Azei smiled darkly as his plan worked; the confused actor played right into his plans and turned the right way, eventually making his way outside. Still wearing his mask, he followed the prisoner outside and watched as he ran down into town, hopefully to exactly where the Resistance lay. Thankfully, he wasn't hearing alarm bells, which meant that either the guards in the watchtower hadn't noticed or were already privy to Tang's plan, despite the fact that the bounty hunter had screwed up everything. He hated dealing with that sort of people, as they had no sense of strategy; only action, it seemed. He knew there was a reason why bounty hunters never made it in the army.

His role finished, he quickly made his way back to the mess hall, spotting Tang and the woman he didn't care too much for.

"Mission accomplished. I can only hope your Wraith Squad can live up to their reputation, Captain Tang. As for me..." he started, taking off his mask and letting out a series of sharp whistles. Immediately, ten of the men in his platoon appeared out of nowhere and stood at attention, awaiting orders.

"So, are we going to go retrieve our Resistance?" he asked quizzically, still smiling slightly.

Kuma was starting to sober up and the unreal nature of reality had set in as he deliberately stomped on his broken left ankle to focus his mind.
How did he get out of his cell? How did he get out of the prison?
"That Fire Nation bitch...right."

He limped from shadow to shadow in hope of not being seen. He hated stealth. It wasn't manly.
As he slowly made his way through the streets there was a disturbing lack of soldiers around. Part of his mind assured him that they were busy with the fire, but the other warned Kuma that things shouldn't come so easily. Both parts of his mind were then drowned out by Kuma's delusion that if anyone could pull off a solo prison escape and elude every guard in New Ozai it was Kuma Takeda.



"If I had known Takeda would be this slow and incompetent I'd of left his ankle alone."
Despite Naomi's infuriating actions earlier things were going to plan due to the earthbender's slow pace and trouble with directions. That and the tracking abilities of her pet land-shark kept her a spot on the strike team. She also distracted Captain Xian with her attitude and general hostility which left Kugi happily unnoticed.

Six of the ten members of his hand-picked Wraith Squadron had not only gotten into position but had returned to him after keeping their escaped prisoner on the right track. The last four were still hidden and would emerge should they need to keep Kuma mobile and the patrols far away.
It had taken so long that even Captain Tang was coming near the end of his usually vast patience. He was sorely tempted to go back to his quarters on the Quilin and take a nap.
Just before Kugi's bed could call too loudly there was the unmistakable sound of the earth opening up. Even more conspicuous was the bender responsible throwing his arms up and shouting in victory.


"Yes! Try and get me now, you flame-throwing bastards!"

There was not one person in the room who didn’t know that the plan was put into action as a direct result of Naomi’s actions. It didn’t even bother the young woman in the slightest as to what they thought, but if they were to voice their opinion about the way she works, well… she might just have to cut their tongue out of their stupid little heads. There was a plan, it was simple – release the earthbender from his cell and follow him back to his friends and then the fun ensues. Naomi let the prisoner free, and phase one was complete, thanks to her.

Just as Naomi was growing tired of waiting once again, it seemed that Captain Xian was improving on his time management skills and returned. He wasted no time announcing that his mission was accomplished to which Naomi rolled her eyes. She then moved from the blood covered face of Retsu, dragging her bloody fingertips along the creature as she made her way to its side. Naomi lifted her left leg, placing her foot inside the foothold and pushed downwards to lift her body from the floor, while at the same time she gracefully threw her right leg over the other side of the saddle. Once on top of Retsu she looked down to see yet another patrol had arrived, this time belonging to Xian. Just how many members were there in the resistance for them to need so many soldiers? Reported information had led Naomi to believe there was not even more than ten in the resistance, yet they were going up against them with an army of twenty-five plus a land-shark. Naomi felt disappointed to be involved in such a cowardly attack, a stacked fight was always a fast one which means it is never a fun one.

