11 Dealing

Kai was jumping through endless rows of rock formations on the ground while having two giant boulders strapped to his back. Right now, Kai was treating them like an obstacle course. The importance of this exercise was that it makes Kai learn the benefit of being grounded.

Kai was slowly but surely being able to earthbend by doing these kinds of training. One of the exercises he now adds to his training routine was to hold his horse stance for at least 5 minutes with boulders strapped on his back.

It would've been extremely tiring, but with Kai's chi strengthening his body, the exhaustion afterwards was reduced by a lot. Gyatsu told Kai that his chi pool was slowly becoming a sea with the way he was going.

Kai was also getting closer to being able to use seismic sense by walking around the quiet forest blindfolded trying to sense to the vibrations of the earth.

Kai was also training his Jing. Jing is a term that describes the myriad of options one has during battle on how to direct their chi, both internally and externally.

The two commonly known forms are positive jing, corresponding to advancing or attacking, and negative jing, corresponding to retreating or evading.

Kai however was training in neutral jing, which corresponds to waiting and listening, or, as the late King Bumi described it, 'doing nothing'. Neutral jing after all, is the key to earthbending.

It isn't actually just standing there and doing nothing, it involves listening and waiting for the right moment to strike since most earthbending requires stationary combat.

It is the basis of true earthbending, and Kai intends to get it down by having Gyatsu attack him, even though the old monk was reluctant to do so because of his pacifistic nature being an Air Acolyte and all.

With that type of training, Kai was quickly getting neutral jing down. He was sort of a counterattacking genius now.

Sometimes, Kai would take the chance to close his eyes before Gyatsu attacked him, intending to sense the vibrations of Gyatsu's footsteps when the old monk stomped the ground before sending out a stream of fire at his student.

Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. Nevertheless, this was the result after Kai's 29 days of hardcore training.

[Levels: Rookie > Novice > Adept > Expert > Professional > Master > Grandmaster > Legendary]

[Firebending: Professional (0.5%)

Uses 20% less chi ]

[Flame Generation: Yellow (20%)]

[Chi Control: Expert (0%)

15% less chi used in any bending style.]

[Chi sense: Novice (7%)

Maximum distance is 500m]

[Earthbending: Rookie(10%)

You have this because of the Seismic Sense skill.]

[Seismic Sense: Rookie (1.5%)

Still faulty, needs more work.]

[Forgery: (Expert 100% Maxed)]

[Stealing: (Expert 100% Maxed)]

[Swordsmanship(Adept 0%)]

"I think that's all I need to do this. The Sons of Anarchy will be no match! Now let's see if I can do this....." Kai whispered as he held up his open palm. He gathered a bunch of flames that became a fireball. Slowly it changed shape and became a flaming cube, then after a few seconds a flaming rectangle. Then with even more concentration, a four star shuriken.

Kai narrowed his eyes and concentrated his chi even more. Since he was that focused, he didn't notice that there was a orange flaming aura around him with how concentrate his chi was.

The flaming rectangle became a flaming sword, a dao blade to be exact, like the one Zuko used when he was younger. Kai started sweating profusely and he started getting lightheaded.

'1....2....3....4...5....' Kai grunted as the flaming blade in his right hand died off in an instant. He sighed and laid down on the ground, breathing heavily while staring at the cloudy sky.

Kai was absolutely sure that he was the first person to create such a technique in this world. It was the technique to be able to create a physical construct out of flames.

'My body will adapt to this new use of firebending... eventually....' Kai thought before he noticed someone approaching him. He looked to see that it was Iroh.

"You looked like you've ran a marathon." Iroh commented with a small smile on his face. Kai grunted as he slowly got up.

"A marathon can't compare to what I did." Kai replied as Iroh stretched out his hand to have Kai grab it. Kai was then pulled up by the general.

"So what are you doing here? I've never seen you outside of soldier duty and planning the strike." Kai commented. Iroh nodded.

"I'm just checking up on you since we're commencing the operation tomorrow. Don't exhaust yourself in training too much or else you'll have no fuel for the flame tomorrow." Iroh advised. Kai nodded silently while still catching his breath.

"I've never seen that technique before." Kai's head turned quickly to look at Iroh. Iroh raised an eyebrow at his reaction.

"What's that face for? I saw it, so what? That's the most impressive thing I've ever witnessed my whole life except for my grandfather's dragon." Iroh complimented. Kai nodded and looked down at the ground.

"Thank you, General Iroh." Kai whispered back. Iroh patted Kai's back.

