Chapter 13- And so the Dragons Danced (Complete)

It was pandemonium. Utter, total, and complete pandemonium. “Natsu, run with me” my commanding officer’s voice was nearly drowned out by the sound of slamming stone and blasts of fire, as we huddled and tried to get from one end of the encampment to the other. Major General Sung ran a tight camp. Everything was close together, packed, and ready to move at a moment’s. Notice. That was his preferred method of conducting warfare. Strike hard, strike fast, and leave chaos in your wake, he’d proudly proclaimed to all the recruits during yesterday’s orientation. We’d gone to bed, and woken up in the middle of the night to this. 

“Major, what are we going to do” I shouted back at him, struggling to even hear myself above the chaos. Of the battlefield. Because that is what the camp had turned into in the last few minutes. The earthbenders were tactical in their attack. Smart. They’d picked this time of night precisely because it was when guards were most likely to be at their most lax. The last few hours before sunrise. Firebenders as a whole were weaker at night than in the daytime, and to make things worse, it was a cold night. Almost like nature herself had conspired to make this as hard for us as possible. 

“Look out” a voice shouted from somewhere. I turned around, and was only saved from having my head caved in by that single warning. I bent at the waist and dodged the swing of the hammer from the man on his Ostrich-horse. His metal armour jiggled and rumbled as he made his pass, laughing all the while. I scowled and pushed myself to my feet, sending several lances of fire right at him. Almost like he had eyes at the back of his head, he turned his horse to face me at the exact right moment for the fire bolts to miss him, continuing their flight into the night, no doubt about to set some facility or the other on fire. The worse part about the attack was that being forced to fight in cramped quarters like this meant that the bulk of the damage to our resources and supplies was being done by our own benders. The earth Kingdom army officers just had to dodge our attacks at the right time. 

My scowl deepened as I took a different stance. Resting on the tips of my toes as I clenched my fist before freeing the first two fingers on each hand. If I was going to succeed here, I’d have to be precise. Precise and deadly. He squared up to me before getting off his horse, landing with a noticeable rumble on the ground. My opponent was big, that was the first thing I noticed. At least seven feet tall, and with biceps that looked bigger than my head. Bigger than most men I’d ever seen. Bigger than every man I’d seen outside of the Fire Nation’s travelling circus. ‘The first thing you have to note about the Earth Kingdom Army is that those fuckers are big’ had been one of the first things Tal had told me after we’d been introduced. He was also a student at The Academy, but had graduated almost eight years ago. The fact that he was still a Major wasn’t the best indication of his competence, but he was friendly and had actually bothered to be of help to me. I searched for him with my eyes, unable to find him with my peripheral vision as I made sure to keep the big bastard in front of me in focus. That was going to be his nickname for whatever remained of his short life. 

“The armour’s still new, I see. No scratches or dings. That’s a pretty face as well. I’d have heard about it if any of the men had seen you before. You’re new then. Probably a new recruit. It’s sad that you get to face me in your first battle, Kid. I’ll make it quick, don’t worry. Trust Papa to take care of you” He said, bursting into laughter at the end. His bearded face scrunched in on itself as he narrowed his bright-green eyes at me. The eyes that reflected the flames raging all around us, almost like emeralds. His hands were folded around his chest again. He wasn’t taking me seriously. I rested on my heels for a second and took off, running right at him. 

The ground I ran on began to quake for a few seconds before a wall raised itself right in my path. At least twelve feet tall, it covered him from my sight. “Tch. Too little, too late” I whispered to myself as I took a running leap and ran two steps up the wall before cresting it in its entirety. The boulder that had been sent at me was nothing unexpected. Of course, he was going to use the time to prepare something. So had I. With a shout of exertion, I thrust my fist at the boulder, allowing the concentrated flame within to smash through the boulder, letting the smaller rocks bounce off against my armour before I landed on the ground, facing my opponent again. The two boulders he sent at me were child’s play to dodge, light on my feet as I was. 

“You’re a slippery one, aren’t you, brat? Well, let’s see how long that’s going to last” He said, voice loud, and demeanour relaxed. The second time I bolted forwards, it was with fire at my heels. The explosive flames let me blitz him with my speed, moving too quickly for him to react as I crossed the last hundred metres between us in less time than it would have taken him to count to five. My flying kick, unfortunately, failed to connect, but it achieved its secondary goal in that it forced him to move. He skirted backwards, taking a single step to dodge out of the way of the kick. I reoriented myself in midair, using blasts of flames from my hands as propulsion, and attempted to punch his lights out. Just like with the first attack, he again leaned out of the way. 

