Avatar - Chapter 20 (Patreon)
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It took me a while to figure out which ship his entire fleet was Zhao at, but eventually I did, and here I stood face to face with Zhao a few meters away from each other. The admiral stood upright, arms crossed, with a cocky expression on his face.
I was calm, sporting a hungry smile for battle. Iroh was in the corner looking at me with expectation, the two fire nation men took a few seconds to observe me closely before doing anything.
This was going to be fun. That much I could tell from Zhao’s expression said that much, his face said that I was a waste of his time.
“Is nothing personal, is just… business,” I lied, this was personal. “Now let's do this, shall we?”
The admiral sighed in annoyance, uncrossing his arms and stretching his right hand formed into a first towards me. A torrent of fire sped out of his fist towards me.
He was stronger than all the soldiers I had killed, but no by much, with a disappointed sigh I moved sideways, dodging his attack with ease.
Darting forward with a water whip I had created, I proceeded to grab his ankle dragging him towards me, as I slowly restrained him with water, “You are a disappointment,” I said a few inches from his face.
Zhao was shocked and surprised to see my face only an inch away from his, but that surprise soon turned into anger, and in response burned through my water restraints and jumped backwards.
Zhao wasted no time. At this distance, Fire of all sizes was supposed to be lethal, and he knew that and with the fact I was so close, his mind shouted he could hit me. So with all his strength. He threw the biggest torrent of fire he could muster with his hand, but his right hook and torrent of fire merely brushed the now heated air.
Dodging someone with a battle mindset so straightforward, not thinking at all his approach was extremely easy, and feeling his entire body move, and everything else with water sense made things even easier.
So, I leaned back, avoiding the upcoming blow without any problem, this enraged Zhao who kept throwing his attacks one after the other, it was sad.
Zhao seemed shocked none of his attacks were connecting, and little by little his style was slipping, he was letting anger and frustration take control. Making his attacks even easier to dodge.
“Stay still!!!” Zhao shouted in anger, swinging his hands together and stretching them forward. Twenty fire balls exploded out of his palms, some of them colliding violently with the walls of the ship, one of them even connected with Iroh, who simply put the ball off with ease. At this point Zhao wasn’t even trying to aim at me, he had lost whatever little sense he had.
Rolling my eyes at him, I erected a wall of very cold water moving at a very high pressure, the water was so cold that it created a mist around, that only expanded more thanks to Zhao, but even then, Zhao just continued his attack, as he cried out, “I’ve killed more people than you can imagine! Thousands of your kin! I will not lose to you! I am Zhao the greatest admiral in the world!”
“Well, then… the standards must be very low .” I had calmly walked behind him, with all the steam around and his lack of sense, he didn’t notice he was attacking an empty wall of water.
Zhao was shocked, and his eyes were now showing a bit of fear, but mostly anger.
I smiled at him, with a calm demeanor, still completely uninjured; after all, I had managed to dodge all the admiral’s attacks effortlessly. Winking at his shock, I gathered water at one point on my index finger as I put a lot of pressure on it with my mind.
Zhao jumped back, as I shot the water bullet at him that while looked harmless was enough to break his arm shattering to a now useless appendage. He took a second to register what had just happened, before he started to scream in pain.
“Did you know water with enough pressure can even pierce metal? Or in this case, shatter bones?”
"I lost an arm! So what?" Zhao cried in anger, quickly springing using his remaining arm to fight, I just sighed as I avoided every one of his attacks. They were so out of touch it was now painfully easy to do so.
"You won't touch me. Our strengths are miles apart." I stated, with a bored tone.
Zhao was raging internally and externally, not giving up at all, continuing his pointless attacks, for him the idea of me being stronger was impossible. It was too humiliating to his overgrown ego.
This was getting sadder and sadder by the second, "Well, I already broke you spirit… time to break your body." I added the last part as I shattered his legs with another high pressure water explosion.
“Taking his life won’t fix anything,” Iroh said finally interrupting the battle, “Is up to you to show you are better,”
I looked at Iroh, and then at the bleeding and utterly defeated admiral Zhao, “But Iroh, I’m worse,” I smiled at him, as a massive high pressure water bomb floated from the sea into the room, “This world already has a savior, so I’ll take the demon opening,” with a snap of my fingers, Zhao was reduced to nothing but a bloody stain in the room as the water bomb exploded, coating everything but me with his blood.
“Now, command the oxymorons of the Fire Nation out of here… before I quite literally steal god’s thunder by turning the sea into a sea of blood,”
Iroh looked at me, and nodded, “If you ever need to sort the demons you have allowed within your spirit, come to me… I’m always willing to help, and I always have good tea,”
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[Iroh POV]
I looked at the young man, and nodded, I suppose I was expecting too much by asking him to forgive Zhao, “If you ever need to sort the demons you have allowed within your spirit, come to me… I’m always willing to help, and I always have good tea,” I smiled, wondering if he would let me help him.
“If I ever need to… sure,” Akira smiled, “Maybe we could have a nice cup of tea now?” he sounded excited for some reason, was my Jasmine tea that famous.
“I don’t see why not,” I did, he had just painted an entire room with someone’s blood, but I didn’t blame him for the action but for how he did it. In war death is unavoidable, but this was brutal in many ways.
“You think I’m a monster,” Akira smirked at me, “I am… don’t overthink it, but I’m one with pseudo good intentions, not like your brother,”
I chuckled bitterly at that, “We all have a Monster within young warrior; the difference is in degree, not in kind,”
Akira looked at me shocked, “Even you?” he inquired.
“Yes, even me,”