Chapter 75 - The Port Situation

The next morning seras wakes up groggily as she yawns loudly. She stretches her arms and legs without losing her balance on the tree branch.

"Ah, what a great night!" She shouts to no one.

after shouting she phases through the branch and lands on her feet. What was weird was that there wasn't any sound from the large drop.

"Now then, I should be a couple days from the port. Should I continue in leisure or just run?" She asks herself as she counts her remaining coins.

'Hmm, the closer I get the price per room should increase. If that happens I won't have any money until I meet the others again.'

"Whatever, the only reason I stole these was to make sure I didn't draw any attention to myself to the fire nation." She shrugs before pocketing the change.

Seras made a decision and continued to head east to her destination.

Two days later, Seras is riding inside a cart with other people headed to the port. She met them the day before and the leader was generous enough to offer her a ride. the leader is riding next to her.

"Haha! That was extremely funny seras!" A large muscular man shouts as he slaps his leg.

"Right? When I first heard it I couldn't stop laughing for hours." She smiles along with him.

The atmosphere inside the cart was very harmonious, but seras notices certain flaws about the people that picked her up. A few looks here and there along with the rising tension as they get closer.

"Hey boss! We're at the port!" One of the guards hits the side of the cart and yells.

"That was quick! It's true what they say, good company makes the time fly by!" He chuckles before walking out of the cart.

Seras notices that the driver hopped off with him and when she is about to follow, the leader stops her.

"You don't have to get off seras. We just have to deal with certain procedures and we'll be on our way." His smile seems genuine but seras can hear the foot steps of multiple armored men and the whispering of a person who seems to be their leader.

"Is that so? Then I'll follow the boss' advice." She smiles while waving at him.

The cart gets covered once more and seras sighs when she no longer hears the footsteps of the men surrounding her.

'I can't believe people get so greedy. They were genuinely helping me but something changed when we were in that last town. Probably a warrant by the fire Lord.' Her thoughts are interrupted by a yell.

"You in the cart! Surrender and be captured or we will kill you here!"

"Then lets go...." She practically yawns while saying this as she jumps out of the cart.

Seras watched about 40 soldiers surround her all in battle ready stances. They have her surrounded in three layers of circles when she notices the caravan people behind them. The leader is being handed a large sack of which seras assumes is full of money.

"It seems we have the right person. You people may go." The commander waves the peddlers away and they all have guilty looks while looking back at seras before leaving in the direction of the port.

'At least they're not totally bad. I'll let them go because he gave me a lot of laughs.' She smirks confidently making one of the soldiers pissed.

"You think this is the time to laugh!?" He lunges forward but before the leader can stop him seras already decapitated the soldier.

His decapitation was unorthodox as she grabbed his head and ripped it off. Many of the soldiers back up as the man's head is dripping loads of blood. Seras doesn't care as she drops it and stares at the commander.

"Are you sure you want to do this? I wouldn't recommend it." She licks her hand which is covered in blood.

The commander is shivering but his eyes show determination.

"It seems you've come prepared...." seras shrugs making him flinch.

"FIIIRRREE!!!!" He yells and every single soldier releases an attack.

The fire hits the cart and an explosion happens. Many of the soldiers relax at the sight but the commander orders them to stay on watch.

"You really should have attacked while I was in the carriage. It wouldn't have killed me, but it would have anyone else." Seras speaks but before the commander can look for the origin, ten of his men topple to the ground like puppets with their strings cut.

"What!?" His yell is accompanied by another 8 men who do the same action.

Just when he is about to order them into another formation, he feels a hand on the back of his neck. It's not doing anything but touching him when he watches the last of his men also fall.

"Ah...AH!!" He looks at his fallen men and notices that most of them have cuts on their necks but others seem to actually be gouged.

'Don't tell me she killed them with her bare hands in just a few seconds!?' He thinks of a scenario and immediately cold sweat drops down his back.

"Be quiet." She puts more force into her hand but it doesn't cause any pain for him.

"....."

"Good. You're a great soldier who follows his commanders orders' even if you know it means death." Her hand is loosened, however it doesn't make his worries go away.

"....."

"Now tell me. Why are you searching for me?"

"....y-you...I was told to capture the woman who tried to assassinate the fire lord. I was given a drawing with your face and it has been shown to the whole nation. You can't hide anywhe-!" His voice stops because the hand is now crushing his neck.

"Hide? Heh, I haven't been hiding.....I can see how it might seem that way." She chuckles darkly.

"....agh..."

"Oops! Sorry about that." She let's go and the man drops to his knees while coughing.

"I just don't like it when people assume I'm running... it's very displeasing, especially when they're so weak."

The commander eventually catches his breath and stands back up to face her. His eyes show more fear but he still has that determined look.

"Amazing....you're by no means strong, but you still have the will to fight even though you know you're clearly outmatched. I'm sure my master would be glad to have met you if he could." She claps and compliments the man.

"Your master?"

"Enough about that." Seras instantly appears within a centimeter of his face and her eyes glow red.

The man fights off her hypnosis well but he succumbs in a matter of seconds.

"You will head back and report to your superiors about everything you have witnessed. You will not mention me asking you these things. You will simply tell them I escaped after being heavily injured by your soldiers who died in combat. Understood?"

"I....Understand...." he slowly replies and seras grins.

"Good." She runs off in another direction as the man passes out.

A few hours later, the man awakens with a major headache and a feeling that something is wrong. He plays the memory in his head, but the memory and people around him don't seem to match.

