'Damn these guys! Damn this shit!' Ty Lee thought as she hid behind a wall of ice. She measured her breaths not because she was exhausted but because she didn't want her mouth to emit steam and expose her.
The Red Lotus had attacked her, and from what she could gather, they wanted to capture her. She wasn't at a disadvantage, though. In fact, she hadn't even faced her enemies yet. Since they wanted to catch her, she decided to make their task more difficult.
She was going to ambush them! They had really pissed her off, after all. Ty Lee might not have been an assassin like Mai, but growing up with Mai had taught her a thing or two about the art of murder.
With her vast experience fighting in the war and constant training with her friends, along with the knowledge she had gained in various ways, a plan quickly took shape in her mind.
"Do we really have to capture that woman? Isn't it easier to kill her? We don't have much time!" said a man dressed in black. He held a long rifle, but by Fire Nation standards, it was crude and outdated.
A Red Lotus logo was printed on the left side of his chest, right over his heart. He was part of a team of nine people dressed and armed like him.
"Shut up! That's exactly why we have to capture her. She's close to Fire Nation royalty. We may not be able to influence Fire Lord Ozai, but we can influence his children. Besides, she can help us find a weak spot in Sage Shisui," replied a woman with a strong physique.
Suddenly, a bolt of lightning streaked across the sky. The group looked up and saw Azula take flight! Blue flames erupted from the princess's feet, turning her into a shooting star.
"It looks like our 'allies' are doing their thing! Let's go!" said the woman as she started walking, trying to find her target.
'Azula always wants attention,' Ty Lee thought with a small, knowing smile. Her expression turned serious because she was about to kill.
She crouched down and quickly snuck behind her enemies, who didn't seem to be paying much attention to their rear. Ty Lee noticed that they were making a lot of mistakes. At first, she thought it might be a trap.
However, she confirmed that they were inexperienced and made small mistakes that she could use to her advantage, making them fatal to her enemies.
She will undoubtedly do just that. She narrowed her eyes, choosing her target. Instead of aiming for the weakest figure, she chose the strong woman because, in her view, her aura was filled with stress.
Someone like that is a prime target! Then she attacked. After a high jump, her agile body landed on her target's back. Her hands were like silver needles, striking pressure and acupuncture points on the woman's neck with enviable precision.
Her enemies could barely react when she pivoted, using her first target's rigid body to kick a man in the throat. With the crack that was heard, Ty Lee knew she didn't have to attack that guy anymore.
"Enemy!" another enemy shouted, but Ty Lee had already moved from her initial position and taken the place of the enemy she had just killed. Instead of shooting, she used the enemy as a club to throw off the balance of a nervous woman who was unable to shoot her.
Ty Lee positioned herself behind the woman she had hit, using her as a shield to block the shots aimed at her. Then, she moved on to another enemy while he was manipulating the bolt of his rifle.
'How inefficient,' Ty Lee thought, striking another man's pressure points before jumping toward another enemy.
Her blows were merciless. Her physique was enhanced by chi, enabling her to strike with considerable force. On one occasion, she used a constantly rotating ball of energy in her palm to hit one of her enemies right on the Red Lotus logo on his chest.
The red blood that spattered from the woman's body at that moment gave Ty Lee a strange mental image: a flower in full bloom. She was amazed by the ease with which she accomplished her task, and when she was surrounded by fallen corpses, she simply shook her head.
"Do you think we're just parasites of Shisui? We're all strong!" Ty Lee said to the woman she had attacked earlier, leaving her alive but pinned down by the blows she had dealt.
The Red Lotus member couldn't speak. If it weren't for the subtle movement of her eyes, she would have looked like a corpse. She was trapped in her own body, unable to scream or cry over the death of her companions. She could only watch as Ty Lee slowly approached her with her index finger raised.
"The worst part is that you wanted to use me...to hold me hostage?" Who gave you the courage? This logo?" Ty Lee touched the girl's chest, feeling the Red Lotus logo on her uniform.
"Maybe Shisui should start his own Lotus. Don't you think? It would be great! I already have the secret greeting in mind. It'll be a long, convoluted, meaningless sequence," Ty Lee rambled. Her words were full of mockery, and her eyes were fixed on the woman she was provoking.
