42 Chapter 42

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The second wall, smaller than the outer one, still commanded a monumental presence that warranted its depiction on all world maps. Breaching it proved much more challenging for us, with sabotage squads consisting of the Dai Li, a large number of regular earthbenders, as well as ordinary soldiers and even some mercenaries or partisans who had decided to oppose us on a volunteer basis...

The constant emergence of enemy units at different points, the continuous battles with only short breaks to reach another enemy squad... this was as draining as the uninterrupted use of bending. And when both are combined... especially without having fully recovered...

Our rapid response group, consisting of me, Azula, Ty Lee, and Mai, had destroyed the sixteenth squad. Immediately after, we rushed to another location, informed by a signalman with flags from the drill's cabin about their whereabouts. In addition to us, firebenders and soldiers, tanks were firing from a distance... in short, everyone was doing what they could. Some squads were annihilated without our help, sometimes we just helped finish off the enemy, and sometimes we barely managed to arrive in time to save a squad of firebenders and soldiers from Dai Li units.

Constant running and fighting on the edge of our physical capabilities, even with the technique of oxygenating our bodies. Still, it was somewhat easier for me than for the others. Mai was particularly struggling; as an expert in throwing weapons, she surpasses all of us in this skill or even art, but her supplies of throwing weapons, no matter how large, were quite limited, and now, like in the last five fights, she was going without them or using improvised means. Ty Lee had it slightly easier than her - her physical condition and endurance were on par or even slightly above Azula's, though if so, not by much. But she was also very tired. Azula and I were in a much better physical condition; bending allows for a significant strengthening of the body, which happens with constant physical training and helps to use energy much more slowly. So, all else being equal, a bender will always remain standing where a non-bender would fall from exhaustion.

However, we also felt a significant fatigue from using bending. And Azula was even worse off than me, despite recent events and my not being fully recovered, because my reserve of this very Chi was more than four times larger than hers. Yet, I felt we were both nearing overexertion.

A rumble sounded, and we saw the drill starting to bite into the wall and, actually, drilling it. This was accompanied by a loud noise, spreading throughout the area, making earthbenders wince, who understood that we were successfully preventing them from doing anything, and making us, the invaders, smile, at least internally, from understanding that we were very close to our goal.

"How long until the army arrives!?" I shouted to Azula, standing next to me and trying to rest a bit while waiting for information on a new squad. Ty Lee and Mai did the same. And I did the same, also directly controlling most processes in my body, accelerating all these recovery processes multiple times.

"By evening, it will have breached the outer wall! In three hours, they will be at this wall and pass through the passage we created! We're almost there, Garo, and we can finally rest properly!" Azula shouted back, smiling.

"Hooray!" Ty Lee shouted, overcoming her fatigue. "Finally, some rest!"

Mai said nothing; she sat on one of the many rocks, resting. Our clothes had been thoroughly worn out over the day, like the previous day, and Mai's were in tatters, not the beautiful dress she started yesterday in.

"Why aren't they informing us of new squads!?" I asked aloud to myself, but Azula answered, looking towards the drill's cabin like me.

"Maybe new ones aren't appearing yet! They probably decided to organize a defense on the other side of the wall with all their forces, realizing that stopping the drill before it reaches the wall is futile!"

"So, we will be met with organized defense and a large number of opponents on the other side, among whom may be all those we have encountered before: soldiers, earthbenders, Dai Li, mercenaries... even with all the forces we have, this might not be enough to destroy these forces, considering our condition!"

"Do you think we should wait for the army to arrive?" Azula asked, pondering my words.

"If we wait until evening, those who gather there will attack us first, and then they will have an even greater advantage! No, we cannot wait! We need to attack swiftly and not give the enemy time to coordinate actions with all their forces! This has allowed us to successfully move forward so far, otherwise, all those squads that we destroyed one after another would have been much larger or even merged into one squad, and I doubt we could handle it!"

At least without me using the other elements and bloodbending in particular, to physically recover, not get tired, and maintain a constant body tone, as well as airbending, as in this element I possess my most powerful area-of-effect destruction and annihilation techniques, repeatedly tested during my journey as Chimamin Monsta. In firebending, I had not yet focused on developing a mass destruction factor, although many of my attacks already have such a nature.

"We need to come up with something, we don't have much time!" Azula shouted to me.

I thought about what I could do. In theory, I could sneak to the other side through the wall using bloodbending, its most unnoticeable application, and destroy any ambush there, and even fully recover physically, just not to overdo it with the stolen life. No more than two or three benders, or else the old influence might affect my body.

