Act I: Chapter 5

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'Skill Created! '

'Waterhealing Lvl 1

You are a rare breed of waterbender, able to use the water you bend as a conduit for your own chi to heal yourself, or others! At the current level, healing will be slow and painful for the target.'

My father winced and his jaw clenched as I began to successfully heal his shoulder. To be honest, there was no work involved for me. I didn't have to visualize repairing the tendons in his shoulder, or the bruising on the area. It was simply a skill that I had to activate. My chi bar was slowly depleting, but it required no concentration beyond bending the water and keeping it in place on the shoulder.

He was sitting down on his bunk when I came to him and told him I was going to try again. It wasn't hard to find him considering he had rarely left our quarters for the two weeks that we had been on the open ocean.

Two weeks! Two fucking weeks.

That's how long it had taken me to get my Waterbending up to level 50. At first, I had assumed that I would be able to grind it up to 50 within a couple of days of cleaning the frigate with waterbending. I was sorely mistaken.

How did that make sense? I had gotten the skill to level 40 within two days of training on my own. Hell, I had gotten two levels during the battle when we took the frigate. The only explanation I could possibly come up with was that I had to be pushing myself and bending water in new ways, new shapes, and new applications to be able to power level.

It's the only thing that I could wrap my head around that would make sense.

When I was training at night, at Wolf Cove, I was discovering my abilities. I used Ice, I used water, and tried to switch between the two. I would make waves, I would make shapes with the water. I also developed my own bending style in that time. It was entirely possible that I needed to push myself to be able to level my Waterbending up quickly.

That was simply not practical in my current situation.

I could not allow myself to get under half of my chi. Not when it was proven that I was not high enough level to be able to fight indefinitely with waterbending. If the last battle taught me anything, it was that this world was more ruthless than the cartoon, and I was severely underleveled for my current situation.

So while I did clean all day using minor Waterbending, it just didn't provide the experience that I needed.

And yet my hands were tied.

'Slow progress is still progress, and it will have to do until I get to a higher level.'

I kept an eye on my chi, and just when it got to the halfway mark, I stopped healing my father. The pain on his face did not disappear, but he did let out a relieved sigh once the water left his shoulder.

"Sorry…" I muttered, not knowing what else to say.

"Don't be. It already feels a bit looser." He commented while rolling his shoulders around a little bit. "I'll be in fighting shape again soon."

"Maybe I'll get good enough not to cause too much pain." I told him, trying to give him a little bit of hope for the future. I didn't know that for sure, but the way the skill read made me believe that the higher it went the more comfortable I could make it.

"I'm already in pain, son. If it takes a little more to get better faster, then I'm in." He said while patting me on the shoulder before laying back down in bed. He knew the importance of rest whenever injured, which was a rare thing in any world. Most people were too stubborn for their own good.

I took a moment to look at the most recent prompts from the game.

'Skill Level Up! X3'

'+30 Exp.'

'Waterhealing Lvl 4

You are a rare breed of waterbender, able to use the water you bend as a conduit for your own chi to heal yourself, or others! At the current level, healing will be slow and painful for the target.'

'At least that made some progress.' I noted it in the back of my mind, before I got up and started walking away from my father.

"I'll be back in a few hours, once my chi recovers." I told him just as I left the room.

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I sat down at my desk.

At one point, this had been a janitor's closet. I had realized that I didn't need half of the stuff that was in the 'closet' pretty early on during my assignment. My waterbending was a better and more thorough cleaner than the mop, bucket, soap, and even brooms that littered the closet.

Turns out, the closet had a desk and chair hidden away underneath a pile of cleaning supplies and extra linens. One productive day, I rearranged the closet and netted myself a nice little workshop area complete with a basic toolset. Things to repair furniture and what not on the ship. There was very little on the ship made out of wood, but they had still thought to bring basic repairing supplies.

I didn't have any material to try to craft anything of use, so the supplies sat in my inventory unused. Most days, I just sat in the room thinking. Today, I would use it as a changing room, per Hakoda's orders.

It was embarrassing to admit but I hadn't taken a single bath, or changed my clothes since I had arrived in this world two weeks ago. It was an unfortunate thing that my people went through. We didn't have the ability to take off our clothes every night and expose our skins to the elements. It simply wasn't worth it to my people. And it wasn't like we took baths very often. The water around us was constantly below freezing or reaching that temperature.

You just learned to live with the smell, to be honest.