Although the woman couldn't express herself, Ty Lee could see her aura turning a vibrant yet somber color filled with anger, despair, and pain. She wasn't a fan of causing pain or torturing her prey, but she was angry, so she wanted to cause harm.
She soon grew bored, however, and used her index finger to strike the woman's heart. This set off a chain reaction, freeing the woman from the block on her body. However, when she tried to walk toward Ty Lee, she collapsed after taking five steps.
"Now...let me help." Ty Lee looked up at the sky, which was covered by a tangle of blue lightning. Using her ability to see auras, Ty Lee quickly found her friend Azula, who was laughing constantly. Her laughter echoed throughout Agna Qel'a.
...
"You're too slow," Mai said to Katara, who reacted slowly after stabbing an enemy in the back with a dagger. Hearing this, the brunette clenched her teeth.
"I'm not used to killing!" she replied before using waterbending to manipulate the snow on the ground and create ice spikes that turned a Red Lotus woman into a pincushion.
"You must," replied Mai, whose figure became a black blur. In her wake, jets of blood spurted from the throats of her enemies.
"The warrior in my family is Sokka..." Katara murmured. She had a better understanding of her older brother, and she no longer found him annoying.
When she was forced to kill and feel capable of taking a life, she understood why her brother was overprotective.
He didn't want her to have to face this feeling. This was dangerous because, without control, it could turn someone into a killer or plunge them into deep depression and other mental health issues.
In fact, every warrior agreed that they had certain psychological conditions. However, perhaps because of the Water Tribe culture, Katara was able to recover quickly.
Although she couldn't be as ruthless as Mai, who took lives with relative ease, Katara was able to play the roles of attacker, defender, and supporter. Her versatility perfectly demonstrated the power of the water element, making the murder of her companion much easier.
After the Red Lotus group that had tried to surround them was eliminated, Mai quietly approached Katara, nodded, and smiled.
This was quite easy for Mai, but she had deliberately slowed down to give Katara a chance to adapt to the battlefield. At least Katara could doubt whether Mai was there to help her.
If she hesitated in a place where control was not an option, it would be her last mistake.
"Good job," Mai congratulated her. Katara looked at her with some amazement before nodding.
"Yes... You too. You're pretty fast," Katara replied.
Mai shrugged.
"When you're a non-bender, you train your body to dodge fire jets, stone spears, and water whips," Mai said, reminiscing about her training with friends. Katara felt like she couldn't fully understand the world of warriors.
"I...I don't think I've ever trained in anything beyond waterbending," Katara said. She didn't mention that, under her mother's guidance, she had learned many unusual things but hadn't adopted them into her fighting style.
"Come. I'll teach you which parts of the body to strike when hitting the neck or heart is not feasible," Mai said, deciding to pass on some of her experience in assassination to the inexperienced girl.
Unbeknownst to her, Mai had just planted the seed in an excellent future healer who would also come to understand the art of killing, perfectly balanced.
...
A jet of lava crashed into a rock wall, which then took on the shape of a channel to guide the hot magma in another direction. Then, spears of rock shot out of the frozen ground and flew toward their target.
"Damn lava-bender," Petra muttered under her breath, though there was a hint of envy in her words.
She had no talent for lava bending. She had tried to use this ability ever since Azula and Zuko told her about the man they had fought who could do it.
She knew other sub-bendings of the earth element, but seeing Azula's blue flames or the crazy things Shisui came up with using waterbending made her desire to have a sub-bending grow.
Was this the world's irony? Many non-benders wanted to possess an element. She was an Earthbender and was dissatisfied with her increasingly diverse abilities.
Now, she was facing someone who wielded lava. Unlike her teenage self, she had dabbled in equally useful bending; however, she had never had the opportunity to use it.
Her enemy, a hunched old man, simply waved his hands and generated a wave of magma that knocked aside the projectiles Petra had launched. He then took a small leap, creating a stone disc that slid into a river of magma he controlled. The river was rushing furiously toward the girl.
"Young lady, why do you, an Earthbender, support the Fire Nation?" the man asked kindly, although his actions were anything but kind.
Petra rolled her eyes as she jumped onto a rock pillar, moving away from the river of lava that had submerged her previous position. Standing atop it, she turned the stone beneath her into grains of sand, creating a cushion in front of her.
