Chapter 33

This girl truly was a devil in human skin.

"You are ruled by your own pride." He spat, pushing himself to his feet and trying to ignore the way his knees wobbled with exertion. "You are spinning out of control. It will be your undoing."

"Well see about that." Tanya shot back.

...

She opened her hand and pushed it towards him in a palm-thrust motion, and a net of fire burst from it, widening as it flew towards him.

Jeong Jeong brought his hand together in a prayer-like gesture, waiting until the net was right on top of him, and then slashed forwards, carving a hole in the net that allowed him to pass through unharmed.

Yet again the flames carried onwards into the forest behind him, bolstering what was now a rapidly growing forest fire.

Tanya advanced, punching forward to unleash a steady stream of flames at him. Jeong ducked to the side and returned fire with a stream of his own, though his had a special trick to it. With his other hand he pointed two fingers to the right, and the stream began to twist in a clockwise direction like a horizontal hurricane.

Tanya skipped to the right to dodge the initial stream, grinning conceitedly, and then yelped in alarm as the stream began to twist and whip around towards her by itself, forcing her to jump farther to narrowly avoid it.

The rushed movement led to a sloppy landing, and Jeong Jeong pressed his advantage when he noticed the girl's awkward footing. Three rapid punches created a trio of quick fireballs that soared towards her like diving birds.

Unable to properly dodge, Tanya was forced to conjure a shield of fire and tank the hits. The first she took well, only stumbling back a little as it collided with her shield, but the next two hit in unison, providing enough force to knock her off her feet.

Though not, it seemed, to the ground. Rather than resist the fall Tanya fell back into it like a diver. Flames erupted from her hands and feet, propelling her rapidly backwards just an inch or two from the ground and then up, until she was hovering in the sky just above the treeline.

Jeong Jeong had considered himself a master of the propulsion technique too, but even he had to reluctantly admit that he paled in comparison.

The golden child of the Fire Nation pushed through the air with an ease none could ever hope to match, as if flying had been second nature to her from the moment she was born. No wonder they called her The Fairy.

There were other firebending masters who could be considered stronger than her, but her overwhelming skill with this particular technique changed the very dimensions of combat to her advantage. He would be a fool to try and fight her in the air.

Instead Jeong Jeong settled into a deeper defensive stance. Like the turtle fighting the crane, he would take cover in his shell and let his foe tire itself. Opportunity would come when Tanya ran out of energy she needed to power her flight.

Yet to his surprise Tanya did not attack. Instead she grinned that wicked grin of hers, and shot fireballs into the surrounding forest. Was she mocking him by further destroying the nature he cared for? How dishonourable.

"You know I'm pleasantly surprised. I'd expected you to have run away by now." Tanya taunted.

"I am no coward." Jeong Jeong replied.

"No? You certainly could have fooled me. Running away from the war sure is an interesting way of proving your courage."

Jeong Jeong frowned. "Cowardice would have been to follow orders, pretending that it being for the sake of my nation absolved me of any guilt. True courage is found in walking your own path despite others telling you how you should live your life."

"I disagree. True courage would have been trying to convince others to share your path with you, even if they hated you for it." Tanya shot back. "You could have done more to end this war as an admiral than you can hiding in a forest."

Jeong opened his mouth to reply, when a sudden tightness gripped his chest. Each breath became heavy and musty, as if he couldn't get quite enough air no matter how hard he panted. One hand shot to the wound on his chest, yet despite the feverish heat about it that did not seem to be the cause of his plight.

"What's the matter old man? Out of breath already?"

Tanya's smug voice rained down from above, and the cruel delight on her expression removed any doubt as to whether she was responsible. "How?..." Jeong croaked.

Tanya nodded towards the forest fire spreading around them, encasing the glade in a ring of flames. "Fire needs oxygen to burn. Looks like the supply down there is running out fast."

Devious child! Jeong Jeong repositioned from his defensive stance, preparing to jet into the air himself, but was interrupted as a wave of fire washed out across the glade from the burning tree behind him. Quickly he spun and split a safe path through the flames, only for yet another wave to crash towards him from his right.

"You know, firebending really is much easier when there are existing sources nearby." Tanya remarked, swishing her arms to send a third fire wave his way. "No wonder those earth benders have proven so troublesome to get rid of."

Jeong carved his way through the waves again, but the tightness in his chest was growing alarmingly sharp. He had to escape the trap she'd caught him in! But how?

The answer came to him in a flash. She was not the only one who could make use of the forest fire.

Drawing his arms in, Jeong Jeong's mind returned to memories of the days he had spent with his dear friend Master Paku. The grandmasters of The White Lotus had all spent time in each other's homelands, teaching one another the history, philosophy and culture of their respective nations.

Jeong Jeong had always wished to be a waterbender himself, and had studied some of Paku's techniques with great interest. One such study had born unexpected fruit.

Jeong Jeong's arms moved in twisting, serpentine motions; like ancient dragons coiling through the sky. The forest fires around him began to bend and writhe, reshaping themselves according to his will. Like the tendrils of a great leviathan, ten fiery tentacles, each as thick as tree trunks, snaked out of the forest and surrounded Tanya.

