Chapter 30

I regained consciousness instantly. One moment a statue was falling on me, the next I was breaking it as best as I could, then I felt a strong hit to the head, and suddenly, I was back to my senses.

My back ached from broken ribs, but I wasn't losing blood, preventing it from flowing out, and the blood that had already left me, I purified and returned. The blood was still fresh, the cells alive, meaning I hadn't been unconscious for too long. I needed to recover.

Water surrounded me, and I could feel the blood flow from the wounds stopping and the wounds themselves healing. Pain flared up twice in my back as the ribs snapped back into place and began to heal quickly. With the abundance of life force within me, I would have recovered much faster than normal anyway, but it would have looked very unusual in the eyes of others, so it was better to heal now, while no one was watching.

Now, tuning into my body, I felt no injuries or traumas left. I left a few scratches untouched, so as not to appear completely unharmed.

I was under a massive pile of huge rocks. All I had managed to do was to destroy the falling statue, protect myself from being crushed, and now I was under a massive heap of stones, needing to get out. However, I also felt Ty Lee above me. It seemed she was trying to clear the stones? Well, then I would have to delay using earthbending.

Turning around, I stretched both hands upwards. I took a deep breath, saturating myself with a large amount of oxygen. After a few more deep breaths, I felt slightly dizzy, then my mind cleared, and my body seemed lighter. Focusing and exhaling sharply, I began releasing the most powerful flame from my hands. Lack of ventilation didn't bother me; I easily created oxygen in my lungs and used it to enhance my fire even more. I did use earthbending to slightly soften the stones, making them much easier to succumb to the fire and heat up. Very quickly, they began to turn red. First dark-red, but gradually brightening.

I felt Ty Lee quickly leap away from where she was. Apparently, the fire was already breaking through, or the heat was spreading.

After five minutes, I felt the stones begin to melt, liquefy, and under the stream of fire burst upwards, not downwards, directly towards me.

It was incredibly hot around, but I drained the heat from the surrounding air and directed this heat back into the stream of fire. An old, retired firebender in the circus, not particularly strong but had learned to cool his tea by simply taking the heat and releasing it elsewhere, taught me this trick of redirecting heat.

Gradually, the task was done, and the free space grew. The molten rock rose upwards because of the fire streams, which I hadn't stopped yet. And I didn't think I should, as after stopping, the molten rock would immediately fall back down, towards me.

Earthbending helped me discreetly move especially large stones or soften them.

But then, at some point, I saw the fire stream stop breaking and heating the stone, instead continuing to shoot upwards. That was it. I had literally burned my way out. Yes, hotter flame would have made this much faster.

Stopping the flame, I stood up. Around me was the glowing hot stone, which almost shone, and I was barely sweating from the heat. Reminded me of prison, it was at least as hot there... even a bit hotter.

I extended my hand forward, palm up, and began to absorb the heat from the surroundings, especially from the walls, releasing it with the other hand in a fierce stream upwards. In half a minute, the stone cooled to just warm stone.

Emerging outside, I saw Ty Lee looking at me. She looked shocked, then ran to me and hugged me with a squeal.

"You're alive! You're alive! You're alive!" she nearly shouted in my ear.

"Hey, hey, hey! I might be alive, but with your efforts, we could rectify this pleasant oversight," I replied to this cheerful girl.

"Oh, sorry."

"Where are Mai and Azula? Where's the Avatar and the others?" I asked her.

"Mai went to look for Azula. The Avatar took Bumi, as well as his unconscious friends, and they flew away on their flying bison. All together. I immediately started looking for you among the stones, then suddenly, in one place, fire started to burst from beneath the stones. I leaped back and watched. The stone first turned red, then yellow, later it flowed and exploded, and a column of flame burst out. And then you emerged. I'm so glad you're alive! And you saved us and Mai! Though it still hurts...

"If it hurts, it means you're still alive. Let's go find Mai and Azula."

We headed in the direction Azula initially followed the Avatar. Along the way, we saw marks from her fire, so following her wasn't difficult.

Soon we found her.

 And there were Mai and some Fire Nation soldiers nearby.

Azula was lying under a massive stone slab. More precisely, her legs, from the knees down, were crushed under a heavy stone slab. Azula lay unconscious, and everyone stood around doing nothing.

"What are we waiting for!? She's going to die from blood loss! Quickly, bring a stretcher and bandages! Hurry!!!" I yelled at these paralyzed degenerates.

I approached Azula and examined the injury site. Though I'm no medic, it was clear to me that Azula was now a definite invalid. The slab had simply flattened her legs up to and including the knee joints. The legs were squeezed and torn off. Even reattachment wouldn't be possible here, and waterbending was unlikely to help.

"Mai, Ty Lee, carefully grab her shoulders, and on my command, pull her away from the slab. I'll cut away the skin and other tissues still connecting her to the crushed limbs, then cauterize the wounds. Got it? Act!"

The girls approached and carefully took the princess by the shoulders. I created a fire dagger from red flame in my hand and with one motion separated the still intact legs from the crushed ones. It made a clean transverse cut just above the knees. Mai and Ty Lee immediately lifted Azula and carried her to the quickly delivered stretcher. I approached closer and created two fire disks, the flat and wide side of which I applied to the cut, cauterizing the wound and stopping the bleeding.

I looked at the princess's face. She was pale from the significant blood loss. Getting closer, I cut open the armor on her chest with a single motion of the fire dagger. I then spread it aside and, without touching the shirt or whatever it was, placed my ear to her heart. The heartbeat was there. Checked the pulse - it was there too. She was breathing. Since I'm not a medic and understand little about it, I did all I could for now.

"Now, carefully grab the stretcher and Carefully, without shaking but swiftly, take Princess Azula to the governor's residence. And god help you if you screw this up - I'll burn you alive on a slow fire! Move!" I yelled at the Fire Nation soldiers standing nearby.

They didn't even think about disobeying me, or maybe they did but didn't dare to. Carefully picking up the stretcher, they carried it to the Governor's residence.

"Mai, is Tom-Tom alright?" I asked her, because at that moment, when I kicked them to another floor, I forgot about the little one, and he was in his older sister's arms.

"Yes, he's fine," she replied indifferently, although the paleness on her face was noticeable. Perhaps the fate of her friend scared her greatly. "I've already sent him with the soldiers to his parents."

"Good that he's fine. Go with Azula. When she wakes up, she'll likely be agitated. Calm her down. You too, Ty Lee. Calm her down. Stay with her at all times. Clear? If so, then go. And remember, when she wakes up, she might be slightly, or perhaps not so slightly, irrational. Be careful with her."

I didn't go with them. I'll let Azula marinate in her feeling of disability. Let her experience it, go through all the stages of accepting the inevitable. Then I'll offer her a way out. Not for free, of course. I'll have only one wish - to teach me lightning. As I learned, lightning is a prerogative of the royal family. However, if it's a willingly given gift... or payment for healing...

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to synchronize my energy with the energy of electricity on my own. Lightning is too abrupt, too fast. I barely manage to notice this energy. And since I can't master this feature myself, I'll use others. Healing hasn't worked out yet, so now I'll focus on lightning, and then I'll get to it.

So, I won't let Azula die!

here's an extra chapter for the stones