Chapter 97: Chapter 97
She'd intercepted them all in such poor visibility? Despite herself, Tanya had to admit to being a little impressed. Katara really was growing stronger at an alarming rate. If she wasn't taken out as soon as possible, she would become a considerable threat to the Fire Nation one day.
All the more reason to kill her here and now.
...
Tanya closed in, building up a fiercer flame in her palm. With less time to react, and with her attention preoccupied on protecting her friend, Katara would naturally choose to block her next attack again. But a sufficiently hot blaze should be enough to blast through whatever paltry barrier her water could form.
One decisive blow in the right spot would sever her life quickly and relatively painlessly. The air around her hand shimmered and distorted in the heat as she drew closer, shaping the fire into a long blade-like shape the length of a broadsword and bearing it before her, turning her whole body into a gigantic arrow.
Suddenly the mist curled.
Illuminated by the firelight, Tanya could swear she could see each little individual droplet of water vapour suddenly turn and twist, as if dragged by a strong wind. Katara, it seemed, was surprisingly no stranger to bending mist and clouds as well. The water swirled back together to form a hefty ball of water in Katara's hand, and more crucially leaving the space between them clear and unobstructed.
Katara's eyes widened in surprise and she spotted Tanya charging towards her with a nearly white-hot flaming sword, but with the instincts of a true warrior her body lurched into action without hesitation, reshaping the ball of water in her hand into a matching sword of her own and immediately freezing it to such sub-zero temperatures that a trail of frost streaked through the air in its wake as she brought it up to block Tanya's blade.
Extreme cold met extreme heat, and the reaction was as violent as one would expect. Both blades hissed and spat spat like a nest of snakes in protest at meeting their polar opposite, and uncontrolled shards of stray ice and licks of flame burst out with such ferocity that both Tanya and Katara were forced to immediately hop back in retreat or risk losing an eye to the shrapnel.
For Tanya however, backing off was slightly more difficult due to needing to stay airborne. Regaining balance without touching a solid surface was tricky, and while Tanya was unmatched in the air, even she couldn't shift back to her centre of gravity faster than a trained fighter on the ground could. Katara was faster to regain her footwork, and thus the first to launch into a counterattack with her quickly reforming ice blade that forced Tanya on the defensive.
The blades hissed and crackled like sci-fi laser swords as the two girls duelled, Katara coming at her with renewed aggression, and Tanya struggling to deflect her strikes whilst staying airborne. The sudden switch in tactics from Katara had caught Tanya off guard, and she absently noted out of the corner of her eye that the earthbender had vanished, leaving only a patch up upturned earth in her wake.
Clever brat. She'd realised that she'd been doing more harm than help, and so had hidden herself beneath the earth where Tanya's flames couldn't reach her. The threat of a surprise attack from a hidden earthbender at any time, especially if she so much as grazed the ground, had suddenly turned the tables once again and put Tanya at the disadvantage.
Katara made a reckless lunge, and though Tanya threw herself to the side to avoid it she was just a little too slow. The icy blade scraped across from her collar bone to her right shoulder, drawing first blood and leaving a line of ugly, painful frost-burnt skin in its wake. Tanya hissed in pain and channelled a stronger blast of energy to her feet, using the opportunity to escape further upwards into the air and out of Katara's reach. Her fire sword dissipated into sparks as she brought her hand up to the gash, quickly applying heat to it to try and minimise the damage.
Down below, Katara took the opportunity to summon a stream of water from the nearby river, refreshing her immediate reserves. Once again Tanya was struck by the frightening pace at which Katara's skills were increasing. With the circumstances as they were, namely the unseen threat of the earthbender waiting below ground, Tanya was starting to fear she wouldn't win this fight.
A new strategy was required. Fortunately she had a backup plan.
...
Dart after dart of pale blue flames rained down upon him.
Aang staff spun around him in controlled spirals, smacking each of the darts aside as soon as they entered his reach. Azula's barrage of attacks was relentless, but he was a master of airbending, and had the instinctive hand-to-eye coordination needed to deflect small projectiles like these. The real challenge was keeping up the level of focus for so long, as despite the incredible amount of fire she was throwing, Azula's accuracy never wavered for a second. Every dart was on target to hit a vital area if it wasn't deflected, and a second one was often following right in its wake.
