The Fire Nation Prince

Chapter 78: Short Tales - Fire and Fan

The pirate’s body hit the dirt, his chest a smoldering ruin. For a heartbeat, the battlefield froze, Kyoshi Warriors and raiders alike staring at the flame-wreathed Fire Nation officer who had just erupted from the trees.

Then chaos roared back to life.

Jee didn’t wait for thanks. He pivoted, fire spiraling down his arms as he kicked a jet of flames into a pirate’s gut. The man screamed, stumbling back into his comrades.

A Kyoshi Warrior, Hinaro, her white warpaint streaked with soot, whirled on him, fan slashing the air like a blade.

“We don’t need your help, ash-maker!” she snarled.

Jee ducked under her swing, seizing her wrist. “Then why are you losing?”

He yanked her aside just as a pirate’s axe split the space where her head had been. Before the raider could recover, Jee punched forward, flames erupting from his knuckles. The pirate’s face blistered, his scream cut short as he crumpled.

Hinaro wrenched free, eyes blazing. “You think this makes us owe you?”

“I think you’re about to be overrun,” Jee shot back, nodding toward the eastern alley.

Five more pirates were charging, their leader, a hulking brute with a serrated dao, grinning like a shark.

Hinaro spat blood. “Fine. But don’t expect a thank-you.”

Jee fought like a man possessed.

A pirate lunged with a dagger, Jee twisted, searing the man’s hand with a whip of fire until bone showed. Another swung a club, Jee ducked, then palmed the raider’s chest, igniting his tunic. The man ran shrieking into his allies.

Nearby, a young Kyoshi Warrior, barely more than a girl, was backed against a wall, her fan snapped in half. A pirate loomed over her, tongue flicking over yellowed teeth.

“Pretty little…”

Jee’s fire-wreathed boot slammed into the pirate’s ribs, launching him into a stall. The girl gasped.

“Stay behind me,” Jee ordered.

She shook her head, trembling but defiant. “I-I can fight!”

“Then pick up a damn weapon!”

She snatched a fallen sickle from the dirt.

Across the square, Suki drove her fan into a pirate’s throat, her movements sharp but slowing. Fatigue lined her face.

Jee cut through the fray to reach her. “Commander.”

She blocked a sword strike, barely glancing at him. “Here to finish what they started?”

“Here to help.”

“Why?” She kicked a pirate in the knee, then elbowed his nose into his brain.

Jee torched a raider mid-lunge. “Because my prince would want it.”

Suki’s eyes flickered, understanding, then grim acceptance.

“Then fight. But this changes nothing.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

Hinaro fought beside Jee now, though she refused to acknowledge it.

When Jee flamed a pirate’s legs, she sliced his throat. When she stumbled, Jee vaporized an arrow meant for her back.

“I had that!” she snapped.

“Sure,” Jee deadpanned, incinerating another attacker.

She growled but didn’t argue.

By the time Lee returned with reinforcements, the pirates were routing.

Kujan led the charge, fireballs scattering raiders like rats. “Took you long enough!” he barked at Jee.

Jee wiped blood from his lip. “Had to save your bride.”

Hinaro flipped him off.

Suki surveyed the carnage, dead pirates, wounded warriors, and Fire Nation soldiers standing amid the wreckage. Her voice was quiet but firm.

“This isn’t over.”

Jee met her gaze. “No. It’s not.”

As the smoke cleared, the Kyoshi Warriors regrouped, eyes locked on their ”saviors.”

Hinaro spat at Jee’s boots. “We won’t forget what your people did.”

Jee sheathed his dao. “Good. Then you’ll remember what we just did, too.”

The village burned. The choice continued.

And in the shadows, Suki watched, her fingers tightening around her fan.

The moment Lee crested the hill with two dozen Fire Nation soldiers at his back, the battlefield shifted.

Kujan didn’t waste time with orders. He ripped his twin dao free, flames coiling down the blades like serpents.

“Burn them to the fucking ground!”

The Fire Nation line erupted.

A hulking brute charged, axe raised high, his beard streaked with Kyoshi blood.

Lee sidestepped, pivoting on his heel like a dancer. His left hand snapped up, a needle-thin jet of blue flame lanced through the pirate’s wrist. The axe fell, still clutched in a severed hand. Before the man could scream, Lee’s right palm hammered into his sternum, releasing a tight, concussive blast that caved his ribs inward. The pirate folded, dead before he hit the dirt.

Two raiders, their faces mirror images of cruelty, came at him with hooked swords.

Lee exhaled, and the world slowed.

A low kick, flames shearing horizontally another pirate’s legs severed at the knees. A backhanded whip of fire, slicing pirate’s open mid-lunge. A pivot, driving his boot through pirate’s skull as the man writhed.

Four pirates loosed arrows from a rooftop.

Lee didn’t dodge.

He twirled, his arms weaving a cyclone of fire that vaporized the projectiles mid-air. Then…

A single fire dart through the eye. A sweeping kick, flames shearing the roof’s edge, the man fell screaming into his comrades. Another pair of pirates came at him. A dual palm strike, fire spearing through both chests like a forge’s poker.

The remaining five pirates formed a shield wall, their leader, a scarred monster with a spiked mace, bellowing:

“You Fire Nation dogs die here!”

Lee adjusted his stance, fingertips brushing.

A dragon’s breath, a rolling wave of flame that forced the shields up. Then a leaping spin, his heel crashing down in a blade of fire that split the leader from crown to groin. He proceeded to do a rapid series of jabs, each strike a piercing ember, four pirates, four smoldering holes through their hearts.

While Lee fought like a bladed tempest, Kujan was a battlefield butcher.

Kujan grappled, torching the man’s face with a point-blank blast. Another came at him. A dao through the gut, then fire poured into the wound until the pirate burst like a overcooked sausage. He then ripped a cart’s axle free and bludgeoned the man, then lit the corpse on fire for good measure.

“That’s for my new boots, you bastard!”

The pirates broke. Those still alive fled toward the shore, only to find Jee and the Kyoshi Warriors waiting.

Lee flicked blood from his fingers, his uniform still immaculate.

Hinaro stared at him, her fan trembling. “You… you fight like a demon.”

Lee adjusted his collar. “I practice.”

Suki stepped forward, her voice cold. “Why?”

Lee met her gaze. “Because my prince expects perfection.”

And as the smoke curled into the dusk, the unspoken truth hung heavy:

This was never just a rescue.

[A/N: Can’t wait to see what happens next? Get exclusive early access on .com/saiyanprincenovels.]