before, and seemed equal parts battering ram and drill. It was clearly some knew technological nightmare cooked up in the Fire Nation's war labs, and whatever it's true function was, he didn't want it anywhere near his walls.
More stone rings rained down, and when one struck near the rhinos one of them panicked and tore free of its harness, charging among the attacking forces and scattering them within a small area until it was recaptured. The strange device, however, wasn't slowed; as it closed with the walls, the rhino team was released and led away and it ground slowly forward under its own power. It stopped against the base of the wall- the front portion extended and began to hammer into it, sending chips of stone flying.
The commander hurried from his quarters and down to the wall. "Target the drill!" he yelled to his men. "Destroy it before it does real damage!"
The earthbenders nearest to the device saluted, and then drew up a volley of stone disks; these rained down on or near the device, but apart from leaving a few dents in its armor, didn't appear to do any lasting damage. "This isn't working, sir!" the officer in charge of the earthbenders shouted back. "What should we do?"
The commander thought for a moment. "The ground!" he said. "You're earthbenders, aren't you? If you can't target the machine, target the ground it rests on!"
The officer saluted again, and then motioned to his men, who rode chunks of rock down to the base of the wall within the courtyard. Kneeling at its base, they planted their hands firmly on the ground and seemed to strain; a moment later, the sound of drilling on the other side was replaced with a terrible sound of grinding metal that slowly stilled. Glancing over the wall, the commander could see massive stone spikes tear up out of the ground and into the heart of the machine.
He descended from the wall and approached the earthbender officer. "Impressive," he said. "I'm not a bender myself, but I didn't think it was possible to target something you couldn't see so precisely."
"Sometimes powerful benders can sense vibrations in rock," the officer said, wiping sweat from his brow. "Usually it takes years and lots of practice to develop a skill like that, but that drill was vibrating so heavily a beginning student could have felt it. The Fire Nation should really work on quieter weapons, sir."
"Fortunately for us, they didn't," the commander told him. "Now then, the Fire Nation forces are not having a good time of it, for the moment- I think we should show them some good Earth Kingdom hospitality. First, I'll need another volley to soften them up."
"Sir!" the officer said, saluting. Within moments the earthbenders had sent more huge stone flying at the Fire Nation army, easier this time since they weren't aiming for anything specific. Beyond the walls, the commander could hear their panic and collapsing discipline, and he smiled. So much for the Fire Lord's brilliant son- he was failing as completely as any other general who'd attacked this fortress. Then the commander gave a signal and released his own forces.
The ostrich-horse cavalry charged into the midst of the Fire Nation forces, their earthbenders raising a great wave of stone ahead of them that blocked firebending attacks and scattered ordinary soldiers. They made straight for the command tent in the heart of the encampment as the commander watched eagerly through a spyglass; he knew how much the Fire Nation revered their royals, and if he took Prince Iroh hostage, he would have the leverage to compel the withdrawal of his forces.
The cavalry tore open the command tent, but the commander blinked and lowered his spy glass, not entirely believing what he saw. Looking again, however, confirmed it- the tent was completely empty. There was no sign of the prince, his officers, or his elite guards. The commander would have guessed that they'd already retreated, but in this case he doubted it- whatever else the fire royal family were, they had never been known as cowards.
Suddenly the commander began to feel a chill up his spine. Something was very wrong here.
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Iroh watched the battle from where he and his elite firebenders stood on the side of one of the mountains the fortress was sandwiched between and shook his head sadly. He regretted the loss of his equipment and (far more keenly) his men to this diversion, but he also knew full well that in wartime, sacrifices had to be made. He might not relish that necessity as much as some of the Fire Nation's other commanders did, but he did acknowledge it, and was willing to take advantage of it for the greater good of the Nation and, ultimately, the world.
"They have taken the bait," he said confidently as the cavalry charge reached his command tent- or rather, as his army allowed them to reach it. "Now then, we must act quickly. Come."
He returned to where his men waited further back on the ledge, mounted on giant, sticky-footed lizards. Climbing atop his own mount, he led the way along the cliff wall until they approached the fortress from above. There the wall was built directly into the mountainside, and was lightly guarded- after all, it seemed impossible that anyone could attack from that angle. "Not impossible," Iroh murmured to himself, and he chuckled softly. "Merely highly unlikely."
The guards on the walls looked up in amazement and fear as the lizard-riding firebenders descended towards them. One of them ran for a horn to sound the alarm, but Iroh cut him off with a carefully-placed fireblast. Then the firebenders swung down from their mounts and were among the guards, quickly mowing them down. These men were mere conscripts and footsoldiers, not even benders- they were no match for the cream of the Fire Lord's army.
