3 Act I: Chapter 3
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I woke up to the normal prompt of all of my ailments and injuries being healed by the game. It was my third day in this world, in my new life, and I sat up just thinking about how ridiculous it was that this was my life.
I was a real life interdimensional-multiversal traveler that had access to one of the most broken powers known to fiction.
My tongue leapt out of my mouth and prodded my upper lip. It was no longer swollen and split open by the blow that my father had given me the night before. It was incredible, and worrying at the same time. I would have to come up with a way to explain that phenomenon. Luckily for me, waterbending has access to a useful and broken ability called healing.
Unfortunately, if I gave that excuse, I would one day be called upon to use healing on someone else. Something I couldn't do yet.
'I'll have to discover, and grind that ability sooner than I realized.'
I equipped my normal garb and swiftly went about rolling up my bedding and tying it to some straps that I slung over my shoulder. Today would be the last day that I was here and that meant it was time to pack everything up and load it on the boat. We will set sail today.
I crawled out of my tent to find my father finishing up the exact same thing I had just done. Except his pack was significantly bigger than my own, and he had his full armor set on his frame. It looked mostly like the show depicted it.
He wore a leather helmet with polar bear dog fur wrapped around it and dyed white and blue. He also had a shield strapped on his back. This was a simple wooden shield with a metal frame, and a rounded metal center to bash people with. There was a dark blue leather shoulder piece that covered his shoulders and even went down to his sternum.
Actually, the only thing different from how the cartoon portrayed it, was the shield.
He looked like a badass with his long hair dipping out of the leather helmet on his head.
"Looking good, Pop." I told him, while announcing my presence at the same time. Not that he needed it, he had surely heard me moving around.
"Yes well we didn't plan on you coming or you'd have your own by now. We'll just have to make it on the sea." Bato said as he stood up from his sitting position and slung his pack around his back. I knew it would be heavy because of all the polar bear dog meat inside of it.
"You ready?" I asked rhetorically before turning towards Wolf Cove.
"No time like the present." He muttered before following. We walked in silence nearly the entire way there. It was becoming more and more obvious that Bato was a man of few words.
That was fine by me and I was left alone with my thoughts. Of course, my adhd kicked in and my eyes locked on to the prompt floating above his head.
'Bato Lvl 43
Warrior of the Southern Water Tribe and your father. He thinks that you will never recover from the blow you took from the polar bear dog. He is regretting allowing you to defeat him last night.'
'Wait what!? Allowing me to defeat him?'
I frowned and looked away from the prompt as I pondered what I just read. I replayed the fight over in my mind, in particular the engagement that I had won and completed the quest. I grabbed his spear, shoved him off balance, and swept his legs out from underneath him before pulling off some pretty impressive bending to finish the fight off.
No way that was faked… right?
I turned back to the prompt, and stared at it. I reread the message, and there at the bottom I could see a bit of light peeking out of it. So I mentally scrolled down the prompt to see what it was. I was given the answer to my question immediately.
'Bato Lvl 43
Warrior of the Southern Water Tribe and your father. He thinks that you will never recover from the blow you took from the polar bear dog. He is regretting allowing you to defeat him last night.
Strength: 76
Vitality: 86
Dexterity: 64
Intelligence: 71
Wisdom: 83
Renown: 400'
His strength and Vitality stat really stood out to me, while I was thinking about our fight last night. Those were the two stats that I knew gave me my answer. At the time of our fight, my strength was a measly 10. Compared to a 76 stat that was nothing! It would have been nearly impossible to push the man over with my current stats.
'I need to compare his stats to others. What is considered strong in this world? For all I know, the average could be close to 50, or it could be closer to 70.'
I reached with my right arm and squeezed my left arm. I was a teenager, and pretty skinny. In fact, I had hardly any meat on my bones at all. I had originally attributed that to my young body, and lack of constant protein but was that really the case? I didn't know what this body looked like before my transmigration. Had it been a little more muscular and the game was to blame for my lack of a physique?
