The Princess and the Peasant - (An Azula Epic)

The Crossroad

The highborn women stared up at the stone steps with guarded looks in their narrowed eyes while the light from the ancient gateway accented the inside of the frozen cave.

Elle still stood with her mouth open in disbelief as she listened to the sound of Naoki making her way down the staircase.

Azula snarled violently with her ruthless amber golden eyes forming a murderous stare.

"I said that I would be back for you after I concluded with the military. I meant it. And now you are coming back with me, Elle." Naoki announced in an impassive voice while she gazed down at the younger girl's startled face.

The four older girls stared back up at Naoki with their eyes narrowed into protective glares.

"H-how.... how did you get here before us, Naoki?" Elle questioned with a nervous expression in her sensitive eyes as she backed up with her friends standing defensively before her.

As Naoki stared back down at her with her usual hauntingly cold smile.

"I told you that you couldn't outrun me, Elle, and I told you that there is no one faster than me. Not a single one of you can even begin to compare to my Diminished Earth." Naoki stated in a sanguine voice while the team stared up with perplexed looks in their eyes.

"This kid beat us here on foot?" Mai asked in a shocked voice while Ty Lee gazed on in shock beside her.

Azula pursed her lips together in a furious scowl as she glared frigidly up at the emotionless teenager.

Zoi listened with her golden eyes agape in attentive fascination.

"D-Diminished Earth?" Elle pondered as she peered up at Naoki with an unnerved look in her timid eyes.

The supersoldier continued to smile confidently down at her as she quietly strode down the stone steps.

"It is the ultimate technique of my own creation. It is a technique that allows the user to move with godlike speed." Naoki spoke in a chillingly confident voice while the five girls stared up at her in disbelief.

Just before she vanished in a flicker of speed while the Fire Nation women stared on with stunned expressions in their eyes.

And then not a second later Naoki reappeared before them at the bottom of the steps with her lips curving into a lethal smirk.

The princess and the captain gazed on with their eyes widened in fascination.

As Elle gripped the straps of her backpack as she gazed anxiously back into Naoki's eerie brown eyes.

"I see now. This girl...is somehow using her chi to move at inhuman speeds." Zoi stated with her golden eyes conveying an impressed gleam while her companions gazed on in awe beside her.

The fighting style of this girl was nothing like that of the traditional earthbenders that they were accustomed to with dealing with.

The girl has managed to completely reverse the usual earthbending strategy of waiting while fighting on the defense.

And in its place, she created a technique that instead focuses on attacking her opponent with overwhelming speed.

And in the process...she has almost completely eliminated the primary weakness of earthbending.

That being a reliance on the earth!

Unlike the earthbenders that they knew. This girl was a force to behold with or without the earth!

The only other earthbender that she has ever seen create such a revolutionary style was Earth King Jaran.

And not even he was capable of moving at such blinding speeds!