'Something changed in them since they ate that,' Shisui mused as he kicked the corpse hanging from his spear before surveying the enemies around him.
Or rather, the ones he was surrounded by. Instead of being nervous, the Sage had a big smile on his face. With the ease with which he outwitted and eliminated one of their number, the members of the Red Lotus were feeling fear.
Shisui was instilling unparalleled fear in them! They saw that they were not facing an ordinary human, an exceptional waterbender, or a figure who left his mark on history. No, he was more than that: a flood dragon surrounded by small rabbits with no power.
As they tried to reload, the Sage decided that since there were many enemies around him, it was only fair to decrease their numbers. His tense muscles relaxed like a spring.
His body jumped from the building, leaving cracks in its roof. Resembling a wild tiger leaping toward its prey, he headed toward a Red Lotus member, screaming desperately while trying to get his rifle to work.
The sound of flesh crashing, bones crunching, and the man's roar of pain echoed throughout the area. Shisui fell on top of the man, striking his sternum with his knees and causing him to collapse to the ground.
In a swift movement, he swept his spear, directing its tip at the neck of another man who had managed to ready his weapon, aim it at Shisui, and prepare to press the trigger.
However, the light in his eyes disappeared due to a gush of blood from the wound the Sage had inflicted in a previous attack. Even in his last moments, he had not expected death to come so easily.
His body collapsed, but no one paid attention to him. Everyone's eyes were focused on the Sage, who, for the first time in the short but intense fight, had his movements blocked by someone else.
Availuk took advantage of the changes to her body to attack Shisui! She controlled a furious wave to crash into Shisui, who was on his way to kill another member of her organization.
The Sage's golden eyes narrowed with interest before he delivered a low kick toward the oncoming wave, creating a block of ice that split it in two.
"Was that... Earthbending?" one of the gunslingers asked. Though she had her gun pointed at Shisui, her hands were shaking, and she couldn't calm down.
"A crude imitation. The real thing is better!" growled Mei Qi. She created two earth snakes that slithered across the ground. Their jaws were open, and their teeth were made of rock. They were ready to grind the Sage into meat paste.
Shisui ignored the two women who had decided to sacrifice their lives to stop him. How was he going to fight an enhanced enemy? He was no fool! His main duty was to get rid of the gunmen.
To stop the incoming attacks, he punched forward, manipulating the surrounding water to turn it into steam. The steam compressed and shot out toward the earth in an instant.
To everyone else, it looked like a standard Firebending move. Hot steam emerged and exploded in the middle of Mei Qi's earth creations, shattering them completely.
While evading the spikes, needles, spears, and ice shrapnel thrown by Availuk, Shisui hit the bullets in front of him with his spear before stabbing the nearest enemy.
"Stop!" Seeing that her minions were being depleted by Shisui with relative ease, Availuk decided that, since they had proven to be useless, she would not spare them.
She launched ice projectiles that wounded her supposed allies. Mei Qi looked at her in disbelief, unable to fathom her companion's cold-blooded decision.
Although the Red Lotus could be categorized as a terrorist organization, its members were always closely cohesive, with no distinctions between nations or benders and non-benders.
To the Earthbender, Availuk's actions were as terrible as Shisui's slaughter of her comrades because, at that moment, she posed as much danger as the Sage.
This also astonished the remaining members of the Red Lotus, who stood their ground despite their fear. They had not planned to flee. In fact, dying did not matter to them, at least not if they died while achieving their goals.
However, dying at the hands of an ally was unthinkable to them! They stopped attacking Shisui not only to avoid Availuk's indiscriminate attack but also because they unanimously decided they could not tolerate this kind of attack against a comrade. They stepped aside and no longer wanted to be involved with someone who could betray them.
Shisui was also astonished. Was the desire to kill him so strong that members of the same group could so easily dismiss each other? For the first time in the fight, he took this woman seriously.
Though the Sage was alert to possible sneak attacks by the gunmen, their past actions were like some sort of unspoken signal. They would let him fight the Waterbender woman to the fullest. Whatever the outcome, they would act accordingly.
First, he smoothly moved his spear, shattering the ice attacks thrown by Availuk. Then, deciding to go all out, he dropped his playful smile and allowed his gift to allow him to see the world.
"It seems that the stimulant you consumed has altered your mind. Or perhaps... this is the real you?" Shisui asked, bending his body slightly and flowing chi into it to push its physical limits.
"Who cares! I'll die anyway!" Availuk exclaimed as she tried to attack. Mei Qi held her hand, causing Availuk to see her partner's face distorted in anger.
"Being on the brink of death is no excuse for madness, Ava," the Earthbender said. But Availuk simply shook her arm, breaking free from her grip.
"I make my own decisions!" Altered by what had happened and the stimulant empowering her body, Availuk focused all her chi on manipulating the surrounding water.
She created a gigantic wave that broke toward Shisui. Instead of answering with Waterbending, the Sage brandished his spear with all his strength in a vertical attack.
This caused a peculiar fluctuation in the environment with motes of chi around his weapon. A powerful arc of golden energy cut the wave in two and flew threateningly toward Availuk.
