Chapter 18

Fei-Yan came in with punches at Bikki, rock spikes flying from knuckles, attempting to box the Yonbanjin Prince in, to force him to move in ways that he wanted. Bikki ducked and weaved away from the oncoming storm of missiles, weaving away from jagged spikes of rock more akin to daggers than anything natural. As he turned a leap into a shoulder roll, weaving through spikes shot at him high and low, Bikki popped up and found his back to the stone wall of a building.

That was an issue because Fei-Yan pulled back and swung his fists out in a tiger-claw motion as he pivoted. This movement drew a trio of stony blades out of the wall behind Bikki, forcing him into a desperate last-second forward roll to avoid being impaled from behind. As he popped up, Fei-Yan stomped and Bikki was forced to leap into the air to prevent a spike from the stone of the courtyard from impaling him from below.

As he leaped up into the air, Bikki was forced to draw his Emushi Blade once more to parry a flying rock spear from impaling him through the torso with a draw cut of his blade. The spear flew off into the distance, parried away and Bikki engaged his Flamecharge, rocketing down at Fei-Yan from the apex of his jump. A pulse of Chi superheated his Emushi Blade and Bikki slashed out at Fei-Yan, who put both of his rock gauntlet-covered hands up to block.

This time, however, the superheated blade cut into the rock of Fei-Yan's Gauntlets, sending the Earthbender staggering backward to avoid having his gauntlets, and his arms, cut through by the superheated blade. Pressing his attack, Bikki kicked out a jet of flame that forced Fei-Yan to dodge to the side before igniting his Flamecharge and rocketing at the Earthbender.

Once again, the superheated blade met Rock Gauntlet, and once again, the rock gave way. Fei-Yan staggered away from the blade to avoid another potential deathblow, but this time, he threw himself into a somersault that made space away from the deadly Emushi blade. Popping up to his feet, Fei-Yan stomped the ground in a hopping stomp that sent two, razor-sharp, flat, blades of rock jutting out toward Bikki at a diagonal, forcing Bikki to dive between their bases to avoid being decapitated. A third stomp from Fei-Yan sent a flat block of stone up underneath Bikki's rolling form, popping him up into the air. Fei-Yan then sent a whirling roundhouse kick which spawned a pair of razor discs of jagged rock hurtling toward Bikki like two buzzsaws.

Bikki, for his part, had been thrown into the air in an uncontrolled launch, forcing him to fire jets of flame from his feet and hands to act as retro-rockets in order to right himself. This happened just in time, too, as the whirling discs of stone came in at him from below. With Bikki able to parry one with his Emushi blade, the other would have hit him in the side if not for a last-second back elbow that fired another jet of flame, spinning Bikki around just enough to turn a deadly wound to the armpit into a graze that spanged off the back of his lamellar armor.

As Bikki landed, Fei-Yan was already moving, launching rock spikes that Bikki was forced to parry and dodge. Bikki had never faced an opponent who used the terrain so well before, but he'd heard that it was the provenance of a Master Earthbender to turn arenas against their opponents like Fei-Yan was doing, provided they were made of stone, of course. So far, he was reacting to Fei-Yan's attacks, which was playing right into the Earthbender's hands. He had to think of a way to turn the tables on Fei-Yan and fast, otherwise he'd be overwhelmed. Unfortunately, his trump card, Steambending, was also not viable right now, since there was no source of water to use to make steam.

It was as he parried and dodged flying rock spikes that he hit upon something. It was a long shot, and he'd only seen it done a couple of times, but it occurred to Bikki that both times he'd had Fei-Yan on the ropes, he wasn't fast enough with his follow-through to score a decisive blow. Fei-Yan would always be retreating out of sword range and the split second it took to bring up a proper punch or kick to fire a jet of flame at him was long enough for Fei-Yan to throw himself sideways or otherwise dodge. However, if he could imitate General Iroh's party trick for a second, that might be enough to give him what he needed for an opening.

As Bikki dodged a spike of rock, he ignited his Flamecharge technique and pulsed Chi into his Emushi Blade, refreshing the superheated sheath of the sword. As he rushed forward, he leaped past a spear of rock that jutted up from the stone of the courtyard as Fei-Yan stomped the ground. Closing rapidly with his opponent, he slashed out with his blade.

Once again, Fei-Yan blocked with his rock gauntlets just long enough to stagger backward and make some space, but this time, instead of punching or kicking a jet of flame at his opponent, Bikki breathed in, channeled Chi to his lungs and throat, twisted, then breathed out. A sputtering gout of flame vomited forth, forcing Fei-Yan to cover himself. It was only for an instant, more like a belch than the torrent he'd seen General Iroh perform. It was enough to give Bikki his opening.

