Chapter 55: New Facets of Bending

That night, the squad of one hundred and fifty people crept slowly toward the "village." Not from the forest. In my opinion, the clearing with the felled trees was too exposed. Even in the dark, an attentive person could spot a whole crowd of people. There was virtually no cover, and the grass was too short. Therefore, we made a small loop, emerged from the forest near the mountain itself, and then moved along its side to the settlement we needed. We could still be easily discovered, but much later than if we had moved directly.

Unfortunately, no stealth trick helped us. When we were about seventy meters from the settlement, an hysterical shriek about approaching enemies rang out from somewhere in the center of the "village." A sensor. Why don't Firebenders have abilities like that?

Being quiet and unnoticed was pointless now. The command to storm the settlement flew from my lips one second after the hysterical shriek. The soldiers, spreading out so that an enemy attack wouldn't hit several of them at once, ran toward the above-ground part of the prison.

Of course, the alarm was raised, but in ten seconds, not all of the enemy's people managed to wake up and register the guard's words. One Earth Kingdom soldier, looking sleepy and rubbing his eyes, peered out from his doorway. He clearly wanted to ask what was going on, but my fiery dagger, striking his chest, prevented him from asking any foolish questions. The soldier was no longer suffering. He had fallen asleep forever.

The enemy houses were mercilessly burned by us. We even argued about this moment with Azula. She thought we should save the buildings, as they might contain information about the place. I, on the other hand, held the view that we should act effectively above all else: burn the enemy along with his house. In my opinion, far fewer of our soldiers would be harmed that way. And as for information… it was unlikely that anything truly valuable could be found in the homes of ordinary fighters. If I were the boss, I would keep important things in the prison itself. It is slightly harder to get into than the settlement above. And the soldiers there are ready for various mishaps, as they are on active duty. But my main argument was that this prison was not her ultimate goal. It was an intermediate stage in Azula's plan: an attempt to replenish the size of her army with the prisoners. The Princess ultimately agreed to burn all the surface structures.

Sometimes, Earth Kingdom soldiers, who were also covered in fire, ran out of the burning houses. In an attempt to extinguish the flames, they completely ignored who was nearby. The nearest fighter from our group ended the enemy's suffering, incinerating them with a new burst of flame or severing their head with the cold blade of his sword.

We outnumbered them, and we attacked unexpectedly, but our group still failed to suppress the enemy easily. Some of the enemy benders, probably those who were also on duty that night or simply understood the sensor's hysterical cry immediately, offered quite a decent resistance to our forces. They even managed to wound or kill some of our men. But they were quickly overwhelmed. Mai and Ty Lee rushed at the enemy. A group of eight Earth Kingdom soldiers, who had stubbornly resisted a larger force for some time, were broken in a few seconds by the two girls. Mai and Ty Lee flitted like butterflies between the enemies. "One flap of the wing," and an enemy fighter slumped to the ground. Sometimes already dead. Almost all the kills were credited to Mai. Ty Lee merely paralyzed the enemy and asked for him to be bound.

Finally, there were no pockets of resistance left in the above-ground part of the prison. The few captured enemies groaned, and their houses crackled, lighting up the night.

Urging the prisoners forward, we approached the entrance to the prison.

"Open the entrance," I commanded.

"Go to—" The Earthbender didn't manage to finish his sentence before he received a blow to the temple from the pommel of the sword of the soldier restraining him.

"Open the entrance or you will die."

"Death is better than betraying one's own country," the Earthbender who had been struck previously grumbled. After the last instructive poke, he had fallen to the ground and was now trying to rise on trembling legs. However, the same soldier assigned to him kicked him back down to the ground.

"You probably don't understand something, bender," I said, putting my hands behind my back. A bloodthirsty smile appeared on my face. Ty Lee, standing nearby, squeaked and chose to hide behind Azula's back. Mai flinched but managed to regain her composure. Only the Princess remained calm. "Death will be a relief for you after several months of torture."

The faces of the captured Earthbenders turned pale. Either I overdid the bloodlust on my face, or these people knew very well what months of torture entailed. Hmm, were there any able-bodied Fire Nation representatives left in the prison?

Just as our prisoners were about to comply with my will and open the passage, it shattered into pieces, raining down stones on our squad. A fiery stone rain, like that launched by our nation's catapults. Only much smaller in size. But even so, such an unusual attack managed to break our semi-circular formation. The next moment, a muscular bald warrior in green robes shot out of the passage. His fierce face stared at Azula and me.

