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"They retreated?" Hahn inquired with a naturally commanding tone that he had acquired after taking charge of the tribe. It may have been a play of his sight but this group of soldiers reporting to him felt... particularly vicious. Their faces were covered by the usual skull-patterned masks but their body language made Hahn's heart shiver for a second. Their penetrative gazes froze him but it may just have been the chill.
"Yes," Hahn heard a woman's voice behind the mask, "There were two waterbenders within the group of assailants but we managed to overpower them. However, they cleverly used the ice to earn a safe retreat for themselves. We believe that this is just one of the many attacks planned for the night. We were also ordered to carry out an escort for your safety. The palace is not safe for the time being since it may just collapse under a sneak attack from any waterbender."
Adopting a frightful expression, Hahn couldn't help but reveal that his commanding tone lacked the natural charisma and courage of a leader as he cowered, "Fine, do as you're ordered. Oh, my wife must not fall in the hands of those shortsighted boors, she must escape with me."
"You heard him!" one of the men responded, "Secure the princess. We will take this trash out."
"Huh?"
Before Hahn could contemplate what was going on, he was suddenly punched by the woman reporting to him. Yet, before he could fall, a wave of water encapsulated him and froze into a block of ice that caught the current chieftain in an instant!
"Hey! Help! Anyone out there?!"
"Take him, there are bound to be more soldiers around but if Hahn is a hostage alongside others, they are bound to give up sooner than later," Suki commented, "We'll find the princess and return. At this point, the smaller our group, the better."
Others nodded in understanding and quickly began to move except for the 'special' crew introduced by Pakku as they still stood in front of the entrance of the palace.
Seeing one particular 'soldier' discreetly limping away, Suki's smile turned a bit more amused behind her mask while she quickly caught his wrist and 'threatened.'
"And where do you think you're going, Soldier?"
Suki took her mask off. Following her movements, Katara and Mai didn't keep the masks on any longer than they had to.
"Er... medical assistance? I've done all I could, you know..." Nik rolled his eyes and took his mask off. He may love training and find himself now openly facing challenges he cannot have ignored but this... he could ignore.
"All you could?" Katara pouted, "I seem to remember you trying to control a body of water almost half the size of this palace!"
Her words caused Mai's eyelids to jump in surprise as the dark-haired woman looked back to measure the approximate dimension of the palace once again and even half of it was quite large enough.
"That was one time, and I was exhausted the entire day then," Nik sighed softly, "Come on, you girls got this. Oh, when you enter the location, try finding some tomes for me. Maybe I can get a hint on how to heal my knee."
"We aren't your maids," Mai's eyes shimmered coldly.
"Wasn't talking to you," Nik replied with a deadpan expression.
"Your skills are far beyond just waterbending. I promise it won't be long?" Suki smiled, coiling her hand around Nik's shoulder as they walked towards the entrance of the palace.
"I could just remove the palace..." Nik hummed as they entered.
"It would be too much of a big move... and what if the princess fell and broke her neck?" Katara smirked. Her argument was valid.
The entrance of the palace was quite empty and gloomy at this point. The lack of servants made the region quite questionable but the lack of soldiers, on the other hand, could be attributed to Hahn's impatience and fears as he commanded many troops to check things out one after the other when they failed to return and those that did 'return' captured Hahn instead.
During these events, four of the hunters had gotten themselves injured and they were promptly taken back by a partner of theirs so when they reached Hahn, their numbers were already dwindling which made things look all the more realistic as if the enemy had sent a sizable manpower to this portion of the tribe.
"Many are already awake," Nik whispered, "Even in the houses out there. But they're too afraid to come out due to the noise."
Nik not only referred to the noise of their clash but the battle that was going just outside the walls. The sounds of flaming rocks smashing into the walls reached quite the volume in the dead of the night.
The lack of information but the intensity of the battle made Suki and Katara a tiny bit worried. But their steps didn't slow down. Already at their last objective, the tiny group of fire nation soldiers wanted to quickly find the princess and carry out Hahn's command of taking her with him... just back to the segregated area.
Although, in the back of Nik's mind, he couldn't help but humor the possibility that the lack of Hahn and the previous Chieftain's Daughter would create some sort of void in power which may lead to a hilarious conclusion of someone entirely stranger to the operation ending up getting the 'power' of the tribe. The probability was quite low but there is nothing as dangerous and determined as a heart seduced by hopes and desires.
"Can you hear her?" Katara inquired softly.
"No..." he kept it concise.
The group continued without a plan. Still, they were made aware of the general map of the palace. Since the founding of the Northern Water Tribe, the internal lay of the palace has never once shifted so almost every public and relatively private quarter were known to those who were interested in the royalty of the tribe.
Unwilling to trek the icy stairs that barred his path, Nik slanted a tiny portion of the stairs and pushed himself up gently while keeping a collected balance.
