I don't own Avatar: The last airbender
Chapter 35
Chaldara… Jee hadn't thought he would ever see it again, much less wall through the gates of the royal palace. Nevertheless, here he was, doing just that. It was surreal in a way, he knew that he accompanied the prince, but that was banishment. And an indefinite one at that if he would have been allowed to voice his opinions. That made his chances to go back to the fire nation basically none exciting.
And yet, here he was. Together with the other men of the crew, they were at the palace to be presented before the fire lord himself. After a long process of bureaucracy, Zuko's appeal to present himself before the court was accepted.
At the prince's insistence, the crew had spent much of their time with their families while the wheels of the court where turning. Jee used this opportunity to spend as much time as possible with his wife and daughter. It was good to be with them again, and his little light ball was so excited when he told her stories about his adventures.
Of course, he gave them gifts and secured their financial future with the loot he… discovered with the rest at the south pole. His family will never be lacking, a high achievement for someone with a lieutenant's salary. He bought them a nice house in a good district at the capital and enrolled his little girl to one of the academics in the area.
Mentally shaking himself, he prepared for what's to come. In a few moments, they will face the most influential people of the fire nation, with fire lord Ozai at the head. First impression here may very well be a matter of life and death.
They rode on their komodo rhinos as the poor beasts had to drag the gargantuan cage behind them, a cage covered by thick curtains and containing the image of what will forever hunt him in his nightmares. To the relief of the animals, the cage was moved by other mobile machines as well. It was a part of the campaign Loban had to show off his new invention. A chrysalis of the wheeled constructions they salvaged from the deep below.
They entered the gates of the palace, and Jee was awestruck. The palace was grand and majestic, and it was probably his patriotic bias, but for him it was the most impressive thing he had ever seen. In the very front, stood the fire lord with all of his glory next to him was the princess herself. The place of the fire lady was hurtfully vacant.
Around them, the noble clans other sociopaths of lesser standing stood and filled the edges of the main keep. Bootlickers and vultures who hunted for every opportunity to pray on each other's weakness and grace themselves with the light and praise of the blood of Agni. Jee ignored them.
Once the group reach a far enough point, dismounted, and knelt before their lord.
"Great fire lord Ozai." Jee began. "Your humble servants present to you the tribute of your loyal son."
"Rise, my faithful subjects." The fire lord didn't raise his voice, but it was deep, strong and clearly heard across the keep. "What have thee for your lord?"
Oh well, here goes nothing. With a nod to his man, chests laden in riches were presented before the fire lord. "For an appetizer, his majesty's duo for his patronage. An investment repaid with a handsome interest."
Jee could hear the sociopaths around him buzzing with their whispers, but they didn't matter. Only one person mattered here, and he was not impressed.
"Secondly, your son brings you the trophy of his biggest conquest, one worthy enough to be placed among the great artifacts of the vault without being abashed." As practiced, the curtains fell off the cage. Revealing the great and horrible thing inside.
The crowd gasped in horror as some of the faint hearted fainted. Women and man cried in alarm at the sight of the skin of the apex centipede, only barely being held by a cage. Jee sympathized, but at least they didn't have to fight for their lives against the real thing at its domain.
Daring a look at the royals, Jee saw that the fire lord was unfazed but interested. From his side, the princess looked at the cage and had her hands shaken a little. It was minor, and the untrained citizen would have missed it, but Jee was a well trained and experienced soldier. Poor girl, she must have been scared out of her mind right now while maintaining a brave mask.
"Presenting before you the exoskeleton of the Apex. A beast of gargantuan size rivaling the infamous Unagi. Half a hundred tons of armor that surpasses a courier in its hardness and a skull large enough to house a small family, Apex is by far the single mightiest beast on earth and under it."
"An impressive display, first lieutenant." The fire lord said. "It must be quite a tale. One that I'm sure all would like to hear."
"Of course, my lord."
Jee started spinning the story the prince taught him. About how they discovered texts from the great library of the owl spirit, telling about irregular activities in the far south. And the prince, ever vigilant in his duty, sailed to the very end of the world to investigate. And when the ship got stuck in ice, the journey continued on foot.
Jee continue with how Xing, the ever faithful hound, discovered with its keen senses an entrance to the place that will be known as the workshop. He described their descend further and further down, to the point where ice gave place to rock and even the pole's cold couldn't follow them.
He described the ruins of an ancient civilization, one predating the four nation, and about the giant "statues" of men of metal it's walls proudly displayed. Of course not the part when said statues came back to life.
He also told them about the infestation, bigger and more dangerous by far then any other. How the prince and his men had to fight through literal mountains of monstrous centipedes ranging in size from a house pet to twice the size of a komodo rhino. How the very ground, walls and ceiling were covered by layers of the fiends for miles.
Here he praised Jasmine for masterfully healing the men and saving their lives while in danger herself, and saying that she showed far and beyond the inner fire all loyal subjects of the nation are expected to. Her true achievements would never get their duo because of the questions that would follow said reveal, but he would be damned if the brave young woman wouldn't get at least a part of the recognition she deserves.
