========= 39 - A terrible place ==========
Life on the platform was like a giant town, with its own urban feel - except that it was only comfortable for the fire soldiers; with opportunities to improve their skills, such as for technicians who could get their hands on cutting-edge shipbuilding knowledge, humanities scholars who were trained to interact with prisoners and command them, as well as social workers, because in such a large place it was definitely necessary to support the economy, deal with complicated paperwork, communicate with the outside world and manage warehouses. And again, all this worked exclusively for the nation of fire; everyone else here worked solely for food... but they worked nonetheless. It was only during very short breaks that the prisoners were on a separate platform where they could eat, mope about their life imprisonment and lament their desire to throw themselves into the sea, just to avoid interacting with the guards; the rest of the time they repaired incoming ships, refuelled or built new ones, providing the nation of fire with an excellent fleet.
Although I had questions about how often sabotage occurred. If the earth mages fully supported the fleet, then they could have loosened a nut somewhere or ruined the high-pressure steam supply so that the ship would explode in an instant? I even began to suspect that I was sailing exclusively on ships that had been seriously damaged by local workers, as there was no other explanation for the extent of the damage. But while we were in one place for a short time, watching the repair process — and I was eager to learn about working with metal — everything fell into place. The prisoners only did work that could be easily checked and that wouldn't get their heads chopped off: they replaced the plating, installed weapons, or brought spare parts from local factories, where they were also made by prisoners. Of course, all this also required supervisors, and they had their own drawings... They were there, but they disappeared. Tai Lee and I rushed across the pier, and then the wind carried them away.
I was very interested in the methods of metal reinforcement, but not just for my own use. If you look at all these structures objectively, at the amount of high-grade metal used even for simple supports, you realise that it would be almost impossible to destroy all of this. But it would be necessary to at least shut down all production facilities for a long time to give Oza even less opportunity to exert influence, and to deal with the army in some way. And from the blueprints, it was possible to identify the weak points of places like this — how fortunate that I had long ago learned to read them.
"Hmm? However, when I saw several ways of working with metal, namely, WHAT they use to join or separate thick sheets, my eyes began to blink rapidly. Dear sand had once again proven that it could bend any other element...
Looking up at the battleship, focusing on the main bridge, which I could sense so well, a smile spread across my face.
***
The recent news spread through the prison like wildfire. The prisoners were again informed of the imminent execution of the sand mage, the tenth in their memory — everyone had already grown accustomed to such antics by the guards, and many understood that they deliberately used this term to strike at their will to resist. And indeed, all the newcomers were in a state of natural decline after such information, feeling nauseous, vomiting and afraid. The recently arrived Admiral put even more pressure on them. His authority weighed heavily even on the soldiers themselves; he was the perfect ideal for all fire mages: fearless, calm and collected, but commanding like a true, natural member of the fire nation, which made everyone try to behave perfectly. They had to walk as they had been taught in training, keep their eyes off the slaves, and punish them for the slightest offence. The admiral hadn't asked them to do so, but what if he did? That's why the last few days had been hell for all the rebels.
Although Admiral Liang himself viewed this with disapproval. Suppress their morale? Show what he considered to be the objective fact that the nation of Earth was much worse? Gladly. But killing and corrupting these excellent workers, who had done nothing wrong, was pointless.
"How are they going mad?" Sitting in his office on his ship, glancing out of the giant window at the rear of the vessel, he looked around the deck. More than two hundred soldiers were wandering around the ship, cleaning and inspecting their combat equipment as he had taught them all to do. Strict drill and instilling responsibility were what distinguished the army of fire from all these barbarians, and it would not be wrong to say that he felt responsible for all these people. The remaining eight hundred men were engaged in even more important matters; they were the elite who drove the local sycophantic overseer's worthless soldiers crazy. But everything had its limits. Picking up a pen and paper, he began to write a letter, "To the Master of Fire himself. I am writing a report on the improper treatment of prisoners at Mo Se Sea Prison. The guard is grossly exceeding his duties, terrorising not only prisoners for the slightest mistake, but also his own guards. The offences I have observed are as follows: throwing a guard off the watchtower - the guard died; special punishment for prisoners, in the form of using them as fuel for the main furnace; the execution of one of the sailors simply because he had to give two orders in a row; also, in my opinion, the thermite mixture warehouse is located in too dangerous a place...
