Here is the forty-fourth chapter in Book 4 released on time as planned. This is the second of the four chapters in the final major arc of Book 4. I've already explained why the final arc was broken up so that is all I have to say for now so just sit back and enjoy the 44th chapter in the fourth installment of Avatar: The Tale of Harry. Book 4: Family.
Disclaimer: As always I own nothing related to these two great works of fiction.
Chapter 44
Teddy cursed as he looked out and saw the extent of the battle that was unfolding beneath him. It was a clusterfuck of the highest order. He had been in the thick of it during the Assault of the Northern Air Temple and that had been bad, the Second Siege of the North was at least ten times worse.
Not only were the number significantly greater, at least 5-fold if Teddy had to estimate and that was just at a glance, it was unfolding on the sea as well in the air. Add on that the Principate had already managed to land a few units of elite forces in the city itself via air and submarines and they were now engaged in the first ever battle to be fought on all 3 fronts of war: air, land, and sea.
The battle had begun with a ship being struck by a mine. That was how Teddy had expected it to begin. However, the ship that had been hit had been one of their own and not one of James's as had been expected. It appeared that James had been paranoid enough to predict their mine tactic, something that they had all expected given his training, and had developed some way to get rid of them by disconnecting them and using them against the forces defending freedom.
That attack had made them realize that the enemy was already upon them before the ships clashed and they had acted accordingly. Still, it had not been enough. At least 2 subs of commandos had gotten behind them and invaded the city and already Ron and Altinak were engaging in battle defending the Palace while other fights broke out in key areas of the city.
In addition, the 10 aircraft carriers had rammed into their front ranks and the chaos of the sea battle had begun. Ships fired on each other, rammed each other, and men and women boarded the other ships to engage in combat. All the while, smaller, faster, troop carrying boats were flitting through the ranks trying to reach the city without being destroyed before they got there.
The air force, where Teddy was stationed, had been trying to take out the small troop ships with the hummingbirds and well-placed bombs from light aircraft. They were also bombing the enemy airships and battleships with the larger planes and their own airships. Of course, the enemy was doing the same to them all while dogfights between planes and hummingbirds broke out all over the place. It was a complete nightmare, and they were all trying to do everything just to survive and defend the North.
The only saving grace was that the enemy wore the dark green of the Principate with the silver laurel wreath while they wore the light blue of the Northern Water Tribe that was edged with the colors of the conquered nations and their crest was the crests of the fallen nations in 4 squares. At least they knew who the combatants were, that was what made the fighting lawful and would help when the battle ended, and the winning side had to sort out the mess.
All of this was what Teddy was noticing from his position high above the battle in the saddle of Louis's bison. Teddy was on the front lines, he wouldn't be anywhere else, but he still needed to see the battle so that he knew where he could help. This was the best position for him as it gave him a birds' eye view so he could help coordinate and go where needed.
His brother-in-law was on the bison's head to steer it while Teddy surveyed the battlefield, so Teddy wasn't alone. It was depriving Louis from engaging as well but Teddy needed an airbender he could trust to steer, and Louis was the best for the role.
Teddy had a radio with him and was in constant contact with Xander on his flagship and Quirke in the airship that served as the forward command center for the United Forces regarding what was going on in that battle. This way the three of them could direct things and make sure that they had some sense of strategy to hold off the Principate as long as possible.
That was until suddenly Xander yelled, and his line was suddenly disconnected. The last thing that Teddy heard was the sound of explosions coming over the radio before it turned to static.
"Xander!" Quirke's voice yelled from the receiver. "Xander what the fuck was that? What happened?"
"Marshall, he's not able to respond." Teddy said as he looked down to the battle and saw the cause of the sudden cutoff. "He's dead."
Beneath him, near the center of their fleet, the flagship of the Northern Water Tribe was belching black smoke into the air. The command tower where the bridge was had been hit, by a plane or a hummingbird. It had caused the tower to explode, taking the top few levels with it and setting the tower ablaze.