He continued to the main part, how they followed the prince's lead into the very heart of the infestation. About how with great blasts they have vanquished the pests to reveal the workshop itself, the last remnant of the stronghold of ages past and it's downright alien design. And of course how their moment of respite was short lived.
He described how the very ground shook in fear of the arrival of their greatest foe yet, how it began showing itself from the biggest corridor and rose and rose until the eye could barley follow. How the hidden was still far greater then the revealed. He described the horrible sound the abomination made that caused even the most seasoned soldier to turn tail, and how the prince roared in defiance and got them back to their senses.
He described what was the single most traumatic event in his life as they fought with resolve against all odds and how little did it matter to their opponent. How even the combined attacks of the prince and the dragon of the west didn't even leave a sign on the creature. Jee gave Mi-Dved his duo as he mentioned how the earth bender used his unique gifts to save them more then once from certain death by a claw the size of a hut.
He explained how the prince used the creature's maybe only weakness, the fact that it can't sense anything not touching the ground, and used it to attack the monster from above. How the prince made the creature follow him and tie itself up in the process, and how the prince then crumbled the very ground on the thing, trapping it.
He told about all the loot that they had gotten and about the loot that they were forced to leave behind when the entire place grew unstable. He continued with their race against time to reach the top, unless they themselves will be buried as well.
At the end, the crowd was speechless. The main majority was in awe, it was hard not to. The few that were skeptical (or otherwise against the prince for one reason or another) kept quiet. It was hard to accuse the prince of lying when presented with a literal colony sized proof, and in front of the fire lord they couldn't just say nonsense.
Now with this over, it was time for the main bribe. With a snap of his fingers, a chest was presented before the fire lord.
"And now, for the final and greatest gift. The chest contains an artifact that the ancient civilization of the workshop designated as 'the jewel of Agni', a gem that is believed to host a friction of the very essence of Agni himself."
The chest was opened in front of the fire lord and shown a sphere the size of a hand. This gem was colored in orange and literally radiated power. Even standing a good distance away, Jee could feel his inner fire empowered like never before. Even the crowd could feel the effects.
"The stone is said to multiply the power of a fire bender a hundred fold, and could be used properly only by the strongest and most resolute of fire benders. And who is more fit to hold this power than the greatest fire bender in the world, the fire lord himself?"
Fire lord Ozai looked at the stone and took it with his right hand to examine. Jee and the crowd could see how it shone with energy and how the light moved in its core like a miniature sun. Fire lord Ozai then release a roar to the heavens, creating a dragon with his fire breath that was big enough to swallow them all. For some long few minutes the fire dragon, one on par of Apex, soared through the sky. He was sure that all the people of the island were in panic because of the phenomenon.
At long last, the fire lord halted his roar and placed the stone back in the chest. His grin was wide for all to see.
"You have given wonderful gift. Tell me, what boon does my son desire?"
Ok, it was all or nothing now. He may very well die if he said the wrong words now. "His highness the prince feel guilt for not being able to attend the celebration of his little sister's birthday. He humbly asks for permission to be present for the week of her birthday before sailing back to his duty."
The fire lord thinks about if for a moment or two before nodding. "Very well. For his loyal service, my son may come home with his banishment lifted for the duration of my daughter's birthday. No more, no less."
Thank Agni, he may actually live to see the next day.
Convincing his men to follow the prince's plan was almost surprisingly easy. He didn't even have to lie, he told them what the prince and lady Beifong told him (with a thing or two omitted) and the men were more then willing to go to Amora and tear Mi-Sha to pieces.
He had more difficulty reigning them in and stop them from rushing head first into Amora without any plan. He did, however, explained them what the prince had in mind (without mentioning the prince, obviously) and they reluctantly agreed. He wanted more then everyone to rush and rescue his wife immediately, but he learned patience. They have only one chance, and he'll be damned if the don't do it right.
Together, the water tribe warriors gone east and raided a group of what they recognized as Mi-Sha's men who oh so luckily head many supplies. And that's how they got their ticket.
Entering the city itself was more nerve wracking then dangerous. With their new gained supply, the guards at the entrance happily let them inside. Once inside, however, they were greeted with both a familiar and strange sight.
"I'm still surprised how clean this is." One of his man said. "I mean, we're in the middle of the desert in what is basically the crime capital of the world. I expect more urchins, beggars and crime at every corner."
"Mi-Sha knows the importance of good reception, especially if his city depends on outsiders for income." Hakoda answered. "The main streets where the important patrons walk will look like the upper ring of Ba Sing Se, it's behind them where the city meets and exceeds your expectations."
The men continue their walk, entering the true streets of Amora. However there too, there was silence. They also so much destruction to the streets and property, almost no one was to be seen on the streets except for the patrol.
"Dear Tui, did we missed the battle?"
"Where are all the people? I remember needing to literally cut our way through sometimes."
"Why there are blood stained everywhere?"
All of them good questions, all of them are unanswered for now. Or at least Hakoda couldn't think of an explanation.