The quill pen wrote a long list of accusations, sometimes dipping into the inkwell, marking the harsh line between what could be done to prisoners and what was considered true barbarism, which was only allowed in other nations: executions, torture, and the complete destruction of all prisoners. All this was pure brutality. In his opinion, educated people of the fire, experienced in many sciences, should not have stooped to such things. And it was clear from his expression that if he had been responsible for making decisions in such an important place, he would have quickly sent the local sycophant to the bottom of the sea, to join the other soldiers whose bones were undoubtedly floating somewhere at a depth of fifty metres.
Nevertheless, before he could put the final full stop in such an important message, there was a knock on the iron door of his office. The admiral blinked, clenched his quill pen, paused for a few seconds, then ordered the door to be opened.
"Admiral Liang, there's a problem on the platform. The blueprints for our ship are missing, and they can't even find them in the main tower," said the soldier, straightening his back and gesturing towards the giant steel structure from which black smoke was billowing. This place was not only a factory, but also a repository of their people's knowledge. Most of the information about working with metals was kept here for the sole purpose of training new craftsmen.
"I don't understand, is anyone even watching this place? Why isn't valuable information under strict surveillance?
"Ahem... some papers were blown away by the wind," the soldier replied in a slightly lowered voice, causing the Admiral to freeze with his mouth half open. His eyes darted around the informant's face, not believing a word of his extremely stupid explanation. "But that doesn't explain how the papers disappeared from the tower. The supervisor thinks someone might have stolen them, so he's gathering the prisoners together.
"I'll be right there. Don't let that halfwit kill them all," the soldier stamped his foot and left the office. The admiral, in turn, shook his head in confusion, finished writing the letter, and handed the scroll to a large, beautiful red hawk. However, as soon as he approached the opening hatch to release the bird, his gaze was caught by something incredibly strange, unrelated to the prison or the recent incident. He thought he saw some kind of strange creature in the sky, something resembling a transparent stingray, with a fox on its back. The admiral only had to blink for them to disappear. "This place is driving me crazy with its stupidity.
Shaking his head, he sent the bird with the letter anyway, put on a black cloak that made him look more respectable, and went outside. Without saying a word, two dozen personal bodyguards immediately followed him. Liang's footsteps and his stern gaze made everyone around him tense, especially the local soldiers. But with every passing second, he became even more severe, and the idiot guard really did gather ALL the prisoners on the platform where they usually rested. Work stopped, and instead of steam turbines, only the loud cries of the guard could now be heard.
"How dare you stop me? I'll find the one who stole so many important papers from the archive right now, and then I'll personally execute a dozen more prisoners as an example! And then you..."
"Shut up right now," the admiral's calm but loud voice abruptly ended the commotion. The slaves, gathered in a large crowd, immediately huddled together in an attempt to remain invisible to such a powerful fire mage. Attracting the guard's attention, he immediately made him frown.
"Mr. Liang! I did not mean to insult your subordinate, but he is preventing me from doing my job. One of these, I'm not afraid to say it, subhumans is lying and hiding the blueprints from the archive, as if they are mocking me! It feels like someone is trying to frame me.
"...Wait, am I correct in understanding that absolutely all the prisoners are here now?
"Yes. Even those who were in solitary confinement, because they may have connections to the person responsible for all this!
The admiral immediately frowned. His gaze darted around the area — the usually busy station was suspiciously quiet. Considering all the ballistae set up around the area, aimed at the prisoners themselves; the large number of local guards who were supposed to be doing their job; and even considering that about eight hundred people were helping with the local work, it was safe to say that the security here was impenetrable. There was no chance of stealing anything. And then there was the wind, which blew away ALL the blueprints that were on the pier...
"Hm? - That's why the Admiral's gloomy gaze caught sight of a man picking something up, wearing a red cloak with a fire symbol on it. He was moving around so inconspicuously that those around him didn't pay much attention to him, except for wincing at the unexplained blows to their sore spots. This man was getting close to him. The stranger raised his hand, preparing to touch him... "Alert, there's an enemy here!"
Liang shot a jet of fire from his feet, leaping into the air with a complex technique before the hand could touch his body. In response, he struck the air with his fist, sending a large jet of fire from which the unknown... or rather, the unknown woman in strange white makeup, deftly jumped back, literally covering herself with soldiers. The cloak fell from the girl, revealing that she was just another rebel from the people of the land.