"You have a bright future in the army, Kai. You're incredibly talented at such a young age. I don't think kicking you out of the army is the right choice."

Kai looked at Iroh with a hopeful gaze in his eyes, him getting expelled out of the Fire Army was the number one subject bugging his mind constantly.

"I'm gonna stay?"

"Yes! Look at you. In just a month, you're almost close behind me in terms of strength. You've already invented a new sub skill of firebending with that demonstration just now. The Fire Nation will suffer a huge loss if you were kicked out of the army."

"It's up to people with great minds like you to lead the nation. I know I sound cliche, but don't you think there's a little bit of truth behind it? Some people, mainly the extreme patriots still can't get over the old ways and want it to return." Iroh looked at Kai seriously.

"You know what the old ways did, Kai. The history books remind us everyday about what we did, about what he did. An entire civilization was massacred and thousands were killed, all because one jealous king wanted to 'share his nation's prosperity to the rest of the world'." Iroh declared as he and Kai started walking in the forest.

"Because of him, the throne of the Fire Lord, which once symbolized great power and prosperity is now the symbol of tyrants. What my ancestors did was absolutely unforgivable and me and my people do not deserve horrible discrimination and paranoia that is still ongoing because of what Sozin started." Iroh looked at Kai determinedly.

"We must show them that we are now peacekeepers and protectors, not destroyers and tyrants. And that starts with taking down the Sons of Anarchy." Iroh declared. Kai nodded.

"What do you plan to do, Kai?" Iroh asked the teenage sergeant.

"I wanna become the General of the Fire Army, being in that position means I'll be the second in command under the Fire Lord. Maybe I'll be the strongest firebender in existence, those are the only main ones I have currently."

"Currently? You sure dream big. The first one you would probably achieve in a few years, the current general is may I say a little incompetent now that he's old. The second one however is borderline impossible."

"Being the strongest firebender in existence means that you have to be stronger than the Avatar. They're the strongest out of the strongest." Iron raised an eyebrow at Kai with an amused smile on his face. Kai looked back at him seriously.

"This isn't some dream made up and then abandoned by a child. I'm serious about pursuing them, General." Kai replied seriously. He then heard rustling coming from a few trees away from him but he ignored it.

Ioh smirked and nodded.

"Then I'll see you at the top. I have distaste for politics. Those people either want more money in their pockets or start something out of nothing. But with someone like you being the General, maybe I'll come to tolerate it." Iroh held out his hand for Kai to shake it.

The two men shook hands before Iroh suddenly pulled Kai closer to him. "By the way, get rid of the person spying on us. He might be from the Sons of Anarchy." Iroh whispered as Kai widened his eyes in shock.

"What!?" Kai asked Iroh who nodded.

"He's been following us from the start."

"And you're only telling me this now? We could've dealt with him a few minutes ago." Kai argued with Iroh who shook his head.

"If I told you as soon as I arrived, you wouldn't believe me and the person spying would've escaped already if I did that. Go! He's trying to run away." Iroh patted Kai's should've before Kai looked behind him and saw a hooded character using fire jets to get away from the scene as fast as possible.

"Oh no you don't!" Kai shouted as he he shot out fire from his back, propelling himself forward a long way towards the hooded stalker. That one blast cut down the distance between Kai and the stalker by half.

"Interrogate him when you catch him!!!" Iroh shouted at Kai who didn't reply as he was focusing on catching up with the stalker. Kai shot multiple yellow fireballs at the stalker.

The stalker skillfully dodged them. The fireballs exploded and took out a bunch of trees in the background. Kai narrowed his eyes and opted to just stick to chasing him instead of slowing him down.

"What the—" Kai shouted in disbelief as the stalker suddenly turned around and threw multiple sticks of already lit up dynamite at him. The stalker then shot out a stream of fire at Kai.

Kai faced the stream of fire head on by slamming his palm into it, dispersing it entirely using his skill in firebending. This kind of blocking style was inspired by Katara blocking the blood bender Hama's water attack.

Kai then suddenly started spinning rapidly while a round barrier of flames surrounded him. The stalker widened his eyes under the shadow of his hood.

"Rotation." Kai whispered as the sticks of dynamite came in contact with the barrier of flames.

*BOOOM!!!!!*

A giant devastating explosion covered the area before a large cloud of smoke covered the area, giving the stalker time to run away.

The smoke cleared, revealing an unharmed Kai with narrowed eyes.

"Don't think you got off lucky, bastard. I already remembered your chi signature, you can't escape me."

To be continued...