Chapter 28 – The Battle of the Western Earth Base, Part 3
-They Fight the Battle-
Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar – The Last Airbender
"We are ready, Brother", Kang saluted, riding on a komodo rhino.
"Assemble the man!" Jiang ordered after nodding dismissively at him. He then rode his steed forward, leading his own unit to the assembly area ten meters south of the camp around Yu Guo. Soon, Masa and Kang joined him, bringing with them the rest of Jiang's men. The sun would reach the middle point of the blue sky above soon, and General Jiang's 212th Battalion was ready.
"Load the siege machines!!!" Jiang roared behind his back. An officer in charge for the siege machines yelled the order to his men. A minute later, the ten siege catapults and five explosive-tipped ballistae were all loaded. All waiting for the mass of green and yellow that had just emerged from the Western Earth Base at the south to get into the firing range.
"There you are", Jiang hissed menacingly at the figure leading the Earth Kingdom soldiers. Riding an armor-clad ostrich horse at the front of the enemy's formation, bare footed like the rest of his vanguards, clad in Earth Kingdom high ranking officer's armor complete with a green cape, his hair tied in the Earth Kingdom top-knot which are bigger and thicker than Fire Nation top-knot held in place by a set of green hair holder and pin with a small Earth Kingdom insignia in the middle. His brown eyes had seen many battlefields, his stern face adorned by long bushy beard that reached his chest. The enemy was still about a hundred meters away but Jiang didn't need a scope to see Fong's smug expression on his face. His son had warned him about this: General Fong would be looking forward to this battle.
Jiang first heard about Fong nearly sixteen years ago, just a month after his legendary victory over Yu Guo and the Western Earth Base. Captain Fong of the Earth Kingdom had managed to mimic his victory and it enraged young Jiang. Fong needed fifty men while Jiang only had thirty men to achieve the feat, yes. But while Jiang took six days to do so, Fong only took one night. Jiang won in term of men he had with him but Fong beat him in term of time it took him. And since then, the two had become unofficial rivals; their victories and defeats were often compared with each other. Jiang captured a village, Fong seized a base; Fong attacked a supply division, Jiang pulverized an entire battalion. But even so, the two generals had never encountered each other on the battlefield before. This would be the first time they met face-to-face, man-to-man, in a battlefield and both intended to make it their last.
"Fong of the Earth Kingdom", Jiang muttered. He then turned to Masa and Kang in his right and left, both commanders nodded back to him, confirming their complete preparation for battle. Jiang raised his right hand, signaling one of the officers behind him.
"Ignite the catapults!!!" Jiang heard his nephew Lieutenant Shi yelled behind him, followed by the sound of flickering fire. Jiang kept his hand raised; the enemy was still out of range, just a bit more…
"Jiang of the Fire Nation", Fong muttered, casting a smug glance at the enemy's three banners: two Fire Nation banners at the right and left wing and a slightly different banner in the middle; the banner looked like a normal Fire Nation banner save for the more dominant black and a Taiji circle with the character Lin (林) at the middle of the insignia. Only the head of the famous Lin Family were allowed to wield such banner.
"FIRE!!" Jiang roared, bringing his raised hand down like a hammer. Behind him, his ordered was echoed by Lieutenant Shi. In a second, ten flaming boulders flew through the air above his head straight to the enemy's rank.
"HOLD!!" Fong yelled, pulling his ostrich horse's bridle, to calm it from the spook. Behind him, some of his men were thrown and fell as the boulders landed near them or on them, throwing the whole battalion into chaos. "HOLD THE FORMATION!!!"
"FIRE!!" Jiang ordered again.
Another barrage, but this time Fong was prepared…
"COUNTER!!!" he screamed at the top his lungs. Behind him, a special unit of earthbenders stomped the ground, causing a piece of large boulder to levitate in front of each of them, and shot the boulders to the sky. They managed to shoot down six flaming catapults boulders, the collision caused them to shatter in the sky and break down into countless harmless pieces.
"First division, second division!!!" Fong roared, smirking. "ATTACK!!!!"