Suki couldn't help but feel bad to push Nik and bring him along but it was as she said, his abilities were truly something godsend to most of their troublesome situations.
"Hey, there should be a small collection of tomes on this floor, would you mind going on ahead without me? I will catch up."
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Now that he was here, Nik wanted to store any and every tome he could find and peruse through them later.
Although they didn't say it, Nik couldn't help but register their odd glances, especially Mai.
"What?"
"How would you... catch up, literally, I mean?" Mai narrowed her eyes, not letting go of any chance to take a shot at him as he soon realized the meaning behind her words.
Already feeling a little annoyed, the only thing that kept Nik from truly going to the verbal bonetown on Mai was the fact that she actually had the heart to bandage him when he was shoved out of the spirit world and that he actually did bang Michi which was bound to annoy the young daughter. Not to mention that bickering within themselves in such a time-sensitive situation would not be a worthwhile task.
Surprising Mai with a lighthearted chuckle, Nik's words then managed to darken her expression as the other two girls pursed their lips, "Ah- haha, Oh, Mai, you goofball," he commented with the most monotonous voice he could manage.
Before Mai could retort, Suki tugged her vest from behind and signaled her to move. Exhaling a soft scoff, Mai retained her words and moved with Katara while Suki stayed back for a second, "If... you are taken out by surprise, don't hesitate to take out the palace. We'll be fine."
"Oh?" Nik blinked, "What if Katara falls and breaks her neck?"
Smirking, Suki shook her head, "I'm serious."
"I'm serious, too," Nik smiled and leaned forwards, "I don't want the two of you injuring your necks since I know how much you like a firm hand over those babies."
"Really?" Suppressing the slightest hint of flutter in her heart, Suki glared at Nik with a pouting expression as he nodded eagerly, "Yeah. So save the princess, be a hero, and meet me back later to get your reward."
Even though the roles were reversed, Suki was instantly motivated to play the role of a valiant knight and then get rewarded for all her hard work later. Just this time, it wasn't from the princess she saves but the despicable, leery youth taking her sight with great pleasure, "And keep the uniform on."
"Huh?" Suki's head buzzed for a second.
"Keep it on," Nik whispered again, planting a gentle, encouraging peck on her lips before turning around and taking his leave, too, as Suki was left for a few seconds with trouble regaining her bearings. Eventually settling her mind, she followed the path Mai and Katara took to catch up with them.
Nik, on the other hand, found a small storage room with solid snowy shelves holding old and weary scrolls. Not wasting any more time, Nik began to send the items to his personal space without a second thought.
A total of 23 scrolls were stolen just like that.
Feeling quite satisfied by his work, Nik turned around only to be as surprised as the entity that froze over by seeing him in return.
'What's a fox doing here... and why didn't I hear it?' Nik grew confused. Before he could pursue the strange event, another startling crashing sound was heard from the far entrance of the tribe. Annoyed, Nik glanced in the direction of the sound but when he looked back towards the fox, the youth was stunned to see that the area was devoid of any other lifeform. And again, Nik didn't hear the sound of the fox leaving which only left him with one possibility that seemed to connect any and every weird thing that could, or would, occur in this world.
"Was that a spirit?" He mumbled under his breath and moved out of the storage room.
There was another such storage room constructed within the next floor so he made his way there.
---
"Damn it! Damn it! Stop the attacks at once!"
Zhao growled his command as he viewed multiple men and women stripped down to their bare essentials being forcefully set on the edge of the wall with a waterbender behind them.
It didn't help that a crying youth was among them only to demoralize the persistence of the remaining troops.
Pakku never once considered that capturing the city would give them their edge back. No.
They needed more time than a day and it needed to come from the opposite party's hesitation.
Zhao happened to be a shrewd and valiant leader who commanded respect and disgust from his subordinates at once. Disgust due to multiple underhanded tactics he utilized to defeat the enemy during the war and respect because none of these tactics ever intentionally put his own subordinates in harm's way. In essence, Zhao may not be an honorable leader but he was the type of man to get things done with his only weakness being his own nation— and its people.
Seeing so many of their nation's hostages, Zhao couldn't help but grit his teeth.
Pakku's plan worked and this is why his main focus was on getting hostages. The more the better.
Although, even the old man underestimated the efficiency and applications of Nik's skills but it turned out for the better.
The giant ice wall was damaged in many regions but it could be fixed by a little effort using waterbending. Right now, Pakku made others hold their ground to make sure that the dangerous fleet in front of them don't continue with the assault.
Considering a few options, Zhao exhaled deeply, "Stand by for now. Put some distance between them and us."
A hint of jubilation spread through Pakku's eyes as the ships began to retreat. Other waterbenders were the same as Pakku and only after one hour did a messenger from the armada arrive in a smaller boat with terms of the temporary truce that could be negotiated.
Victory.
Even if temporary, this Midnight Raid was a victory of theirs!