As Fei-Yan covered himself with his rock gauntlets to weather the fireball that had been belched at him, Bikki lunged forward with a second slash of his Emushi Blade. This time, his blade cut apart the rock gauntlets and sent Fei-Yan crashing to the ground to avoid having his arms cut off. Fei-Yan got to one knee, staring at his shaking arms in disbelief before he clenched his fists and popped up in a kick that launched one of his rock boots at Bikki. Bikki parried the first boot, the second took him by surprise and smashed into his breastplate, bruising Bikki's ribs beneath the armor.

Fei-Yan attempted to capitalize as Bikki was sent reeling backward, stomping the ground to attempt to raise a spike of rock behind Bikki from the floor of the courtyard to impale him through the back of the head. Bikki was expecting something like that, however, and kicked out backward with his foot. His foot struck the underside of the rock spike and Bikki kicked off it, launching into a forward shoulder roll past another, smaller spike that jutted out from the larger one at a gesture from Fei-Yan. As Bikki popped up to his feet he launched himself into a rising kick that sent an arc of flame at Fei-Yan, forcing the Earthbender to throw himself to the side to avoid being caught alight. Bikki rushed ahead, using a Flamecharge boost and as Fei-Yan got to one knee he found Bikki's Emushi Blade hovering less than an inch from his throat.

"Yield." Demanded Bikki.

For a moment, it looked like Fei-Yan would refuse to yield, even with Bikki's blade so close to his throat. Then, as if swallowing his pride, Fei-Yan looked slightly to the left just enough to avoid Bikki's gaze without cutting his own throat on the blade.

"Tch. Very well. You've proven my superior today." Admitted Fei-Yan.

And with that, the Hung Guards threw down their weapons and surrendered. Hayansaeg Fortress was officially theirs. Bikki put his Emushi Blade back in its sheath before offering Fei-Yan a hand up. The Earthbender took it and submitted himself to captivity with all the grace of a slightly annoyed peacock-pigeon.

Bikki, meanwhile, was just worried about how Deniigi was doing. . .

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Deniigi had to admit, Itigiaq may not have much for power, but his tricks certainly were effective. Thus far, she'd been able to avoid falling for any of them in a way that would lose her the fight, but it had been close a couple of times. The cuts along her side and arms could attest to that much where she'd managed to just about turn a sudden deadly shard of ice from a killing blow to a graze.

Mind you, she'd given as good as she'd got. Itigiaq had a split lip, busted nose, and black eye from where she'd caught him in the face with an ice hammer, and his right arm was used slowly and tenderly ever since she'd smashed it with a water whip. The Bastard had been able to get out of it before she could freeze it, though, unfortunately.

"Water whips, ice hammers, is this what you learned from those moldy old scrolls you stole? I was taught by Master Pakku. I'm a true Combat Waterbender, where's your blades, your spears? You're too soft! That's why we teach women to be healers, it's more natural!" Spat Itigiaq.

"You want blades?" Demanded Deniigi.

"You don't have the guts for blades!" Sneered Itigiaq.

"Fine, I'll give you blades!" Snarled Deniigi, forming a blade of ice around her arm and rushing for Itigiaq as if to punch the ice blade straight into his chest.

Itigiaq, for his part, simply grinned. That's when Deniigi knew she'd made a mistake. As if on cue, Itigiaq pivoted and brought his arms up. A block of ice slammed into Deniigi from the side, sending her sprawling to the ground. Deniigi just about managed to turn her tumble into a sideways roll in time to avoid the spears of ice that jutted out to impale her from the moisture in the air, icicles shooting out and missing her by a fraction of an inch. As she stood up, Itigiaq began talking more shit.

"Irrational just like all women! What, don't like what I'm saying? You won't shut me up like that!" Smirked Itigiaq.

Deniigi growled in her throat but reined it in. She'd been coming at this from the wrong angle. Attacking Itigiaq like a raging blizzard wasn't doing anything. He was just weathering the storm and picking his moments to strike. She had to be more like the ocean, a steady current that wore away at him until he was too worn out to even try more of those tricks. That sort of fight had never been Deniigi's strong suit, but to beat Itigiaq, she'd have to try.

Breathing in, she centered herself and lashed out, punching an icicle at Itigiaq. The bastard merely sneered and swiped at her with a hand that fired an icicle of his own at hers. His icicle broke hers in two, but that just meant Deniigi had two icicles. She brought both hands down and both halves of her broken icicle shot at Itigiaq, forcing him to raise a wall of ice to block. Deniigi raised a pair of walls of her own with rising motions of her arms, one on either side of Itigiaq. They closed in on him, forcing him to drop his wall in order to dodge. Itigiaq tucked himself into a forward roll to avoid being squished which opened him up to an icicle shot that Deniigi punched out at him. Itigiaq popped up just in time to see the icicle shooting for him, turning sideways, Itigiaq turned the impalement into a graze along his chest.

