About an hour later, the fact that it would be a long night was only further cemented in the minds of the Avatar's pursuers. As expected, the Avatar's bison outpaced them readily enough, once again leaving Mai to keep track of things. Thankfully, their prey had yet to realize that the beast was shedding, and with plenty of hair to go around, tracking the bison wasn't all that hard. It was always understood that the Avatar would outpace them: like Xisheng had said, it was just about lasting longer than their foes in the long run.
With the the trail getting tighter and narrower, Mai had already assumed that the bison had slowed down and likely stopped moving not too far off from their current position, so Xisheng had already alerted Azula and Ty Lee that they may be on top of the enemy soon. The Princess had merely acknowledged this notification and left him to his task.
Right now, the Overlord was navigating a winding mountain path at a decently high elevation, leading both Xisheng and Mai to believe they were rapidly closing in on their target. At most, they may have had a few minutes. Mai was using the time to gripe about the situation.
"Would it kill them to do the decent thing and surrender? This is driving me crazy."
Keeping his eyes ahead because failing to do so could throw the vehicle off a cliff, Xisheng nevertheless responded.
"I imagine they feel much the same way. Hence why, if we're lucky, they'll stop to fight out of sheer irritation at some point."
"If they don't stop soon, they'll see what sheer irritation looks like."
"I'm sure Azula will say something about how much of a hassle they've been for us."
Mai, kneeling at this point to take some of the strain off of her legs, didn't seem particularly enthused by the notion.
"Whatever she manages to say will still be an understatement."
Xisheng may have said something to that, but with his eyes on the path ahead, he was distracted by exactly what they were looking for. Near the top of this winding mountain path, where things seemed to plateau, stood the Avatar and his three companions, looking down at the vehicle that had been chasing them all night.
"Looks like they've gotten tired of the chase already. Alert Azula, would you? Tell her we're on a narrow path, the enemy is uphill, and that I'm going to turn the Overlord so the car doors are facing them."
"Got it."
Thankfully, while the path was generally narrow, there was enough space for Xisheng to maneuver the vehicle to the side. This way, Azula and Ty Lee would at least be able to engage almost immediately. Droning out what Mai was saying to his comrades over the pipes, Xisheng couldn't help but wonder why Toph didn't just send a rockslide their way or knock them clean off the mountain. Having seen her capabilities before, he didn't doubt that it was within her power. Even if she couldn't move the entire Overlord, stopping it in its tracks shouldn't have been too difficult. Maybe she just really wanted an actual fight. She had seemed pretty excited about it back in Gaoling.
Either way, Xisheng managed to bring the vehicle to a stop with the doors facing their foes. From outside, he heard the steam of the door opening on one of the other cars, or perhaps it was both of them. With the vehicle safely stopped, he wasted no time in rising from his chair himself, which garnered him a look from Mai.
"You're really going to go out there?"
"Well, it is my job. More importantly, if either one of them gets hurt because I was sitting out instead of watching their back, I would never forgive myself."
As Xisheng left the car, Mai sighed in defeat. Even she couldn't argue with that logic, which was probably why she begrudgingly got to her feet as well. He had a point: if someone ended up dying or crippled because she was too irritable to help, even she would probably be guilt-ridden for life. Or at least a few years, minimum.
When Xisheng exited the vehicle and stepped outside, he swiftly took stock of the situation. The Avatar and his friends were still at the top of the winding mountain path, choosing to fight but apparently believing that Azula and company were too far away to attack at the moment. That seemed reasonable as far as Aang and Katara were concerned, but Xisheng couldn't help but question the distance at which Toph could manipulate the earth. It was either a shorter distance than the one between them, or she simply chose not to do it.
Azula and Ty Lee had evidently released the Mongoose Lizards, finally revealing their purpose in being brought all the way from Omashu: they would allow for the traversal of a great distance at a much shorter time than running allowed. That was critical when one had to close the distance with a number of benders, especially when two members of the team were limited to close or medium range combat. Besides that, Mongoose Lizards could be fairly dangerous in combat themselves.
However, there were only three of the reptiles, and Azula and Ty Lee had already mounted two of them. The Princess diverted her attention to the arrival of the other half of her team for a moment following their arrival.
"Good of you to join us: it seems the Avatar and his merry band are willing to wait for a good fight, much to our fortune. But I won't bet on that courage remaining for long, so mount up, would you?"
Mai sighed in frustration as she begrudgingly brushed past Xisheng and stepped into the saddle of one of the Lizards. Naturally, this left the only professional soldier a little flat-footed.
"Uh, I suppose I'll catch up...?"
Azula seemed to find the notion of him trailing behind on foot amusing, but she nevertheless refused the concept.
"Don't be ridiculous, you're with me. Attacking the Avatar in tandem is our best chance of victory against one so evasive. For obvious reasons Mai and Ty Lee aren't the best suited to defeat him. So get on."
Xisheng supposed that Azula had a point: with the ability to fly, Ty Lee faced great difficulty in making physical contact with the Avatar, and with his wind manipulation, Mai's projectiles would be hard-pressed to ever stay on target. Both of them could only really fight Aang if they caught him by surprise or if they had support to distract or box him in. They did have that support, but since the Avatar had support as well, it wasn't like they could all focus on just Aang.
