CHAPTER 11: THE AVATAR
"So this Zhao guy was strong enough to defeat you and he's now attacking the island?" Sokka summed up the situation. The atmosphere was filled with panic and fear.
The island had managed to stay out of the war for a significant period of time but it was only a matter of time. With the arrival of the Navy at their shores, Kyoshi was now officially part of the war. This would mean they wouldn't go on unnoticed anymore. Them harboring the Avatar could be seen as a threat to the Fire Nation, which they were not before.
The loud bangs and explosions continued in the distance. The Unagi continued to fight against the remaining 3 ships. The ships continued to fire, fire ball catapults at the giant serpent. Some missed but most got through. Those that hit only caused negligible injuries or seemed to enrage the serpent. The serpent itself continued with large streams of water. After each attack it would submerge for a period before attacking again. This process continued for a good ten minutes until the Unagi sunk one more ship. The two remaining war ships still did not let on however. Instead they intensified their firing rate. They started to mix the canon shots with catapults of of rocks covered in oil. Caught on fire the boulders were launched at the Unagi. Their relentless attacks started to finally take a toll on the stamina of the giant serpent. Its movements became sluggish as it found it difficult to dodge now. More attacks started to hurt it more often. Finally the attacks eventually became too much after another 10 minutes. With 2 ships still remaining the Unagi collapsed to the beach. Seemingly the apparent death of the Unagi meant trouble for the rest of the island.
"They actually managed to kill the Unagi?" Suki said in utter disbelief. The seemingly endless strength of the Fire Nation was proven once again right infront of them.
As expected the two remaining ships started approaching the docks. With no obstacle they were now free to attack the island. Almost immediately the pair of remaining ships drew closer.
"What do we do now?" The elderly village chief asked for any suggestions.
"I cannot be seen here!" Zuko suddenly revealed. "If they see me here then that means all our plans will be ruined!"
"He's right!" Sokka agreed. "We still cannot deal with them without your help!" He reiterated.
"We need to come up with a plan immediately!" Aang reminded hastily.
Everyone appeared to be thinking of a possible plan but most of their thoughts seemed impossible to pull off within such a short time frame. Although the village had protocols in place in case of an invasion. Those protocols mostly depended on assistance from the Unagi.
"Zuko, can't you use the same attack you showed us before?" Katara suddenly asked. Her question seemed to remind everyone of the awesome power they witnessed just 2 hours prior.
"You can surely atleast take out one ship with your attack right?" Sokka hoped. The unmotivated look of Zuko quickly dashed his high hopes.
"I can try but that attack uses up a lot of my Ki. To use it twice in one day would probably mean I could faint or lose my bending for a few hours. Even if I could do it, it won't be as powerful as the one I did earlier!" Zuko calmly explained a few of the long list of the disadvantages the attack had.
"If you can take care of atleast 1 ship with that attack we can take care of the other one!" Suki insisted.
*RROOOOOOOAAAAARR!!!!!!*
An ear shattering roar suddenly enveloped the entire island. As they looked up everyone saw the bloodied serpent standing as tall as the highest range of the island. With a look of desperation it glared at the pair of ships now reaching the docks. It's gigantic mouth gaped open and shot out a massive percussive beam of water that destroyed and over turned one of the ships, sinking it in the process. Only 1 ship was left and the great Unagi wasn't close to being finished. It dove underwater once again to resupply the water. Less than a minute later it rose again, higher then ever before. The blood lust in its bloody red eyes stared right through them. This time it was even higher than the highest peak on the entire island. It readied its mouth for another attack.
*CRACK!!*CRACK!!*BRLLBLLBRLBEREL!!!!*BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!*
The loudest of bangs suddenly rung through for miles and miles. All anyone could see was massive surge of light that enveloped the Unagi. As the dust and smoke cleared, it revealed the Unagi smoldering like charcoal. Its skin and entire body burnt almost crisp like. From its high peak the giant serpent fell straight into the ocean. The displacement of water caused a massive tsunami that rose as high as 50 meters. The massive waves smashed into the side of the island. Flooding the forest and nearby buildings.
