13 Chapter 13

For several days in a row, all I did was come to the Kyoshi warriors hardly every two hours and engage in combat with one of them. It turned out that only nine warriors posed serious competition to me, three of whom defeated me, and Suyuki was the best among them, with my other two conquerors being Aria and Tina. Despite their excellent resistance and their ability to hold out against me for a long time, the others eventually lost. I fought with all of them in turns. After each battle, I would immerse myself in water and recover there, after which meditation on fire would resume again.

As promised, I helped the village with my bending. Irrigating the few fields, extracting clean, fresh water, and much more. By the second day, the warriors themselves started asking me frequently to assist them with their injuries if they got any. This was my first practice in healing with water not just myself, but after a few unsuccessful attempts, fortunately without injuring anyone, everything went smoothly. I heard that there are healer benders at the North Pole; maybe it really is worth teaching the Avatar and heading to the North Pole? Though why would he need to get to the pole if I am already teaching him? But who knows what else can be learned there. At least healing. In other words, as agreed, I used waterbending for good.

Meanwhile, Aang was having fun. Really, he was entertaining and amusing others with his bending and childishness. After all, it's understandable. That's how he was raised, and he is still a child, so there's nothing surprising about it. But when you think of the Avatar, somehow you expect something different.

The other members of the trio were busy with their own things. Katara was at the beach and started trying to control water, and she even succeeded to some extent. My brother and I had exactly the same successes at the beginning, until we began to understand some rules, which allowed us to move forward.

Sokka only watched our fights with the Kyoshi warriors and their training until after lunch the next day, and then he stepped in and asked Suyuki to teach him to be a warrior. Oh, what started after that. They even dressed him in women's clothing as a joke!

"Why doesn't he wear your clothes!? He is also..." Sokka began asking Suyuki, but I interrupted him.

"Eh, no bro, I'm not training here, just fighting. A fighter can be in any clothes, in war, you don't point out your enemy's inappropriate attire. But training... you don't bring your own rules into someone else's monastery, you know! Hehehe!" I laughed, watching the scene.

However, Sokka overcame this and began to train. It even caused involuntary respect in my eyes. A little.

One day, I even managed to see the legendary Unagi, a huge water serpent. I saw it when Aang, for fun and show, tried to ride it. It didn't work, but the giant sea serpent showed itself in all its glory.

It had smooth dark-brown skin and many narrow sharp fins, running like a crest along the entire back of the serpent, even from the village, its bright-green eyes were visible, and in its mouth, a large number of sharp teeth. On the head of the serpent, there is a large fin that can fold. Just behind the head are four bright-yellow, vertical stripes. The Unagi also has two long whiskers. And it can also release a powerful jet of water from its mouth, under immense pressure!

In the evening, after another fight with Suyuki, which I almost managed to win, I headed to the very bay where this very sea serpent resides.

The bay was quite large, it was quiet and peaceful here. I made a fire on the shore and calmly continued another meditation. It lasted quite long. The moon already shone brightly in the sky, stars colored the firmament, and rare dark spots moved across the sky, covering the light of the stars - those were clouds.

Then I heard a splash of water. In the silence of the night, this sound was especially loud to me, as even the sounds of insects around were absent.

I opened my eyes and looked at the source.

In the water, in the night's darkness, nothing was visible. There was no wind, no disturbance. The water was calm and at night, like a mirror, reflected the entire sky.

And only the ripples spreading across the water indicated that there was indeed water here.

In the moonlight, it was visible how the water, once again, swelled up, and then with a weak explosion of splashes, released the tip of the tail of the giant sea serpent.

The Unagi.

Initially, I came here just for meditation, but this beach, due to the day's events, imprinted in my mind, stood out, and therefore I came here specifically.

Now, seeing that the Unagi was not asleep, my interest in it became more than great.

Moving away from the fire, I extinguished it with a small stream of water. I looked at the water and noticed that here and there, again and again, the water was ready to explode, bursting into splashes, but what pushed the water from below only barely reached the surface, but seldom came out of the water. The Unagi was either hunting or just swimming underwater, not intending to come out.

Standing a bit on the shore, almost touching the water, I stretched my hands forward and concentrated.

Nothing happened and there was no effect, at least it seemed so from the outside.

A few minutes later, I lowered my hands and felt a drop of sweat trickle down my temple, and I was breathing deeply. When I strain like this, even control over bodily processes gives up and yields.

"Too far," I said to myself, "need to get closer."

However, no need to get closer arose, nor was I sure about this idea, when from the water with tremendous force, the serpent burst out, which almost immediately focused its gaze on me, then opened its mouth and I saw how within seconds, a water orb formed in its throat. In an instant, this orb turned into a powerful stream of water, which under immense pressure rushed towards me!

I stepped back with one foot and extended my hands with palms together in front of me, then abruptly spread them to the sides.

Obedient to me, the water, almost reaching me, parted to the sides and hit the ground on both sides of me.

Yeah, probably shouldn't have tried to take its blood under control. It seems it really didn't like that!

I made two sharp hand movements and from the water shot out two clumps of water, which immediately sharpened and turned into ice, but they were instantly knocked down by a new stream from the Unagi.

It seems that this is not his physiological body abilities, but rather his waterbending, like dragons have firebending, or like the flying bison I saw with Aang.

Alright, need to finish with the Unagi quickly, preferably without killing, as that might not be liked by many here.

Again and again, dodging the powerful water streams from the serpent, which literally created water in its mouth, at some point, catching a moment between attacks, I created water tentacles, which by the dozens entwined the serpent. Paradoxically, the larger the volume, the easier it is to

 control, after crossing a certain threshold. The opposite is also true. After a certain volume, it's extremely difficult to control a small amount of water. And if in the second case everything is decided by control, then in the first the most important thing is strength. If you have the strength, you can create water tentacles as big as the Unagi itself. I clearly don't have enough strength for that yet, but I have enough to entwine the serpent and not let it move too much.

Despite having entwined the serpent, it was extremely difficult to continue holding it. I began to feel phantom fatigue somewhere inside, inexplicable pains, but I continued to hold the serpent.

After about seven minutes, the serpent calmed down and stopped thrashing, so I started to remove the tentacles from it one by one, preparing for new, rightly, in some way, aggressive actions towards me. But when I removed the last holding tentacle, the serpent just looked at me attentively, and then dived into the water. Beautifully and neatly dived, practically without splashes.

Looking at the waters of the bay a bit more, I lay down on the sand and right there, without moving, fell asleep under the light of the moon and stars in a completely windless weather. I'm still too early to subdue such monsters. Not even sure if I could kill it!

Feeling pain, somewhere deep inside me, I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

As promised, here's a new chapter to thank you for your review. Enjoy reading, and don't forget: for every 200 Power Stones you donate, I'll post an additional chapter.