There was no way that Xander could have survived it. In addition, the flagship had been rammed by another ship and was already listing to the side as it began to slowly sink. James must have targeted it specifically and it had worked, the North had lost their command ship.
"What the fuck?" Quirke responded. "Confirm sir."
"Something struck the bridge, plane by the looks of it." Teddy said though he was too far to confirm what had hit it. "I'll get a closer look but there is no way that he survived as the top third of the ship's tower is gone. Under the command structure, you are now the most senior military commander Marshall Quirke, take command of the battle."
"Affirmative." Quirke said without hesitation. "Switching to command frequency, taking over coordinating the battle until I have to join it personally."
Teddy ignored her, Quirke had a battle to coordinate, and he couldn't distract her from her task. Pulling out an optical zoom monocular, Teddy looked at the flagship. As expected, the bridge and a few levels below it were just gone, burning wreckage was all that remained. Teddy swept his gaze over deck and he almost dropped his monocular in surprise at what he saw.
On the deck, fighting with bending and blades and surrounded by of all things earth, was Scorpius and his father Draco. They had been stationed on the flagship as there was nowhere else to put them, but Teddy had forgotten that part. They were engaging a squad of commandos on the deck and holding their own surprising well. That was until Teddy saw another figure fighting with a glowing shuriken of sorts and the earth suddenly made sense. Tate was the one leading the attack.
Teddy wanted to continue observing but he knew he couldn't focus on one thing in this battle. He needed focus on the big picture and keep his eye open for anything else that might need his direct attention. Scorpius and Draco would just have to fend for themselves and try and take out Tate. Teddy swept away from the North's flagship and scanned the skies again. That was when he saw something that needed his direct involvement.
A lone figure was standing in the center of a large, clearly custom, air platform that seemed to be a converted airship. It was the only one of its kind on the battlefield and it was protected by several hummingbirds that buzzed in formation around it. That alone was a surprise and would have caught Teddy's eye. However, what the man was doing confirmed to Teddy that this was something he needed to get involved with.
The man was surrounded by a cloud of sand that was moving in an unnatural way. He was effortlessly bending it around himself and sending it at anything that came near him bearing the colors of the North. The platform thing was slowly heading towards the city and Teddy knew that it was going to deposit the man into the city when it got there. It also explained the reports of large bags of sand being dropped all over the city, along with bags of regular earth. On the platform was Rohit, the Sand Unique.
Teddy knew that he was here to help win the battle, the man was a gifted bender who's skills with sand were apparently unmatched, but it was still not the best field for him. Clearly James was using his remaining Uniques to lead his troops in this battle and to bolster his troops moral, though the Blood Unique had yet to be seen on the battlefield. Regardless, the man was a threat and a dangerous one. He was why Teddy was holding back until the right moment.
"Louis, take us forward and to the right but maintain this altitude." Teddy ordered as he kept an eye on Rohit. "And keep flying until I tell you to stop."
"What is it?" Louis responded as he guided the bison to where Teddy had ordered. "What have you seen?"
"Rohit." Teddy spat. "He's here and likely going to be leading the ground assault or maintain air support, I can't be sure. I intend to prevent that by engaging him in single combat."
"Er, what?" Louis asked sounding confused.
"Just return to the battle once I go." Teddy ordered as they neared where he needed to get off. "Don't die, Victoire would be pissed if you did."
Before Louis could respond, Teddy jumped off the bison. He had timed it so that he would fall onto the metal, sand covered platform from above where there were no hummingbirds guarding it.
Teddy had a full metal rig with a winch system on his back that had the cables he could fire from his sleeves. He had replaced his weapon but he might be unable to use it here so he had to be prepared for anything and the metal cables would be best for that. They allowed him to arrest his descent, fight with a lot of freedom and Teddy was well trained with them.
Teddy fell through the air and extended the cables. One hummingbird noticed him approach but a quick lash from a cable took off one of its wings and it careened away and crashed into one of its fellow hummingbirds taking both of them out in a ball of fire.