Nevertheless, it was a fight, and it had been too long since Naomi had been in a real battle. “Well, Retsu has the scent. Let’s leave before he gets too hungry and eats one of you as a snack,” she said with a sadistic laugh and kicked the shark in the side making him move. Luckily for them, Naomi moved Retsu along in a walk, if he were to run then they certainly would not keep up. It didn’t take long for Naomi to be able to spot the earthbender staggering along as he made his way to the hideout. She kept her distance, but remained close enough to have him in sight. Then, finally, Kuma stopped to open a hole in the ground. “Got them.” Naomi kicked at the sides of Retsu sending him into an all out charge. The two dove down into the open ground and into the bunker below.

While in the air, Naomi jumped from Retsu so that the two landed on the ground at the same time, Naomi in front with the shark right behind her. Immediately, she looked around the room, counting the resistance forces. There were five in total, hardly a fair fight against twenty five. It seemed the battle had already begun as Naomi spotted Van on the ground. So they had managed to knock Vanshiro down? Perhaps things would be interesting. She then turned to the other member of Top-Blade, who seemed a little too comfortable amongst the resistance members, though Naomi didn’t let it bother her because she had already come to learn Kazanko and Van’s tactics long ago. “I guess the party has started without me,” a dark smile appearing on her face. Naomi then spotted someone close behind Kazanko, excitement rushing throughout her whole body. “Well, well, well… we needed a new toy didn’t we Retsu?” Naomi said, petting the shark as she spoke. “I mean, after torturing the other pretty girl to death, we were starting to get bored.” Naomi then started to walk forwards, Retsu following close behind. “Kyozuki is it? Yes, I remember. She used to scream your name while I burned her pretty little face. Such a shame you couldn’t save her, by the time she died she was so starved that she was hardly a decent meal for Retsu.” Naomi stopped about 10ft away from the group and released an evil laugh as she watched them. She waited for a response, it was fun to toy with her victims before killing them.

Kyozuki nearly fell over as the ceiling caved in again. She scrambled to her feet, expecting another attacker. Her eyes widened in shock as she saw just about the last person she'd expected to see - Kuma. He was alive. How had he?...

Any chance Kyozuki might have had to ponder Kuma's sudden appearance was dashed as what seemed like half the Fire Nation army poured in after him. And at their head, a woman riding a shark monster of some kind - Kyozuki was in no state to think about specific species.

"I guess the party has started without me." even her voice sounded deadly. This was someone she didn't want to tangle with. Now if she could just stay clear...

The woman's gaze fixed on Kyozuki. "Well, well, well... we needed a new toy, didn't we Retsu?" The woman patted the nose of the shark monster as she began to advance on Kyozuki. "I mean, after torturing that other pretty girl to death, we were starting to get bored." Other girl? Wait... did she mean Rumi? "Kyozuki is it?" the woman continued. "Yes, I remember. She used to scream you name while I burned her pretty little face." Kyozuki's hands came up, covering her mouth in shock. No, no it couldn't be... the news hit her like a physical blow. Rumi dead? She'd been agonizing over Rumi's fate for the last fortnight, assuming the worst, but there had always been that faint hope that somehow she'd escaped capture. Not any more.

A tear trickled down Kyozuki's cheek as she stood there, not seeing anything. Then, her eyes focused on the woman in front of her; those hard eyes and the cruel smirk on her face. The fact that Rumi was dead became replaced with another. This woman had killed her. Slowly and painfully. And enjoyed it.

Kyozuki had been angry before. She'd been furious. Since she'd come to the Earth Kingdom she'd even known loathing for the firebenders. But hate... Naomi was the first.

Kyozuki's eyes narrowed, and her fists clenched. "You bitch" she hissed, voice choked off through a combination of the grief and the anger. "You cold, heartless, vixen!" And with a motion made swift through hours of practice, Kyozuki whipped out a glob of water from her waterskin, drew it into a teardrop shape and slapped the woman square in the face. Almost immediately the water faltered and splashed to the floor as Kyozuki's head caught up with her emotions and she realised she'd done the equivalent of stirring a vulture-wasp nest. Now blatantly terrified, Kyozuki stumbled backwards, hands fumbling at her waterskin as she tried to prepare for the retaliation that was sure to come.

