Callan Stone and the Akashic Records

(Word Count: 3,340)

The huge outer wall of Ba Sing Se sprawled across the horizon. It wasn't doing them justice by simply calling them the walls of the city. Ba Sing Se was an entire country on its own, all encased by these walls. They were even larger than the Great Wall of China. In height and width. I don't know about the total length.

The majestic sight of the great wall was marred by a massive drilling machine slowly inching its way towards it, flanked on either side by Fire Nation tanks. Doing a quick count, there were a total of 16 fire tanks. 8 on either side of the drill. There were several soldiers around each tank. Outside of the walls, to stop the drill, were squadrons of Earth Kingdom soldiers entrenched in lines of fortifications made by some of the earthbenders.

I was a bit… well, disappointed was the wrong word. Underwhelmed? Sure, the drill may be able to make a tunnel through the wall and get those tanks into Ba Sing Se, but that was nowhere near the needed amount of soldiers needed to take advantage of that tunnel. A mere 16 tanks was not enough to take over a country, and the tunnel made by the drill would be closed by earthbenders long before another army could make it. They should have been supporting this drill with an entire legion, even more so because the crown princess was here as well.

Was this more of a proof of concept then? One that becomes obsolete with the invention of the airships?

"Oh no!" Katara gasped, hands covering her mouth in shock.

"What? What is it?" Toph asked. 

"The Fire Nation has made a giant drill to burrow a tunnel straight through the walls of Ba Sing Se," I explained to her.

"Come on! We need to go see how we can help! Yip yip!" Aang said, urging Appa to go faster.

With Appa, we were able to quickly land on the top of the wall. I didn't bother with bringing Telluris this time, I would mostly be fighting against tanks and Team Azula. I didn't really feel like using my sword against either of those.

A guard quickly ran up to us angrily. "What are you people doing here? Civilians aren't allowed on the wall!"

Aang stepped forward, "I'm the Avatar. Take me to whoever is in charge."

The guard looked at Aang, his airbender clothes and his arrow tattoos, then glanced at the giant sky-bison, which he had seen flying. He did eye me more suspiciously, but since I was with the Avatar, I probably wouldn't be causing trouble. "Alright. The General in charge of this section of the wall is General Sung. Follow me." 

The guard turned around and led us to a portion of the Outer Wall that had a roof overhead, supported by tall arches. This seemed to be the logistics center of this part of the wall, with several desks filled with papers and tables with the troop positions. General Sung sat behind a much larger, ornate desk.

The guard stepped forward to introduce us. "General Sung, we have some visitors. I present to you the Avatar and his party. They want to help with this attack."

General Sung just smiled happily, totally unconcerned with the situation. "It is an honor to welcome you to the Outer Wall, young Avatar, but your help is not needed."

I was expecting this reaction, but the rest of the Gaang was taken aback by his lack of concern. "Not needed?" Aang asked incredulously.

"Not needed. I have the situation under control. I assure you the Fire Nation cannot penetrate this wall. Many have tried to break through it, but none have succeeded," General Sung said calmly.

Toph couldn't help but call him out on that. "What about the Dragon of the West? He got in."

"Well ... uh, technically yes, but he was quickly expunged," General Sung was slightly taken aback by the mention of Iroh, but quickly regathered his confidence. "Nevertheless, that is why the city is named Ba Sing Se. It's the "impenetrable city!" They don't call it Na Sing Se!" He laughed at his joke, but no one else did, so he explained. "That means "penetrable city."

"Yeah, thanks for the tour, but we still got the drill problem," Toph said.

"Not for long. To stop it, I've sent an elite platoon of earthbenders called the Terra Team," Sung said.

"That's a good group name. Very catchy," Sokka rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

Down below, the fight had begun.

The tanks shot out large fireballs at the first barricades. The earthbenders raised a larger wall to fortify their defenses, and the fire crashed against it in a large wave. Several of the earthbenders from the right side lifted stone pillars underneath to attack some of the tanks there. It managed to flip the tank, but the center just rotated right side up, and it continued. They had little time to do anything else before the tanks were already on top of them, running straight over their earth walls.

Some of the earthbenders managed to lodge a large rock into the tanks' opening, but it wasn't really enough.