The distraction it caused gave Teddy enough time to do what he needed to do. He sent both cables out parallel to each other and slammed them into the platform. They instantly came taught thanks to his bending and he pulled himself in to land in a crouch on it, using his bending to sweep a circle of sand away from him so that he could stand and fight without it in the way.
"Well, what do we have here?" Rohit asked as he turned to face Teddy, clearly surprised that someone had landed on his platform from above. "An enemy stowaway come to end my fun?"
Rohit was dressed in a thick, winter version of the standard Sandbender tribal get up with the Principate's laurel wreath on his chest, a representation of a sand whip of inside the wreath. Two sand whip instantly formed around his arms as he calmly looked at Teddy.
"I came from the heavens to bring you to justice." Teddy said as his own metal cables at his side and loose so that he could use them as whips as well. "Or to at least stop you from joining the fight. I know the danger the Uniques pose in this battle. You and I are comparable, so it falls on me to take you out."
"That is true, we are special benders." Rohit said with a smirk. "But we are not invulnerable, your woman showed that against Dhillon outside the Northern Air Temple if I recall, I wasn't there for that. We know that we can be beat, it just takes a skilled opponent to do so, and we have just as much a chance to beat you as you do us."
"I take it you know who I am then." Teddy said not surprised that Rohit knew him, he was one of the commanders of the defenders of the North. "Which means that you know what I am capable of."
"As much as you know who I am." Rohit replied. "Just as you learned about the leaders and warriors of the Principate who could singlehanded change a battle, we have learned about the same of the CFNS, Teddy."
"President Teddy to scum like you." Teddy said, trying to rile up Rohit. "But I shouldn't expect a piece of inbred sand trash to know that."
"You are no president." Rohit said without rising to it. "The United Republic no longer exists for you to govern. There is only the Global Principate and a few rebellious regions left. After today, the world will be ours. The Caldera will surrender once Druzok knows that all hope is lost."
"As long as we are still here and still fighting, the world still has a chance to avoid tyranny and evil." Teddy replied. "And as long as I am alive, so too is the United Republic. It is the same for the Air Nation with Remus, the Southern Water Tribe with Dominique, the Earth Kingdom with Xiang, and the Fire Nation with Ursa. So long as we live and fight for our nations and our people they will never die."
"That is true which is why I will end you now to end the threat you pose." Rohit said as his smile turned into a twisted smirk. "You see, just as you have orders to end me, I have orders to end you. Given my skills, they had to send someone just as skilled and that someone would have to be high up, like you. When you are defeated, that will be one more less hero for them to rally behind."
"And with you there will be one more less Unique to be used to terrify the masses into following your mad leader." Teddy retorted. "And one less actual threat removed from the battlefield."
"What you see as terrifying, we see as liberating and the people agree." Rohit said. "Just look at the force we have amassed, we are loved by those in the Principate. When this is over and the Principate has won, future generations will question why we even had nations to begin with. We will be the heroes of the future and I will personally make sure your name is erased from history. You will only be remembered as the last President of the United Republic."
"To do so you will have to kill me and hope your boss beat the Avatar." Teddy said as he took a fighting stance. "So come on sand fucker, come and get me and prove your skills aren't just bluster. I warn you; I won't go down easy."
"That's just how I like it." Rohit said as he too took a fighting stance. "Time to show you how sand trash as you put it fights, your military training has nothing on it bitch."
With that, Rohit charged, and the fight was on. Teddy was no slouch though. As soon as Rohit had charged, so did he. Teddy didn't believe in waiting for the fight to come to him, he was going to meet it head on as an earthbender should and that's just what he did. He ran at Rohit and they met in the center of the platform. Teddy had finally joined the battle.
Fighting on a floating platform, that based on Teddy's inability to bend it was at least platinum on the top level, was certainly a new experience for Teddy. It was not a stable surface and he had to create spike out of the metal soles of his boots to gain traction while he and Rohit fought each other. Teddy had to admit, the sand nomad was a gifted bender.
