Chapter 2: Earth and Blood

After a few hours the village came into view and Alice had to think about how she wanted to handle this.

On one hand she wanted the ability to use earth bending,

On the other hand she had an aversion towards hurting the innocent and she wasn't sure if she had the stomach to steal the bending of an innocent.

In the end she decided to see what kind of person this supposed earth bender turns out to be.

If they are someone she can respect they get to keep their bending and if they are scum she will take it without remorse.

After all she surely would be able to use their bendig better if they were a bad person.

When she got close enough to the villager for her liking she landed hidden behind some trees and turned into a shadow before entering the village.

-Meanwhile in the Fire Nations Garrison

The nameless soldier ran into the garrison with a terrified face. On his way he managed to run over multiple soldiers spreading the shadow maggots in the process. Soon he managed to get to the garrison's commander.

The commander, general zaou was not amused when a low ranked soldier suddenly ran into his office. He was about to throw the idiot out of his office when he saw the look on the soldier's face. The decaying handprint that spread across his face was an ugly sight.

"Soldier report what happened to you, where is the rest of your unit?" Barked the general.

"S-Spirit general, we angered a spirit. S-She devoured my entire unit. I-It was horrible she ripped the commander's spine out and beat him to death with it. She was angered by us when we raped and pillaged our way across the land. S-she let me live to warn you that the spirits are hunting us now."

The soldier who had been running for hours collapsed after delivering Alice's message. The general meanwhile rapidly paled.

The fire nation had hoped that the gates to the spirit realm would be closed with the disappearance of the avatar.

And so far they had been getting away with a lot but it seems that the spirits finally had enough and no one knew what they would do next but one thing was clear.

They had a big problem now.

-with Alice, Earth Kingdom Village

Alice entered the village via the shadows of an elderly woman. Her mode of transportation was rather slow but it was worth it as she got to observe the local population.

The faces of the children were marred with tears.

The adults were frowning and you could clearly see that none of them were happy. It was obvious something was wrong here. As the old woman neared her house Alice used the moment when she passed the shadow of a house to transfer away from her.

Her plan was simple, she would observe the villagers for a while to figure out what was going on in this village. She had a vague idea but hoped she was wrong.

[Quest Generated: Earth and Blood]

[Find the reason for the sadness of the Village and remove it.]

[Rewards: 5 Health Potions, Level up, Skill book, 1 Gatcha draw, Fox Sin of Greed Skill duplication Ability]

The Quest notification made Alice frown. This was the first Quest she got and it looked like she would have to do some cleanup in this village.

She made her way through the houses as night fell and what She heard confirmed her worries. It seems that the benders that had been sent to protect the community had instead decided that they wished to rule the people.

Their reign wasn't a quiet or peaceful one. Their actions were no better than those of the invading fire nation. Indeed in some cases their actions were even worse than that of the fire nation soldiers. After all getting raped by people you grew up with is worse than getting raped by a stranger.

Anger began to rise in Alice's heart. Those people were the scum of the earth. How dare they hurt those they had sworn to protect? Did their oats to the earth kingdom mean nothing to them? She would not accept this.

"It seems I will be getting another donation of bending from those fuckers. Why oh why must I always be right with my assumptions. I had hoped that the state of this village was because of the fire nation, But nooo, I just had to be right again. Of course it was human greed, it always is. For fucks sake, how many rapists do I have to kill until they learn? I will burn them all if need be."

Alice made her way to the suspected location of the earth bender's hideout. Her plan was to find them and terrorise them to the point of insanity.

Their hideout was supposed to be on top of a hill inside a hidden cave. Alice used her wings and the cover of night to make her way up the hill. It didn't take her long to arrive at the top and what she found disgusted her. Multiple women were being held in rudimentary stone cages. Some as young as 15.

She snapped. Her original plan went right out of the window. Her Dragon Slayer Magic reacted in response to her emotions and her small body began to change. Her wings took on a draconic design and black scales began to spread over her body, Her face elongated into that of a dragon and She fell to her knees. Her arms turned into the front legs of a true western dragon and her tail became draconic as well. Unlike the first time when she had used her shadows to change her outward appearance, this time the changes were biological in nature and She could feel pure power course through her body.

[Warning minor dragonification detected. Employing countermeasures.]

Alice read the notification and growled.

"NO, allow the changes to stay for now. I wish to destroy those fuckers"

[Affirmative User choice respected.]

The women in the cages huddled together in fright as what they believed to be a great spirit appeared in front of them.

