CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: GENERAL HOW

In the war room, the assembled had made a solemn declaration: that by the time the day was out, the Fire Nation would have been repulsed from their wall. Though they only occupied a small segment of it, they had dominance of the entire wall, and so all of Ba Sing Se. But now the fight was concentrated on one part of the wall, the segment torn asunder by that ugly, yawning breach the Fire Nation had created.

The hidden approach had been his idea. Tunneling an entire army beneath the ground was a difficult feat, but it was fortunate that they had at their disposal so many expert Earthbenders. That the Fire Nation had noticed it at all was remarkable; they must have had bowls of water on the battlements to warn them of undermining. Nonetheless, the effect of the entire might of Ba Sing Se springing from the ground was quite good. The only continent that had not tunneled with them was Long Feng's detachment of Dai Li; they had their own approach that was more suitable to their unique skills.

As the fight raged, How realized how true the old adage was that Firebenders were weaker at night. Even though it was dark, he saw the Firebenders doing less spectacular things, to the point where the fire even looked duller. The only inherent problem with Earthbending at night was knowing where exactly your rocks were flying, but since they were all firing in the same general direction, How didn't see it as a major problem.

Sending another rock spiraling off into the dark, he felt a muffled grunt a few seconds later-he'd hit someone. But the plan they had set in motion was more than just surrounding Firebenders in the dark and throwing rocks at them. They made no effort to dislodge the cover that the Fire Nation troops had set up, and in fact they began setting up barriers of earth around the wall. How stomped his own foot and an array of wicked-looking rock spikes, pointed forward to discourage any charges, sprung up like a fresh daisy. Acting according to the plan, similar action was being taken all across the battlefield.

It was strange, How thought, to finally be the one on the offensive, while the Fire Nation desperately struggled to hold and fortify a wall that they had no idea how to manage. Not that the Earth Kingdom didn't know how to handle its walls, that was…but still, it was refreshing. The Fire Nation thought that they were fighting their tenacious defense, in reality the Earth Kingdom was merely letting them think so. It was part one of the trap.

A fire blast, vicious as a hornet, shot straight for How and he only blocked it at the last second with a summoned earth barrier. He waved his hand and the wall flew towards his assailant. Nimbly, the attacker ducked beneath it and fired off another cone of flame from his foot, and then leapt up…and hung there. Immediately, he abandoned his form and his fingers clutched at his neck. Floating there in midair, he was flung far away. At once, How knew what had happened.

The Dai Li had joined the battle.

Gauntlets were flying around the battlefield, expertly striking or subduing Fire Nation soldiers in every direction. In the darkness the black stone was invisible, so it looked as though the Fire Nation were under attack from the spirits themselves. Some found themselves grabbed by their robes or their necks and bodily thrown, while other soldiers fell under a hail of gauntlet fragments, fired off as bullets. How couldn't see everything that was going on, but through his Earthbending he was able to sense the general idea, and it amazed him. He'd worked with some brilliant soldiers, experts at their job, but he had never seen a group of such adept Earthbenders working so perfectly in unison. Not a movement was wasted. We really could have used that before the Fire Nation got through, How thought ruefully.

Still, the element of surprise was really working in their favor. Maybe fate had dictated that the Dai Li be held back until such an occasion. How looked around, but there was no sign of Long Feng himself. He didn't know whether that meant that the man was too cowardly to take to the battlefield himself, or that he was just doing a very good job of being stealthy. Nonetheless, the plan was set up in such a way that they could go ahead without his presence; How assumed that most operations were run this way, with a fluid command structure. It was one of many ideas he hoped to adapt into their own practice when all of this was over.

Running forward, he planted himself at the very head of the formation and threw his full weight forward, and as he lurched a column of earth spiked forward, blasting a clean line through the assembled Fire Nation troops, but it was still dismaying to see how quickly they filled those gaps. As one, the formation behind him thrust their fists out to their right, and the ground the nearest troops were standing on sharply slanted itself, causing Fire Nation troops to lose their footing and slide into each other. It brought a smile to General How's face just to see it happen. Where was all of their high technology now?

But naturally, no plan survived contact with the enemy. Iroh had taken charge now and they were starting to subvert the Earthbenders' efforts to close them in by creating barriers of fire. Arrows flashed in the firelight, and How felt his blood run cold. If those archers were on the battlefield, it would be nigh-impossible to see a flying arrow in this light, and they did not look to be the type that missed easily. He tried his best to content himself with their only being so many of

BOOM.

A furious explosion welled up in the distance and it was punctuated by screams of fear and surprise. The Fire Nation had been rather quick about breaking open their blasting jelly. Similar explosions were rocking the battlefield, kicking up massive amounts of dust and smoke and creating brief illuminations of the wall. Long shadows were cast on the wall's face as fires started to spread on the verdant ground they were fighting on. That wasn't good; lots of crops that Ba Sing Se depended on grew on this spot, and they wouldn't grow on scorched earth. This had better work, he thought, or I'll have your head, Long Feng…

Seeing that the enclosure was being properly maintained, How moved forward with the next phase of his plan. He took out the flare that Long Feng had given him and threw it on the ground, as he'd been instructed. Immediately, a green light pierced the darkness and lanced up into the sky. In answer, four more lights immediately flared to life across their line: the signal to start with phase two. At once, more barriers of earth sprung up, pressing the Fire Nation troops in closer, and in such volume that the Fire Nation troops could not merely burn through them like they always did.

A clamor from the top of the walls revealed what How had been waiting for: Fire Nation soldiers were being bodily thrown from the top by Dai Li agents that had scaled the wall in secret. Using their Earthbending, they were clearing the battlements of any Fire Nation presence, and soldiers were falling like living projectiles into the densely packed ranks. When the wall was completely cleared of Fire Nation soldiers, the Dai Li planted themselves firmly in position, and began to sway back and forth. The earth beneath them began to rumble as well, and the shadow of the wall began to sway from right to left, as well.

The wall was beginning to sway…