The guards immediately sprang into action, and the prisoners recoiled in terror, trying not to get caught in the mages' crossfire, and even more so not to be killed by the ballistae mounted on the walls. But at first, the mages were unable to release the flames, for some reason producing only small flashes, and then, from an unknown direction, a strange fiery lump flew into each of the ballistae standing on the wall, which, upon hitting the sturdy steel structure... melted right through it.
"What? Fire?" exclaimed the admiral, who was still flying, thinking that there was a traitor among the soldiers of his nation.
"No," he said, at the same moment when a strange lump of silver sand almost hit him. It was extremely fast, but not comparable in speed to jet propulsion. Turning to the speaker, he saw a man standing directly on the wall, making no attempt to hide. He had numerous scars, or, as Liang called them, "marks of war," and strange, crumbling balls that flew literally above his hands. "That's a termite. Real fire made of iron."
========== 40 - My fire magic ==========
I can say with confidence that I have thought through and circumvented most of the possible problems and failures that could be encountered in the enemy camp. Thinking through all the unfavourable outcomes related to our exposure, accidental deaths among the prisoners, and even the unlikely but not impossible explosion of the entire place was the pinnacle of my tactical skill. Of course, I had to start by ensuring that none of the local prisoners, of whom there were more than five hundred, were harmed. Yes, the canon did not show the full scale of this place, nor the number of workers. Let all these people bear little resemblance to the steadfast mages of the earth, and let their sparse emotional background make it impossible to say that they even wanted to escape, but that did not mean they deserved to die. Somehow, they had to be brought together... Of course, the overseer would hardly believe that the "underclass" of the earth could sneak somewhere and steal something, especially at the moment, when the guards were so strict that the very thought of it was madness.
In this small kingdom, he was both king and tyrant, so the fool felt extremely aggressive when he heard the Admiral's insult, even if he didn't show it. In addition, more than eight hundred soldiers were watching over the overseer's work and guarding all the important papers. Therefore, when all this commotion about the disappearances began, the first suspects were the Admiral's soldiers. Who else but them could have made their way into the Archives and easily stolen important information, thereby framing their leader? Who else but them could have shut down several factories? Why? Who knows what these Admirals are up to? This led the overseer to come up with a good solution: it was impossible to accuse the Admiral, but it was easy to prove that the prisoners weren't his. More than a thousand people had to carry out an investigation and even interrogations, and they even dragged out those who were in solitary confinement! Oh, of course, I could have been unlucky, and he might not have rounded them up in one safe place, and he might not have gotten so angry, finding the strength to calm down and think about the situation, but the plan was adjusted on the fly, simply taking into account the necessary emotional background of the supervisor. Knowing how a person feels, you have more control over the situation, so I didn't even have to use Anubis' help.
The next step was to disable the entire place with a single sharp blow. Unfortunately, metal magic isn't really suitable for this — breaking the platform isn't the best idea, as this place could well be used for good in the future, and walking around and crushing metal factories with my own hands would be extremely time-consuming and unproductive. Besides, I had to break everything on all levels at the same time, and my metal magic wasn't advanced enough for that. I doubt that even earth would have helped here, and there were guards who could have interfered. The solution was found very quickly and easily.
The fact is that earth mages were quite capable of creating flammable substances. Molten earth, or some other type of rock, is called lava, which can be more dangerous than fire. But I hadn't yet learned to control this deadly element, and there was nowhere to get the materials except coal. However, even metals could burn, and at times such a material was much more dangerous. I am talking, of course, about a thermite mixture.
There was an awful lot of it in this place, because, according to the plans, thermite was used for any large-scale work with metal: needed to cut a bar as thick as a rail? Thermite mixture. Need to repair the ship's plating or a thousand other things? Thermite mixture. What's more, it could be ignited from a distance, there were plenty of ways to do that, and Tai Li helped put it in the right places. What is it? Nothing more than aluminium sand with a clever mixture of iron oxide or other materials if the thermite needed to be more powerful. It was good because when it burned, it reached a temperature close to three thousand degrees and, moreover, unlike ordinary fire, it burned under water. I was extremely pleased that they had already developed this material and kept information on how to produce it here — essentially, it is just another type of sand, but with a special production method and storage method. To check whether it could really be used to imitate fireballs, it was quickly distributed to all production areas, to every weak spot in the factory, and when everyone had left, I simply set it alight with an electronic flash. But isn't that dangerous? Couldn't everything explode? Of course. As I said, all these details had been thought through and solutions found.
Vssshsh!