Alice swung her right hand across the cages and ripped them to shreds, Sending great showers of stone flying across the Hill. The noise of the cages Breaking alerted the earth benders and they made their way outside of the cave.

"You fucking bitches what is all this noise…." Screamed the leader of the small group, But his voice cut out when he saw the great dragon towering over him.

At this point Alice had grown to the size of a three story building and the length of five school buses. Her red eyes were focused on the group of benders in front of her.

She lowered her head to the height of the Leader and let loose a Massive Breath of darkness. The skin and bones of the leader began to wither and rot at a visible pace. The rest of the benders cried out in fright as they saw their leader rapidly decompose in front of them.

Some of them came to their senses and began to throw massive boulders at the dragon. It didn't do them any good. As a response to their actions Alice opened her maw and swallowed three of them in one massive bite.

[Earth Bending Absorbed. Integrating… Integration complete. Earth Bending unlocked.]

The Earth benders were panicking now. There was no way they could defeat this monster of a Spirit and from the looks of it it had no plans of allowing them to leave. Some of them took the momentary distraction of the dragon swallowing their friends and began to create escape tunnels for themselves.

Four of the benders disappeared into the earth. Upon seeing this Alice's rage grew to apocalyptical levels. She used her fire bending to flood the tunnels they had opened with enormous waves of fire. The fleeing earth benders didn't stand a chance as the waves of fire burned their bodies into charred skeletons. The captive women were near catatonic with fear at this point.

Alice didn't notice what kind of an effect she had on the former captives and continued to devastate the last living members of the earth bender group.

One of the women took the opportunity to grab the hand of another and soon all of them were fleeing the scene in fright.

They would have nightmares about this encounter but they were also grateful for their rescue.

The last of the benders, a young woman no older than twenty fell to the floor in front of the great dragon. "P-Please what do you want Spirit? Why are you attacking us?"

A deep growl escaped from Alice's maw. The memories she had gained from eating the benders showed her just what kind of woman this Bender was. "You disgust me. You stood by and watched as your friends had their way with those helpless women. You helped abduct them. And let's not begin to talk about your preferences. How dare you ask why I am attacking you, you who betrayed your own gender. Tell me filth, why should I not drop you from the skies? Why do you believe that what you did would not be punished? Actions have consequences and yours demand retribution. And I know just what to do with you. You believe that your bending puts you above the rest of your village. Even as you grew up you used your powers to get what you want and you think nothing would happen? Let's see how you will fare at the mercy of your village without your bendig."

Alice lowered one of her claws on top of the woman's head and used the power of the fox's sin of greed to steal the woman's bending. Due to the Fact that She wished for her skill to be visible a bright brown orb of light exited from the woman's head and went into Alice's maw.

The ex-bender broke down crying as She lost what she believed made her superior to the rest of the villagers . She had joined the earth kingdom army at the age of 15 and had never looked back, abusing her power wherever she got the chance to do so.

She had stolen what she wanted and raped many of the boys of the village, forcing herself on them in front of their parents. She knew that she would not survive the day if the spirit handed her over to the Village.

"Please spirit, I beg you. I will not survive if you hand me over to the village. Spare me I will serve you until I die but please do not hand me over to the village."

Alice did not care about the woman's survival or her pleas. Instead She grabbed her with one clawed hand and took to the air.

Down in the illage the women that had been taken as pleasure slaves had arrived back in the village. Many families had tearful reunions.

"Sister, how did you escape from the Benders?" Asked one little boy as he hugged the scarred form of his elder sister who had protected him from the mad Bender woman that sometimes came to the Village to seek new toys for her entertainment.

"A spirit in the form of a winged little girl came to the hill. When the spirit saw the cages they kept us in she turned into a massive black dragon and devoured the benders. When we ran the spirit was burning those who ran."

"A black dragon? L-Like that one that is coming down the hill?" The little boy stuttered in fright as he saw a massive reptile flying down from the hill.

Some of the villagers began to scream in fright as the massive dragon approached the Village.

Alice landed in a large cloud of dust. A flap of her wings dispelled the dust cloud and sent the villagers sprawling on the floor. "People of this village, Be not afraid your suffering is over, the Benders have been defeated and the fire nation will no longer harass you. I have seen to that. I bring you one of your oppressors. She has lost all of her powers and I hand her over to You for judgment. All I ask is that you do not allow this to happen again. A bender may be powerful but you are many. The average bender does not have the skill to survive the unexpected attack of a skilled bow user. Nor do they survive a dagger to the back. So the next time someone tries to oppress you, fight back. Arm yourselves and train. Bending is just another weapon and it can be overcome. So fight back."

