"Okay, Ryuk. You're getting way too arrogant," Toph said, looking between and the floating airships. "To think you're going to take over an entire base all by yourself. At least take with you. With that, we'd have better chances."
"Didn't you see my performance at the North Pole? I healed your eyes, rember?" I narrowed my eyebrows at her.
Calling arrogant for going alone was one thing, but saying that the only help I needed was her? That was pretty arrogant of her too. It was ironic.
"I saw it. I could've done better if there'd been earth at the Pole. But it was just a frozen ocean." She shrugged.
During the last few days, I'd talked with everyone. I spent ti with family, girlfriends, and attended etings to learn about plans and all. So had already departed.
And after those days were over, I was left staring at the sky, at the airships traveling above.
I was pretty sure the Fire Nation wouldn't see these ships coming during the eclipse.
It was a total overkill.
"Okay, I get your point," I admitted. Toph was a very talented Earthbender; she could take over a small army by herself, provided there was earth around. She was strong in the original tiline, and in this one, even stronger.
"But…" she said.
"But Katara would be upset if I took you and not her." I said.
"So, a big grown man like you is afraid of his little girlfriend? That's cute." she teased.
"I'm not afraid of her. I'm afraid of hurting her feelings." I explained.
"That's why I called you cute," Toph chuckled, bumping her fist into my ribs. "But co on. That would be fun. Take us both. I'll protect her."
'I'd still need soone to open the prisons and gather the people in the city.'
I sighed and nodded.
Toph smiled broadly. "Sounds like a plan."
I put my hand on her head and ssed up her hair.
"Sure it does," I said.
"So, are we going to ride on these slow things?" she asked.
"No." I shook my head.
I opened my system and looked at my stats.
I noticed I had around two million accumulated experience points, quite a lot.
And I'd gained a good portion on the XP bar of waterbending.
[Waterbending (1,710,000/2M)]
[Using 300k]
[Waterbending up to level 16 (0/4M)]
[You have achieved Celestial Level]
[All skills have been upgraded]
I looked at the air.
As my skill level rose, everything increased.
My aqua sense was upgraded so much that I could see everything in the city and beyond.
In the air, I could even see molecules of water and freeze them at will.
[Using 1M]
[Chi bending up to level 15]
[All sub-skills have been upgraded]
[ New sub-skills]
"Why are you staring blankly into the air?" Toph asked. "Don't tell you're hesitating now."
"Oh, no." I shook my head.
"Ryuk, I can feel your pulse. You just got focused on nothing."
"I just got hit by enlightennt. Anyway… before departing, let's have a quickie." I turned and looked down at Toph.
I was getting more experienced at this... the relationships stuff. If a girl acts angry and annoyingly clingy, it usually ans she's sexually frustrated. That needed fixing.
—x-X-x—
The day of the eclipse.
The entire forces of the Earth Kingdom and the White Lotus Order had placed themselves in the remaining bases and occupied lands held by the Fire Nation.
They were waiting for the sky.
At midday, it suddenly got darker.
One of the Fire Nation guards stood atop the fortress, grimacing.
Not only did he have to work overti today, but he also had to endure the eclipse. He could feel weaker, and the heat was growing stronger. As his bending power diminished, so did his heat resistance.
He looked at the sun, covered by the moon.
Just as he was about to grumble to the guard next to him, his expression changed from grimacing to horrified.
Tons of ships were flying.
Flying ships?
How could such a thing exist?
And just as he was about to wonder, he saw weird powder flying from those airships toward them, spreading.
BOOM BOOM
Needless to say, in war, attacks often co by surprise.
The Fire Nation soldiers had no ti to hold their formation before people began jumping from descending airships.
These attackers then stord the base, capturing the leaders as hostages and freeing the prisoners.
In no ti, the city was declared free, and the colonizer citizens were placed under house arrest as negotiation cards with the Fire Nation.
The sa happened in other cities.
So were bloodier, so more peaceful.
But the result was the sa:
A total victory with no harm to the Earth Kingdom's side.
And even if the Fire soldiers tried to resist with their machinery, it backfired because of the talbenders' presence.
In this attack, the Fire Nation had no leverage.
As the eclipse ended, cheers of celebration echoed.
—x-X-x—
At another place, in the far west, Ryuk floated atop the walls, watching the sleepy guards.