"You know the drill. Find someplace to sleep for the night and don't be afraid to throw a few people if needed, spirits know everyone in here deserves this. I will go to iron a few things with Mi-Sha and should return in a few hours."
With one final goodbye, Hakoda left to meet a devil.
"I must say." Mi-Sha circled him. "When I heard a word of your arrival, I was quite surprised. When I heard of your donation, I became suspicious."
The giant stopped in front of him.
"What is your game, chieftain. How is it that you came just in time to give just the right thing?"
Already interrogation? Hakoda didn't even said a word. Just how paranoid and mistrusting Mi-Sha is? Frankly he's right on the spot, but still… Never mind, it's a good thing Hakoda prepared himself for a situation like this.
"Really, had Zuko scared you so much?" Hakoda retorted. "I came here to help and you accuse me like this, is that how you treat all your allies? It's no wonder that the city is emptier then ever."
"The city is emptier because I butchered the homeless and the dregs for their meat to feed the army." Mi-Sha answered evenly. "A fate you and your men will personally experience if you don't give me a real answer in the next five seconds."
"I have experience with sieges, on both sides. Supplies like food and water are the first to be gone. From there it was relatively easy to secure supplement from outside the desert and deliver it."
Hakoda answered quickly as he digested just what the monster in front of him did. Hakoda had no delusions of the truthfulness of the bandit's words.
"And why help at all?" Mi-Sha raised an eyebrow. "You don't like me, and the feeling is mutual."
"I hate the fire nation even more." He answered. "Besides, if I want you and Zuko to kill each other than you need to be alive long enough to face him."
"That's much more believable." Mi-Sha nodded. "But do you really think me so weak?"
There was a dangerous undertone that meant that Hakoda needed to be careful with his wording now.
"A single man's might worth little when facing an army, you know this as good as I. All the power in the world wouldn't help you if one lucky arrow from a random shot finds itself buried in your heart."
"Fair enough." The bigger man concluded. "What do you have in mind?"
"My men and I are good at guerilla warfare, we'll stalk the denser parts of the city. I will, however, need permission for the men to go from one district to another as well as having access to the war supply when the battle demands it." The fact that said tactics will be used against Mi-Sha's thugs instead of fire nation soldiers was unsaid.
"It's acceptable." Mi-Dved agreed. "I'll see what can be done."
"Than this shall conclude the meeting, I think. I need to go back to my men, and you probably have other pressing matters to take care of."
He needed to get out of here before he lose control over himself.
"That I do. Very well then, you may go to your men." Mi-Sha waved him off.
With the clear sign of dismissal, Hakoda hurriedly left. Only once he exited the building did he sigh in relief. It took tremendous amounts of willpower to not attack Mi-Sha then and there, but Hakoda held himself back from showing any unusual signs as he new that his wife's life depends on it.
Him attacking the bandit lord would lead only for Hakoda's own death, he had no delusions about it. And while he himself may have been fine with it, he had a family and a tribe that depended on him. Besides, will was something he had in spades.
With their position secured as much as possible, he walked back to his men to prepare them for the upcoming assault. Oh, Hakoda knew when the attack will happen more or less, and could tell it to Mi-Sha to advance his own position for a better chance for a backstab, but decided against it. The main reason was that the crime lord would then ask where exactly Hakoda got the information from, and the chieftain didn't trust himself enough to trick the criminal.
For how much of a brute he looks and acts, Hakoda couldn't disagree that Mi-Sha was smart. Even smarter then Hakoda himself, It was actually a miracle that he succeeded in fooling Mi-Sha in the first place.
The reveal of what happened in the streets also occupied Hakoda's mind. The sheer brutality and barbarism of the act was incomprehensible, and Hakoda had his fair share of war and bloodshed. He agreed with Zuko, this thing in human skin must die, the hand responsible didn't matter.
"So far so good." Zuko said as he looked at the advancing army under him from the height of the eye he rode on.
"Yes, the advance does comes smoothly." Uncle played with his beard. "The decision to exhaust the resources of the enemy and men proved very beneficial."
"Thanks uncle, it was actually my idea."
"Really nephew? Then I must say that I'm proud of you." It felt good to hear uncle's praise.
Zuko got a notification from Sai about a small sandstorm coming in the direction of their forces and shot an explosive blast to its center, destroying the sand sails as both the storm and the sand benders died. This hit and run tactic was usual for the sand benders, and was easily spotted from high above. Zuko was actually more impressed that there were enough sand benders left to still try and attack.
It also meant that Zuko had to stay up here for the time being as to not waste the army's ammunition. In retrospect, it's probably what Mi-Sha planned, to use the rubble as literal cannon fodder. It may have worked as well if Zuko didn't have strong enough blasts to replace the artillery and endurance to see the job done.
Slowly but surely, they were making their way to Amora. By Sai's estimation, they will reach assault distance by midday. Which means that now was the time for any unwanted surprises to show. And of course, show they did.
"Recognizing an imminent large sand storm up ahead. Scans show a single human in the middle of the anomaly."
'You think it's Mi-Sha?'