Alice threw the ex-bender in the middle of the villagers and leapt into the sky.

When she was out of sight the parents of the abused children closed in on their oppressor carrying sticks and stones in their hands. Soon the village was filled with the screams of a former earth bender.

When she had managed to get some distance between herself and the village

Alice landed on a mountain top and opened her Inventory and took out the Gatcha Ticket.

„System please roll the Gatcha"

[Affirmative Rolling Gatcha]

[Distributing Reward]

[ 1 Infinite Bowl of Ichiraku Kitsune Udon Ramen obtained]

„Not a bad reward, I like myself some ramen and the fact that it is from Ichiraku's is even better. I might not need food to survive but damn do I like food"

Alice stretched her wings and took to the sky once again. This place was getting boring and she had already obtained the abilities to bend both earth and fire. Now all she needed was someone to teach her how to use her bending. She was hoping that she could maybe find Toph to teach her but this has a long shot as she had no idea where Toph was due to her habit of running away from her Parents.

With Toph Beifong, random Earth Kingdom road

Toph was in good spirits after having once again escaped her parents home.

Why did they have to treat her like a brittle doll? She was blind yes but that didn't

mean that she was helpless. Nevertheless her parents refused to accept the fact that she wasn't made from unfired clay. So she ran away, again and again.

This was another such occurrence. She had waited until her parents went to sleep before bending the wall of her room, creating a small passage for herself. After that she turned the ground in front of her into mud, animating it into a wave which she rode as a form of transportation.

It didn't take her too long to gain considerable distance between her and her family's home. But alas the benders hired by her parents were hot on her heels. It wouldn't take them too long to catch her once again, returning her to her gilded cage.

She didn't wish to return to her dreary life back home but she didn't have many ideas to keep the benders off her trail.

Toph let out an exasperated sigh and picked up speed in the vain hope that she somehow would manage to lose her pursuers.

That's when she felt it. Her tremor sense alerted her to the presence of a massive creature not far from her position. It was bipedal, its frame massive. Easily larger than the badgermoles that had taught her how to use earth bending.

She had never felt the presence of something so massive but the creature's size did not deter her from approaching the entity. She changed the direction of her earthen wave towards the creature and hoped to the spirits that it was sentient.

If it was she might be able to persuade it to help her.

General POV, secluded Earth Kingdom Forest

Alice had landed after flying for quite a while. Due to the effects of her Gamer's body she wasn't tired at all but the sun was setting and she was planning to find a place to rest and relax. What she didn't expect was to meet one of the leading characters of the show moving towards her on a wave of animated mud.

In the distance she could see Toph Beifong moving towards her position, not far behind her she could see a group of four earth benders chasing her. It looked like Toph once again escaped her parents care.

„You there big creature can you understand me? If you can, can you help me escape from those losers sent by my parents that keep chasing me?" Said Toph as she got close enough to hold a conversation with Alice.

„Running away from home eh? Sure jump on my back and we will get going, let's lose those chumps." Growled Alice.

She bent down enough for Toph to climb on her back.

Toph grinned and clumsily climbed onto the creature in front of her. With some difficulty she found a spot behind one of Alice's spikes. She sat down in a nook that was just the right size for her and wrapped her arms around the spike.

„Are you holding on?" Asked Alice.

After receiving a positive answer she flapped her wings and took to the air with a mighty leap. The benders that had been following Toph got knocked on their asses as the displaced air rushed past them. They looked at the pair of girls in shock and couldn't believe that the Beifong daughter would manage to get the help of a spirit.

Toph let out a bark of laughter when she felt the creature take to the sky. She had expected that the creature would run on land or perhaps move in jumps but this was far beyond her expectations.

„Any specific location you wish to visit or do you just want me to fly away randomly?" Asked Alice.

„I don't care as long as i don't have to wear a dress. I was expecting to be captured again and to be forced back to my parents and for them to once again try and lock me in my room. This is honestly the most excitement I have ever had in my life. I don't care where we are going as long as it isn't boring."

Said Toph as she clung onto Alice's spikes.

„Well if there is one thing that I can promise you it is that you certainly won't be bored as I have quite a few interesting things to do and I have some very entertaining plans. How do you like the idea of pranking the Firelord? Perhaps we could flood jhis palace with some sticky syrup?. Oh, what about painting him green? Or we could just kill him. But that would be boring. I mean it's rather easy, take a small rock and condense it down until it reaches maximum hardness, then find out when he will next give a speech and fling the rock through his brain. Or just drop a massive boulder on top of his palace. And finally what if we get a collection of earth benders to move a boulder from one to the next steadily increasing the speed, that way we should in theory get a hypersonic boulder."

