Chapter 71: A Dangerous Enemy

A/N: Chapters in advance in Patreòn

Pa treon.com/HolyJoker

(20+ chapters in advance)

______

Chapter 71: A Dangerous Enemy

***

Looking at the deep ravine in the ice, I couldn't help but think. How many explosions did she use down there? Also, the logistics of getting the explosions down, from underwater, was bound to be a pain.

Fuck. Maybe I shouldn't have killed Zhao. Handling him would have been way easier. Azula is such a pain.

Still, this exposed another weakness, but not on our side. Also, now that I thought about it, this could be turned around and become an advantage.

Looking around, the situation was kind of perfect. People were panicking, the leadership had died, probably. I could… take over this place.

But as thoughts of ambition started blooming in my heart, they died down as soon as they came. Because while checking if Aang was alive by using the [Map] function. I saw something that broke my heart. The Chieftain, Arnook, was alive, with some waterbenders surrounding him and Yue. Aang was too. But a ton of important officials were taken out with one hit.

This attack was planned by Azula carefully, and she even calculated the distance and where her people should put the explosives. What an ingenious plan.

She probably predicted that as soon as her ships became visible to the people here, the generals would gather toward the big tower that said 'Hey, important people live here'. It was like a huge target for her, and while she wasn't able to take out many people, her objective was to kill off the generals and as many high-ranking people as possible. All along, it wasn't her goal to kill the leader but to cripple military command.

That… I think I might have underestimated her intelligence. Even though I already assumed so much of her. No, it wasn't underestimating, she simply grew smarter and wiser with me around her for support. She no longer saw the world that her father painted, no… she would draw what she wanted herself. Now even Ozai was in danger, I wouldn't be surprised if Azula ended up killing her father and taking his place.

Ahhh~ dear Azula, you're growing so well.

[Due to precisely figuring out a budding great general's plan in such a short time, Intelligence increased by 1]

[For predicting about Azula's goal to target the higher ranking leaders, your wisdom increases by 1]

[Your <Manipulation> of a young girl's mind was nothing short of phenomenal, intelligence increased by 1]

Oy, oy, oy, you're making me seem like some kind of bad guy here who is manipulating Azula to get what I want… which wasn't necessarily untrue.

But c'mon, don't word it so harshly, you shitty interface. It's all for the greater good…

Damn, I was starting to sound like Dumbledore. Maybe I am a little scheming.

Of course, the interface didn't answer to me calling in bad names. It didn't have AI intelligence after all.

I was tempted to kill off the chieftain. That way it would make taking over this place very easy. But doing that would bring a whole array of other problems. Katara would see me kill him, no matter how I tried to disguise it, she would figure it out.

Also, Aang was here, and some spirits were probably spying on me. After I killed the Evil Lady, nothing was stopping them from looking.

Some annoying spirits were probably spying on me already. I couldn't wait till the time came for me to kill them. To go on a spirit-killing spree there were two things I needed, one was a Teleportation ability that I could use indefinitely, and second, a way to sense them. Even [Map] wasn't that much of a help when I wanted to find them. Some spirits could even hide from the Map completely. Having those two skills, I could level grind, and within days I would be able to farm hundreds of levels.

Putting Katara down, I stared at the deep ravine which I couldn't see the end of. My cute sister said something, but I was zoning her out as every thought in my mind was concerned with only one thing. What was Azula's next move? If I was in her place, what would I do?

Fuck. If I was in her place, some twisted shit came to mind. But she didn't grow up with the internet to give her twisted ideas. Tonight was a full moon, so it was very unlikely she would attack. As a perfectionist, Azula wouldn't want to win a battle with heavy losses. The Fire Nation couldn't afford one either.

"Katara, be careful," after saying that, I jumped down the hole.

Fwish!

The cold feeling of ice around me permeated my skin as I took off my jacket. I needed to figure out if the Fire Nation had discovered any kind of submarine technology because that would ruin things big time if I didn't know about it.

The closer I got towards the end, the darker it became around me, but my eyes were already adjusted to the darkness and with using the [Map] I doubted anyone could have better visibility than me down here.

With a swing of my hand, the ice around me turned into water and grabbed into my arms, and I turned the top of the water into scythe-like hooks and dug into the icy wall, slowing down my fall.

