21.Raid
Less than six months have passed since the magic of the earth reached the average level, at the same time it turned out to work out the already mastered techniques, adding to them the creation of a stone shield and stone armor.
It also turned out to find the right points of contact in blood magic, which are responsible for movement. Now I can control a dozen rats! Trying to deepen my understanding of this ability, I have achieved that I can give each rat different movements. And it seems that I have found the right key to the door, behind which there is some basic understanding of blood manipulation.
The rats no longer made such rapid progress, so I had to go into the tundra, and already there I tried to control the movements of larger animals. It was no different in principle from manipulating small animals, and a little more energy was spent, but the basis is the same. It remains to find guinea pigs.. I wanted to say scoundrels on whom I can try out blood magic. After all, you never know what I can unknowingly damage or break there, it's better to let there be a person who only harms society...
There has been a real birth rate boom all over the North Pole. When you are no longer bothered by injuries, you look at life differently, it seems that there has been a reassessment of values, now people can often see women clinging to rounded tummies on the street, or already carrying their babies in carriers. It is worth thinking about expanding the boundaries of the city, besides, the issue of own farms for breeding fish and animals is acute, since the city, and all the nearby tribes still feed from nature. The situation is not critical yet, but in recent years there has been only a positive birth rate, and over time, for the sake of food, we will upset the balance in the ecosystem, which may eventually lead to an extreme shortage.
Precisely! It seems that this issue has already been brought under control... Probably, it's worth sleeping less with your eyes open at meetings, I won't miss something really meaningful for an hour.
Yui was inspired by the idea of becoming the first female water master at the North Pole, and seeing her progress in comprehending water, there is no doubt about it. I think I will be able to achieve the lifting of the ban on in-depth study of water magic among women before this significant event.
The process has already been launched, and a document is being developed in which all the details will be described. It is already known for sure that no one will send them to the front line, maybe later they will allow this, but only to the masters of water. At this point in time, we are talking only about training the female population in water magic on a voluntary basis. After all, nothing bad will happen if the beautiful half of our city is ready to stand up for the same children if necessary.
***
At his next appearance at the South Pole, the completely destroyed old village caught his eye, even from here I could still see the burning remains of those tents that the residents warmly called their home...
- expressive obscene construction* – I knew that this would happen someday, but I still hoped not to destroy the damn canon. Every time I asked myself the questions: "what if?". What if Sokka and Katara hadn't been here, the avatar wouldn't have appeared?. And in the hope of preserving the line of history I needed, I put people already close to me in danger. But it was already possible to carry up to two large animals through the portals without problems, but seeing no direct danger, I decided to wait a little. It was necessary to immediately move the entire tribe to the north!
Quickly creating a water platform, I wasted no time immediately flying to a new village. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the dead soldiers of the fire nation lying on the territory of the old village, who fell into our traps. Some of them weren't dead yet, but judging by the amount of blood they had, it wouldn't be for long... Two ships of the fire nation were standing right next to the village, cutting through the ice. I could feel the sources of life there, but now I was not up to them.
In the next second, I was already halfway to the village, while noting all the new soldiers who will forever remain in these snows. I hope everything is fine in the tribe, although judging by the loud screams, everything is not so smooth there. Although it would be scarier if there were no voices at all...
Having braked sharply over the village, I saw the whole picture that is now unfolding here. The bodies of the villagers were nowhere to be found, but there were many soldiers of the Fire nation.
- There's a water magician here! Get him to me dead or alive! - shouted one of the warriors, who saw me first, while setting an example to others, launched a fireball at me.
- Here he is! - another obvious remark was made by the soldiers, who began to leave the houses.
- You won't leave! – one of the magicians said with a roar, launching a blade of fire at me. That's dangerous, but I don't have time, I can already hear familiar voices at the far end of the village.
By taking control of the snow that was under the soldiers' feet and giving it a liquid state, I ensured that this water entwined all the magicians in the blink of an eye. When they were all in the water, I turned the water back into ice. Let them sit here for now. There were no strong magicians in sight, which means they won't be able to get out of the ice for a long time.
- That girl, the water magician! – I heard a scream in one direction.
At the edge of the village, where there was a hidden entrance to the tunnels, I saw the remaining warriors who were already approaching Kaya. She was blocking Sokka and Katara.
