========= 13 - Two pseudo-Avatars ==========
The towering figure of a magician dressed in torn and crumpled rags instilled a sense of hopelessness in the small, trembling, moustached trickster. A creature that was dead but somehow possessed a physical form, Afka couldn't even comprehend the possibility of something so absurd. As she stared at the rough face, her mind raced, gathering together a multitude of factors that might help her escape this situation. After all, the only thing the small and weak fox had was the power of her mind.
The False Avatar, Yoon, had a lot in common with Dagoth, including the fact that he was mistaken for the Avatar because of his remarkable talent for magic, diplomacy, and strategy. However, unlike Dagoth, he performed the duties of the Avatar with great skill, resolving conflicts that seemed impossible to resolve, helping the weak and helpless, and demonstrating a power that everyone took seriously as that of the Avatar. There was one thing in his life that he could not do: communicate with spirits and master the other elements.
History has not preserved accurate information about why he managed to hold out for so long using only earth, but Wang Shi Tong, who was rarely interested in mere mortals, suggested a couple of possibilities: either it was all a brilliant deception that fooled stupid mortals, or he was also an excellent copycat of other nations' fighting styles, like Dagoth.
But one thing was clear: he could not have had a physical embodiment at that moment in time! Yun died a very violent death, Kioshi struck his internal organs with ice, shattering them into pieces, ending the story of one of the most powerful and tragic human mages.
Well... at least that's what one would think. Having managed to calm down somewhat, realising that Dagoth was still alive and that her connection to him had not been broken, Afka realised that the False Avatar's body was still exuding spiritual energy. She could draw an analogy with herself — it was like having a shell, but at any moment you could turn the world inside out, only people were usually incapable of doing so unless they used the powers of some kind of spirits. It would simply mean that after his death, Yoon had carefree gone to the world of souls and quietly conquered a small part of it.
"Of course, Yoon himself killed one of the all-seeing guardians of that world. Father Firefly may have been the embodiment of evil for humans, but he kept order and prevented mistakes like this from happening. Is his spirit still there? Surely, otherwise Dagoth couldn't have been caught so easily — I wouldn't have been able to escape myself."
As soon as her stream of consciousness formed a single plan of action, Afka sat her tense butt down on the ground and, without raising her head so as not to appear overly arrogant, let alone bold, declared her desire for peaceful negotiations. Disagreements must be put aside in order to exchange experiences — the instincts of the spirit of knowledge themselves spoke of this, but there was one thing that her clever head could not predict:
"I hate humans and spirits, we have nothing to discuss," he said with contempt, glaring at the fox. Straightening his palm, he made the edge of his stone glove sharp and pointed. "The only problem is that you wanted to determine my location.
"Fyur!" Closing her eyes, Afka squinted in fear at the approaching hand, capable of cutting her in half with a slight movement... but a second passed, then two, and nothing happened. Opening her eyes, she saw a hand digging into the ground, which had finally reached the place where she was sitting." "Did you miss? No, did I move myself?!"
This Yoon stood with a cheeky expression on his face and looked somewhere to the side. He looked as if he was staring intently at something, although simple human vision is incapable of seeing anything in such impenetrable darkness. But he managed it.
He listened very carefully to something, and the moment a forest of sharp, large thorns began to grow under his feet for some reason, he instantly struck the ground and destroyed the area that was supposed to be affected by the magic. The very foundation shook as if an earthquake had begun.
"You survived? You're strong," Yoon turned to a man standing nearby, dressed in light, tight-fitting sand-coloured armour. Afka didn't even hear him approach, so quickly did he appear. The fact that their opponent had succeeded did not bode well. It wasn't hard to guess... The genius Yoon had seismic sensitivity!
***
It was difficult to collect his thoughts and gather his strength while his head was splitting so violently. My senses clearly told me that I had flown into a large hill and demolished it, and that my entire body was about to turn into one huge bruise. And I clearly remembered everything that had happened...
It happened almost instantly. My eyes didn't catch the movement of the creature that sent me flying, but a split second before the impact, my senses told me that huge stone gloves were rushing towards me. Mass plus speed was a deadly combination that almost led to my demise. I managed to save myself with silver beads, turning them into a sand shield — if it weren't for the enormous level of control that allowed me to do such things without moving, and the fact that the beads were always close to my head, that place would have been my grave.