With that, a portion of his army, led by one of his most trusted commanders charged at the enemy, screaming for blood. Jiang, seeing that the charge had begun, made a hand gesture with his left hand, still fixing his eyes on the enemy. He could see from the corner of his eyes, Kang roaring his order, spurring his steed to join the brawl.
And soon, the two armies clashed. In between them, Jiang and Fong witnessed their men fighting gallantly with Jiang's men winning. Jiang smirked at this. This was also his son's suggestion. Lin had predicted that Fong would tread cautiously. He would most definitely send a division or two of his army to test Jiang defenses, hoping that Jiang would do the same. And Lin had advised him to take this chance, to sent Kang and the whole left wing into the tray. Kang and Masa might be equal in term of skill and valor but their fighting styles were very different; Kang was the type who would jump into the fight regardless of who he was fighting while Masa was more calculative. That was why Lin had suggested sending him and not Masa; Kang would pulverize a chunk of the enemy's superior number in no time to even their numbers a bit. And it worked.
In less than a minute, Fong's men were utterly defeated while Kang's men suffered insignificant losses. Their victorious yells made Fong's face red with angered.
"MEN!!! WEDGE FOMATION!!!" Fong yelled. And soon, his men were all marching behind him, forming a triangle-like formation with Fong at the front tip. After his men had solidified their formation, Fong yelled again, "CHARGE!!!"
"He's losing his cool", Jiang smiled, observing the enemy's action, silently praising his son. Lin had also predicted this, that Fong would lead his army himself in the second wave for a total onslaught. "CATAPULT, FIRE!!!!"
And flaming boulders soared through the sky again, hitting the middle of Fong's formation but Fong didn't stop at all. He is ruthless and aggressive, indeed, Jiang thought. He then readied his steed and issued another order. "MEN!!! ALL AT READY!!"
His men suddenly left their catapults, those who manned the ballistae remained though. Shi, who were standing with the siege machines, threw his small commanding flag to another soldier before jumping on his steed, riding to lead his division behind his foster father Masa. Jiang waited for another minute for his men to get ready and for Fong to get closer before…
"CHARGE!!!!" he spurred his steed forward, leading the rest of his men to join Kang and to face his nemesis. The battle of the two great generals had finally begun…
"And?" baited Ursa.
"Um…" Azula's face scrunched up, trying to recall her lesson at school. "And… General Lin, the twenty fourth intercepted the Air Nation survivors at… at…"
"At…" Ursa baited again, waving a red grape playfully. "Come on Azula…"
"Um…" Azula's eyes trailed on the grape, still thinking hard.
"It has his name on it…" Ursa hinted, grinning.
"Fenglin forest!!" Azula exclaimed excitedly.
"Yes!" Ursa laughed, feeding the grape to Azula's mouth. But before the grape could even touched the girl's lips…
"Ahem!" a voice came from behind them. Both Ursa and Azula turned to the voice and found Ozai, who looked colder than usual, standing behind them. Azula instinctively let out a startled gasp and ran away to her room while Ursa stayed at her seat, staring back indignantly.
"What?" she growled. He's not supposed to be back until tomorrow, what the hell he's doing here? her thought raced with her heartbeats.
"I see you are having fun", Ozai coldly replied, sitting down on the seat Azula left.
Ursa didn't say anything. She didn't know what to say, to be more precise. Well, she did break the deal but she had a valid reason to do so, right? It was Ozai who broke the deal first, she was just getting even on him. It was okay, right?
"The attack has started last night", Ozai informed casually.
"What?" Ursa gasped. She knew that 'the attack' meant the campaign on the Earth Kingdom's Western Shore.
"General Jiang had begun attacking the Western Shore last night", Ozai repeated colder and slower than before as if he was annoyed by his wife's slow brain.
"How was it?" Ursa asked after regaining her calmness while in her mind, she was cursing Jiang. Why couldn't he wait for a day or two? Didn't he know that Lin got seasick easily? That poor kid must have suffered a lot by the sea travel…
"How should I know?" Ozai sneered, pulling out a scroll from his robe. "General Jiang couldn't possibly explain the detail of his strategy in letter now, could he?"
