Chapter 27: 26. The King and the Rat

Vulcan broke to the surface sometime after Omashu shook, and luck had been on his side so far. He emerged in a gemmanite cave, where an underwater stream joined with some of the most beautiful gemmanite crystal formations he'd ever seen.

'Each would fetch a hefty price on the open market,' Vulcan thought as he palmed the smallest fragment he could find with some Earthbending. He'd have looted the place if he weren't in such a rush.

He heard three pairs of footsteps approach, and he bent sharpened shards right into each bender's chest as they came around the corner. They were dead before they even realised it.

Vulcan stepped over them with a smug smile on his face.

Slowly, his trauma-induced plans of domination were coming together.
If he managed a few more ambushes, he wouldn't even have to use Lavabending.

Everything came crashing down when he locked eyes with the King at the exit of the cave.

The older man blinked and waved to Vulcan, and he ducked behind the nearest mound of gemmanite, pain and panic flaring through him.

For a moment, Vulcan sat there, hoping the Older man would go away.

He was confident in keeping the King at bay and escaping in the open city. But he didn't like his chances underground, injured, with nowhere to turn.

Bumi's hollow laugh bounced off the Cave walls.

"Aren't you a bit too old to be playing hide and seek, Vulcan? Come on out. I saw you."

Vulcan bit into his lips in frustration.

King Bumi tutted. "You've been naughty. Trying to overthrow my city by drugging my men and creating a tunnel that would've compromised my city's defence. You're a halfway decent mastermind, Vulcan."

Vulcan's ears picked up on the King's footfalls, so he also repositioned himself, scrambling deeper into the cave system.

Vulcan might be a gifted bender, but the King was legendary. There were no bender his age that could fight like him.

Vulcan shivered and shook his head. He dreaded to think what the King would've been like in his prime. He was only getting out of this alive by relying on an old, reliable trick. Ambush and Melt. He'd dispatched far more capable benders than himself with a well-timed wave of his hand.

There was no reason why it couldn't work here.

But he was only getting one shot at it. Thankfully, the King didn't know about his Lavabending. Only his fresh crew knew, and all of them were dead now.

Vulcan circled a large piece of stalactite, coming up behind the King, ready for his move. He took a deep breath. He would only get one chance at this.

"I know you're a Lava bender, by the way," Bumi said, and Vulcan nearly tripped.

Vulcan nearly fell on his ass from the shock.

'How!'

"Curious how I figured it out, Eh? Your name gave it away. Vulcan, Really!" he snorted. "That's a stupid lava bender name if I ever heard one."

How dare he! Vulcan had chosen the name by himself and cultivated a reputation around it. People quaked at the mention of it, and he'd melted his way to respect, carefully building up his mystique. For the King to even suggest that it was less than exceptional

"Just kidding!" King Bumi's laughter boomed. "A phantom told me."

Vulcan went white.

"Did you gasp?" Bumi asked, sounding amused. "I know I would've. But Yes, a scary Phantom is roaming in the city, and he knows you tried to kill his family."

Tried? Vulcan took a step back. He was certain of the collapse. How had they escaped? But more importantly, there were two of them.

Vulcan peeked out to look at the King, who had taken to admiring the stream for some reason.

He was fucking with him. He had to be.

In the darkness, Vulcan moved to reposition himself. The fact that the King had some advantages didn't remove from his inherent advantages as a Lavabender. He could buy time. If he was smart, he could even beat the King.

Something rattled behind him. A chain.

It wasn't loud enough to echo through the cave, but Vulcan snapped into full alert.

The cave went quiet, so quiet Vulcan could barely hear the water bubble from its underground source. Then, the ground underneath him shuddered and yanked him and a chunk of rock into the air.

Vulcan screamed so loud he was sure the entire city heard him.

Adrenaline shot through his veins as he wobbled back and forth on the floating Island the King raised, trying to call his bending.

Faced with the prospect of dying from falling to his death of all things, he found his strength, put his wounds out of his mind and slammed down on the floating rock with his good arm, shattering it into a dozen pieces, the largest of which he rode down to the ground in an explosion of sand and stone.

Vulcan was stumbling to his feet, blinded by a screen of smoke. He wretched and coughed from the dust and had to blink twice before he noticed a giant wall of earth coming at him.

It took all of his strength to divert its path, but he could do nothing about the second stone that followed the first. It crashed into him and exploded.

Fresh wounds opened up on his forearms and chest, and the pain of his former wounds returned with a fury. He tried to sit up, but putting slight pressure on his wounded shoulder told him it was finally broken.

Vulcan growled, upset at himself more than the situation.

With a wave, he raised a stone pillar which he scampered behind and used a brace to rise to his feet. Taking in a deep breath, he peeked around the cover, searching for the King, but he was nowhere to be found, no doubt plotting his next attack.

Was this how he'd die?

Like a coward, hiding from a man well past his prime?

No!

Vulcan slammed his hand into the ground and twisted, and everything in front of him exploded in a spray of Lava. With a push, he spread the Lava, heating up nearly half of the cave. Only the waterfall was behind him now, covering his flank.

"Show yourself, you coward of a King!" he roared.

Vulcan was a Lava bender born from a father who was a commander in the Army and a mother who was Omashu nobility. He deserved- no, demanded more.

"You hide behind a pillar of rock, and I am the coward?" Bumi huffed as he held onto a crystal stalagmite like it was the easiest thing in the world.

