A long trip. [Nijing]

[\Mai-Dee/ *Erity* ~Kenzi~]

IN all of her nineteen years Mai had never been off of the island; she'd heard about it from the tourists, and she was finding a lot of what she'd heard was indeed exaggeration. Except for the amount of space and the sheer width of the country; in every direction it expanded, grasslands and forest, even a few swamps and the climbing mountains in the distance that grew closer and closer as she made her way. It made the small landmass of her home seem all that more familiar and comfortable in her memory though; sometimes this larger world could seem a bit overwhelming.

She was on a mission though, and that gave the warrior a bit of comfort as she traveled on; she had her pack with her spare clothing and armor and had decided to make her way in more civilian gear. Her black and white kimono was light enough for her to move easily in and the long, red sash wrapped neatly around her waist, with her dagger and fan hanging from it, a small sign of her status as a Warrior of Kyoshi. The long katana she favored was strapped across her back within easy reach and she was comfortable enough with it that its weight was almost unnoticed as it shifted with her steps.

For now the going was easy; grassland, a bit hilly and edging into forest, but nothing unexpected had come out at her yet. Mai-dee hadn't had to hunt for anything more than small game to supply her meat for supper and so far she hadn't run into anyone who wanted to give her a problem, but common sense and history, as well as the current political situation, said that the chances of bandits was relatively high. Not that they worried her, but there was no reason to bloody her blade if she didn't have to. These may have been pretty distant relatives to her people, but blood was blood, and this was the Earth Nation and she was on her way to the Bulwark, sent by her elders to defend her people. Killing potential allies wasn't on her list of things to accomplish.

A quick breeze shifted the waist-high grass around the road she was on and the sound of shouts were carried to her on it; cocking her head slightly she listened closely, then changed her course and moved silently in the direction from which the wind had come. There was only so far she could go before being spotted, but the edge of the forest was very close indeed and she moved just slightly into the treeline before continuing on her way. Slowly the shouts got louder as she got closer; step by step she could hear just a bit more, until she was blocked only by the rise of a hill. Hiding her bag behind a tree she moved slowly and carefully back into the grass, then crouched until she was hidden in it and creeped up the hill to peek over and see whatever it was making that noise.

[nightstalker]

Nijing walked through tall grass, he had been following a woman who seemed to be on a mission. Thinking that she might need some help, of course, he was just concerned for her saftey. Although, the woman looked like she could fend for herself, she might have had trouble if she ran into bandits along the way, or something from the spirit rift.

Nijing looked up, the air was nice and cool, the sun was high and the sky and causing no shadows to betray him, or anyone else for that matter. There was a wind that blew over the landscape, Nijing made sure that he moved with the wind that disturbed the reeds and grass. Katon wore a green tunic and had decided to freshen himself up. He shaved, and decided to take a bath more than every other day. Life out in the wilderness was very hard for him even though he could not stand the corrupt nature of the earth kingdom, or moreso those that governed it.

Nijing noticed a forest up ahead, the girl set aside several things. Nijing herd in the forest ahead the sound of arguing going on. He decided to go around the place she entered. He truged through thick brush and entered a clearing where two men stood, one was tied to a tree and the other was talking to him. Nijing saw the woman perched at the other side. Nijing was fine sitting back unless the woman needed help. In that case he would step in and offer it. He slipped the emrald stemed rose, with the black pedals and readied himself for an attack.

[\Mai-Dee/ *Erity* ~Kenzi~]

So, it was a hostage situation- unless the mainlanders enjoyed tying up and taunting each other in some sort of bizarre game. Considering the look of fear on the one who was fastened to the tree it was unlikely, and the triumph on the face of the other man certainly reinforced the idea. Mai wasn't sure why this situation had played out, but she did have enough sense that the person who was tied up would be the one who needed help and there should at least be a fair fight.

Staying silent and motionless she examined her surroundings carefully; before she stepped in she wanted to make sure no one was going to come out of the forest and surprise her, or shoot her down from a tree. What's more, there was no evidence of either of those people being benders- so she could work that to her advantage. Just as she was about to jump down there was another small bit of movement and cast her eye in that direction. Another person, older and with the walk of an Earthbender, and he'd spotted her. He hadn't announced her presence but that was no reliable proof that he wouldn't.