"Beautiful," I smiled, looking at the machines and production lines, which were separated from the steam pipes and anything else that could catch fire. The thermite didn't explode like a fireball, it just burned and produced slag that quickly melted everything. Before the smoke was noticed outside and the soldiers raised the alarm, I proceeded with my second plan. Running out into the street, I saw that chaos was already breaking out and, to my regret, Tai Li had failed in her plan. I picked up a couple of grams of thermite mixture and threw it into the nearest ballistas that could hit the prisoners. But what would happen if the extremely hot mixture, travelling at tremendous speed, hit some object? Oh, fire, even as energy, could blow a pebble to pieces, and my projectiles caused the material to deform extremely quickly, almost exploding the areas it hit. Metal was destroyed in the blink of an eye, faster than if I had done it with my shock waves or directly with magic. On the other hand, using it against people would be extremely... reckless on my part.
"Sorry, I couldn't do it," Tai Li stuck out her tongue, quickly knocking out the magic of the surrounding enemies and creating chaos among them. She herself still didn't understand how we were going to get out of this. But now it was beginning to dawn on her that I wasn't exactly an ordinary mage. On the other hand, there was an extremely agile Admiral in the sky, levitating with the help of a jet stream of fire. Our eyes met.
"Who the hell are you?
"Don't you recognise me? Strange, you seem to have executed me several times already," the man's eyebrows knitted together, and at that very moment, fans fell out of my sleeves, quickly unfolding and transferring my magical energy mainly into the metal frame beneath everyone's feet. Then I waved my hands, instantly tearing off a large metal sheet and forming a wall between the slaves and the guards. Then another wave, after which the steel platform beneath the soldiers broke, and they all fell down into the sea. The chakra of love, it turns out, allowed me to "feel" better, as if it were obvious, but it's not just about emotions, but also particles of the earth. I learned to interact on a deeper level with everything in this world, which is why metal was much easier to manipulate. It's funny, but it would have been possible to manipulate even the armour on the bodies of enemies... except that the Admiral wasn't wearing any iron.
There was literally nothing iron on his black cloth outfit, not even a badge on his belt or buttons. So pinning this flying moth to the ground wasn't so easy. Instead, I finally lifted the metal beads from my neck and split them into silver sand that began to swirl around my body and crackle with electricity.
"What the hell is going on here?" he thought, very quickly. Pointing his palms at me, he released an extremely powerful cone of flame, preventing me from attacking him. The sky was filled with the most powerful stream of fire I had ever seen, a beautiful but deadly wave.
Flashing my fans, I tore off a sheet of steel in front of me, and the flames crashed against it with a hollow sound, beginning to scatter to the sides. The sheet heated up in a second, gradually turning red. Realising that wrapping myself in iron armour against such an enemy was tantamount to death by melting, I lunged forward and sent the sheet of metal towards the flying mage.
Thud*
Literally redirecting it with the force of his flames, the Admiral could no longer stay in the air and landed on one of the walls. It was an interesting observation, but he really couldn't maintain his flight for very long, whereas pushing himself with fire while on the ground was quite possible. Putting energy into his arms and legs, he quickly dodged my iron sand attack, literally riding on a wave of fire.
"Quick," I said, struggling to predict what technique he was using: the energy in his body flowed extremely freely due to three open chakras. And his combat experience was extremely good: he understood that getting close was deadly dangerous, and fired from a distance with entire pillars of fire the size of two of my heads, and any metal sheets rose extremely slowly and did not have time to trap the enemy in a vice. There was only one option.Since there was no one left nearby, even Tai Li had disappeared so as not to interfere with us, I stretched the iron sand into an arc and sent powerful bursts of electrons through it. When something similar rushed over the platform towards the Admiral, he did not fully appreciate the danger of my control. He literally jumped over the arc once and rushed on. But it turned in the air and grabbed the Admiral's leg.
"What... A-a-a-a-! A powerful discharge ran through his body, almost knocking him off balance, but his three chakras made themselves felt. He heated his flame as much as possible and rose into the sky, pinning my whip to the ground. Levitation was suppressed by pure power. It had always been interesting that as the chakras opened, other elements opened up as well: if earth mages had levitation skills that allowed them to lift larger stones, water mages most likely had deeper control, which could be used to learn to control even blood, then fire mages must have been able to increase the power of their flames and the volume they emitted. The element of suppression at its best. Unfortunately for my opponent, I had learned to control my element so well at a great distance that he was no longer fighting me, but an iron snake covered in electric discharges." Metal, fire, lightning, sand... how is that possible?