And if that's the case, what does that mean for Intelligence? Was my low intelligence influencing how I thought? Was it influencing how I trained my body? Because that first night of training, when my intelligence was level 10 I hadn't thought of using a fighting style with my bending. Nor had I thought to train my taekwondo.
I ignored the last stat, as I wasn't sure how that popped up randomly. What was Renown? And why did it suddenly appear? The last I checked, I didn't have any Renown stat that I was aware of.
'Are stats more than just stats…?'
"Those are some deep thoughts, son." Bato said to me, breaking me out of my train of thought.
I looked at him, and my face changed. I must have been wearing my emotions on my face, and I was getting pretty stressed out. "Just thinking about the future war." I lied.
"Hm." He grunted just as our feet touched the piers of Wolf Cove.
There were men, women, and even children running around the piers carrying boxes, crates, and barrels on and off the boats. In fact, there was a big stack of those supplies that everyone was grabbing from before walking down and being directed by Hakoda about where to put them.
"Thought you were going to sleep all day, Bato." Hakoda called out without missing a beat and pointing a finger at a ship, directing another person to where they needed to go.
"I considered it heavily…" Bato joked with a grin. Once again he was putting on a face for his friend.
"I'm sure. She's all stocked up and ready to go." Hakoda said as he thumbed in the direction behind him. "I was hoping I could ask Koda to do something for me since that's finished."
I put two and two together fairly quickly. The ship he pointed at was Bato's ship, and it was one of the only ones that had been docked there since before Hakoda had arrived yesterday. He stocked it first, just so he could ask me to do something for him? It had to be good.
"Sure." I answered before Bato could. "What is it you need?" I asked. I needed something to distract me from my treacherous thoughts from earlier.
"The walls around Wolf Cove have been pitiful for a long time now. I was hoping we could restore them a bit before we left." Hakoda said getting straight to the point.
'Quest Alert:
Restore Wolf Cove's walls!
Turn the snow mounds around Wolf Cove into proper walls of ice that match Hakoda's diagram.
Accept? Yes or no
Rewards:
+50 Renown amongst the Southern Water Tribe.
+300 Exp
+2 Wisdom'
"Of course, do you have a design in mind?" I asked, knowing from the game prompt that Hakoda would. I also noted the reward that resulted in Renown, the mystery stat.
"I actually do. Something I drew up a long time ago. We just never had the manpower to get it done." Hakoda said as he reached in the pouch on his side and handed me a small scroll.
"I'll be back in a bit." I told them as I walked away from them.
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Not the greatest diagram I've ever seen.
To be fair, it was good enough that I could see what Hakoda was going for. They were fairly simple walls. Nothing like what Ba Sing Se could boast about. But 20 feet high walls of ice were better than just hilly mounts of snow and would provide much better protections than what we currently had.
'But how should I actually go about it?'
As I stood on the actual snow mounds, I could see all of Wolf Cove. They were already about 10 feet off of the ground, which wasn't bad at all, and really compact. I pondered on the best ways to go about building up the ice, before I eventually decided on a method.
I called upon my chi and set my feet. Then I reached low as if I was picking a basket off of the ground and lifted my arms up high. In my mind's eye, I pictured what I wanted to happen as I grabbed onto the snow around me.
When my arms lifted into the air, the snow around me followed. The mound of snow quickly became a rudimentary wall, about twenty feet tall, five feet wide. I had only managed to do a section of about ten feet of the snow wall. That was fine with me, this was an experimentory process anyway.
I was not done though, I still needed to solidify the snow into ice. That part however, came instinctively. I stomped my right foot, and focused on the snow beneath me to form together and freeze. Instantly the powder white snow beneath me changed to a lighter blue and formed into ice.
The next few hours were spent repeating the last steps across all of the walls that surrounded Wolf Cove. Eventually I got to where I was doing 20 and 30 feet segments, but even then it took me a while.
Once I had completed that, the sun was high into the sky, although it was hidden by dense clouds. I stood on top of the almost completed walls, and thought about the next step.