Ursa snatched the scroll away from his hand hastily and unrolled it just as quickly. The letter was just a report stating that General Jiang's 212th Battalion had arrived safely at the Western Shore, captured Senlin Village in about half an hour, had its left and right wings marching south to secure Yu Guo at the very night led by Commander Masa and Commander Kang, and that General Jiang and Battalion Strategist Lin, the twenty sixth, would march with the rest of the battalion in the morning…
Battalion Strategist Lin, the twenty sixth!!!!
Ursa nearly fainted when she read the line…
"Surprised?" Ozai sneered cruelly. "Battalion Strategist, eh? Not bad, not bad at all… He should be the youngest Battalion Strategist in the history of Fire Nation after all. Remind me to suggest Fire Lord Azulon to grant the kid a medal or something when the kid comes back. If he comes back, that is."
And he got up, snickering cruelly, leaving the horror-stricken Ursa behind. As her husband disappeared at the corridor, Ursa let go of her pretense. She began to pant and gasp, horrified, her face pale and she could feel cold sweat on her face as she clutched her chest.
She read and read the scroll over and over again as if she was hoping that she misread the character. Battalion strategist!! What the hell was Jiang thinking? Making his own son the battalion strategist?!! It was like putting a banner that said 'Hey, I'm here. Kill me' on the boy's back. Even though Ursa had never set foot on the battlefield, she knew enough about warfare to know that even though the battalion strategist almost never had to join the battle itself, he would be the most targeted person in the battlefield. Taking down the battalion strategist means disrupting the battalion's chain of command. Like a person's body: the battalion strategist as the brain, the general as the mouth, and the soldiers as the limbs. Without the brain, the mouth will not know what to say and the limbs won't be able to move.
"Mom?" Zuko called. He approached his mother, wiping his sweaty face and neck with a small towel. He had just finished his daily firebending training with the Imperial Firebending Instructor. "What's wrong?"
"N-nothing", Ursa choked, swiftly rolling the scroll and hiding it inside her sleeve with her trembling hand. "I-it's nothing, honey."
"What was that scroll about?" Zuko asked, suspicious at his mother's stutter.
"I-it's…"Ursa stooped, didn't know what to say. "It's a report from General Jiang's battalion."
"Really?" Zuko's face lit up. "Have they won the battle?"
"No, honey. Not yet", Ursa smiled awkwardly. "They just arrived there yesterday."
"Oh, right", Zuko snickered. Unlike his mother, he was worried at all about Lin. To him, Lu Ten was the strongest firebender he knew, well one from his generation, of course. And Lin, Zuko believed that Lin was even stronger than Lu Ten. "Well, Lin won't be coming back a hero any time soon, then."
"Zuko!" Ursa scolded. "How could you say something like that about your friend?"
"Huh?" Zuko gaped. "Wha— Oooh!? No, Mom. Not that 'hero'. I meant he won't be coming back bringing victory and glory kind of hero, not— you know, the other kind of hero…"
"A— oh, so that's what you—", Ursa sighed, relieved. "I thought you were…"
"No", Zuko said curtly. "Seriously Mom… how could even think I would say something like that."
Ursa's face lit up. She knew that Lin and Lu Ten were very close like brothers but she had never known that even Zuko felt the same about Lin. Zuko had always been in the shadow of the two, after all and…
"He's the twenty sixth Lin, Mom. He won't go down easily."
…of course, Ursa face fell. Why did everyone think Lin was so… so strong and powerful just because he was the twenty sixth Lin? He was just a kid, for spirits' sake!
"He'll be fine, Mom", Zuko assured his mother.
"I hope you're right, honey", Ursa smiled weakly.
Jiang rode fast through the sea of yellow in front of him. He cut through the enemy's line, his steed trampling anyone who dared to stand in his way. He sent numerous swift jabs of fire at the soldiers around him, sending some to the spirit world, injuring the rest. Luckily, it was midday when firebenders were at their strongest. It was also the advantage Lin took into consideration. Since 212th Battalion was outnumbered, they just had to make it up by outpowering their opponents.
"General Jiang!!"
Jiang turned his steed around. Behind him, General Fong was there, staring at him scornfully on his ostrich horse.
"General Fong", Jiang called back curtly. Courtesy, you know.