However, breaching the wall would make our actions too conspicuous. The nature of the corpses would be... quite unusual. Burning them was an option, but too complex; it was simpler to find another way.

After some thought, I came up with a plan...

"Azula, I've figured out how to eliminate the defenders behind the second wall."

"What do we need to do?" she asked immediately, not letting me say another word.

"Nothing much - just a metal cable long enough that one end can be dropped from the wall while holding the other end at the top."

Azula nodded and began signaling something to the drill's cabin using gestures. I hadn't learned this system of signs, so I had no idea what she was saying.

We received the cable quite quickly; the wall hadn't even been half drilled through by that point. Of course, such a long cable wasn't found on the drill, but many shorter ones were quickly fused together and given to us.

The second wall of Ba Sing Se wasn't as monumental and impregnable as the first, outer wall. It was monumental, marked on all world maps for its significance, but it stood only forty-five meters tall compared to the hundred meters of the outer wall, and was fifteen meters wide compared to thirty at the first. Yes, for my original world, Earth, these were colossal structures... and for this world as well. We received a seventy-meter metal cable about half a centimeter thick. The problem of delivering it to the top arose, but there was no real issue there. I would clear this section of the wall, thankfully, according to the information provided by the cabin to Azula, there were almost no one on the wall. Afterward, Azula would attach the cable to herself and fly to the wall. However, carrying the cable was heavy, requiring a lot of effort to ascend with it, so she wouldn't participate in clearing the wall! The strength would be needed for something else.

The clearing was quick, taking less than five minutes. In my sector, there were only five earthbenders and thirteen soldiers, who, it seemed to me, could hardly oppose strong benders, with rare exceptions.

After my signal, Azula flew to the wall on a jet of fire, landing and breathing heavily. Flying like that on your own is one thing, I could almost do it myself if I had a bit more control over the element, but carrying a heavy load while doing it is another matter entirely.

But Azula quickly recovered while I took the cable from her. I tied one end around the legs of one of the corpses with difficulty, and held the other end in my hand.

"Azula, now listen carefully and remember everything I'm about to tell you. In some way, the success of this entire military campaign and my life in particular depends on it!" I turned to Azula, getting close to her face, and started telling her a half-truth. "Now, I'll jump down with one end of the cable to where the enemies are. I already know their location and will release my end! As soon as the cable touches the ground, you need to start accumulating as large a lightning charge as you can, and when you're ready, signal me - shout anything, it doesn't matter what. Then, release the lightning into the cable and hold it as long as you can, got it, Azula?"

"Yes!" she nodded, and I, without distracting her further or waiting for anything else, since time was short, jumped off the wall and used fire to direct myself straight to the group of earthbenders underground. They might have been planning a surprise attack from below, and they would have had a chance... if I hadn't sensed them.

I landed and released the metal cable, which immediately fell to the ground. I jumped aside and, hearing Azula's shout, placed my feet together and stood still.

Meanwhile, lightning coursed through the cable, melting it almost instantly – it wasn't a perfect conductor, not copper or silver, for example. Then, I felt the life of all those ambushers extinguish.

"This was even easier than I expected..." I muttered, sensing no life around me except for Azula and the drill's crew. "That's what a proper approach and good knowledge of safety measures can do. Damn, one hundred and eighteen earthbenders in one strike... Azula and I have something to be proud of now. Though, extracting them from underground now..."

I looked around and saw respectable houses, starkly different from the rare shacks seen in the city's outer ring, yet it still reminded me of a kind of ghetto.

"Now we just have to wait for the army, and then the full conquest of the city will begin," Azula landed next to me, warming me with the heat of her flame. "Where are the bodies?"

She looked around, searching for those we were supposed to have killed, but found no bodies.

"One hundred and eighteen earthbender corpses are underground, Azula. They all died right there from the electric shock you created that went into the ground. Now, let's just rest, I'm quite exhausted."

By then, I had spotted a bench and headed towards it. I sat down and leaned back against the wall of a house. Azula sat next to me, leaning not on the wall but on my shoulder, almost collapsing on the bench.

"So, I can congratulate you soon, right? You managed to capture a city that withstood all assaults, even your uncle, the Dragon of the West, Great General Iroh, couldn't take it after nearly two years of siege, but you achieved much more in less than a week."

Azula pulled away from me, and I saw her smile out of the corner of my eye, looking at me, then she leaned on my shoulder again, wrapping her arms around it, hugging me, and resting her head on me.

"We did it..."

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