A hatch opened up on the drill and 2 figures came out. Mai and Ty Lee. They darted forward at the Terra Team. Mai threw several knives, pinning soldiers to the ground. How that worked when they were earthbenders was beyond me. Ty Lee flipped through the Terra Team, Chi Blocking as she went, leaving behind men paralyzed on the ground. Thankfully, it didn't seem like they were willing to kill them.

The two girls defeated the left side quickly, then made their way over to the right side to do the same thing.

Upon witnessing the Terra Team being completely overrun, General Sung's entire demeanor changed. Contrary to the relaxed and confident personality he had before, he was now freaking out, flailing his arms hysterically. "We're doomed!"

Sokka quickly grabbed the man by the collar of his armor and slapped him across the face. "Get a hold of yourself, man!"

"You're right. I'm sorry." Sung held his cheek in shame.

"Maybe you'd like the Avatar's help now?" Toph asked wryly.

Sung went to stand meekly in front of Aang. "Yes, please."

Aang nodded, and looked out at the drill. "The question is, how are we going to stop that thing?"

They all turned to look at me.

"Why are you all looking at me?" I asked.

"You're Master Stone, our teacher. What should we do?" Katara said earnestly.

"You helped stop General Zhao from killing the Moon Spirit. Surely you have an idea how we can stop that thing," Sokka asked.

I took a moment to think. Mai and Ty Lee weren't going to kill the soldiers, but that didn't guarantee that the tanks would leave them alone. The Gaang should be more than capable to handle things, even more so with Toph's metalbending.

"Aang, Sokka, Toph, Katara, I want you four to go into the drill to take it down from the inside. Sokka, a machine that large should have engineers to keep it moving. They should have some schematics. Steal it from them to determine how to best take it down. Meanwhile, I'll handle the tanks outside and make sure the Terra Team is okay."

They agreed and Toph and I worked in tandem to lower us down the wall from a platform, like a stone elevator.

When we got to ground level, I shot forward by Earth Skating. I went to the right side, where Mai and Ty Lee were finishing up incapacitating the Terra Team. I wanted to draw their attention to stop them from going back inside so Azula would have to face the entire Gaang on her own. 

Several tanks saw my approach and reoriented themselves to face me. Still Earth Skating, I pulled up some earth around me for armor. The flaps opened and a couple of fireballs were blasted toward me. I tanked through them, spending some Chi to keep the earth armor around me cool, then launched myself forward with a pillar underneath me.

I landed heavily on top of the one on the far right, where I could see the 3 soldiers inside. The soldier manning the "turret" immediately shot a stream of fire at my face, but I ignored it. Instead, I grabbed either side of the opening and just pulled the metal closed, permanently.

Then, I metalbent the entire central cabin of the tank, pulling all of the metal in on itself. The wheels popped off, and it crashed down onto the ground. I made sure that the soldiers inside didn't die, but were instead encased in a metal vice with just enough room to breathe. Their heads were pushed up out of the top hatch that popped off.

Since Mai and Ty Lee hadn't actually killed anyone, I would try to show them the same courtesy.

I pulled some of the extra metal off, and wrapped it around me, over the earth armor. Metal was more heat conductive, so I would have to spend more Chi cooling myself off otherwise. I looked like an earth golem wearing metal armor.

Dang. Maybe I should have brought Telluris, if only to complete the look.

I turned around, facing the other tanks, and they were frozen. From their perspective, I had just crushed the three soldiers inside, using the tank itself. Many of their heartbeats were erratic and scared.

Well, that move had cost a lot of Chi, so I wouldn't be able to use that move on all of them.

Behind them, Mai and Ty Lee had been heading back to the drill, but they had noticed my attack and turned back. I saw them glance at each other. Mai sighed and decided I was too much of a bother, and continued going back into the drill. Ty Lee couldn't let me continue, and came running back.

I only had a few seconds by the speed she was going, so I used that time to collapse another tank. I dodged under their fireball, and crashed into the tank like I was a sumo wrestler. I squeezed the tank in a hug, collapsing it around the soldiers inside again.

I threw the scrapped tank down to the side, just in time to receive Ty Lee's flying kick to my face. Yeah, she could definitely enhance herself with Chi. That was strong enough that I had to take a step back to stop myself from falling over. Ty Lee landed lightly on the ground in front of me, ready to attack again, but she paused.