But before any of them could move a muscle…
—BOOM!!!!!—
A loud explosion could be heard from behind the Earth Kingdom soldiers, coming from the Western Earth Base south gate by the sound of it. Both Jiang and Fong turned to the direction of the explosion with different expression on his face. Jiang looked relieved, almost excited while Fong looked angry.
"Riders!!" he yelled to the crowd. "Go back to the base!!"
The nearby ostrich horse riders around Fong quickly marched back to the base, calling other riders to join them along the way. Jiang didn't do anything; he must personally keep Fong busy. He didn't need to do anything, though. He had taken all necessary counter measures.
"Come!" he challenged the earthbender, sliding down from his steed. Fong, wanting to ease his pride, also slid down from his steed. Both generals paced forward, closer to each other while keeping a healthy three or four meters between them.
"I don't know what you did to my base", Fong taunted, casting a glance at the riders who had amassed the number of at least fifty and marched in a tight column back to the base. "But, you won't succeed."
"You think so?" Jiang mocked. He had plan, indeed. There was a reason why he hadn't used his ballistae. He was saving them for this, to intercept whatever army Fong sent back to the base. His son, Lin, had predicted that Fong would send fast moving unit, either riders or light infantry. To counter them, they would need a long range siege weapon with high accuracy which meant catapults were out of question. So, Jiang suggested ballistae. They had to remove them from Admiral Liang's destroyer ships. Usually, no admiral would allow such barbaric act done on their ships but since Jiang was dating his fourth cousin… well, let's just say that Admiral Liang didn't dispatch his five medic squads and one elite demolition team to assist Jiang's battalion on a whim.
"Just a bit more…" Captain Pao muttered, observing the enemy's rider unit from his scope. They were still too close to the brawl, he might hit his own comrades if he shot now.
Just a bit more… a bit more… five more meters… four… three…
"Ready", He raised a flag Lieutenant Shi threw him earlier.
Two…
"FIRE!!" he yelled, waving the flag forward. The five explosive-tipped ballistae released their bolts almost simultaneously with a sharp clanking sound.
The bolts soared through the air above the heads of the fighting soldiers to the riders unit. The unit took the full blow as the five bolts landed in the middle of their formation and exploded right after it collided with the solid earth. The explosion sent many soldiers and steeds flying, all screaming from the horror and the pain. And as the dust settled, the riders unit was utterly decimated…
"ARRRGH!!! DIE!!!"
Jiang barely able to sidestep a boulder Fong shot at him. The earthbender was clearly pissed. Now all Fong could do was to deal with Jiang as soon as possible and then marched back to his base and deal with whatever it was that caused the explosion.
"Give it up, Fong", Jiang taunted. "You've already lost!"
Instead of answering, Fong stomped the earth, forcing his chi to penetrate the earth and with a lifting hand gesture caused a chunk of rugged rock to jump up and, after receiving a punch from the earthbender, launched itself at Jiang. Jiang jumped up and twirl in the air, sending two fire jabs and one fire kick in midair. Fong stomped the earth again and raised an earth wall to block the fire. The wall collapsed back to the ground, revealing Fong who levitated five small but solid earth balls before he sent the rocks flying at Jiang one by one. Jiang evaded the first one, the second one, fire punched the third one, and fire spin kicked the fourth and the fifth one.
"You're not giving up, then", he calmly addressed the enraged general, making it sound as if he could kill Fong easily. He was bluffing, of course. General Fong might have lost some of his men and the numbers of both sides were pretty much even now. But, Jiang knew they couldn't win, well not without sacrificing at least half of the battalion. It didn't matter, though. Jiang wasn't there to defeat Fong; he just needed to keep him busy, to buy his son more time.
"Should I?" Fong hissed.
"Yes, you really should", Jiang said confidently. "We have something you don't have."
"What?" Fong barked.
"My son", Jiang smiled proudly, readying his stance and lunging at his nemesis.
And the generals, fire and earth, collided once more…
"Men!" Lin yelled, snapping the rest of the assault's team off their gape. "Let's go! CHARGE!!!"