"Scan matches the description with high accuracy, the chances of the anomaly to he caused by Mi-Sha are 86.43 percent."
'Great…'
Zuko wrote orders to buff the lookout for random raids as well as prepare the artillery for trouble from any direction. Once he finished sending the falcon, he turned to his uncle.
"Seems like I'll have to take care of some things up close, make sure to update Shen with everything."
"Be careful nephew, jumping into danger alone without a plan as a recipe for disaster."
"Don't worry, uncle." Zuko said as he allowed himself to fall backwards from the eye. "I'm never alone."
He barely caught his uncle saying "That's what worries me." As he flew towards the storm.
Like with Toph all those months ago, Zuko planned to reach the eye of the storm. Unlike then, however, he was experience enough and had equipment good enough to fly above the storm.
"Oh my, no isn't this quite a ragtag mob of low lives."
Sai, of course, commented on the thousand strong force that hid behind the veil of the sandstorm. Zuko noticed with the enhancements of the helmet a large force of mounted cavalry, as well as a dozen or so beasts of huge size that were identified as camelephants. A force like this would certainly cause huge casualties if it has the element of surprise.
"And I must say, it's unusual to meet an air bender in this time and place. Although it proves that my hypothesis was correct."
"Air bender?" Zuko said in shock. "They went extinct in the start of the war, how can there be an air bender here?"
"A thumb rule when committing mass murder, a few always slip through the cracks. I know of at least one individual who survived the attack on the southern air temple. Which, ironically enough shares some resemblance to our dear floating friend. A son or grandson, it I had to guess."
'And you didn't think to tell me something like this immediately?! How many air benders are there… wait a minute, you were stuck inside that room all this time, how do you know anything about what happened outside?'
"Our lucky survivor literally fell from the roof after a fire blast caught him and his friend. Before you ask, the other didn't survive the injuries. The one who did, though, kept going raving for three days as he gone into and from unconsciousness. His input was more then enough for me to put the pieces together."
'Did… did he try to claim you?'
"Yes, but he was unable to break me free. And to answer your next question, yes. I would have accepted him should he have been able to."
Why did Zuko feel so angry and jealous right now?
"I lowered my criteria tremendously to escape that prison."
'Did you lower them for me as well?'
"You would have passed the criteria either way, your highness. You shouldn't dismiss your worth."
It actually did make him feel better.
'So what should we do? What can you tell me about him?'
"Experienced fighter and stronger then he looks, good in both blitz and attrition. Flight capability is unknown, but considering his ability to fly without a glider building on outmaneuvering him is dangerous. In conclusion I suggest we hit him hard and fast, preferably by surprise."
'Agreed. Anything else you can tell?'
"There is a probability of 97 percent of him being Mi-Dved's father and a probability of 93 percent of him being Jasmine's father."
'What?! … No, you know what? One groundbreaking reveal at a time. Now we should focus on finishing what my grand- grandfather started.'
With a dash, Zuko darted on his target like a falcon, preparing to knock it out with one strong knockout punch. Unfortunately, Mi- Sha wasn't a novice.
Somehow, the bandit lord managed to evade the strike at the very last moment, probably some air bending trick that allowed him to sense air movements. As the two passed each other, time seemed to stop for a moment as the two met each other's gaze. Zuko's face was concealed by his dark and frightening helmet, who's unique properties allowed the eye slits to glow with amber light as wisps trailed after it. Mi-Sha, on the other hand, had his face fully revealed after the wind accompanied by Zuko's descend blown it off. The sheer bewilderment, anger and surprise was plain to see.
The two, however, immediately followed their own attack. Zuko gave a roundhouse kick fueled by a fire stream jet strong enough to move a small house accompanied by arcs of electricity dancing across the armor, a kick meant to kill. Mi-Sha, on the other hand, threw a seemingly normal punch. However when the blows connected, Zuko was sent flying straight down a few good hundred meters before Sai managed to gain balance.
'What the hell was that?!' Zuko is barely able to form coherent thoughts as he was trying to get over the ringing in his ear and entire body.
"Detected a high-pressure difference at the moment of the strike, probability of being manipulated by the enemy is 99.57 percent. Theory: the enemy air bender discovered a way to manipulate the air pressure, creating high end blasts of concentrated air. Estimated force of a cannon. Damage analysis: blunt trauma and weakening of bones. Emergence of a concussion and minor internal bleeding. Armor dented in the hit area. Preparing repairs… internal bleeding cleared, concussion avoided, bone integration back to normal. Suggestion: avoid being hit at all costs."
'Yeah, kinda figured the last one already. Agni, that hurts…'
"The opponent didn't come unscathed as well. I detect muscle spasm and fracture in the right hand. It's unlikely that he will try the same move again unless desperation truly hits. And unlike you, he can't heal his injuries."
'Some good news, at least. What can we do against the pressure though?'
"I can detect the pressure currents and color them in the HUD of the helmet for you to avoid, in case of emergency I'll take over to balance the pressure with acceleration from your fire bending."
'Got it.' and with that, Zuko flew above to face the lord of the sands once again.
