Chapter 95 - Freeing The King

After Bumi was taken further into the castle, he was laughing like a child when he stopped moving. He looks around to find a long passage leading further down than he could see.

"Oh~? This is very interesting~~." As soon as he gets done saying this, Seras phases out of the ground right below him.

She looks down the same passage and her eyes glow bright allowing her to see clearer.

"You're right, this is an interesting set up." She smirks as she can see the many traps ahead.

A grinding sound is heard and Bumi begins moving once again. He cheers as he is pulled away.

"Well then, let's get this over with-" just as she was about to run as fast as she could, an idea struck her.

'The entire passage is made of stone, I haven't been doing much Earth bending training lately, but I still have a good grasp of it. Maybe I can use this time to train the seismic sense thing Toph does?'

Her idea blooms into a done deal as she takes off her shoes and places them in her inventory. She then closes her eyes and stomps the ground lightly with her foot so it doesn't cause any damage.

'No, that's not it....could it be that she sends Chi with the stomp?' She does the action once again and this time she can feel the feedback through the soles of her feet.

'I can feel the passage's shape but it's not exact....'

She does a few more stomps and gets a general gist of the technique. As she does this, Azula was in the recently refurbished throne room listening to reports come every few minutes.

"She's stopped moving but keeps stomping the ground?" She asks the soldier who merely nods.

"Yes. She has done it over ten times which has confused the men in the first passage."

"Curious. What do you think she's doing?" She asks Ty Lee and Mai who were both just doing their own thing.

"Does it matter?" The gloomy girl just sighs in annoyance.

"Hehehe, she could be training?" The peppy one states while stretching in an almost impossible way.

"Training? Yes, that could be it."

"Princess?" A high ranking man sounds out which makes her glare at him.

"....what?"

"I heard that this woman is a very powerful fire bender which is why you spent most of the time making these trap passage ways instead of governing the city-"

"Get to the point." She interrupts angrily.

"I'm sorry princess! Why do you think she is training? I've never heard of stomping as a way to train fire bending."

"...Hmph, you do have a point."

"Then-!" He smiles like he was free from a death sentence.

"Stomping is no way to train fire bending, but I have heard of a powerful earth bender who is well known for their prowess."

"Ooh! You mean the Blind Bandit!?" Ty Lee excitedly asks.

"Yes, I believe this person uses earth bending to see around them. And the way they do it is through stomping."

"But....she's not an earth bender...." the soldier says with a low voice.

"Oh, that's right. Commander Li?" She looks behind her and the former Captain Li steps forward confidently.

"Yes Princess?"

"You May inform those here what we know about the subject." She waves her hand with royal flair.

"At once." He bows before looking at the rest of the men.

As Commander Li was informing them, Seras opened her eyes for the first time in about 20 minutes with a satisfied grin.

"Whew~! That took longer than I thought." She wipes a sweat drop from her forehead.

"I pretty much got it down, but now I need to put it into practice. Thankfully I have an excellent method right in front of me." She lightly steps forward and multiple arrows are released to her position.

She dodged most of them but a couple graze her arm and leg. The wounds heal almost instantly, but she was too immersed into her actions to care. She continues this way further into the passage.

A couple hours after Seras left, the trio were on Appa below the city right next to a large grate.

"I still think this is a bad idea." Katara was worried.

"Seras has been gone for over two hours. With her speed, she should have found Bumi by now. We can't wait any longer." Aang says hurriedly.

"I agree with Aang. Omashu May be big, but it shouldn't take her this long. We need to find out what has happened." Sokka throws in his two cents.

"I know what you're saying sounds right, but it still feels like we're hurrying too much."

"It's almost sunset, we need supplies and we can't very well just hang outside the city with Appa." Sokka gives more reasons making Katara just sigh.

"You're right. But when we get in, we can't just start a fight. Ok?" She gives them a hard look and both boys nod quickly.

Aang hits the grate with his pole and it falls to the ground. Thankfully he used his air bending to soften its landing.

"Ok, we just climb up this and we should be in the middle of the city." He hops down and begins climbing in.