'I remember the woman getting injured and running away but that doesn't explain why my men seem to have been killed with a single strike. However, I can't just report I don't know what happened...' the man is in a dilemma as he is a good soldier who tells the truth.

'If my memory is wrong, that doesn't mean I'm lying, right?' He tries to alleviate the guilt and it works for a couple minutes but he still feels like crap.

When the man woke up, seras was in a dilemma. She is at a cafe enjoying a small snack and beverage but her expression is not good.

'I can't believe I couldn't think of something so simple earlier....' She sighs in defeat as she remembers the conversation she had with a sailor at the docks.

"Huh? You want to head to the North Pole? Are you joking?" He grins in laughter at the request making her frown.

"Oh! You were serious. I'm sorry young lady, but we can't go there." he rubs the back of his head awkwardly.

"Why not?"

"Seriously? You do know that the Fire Nation is at war with the entire world, right? Do you think a fire nation merchant would be welcomed there?"

"....shit." She is shocked at that and mumbles.

"What?"

"Nothing. Thank you and I'm sorry for wasting your time."

"Now that that's out of the way, why don't you and I head somewhere...." he goes to caress her body but his wrist is caught.

"You might be used to having an easy time picking up women, but trust me. You don't want any part of this." Her eyes glow and he backs off with a pale face.

Seras has her head in her palm as the memory ends.

"Of course the fire nation isn't welcome in the north. How could I have missed that?" She drinks her beverage.

Seras pays for the meal before getting up to leave. As she does, she notices a few men do the same at another table and follow after her.

'If it's not one thing it's another....' She sighs mentally as she turns down an alley.

The three men follow her into it, but get shocked when they find an empty space in front.

"Where'd she go!?" The leading man yells.

"How can anyone disappear in this dead end?" Another asks.

"Who cares how! Find her!" The first man orders and the other two run in different directions.

Seras is on the roof of the right building observing them. She chuckles a little as she hears the leader mumble something.

"Her reward is over 10,000 gold coins! How can anyone pass up something like this just because they lost her."

"Oh? So I have a reward?" Seras asks as the man turns around to find her giving him a grin.

He goes to yell when she plunged her hand through his chest.

"Agh....Ugh.." he tries to struggle but since his heart was destroyed it was a useless effort.

"God, am I going to have to deal with people like this until I leave?" She drops the body to the ground.

"How annoying." She kicks it into a pile of garbage before phasing away.

Seras found a relatively cheap inn to stay in, but it still cost her the rest of her coins.

'3 silver for a single night. What a ripoff.' She frowns while laying on the bed.

"At least I'll be able to bend tomorrow. Maybe I can use it to travel to the north? But it's really far...." she opens up a map she stole form a store in the port and traces the route.

Seras doesn't know how they advanced their civilization so far in only 6-7 decades, but the map she has doesn't even have a guide. There are no markers and there isn't even a distance to measure.

"How stupid. It took us 3 weeks to go from the South Pole to this island." She traces the route with her finger and based on how fast appa flew she an guesstimate some distances.

"So it should be about 1500 to 2000 kilometers....that's way too far for bending...." She sighs in defeat before throwing the map away.

The next day, seras wakes up as the sun hits her in the face. She groans in displeasure as she puts the blanket over her head.

"Stupid sun....wish I could snuff it out...." she mumbles before going back to sleep.

The next time she wakes up is because she hears knocking at the door.

"Ma'am? It's checkout time. Please vacate the room or pay for another night." The woman asks in a professional tone.

"...sorry about that." Seras opens the door and apologizes.

"It's fine ma'am. So are you checking out?"

"Yes, just give me a few minutes to pack up."

"Very well." The woman bows before leaving.

As the door closed, seras sits on the bed with a thoughtful look.

"Why did I oversleep? Is it because my bending came back?" She goes to test it out, but stops.

'I don't want to destroy the hotel, it said I would have a 50% increase. I wonder what that covers?' She cleans herself up with her shadows and leaves.

After leaving the hotel, seras stole a couple fruits and heads to the forest outside of the port city. She arrives in a secluded area and begins to relax.

"Phew....let's begin." She breathes out and opens her palm.

Before she passed out, seras was able to make a small ball of flame around the size of a baseball. She was only able to make it that small without increasing its power. In other words it was the smallest flame she was able to create.

However, seras was surprised with the result she produced. It wasn't because it was out of her expectations, but the opposite. The ball of flame was the size of a baseball. She gets rid of the flame before sighing in annoyance.

"What the hell? The flame was hotter but why did it not increase in size. Also...." she holds her chest with a weird look.

'That congested feeling didn't appear. But I wasn't breathing....'

"Don't tell me!" She jumps up with a look of astonishment as she thought of something.

She sticks out both of her hands and the same ball of flame appears on the right with a small rock on the other. She feels like this action was much easier than it was a couple weeks ago.

"Haha! I knew it! Awesome!" She laughs giddily as the flame and earth get bigger.

"The increase wasn't just in strength but in everything!" She yells to nobody as a large crack forms in the earth around her and the flame almost hits the canopy above her.

Seras notices this and calms herself down before stopping her bending. The crack stops extending and she sighs in relief.

"That wasn't good, but this situation isn't bad....." she chuckles evilly.

Seras does a few more experiments which verify her initial hypothesis. All of her bending increased, this includes its power, duration, and versatility. She didn't use any water bending because there wasn't a source of water nearby and she was worried that it might go out of control since she has never used it before.

"This changes things. I no longer require a large ship or a crew."

Originally she planned on stealing a ship with her hypnosis and sailing to the North Pole, but that is no longer necessary.

"i can just take a small boat and use my fire bending to propel myself."