Reject the vices of society and do not succumb to the corruption of those around you. Killing the magicians in this camp could now cost me my agreement with Shi Tong, the opportunity to take any book from his storehouse and continue my studies. No one forced me, I took the risk myself, so I couldn't blame it on the rare cases of self-defence available to air nomads. Standing in the middle of the fire people's camp, glancing from side to side, I realised that I had to act without killing anyone. I did not hesitate. My hands sent sand in all four directions, using up all the sand in my gourd. The warriors, ready to attack, did not expect their bodies to be carried away by simple sand, and even less did they think that it would leave cuts on the exposed parts of their bodies.
As for the Captain, who had been assigned a separate sandstorm, he managed to nimbly jump out of the tent and, accelerating himself once with flashes of fire, found himself a couple of dozen metres away from me. Our eyes met for a second. He was quite surprised to see the element I was using. I, in turn, considered several ways to disrupt the camp's operations and focused on the stones I had scattered beforehand.
"I've never met a sand mage before! But it's just a pile of pathetic grains of sand," the man took a quick step forward and began to strike the air furiously, firing a machine-gun burst of fireballs. They were accurate and explosive, and I didn't need to know the secrets of their techniques to understand the danger. It was quite normal for fire mages to strain their muscles so fiercely when attacking, but this style was completely unfamiliar to me. Turning part of my sand armour into a tentacle, I quickly dodged and threw a pre-prepared stone at the mage.
Dysh*
Managing to jump high and then redirect the stone with a flash from his foot into a steel plate, where it quickly shattered, the captain stood on the debris and stared at me with a smirk.
"Break those stones, the dust collector won't have any normal projectiles to attack with," said the platoon of fire mages, who were unable to get closer due to the whirlwind, and managed to rain fireballs down on the stones. It seemed like simple fire, nothing should have happened, but the force of the blows broke the stones into pebbles. These attacks contained a great deal of energy, destroying the convenient projectiles.
"Surround them, don't let them escape!" shouted the other mages, who began to send streams of fire at me. The attacks were swift, the warriors were well trained. The fireballs flew very fast and resembled vultures, there were just as many of them and they closed in from all sides.
Vshu-uh*
Jumping forward flat, I dodged the balls from below and above. Without touching the ground, I pushed off with grains of sand, avoiding the swarm of concentrated attacks - for a second I even hovered in the air: spreading my arms out to the sides, I clenched my fingers. At that moment, the Captain created a dense pillar of fire. He didn't understand how quickly sand could be controlled - using some of the sand from my armour, I formed blades and placed them in the path of the attack. The pillar of fire was cut into pieces, and the stone armour on my body protected me from blows to the back.
"How is he spinning like that?" I heard people say around me. Then they realised that all four storms had disappeared. The sand turned into long tentacles, swirling around me like a living creature. The tips of the "octopus" touched the destroyed stones. They gathered the pebbles together and restored them to their former stone form.
"It can't be," the captain said, his mouth agape. Perhaps only simple earth mages had limited material within this iron camp. Control allowed me to restore the stones no matter how badly they were damaged. Fixing the stones to the ends of the tentacles, I began to swing them slowly.
"Run! Bagh!" The tentacles swung back and forth, causing the mages to lose their concentration. No, I wasn't hitting them with stones; at that speed and with such leverage, it would have simply crushed them. Instead, I attacked with the tentacles, simultaneously destroying the catapults and breaking the supports of the observation towers. I had to adopt the power stance of the earth mages to control the sand, to which something so heavy was attached. The stones couldn't withstand too many blows, and the mages joined in, trying to break through closer, also breaking everything. But the element allowed me to repair the damage.
"How is this possible?" the captain marvelled as loud blows rang out everywhere. It was all about control and knowing what centrifugal force is: after accelerating the stones with magic, I continued with my tentacles until the soldiers moved aside, afraid that they would be hammered into the iron floor like another nail. When everything around me was destroyed, I stopped and looked at the very angry Captain. The stones remained where they were, and my legs slowly carried me towards him. "You...
"I won't kill you. But I'll make sure you can never command again.
"Just one mage, and one who uses sand," his face contorted naturally. Standing in a stance to use his magic, he was clearly ready to die but not to surrender. Apparently, he believed that without the stones left behind, I would be no match for him. "Just sand," what are they afraid of? That's what his eyes said.
Standing a couple of metres apart, he exhaled a light stream of flame from his nose and growled. Leaping forward, he struck with both hands.
