Chapter 23

A particularly tall woman with a curved longsword strapped to her back was talking to a mustached stringy man sitting on a crate. He leaned into the cave wall and spoke with his eyes closed.

"Get off your lazy ass, Li. You know what Vulcan will do to you if he catches you dozing off?"

"Melt me?" the man scoffed. "The Earth King's got half the crew, and the rest of us are barely hanging on. He's working us to the bone for that stupid tunnel of his. He knows we'll mutiny if he melts another crew member."

"We won't win, you know," she said. "You've seen him bend. He's unstoppable when he gets going."

"He wouldn't risk his cargo," he said, sitting up.

The woman leaned forward and spoke in a whisper. "There's a reason he recruits new crew mates in every city he travels to."

Aaron thought she was doing a great job of scaring the lazy out of the stringy man. Whether what she'd said about Vulcan was true was another matter.

Sato pulled Aaron from the conversation as he gave the order for the attack, and Aaron and Mark slinked toward their unassuming opponents.

Mark pulled two rock pieces the size of pebbles from the ground and peaked around the corner for the bend, aiming each at the guards. With a quick palm thrust, he sent them rocketing forward.

The sides of the male guard's head exploded in gore, and both were sent reeling. The man lounging sagged back into his seat as his eyes rolled back, while the woman with the long sword lost her balance, stumbling hard into the far wall. Her eyes were unfocused, but only for a second. Aaron saw recognition return to them in a flash. She opened her mouth to speak, but a second stone went through her left eye, ensuring her silence.

Mark's body sagged when he noticed they were dead, and Aaron saw the boy underneath. He'd made incredible progress quickly, but he was still very new to all of it.

Aaron heard shuffling in the tunnel beyond, and the weariness faded from Mark's body. They'd been careful, but the noise of their exchange had still travelled far. They met the second group just beyond the corner.

"Intruders!"

The man at the head of the group shouted. He wore shoulder guards that Aaron recognised as part of the fire Nation uniform, and from his balding head, he recognised him as a fairly accomplished bender.

Taking him down will be a challenge.

Thankfully, Mark didn't hesitate. With a leap and pull, Mark raised a wall behind the group to cut off any backup, and Aaron sent a fierce gust of wind that snuffed out three rapid fireballs the master firebender and his second shot off. He was middle-aged with massive sideburns and the signature Fire Nation smirk on his face.

Aaron promptly wiped it off by sending a wind blade at him that opened up his chest.

"Phantom," Sideburn screamed.

Aaron dodged a hasty fireball shot by the third guardsman of the group. He was wide-eyed and probably no older than the fire prince. Mark sent another chunk of rock that crushed the windpipe of Sideburns, and he tumbled back dead.

"What the hell are they?" The young guard standing at the back of the group asked.

"Don't you dare lose your cool, kid!" The leader bellowed as they wove to the side, dodging Aaron's wind blade on instinct. He formed the fastest flame whip Aron had ever seen and struck out at Mark with such speeds Aaron could've sworn it was tangible.

Mark raised a short rock wall that the fire splashed against and sent back two small stones at the whip user with rapid punches.

Aaron flipped over the stone wall and sent a wind blade at the boy hanging back. He tried to stop it with a hasty fire stream, but the blade cut through it and opened his neck.

And just like that, only one man remained.

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"Damn Vulcan for sending me a wet noddle," the whip user cursed, then cracked his whip against the stone floor, leaving a small burn scar.

"Well, Come on, then!"

Aaron and Mark shared a look and proceeded to bombard the older man with gusts and rocks. He wove through them with flips, pirouettes, and skilful dodges until Aaron tripped him up with a low sweeping kick that took his legs out from under him and sent his body bouncing hard into the cave wall with a follow-up kick. Sato bent the rock around him to hold onto the slippery man before he could wiggle free, and Mark delivered the finishing shot with a well-placed stone throw to the face.

"You're better than I thought," Sato said to Mark as he pulled down the wall of stone in front of them. "And I watched you grow with my own two eyes."

"I try," Mark said with a stiff shrug.

"Don't encourage him," Aaron said. "The firebenders were unskilled." They weren't really, but Aaron couldn't help himself.

"It wouldn't hurt to throw a guy a compliment every once in a while," Mark said, folding his arms.

"I will when you impress me."

"Unbelievable."

They continued down the tunnel until it opened to a chamber with dozens of fighters milling around. Oil lanterns were scattered through the camp to supplement the gem light, coating large swatches of the room in green and yellow.

Over 15 men and women were waiting for them with their weapons drawn. Half of them looked like they hadn't washed in days, and the other hand wore barely any protection.

"There are only three of you?" The man at the head of the group stared at them, stunned. "And you dared attack us? You made a huge mistake by underestimating us. None of you will leave here alive."

"Three was plenty enough for your lookouts," Mark said. "So, who's underestimating whom?"

The man's face turned red. "You little-"

"Now!" Aaron yelled, and Sato spread his hands out. They vibrated for a moment before the ground around them exploded in a dust cloud.

