7 Chapter 7

Two guards stood at the ledge, overlooking the boiling lava below, with a cage hanging directly above it. It was quite a distance from the ledge to the cage, and the two overseers were not afraid of the sole known bloodbender. However, at some point, they unexpectedly found themselves unable to move and even struggled to breathe, but there was no possibility of screaming.

And at that moment, I rose by the ledge. I had become much drier than before I ended up here, leaner, more sinewy... but that didn't negate the fact that over these ten months in the cage, I had managed to preserve much of the strength of my body, not completely atrophying.

I approached the two guards of the Fire Nation and looked at them. Both were armored and helmeted with masks. How do they not melt in this place in such attire?

"Guys, you know what I'm known for, so I'll ask you to answer honestly. Who among you is the current first, the previous second?" I asked, and saw one of them begin to raise his hand after a moment of hesitation, but couldn't due to my control over his blood. "I understand. Good job. And don't worry. I won't kill you."

A snap of the fingers briefly cuts off blood flow to the brain, rendering him unconscious.

I looked at the second soldier and... approaching him closely, I removed his helmet.

"You know, I'll let you in on a little secret. Shortly before I was captured, I made an incredible discovery for myself. Bloodbending is remarkable in that it's akin to legendary lost energybending; it allows one to control life forces through blood and can heal very serious wounds. Not on its own. For this, you just need to take the life within the blood and the blood itself from another. By the look in your eyes, I see you don't understand why I'm telling you this. You see, sharing such knowledge is prohibited, one cannot help but boast about it, revealing secrets, however, there's no desire, and you won't tell anyone anyway. After all, it's your life and blood that will restore my arm!" I smiled at the overseer. I hadn't spoken with him once; he was taciturn and didn't want to break the rules. Pressing my forehead against his, so that our mouths and eyes were roughly at the same level, I closed his eyelids. Focusing and then opening my eyes and mouth wide, I saw his face do the same, and streams of blood flew from his eyes and mouth into mine. The process lasted for about a minute and a half, after which the body in armor collapsed to the floor. Now it was dry and completely devoid of blood and life itself, and I felt an itch in my right hand. But this time it wasn't the phantom pain from the amputation, but the itch of cell division. The hand began to regenerate. And though it was a slow process, it could be accelerated by two and a half times by absorbing the blood and life of two or three more people. Or one or two weak benders.

The first thing I did was head towards where I barely sensed water. It was a barrel of water, which was one-third empty, but that was fine.

Dipping my head into the water, I began to take big gulps, immediately aiding its absorption. I did this for the next fifteen minutes, periodically lifting my head out of the water. What a pleasant feeling it was, to immerse my face in water after almost a year of being parched by dry, hot air with the heat from the lava around. Goosebumps ran all over my body, it felt like there were parasites crawling under my skin! And I enjoyed the full saturation with water.

However, soon I forced myself to stop and, taking some water with me in the form of two tendrils on my arms, including on the tip of my finger, I walked through the corridors, searching for an exit. Soon I began to feel people and immediately went towards them. I approached a metal door and opened it. It wasn't locked. I found myself in the dining hall and looked around. There were about two dozen soldiers of the Fire Nation scattered here and there, and right now, silent, they all looked at me and didn't move at all.

"Well guys, pray - I'm running away from here!" I said and smiled, and the water tendrils surged forward, piercing the chests of two soldiers with icy tips. They were without armor, in shorts and peculiar T-shirts, so it was easy. A twist and the ice, turning into water for a moment, slipped out of the chest hole and transformed back into ice blades, with which I swiftly cut down six of them.

The soldiers began to act. Some grabbed chairs, as there were no weapons around, while others ran.

Water gathered in front of me, immediately transforming into steam, expanding towards the soldiers.

The expanding steam wave knocked down all the soldiers and the tables with chairs and everything else. Anyone caught within the steam area suffered severe burns at first and then were nearly cooked alive. Breathing in hot steam was also extremely unpleasant for the lungs. In short, almost all the soldiers were either killed by me or on the verge of death and would soon die. Only three soldiers remained alive. The steam literally bypassed them, causing no harm. In an instant, they stood as if toy soldiers at attention.

"Well done."

The steam was already gathering back into water, forming water tendrils on my healthy arm that was still growing. I approached the people under control and began to perform the same procedures with them as I had done previously with my overseer. It was an unpleasant situation, but absorbing life with blood required a lot of effort, and for some unknown reason to me, simply extracted blood did not suffice. Even if the body was alive and healthy. It required intense concentration, as if commanding the blood to take life with it. And it demanded great strength and a lot of time. Such a thing couldn't be pulled off in battle, but afterwards...

After repeating the process twice more, I left three desiccated corpses in the former dining hall, more resembling mummies.

After that, I headed to the kitchen. There I found several pots of food. Most of them were full, which meant there were four times more people here than before.

Hurrying, I quickly stuffed my mouth, chewed, and swallowed the food, ensuring it was absorbed as efficiently as possible and put to good use. I really wanted to eat, despite the blood I received, some substances were still lacking for the complete restoration of my arm. There wasn't much calcium in the blood, so food was necessary. I particularly emphasized cheeses, nuts, sesame seeds, and other calcium-rich foods.

After eating, I sat still for a while, making sure I didn't experience intestinal upset after prolonged starvation, and ensuring the food was being absorbed as well as possible.

However, I sat for a little longer not by my own choice, but because the door opened and another soldier in shorts and a black T-shirt with red trim emerged. Seeing what had happened to the dining hall, he froze, and as I pushed him, more people crowded into the dining hall, also freezing in shock. Acting before they could regain their senses, I formed five thin threads of water and sent them at high speed down the corridor at different angles. The soldiers only began to react to my appearance when they started to collapse into neatly sliced pieces, which began to bleed profusely, flooding the floor with blood. After standing for a couple of seconds and listening to the sounds, I formed tendrils over my hands again and headed down the corridor.

My further journey through this peculiar prison base could be described as a continuous slaughterhouse. Until I reached the open space, I was only noticed shortly before the beginning of the fight or not noticed at all, as there was no one left to notice. In the open space, I was first noticed by some sentry on the wall, and before I even noticed him myself, he rang the alarm bell. However, just a couple of seconds later, a sharp piece of ice pierced his head, but the alarm had already been raised. But who would respond to this alarm, if I quietly cut down a bunch of people inside?

As expected, only a few managed to come out, only sixteen people, including the sentries on the walls. However, out of these sixteen, nine were firebenders, as I learned when I closed them off with an icy wall from the combined stream of fire from all the benders. As soon as the ice wall took on the protection from the fire, I focused and took control of the bodies of five benders, directing the flames at the others. I only managed to ignite the four who didn't expect it, until the five under control stopped releasing fire.

When the fire ceased, the ice turned into water, into thick tendrils, each of which transformed into an icy tip at the end and pierced the chests of the free benders, and then everyone else. The soldiers dodged a couple of times from the tendrils' strikes, but after another round, they were hit by a wall of thirty-centimeter-long ice spikes that easily pierced through the armored soldiers. The water returned to me again and, transforming into hot steam while maintaining the density of water, flew in a dense stream towards the wall tower, and upon entering, expanded, creating an explosion in the confined space. I knocked the sentries off the wall with several ice spears, piercing them through.

Listening again, I didn't hear any sounds indicating anyone else. Bending sensations also didn't reveal anything, so I headed towards the wall. From the wall, there was a view of a volcanic island somewhere in the middle of the ocean. Upon closer inspection, I saw a barely noticeable strip of land on the horizon. Possibly a continent.

I hope it's a continent.