Chapter 15: Chapter 15

What had been a confident march on a paltry Fire Nation force had turned into a nightmare. Despite the impressive hail of stones into the enemy position, the first wave of peasant levies broke ranks and fled after some smoke wafted over them. 

That had initially puzzled Borgu, but then the fading fog drifted towards his position, and his eyes and nose itched badly from the stink. He couldn’t imagine fighting in such conditions, no wonder the peasants fell before the Fire Nation soldiers.

Luckily, the earthbenders had ensured that such a foul fate would not befall the second wave, as the offensive clay pots and their contents were quickly buried as they broke onto the ground. Borgu caught a few seconds of choking, brain-numbing stench, but thankfully he could recover behind the safety of the earthbended wall. He hadn’t actually sought cover willingly; it was just that the human tide of thousands of soldiers around him naturally flowed towards cover, to avoid any stray fire that flew too high above the walls.

The stench of hundreds of armored men around him was almost suffocating, but it was a far more tolerable one compared to the acrid smoke. He couldn’t even see much beyond the bodies around him, other than more comrades pressed tightly against each other along the length of the wall.

Trying to push onwards seemed futile, considering how the earthbenders were gritting their teeth as they constantly reinforced the barrier. They only looked annoyed, so Borgu felt a flash of confidence then, knowing that this sort of stalemate had always resulted in a victory for the patient earthbenders of Chenbao.

Until now, at least.

Borgu had been lucky enough when a strand of fire seemed to appear over the walls and then fall down onto dozens of men less than a yard away from him. Their drawn out, anguished screams sent chills down Borgu’s spine, and only when he turned his neck did he realize that the screams were not echoing. More of the same strands of fire spilling over the walls at other places, inflicting the same torturous death on others. 

The human tide heaved then, almost crushing in its force. Many like Borgu twisted and screamed for everyone to fall back as they struggled for enough space to free their arms. Others were simply screaming in terror as their immolated colleagues spread the flames to them.

“Get it off! Get itoffgetITOFFGETITOFF!”

“Stop! Stop pushing me, damn yo-AAAIIEEE!”

“HELP! HELLLP!”

Only his own selfish desire to survive shut off the tormented wailing around him as more people fell to the liquid fire that rained all about him. Borgu let go of his spear and used both hands on his shields to push back against the roiling mass of soldiers. Burnt meat and hair and wood filled his nostrils, and it lent him strength to push his way out of the crowd.

“Go back! Go back!” he and some others roared desperately through the sounds of burning men. 

A grinding sound made Borgu turn around, and through the throng of dozens, he almost froze in terror as a small part of the wall crumble, and a hail of fire filled the space. Dozens of men managed aborted screams before they were consumed by it. Or maybe scores, or even hundreds.

Borgu wasn’t keeping count, he quickly returned to the task of trying to escape the stormy waves of humanity. The flow jarringly shifted everything more of the fire splashed down above everyone’s heads, as soldiers tried to flee from their burning comrades, who flailed about in panic. A man on fire was flung over the masses as an earthbender decided he didn’t want to be burnt, trailing dripping fire as he landed into another group of unlucky souls.

It didn’t help the bender much, as another stream spilled over the wall’s edge and drenched the man. The man’s screams and struggles were mercifully short.

A ripple of movement pushed Borgu back towards the front lines. Back towards the fire. Then he saw another wall rise in the distance, one that now seemed to prevent him from reaching safety.

It didn’t matter, he thought. He’ll climb it.

Borgu could no longer hear himself. Everything was drowned out in the screams of hundreds of dying men. He lost sense of his surroundings, the only thing running through his mind was the need to break free from this press of bodies.

His hands felt empty, he must’ve dropped his shield somehow. 

There was a flash of light to his left, so Borgu immediately pushed in the opposite direction. 

His foot stumbled on something, almost tripping him. Borgu barely glanced down, and didn’t care that the obstacle below him looked like a helmet attached to something. The added height as he stepped on it was almost refreshing for his limbs while it lasted.