It was certainly an entertaining reaction the sadistic woman had managed to force out of the resistance female. This girl let every emotion she felt show on her face and her small framed body. At first, her utter shock to Naomi’s lie and her eyes revealing how helpless she was in preventing Rumi’s apparent death. There were two forms of pain Naomi liked to inflict on her victims – the first of course physical, tearing people limb from limb, and then the other being emotional. It was hard for Naomi to say which of the two she favored over the other because she loved to do them both equally, but she had to admit that at times like this, seeing the pain she could inflict on a person by words alone, it was a great feeling. And then, the game had begun. The helpless little koi had taken the bait.

“You bitch” It was even hard for the poor girl to speak, truly an enjoyable sight. “You cold, heartless, vixen!” The girl had some fire, which only excited Naomi all the more. Sure, it was fun to toy with the defenseless, but a game is always more enjoyable when there is more than one player. “Now now, there is no need to name call. You don’t want to make me mad-” -splash- A vicious laughed echoed off the cavern walls as Naomi wiped the water from her face. The evil smirk now replaced with a dark scowl as she eyed off Kyozuki. “I guess this one likes to play rough Retsu,” Naomi said to her pet as she climbed up onto its head.

Naomi turned back to look at the girl once more, fear had now consumed her. Seeing Kyozuki step backwards away from Naomi was like adding oil to her burning hunger. Naomi then quickly looked from the girl to Kazanko, she locked eyes for a moment and slightly shook her head, knowing he would know what this meant. Naomi then turned and ran down the spine of Retsu towards the tail. Once she reached the tail, Retsu quickly lifted his fin to catapult Naomi back in the direction of Kyozuki. Once her feet left the fin, Naomi flipped backwards and spun 180 degrees so she could face her target. Naomi flew through the air with amazing speed and as she got closer to the girl, she spun once more, this time bringing up her right leg to kick Kyozuki across the side of the head.

Kyozuki went down like a snapped chute of bamboo, stars exploding in her vision as the warm, wet feeling of blood run down the side of her head. The pain was so intense she had to fight the urge to retch. Fumbling with her hands to find purchase on the ground, she pushed herself slowly off the ground, arms trembling as she fought to stay conscious. She clumsily rolled over onto her back and began to weakly scramble away from Naomi and her shark beast, looking up at her with an expression like a frightened child. Kyozuki wasn't even able to think about how hopeless her position was. All she could think was to move away from the woman who was about to kill her.

Masato was startled as the ceiling caved in once again, but he just sighed. What was it with people in this city and busting open caves? They seemed to all have it as a habit. Luckily, this intrusion was welcome. Kuma had returned, and looked just a bit worse for wear. The fact that the Earthbender was covered in blood didn't really concern Masato. Maybe he had just tripped. Down a flight of stairs. And into a puddle of blood. Whatever, it was unimportant. What mattered was that he was back.

But he had brought people with him. Unfriendly people. Masato grinned at the Fire Nation soldiers, ignoring the woman and her shark-thing. This was far more than had attacked them in the inn, and he'd have much more room to maneuver. In short, good times were ahead.

The woman started talking, but Masato ignored her. What she said about Rumi had no effect on him. Yes, it was sad that the girl was dead (if the woman was telling the truth, which he doubted) but sometimes these things happened. You dealt with them and moved on.

But when Kyozuki spoke, he took notice. What she said was dangerous. they didn't know what this woman could do, and Kyozuki was provoking her. He groaned when he saw the slap Kyozuki delivered. She'd be lucky if the woman didn't kill her immediately.

The woman didn't kill her, but she did attack, with a display of acrobatics that made him jealous. Kyozuki went down instantly. He pulled out a couple of knives and threw them at the woman, forgetting about them as soon as they left his hand. Whether they hit or not didn't matter. What did matter was the mass of red standing behind the woman's pet. Adrenaline was pumping through him, urging him to attack, but he held himself back. It was proper etiquette to let others go first.

Ooc: lmao these things happen and we move on? :[ thanks for the love tenshio </3 im cut deep. Lol just kiddingggg <3

Naomi’s attack had landed a direct hit against the side of Kyozuki’s head. The girl was drowning in her own fears and self doubt that a block or defensive maneuver on her part was near impossible for her to execute. The force of the twisted woman’s air assault sent the water bender tumbling across the stone floor of the cavern, dust lifting from the ground where she had slid. Naomi took a moment to enjoy the pain she had inflicted on the girl, watching her squirm in agony on the floor. An evil smirk made its way onto the woman’s face matched with a hungry gaze revealing her cruel intentions. She wanted to decorate the walls of the cave with this girl’s blood.