'But now that is not the case anymore. The weather warms everyday as we travel north.'

It was when the crew started to shed layers of fur, myself included, that Hakoda decided to put some of the supplies on the ship to good use. That's why we had been ordered to begin wearing the clothing and armor of the fire nation. The ship had plenty of surplus supplies from us to choose from. That was also why I was currently stripping down in my supply closet.

It was the first time I had seen my body, and I mean all of it. It was… challenging for me to look down and see a completely different package than my last life. Not to say it wasn't adequate. It was just… challenging for me to accept.

'I've never seen a reflection of myself…' I realized as I stood there nude.

Quickly, water flowed out of my inventory and I willed it to form itself into a rectangle before I froze it. And then, there I was. I already knew that I stood at just below 6 foot tall. I also knew that I had dark brown bordering black hair, but I didn't realize how disheveled it looked in the ponytail I kept it in. I also didn't realize that my eyes were so dark. They were brown, but could have easily been called black in the right lighting.

The one thing I couldn't complain about, was my handsome face. I was a vain person in my last life, and it had translated to my new one. My jawline was strong, but not overly so. My nose wasn't perfect but it was proportional. My lips weren't massive, but also weren't just a thin line on my face like my fathers. It seems that I had inherited them from my mother, along with my cheekbones. They were high and wide, but not too wide.

All in all, I was an attractive young man that stood at a respectable height. I was way too skinny though and I knew that would fix itself with the more stats I got.

I melted the water that made up my ice mirror and moved it to my skin. Then I quickly used it to wash away all the grime that had been building up on my body for the past however long it had been since I bathed. I washed all the oil and dirt off of my skin and hair before getting dressed again.

When it was all said and done, my skin was a shade lighter from the dirt that had accumulated on the visible parts of my skin. My hair looked way better without all the oil and dirt too. Even though I was used to the white and blue colors of my people, I couldn't help but think that I looked fantastic in the dark brown, black, and red colors of the fire nation.

In the end, I vowed to bathe and wash my clothes once a day as was proper.

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"How did they find us?" I asked.

I stood beside my father on the deck of our Frigate. We were surrounded by other Southern Water Tribe Warriors dressed in Fire Nation garb. All of the higher level warriors had been called onto the deck to prepare for a fight, and I could see why. On the horizon, the familiar sight of a Fire Nation Cruiser could be seen heading in our direction.

Our instructions were simple: wait until they board our ship, and ambush them. We were going to be acting as if our frigate had broken down and was in need of repair. Although I was curious as to how they had found us, hence my question.

"Hakoda wanted them to. We've been hugging the coastline, and the towns have seen us. All he had to do was drop anchor, throw a flare into the air, and wait." Bato answered me.

I frowned, not really seeing the full picture. I still didn't know all of Hakoda's plans. I mainly wanted to know one thing.

"Why?" I asked simply.

Bato smirked then. "Hakoda was too blood-thirsty after the first battle. He should have listened to you. Those men were more valuable alive than dead. He needs information. How many men are on any given Cruiser? Which parts of the ocean are patrolled more often? Where is the Fire Nation's next advance going to take place?" He explained holding on to that smirk.

'I thought he already had a plan for all of that, actually.' I thought as I processed what he was telling me. It made me doubt Hakoda's ability as a commander actually. Information was one of the most, if not the most, important aspects of warfare.

"I didn't actually expect to be fighting so early." I admitted it to my father. "I thought we would go to the Northern Water Tribe, like Hakoda said we would."

"Hakoda never had any plans of joining the Northern Water Tribe. They would turn us away as they always have." Bato answered quickly and swiftly. His bias against the Northern Water Tribe continued and it was something I could slowly see becoming a cultural norm. Nobody on the ship held love for the North.

"It was all a ruse to have an excuse to go to war." I muttered as the pieces fell together. If Hakoda never had any intention of joining the Northern Water Tribe, then what was his motivation for combining the tribes. What was Hakoda's purpose?

I still didn't know the answer, and I didn't get to ask him any more questions because of the flashing lights that tried to blind me. I squinted and saw the source to be the Cruiser that was currently heading our way. There was a massive light on the tower of the cruiser that flashed three consecutive lights at us before it paused.

I couldn't help but notice the smoke rising from the top of the cruiser faded slightly. They had slowed down to wait for our response, although they still continued our direction.

