Murder, battle and other things I did on my weekend - By Seifer Almasy 19 years and 1/4

[noblerworld]

With Cassie missing, Zuko was setting off to face his sister, the Avatar was setting off to fight the Fire Lord and Seifer, who wasn't going with either of them, felt rather like he'd been invited to the worlds biggest birthday party and then told he couldn't have any cake.

"If Zuko's going to seize the capital," he told Arya in a deliberately casual voice, only hoping that she was as eager to cause some chaos as he was, "he needs to arrive there still fresh."

"But there's bound to be some army units guarding the road in," he smiled. "How about we make sure their attention is elsewhere?"

He glanced at her and then at the other boy who had arrived from the Island, Edward or something, "You both in?"

Comments

[noblerworld.livejournal.com]

"Good," he replied.

"Way I see it, we need to get hold of something that's more important than the road. A general, or a stronghold or something, and then all the little soldiers will come running after us rather than after Zuko," Seifer didn't bothet to hide how much that propsect cheered him.

"So let's get going."

[lonewolflives]

"Find someone important," Arya agreed, checking her gear and stretching, slightly. "We could get into a stronghold, I don't know what we'd do once we were in it."

That had been Theon's trick, and she wasn't minded to take any pages from his book.

[giftless]

"It's a stronghold," Edmund reasoned. Having only his sword already strapped to his belt, he needn't check anything but hesitated only for the sake of making a plan. "You turn the weapons in there against them and they'll never be able to get at us with the doors shut. Or we set it on fire. That would get attention."

[noblerworld.livejournal.com]

"We can worry about the details later," Seifer replied as he started walking, assuming the other two would follow. Now he was close to a battle again, he was practically bursting with anticipation. "We don't even know what's out there, yet."

[lonewolflives]

"All right, but if we get stuck trying to hold a fortress with three people, it's Edmund's fault," Arya said, catching up with Seifer. "So we find out what we're distracting, then we can work out how we do it."

[giftless]

"It's a fortress," Edmund repeated. Holding it with a limited number was sort of the point of a fortress in his mind. Regardless though, Arya did like to be difficult. Maybe Edmund should just have taken it as a good sign if she were back to old tricks.

He fell into pace with the other two, a slight frown of worry appearing. "They can't all do that thing with the fire, right?"

[noblerworld.livejournal.com]

Seifer shrugged.

"We could always ask them," he added with a smirk. "If either of you want someone else to bicker with, anyhow."

He could have added more about that but Arya didn't seem to take that sort of teasing well. He still had the bruises from the last time he'd gone a bit too far on commenting on her mood, after all.

So he left it at that as he led them away from the main path and up a side track to some higher ground. They wanted to be able to get a good view on the road and see what Fire nation forces were around.

It was probably best that they had kept silent for this anyway, he thought, as he crouched down, on a hillside crag, a half hour later and peered at the view of the plain before him. As eager as he was for battle and as much as he wouldn't exactly mind if the Fire Nation found him, it would be better if they still had the element of the surprise.

"See any obvious targets?" he asked in a whisper.

[lonewolflives]

"I don't know about obvious," Arya said, eyes flicking over the landscape spread out before them. "Too obvious and they'd see us coming. It's really a pity none of us could pass for Fire Nation, we could kill some scouts and slip in in their uniforms. As it is, we either need them to chase us, or to make it to a general. And then let them chase us."

[giftless]

"Everyone else took Zuko's lie that we were from the Fire Nation," Edmund pointed out, but not without a telling tightness to his mouth. He hadn't liked going along with that lie at all, even if it probably saved them some time, trouble and explanation. "Maybe, if we're careful, we could disarm and tie up some scouts," he said, making a point of changing Arya's plan slightly, "take their clothes and sneak by. We'd just need to get in. Or maybe we try and upset some of those rhinos. Those would be a good distraction."

[noblerworld.livejournal.com]

Urghh planning, talking, listening to people's opinions, Seifer had almost forgotten how annoying the bits of combat that didn't involve him actually slitting someone's throat open really were.