Naomi had had her back turned towards the acrobatic knife thrower and therefore had no way of seeing the knives that were heading directly towards her. It would be foolish, however, to count her out just yet. While Naomi was completely oblivious to what was darting towards her back, Retsu had seen the man’s actions and stepped in the line of fire. The knives hit the shark’s body, but barely penetrated the tough skin and therefore ended up on the ground.

Too fixed on the girl before her, Naomi remained unaware of what had just happened behind her. She then started her advance once again on the resistance girl. This time, Naomi got so close that she was basically standing over Kyozuki’s body, quickly she reached down and firmly took hold of the girls wrists, latching on with her nails. This eliminated her bending and also caused pain, but this wasn’t enough. Naomi then place a foot against the girl’s throat, applying pressure against the throat and pulling back on the arms at the same time. “Look me in the eyes!” Naomi demanded, wanting to see the pain and fear in the girls eyes. “I want you to beg me to spare your life! Pray for me to have mercy!” Digging her nails in deeper and applying more pressure to the throat as she spoke. The sight of blood trickling down from the girl’s wrists then sent a rush of excitement through Naomi’s body. “Look at that blood, that bright red blood. My shark is going to rip you limb from limb!” Naomi screamed and followed with a rather maniacal laugh. In the next moment Retsu had appeared behind Naomi, jaws wide as it eyed the water bender on the floor.

So not only was this woman a complete bitch, but she thought she was funny, too! Azei didn't care how good she was at what she did; she was a mercenary and therefore, couldn't be trusted. No merc could. He hated to generalize, but mercs were the only people who had the same type of attitude: brash, headstrong, and overconfident. He avoided dealing with them at all costs, but he'd have to put up with it because he'd been assigned to assist Captain Tang, not the other way around; if that had been the case, Naomi would have been out of the group faster than she could blink.

He didn't have time to complain to anyone, however, because it was time to move out. He summoned his men and exited the room, soldiers in tow. He would have brought his entire platoon with him, but this was a delicate operation and needed to be handled as such. More than likely, since they needed Kuma to get them into the hideout, it would be underground in one of the caves, which meant close quarters and not a lot of room for a lot of people. Hopefully, the Resistance members wouldn't be many.

Before long, he caught up with Naomi on her shark-thing and saw the Earthbender jump into the hole, with the merc hot on his heels. He smiled darkly and readied his men with a hand motion, taking a breath before running after her.

The drop wasn't long, but he landed harder than he'd expected; however, he absorbed the force of the blow by bending both his knees and landing in a crouch, his men right behind him. They spread out in precision and readied themselves for whatever would happen next.

Naomi had busied herself with a girl (leave it to a merc to not "pick on someone their own size"), and it was then that he noticed the knives flying towards the two women. Two expertly hurled fire bolts knocked them off course, and he smiled wickedly at the boy who had thrown them.

"Hey, knife boy!" he yelled before quickly conjuring a fire whip, which he sent toward the knife thrower's face.

---

Kai was starting to resent the entire group, mainly because he felt he didn't have a place there. Hell, even the Waterbender that had betrayed the group had more of a place than he did. It was ridiculous, and he was this close to just leaving them to their own devices.

At least, he would have had Fire Nation soldiers not come pouring in after Kuma, who he'd thought was dead. He had little time to worry as a woman started attacking Kyozuki, and then a Firebender started throwing fire around the room. The soldiers that had fallen into formation set their eyes on him, and three of them charged across the cave to where he was.

As he panicked, they surrounded him, waiting. The water in his skin wouldn't be nearly enough, and he was useless at hand-to-hand combat. What was he going to do?

Suddenly, an idea hit him and he started to move, calling the soup that Kyozuki had been making earlier. The still-hot liquid flew through the air toward him and he gathered it into a mass, holding it close to him...that is, until the soldiers attacked.

