This is going to be a long battle," One Water Tribe member sighed.
"I think we should respond back with a frontal assault." Another person replied, dressed in relatively expensive-looking Water Tribe clothes, he had a ponytail much most of the tribe and a big jaw.
"That's stupid," Harry piped up as he adjusted his gauntlets.
"What the hell do you mean stupid?!" He demanded. "Do you even know who I am?"
"Not a clue," Harry answered honestly, having finished his adjustments.
"I'm Hahn, the future leader of this tribe and fiancee of Princess Yue!" He declared proudly.
"You're marrying Princess Yue?" Sokka's voice was barely above a whisper, though Princess Yue clearly heard him given the way that she ducked her head down.
"If the Water Tribe happily accepts a pisspot like you as its leader then no wonder it's in trouble," Harry snorted, he continued on, ignoring the offended look on Hahn's face. "We're not doing a bloody frontal assault, they'll beat us with their superior numbers unless you guys happen to be hiding an entire navy in one of your ice buildings."
"What do you suggest then?" Pakku asked Harry.
"Our best bet is guerilla tactics," Harry answered.
"What? Do you want us to just suddenly get a gorilla or something?" Laughed Hahn. "That's ridiculous, which one would we even get? A Polar-illa? A fox-illa? A gorilla-bear?"
"Give me strength," Harry whispered to himself repeatedly before he closed his eyes and counted to ten. "That is not what I meant. I am trying to say that we should be smart about this. Divide up our warriors into small groups, and place them strategically around the city. Divide the Fire Nation soldiers into groups, the smaller the groups the easier they will be to take off. Remove them one by one."
"We won't be able to keep that up for too long," Princess Yue protested.
"We won't need to," Sokka spoke up quickly.
"Exactly," Harry said with a pleased nod. "We just need to keep doing so until we can get to their leader." He added.
"We already have a plan for that," Hahn smirked before clicking his fingers, a few seconds later a mannequin was brought in, dressed in an old Fire Nation uniform. "I shall put this on and infiltrate the Fire Nation army and kill their leader." He announced with the same look of someone who was expecting a round of applause.
"What the hell is that supposed to be?" Harry blurted out, staring at the uniform.
"It's a Fire Nation uniform, what else is it supposed to be?" Hahn glared at Harry. "It was captured from a Fire Nation soldier."
"When the hell did you get it? A hundred years ago?" Sokka guessed, staring at the uniform with disbelief along with Harry.
"It was actually eighty-five years ago," Arnook corrected him.
"Yeah, well they don't look like that anymore," Harry sighed, rubbing his eyes in an attempt to alleviate the headache that was slowly growing.
"He's right," Sokka agreed. "The Fire Nation doesn't wear shoulder spikes anymore," He pointed out, gesturing to the shoulder spikes on the costume. "The newer uniforms are more streamlined."
"Yeah, apparently the spikes got in the way of combat and made it harder to fight with so they got rid of them," Harry added.
"How can we even trust these two?!" Demanded Hahn furiously. "He's just a new recruit and is acting a bit too big for his boots in my opinion."
"This is Sokka," Arnook spoke up. "He is from our sister tribe, Hahn. He's a capable warrior and I value his input."
"Fine but what about him?!" Hahn gestured angrily to Harry. "This murderous Fire Nation psychopath could get us all killed!"
"Mate, I could kill you now and trust me, you're making it very tempting," Harry said in a bored voice. "I would think the fact that I've already killed a great many Fire Nation soldiers would be a good way to prove that I'm not exactly best friends with the Fire Nation."
"Yeah, but for all we know it's just an elaborate plan to gain our confidence so you can betray us, we all know that the Fire Nation isn't against sacrificing its men!" Hahn argued. "Perhaps you simply are just following some plan made up by the Fire Lord."
"First of all, fuck the Fire Lord," Harry said before anyone could say anything, he moved forwards and stopped in front of Hahn. "Second of all, you and he could both go and kiss my sweaty balls. Let me make something clear to all of you, the Water Tribe are not the ones winning this war, that's why the southern Water Tribe has nothing left besides a few old people, kids too young to fight and the one waterbender that we've brought with us. So, clearly, the Fire Nation is doing something right when fighting against you, here's my suggestion, either keep doing what you've been doing and see how it works out for you or do as suggested by someone with experience with the Fire Nation's tactics." Harry stared down Hahn who shook slightly as he took a step back.
"What do you suggest?" Arnook asked wearily.
"Where are they?"
Four fire nation soldiers all thought the same question as they walked up the Water Tribe city, trying to find the Water Tribe members. However, after ten whole minutes of searching, they still had not found anyone. They continued walking for another minute before spotting another group of Fire Nation soldiers ahead of them. The group was about to call out to them when suddenly a small group of Water Tribe soldiers jumped out from the river water and attacked that group.
The four were about to move to defend their fellow countrymen when two of them were grabbed from behind by water whips and pulled into the water, the remaining two took fighting stances but were not able to do anything beyond that since a moment later Harry dropped down from one of the buildings with the blades from his gauntlet extended, he plunged them into the soldiers as he dropped on top of them. Harry stood up, retracting his blades before firing a high-powered fire blast at a trio of approaching soldiers. After taking them out he looked to his right in time to see Pakku finish handling several more soldiers.
"So, this better than the idiot's frontal assault idea or what?" Harry asked dryly.
Almost an hour later, Chief Arnook couldn't help but admit that it was perhaps a good idea to listen to the Emerald Dragon, so far they had been able to take out a great many of the Fire Nation's forces. Sadly they had lost a few of their own, that was inevitable in a battle like this, but nowhere near as much as they could have. So far, they were still waiting on the Avatar, his daughter had assured him that Avatar Aang was still trying to contact the spirits.