Rohit fought with a typical sandbender style, a hybrid style that blended the fluidity of waterbending with solid strength that was needed for earthbending. It was an unpredictable, shifting just style like the dunes of the Si Wong and it took all of Teddy's skill to counter and parry all of Rohit's attacks.
Teddy had faced sandbenders before, he had been out on joint exercises with the Imperial Army in the Si Wong to deal with the nomadic tribes a few times, but he had never faced one like Rohit. Most sandbenders could create a sand whip or tornado and use it but it was like water or to generate air, it wasn't solid and could be destroyed with earth or metal. That was what Teddy had been expecting when his cables clashed with Rohit's sand.
Instead, as soon as his cables came down onto Rohit's sand whips, they bounced off. Somehow, Rohit could condense the sand so much that they could withstand steel cables. Teddy quickly shock off his confusion and attacked again but this time Rohit separated the sand and let the cables pass harmlessly through the air while the whip stayed in two parts. Well, that was before Rohit used the cut off part to attack Teddy.
Teddy took the solid shot of condensed sand to the side that caused him to flip out of the way to avoid more damage. It had hurt but the winch system he was wearing included a brace for his ribs, so it hadn't done more than bruise him and warn him that he was up against a sandbender of unparalleled skill.
As such fight was not going well for Teddy and he knew that the only way to get the upper hand would be to do something drastic and turn the tides of the fight in his favor. If they remained on the platform, Rohit would have the upper hand as he clearly knew how to fight on it and he had plenty of sand up here to use. Teddy needed to do something risky and stupid to win but desperate times called for desperate measures, it was how his wife had gotten injured right after winning after all.
"You know, I think I've had enough of toying with you." Rohit said as he easily flipped over Teddy's attack and deflected a follow up as he landed. "I think it's time you leave so I can get on with my work. Clearly you aren't as good as reports indicated. Say hi to Zhan for me."
Teddy had no idea what to expect but he had to prepare himself for it. He had to admit, he didn't expect Rohit's attack. Instantly the Sand Unique sent both sand whips right at Teddy's face. Teddy was forced to shield his face with his forearms and didn't see a third jet of sand that hit him clean in the gut and drove the air from his lungs. It was an imitation of how a waterbender could use multiple water whips and something Teddy should have seen coming.
Teddy fell to his knees and instantly felt the sand on the deck swirl around him in a mini tornado that generated a fair amount of wind. It seemed that Rohit was using all of the sand on the deck in the attack, but Teddy didn't doubt that the platform had more in it.
Whatever Rohit was doing, it was working as it was lifting Teddy off the deck. With a great effort, he was thrown off the deck and over the side of the platform. It was what Teddy had been planning for, however.
"You're coming with me asshole." Teddy snarled as he lashed out a cable and lassoed Rohit's ankle. "We are in this together until one of us is dead."
With that Teddy yanked as hard as he could on the metal cable as he was hurled over the side, using his bending to pull it taught as he did. He heard Rohit swear loudly and knew it had worked as the cable flew towards Teddy and brought the sandbender with him. Now it was a matter of luck, skill, and determination that would produce a victor in the fight.
In Teddy's case, luck was on his side. Luck in the sense that he was lucky he wasn't falling to his death. That still didn't mean that what happened wasn't painful or deadly for his health. Teddy had been fortunate enough to land on the bi wings of a plane that happened to be flying beneath the platform as he falling off it. It had been lucky, but it hurt like hell.
The landing had another effect, its broke Teddy's concentration on the metal cable and it fell away from Rohit's ankle and flopped down to slam into the side of the plane. Teddy watched as Rohit flew through the air above him.
The Sandbender adjusted quickly as gravity set it and he began to fall. Teddy stood up on the wings, the plane was light blue, so he knew it was an ally, as he watched Rohit carefully, ready for a fight when the Unique stopped his fall.
Rohit raised his arm as he fell, and a metal cable shot out from the folds of his clothing and slammed into one of the defender's hummingbirds revealing that he was a metalbender though Teddy had suspected as much given the fine control sandbending required. Rohit quickly pulled himself to the hummingbird, a dangerous move and then swung, detached, and flipped in the air before landing on the wings of a Principate plane passing nearby. Teddy had to admit, it was impressive, the fight was still on.