All of that said, Xisheng realized that being 'with' Azula in this scenario meant sitting behind her on the saddle. Despite being a pretty receptive person in regards to equality, he had to admit that the notion of being the only one who didn't know how to ride among a group of all girls stung a bit.
Azula seemed to pick up on his malcontent with the notion, something that seemed to amuse her greatly.
"Well? Any day now, Lieutenant."
Knowing full well that he couldn't delay the mission for something as petty as unease or embarrassment, Xisheng stepped up towards the Mongoose Lizard Azula had claimed, seeking to distract himself from the situation as he settled on the back of the saddle, a spot not designed to be ridden but capable enough of allowing it.
"Where did all of you learn to ride these things anyway?"
Azula merely scoffed.
"Please, I'm a genius."
Ty Lee simply shrugged sheepishly.
"You know that 'experience' with Mongoose Lizards I talked about before?"
"You never actually talked about it."
The acrobat seemed unwilling to divulge whatever secret experience she had, so Mai decided to explain herself in the silence, though not very well.
"The usual way. Got bored."
Somehow, all of their answers did very little to explain anything about their riding skills or where they had gotten them from. But Xisheng didn't have time to think about that, since Azula was eager to begin the attack. The Avatar and his crew were being quite patient, after all.
"Don't you think you might want to hang on, Lieutenant?"
While it sounded like Azula was suggesting he hold onto her, Xisheng couldn't fathom the idea. What, like, around the waist? Yeah, maybe their relationship had advanced beyond mere soldier and superior, and beyond subject to Princess, but this seemed like a big leap in comfort and familiarity. He just couldn't bring himself to make that leap so suddenly.
"I'm certain I'll manage, Princess."
There was a brief moment in which an irritated expression crossed Azula's face, but ultimately she just shrugged and accepted his answer.
"Suit yourself."
With a snap of the reins, Azula's mount shot forward at an alarming speed, and Xisheng's upper body did about the same thing in the reverse direction, with his already stiff legs barely holding him in place. Now that they were moving, it was fairly obvious from his perspective that Azula's motivation in telling him to hang on was purely practical. Unlike her, who had the benefit of a saddle to keep her rooted, Xisheng didn't really have any other option than to hang onto that rooted person for his own stability.
So, while it was uncomfortable for a number of reasons, Xisheng did what he had to do, leaning forward to wrap his arms around Azula's waist. The last thing he needed to do was waste even more energy trying to stay mounted as inefficiently as possible. This was practical: all practical, he told himself. Surely that was the only way Azula saw it, so why not him? Besides, he may have been pressed up against her smaller back, but he'd also punched her in the face earlier today, so it wasn't like he had never been this close before. Hell, she'd stepped on him once or twice in the early days of sparring.
That sounded a little weirder than it really was in reality.
Thankfully, any room for awkward thoughts was eradicated by the prospect of battle. While Toph hadn't done anything to prevent the approach of the Overlord, she apparently felt a little differently about the Mongoose Lizards and their riders, as she used a series of quick movements to force out spikes of earth in their immediate path. However, the agile Mongoose Lizards either sidestepped or climbed over all of them. Frankly, Xisheng wondered why these animals weren't more commonly used in military operations. They seemed quite useful.
Toph's next attack was a little more wide-ranging, choosing to erect an entire wall that spanned the path available to them, while also being at least two dozen feet high. It didn't really seem like it would be that useful though. Didn't the Lizards already prove they could climb well? Maybe she was just creating time for them to run. Then again, Xisheng knew a thing or two about Earthbending, and he knew that the style often involved multi-stage attacks...
"Azula-"
His warning was apparently unneeded, as Azula cut him off.
"I know. Everyone, jump!"
It was a good thing that everyone understood that she meant to have the Lizards jump, rather than jump off of them. Because if they had done the latter, the poor beasts would have been hammered by the oncoming salvo of square rocks, being launched out of the wall Toph had erected as rapidly as she could throw them. But with the Lizards commanded to leap by their reins, their impressive acrobatic ability launched them over the attack, and consequently, the wall obstructing them.
It was clear by the looks on their enemies' faces that they had not been expecting this level of jumping ability from the reptiles, giving the Fire Nation hunters a brief window to act before they were under attack again. Azula clearly intended to use this window to dismount, as she planted her feet on the saddle, consequently forcing Xisheng to release his grip.
Well, he supposed now was as good a time as any to get into the fight. He just hoped the stiffness in his legs wasn't going to make it a troublesome affair. Unfortunately, as he followed Azula's example and leaped from the airborne Mongoose Lizard, he definitely felt the tension in his legs hold him back from doing as well as he would have liked. He hadn't jumped nearly as hard or far as he had wanted, forcing him to botch his landing with a pained grunt and a staggered roll to his feet.
Trying his best to ignore the fatigue, Xisheng found himself a few feet from the Water Tribe Boy, Sokka. He didn't seem that eager to jump immediately into a fight.
"Tough day?"
Acknowledging the dark bags under his opponent's eyes, Xisheng nodded, feeling a certain sense of solidarity.
"Yeah, you could say that."
"Wanna just call it quits and forget about all this so we can rest?"
