Chapter 99

"I need you! Hurry!"

Mai's ears pricked up, her whole body going rigid at the almost panicked note in Tanya's voice. "Tanya's in trouble!" She announced.

Zuko was already slipping his mask on. "Then our time is up. Go to her, I need to get back to the Avatar's team."

Mai nodded and began to run forwards, but after a few steps stopped and turned back. "Remember, find a way to bring the Avatar to the Fire Nation garrison outside Ba Sing Se. I'll make sure they'll be prepared to hold him."

With that she turned and sprinted in the direction of Tanya's voice, pushing branches and shrubbery aside with her hands. It wasn't long before she broke through into the clearing where Tanya was buried, Ty Lee appearing from the trees on the other side not a second later.

"Tanya?" Ty Lee gasped. "They beheaded you?!"

"I'm buried, you muppet!" Tanya shouted at her. "Hurry up and get me out of here, before they-…"

Off in the distance the groaning of a bison echoed, and a familiar white shape took to the sky, bearing the Avatar's companions in the direction Azula had gone."

"… get away. Shit!"

...

Fifty more seconds.

That was the amount of time Azula estimated it would take to finish this fight. Just fifty seconds. Formidable as a fully realised Avatar could no doubt be, the current one was merely an exhausted child.

Not even the great bridge to the spirit realm was beyond the human need for sleep it seemed. Factoring in that there was little water for him to bend, the amount of flammable buildings around them and her own superior skill, Azula could already visualise every possible move he might make, and how she would invariably counter them.

The Avatar skittered to the left, swinging his staff in a wide upwards arc to send a fierce updraught streaking towards her. Azula pivoted to the right, letting only the edges of the draft hit her, where the wind was not strong enough to carry her up into the air. A slight shift of her foot dropped her lower into a crouch, and she thrust her arms forwards like spears, shooting a pair of sharp firebolts back at him.

The Avatar flipped over the attack as he had countless times before, but Azula wasn't disheartened. There was a growing lethargy to his movements that even the adrenaline of battle was struggling to hold at bay, and each of her fire blasts were getting closer and closer to their marks.

It wouldn't be long now before she scored a hit, and if she timed it perfectly that one hit was all she'd need to settle this. She swung forwards into a low roundhouse kick, conjuring a wide carpet of flames to sweep across the floor that forced The Avatar to leap high into the air to avoid them.

Forty seconds.

As the Avatar began to fall back to ground he took a deep breath in, then huffed out a wide cone of wind towards her. Azula knew better than to assume it was an attack by now though; more likely his aim was to kick up the dusty soil around them to obscure her vision. Rather than move to avoid it, Azula calmly closed her eyes, letting the wind buffet against her harmlessly. As expected her nose detected the sudden increase of dust in the air, but Azula ignored it to focus on her hearing.

For a while there were no sounds at all. Then suddenly she heard, to her right side, the faintest crunch of a footstep across gravel.

Twenty seconds.

Azula lunged at the sound, her hand open like a claw and five dagger-like jets of blue flame erupting from her fingertips. She heard a yelp of panic, and opened her eyes in time to see the Avatar roll away in the nick of time. She pursued him, keeping the distance between them short enough to pressure him, and formed another fire claw in her other hand as she swiped at him again and again like a cat chasing a mouse. A thin, cruel smile tugged at the corners of her lips at the comparison. She'd always much preferred being the hunter to the prey.

Before long the Avatar had backed up against the wall of a building, and with nowhere left to run he had to turn and fight. Azula lunged for his neck, her fire claws searing five razor-thin grooves into the wall as he ducked beneath them, and then suddenly she was airborne: blasted by a strong gust of wind from below as the Avatar counter-attacked.

Azula did not panic. Panic was for the weak. Her mind instead raced through plans: estimating how high up she was and her current velocity, calculating how much firepower would be needed to negate the impact, and working out how to twist this situation to her advantage.

It took only a moment for her sharp mind to figure out the answers she needed, and without a moment of hesitation she arched her back, flipping into a half backflip, and spewed a fan of flames from her own mouth. As high up as she currently was the flames spread out across a wide area, leaving nowhere for the Avatar to dodge to and forcing him to spin his staff around again to make a wind shield. It protected him, but also obscured his vision as Azula landed acrobatically on her feet and immediately sprung forward into her next stance.

Ten seconds.

Her right arm speared forwards, sending out a lance of brightly burning flames that crashed against The Avatar's shield. The force of the wind stopped it, but only barely, and the sheer power of the strike sent the Avatar skidding backwards to collide with the wall behind him; his guard broken and his senses scrambled by the force of the impact.

Azula spotted her opening. Her footwork shifted in a pose she'd practised thousands of times before, her arms each swinging in a perfectly circular arc as she separated the yin and yang energy within herself, and a sharp smirk grew on her lips as she felt her fingertips begin to crackle with a familiar sensation.

Three seconds.

She brought the energy within herself crashing back together, and felt the sharp jolt of lightning building within her core.

Two.

Another step forward, and she guided her energy along her meridians in her arms to reach her fingers. The lightning followed, and sparked violently from her fingertips.

One.

She pointed her finger at the Avatar, her aim locked dead centre through his chest. Tired as he was, The Avatar had yet to recover from the previous impact, and though his eyes were open they were blurry and half-focused. She doubted he would even see the attack coming.

Zer-…

Her foot slipped, ever so slightly shifting her centre of gravity and pulling her arm to the side. No, Azula realised with a start, it wasn't that her foot had slipped! It was that the ground beneath her feet had slid sideways. Lightning was already erupting from her fingers, carving a deep grove in the wall just a little too far to the right of the Avatar's torso, and she was too committed to her stance to shift into a defensive position for what she knew was surely coming next.

A fraction of a second later a wave of earth smashed into her from the side, knocking her off her clean off her feet and sweeping her away down the road.

Aang blinked blearily, the sound of rumbling earth catching his attention. Robes a familiar shade of comforting blue filled his vision, and soon later soothingly cool water pressed against the back of his head where it had bumped against the wall. "Katara?" He croaked.

"It's me Aang. I'm here." Katara replied. Toph stood on guard behind her, her arms raised and ready to unleash a second wave of earth at the slightest hint of movement from where Azula had been carried off too. Katara hoisted one of Aang's arms around her shoulder, and supported his weight against her.

Aang half-staggered, half allowed himself to be dragged away to where he could hear the worried moans of Appa. He was absolutely shattered, both from the lack of sleep and the relentless battle with the fire princess. After what felt like a long and agonising walk, but in reality was probably only a few seconds, Aang felt the soft carpet of Appa's fur against his skin as the girls hauled him up onto the bison's back. Sokka and Blue were already up there, fastening what little supplies they carried down to the saddle straps, and with a quick crack of the reins and a "yip yip" from Sokka they were airborne.

"Will they keep chasing us?" Sokka asked, looking nervously behind them as if expecting to see one furious, golden-haired missile in hot pursuit.

Katara gave a little shake of her head. "No." She replied grimly, the absolute certainty in her voice leaving no room for doubt. "We've earned ourselves a few nights of rest. Even if they do chase us down again, they won't be in shape for a rematch for a while."

Aang's head lolled to the side, looking back at the ruined village that was quickly shrinking on the horizon. Perhaps it was just his rattled eyes playing tricks on him, but he could swear he could see the silhouette of the fire princess standing still atop one of the buildings, watching them flee.

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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 12! 

I if you're interested. you can read it on my P atreon.

p atreon.com/Rimanovi