Hakoda wanted a little pathway for people to walk, but to still be protected by the walls about to their chest. So with another stomp on the ice wall beneath me, a 3 foot section of the wall melted and I sank into the water until only my upper torso and head was sticking above the ice. This allowed patrols to still see above the wall, but to be protected from things like arrows, or balls of fire.
So with the appropriate height done, I began walking around walls, melting the portion of the ice into water as I went.
I took it even a step further beyond that however. You see, I had been plotting a way to get massive amounts of water into my inventory, and I had yet to be alone long enough to do so. But on top of the walls, there was nobody that could see my feet or the fact that I was wading in water that I had just melted.
So as I walked and melted the ice into water, I funneled it into my inventory. It was pretty much impossible to tell how much I had gotten, but it was easily enough for me to pull out and fight with should I ever need to. When I finished my lap around the new ice walls of Wolf Cove, I was finally finished.
'Quest Completed!
Restore Wolf Cove's walls!
Turn the snow mounds around Wolf Cove into proper walls of ice that match Hakoda's diagram.
Accept? Yes or no
Rewards:
+50 Renown amongst the Southern Water Tribe.
+300 Exp
+2 Wisdom'
'Level up!'
Score! 'Stats.'
'Koda
Level 9 (190/450)
Title: Apprentice Waterbender: CHI increased by 30% at night. CHI Regeneration increased by 100% at night. CHI Regeneration increased while in contact with water by 100%. CHI increased by 30% while in contact with water.
Chi: 340 (442*) 53/hr (106*/Hr)
Strength: 10
Vitality: 10
Dexterity: 10 (13)
Intelligence: 34
Wisdom: 13
Renown: 50
AP: 10'
"Oh I forgot to distribute points last night…" I muttered to myself as I realized I had two levels worth of AP to spend. I knew exactly where to put it too.
'Strength: 15'
'Vitality: 15'
I dismissed the prompt and instantly I could feel a pressure come from my body. It was heavier in areas like my back, and core. It lasted for about three seconds before everything turned back to normal. I reached up and started feeling my body. Instantly I knew that I had gained the slightest amount of muscle on my frame.
"Well that solves the question of how much stats affect me…" I said quietly before looking up and over the walls of Wolf Cove.
At that exact moment, I heard a bunch of cheering and whistling near the port. I looked down and over there to find a crowd of women and children waving out towards the sea.
That's when I realized it. There were no more ships docked to the piers, and there were no more supplies that needed to be loaded up. The last ship was already about a hundred yards out at sea.It also happened to have a man standing on the boat holding a spear and looking back towards Wolf Cove.
It was my father and he was leaving me here.
That's when I realized that my quest hadn't really been a quest. It was a distraction that was meant to keep me busy while the warriors loaded up and left me here.
I couldn't stop the anger that welled up inside of me.
'They fucking left me here!?'
I jumped off of the wall and out of instinct the snow beneath me swelled up to catch me. When I touched the snow, it latched onto my feet and became like a second skin to me. I began running as if I was ice skating. My will provided all that I needed for the bending to work and I shot down the snowy slope towards the piers being carried by snow all the way.
It took me under 30 seconds to race down to the piers with this method of travel.
Before I could rant and rave at the village members not warning me, a low but extremely loud noise carried across the ocean. I knew what it was immediately, because I had heard it a lot in my previous life. It was a ship's horn. The type of horn that carried across the ocean for two nautical miles.
My eyes caught the sight of all of our Southern Water Tribe Ships turning in a certain direction. It took another couple of seconds of course, but once they were pointed in a certain way, I could see where the fog horn had come from.
It started off as a black dot on the horizon, but it soon grew. There was a reason my father and the other warriors had turned in that direction. There was a Fire Nation ship headed straight towards them.
The anger that I felt at my father and the other warriors for leaving me disappeared and was replaced by worry over them. That was a massive ship and without any water benders they would be crushed by the Fire Nation.
'Quest Alert!