"Okay, there's the biggest camp there," he gestured at where the smoke plumes made it obvious. "So that's our target to disrupt. We head in that direction then if we find an opportunity to do something clever, we can take it. If we don't, then we can always just charge in headfirst and make as big a target of ourselves as we can. See exactly how these guys measure up."

After how badly his last time in charge had gone, and kind of aware that he didn't actually have any real authority, Seifer was making an effort not to throw his weight around too much. Instead he was mostly trying to put off the point where they made an actual plan until it was too late for anyone to argue with him. He was pretty happy with how it was going so far since Edmund and Arya seemed happy to shoot down each other suggestions for him. Maybe this whole leadership thing wasn't as difficult as he'd thought.

[lonewolflives]

"Or we could not get ourselves killed," she said. She was cocky, certainly, and she knew what she could do... which extended to knowing what happened when small groups went up against large ones head-on. Stealth and cleverness, that was the way, that was the only way. "If we don't find an opportunity to do something clever, we look harder, we don't just do something dumb instead. Attack a smaller camp so they call to the big one for reinforcements or something. Upset some rhinos."

[giftless]

Edmund frowned and gave Seifer a very long look, wondering what kind of battles he had ever gotten into. That made absolutely no sense and, even if they had an army that outnumbered the Fire Nation, arrogant. He shook his head and actively considered Arya's suggestions.

"Rhinos can be hard to upset, but I do think they would do the most damage," Edmund said. "We could get a lot done before anyone even realizes we're there."

[noblerworld.livejournal.com]

"Fine," Seifer, with some annoyance, as he set off, "we'll look for rhinos as well as scouts and generals."

Forcing a direct confrontation was always his preferred plan, no matter how outnumbered he was but he wasn't going to press the point. Not now, anyway.

Strange as it seemed, the most important thing wasn't that they listened to him but rather that they moved fast, or else they'd be too late to do any good whatsoever. And if Seifer missed his chance at a battle, he wouldn't be remotely pleased.

To that end, he didn't say anything else until they were approaching the main Fire Nation camp and saw a scouting party ahead of them.

[lonewolflives]

Arya sized them up, thinking. Then she unbuttoned her swordbelts and held them out to Edmund.

"Stay out of sight, and when they start going down, come in," she said.

She could play the harmless girl long enough to take them by surprise, but not if she was wearing a pair of weapons.

[giftless]

Edmund did not like this plan too much, and the look on this face said as much, but he took the swords anyway and didn't voice any protest because he knew it was the best plan. Arya could take care of herself, even unarmed.

"Be careful," he said regardless. Just because they didn't die for real in this world didn't mean Edmund wanted to watch her die.

[noblerworld.livejournal.com]

"Go, kick some ass," Seifer whispered to her, with an encouraging smile. "It's bout time you made yourself useful."

[lonewolflives]

She gave him the finger, smirking, and then flexed her hands, closed her eyes.

A moment later she opened them and dashed down onto the path, hurtling towards the scouting party with alarm in her eyes, throwing looks back over her shoulder.

"Help," she gasped, as she reached them, the question forming on one of the scout's lips as she cut him off, "you have to help, there's, I think they're bandits..."

She waved behind her, turning, even as he took a couple of steps past her to peer down the road.

"I don't see any-" he began.

Arya rammed the knife she'd swiped from his belt as she'd brushed past into the back of his neck.

"What-" one of the soldiers said from behind her, and she heard the sound of a weapon clearing its scabbard over the incoherent gurgling from the soldier she'd stabbed.

She swung the still upright man in front of her around as a human shield and shoved him into the swing. As they collided, she was a step behind, and then kicked off his back to flip over the pair of them, pulling the knife clear, landing behind the still entangled second soldier, who didn't have time to complete his turn before she'd swiped it across his throat.

That was two. But now she didn't have the advantage of surprise, and only the one knife.

"Now would be good!" she shouted, backing away, as the rest of the scouts started to close.

[giftless]

"Fuck," Edmund breathed as he surged forward and sprinted down the path Arya had just taken. Two guards down and every other one condensing on Arya with weapons drawn. Great execution of a plan.