That was how Deniigi fought, wearing Itigiaq down with a constant, steady, stream of attacks. Forcing him to move in ways she wanted in order to avoid taking hits that would end the fight and to accept lesser wounds instead. When he was on the defensive like this, forced to move where she dictated, Itigiaq was almost insultingly easy to beat. He was too used to people falling for his tricks and not used to being the victim of other people's tactics at all.

Deniigi almost lost her control and switched back to attacking furiously like a raging blizzard when she saw how badly Itigiaq was out of his depth. She caught herself before she managed to throw away her lead like that, though. Instead keeping up the steady current of pressure. The current was wearing away at Itigiaq and soon enough it would be time for the wave to crash through and wreck him.

That time came when Itigiaq was forced to take a cut to the back of the knee in order to avoid an ice blade that would have lopped his whole leg off below the knee. He stumbled as his tendons were severed and came to one knee, huffing, puffing, and bleeding from dozens of small wounds that added up over time.

"You fucking bitch! Stop fucking playing with me and end it, if you've got the guts!" Spat Itigiaq.

"When you get to the Spirit World, I want you to remember to tell the ancestors how you died. That it was a woman who beat you." Intoned Deniigi.

"Fuck you!" Spat Itigiaq.

A single swipe of her hand and a materialized blade of ice later, and Itigiaq's head and body fell to the ground, both in completely different directions.

"Not in a million years." Spat Deniigi.

She let out a breath she hadn't known she'd been holding at that. She'd won. It had taken her fighting in a style she was completely unsuited to, but she'd managed it. She'd finally killed that bastard Itigiaq and gotten some measure of revenge for all the women he'd forced himself on. Hopefully, that would be enough for their spirits to rest easy.

Taking a deep breath, Deniigi couldn't help but notice the dust cloud being kicked up in the distance. It was large enough to be seen above the outer wall of Hayansaeg Fortress. With a frown, she suddenly remembered how the Gimi Immortals had an Ostrich Horse Platoon. Turning, she spotted two of the Lieutenants, Dal-Sam from First Company and Emiko from her Archery Platoon.

"We've got incoming! Ostrich Horse Cavalry from the Gimi Immortals coming this way. I need spears and archers to help me repel them!" Called out Deniigi.

"You'll have them." Intoned Dal-Sam.

"Count on me, Captain!" Saluted Emiko.

Soon enough, a group of some fifteen spearmen and fifteen archers from First and Second Companies were lined up outside to repel the oncoming tide of cavalry. Deniigi could see them now. Sixty-some-odd Mounted Riders in good steel armor with Ji-style spears. More than she had defending the breached wall by a lot. Fortunately, she was a waterbender.

With a swirling motion, Deniigi began drawing water from the sea and covering the ground between her forces and the charging riders with it. Each layer soaked the ground further, turning it into mud that the riders would have to charge through and lose momentum if they wanted to relieve the fort. She was up to her fourth layer when Emiko and her archers opened fire, Yu Yan training picking off riders as they fired. They got two volleys off by the time the riders hit the mud patch, giving them time for a third before the spearmen had to brace to receive a cavalry charge.

Then the charge hit the wall of spears and chaos unfolded. There was the screeching of impaled ostrich horses mingled with the grunts of fighting warriors, the screams of pain of the dying, and the clang of steel on steel. Emiko loosed a fourth volley into the riders as their charge stalled out on the wall of spears and Deniigi found herself firing icicles at a rider that had leaped off his dying Ostrich Horse to attempt to bypass the line of spearmen, punching through the man's brigandine armor and killing him.

Then it was over, the charge having bounced against the defense. Emiko loosed a fifth volley at the retreating riders, but they'd left sixteen of their number dead and wounded behind them on the field. Their own casualties were lighter at eight spearmen killed or wounded. That was just a taste of things to come, however. Deniigi knew the Gimi Immortals would be back and with bending support.

She just had to ensure that Bikki was ready for them when they did. . .

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AN: So yeah, Hayansaeg Fortress falls, Bikki defeats a Master Earthbender in a Duel, and Deniigi gets revenge for all the women that Itigiaq raped and killed in the past. Plus we get to see the first clash between the Gimi Immortals and a relatively small section of the Liason Battalion. Notably, they inflicted actual losses on the Liason Battalion, even if their own losses were twice as many thanks to charging a wall of spears backed by archers through a Waterbender-provided mud patch.

I tried to make Itigiaq as unlikable as possible this whole time. The dude is a rapist, a murderer, a misogynist, and an all-around bad person. He's there to represent the fact that even though Bikki has been doing a lot of converting the enemy's strength to his own, they're still pirates and because of that, there are going to be folks who absolutely cannot be rehabilitated.

At any rate, the next chapter will involve the next fight with the Gimi Immortals.

Stay tuned. . .