As flashes of blue erupted from Xisheng's right, he decided the moment of friendly banter had to come to and end.
"Sorry, but no."
As for Azula, she wasted no time in beginning the offensive, simply trusting that her allies had landed safely and would engage in battle at their own discretion. The only thing she did see from her team was the trio of Mongoose Lizards landing, all of which began to hiss and circle the Avatar's bison immediately, which roared back at them defensively. Predator and prey: nature's way of things, evidently. If they were lucky, the reptiles would actually wound or even kill the Avatar's mount, but it wouldn't pay to bet on that outcome.
Besides, if Azula could just do what she needed to do here and now, then it wouldn't matter if the bison came out of this in one piece or not, hence why she was attacking Aang right away. Said Airbender barely managed to leap away from her initial inferno, caught off guard by the dogged attack on his person within the first two seconds of combat. Even some of his clothes had caught fire.
Of course she had a whip of water coming her way almost immediately afterwards, but a swift jab of her own flames dispelled that problem, revealing the irate attacker that had sent it, scowl on her already exhausted face.
"Tch, I thought Zuko was bad, but you're a literal cockroach. Why are you so persistent?"
Naturally, Azula felt a great deal of ire being called such a thing, but it wasn't going to rile her. She'd heard worse.
"Why, I'm glad even a lackluster peasant like yourself can note the difference between a pushover and an elite like myself. Then again, if you were capable of that, you wouldn't be stupid enough to embarrass yourself by facing me, would you?"
Clearly already in a bad mood, probably due to extenuating circumstances and a lack of sleep, Katara didn't react to Azula's rebuttal particularly well.
"We'll see how smug you are when I mess up the other side of your face. You trip and fall while you were distracted by your ego?"
Finding her jab to be a little weak, Azula merely smirked as she turned her attention back to the Avatar, who had thankfully been occupied by the Mongoose Lizards harassing his bison during this brief exchange.
"Cute. If you don't mind, I have a real fight to get to."
Now truly furious, Katara readied another glob of water between her hands.
"Oh, I'll show you a real-hey!"
This cut off was due to a slab of stone jutting up between Katara and Azula, with said slab actively shoving Katara away a moment later. It was no mystery as to who had done this, but Toph's words of challenge left no room for doubt.
"You're right about that: you and me, right now! C'mon, let's do it!"
Azula sighed in frustration as she turned her head to appraise the situation. To her left, Toph stood entirely unmolested, arms crossed in a confident pose of challenge. She apparently had no issue with the fact that she had just sabotaged one of her own allies. Not that Azula was above such things herself all the time, but she'd never do that in the heat of battle. It was just inefficient.
Speaking of inefficiency, she couldn't help but address her comrades.
"If the Avatar is over there, the peasant girl was facing me, and Miss Beifong is free to accost me like this, what on earth are all of you doing?"
Near the wall Toph had erected earlier, Azula found her allies recovering from a massive slab of earth that had launched them all off of their feet. Apparently Toph had neglected holding back against anyone in the way of her duel with Azula. Mai, grumpier than usual thanks to the situation at hand and the one that had preceded it, sniped back at her.
"What were you doing while we were getting thrown around, other than trash talking the stupid Waterbender?"
Azula heard some objection to being insulted from the vague direction that Katara had been pushed in, but she ignored it.
"That's fair enough, I suppose."
Fed up with being ignored, Toph shouted her intentions once again, a little more brusquely.
"Hey! I want this to be a fair fight but if you don't focus up I'll just smash you over the head with a rock!"
The Crown Princess glanced back in the direction the Avatar had fled, trying to discern her best course of action. After all, while she acknowledged that a large part of her really wanted to battle another prodigy, even one as loud as Toph, the practical part of her better judgment dictated that the Avatar was the most important target. However, said Airbender was a little busy trying to protect his pet bison from a trio of vicious reptiles. Besides, it wasn't like he was the type to up and flee without his friends in tow.
On top of that, Toph was arguably the most dangerous of the enemy, to the best of Azula's knowledge. And she was the best of their own number. So it stood to reason that it would fall to her to fight Toph in this situation.
"Very well, I suppose I did tell you to search for even greater foes in life. Lieutenant, if you and the others could attempt to take down the Avatar while I'm preoccupied here, I'd be most grateful."
Eager to fight now that Azula was taking her seriously, Toph settled into an aggressive stance. Truth be told, she was a little miffed about the way Azula had spoken of her abilities back in Gaoling, regardless of whether or not the Princess had a point. She's briefly witnessed Azula's prowess in battle when she had pit her against Aang and his friends, but that hadn't been enough to determine whether or not she had been justified in everything she had said.
As for Xisheng, he figured it would be best to follow Azula's wishes. Even without them, it was obvious that they had to get the Avatar above all else, so it was what he would have done anyway. With Mai and Ty Lee at his side, he was about to beckon them forward, only for one particular male to step between them and their goal in the distance. Xisheng had kicked Sokka away earlier, deeming it more important to focus on the more dangerous members of his group, but apparently the boy hadn't learned his lesson, brandishing his boomerang and a club with only mildly perceptible trepidation.
