Boss

The first earthbender smashed through the window of the tunnel, surrounded by a ball of earth, rendering the first barrage of fire useless, merely being reflected off of the stone shield. He lowered his defenses in time for two more of his compatriots to storm through the tunnel viewports, one bending the tunnel wall to fold in on itself crushing a soldier who had been unfortunately in close proximity to it, burying him into the stone of the mountain, leaving me to window if it was suffocation or crushing that he would die by. The other earth bender brought up a column of earth in front of his, blocking a stream of fire, punching the top half of it off to collide into the firebender in front of him, knocking him out, possibly even crushing his insides and killing the man, but there was no time to keep tally.

With the last bolt in my crossbow, I fired at the original bender who had come through the window, putting it straight into his heart as it pierced past his measly armor, splintering the shards of it, sending even more straight into his chest, causing him to drop to the ground a half-second later, dead. I dropped the crossbow, unsheathing my sword as I struck at the third bender, only hitting another column of earth he had brought up. I remembered what had happened to the last man who had met such a defense, and so, I ducked, evading the cube of earth that barely missed me as he punched it forward, hardly managing to dislodge my blade from it in time as it shot forward, crashing against the rear wall of the tunnel. I brought my sword around once more, hidden behind the base of his shield, and leaped over it, digging my blade into his throat as he dropped to the floor, turning to see the second earthbender had already been brought down by Gordez, a red throat marking how the man had died.

By that time, however, the battle was only beginning. Yilie was now armed for combat, a growing flame in his right hand as he turned to the tunnel PA system, yelling "Detonate tunnels C and D!"

There was a slight delay, but soon enough, the mountain on which we stood shook with such ferocity that I expected the floor below us to cave in at any moment and send us into the unforgiving sea below.

More earthbenders were now storming into the tunnels, their turtle-shell of a defense now directly over our tunnels, not even allowing light to enter. Our defenses were now divided in two, the Earth Kingdom-occupied artillery gun marking the center. On its left, were me, Gordez, and a few other soldiers while on the right, Yilie stood his ground with his men, and the Earth Kingdom's center flank was spreading out, and their reserves were now storming in, their nonbenders, and luckily, we were their targets, and such was our relief for the time being.

Quite literally backed against the wall, our minimal force: me, Gordez, and 3 other Fire Nation soldiers stood our ground.

Gordez by my side, I evaded the spear thrust of an Earth Kingdom soldier, slicing through its shaft, disabling the weapon as Gordez thrust his sword into the soldier's side and I into his chest, grabbing him with my arm to dislodge my blade and shove it into the heart of the Earth Kingdom soldier in front of me as Gordez dispatched another, leading to the charge of another Earth Kingdom soldier charging through the center between the two of us until a spear held by one of our compatriot soldiers was shoved into his stomach. The man fell, and the soldier reached forward to retrieve his spear until an arrow took him in the heart and he fell backward. There were 4 of us now, and 3 Earth Kingdom archers directly in front of us, 2 of whom were ready to fire. I evaded left, dropping to the ground, and Gordez right, hugging the wall as two arrows shot past us.

A Fire Nation soldier behind us, thankfully till wielding his bow, brought down the center Earth Kingdom bowman as another soldier rushed forward, kill the leftmost archer and Gordez dispatched the rightmost. We were moving forward now, nearing the center mass of the battle as Gordez killed an Earth Kingdom axeman, and one of our soldiers will a spearman until his body was hurled into the rear wall of the cave by a slab of earth that popped out of the ground, crushing him instantly, and releasing his broken body and spilling guts. I could now see the soldier who wielded this chunk of the ground, and so ducked as to avoid its spiral that still managed to take the torso of the Fire Nation soldier in front of me off form his legs.

I rolled forward, bringing my blade up in an arc to take off his left arm from below as Gordez, with a hefty swing of his sword, took off the man's head from his neck.

It was just the two of us now on this flank, the bodies of the fallen littering the tunnel floors. We looked to each other with the mutual understanding that it all came down to this, and so we advanced, forward, together, not much else more to do with the wall to our backs. Just like old times.

So we went forward, I slashed off the arm of a swordsman as Gordez caught the blade, turning it in his hands, sinking the blade into the man's stomach, allowing him to bleed out as we pushed forward and I drove my sword through a man's neck as he dropped his spear which I managed to grab and sink into a third man's stomach as he fell to the floor after Gordez had sliced straight through his ankle, removing his foot from his leg. I was now to Gordez's right and him to my left as we pushed further ahead, drawing ever nearer to the center flank, which was now dispersing more, shifting ever closer to Yilie's waning flank.