Rohit seemed to be fine as he yelled at the pilot and the plane banked, Rohit using his bending to stay on the wings, and came towards Teddy. Teddy groaned as he readied himself for what he had to do and retracted his cables as he wouldn't need them at the moment. He didn't want to put his own pilot at risk by his own actions, so he had to do this himself. Steeling himself, Teddy tensed to do one of the stupidest things of his life. He was not going to tell his wife about this is he lived.
The other plane was coming directly at them and Teddy knew that his pilot would bank to avoid it. Guessing which direction, Teddy waited until the right moment and then ran along the top of the wing as the planes were banking to pass each other and give the metalbenders controlling the projectiles a chance to hit the other. At the last minute, Teddy leapt off his wing, timing his jump to ensure that he landed on the other plane's wing.
Somehow it worked, though there was one problem with it. Rohit was standing in the way. The Sand Unique was so surprised by Teddy's stupidity that he just stood there in slack jawed amazement as the Teddy hurtled through the air towards him. The result was Teddy slamming into Rohit, tackling him to the wing and then rolling off him and towards the other end of the wing.
The pilot helped Rohit by banking to the side, causing Teddy to continue to roll down the wing. At the last moment, Teddy was able to grab the edge of the wing and bent the metal to get a hold of it that he wouldn't let go. It wasn't pretty and Teddy was now dangling over the battle by one hand on the end of a wing, but he had done it, he was on the plane with Rohit. He still had a chance to end Rohit and remove a key player from the battle.
With an extreme effort, Teddy reached up with his other hand and grabbed the wing of the plane. He then hauled himself up and onto the wing by bending the metal for handholds as went. Apparently Rohit had a similar problem as he had also almost fallen off the side of the wing and was just getting up as well. The plane had leveled out, likely for Rohit, and now they were looking at each other on the wings.
"Why won't you die fucker." Rohit snarled as he ripped a pair of brutal looking, short, serrated, slightly bent, platinum swords from behind his back that Teddy recognized as a Kukri, the favored weapon of the Sand Nomads, from behind his back. "You just don't give up do you."
"Clearly not." Teddy said with a painful smirk as he bent his gauntlets into 2 blades, his usual spiked chain mace was not a good weapon in this situation. "Then again, my father is the Archabbot of the Air Nation and my godfather is the Avatar, I have some good role models in that regard."
"I'm going to make this slow." Rohit said venomously as he spun his Kukris expertly in his hands. "I will ensure that you suffer and beg for death before I grant you it. Come on, bring it cocksucker."
"This will end now." Teddy replied as he ran right at Rohit as Rohit ran at him so that they would meet in the middle of the plane's wings.
As soon as Teddy reached Rohit, he flipped over and slashed down at the sandbender while in midair, again not the wisest move but Teddy was now throwing caution to the wind in order to win. Rohit had clearly been expecting this however and rolled forward to avoid the attack. He sprang up spinning and swinging and Teddy was forced to parry the attack as soon as he landed.
After that, the duel of blades began. Unlike their early duel of whips, they didn't have the same mobility and range that they had used on the platform. They couldn't even spin around the other, it was more like a fencer's duel on the wings than anything else. The blades rang and sparked as they met, the sound carried off by the winds as the pilot continued to fly the plane towards the city.
It was clear early on that Teddy had the edge in the duel. Rohit was a great bender of sand, and as such probably earth, but he was not as well trained in the use of blades. He could hold his own but against someone like Teddy he wouldn't win in the long run. The only thing keeping Rohit in the fight was the situation they were in as Teddy couldn't use his full style in the restricted and dangerous setting. However, Rohit didn't have any sand and was clearly on the back foot and Teddy decided to use that to his advantage.