Time to take her chances. Mai-dee jumped from the rock and into the clearing, landing neatly in a crouch before she stood, arms at her side for the moment though her feet were firmly placed to withstand any attacks and segway seamlessly into Earthbending should it prove necessary. "I'm new to the mainland, but let me guess.. You're a bandit and took a hostage?" she suggested to the untied man in a dry tone as he frowned, casting a look over his shoulder as though looking for someone. Reinforcements? And there was still the matter of that other Earthbender and which side he was on. But done was done, and she still liked her chances so far.

With an eye on both the bender and the brigand- it was pretty unlikely he was going to do anything but yell- she watched them carefully, waiting for the first attack. "Now how about letting him go? The poor guy doesn't look like you could get that much from him anyway." As predicted her speaking only made the bandit more irritated and he drew a knife, then started toward her, all without speaking. Mainlanders were so rude.

As he swung she ducked under the blow and then drew her sword, continuing to block rather than attacking directly- and she had to admit he was pretty good at getting inside her guard, but she had a few tricks of her own. With a jump back she planted her feet again and did a simple Earthbending step, stomping the ground to send a leg-high wave of soil and rock at him, hoping to trap his legs. He was quicker than she expected though- and then an arrow buried itself up to the fletchings in the ground beside her. So there were reinforcements. Tossing her head she took another step back and tried to find exactly who could be sniping her from the treetops while waiting for the next attack.

[nightstalker]

Nijing sat in the bushes patiently, he saw the flicker of movement as the woman flipped out of the bushes. ’So she’s an earth bender? Very nice, and she also noticed me here.’ Nijing watched as she talked to the man who seemed to be more and more infuriated. Words were exchanged, or moreover given but not returned. Instead the man said nothing. Nijing watched as both drew their weapons. ’A katana against a knife should end shortly, but he is actually able to get past her. Guess it is time that I step in.’
Nijing stood up as he heard a snap, then a whistle, and a thud as an arrow thudded into the ground near the woman. Nijing wasted no time, he jumped out and the sharpened obsidian petals then launched them off of his rose. The petals flew off, split up, and half went and stabbed the man carrying the knife. The other half of the petals sliced the ropes binding the man to the tree. Nijing brought the rose petals back to its place as a black rose on the stem. ’Damn it, the archer… ’ Nijing stretched out his hands and created a concave wall of earth in front of him and the woman, as he did so, two thuds resonated throughout the wall as arrows slammed into it.

Nijing turned to the woman and said ”are you alright?” Two more thuds sounded from more arrows thudding into the wall of earth. Nijing lowered the wall and shot a boulder in the direction that he saw a quick flicker of movement. A sufficing grunt came from the trees and the sound of a body dropping to the ground along with the crackling of bones came from that direction.
Nijing still had his guard up. He lowered it as several moments passed by without a noise erupting from the forest or any possible attackers. Nijing turned toward the woman but felt a small quake in the earth as a slab of earth erupted in front of where he was about to step. He turned around and saw several other men at the other end of the clearing. The middle one appeared to be an earthbender, and the other two wielded swords. Nijing drew his earthen rose, the obsidian petals on it spinning as he made a circular movement with his fingers.

[\Mai-Dee/ *Erity* ~Kenzi~]

There certainly was a lot happening- but that was the nature of the battle. She wasn't going to claim to be perfect, but being saved by a stranger still irritated her pride- mostly because she had underestimated her opponent. She could hear the screams of pain from the other side of the wall he'd made but for the most part it blocked her view. With little else to see she listened to the thunk of the arrows against the wall and watched him free the captive man hastily with odd obsidian flowers that he seemed to control with his bending. An interesting weapon- but it would have its limitations. Obsidian tended to crack under pressure, even that of striking a hard surface.

Rather than concerning herself with his tools- after all, she had her own side of the fight to worrry about- she simply nodded to his question. No injuries, so of course she was alright and certainly more than ready to throw herself back into the fight. A spear of earth stabbed up just in front of her and she sidestepped it, then with her katana still in her hands ran toward the three men who'd just approached. The enemy Earthbender would need to be taken care of first- and she'd just have to take her chances on the only other people who appeared to be on her side could handle those other brigands. Realistically the two with swords should be less of a problem, as very few training methods were as intensive as the ones the Kyoshi Warriors subjected themselves to, but she'd gotten into trouble underestimating her foes before. Mai wouldn't make the same mistake again.