A mighty wall of rock with irregular chunks of crystals formed by different minerals appeared in front of the Waterbender, protecting her from imminent harm.
The arc of Chi hit the defensive wall hard, leaving a large crack, but Mei Qi's creation managed to withstand such an attack.
The Earthbender was nervous because she found the Sage's actions impressive. This added to the pressure she felt during the mission, and beads of sweat formed on her forehead.
'He's too strong! Did we really stand a chance?' thought Mei Qi. Despite everything, she stood by Availuk's side and constantly attacked the powerful enemy in front of them.
'Too many mistakes in execution. A lot of energy is lost, and that weakens the attack. I must fine-tune the details.' For Shisui, however, such an 'incredible' feat was just casual experimentation with a new way of attacking that had occurred to him recently.
This difference in mentality shaped the rest of the fight. Shisui began using more and more waterbending and even used his spiritual energy to interfere with Availuk's bending, stealing her 'water' at pivotal moments.
The streets were torn apart by the unbridled combat of the three benders, once again demonstrating the trouble these beings could cause.
Shisui took care not to harm the remaining citizens, including Water Tribe soldiers who occasionally appeared to provide support or report on the situation to the city government.
Earlier, Yue had ordered an evacuation before the Red Lotus attack, but some people remained in the conflict zones for various reasons. Thus, when there were no more civilians around, Shisui unleashed his full power, and chaos ensued.
Availuk was demonstrating large-scale attacks due to the stimulant she had ingested, but the Sage could do the same as her, if not more, with just body movements.
A 10-meter wave? Shisui threw an even bigger, denser, and heavier one at them! A big block of ice? Shisui could make it bigger, heavier, and colder.
The Sage swept through, crushing the gunmen, who were reduced to mere spectators, and shattering the rocks and minerals of Mei Qi, who constantly struggled to protect himself.
His actions particularly broke Availuk's psyche because they proved that he was a wall she could not overcome, no matter how hard she tried.
Even putting her life at risk didn't help! Chi is an energy connected to the body and mind. When one of these two faltered, the chi became disordered, losing its strength and quality.
Even if she had squeezed every last bit of life out of herself for an increase in power, how could she properly exert her strength with a collapsed mind? Even if she could, she could not compare to a monster like Shisui.
It was a painful truth she had learned the hard way. So when she felt Shisui accumulating a large amount of water around her and Mei Qi, she didn't try to run or warn them because she wanted to die.
Moreover, the stimulant's effect was wearing off; both she and her Earthbender companion's movements had become stiffer and slower, and their previous exuberant energy had disappeared completely.
Their skin cracked and lost much of its natural color, indicating serious physical problems. No one could prevent Shisui from creating a huge block of jagged ice that trapped the bodies of his fallen enemies, as well as the two female benders.
Impaled by the ice spikes, their bodies were raised higher than any building in Agna Qel'a, becoming visible to those who felt Shisui's powerful display.
Red blood tinged the great ice construct, and Availuk, feeling life slipping away, felt some relief. What had she been doing all this time? Couldn't she have been searching for a peaceful place to live? Were the ideals she had fought for really worth it?
On the verge of collapse, Availuk looked at Mei Qi, who was more injured than she was. Mei Qi was covered in small scratches caused by the rocks that had been loosened by the defensive walls Availuk had erected to protect her.
Even in her last moments, Mei Qi stood in front of Availuk to protect her. Though she couldn't, she made Availuk's injuries less severe, giving her these last moments of life. Shisui recognized this Earthbender, so he decided that he would bury her at the end of this matter so that she could rest in peace.
'In the end... Is it Fei's turn? I hope he can see the danger and run away.' These were Availuk's last thoughts before she died.
...
Fei, who was fighting a blind earthbender that had gotten in her way while she was trying to reach her companions, felt a pang of pain in her heart.
She was an expert in the art of fire divination, so her sixth sense was much better than average, and this feeling was as if she had lost something important.
Unfortunately, she would have no chance to know what exactly caused that strange feeling of loss in front of the black-haired young woman with an unbridled smile on her face.
"It's impolite to distract someone during a battle," said a voice. Suddenly, a rock spike erupted from the ground beneath Fei. She jumped to evade the attack and glared at her enemy with her golden eyes.
Despite the refusal of Shisui and the rest, the Earthbender, Toph, had decided that she would participate. How could she miss this fun moment? No one could stop her! Not even her parents could, much less her friends.
She ran away from where she was supposed to stay and ran into an enemy. Apparently, she was a firebender with keen instincts. Toph thought this as she gently groped the ground, taking in her surroundings.
"You earth peasant," complained Fei, causing Toph to scowl.
"At least I don't bathe in warm urine and call it soothing," Toph shot back, basing her insult on past experiences.
She was blind and had more highly developed senses than most, so she disliked the pungent smell of the hot springs, which were plentiful in the Fire Nation.
Although Fei did not understand the expression, she did not like the general meaning, so she created fire covering her fists. Adopting a fighting pose, she decided to respond.
"What can a blind woman like you know?"