North West of Earth Kingdom.
[General Dali]
I held the leash on my war mount, an ostrich horse. It immediately stopped, and so did the whole army on my back. We are marching towards a major supply point that was attacked and taken by the Rebel Army a few days ago, and we are all here for one reason: to take it back and punish the Rebel Army for being traitors they are. I heard that the Rebel Leader was still at their main camp, so I specifically chose the location where it was far away from the main rebel army so they wouldn't be able to respond immediately. We will take them on once we defeat the rebels there and secure that supply point.
Major Guonu came up to me riding his own mount.
"Major, go and take your unit and stop any quick reinforcements that the Rebel Army could send. Retreat after a day and support us in the fight," I said.
"I understand, General Dali," Guonu said after bowing.
He was one of my trusted friends and soldiers, and it seemed that he thought the same for me, as there was no doubt on his face—only determination and the willingness to trust my decision. I patted his shoulder and nodded to say that I trusted that he would succeed and that he could now part from the main army.
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North West of Earth Kingdom.
We are now very close to the supply point where a pathway between massive mountains was located. I looked at the mountains, stretching so long and high that they blocked us from seeing the other side even though we were still far away from them. It was very quiet, and no source of light could be seen, even though it was now nighttime. It seems that the rebel army has prepared themselves, knowing that we are coming. They usually use dirty tactics to win against numbers, but I will not let that happen under my command.
Even if they're prepared, we are most definitely more prepared than they are. We had more numbers—more than enough that 1/10 of it could already defeat them, based on my estimates. Earth Benders also filled half of my army, and most of them are skilled benders. And now, compared to the Rebels hiding in front of us, who are mostly infantry non-benders, it might seem too much, but I didn't bring this army for the traitors in front of me, it was for the main rebel army that I guessed was marching towards us right now. And I was here to fight the rebel leader myself.
"Spread out and start creating boulders," I commanded.
They did as I commanded and started spreading themselves out, due to our numbers, it took some time before they were fully spread, and soon my soldiers started creating boulders and compressing them to make them smaller and not break easily once we started spraying them at the enemies.
"Ready the stones," I commanded.
Soon, many earth benders started creating large stones and compressing them to make them smaller and heavier. This one will rain down on the enemies like rain, but more lethal. I don't really know how effective this will be, since this will be the first time any Earth Kingdom army will do this, but I will know soon enough. The question is not whether it can kill any rebels, but how many.
I looked at the secretive unit under my command and nodded. They are here to help us know the real location of the rebels so that we can accurately shoot our stones at them. They are very sensitive to earth and can feel the movements on the ground more than normal benders, so they are perfect for this task. Soon, they holed themselves underground and started moving towards the mountains. I sensed that they were moving very fast underground, so it shouldn't take them long enough to come back and tell us the locations.
And soon, they came back and started assisting our long-range attack benders so that they could accurately shoot down the rebels. Soon, they all were ready and waiting for my command.
"Fire," I said without hesitation.
Soon, thousands of compressed boulders and rocks started shooting upwards and onto the mountains. I could feel tremors, not from rocks that were yet to fall, but from thousands of men stomping on the ground with heavy feet. And soon enough, the boulders and rocks hit the mountains, and that's where the real tremors could be felt, but no one in my army bothered, as all of us were focused on the scene of falling rocks from the sky.
If there was doubt before about whether they're effective, I have no doubt that this will be used as a new strategy starting today by, hopefully, just Earth Kingdom. But hope is not the right word for us, since I have no doubt that even the rebel army will use it. I doubted that there were even any rebels left in that mountain, but I don't want to waste any of my soldiers' lives right now when we are preparing for the fight with the main rebel army.
"Halt! Prepare for the second round!"
Once the firing stopped, silence engulfed the mountains once more—though it was probably loud because of the shouts of the traitors crying for help. I don't feel anything when killing these traitors, since they don't feel anything when they do the same to their own people. They are no different from the Fire Nation, and they shall be treated as one of them.
And these thoughts of mine were not just because of their actions, but also because of who is benefiting from them. By blocking the supply points we have towards the Frontline, they are basically helping the Fire Nation by weakening us on the Frontline. We sent spies towards them to see what their connection to the Fire Nation was, and so far, the spies have all gone missing with no success whatsoever. But based on their actions, they're probably created to support the Fire Nation.
"Fire," I command.
Hell rain down on the traitors once again, and once I'm fully sure that we can advance into the mountains without losing any soldiers to rebels, I get them to be ready to march once again. Soon, we started marching.
When we arrived at the mountains, the sun was setting. We found many boulders scattered around, and together with them were the squashed bodies of the rebels. There were many having a rock deep in their head, while some had one on their torso. It was a scene that normal people would vomit at, but none of us did. Hatred was enough to kill any pity we had against these traitors.
I looked at one major, and he immediately came up to me with his ostrich horse.
"Go tell the supplies and reinforcements to the Frontline that they're free to go now," I said.
"Understood, General Dali," the major said before turning around.
I stepped down from my mount and started overseeing the building of our camp. It wasn't really hard to remove the rocks and boulders, since half of my army are Earth Benders, but the bodies scattered around had to be moved by hand. We could bury them here using Earth Benders, but I want to rest my benders for the final fight.
Just then, I sensed a fast-moving thing approaching my position, so I turned and saw an ostrich horse running at full speed towards me, above him was a desperate soldier with a visible wound and blood all over his body. Even the ostrich horse was not safe and had many wounds as well. I frowned as I deduced what had happened for him to be in that state. He was a messenger from the major I had sent to block any quick reinforcements from the rebels, and for him to be in that state means that something terribly had happened to their unit.
I don't want to think about what happened to them, but with my experience as a commander, I started preparing for the worst scenario possible and planning inside my head, all while the messenger was approaching me with a desperate expression. I frowned and closed my eyes.
"General! They're here!" he shouted with all the air left in his lungs. "The rebel army is here!"
The panicking messenger told all the details of everything that happened during their offensive against the rebels, his lungs seemed to want him to give up, but he held on and tried his best to say it in an understanding manner. He said that the offensive they conducted against a small camp of rebels was more or less successful, they had some losses, but it was a major success since they also managed to secure another supply route. And just when they were about to retreat, they suddenly found themselves being spiked from the ground—it was a blood bath. When he was saying that, I took a second to observe his injuries and found that they were mainly cuts on the shoulder and knee, probably because he was able to avoid the spike. The messenger said that they were able to react almost immediately, especially the Major Guonu, and started attacking the rebels, but the Guonu was quickly killed by the rebel leader and soon after, they were as well. He was only able to survive due to the sacrifice of the others, but I doubted that was the case.
He was probably left alive for a reason, and it can't be a good one.
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