Koji, who had been sitting on the fallen Vanshiro minding his own business, was rather taken back when the tattered and bloodied Kuma came falling through the ceiling. It had been weeks since he had seen the lumbering behemoth, and he never really did shake the feeling that something bad had happened to him, so his immediate reaction was to get up and go over to his fellow earthbender, maybe find out what had happened, or if he had seen Ji or Rumi, but that idea was quickly tossed out of the cave.

His reaction was like that of any other person who had a giant shark monster fall through the ceiling of their cave… utter disbelief with a hint of fear. He was stopped in his tracks, mouth slightly agape and blue eyes wide and filled with shock all the while more soldiers poured through the entrance as the shark rider started a dialogue with Kyo, in which she mentioned one of their missing members… causing Koji’s already shocked expression to only intensify.

Rumi was… dead? As that bit of information kept playing through his head the blue eyed boxer could feel a cold chill run down his spine as he continued to stand there in utter disbelief, so focused on the shark rider that the sounds of the armored soldiers running about didn’t quite register in his head, the only thing he could think about was the loss of his friend. She was gone… she was gone and it was his fault! He was the one who was supposed to protect her, he was supposed to keep her safe… and he failed her.

No, no, that couldn’t be. There was no way. She was lying, that’s right, that evil red bitch was lying! She was just trying to get under their skin, she was just trying to get them out of whack, but that wouldn’t work, no it wouldn’t work.

His strange little trance came to a quick and abrupt end when he saw Kyo get knocked to the ground with a well placed kick. “KYO!” The boy shouted as he jerked forward, but in his way was a rather large group of soldiers. “Damn it…” He growled, his hands coming up to his natural fighting stance, right hand up near his right cheek, left hand extended out towards his opponents, all the while keeping his weight balanced on the balls of his feet.

With Kyo in danger, there was no time to waste, so unlike his cowardly comrades, the boxer dashed towards the pair of guards that separated him from getting to the healer’s side, his arms cocked and ready to go.

One guard wasted no time to react to the oncoming brawler, taking in a deep breath before firing out a golden stream of fire, but Koji was quick to react, using a simple push off with his right leg to move left and doge the oncoming stream. An uppercut was then sent through the air, and a stone pillar erupted out from under the firebender’s right foot, throwing him completely off balance and causing him to fall to the ground, his partner however was still a real threat.

Guard number two thrust his spear, aiming to run it through the boxer’s chest, but once more a simple dodge did the trick. He had managed to avoid the shiny metal blade with a simple lean away, and before the man could retract his weapon, Koji’s left hand took a firm hold on the spears wooden shaft, only to give it a powerful tug back, in unison with a heavy right straight to the man’s jaw, causing his legs to go limp as noodles before he collapsed to the floor.

With the two men now out of the way, he could once again see Kyo… who was being strangled by the sadistic shark rider. “Kyo! Damn it you bitch let her go!” He shouted, once more charging at his opponent, but what met him was in no way expected.

The giant shark beast turned about. This monster, it really was a terrible sight. Its large yellow eyes shining demonically in the dim light of the cave, the thin black slit starring at the boxer whose guard was slowly starting to fade as fear started to stir about inside of chest.

It was as if those eyes were casting some sort of spell on him, keeping him frozen where he stood, unable to move or do anything to help anyone… then its pearly white teeth flashed, sharp and pointy, like hundreds of little blades just waiting to get the taste of his blood. It stepped forward, and Koji finally snapped out of his little trance, raising his arms back up to guard as a wild look came over his face, his left hand motioning an invitation to the giant shark monster “Alright, come on you overgrown fish!”

As if it understood what he had just said, the large beast started a charge, and Koji’s heart started to race faster and faster as it grew closer and closer, but before it could get it’s jaws on him, the blue eyed boxer franticly dove out of the way, the loud snapping of its massive jaws ringing clearly through the sounds of him tumbling across the dirt floor, and that of the ongoing fight.

He popped to his feet, met by a soldier and a sword swipe which he ducked and countered with a heavy left hook to the right side of the soldier’s face. He had driven his weight into the punch, dropping yet another hothead before he heard the familiar thunder that was the shark beast’s charge, and once more he reacted as quickly as he could, scooping some dirt from the floor, and flinging the soil at the monster’s eyes, using a bit of his bending to speed up and guide the clump of dirt.