"I still can't believe we didn't use this last time. Why didn't you tell us?"

"Because, I didn't think of it last time."

"Oh god! That smell!" Sokka covers his nose as soon as he gets near the pipe.

"That too." Aang climbs further in, followed by Katara, then Sokka.

As they climb up, Aang use his air bending to push the sludge around him. Katara uses her water bending to do the same. This leaves Sokka defenseless as almost all of it is hitting his body.

"Ugh! Oh, agh!" He keeps making groans of disgust as they reach a man hole cover.

"That wasn't as bad as it used to be." Aang jumps out and gives Katara a helping hand who agrees with him. After she does, a sludge covered hand comes out of the whole which is followed by an entire body that isn't recognizable.

"Ugh~~..." the sludge entity groans as Katara uses water from a nearby barrel to wash Sokka clean.

Aang then uses his air bending to dry him off.

"We! Are never! Ever! Doing that again!" Sokka whisper yells to them and both giggle.

Katara notices a couple punk balls on her brothers face and which makes her give a confused look. Sokka was confused until he felt his face and touched the spheres.

"Ew! EWEWEW! What the heck are these!?" He tries to pull them off but they're not budging.

"Hehe, just hold still Sokka." Aang walks up and rubs the surface of one of the spheres.

It trembles before five tentacles pop off of his face and then the main part pops off last.

"They're pentapus'. They're harmless." He holds the creature and places it on the ground as Katara does the other one.

"Hey!" A rough voice yells from further up the road.

Sokka and Katara cover up Aang who uses some cloth to cover his head. When he got done, they turn around While smiling very widely which makes them look suspicious.

"What are you three doing past curfew?"

A group of 5 soldiers walk toward them. The leading man was the one who spoke.

"Uh...we're sorry. We are on our way home now." Katara states innocently.

'Hmm....they are just kids.'

"Ok, but this is your only warning. Head straight home and don't take any detours." This caused the trio to sigh in relief before walking Away.

'Hmm?" The leader notices the spots on Sokka's neck and cheek and he stops them again.

"Wait. What's wrong with him?"

"He....is Uh...sick! He has Pentapox, sir." She nudges sokka's back and he goes along with it.

"Ugh....it's so awful~....I feel like I'm dying..." he keeps groaning while mumbling making it actually seem legit.

"H-hey! I've heard of this before. Didn't your cousin Chang die of it?" A soldier states with fear.

"Oooohh~~" Sokka stumbles closer making all five soldiers back away.

"You guys head home! Make sure you take care of him!" The leader states as he and his men run away.

"Will do!" Katara yells back and they start laughing as soon as they're gone.

They stealthily move about the city when they see an earth kingdom citizen doing the same thing, albeit slightly worse. The man keeps looking around him as he heads down an alley. The trio follow him and watch as he does a rhythmic knock.

The door opens up and they see the guard captain from the palace when they were last in the city. He brings the man inside before closing the door. Sokka looks at the others and they nod in reply to his unasked question.

"Ok then, let's do this." They goto the door and knock on it like the other guy did.

While the gang met the underground resistance, Seras was still dodging multiple traps to get Bumi. However at this point, she was just enjoying the feeling of training her earth bending.

Sweat is pouring down her body and her entire being is exhausted from using so much Chi. However, despite such a state her face was covered in a tranquil smile.

'I'm almost there....I can feel something....' she thinks to herself with a tired but excited voice.

With every step, she sends chi through the ground and it sends back what she interprets as images. The further she goes the clearer and larger the feedback. At this point, she can 'see' the entire palace.

However, as they say, all good things must come to an end. She eventually reaches the end and opens her eyes. When she does, Azula, who was sitting on the throne, begins clapping.

"That was very well done, Miss Victoria."

"Why thank you." Seras bows with her arm over her heart.

When she does, two blades head for her head but she easily catches them. "So annoying...." Mai huffs in slight anger.

"Hahaha! Your knives haven't hit even once Mai. At least I hit her leg pressure point." Ty Lee laughs.

"Whatever."