With a look of anger and a shout she ran toward the Earthbender, and then with a swiping motion created a wave of earth to knock over the swordsman on his left. Of course, any attack left a person open for a rebuttal, and he tried just that with a swift kick and stomp to open a crevice just in front of her. With the thought that falling down in battle was a bad idea, especially when a couple archers were probably still hiding in the trees, Mai-Dee flipped over the crumbling but shallow opening in the ground and landed in front of her target, feet placed steadily. She swiped, and he tried to duck, but she was just a hair faster and gashed his chest open diagonally from shoulder to hip; with a look of shock he fell to the ground.

The warrior to the left that she'd knocked out of the way was starting to catch his breath again, but the one to the right presented the more immediate threat and she blocked his blow with her sword while spinning sideways to place herself slightly behind him before making her own blow to his arm and cutting a bone-deep gash. The man cursed and his face flushed with rage as he switched his grip to his other hand and swung for her, causing her to take a step back to regain her balance. With his next wild swing she ducked under and rolled away before standing again. Being trapped against a tree when there were archers around smart; she needed to keep moving.

[nightstalker]

Nijing stepped back and watched the woman engage in a battle against the three men, she took one down and knocked another back, she was engaging the one on her right and backed into a tree. Nijing turned his gaze to the man on the left. He charged her while Nijing motioned to make a mound of earth jut upward under him. The man flew through the air and Nijing stripped his rose of the petals and it became a sword. He charged the man and engaged in a sword duel with his emerald and Diamond made weapon. He blocked an upper-cut and dodged to the side as the man thrust his sword forward. Nijing brought his hands up and jumped into the air as a column of earth rose beneath him. He brought a small boulder of earth up into the air, did a summersault mid air and thrust the sphere of earth down upon his opponent. The man took a hit to the head and Nijing landed on his feet just above the man who was starting to come to. Nijing thrust his sword down into the man’s chest and he coughed up blood, Nijing was glad the man was dead.

Nijing turned to the woman who was fighting with her back pressed into the tree. Nijing turned in the bushes just in time to see a figure stand up arrow already knocked and then it snapped as the arrow left the bow; it was already too late to stop him by earth bending, instead Nijing jumped in the way of the bolt and it struck him in his left side. Nijing gasped as he felt a slight tingling of pain and staggered from the force of the shaft knocking into his side, the momentum of the arrow transferred to him and he nearly lost balance but bended earth underneath his heal to steady himself. Then by the time he looked back up the archer already had another arrow knocked and ready, ’This time I’m not going to let him hit me.’ Nijing brought up a wall of earth that shuddered and cracked as several arrows hit it. Nijing used this time to break the shaft of the arrow. ’There are more soldiers out there’ Nijing turned back to the woman and saw that she had killed the man, ’even if it requires self sacrifice, I will make sure that she survives.’ Nijing pointed to the bushes about 5 yards behind her as several more men emerged with swords and more arrows hit the wall of earth as part of it broke away.

Nijing went to the woman’s side ”Please I beg of you, run away, get out of here, see this.” Nijing pointed down to the wound that was dripping blood, it was only stopped by the arrow shaft itself. ”I want you to go, I am going to die here, I had a fiancé once, I made her this to propose to her.” Nijing showed her the rose he used as a weapon. ”I made for her and when I came back into town, to….” Nijing started to shutter as tears streamed down his face, for a moment it seemed as though everything settled down and all was still. Nijing grabbed his chest as if there was an aching in his heart, this is what he wanted all along, to be reunited with his love through death. ”When I came back into town…” Nijing said trying to calm himself down ”I went to her house to propose to her, I came… ONLY TO FIND THAT SHE WAS DEAD! I LEFT HER!!! She was killed by bandits! Now I have a chance to redeem myself. I will not let another person die because I was not able to save them. Please, don’t let my sacrifice be in vain. LEAVE!” Nijing returned the ruby rose petals to the rose, ”take this, use it, make it as a grave marker, do with it whatever you will, just make it in memory of what I have done.” He took out the obsidian petals and returned them to the earth. ”Now run! Go as fast as you can! Do not let them kill you. I will hold them off for as long as I can.” Nijing told her as tears streamed down his face, leaving trails through the dirt that had accumulated therein.

Nijing turned to face the oncoming soldiers, about 20 of them were in front of him. ”LET’S GET THIS OVER WITH! COME ON!!!” Nijing focused on his inner strength. He pulled up a power that had lain dormant within him for so long. The power of a master bender that he had lost when his fiancé died, when he lost a part of himself and lost most, if not all of his abilities. Nijing pulled up the power of when he was a general in the Earth Kingdom. ’If I am going to die, I’m going to go out taking as many of these cowards down with me.’