I watched as an earthbender dropped a boulder atop one of our own's headed, smashing it into a pulp of red gore. Feeling particularly vengeful, I stabbed my blade into his side, twisting it so as to have the blade face upwards and pulled, opening his side as Gordez cut through his leg, dropping the man to bleed to death in a pile of his own organs.

I leaped over the man's bleeding remains, now on Gordez's left side once more, and cut the neck of an unwary swordsman who was watching the battle ahead of him in awe, unaware of the approaching threat behind us. And that, me and Gordez certainly were. Gordez ripped a stubbed warhammer out of the grip of a larger man who Gordez was able to overpower with his sheer strength, swinging the hammer into the man's skull, fusing his head with the tunnel's walls. The Earth Kingdom's nonbending division, at least those deployed into the tunnel, seemed to have waned to hardly any left at all as the earthbenders led the fight, now more dispersed, no longer a single moving mass of fury, but engaging the full length of the tunnel into bloody combat, no single area truly secure, but we had reached where the artillery gun was now that Gordez had been working on, and nearly fixed earlier. The earthbenders, fortunately for us, hadn't bothered to completely destroy the gun, but believing the tunnel secure, had left it.

Gordez shifted his attention to the gun, kneeling down, almost slipping on the blood-soaked stone, inspecting the gun as I held our ground, making a diagonal slice across the chest of a swordsman who had thought to take me in single combat.

"How's it looking, Gordez?!" I yelled.

"The gun's almost ready to fire. I just have to find support to prop it up!"

I turned looking for anything that would suffice, and with my foot, shoved the body of the soldier I had just killed to the gun. Me and Gordez managed to lift the gun and prop the broken leg on the troop's corpse, perfectly propping up the gun.

"We good?!" I asked, eager to turn the tide to our favor and hopefully sink this damned dreadnought that seemed to be spawning more soldiers by the second.

"Behind you!"

I turned, by sheer instinct ducked the Earth Kingdom axe, and swung my blade across the man's stomach, allowing his intestines to seep to the ground like raw noodles.

"Are we good?!" I yelled, turning back to Gordez.

"No! We need a firebender. And we need to get this damn turtle shell off of the cliffside. I can't fire with this damned thing in the way!"

"On it!"

I turned. I had to find the PA. It was a short way behind us, where we'd already come from. The way was clear. I rushed towards it, picking up the speaker and placing my ear to the mic, asking, "Hello. Hello. Is anyone there?!"

I waited a few seconds before repeating, "Hello?! Is anyone there?! Please pick up!"

"Governor?" was the response. "Is that you?" It was Zetsu. Where was Hide? I hadn't exactly had the first impression of him when Yilie assigned his commanders. Here was hoping he proved me wrong right now.

"Lieutenant Zetsu. I need you to order your men to destroy the turtle shell. We can't fire the gun without it. And I'll be needing Luke to help man the-"

"Did the governor give you this order?"

"Yilie and I are cut off. He doesn't have access to the gun. We do and we need to fire it now!"

"I don't take orders from you. Only the governor. And we're busy fighting our own battle up here. I can't spare my only bender for you!"

"Zetsu! If we don't take out this ship. They'll continue to bombard the island and it won't matter which fucking bender is where!"

There was no answer.

"Zetsu!?" Nothing. "Fuck!"

"Anything?!" Gordez asked.

"Nothing. I'll do it myself."

I looked ahead deeper into the tunnel, where the fighting went on. I could just barely see the stairway that led above to the ground level, guarded by Yilie and the remains of his guard. I had to get there. I had to get there now.

I rushed past Gordez. The rearguard of earthbenders was now starting to notice Gordez and I wasted no time covering him as he defended the gun with his life. I ducked so as to dodge the first one's disk, recovered, sprinted forward and dodging left, nearly falling out of the tunnel into the sea below, dodging a flying boulder, barely making it forward to cut the first earthbender's neck, turning in one continuous swing to slice the other across the chest, allowing both to drop in one fell swoop.

Another wave of earthbenders were coming into the tunnel now. One, propelled by the earth he used as a spring below him, dived into the tunnel behind me in one marvelous motion that even the beauty of could not save him from my sword as I sliced his stomach, turning as I heard the thunk of his corpse fall behind me. I continued forward, saving a Fire Nation soldier on the ground who was about to be impaled by an earthbender's pike, stabbing my sword through the man's side, shoving him forward to the ground, stomping on his face so as to end the threat, using my foothold on his face as leverage so as to dislodge my blade and bring it to a swing against an Earth Kingdom bowman who was raining shots on Yilie's defense, slicing through the top of his head, cutting it in two like an overripe melon as he fell to the ground, dead before I could hear the thunk.

