The news of an approaching army of thousands shook the village.
Thousands.
What did that number an? A complete disaster.
I walked over to the scout.
"What did you do first when you saw them?" I grabbed him by the shoulders and asked.
"I turned and ran away," he said.
"How the hell did you know they were in the thousands?" I yelled.
The villagers and earthbenders, whose numbers didn't even reach two hundred, were looking at the ground, their faces sweating.
"I… I saw them covering the horizon, so I assud the number," he said.
The villagers' faces lit up temporarily.
"But they are above a thousand," he added. "For certain."
It seed my soldiers' morale was quite low.
Well, mine was a bit low too, and I was feeling a bit of fear.
No matter how talented your army is, they wouldn't be as strong as the Avatar.
Thousands was also a big number.
I needed to raise the morale of my n—and won—a bit.
I walked to the center and yelled, "Everyone!"
They turned their attention to .
"We've been preparing for this for so long," I said. "The firebenders and their soldiers will taste a battlefield where they can't bend. They will be crushed and burned by their own fire. Their armor will be their graves. Their tanks will be what crushes them.
"Aren't you excited to crush them?"
There was a mont of silence.
But soon, I got an answer.
"Yeah!"
"We've been training for so long!"
"I'm excited to see them. With the strategy we have, even if they were tens of thousands, they wouldn't stand a chance."
"Let's fight them!"
I clapped my hands and said, "Okay, okay. For now, let's not get too excited. Let's activate the traps."
"Yes. Right. The plan."
The villagers started becoming active, following the strategy I had discussed with them.
They took the explosive powder we had been making and went outside the walls.
'Co on,' I thought. 'It's not ti to fall back.'
As everyone started working, I decided it was ti for to preserve my energy.
I needed to rest well and then spend my energy wisely on the day of the battle.
For the last few days, since Katara had arrived, I hadn't spent my experience points and had been focusing on training the earthbenders.
Now that everything was complete, I needed to conserve as much energy as possible.
I wasn't in a hurry to use my points.
But for certain, I needed one thing.
[Titles slots have been upgraded to 2]
[50,000 accumulated experience has been used]
[For the next upgrade, 100,000 experience points are required]
'What a generous system,' I thought. 'It wants to turn into a mass murderer.'
I sighed and left for my tent.
I grabbed a bottle of expensive alcohol or wine bottles that I had stolen from the commander's chamber on the ship.
I poured myself a drink and started drinking.
-x-X-x-
"Ryuk, can I co in?" Katara's voice called.
Before I could even give her permission, she entered.
"Sure," I said, looking at her blue eyes as she scanned .
"You've managed to convince a few hundred people to stand against a large army," she said. "I want to know how you have so much courage."
"The real question should be, why?"
"Why?" she asked curiously.
"You'll have to wait a couple of days first," I said teasingly.
"What's the point of suspense? It's not a children's story that Grandma tells to pass the ti," she replied, frustrated.
"Do you really want to talk about the war now?" I asked.
She shook her head.
"I wanted to check if you're okay," she said. "You've gotten a bit pale."
I smiled and looked at my hand, which was quite white now.
'Seems I can't say "escape" in Japanese during this war.'
Katara held my hand and sat beside .
I looked at her for so ti.
Both of us were adults, and we were in a tent.
During tis like this, cortisol, the stress hormone, takes over the body. You know, it makes one lose sense and do whatever they can to relax.
There was one thing I could think of as I looked at her blue eyes, full lips, and exposed neck.
"Wanna relax a bit?" she asked.
"Definitely," I said, shaking the bottle of alcohol in my other hand. "Wanna try?"
"What is it? Fruit juice?" she mused.
"Alcohol. We don't have it in the South Pole, but it's quite good," I said. "Well, not that good the next day. And weed is better."
"Like seaweed? What's weed?" she asked.
"No. It's just good stuff," I said, taking a gulp from the bottle and passing it to her. She took a big swig at once.
"It's quite acidic, and bitter." she comnted, exhaling loudly. "But what's the fruit?"
"I guess it's grape wine. It's quite tasty." I replied.
"Sure?" she nodded and drank a few more gulps before passing it back to .
"So, earlier," I said as I wiped the corner of her lip with my finger, "when you asked if I wanted to relax, what did you an by that?"
"I ant what I ant," she said. "The last ti I was nervous—when Rakasha, or when I thought she would snitch on —I kissed you."
"Did it help you relax?" I asked curiously. Katara, or won from this world in general, were quite different from those in my previous life. They didn't go through high school drama or anything. Not to ntion, we grew up in quite an isolated place. So, I was a bit curious about her perspective.
"Well, it felt like I could leave without regret if I did the things I wanted to do," she comnted, looking into my eyes and then at my lips.
I got the signal and responded.
Also, if you think about it, we weren't used to drinking. Things got out of the usual routine. Her cheeks were already getting rosy.
"Well, one may leave after two days," I said, grabbing her chin with my fingers and slowly approaching her.
I kissed her for so ti. Her response beca more aggressive as she kissed back.
I didn't know what ca over , but I responded with more aggression, pushing her back and moving my lips from her mouth to her neck. There was a small moan that escaped her lips each ti I sucked on her neck, which ant it was her sensitive spot.
"Ryuk, what if soone cos in?" she said, panting slightly.
"Oh… we'll bend it out," I replied, not really knowing what I was saying.
"I an…"
"Well, everyone's too busy. You're afraid your brother might co in."
"That would be traumatizing."
"Don't worry. I saw him going to comfort so village girl," I said. "No one's coming in."
"It's my first ti," she said. "Can you be, you know, gentle?"
"How did you know you need to be gentle?"
"Can't tell you. Girls talk," she said, hugging , her lips landing on mine.
I pushed her onto her back and got on top of her, grinding sothing else other than my levels for the first ti.
-x-X-x-
We all make mistakes.
So are big. So are small. And so make you discover a new type of bending to deal with the big mistakes you make when you get drunk.
I looked at the notification I had received a day and a half ago.
[You've discovered Cum-bending]
[ 3,000 EXP]
I had never known the system could play jokes.
I was standing at the top of the wall, looking at the huge artificial black cloud covering the sky. On the ground, an army was marching.
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