Reaching to a height to see each other face to face, the two stated at each other. As Sai said, Mi-Sha did look worse to wear. His right arm twitched here and there and had a burn mark over it, and his murderous gaze promised to inflict pain. Behind that, however, Zuko thought that he recognized some kind of uncertainty, like having been introduced to a puzzle you can't solve.
Zuko wondered if Mi-Sha had anyone even able to fly, let alone fly at any of their level. The mere idea of someone else, who's clearly not an air bender, being able to reach him up all the way here clearly didn't sit well with the crime lord. Did he even have any experience fighting someone in the air? Not that Zuko was an expert himself, but Sai had eons of experience in avian combat under its metaphorical belt, so Zuko felt reasonably safe.
"You…" Mi-Sha growled in a way that only someone like him can. "You're that upstart prince, aren't you?"
"Well, I am an upstart. And I am a prince." Zuko answered with grace, his voice affected by the helmet. No matter how his insides felt like his outsides, Sai drilled into him the importance of presenting an impervious image. "And you're Mi-Sha, I presume?"
"You presume correctly punk, not that it will matter much longer. You have a lot of balls coming here, you know that? Run away with your little toy soldiers and you may even leave unmolested."
"Yeah… not gonna happen." Zuko answered. "You gave way too many reasons for everybody down there to be involved. You will die for your crimes, Mi-Sha, either here and now or in a pit in a few days."
"You think you're the first to try to put me under?" The crime lord actually let out a bark of laughter. "Don't make me laugh, you're all the same. Righteous pricks who think themselves of some kind of heroes. Do you even know how many have tried only in the last year? And what happened to them? Each and every one of them broke and had a very miserable death. So no matter how much you think you've suffered, how righteous you think your goal is, in the end it all ends the same, with you crushed under my feet."
"Bold words from a maim person."
"I'm not the one with dents on his armor, kid." Mi-Sha scowled.
"A day in the smithy will fix my problems. Are you even sure that arm can be fixed?" Zuko pointed at the bandit's right arm. "And besides, from all the enemies you've made, I'm the only one who matters."
"Then death it is."
With that, Mi-Sha made a move with his undamaged left hand downwards and Zuko suddenly felt an immense force pushing him down to the ground. Luckily, the moment he felt the pressure, Sai powered the flames on his legs enough to counter the pressure. Zuko himself was safe inside his armor, his body unaware of the pressure the armor endured from both sides.
"Why… aren't… you… going down… dead?!" It was clear that Mi-Sha was having a hard time keeping the pressure current, which was strong enough to bend medium grade metal from the scans Sai showed. Good thing that this armor was anything but medium grade.
"This doesn't work on me." He had to admit that the look of sheer surprise and revelation on Mi-Sha's face was priceless as Zuko released a shockwave of electricity. The explosion shockwave itself wasn't able to fully break through the pressure current, but electricity wasn't affected in the slightest. If ran through the current uninterrupted and forced Mi-Sha to halt as he flew away to avoid another shock therapy.
Zuko immediately followed suit with a fist fueled by both fire and electricity that Mi-Sha was able to avoid and riposte with another pressure fist, this time a low powered one, that Zuko only barely outmaneuvered. They continued this dangerous game of cat and mouse as the battle raged on beneath them, it seems that with Mi-Sha being preoccupied with other more pressing concerns, the sandstorm slowly died as there was no one to feed it. The sand people beneath were exposed unprepared for the much more united and experienced army of the fire nation.
By this time it was probably too late to recreate a storm like that again, but Zuko didn't want to leave things to chance for Mi-Sha to put one trick or another. Better have the sand lord be too busy in other things, like avoiding the explosion Zuko sent his way for one.
From the corner of his eye, he could see how the new cannons came to be used, especially the new type of ammunition for anti-infantry and inti-armor. One of Sai's design improvements was making the cannon ball itself… less of a ball. It was more of a spearhead than a ball, which may have made it a bit more expensive to produce, but more then made up to it when one such cannon ball hit a camelephant head on and tore through the beast.
A more insidious innovation was the inti-infantry rounds that were specially made for a mass of enemy force. The round itself was filed inside with all kinds of sharp metal objects that in the moment of hit, flew in all directions with massive force and at good range. Said objects were to go through the armor of a fire nation soldier with ease, let alone the barely armored sand people. The rounds tore them apart to shreds as many succumbed to bleeding caused by the metal objects piercing through them.
The main disadvantage was that while the artillery fired, the infantry and cavalry couldn't move too close under threat of friendly fire. Not that it mattered much by this point, from the over thousand strong force there were only a few dozen men left who were fit for combat. It seemed like the command finally had enough with their new artillery toys, because the shelling stopped and the army advanced. Not that they had much to do, because the opposition either surrendered, ran away, or was too busy in the process of becoming fertilizers.
A shriek to his side reminded Zuko that while the situation on the ground was basically over, he himself was far from finished. He danced around the haymaker that would hade tore the head of a regular person and responded with a good shock fist to the kidney. As Mi-Sha recoiled from the pain, Zuko round kicked him in the face and threw him away a good dozen meters before shooting a valley of fire balls.