Maybe Xisheng should have just taken him out for good, but honestly it hadn't even seemed worth it. He'd never actually faced someone in combat that he hadn't perceived as a threat before. Maybe he would have to rectify that, since this obstacle was still a hindrance, however minor it may be.
"H-hold, if you want to go any further, you'll have to go through me!"
Particularly irate for a number of reasons, Mai brandished some of her knives with a little more menace than usual.
"I don't think I'll have any problem making these go through you."
Sokka gulped, no doubt visualizing an imminent and grisly demise. Frankly, Xisheng didn't blame him. With Mai's precision, the lethality she could bring to the table was no joke. This was especially true for someone like Sokka, who couldn't rely on an earth wall or block of ice to protect him at his whim.
Speaking of a block of ice, Sokka was fortunately (for him, at any rate) joined by his sister, who was fuming about Toph even as she took a stance.
"Ugh! Why did we even let her join?! She's been nothing but an obnoxious brat this whole time!"
Sokka, perhaps wisely realizing that he didn't need anyone else trying to beat him up at the moment, simply stayed quiet. He wasn't going to score Toph's ire, i she happened to be listening, what with all the exploding rocks and balls of blue fire behind him. He was scared to even look back at what kind of battle was happening over there.
Ty Lee, on the other hand, had no such qualms in regards to Katara. Xisheng actually found it amusing that the Waterbender was the one person his brunette friend would get all snappy and offensive with. Katara had apparently rubbed her the wrong way at some point.
"I don't see the problem: if she's like that, you two are practically twins."
Already irritated by a lack of sleep, not to mention the friction with Toph and a stinging insult from Azula, Katara decided against fighting back verbally and settled for the much preferred physical violence. Attacking someone was downright cathartic at this point.
Said catharsis came in the form of a wide, horizontal whip of water that aimed to strike all three of her enemies. Both Mai and Ty Lee moved to get out of the way, but Xisheng opted for kicking a vertical line of flame to intercept it, slicing the water attack in half at the middle and effectively nullifying its threat, as the to halves fall harmlessly to the ground short of its targets.
Waterbending was interesting, like that. A wave was only dangerous as long as it remained a cohesive whole. If the center was suddenly vaporized, the attack lost most of its force. Of course, if a Waterbender was swift enough to take control of the remaining water, they could mitigate this, but that was hard to do in the heat of battle. After all, Katara's attack had been nullified in a split second. It wasn't a lot of time to react.
Since dodging was unnecessary, Mai used the opportunity to scatter a half dozen razor discs at both of their foes. Clearly expecting Katara to protect them with an ice wall, Sokka did a double take when his sister merely dived to the side, leaving him to scramble to do the same. His late barrel roll earned him a clean but not entirely deep slice on his upper arm.
Xisheng was actually impressed by Katara's keen reaction. Had she raised an elemental barrier, she would have risked losing some of her precious ammunition to a Firebending attack, much like their fight in Gaoling. They'd only fought once, but apparently, she had already learned her lesson. The fact that she was a quick learner just made her more dangerous, of course. She would only improve more and more each time they fought.
Of course, the obvious solution to that was eliminating her. Xisheng had already promised her that he would kill her, if she continued to resist. And of course, he had no qualms with that. But thinking about it now, any opportunity he had to kill her or any other member of the Avatar's team would be witnessed by all of his allies. That thought actually did give him pause. If she saw him kill another human being, even if she was an enemy combatant, right before her eyes, would Ty Lee see him as some sort of monster?
The thought wasn't pleasant, but it also wasn't to say that Xisheng wouldn't do it regardless. Objectively speaking, getting rid of a physical threat to himself and his teammates was more important than the opinion of others, even his friends. He supposed he would consider the problem more seriously if he actually had a chance to land a killing blow.
"Alright; Mai, you keep harassing them from back here. Ty Lee, come with me. I'll cover you so you can close the distance on the Waterbender and take her out."
Ty Lee seemed to have no qualms with this plan, either eager to team up with Xisheng in a fight for the first time or eager to cut Katara down to size, or perhaps both. But Mai didn't agree right away.
"I thought Azula said to get the Avatar?"
"If we ignore our other enemies to go after him, they'll either follow us and make our fight harder or try to take down Azula, who already has her hands full. You can't worry about other enemies when you have some right in front of you."
"You and your Army doctrine..."
"Actually, that one was just common sense."
Choosing to throw another two knives at Katara instead of answering, as well as one just to scare Sokka, Mai made it pretty clear that she was onboard with the plan. Since everyone was in agreement, Xisheng swiftly motioned for Ty Lee to follow him, before charging at Katara. Sokka was more than safe to ignore in this situation.
With little actual distance between them, Katara acted fast to try and intercept her approaching foes, creating two icicle spears to launch their way. Unfortunately for her, direct attacks of this magnitude were easy enough for Xisheng to deflect with Firebending. Such was the weakness of Waterbending: their power in battle was almost entirely dependent on the volume of water available to them. With only the pouch of water she had available, there was no attack Katara could muster that Xisheng couldn't overpower. If she survived this encounter, perhaps she would consider carrying more ammo around.