[\Mai-Dee/ *Erity* ~Kenzi~]

Around her she could hear the battle dissolving into sheer chaos- orders were called out between the bandits until it seemed that they weren't such an unorganized force as they'd first appeared. In fact there was a sense of uniformity, of matching mindset- but there wasn't much time to ponder it. The fight before her was enough to match her concentration and she let everything but the two enemies before her fade away. Better to focus and take the chance than to be distracted and be hit for certain, she recalled one of her instructors saying and made the split-second battle decision to do just that. Unfortunately in her turn to face her opponents she'd stepped against another tree- just what she'd been trying to avoid. Unwilling to even waste time mentally cursing at herself and the damn tree she simply swung her sword to parry the two men's blows and landed her own as she could. Her ally proved himself, throwing himself into the fight as the hostage ran toward the open grassland and away from the forest, which seemed to be spilling even more enemies into the fray. This was not a good sign.

Just as the two men before her fell to the man's attacks there was a loud twang of a bowstring- and the man jumped in front of her, only to be hit deeply in the side. It was a fearsome blow; dark blood began to drain from the wound and his face became a mask of pain, though he quickly overcame it, raised an earthen wall and snapped off the arrow's fletchings. A gut wound, and he still kept going; in that moment she felt a surge of respect for this stranger. He'd taken a blow that surely would have killed her, and was almost certain to kill him. What had he been thinking? Had he even been thinking at all? There's no way to change the decision he's made, or to fix this. Think, Mai!

With her own face a mask of shock and sorrow she heard the arrows continue to thunk into the wall, breaking it a bit at a time with the force of them, and more commands were shouted. The barrier provided a moment's reprieve, but before she could say anything at all he began to speak, and a bit of his reasoning became clear. He had been unable to save someone before, but this was his chance to redeem himself. Obviously that meant more to him than his own life, and so did the symbol he offered her, a rose crafted of ruby through Earthbending alone. So much skill and dedication- and such a history. And she didn't even know his name to tell his story to the world. But there wasn't much time to ask..

In silence she took the flower he offered in one hand, the other still on her katana as his tears ran. She owed him a life-debt, and if this was how to claim it, she couldn't honorably refuse, no matter how much she wanted to. The fact was that offering denials wouldn't change the facts. "I will remember this, and do as you ask, though I hope to hear a name to go with the tale," she told him with a determined look, bringing her sword in front of her body and giving a quick bow, then performing a quick move to bring a wall onto the other side of him. At least if he was to fight it out until the end his enemies would have to face him one-one, honorably. With that last action she turned and ran as he'd told her to, keeping a careful ear toward the battle as she retreated with the rose still clenched in her other hand.

The hill just beyond the battle approached and she ducked into the grass at its crest, hiding and waiting to watch the final battle. She would defeat the ones who followed her, no matter how many there were, but she also wanted to witness the end of the man's life. She owed it to him to finish his story in this fashion, and Mai-dee never betrayed her honor by not doing what was right.

[nightstalker]

Nijing lowered the earthen wall and faced several troops, ’these troops seem to be more advanced than any bandits I have ever seen.’ Nijing reached into his pack and dropped a map hoping the woman would go come back to his body. The map led to his diary, it had his whole life story within it. Maybe she could tell his parents and old friends that he had before he secluded himself of his act. Nijing was confident that he would die a valiant death and not as a coward. Spurred by his emotion and the pain of loss no longer clogging his chakra releasing the power he was capable of. ”Bring it on!!! I don’t have all day!” He stomped as a boulder flew into the air and thrust it forward, an arrow struck it but it kept sailing in the direction of the arrow and struck the man wielding the bow. Several men with swords approached Nijing, one slashed down on his left and Nijing blocked it with his left arm as it bent around his arm by him metal bending the sword. Nijing thrust his right hand out and it caused all swords to shudder and they bent in on themselves, the air was alive with screeching metal as it formed to his will. The men cried aloud and some dropped their swords, Nijing forced the tip through his own wielders body as he cried out in pain and dropped dead.