Many bending attacks were sent toward him, but the bender punched the ground beneath his feet, and it surged out in a wave that protected him. At first, I thought the moving earth wave had been heated by our firebenders' flames, but that wasn't the case.

Unleashing lightning, I broke the technique of lava bending, not a simple earth wave! The molten lava stopped its path ten meters from us, but even at that distance, its impressive heat could be felt.

"Scatter! Get as far away from the enemy as possible!" I commanded, because he was too strong for ordinary soldiers. If I threw them into the fight, I would suffer completely unnecessary losses.

The people from Azula's group chose to obey and not fight against the unknown, and therefore terrifying, bender. But no one allowed them to retreat calmly. Reserves arrived from the prison. A three-meter stone wall was erected around our troops in a matter of seconds. Earthbenders and… Firebenders appeared on it, immediately attacking their former allies, that is, our highly surprised group.

The events momentarily even shocked Princess Azula. Like the others, she stared foolishly as one firebender killed another. The bald lava bender decided to take advantage of this. He must have recognized the royalty. Spheres of lava flew toward us. I managed to knock the Princess off her feet and, falling after her, protected her. But the soldier behind our backs was far less fortunate. There was a glowing, melted hole straight through the center of his chest, from which a sizzling sound emanated.

The temperature of lava starts at eight hundred degrees, and it seems this bender is quite capable of such feats…

Azula quickly scrambled to her feet:

"Mai, Ty Lee! Deal with the enemy on the walls! Long, help me with this bender!" She gave the order and instantly rushed into the fight.

I smelled the familiar scent of ozone. A moment later, Azula thrust her hand out straight at the lava bender. He managed to shield himself with a wall of his element, a smirk on his face. This time it didn't splash.

A new wall of lava headed toward Azula. She tried to destroy it with the power of her flame, but fire was clearly no help in this case. Before the lava could cover Azula, she jumped far back on jets of fire from her limbs.

I noticed that the lava was slowly spreading inside the stone ring erected by the benders, gradually pressing our group toward the other end. Fortunately, Mai and Ty Lee had almost suppressed the resistance on the walls, and we could soon climb over them safely to avoid being harmed by the lava. But that would only be a temporary reprieve. The Princess's attacks and my own weren't inflicting any damage on the enemy. Only our combined lightning volley made him tense up. What an inconvenient opponent for Firebenders…

After thinking, I decided on a risky move. My hand touched the lava flowing beneath my feet. I immediately pulled it back. I had burned myself for the first time in a long time. But a second later, my palm rested on the lava again. The heat was so intense that I felt as if my hand was being melted down to the bones. But I seemed to be controlling the situation after all.

Creating a huge amount of steam, the lava under my hand began to cool, gradually becoming more viscous until it finally turned into solid rock. This attracted the attention of the combatants: the Princess and the bald lava bender. The bender who had developed his element was greatly surprised, but a triumphant smile flashed across Azula's face.

I clenched and unclenched my burned hand, then rushed toward the Princess:

"I defend, you attack!" I said, standing in front of Azula.

"Pitiful tricks won't help you!" For the first time in the fight, our opponent spoke and… remained unanswered.

Instead of words, Azula sent lightning at him, which he blocked with two streams of lava that shot up from the ground. Next, those streams were directed at us. I lunged directly at them. My palms touched the lava. Instantly, a cloud of steam rose, and I felt not heat, but the cold of stone in my hands, which immediately began to crack and disintegrated into pieces under its own weight.

Azula darted out of the steam cloud and nearly cleaved the lava bender in half with a blade of fire. The bald bender managed to jump aside as the blade descended, but he lost his left hand, causing him to grit his teeth and glare maliciously at our duo.

With a few stomps, he sent out new streams of lava, but much smaller than the previous ones this time. Azula stood behind my back. I touched the streams, turning them into ordinary stones, and tried to redirect the resulting effect with a full-fledged strike of my own bending. Even cooled lava can cause trouble if it hits you at high speed.

The Princess attacked the lava bender again, covering a large area with her flame. This time, he failed to defend himself and suffered severe burns all over his body.

Realizing that his trump card, lava bending, was no longer effective against us, the opponent switched to ordinary Earthbending techniques for some reason. This was a fatal mistake. While a lava wall might have delayed Azula's lightning, an ordinary one could not… The enemy was soon fried by it. But he showed a miracle again. He didn't die, although he was covered in numerous burns, but simply lost consciousness.

All the lava the opponent had spilled instantly cooled and turned into harmless stone.