In a match of who could stay concentrated for the longest, Aang had his doubts that he could prevail against the frighteningly intense princess. He needed to break out of this situation. As he swung his staff into the next deflection, Aang turned his whole body with it, spinning on the balls of his feet.
The wind moved with his command, wrapping around him like a familiar cloak and quickly whisking his spin up to dizzying speeds. Fire darts bounced off of the miniature hurricane that formed around him as Aang spun like a spinning top, curving towards the shelter of a nearby building.
Azula was not so easily deterred however. In the span of a single breath her mind worked away with streamlined efficiency, making note of the capabilities of this new technique, predicting the Avatar's intentions and calculating a new optimal path for achieving victory.
Then, without hesitation, her body moved, sprinting towards the same building. Out of the corner of her eye she tracked The Avatar, but her gaze was fixed on a large hole in the roof of the decrepit house. Flames erupted from her hands as she reached the nearest wall, giving her the additional momentum needed to continue running straight up it without a break in her stride.
As Aang broke out of his spin and ducked for cover inside the ruined house, it was pure luck that he spotted a human-shaped shadow suddenly appear amidst a patch of light being cast upon the wall.
Yet it was skill that had him reacting as quickly as he did, swirling around with his staff twirling like a propeller as a fresh stream of blue fire rained down upon his head. The air howled wildly around his staff, thrusting the flames aside, but the aged, rotten timber of the house was the perfect kindling for the stray flames to claim. Azula's flames lost their blue lustre as they caught and hungrily began to devour the house, which in the span of only a few seconds became a flaming deathtrap.
Yet where there was fire, there was smoke. Grey tendrils of sooty wisps began to fill the room, and in them Aang saw an opportunity. He sped up the twirling of his staff, and the spiralling current of air intensified, catching the musty smoke in its wake. The smoke swirled into the propeller that Aang's staff had become and shot forwards in a thick vortex of grey, aimed right at the hole Azula was standing in.
The crown princess of the Fire Nation hacked and coughed as the stream of condensed smoke slapped into her. While not immediately damaging, it stung at her eyes and choked her lungs violently, and it was clear that holding her position was not a sustainable strategy. She leapt back off the roof, back to the ground, and glared balefully at the hole that now belched smoke like a chimney. Would the Avatar use that as his escape route, or try his luck breaking through the flames surrounding him? Knowing airbenders, she expected he'd take the path of least resistance and use the hole.
Moments later her guess was proven correct, as the Avatar popped out of the plume of smoke in one huge leap, sailed through the air, and landed on the roof of the next building across.
There was a momentary pause in combat: Azula playing for time to let her eyes stop stinging, and Aang naturally reluctant to attack first and instigate violence. As the two opponents sized each other up, a crooked grin crossed Azula's face.
"I must confess, you're a slier opponent than I gave you credit for." She called out. "I finally understand why Zuko and Tanya have had so much trouble with you."
"This fight is pointless." Aang called back. "Even if you capture me, what will change? The Earth Kingdom will still continue to resist you."
Azula chuckled mirthlessly. "That's the whole point. Two out of three nations are out, and although they might dig their heels in, the truth is that the Earth Kingdom are only stalling their own inevitable defeat. I highly doubt that even the mighty Avatar can turn back the tide of war at this point, but your freedom presents a threat that might yet cause complications. That is something we cannot allow."
"So you'd lock me away because of something I haven't even done yet? Is that Fire Nation justice?"
Azula shook her head ruefully. "You airbenders are too reactive. That's your problem. You wait until the world is already in motion around you before you do anything, not realising that those who strike first win.
We in the Fire Nation understand that sometimes you have nip a problem in the bud before it even has a chance to sprout. If we hadn't launched an invasion of the rest of the world first, eventually someone would have invaded us. History has proven that time and time again."
Aang raised an eyebrow. "So you attack first because you're scared of being attacked by others. That doesn't sound like the brave firebenders of old I remember."
Azula scowled, and with a thrust of her hand unleashed a fresh stream of fire at him.
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AN :
Hey everyone! I just wanted to let you know that I've started a new fanfic about Tanya in the Star Wars universe. We've already reached Chapter 10!
I if you're interested. you can read it on my P atreon
p atreon.com/Rimanovi