The sound of fighting, however, attracted the attention of the other soldiers, who included earthbenders among their ranks and seemed far more experienced. They raced down the wall towards the attackers, non-benders raising weapons and benders preparing to fall into their stances, determined to repulse this newest invasion from the walls. They were met with blasts of fire that stopped them in their tracks, sending some of them falling blazing from the wall while others dropped and covered themselves. Then the earthbenders prepared counterattacks; inside the fortress they used smaller boulders rather than the giant stone wheels, but they were still large and heavy enough that many of the firebenders were forced to duck away to avoid being crushed. Some, however, were powerful enough to blast the great rocks from the air; Iroh was among these, and soon the defenders began to concentrate all of their attacks on him, hoping to weaken him enough that he would fall. Iroh, however, had other plans.
Dropping to his hands and knees, he set loose a wave of fire that shot down the wall at about mid-calf level on most of the earthbenders' feet. Benders of that element, he knew, needed a strong connection with the ground in order to properly utilize their abilities; proper stance was the basis of almost all earthbending moves. This attack, which forced the defenders to either take effort to protect their feet or else get badly burned, broke that stance rather nicely.
"Now- take them while they're disorganized!" Iroh shouted, and his men unleashed a volley of powerful fireblasts. When the smoke cleared, the ranks of earthbenders had been thinned considerably; the few who remained fell easily, and the firebenders progressed along the wall. More guards clustered around the gate, but as most of the truly powerful earthbenders had either already fallen or were out on the plain, too far away to be of use, they too fell easily. Within moments, the Fire Nation had control of the mechanisms of the fortress's entrance.
"Now then- for the true prize," Iroh said. Turning, he saw another group of heavily armored soldiers clustered around the base of one of the towers, surrounding a man in an ornate uniform. "The commander."
Leaving one group of firebenders with the gate, he descended from the wall with another and moved to face the commander. "I would prefer to end this as quickly and painlessly as possible," he said simply. "If you would surrender now, it would make things much easier on all of us."
"I will not give up my fortress to you, Fire Nation slime," the commander spat. "But you've walked into a trap yourself. Perhaps it's you who should surrender." The firebenders looked around nervously to see that other Earth Kingdom forces who had waited within the fortress had fanned out around them, and now had them largely surrounded. Some of them held weapons ready; others, judging by their lack of weapons or shoes and unusually muscular physiques, were most likely earthbenders. Iroh, however, merely smiled.
"I would duck, if I were you," he said simply to his soldiers; they didn't know what their prince and general had in mind, but years of Fire Nation military discipline took over and they complied. Iroh paused to smile more broadly and allow the enemy forces to approach, and then drew in an enormous breath before releasing it as a massive wave of fire.
The Earth Kingdom forces were driven back as Iroh spun in place, unleashing waves of fiery breath in all directions. When it cleared, many of the soldiers had fallen to the ground, smoldering, while those who remained were backing up fearfully. The commander was among the latter, his eyes wide with awe and terror.
Iroh put his hands on his knees, panting as from a long run, and then raised his head and smiled again at his opponent. "Take them," he ordered. The firebenders leaped back to their feet and charged the commander's guard, defeating them with relative ease in their stunned state and surrounding the commander himself. "Now, my friend, will you reconsider my offer?"
The commander glanced around and nodded. "Yes, I surrender."
"Good." Iroh turned back to face the wall and raised a hand; the soldiers at the gate nodded in response and let loose a massive fireblast into the air. This was the signal that the army beyond the fortress was waiting for. In an instant, their apparent disorganization and lack of discipline vanished; forming into tight ranks, they forced the stunned Earth Kingdom forces back, trapping them between the Fire Nation army and the walls of their own fortress.
"Earth is a powerful element- strong, solid, and unyielding," Iroh explained pleasantly to the commander, "but if there is a flaw I have found in Earth Kingdom thinking it is that you prefer order over imagination. Through unconventional tactics I was able to take you by surprise and force you to fight in ways for which you were not prepared. Now your army is trapped, you are my captive, and your fortress will soon be completely mine."
The commander shook his head. "Who are you?" he asked.
Iroh laughed. "Just a man who tries to understand his enemies and think in ways they do not expect," he said. "And now, I am also your conqueror, though that doesn't mean I can't hope that you have learned from this and that we may do battle again someday. Now, however, I must return to the wall to do battle."
Caught between enemies on both sides, the Earth Kingdom forces fought valiantly, but in the end those who had not been killed surrendered. Iroh gave the order to his men to open the gates, and then the bulk of his forces marched inside. Some fighting remained against the guards who remained within the towers, but against the mass of the Fire Nation army they were unable to hold out long. By the time night had fallen on the second day of battle, the great fortress was fully in the hands of the Fire Nation.
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On the field in front of the fortress, a single Earth Kingdom soldiers wheeled his ostrich-horse around and turned to look back at the Fire Nation's victory. By a combination of skill and dumb luck he'd succeeded in fighting his way free of his attackers, and his mission was clear. He needed to ride back to Ba Sing Se at full speed, carrying word of this defeat and the cunning new Fire Nation commander to General Jong, head of the Council of Five. He would know how to handle this new threat.
Turning his mount away from the battle, the warrior began to ride.