An earthbender wielding two hammers saw me then, using the hammers to bend, raising rock with one and firing it towards me with the other. I dodged right, preparing my sword for a swing until the mountain shook with even more ferocity than it did last time. Tunnel B just blew up. It was just us now. I recovered my footing before my opponent could, and I brought down my sword in a cut that went from the bridge of his nose to his chest, opening his face in a vile matter than I forced myself to disregard, as I shoved past him in a desperate effort to get to Yilie. I had to keep on moving. The second wave of earthbenders had entered the tunnel and were quickly approaching. I prayed that Gordez would be able to defend the gun.

I reached the front line of the tunnel where a line of 3 earthbenders forged a moving barrier of solid stone, their backs to me, slowly approaching where Yilie was making his last stand.

I shoved my sword through the back of the center soldier. The structure collapsed, him having provided the most support. The two men to both sides of where he had just stood prior to losing his life now turned to me, readying to end my life then and there until Yilie's guards shoved their own spears through the chests of the two in one synchronized motion, bringing the two of them down directly in front of me as they moved past me to extend the defensive line.

"You're alive," Yilie said in amazement. The man was torn up, covered, in blood, muck, and ash. I was just as surprised to see him alive as he was in regard to me.

"For now," I said. "I need to get to the surface. We need to take out the turtle shell so we can get the gun to fire."

"It's fixed, then?!"

"Yes. I just need a firebender to man it."

"All of mine are dead. Hide might have some still alive above."

"Hide's gone. Zetsu's in charge."

"Damnit. Get up there and relieve my uncle. I'll try to pave a way to the gun for you. Maybe try to kill Fong if I find that hiding coward. Now go!"

I nodded and rushed past him up the stairs. 2 Fire Nation swordsmen who were guarding the other end of the stairs quickly rushed back down to aid in Yilie's push towards the gun. I was on the surface now, and Yilie hadn't been lying. It was hell above. Boulders from The Iron Ram's catapults were raining down on the field, indiscriminatory between their own forces and ours. The earth was littered in mangled bodies, uniforms undistinguishable from one another by the blood and muck covering their corpses, more dirt being shot into the air with every boulder that came crashing down from the heavens above.

I sprinted out of the tunnel, a fresh explosion of fire, rock, and dirt to my right, splattering me in its debris as I continued to rush forward, pushing past a Fire Nation soldier who was stumbling around, not looking in any particular direction, merely lost in the field.

I scanned around me, looking past the shattered remains of our own catapults, nearly impossible to discern in the sky that had been plagued with the ash of the conflict, shrouding the midday sun for all of us. In the distance, however, I could see the streams of Fire emitting into the air, lighting figures aflame. Luke.

I made my way there, slicing through an Earth Kingdom soldier who was stumbling for his weapon on the ground, cutting straight through the nape of his neck, ending his search then and there. I was thrown to the ground by another catapult boulder to my immediate left, but somehow managed to regain my footing, dodging an earthbender's disk that struck where I had been on the floor seconds ago. Before he could launch his next projectile, I charged toward him, shoving my sword all the way through to his back, lodging the blade so deep in that there was no hope for recovery. I abandoned it, sprinting towards the firebender who I could now see stood beside multiple other figures in the field of war, the last Fire Nation fortification up above, holding their ground by the metallic beast that was Shanzi.

Defenseless, I tried my damndest to avoid the other figures in the field, both Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation alike, not knowing who, in the chaos of all that surrounded me, would take me as the enemy.

I was nearly there, nearly to where Luke was, where they were being besieged by an entire Earth Kingdom siege. Without missing a beat, I grabbed the first weapon I could off of the ground, only learning it was a hammer by the time I brought it down of the back of the closest soldier's head, caving in his skull and bringing him to the ground. The one who had been to his left turned to face me, raising his own hammer until an arrow exited through his skull between his two eyes, sending him straight down in front of me, an arrow I saw to have belonged to Jadoh. The rest of the Earth Kingdom siege line had spotted me now, and moved to intercept me, but in doing so, they had taken their attention off of Luke, who, with a prolonged stream of fire, ignited the line of soldiers, their screams the last noises they made as they fell to the ground, opening the way for me to enter the defensive area that my own mercenaries had established.

Luke looked to me, now seeing who it was, and nodded. I nodded back and turned to Jadoh who was crouched atop the tank with a crossbow. He had no bragging words. He had no complaints. He loaded another bolt and looked at me, nodding as well. We all had that day, where in the midst of hell, we forgot everything we use to have: our anger, our fear, and became what we all were: soldiers. Today was that day for Jadoh.