The devil-child looked around with wide eyes, taken aback by the unexpected technique. "Okay… never seen that one before…" He heard her murmur to herself.

Jeong snapped his arms towards Tanya, and the tendrils whipped at her from every direction.

It was like watching a hydra try to devour a housefly. Tanya bobbed and weaved with frightening agility, blasting herself in ever-shifting directions in a way that would have shaken Jeong's old bones apart. Yet while one tendril struck, the other nine circled around the area, ready to take their chance the moment she dodged in their direction.

That the girl managed to dodge them all for so long spoke of reflexes honed sharply enough to split hairs on. Yet unlike most modern firebending techniques, Jeong's fire tendrils were not made to burn brightly but quickly. Again and again they came back, relentlessly pushing Tanya to the limits of her agility.

Eventually one tendril finally got lucky, scoring a direct hit on Tanya's shin that had her scream in agony. Down she went like a falling kite, crashing roughly back into the glade.

Most would have been defeated by such a great fall, and Jeong Jeong was silently impressed when the girl got back up again: covered in grass stains and bruises, and notably limping on her injured leg, but with unmistakable determination alight in her eyes.

She would have made a fine student if only she would abandon the path she was on. A shame that the stakes were too high for him to risk trying to convince her again.

Jeong fought for breath, the edges of his vision starting to blur as the first signs of oxygen deprivation began to set in, and on the other side of the glade he noticed Tanya doing the same. Neither of them had much time left. This next exchange would settle it.

Extending both arms out, Jeong Jeong focused upon the chi energy within himself. He brought one arm sweeping low, funnelling his negative yin chi down it, then repeated the motion with the other arm, funnelling his positive yang chi into that.

Then, with the utmost focus, he brought his arms back together, allowing the two energies to recollide and form crackling lightning with their union. One well aimed bolt of lightning would bring an end to this fight quickly and efficiently.

He had expected Tanya to try taking to the air again, or at least begin making some attempt to dodge even with a wounded leg, yet to his shock she didn't. Instead she stood her ground.

"I give you one last chance girl. Surrender." Jeong Jeong called out. "I do not wish to kill you."

Tanya did not answer. She only settled into a stance of her own, her face set in stone. The message was clear: there would be no surrender.

So be it.

Jeong Jeong extended two fingers forward, and from them roared a bolt of pure lightning that ripped through the air as it hurtled towards Tanya. Yet even as he had moved, so had Tanya.

Lightning was quick, precise and powerful. It was nearly impossible to avoid unless you were already out of the line of fire before it was launched. With that in mind it was impressive enough that Tanya almost avoided it.

Bursts of flame so intense they seemed to glow white for a second erupted from her feet as she threw herself to the side, scorching the grass beneath her to a blackened pool of ash in the blink of an eye as she rocketed to the side.

Yet still she was not quite quick enough. The lightning bolt that should have pierced straight through the middle of her chest instead speared through her left forearm, blasting a burning hole straight through it with contemptuous ease.

Yet even as her face contorted in pain, Tanya's eyes still flashed victoriously.

From her right hand a bolt of fire about the size of a baseball curved through the air, following back along the lightning's path. The sudden flash of light from his own attack had filled Jeong Jeong's old eyes with spots, and in the span of the two blinks it took to clear them the firebolt was too close to avoid.

It smashed into his chest, right on top of the nasty burn Tanya had inflicted at the beginning of the fight, and melted through the weakened flesh like candle wax, carving a path through Jeong's organs and out of the other side.

Tanya collapsed on the ground, hissing profanities with agony as she clutched at her still-smoking arm. But to Jeong Jeong her words sounded oddly muted, like he was hearing them through a thick veil of wool.

In fact all the sounds of the world around him, from the rustling leaves to the crackling fire, sounded distant and far away. The only noise he could hear clearly was the pumping of his blood in his ears, which grew weaker and weaker with each heartbeat.

This is the end.

The thought crossed his mind with a sense of calm certainty. An instinctive feeling deep within his soul which told him that his time had finally come. He'd always expected to feel regret gnawing away at him when death finally came to claim him, and was pleasantly surprised with himself to find that wasn't true.

There were still things he would have liked to have said and done, but he felt no compulsion to feverishly cling to them.

Like the airbenders of old he felt his spirit become untethered from his mortal concerns one by one, bringing lightness and freedom to his weary spirit.

A gentle darkness, like the lull of a deep sleep, began to roll in from the edges of his eyes. Jeong fell to his knees, then to the ground, letting the soft caress of the grass embrace him.

In his final moments, Jeong Jeong thought of Aang. The boy was young and sometimes impatient, yet he'd had the wisdom to recognise his mistakes and the courage to admit them.

The boy would be quick to grow into the man that the world needed him to become by summer's end. Yes, Jeong could rest easy knowing that the world would be safe in The Avatar's hands.

And so, with one last breath, the old grandmaster closed his eyes, and let the darkness claim him.

...

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