“Is he alive?” said one voice.

A pause, “No heartbeat… wait.”

Lu Gun launched up from the earth and dug three figures into the throat of the man who stood over him.

Even as the other man lowered a spearpoint toward Lu Gun, the master metalbender launched a dart from his chest, driving a hole through that man’s helmet… and head.

“You… you’re a metalbender,” rasped the one Lu Gun held.

Lu Gun shoved the man away, noticing the black and green of the uniform.

“The Earthbreakers have gone soft without me.”

“W- without you?” said the man massaging his throat, then the Earthbreaker scout’s eyes went wide with realization, “You’re Lu Gun. But you’re…”

“Supposed to be dead?” Lu Gun summoned the specialized fragments of metal he had crafted, letting them lock into place where his missing fingers used to be. He flexed them, satisfied that they had not warped in the heat of battle. “The situation changed. I adapted.”

“How did you survive this?” asked the scout, “The land’s scorched for fifty paces around. Even the stone we pulled you out of was melted. I’ve never seen such firebending. This was firebending, wasn’t it, Master?”

There was a flash of recollection. Lu Gun had had a choice. For most people it wouldn’t have been a choice. He had burrowed so deep beneath the inferno that he had reached groundwater. When he kept going down, and the inferno still raged above him, he had run out of air.

He had to choose to breathe or to survive. Any other person wouldn’t have been able to help themselves; they would have sought to appease their body’s pleas for air. Even most Earthbreakers, trained as they were against all manner of torture, would have risen to the surface, giving up their life for one last scorching breath. They wouldn’t have gotten it before they were incinerated.

But Lu Gun never broke.

He held himself down long after his body shut down and his mind stopped functioning. He had no idea how long he had spent in that tomb of his own creation, but now that he was exhumed, he could see that his most recent battlefield with the lightbender had cooled, and what were once boulders were now glassy black crags.

There was no sign that the lightbender and his allies had lived here; no cabin, no fortifications, not even cinders remained. Even what had looked to be a forge was shattered and partially melted away, indistinguishable from the rest of the ruin.

The lightbender had gained allies. There was a Meteor Knight, for one, and they had somehow forced that wolfboar to fight for them too, just as Lu Gun had used the bearmoose.

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But the wily monk was one step ahead of him, having outnumbered him just enough to buy him the time he had needed to… to what?

There had been firebending, and some lightbending. But whatever Yaosen had done was nothing like what the monks of the Light Temple did. There had been more than one beam, uncontrolled but all the more deadly for it. And then there had been the explosion. Such raw power. Such ferocity.

Lu Gun’s metal fingers creaked as he clenched them.

“M-Master Lu Gun?”

Lu Gun had forgotten the scout was there. At least the inferior Earthbreaker knew enough to show proper deference.

“You’ve established a beachhead, with a central command.”

“Yes, Master Lu Gun.”

“There is a ranking officer in the Farwilds.”

“General Fong, sir.”

Lu Gun smiled. “Take me to him.”

***

Eyes went wide in the new halls of the earth city, as Lu Gun strode past.

He was a fearsome sight he knew, clad in the armor of the ship he had wrecked, spines of wolfboar dangling from his hip, and a cape of owlynx fur draped from his shoulders. All of this bespoke power to the peasant. But the real danger was the one they wouldn’t have noticed: the bandolier across his chest, full of a weapon no metalbender had yet conceived of.

Even veteran Earthbreakers gave him a wide berth. And the servants or nonbenders all but pressed themselves into the stone to steer clear of him.

They were already afraid. They were already ready for him.

***

“Your report, Earthbreaker.” General Fong made a good show of being in command, but he was spineless as far as Earthbreakers went. The best Earthbreakers were in the field, embedded throughout the Republic, working to bring about the preeminence of the Earth Kingdom, not tallying supplies in an office.

General Fong shuffled uncomfortably and dropped his gaze as Lu Gun didn’t respond.

The best Earthbreakers were assassins, not politicians.

Lu Gun turned, and with a flick of his wrist he killed one unsuspecting metalbender at the door. The other had time to lift his spear and launch it at Lu Gun, but he was already ducking to send a second dart through the man’s gut.

It was a shame to waste metalbenders, Lu Gun thought as he rose and strode the distance to the guards. There were so few of them left.

But any man who had diligently served General Fong was a threat to him. Fong’s personal guard would have not only been among the strongest, but they would be loyal to their general, possibly even have ties to him from back when General Fong was good at something other than kowtowing to the Earth King.

Lu Gun stood over the man he had gut-shot.

The guard was trying to push himself up against the wall, but his legs wouldn’t work.

Lu Gun reached a clawed hand toward the man’s wound and could feel that the projectile had shattered and warped around the guard’s spine.

Lu Gun ripped it out.

The guard only survived another few agonizing seconds before slumping.

Lu Gun turned toward the Earthbreaker general, who at least had the decency to grip his sword.

“Now, General,” Lu Gun purred, “Your report.”

General Fong pointedly released his sword, and reported.