- We're taking the girl alive! Those who get in the way will be dead! – one of them, in a slightly different uniform from the others, shouted. Most likely, this is their commander.
My heart started beating faster, I was about to immobilize them, when several things happened at once. The fire mages stood at the ready, while fire began to gather at their hands.
- No-o-o-o-o! – Kai's scream matched mine. Using some reflexes that were developed on rats, I took control of the hands of the fire mages, taking them up a little.
Kaya, closing her eyes, raised her hands in front of her. She, and I, definitely did not expect to see a wall of water rise up in front of her, thus creating protection. I definitely had nothing to do with it, Katara also looked at me with surprise. Okay, then, while the magicians were still fighting with their own hands, I managed to put them in ice.
- It seems that this is all, - the feeling of the spirit is silent, which means that only those who are on the ship remain. Well I can deal with them later. Katara was the first to see me, who immediately rushed towards me with tears in her eyes. Sokka and Kaya followed her, eventually embracing the four of us, we calmed Katara, who was faced with such a situation for the first time. It seemed that Sokka still remembered something from his early childhood, so he reacted to all this only with clenched fists and grim determination in his eyes.
Only when everyone calmed down enough, I asked to call the rest of the residents. I myself started transporting prisoners to one of the houses, which I additionally surrounded with another layer of ice. Not knowing yet what to do with the ships, I just walled up all the exits with ice.
Well, now there are definitely volunteers who are ready to experience the transition from the south pole to the north. Those who, even after a while, did not die from injuries sustained due to traps, I completely froze. I hope they will live for a while longer, I want to try to cure them with the help of healing magic combined with blood magic. It's nothing personal, we're just on opposite sides of the fence, if they were in my place, they wouldn't even think about what to do with me. It smacks, of course, of double standards, but they encroached on the lives of my loved ones.
Already at night, when all the things were done and the people were calmed down, I finally found out the whole chronology of the events that took place. The beginning of the Kataranarrative:
- This afternoon, Sokka and I were by the ocean, where I was trying to control the water. I didn't want to show you my abilities until I learned how to use them well, – Katara said, looking away from me. The conspirator, after all, did not even tell anyone about it. - When we were about to return home, we saw several warriors from the People of Fire behind us. I do not know how they got there, – but I can guess... most likely, they sent scouts who, having not seen life in the old village, went to look further. - They saw how I manipulated the water, when they were already running towards us, I sent a water wave at them out of fear.
- They were blown further away from us, while they were climbing, I took Katara by the hand and ran to the settlement, - Sokka picked up, seeing that Katara, dejectedly lowering her head, fell silent. The silly girl thinks she is guilty of the attack, but they would still keep up, I will need to explain everything to her later.
- At this time, one of the patrols came across the fire warriors who were trapped. People began to gather hastily to the bunker, but I, not seeing my children, ran to look for them, – Kaya continued, – we met on the way to the village, and already being close to the entrance to the tunnel, we realized that we were already surrounded by enemy soldiers.
- I think it was worth trying to do this earlier, but now everyone definitely needs to go to the Northern Water Tribe. Soon I will be able to transport you to the other pole, the people of fire will definitely not calm down and will dig snow with their noses in search of missing soldiers, – I said seriously. My words resonated with Kaya, who do not wants to put her children in danger. Katara began to look a little happier, after all, being next to me seven days a week is definitely better than two.
- Kaya, congratulations on becoming a water magician! – I said to the startled Kaya, who still didn't fully believe it.
She doesn't seem to have much faith in her own strength, and in order to dispel doubts, I asked her to try to lift some water from a glass. The body has already memorized the sensations, so everything went well. Once she believed in her magic, she couldn't be torn away from manipulating water. For the rest of the conversation, she was like a little child, with glowing eyes, moving her hand levitating the water. And even Katara and Sokka looked at her in some kind of disbelief, after all, they had never seen this part of her personality before, they were used to always seeing her calm and collected.
As soon as everyone was asleep, I began to comb the nearby waters and lands by air for all sorts of surprises, whether they were new ships or soldiers I had not seen. There were none.
I stopped at the ships of the fire nation and thought hard. There are the same people on it, with the same blood and the same problems... For a whole minute, a man of the twenty-first century fought in me, but in the end the new me, who grew up on the realities of this world, won.