As I got closer to the water below, I noticed that there were a couple of red dots down below me. Landing into the water, there was a motorboat and a couple of people standing on it with a barrel in their boats. Probably explosive jelly.

***

"Did you hear something?" Asked one of the Fire Nation soldiers as he looked around.

"Probably some fish, but let's finish this job and get some money. We will be set for three generations if we do this good enough. While Princess Azula might be dangerous, as a member of the Royal Family, she had to hold her promises."

"Hey there," suddenly a new voice came into the mix and they looked on in surprise, but before they could do anything, they were knocked out.

Sokka picked their bodies and gently put down the exploding jelly. Looking at the barrel, he wondered if he should let it explode, this way it might shake things and kill even Chief Arnook. In the end, he decided against it and just put the exploding jelly in his inventory.

Using waterbending, he raised the unconscious men and himself quite high, but after that, he used ropes to tie them up to him and started climbing by using two knives. "This is some good strength training," he muttered, a little excited as he could feel his muscles twitch in pain.

***

At the top of the ravine, Katara waited anxiously for her brother to come up, but not much later she got a grasp on the situation and endured waterbending to lift away some of the debris from the ruined castle.

Soon, many waterbenders calmed down and came to help her. None of them said anything about a female using waterbending. Even if they wanted to, Sokka had beaten the best waterbenders here to a pulp, none of them wanted to test their fate and see what he would do when he became angry.

Fwish!

Suddenly from the ravine, a long shadow jumped out, and the warriors looked at him cautiously, with spears in their hands and pointing them at him. "Who goes there?!"

"Relax," Sokka reassured them as his figure became visible and he had two Fire Nation soldiers tied with him. "I got the perpetrators, wanted to kill them, but decided to keep them alive so we can learn more about the enemy."

The soldiers looked at him surprised, they couldn't even see the end of the ravine, and yet he went deep there and climbed up with nothing but physical strength, and some knives. Also, he had already taken care of the danger, while the rest of their leaders were like trapped chickens.

"Also execute the people who came here impersonating the Avatar," Sokka said, no, he ordered them and even though he didn't have any authority over them, everyone straightened their backs. "Those bastards were only playing at being the Avatar in case they were captured. In reality, they were looking for secret entrances. Isn't it curious how they found out a way to get so deep into an underground river? Be vigilant, we are at war. This isn't a place for mercy, or else this will happen again."

Though Sokka's words sounded like advice, he intended to have people think why this hadn't been taken care of sooner. Being a leader was good and one enjoyed luxuries, but a leader also will be blamed for anything bad. Even if it wasn't their fault.

"I will call the healers here and organize them, since I am quite fast, and take care of the Chieftain and others. Tonight the Fire Nation won't attack due to the full moon," he pointed up.

With that, everyone looked up at the full moon, but as they looked back down, Sokka was no longer there, and only the two tied-up Fire nation soldiers were left.

**

It didn't take Sokka long to arrive at the healing huts, which also served as the place where the female waterbenders learned how to heal. The people there were all panicked and an old woman was trying to calm them down.

Sokka, walked right up and with a spear in hand looked at them all.; "hey!!" he called out to them harshly, he needed to shock them back to reality. "People in the tribe are injured, go and help them. Also, send the best healers towards the tower."

As soon as he said that, the people's bodies moved on their own even though they were panicked, scared, and in shock. He had said what a good leader would have, but Sokka's intention all along was to empty this place. Because as soon as everyone was gone, he went to the back of the room and picked a book.

[Would you like to learn Waterbending Healing]

[Y/N]

He pressed yes after making sure no one was around and smiled as manipulated a small amount of water towards his hand and it lightly shone.

[Healing - Lvl 1]

[An ancient waterbending technique. The higher the level the more it can heal.

Heals 10HP for 10MP. The higher the level, the better it can heal, and the MP cost lessens.]

He smiled, this was a Skill he had been searching for a long time and this place was always filled with people, and knew that normally it would have been hard to get his hands on one of these books.

'Maybe this attack was not so bad for me. It had been quite fruitful. But, I will still attack you Azula, so be careful. I can't go easy on you. Hopefully, you survive this.'

***********

A/N: Due to the anti-vaxination mandate happening where I live, I had to move out, as the situation was getting pretty violent. Now everything is fixed and I will be back to the usual update schedule.