I imagine the warriors around me had the same reaction I did to the obvious code the cruiser was trying to use, panic. We knew nothing of Fire Nation etiquette or the code they used to communicate ship to ship. That was one of the reasons we needed to capture the crew of the coming ship. We needed to know what the flashing lights meant.

Luckily, Hakoda acted quickly. He was in the Bridge at the moment, with only a couple of other important warriors, Vikkok included. Bato had been invited, but he declined to be with me. No doubt, he wanted to protect me should the need arise. He probably didn't want to be around the brute that roughed him up either.

A red light from our own ship lit up behind me three times in a row, and it broadcasted its warmth all over the ship. Not that we needed any more warmth. We must have been close to the Earth Nation continent because the temperature was practically heavenly compared to the Southern Tribe.

'Was that a proper response, or a guess from Hakoda?' I wondered as my anxiety spiked again. I wasn't confident that Hakoda knew what he was doing from my last conversation with Bato.

"Let's hope that works." Bato muttered as he stared at the incoming Cruiser.

There was a stillness that overcame the air then. Where the men were normally talking amongst themselves, waiting for the cruiser to approach, now they were quiet. We were all hoping our response wouldn't cause them to attack us immediately. A full on battle would be much worse for us than an ambush. The Fire Nation had already proven that they were better equipped, better supplied, and arguably better fighters.

'We need the element of surprise on our side.'

The cruiser continued to approach us. It sent three quick bursts of red light once more, and that's when I knew that we hadn't answered correctly. Why else would they flash at us once more?

'Please use a different sequence, Hakoda.'

Thankfully, the man did. This time, he only sent a single flash of our own red light back as an answer.

The effect was immediate and comforting, the smoke rising from the stack on the cruiser increased and it crossed the distance between our two ships quickly. Even quicker than I thought it would have. Within five minutes it was parked directly beside our frigate.

The cruiser was longer and wider than our ship, along with it having a taller command tower. But it's deck was about even with our own off of the top of the water and it allowed us to see their deck.

"The maneuverability of these ships are remarkable." I commented as I witnessed the impressive piece of engineering do its work.

"There is a reason we ditched most of our other ships." Bato answered as he watched the scene with me.

Our eyes were drawn to a man on the other cruiser. He was standing on the deck and looking over to our own. He was flanked by several other Fire Nation Soldiers, and presented himself with the air of command. He wore the same garb that Hakoda had been wearing lately. It had the insignia of the Captain on the sleeve, signifying its rank.

This was the man in charge of the cruiser in front of us.

"Where is your captain?" He yelled. His voice was hard to hear from my position and was too nasally to travel very far at all.

The sound of boots hitting the metal deck hit my ears and I turned to see Hakoda walking towards the other Captain. He had chosen his guards well. Vikkok, and four other known warriors of around the same level flanked him. They perfectly mirrored the other captain's guard.

"Thank you for your swift response!" Hakoda called out as he crossed the deck to stand near the other captain. "My name is Captain Zan and this is my First Lieutenant Lee. Our ship's furnace has suffered severe damage, and has made it impossible to make it back to the harbor. Have you an engineer on board?" Hakoda asked.

I was actually fairly impressed with his ability to bullshit. At least he had the command structure of the Fire Nation Navy down enough to have a conversation.

The enemy Captain's eyes narrowed. "And where is your own, Captain?" He asked condescendingly.

"An unfortunate casualty from our last raid. The Southern Water tribe decided to put up a fight this time." Hakoda answered him quickly and without pause. It was a good answer and he hadn't stumbled on his words at all. I would be surprised if the enemy captain didn't believe it.

"Very well then. I will send him across, and he may inspect the damage. While he works, would you like some tea? I picked it up from the Earth Kingdom not too long ago." The enemy Captain stated. His entire demeanor changed after Hakoda's successful lie.

'How will they cross the ships though?' I wondered.

I was answered swiftly. Soldiers from the other ship moved forward beside their captain and came forward to the railing of the deck. Before long, a section of the railing opened up. I saw Hakoda pointing towards the same piece of railing that was mirrored on our ship. Some of our men came forward and quickly mimicked the enemy ship.

Next thing I knew a metal platform with built in rails had been thrown across the small distance of our ships. It fell into the open slot on the railing and its hooks grabbed onto a part of the decking that was made for it. It was hard for me to hide my shock at the proficiency with how they had thrown and landed the walking platform between the two ships. It proved that they were just that much better trained, and knew the ship inside and out compared to us.

