Chapter 22.2- And so the Dragons Danced

When the last person had crested the summit, we stood at the top, and gazed down towards the mountain top that held Fong’s base. His own mountain being a fair bit lower than this one.

“So what’s the plan?” Maki asked again.

“Use your flame jets and fly over there” I said, pointing over to another mountain that was still lower than this one, but higher than our target’s base.

“When you get there, blow up that tower” I continued. It was obvious which tower I was speaking about. There was only one tower in the fortress, and it was clearly a lookout of some sort.

“We’ll fly down and attack once you create the distraction. Everyone else will follow my lead. I’ll cut through them and you will follow behind as closely as you can” I said, turning to the rest of the group as I gave my orders.

“When do we strike?” Another person asked.

“At noon. When Agni is at His highest, our bending will be strongest” I said to them.

We only had a few minutes until noon, so Maki used that time to fly over to the next mountain. I’d hesitate to call it flying, however. Maki was a powerful fire-bender, for sure, but she wasn’t a royal or anything like that. It was more like a controlled decent. It was part of the reason I’d waited till noon. Sure, everyone could use flame jets, as it was part of training, but this was an application we hadn’t trained much in, and it was very possible that a few of them would run out of juice before we hit the ground. I hoped it didn’t happen, of course. But it was a possibility nonetheless.

When the time came, I whistled at her, and Maki stared hard at the tower in question. Unlike the show, when a combustion bender used their powers here, there wasn’t some easily predictable arrow that could be dodged. Sure, it created a haze in the air as it flew but it was virtually invisible to anyone who wasn’t specifically looking for it.

At this height, I had no chance of tracking the bolt as it flew, but I could see the effects. The bottom left part of the tower exploded in an echoing boom that made my bones vibrate. She’d put a lot into that one. She’d even aimed it well, as well. The tower began to lean leftwards as the lack of support took effect. In seconds, it crashed down, landing in the middle of the courtyard that ran through the centre of the base.

I smiled at the effect before turning to my squad.

“Victory or death” I screamed as I jumped. My cheeks pulled apart into a smile against my will as I heard all of them echo my words and jump as well.

“Victory or death” Our voices echoed into the ether as we fell.

A/N; Chugging along, yeah?