Save your father and the other warriors from a certain defeat to the Fire Nation!
Accept: Yes or no?
Rewards:
+1000 Exp
+100 Renown
+5 Strength
+5 Dexterity'
I didn't hesitate. My feet began running towards the edge of the pier and soon I was at my full speed, although it was very slow due to my low stats. Once I got there, I dove straight in, and the water rushed up to meet me as I bent it around my form.
Had I not prepared myself for how cold the water was going to be, I would have instantly exhaled all the air in my lungs. But I only felt the cold of the water for a split second, before I increased the temperature of the water surrounding me.
Once I was fully submerged, I began bending in a way that I had only seen in the cartoons. Three columns of water grabbed my legs, and instantly began rotating like a propellor.
You know the feeling you get once you first dive into a pool. There is water rushing past you, pushing your skin back and you feel as if you're going so fast in the water, only for your momentum to slow and that feeling leaves you?
The feeling of water rushing past me never left.
In fact, it increased tenfold. I shot through the water like a torpedo going faster than I ever expected to while swimming. I felt exhilarated on top of my worry for the battle that I was sure to be late to. How many men would be injured, captured, or dead before I could get there?
I must have traveled 300 feet before I had to come up for a breath of air, and when I did I shot out of the water into the air. The water I was bending didn't disconnect from me or stop, so I was able to reach a big height to find my target once again. The Fire Nation and our warriors had yet to engage so I still held onto a bit of hope that I could get there and make a difference.
I dove back into the water, and once again it leapt up to meet me in the air and soften the blow of such a tall height. When I rocketed into the water once again, I mentally checked for my chi levels. This would be the first time that I got to see how it performed in action.
'Chi: 328/442* (106*/Hr)'
'Fuck, will I even make it to them?'
I needed to take another breath of air, so I breached the water again. This time though, when I checked on the state of the battle, I was not happy with what I saw. Fire was shooting down from the edges of the fire nation ship, towards a couple of our ships. More of our ships were starting to surround it as well.
I never stopped my momentum this time and I dove back into the water.
I repeated this for two more times before I got to within a couple hundred feet of the ships. The battle had changed significantly during that time. My people had made absolutely zero progress. Our ships weren't tall enough for us to be able to board them the traditional way so there were men trying to climb up the side of the Fire Nation ship.
Now that I was close I could see the red flags bearing black sea raven's on them. It was a Southern Raider Frigate, a bit different from the normal Fire Nation cruiser, although I couldn't remember the exact details of how.
'Chi: 97/442* (106*/Hr)'
I dove again as I realized I didn't have any time to waste above water. I needed to get there while I still had chi. What I would do when I was there and didn't have any, was something I would have to come up with on the fly. All I knew was that my people needed me and if I didn't do something they would lose this battle, and all momentum for the war.
I stayed under water, and aimed myself towards the hull of the frigate. At first I thought that I could form a large enough ice spear to pierce the hull and sink the damned thing. But just before I did that, I realized that it would likely take too much chi. I also realized just how valuable this ship could be to me and my people.
It was obvious that we could not wage war with the ships that we currently had. What if we could hijack this vessel? We could travel the world disguised as a Fire Nation ship. We could make it to the Northern Tribe unhindered, or we could wreak havoc on the sea destroying the Fire Nation Navy from within.
So right when I was about to reach the hull, I changed my mind.
'Chi: 31/442* (106*/Hr)'
'God, I hope this works!'
I shot out of the water, and into the air. It must have been an epic sight to see from someone else's perspective. I continued rising into the air, and eventually I was above even the Frigate's deck. My path through the water had taken me to the most populated part of the ship and I knew I would have a lot of heat once I landed. I locked onto my target, a fire nation soldier that was throwing fire off of the deck and towards our ships.
'Shiru, Fire Nation Grunt. Lvl 36'
I didn't acknowledge his name, there was no time. With a thought, the water that launched me into the air did a couple of things. It changed my trajectory slightly before a small section of it detached from the pillar of water. I bent the small sliver to my right side and formed it into a spike about 6 feet long and 1 foot at the widest section.
