[General Dali POV]
On the forest trees below, the rebels have begun their approach to the mountains slowly, even after seeing the boulders and rocks that we are ready to send to them. Many were wearing a cold expression, so effectively that I don't even think they have any emotion at all, while most were trying to look like they had a confidence that they would come out alive after this fight at all, probably because of the trust that the rebel leader has built upon them—that his strength is on top of everything—but that trust still wavered when they met a force a lot stronger than them and that outnumbered them by more than 10 times their numbers. Something to be also worried about is that we are on top of the small mountain, while they're in a position where we are free to shoot whatever we want at them without getting counterattacked at all.
However, the rebel leader seemed not to worry about any of that as he leisurely walked towards us with confidence and a smile. I know that confidence does have something that is backing it, he must have a plan for it, and I was starting to get an idea of what it is as he stopped his force and approached us alone.
"Hello there, General," Lian said. "It was nice meeting you again."
"Get to the point, what does a traitor like you want? Tell it right here and right now, else, you would face the hell that we prepared for you," I said, signaling my army to be ready.
"Alright, what I want is a fair fight with you, no dirty tactics nor help from anyone, just you and me," he said. "If you win, I will be dead, my army will be weakened, and you won't face any resistance at all from us anymore from this location starting today. If I win, I will leave you alive and let your army retreat without any attacks from us for one day. Sounds good, right? Then you can start attacking again after a day."
Lian's words were carefully planned by him, it does sound tempting, had they had the upper hand and advantage in this situation. Where did he even think of this? It's a plain and stupid idea from what I believe to be a smart leader for an army that made me hate it to the point that I hate it more than the Fire Nation. Did he really think that I would be stupid enough to fight him myself if not necessary?
"Alright, you can bring up to 10 more soldiers that you personally think are the strongest after you to fight me. What do you think?" Lian said, with an expression that seems to think that I will accept that condition.
I seem to understand now why he came up with this plan, his right-hand man and strategist were not here. I couldn't sense anyone underground and couldn't see him at all, so he must not be here. It must be because Lian sent him to support the fight against one of our generals who was probably fighting with the main rebel army now.
"Are you really that stupid to think that I will fall for something like that?" I said. "You people used dirty tactics against us, killing thousands of our soldiers, so it must be fair for us to erase some of our honor against you, right?"
"Is that so..." the rebel leader said.
Lian clenched his fist and made a full swing upward, and just then, I sensed fast movements on the surface beneath us, the earth was forming into hundreds of sharp spikes. I know that this is the move that the rebel leader used against Major Guono, so I know how to stop it. I signaled all my benders to harden the ground beneath them, and I also did that, causing the spikes to be stopped before they could successfully pierce the body of anyone.
"Fire!" I commanded.
Immediately, boulders started rolling down and shooting towards the enemies below, compressed rock shot down with unbelievable speed that, without a doubt, will kill anyone who was hit by them.
"Don't stop firing! Shoot anyone you see below!" I shouted.
It was getting hard to see anything below due to the thick dust that had formed because of the nonstop bombardment of massive boulders and rocks. I heard many screams below, and that itself became more and more silent as time passed, so after some time, I held out my hand, signaling for the cease of shooting, and it immediately became quiet. I watched as the dust was slowly diminishing. I could have removed it quickly, but I don't want to give the remaining rebels any idea of what was going on above to remove any remaining morale they had, before hundreds of figures suddenly appeared midair and towards the sky. Then suddenly, a chaos behind began getting louder.
"Hold your ground! Non-benders, spread out and started attacking any rebels you see!" I said.
I then shifted my attention to the figures that were coming down, specifically to the rebel leader who was all smiling as if the lives of his soldiers were nothing to him at all.
"Refusing to fight me was not in the scope of your decision anyway!" he said as he began laughing.
I buried my feet underground and gestured with my hand, small pillars formed around me and started going up, targeting the rebel leader and those soldiers close to him. My soldier also started using their bending to attack those above them, but all of our attacks seemed very easy to deflect as they just kicked them off toward the direction of my non-benders troops. They counterattacked us by grabbing some of our attacks and leading them downward. We also managed to evade all of it, but I won't let them come down yet.
I looked at the majors and senior officials who can earthbend behind me and nodded. We formed a straight line quickly and simultaneously stomped the ground, creating a thick and wide boulder. We waited for the right timing before we slapped those boulders onto the rebels coming down, most were immediately killed from the impact, while many managed to evade it and even destroyed it, especially the rebel leader himself, who seemed to be having fun at this.
By the time the rebels landed, their numbers were down to around forty compared to how many were in the air before, we all saw this as a great victory, so all of the soldiers on my side were in good morale. I looked at all the majors under me again, and we all nodded. We know that I can't defeat the rebel leader myself, so we will be using our numbers against them.
"That's what I liked to see, come to me! All of you!" Lian said while laughing maniacally.
Then he jumped from his former position and buried his foot on the ground on landing, I suddenly felt the ground beneath me form two boulders around us, which quickly tried to squash us between, but fortunately we managed to stop it from closing.
"This is it!" Lian said. "This is what I liked to see!"
I continued my attacks by sending countless rocks and spikes towards Lian, most of my majors who were not fighting the other rebels did the same, and so we were raining fast rocks at the rebel leader. He was able to shield himself from it, but I then created a huge pillar this time that extended towards the rebel leader's shield, destroying it and revealing the still-smiling Lian. Seeing this, I created another pillar under him, but he just kicked it without any effort.
We continued our fighting, and while we were doing it, my soldiers were slowly killing the emotionless benders under Lian. They managed to kill many before they could be defeated and killed, which proves how experienced they are, but that's not enough when they're fighting against quantity with quality close to their skills. And before we knew it, the rebel leader was the only one left. It's amazing that he could hold us out—me and 15 more majors—on the same ground without being pushed back, he even managed to seriously injure 6 of my majors and hundreds of my soldiers while fighting. It shows how powerful he is, but he soon will follow his dead soldiers. We were all now surrounding him while he was on the edge of the cliff.
"I know it was foolish of me to attack with only this much, but I really had fun in this fight," Lian said. "I'm quite tired for now, so see you all again, and when we meet again, I will bring my main army that time!"
He jumped off the cliff and gestured with his hand, creating an explosion of a thick fog of dust. Some of my soldiers wanted to chase him, but I know that we won't be able to catch him. So the only thing I could do to make sure that we can still damage him below was to use my new and favorite tactic.
"Fire!" I commanded.
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