Lin rode fast forward, his men behind him. Chey and Chit Sang were at the front right behind Birdie and its rider, the rest of the men behind them leaving the second cart behind. Once inside, they found themselves surrounded by thirty or forty sentry guards who formed a semicircle around the gate. Apparently, the first explosion caused by the blasting jelly alarmed them. Noticing a heavy damage on their gate, more than half of guards quickly swarmed the gate, preparing themselves to fight anyone who broke through the gate. Luckily, Lin and his men didn't have to fight all of them, about fifteen of the sentry guards were hit by the large pieces of the door and collapsed on the floor. Dead or just unconscious, hard to tell…
Lin quickly spurred Birdie forward, knocking down two guards who tried to stop him. Man! For someone who was fighting a real battle where lives were put at stake for the first time, Lin found the experience very intense. He could no longer think or feel. He could only react. A man shooting a rock at him! React, steer Birdie to the left, keep moving! Another man was preparing to shoot boulder at him! React, shoot fire quickly, don't stop moving! Lin felt that his senses became strangely sharp but he didn't realize that he could no longer hear the noise of the battle around him.
He could hear when someone was trying to attack him from behind, yes. But, he couldn't hear Sergeant Chit Sang roaring like an angry platypus bear while sending a large fire blast from his punch, taking down two men at once. Or Captain Chey who skillfully caught a soldier's hand when the said soldier swung a polearm at him; when he quickly pulled out a small hand grenade from his pouch, bit the pin with his teeth and pulled the rest of the grenade off to ignite the fuse, threw the grenade at five more soldiers who came running to assist the soldier Chey was fighting, and punching the soldier on the face and claimed his weapon at the same time as the grenade went off, blasting the five soldiers to the spirit world.
"Young Master!" one of the soldiers, the one with the mask and a pregnant wife back at home shouted, snapping Lin of his… his… I don't know what to call it. It can only be felt, almost impossible to describe, and impossible to name. Adrenaline rush, some would say, maybe it is. Excitement of battle? Hell no. It's inappropriate to call it excitement because no excitement must come from hurting or killing someone in battle.
"Over there!" the soldier pointed at the tall tower in front of them. The tower was erected adjacent to the north wall and few soldiers were standing guard along the wall. Two sets of stairs led to the tower itself, stood at the foot of the tower. That was his target. If Lin could claim that tower, take down the commander who could be seen shouting some orders from the tower, he could end this battle right away.
"You, Captain Chey" Lin gestured at the masked soldier and Chey who were the nearest to him. "Follow me! The rest of you stay here, catch up with us later!"
And with that, he rode forward taking down as many soldiers as he could with his firebending to make it easier for Chey and the other soldier to follow him. Chey and the other soldier ran behind their young master faithfully, fending off some remaining soldiers here and there with grenade and polearm, for Chey, and firebending, for the other soldier.
Lin rode skillfully, evading some holes the earthbenders conjured on the ground with their bending. He remembered the lesson Umma gave him when the old lady taught him how to ride. She recounted from her own experience that the natural enemy for riders are earthbenders. Earthbenders could manipulate the earth below the steed, causing it to step on a hole that wasn't there before or to get stabbed by earth spikes that weren't there before. Umma herself admitted that she had lost two komodo rhinos because of that. She also taught Lin the best ways to deal with earthbender as a rider. The first one was to get off your steed if possible. If it wasn't possible to get off the steed, for example if you were running away from them, then don't ever ride in a straight line. And with that lesson in mind, Lin rode zigzag across the front yard to the stairs, shooting fire at anyone he could reach.
"ACK!!"
Lin quickly turned back…
"No!!" he picked up his crossbow and shot the Earth Kingdom soldier before he could swing his sword at the masked soldier who was down on the floor. The bolt soared through the air and nested itself on the Earth Kingdom soldier's shoulder, causing him to drop his weapon and limp away screaming and clutching the arrow. Chey, realizing that his comrade was injured, quickly moved to him, stabbing the dull end of his polearm at the ground to propel himself to the enemy soldier, landing a perfect flying kick. The soldier was thrown few feet back to the floor, unconscious.
"Soldier", Lin slid down from Birdie and knelt down beside the injured masked soldier while Chey moved forward to fend off the approaching enemies. "Are you alright?"
