CH 5 - ATLA 4 - First Fight

(Word Count: 2,521)

After that day, I left the guru and sailed back to the earth kingdom. I sailed up Chameleon Bay to a small fishing town where I sold my boat. With that tidy sum of money, I bought myself an ostrich-horse. I named her Book, because I really miss reading. Everything here is in Chinese! Seriously, why is speaking done in English but the writing is in Chinese? It makes no sense. Book was amazing. She was so smart and traveling with the large bird was so much easier. My pack was loaded on the back of the saddle and I had two saddlebags that I was able to use for more things. I bought some rope, twine, and even put together a medkit. Never know when you would need any of them. If duct tape existed in this world I would have added it to the pack.

As Book and I traveled, we stuck close to the river and lakes. By doing so, I managed to skirt past both the large desert and the great divide.

As before with my travels, I try to train my skills as much as I can. While I was with the Guru I dedicated all my time to the meditations and Chi, so I felt like I needed to make up for lost time when it comes for everything else. Strangely enough, I managed to acquire the skill Horse Riding. I look down at my ostrich-horse. Well, I guess he is part horse, so it kind of makes sense? And since I was sticking close to the river as I made my way northward, I had bought a fishing rod and ate a lot of grilled fish for dinner. The Fishing skill is very useful for catching a lot of fish, which ensures that I'll never go hungry so long as there's a river nearby. When it was time to stop for the night, I would make sure to practice the kata for manipulating Chi, and then try to train my Chi Sense and Low Cosmic Connection.

Unfortunately, it seems like my low cosmic connection will be really difficult to level up. It hasn't gained a single level.

There wasn't much downtime, but when I wanted to relax I would either whittle at some wood, swim, or sketch some of the crazy animals that I've come across. Before I was too stressed about my situation to take such downtime, but now I felt at peace and could relax every now and then.

Even so I made good progress on my skills and I even managed to level up again. I put 4 into Wis. Wisdom seems to help a little in Chi Manipulation, which has been slow to level. The last point was placed into Dex. One thing that I noticed about Dexterity is that it doesn't seem to add much, if any, to my speed. It only helps indirectly, because it helps with my flexibility, balance, and control over my body. Which helps greatly in improving my baguazhang forms.

STATUS SCREEN

NAME: Callan Stone

TIER: 1

GLOBAL LEVEL: 6 2,343/3,012 Exp

CLASS: Street Rat 6/10 2,343/3,012 Exp

STATS:

Str: 20

End: 20 => 21

Dex: 20 => 22

Int: 10

Wis: 12 => 16

Cha: 10 => 11

SKILLS:

Skill Points: 12

[Deception LVL 100/100]

[Forestry LVL 82 => 100/100]

[Axe Handling LVL 85 => 100/100]

[Wood Chopping LVL 80 => 100/100]

[Persuasion LVL 100/100]

[Hammer Handling LVL 70 => 100/100]

[Blacksmithing LVL 70 => 100/100]

[Sword Handling LVL 20 => 30/100]

[Knife Handling LVL 20 => 35/100]

[Sewing LVL 20 => 36/100]

[Cooking LVL 90 => 100/100]

[Leatherworking LVL 17 => 23/100]

[Running LVL 32 => 100/100]

[Sprinting LVL 22 => 100/100]

[Jumping LVL 16 => 100/100]

[Leap LVL 12 => 40/100]

[Acrobatics LVL 30 => 78/100]

[Sneak LVL 19 => 100/100]

[Muted Steps LVL 100/100]

[Hide LVL 14 => 58/100]

[Meditation LVL 100/100]

[Archery LVL 10 => 45/100]

[Carpentry LVL 10 => 100/100]

[Sailing LVL 15 => 68/100]

[Baguazhang LVL 35 => 54/100]

[Chi Manipulation LVL 30 => 45/100]

[Chi Sensing LVL 5 => 15/100]

[Low Cosmic Connection LVL 1/100]

[Horse Riding LVL 45/100] *New*

[Fishing LVL 67/100] *New*

[Wood Carving LVL 100/100] *New*

[Swimming LVL 60/100] *New*

[Drawing LVL 33/100] *New*

[Haggling LVL 10/100] *New*

WP: 750

[Horse Riding LVL 45/100]

You are able to intuitively guide the horse as you wish, even with just your knees.

