Avani couldn’t help but giggle when Kasai mentioned being formal. “Oh, I’m such a stickler for formality.” She turned to her group and said, mimicking the way the woman talked. Mio laughed, Ryuu smiled briefly. The radio was still transmitting, so she didn’t get a chance to respond to Kasai before she heard sounds that she assumed had to be fighting. “I’m so skilled I can’t even avoid getting ambushed.” 

Once the radio stopped transmitting, Avani and her team still heard the fighting in the distance. It had to be nearby. She had to decide whether to go help team b and their boring leader, or if they should continue ahead alone. She had wanted to do the latter since the beginning of this mission, but it wasn’t like they had any idea of where to go yet. She wouldn’t like it if Kasai got all the cred for fighting off whatever they had been ambushed by either

.”Let’s check it out, at the very least.” Ryuu suggested.

“Yeah, yeah. I suppose we better.” Avani responded.

The three began to move in the direction that the fighting could be heard from.  It didn’t take long for them to spot team b fighting a number of dark spirits in a clearing. Avani dropped her bag on the ground.

“Mio, hide the bags. Ryuu and I will go assist them.”

At the order, Ryuu handed his bag to Mio who took it with a smirk. She may not be as experienced as the rest of them at fighting, but that was only because they’d had their entire lives to train their bending and hers had manifested itself recently. 

“We can’t let them have the food just cause they can’t handle themselves.” Avani said, noticing Mio’s mood and aversion to being put on the 
bench, so to speak. Mio shrugged, but did take the bags anyway.

Avani created a smaller rock to surf on this time, then she sped into the clearing. Ryuu ran after her, and as soon as he entered the clearing he began to fling fireballs at the dark spirits to assist his fellows in the other team. Avani on the other hand, was more interested in Kasai. She moved up to her, and began surfing around the woman.

She came to a temporary stop in front of her, bowed in a silly and overdone way. “My name’s Avani Shailesh. Your pleasure, Lady Sergeant.” She said and stuck out her tongue at her, then returned to surfing in circles around Kasai. 

“Too hungry to avoid being ambushed?”  Avani put her hand on her bare stomach and patted it. “I think I’ve eaten enough for the moment, personally.”

One of the spirits lunged at Avani, but she noticed it in time, picked up her speed and dodged it. In the next moment she’d thrown a boulder at the spirit. The boulder hit it and sent it flying through the spirit forest, causing loud noises as twigs and trees broke.

“Told you to leave this mission to the pros, didn’t I, Kasai?” Avani grinned, but now she began to make more erratic surfing patterns through the clearing, while hurling smaller rocks at the dark spirits. She didn’t want to be an easy target to attack.

She watched Kasai fight when she wasn’t too busy herself. The firebender moved much like Ryuu did when he fought, but well, in a more feminine and controlled way Avani supposed. It was an impressive display, far from unskilled like she’d implied when calling her team the only professionals. Avani took a hit to the face as she stared, lost her balance and tumbled into the underbrush. She hadn’t seen any spirit in her path, and felt almost too embarrassed to get back up. It would undoubtedly look worse if she didn’t though, so she stood up and surfed back into the clearing.

“Totally meant to do that.” She said, and came to a stop where the rest of them were. Avani could use more power to attack with if she didn’t move as much. These spirits were rather large targets too, and they didn’t move too much either. She began to spawn rock walls to defend and attack with. They pinned the spirits in place, allowing her to crush them or for someone else to steal her kill.

Ryuu was pretty sure that Avani hadn’t been attacked, but simply surfed into a low hanging branch which sent her rolling. He hoped for her sake that no one else had noticed that part of it, but they seemed busy enough.

“Nice distraction, boss.” He mumbled when she joined them and began to fight at his side.

“Just keep fighting, Ryuu. We’ll easily beat the other team in defeated spirits, with just the two of us.” Avani said, keeping her cool and not looking at any of team b’s members again.