"That hit was stronger than Boomi's, the strongest earth mage I've ever seen. And supposedly the oldest," said Yoon... Has he really kept his sanity? His mind should have gone haywire after Kioshi killed him. But if he managed to find a way to protect himself, that explains why I sense a calm, balanced, but quick qi in him. He bypassed the seventh chakra to go beyond the limits of human ability, which was what Oza had planned to do. But how did he manage to get here so quickly if Afka said it would take a whole day? Earth magic? That seems unlikely, even with his sand armour, it's difficult to move at such a speed, and he only used stone gloves. So it must be the power of some kind of spirit...
Getting to my feet and picking up the dust and sand that was falling around me, I wrapped it around my body and cracked my fingers. Yoon is incredibly skilled and strong, but he didn't live to see the conquests of Chin and didn't know how cunning the magic of the earth could be. I must show that I have inherited the legacy of the greatest people of the Kioshi era.
Vshukh*
"Hey, False Avatar," I said, covering a considerable distance in a flash and bringing my silver staff, which was playing with electrons, down on him. Levitating fans were pressed against my hands, allowing me to use their advantages without losing the freedom of my hands. "That's what a stone strike is."
He looked at me strangely and only managed to blink. Accelerating the movement of my hand, I hooked the staff into the ground and tore out a whole section of the hill. The staff turned into the handle of a giant club, which was accelerated by the movements of the fans. The twenty-metre boulder simply shook all the hills and caused a giant network of cracks that could reach even the capital.
"Those who call me by that disgusting title don't usually live very long," came a restrained voice as the head of my "club" was cut in pieces by a single palm placed in its path. And it didn't just cut through the stone, it deformed its walls, preventing me from blowing up the boulder and using it as a fragmentation grenade. So it wasn't just my imagination — he had sensory perception and, like Tof, could predict my next moves.
Vshukh-shukh*
The hill I had thrown changed its properties right before my eyes, so strangely that even reading the energy, I didn't understand what had happened. It was difficult to call it the creation of magma, since the temperature of the object did not change in any way, and it did not turn into mud, but the stone simply crumbled into a viscous state. Its properties changed, becoming many times more elastic and acquiring surface tension.
"He knows the style of water mages!"
Two streams rushed at me, combining the best of both elements. Huge drops surrounded me on both sides, almost immediately squeezing me into a stone vice so dense that even the force of fans would have difficulty breaking it.
Splash*
In an instant, the drops of liquid stone scattered around, causing Afka, who was standing a short distance away, to open her mouth. She had seen this too often with Dagoth — a technique that attempted to mimic other elements, replicating the power of the Avatar. This Yun had truly found his counterparts in other elements.
"I am not the False Avatar. Because my desire is to become real," Yung clenched his hands, slowly twisting them, causing the huge piece of stone to shrink with every passing second. At first, it resembled a hill, but now it was a small hut, and soon it condensed into a sphere three metres across.
Dagota was supposed to turn it into a slimy substance consisting of flesh and blood. He was unable to take control because Yoon's pure earth magic was abnormally strong even for the current era... but the sphere simply began to bulge. Large blisters appeared, as if it were bursting from internal pressure, and then magma burst out from a couple of places under high pressure.
As soon as all this matter melted, Dagoth opened the flaps of his defence, like some kind of lotus leaves, and finally looked silently at Yuna, who was stunned by such a trick. Even a genius did not know what to do.
"Only Avatars can control lava?
"Apparently, you're way behind in your progress, Yuna," he said casually, resting both hands on his staff, as if allowing the lava around him to take over his defence. But at the same time, his mind was in turmoil. "He's not using his speed. Is there some kind of limitation, or maybe even a condition? Perhaps using spirits is very labour-intensive."
"I see, so you accelerate the movement of matter and at the same time change its properties. That's an interesting trick. Science must have advanced greatly since my death," but putting his hands to his chin, he studied Dagoth's movements, not so quickly, but with interest. He was like an inventor who had been shown a new and interesting tool.
"So, maybe we have something in common after all?" squealed Afka, who was afraid to even be on the same archipelago as these two.
"You obviously don't understand," Yuna's face began to frown. "You used spirits to search for me. That means you're in cahoots with powerful beings, most likely with the knowledge seeker Wang Shi Tong. And he is my enemy.