His hammer swung upwards, threatening to smash my head to pieces, and only another blast of flames from my feet helped me generate the needed thrust to dodge the attack and roll backwards before landing on my feet. Quick footed as always, I shot several lances of orange flames from the tips of my fingers, attempting to pierce through his armour and cook him from within. A stomp of his foot on the ground and a massive wall appeared, taking all my attacks with only a slight darkening to show for it. 

I prepared to skirt around the wall when a sudden whistle sounded out from somewhere. It must have meant something to my opponent, since the wall was suddenly flying at me. I calculated the distance and waited until the last possible second before twisting my body and jumping over the wall, laying almost parallel to it as we flew past each other. When I landed, I was met with the sight of my opponent riding away on his horse. 

“Just going to run away?” I shouted after him, trying to trigger him into staying. 

“First lesson, kid, this is what we call a tactical retreat. Don’t die in the meantime. I’ll finish you off myself” He said, riding away too quickly for me to do anything to stop him. Damn, that horse sure could move. Even carrying around that massive lump of metal and muscle. 

XXXXX

“Fuck, you survived the Mountain” a voice suddenly said from behind me. I whirled around, startled, only to come face to face with Tal. 

“Where’d you come from?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at the older man. He’d been nowhere to be found a few short moments ago. 

“Around. But that isn’t important. What is important is that you just survived the Mountain. No one is going to believe this, my friend. We have to tell the Major General.” He said, dragging me forwards towards the Command Tent, one of the few things with no discernible damage. Around us, infantrymen scurried about with buckets of water, hurrying to put out the fires before the entire camp ended up aflame. 

“The who?” I asked him, numbly allowing him to pull me along as I rode the adrenaline high from the fight that just ended. 

“The Mountain. Don’t they still keep you guys up to date on the situation at the Front lines?” He asked, turning to me with a puzzled look on his face. 

“They do, but only broad strokes. The situation is probably developing much too quickly for anything more precise than that” I replied, getting a noncommittal hmm from the man as he kept dragging me forwards.

“Well, after the siege of Ba Sing Se, we were in big trouble. Our push was stalled, and the General was gone. Without his leadership, the Earth Kingdom military was able to come to life and end our entrenchment. The failed siege gave them new moral. Lit a fire beneath their belt. They got a surge in recruitment and somehow nearly managed to triple their numbers. A concentrated push from them sent us out of all the territory we’d claimed in the years leading up to the siege. We weren’t back at Square 1, but it was pretty close. Major General Sung is doing what he can so we can regain the territory we lost, but it’s slow-going.” He said that bit with a shake of his head. 

“Anyway, part of the recruits was a monster of the man. They say he used to be a butcher or something, and that’s what he does now. He butchers fire nation soldiers for fun. With that laugh of his. You fought him. He’s built like three men and fights like ten. His earth bending is strong, and precise, and he wields that hammer of his like the Death God’s scythe.” Tal explained, showing a previously unseen poetic side all of a sudden. I still didn’t understand what all the fuss was about, and I think it must have shown on my face. 

“The Mountain has killed over a hundred fire nation soldiers in the past six months alone. Not a single person has faced him and lived. Before Major General Sung took over last year, this division was under General Tao, and I don’t need to tell you what happened when we faced off with the Mountain and his band of marauders.” Tal explained, answering my questions, but creating new ones in the process. 

“Marauders?” I asked.

“Yeah. We know he’s in the Earth Kingdom Army. He wears the Armour and uses their weapons, but for some reason, he never fights with them. Instead, he’s been unleashed on the countryside. He attacks fire nation escorts, caravans, supplies, everything. He’s probably singlehandedly done more to slow our push than any other member of the enemy.” 

“So why haven’t we hunted him down and killed him for his crimes against the fire nation?” I asked, genuinely confused.

Tal just laughed and gestured to the guards in front of Sung’s tent before he entered with me in tow. 

He walked a few steps before stopping in a salute and standing at attention. I was careful to mirror his movements, not wanting to accidentally offend the man. 