"Attack from behind!" he said, showing that he was not a moron, having figured out the obvious tactic. Then his flame reached me and was stopped by a sand shield. It was time for the water mages to step in. As soon as holes appeared in the shield from his attacks, they were quickly repaired. Taking a moment to look at the fire mages who had gathered, I created projectiles out of sand, fluid spheres that hit the mages and quickly hardened. And unlike the similar technique from water magic, which encased them in ice, the stone could not be melted by fire breath," - Useless morons!
"I'm still not very good at fortifying, I need more practice," I said, standing sideways to the captain and scaring him with my gaze. He tried to strike me a couple more times, and something even flew at me from the side, but every magic attack was met with a regenerating shield. This technique could be overcome either by superior magic or by numbers. The latter was clearly lacking, as the backbone of the army was gone! Everyone was scared out of their wits.
And if anyone had any eggs left, I knocked them out of their heads. Creating a scooter, I manoeuvred between the flashes of fire and reached the captain. His long jumps didn't help him; I was much faster than anyone else in the camp. I pinned him to the ground with sand and managed to touch his exposed neck. I looked around and saw a bunch of shocked and frightened faces.
"…I order you to run.
"R-a-a, don't listen to him!" shouted the captain, letting out a stream of fire from his mouth.
"Otherwise, the same thing will happen to you as happened to him," and with just a little effort, I began to drain his body. The roar grew into a scream, and the magic spewing from his mouth rapidly diminished. His Qi had to degrade, disappear. And his body turned into a barely mobile, withered old man.
Standing up and stepping aside, I heard complete silence fall over the camp. Everyone stared in shock at the Captain, who began to lean on the ground with his withered hands. He miraculously managed to stand up, holding his neck to beg for water.
Whispers began to spread among the people who saw this.
"A monster.
"Is he really the Earth Mage?
"Could he be Ava... no, definitely not.
"Ah..." Not a single word could come out of his mouth. Feeling such overwhelming anger that it overcame even his fear of death, the Captain looked at me and tried to release the magic from his hand. Obviously, with his Qi system destroyed, he could no longer use it. Perhaps only water mages could help him, but restoring his body was no longer possible. He would surely live longer than he should, but it would be difficult to call it life.
"Choose:
1 - Continue training and destroy all humans except the Captain (No one will know of your power, and the enemy will resist so fiercely that you will be able to train. The bodies will serve as a warning to the returning army, and the surviving captain will not be able to tell anyone anything, but he will instil fear in them).
2 - Let everyone go (Your strength will become known, and a reward will be offered for your head. It will become much easier for you to become popular among the people of Earth, and you will gain access to the cities. You will not break the promise you made to Wang Shin Tong, but you will begin to feel guilty for letting your enemies go. The enemy will retreat in fear)
3 - Turn your enemies to stone (You have learned to choose the least honourable options. The warriors of the people of Earth will be able to find your enemies, and they will deal with them. It is unknown when this will happen, in a day or a week. The people of fire will not know of your strength if you capture everyone, and the promise to the council will not be broken. Low chance of improving relations with the people of Earth. Training for speed, tracking and consolidation).
The consequences of the current elections were described in much greater detail, as their impact on history itself is more extensive. The only question that came to my mind was what to do with the army that had gone to Omash. It will return, and the third option will be meaningless... but it was not Anubis who answered, but a fox that appeared nearby and pointed towards the returning army! Apparently, they had received some kind of signal.
"So it looks like we'll have to fight everyone," I said, but Anubis said nothing. If I had destroyed the army earlier, it wouldn't be so hard now. All he wants is for the situation to encourage training as much as possible.
Unfortunately, I'm definitely not strong enough to choose the third option. My strength, after all the tricks and air magic I've been parodying most of the time, is already depleted, and it will be too difficult to chase after everyone and track them down, as Anubis says.
The only thing I'll blame myself for is that the army will continue to live...
Standing still, I just watched as people scattered. The captain tried to shout something at them, but in the end he wandered off like a limp old man. When they encountered the army, they didn't turn back to finish me off, because I continued to rampage for the sake of appearances, knocking down everything I could with stones. The captain was defeated, the camp was gone, and there was no point in defending it now. Just as Anubis had said... they retreated in fear.
"Yeah, right.
Looking at my hands, I was surprised. The combination of techniques from the three peoples that I had used was suitable for any situation, but as for the high-speed techniques of the air nomads... without them, I would have died here in a matter of moments. It was only because of them that I was able to manoeuvre, and the sand shields helped against the squalls. I understood why the Avatar, who controls the four elements, is so powerful.
Although, no... he relies less on defence, and the air nomads only dodge. That's what killed them. I'm more adaptable.
"Well... what about metal? - like a small child looking down at his feet and touching a material that could potentially be subject to me, I saw an inscription before my eyes.
"Don't get your hopes up, weakling."
"Tsk...
***
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