"Old man, what do you care?" Petra growled, jumping onto the pile of floating sand. Instead of falling into the void, she was supported by the cushion. This caused the old man to look at her with interest.
'The stories Shisui tells always have various ideas. Should I create a pumpkin like that fat raccoon who can't sleep? What an odd way to describe a character,' the Earthbender reflected before manipulating the mound of sand and avoiding a jet of lava shot from below.
"Young lady, you seem to be very talented. Wouldn't it be good to return home?" the old man asked with a smile, but Petra simply spat and didn't bother to respond.
"Stubborn, but aren't all earthbenders stubborn?" The old man shook his head before creating a huge wave of lava that was visible in other parts of the city.
If he couldn't win Petra over, he saw no reason to let her live. Having experienced the harshness of war, he had to side with his roots, not 'desert' them as he had done. Even though the young woman's birth before him was inevitable since she was an Earthbender, he had to do what was right.
However, the old man felt a pang of pain and looked down at his blood-stained chest. His wave of magma had simply collapsed, cooling rapidly, and he staggered.
"There are many traces of minerals in the rocks, which are made up of various elements, many of them metallic. I recently learned a certain skill... You know? Besides, I worked with firearms in the Fire Nation, so I understand how bullets work very well.
Old man, you talk too much." Petra descended, waving her hands constantly. Her gestures caused waves of pain in the old man, who saw an irregular piece of metal come out of his flesh and shoot toward his throat.
Due to previous injuries and his advanced age, he was unable to avoid being wounded again. Petra took away his ability to speak. Then, ignoring him completely, the girl walked past him.
To her, that old man was already dead.
"My home is with my parents, my friends, and my partner. Old man, if you are reincarnated, I hope you find a place to call home," Petra murmured before leaving to support her companions.
She observed scenes indicating that her companions were fighting with everything they had: a golden sword of fire rising in the city, Azula laughing wildly, a tornado devastating everything, and a blood-covered iceberg towering over the buildings.
...
Suki was breathing heavily. Her metal fans were stained with blood, and her chest was heaving. But when she sensed something, she moved away from the wall she was leaning against and avoided a jet of fire shot at her by a dark-skinned woman.
"Hey! Why are you part of the Red Lotus? Aren't you from the Fire Nation?" Suki asked. She was ten meters away from her enemy, staring at her with tense muscles, ready to act.
"Don't compare me to those savages!" the woman complained, spitting on the ground. Anyone from the Fire Nation would notice that this woman's clothes had a strong tribal feel, similar to those of a group of Firebenders who founded their nation.
"I don't know why Agni still allows those who have desecrated the art of fire to live," said the woman. She created a ring of fire in the palm of her hand but didn't attack. Instead, she simply stared at Suki with her golden eyes.
"I only have to capture those close to Sage Shisui. You weren't in the information I received, though. Go. I don't need to kill you," said the woman, causing the Kyoshi warrior to glance at the corpses of her recent enemies on the ground.
She had finished fighting the men from that organization and was catching her breath because it had been a tough task, not because she was weak, but because more enemies had attacked her.
As she dodged the fire thrown by the woman, she noticed that she did not have the Red Lotus emblem on her clothing. She knew a little about the group from Shisui and the others, and she knew that they had Firebenders in their ranks. But then, what was someone who apparently had no affiliation with them doing there?
Of course, that was just an assumption, so she asked her about it. The answer wasn't promising, but there was something about her. Her intuition had always been accurate, so she decided to ask directly.
"Are you from the Red Lotus?" Suki's question made the woman pause before bursting out laughing.
"No! I was just hired as a mercenary. My personal hatred made me want to join their cause," the brunette explained kindly, as if she didn't mind revealing this kind of information.
"Do you hate the Fire Nation?" Suki asked again. This time, she was attacked by a fireball thrown by her enemy.
"They outrage Fire! They don't deserve to carry it!" the woman shouted. Suki recognized this as the real start of their fight when the woman's mood changed.
This was the first time Suki would fight a Firebender, but she felt prepared. She had trained hard for years and had come to view the Fire Nation as potential enemies.
Ironically, she now had to help the Fire Nation eliminate an enemy. Life has many interesting twists and turns.
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AN: That's old man is Bolin's past life.... HAHAHAHA xD