Act I: Chapter 7

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'Boro Lvl 31'

He moved forward and stabbed his spear towards my unprotected chest. I sidestepped the blow calmly and waited for his follow up. Another stab, but this time aimed to where my body was leaning towards. I spun, and felt the shaft of the spear bounce off of my back.

During my spin, I used my momentum to move towards my opponent and send a roundhouse kick over his spear. It did not connect. The warrior shoved his shield towards me, hoping to catch me off balance. I jumped, and rolled my shoulders on his shield. When I landed, I was behind him.

His reactions were swift, and I applauded them. He turned and swept his spear through the air, it would have stung if it hit. I was prepared for it, and ducked, while sweeping his legs out from underneath him. He hit the metal deck with a loud 'thud' and a groan. I smiled knowing that the little spar was over.

"Ahh ha ha ha ha ha!"

The crowd around us laughed at Boro's position and groan of pain. It was especially embarrassing because of my flashy display of taekwondo. I was always a step ahead of him. It didn't help that he seemed to be moving very slowly to my perception.

I reached down and offered the old warrior a hand. He accepted it, and I hauled him to his feet.

"Good fight." I told him as I slapped him on his shoulder. He growled at me as he shook my hand off and walked back over to the railing, where he was standing prior to challenging me. He was a good man and warrior, he would be grumpy for a few days and be fine.

I was about to move to the railing myself, when I heard a familiar voice call out to me.

"Up for another challenge?"

Hakoda was walking up with a cocky grin on his face and a spear in his hand. He wore casual clothes for the day, as we were currently anchored on the open seas. His shirt was red and cut off at the sleeves, showing his toned and muscular arms. The shirt looked very thin and breathable. He still wore the normal fire nation pants and boots.

I wore the same red pants and boots, but I was shirtless. I had peeled it off after the first few bouts had soaked it through with sweat. Because of my higher level, and more balanced stats, I now sported a young and fit body. I was mostly muscle with nice definition, but I was nowhere near even an amateur bodybuilder's size. I was closer to a swimmer or runner's build. It was a stark contrast to the skinny little boy I was when I woke up in this life.

"I'm not sure I should accept it, chief." I joked loudly, so that the other warriors could hear me.

The crowd around us boo'd quickly. Hakoda shrugged and gestured to the crowd. The crowd wanted to see how I stacked up against our chief and I couldn't blame them. A part of me wanted to experience it myself.

"Oh I get it!" I called out. "You want to see the chief humble me, huh?"

The crowd cheered and I only caught a couple of yells amongst the men.

"Hell yea!"

"Show the young cub his place!"

"Get him Hakoda!"

I smiled and nodded, playing to the crowd. This was the first part of a simple plan that I had worked up in my spare time. Beyond being the only waterbender on the ship, and my deeds in battle, I hadn't socialized very much with the rest of the warriors. That worked against me when I did things to disrespect Hakoda. I had no leg to stand on.

After all, in the warrior's mind, I wasn't even supposed to be on this expedition. The warriors thought that they could do everything we were doing without me, regardless of if it was incorrect.

My reputation was that of a cocky waterbender who thought that his tribe needed him and he could do whatever he wanted. How could I ever accomplish the things that I wanted to in the tribe, with such a reputation? Nobody would follow me, despite my power. Not when Hakoda was around. He was a great warrior, a likable man, and a ship builder. As far as the warriors, and the tribe, was concerned, that was enough for them.

They had lived without waterbenders for decades now, and could continue to do so.

I needed to change that. I needed to be liked amongst the tribe. I needed to be a respected figure. I needed to be more than a waterbender that could solo a Fire Nation Frigate. I needed to be someone who's council was valued. I needed to become a leader.

So I would accept my humble pie, even if it was being delivered by Hakoda, in hopes that it would increase my standing with the men on the ship.

"Alright then. I guess I'm up for another challenge." I said as I moved back towards the center of the deck where Hakoda was standing.

