(Later that morning) [41st Division Encampment, The Training Yard]
Under the heat of a noon sun and amongst the shouts of exertion of sparring Fire Nation, my voice's loud command resounded clearly.
"Again!" I barked. And at my word, six Fire Nation Spearmen with blunted practice spears charged forward at their opponents: The Kyoshi Warriors.
Fully dressed in their traditional uniform of an armoured green kimono and painted faces, Suki and her five sisters-in-arms drew their katanas to engage. I noted with an approving nod as I saw how quickly their draw was: Drawing steel at such speeds that their blades looked like they were just flashes of light. Wood thwacks sounded out as the spear shafts were parried by katana blades, and the Kyoshi Warriors closed the distance in less than a heartbeat- their katanas poised against the necks of the spearmen.
When this first happened, there had been an incredible tenseness as the Kyoshi Warriors had to visibly hold back from giving into their reflexes of killing Fire Nation soldiers, and vice versa. But now, my troops merely gave a professional nod of acknowledgement- like a fencer acknowledging a point to their opponent. With this, that made the score 9-15 in favour of my troops.
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[ Trainer Level 10 Reached - New Skill Perks Unlocked! ]
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Group Comprehension Lvl 2 (Passive): Monkey see, Monkey do. Train up to (12) students at a time without suffering training speed penalties. Training (6) students or less at a time now trains them at double speed.
About time. That was more than good enough.
"Good form, everyone!" I told them, "We'll conclude weapons training for today. Dismissed."
"Sir, thank you, sir!"
The Fire Nation soldiers bowed before walking on wobbly legs to their respective tents. I shook my head, we'll be sieging Omashu soon, but it was still a tall order to fill. It would appear that my plan will have to hinge on the newly recruited Kyoshi Warriors.
"This... this has a lot harder than I thought it would be." Suki panted as she and her sisters took a seat on a wooden bench to catch their breath, completely exhausted after training for the last four hours.
"It is necessary though." I said to her, "You fell into the age-old trap of only training against the same weapon you wielded. When was the last time you even sparred with someone who was using a spear or a sword-and-shield?"
"Honestly? Never before this." She replied as she drank deep from her flask of water, "It's not like we had any other sparring partners on Kyoshi Island, and we all used war fans and katanas. It's actually kind of disheartening to lose to regular Fire Nation soldiers who aren't even benders."
"Ha! These aren't normal Fire Nation soldiers." I told her with a bark of laughter., "These are the 41st Division, I've been training them very well. They're leagues faster than the average soldier on the field. But I do find it interesting that even with your slight Dexterity advantage, you can't overcome the disadvantage placed on you."
"Dexterity?" Suki repeated, "I guess you can call it that. And what disadvantage?"
"Katana wielders are at a marked disadvantage against thrust-type weapons with good reach."
"Har har. Nice pun, Khan." Suki drawled while the other Kyoshi Warriors looked away with a blush.
"It's also true, and worth training for. Particularly because Earth Kingdom armies primarily favour the spear."
Suki stayed silent at that- just taking a rag to wipe clean and oil her Kyoshi Katana and saying nothing. Her painted face conveyed her contemplative mood as she looked up to the blue sky. The reality of her now fighting for the other side must still be sinking in. I was confident that she and her sisters will keep to the Oath they swore to me when the time comes for her to actually strike against my enemies. But it can only help my case if her Obedience was high enough to secure her loyalty to me on its own, I had a feeling that I'll need it for the eventual showdown she'll have against the Gaang.
"Are we really going to try and take Omashu?" Suki calmly asked in a serious tone of voice, "It has withstood the Fire Nation for a hundred years. What makes you think your attempt will be any different?"
"With or without our intervention, Omashu's surrender to the Fire Nation is already carved in stone." I revealed to her, "By taking the surrounding towns and disrupting trade with Gaoling, we have already begun to starve them out. And once that dedicated Siege Corp from the Fire Islands arrives in a few weeks, King Bumi will have no choice but to surrender the city to the Siege Corps if he wants to spare his citizens from the brutal siege."
The reality of the situation came crashing down on Suki and the other Kyoshi Warriors- specifically, the reality that the war was not going in their favour. Their gloved hands gripped their Kyoshi Katanas tightly.
"So, why even attack Omashu?"
Because the [Quest:The Capture of Omashu] says that if I take it before they do, It'll give me four whopping perk points for me which I sorely need right now. I had a really bad feeling about how the Gamer System was affecting the power scaling of this world, and I needed all the advantages I could gather before the avalanche arrived. Of course, I wasn't about to reveal that massive piece of information to Suki, so...
"Because I refuse to let someone take credit for my work." I answered instead, "And they'll undoubtedly mismanage the city."
"Mismanage?" Suki quoted with narrowed blue eyes, "And you can do better?"
"Oh, I already have. But it'll be easier to show you." I grinned, "Prepare to march soon. We'll be arriving in town to buy the supplies needed for the siege."
At that statement, Suki raised her eyebrows in surprise as she disbelievingly said, "There's an Earth Kingdom town that's willing to trade with you?"
"Of course!" I laughed, "They can hardly refuse the people who had the town built in the first place, can't they?"
"Wait, you built a Fire Nation town on Earth Kingdom territory?!"
I laughed even harder.
...
(The day after)
The noon sun was up and shining gently when the 41st Division marched into the town flanked by two rivers.
Suki had expected the worst out of the town that Khan boasted about constructing. In her mind, she had vividly pictured dark metal towers that speared up at a darkened sky- belching black smoke and mucking the rivers green with industrial filth. Its prisoner-denizens with sunken eyes and starving bellies as they were trodden into the ground for the sake of the Fire Nation war machine. Everything she had heard about the usual operations from the Fire Nation, she expected from Khan's town.
"But this... this wasn't what I expected at all." Suki murmured as she craned her head with her sisters, their painted faces looking this way and that to take in the town. A neat row of white stone buildings rose on either side of the boulevard they walked down on. Young trees were planted on both sides of the road, and under their shade, unshackled Earth Kingdom citizens drank tea and ate food from the cook-shops. It was almost idyllic.
Her sisters voiced their disbelief.
"We had passed through a couple of Earth Kingdom towns, but none were like this..."
"This looked more like Ba Sing Se from the stories we've heard than a Fire Nation town."
"Yes, welcome to the town of Yellow Palace." Khan presented to them as Suki and her sisters-in-arms followed in the shadow of his large armoured frame, "Population about four thousand. It's not much, but it's something. Just built it a few weeks ago after all."
"This is surreal. You built all of this?" she asked with an incredulous arc of her painted brow. "This place looked even better organised than all the towns we had passed by before you made us your captives."
"Why do you look so surprised?" the giant asked, "A team of Earthbenders can build a stable house in under half an hour including logistical consideration. With proper training and motivation, I was able to get it down to about five minutes. And I have more than a dozen teams working right now. It's almost like having infinite money in Cities: Skylines..."
He extended a large arm out to point locations out to Suki and her sisters.
"Anyway... Marketplace/Commissary should be at the centre of town, but shops of the various guilds are scattered about.
For food, you should be able to find small tea places and cook-shops in every neighbourhood; just don't expect much from their menus- the farms have only been built a few days ago after all.
Clean water should be in ready supply everywhere without going to the river. I had aqueducts built to divert river water into a bare-bones water treatment plant which supplies the city with clean, potable water.
Basic drainage system is also in place so that waste won't run on the streets. Other town utilities include a postal office, a police station, a fire department, and a clinic... All of which should be here in the town square. Oh, and the newly formed Yellow Palace Troupe also performs at the open air theatre every weekend."