It seems that as Mi-Sha is slowing down and having less and less control in his moves as the battle progressed, which to be fair was completely reasonable. Zuko did gave Mi-Sha enough lightning bolts to power up more then a few machines back in Loban's factories. If anything, it was more of a wonder that the sand lord could fight as well as he did.
Zuko himself didn't go unscathed as well, he had many dents in his armor, and he was sure that there would be even more blue marks that he would certainly feel tomorrow morning. But it was clear that the tradeoff was well within Mi-Sha's disadvantage. The valley of fire balls that his adversary would have swatted away at the start of the fight had mostly hit him proved Zuko's point.
"What's the matter, old man, getting tired so soon?" Zuko mocked. "Is it past your bedtime already? I hope that you aren't going to leave your friends down below dry just yet, not that there are many left there to begin with."
At Zuko's taunt, Mi-Sha looked downwards and saw for the first time the state of (or rather lack of) his forces. With grinding his teeth, the bandit lord quickly calculated that there was no reason for him to stick around and flew away.
"Not even the cliché of 'I'll have my revenge '? How rude." Sai said in Zuko's head. "The poor guy must have taken quite a beating."
'Somehow I don't feel sorry for him…'
Zuko was about to give chase when Sai halted him. "Hold it, your highness. We are in no condition to peruse to unknown and most likely booby-trapped territory."
'What?! No way, he's getting away!'
"It is as you said before. Wither now or in the next few days, Mi-Sha will die. Right now the armor is barely holding up, we need to get it functional by the time of the main assault. Even with my help we're only barely able to stay in the sky now."
Zuko did feel exhausted from all the flying…
'Fine, but are we going to leave him like that?'
"He suffers from various burns and I doubt that he will be able to hold a glass of water with all the spasm from the electric shock once adrenaline runs out, I will hardly call it 'leaving him like that'. But in any case, I suggest hurting his pride, his body is hurt enough without risking ourselves."
'Fair enough.'
"Yes, run little air bender! This is all what your was ever good for!" Zuko mocked as he shot weak fire balls for cosmetics. "The sky belong to the fire nation, air bender. Now scram and lick your wounds in some pit, rat! maybe if cornered you will actually put up a fight!"
There, short and to the point. Now he could go back to his men without his invincibility being questioned. He weakened his jets and descended to the cheering crowd beneath the.
"ZUKO! ZUKO! ZUKO!"
Mi-Dved was at the front with the other foot soldiers of the fire nation. One may have raised an eyebrow at why someone who is basically the muscle of the prince was stationed here and not in a more secured location, but Zuko told him that his experience will be well reciprocated among the front infantry.
It's not like Mi-Dved had too much problems with it, he was wearing the special armor Zuko made him as well as his twin axes. A head taller than the rest of the troops, they looked up to him as inspiration. Here he wasn't 'that urchin from the streets' or 'that pit fighter with the hot sister', here he was the prince's right hand and executioner and can actually say that the administration he received was sincere.
Besides, let's be frank, it was hardly the most dangerous situation he was in. But he digresses.
He watched with the rest of the troops as the sandstorm closed in, he immediately knew what it meant. Stories about sandstorms this size appearing out of nowhere directed a finger to a single person, and that was the one person Mi-Dved and any other person in the desert (and beyond) feared the most.
He ordered the troops to hold a turtle formation and brace themselves for ambush as he saw what he recognizes as his friend and boss flying right to the storm.
"You crazy son of a gum, hope you know what you're getting into…" He prayed for whatever spirit may listen that Zuko would prevail. He didn't doubt the prince's power, but Mi-Sha was the boogieman everyone in Amora were hardwired to fear.
Now too long after Zuko disappeared into the storm, a loud boom stronger than the sound of those cannons-dragons-whatever they were called was when they shot. From there a few weaker explosion sounds were heard.
"What do you think happening there?" One of the soldiers asked.
"No idea." Another one said. "Any thoughts Mi-Dved, sir? You're the expert."
Mi-Dved listened for a bit before answering "His highness is facing off the one responsible for this sandstorm, bandit lord known as Mi-Sha. I recognize some of the sounds as prince Zuko's explosions or lightning strikes while other I do not, most likely attacks of some kind of Mi-Sha."
"Really? How do you know this?" One more soldier joined the discussion. "And who is Mi-Sha?"
Looking at the growing crowd of listeners, Mi-Dved had little choice but to humor them.
"Mi-She is a bandit. A crime lord with a syndicate that covers the entire southern continent, earth or fire matters not. He has many titles, but the most important one is 'sand lord', a title that is given to the strongest sand bender in the world. He committed many crimes and atrocities over the decades and Zuko was the one to finally say enough, I believe you all heard the story of the valley of the hundred damned."
The soldiers nodded somberly, everybody heard about the tragedy of Hǎibiān. It was the main reason for this endeavor in the first place.
"To summarize, Mi-Sha is the one who practically rules the desert with Amora as his center of power. Basically, Mi-Sha is the closest thing the desert has to a fire lord."