The loud and painful roar meant he had hit his mark, that and the monster had stopped cold in its tracks, shaking it’s head furiously as it tried to get rid of the dirt that had flown into its large eyes.



Someone came crashing through the ceiling once more, turning the quiet waterbender’s attention to the opening in the roof of the cave, only this time it was someone the mercenary did not recognize… well until Naomi came through, a sizeable group of Fire Nation soldier’s following after her and that giant monster Retsu.

He had to admit, it was nice seeing her and that crazy mount of hers, even if she was a bit crazy from time to time. What wasn’t nice though, was how she singled out his future pupil, taunting her with news of what had happened to her fellow female resistance member. She was enjoying herself in the usual fashion, and had it been any other person, he wouldn’t have given two piles of hog dung how much fun she had. But he knew what she was like, and he knew what things would lead to, so he had to disarm the situation quickly. “Kyozuki don’t…”

The sound of the insults and slap cut down his little attempt at making peace, now all he could do was take Kyozuki down himself before Naomi killed her. But he was once again too slow to act, left only to watch as the tan waterbender was kicked down to the ground. He wanted to shout out, scold his teammate, or at least rush to help the girl… but now that the Fire Nation was here, there was nothing he could really do to stop her without being labeled a traitor, and costing his team the pay they had been promised.

Lucky for him Retsu was going rather crazy, thrashing about and causing quite the distraction. Naomi of course took notice, and seeing her precious mount in what could only be described as a painful rage, lost interest in his potential pupil.

The one eyed bender took the opportunity to go to Kyozuki’s side to check if the girl was still alive. What he saw once he got there was a bit off putting, but he knew it wasn’t fatal. The spot where she had received the blow was a bloody mess, as most wounds on the head and face were, so he ripped a sizeable piece of cloth from his sleeve, using it as a quick wrap to try and keep the wound from bleeding too quickly.

While tending to her he said nothing, simply looking over his shoulder every now and again to see if someone was going to try and stab him in the back, or maybe stab the wounded waterbender. But lucky for him, there was enough of a ruckus going on that it seemed as if he went relatively unnoticed while he continued to tend to the downed waterbender.

He guessed from the lack of a scream that his knives had missed their mark, and a quick glance in the woman's direction confirmed that. When he looked over, his eyes widened in shock. The woman was insane. She was crushing Kyo's throat with her foot and shrieking about blood. He was about to go over and help the Waterbender when he heard a shout that happened to include the words "knife boy." He guessed that was directed at him. He turned toward the source of the shout and just barely had time to step back and avoid losing his face to the fiery whip being sent at him. He smiled at the hothead that had attacked him. This would be a fun fight.

He pulled out two more knives, keeping these with him rather than throwing them. The hothead would probably just deflect them anyway. He took one in each hand and ran toward his opponent, making sure to move from side to side so as to avoid any flames that came his way. Assuming he wasn't stopped on the way, when he reached the Firebender he would slash both knives vertically down the man's arms, hoping to disable his bending in the process. If that didn't work he'd jump back to try and avoid the retaliation.

As the resistance water bender laid helplessly below the deranged mercenary, pinned to the ground with a foot to her throat, the excitement grew within Naomi. The thrill of torturing Kyozuki was certainly rewarding, the girl expressed all the pain that was being inflicted on her, which is exactly what Naomi loved to see. Naomi had missed this feeling; it had been a while since she had been able to unleash all of her wrath onto someone. Being eaten alive by a land-shark, limbs torn viciously from their sockets, was indeed no peaceful way of going, but as Retsu now stood over Kyozuki with his jaws open wide in anticipation, it seemed that this would be her fate. Well that was until the voice of a young man came from Naomi’s right, “Kyo! Damn it you bitch let her go!” Again with the name calling? Naomi turned with a scowl to see who the person had been, but shock quickly took over her face as she realized how quickly they were approaching her position. “Retsu!” she quickly shouted to grab her pet’s attention, needing him to obstruct the path of the resistance member who was almost at her side.