"Just like the others. No bending." Hakoda said before he tossed his spear to the side. "And no weapons!"

The crowd loved the confidence that he displayed and they shouted their approval.

I smiled as I dropped into my traditional taekwondo stance across from him. Surprisingly, Hakoda did the same and adopted a martial arts stance that I couldn't place. I had seen him incorporate kicks and punches into his attacks with weapons, but never seen him purely practice or use a martial art.

"Ready?" Hakoda asked.

I nodded as I bounced on the balls of my feet.

"Begin."

I sent a kick towards his liver. Hakoda lifted his arm in a textbook block, but he expected it to be towards his head. It wasn't a very powerful kick, but he felt it when it connected. Already I was setting him up for a question mark kick that would start at the body, and end at the head. But that would be in the near future.

I sent another kick, on the opposite side towards his body. This one he blocked by raising his knee, and lowering his elbow.

He used the momentum and jumped off of the leg he had planted on the ground to send a superman punch right to my jaw. Somehow, I reacted in time to turn and roll the punch off of my shoulder. We disengaged for a moment as the crowd 'oohed' from the unexpected punch.

'Where in the fuck did he learn a superman punch?'

It had taken me off guard, and shaken me a bit. I evaluated my entire game plan while we circled each other. Hakoda did not give me long.

He sent a jab with his left hand, purely meant to distract me from the right hook. I went to block it with my left arm. Only this too was a feint. His left fist dropped and he immediately sent it into a nasty liver shot.

'Smack'

My breath left my body for a couple of seconds immediately after the punch. Once I gained the ability to breathe again, I groaned and backed away from the man as my right side erupted in pain. It started from where his fist impacted me and traveled up to my ribs and into my chest. Before I knew it, I had fallen to my knees on the metal deck beneath me.

"Ooooohhhhh."

I didn't pay attention to the crowd crying out in sympathy. I was too busy trying not to pass out from the intense pain that continued to linger around the area that he had impacted. It was the first time that I had ever really experienced a true liver shot. I now understood why boxers respected it so much. It was debilitating, to say the least.

About the time that I gained basic motor functions back, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked to see that it belonged to Hakoda. He wrapped his arm underneath my armpit and hauled me to my feet.

"Everyone always underestimates the well placed punch to the body." Hakoda told me with a smile.

My side continued to ache, and I struggled to find my feet.

"Fire Nation Ships!!!"

The voice carried across our ship, and the rambunctious crowd stilled. We all looked to the command tower, where a man could be seen at the top with a telescope in his hands, pointing out towards the ocean. As one, we followed his finger to confirm what he saw.

Suddenly, the pain in my side dulled and I could stand again. There, on the horizon, were three black dots. From experience on the open seas and past battles, that could only mean one thing. The Fire Nation had found our distress flares, and were coming to investigate.

Only this time there were three vessels, instead of one. That could mean many things. The Fire Nation had taken notice of their missing ships, and were already placing precautions to avoid losing their ships. Or they could already know of our plans and deeds, and had tracked us down to dispose of us.

Either way, three ships was a lot for us to take on.

'That's the last time I do that.'

I remembered what I had told Hakoda not a week ago. I was talking about sinking fire nation ships with men still aboard them. I was immediately reconsidering. I had pondered on not taking part in coming battles, to prove to the warriors, and Hakoda, that they needed me. That thought was thrown out the window when I saw the three ships approaching us.

The lights attached to their command towers flashed at us.

"Get dressed and get to your stations!" Hakoda yelled as he immediately began running to the inside of the ship to do the same. I followed as our own lights flashed a distress signal, along with the proper code to confirm our Fire Nation identity.

'This will be our hardest battle yet.'

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The enemy ships had crossed most of the distance between us. The first one was close to five hundred yards away. These ships could cross that distance in no time.

I stood at the prow of the ship, beside Hakoda, pondering on how I would approach the situation we had gotten ourselves into.