"Have you met him, Mi-Dved, sir?"
He shook his head in denial.
"Lucky no. My sister and I grew as street urchins with nothing to our name. Let's just say that if someone of our standing is even at the proximity of Mi-Sha… trust me, you don't want to hear the stories. Everybody who grew at the desert treat him like the boogieman, and with a good reason."
"And are you?" Came a question. "I mean, are you afraid of him?"
The man quickly got hit in the back of his hand by his neighbor. "Dude! You can't ask thing like that!"
"No, no, he has a point." It was a honest question, and a right one. Mi-Dved knew that he had to answer it for the morale of the troops. Looking up, he saw that the sandstorm was starting to die out.
"I'll lie if I'll say I'm not afraid. My entire life I grew in fear of this man and his seemingly endless power, his shadow engulfed any place my little sister and I tried to hide in. So I'm not just afraid, I'm fracking terrified. But my respect, loyalty and admiration to Zuko far outweigh my fear of Mi-Sha."
Now he could see to dots in the sky high above. One dot was shining, undoubtedly Zuko, and the other did not. They danced across the sky in a very beautiful and dangerous dance.
"Zuko is the one who freed me from slavery, the one who showed me that the monsters from my nightmares can be beaten. He united me with my sister and offered us a new home while he could have easily exploited us."
The fight above continued and intensified. It was laud and brutal, but Mi-Sha noticed that the shining dot was slowly but surely getting the upper hand. Much to his delight.
"Zuko, the first person I have ever called friend, had brought back to life the dim ember of hope that I thought have died long ago. He took me in, showed me another way. So to answer your real question, yes, I'm terrified. But I'll be damned if that's what going to stop me."
Mi-dved then raised his fist to the air. "Now who's with me?!"
The large roar of approval was his answer. Funnily enough, at the same time the storm disappeared completely and shells began to fall on the now exposed enemy. He probably should have at least some sympathy for the gruesome death of the people of his ethnicity, but he didn't. All those people deserve it and community wasn't a strong value he grew on.
Continue looking at the scene above, Mi-Dved saw that the more the battle continued, the more dominant Zuko was. He was both happy and impressed for his friend, he really feared that it may be it. On the other hand he shouldn't have been that surprised, Zuko had a talent for exceeding expectations.
The cleanup after the shelling stopped was almost boring (if one were to ignore the carnage around them). It was mercy killing those too far gone, hunting down the ones still standing and making sure a five or so run away to tell everyone they can about what happened here.
Before long, he heard Zuko's voice again mocking, actually mocking, Mi-Sha. The prince banished the king of the desert from sky under threat of death. He didn't know that Mi-Sha was an air bender, he thought that they died out a century ago, but that would explain some stories about him. A look to his side showed that the other soldiers were as surprised as him.
Looking at his friend descend, he began cheering. An action that the others soon followed suit.
"He's alive…" Shen heard Lyn say with venom from his side as they looked at the screen before them as they saw the aftermath of the prince's aerial battle.
It was both simple and complicated machine at the same time. It used mirrors and spy glasses to show a picture of what is going on in the air by mirroring the image in the spy glasses to the screen, creating a high resolution image. The problem, however, was that a person needed to always man the spy glasses to always follow the two combatants. Luckily, his position came with the ability to order a change of punishment for a misbehaving trooper.
The battle itself was phenomenal, Shen had no other words. The two battlers clearly were excellent fighters, and yes, he was honest enough with himself to acknowledge an enemy's skill. He actually was pretty sure that there hadn't been a battle in the sky like this ever since the genocide of the air nomads.
"Not for long, Lyn." Shen answered. "You saw the amount of damage the prince inflicted. It would be a miracle if he will be able to bend again with all the burns and spasms, let alone fly. He's trapped here like a rat, think about it as prolonging his suffering before the excision."
"What I don't understand is why the prince doesn't give chase." Lao said in confusion. "Clearly Mi-Sha is on the run, why not push it through and end it once and for all?"
Lyn shook her head. "No, as much as I loathe to admit it, the prince made the right call. We don't know what's waiting him at the gates of Amora with that sandstorm that blocked our sight, for all we know it all was some kind of elaborate setting to lure Zuko to a trap."
Shen nodded in agreement before adding hos own thoughts. "His highness is also in no state for further adventures. Look closely at his armor, there are many dents on it, as well as a few loose parts. And as someone who looked at the test results of said armor, let me tell you that it survived a trampling of a horde of komodo rhinos without a scratch. He must have a dozen concussions at the least."
"And still acting strong?" Lyn asked in surprise as the image zoomed on Zuko descending to the soldiers. "kid got will, I'll give him that."
"What is the state of our shells?" Shen decided to bring back the talk to something practical.
"It's hard to tell without having the status log, but from what I can tell we used about a tenth of our artillery ammunition overall." Lao said. "I would advise to save the explosive shells to when we reach the city and the strongholds inside, they will be critical to breach the walls ant tunnels."
"Agreed." Shen and Lyn said together.