Another streak of fire soared above his head, so Borgu tried to force himself out of the way from the falling, incendiary rain. The screams became white noise to him by now. He didn’t care about the smell of burnt meat anymore, the lungfuls of tainted air was more important.

He needed to keep breathing, he needed to get out of here.

Borgu’s struggles ended abruptly when an explosion boomed from behind him. He didn’t have the time to react as a red-hot iron ball tore through rock and men, bouncing off the ground to plow through his left chest.

*****

“Stay close!” Captain Ren shouted as she dove into the ranks of panicked Earth Kingdom soldiers. Flames burst from her limbs as she struck men with her fists, elbows, knees and feet and fought her way towards pockets of heavy fighting. Her armor turned aside fear-fuelled strikes of spears and blades, and her troops behind and beside her secured her blindspots.

An earthbender struggled to form a stance in the tight confines, being nudged from his fleeing comrades. Ren quickly lunged at him, a flame already building in the palm of her hand as she lashed out with an open palm strike. The blow and the fiery explosion that followed snapped the earthbender’s charred head back, and Ren was already moving before he dropped dead to the ground. She twisted away from a desperate lunge of a spear, and held onto the weapon to allow a fellow trooper an easy strike through the offender’s face.

Relieving the dying man of his spear, Ren promptly swung it into the back of another enemy soldier who was winning a bout against a fellow trooper. The blow didn’t penetrate armor, but knocked the man off balance, creating enough of an opening for a dagger to slip through and carve out his neck.

The extremely close quarters made throwing fire nearly impossible, so Ren carved a path of fire and blood when she heard the desperate orders of an Earth Kingdom commander. It was merely a sergeant, trying to get his squad to maintain formation amidst the panic around them. Credit to him, his men were holding up well, pushing aside their panicking comrades while they expertly fended off Fire Nation spears.

Ren swung her hands together, flinging a short wave of fire that knocked three warriors back. Lieutenant Seung surged past her, delivering a flying knee into another soldier, the flames that trailed after him cooking the victim in his armor. Ren dove for the sergeant as he tried to stab her lieutenant’s exposed back, grabbing the brave fool’s head from behind. 

The blast of fire that followed was weak, but more than enough to sear through leather and cloth and stun the sergeant. A quick draw of her dagger saw his throat slit for a mercifully quick end.

A squad of her battalion’s spearmen came up, quickly dispatching the rest of the broken squad. 

Pausing to note her surroundings, Ren then turned to her lieutenant, whose helmet and armor was as dirty with soot and dirt as her own. “We’re making good progress.”

Seung gave a curt nod, his body still rising and falling as he caught his breath. “Yes, ma’am. There’s still a lot more pouring out from the second wall though.”

“We’ll beat them,” she replied confidently. “Stick close to them, deny their earthbenders the room they need.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Ren gave a final nod, and then risked a quick glance back to see her battalion right behind her, with Kai’s 1st Battalion and Weikong’s 3rd Battalion on either side making good progress as well. A stream of men in Earth Kingdom armor were fleeing in practically all directions, largely ignored by the regiment. 

Those that ran into the advancing back line and flammenwerfers would be told to get on their hands and knees to surrender. Those that fled in other directions were ignored. 

They were just enlisted men and conscripts, they could be allowed their freedom so long as they didn’t get in the way.

The captain filled her lungs with another breath of dirty air before bellowing to get her troops’ attention. “Alright boys and girls! Reform there-” She pointed at a breach in the second wall. “-and kill anything that stops you from doing that!”

Her men and women gave a roar of affirmation, and Ren picked another gaggle of Earth Kingdom soldiers conveniently in her way and charged them.

*****

Lieutenant Koshi frowned as he watched the colonel pass him the last of his armor.

“You are a colonel now,” Mozi was saying, trying to reason with the boy. “You should not be out there right now.”

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Now down to just his padded shirt and trousers, Xing turned to him, “The enemy’s reorganizing better than we thought, Mozi. Once they calm down enough to realize they can just back up to make the distance they need from us, we’ll lose the advantage, and the battle.”