Perhaps realizing that she had to work that much harder with a disadvantage, Katara opted for two streams of water controlled by each hand, as she weaved them through the air in spirals to try and avoid interception. Unfortunately, this strategy still wasn't enough: after all, it wasn't like Xisheng had to be accurate in his interception: a large plume of flame in the general direction of the attacks was more than enough to nullify them. Moreover, whereas Waterbending relied almost exclusively on the utilization of the arms, Firebending used all four limbs to achieve its goals. Xisheng was easily able to intercept both attacks with a few kicks, then follow up in Katara's direction with punches of flame.
His opponent reacted by rolling to the side, once again proving that she had taken up the code of evasion instead of blocking. Ty Lee, on the other hand, used the opportunity to jump onto Xisheng's back and leap off of him, startling the soldier but giving the acrobat a solid springboard to close the remaining distance. She flew through the air and practically landed on top of Katara, jabbing for the opposing girl's shoulder right away.
Surprisingly, Katara's reflexes were good enough to save her even as sleep deprived as she was, as she succeeded in raising a small ice shield to block Ty Lee's fist, causing the brunette to reel back in pain. Katara took this opportunity to manifest a very pointy shard of ice around her other hand, which was swiping at Ty Lee in no time.
Thankfully the acrobat managed to back step away from what would have been a nasty gash, though she nevertheless expressed her surprise at Katara's very aggressive maneuver.
"Hey, you know that would kill me, right?!"
"You know that you're all trying destroy the world, right?"
Noting with an almost proud expression that Katara of all people was taking the fight as seriously as required, Xisheng prepared to move in for assistance, but he was cut off by the sound of a metallic clang to his right. Glancing over, he found Sokka's boomerang tumbling through the air, having been knocked off course by a heftier knife from Mai. Much as he hated to admit it, that boomerang could have knocked him clean out had it made contact. Maybe he wasn't a completely negligible threat.
On Azula's side of things, she was completely unaware of the surrounding situation. Sure, she heard it all: the roar of the bison, the hiss of the lizards attacking it and the Avatar, the sounds of fighting from her comrades: but for once in her life, she was actually forced to devote her full attention to the battle at hand. It was a begrudging admittance to such a thing, but she couldn't deny that Toph was pushing her far more than most foes did.
Of course, perhaps it was also the fact that Toph was her very first Earthbending adversary of any note. She obviously didn't count Lao's goons. To say that fighting an Earthbender was an entirely different experience than any other element was an understatement. Unless a Waterbender was fighting you on a literal block of ice, both they and Firebenders attacked in a very direct manner. Fighting a clever Earthbender like Toph was anything but. Attacks could come from almost anywhere, and Azula couldn't even be sure of her own footing, since that too was earth.
And unlike most Earthbenders who simply chose to throw rocks in some manner or other, Toph took advantage of this. When Azula evaded an obvious boulder to the face, the ground beneath her feet almost always shifted, or even tried to suck her in, effectively nullifying any attempt to make a solid recovery. When Azula did get a chance to attack, a slab of earth was always in the way.
So in essence, Azula's defensive maneuvers were compromised, and her offensive capabilities were limited. Her usual tactics regarding relatively average power in exchange for precision and speed weren't going to work here. Apparently Toph sensed her difficulty as well, as she reveled in the chance to point it out as Azula ducked under a particularly hefty boulder.
"C'mon, is this all you got? After all that crap you had to say?"
Toph's disappointment was punctuated by the particular piece of earth Azula was occupying launching the Princess into the air. While initially startled, the prodigious Firebender realized this was advantageous for her almost immediately, swiftly choosing to launch two fireballs to her left and right and curving them inwards to strike in a pincer fashion as she fell back to the ground. To the best of her limited knowledge on Toph and her abilities, the young Earthbender should have been helpless to discern this maneuver.
Considering the lack of reaction to the strike, Azula quickly deduced that her hypothesis was correct. Toph chose to throw several small fist-sized rocks into the air in the general direction she assumed Azula was, completely ignorant of the spheres of flame approaching her from the left and right. Not only did her follow up attack miss Azula quite cleanly, but it wasn't until Toph could literally feel the heat from Azula's pincer attack that she realized she was in danger.
And yet, even though she only had a second or two to react, the prodigious Earthbender nevertheless managed to raise walls on either side of her to bloc those attacks, just in the nick of time. Her reaction time was truly impressive, there was no doubting that.
Still, as Azula landed back on her feet none the worse for wear, she couldn't help but smirk to herself. Dangerous though she might be, Toph still had very exploitable weaknesses, as the most recent exchange had just proven.
"Don't get ahead of yourself, Miss Beifong. Only a fool goes all out before seeing if it's even necessary. I'm not in near enough trouble to show you 'everything' I've got."
With a prominent scowl on her face, perhaps from realizing how close she had been to getting toasted, Toph raised a spherical disk of earth out of the ground.
"You think I've been going all out either? Just watch!"
In another moment, the several foot wide disk was flying at Azula's midsection, intent on bludgeoning her to death in a single strike. Azula handily leaped over it, using her earlier strategy of attacking in the air so Toph couldn't see what type of attack was coming. This time she opted for a ball of flame going overhead. As she landed, she saw Toph pull a fist back, which prompted Azula to jump again in a neat little spinning motion that allowed the disk from before to pass under her a second time.