Alice's musings got Toph thinking. It was true that all the things she had seen from her fellow earth benders had been rather subpar and lacking in imagination. The ideas brought forth by this Spirit? Where quite imaginative and she was eager to try some of them.

„We will be reaching our destination shortly and i wanted to ask what your name is, friend? I am called Alice, Alice Doom" Said Alice.

„Strange name for a spirit I must say. I am called Toph Beifong but you can call me Toph."

Alice chuckled and said. „I am not a spirit but I can guess why you would think me one. My current form is just a special ability that I have, along with the ability to steal just about anything including bending, as well as the manipulation of shadows. I am human just like you. Well with wings but other that that fully human I assure you."

Toph was quite perplexed by that. She had expected that her traveling partner was some form of unknown greater spirit that lived in the mountains, to her her claim that she was human was quite the shock indeed,

„So what, you just decide to turn into a big honking dragon at some point? And what was that about you being able to steal bending? Did you rescue me to steal myy bending? If so then you will be sorely disappointed, I won't part ways with my bending no matter how scaly your ass is."

Alice burst into deep rumbling laughter, causing her to fly as if she was drunk.

„No hehehe I don't want to steal your bending, I already took the earth bending from some unsavoury earth benders that used their powers to rule over the village they had sworn to protect. And I will have you know that my ass is the most fabulous arse there is in all of the world. I just took you with me because you asked me to help you, So I did. Nothing much to it really."

Toph let out a sigh of relief hearing that she wouldn't have to fight a dragon to keep her bending. 182395

She was positive that she would win but she'd rather not risk it. From what her tremor sense told her the claws that Alice possessed could rip through her in a single swipe and she wasn't too keen on finding out if she could actually block them with a wall of earth.

„But you know I am quite glad that you are an earth bender, that means you can teach me how to bend the earth. Just because I stole the ability to do so doesn't mean I have any idea what I am doing. If you could teach me how to use this ability I would be very grateful towards you. So what do you say, you teach me how to earth bend, and I will protect you from your parents. Sounds fair to you?" Alice asked Toph.

Toph took a moment to think about the offer but couldn't really see anything wrong with it. After all, why shouldn't she teach Alice how to use earth bending? She had rescued her from her pursuers free of charge.

„Sure I will teach you earth bending. You helped me without asking for anything and I always repay my debts. You said we would soon reach our destination, can I ask where we are going?" Asked Toph with a smile on her face.

„Of course we are going to the land of the air benders. I am planning on stealing the air bending abilities of a flying bison, that way both of us can learn how to use air bending. By the way would you like the ability to use fire bending? I stole quite a few copies of that particular skill from some fire nation soldiers. You won't have to worry about exploding or anything like that, my ability allows me to give multiple forms of bending to people without them needing a spirit inside of them to keep their souls from destabilising."

Toph was shocked hearing this, if she could learn all four forms of bending her ability to perceive the world would increase drastically. She would no longer have to fear flying enemies or non-earthen projectiles.

„Please tell me you aren't joking. This would be amazing, I wouldn't have to fear anything anymore. Please please please tell me this. Is not a joke." Toph begged Alice.

This was after all everything she had been dreaming about.

„I assure you, I am not joking. I can already use both fire and earth bending at the level of a newborn child. Granted it's not much but when you consider the fact that I stole both abilities yesterday it's quite impressive. So I am assuming that you would like me to give you the ability to use the other forms of bending, correct?"

„Yes of bloody course. I will finally be able to see things even when I am not on the ground. Oh this is gonna be amazing. I will be able to pull off so many pranks. Those stuffy nobles won't even know what hit them." Toph said with a maniacal grin on her face.

If Alice would have been able to see Toph's expression she would have been worried. This wasn't the face of a sane person.

It took Alice just under half an hour to reach the eastern air temple.

After she had landed on the mountain in the middle of the temple complex Alice laid down and waited for Toph to get off of her back. After Toph had dismounted from her back she curled up into. A ball and began to focus on her human form. It took a great deal of effort but she managed to return to her human form.

Toph couldn't quite believe what her tremor sense was telling her. The gigantic dragon she had been riding on had turned into the form of a young girl with majestic wings on her back.