The lieutenant colonel sighed heavily. “We can always keep the pressure up with conventional doctrine.”

“We’re still outnumbered,” Xing pointed out with a shake of his head. “And if we don’t break them now, the fleeing elements might reform. Our advantage has a short life to be exploited, Mozi, you know this.”

Unfortunately, even Koshi knew that the colonel was right. Mozi relented with a heavy sigh. “I still don’t like it.”

“Look on the bright side,” Xing said with a smirk. ”You might make colonel.”

“Xing?” Princess Azula’s interruption reminded Koshi of her presence, and she was frowning with heavy disapproval. “What are you doing?”

There was no hesitation from him. “Finishing this fight, your highness. It’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

“What-”

Xing ignored her and turned to Koshi, giving his battle-hungry grin. “See you in a bit, Koshi?”

The bodyguard lieutenant could only sigh, not bothering to try dissuading the colonel. “We’ll be quick, sir.”

With the princess still demanding him to stop, Xing confidently leapt from the edge of the platform just as Koshi and Mozi quickly formed a fire shield between them and Xing. A flash of blinding flames then burst out from the boy’s feet and back, the blast deflected by the shield and sending Xing hurtling across the field.

No more than a couple of seconds later, there was a huge detonation of white fire in the middle of an Earth Kingdom formation, the one with the most banners around it.

Koshi quickly led his team of bodyguards to the front, quietly grateful that he was glad he wasn’t saddled with Mozi’s new task of reassuring and placating the princess.

“Ah… Your highness, you see…”

Bursts of fire from their feet propelled the bodyguards towards the frontlines in seconds, but in Koshi’s mind it was still seconds too long. His charge was deep in the enemy ranks, and while Xing could no doubt cripple most of the Earth Kingdom’s command, he was still just one boy surrounded by soldiers who might be hardened enough to surround and overwhelm him.

The memory of a bloodied Xing fighting in the rearguard at Tai Plains flashed through Koshi’s head, and his jaws tightened in response. “Don’t waste time punching through them,” he ordered with grim determination. “Our priority is the colonel.”

With that, the lieutenant leapt up once he reached the mass of bodies, and in a repeat of the defense of Jochang, skipped across the heads of the enemy to get to his destination. It helped the regiment that each step was followed by a burst of fire that seared exposed heads or stunned protected ones as it pushed him onwards. 

Some Earth Kingdom soldiers had the presence of mind to stab at the bodyguards with spears and blades, and even earthbended spikes. They were paid little mind, if anything, Koshi and his unit seized the spears and used them to speed up, stabbing the weapons into unsuspecting victims and using the momentum to pole vault across the mass of bodies.

It was easy finding Xing, Koshi only needed to keep his eyes on the massive fading column of smoke, and the bursts of flame erupting from within.

The head bodyguard caught sight of his ward moments later. Amidst the charred bodies and body parts, Xing was darting around the shallow crater that was his detonation site. He was engaged with Earth Kingdom officers and elite guards in varying stages of burning. Some of the men had discarded the scraps of their armor and fought in singed gambeson, others were stubbornly fighting on despite their badly burnt state.

Xing danced amongst them, keeping close to his victims to prevent the earthbenders from effectively pinning him. As Koshi watched, the boy’s hands managed to weave through the swings of a badly wounded soldier, reaching for the man’s face. The soldier tried to reel back, but the burst of white flame burnt through his neck, sending the head falling off like an overripe fruit. 

The colonel immediately grabbed the headless body and pulled it down, jumping on top of it to avoid the wave of earth spikes from two earthbenders. Then he pounced onto his next victim, this time using a sweeping mid-air kick. The poor fool replied by swinging his blade in an attempt to cut the attacking limb off. Xing simply let off the explosion charged in his leg just before impact, which literally blew the man apart. Then the boy lunged with clawed hands at the next victim-

Koshi snapped out of his distracted state and remembered his duty. The outer edges of the enemy were now recovering from the explosion, and were slowly closing in on them. 