"Hey, you!" Ty Lee shouted angrily, "Stop killing our soldiers!"

"Don't worry, they're still alive. I'm only using the metal to capture them, not crush them," my voice sounded muffled by the armor. She blinked in surprise, glancing at the heap of metal next to us curiously.

"Oh, you're right! I can still see their auras," she muttered, before turning to smile at me. "Thanks, stone man!"

"It's the least I could do. I noticed you weren't killing our soldiers either. Thanks for that, by the way."

"No problem!" And she darted forward again, punching with her knuckles towards what I knew to be an acupuncture point for Chi Blocking. I could see her Chi flowing to enhance her strikes, confirming my idea.

I grab her arm to capture her, intending to grab her other arm and handcuff her like a Dai Li agent would, but she leveraged my hold to kick me in the side. It wasn't enough to make me let go, so she was left grimacing at her having just kicked metal.

"Oh, shoot." She pouted. I then realized something, if I captured her here and now, she would likely be taken by the Dai Li and brainwashed, or left to rot in prison. I knew that she was a good hearted person, so I didn't want that for her.

I decided to let her go. The tanks weren't shooting at us, because Ty Lee was here, and it looked like they had decided to ignore us and continue their advance. It also looked like the tanks were ignoring the Terra Team, so I didn't have to focus on saving them. I dropped my earth and metal armor, leaving me in only my stolen and repainted Fire Nation armor. With her enhanced strikes, she might be able to Chi Block me through it, but I was at least confident enough in my skills to prevent that.

I let go of her arm, and stepped back. "My name's Callan Stone."

"My name's Ty Lee! Wow, your aura's really vibrant! Why'd you let me go? You had me as good as captured!"

"Princess Azula is here, isn't she?" Ty Lee nodded. "Then give her a message for me. She can't win here. Even if you're able to breach the walls, what are you planning on doing next? You don't have enough men to capture and hold any sort of foothold here. You should retreat."

She winced at that. "She's not going to like hearing that."

"Then she should have thought of a better plan. This is all foolish."

"Okay," She sighed. "I'll go and tell her. At least I know you're not going to be killing any of our men. But what about the men you've encased in metal?"

I shrugged. "They're captured. We'll be keeping them. And the longer you wait to pull back, the more men I'll be capturing, and the more men you'll have to leave behind. So you better hurry."

"Okay!" And without another word, she ran back to the drill.

I turned my attention back to the tanks. They had already passed the fortifications of the Terra Team, so I decided to focus on getting the earthbenders back up and running. A few quick strikes on each one, and they were standing back up. This is why you kill on a battlefield, so your enemies don't get back up when they're behind you.

The ones pinned to the ground with Mai's knives, I just gave a glare. "Earthbend yourselves free, idiots."

The one I berated just scowled back. "I can't move my arms, stupid. I can't earthbend!"

"You can't? Just use your fingers, or your head. You don't earthbend with your muscles, man." To show him, I motioned with my head and earthbent him free. He gawked at me.

"You can do that?" He asked in shock.

"All you need is some movement, and your Chi will do all the rest. Of course, the less movement you have, the more your Chi has to compensate, so it's still better to use the bending forms."

"Huh. I didn't know that. Thanks."

I moved on to the rest of the soldiers. "Alright, everyone! Let's take down those tanks! Focus on the joints where the wheels connect to the body of the tank! I'm going to the other side to free the rest of the Terra Team!"

They cheered and charged forward.

I dipped underneath the tracks of the drill, taking a moment to stab some pillars into the drill's underbelly to slow it down at least a little, and continued onto the other side.

The soldiers on this side were still lying on the ground here, left behind by the tanks. I spent a couple of minutes again to free them, telling them the same thing as I did on the right side, to aim for the joints.

Just then, there was a large groan from the drill as it shuddered and halted. The outer shell of the machine seemed to fall down a few feet in a large crash. My guess is that they succeeded in collapsing some of the pillars. This time, they didn't have to spend hours slowly cutting the steel away with water, they had Toph who could rip the columns right out. The drill hadn't even made it to the wall, let alone actually punch through it.

I didn't want to lose anymore Exp from letting the Terra Team do the rest of the work handling the tanks, so I went back into the fight. With the rest of the earthbenders here to support, I didn't have to worry about conserving Chi, so I continued collapsing the tanks in on themselves, bending them around the soldiers inside.