"What the fuck was that!?" Sokka asked in absolute panic.
"It-it looked... i think I saw lightning!" Aang struggled to come to terms with what he just witnessed.
"It was a lightning strike!" Zuko exclaimed in disbelief.
"Lightning? But the sky is clear, how could that be possible?" Sokka tried to rationalise his thought.
Zuko immediately knew who was responsible. If Zhao was on that last remaining ship it would make sense for him to use such a powerful attack. If it was actually Zhao then Zuko immediately knew he could not do it again. Just like his own special attack, something like that had a lot of drawbacks. It meant that just like Zuko, the Ki of whoever used that attack had their stamina and Ki severely drained. Even 2 hours after using the attack, Zuko still felt extremely drained and about to pass out any minute. It finally gave him an idea to save the village. If Zhao was fatigued the same as himself than there was a very possible way.
"Aang, I think I have a way for you to save the village!" He revealed to the young Avatar. Aang turned to him with hopeful eyes. Asking for Zuko to continue. "The guy who just killed the giant serpent is like me, he is extremely tired and cannot put up much of a fight! If you use the most powerful airbending to threaten them. Airbending so powerful it will be like a natural disaster then you can scare them away!" Zuko explained.
"Threaten them? How do you mean? Aang asked, confused.
"He is saying that the last attack that killed the Unagi used up too much stamina. The guy who did was probably desperate to kill Unagi and is now too tired. If you can use airbending so powerful than we just need to threaten!" Sokka explained.
It took a moment for Aang to get proper grasp of the situation. Once he got it, he knew exactly what to do. Since he knew next to nothing of the other bending arts then he only had to use airbending.
"I think I get your point but I'm gonna need your help Zuko!" He said.
"How so? I can barely bend anyfire at the moment." Zuko revealed.
"I don't need you to bend anything significant," Aang began. "Just enough to heat up the air more. Hotter air is lighter and easier to bend in a larger way!"
Zuko immediately understood what Aang meant. It was basic knowledge after all.
"I think I can do that," Zuko agreed. "As long as its not too much." Truthfully his Ki had recovered significantly. It wasn't as good as normal, not even close but enough for him put up a decent fight or enough to escape from a troublesome opponent. He was trying to see if anyone in the group would use his apparent fatigue to try to attack him but no one seemed to have any alterior motives. Perhaps the desperation of the situation hid away their primal thoughts.
"Okay follow me!" Aang said and immediately started running down towards the beach. Almost no time passed before they reached the shore. Zuko hid away in the forest to hide himself.
The gigantic ship stood stationary as it floated on the sea. Zuko stood still in the forest as well. First he closed his eyes and gathered significant amount of Ki. He held up his hands as if lifting himself up. He suddenly opened his eyes and took a single step forward. His hind leg remained stretched out to the ground. His arms extended forward as if pushing back against something. A hot stream of fire floated out from his hands and extended out towards the beach. The fire wasn't that hot but enough to heat up the air. Small enough not to be considered bending by a fire bender but still enough to do what Aang needed.
Speaking of Aang, he was standing motionless on the beach. Looking out into the sea at the massive ship sway from side to side by the waves. A few dozen Fire Nation soldiers stood on deck looking at him. The watching crowd also included a certain Commander Zhao looking at the juvenile state of the apparent greatest threat to the Fire Nation. As one would expect he immediately disregarded the young Avatar as a worthwhile threat. This underestimation of an opponent was exactly what Zuko and Aang were counting on.