The most obvious, and probably worst decision, would be to allow them to dock into us. That seemed like suicide to me. If they did that, even with my bending at our disposal, I don't see us being able to win. The numbers alone would overwhelm us.

The only scenario that I see us being able to pull through would be if we could pick them off one at a time. Even then, that seemed risky and we would have to do it back to back to back. How many men would we lose because they were tired?

"Koda."

I turned to my chief, but did not ask what he wanted. I knew he would continue once he had my attention.

"You told me after our last battle, that it was the last time you would sink a ship. Does that still stand?" Hakoda asked. His face was set in stone, and a permanent state of stress. His brows were furrowed, and showed off countless lines in his forehead and around his eyes. He was probably going through the same thought process as me, but with even more pressure.

'Sink the incoming ships!

Accept? Yes or no?

Rewards (Per ship):

+2000 Exp

+5 Wisdom

+5 Intelligence'

"I am tired of the bloodshed, but I understand that I will have to participate in it today." I answered. It was hard for me not to deliver on things that I said. Especially in such a public light. But then again, there were a lot of people that I would put in danger if I did not fight. It was almost a guarantee that we would lose the majority of our fighting force if I did not intervene.

"That is a relief." Hakoda said as his shoulders relaxed slightly. "You've had a lot of practice on an anchored ship. Do you think you could sink a moving one?"

That caused a lightbulb to go off in my head, and I latched onto that idea.

"I think so, yes." I answered as I began to catch on to what he wanted from me.

"Good." Hakoda said as he turned around and faced the Command Tower. There, another warrior was waiting on orders. Hakoda nodded to him and the man immediately left my view to go do something.

The light, that was used to communicate ship to ship on the open seas, began flashing in a completely different pattern. A pattern that I recognized as morse code. Although, I wasn't skilled enough with the communication method to decipher what was being said.

"It's telling them that we are grounded, and that there are rocks in the water beneath them. They'll be more cautious. It should buy you some more time, and slow them down." Hakoda told me.

The plan fell into place for me then. In a sense this was exactly what I thought should happen. I knew that picking off the ships one by one would be the answer, however I hadn't really connected the dots on how that should happen. Now though, it made perfect sense. On top of that, Hakoda was going to provide me with a cover in a sense.

The morse code would not only slow the ships down, but it would allow me to sink one ship without the others in the convoy thinking it was anything other than them hitting a rock beneath the surface of the ocean.

I nodded to him, and then unstrapped the armor that rested on my shoulders. Quickly, I took off everything but my pants and threw them on the ground. The rest of the warriors watched me with hard expressions. I wasn't sure why but I felt the need to tease them a bit.

"It seems I must save your hairy ass' again! See you soon!" I called out as I started running to the railing of the ship. I didn't even hesitate when I reached the end of the deck. I jumped and immediately fell into a dive.

Swimming as a waterbender was one of the funnest things imaginable. The water beneath me leapt into the air to catch me. When I finally dove beneath the surface, I was immediately met with a school of fish I could not recognize.

I was like a torpedo passing through them. I could feel their scales bounce off of my body as I bumped a few of them. The water was not clear, but it wasn't as murky and ugly as the Gulf of Mexico either. I knew the direction I was going but I couldn't quite make out any ships yet.

In the end, I reached the first ship before I needed to come back up for a breath of air. They were getting very very close to our ship and I knew that I needed to hurry up. I quickly turned in the water so that I was traveling in the same direction of the ship, and then I positioned myself right beside the hull.

My lungs began to ache. I was about to breach the water briefly when I realized that I shouldn't take the chance to be spotted by the Fire Nation. If they saw me, then they might outright attack and we could lose men before I finished my mission. So I got another idea.

I slapped my left hand on the hull, and froze a chunk of water around it. I cut off the other aspects of my bending, and immediately I began getting pulled through the water by the frigate. Then I formed a sort of funnel in my mind, and bent it into the water in front of me, all the way to the surface of the water.