„Gotta say I wasn't really believing you when. You told me you could turn into a human but I guess you weren't spewing out hot air after all. I like your wings by the way they feel very unique to my senses. You said we were hunting a flying bison but I don't sense any nearby. What gives?" Grumbled Toph.

Alice snickered. „Try to expand the range of your senses downward. You didn't really expect them to be out in the open after what the fire nation did to this place did you? They are here but they are hidden. After all, if the fire nation manages to catch and tame them then this world has a big problem. The air nomads hid them and they hid them well."

The young earth bender nodded and expanded her tremor sense to the maximum possible range.

Toph was amazed at what her tremor sense told her. The Temple was massive and she could feel three different mountains connected by massive stone arches.

She could feel a large amount of massive life signs in the depths of the central mountain. Those had to be the flying Bisons no doubt about it.

There was also a very strange life sign in the right temple. She wasn't entirely certain what those signatures were but they weren't important right now.

All she cared about was the fact that she would be getting the ability to use air bending and by the spirits was she going to abuse that skill.

„I found them, they are hidden deep in the middle of the central mountain. Should I make a way down for us?" Asked Toph.

„Yes please as you know I have no idea how to use my earthbending and am liable to bring down this entire mountain range if I tried. So if you could please"

Toph smirked and nodded. She stomped the ground and a set of stairs appeared in the ground ijn front of the pair.

„After you my lady." Said Alice as she enabled her darkvision in order to see in the pitch black stairwell Toph had created.

„Why thank you my lady. If you would please follow me into the dark depths of this mountain?" Answered Toph as she descended the Stairs.

It took them a while to reach the cavern Toph had sensed because it was about 400 meters below the surface of the mountain.

Alice let out a gasp as Toph descended the last few stairs. In front of them was a massive cavern illuminated by glowing ocean blue crystals, water bubbled out of a crack in the floor, creating a small pond. The pond was surrounded by lush green grass that grew below a massive version of the green crystal.

But by far the biggest surprise was the sheer amount of flying bison.

There were hundreds of them. A diverse mix of juveniles and adults. With very few elderly bison left. They all surrounded a sizable boulder upon which a large elderly bison sat.

Its fur had turned white and both of his eyes were a milky white with a flame like scar running across its face.

As soon as the herd noticed their presence a shift went through their ranks. The Adults positioned themselves in front of the juveniles and they all raised their tails as a warning. The attack of the fire nation and the subsequent slaughter of the air nomads and their bison left them in a state of weariness and distrust.

They didn't like the fact that they had been found and from the looks of it the herd was planning on making sure that no one knew of their existence.

Alice ignored the threats they made towards her and raised her hands in the air before slowly walking towards the herd.

Toph made a move to grab Alice but she dodged her arm and kept walking forwards.

„Trust me Toph I know what I am doing. They won't harm me, after all I too am a creature of the sky." Said Alice as she unfurled her wings for the bison to see.

This simple action seemed to somewhat calm the herd. They still didn't trust her but they didn't attack her on the spot.

As far as Alice was concerned all was well.

Toph meanwhile was fidgeting with the sleeves of her shirt. She didn't believe that this would turn out well.

As Alice got closer to the herd of the bison, a low grumple emerged from the center and the herd split to allow Alice to pass through them.

A smirk bloomed on Alice's lips and she raised a thumbs up to Toph. Alice made her way to the leader of the herd. „Greetings herd leader, my name is Alice Doom. My current goal is the destruction of the Fire nations army as well as the killing of the fire lord. I have the ability to copy, steal and gift bending and I was wondering if you would be willing to trade a copy of your ability to use Air bending for a copy of the ability to earth bend. You see my friend Toph over there is blind and I was hoping to give her the ability to use air bending to increase her ability to see the world around her."

The massive leader of the herd tilted its head in contemplation, Alice sat down in front of the herd leader and patiently waited for its decision. She was positive that the elder would agree. Earth bending would allow it to protect its herd much better than it could now.

The elder contemplated the offer of the strange tiny creature. It sensed their arrival as soon as they got within 4 kilometers of the mountain. The fact that the creature was able to change size and shape was a frightening concept and it had no idea if it could defeat the creature in front of it. The fact that the creature offered a trade instead of just taking what it wanted was a positive in Its book.

It tilted its head towards the creature and slowly nodded.

Alice let out a whoop of joy. „ Alright then. I am going to blace my hand on your head and you will feel a momentary sense of nausea but it should pass quickly so don't be scared."

She placed her hand on the head of the bison and there was a flash of light.