Slowly but surely, Teddy forced Rohit back to the edge of the plane's wing with a series of powerful blows that put Rohit on the defensive. Once there he knew he had the fight won. Rohit didn't have the strength or endurance that Teddy did for this kind of fight and Teddy was going to finish this and end another Unique. He just needed the right moment to make his move.
That came almost as soon as he had Rohit on the edge of the wing. Rohit, his eyes desperate now as he had finally realized the predicament that he was in, made a desperate lunge at Teddy to try and get some space for himself. Teddy twisted his torso out of the way of it and slammed the heel of his palm into Rohit's forearm. The blow caused the sandbenders arm to go numb and drop the blade in his right hand. Teddy didn't hesitate.
"Say hello to the other Uniques cunt." Teddy said as he followed up the heel strike with a powerful kick to Rohit's chest. "It's time you joined them."
Rohit didn't say anything. He didn't have the energy it seemed. He just accepted the blow and was hurled off the plane and into air still clutching the Kukri in his right hand. Teddy looked over and groaned. They were not over the sea as he had hoped but were in fact over the snowy tundra to the east of the ice sheet next to the city. They were also lower than he had thought and there was powder snow below them, right where Rohit fell. That meant that the Unique might have survived.
Teddy had to do something about that. Before he could though, the pilot realized that Rohit was no longer on the plane and proceeded to do a sharp barrel role. The motion instantly threw Teddy off the plane and into the air. Now it was his turn to try and figure out what to do.
The President of the United Republic didn't even have a chance to figure that out though. Almost instantly he slammed face first into a wall of air. A second later Teddy fell onto his ass on a canvas saddle with an audible and undignified thump.
"Few, just managed to catch you there." Louis called back from the bison's head as they began to climb. "You didn't make yourself easy to follow Teddy."
Teddy just grumbled as he looked over to see Louis on the head of the bison and steering it higher by the second. Teddy was too drained to be shocked or question his luck. He was alive and still able to fight and that was all that mattered.
"Thanks." Teddy muttered as he looked around for the radio.
"I figured you would need a rescue after you leapt off my bison so I stuck near and beneath you as best I could." Louis said helpfully as Teddy picked up the radio. "What happened?"
"I fought Rohit and won but not sure what happened to him." Teddy responded as he made sure the radio was working. "I need to call it in as I can't confirm his death."
"Ok, I'll clear the battlefield." Louis said but Teddy ignored him as he made contact with the radio room in the city.
"Palace base this is President Teddy." Teddy said into the radio. "Do you copy. Over."
"Palace base here, report, over." A calm voice came back indicating that the radio officer on the other end was well trained.
"I have just engaged the Sand Unique Rohit in single combat." Teddy began. "And I defeated him, but I cannot confirm his death. I kicked him off a plane's wing and into the tundra to the east of the city. Please send an available unit to check the area and confirm his death or apprehend him if he survived as he is wanted for war crimes. Over."
"Message received and will be relayed." The officer replied. "We are currently countering their attack, but we have the upper hand at the moment and are pushing them back. Chief Sirius will detail a unit as soon as possible. Anything else sir. Over."
"No that is all, return to your duties. Out." Teddy responded before disconnecting and turning to Louis. "Ok Louis, fun's over, let's get back into the battle."
Louis just nodded as he directed his bison to dive into the battle. Teddy stood and prepared himself to fight again. He may have beaten one serious opponent, but the bulk of the Principate forces were still out there. The battle was not over, not by a longshot.
Another Unique knocked out of the battle though this one's fate is unknown and I will be leaving it as such so you will have to wait and see what happened to Rohit. I am sure y'all can guess the two main combatants in the next and final chapter that was broken off the initial large battle chapter so I won't say anymore on that. We are in the final stretch of Book 4, only a month's worth of released in the main story though as will all the Books in the series there will be an epilogue to sum it all up nicely. Anyway, that is all I have for now so as always please follow and favorite both this and myself so that you can stay up to date with new releases (chapters and stories) and please keep the reviews coming as I do love to hear from y'all regarding my work, it means a lot to me. Until next time.
Stringdog