He was eating an apple, gazing at the sky, waiting for the eclipse to end.
Below, thousands of soldiers looked at him anxiously.
Apparently, this man attacked them, then told them he'd wait for their power to return before finishing them — and told them to gather everyone while showing off his power.
Next to Ryuk, Toph glared at him.
"And here you said you weren't arrogant!" she hissed.
"I'm not," Ryuk said.
To be fair, and in his defense, Ryuk didn't do this out of ego.
He feared the soldiers would give less experience if they were nerfed.
Katara looked down blankly. Not a trace of fear on her pretty face. She knew she could handle them alone and didn't need bloodbending. She had nutsbending, and her power was enough.
"For the first ti, I find myself agreeing with Toph," Katara comnted, "Not that I mind, though."
"See? Even careful Katara, with no fear in her voice, says that!" Toph complained.
I decided to tease Toph: "Are you afraid?"
"What?" she crossed her arms and scoffed. "I'm not. I'm afraid sothing bad might happen to you. I can't protect your sorry ass every ti."
I rolled my eyes. That's Toph, always harsh with words, but I knew beneath them was deep love.
"Anyway, enjoy the show," I said as the day got brighter.
I looked up.
The moon was moving away.
Below, the Firebenders were breathing easily.
"Finally."
"I've got my power back."
"Ryuk! You may be powerful, but you can't take all of us."
"Yes. We're going to kill you!"
The soldiers threw words one after another.
There were no non-benders among them, and I took care of them the mont I arrived.
Also, allow to remind you: I leveled up my waterbending and chi-bending before coming here.
That ant I was way more powerful than when I was at the North Pole.
I jumped off the walls and put my hands in my pockets.
Before Katara could bend anyone or Toph could react, I activated my powers.
At my current level, I could feel every molecule of water and use my sub-skills from a distance, very effectively.
At early levels, it took a few seconds to freeze soone. Then I could do it from afar and faster. Now it was instant.
But now… now that I'd leveled up, I had a good feeling about what I could do.
Hundreds of soldiers suddenly froze.
The hot base turned cold.
[Ding… Calculating]
"What's the matter? Weren't you cocky just a few seconds ago?"
I raised my hand, and a couple hundred soldiers flew through the air.
I used one of my oldest sub-skills, Dehydration Palm, part of steam-bending.
Steam started escaping their bodies.
'Fuck! This is what the Celestial Level ans… I wonder what will happen once I reach the next level,' I thought, looking down at the horrified faces destined to beco my experience points.
Even I began to fear how powerful I'd beco.
At the sa ti, I was excited.
The feeling of power can be addictive.
I smirked at the soldiers, who then turned and began to run.
As you see, the soldiers surrounded in circles on the ground. So, by simply using bloodbending to freeze the outermost layer of soldiers, those inside got trapped.
"Katara, Toph. It's ti for you to shine. Go take the keys and free the hostages," I said.
The girls snapped out of their shock.
They probably thought they'd be helpful.
And they were.
"You're the boss," Toph shrugged.
Later, I'd tease her about how worried she was and how she used to say it was too risky for to go alone.
"Yeah." Katara waved her hand as she walked by. "Just call us when you're done."
A bunch of soldiers fell to their knees, clutching their crotches as an invisible force twisted their balls.
"Sure thing, babe," I said quietly, then looked ahead.
I could see the fear in their eyes.
I could see them bending water through their skin and eyes.
"You won't feel pain."
As I said that, I waved my hand, and line by line, they froze instantly, turning to ice.
I didn't want to burn them as that would be too painful.
But I didn't want to seem like a guy they could ss with either.
After this, I gained enough confidence to go to the Fire Nation alone.
"We surrender!"
"I give up!"
"Please spare our lives!"
Of course, I couldn't just kill everyone as that would make a genocide supporter. I only did the minimum.
The number of survivors was quite high:
Out of a few thousand to ten thousand, twenty were spared.
Well, they weren't worth much experience points anyway.
Katara and Toph returned with prisoners who were fighters against the Fire Nation rebels and Earthbenders.
They were freed to take over the city again.
As for the colonizers citizens, they were arrested to be used as negotiation cards later, as agreed in our plans.
I would have loved to stay for the celebration, but I had to go back to Omashu and see how things developed elsewhere.
I hoped to hear good news very soon.
[The calculation of experience is over.]
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