'Skill Level Up!'

The water split around my mouth and traveled all the way to the surface. The end result was a funnel of air being guided down the water and into my mouth. I quickly took a fresh breath of air, and let the challenging but new technique go. I was way too inefficient with the technique, and it used way too much chi than I expected, but it got the job done.

Within 10 seconds, I had a highly pressurized jet of water cutting into the hull of the ship. I was frozen too. Once a significant portion of the hull was cut and already leaking small amounts of water, I decided to take another fresh breath of air before I moved onto the next. This time, when I bent the oxygen from the surface to my mouth, it was much more efficient.

A simple punch from my hand, and an ice spear the size of an arctic hippo rammed through the cut that I had made in the side of the frigate. It would sink the ship quicker than any other I had done. It was in such a vital area of the hull that the ship wouldn't make it the rest of the distance to where our ship was at.

I only had to look around to find my next target. The ships were so close together that I could see the disturbance in the water from my position. With a thought, I pushed off of the hull and melted the ice stopping the ocean from rushing into the frigate. I rocketed across the distance to my next ship.

I should have known that sometime during my stay in the ocean, I would meet one of the many dangerous predators that lurked there. I just didn't expect it to be during my most important missions to date.

I definitely didn't expect it to be in the form of an aquatic tiger-like shark.

It had four limbs that ended in a webbed paw, complete with talons that I knew could rend my flesh from my bones. It had a tail that ended in a fin similar to a shark. It had a faint orange color in the water, and all across its body, black stripes could be seen. Finally, it had the head of a shark.

It was also at least twice my size.

'A whole new meaning to Tiger Shark.' I realized as I dove beneath the jaws of the creature that came out of nowhere.

The tiger shark was fast to pursue. It whipped its limbs around it and changed direction faster than a shark in my old life could even comprehend. It raked a single claw down my back as I passed it. Somehow, it felt like a line of fire had been drawn on my back underneath the water. I was forced to ignore the pain to survive. Although I did accidentally let valuable oxygen escape my lungs.

I gained some distance before I turned back around and decided to rid the world of at least one of these ocean menaces. It could have been the last male of its species and I wouldn't have cared at that moment. The tiger shark opened its jaws ten feet away from me, and an ice spear formed inside of it. A simple push of my hand and chi caused the spear to travel all the way through the tiger shark and out the other side of it.

'+300 Exp'

I didn't even wait to watch it bleed out in the water before I shot off in the direction of the frigate that was my target. It had gained some valuable distance from me during my short fight with the tiger shark. I also didn't have the luxury of gills, nor unlimited chi. But I forced my lungs to hang on for a moment longer until I could latch myself onto the hull of the next frigate.

I took two breaths of air when I finally bent the oxygen down to my mouth. Wisps of red were floating into the ocean around my eyes when I cut into the side of this frigate with my pressurized water. I knew I would have to deal with the cut as soon as I could, but time was of the essence.

I shoved another massive block of ice through the hull of the frigate.

My equilibrium shifted, and I could feel my lungs burning again. Only this time I felt the need to breach the surface when I melted the ice on the side of the frigate. Now that I had already doomed two of the ships I felt like I could afford to breach the water.

When I did, I immediately began taking massive gulps of air. It felt like I had been running a marathon underneath the water. It was an odd experience. I was learning that it was extremely taxing for me to bend at the level needed to sink a ship, while trying to hold my breath. It made sense as I floated there and rested though.

A constant through every single bending style was good breathing. Fire benders, water benders, earth benders, and even air benders needed to have solid breathing fundamentals to properly bend. Without that, it became increasingly more difficult. It made sense why the water benders of the world hadn't taken over the seas yet. It wasn't as easy as I had initially thought it would be. Plus, without my ingenuity I doubt many waterbenders could be as efficient as I was.