The men in a semi circle around him seemed more hesitant now that they knew what he was capable of. Several more snaps occurred from the trees, Nijing put out his hand and several 5 arrows froze in midair. He sent them back forcefully as they each struck an archer in the head. All he heard was a whistle, snap, and thud. Several earth benders rushed him. Boulders flew at him as Nijing dodged the boulders and jumped aiding his jump by using the earth to create leverage. He pulled two boulders to his side while in mid air and lined them up toward several groups of soldiers. They hit dead center of the two clusters with such force it created small craters.

Nijing landed on his feet and created a dome of earth around him as a series of boulders collided with the wall. Nijing had trained while he was a General to turn sand quickly into hard rock, for months he practiced reversing the erosion process. He dove out of the dome of earth he had created as it turned to sand. In the middle of a somersault he thrust his arm toward the ground and lobbed a boulder in the direction of his attackers. Quickly he landed on his feet, crouched as the sand followed him and settled as a dome of hard rock over him, doing all this in a matter of seconds. Nijing did this several more times: turning the dome into sand, rolling along the ground while shooting a boulder at a soldier while pulling the sand along with him, then pulling it over him and ducking into it. Nijing killed about 6 men and injured 5 during his sequence of attacks. Several thuds were herd as more boulders crashed against his shield. Nijing turned the dome to sand and jumped out aided by a column of earth that he thrust upward. He motioned with his hands and brought sand up into the air with him as several boulders crashed against it. Nijing landed on his feet setting his gaze upon three men who looked at him, they were about to attack but were soon covered in sand and crushed as the sand started to squeeze them.

’If I didn’t have to protect someone then I would not be killing all of these men, but I need to take out as much as I can, I am only killing those that would be a problem. The ones that are fleeing are those that are not powerful enough to actually make a difference against anyone that is trained to use a weapon.’ Nijing leveled his eyes to several soldiers that charged him. He outstretched his hands and the earth shook and seemed to rise all around, a thick cloud of dust rose from the earth shrouding the scene. Nijing pulled something out of his pack, ’I have not used these in a while; guess it will be the last time I do.’ Nijing slipped goggles over his head and a cloth that covered his mouth and nose. He rushed into the cloud of dust and started to churn it adding to the effect that he was not someone to mess with. Nijing stomped the earth and felt the vibrations of several soldiers in a circle to his left, several yards out. He thrust his hands out and a line of earth was able to be seen as the men cried out, Nijing had created a column of earth that jutted upward in the center of their group. Nijing jumped on top of it and brought it down in the center leaving a hard shell on the outside of the column. The dust blazed around almost creating its own wind. He created touched the sides of the wall of earth that was around him, the circle of men was still there, he turned one part into sand, reached out his hand and pulled one in, he brought up a spike of earth and stabbed the man in the chest. Nijing did this two more times until there were only 4 men left in the circle. He turned the wall into sand and it collapsed over the men and began to press in on them. They died there and Nijing stood up and ran across the clearing to another group of about 15 men.

This group was more scattered and would be easier to destroy in hand to hand combat. Nijing brought up two blocks of stone and rushed into the middle of the crowd, he made his hands into fists and the blocks levitated in front of his fists. He struck one man to his left crushing his chest cavity. A man to his left took in a breath to scream but Nijing forced the dust in the air around the man’s head to become sand and forced it into his mouth. The dust cloud was starting to settle but Nijing stirred it up again. Nijing struck the man in the head as a sickening snapping sound resonated from the impact. Nijing jumped over another man who turned when he heard the snap of his comrade’s head. Nijing landed behind him and stabbed him in the back with a stone spike. Nijing blocked a boulder that was flying at his back. He thrust his right hand forward and the block struck a man about two yards away. A sickening crack sounded from the collision of the block of earth breaking his rib cage and his spinal cord snapped. Nijing herd a group of men calling out to each other, he felt the vibrations feeling that they had grouped up only it was a more scattered formation. Jumped and as he landed the earth dented in and he thrust his arms forward as the earth rebounded out launching him through the air. Nijing landed in the center of the scattered group in a crouching position. He caused the earth to shake as he landed and many of the men lost balance and fell over forward or backwards. Nijing quickly stuck both his arms out and made his hands face up with his fingers resembling spikes sticking up from each palm. Spikes came up from the ground and impaled the soldiers who had lost balance. There were three soldiers left who had dodged to the side. They turned to face Nijing, Nijing thrust his fist downward and a block of earth came up diagonally and struck each one, killing them instantly.