"I-I'm fine… Y-young Master", he grunted, trying to get up. His side was cut and the wound was bleeding. The wound wasn't deep, thankfully. Lin frantically looked around for something he could use to tie the man's wound. There! He reached out to a nearby unconscious Earth Kingdom soldier and tore his head covering. Luckily, all Earth Kingdom soldiers under General Fong wore that kind of head covering under their helmets. Lin pulled out his emergency knife and used it to cut the head covering into a long piece of cloth and tied it as an improvised bandage around the soldier's gut.
"Young Master", the rest of the team approached him, some still fighting the enemy with Chit Sang fending off a flock of Earth Kingdom soldiers at their flank all by himself.
"Keep him safe", Lin ordered, taking the quiver of bolts from Birdie's saddle. He then shoved the bolts and the crossbow at one of the soldiers and slapped Birdie's thigh so that the ostrich horse would run to safety.
With that, he pulled out his sword from his back and joined Chey. Although he was a firebender, Lin knew at least the rudimentary art of wielding swords. He was a noble born, after all, and swords are the gentlemen's weapon. Holding his sword with his right hand, he channeled his chi to his sword, connecting the blade with his firebending. And with a sharp battle cry, he propelled himself to the air, waving his sword in a wide arc, sending a thin yet refined curved fire slash at two soldiers who were about to ambush Chey from behind.
Chey, finishing off his last opponent, nodded his thanks to Lin. and then both of them raced forward to the stairs, Lin to the right stairs and Chey to the left stairs. Some of the soldiers who were standing guard at the wall had descended from the wall and stood guard along the two stairs. Chey and Lin had no choice but to fend them off, easier for Chey since he was an experience soldier who had stained his hands countless of times before. Lin, however, was struggling trying not to kill anyone. He knew that death is an inevitable part of war. He knew really… but he didn't want to kill, or he wanted to but he couldn't. And it was harder to do now that he had a sword in his hand. Furthermore, the sword was a jian type sword, sword with two cutting edges. If only he was using a katana type that only has only one cutting edge instead, he could use the blunt edge on his opponents.
"Back off!!" the boy yelled, kicking one assailant at the gut, causing the man to bend down in agony. He then used the man as a stepping stone, jumping on his back and propelled himself to the air, performing a midair twirl and sending a fire slash with his sword that hit five enemies at once. The remaining two men, startled by the young boy's ferocity, ran back to the command tower. Lin chased after them to the top of the stairs, reunited with Chey who used the dull end of his weapon to smack one of the soldiers at the head, knocking him unconscious, and spin kicked the other soldier, sending him flying backward down to the stair.
Lin and Chey quickly ran to the command tower, they mustn't waste anymore time. Who knows how much longer General Jiang could hold General Fong. And as they entered the command room, weapons at ready, they were greeted by the sight of the base commander and his ten elite guards.
"YAAAARGGH!!" the soldiers suddenly marched, wielding their weapons. They were non-benders, judging from the shoes they were wearing. Usually, in the Earth Kingdom Military, earthbenders were always put at the frontline and non-benders were given the job of guarding a base or something. But Lin knew that the ten guards he and Chey were fighting now were not weaker than earthbender soldiers. The elite guards are usually trained to the extent that they could hold their own against benders in battle, usually by implementing weapons in their fighting style. And there they were, Lin and Chey, standing back to back surrounded by ten elite guards, all were ready to slit the two Fire Nation's throat with their broadswords, all not wanting to be the one to attack first, all were waiting for one of their friends to initiate the assault.
"Young Master", Chey muttered, not taking his eyes off the enemies, his polearm at ready. "Have you ever fought someone who bends elements other than fire before?"
"Well", Lin muttered back, being reminded of a certain baldy. "I fought a waterbender before."
"That's a start", Chey snickered, then he sounded serious again. "I'll deal with them."
"No", Lin hissed, clutching his sword tighter. "They're too many for you to handle alone."
"I'll be fine", Chey replied, steady with his stance. "Chit Sang and the others will be here soon enough. I'll just have to keep them busy till then. Or till you take down the big fella there,"
Chey jerked his head at the commander, standing five or six meters away at a safe distance. The commander wasn't wearing shoes, which meant he was an earthbender, with a spear at his side.
