19 Chapter 19

-[Aroh]-

Dragging Jeong Jeong and his primitives into the forest, he made sure he was a decent distance from the trio.

Propping them against a tree, he moved to the white haired man, generating a minuscule amount of lightning, zapping the man's neck.

Jeong Jeong immediately let out a gasp as he was shocked awake. He panicked as he took in his surroundings before focusing his gaze on Aroh.

"You!" His face twisted into a hateful glare.

"Yes, me. I said there'd be more than enough time to talk when you woke up and here we are." Aroh said casually as his fingers drummed along the handle of his sword.

"I have nothing to say to a creature like you." Jeong Jeong said in an indignant tone.

The teen gave the man a look. "'Creatures like me', 'Amalgamation of evil', 'Abomination'. You've all been skirting around it so tell me." he subconsciously activated [Bloodlust] as he took a step closer to the man. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Most would miss the minute trembling of Jeong Jeong's body but to Aroh's eyes, he might as well have been openly shivering.

To his merit, the man stayed, causing Aroh to sigh. Moving to one of the unconscious men, he pulled out his sword, letting the blade rest on the man's shoulder.

"You have ten seconds to answer or I'll kill him." He said in a blunt manner, Jeong Jeong's eyes widening. "If you don't answer after that, I'll kill the next one. Is the answer worth more than their lives? Will I run out of patience or will you run out of men?"

Jeong Jeong stayed silent for a moment, carefully watching Aroh. As a frown emerged on his face, the sword suddenly blurred as the man's head was sent flying.

"Next."Under Jeong Jeong's hateful and shocked gaze, he moved to the next man who was also unconscious, letting the blade rest on his shoulder.

What panicked Jeong Jeong even more was that the boy wasn't audibly counting for him to hear, a tactic to put more pressure on him.

"Wait!" He screamed, just as the mental timer ended.

He only just barely managed to save the man seeing as how the blade had begun digging into his skin, drawing blood. "I will tell you." He said in a resigned manner.

Internally, Aroh was satisfied. Jeong Jeong could act as tough as he wanted but in the end he didn't want to see the very men who aided him die due to his stubbornness.

"The darkness, the taint, that evil aura…it clings to your very being. It is more malicious than anything I've felt in my entire life." He answered reluctantly, seeing as a frown emerged on Aroh's face.

"That's it? So you tried to kill me just because of that?" Aroh questioned, a hint of his irritation at the absurdity leaking out.

"That aura is nothing even remotely human! I do not know what kind of creature you are but you do not belong here!" Jeong Jeong defended with a scowl.

With an audible scoff, Aroh walked up to the bound man, his foot lashing out and striking the man in his temple. The hit was enough to knock him out.

"Ridiculous." He muttered before heading deeper into the forest.

•••

He was aware that Jeong Jeong and his primitive warriors lived here in the forest. He didn't have to walk much before he got to their settlement.

He frowned when he didn't see any ships or boats. 'I guess it was too much to expect them to have one.' He thought as he began searching the place.

A few minutes later, he was leaving the settlement with a bag slung across his shoulder. They sunk his ship that had his supplies, it was only fitting that he restocked with theirs.

He suddenly blurred out of view as he made his way back to where he left Katara with the other two.

"…ear yourself?! He's from the fire nation!" He heard Sokka scream.

"What does that have to do with anything?!" Katara yelled back in frustration.

"It has everything to do with everything! I say we get out of here before he gets back." Sokka proposed, unaware of Aroh's arrival.

He had a habit of moving around with [Stealth] active so he wasn't surprised.

[Negative Emotion Sensing has leveled up!]

He turned to the source of the negative emotions who was glaring daggers into him. Aroh met his gaze with an uncaring look before walking towards Katara.

By the time he got close, Sokka had already noticed him and went silent with a frown. "And what do you want?" The boy asked aggressively.

Aroh raised a brow at that before turning to Katara. "Are you done here?"

Katara had a conflicted look on her face. Her and Sokka were obviously having a major disagreement about Aroh. A disagreement that he didn't intend to actively settle.

"'Not exactly." She answered, giving Sokka a glare.

"Katara, why can't you understand this?! We can't trust him. For all we know, he's just using you to find Aang!" Sokka argued.

"That's enough Sokka. Aroh doesn't even care about Aang. I'm the one who wanted to look for both of you!" Katara shot back.

"And how do we know that's not what he wanted you to think?!" Sokka countered.

"Are you calling me dumb?" Katara questioned with narrow eyes.