There was only one man that remained from the battle group that was worth fighting. Nijing motioned and the dust settled immediately. He stood looking down at the wound, the arrow head still lodged in his side, although he didn’t know it, it barely missed a vital organ and an artery. His gain of energy spurred by his emotion and adrenalin was starting to dissipate; he probably did not have enough energy to even fight this man, depending on what mastery he was at. Nijing and the other man stared each other down. The man looked at his fallen comrades Nijing closed his eyes and felt the vibrations made through the earth and felt the man’s heart rate race as he allowed one tear to drop his guard. Nijing figured he was probably allowing himself to shed a tear for his fallen friends, Nijing knew how close fighting groups became: prejudices, hates, prideful mistrusts, they all went away when you were thrust into a situation that relied on you counting on another person to have your back. Closeness was always formed within a group. That’s why in the Earth Kingdom when you were assigned to a battle group, you were with them for your entire service, or until you died. If Nijing did not know how it felt to lose a comrade, he would not be doing this. Nijing allowed the man to have a moment to mourn the loss of his fellow soldiers. The man seemed to realize this and let another tear slip down his face. The man nodded, a stern face while allowing some thankfulness to slip through his eyes showing Nijing he was ready, Nijing nodded in return to the man and began the engagement.

A boulder flew forward and Nijing outstretched his hand and broke it into rubble. He turned the ground around him into sand and blocked several more boulders that smashed into it. He thrust the sand forward but it was blocked by an invisible wall of bending. Nijing spread the sand out and made it so the man could not see it. With his right hand he kept the wall of sand up to allow it to block the man’s vision of him. With his right hand he brought up a boulder and charged to the wall of sand, Jumped, and broke through and flung the rock in the man’s direction. The other earth bender rolled to the side and brought up a column of earth that Nijing righted himself and put his foot on it and jumped off of it. He took the wall of sand and swirled it around and arced it to hit the man’s side. The man stretched out his left hand and blocked the oncoming sand, he fired a series of boulders at Nijing who broke through, but as he landed, the wound opened and pain swarmed through Nijing’s body.

Nijing grasped his side, he knew that even though it was not spoken that the man had heavy respect for Nijing and that Nijing had respect for the man. Even with that not verbally stated, they both knew not to take it easy on the other. Any more moves like the one Nijing just did by smashing through the boulder and twisting and the arrowhead would cut into a vital organ. Nijing knew he could not risk moving the arrow head but he could bend the end of it that stuck out. He formed it to seal the wound, he knew it was not too effective but he had no other option. Nijing landed on his feet and grabbed his side. He jumped up and sent a spike sailing toward the other earth bender. Nijing knew he could not outlast the other man who was clearly close to being a master. Instead Nijing would have to use wits which neither he nor the man lacked.

Nijing dodged to the left as a boulder flew through the space his body once occupied. He thrust his arm up diagonally and a block of earth struck outward but was destroyed as the man touched the block. He jumped toward Nijing and brought up several boulders and launched them as a salvo at Nijing, one went straight at him, two went left and right and angled to hit him. Nijing herd something to his back but it was too late to fully stop it, a boulder crashed into his back but Nijing clenched his hand into a fist destroying the boulder and ending the transfer of kinetic energy. His back felt bruised but he realized that the boulders coming to his front were only speeding up and he outstretched his chi to the boulders and shattered them. Nijing forced the debris at the other man. Most of it hit the man but he protected himself from the rest of it by using the debris that had already hit him as a shield. Nijing clenched both fists and stomped back and forth shooting boulders at the man. He jumped but a small spike that was nearly invisible flew towards him. Nijing herd the spike whistling but it impacted against his stomach. Nijing caught the spike just as it had impaled his stomach. He pulled it out and realized how heavy it was. Nijing looked down and saw a finger sized hole that was leaking blood. Pain resonated from Nijing’s stomach and he knew then that he would die. Nijing knew though, he needed to kill this man.

Nijing had an idea, it was the only thing that would work though. He repeatedly fired a salvo of boulders at the man who broke each one and was struck by two. Nijing then fired a bigger boulder straight at the man blocking the man’s view of Nijing. ’This must be done carefully, I cannot allow him to live after this, this plan has to succeed, otherwise I will die and he will live.’. When the boulder was about to impact with the man Nijing extended his energies toward the area around the man. The man thrust his hand forward causing the boulder to shatter into blocks of earth and dust. Nijing punched forward and caused a block of earth to jut outward from the ground diagonally and caused the recently smashed boulder to solidify into a wall of rock. Sandwiched between the force of the diagonally facing rock and the solid wall that formed behind him, the man was crushed.