"Frontline, fire at will," the commander of the smuggler yelled, and a cascade of fire and earth chunks rocketed at them, but their attacks bounced off a stone wall Mark erected. A section of it shattered when a stone spear went through, and Sato raised a second one, sealing them off from the larger chamber, and for a moment, all Aaron could hear was the echoes of their attacks splashing on the wall. Then, the walls of the chamber began to vibrate until the walls exploded.

The crash of screeching stones shook the entire tunnel system, yet somehow the screams of the benders overpowered them.

Then, Aaron heard nothing. Sato pulled down the wall, and Aaron pushed back the dust cloud to reveal the chaos beyond.

Most of the smugglers did not survive. Their corpses lay pierced and crushed to impossible shapes by razor-sharp stones.

Sato's men floated above the carnage like wraiths, methodically cutting through any of the fighters unlucky enough to survive.

"Spirits," Aaron muttered. He was glad he hadn't eaten before the mission.

"Did we get Vulcan?"

It took a second for Mark to respond. "My mission says he's still alive and kicking, somehow. I can't imagine anyone could survive that," Mark muttered the last part.

"Sweep the area!" Sato ordered immediately. "The leader survived somehow. If he's wounded, kill him. If he's uninjured, do not engage. Retreat so we can face them together. And somebody check those tunnels they were working on."

The men scattered to all corners of the chamber, and Uma headed moved toward the tunnel at the very end of the chamber, facing the entrance.

"Can you do that Chi trick you did earlier and search for him?" Sato asked.

"On it." Aaron settled into a lotus pose. The various smells and the sound of his beating heart stopped him from immediately tapping into the Chi around him, but when he finally did, he cursed out loud.

"Get out of that tunnel, Uma!" he screamed, but it was too late.

The ground erupted in a violent spray of rock and Lava. It snuffed out Uma's signature so quickly he hadn't even screamed, but three out of the five soldiers could do anything but that.

They'd been in the splash zone, and the explosion covered a quarter of the chamber in glowing red rocks and steaming Lava.

Their armour cooked them before sloughing away large sections of their body. A particularly fastidious soldier managed to pull the string on his armour, emptying the attached water sacks, but it only delayed the inevitable.

Mark lost his breakfast, and Aaron's complexion grew ashen as he realized why he sensed a mix of firebender and earthbender chi from Vulcan.

"Who do you think you are!" Vulcan's voice boomed from the tunnels. "You come here, ambush my men, destroy my cargo, and try to assassinate me? Your coward King sent you to your death."

On instinct, Aaron took several steps back from the tunnel, and Sato looked like he'd swallowed something horrible.

"A lava bender?" Mark said in a shaky voice as he wiped his mouth. "Are you fucking kidding me!"

"Regroup!" Sato yelled. His voice jolted the rest of his frozen team into action, and they rushed towards them from the other side of the chamber.

They only made it halfway before Vulcan shot out of the tunnel, riding what appeared to be a large piece of rock. With a jump, he leapt off the thing and smashed into the ground like a Meteor, sending waves of magma that cut them off from the group.

He bent the Lava like water with a wave of his hand, and he turned it on the earthbenders, who raised a wall to protect themselves. The Lava buried them along with the wall, kicking up a foul-smelling smoke that quickly filled the chamber.

Swaying his hands forward and pulling, Aaron cleared out the smoke from the room and slowly saw air pour in from overhead vents Aaron hadn't even noticed until that moment.

Aaron felt a knot in his gut form as he regarded Vulcan and took a deep breath to centre himself before he sent a massive wind blade at the Lava bender.

The air vibrated as it travelled and sheared through a quick wall that Vulcan managed to raise in time.

It sent Vulcan tumbling back with a massive cut wound on one of his shoulders and bruises on his chest and stomach from the rock shrapnel.

Aaron wondered if it'd be enough to put the man out of commission, but he had his answer when flaming rocks came rocketing back at him.

"Move!" Aaron grabbed Mark and dove out of the path of the death rocks, and with his chi-enhanced body and air, he kept moving until the attacks stopped.

"The King hired a Phantom?" Vulcan laughed. "He's an even bigger coward than I thought. I'll send your charred body and the rest of his hit squad. You won't keep me from my throne!"

Throne? What was the lunatic on about?

Sweat dribbled down Aaron's forehead. "Any idea why Vulcan thinks he's supposed to be King?" Aaron yelled over to Sato, only to find he wasn't behind him, which made total sense in retrospect.

He was no Airbender and was halfway across the chamber now, closer to Vulcan and the rest of his dead team.

"Spirits," Aaron's voice cracked, the frustration finally getting to him. It'd be near-impossible to coordinate an attack on Vulcan with literal puddles of death keeping them apart.

"Aaron," Mark called. "We might have a problem with the entrance."

"What now?"

Aaron looked at the tunnel entrance, and his heart sank. It was sealed, buried under heaps of stone and Lava. In fact, Aaron wasn't sure if the Vulcan had been aiming for them at all.

The only thing more dangerous than an angry Lava bender was a smart one.

"I swear by the spirits I am going to kill King Bumi," Aaron said.