"Sorry, but I've seen that move twice already."
Sensing the heat of the incoming attack from above, Toph actually used the earth beneath her to launch her backwards rather than block out this time.
"Damn, who's out there stealing all my moves?"
"If you think you're the first person to come up with a technique that simple, then I've really had too high of an opinion of you this whole time."
Toph frowned at this statement.
"Man, you are seriously mean. I want to come up with some sort of insulting nickname for you, but I feel like you'd call me something a hundred times worse."
Honestly, Azula found it pretty amusing that she could banter like this with someone she was actively fighting. Despite the very serious levels of violence they were throwing at each other, it honestly felt like a competition more than an actual conflict, which was, in a manner of speaking, actually fun. Was this what it was like to have a rival?
Still, they were fighting here, and on a technicality, Toph was just an obstacle in the way of her actual objective. While she did enjoy the chance to test her skills, Azula could still see that, rationally, she had bigger fish to fry. Thankfully, a quick glance in the Avatar's direction showed that he was still having some trouble with the Mongoose Lizards, attempting to bat them away with large air attacks. Apparently, his unwillingness to do harm to wild animals was holding him back from taking care of the problem more quickly.
There was no telling how long that would last, of course. So Azula figured it would be best to try and take Toph out as swiftly as possible.
"I may hold back on the insulting name if I was feeling generous. But you'd have to impress me first."
"Oh don't worry, I will."
Instead of waiting for an attack, Azula launched herself into the air this time, knowing it was her greatest advantage. Toph must have been getting a little sick of it, because she responded much more aggressively this time around. Instead of trying to pinpoint Azula's airborne location and hitting her with a precise strike, the Earthbender chose to simply throw an entire slab of earth in Azula's general direction. Needlesst to say, it was more than large enough to cover any position Azula may have been in.
As far as she was concerned, Azula didn't like testing out new techniques in the heat of battle. Xisheng had proven in his fight with her why that wasn't a great idea. But she didn't have much of a choice here, since she was about to be splattered by a flying block of earth six times wider than her.
Xisheng had only briefly explained his new Firebending technique to her, to an extent where Azula had understood that it really wasn't that complex or even innovative. Basically, he had just used his Firebending as a propulsion force for his actual body, only in a particularly concentrated area. This was something Azula herself had thought of plenty of times before. Heck, she had even used a similar technique in the past to propel herself in a forward motion.
The only reason she didn't bother with the technique that much was because she rarely found a need for it. Normally speaking, Firebending didn't require a lot of airborne action. Besides, overusing a technique that required constant bursts of great power would swiftly be exhausting.
Either way, said technique was her only option now, so Azula stretched her arm out to her side and swiftly concentrated her significant power into her palm, releasing it but a moment or two before her imminent demise. The blast was more than enough to propel her out of harm's way, but it also launched Azula further than she had intended, and also jammed her arm into her torso quite painfully. She'd used too much power, and probably at a bad angle. Theoretically simple the technique may have been, but that certainly didn't mean there was no finesse or skill to it.
Sent careening through the air a little less gracefully than she had intended, Azula nevertheless managed to launch tendril of flame at Toph. She would have considered lightning, but that was out of the question at this juncture.
Definitely not expecting Azula to reposition so quickly or so far, Toph was unable to react this time, though Azula's aim was a little off. The azure bolt of fire struck the younger girl in the shoulder, burning through her clothes and scorching the skin beneath. Toph clutched the fresh wound with a pained grunt, but still managed to locate Azula when she landed on the ground again. This airborne business was getting on her nerves, so she came up with a good plan to take care of it.
The first part of that was throwing a rock in Azula's direction, to which the Princess predictably jumped into the air again. Certain that she would reposition to get a clear shot again, Toph swiftly erected a dome of earth around her entire person.
Certain that her opponent had made a mistake, Azula prepared to conjure a bolt of lightning to demolish the shield and possibly end the fight, but she was only halfway through the movements when Toph's domed shield exploded outwards in all directions, fractured into several dozen pieces. This area attack made it so Azula's position in the air was irrelevant: it covered all angles.
Certain that even small chunks of stone could do her serious harm at the speeds they were going, Azula did the only thing she could on such short notice and placed her arms in front of her vulnerable face, trusting in her armor to take the brunt of any blow to a critical area. It was the best defense she could muster, even though it was paltry, and it showed when her body was showered by shards of stone that, while small, had enough force to hurt like hell in any unarmored part of her body.
With her attack ruined, Azula landed back on the ground, with a variety of cuts and gashes, as well as some spots she was certain would bruise in no time. Despite being in pain and being very unhappy with getting injured a second time in one day, she wasn't all that upset. This is what made for a fight between prodigies: when both opponents were so good, they had to come up with new techniques and strategies in the heat of battle to keep the fight going. It was kind of exciting, in its own way.
Elsewhere on the small battlefield, Xisheng was unaware of Azula's situation or how dire it may have been. He was dealing with a situation of his own, after all. His side of the fight was not going as well as expected, surprisingly. Perhaps it was his own fault.
