Chapter 27

Down below she could see more soldiers approaching with siege ladders, but before they could set foot on the wall Tanya raised a finger and sent a spark of sizzling flame, like a firework, up into the sky.

All at once the soldiers froze wherever they were, watching silently with rapt attention.

...

The firebending style the sages had taught her back when she was a child was a variation designed for ceremonies. It traded efficiency and damage for spectacle and control, using displays of flashing lights and finely-honed flames to awe an audience rather than annihilate an enemy.

Tanya had long since streamlined the style back into something more combat effective for her own use, yet a handful of techniques she'd never altered were the ones designed to produce a variety of firework-like flares.

At the beginning she'd used them as decoys and distractions when under attack whilst flying, but as Zhao rapidly entrusted her with higher and higher positions of command she'd soon adapted them for another use.

Each unique flare had a message known only to soldiers under Zhao's command: backup required, advance on this position, retreat, the list was about thirty pages long by now, and each flare allowed her to give quick order to all her soldiers that could see the sky for miles around without having to waste time writing message or shout over the roar of combat.

In a world that had yet to invent the telephone, her ability to adapt her orders so quickly in response to problems was invaluable.

And the flare she had just sent up was one of the earliest she'd ever drilled into her soldiers heads.

Hold your position.

Sensing the shift in atmosphere, Aang and blue-mask turned to face her, ready and waiting in their fighting stances. Tanya smirked, and with a mocking air of indifference sauntered towards them.

"I'm impressed." She called out casually, making a show of checking her nails. "Can't say I've ever heard of two people trying to fight an entire stronghold. Your courage is commendable."

"Commendable enough for you to let us go?" Aang asked hopefully, though the way he stayed firm and ready in his stance made it clear what he suspected the answer would be.

Tanya's only answer was to let a grin settle across her face and sink into her own fighting stance.

A second past, then two, then three. It seemed like they were happy to wait for the first move. Tanya's grin only widened.

Never let a firebender strike first.

One moment she was completely still, and the next she crossed half the distance between them, sweeping forwards with both arms to unleash two huge wings of flames that spread out to the left and right and then closed in on the duo, enveloping them from every direction.

The Avatar twirled, beckoning a mild hurricane around himself and his ally that dissipated the flames into a sea of sparks.

Yet as the sparks faded, Tanya was nowhere to be seen.

Meanwhile, along the side of the wall, Tanya ran as quickly and quietly as she could manage without her feet slipping. Her left hand was pointed down towards the ground, creating enough jet propulsion to counteract the gravitational force acting upon her and thus run alongside the wall without falling.

Once was behind The Avatar's position she turned to face upwards, throwing back her other hand with a second jet boost, and sprinted straight back up the wall. Neither target saw it coming as she suddenly skipped over the wall behind them, briefly flipping in the air and shooting out a bolt of fire at blue-mask's unguarded back before she landed.

Blue-mask had good instincts, and rolled forward with the blow as it struck between his shoulder blades. It mitigated the damage somewhat, but nowhere near enough to prevent a nasty burn. However Tanya did not care, as before the bolt had even hit blue-mask she had turned to Aang and unleashed a constant stream of fire at him.

The Avatar, having had a little more time, was able to hop to the side to avoid it, and scrambled into a panicked run as Tanya twisted towards him, rotating at the hips to bring her jet of flames chasing at Aang's heels.

Yet blue-mask refused to stay out of the fight for long, and rushed back over to attack, forcing her to end her fire stream in order to defend herself. Twin swords rushed down towards her torso in a powerful cross slash, which Tanya intercepted early with the elbow plates of her armour. She kicked out, foot wrapped in flames, at blue-mask's stomach to force him to back away.

Yet to her surprise, blue-mask did not back away. He tanked the kick, ignoring the flames licking at his stomach apparently through sheer force of will, and grabbed Tanya's leg by the shin.

Tanya yelped in shock as she suddenly found herself dragged up and over blue-mask's head and slammed bodily into the ground on the other side of him. It was both painful and humiliating.

Before blue-mask could repeat the manoeuvre she kicked out with her other leg, the blast of fire she unleashed this time far more intense, and forced blue-mask to let go and dodge or risk having a hole incinerated through his chest.

She spun, beginning a technique designed to send a wave of fire across the ground to burn her enemy's feet, when a wall of intense wind shot out around blue-mask's side and struck her, doing little in the way of direct damage but easily picking her up and sending her tumbling uncontrollably along the ramparts.

For a good ten seconds her world consisted solely of a series of sickening spins, shapes and colours swirling rapidly past her eyes, and sharp bumps as she rolled uncomfortably across the stone floor.