Spying his approach, two soldiers broke off from their attack on Arya to confront him. Before the first could draw him weapon, Edmund punched him in the face with the back of his fist as he drew the larger of Arya's swords. He swung around, pivoting on his foot and dropping to his knee as the next man raised his sword, shoving the blade deep into the man's gut where his shield plate lifted.

"Arya!" Spinning away again, still kneeling, Edmund tossed the still undrawn sword to the girl as she dispatched another soldier. The man he'd punched grabbed him from behind now, and Edmund had to stab him in the thigh before wrestling free and sliding the blade across his throat.

He gulped down a breath and drew his own sword as more men beat a path to him.

[noblerworld.livejournal.com]

The scouting party had only been eight men strong and between them Arya and Edmund had taken down five within seconds. The other three had decided to take Edmund out first and were charging at him as a group, when Seifer arrived like a charging train, swinging his gunblade with relish and shouting his joy to the world.

He was on them before they knew what was happening and decapitated one with one blow, before running through the second. The third was a fire bender and fired a quick blast which Seifer had to duck under before reaching him. After a second's thought, he decided that this one was worth keeping alive, and instead of slitting his throat, bought his blade up to cut off the soldier's right hand instead and then, while the shock of that was hitting him, his left. And then he grabbed him by the front of his uniform and lifted up off the ground, his bloody stumps spilling blood everywhere.

"Now," Seifer said with a little, satisfied, smile, "tell me where your commanding officer is, what security he has and where you keep your rhinos and you'll get to die fast."

[lonewolflives]

She was still buttoning her sword back on and making sure the first few soldiers were down and staying down before she realized what Seifer was doing, and then she just stared for a moment as the soldier gasped out a barely coherent direction, with no elaboration on security or rhinos.

He wasn't in much of a state for something so complex. Is there gold hidden in the village?

She flicked the knife she'd obtained back out and strode intently for the pair of them, fully intent on giving the soldier a mercifully quick death before Seifer could go any further.

[giftless]

Edmund had made the mistake of pausing to roughly clean Arya's second blade against the fabric of his trousers. It had only been a few seconds' care, but that was enough time for Seifer to do his damage. Edmund stood, horrified and shocked at the display before him. For the brutality of it, yes, but also the stupidity of it. What exactly was the man going to tell them with no incentive to talk and, indeed, no ability giving the rapid rush of blood from his brain and out his severed limbs.

He stepped forward as well, but not to disrupt Arya's path. "Are you insane?" he demanded of the other boy.

[noblerworld.livejournal.com]

This wasn't working quite as well as it could have done, Seifer had to admit. He knew how dangerous a seemingly cornered firebender could be from his spar with Zuko so the removal of the hands seemed the only way to capture one safely. Unfortunately, it meant his attempt to interrogate him was all but useless, the man in no fit state to answer him properly.

He let go of the man, annoyed that a little blood had dripped onto his uniform, and then Arya stuck a knife into the soldiers throat and the whole incident was entirely finished.

"It was worth a try," he replied casually, before getting a good luck at the expressions on their faces.

"Fine, it won't happen again."

[lonewolflives]

"It wasn't," Arya said, stepping backwards and cleaning her knife, ignoring the body entirely in favour of directing a hard glare Seifer's way.

She wasn't inclined to make threats about it, but she was clearly going to have to remember to keep an eye on him. She wondered if this was anything like what Edmund felt when they argued about what was justifiable.

Surely not. She wasn't as errantly stupid as that. And she was practical, not cruel.

She held the look a moment, then crouched by the nearest body. "I'm going to see if one of them has a map or something," she said.

[giftless]

Edmund stepped closer to Arya to return her second sword as she went about her business, his eyes on Seifer and wary. It wouldn't do much good now, of course, so he gave it up as a bad job, something to watch out for in the future but not something that could be fixed with dark looks now.

"At least we know it's not impossible," Edmund said, briefly rolling his eyes. "I suppose we could take on another group."

[noblerworld.livejournal.com]

"And we've won ourselves eight uniforms," Seifer added.

They couldn't pass as an eight man scouting party, even if Edmund was right about them being able to pass as Fair Nation, but it might make things easier if they looked native from a distance at least.