I moved past him, moving further into the minimal Fire Nation defensive zone, the only bit of Zetsu I could find being his corpse, punctured by numerous earthen shards, slumped against the PA stand. There was no point relieving him now. So who was in charge?

In that moment, somebody shoved past me, moving to the other end of the defensive line, saying, "Draw back to the tank! Move the front flank further inwards to secure the tunnel." A voice I recognized. "Zek!" I yelled. The man who the voice had belonged to turned towards me, and he saluted, "Boss!"

"What's the situation?!"

"Captain Hide died of his wounds. Zetsu by artillery. There was no second in command so I'm trying to organize the defense."

"Doing well, all things considered, but I'm going to need you for a second. Order your men to extend the front to the cliffside. I need enough barrels of blasting jelly rained down on the turtle shell to bring it down so we can get our gun firing. I'll be needing Luke too."

"Boss. We're undermanned as is, and I need Luke's help to defend the line."

"I'll take his place, but we need a firebender down below as soon as possible."

"But we can't extend our line. I can't spare anyone to take down that turtle shell. Besides, the Earth Kingdom has overrun our supply of jelly."

"Boss!" I heard Luke say. There's another way to fire the gun!"

I turned to hear his suggestion but before he could speak, amidst the chaos of the siege, I heard the words spoken, "Riders approaching!" I turned to see where the said subject was, turning to see that, through the gap in the line we had created, another soldier had entered the line, one of ours, no, not one of ours, but not Earth Kingdom either. The town's own security forces, mounted on an ostrich horse, barely making it past the gap in the Earth Kingdom's lines that we had just created. "I need to find governor Yilie!" he cried. "Where is he?!"

"Down below! What's the matter?!"

"He needs to know. The beach is under attack! Another ship came in! More earthbenders! They're attacking the town, making their way to the mountain!"

A second ship?

I looked around me, the eyes on the faces of the men around me said as much as the news had. The look that said all was lost. No. No we could still work this out. I turned to Luke. Behind the fire in his eyes, I could see the grimness that said he knew he would die here, but such didn't have to be the case. "Luke!" I called. "The other idea. What is it?"

"We can bring the blasting jelly down to the tunnels, use it to ignite the gun and launch the shells."

"Then here's what we'll do," I said. "I'm taking command of what forces we have up here. We'll secure the blasting jelly, take out the turtle, and fire the gun. We're abandoning this front. Luke, Jadoh, take the messenger and get back to the town. I need you to take Shanzi and get there as soon as possible. Defend the civilians and don't let the Earth Kingdom get up this mountain. Stop them while there's still something left of this island." Luke nodded, not needing another moment to even consider what I was asking him to do, to face an invasion force of Earth Kingdom soldiers face to face. He turned to Jadoh then to deliver the news. I turned to Zek then, "Zek," I said, you and I will rally what's left of our forces and secure the ammunition. We'll take down that turtle shell, clear the way for our artillery, and take out the dreadnought." Zek, nodded, clearly relieved that he could stay with the forces he'd dedicated the entirety of the battle to organizing as best as he could given the circumstances.

I turned to what was left of the diminishing Fire Nation forces. "Fire Nation," I called, and what few soldiers remained, 7 as I could count, turned to me, likely ready to accept any degree of leadership after the excuse that was Zetsu. "We will not win this fight by holding on to this mountain side. The only way to save this island, the only way to save your families living here, to protect everything you hold dear, is to blow The Iron Ram to kingdom come! And that's precisely what I aim to do! If you care to help me out with this, then rally on me!"

Somehow, the yells of the soldiers managed to even eclipse the roaring of Shanzi's engine coming to life. Jadoh was entering the tank after Luke and the messenger until I stopped him, saying, "Jadoh." He turned. "I need a weapon." With no hesitation, with no malice, but with the simple knowledge of what was at stake, he reached into the tank, pulling out a steel shortsword, throwing it to me by the hilt which I managed to catch. I nodded to him, and him to me prior to him speeding off to what could very well be his death.

The men were rallied on me now, I could see the stash of blasting jelly, amidst the chaos of the fight. Without the tank, we had no cover, and we were still surrounded by the Earth Kingdom siege line, but serving in the military for most of my life has taught me one thing, and that was how to read the face of a soldier, and the faces around me, they told me that we had a chance, that the anger, the desperation, the will to win was greater than anything the Earth Kingdom could throw at us, and so we charged.