With a swift turn, Retsu had now turned his body so that he was facing the oncoming enemy directly. Immediately, the shark-lizard seized forwards to catch the man in his jaws before he could make it to his master. Koji was fast on his feet and managed to dodge the oncoming chomp that would have undoubtedly left him in two parts. A smirk then appeared on Naomi’s face as she eyed off the man. Perhaps this was her chance for a close combat challenge. Once again Retsu charged down his opponent, however this time the shark was met with a counter attack. Koji had flicked dirt up towards Retsu, landing a direct hit in the creature’s eyes. The dirt blinded Retsu and he was sent on a blind rampage around the cave. As the land-shark charged around he trampled over at least two of the soldiers, their bones crunching as they were flattened into the ground. On the third soldier, Retsu thought he had found his target Koji, pinning him under a large lizard claw and then reaching down, wrapping his jaws around the man’s neck and pulling his head from the torso.

Seeing what Koji had just done to her pet enraged Naomi, he had just made the mistake of making her angry. “You’re going to pay for that,” she threatened him before quickly running towards him with amazing speed. As she ran, Naomi withdrew one blade with her left hand. Once she was close enough, Naomi pushed off from the ground, lunging forwards to punch Koji in the jaw. This wasn’t the intention of her attack, however, the punch was merely a distraction for him to dodge without paying attention to the blade that was about to slash his stomach open, spilling his guts on the floor.

Azei dissolved the whip as quickly as he made it, prepared for the inevitable attack. Of course, the knife thrower thought he could be clever and move side-to-side while he was running, but the Captain didn't waste any fire on that. All he needed was for Knife Boy to get a little closer...and he got his wish as his opponent slashed with knives.

Metal screeched against metal as Knife Boy's weapons clashed with the bracers on hiss armor, making him laugh. Did this boy think he was fighting someone...well, someone who wasn't wearing armor? It appeared so, as he might have done better slashing at the face. A poor decision, but there was nothing to be done about it.

Of course, Knife Boy was probably expecting him to be shooting fire, but that wasn't happening. Sure, he was a Firebender, but he'd been taught that there was more to combat than relying solely on bending. Gritting his teeth, he swung his body so that his right foot was forward; he bent his left arm at the elbow and pressed his right arm against his abdomen, making open palms with both hands. Taking a breath in through his nose, he let it out as a blast of fire from his hands, and he used the force generated by his bending coupled with the momentum of charging forward to create a powerful attack that drove him forward, led by his right arm and shoulder.

Of all the horrible things to happen in the past fortnight, Kuma decided that this was the worst. Being on the cusp of freedom only to lead the only people he knew and even moderately liked to their deaths was officially the worst thing that happened to him. It was worse than having his hands burnt and losing most of the feelings in them, worse than even losing the first man he ever loved.
For the first time ever being an instrument of death and destruction felt bad.

The earthbending stomp to summon a rock from the ground seemed more like a toddler's temper tantrum to himself. There wasn't even any satisfaction of that same rock smashing into the head of one of Tang's guards and reducing it to what looked like a chunky red paste. The horrific and impossible thought that killing wouldn't make him feel better reared it's ugly head.
Still, Kuma decided that he would try to alleviate his guilt and shame with slaughter.

What's our motto, maggots?
For a moment the shamed earthbender could have sworn he heard his old trainer drilling.
You are not ordered and disciplined soldiers of the kingdom. You are killers. Simple as that. If you couldn't kill your lives would be worthless. Now, what is our motto?"
"Kill, kill, kill!"

Kuma remained shouting his old mantra. He knew that it was a mistake trying to escape and be something he wasn't. Clever men escaped and he was by no means a clever man. Thinking was best left to others or when he was not currently in battle. The large killer knew that he had shamed his new division even if they were a bunch of unorganized, rag-tag civillians.
One of the Fire Nation soldiers was now dead, but that still left far too many. Tang, that woman with the shark and that bastard Azei were the ones he wanted to kill the most.

When one of the firebending soldiers threw a fireball his way, Kuma took perverse joy in blocking it with the corpse of the man he had killed moments before.
Even more fireballs came and the corpse shield became more and more charred and useless, but by the time the shileld had been used up it was already too late for the firebender.
He desperately wanted to say something intimidating and scary, but couldn't think of anything clever. He simply smiled at the firebender who was now in close proximity and obviously disturbed by not only the position to held relative to Kuma but also seeing his comrade used in such a ghoulish manner.
"Next."