Now I live here in this world, where war is not a dry line about the victims of conflicts in some distant Africa. I just have no right to be weak, thus calming my conscience, I began to clean the ships. It would be cool if the conquerors dissolved into the energy of the world, like the spirits, giving me their energy. It would be much easier to take it all in that way, but even in my opinion, it's too fat. Moreover, I will most likely absorb some of them in the Realm of Spirits, after all, there are many spirits of the main four on that plane for a reason. As I guess, these are the souls of deceased magicians. Although anything can happen here, but for now I will stick to this theory.
It's going to be a very long night tonight... I will need to interrogate the soldiers about their arrival, of course, I have guesses, but it is worth finding out the exact details of their motives. There are several other soldiers who were in critical condition. It was on them that I wanted to test the healing by mixing blood magic and vital energy.
I never thought that I would have to interrogate someone, there were no such specific skills in my arsenal, but a bunch of movies I watched give me a lot of different options to choose from. That's just that I didn't have to deal with real interrogation this time, creating the right atmosphere of the torture room, preparing creepy-looking tools made of ice. How I love the magic of water!
Then I began to speak in a loud whisper about what I would do with the poor soldier of the people of fire, as already in the second minute the client was ready. Maybe I came across someone so impressionable, or he didn't like a sharp ice knife dangerously close to one special place... but he gave me everything in one breath, I even had to stop him when he told me too much in detail and too wrong.
They were sent to check the reason for the long silence on the part of the Southern Invaders. It turns out that the fire nation has many supply bases in different parts of the world. The Southern Invaders were assigned to one such base, and when they were not seen at the base for a whole year, this issue was raised in the form of a letter in the capital. But as he knows, the bureaucratic apparatus is too bloated, the letter could have been lost, which is why they arrived only now. Everything is clear, if they lose these people too, they will definitely worry from above, whether to leave or not is no longer a question.
For the next few hours, I spent trying to combine healing magic with blood magic. The result was unexpected, healing magic turned out to be a milder form of what is obtained when combining blood magic and vital energy. In simple healing, water acts as a kind of filter for your vital energy. Before, I thought it was hard to adjust to the sick in simple healing, but even then, water helped me do it easier. Here I need to change my qi, without any filter, especially here Iact immediately on a person's blood, that is, the concentration of its vital forces...
One tiny mistake and you lose a person! I honestly didn't want this, but the first fire warrior repeated the fate of my first fish. It was terrible, but I found an unexpected plus that remained with me from being a spirit. The mind smoothes out strong negative emotions, if not for this, there will be another battle with conscience.
What is the result of all the experiments? It is already clear that this is possible, but extremely difficult… I cured the last injured fire soldier, or rather, I completely regrew his lost leg, which he left trapped. Of course, he died of exhaustion after that, but it was a side effect that does not affect the result in any way. The body drank itself in order to complete the task.
Everything is in the blood – that's what I realized. I programmed my life energy, adjusted to it, to return the body to its ideal state. The process was stable while I was sending him my life energy, but as soon as I stopped feeding, his body began to look for outside resources to complete the task. These very resources were taken from the body itself. It didn't matter to the "program" whether the person died in the end or not. "Program" just needed to complete the task. The limb appeared more due to my energy. Then the "program" began to bring the body to an ideal state in its understanding. I don't know for sure what the ideal condition is for blood, but the body's resources were squeezed out in five seconds, and the only change occurred near the soldier's eyes, just the wrinkles disappeared. How much vital energy is needed for complete rejuvenation?! Although this issue has yet to be resolved, the main thing is that it is possible at all!
As if a stone had been lifted from my soul, even the soldiers participating in my research did not bother me so much now, because they managed to participate in such a discovery that even Wang Shi Tong would not recognize. No, I only need to show this to my loved ones, and some people don't even have to know how it happens.
There is too much action for today, it's like a whole roller coaster. The sun will rise soon, it's worth getting some sleep. I have a lot of things waiting for me tomorrow that require my personal participation. I must not forget to check the passage through portals with people, and, of course, pay attention to Kaya's family. Children have a plastic psyche, but it is always welcome to cheer up, I just remembered one fairy tale, I will need to show it to all the children of the tribe, stay locked up in a bunker for several hours, also not a good experience.