Two weeks later, as Ryuk and his group were traveling on land, practicing and hunting together, the continent wasn't as calm as their journey.
The continent wasn't as peaceful as everyone had thought it would be. Well, it had been at war. However, the tides of the war had started to shift ever since a group of a hundred benders began spreading across the continent, teaching talbending and dustbending.
Many cities had acquired the training thods for these new types of sub-bending.
Moreover, it was advised that they focus on dustbending, especially glass bending and explosive powder bending.
Currently, one of the n Ryuk had taught was standing before the door of a city occupied by the Fire Nation, leading a small rebellion.
Haru, with around 10 n, was running in one direction.
Behind them, there were around 400 soldiers.
They had just been caught trying to free the earthbender prisoners from the tal prison.
Haru turned his head, avoiding fire streams aid at him as he ran.
"Haru…"
"Not yet… Wait… wait…" Haru thought, as Ryuk would have, and did the sa. "Now!"
As he yelled, the earthbenders turned, stomped, and pushed forward.
The dust rose from the ground, moving in the opposite direction and creating a strong wind current.
The firebenders covered their faces.
The earthbenders didn't stop with just spreading the dust. Instead, they bent it into different forms, compressing it into tornadoes and moving them into different spots.
The explosive powder had the potential to spread, and they didn't want to be caught in it.
"Now, create friction!" Haru ordered.
The dust hit against each other, creating sparks.
BOOM BOOM BOOM
Although the explosive powder didn't have the sa explosive power or ingredients as a full-scale bomb, it was enough. Ryuk had taught him that stronger explosive dust could be made by mixing higher-grade materials that required a higher temperature to explode. But as long as there was charcoal and sulfur, it would suffice.
The force of the 400 soldiers had been reduced to barely a hundred.
The earthbenders, who had been running, changed direction and started chasing after the fire soldiers. Since the latter were wearing tallic armor, it was easier to deal with them. Without a significant nurical advantage, the earthbenders — now talbenders — could hold their own.
The Fire Nation's greatest asset, their technology and armor, was now working against them. One couldn't simply be a good soldier or firebender when they found themselves flying in the air or worse, being thrown into their allies.
The soldiers began retreating back to the city, either to get more backup, hostages, or whatever else they could manage.
One of the earthbenders pulled sothing from his pocket.
A black rock.
He threw it in their direction.
Haru clapped his hands, and the rock suddenly turned to dust, which spread into a cloud.
Boom…
The soldiers who didn't die collapsed, suffering severe injuries and burns.
Haru looked at the earthbender who threw the rock.
That rock wasn't just any rock.
It was compressed explosive powder.
One of their group had co up with this idea — a dust grenade. It could only be made by earthbenders, since only they could compress and decompress earth.
But to make it effective, the dust needed to be spread before it exploded, so it could cover a larger area.
"It's finally over…" comnted a middle-aged man.
"Yeah," Haru wiped the sweat from his forehead. "Honestly, I thought we were going to die."
"Thankfully, we set traps in advance," said Tyro.
"Yeah. Ryuk's way of fighting is really efficient. Though, I wonder why he didn't continue fighting," added Zaru, Tyro's friend.
Haru interjected, "I may be wrong, but didn't the Fire Nation send a massive force from all directions a few days after we left, and we were chased across the road? If we had stayed, wouldn't we have died?"
"I was about to say that."
"Hey, I'm not stupid. I'm just saying he could have figured out sothing."
"Like what?"
"I'm not him to think like him."
Haru smiled.
He and the talbenders entered the city to take it over. They went to the prison, a place made entirely of tal, to cripple the powers of the earthbenders. But it did nothing to stop the talbenders from freeing their companions.
The prison held around 200 prisoners. 150 of them were earthbenders, and the rest were just ordinary criminals who had committed cris against the Fire Nation. Of course, the enemy of the enemy is a friend.
Once everyone was freed and the city was under control, the talbenders politely asked the Fire Nation colonizers to leave through the front door, leaving behind food and money.
Similar events were happening across the continent. So talbenders weren't as patient and thought they should gather forces and attack nearby bases. Of course, not all of them succeeded. After all, nurical advantage is an absolute advantage at a certain scale, and a capable strategist would be a tough opponent.
But the good news was that talbending was spreading. Those who couldn't learn it at least drew up manuals and wrote instructions on how to learn it before sending them to nearby places.
-x-X-x-
Two weeks later.
I placed my hand on top of my head and looked at the city in the distance. It was still far away, but there it was, nestled between the mountains — the city of Omashu. It was considered a kingdom of its own.
"Such geography and location. It'll prevent the Fire Nation from invading and make defense easier," I remarked.
"I guess it's still so far away since I can't see it," Toph yawned, looking ahead.
Over the last two weeks, the group had grown closer as they traveled together.
Toph was the friendly, teasing type of girl, always throwing out comnts you couldn't take seriously. Occasionally, she'd complain about bugs and mosquitoes, but she was quite useful.
She could detect danger, underground water sources, and even hidden beasts that liked to attack from beneath. She'd occasionally hunt small animals for dinner or lunch.
Katara had been practicing her new form of bending, bloodbending. During the three days of the full moon, she had quickly mastered it, thanks to her talent and my training.
She still couldn't bend humans without the full moon, but at least she could bend small animals. And she was learning how to move them on her own.
Sokka was just an annoying overprotective brother.
On the other hand, I could move humans completely. But I was limited by the quantity.
My guess was that once I leveled up again — be it through waterbending or chi bending — I'd be able to bend a countless number.
Well, it wasn't like I was helpless without bloodbending. Nut bending was already handy and easier to do.
Most importantly, steam bending was incredibly overpowered, considering how I could turn a small amount of water into a large volu with it.
And I had been gaining a lot of experience points over the past two weeks from my occasional hunts, and my waterbending was halfway to leveling up.
[Waterbending level 14 (200,000/400,000)]
It just so happened that I had 300k experience points, which I planned to use later.
"Ryuk… I need your help," Toph suddenly called , holding a skinned rabbit in a bowl.
"Sure," I replied. "What is it?"
"Can you steam this?" she asked.
"Sure," I answered.
-x-X-x-
In the mountain range.
A scout from the Fire Nation had been observing.
Ever since discovering talbending and dustbending, the Fire Nation had been on high alert.
They didn't mind that so small cities had picked it up.
But the real problem would be when a major city got hold of these new bending techniques and explosive formulas.
The Fire Nation had increased the number of scouts and squads near major cities.
To see Ryuk, who beca a symbol himself, was quite huge surprise. Expected, but a huge surprise.
"Look at that. There is only four of them, and just a pet," smirked one of the scouts while having a bead of sweat dropping from his chin.
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