Increases balance while on a horse by 1%/LVL.

[Fishing LVL 67/100]

Increases the effectiveness of any lure by 3%/LVL.

With no lure, increases the likelihood of a bite by 1%/LVL

[Wood Carving LVL 100/100]

Increases the ease of carving wood by 2%/LVL.

Increases the quality of items created by 5%/LVL.

[Swimming LVL 60/100]

Reduces stamina cost of swimming by 0.9%/LVL.

Increases swimming speed by 0.5%/LVL.

[Drawing LVL 33/100]

Increases quality of your drawings by 5%/LVL

[Haggling LVL 10/100]

Increases the effectiveness of your Haggling by 0.5%/LVL.

I should really get some sort of organization tool from the store when I can.

After a week of travel, I made it to the town of Gaopan. It was a flooded mess. It seems the episode with Jet had already occurred. It must have been recent since the water hasn't had time to drain away. I may be about a day behind them. No matter.

The day after that I was idly riding on Book when three men stepped into the road in front of me. They had their weapons drawn. One had a large curved sword like cutlass almost, one had a large hammer, and the third had two daggers. 'Seriously? In broad daylight?' I guess we were pretty far away from the next town.

They sneered at me, showing off their rotten teeth. The guy with the sword shouted at me. "Get down from there and give us all your valuables if you want to live!"

I was surprised by how calm I felt as I dismounted and drew the jian sword from its sheath. This will be the first actual fight I've been in, much less with actual weapons. Still, I was already much stronger than a normal man, and I've got the skills and at least some training under my belt. I was confident I could win without much issue. But the problem was, would I kill them? I've never hurt anyone before, nevermind killed anyone. I don't know.

My inner monologue was cut short.

"Drop the sword before we hurt you!" The hammer guy demanded.

"I'm afraid the only ones who will be hurt here are the three of you. Walk away. There is no need for us to fight." My words, of course, did nothing. I could tell that they were about to attack so I leapt forward to slice at the hammer guy as he seemed the most dangerous. It seemed to catch them off guard and I was able to score a cut across his arm.

Before I could go for a backswing to finish him, his cutlass friend took a swing at me. I dodged using the circular form of the airbenders and spun around the hammer guy, using him as a wall. I came around the other side before he could react and stabbed him in the shoulder. Dagger guy leapt at me but I was able to evade him, again using the hammer guy as a wall. This really seemed to pass him off because he bellowed and whirled around, where I kicked him in the chest back I to the cutlass guy. They both tumbled to the ground in a heap and were down for the count.

The dagger guy yelled "No!" and slashed wildly at me and I had to back away and parry his strikes as much as I could. "Stay away from my friends!" He shouted.

"Hey, why are you making it seem like I'm the bad guy here?" I dodged behind him and used the hilt to bash the side of his head before he could react. He fell in a heap, unconscious. "You guys are the ones who attacked me."

And with that it was over. The fight didn't even last a minute but it was… fun.

I look at the three men on the ground. The dagger guy was unconscious, but the cutlass and hammer guys were groaning, clutching their bleeding wounds. Cutlass guy's shirt was drenched in blood. I looked down at my sword and there was a sheen of blood on the blade. I bent down and wiped it off on the dagger guy's shirt, though I would have to give it a more thorough cleaning later. Then I go over to the other two and kick away their weapons.

I sigh. Now what do I do with them? I can't just let them go, because what if they attack and kill the next traveler on the road? But I can't just kill them either. They're already down for the count, and I couldn't kill someone just because it was the most convenient option.

I sigh again, and pull out the twine. I bound the hands of all three of them. They were half heartedly cursing me out as I did, but I ignored them. Then I pull out the medkit I put together. "You three are lucky I even have this." 

As I went about cleaning their wounds and applying the cleansing ointment I had bought, I asked. "So, why are you guys even doing this? I get that life can be hard, but to harm others just to make some quick coin?" pulling inspiration from Uncle Iroh, I was trying to look past them trying to kill me, and past their body odor.