With the air starting to heat up significantly and aided by the seering summer heat of the sun. Aang stretched out his glider staff. With it he started to twirl around in a wide circle with a diameter of atleast 10 meters. While he continued to walk around he started swinging the staff in tight arcs and wide arcs. Alternating between them while he continued to walk around the circumference of the circle. It was slow but after almost a minute of him doing that the wind started to pick up. Following the currents of his swings the wind started to pick up speed. Sand and dust started to pick up along with whatever was on the beach. This included all the debry of the ships that washed up on shore. As well as the rubbish of the docks destroyed by the canon fire. After a good five minutes the winds got so strong even the trees started to follow. Some bending almost parallel to the ground. After ten minutes it was like a full on typhoon had arrived. Aang had long stopped his bending and let nature take its course. Even the clouds started to gather, bringing with them their own winds. The waves started to increase as well, almost toppling the ship. As rain started to pour the inevitable happened. The ship was pushed out to sea by the waves and eventually disappeared beyond the horizon. For the time being atleast, the island would survive but the Fire Nation was now wary of their presence. What would stop them the next time they attacked and Aang was not here? With the Unagi dead or atleast unresponsive for the time being. It was only a matter of time until the inevitable came.
For the time being, no one cared about that. The island remained safe and that was all that mattered. The rest would be dealt with after the storm passed.
***
Heading back north towards a military base of the Fire Nation was a certain ship. On the bridge along with his lieutenant was the infamous Commander Zhao of the Fire Nation Navy. Standing opposite him were a pair of young men. One a promising firebending prodigy by the name of Captain Mui. The youngest in the history of the Navy to achieve the rank at only 23 years. Mui was an ambitious young man. He was quite tall at 6ft7 and had long dark hair that easily reached his waist. Like most of the Fire Nation his skin was an almost dark caramel brown skin. He always had a scowl on his face like he hated the world. In truth he did hate most things in the world. His ego was built to an abnormal state by his spoiling noble family. His abilities as a genius firebender earned him fame and fortune all over the world. He was regarded as the most prodigious firebender since the great General Iroh who amassed all with his level of mastery of Fire at the tender age of 15. Mui focused mostly on releasing large burst of fire that easily overwhelmed his opponents. He was an expert at charging attacks at an incredibly fast rate. This did not mean he wasn't that good at controlling fire or doing the more precise and finer bending. He simply chose the former due to the sheer destruction it cost.
Mui was the pride of the Fire Nation until a certain Princes was born and turned things up to 11. She was a true firebending prodigy in the truest sense. She was said to be the female reincarnation of the legendary Xu Ping An. The leader of the Yellow Neck Uprising and the first to truly the master the art of generating lightning.
Lieutenant Tau was the other man in the room. He was in all accounts a really good firebender. He was loyal to the Fire Lord above all and did everything with the thought, what would the Fire Lord need? His answer to the question wasn't always correct but he nevertheless did it to the best of his abilities. He wasn't much of a looker but wasn't ugly either. His physique was average as it focused on quick attacks and evading counter attacks.
The atmosphere in the room was rather dispirited. Zhao was still breathing heavily from the desperate attack that basically drained all his bending. At the moment he was basically a non bender. He was still a threat as he wasn't a Commander for nothing. He was just exponentially more dangerous with his bending. Mui and Tau were still stunned by what they had just witnessed. Even by his gigantic ego, Mui was in awe of what he saw. First the devastating lightning used by Zhao and not long after, the Avatar literary summoned a storm. This was his first time seeing a master going all out for the first time. In all his years in the Navy, he wasn't once in such a battle to truly test his limits. As typical of such an egotist, he looked forward to the day when he might have to push his limits.
"What do you think of the Avatar?" Zhao asked his two subordinates.
"When I first saw him back at the South Pole I have to admit I didn't consider him much of a threat. Prince Zuko easily subdued him and could have even killed him if he wished but the Prince wanted to bring him in alive for his father." Mui answered honestly in his deep dark growly voice.
"I was the same, looking at him as a child I did not consider him much of a threat but he quickly proved me wrong." Tau answered.
"It seems even the banished Prince underestimated him as we did," Zhao admitted. "It seems it wasn't entirely the fault of the Prince that he escaped. As soon we land you must send out messengers to all bases informing them of the true strength of the Avatar. He should not be underestimated based on his size and apparent age. As soon as repairs are complete I shall return to the Fire Nation and report this to the council personally!"
Upon those orders Zhao dismissed the two men. He was soon alone in the room.
"It would appear my other duties have to wait, Lord Vumala" he thought out loud.