His little gamble had seemed to pay off, and he simply watched as the monster charged once again. This time trampling two reds and ripping apart another with a fierce bight instead of coming after him, the disgusting spray of dark red sending chills down the boxer’s spine. It was a gruesome sight, one he was starting to wish he hadn’t seen, but those people were trying to kill him and his comrades… so there was no need to feel any sympathy for them, no matter how gruesome their deaths were, all he had to worry his little brain about at this minute was finding a way out of this horrible mess, one that included not getting devoured by a ravenous shark monster, and how to stay alive long enough to do so.

“You’re going to pay for that,” Shouted the femme-fatal, who was now dashing towards him and closing what little distance kept them apart at an alarming rate.

“Damn she is fast…” he grunted as he shifted his footing to try and take her on, but before he could prepare a counter she was already on him, her fist flying towards his jaw to which his body responded with tirelessly practiced motion. His head weaved away all the while his left arm shot up with quite a bit of force. Their arms clashed, and he could feel the bone of his forearm strike under her wrist and pushing away her shot to his jaw, but that wasn’t the end of her attack.

Had he spotted the glinting steel even a fraction of a second later than he had, then his guts would have probably been spilt all over the floor right now, creating quite the mess, but lucky for him his blue eyes were rather sharp.

His right hand dealt with the oncoming blade, shooting out and grabbing at the woman’s wrist, stopping the hungry steel just a few inches short of its meal. “Hehehe you didn’t think I would see that one coming did ya?” The boxer replied, his taunting words spoken through quite the arrogant grin.

He frowned. Damn. The bastard had his arms protected. Well, he would have been an idiot if he had complete faith that his first attack would also be his last. Besides, he would have been disappointed had his strikes worked as intended. Short fights weren't fun, unless he was knocking down soldiers one after another. But that wasn't the case here. His companions had that covered. He was stuck dealing with some annoying hothead who enjoyed calling him "Knife Boy." Well, at least it was better than "Circus."

He saw the Firebender preparing to do...something. He couldn't tell what. When fire erupted from the man's hands and he charged forward, Masato leaped to the side, just avoiding getting plowed into. He recovered quickly, then turned and slashed at his opponent. If he was quick and lucky, he'd have a free shot at the man's back before the hothead was able to turn around. If he was unlucky...well, he wouldn't worry about that.

Time slowed and Azei felt the momentum that had driven him forward gather in his center and stop for a split second before he used it to fluidly turn around...just in time to see Knife Boy's weapon coming straight at him.

Either he was taken by surprise or he couldn't act quickly enough, but things were still going in slow motion as the tip of the boy's knife raked across his cheek; a powerful stinging erupted from the wound. Warm blood trickled down his face, and a look of pure rage crossed his face; erupting into movement, he let streams of fire loose from his hands. The first flew from his left hand off to the right, the second from his right hand off to the left, the third from his left hand above Knife Boy's head, and the last from his right hand at the boy's feet. Even if he saw all of them coming, Knife Boy would still have to be extremely skilled to dodge them. Fire whips unfurled from both of his hands as he watched the outcome of his attack.

Masato grinned as his knife slashed the Firebender's cheek. It was a small wound that would heal quickly, but it was a start. At the very least, it proved that he could bring his opponent down, though that might take a while. He was willing to fight for as long as was needed. He was having fun.

Apparently, however, he had angered his enemy. He didn't think one small strike was that big of a deal, but apparently it was enough to warrant extreme fire-based retaliation. As the bender shot fire at him in different directions, he made a decision. He ducked his head low and leaped to the right, directly in the path of one of the fireballs. He took the hit in his chest, but kept moving as his skin began to burn. He hit the ground and rolled, smothering the flames. His chest stung intensely. He had been burned. He didn't know the degree to which he had been burned, but at least he had avoided the worst of the attack.

Not that his troubles were over. His opponent once again held fire whips in his hand. Masato sighed. Those things could be unpredictable. But he couldn't just stand there. So, with one knife in each hand, he rushed toward the bender, tucking his arms in to protect his chest and face. Once he reached his opponent he would slash with one knife vertically downward, aiming to take out one of the man's eyes.