The fire nation soldier's face was visible even underneath his helmet. Unlike the cartoon, they didn't have the white face mask on with the helmet. He did not react in time to stop the ice spike from driving through his leather armor and piercing his chest.
'+200 Exp'
I didn't have time to read the prompt, let alone process it. Instead, I summoned the ice spike back out of the dead soldier's chest and melted it. When I realized it wouldn't be enough to protect me completely, I summoned a little more out of my inventory. Just enough to surround my body in a sphere of water.
I barely accomplished that in time, because I was soon bombarded by fire that lit up the water surrounding me so much I couldn't see where it was coming from.
'Chi: 12/442* (106*/Hr)'
I didn't have time to panic about the fact that I was so close to running out of chi. Instead, when the fire let up and allowed me to find my next opponent, I attacked.
A tentacle of water leapt out at the nearest soldier, although I managed to keep the sphere of water around me for protection. The tendril of water grabbed the man by his ankle. I wasted no time in hurling up about twenty feet in the air, and then slamming him back down. I went for the most damage possible and used his ankle to whip his head on the metal deck.
The helmet on his head didn't stop the immediate crumpling of his head and swift death.
'+200 Exp'
'Level Up! +5 AP'
'1 into intelligence!'
'Chi: 450/450* (106*/Hr)'
Once again my sphere of water was assaulted by waves of fire. But now that I had a full amount of chi, and AP to spend, I didn't have to use small attacks. I could now summon more water without fear of running out anytime soon. That's what I did, while the fire assaulted me. All the water in my inventory came out to play, and it was more than I expected.
I did not expect the fire nation soldiers to change the way they attacked me though. Once the fire let up, I barely had enough time to dodge as a spear pierced through the water and towards my torso. I felt it catch on my fur coat, cut through it, and nick my right side.
Instinct took over and the sphere of water he was piercing through changed into ten spikes that raced out and into his body. Two in his head, four in his torso, and the rest in his arms. The man made a valiant effort to stop me, but it was a brutal sight for me to witness.
'+200 Exp'
He was not the only soldier to realize and implement this attack. He just happened to be the fastest one. Three more men were closing the distance and I once again acted out of instinct when I realized I couldn't stop them.
I jumped backwards, off of the deck and I summoned the bloody water out of the man's dead body to act as a shield in front of me. Another spear pierced it and cut me on my shin as I fell to the water beneath me.
The pain in my ribs and shin didn't register by the time I bent the ocean to rise up and soften my dive into the water again. Nor did it when I used the same propeller technique to wrap around the other side of the ship. Although, since I had full use of my chi I decided on a new technique. Something that the soldiers wouldn't be able to react to.
I reached out to as much water as I could, which turned out to be about twenty feet in either direction of me. Then I did the most basic thing that I could think of when bending water. I created a wave and carried it high into the air.
You see, creating the wave was the easy part. In fact, it rose halfway up the side of the Frigate easily as well. What I didn't expect was the water to fall out underneath me before I even got close to the top of the deck again.
'Bending stopped due to insufficient chi.'
'Chi: 1/450* (106*/Hr)'
My eyes nearly leapt from its sockets when I realized that bending that much water had resulted in losing all of my chi.
'Ok, so apparently chi cost increases exponentially when large amounts of water come into play.'
I didn't react in time to soften my blow from falling back into the ocean, but luckily I hadn't gotten high enough for it to hurt too badly. The icy cold water did take my breath from me though, and delayed my reaction even further.
'1 into intelligence!'
'Chi: 468/468* (106*/Hr)'
The water warmed around me with a thought, and I paused a minute, thinking on how to solve my latest problem. I didn't have enough chi to get the water onto the deck, let alone bend it in a fight.
'I could strategically use my AP to get it up there, but then I would be out after that engagement. What if it doesn't work? How do I get massive amounts of water onto the deck without burning so much chi?'