When at last the wind list enough force to relinquish its grip on her Tanya was sprawled out of her back, her hair a wild mess and her eyes spinning with dizziness.

A deep groan escaped her lips: not one of pain, but of frustration at realising an unfortunate truth.

She was weak against airbending.

The issue lay with the body Being X had foisted upon her. It was small, naturally delicate and very, very light. In a world without magic, bending or any other supernatural powers it would have been a terrible body for any would-be warrior to be born with, as it meant that Tanya had to maintain a rigorous strength training routine to be able to punch just as hard as your average civilian.

Fortunately in both of the supernatural worlds she'd been incarnated into, Tanya had been able to rely on her huge reserves of magic power to deal damage for her, and use her small body to her advantage by nimbly dodging most attacks.

Against earthbenders her body was perfect. Earthbending was the naturally slowest form of ending: favouring sturdy defences that would not crumble easily over quicker, flimsier alternatives.

Against earthbenders she could easily dart her way across the battlefield, avoiding their attacks and bypassing their defences, then hit them hard from an exposed angle.

She was average against other firebenders, and waterbenders too she suspected, who struck a balance between speed and power.

But airbending, thanks to the pacifist ideals that shaped it, focused on speed rather than dealing direct damage. It was a difficult style to dodge unless you were an airbender yourself, and Tanya's light body made it far easier for each gust of pick her up and throw her around like a dog's chew toy.

Great. I'm weak to a style literally known by only one person in the entire world, and that's the guy I get tasked with capturing.

As the world slowly stopped inconsiderately wobbling around her, Tanya sat up in time to watch Aang and blue-mask leap off the wall again, using one wooden siege ladder like a giant pole vault, then switching to another as the first reached the height of its arc, as if walking on a set of gigantic stilts.

It was a ridiculous idea, so outlandish only a madman would think of it, and yet by some miracle it almost worked. The escapee's hands just brushed against the final outer wall before they fell down to the gate.

They haven't escaped yet. There's still time.

Before she'd even consciously thought about it Tanya had taken to the skies again, and if she wobbled ever so slightly none of the soldiers were brave enough to mention it.

Outside the final gate blue-mask and The Avatar fought a small horde of encircling soldiers, slicing and breaking the wall of spears that tried to surround them one by one.

Building a large fireball in one hand, Tanya chucked it towards The Avatar like a grenade, gambling that the unexpected attack from above would catch them by surprise.

Yet blue-mask's warrior instincts seemed sharp enough to sense something was amiss, for no sooner had the fireball left her grasp than his obscured face flicked up to look at it.

He jumped, vaulted off the shoulder of a nearby soldier for extra height, and as the fireball approached he used the flat of his blade like a tennis racket to bat the projectile at the gate. Flames exploded against the gate, fortunately not blasting them open but spooking the nearby soldiers into taking a step back.

Tanya landed hard, eschewing grace for intimidation factor as she bent at the knees and slammed a fist into the ground, emitting a small flare of sparks in time with her impact.

A tense, reverent silence settled over the soldiers again as they sensed their commander's foul mood, and without needing an order they shifted slightly to form a ring of spears, trapping The Avatar and blue-mask in a makeshift arena with her.

Slowly Tanya stood up, fixing her golden eyes upon the convicts with a look of such fury that The Avatar gulped nervously.

"Okay, I'm done being impressed." She hissed. Settling back into her fighting stance. The ring of soldiers around them flinched back nervously. "Now I'm pissed!"

She lunged forward with one hand, fingers extended out like talons, and scraped them ferally through the air. From each fingertip a thin but intense whip of fire lashed forwards, screeching through the air towards The Avatar like a flying tiger claws.

Aang yelped and leaned backwards like a limbo dancer, allowing the flying slices to pass so closely over his head that they evaporated a bead of sweat dripping down it, and watched in terror as they struck the gates and carved gashes as deep as axe swings into the wood.

Tanya struck out again with her other hand, then again, and again, until her arms were a frenzied blur of slashes. Aang and blue-mask ducked, dodged and weaved like dancers, taking a few scrapes here and there but otherwise doing a remarkably good job of evading.

When it became clear that Tanya had no intention of relenting and that they couldn't keep dodging forever, Aang dropped low and spun around, sending a wave of wind to knock Tanya off her feet.

If dodging airbending was a problem, then she'd just force her way through! With an axe kick wreathed in flames she split the oncoming gust in two, then spun around and unleashed her own wave of fire across the ground in retaliation.

Aang and blue-mask jumped to avoid it, yet while their feet were off the ground Tanya quickly double-jabbed, sending two quick bolts of fire to strike them each in the chest.

...

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