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Vulcan raised his hand, deciding not to give the overconfident King a chance to retaliate, but it was too late. Hundreds of gemmanite shards rained down, blanketing his portion of the cave. He hastily raised a barrier with a stomp and a single hand raise. It was half as strong as his typical ones because of his broken hand.

When the rain of crystal intensified, he was forced to bend with the hand anyways. He nearly bit off his tongue from the pain alone, but the dome he raised still shattered.

Accepting his fate, Vulcan shut his eyes, ready for the end, but only a shard grazed him. The majority had landed in between his hands, legs, chest, and back and trapped him in a makeshift prison of crystal. He tried to wiggle his way out, but it did not give.

When he tried to bend it, a voice came.

"I wouldn't do that If I were you," King Bumi said as he emerged from the ground beside him. "I might something trying to keep you still."

Vulcan gulped.

"You…can't do this to me."

"Can't I?" Bumi grinned.
---

'Two breaths in, one breath out,' Mark repeated over and over again as he jogged towards the city of Omashu. Every inch of him dripped with sweat, and he'd long discarded his armour, yet he felt heavier without it.
Every muscle ached, and the old side of him, the lazy side of him, begged him to slow down, ease up, take a break—to do something, anything to escape the pain.

But he knew what would happen if he stopped. Vulcan would slip away, Sato would die, and he'd be another step behind Samir. He scowled, and some sweat got in his eyes. The asshole had apparently been playing 3D chess while he struggled with checkers.

He'd lost a game he didn't even know he was playing, and Samir was about to checkmate him.

"Not if I have something to say about it!"

Recruiting people, plotting to take Omashu. How did he get connections so fast. Was he lucky with his reincarnation, or did he get some broken skill?

Whatever the answer was, he'd be sure to rip it out when he killed the bastard.

Mark's pace quickened, his rage giving him fuel. Sweat stung his eyes and salted his lips, but he refused to be the kind of reincarnator who lost before the fight even started.

He had characters to meet, places to visit, and anime Waifu to collect. He'd be damned if he forfeited his new life to some chunni Edge lord.

Mark didn't remember when he started to roar, but what came next was clear enough to even his fatigued mind.

The ground in front of him was swept up in a sudden cyclone of dust and air, and a man emerged from it. He was bald, with a square jaw, piercing blue eyes, and absolutely massive, over six-feet tall.

"Mark?" his voice rumbled, and the boy blinked at him, surprised. "You remember me, don't you?"

It took a moment, but the shock faded, and the recognition came. He was Ren, Aaron's father.

Mark quickly bowed. "It's an honour to meet—"

"We don't have time for peacocking," he raised his hand. "I need you to stay right here. There's trouble in the city, and I can't have you getting caught up in any of it."

"Is it Vulcan?"

Ren raised a brow.

"He's a Lava bender that thrashed us and collapsed the tunnels, nearly killing us. He's working for Samir."

Ren didn't blink, nor did his face or any part of his body react.

"Stay here."

The ground in front of Mark exploded in another sudden gust, and Ren was gone.

Mark slumped back into the dirt as he thought back on their conversation.

And he reckoned that Aaron was far less terrifying than his father.
---
The landscape rolled past as Ren hopped, ran, and vaulted over obstacles to his Son, his chi signature bright in his senses. Despite his clear exhaustion, he still clung onto the unconscious body of a wounded bender as he made his way out of the entrance to the Undercity.
Ren didn't know whether to be proud or furious.

"Father?" he said, looking in Ren's general direction as he stopped before him. Ren had cared not to bring the dust with him this time.

Aaron looked overdrawn, his hair matted with soot and dishevelled, half of his armour had been stripped away, and his underclothes were covered in blood, all of which was not his.

"It was quite a batt,le I take it?"

Aaron stumbled forward. "There's much I have to tell you. The King sent us after a smuggler, Vulcan, he's a Lava bender, and he is working with Samir. We can get her back!"

His pupils were dilated, and his muscles spasmed from the Chi overdraw, but he remained upright.

"You've been abusing the Chi-reinforcement technique, haven't you?"

Aaron looked taken aback and ran his hand through his messy hair. "The situation demanded it. The boy's system gave impossible missions."

"Yet there are dozens of mundane and chi-infused techniques that you could've turned to before you tried Chi-reinforcement. You must have felt it, haven't you, you lifeforce slipping away after each use?" Ren lectured. He understood the allure of it and even why many of his colleagues held it as trump cards, but it was as likely to kill you as the person you fought.

Understanding and exploring the full range of your current abilities was a smarter, safer strategy. Besides, chi-reinforcement led down a slippery slope not even the most iron-willed bender could climb out of.

Aaron set his jaw. "Are you lecturing me about Chi right now? Sato is dying, and Misha is in the hands of a lunatic."

Ren gave the unconscious man a passing look. "The soldier will live, and as for Misha…your grandfather hasn't decided."

"What!"

Ren raised a hand before the boy threw a tantrum. "I understand that you feel strongly about this, but you must be patient, Aaron," Ren spoke those words for his benefit as much as for Aaron.

"For now, our focus is Mark and teaching him everything we know. If the King hasn't executed Vulcan yet, we will get answers from him; whether some of it is of your cousin is left to chance."

"When was the last time you saw grandfather?" Aaron looked up at him, a determined glint in his eyes.

"I've been travelling for two days straight," Ren said. "I reckon the meeting can wait until after the interrogation. Don't you agree?"

A smile crept onto Aaron's face. "Yes, yes, I do."

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