Avatar: The Last Airbender Created By: Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko
Avatar: The Last Airbender Owned By: Nickelodeon, a subsidiary of Viacom
All original content and characters © Acastus
Chapter LII – Brave Little Soldier Boy
The remnants of the Fifth Brigade had formed a double deep firing line minutes before the enemy had crested the adjacent hill. A screen of Earth Kingdom cavalry swept before a deep formation of heavy infantry. Wary of the field of burning wrecks, the green clad pursuers had reduced speed to survey the situation. Lying prone, the exhausted Fire Nation tankers had stood up when Nifong's best were less than a hundred feet away. The first line had fired, dropped and rolled followed neatly by the second.
Stunned by the unexpected resistance from the graveyard of flaming metal corpses, a few ostrich horses had thrown their riders, but the majority of the cavalry had charged instantly. Breaking their line, the newly minted firebender infantry allowed the cavalry to pass before firing directly into their exposed flank. Their mounted opponents responded mostly with hand held weapons, many of them blunt as their preferred element, and only the Fire Nation's steel armor saved the ragged survivors from succumbing right then.
Nikon had detached himself from the small body of his troops and retreated some distance behind with Leng and the older gunner from the Fury. He watched balefully the oncoming mass of enemy cavalry and looked in despair on the heavy infantry following close upon the heels of the mounted vanguard. Hundreds of fresh earthbenders backed, he saw, by densely packed formations of spearmen, meant the outcome of this encounter was certain. Iroh's friend barely registered the two stones that his crewmates blasted into showers of silicon fragments as he methodically began his windup.
His stance wide, his root solid, the young daimyo drew a single full breath, and then slowly and deliberately swung his left arm out in a wide semicircle. Blue sparks instantly began to dance around his hands and finger tips. As his left arm completed its swing he began the same motion with his right. He felt the raw electic potential jump within his body, a sensation he had always cherished, his chi swelling and exploding inside him, begging to be split. With his arms crackling and popping with the same energy as their opposite, he brought his middle and index fingers of each hand together.
In one swift motion he thrust his right hand forward and released the full charge of lightning from the tips of his fingers.
The effect was catastrophic. One moment the green clad cavalrymen were riding at full gallop, swinging maces, clubs and a few swords at the firebenders who were backing away from them, the next they and their mounts were writhing on the ground, their bodies jerking uncontrollably, their exposed skin smoking and boiling away into the atmosphere around them. Some clawed out their eyes as they liquefied in their sockets. Not one victim screamed, though every mouth was open wide, the sound dying in their throats before it was made. They died shrieking in their heads.
Spent and exhausted, Nikon staggered backwards after the discharge. Leng caught him as he went down, then cried out in pain as a sudden blow from a stone that glanced off her left shoulder. Two ostrich horsemen who had escaped the lightning surged forward, closing the short distance between them and Nikon's group in seconds.
"Agni, help us!" the young gunner cried.
Her prayer was answered. Xian's Revenge and another tank Nikon did not immediately recognize suddenly appeared from their left. Amidst the din and clamor of battle they had missed the familiar roar and metallic squealing of the Fire Naton machines as they navigated the scattered remains of their brethren.
The Revenge knocked over one of the ostrich horses, sending its rider rolling over the grass, and forcing the other to wheel around. The older gunner launched fireball after fireball in rapid succession at the cavalryman who had remained seated, but missed as the rider spun away. Nikon recovered his breath and stood up, helping Leng do the same. The commander of the nameless tank shot the ostrich horse out from under the other rider.
The air suddenly whistled with sheets of stone hurled in perfect formation. Nikon looked up to see to see lines of enemy infantry now rapidly closing the distance. Of their comrades who had manned their ragged line just minutes before there was no trace. A large boulder struck Xian's Revenge, but it exploded harmlessly on its chassis, her commander wisely retreating into the turret.
Nikon took another breath and began his wind up once again. The enemy were close enough that he could he could pick out individual voices. They rang in his ears. He understood them, but they failed to affect him, as if he were seeing a play or a street performance in the capital from a different lifetime.
"Lightning bender!"
"Forget the tanks!"
"Kill the sparky!"
A spear whistled over his shoulder. He ignored it. Leng and her partner destroyed the nearest projectiles that came hurtling toward them, but one caught the elder gunner square in the chest. Even through his armor he could hear the crunch of bone. Nikon ignored this too. The remaining tanks had reversed gear and were firing in retreat, giving Iroh's friend a last opportunity to fire between them into the surging ranks of the enemy.
The heavy set, bearded infantrymen who comprised the guts of the Army of the Granite Mountains were no fools. Lightning benders were rare and powerful, but they had long since learned how to face them in battle. Seconds before Nikon unleashed his next charge the green clad soldiers halted and squatted close to the ground, their bare feet bandy legged to provide a solid connection to the earth beneath them. In unison they smashed their fists into the open palm of their opposite hand and lifted a solid shield of thick stone before them.