Nijing let go a sigh and dropped to the ground, relief filling his senses. He felt pained and knew he was dying, even though it was going to be a slow death he was still dying. Nijing longed for death to come quickly, but he had no energy to do it himself, Nijing passed out where he lay in the dirt.

[\Mai-Dee/ *Erity* ~Kenzi~]

The massive battle before her was almost amazing in its sheer scale; it was obvious the man before her was putting every bit of his strength and power into his bending, killing whichever enemies approached and letting the ones who ran get away. Perhaps they'd be a problem later- but with their expressions of terror she greatly doubted it. A good quarter of the men showed their cowardly sides and dropped back to race into the woods. All the better; he would no die defeating unworthy opponents.

There was a great flurry of activity so it was nearly impossible to pick out many details, but her eyes caught a paper fluttering to the ground amidst the raining blows and the wounds the man took. It was a hard thing to watch, and every bit of her self-control was spent in keeping where she was rather than running back into the fight. I made a vow, I must keep it, she kept reminding herself as the fight went further and further, soldiers and earthbenders alike falling even as they landed their own blows. The wounds- the blood- and it seemed an eternity before any real difference could be noticed in the numbers. But still he fought.

The ruby rose clenched in her hand was rough along the stem and almost seemed to have a set of words raised from its surface- but to look she would have to pull her eyes from the fight. There would be time to read later. She needed to absorb as many details as she could from the chaos below her for the sake of the fighting man. The minutes dragged on and her eyes grew dry even as she forced down the tears at the painful situation. To see a hero's sacrifice was no easy thing; the surroundings faded from her senses as she concentrated completely on every motion, every bit of bending, and kept it locked within her mind.

Finally the last man was crushed between two slabs of stone and the hero fell; with a long sighing exhale of the breath she stood again and ran down to the scene, not even glancing at the treeline to check that no one else was coming to make short work of her downed foe. Her senses were on their own, and hopefully if anyone came her instincts would be enough, for her thoughts were completely absorbed with her fallen ally. There was a sound to her left of an arrow and almost without thinking she sent a sphere of stone in the direction of its origin, then heard a sick thud as it found its target and the crash of a dead body falling to the ground. Within another two steps she was at the man's side and could look him over. Back, chest, stomach, side- there were the signs of his struggle all across his body and his blood pulsed from the numerous wounds- meaning that he wasn't quite dead. Even his expressions showed his pain. To lose all blood slowly while his organs were unable to stop working- no! That was no way for a hero to die!

Looking finally at the flower in her hand she saw what was written- a name, masculine and therefore likely his own- and picked up the paper that fluttered near his prone form, lookiing over it quickly. A map? Frowning slightly in understanding and sympathy she folded it and put the paper into a pouch for later; somehow she doubted this Nijing Fa wouuld want her to leave her mission behind for this. The Bulwark was even more important now; he'd died to save her, and therefore her mission must be done, no matter the cost. Refusing to give into her thoughts too deeply she instead straightened and pulled her sword again. "Thank you for my life, Nijing Fa," she said in a clear tone. "May you find your rest with those you have lost." With eyes flashing and a sense of fatalism- better to die quickly and without pain than to linger in agony- she stabbed her blade straight through his heart, then watched his breathing slow and stop.

Closing her eyes for a moment to block out any tears that may have risen she then began arranging his body. His weapons were arranged around him, with his sword across his chest and his hands on the hilt, and his head was straightened against is shoulders. Once done she used her bending to slowly lower the ground beneath him, making a pit with a bottom and sides of stone, an then a thick stone top. No one would be able to steal his possessions while he lay there. The sarcophagus was plain, but it would be effective; only someone with true intent to rob the dead would even consider this course of action. With a few motions of her hands she inscribed 'Here lies Nijing Fa, a brave man' on the lid, then looked at the rose. If anyone saw it there was no doubt it would be stole, unless she could anchor it more effectively than she now knew how to do. "When I find where this map leads I will bring it and this flower back to mark your grave as you deserve," she promised in a solemn tone, then turned away and started back toward the road, a few tears tracing her cheeks before she walked away.

This wasn't something she was going to easily forget- and she now had another mission to complete. There wasn't any time for sorrow, only the chance to do what was right.