“Protect the colonel!” he shouted, and charged into the fray. He punched a man who was turning to him, the flames bursting against exposed flesh to instantly kill. Koshi drew his short sword and parried an overcommitted lunge, then without a second thought channeled flames into the tip of his blade before plunging it into the exposed armpit of his attacker. A twist and a yank, and he then tossed his blade into the face of another Earth Kingdom soldier, using the distraction to deliver a swift uppercut. A quick burst of chi saw the man’s burst apart in bone and gore.

Bofang took a shallow cut across his armor, just as he landed a flaming fist each into two soldiers that all but disintegrated their chests and sent them flying like ragdolls. 

Shan-Tsu sent a wide kick around him, the flaming wave that followed it keeping the colonel’s back clear and sending several men screaming as they tried to put out the flames. 

Kwan expertly closed in on an earthbender and promptly immolated his opponent, then tossed the still flailing man into a group of soldiers.

The bodyguards were brutally murdering anyone that they could reach, and slowly but surely the noose of spears around them loosened and began backing away.

A few earthbenders stomped their feet, and immediately several bodyguards countered the ripples in the ground by literally blowing holes in front of them. Small boulders were drawn up and flung, and Koshi contemptuously batted each aside with some firebending.

“Colonel!” he wanted to warn his charge, but Xing seemed to get the wrong idea, because the boy was grinning savagely. 

“We’re surrounded, Koshi!” he yelled aloud with a sinister cackle. “Let’s show them why that’s a bad idea!”

With that, Xing gave a roar and vented his violence on the hapless souls who stood in front of him. , each strike burning through metal and leather and flesh before it fully passed them. Men screamed and gurgled in horrific agony as the flames were so intense that those too close caught fire as well. Spear shafts turned to cinder, metal bucklers folded like warmed wax. 

Even Koshi and his men had to be mindful about getting too close; the last time Xing tried this, Kai and his fellows had barely left just in time for only their armor to turn to ash.

All they could do right now was ensure that the colonel’s back was clear, and to look out for any large boulders being sent his way. 

And keep up the callous slaughter.

With the crowd backing away, Xing stomped into a wide stance and the flames surrounding his body died out instantly, leaving a thin sheen of frost on the boy’s now naked body. Koshi and his team had just enough time to be sure they were out of the boy’s line of fire as he opened his mouth. What came out was not a mere tongue of flame, but a condensed, nearly straight line. A beam of fire so hot, it hurt to even look at it directly.

Colonel Lidai had called it the ‘Dragon’s Wrath’.

Xing though preferred ‘Atomic Breath’, whatever that meant.

The Earth Kingdom soldiers who were in the way of said beam - and their comrades a dozen ranks behind them - didn’t have the chance to scream as the white fire instantly turned flesh and bone into ash. Xing turned his head, and the beam scythed through dozens more men, leaving in its wake charred clumps and slagged metal dropping onto the ground.

That broke the ring of soldiers around them, and the terror that was sowed into the ranks finally blossomed into full maturity. Conscripts and enlisted men alike dropped their weapons and simply fled, their commanders shamelessly joined them. Those that stumbled or fell were trampled, those that had the presence of mind fell to their knees begging to surrender.

It was easy enough to avoid the fleeing men around them - Koshi only needed to firebend a noticeable gout of fire and the oncoming rush of panicking men moved in the opposite direction. With occasional bursts of flames, the bodyguards formed a protective circle around Xing, and Koshi was there just in time to catch the colonel as he collapsed into a shivering heap.

“I-I-It d-did-id the t-trick-k-k?” the boy asked through chattering teeth. Even with gloves on, Koshi could tell that his body was cold. Not as dangerously cold as that first time, but still something to worry over.

Koshi looked around at the chaos around him, and then offered a single nod. “Yes, sir.”

Xing let out a frosted breath. “Ha-aah. T-T-Told you it-t’d do-do the j-job.”

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