38 Chapter 38

"Katara, be careful!" a girl shouted, and with a stomp on the ground, she pushed Katara aside with a thrust of earth.

A fireball flew to the spot where Katara had just been, scattering flames across the ground.

Aang, Katara, and the new girl, a master of earthbending, braced themselves for battle.

I emerged from behind another rock where I had been hiding just moments before.

"How did you notice me? I'm certain I didn't make a sound, rid myself of all scents, and didn't even focus my attention on you. How were you able to detect me?" I asked the earthbender.

"So I told you. Who even are you?!" she asked me, taking a stance, ready to use her bending.

"Hey, where's your brother? Did I hit him hard last time? Now I don't feel him anywhere..." I said, looking around for emphasis, ignoring the earthbender's question.

In response to my question, ice needles flew at me, which I dodged effortlessly, but continued to watch the group of children relaxedly.

"You killed Sokka!" she screamed, and new ice needles and sharp ice discs flew at me, while I dodged water whips a couple of times.

Meanwhile, Aang and the earthbender did nothing, perhaps letting Katara vent all her anger on me. After all, it seems I had taken her brother's life...

Or they didn't want to hurt Katara, whom I kept in the line of attack of the remaining two. It's good they didn't think to split up.

"So he really died then?" I asked when Katara stopped attacking, catching her breath. "Pity, I liked him the most out of your little group. Well, dead is dead..."

"Aaaaah!" with a scream, she attacked me again with new strength and enthusiasm as a waterbender.

Gradually, as she attacked, I closed the distance between us, and finally, ducking under another water whip, I dashed toward Katara, quickly closing the distance while dodging a rock that sprang from the ground to meet me.

Closing the distance to Katara, I hit her in several points with pinched fingers, depriving her of the ability to use her bending for some time, then with an elbow strike to the face to disorient her, and moving behind her, I twisted one arm and grabbed her neck with the other. In this position, I turned to face the remaining two.

In my hand appeared a fire dagger, aimed at Katara's heart but stopped millimeters from her skin, allowing her to feel the heat of the flame and burning through her clothes.

"Now, dear loafers, we can talk. Hey, girl, I warn you - use bending, and I'll incinerate her heart before the earth can even shift a little. You too, Aang.

"Let Katara go! What do you want!?" Aang shouted, while the earthbender looked at the ground.

"What do I want? Freedom, the ability to study bending freely, power... but all that will come to me anyway... or I'll take it myself. And I won't let her go - I don't want you to cheat right now by entering the Avatar State. I might have gotten a bit stronger, but I'm not a madman dreaming only of battles. I realize that I don't have the strength or skills to openly confront you successfully yet. I'd last some time, but that's it. So, Aang, we'll have to postpone our showdown for later, and for now... I want you to stay away from Ba Sing Se! There's too much there that interests me, too much knowledge, so if I find out that you, or your new friend, show up near the city, I'll immediately turn Katara into ashes, sending her after her brother! Am I making myself clear, Avatar?" I raised my voice, forcing Aang to think faster.

"He's not lying..." the earthbender said.

"Oh, you can detect lies? And how interesting? You didn't even look at me..." then it dawned on me, "so you feel the vibrations of the earth? And you're doing it constantly, without overloading your brain... you're blind? Well, Aang, it looks like you've got a real earthbending genius in your team!" I finished my deduction, turning to the Avatar.

"How do you know!?" the blind earthbender shouted, lifting her head.

Now I saw her cloudy gray eyes, which she looked straight ahead with.

"It doesn't matter. So, Aang, what's your positive response? Leave now, and in a week I'll ask to have your friend delivered... say, to the coast, on the other side of the Serpent's Pass, where she'll be left. As a guarantee that you won't interfere with us, especially in Ba Sing Se. At least for the understanding that it would lead to another friend's death. Unless she means something to you. If not, I can kill her, burn her alive, right here...

"No!" Aang exclaimed, catching on. "Don't harm her! We'll leave, alright, just don't do anything bad to her!"

"Wonderful. Allow me a question - do you remember our last fight, Aang?" I asked, wanting to know if he remembered that I could bend multiple elements. I knew nothing about the avatar's condition; it might wipe memory completely!

"Only how you almost exploded me, and after that, I remember almost nothing."

"Clear enough. In that case, I'll head to my people, and you go to the other side of the bay and wait there. In a week, your friend will be there. And I advise you not to deceive me - I'm not peace-loving and will kill her without a second thought. Good luck, Aang. And to you too, blind girl."

I started walking back to the drill, watching the remaining members of the Avatar's team stand still. Soon, I was far enough from them and sheathed the fire dagger away from Katara's heart.

"You'll still lose! The Avatar will save the world from the Fire Nation!" Katara told me as she came to.

"I don't care. Anyone can be killed. I said I can't kill him in a head-on fight yet, but from the shadows, he'll die just as easily as any ordinary person."

"And why don't you do it then?" she asked mockingly, not believing my words.

"Because I don't want to kill him. Or rather, that's not my main goal. I want to Defeat him! To surpass him, even without being the Avatar, with all his abilities and bonuses!" I said.

"Very confident, to wish for such a thing," said Mai, appearing from behind a rock. "But at least it's not boring. Why did you let them go?"

"Hello again. And you should have hidden better - you're very noticeable. We now need to capture Ba Sing Se, not the Avatar. You can't catch two rabbits at the same time. Azula has clear orders from the Fire Lord, and it's not to defeat the Avatar. But now we have at least a week's delay to capture the city and fortify ourselves in it, sort things out, before the Avatar starts acting again." 

"A week? Why so little?" she asked.

"I doubt he would have kept his cool for a longer period without messing everything up for us. I would have kept my promise, and she," I nodded towards Katara, who was listening to us, "would have been personally killed by me. However, then, although we would have dealt a serious blow to the Avatar's psychological health, we would also have temporarily faced a very aggressively inclined Avatar in his strongest form, bent on revenge. Primarily against me, and then against everyone else. And you remember what he looks like in the Avatar State. More precisely, you've seen the aftermath of it."

"Yes. You're right."

And turning around, she headed in the same direction I was going until she stopped me.

I looked at Katara and, focusing, put her to sleep. Picking her up and slinging her over my shoulder, I carried her to the drill.

In a couple of hours, by all accounts, the drill would reach the outer wall of Ba Sing Se. And there, a brawl was sure to start, in which I'd like to participate!

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