Before Sokka could dig his grave further, Aang spoke up. "Those people…what did you do to them?"

"Hmm?" His question was directed to Aroh who glanced at him. "What are you talking about?"

[Negative Emotion Sensing has leveled up!]

"That firebender, and those men! What did you do to them?" Aang said in a tense manner, gripping his staff tightly.

"I sent them off." The teen answered bluntly.

He could feel the anger from the boy in front of him. It had been building up for quite a while.

Whether it was whatever Katara said to him while he was gone or because the girl had barely paid him any attention, Aroh didn't know. More importantly, he just didn't care.

He saw Aang's drift to Katara who was giving him a cautious look. A look of hurt flashed through his eyes before he specifically looked at the space between Aroh and Katara…or rather, the lack of it.

As Aroh felt the wind pick up around them, he was reminded about the emotional instability and immaturity of the boy in front of him.

He was aware that Raava was also influencing his emotions, making him even more radical. He could feel the same tug on his emotions but he was easily able to control himself.

"Aang…" Sokka said slowly as he took a step back.

"Calm yourself, else you do something you'll regret." Aroh warned as he discretely pulled up his status.

•••

Name: Aroh

Title: Child Soldier

Level:50

Chi:4500/4500

Str:50

Dex:90

Vit:70

Chi:90

Points:38

•••

He quickly added 10 points to Dex and Str each, bringing them to 100 and 60 respectively.

The wind around them increased in intensity, causing Aroh to brandish his sword. Aang's eyes took on a white glow as the air around him pushed outward.

Everyone around him was flung away excluding Aroh who stood his ground. His eyes moved to Katara who just barely managed to draw water from the river beside them to protect herself and Sokka even as they were blown away.

Aroh gestured for her to stay back as Aang's palm struck towards him, a powerful blast of air, shooting towards him.

The attack also raised dust from the ground, obscuring their view of Aroh. Not a moment later, the teen seemingly appeared in front of the enraged avatar.

His foot lashed out, slamming into his face and sending him to the side.

"What was that?!!" He heard Sokka scream in shock.

To them, he had seemingly teleported but it was pure speed. He had limited his strength to not kill the boy. If he was going to kill him, he'd at least kill him when he wasn't in the avatar state.

Had he not been aware that Vaatu had somehow managed to slip a part of himself into the mortal world, he'd have no qualms killing Aang as he was.

During Korra's tenure, Vaatu only escaped because Unalaq managed to get Korra to open the spirit portals during Harmonic convergence.

If there was no avatar then that would never happen but the situation had changed.

He casually tilted to the side as a blast of air shot through where he previously stood.

'Katara can heal burns, can't she?' He thought to himself as the avatar shot another blast at him.

Aiming at the attack itself, Aroh released an arc of fire. The wind only served to fuel the flames, increasing its intensity as it raced towards Aang.

Aided by the wind, Aang leaped over it only to find Aroh in the air with him, the teen's fist punching the avatar and sending him back to the ground.

Aang quickly got to his feet and took a different approach. Bending the air around him to form a protective ball, he found that he lost sight of Aroh.

A screeching sound was heard as Aroh's chi coated blade tore through the shield of air. The avatar had no time to react as Aroh lashed out a decently powerful punch to the back of his neck.

The boy choked a bit as the white glow left his eyes before falling unconscious. Seeing that he was no longer a threat, Aroh sheathed his sword before turning to Katara who released her shield.

"Does this answer your question?" Aroh asked, his question aimed at Sokka.

The water tribe boy knew what he meant. From the display just now, Aroh could have killed Aang…multiple times and yet the boy still drew breath.

"That doesn't prove anything." The tanned boy refuted as he walked towards them and picked up Aang from the ground. "Come on, Katara. We're leaving."

"No. I'm not going anywhere without Aroh." Katara said, not budging.

Sokka had a look of frustration on his face as he wanted to complain but eventually dropped it. Even he knew a hopeless battle when he saw one.

"Fine!" He said reluctantly. "Where were you two even headed anyway?"

"The Northern Watertribe." Katara answered, causing Sokka to blink owlishly before sighing.

"It's not like we're not going there anyways."

Despite his reluctance to accept and go along, he had no choice. Stopping the fire nation from destroying the northern water tribe was more important. He was basically being handed a way to reduce suspicion against him and give him a slightly easier time getting in.

Though he couldn't care less about what they thought of him, he'd need the tribe to at least stay neutral towards him rather than them impeding his work.

With a sigh, he let his arm snake around Katara's waist as they walked towards the flying Bison that would take them on their way.

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