I could have face palmed as I realized the stupidly simple answer.
'Inventory, you buffoon!'
With a thought, the water in a thirty foot radius of me disappeared into my inventory. This of course made me fall for a few seconds before the water crashed around me to fill up the empty space I had just created. Luckily for me, I managed to bend the water to make the crash way more easy on my body.
I waved my hands and the water latched onto my legs again and propelled me into the air. This time, I barely lost any chi because of the relatively small amount of water needed for such a thing.
When I reached the top of the deck, all of the fire nation soldiers were facing the other way, where I had fallen into the ocean. I could see roughly 20 soldiers waiting to ambush me. None of them turned to me when my feet hit the metal deck. Nor did they hear the rushing water over their own yelled commands.
All the water that was in my inventory rushed onto the deck as a massive wave, and I was directing it. Every single last one of the 20 fire nation men got swept up into the wave, and over the deck rails, into the freezing ocean below.
I quickly summoned another sliver of water from the ocean below, expecting an attack from somewhere that I couldn't see. Then turned all around me, waiting for someone to appear and attack me.
I jumped at the sound of metal on metal and I turned towards it. There was a hook of some sort latched onto the railing of the deck. I recognized it and moved over to it before peering down off of the deck.
Sure enough, there was Hakoda climbing up a rope attached to the hook as if he was Batman. He showed his strength by easily pulling himself up without looking like he was straining at all. On top of that he did it in under a minute. Once he got close enough, I reached down to offer him my arm. He grabbed it and I almost went overboard immediately.
My low strength stat reared its head again.
Luckily Hakoda let me go and hoisted himself up and onto the deck without my help.
"Sorry." I told him sheepishly.
He didn't respond. Instead, he yanked the club off of his belt and scanned the deck for any attackers as I had. Once he determined that there weren't any, his arm reached out and brought me into a hug before releasing me quickly.
"We thought you were dead after you jumped off of the deck the first time!" Hakoda practically roared at me, despite our close proximity.
'+200 Exp'
'Level Up!'
I frowned as I read that prompt. Had one of the soldiers I threw overboard died?
"I would have, if I didn't jump off." I returned before I started moving to the side of the deck that I had thrown the twenty soldiers off of. When I looked down off of the deck I saw the soldiers there, and blood was pooling around them.
Then I saw that some of our ships had maneuvered themselves to be right above the fallen soldiers. And a couple of warriors had bows in their hands with arrows notched. When they let loose, I got another notification.
'+200 Exp'
I practically ran away from the sight, not expecting to see such brutality. Although it made sense.
A wave of exhaustion hit me at that moment. My arms began to shake and my breathing got heavier. I recognized the signs immediately. The adrenaline from the fight was wearing off, and my weak body wasn't prepared to deal with it. Or maybe it was just the fact that I had killed at least 3 men.
'Chi: 67/468* (106*/Hr)'
'Oh shit, I'm low on chi again?'
I found the railing on the side of the boat, and sat down just as another pair of boots hit the deck of the frigate. I recognized the face of my father immediately, and his eyes locked onto me. They softened once he realized that I was alive. That soft look was immediately replaced by one of rage and he stomped his way over to me. I couldn't help but release a sigh as I knew an ass chewing was coming.
'Well shit…'
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A/N: Boom!
Hakoda tricked Koda, and they left him at Wolf Cove! Although the Fire Nation found them immediately after.
What did you guys think of that huh? Was it reasonable for them to leave Koda there?
What about how Koda crossed that distance? Was that too much? I thought it was kind of epic to be honest. I also tried to balance the scale of bending to the chi that Koda has at the moment. He's not some Avatar level bender as you can see and I wanted that to be clear. I also revealed the stat differences in the level and the fact that Koda still needs a while before he can contend with even an average level soldier with stats.
He's completely riding off of his skills at the moment and tactics. Even then, he didn't leave the battle unscathed.
What did you guys think about that aspect of the battle? What about how his stats are having a direct impact on him?
Let's talk in the reviews!