"I will prepare my girls for the next phase, seeing as it wouldn't be long until we reach the city." Lyn said "I still don't like the lack of intelligence we have on the city. Our main and only lead is from confessions of prisoners of debatable reliability and a honest but outdated information from two that were considered street rats."
A bit rude, but not untrue.
"At least some information is better than none?" Lao tried to cheer her up, and failing.
"No, false or misleading information is much more disastrous than no information at all. In the later you just act accordingly and are extra careful, in the former you do you thing and get a surprise in the most unwanted moment." Lyn replied. "Trust me, I know."
And now she's back to brooding about her missing girls. An annoyance, but an understandable one. Frankly, he doesn't feel he would have faired any better. Oh well, it's time to apply the same strategy he had when his little girl first asked him about boys, change the subject.
"I, for one, am relieved that we suffered zero casualties. An achievement in my book, I expected at least some."
"All thanks to those dragons." Lyn said. "I'm just glad to be on the right side of those things."
"You and me both." Lao agreed. "In a semi related question, are we to expect the navy to integrate those things to their use? Ruling the waters would be basically a given at this point. And the more hold we have, less pirates we have and the more profitable business is."
"Ever the merchant." Shen chuckled. "While it would be classified, I can guess that the higher ups are looking at the results here as a test for the utility of the dragons. And knowing the guys at the navy, they will have to make it bigger, meaner and more showy. I won't be surprised if they would design a complete new war ship just for that."
"It would be an excellent counter for when an enemy gains access to metal based ships." Lyn nodded.
"The term 'Dreadnought' was thrown a few times." Shen admitted.
"I too would fear nothing if I was surrounded by all this arsenal." Lao said.
Indeed, Shen thought privately. But why would the prince be so willing to invest in such a thing? they basically rule the water as is, and this new type of ship is particularly designed to be a currier hunter… now wasn't that a scary thought. The only logical conclusion for building such a thing would be to blast the impenetrable ice fortress of the northern pole, but an entire new class of ships just for a single battle didn't seem right. But the only other option for a prolonged service was to hunt down the only force in the world that applied curriers… No, he will stop thinking those dangerous thoughts.
They looked again at the scene of the price being carried around like a performer in one of the laud concerts some of the youth today liked to attend.
"Kid did good." Lyn said.
"That he did." Shen agreed. "Unfortunately, we have little time to waste. Mi-Sha has been given a bloody mouth, but he's still in the game. The army will be given the order to advance immediately. The time of building up our foothold is over, now it's time for attack."
AN
And this is the end of chapter 35, with the opening battle for the fate of Amora. As well as the first personal clash between Zuko and Mi-Sha. Zuko here had a huge advantage because Mi-Sha just didn't know how to deal with another flying opponent, things will become more complicated once Mi-Sha is in a more familiar ground. And while the main focus of the chapter was the fight, there are some important developments in the background.
now for the reviews:
USSRFox:
To be fair, Iroh did what he did to save Zuko from what he believed was a dangerous enemy. He betrayed Zuko in many things (like everything concerning the avatar), and here he does do dealings with the white lotus to monitor the progress Zuko is making, but he truly believes that what he does is for the best of his nephew. We'll see them clashing later in the story, arount the time where Aang will be freed from the iceberg.
02cjdgmail:
I do plan to give Xing the ability to shadow travel in the future, Ms.O'leary was actually my inspiration for Xing. As for the handshake, it's purely cosmetical for now. But the handshake was inspired by Bill so you were on it two of two, to kudos to you. You'd be surprised how motivated people are by what they believe, wither or not it's true. Zuko will learn magic in the future, but nowhere near the power level of things like Bill Cipher. As for the SAI pov, I reluctant to do it because I want to save the mystery feeling around Sai, for both characters and readers. I'm happy to hear that you like my perspectives!
Engineer1869:
We'll see Apex in action again, I promise you this.
thank you so much, I'm glad that you liked it. It was a real strain to put myself in the position of each character to get as most realistic as I can, I don't think that I'll do something like that again soon. For now the handshake is purely cosmetical, but that wouldn't stop the unknowing Hakoda from thinking that he sold his soul. And as you said, Hakoda do have many things to think about. Yeah... Hakoda is going to have a headache from the supposedly love life of his kids, I'll tell you that.
We all can agree that Xing is the best boy. Zuko may be the protagonist, but we all know who gets the girls.
Iroh is pushing a boulder uphill. He has good intentions, but I don't envy him. Sai's hold on Zuko is just to strong for Iroh, but the old men wouldn't give up on his nephew. It's a tragic tail if you think abut it.
deniswanheda:
There is a time skip between book two and book three, but we see that when Aang wakes up Katara is at odds with her father. with how honest Katara is I can't picture her not yelling at her father at some point. A dad will always want what's best for his little girl, and who is better then a royal prince who is strong and with loads of money ;). On a more serious note, I agree that Iroh is not going to have an easy time. You actually raised an interesting point with Sokka and Katara going back to the south pole.
Anyway, I'm more than happy to read all your reviews.