A Short While Later. Central Square.
"Hrrrk... u-uhhhgh..." The staggering crowd shuffled toward the city gates.
"People of Omashu. There is an epidemic within the city. By order of the Fire Herald, you are to return to your homes. Leaving your homes except in cases of absolute necessity is forbidden. Attempting to leave the city is forbidden. You are ordered to reduce all contact with other people to the absolute minimum. Anyone who violates these orders will be burned."
"Uhhh..." The crowd slowed for a moment... but kept moving.
"People of Omashu..." the heralds shouted themselves hoarse.
"They're not stopping! What do we do?!" A young lieutenant turned toward the broad-shouldered warrior standing beside him.
The legendary Herald was certainly an imposing sight. Well over six and a half feet tall, with strange claw-like gauntlets covering one arm and one leg, and an intricate scar carved across his forehead.
"You have your orders, Lieutenant," the Fire Herald replied in a deep, rumbling voice.
"Y-Yes, sir." The young man bowed. "Archers! Ready!" The creak of bowstrings being drawn echoed from atop the walls.
Meanwhile, without so much as a gesture, the Fire Herald burned a black line into the ground before the gates with nothing but his gaze.
"Anyone who crosses this line will be killed immediately," he announced.
Then an old man took a step across the burning line.
The archers, already stretched to the breaking point, snapped. More than a dozen arrows buried themselves in the unfortunate resident's body.
Everything froze.
In utter silence, soldiers and civilians alike watched as the old man, riddled with arrows, slowly collapsed to the ground.
A heartbeat later...
His body caught fire.
The smell of burning flesh spread across the square.
Some of the townspeople, unable to stomach the sight, doubled over and vomited. Others fled in blind panic, desperate to get as far away from the walls as possible, suddenly "remembering" that Fire Nation soldiers were killers who knew neither mercy nor compassion.
Not everyone was so fortunate.
A terrified crowd is a dangerous beast, one that tears itself apart.
Panic turned into a stampede. People shoved, struck, and trampled one another, desperate to put as many obstacles as possible—including living ones—between themselves and what they believed was certain death.
It came as no surprise that, amid the chaos, one "master strategist" was accidentally crushed... or rather, slammed headfirst into the corner of a nearby building.
There were, however, those who managed to keep a cool head and tried to calm their panicking fellow citizens, doing whatever they could to keep the death toll to a minimum.
One such person spotted a small child who had somehow ended up in the middle of the panicked crowd. The child could have been crushed at any moment, so the unknown hero simply scooped them up into his arms and disappeared into the maze of narrow streets.
It was painfully obvious that the "brilliant" plan of that idiot fishhead had failed completely, and there was nothing left to do in the square.
***
Chan. Meanwhile.
I made my way down into the dungeons where the Fire Nation kept its most dangerous criminals and enemies. With panic sweeping the streets above, now was the perfect time to pull off a little operation and take another step toward gaining enough power to stand a chance against the Avatar.
For that, though, I needed Earthbenders.
And there was someone else I needed to pay a visit to as well.
The captured dirt-diggers were being held in solitary cells completely lined with metal. Demoralized, partially broken, weighed down by helplessness and vulnerability—they were almost the perfect subjects for practicing Energybending. Most importantly, one way or another, none of them would ever bend again.
As for the prison guards, we'd sent them upstairs for a stroll. I didn't need any unnecessary witnesses.
Well then. Time to begin.
The new Gift Theft went far more smoothly than before. Whether it was experience, my much greater reserves of life energy, or simply the condition of my donors, I couldn't say. Whatever the reason, the fact remained: not a single Earthbender even managed to let out a yelp before I drained them completely.
I'd been especially careful to avoid any deaths, and fortunately succeeded. The downside was that, to trigger another initiation, I had to completely drain not five average benders this time, but a full dozen.
If that pattern held true, Air would require twenty Airbenders for initiation... and we only had one. There were also the flying bison, but their chi was far more alien.
Or perhaps I really should start looking for the right Lion Turtle?
Quite the dilemma...
Absently spinning a pebble above my palm, I carefully observed the flow of energy and the currents of power within my own body.
Earth obeyed far more readily than Water. It demanded determination, willpower, command. In a way, it reminded me of a duel in the arena—no feints, no deception, no dirty tricks. Just an honest head-on assault and the mastery of pure swordsmanship.
It came rather naturally, especially with the foundation Tong had given me. Still, just like Water, even knowing all the theory, reaching a respectable level would take at least a couple of years of practice—and, naturally, I didn't have that kind of time.
So Earth would have to remain a supporting element—my trump card. Being able to sink into the ground in the middle of a battle and emerge behind the enemy lines was worth a great deal.
Now I just had to convince Toph to give me a master class.
Somehow, I had a feeling we'd be able to work something out.
Finished with the Earthbenders, I headed toward the very last cell.
The prison's solitary block for its most dangerous inmate.
The chamber was enormous, and like the previous one, it was completely lined with metal. The prisoners here weren't sitting or lying down. No—they were sealed inside steel coffins suspended from the ceiling, each with only two openings: one used both for feeding and washing, the other serving as a drain through which bodily waste was flushed away.
It was a genuinely horrifying device.
(End of Chapter)
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