Terrible and Cruel as the Fire Lord himself, Azula stood confident as the formation approached and with a slight smirk on her face unleashed a fiery inferno on her enemies, routing them instantly. The Captain General's eyes burned with rage as his soldiers fled the battle and blew a conch and signaled the color guard to wave their flags to rally his troops.
"Come back cowards!" He yelled. Azula however forced them to continue to flee, following them with a constant barage of flames, for which they had no defense. The captain general quickly signaled his earthbenders to attack and instantly the sky was darkened with stones. Azula easily dodged all of them and her determination and skill demoralized the Captain General's troops further, despite his constant encouragement.
"This is too easy! If I had known I was facing such weaklings, I would have fought without fire bending!" taunted Azula.
Her comment pushing him over the edge, and the captain general quickly grabbed his sword and threw with it all his might at Azula. She easily dodged it and was about to retort with a sarcastic comment when suddenly she felt a sharp pain in her arm and a stream of blood began to drip to the dirt. The earthbender's rock handle allowed him to earthbend it and control it like a boomerang and seeing that his trick had worked he took advantage of Azula's surprise and earthbended the rocks around her to trip her, knocking her to the ground, followed by another rock which struck her in the head. Bleeding heavily from her arm and mouth, Azula's determination had not waned and with hatred and cruelty blazing inside her, She gathered herself to assault the Captain General. However the earthbenders and color guard halted her attack and pushed her back with waves of rocks and throwing spears and despite her best efforts was not able to make progress.
Meanwhile, seeing that Azula was losing the battle now, Ty Lee and Mei knew that they would have to intervene soon and although they feared Aang revealing himself, they feared losing Azula even more.
"Aang, we have to help Azula, stay here and don't move!" said Ty Lee. Mei whispered something into Ty Lee's ear something that Aang could not hear, but Ty lee nodded and addressed Aang again.
"Don't worry Aang, the effects are only temporary..." said Ty Lee who then used her martial arts skill to strike Aang in several points to neutralize his bending abilities, that way there would be no chance of him blowing their cover. Aang did not understand what had happened, but Ty Lee and Mei did not stick around to explain and eagerly joined their friend in battle.
Aang watched as the three girls fought the soldiers back, their might combined easily overpowering the Captain general's troops and within minutes the great banners of the earth kingdom laid on the dirt. The Captain General stood alone, overcome with hate and anger. Azula, despite losing much blood and exhaustion, lead the assault on the Captain General. Yet, he was a powerful foe and time and time again, forced the three girls back, his earthbending skills far beyond those of any earthbender they had seen. With great vigor and strength the Captain General single handedly fought the girls to a stand still.
Ty Lee knew her skill could incapacitate the Captain General, so having Azula and Mei provide a distraction tried to sneak up on the general and hit him from behind. However, when she reached and struck him, she could not find a single spot not covered with armor and having been discovered by the Captain General he grabbed her by the throat and knocked her on the head with the handle of his sword. Ty Lee fell unconscious to the ground, demoralizing Azula and Mei, who struggled on.
Azula was totally exhausted by this point and only able to fire bend with one arm, she left it up to Mei to do most of the fighting. Mei's darts proved no match with the Captain General's speed or armor however, and despite her expertise was unable to impact the battle much. The proud Captain General stood there without emotion or signs of any weakness or fatigue and his mere presence made the two remaining girls quake, as they knew their doom was near.
Aang's eyes began to water as his 'friends' were now in a desperate situation and without the ability to airbend, he looked on desperately at Azula. Azula's gazed caught Aang's and seeing his distress and knowing now that she had come to far to fail, told Mei to hold him off while she attempted her electricity bending attack. Without hesitation, Mei obeyed the command and filled the air with every dart at her disposal and when she finally ran out picked up the scattered earth kingdom weapons and threw them as well with equal expertise. Azula began her long ritual of movements to unleash her best attack and fighting the fatigue and injury that plagued her was able to complete all the motions and after yelling for Mei to move, shot forth a blast of lightning against the Captain General. Seeing the bolt coming, the Captain General calmly earthbended the ground underneath him into quicksand and sank down into it, dodging the bolt completely, and then jumped up and out of the pit he had created and turned the ground once more into solid earth. Stunned, Azula's mind raced with fear as she and Mei now stood nearly defenseless against this monster of an earthbender.
"Know this girl...", said the Captain General to Azula, " Your death will be neither quick nor painless...you will suffer as my men have suffered and so shall your friends."
Mei tried once more to throw the spears and swords from the ground at the Captain General, but he responded with his own barage of earthbended stones which knocked Mei's weapons away and struck her with enough force to incapacitate her. Azula and Aang now stood alone. Azula tired to stand up, but was completely exhausted and reeling in pain from her wounds. The Captain General unsheathed his sword and once again threw it at Azula, both knowing that she would be unable to dodge this time. Seeing the blade come forward Azula's eyes watered at her unbelievable fate but soon she was overcome with surprise when Aang was able to grab the blade by the handle, moments before striking Azula and threw it to the ground. The Captain General had not even noticed Aang and was caught by surprise.
"Leave her alone! If want to harm her or my other friends, you'll have to go through me first!" said Aang. Azula whispered to Aang.
"I saw Ty Lee use her abilities to disable your bending abilities...but, aheh, we all saw you take on the farmer..maybe you can do it!" Aang looked at the ground, having completely forgot about his early charade "Uh, yeah...leave everything to me." said Aang.