The Major General’s tent was a large thing. The largest in the camp, and filled with people as the bustled around. There were at least seven soldiers in the office, and not a single one of them was standing still. It looked like the moment that the attack had ended, he’d begun an inventory of the supplies, lives, and everything in between. Busy with that, it took him a while to grant us an audience. Not to notice us. I was sure that he’d n noticed us the moment we’d walked in. He was the kind of man who paid attention to everything and didn’t miss a beat. 

You could see it in the way he hung on every word that the soldiers brought to his ears. There was no time for physical reports, so he was having every one report to him personally as he took mental note of everything. It was an impressive feat, and he looked just the man to pull it off. With the benefit of time, I took advantage of the proximity to observe him. He looked like the average fire nation noble in myriad ways. Fair skin, slight build, and dark hair. It was just when one looked deeper that they noticed the bits that set him apart. 

His skin was fair, yes, but still browner than most of the members of the noble class. His skin reminded me more of Lee’s with the slight bronze hue it had. Sung’s hair was dark, yes. But also smooth like silk. It fell down beneath his shoulders like waves from the ocean. It was even longer than mine had been before Toji had taken a knife to it. His eyes were the golden brown that almost all fire benders bore with pride. And when he stood to pick something up from the other end of the table, his height was the next thing I noticed. It was almost like today was going to be one for contrasts. Because where the Mountain was a literal Mountain of a man, General Sung was the exact opposite. He was shorter than I’d been, even in my early teens. Toji would probably make him look like a dwarf. Don’t get me wrong, he wasn’t short or anything, but his height was painfully, uninspiringly average. And then came his body. He was so slight of frame that to describe him as lithe would not be inaccurate. He wasn’t malnourished or anything. He was just one of those people blessed, (or would it be a curse?), with a small frame. 

When he finally turned to us, it was to Tal he spoke first. “Major, what report do you have for me? I didn’t see you in the fighting and was worried for a few minutes. It’s good to see that Agni has kept you under his rays.” He said, moving straight to business before branching off to ask after the man before him. It was almost like he was correcting himself internally for his demeanour and trying to be more human. It reminded me a lot of my cousin in my first life. Ryan had been autistic, so he didn’t naturally understand the same social cues the rest of us did, so we had to come up with different ways to remind him whenever he missed something he shouldn’t have. If the Major General was actually just like that, it would be fascinating as hell. 

“All is well, Major General. I was on the other side of the camp showing the recruits to their accommodations when the attack began. Luckily, I was able to easily meet with Captain Natsu, and we tried journeying over to you, but were accosted along the way by the Mountain.” He said, the Major General hanging onto every word he spoke, just as he had with every other report. For a second, I felt myself become filled with fear. What if Tal chose to take credit for everything? He didn’t strike me as that sort of person, but this wasn’t the Academy. This was the real world. Doing shit like what I did was one of the ways for career advancement, and if there was anyone sorely in need of that, it was Tal. So many years with only so much to show for it could drive a man to desperate measures. 

A few of the surrounding soldiers stopped what they were doing at the mention of the Mountain, and I was beginning to see the scale of the Mountain and just how much fear he inspired. Even in his absence, he could quiet a tent just from the mention of his name. I’d harboured a bit of doubt after Tal’s explanation, but this was enough to settle it in large parts. 

“I was able to escape, but Captain Natsu stayed behind to engage The Mountain. They fought, and the Captain was able to hold him back until he retreated.” Tal explained, ending my fears and elevating his standings in my eyes. He could have easily lied. He was the superior officer. I was the newcomer and junior. It would be oh so easy for him to claim the credit. The fact that he didn’t even look as if he’d been tempted to it said a lot. 

“Impressive. Very impressive. He fought the Mountain, you said. To a standstill?” Sung asked, getting a series of affirmative nods from Tal. 

“They said you were strong. But they must have been understating things if that’s how strong you actually are. How old are you again? 18? 18 and strong enough to battle with the Mountain?” He asked me, but I got the strangest feeling that I actually wasn’t the one he was speaking to. 

Something about the way he trailed off, asking and answering his own questions. 

“Well, regardless. This needs a reward of some sort. A promotion maybe? I’ll write to command and see what they have to say about it.” He said, turning away from me to look back at his notes. Just like with the other soldiers, he never officially dismissed us. Nevertheless, Tal shot off a salute, and I did the same before we turned around and left the tent. 

A/N; And so it begins. Finally edited it. No major changes just cleaned up a few typos.