He'd already sent Mai away from them to try and nail the Avatar while he was distracted protecting his bison. He had no idea how well that was going, but perhaps it had actually been a bad idea. Somehow, both Sokka and Katara were still standing, neither of them having been incapacitated in the few minutes they'd been fighting.
Katara was the main problem: despite being at a disadvantage, she was striking in a wild frenzy that seemed to have no end. With attacks far more vicious and aggressive than any of their previous encounters, it was actually Ty Lee who was struggling in close quarters. While the acrobat only had to land a single blow to severely hamper Katara's ability to fight, said Waterbender had found her idea of icy sword arms to be extremely effective, especially once she made them a little longer.
Ty Lee was a better fighter in melee, there was no doubt about that. But fact of the matter was, she had no means of protecting herself. She wore no armor at all, making blades and other sharp edges particularly dangerous for her. Even though Katara was less skilled in this kind of combat, it was enough that it was too dangerous to get close to her. Ty Lee could only dodge, and trying to trade a blow for a blow was just too risky. All of the vital points Ty Lee could strike to instantly incapacitate Katara were difficult to hit in a direct fight like this, so she would have to land several strikes to disable Katara completely. Meanwhile, Katara only had to land one strike to potentially kill or cripple Ty Lee for good.
Maybe Ty Lee could have still come out on top, theoretically, but the danger to her person was revealing a serious weakness of her own: she may have been a martial artist, but she wasn't a warrior. The very real and imminent possiblity of being seriously hurt or worse was scaring her. She was too focused on trying to protect herself to really fight at her maximum potential.
Of course, Xisheng had tried to support her throughout the engagement, but this too proved difficult. Ty Lee was often too close to Katara for him to use any really powerful attacks, forcing him to also get close. But he was constantly forced to divert his attention to avoid that boomerang from Sokka, whom he couldn't take the time to eliminate lest Ty Lee get seriously hurt in his absence. The Water Tribe boy was wisely staying at a distance that would require too long for Xisheng to close without risking his partner's safety.
And on top of that, despite telling himself that he was used to fighting in such conditions, Xisheng was far from his peak performance right now. His day had been rough as hell: it started with an intense fight against Azula, in which he'd been wounded. Those burns still stung him even now. After that, he'd been forced to sit in the uncomfortable steel chair of the Overlord for hours on end. And on top of that, he had been awake for many hours past the norm on most days.
He was tired. His body ached, his actions and reactions were more sluggish than they should have been, and even the speed at which he was processing the situation was suffering a bit. Exactly what he had feared would happen had happened: even though the Avatar's group had been unable to sleep very well or for very long, their day had been nowhere near as grueling as his. Katara, tired though she was, was in significantly better shape than him. Even as he raised a knee to strike her in the abdomen, she easily raised an icy shield in defense.
Before he could follow up with anything else, Ty Lee's voice warned him of that damned boomerang again.
"Gohan, look out!"
Warned early enough, Xisheng ducked under the projectile, hearing it slice through the air over his head. That kid really did have uncanny aim with that thing. Unfortunately, the moment of distraction was enough for Katara to blast him back with a small but potent gush of water, all while swiping at Ty Lee again with a foot of icy dagger. She was like a wild animal at this moment in time.
With Ty Lee backing off and Xisheng staggered, Katara launched a small trio of icy needles at Xisheng, all of which he was unprepared for. One bounced off part of his armor, another merely grazed him, but one stabbed into an unarmored part of his body.
Maybe she was just tired of running, or maybe the sight of one of her friends getting injured spurred her to act beyond her fear, but either way Ty Lee stepped forward to try and take Katara out of the fight, jabbing for a pressure point on her abdomen that would make it very hard for her to stay upright. She was close enough to make the strike that Katara couldn't really react optimally, but she did still react on reflex, swinging her bladed arm low to high at her opponent.
From Xisheng's position, the scene didn't look good. There was an arc of blood, a cry of pain, and Ty Lee reeling back from her opponent with a contorted expression on her face. Katara fell over backwards too, her legs seemingly refusing to hold her up. But she, unlike Ty Lee, was clearly uninjured. Furious by the thought of what may have happened, Xisheng charged over in a heartbeat to get involved.
He was worried about Ty Lee of course, but that was going to have to wait. If he had even the slightest qualm about killing his current foes before, he certainly didn't now.
Xisheng stopped right above the grounded Katara, noticing a feeble attempt to raise her arm and attack him with waterbending. Unwilling to let that happen, Xisheng stomped down on that arm at the wrist, pinning Katara down as he reared a fist back to strike the fatal blow. The only thing on his mind was whether to crush her directly under his fist or incinerate her from where he stood. The terrified expression of a young girl beneath him did noting to elect any pity.
While he had every intent to strike, Xisheng didn't get a chance to. A determined yell from off to the side cut him short, swiftly followed by Sokka tackling him. Said tackle didn't work very well: Sokka was smaller than Xisheng and undoubtedly weaker. Even with his legs worn out, Xisheng was in a fairly stable stance. So ultimately, he was only pushed back a few steps. But it was more than enough to piss him off.
Much stronger than the young man tackling him away from his sister, Xisheng grabbed Sokka by the shoulder and shoved him back, using the power he had already charged for Katara to blast him in a manner not all that dissimilar from the way Azula had done to him in their duel earlier that day. Sokka was sent flying backwards, smoldering and quite literally on fire.