Even despite his strength, he was extremely shocked: the arc of iron sand twisted at angles impossible for a human, and metal sheets flew at him from different sides. I was too good for him to dodge them easily, so he could only redirect them with the power of fire, shooting at me along the way. All this continued until the rest of the soldiers appeared, who had not yet managed to fall into the sea.
"You are an extremely dangerous and unpredictable element," the Admiral's stern voice rang out just as a huge platoon, making a loud noise with their steel boots, completely blocked the exits. Several columns of soldiers took up convenient positions to flood our entire arena with righteous fire. Defeat so many without using tricks? No chance, even with my chakras open, even if I press the armour onto the mages themselves. "We need to get rid of you urgently.
It's hard to say which of the ordinary mages could have handled this. Boomi? Only in some cave where it's possible to cause a collapse. Tof? Well, she could have run away, but that's not why I'm here. Probably only the Avatar could have taken them all out in a similar situation, using only his bare strength. We, mere mortals, can only use tactics and cunning, following the path of Chin the Conqueror.
"Actually, I'm surprised they came so late — with my hands in my pockets, I walked forward relaxed," — Apparently, you're not such a good leader and tactician. A man who really intends to fight thinks through every move of his enemy and prepares all his traps in advance. Although, maybe you just haven't met anyone in a long time who has revived the knowledge of the greatest commander.
Vshuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu
At that moment, a crumbly mixture rained down from the tower windows, landing directly on the soldiers' heads. A shadow flashed across the tower, dumping barrels of thermite, literally tons of it, which had been stockpiled to ensure that work in this area would never stop. I spun some of this material around me, greatly amused by the fact that the Admiral had not considered that thermite is exactly the same metal as everything around us, which meant that his warehouses would be thoroughly looted by me and used instead of normal sand. His face swelled when he realised that the army was completely covered in an explosive mixture. Those who were not covered had at least their feet in the thermite.
"Go on, order them to fire," he said, like a tempting snake. "Let's see how fire mages are cooked on a spit.
"You... you mad bastard," he swallowed hard. Drops of long-forgotten horror began to break through, and he realised that it would be impossible to escape the wave of burning thermite.
"Actually, they don't have to shoot him, I can set him on fire myself," metal swirled around my hands, electrified by the electronics. The soldiers, who could be considered the real elite, even took a step back, breaking their beautiful formation.
"Stop! Let's talk," the admiral raised his hands sharply and finally spoke as I wanted him to. "We'll leave. We'll leave the platform with all the soldiers and won't touch the prisoners. Let us go..."
***
"They're sailing away beautifully. But their ship still doesn't seem to have been repaired," I said, standing at the edge of the platform, looking at the admiral sailing away at full speed, a smile spreading across my face. We and Tai Li clapped our hands, signifying the excellent execution of the plan — they took all the soldiers who had fallen into the sea with them, and we were left with three ships.
"You don't always have to fight, you can scare them," Tai Li cheerfully stated a rather wise truth. She was in high spirits and even started jumping around on the empty platform that belonged to us alone. Of course, on the one hand, it was a pity that the admiral had sailed away and not paid for his actions, but on the other hand... he wasn't so bad. I would never have agreed to such a plan if I hadn't known Liang's character, how calm he was and how much he valued his soldiers, because one stroke of bad luck and I would have turned from a cunning bastard into a maniacal bastard with broken connections. The only thing that could have saved me was that Afki wasn't around, and she probably wouldn't have found out about the genocide, at least not at that moment.
"Yes, you're so risky.
"Ah!" A shiver ran down my spine when I felt a fox jump onto my shoulder and brush its tail across my face. "What... Afka? How did you get here?"
I feel like I've been tricked and set up.
"Fyurk, I popped in to see Guru Hugh in the swamp and bragged to him about your achievements. I even asked him to share some information that could help you in your further development. He was extremely pleased and gave me a friendly flying spirit, as well as saying something very important.
At that moment, a flying skate also formed in front of me. A light spirit, which I saw much less often than good ones. And I had already forgotten that there were so many of these creatures in the swamp.
"The swamp and the spirits associated with that world are rejoicing," the fox looked intently at my face, "They sensed the return of the great one. They say there was a flash of energy across the sky.
"...
"The Avatar has returned.