Seras smirked a little as she saw them argue, but stopped when she noticed Azula staring at her. "Well then, shall we skip the foreplay?"

"What do you mean?" The princess asks with a frown.

"Let's see, you set up traps down multiple corridors all of which had barely any lethality to them." Seras walks around the trio while explaining.

'They were laced with every poison known to mankind, had multiple 100 meter pitfalls, and had tons of weight fall in some spots at once. You call that non-lethal!?' Azula yells mentally.

"Oh, I meant non lethal to me. If it was anybody else, I'm sure they would have died halfway through the first hallway." Seras leaned in close to Azula who backed away.

"Anyway, I assume this was all a way to gain information about what I can do. Am I right?"

"Yep!" Ty Lee responds.

"Ty Lee!" The fire nation princess yells but it's too late.

"Ugh whatever. Yes, it was."

"So, what have you learned?" Seras asks.

"Ah, many things."

"Such as?" Her tone was dripping with something Azula hasn't heard before but it still made her blush a little.

"You have incredible speed, strength, and reaction times. You can heal yourself from almost any damage in an instant, however I haven't destroyed your head or heart yet. You're able to move through objects like they're not even there and You can firebend, earthbend, and waterbend." She stops after that and Ives a large sigh.

"If I didn't have any evidence to the contrary, I would think you're the avatar."

"What makes you think I'm not?"

"You aren't an airbender."

"Fair point." The vampire shrugs.

"I don't even want to know how you're able to bend three elements, but the scariest thing about you is your ability to hypnotize." She shivers at the memory of her father acting like a platypus bear.

"Very good, Azula. You're a very intelligent woman."

"Shut up." The girl mumbles.

"What now?"

"Now? You can leave."

"""Huh?""" Seras, Mai, and Ty Lee asks in shock.

"We don't have any way to beat you right now, also I never cared about this city. We will leave by tomorrow morning."

"...Hahahahahaha!!" That is the funniest shit I have ever heard!" Seras voice was so loud it made them tremble.

"Oh~~!" She takes a deep breath. "Ok, Give me Bumi and I'll go. This has been a very pleasant second meeting, Princess."

"Just go. When we meet next, I promise to kill you." She claps her hands.

Right after, the walls open and four soldiers tossed Bumi who was still in the metal coffin onto the ground.

"Hey! Show your elders some respect you smoke stacks!"

"The fact that this man is king confuses me greatly." Azula sighs.

"Yes, he is mad, but there is a method to it." Seras lifts the coffin up like it weighed nothing.

"Whatever, it's almost nighttime and I need to go to bed."

"Good night, Azula." Seras says gently as she phases into The ground.

"....what are you idiots doing!? Go order the men to cease their duties and begin preparing to head back home!" Azula angrily yells to the remaining people.

After they leave scared, she turns away from her compatriots. Both Mai and Ty Lee were confused until the gymnast peeked from the side.

"Oh! You so like her!" She gushed loudly.

"No I don't!"

"The more you deny something, the truer it becomes." Mai states coldly.

"Enough! I'm heading to my chambers." Azula steps away in a rush.

When Bumi and Seras phases out again, they were in a forest outside the city. She places him against a giant boulder gently.

"So, you have taken over the garden, have you Rabbit?"

"Was there any doubt?"

"Heh, of course not." He lifts his head upward as four small rocks fly to him.

He pushes his chin down quickly and all four hit the corners of the coffin harshly. They create dents that allow him to flex. When he does, the door pops off like it flew away.

"There we go~. It's always good to stretch before doing some exercises." He cracks his neck and twists his arms around.

"Oh?"

"Shall we begin the pest control?"

"Shouldn't the Gardner do it himself? After all, I've already got enough carrots for myself."

"Hnrh?" The King makes a weird noise before he takes a long look at her.

He leans in close and bends at multiple angles before taking a sniff. He then grins widely like an insane old man.

"The smell of earth around you has grown much stronger since I last saw you. It seems you're just one step away from becoming a master of earth." He states seriously making it a stark contrast to his earlier look.