Xisheng ignored the cries from his victim's sister and instead returning his focus to her, charging up another attack to deal with her as well. But fate apparently had other plans in store, as it saw fit to interrupt him a second time, though it was a lot more effective this time around since it came in the form of a foot wide boulder smashing into his arm. The impact flung him away from Katara and garnered the attention of some of the other combatants in the area.
Azula berated herself for allowing Toph an opening to interven in an entirely different fight. Mai, who had been having little success aside from poking a few holes in Aang's glider, diverted her attention to the rest of the battle just as Aang took off towards it to help his friends. While this presented an opportunity to strike at him, she instead turned her attention to Toph, who was unmolested for the moment since Azula was recovering from some sort of attack. For some particular reason that may have involved Gohan getting smashed with a rock, Mai really wanted to attack her.
A lone dagger in Toph's direction was how she started, but even though she was the farthest away and had yet to attack her in any way, Toph sensed the attack through Mai's motions and blocked it with a wall.
"Nice try, but don't waste my time with your silly parlor tricks."
Now even more irritable, Mai aimed above the wall and threw another knife a little easier than usual, as well as a second one behind it with a little more force. Naturally Toph sensed these motions as well, but judging from the way Mai's arms moved from Toph's perspective, she was just missing terribly.
"What, you so upset that-!"
Toph's derision was cut short when Mai's first knife passed over her stone wall, only for the second one to impact said knife at the perfect angle to deflect the first into a downward spiral that planted the edge into Toph's forearm.
"Argh, what?! How the-?!"
The Earthbender looked like she wanted to retaliate, but the voice of her one Airbending ally stopped her from doing so.
"Toph! Sokka and Katara are hurt, help me get them out of here!"
Instinctually, Toph didn't want to do this, since it meant they would be running. But even blind, she could see that the situation was bad. Sokka hadn't moved since being blasted by the soldier, and Katara had never gotten back to her feet after the strike from the jumping girl. And of course, she herself was hurt as well, a sensation and experience that was new and unwelcome to her. Even Appa had taken a few bites and slashes from those reptiles, though he had ultimately scared them off once he'd blown one of them away with his tail.
Taking all of this into consideration, Toph flung a few more boulders at both Mai and Azula as distractions before running in Aang's general direction so she could use her Earthbending to get them all to Appa quickly.
Azula dodged those boulders and prepared for another attack while Toph's back was turned, but for her team, it was Mai who called her off.
"Azula, we're in bad shape too! Gohan and Ty Lee are hurt!"
Casting a glance in the direction of the mentioned allies, Azula confirmed the situation. Ty Lee was on the ground, holding bloodied hands to her chest, which was likewise smeared with crimson. Xisheng was kneeling beside her, seemingly functional, but his left arm was dangling at his side in a manner that hardly seemed good.
To her credit, the sight did stir up some sort of feeling in Azula: anger, mostly, but some weird sort of protectiveness as well. It was an odd sensation she didn't know how to really identify considering her unfamiliarity with it, but at the least, she could tell that she didn't like it.
The Crown Princess swiftly considered their options. Azula herself had also suffered some degree of injury, though it wasn't bad enough to prevent her from fighting. Mai was seemingly unscathed in her entirety. Technically, they were better off than their opponents, since the Avatar was the only uninjured one of their number. But Toph was still good enough to fight, even though she was hurt, and that damned bison could probably be a threat too.
She could continue to attack. Maybe she and Mai could actually win. But it seemed like the Avatar wanted to flee with his friends, and engaging them could drag them back into a fight, putting the already injured Xisheng and Ty Lee at risk. Some small part of her told Azula that such a thing was irrelevant, that there was no reason to just let the enemy run when she could still fight, but a much bigger part of her acknowledged that it wasn't a safe choice. The more cornered the Avatar felt, the more likely he was to do that glowy special crap that had been reported from some of his encounters with Fire Nation troops. If that happened, Azula's mostly injured team probably wouldn't be able to stop him.
But even ignoring that, she found herself asking a strange question: what would the person Xisheng had talked about before do? That potential future leader he supposedly believed Azula was going to be? Considering that this theoretical future version of herself was of Xisheng's imagination, Azula couldn't say with certainty what she would do. But she felt that needlessly endagering her allies for only a slim chance of achieving their objective wasn't it.
So she did nothing. Aang called his bison over to him, and Toph used her Earthbending to lift their entire team onto its back before it took off as fast as it could manage. Azula did nothing to oppose them, even though she considered shooting some lightning at the creature as Mai passed her in a very rare rush to check on their wounded.
Observing the Avatar's retreat, Azula catalogued a variety of different thoughts that would need to be factored in to their strategy from here on out. Maybe next time their main objetive should have actually been to just kill the bison. But on the other hand, the mere existence of that bison meant that, in situations like this, the Avatar would retreat rather than press Azula's weary and wounded team.
All of this and more was something she'd have to think about. But for now, she shelved all of it in favor of following Mai over to Xisheng and Ty Lee's position, to assess the damage if nothing else. She certainly hoped the Avatar's group had at least left as worse off as her own.