I looked over to the first ship I had sunk, to find that it had stopped its propellers and was currently getting lower and lower into the ocean beneath it. The frigate that I was floating right next to, and using to keep myself afloat currently had a flurry of activity happening on the deck. They must have heard the piercing of their hull and realized that they were sinking like their companions.

I didn't expect there to be blazing arcs of fire shooting across the sky towards my own ship. Nor did I think there would be arrows that flew through the air. Somehow, someway, the fire nation had realized that we weren't who we claimed to be and were attacking. The third ship even saw that their companion ships were sinking, and didn't make a move to save them. That meant I didn't have to be so quiet and sneaky with my attacks. I could blitz right at them.

I sat there for another few moments before I finally caught my breath and dove back underneath the water.

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"Here's to Koda! Without his heroic deeds, we would have surely taken casualties!"

There was a cry in the hall and I smiled as I lifted my own mug of ale. We had been sitting on the barrels of ale since the first ship we had ever taken. They were a part of the Southern Raiders supply, as they held a unique storehouse on their ship because of the longer duration of its missions.

When I drank my glass, the burn reminded me of the cut on my back that has scabbed and about halfway healed. As it turns out, the tiger shark had cut me deeper than I thought. I would have a thin scar as a reminder. I didn't mind.

I stood up. "Thank you, Chief!" I called out with a smile. I soon allowed it to fall quickly. "I have to ask what we're all thinking." I said, gaining his and everyone's attention.

"I know, I know." He said as he raised a hand and stood up from his seat in the mess hall. I sat down, and allowed him the floor. "You all want to know what is next now that the Fire Nation is on to us?" He asked.

"Aye."

I joined the rest of the men's cries of 'yes' and 'ayes'. The mess hall had been a buzz of whispers, rumors, and speculation since the most recent battle. Most of the men were happy that they finally got some decent action. I hadn't made it to the third ship in time to stop the boarding from the enemy soldiers.

I hadn't met a single warrior who hadn't had a burn somewhere on their body from the scuffle that ensued. We lost 5 men. Boro, the man I sparred with earlier in the day, had been one of them. A lot of our men got their first kills during the battle. By the time I had sunk the ship, the battle was fairly even, but the fire nation was having a hard time boarding properly, thanks to a shield wall that met them after they crossed the bridge.

"I would ask you all the same thing!" Hakoda said, letting excitement into his voice. "We have sunk a total of 13 ships, killed over 600 fire nation soldiers, and collected much needed supplies for our people!"

We all let out a war cry in response.

"I say we return to Wolf Cove and show the people our success! Only 50 warriors from the tribes joined us. Others were scared! Frightened by years of losing. We will be heralded as heroes! Our women and children will not go hungry for months with the amount of rice and grain we have collected!"

Another cry from the crowd. This time, mine was one of the loudest. I liked the idea of returning home, even if it was just for a regroup.

"Once the rest of the tribes hear of our victories, they will flock to us. When we next leave to terrorize the Fire Nation, we will be able to field 3 or 4 ships of this size. That's when we will be able to do real damage to those bastards!" Hakoda practically screamed.

We all screamed with him.

"Drink up! We will return home, but we are not finished with the fire nation!"

A/N: Boom!

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Koda seems to have come to a decision regarding the war in front of him. He still doesn't like it, but he is coming to terms with what will be required of him in the future. He also knows that he needs to be more active in his community, and is actively trying to do that.

Hakoda whipped his ass with a single punch hahahaha. Poor kid!

Also, the fire nation has caught on and Hakoda isn't dumb enough to not adapt to the situation.

So far, they've had the advantage of surprise. But soon they will not have that, and you guys will see the repercussions that involves. Already, from the last battle, they lost 5 of their men and that could have been way worse.

The battles will begin to change as the fire nation shows how efficient it can be. So don't expect more chapters like the previous ones. I am going to mix it up I promise!

Let's talk in the reviews!