His body once again prickling with electric potential, Nikon had no choice but to discharge. The lightning surged out of his body and struck the wall directly in front of him. The impact area promptly vaporized, blasting a hole ten feet wide in the blockade and killing all the defenders immediately behind. Chunks of rock and a cloud of blasted fragments rained down on the survivors.
The Earth Kingdom soldiers cheered, for they knew what it cost even for a master firebender to use the technique, and the defensive wall had prevented the chain lightning from doing precisely what it had done to the cavalry screen.
Nikon staggered, his tongue lolling out of his mouth in utter exhaustion. The world spun around him. He grabbed Leng and pulled her to the ground, inadvertently saving them both from death as the Granite Mountain infantry kicked the wall they had just created and sent it flying in pieces at the invaders. The broken stones whistled over their heads close enough for the concussion of air to blow their hair back.
He lay on the ground, his breath knocked out of him. Days of combat without rest and the extreme effort required to bend lightning had left him incapacitated. Leng had fallen on top of him. She too was spent, but she rolled off and into a crouching position facing the enemy. Quickly she scanned the battlefield back and forth but he could not tell what she saw.
Gasping on the ground and clutching his belly, Nikon rocked slowly from one side to the other, his body in shock as he tried to recover his breath. Overhead he was dimly aware of a hail of objects arcing low across the sky, small thin lines that winked and flashed across his vision in an instant. His mind struggled to name them, for he knew them to be a familiar sight. Sheets and sheets of the projectiles streaked over their heads in the direction of the enemy. These were soon joined by flaming balls of pitch that left oily black smoke trails behind them.
Suddenly he returned to his senses and the world resolved itself around him. Leng was pulling him backwards and trying to get him to his feet.
"Get up, my lord!" Leng shouted hoarsely.
Nikon recovered his breath and staggered to his feet. The Earth Kingdom infantry had withered under the storm of arrows which rained down upon them. Huge gapings holes had opened up in the ranks of the defenders where the balls of flaming pitch had impacted. The two Fire Nation tanks that had appeared minutes before were in turn joined by several others and were taking advantage of the surprise ranged attack to drive directly into the densely packed mass of opponents.
Surprised and elated by the sudden turn of events, Iroh's friend looked behind them to divine the source of their apparent deliverance. There on the Hue Road stood rank upon rank of red clad archers who fired, knelt and reloaded in quick succession. Between the gaps in their ranks poured solid rivers of skull masked infantry wearing flame emblazoned armor. Behind them catapults obscured by the intervening bodies launched blazing fireballs in lazy arcs over their heads.
The roar of the combat drew his attention back once again.
Maddened by the appearance of the Fire Nation reinforcements, the Earth Kingdom soldiers cried as one in animal fury. Ignoring the losses inflicted by slings and arrows, they surged forward without order.
Nikon began to wind up once more, hoping against hope that one last arc of lightning would allow Tien Shin's men to reach them in time.
Tien Shin spent only a few seconds atop the Hue Road to scan the carnage before him. The devastation was second only to the soon to be legendary Field of Coins. The wrecks of dozens of Fire Nation tanks, most smoking or on fire, many with their bellies shattered like eggs, littered the battlefield. Had there been pools of blood soaked mud it could have been mistaken for Lake Myojin. The vanguard of Nifong's main force was forcing its way rapidly through the pitiful band of exhausted Fire Nation soldiers before them. A few tanks, without question the last remnants of Nikon's column, spun and fired wildly from their gunnery ports at the surging green wave that would soon overwhelm them.
No orders had been given to engage. Such a formality was unnecessary. Contact with the enemy demanded a response. The archers had let loose flight after flight of their black feathered heralds of death. Tien Shin had joined them without elder prince fired his arrows two at a time. He rarely missed a mark.
Gaps had opened up between the companies of archers allowing huge rivers of heavily armored firebenders to pour through to meet their green clad counterparts now only a few feet away. They spread out like a maroon liquid which then instantly hardened to form neat, straight ranks.
Tien Shin kicked his mount, firing as he went, finding a place at the front where the infantry had not yet closed the gap. Beside him he saw Tojo do the same.
In front of them a few last firebenders from Fifth Brigade now engaged in hand to hand combat. Nearby one of the last few tanks in operation came down hard on its back and spit fire out of its guts.
The firing lines on either side of him unleased a wide arc of fire in unison which collided with an incoming hail of rock. Both disintegrated into each other. A stone caught the elder prince in the shoulder, but glanced off his armor.
Suddenly his attention was yanked away from the exchange of fire by a fierce crackling and popping sound from his left. His hair stood on end as his body sensed a dramatic surge of electric potential. One of the ragged Fire Nation defenders, without armor or helmet, let loose a massive bolt of white hot lightening almost the instant Tien Shin identified the source. He covered his eyes as did many of the troops around him. The flash and heat penetrated even the skin of his hand and he was momentarily blinded.