"Are you sure you'll be okay all by yourself?" Lin asked.
"Yes", Chey nodded, full of determination. He had promised General Jiang that he'd keep the boy safe. And from what he heard about the boy's skill, and from what he had witnessed for himself, he knew that the boy could take on the commander alone. At least the boy's chance of survival would be higher if he fought one person by himself rather than fighting ten opponents at once with Chey.
"Alright, then", Lin replied. "I'm gonna need to jump there. Help me."
"Yes, Young master", Chey readied himself. "On three. One… two…"
And Chey swiftly knelt down, holding his polearm horizontally above his head. Lin jumped back and landed on the polearm and as Chey pushed the weapon up, with Lin on it. Lin used the force to propel himself high up in the air out of the circle of enemy and landed in front of the commander. Some of the guards, realizing the trick, tried to chase after Lin but Chey quickly attacked them, forcing them to defend themselves against the his polearm.
As soon as his feet touched the floor, two meters in front of the commander, Lin quickly sent slashes of fire from his sword. The commander, a bit startled, stomped the floor, causing an earth wall to shoot up from the floor, shielding him from the fire. A loud thudding sound caused by the earthbender punching the wall and the mass of earth suddenly flew at Lin. Lin sidestepped the rock and lunged forward. The commander was using a spear while Lin only had a sword, the advantage of range was at the commander's side and Lin must take it away from him. If he could force the commander to engage in a close quarter combat…
—SWOOSH—
Lin barely managed to evade the spear thrust. Seemed like the commander was quite well-versed in the art of spear wielding, too. Another thrust, parry! Another one, evade again! Another one, evade again! Ano— and Lin jumped back, unable to hold off any more spear thrusts. Okay, so the commander was really good at using a spear. Just a short sword wouldn't be enough for Lin. he instinctively pulled out his jade flute. Umma told him once that the flute was hard enough to break a man's skull, so why not use it. And what was that smooth silky thing he was grasping? Oh, the red handkerchief…
Lin had tied the red handkerchief a certain princess gave him a year ago around the flute's handle for good luck. And suddenly, the memory of the morning in the Estate's lawn flashed through his mind. He mustn't lose here. He still had much to do, many people to come home to; he still had to secure the base, to win this battle. He still had to master the 36 advanced forms, to grow up and become an officer in the Fire Nation Army, probably under his own father, didn't matter as long as he could catch up to Lu Ten. And above all, he had to go back home, lots of people were waiting for him there…
And with a sword at his right hand and a jade flute with a red handkerchief wrapped around it, the prodigy of the Lin Family, the proud son of the Fire Nation dashed forward to fight once more…
To Be Continued…
Author's note:
1. Pao (炮)means 'ballista' or 'artillery'
2. Fenglin is composed of two Chinese words: feng (風) which means 'wind' or 'air' and lin (林) which means 'forest'.
And about battalion strategist, I'm not sure but I think in ancient China it was more like a position rather than a formal rank so Jiang didn't really break any rule by making his son a strategist. And yes, in many ancient literature about warfare taking down the enemy's strategist is often considered more important than taking down the enemy's general.
And it also seems like 'the Battle of the Western Earth Base' is going to be divided in four parts and not just three.
And to hpswst101, about Jiang sucks at arguing. Weeeelll… if you asked me, it was more because Lin was good at it. Haha
And about my sleep problem… well, actually it's getting better now. At least I'm starting to sleep at night again. But, I begin to have some weird dreams that usually caused me to wake up at the middle of the night. Just last night, for example, I had a dream about my brother working at a bookstore selling one Harry Potter book called 'Harry Potter and the Half-blood Hollow' at a creepy harbor inhabited by a giant black sea monster. Yes, just one book, it's 'Half-blood Hollow' and not 'Half-blood Prince' or 'Deathly Hollow', and the sea monster was black and huge, not to mention ugly. Anyway, I woke up laughing when I heard the sea monster told my brother (yes, the sea monster was talking) a joke about sandwich, book, and a bottle of water. I don't remember the whole joke but I think it was quite funny to make me wake up laughing. Weird, huh… is there something wrong with me? T_T
Enjoy the chapter! Have a nice day!!