Arnook couldn't help but hope that he would succeed, the spirits very rarely interfered with humans, but if they did then the battle was all but guaranteed in their favour. If the spirits would listen to anyone then it would be the Avatar.
The biggest problem he faced at the moment was the lack of information, the majority of his people were still out there fighting, including Pakku. Occasionally they would all come back here to provide him with battle updates so he could adjust their tactics but each time they went out he didn't know if they would come back. If that wasn't bad enough then his own daughter had gone off somewhere with Sokka, if Arnook wasn't so busy trying to keep an entire tribe alive then he would go out to look for her. Fortunately for him, he did think that Princess Yue would be fairly safe with Sokka, the boy was seeming like a better potential husband than Hahn who had ignored the Emerald Dragon's words and insisted on going through with his infiltration plan. Arnook didn't expect that plan to work at all, even if the ex-Fire Nation warrior was untrustworthy, his words were backed up by a member of their sister tribe who had seen these soldiers. Arnook had tried to talk Hahn out of it but the boy was stubborn.
"Emerald Dragon! Face me!" Ryu yelled while casually blasting a waterbender into the river next to him as he walked down the ice-sculptured streets of the Water Tribe. 'Honestly,' He thought to himself after defending himself from a water blast and blasting away his attacker. 'Do these savages really have to make everything out of ice?'
Ryu growled as he walked closer to where he had estimated the Emerald Dragon to be, judging from his reports it was highly likely that the dragon would be heading here. Ryu turned a corner and found a bridge in front of him. Naturally, it was made of ice like everything else here. Ryu let out a soft snort as he walked up the bridge, there didn't appear to be anyone around besides a couple of bodies, though it did irritate him to no end that the majority of bodies were from fallen Fire Nation soldiers, in his opinion, they deserved what they got if they couldn't handle a bunch of lowly water savages.
"Emerald Dragon! Come out and fight me! Face me, coward!" He yelled while standing on top of the bridge in his full Fire Nation armour, with the exception of the helmet that the common soldiers wore, along with a black cloak.
"I might not be the dragon," A voice spoke from behind Ryu. "But I can bring the fire!"
Ryu turned just in time to block a fire blast, though it was strong enough to cause him to stumble back. Luckily he was able to recover in time to dodge the second blast before he stopped the next blast with a backhanded slap.
"You!" Ryu hissed, an irritating glare on his face.
"Me!" Confirmed Zuko as he stood a short distance away, wearing an all-white costume clearly designed for stealth in the snow. Zuko let out a small growl before performing a series of spinning kicks, sending several waves of fire at Ryu who took a fighting stance and blocked them all.
"I can't help but wonder why you're not in a cell!" Ryu thrust both of his palms forwards, sending two separate blasts of fire at Zuko. Zuko stepped to the side and blocked one blast, letting the other fly past him until it struck a building behind him. Zuko opened the first two fingers of his right fist and joined them together before he did the same with his left hand, he dodged another blast before he used both hands to send several quick but small fire blasts at Ryu. Ryu dodged and blocked them all until one of them slipped past his defences and struck him in the shoulder, damaging his cloak.
"You like that?" Zuko smirked after hearing Ryu let out a small yelp and throw the now burning cloak off of his body and into the river below. "Harry taught me that trick."
"Is that so?" Ryu asked through gritted teeth.
"I am the son of Fire Lord Ozai and I have learnt from both the Emerald Dragon and the Dragon of the West," Zuko continued. "You would do well not to underestimate me."
"Are you still the Fire Lord's son?" Ryu asked mockingly. "I would have thought that he would have ripped you off the family tree by now. After all, you're banished, aren't you?"
"For now!" Zuko glared furiously at Ryu. "Once I've dealt with you, I'll find the Avatar and capture him." Truthfully Zuko had been looking for the Avatar when he had spotted Ryu, he had been tempted to leave the other fire bender alone but eventually decided to go after him with the hopes of removing one more obstacle.
"When you've dealt with me?!" Ryu chortled. "You will not be able to handle me. You may have a bunch of titles, but that's just you being born lucky and circumstances. I will soon possess one title that you will never be able to claim. I will be the one known as the defeater of the Emerald Dragon!"
"You?!" Laughed Zuko mockingly. "Now, I definitely know you're crazy." He snorted before slapping both his hands together, shooting out a big burst of fire from his fingertips.
"Mock me all you like," Ryu dodged before counterattacking. "But I have a better chance of achieving my goal than you do yours, heck, I might even get the Avatar for a fun, I'll consider it a bonus."
"He's mine!" Zuko sent several attacks at Ryu who expertly dodged and blocked them.
"Even if you capture the Avatar, what makes you think he will really want you back?" Asked Ryu. "He'll only take you back to keep his word, if he ever loved you in the first place then he never would have banished you."
"Shut up!" Roared Zuko, pulling his fist back to send a powerful blast but was too slow since Ryu's blast had already been shooting towards him, Zuko quickly abandoned his attack in order to block. "Aaargh!" The impact of Ryu's attack managed to send Zuko flying back and sliding down the ice bridge.
"The worst part about you, Zuko, is that you're just so easy to rile up," Ryu smirked. "A few mocking words is all it takes, disappointing really, still, at least now I know what your father probably feels like. Should probably do him and myself a favour and get rid of you, honestly, it's for the best." Ryu took a stance and pulled his fist back, he moved forward, ready to fire at Zuko when all of a sudden an air blast hit him like a speeding cart, sending him back and sliding down the other side of the bridge.
"Hey," Ryu looked up and saw none other than the Emerald Dragon standing on the bridge. "You don't mess with the prince in front of me." Harry tutted.