"Af! - Afka puffed up her tail with excitement.
"I will never believe that you are not just pawns in the game of these ancient beings. All spirits are just disgusting manipulators who fear me because of my abilities. So there are two options: either you deliberately tried to find me to hand me over to the supreme spirit, or... you serve him and carry out his orders without even knowing it, which is even worse," Yung stood up again in the stance he had taken when he appeared and tensed his opponents as much as possible. "I'm used to simply subjugating them.
The top layer of soil in the immediate vicinity turned into tiny dust, demonstrating completely absurd control. "The power of the spirit," thought Afka and Dagoth, until the dust itself took off. Its speed instantly surpassed Dagoth's best tricks, it rubbed against the air and instantly ignited, demonstrating something similar to Yoon's fire magic. The entire area within a hundred metres flashed like an aerosol explosion, and some of the dust before igniting delivered a pinpoint strike against the enemies.
And only at that moment, when even the capital was illuminated by such a bright flash, as if the sun itself had risen, did Dagoth understand.
"It's not the spirit of speed that allows him to become indescribably fast. It's the spirit of the earth that actually allows him to accelerate the movement of stones! That's why his basic earth magic is so powerful."
It seemed like history was repeating itself. I was facing a creature capable of replicating any earth magic technique a hundred times better. The same thing happened to Aang when they first met — Yun is even stronger now. His experience and the spirit's help allow him to achieve incredible combined power. Even an iron golem would not be enough against such a foe, and his level of control amazes even me.
"But you're lagging behind in your development...
Vshukh*
Taking a step forward, I stepped out of the burnt dust zone in thick armour, the right half of which was made of crystals and held Afka in a convenient crystal barrier. It would be impossible to break it with some kind of dust explosion, and even a stone would have trouble with it. The left side of my armour was covered with a burning magma crust, the temperature outside reached one and a half thousand degrees, and inside it felt cool and refreshing. Armour for absolute protection and attack.
"I just wanted to talk, but you got carried away by your anger. Don't worry, I'll make you listen," I said, raising my lava limb and forming a bubble in my palm, which exploded, releasing particles of red-hot rock under very high pressure.
"Pff!
Yun easily noticed the attack and casually put up his stone gloves, which consisted of an array of compressed stones... it was immediately clear that he had no experience fighting enemies with sensory abilities. And he himself did not know how to counter them. One hit on Yun's armour caused most of the stone to crumble. His fingers opened, a huge layer simply crumbled away, all because I copied his own compression technique. That magnificent move he tried to crush me with turned out to be an excellent lesson in the power of earth magic - magma also yielded.
this influence, and the small lump, before melting, was actually not such a small boulder.
"You think that's all I can do? - Throwing his limbs up sharply, he lifted himself up on a strange piece of rock. It resembled a giant hand, and a couple more appeared nearby, only this time they were looking in my direction. Levitating limbs were literally his main move, which even Kioshi had inherited. I didn't expect him to have so many arms under his control — ten, twenty, thirty, and their number kept growing!
Until he struck the air, sending each limb towards me.
"Without sensory perception, there's no way to dodge that."
Feeling the movement of every pebble, I closed my eyes and gave free rein to my sixth sense, raising my right hand.
Crack*
Giant crystals grew like a glacier, forming a mountain of sharp peaks. Every pebble and Yuna's technique were buried in the reinforced and rapidly growing jammonyte. Even a genius has a lot to learn, such as changing the properties of a crystal and accelerating its growth many times over. Except that Ci spent a lot - the jammonyte is eating him up.
"Every movement you made changed the properties of the earth. I really needed to see that in someone else to be able to reproduce your ideas," I said, flying into the air and looking down at the guy frozen in crystal, who had already caused the crystal to crack. I brought a tightly compressed piece of silver sand closer to my mouth. "I began to understand the magical essence of the sixth chakra thanks to you.
By changing the electrical conductivity of the iron around me and accumulating a charge in the stone, I made Yuna, who was looking at me, shudder.
"How can you use magic in the air? And how can you copy me so quickly?!
"Property alteration. Railgun.BDUZ*
A piece of metal shot through the air and shattered my crystal glacier into pieces. Electricity flowed through it like water, and the changed properties of the crystal were the final chord. There was the genius of the earth, Yoon, but he was fried by electricity.
"It's good that he's just a spirit with a physical shell.