Hakoda didn't miss a beat, and he walked over to the platform. Although before he crossed, he leaned into one of our warriors ears and spoke something that I was sure to be orders for the coming battle.

I did not expect him to point at me and nod for me to approach him. I did as he asked immediately and adrenaline began to drip into my veins. If he was calling me, then he needed my bending. When I reached him, he leaned into my ear and I tilted my head to hear what he had to say.

"Hold the bridge. We attack once we cross."

'Quest Alert:

Hold the Bridge, and capture the enemy Cruiser.

Accept Yes or no?

Rewards:

Strength +5

Dexterity +5

1500 Exp'

I nodded and when he began moving across the bridge between our two ships, I began to plan. I breathed in and my chi reached out to the ocean beneath me. Without using any major movements beyond my steps and breathing, two reasonably large streams of water began to crawl up the sides of the cruiser we were heading towards.

As I did that, I tried to take stock of the situation I was getting into. There were a lot of enemy soldiers on the deck. Two of them would be our first victims as they stood on either side of the railing. Outside of that, the enemy Captain and his guards were actually the closest soldiers.

His guards were sure to be competent, and would need to be dealt with immediately. Not to mention his own potential as a dangerous opponent.

'Hold the bridge like he said. Use our numbers to our advantage. No need to solo the entire ship.'

Hakoda's feet hit the enemy deck and he exploded into action. He didn't even bother to deal with the two soldiers beside the platform. He beelined straight towards the enemy captain. I reacted.

The two streams of water grabbed onto the ankles of the soldiers by the railing, and soon I had them tossed overboard. It was the quickest way I knew to get them out of the way and out of the fight.

I turned to Hakoda to see that he had already taken out a guard of the enemy captain and was using the corpse to shield himself from the fire of the other three guards. A bloodied knife sat in his left hand. Once again, I reacted and the water I had bent to the deck of the ship came lashed forward towards the three guards trying to roast him alive.

A spear of ice pierced the ribs of the closest fire bender. The man fell to the deck as blood filled his lungs quickly. The fire spewing from his hand disappeared into the air. Hakoda shoved the body of the dead guard in his hands forward, towards his two other attackers.

Footsteps behind, alerted me to our own warriors finally arriving on the ships. I turned the opposite direction as Hakoda, to make sure we weren't being flanked from behind. Three Fire Nation soldiers were setting their feet and were about to blow our troops off of the bridge.

Water flooded out of my inventory, with no regard for how I would explain that laters, and I bent a shield to intercept the three fireballs that they sent. Already, I was sending it towards them. One managed to dive out of the way, and the other two were swept up in the wave and shoved off of the deck to the waters below.

The man that dodged recovered quickly and sent a roundhouse kick that caused a wave of flame to spread towards my direction. As we were about twenty feet away from each other, I had time to summon more water from my inventory and I mirrored his roundhouse kick with my own. Only my water quickly snuffed out his flames and continued towards him.

It would have hit his torso, had he not done the splits and allowed the water to travel over his head. While still in the splits, he sent two jabs at the air between us and two fireballs leapt out towards me.

Tired of losing water from my inventory and being on the defensive. I summoned much more water from my inventory and flooded the deck in his direction. This time he tried to jump to avoid the attack, and I sent the water to his airborne body. I aided his momentum, and soon he too was over the side of the deck and into the waters beneath us. But this time I summoned the water back to me before I lost it back to the ocean.

I was turning back to the sounds of fighting in the opposite direction when I finally heard Hakoda yell.

"Drop your weapons and surrender!"

In his arms was the Captain of the ship, and Hakoda had his knife resting on the jugular vein. The sounds of fighting stopped immediately as the fire nation soldiers quit. I relaxed a bit as our men moved forward and began forcing people to their knees.

"What is the meaning of this?!" The enemy Captain snarled.

"You are now prisoners of the Southern Water Tribe. We promise to take good care of you!"

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A/N: Boom!

So there are not a lot of things to do on a ship interesting enough to write about lmao. So I guess we'll just progress the story along as intended! Some of you will be able to see that I'm trying to slow his progression down a lot. I'm doing my best to reconcile things but I might miss something.

Do not feel afraid to call me out on that. (As if y'all ever are lol)

Anyway, Hakoda has unlocked healing and gotten his dad patched back up. Also, I realized I never really described our MC, so I made sure to do that as well. Anyway, I hope y'all enjoyed!

Let's talk in the reviews!