The surge of raw electricity struck the oncoming line of green clad infantry, instantly filling the air with the screams of dying men and the stench of melting flesh.
Still reeling from the afterflash the elder prince was unable to see the immediate effect of the counterattack. While he blinked his eyes to regain his sight, he felt his mongoose dragon shudder and felt the sickening crunch of bone as it staggered underneath a hit from a nearby earthbender. Swearing profusely Tien Shin jumped the ground as the great green beast heaved underneath him in its death throes.
His sight finally restored, Tien Shin drew two arrows across his bow and discharged them into two green clad pikemen poised to throw at him. Even with the afterflash scoring his sight, both fell with an arrow through the heart or the eye.
In a flash nearly as bright as the lightening which caused it, he suddenly remembered who had to be the source of the counterattack. He felt a simultaneous rush of recognition and anger.
Tien Shin pivoted, firing two more sets of arrows into the enemy ranks before once again locating the source of the lightning.
There, amidst a bloody knot of ferocious hand to hand combat, Nikon Orlando, clearly recognizable without a helmet to obscure his features, struggled desperately against several huge Earth Kingdom soldiers who had finally reached his position. A single companion fought by his side, rapidly discharging fire balls from each hand as they fell back.
As he watched they were joined by men from his own formation, but they had no time to rescue the struggling survivors of the Fifth Brigade as they were instantly met with their own enemy to engage. In front of Nikon and his comrade several more earthbenders lifted chunks of stone from deep under the topsoil in preparation to attack. They were out of reach of his firebending, but not his archery. As he drew an arrow taut on his bowstring he saw Nikon strike down one opponent only to be grabbed by two others, his captors ignoring the burns they suffered from his fists wreathed in blue flame.
Nikon's companion, seeing the danger, fired several blasts of bright orange fire in quick succession at the earthbenders now aiming for them. One bolt struck an antagonist before he launched, the other destroyed the incoming stone as soon as the earthbender kicked it away.
Tien Shin drew bead on the last earthbender while Nikon and his companion tried desperately to free him.
He let fly his arrow… and missed.
Combat raged at the crossroads. The Earth Kingdom forces had torn both highways to pieces, hurling them with devastating effect at the invaders. The Fire Nation line, exhausted and exposed on the open land, had bent back on itself and then broken. The Army of the Granite Mountains poured through the break, the pikemen and infantry pushing the firebenders south while the cavalry went west, preparing to pivot quickly and strike against the enemy's flank.
The first envelopment had proven a success and by all reckoning the point regiment had been well nigh destroyed. They now aimed to roll up the rest of the Fire Nation line as they had so effectively at Sun Valley and dozens of other battles.
Nifong and his aide drove through the gap with the lead forces. Using the basic horse stance he and his grizzled veterans had used thousands of times, the aging general himself had dispatched the last operating Fire Nation tank with a massive column of stone taken straight from the Silk Road.
The breach made, Nifong now waited patiently for information to plot his next move. The fog of war had long since descended and he knew that quick responses to rapidly changing conditions often meant the difference between victory and defeat.
"Here comes one now, sir," the aide shouted over the noise of combat and movement, pointing to another breathless messenger who galloped toward them on horseback.
The young woman saluted. She and her mount breathed heavily from a long, hard ride.
"Hail, General!" she managed to croak.
"Report, Seargent?"
"Not… not good, sir, Colonel Jenju has been defeated… badly."
"Where?"
"About three hours ride west northwest of us."
"What did you see?"
The scout shook her head, her jawline hardening.
"Looks like that the same thing that happened at the Field of Coins, sir, the fire spitters left nothing but a smoking hole in the ground. I didn't get close enough to see much more than that since the enemy was almost on top of me."
"You didn't see anyone from Jenju's outfit at all?" the young captain prompted incredulously.
"Yes, sir, I did. I saw a few big groups of what I think were survivors retreating north and northeast, but they had Fire Nation troops on them as well. I don't think they're going to be much help to us now."
Nifong grimaced. This was confirmation of the first report they had received less than an hour before.
"What now, sir?" his adjutant prompted, "Break off the attack… or press it?"
The aging general considered his options. None of them were good. The path forward had shrunk every hour of every day since they had left Ningbo. Now, there seemed no path at all.
Unable to justify abandoning the only advantage he had, Nifong finally responded.
"Press it, Captain, we have little choice."
"What about the dreadnoughts, sir?"
"They'll target us next. Ready or not, the rock sleds have to engage them."
The aide saluted and withdrew to issue the orders.
The Army of the Granite Mountains around them poured through the gap in the Fire Nation lines into an uncertain future.