I continued dismantling tank after tank until I heard a man's voice. "All men, retreat! Fall Back!"

I looked and it was the captain of the drill, who was with Azula. Azula herself, and Mai and Ty Lee for that matter, was nowhere to be seen.

With the fight over, I look over the gains I received in the system.

STATUS SCREEN

NAME: Callan Stone

TIER: 1

GLOBAL LEVEL: 14 => 15 31,866 => 35,402/43,409 Exp

CLASS: Swordsman 5 => 8 1,485 => 5,021/6,808 Exp

CLASS HISTORY: Street Rat 10/10, Brawler 10/10, Monk 10/10

STATS:

Str: 35 => 38

End: 60 => 63

Dex: 31 => 34

Int: 15

Wis: 51

Cha: 15

Free Stats: 0 => 5

SKILLS:

Skill Points: 0 => 2 => 0

[Deception LVL 100/100]

[Forestry LVL 100/100]

[Axe Handling LVL 100/100]

[Wood Chopping LVL 100/100]

[Persuasion LVL 100/100]

[Hammer Handling LVL 100/100]

[Blacksmithing LVL 100/100]

[Sword Handling LVL 100/100]

[Knife Handling LVL 60/100]

[Sewing LVL 42/100]

[Cooking LVL 100/100]

[Leatherworking LVL 23/100]

[Running LVL 100/100]

[Sprinting LVL 100/100]

[Jumping LVL 100/100]

[Leap LVL 60 => 61/100]

[Acrobatics LVL 100/100]

[Sneak LVL 100/100]

[Muted Steps LVL 100/100]

[Hide LVL 70/100]

[Meditation LVL 100/100]

[Archery LVL 51/100]

[Carpentry LVL 100/100]

[Sailing LVL 90/100]

[Baguazhang LVL 100/100]

[Chi Manipulation LVL 100/100]

[Chi Sensing LVL 100/100]

[Low Cosmic Connection LVL 31 => 33/100]

[Horse Riding LVL 52/100]

[Fishing LVL 100/100]

[Wood Carving LVL 100/100]

[Swimming LVL 73/100]

[Drawing LVL 100/100]

[Haggling LVL 42/100]

[Chi Enhancement LVL 100/100]

[Parry LVL 100/100]

[Dodge LVL 100/100]

[Counter LVL 100/100]

[First Aid LVL 100/100]

[Intimidation LVL 40 => 44/100]

[Earthbending LVL 100/100]

[Seismic Sense LVL 100/100]

[Earth Softened Steps LVL 100/100]

[Chi Enhanced Senses LVL 100/100]

[Northern Shaolin LVL 100/100]

[Language(Hanzi) LVL 100/100]

[Calligraphy LVL 100/100]

[Situational Awareness LVL 100/100]

[Painting LVL 32/100]

[Sunder LVL 56/100]

[Pickpocket LVL 1/100]

[Discombobulate LVL 9/100]

[Tai Chi LVL 100/100]

[Singular Attention LVL 100/100]

[Divided Attention LVL 100/100]

[Teaching LVL 100/100]

[Chi Healing LVL 55/100]

[Pain Tolerance LVL 59/100]

[Precise Striking LVL 33 => 35/100]

[Sandbending LVL 65/100]

[Hung Gar LVL 47/100]

[Metalbending LVL 14 => 38/100]

[Chi Blocking LVL 54 =>  56/100]

[Chow Gar LVL 32 => 36/100]

[Lavabending LVL 5/100]

WP: 4,250 => 4,400

Once again, I was reminded just how badly I needed to purchase some UI editors or some sort of skill organizer. I had to scroll a lot just to see everything I had.

I finally gained another Global Level, so now I had 5 stat points and 2 skill points I could freely spend. I decided to save the stat points, because I wanted to spend them in the Chi stat once I purchased it. With all of the efficiency boosters I had in my Chi skills, I was on par with Toph, but if I could get the same level of Chi as she did, I would be set.

For the 2 skill points, I didn't need to save those, because I already had Low Cosmic Connection, which I didn't think I would be able to level on my own any time soon.

Now that the tanks were in retreat, picking up some of the men that escaped the drill, I went to go find the Gaang.