"Man, shut the f*** up. We just wanted your money, not a life lesson." The hammer guy grumbled. I was currently wrapping his arm that I had sliced open, it was a lot deeper than I initially thought. With his ungrateful comment, I squeezed slightly.

"Agh! What the f***'s wrong with you!"

"You should be a little more grateful. By all accounts, I shouldn't even be bothering to clean your wounds. You're lucky I don't just kill you here and now."

That shut them up. The man paled and stammered out "S-sorry. Please, don't kill us, sir."

"Relax. I'm not going to kill you."

I finished wrapping up their wounds, then proceeded to tie the two of them to the back of Book's saddle, with the unconscious dagger guy laid over the saddle. I'll be taking them to the next town over. Maybe I can get a bounty off them. If not, I still have their weapons that I can sell. 'Wait, don't bandits usually have a camp with all their loot?'

"Hey, are there any more of you guys? Where's your camp?"

They refused to answer and looked away angrily. I kick one of them in the shins, and point my sword at them. "Where is it?" I demanded in as cold a voice as I could.

"I-its just over there, in the trees." He pointed to the tree line next to the road about 20 meters down.

I led Book, bringing the bandits with me, to where he pointed. Without too much trouble, I found their camp. It was a messy camp, with three tents. So they were alone. I searched through their stuff and I did find some old earth kingdom soldier uniforms. It seems like these guys are deserters. Other than that I found food, their clothes, and a handful of coppers. I look at them. "Man, you guys suck don't you?"

I take their copper, and we begin down the road.

~ CatAR ~

We got into town well before dark, and I handed over the bandits to the local guards and I got 3 silver for my time. Well worth it. Especially when I look at my status.

GLOBAL LEVEL: 6 2,658/3,012 Exp

CLASS: Street Rat 6/10 2,658/3,012 Exp

[Sword Handling LVL 30 => 35/100]

[Acrobatics LVL 78 => 80/100]

[Baguazhang LVL 54 => 64/100]

[Chi Manipulation LVL 45 => 47/100]

Doing a bit of math, it seems like I got around 100 Exp from each of the bandits. It was a lot, but not as much as I would have expected. I was hoping to at least gain a level from this. I am still low leveled after all. Still, it was a relief that I didn't need to actually kill people for Exp. My sword skill finally increased! I also finally got some actual combat skills:

[Chi Enhancement LVL 1/100]

Uses Chi to enhance your body by 5%/LVL

[Parry LVL 3/100]

Increases your ability to parry incoming blows by 1%/LVL

[Dodge LVL 4/100]

Increases your ability to dodge by 2%/LVL

[Counter LVL 1/100]

After dodging or parrying an attack, your next attack is enhanced by 5%/LVL

[First Aid LVL 5/100]

When applying first aid, your treatment is 2%/LVL more effective.

[Intimidation LVL 1/100]

Increases the effectiveness of your intimidation tactics by 0.5%/LVL

I spent the night there and was on my way again in the morning.

Making my way further north, I was approaching the front lines between the earth kingdom and the fire nation colonies. There were going to be a lot more soldiers present, from both sides. I was hesitant to make any appearance to either side, because from the show the soldiers that patrolled the villages were basically bandits themselves. With my ostrich horse Book, my earth kingdom clothes, my weapons, and my large build, I was bound to be mistaken for a soldier. So I wanted to avoid the fire nation's patrols at all costs.

I felt pretty confident in my skills, especially with my recent victory over the bandits, but I didn't feel close to ready to face down a firebender. So, when I saw in the distance a group of black and red armored figures, I hastily pulled Book off the side of the road to hide. I went far into the nearby woods, out of sight from the road. Book was troublesome to hide, but I managed to quietly hide in some thick brush.

This happened several more times, one time the patrol actually stopped to search the area. They had seen someone dip out of sight.

"Search the area! I want that man found!" 

Luckily Book was an intelligent creature, and made no sound. Quietly, I took his reins, holding them low, and snuck into a low dried out creek. This gave me enough clearance for Book to hide in, and using this creek we were able to sneak past the group. Then, I led Book back onto the road and booked it until they were miles behind us. By some miracle, they didn't see us.

Now, I was officially in the fire nation colonies.