Water bending?

{Third POV}

The Storm King suddenly got up from his throne, "Are you the Raven, Master Raven?"

Raven looked at Durran like he was looking at an idiot. His eyes were full of disdain as if asking, who else would I be?

Durran understood right away, no wonder he said those two were fake gods. Only the legendary Master Raven would look down on those powerful beings with disgust.

He immediately knelt down, "I apologize for my previous behavior. Please help me against those fake gods Master Raven. I will give you anything within my power for you to help me."

Raven smirked, "Good word choice. But this kid here is enough to solve your problem. What good is a storm that can't get past your walls?"

Bran on the other hand was a little perplexed. Growing up, he had realized that his Brother Raven was the same Master Raven whom everyone spoke of in legends and stories. But to Bran, Brother Raven had always been Brother Raven.

But now, seeing a dignified king on his knees and begging for help, Bran started to reconcile the two sides of Raven. The one he had heard of in stories and the one he knew as a brother. There was not much of a difference except for the respect and awe he had for Raven increased even more.

Durran nodded, "I understand. I will follow Master Bran's instructions on the building."

This startled Bran. When did he become a Master? He immediately corrected, "Please just call me Bran, your majesty, I am not a Master."

"Yet. You're not one yet." Raven added with a smirk.

He then looked around and said to the Storm King and the future King of the North, "You guys talk about stacking stones. I will go catch an octopus, I suddenly want to eat some takoyaki."

With that Raven disappeared from the room. Bran was used to it but Durran was shocked at the sudden disappearance.

'Did he disappear? Is that magic?' Durran muttered. He himself had some extraordinary powers but it was nowhere on that level.

Bran who had superior hearing heard that and answered, "He is just moving too fast for normal human eyes. He says disappearing with magic leaves traces."

Durran's eyes twitched, he could catch arrows fired at him from close range but he hadn't seen Raven move at all.

The two of them entered the king's study room where Bran began to explain his designs and ideas in detail.

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On the other hand, Raven was floating silently over the sea. He was looking down at the strange phenomena where the whole sea was turbulent except a small part of it which was as calm as a still pond.

'I can see that they aren't very smart since this is the least hidden, hidden lair I have seen in a long while.' Raven mused as floated down at the calm part of the sea.

When he reached the sea, he put his feet on the water and just stood there, waiting. He even brought out a chalice and filled it with wine while he waited. He then looked at the wine and waved his hand over the chalice and turned it into water.

Raven was grinning at the joke that no one in this world would be able to understand when the calm part of the sea started to get turbulent, waves started to rise but no matter how the waves moved, Raven would just bob up and down at the same place.

A man emerged from the sea and floated in front of Raven who was holding the chalice and looking at him while smiling. The man was wearing a luxurious robe and holding a staff which should also be a magical artifact.

"Do you want to die?" the man growled and released his magical aura. Seeing the calm Raven, he wanted to scare him away instead of fighting.

Raven just shrugged, "You are not the octopus. I'm waiting for the octopus to come out. It looks juicy, the takoyaki made from it should taste great."

The man was furious, "That's my wife Cynthia! You dare harm her!" He started sending water projectiles and giant waves at Raven.

"Water bending? Cool, take my lightning bending!" Raven stated flatly and fired lighting snakes out of his fingers.

The water that the fake sea god threw at me all crashed into a shield around Raven while the lightning snakes easily penetrated the water shield that the fake sea god had set up and hit his chest. The man was toasted within seconds.

"Such a disgusting smell! I already said I only wanted the octopus, why did you want to get fried without reason? Anyway, hey octopus, if I have to come down there, I'll make you watch while I make your sashimi and feed the whole town." Raven said out loud looking at the sea below.

A figure slowly rose up from under the sea. When it finally got out of the water, there was a woman, wearing clothes made out of flowing water. She was a beauty. If one had to explain it, she looked like someone who was made to be pleasing to the eyes.

Raven sneered, "My appetite is ruined now. Why did you have to turn into a human form? Why couldn't you remain a giant octopus kaiju?"

The woman didn't seem to mind his comments though, "I am ready to be your slave, just don't kill me." She pleaded instead.

'Cynthia' had seen Raven kill her husband with a casual hand wave. She thought that since Raven is so powerful, she might have a better survival chance if she pleaded, instead of attacking him.

Unfortunately, it was Raven whom she faced, "If you were an ordinary monster, I might have left you alive but you're one of 'them'. And I vowed to my friends to protect this planet from you guys. So just die quietly."

With a casual hand wave from Raven, the woman started to burn. He waited there while the woman changed her form into a giant tentacle monster with multiple eyes on its head. But the fire grew in size as well, roasting it to death.

But Raven didn't stop there, he burned her until not even her ashes remained. He didn't want to leave even a tiny trace of these being anywhere on the planet.

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After Raven returned, he didn't speak anything about what he had done or where he went. Bran didn't ask about it either, since he had become accustomed to Raven going on his silly quests to find strange food and coming back empty-handed.

The Storm King on the other hand had some inklings as to what might have happened out in the sea since the storms were visibly milder. But he kept his mouth shut as well, it wasn't his place to question someone like Raven.

Instead, Durran spared no expense in gathering the best craftsmen, builders, and workers to start construction on the castle designed by Bran.

This made Bran happy and he continued teaching the workers about the intricacies of his design, things they needed to pay attention to, and things that might go wrong.

Apart from building, he would also have to attend classes for magic and combat training with Raven daily. Those were things he couldn't miss no matter what he did during the day.

And so, Raven and Bran spent three months in Storm's End under the care of the king himself. They had the best food and were served by servants at every turn. Bran was dazzled by the luxury while Raven was indifferent to it all except the alcohol.

Seeing the twitching face of the Storm King every time Raven downed a barrel of alcohol by himself, he could tell that the king's stocks were dwindling fast. To add insult to injury, after every other swig, Raven would complain about the taste of the alcohol.

When the day for their departure finally came, even Bran felt embarrassed taking the compensation given to him by the king. But Raven just snatched it from the king and threw it over to Bran before turning around to leave.

"I hope you can come over to visit once the castle is done." The king maintained his calm and said to Bran.

Bran nodded, "This is my first time helping build something this large, I will definitely come to take a look."

After bidding farewell and a bow to the king, Bran turned around and ran after Raven who had already walked ahead.

The king looked on at the back of the kid who really treated the legendary Raven like a normal big brother. He is destined for greatness, Durran muttered.

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While walking through the forests, Bran was constantly trying to add details to the ice crystals that he was forming on his hand. Once again, a ball that was supposed to be a head but looked like a mud ball was thrown to the ground.

"How do you do it brother Raven? Just tell me already. No matter how much I try the details just become crooked." Bran said in frustration.

He looked at his side, where Raven was floating beside him while laying down comfortably in the air.

Raven brought out his palm and a fist-sized ball of ice hovered over it. Then it rapidly transformed into a man, then a dragon, then a tree, and then back to a ball before turning into snow powder and disappearing. Bran was amazed but also envious.

"How one conveys their will to magic is different for all. Some use their emotions, some see it as painting, some use sculpting, and as for me, I see magic as a jumbled mess of letters. I arrange them into words, then a sentence, and finally a complete language." Raven explained.

He then turned to face Bran. "So little pup, how do you visualize magic? What do you want from it? When you have a clear idea, you will be able to do things you want."

This trip was also so that Bran could realize the core of who he was and what his magic should be. Although his age was a bit too young to ponder over those things but his mental maturity was equivalent to someone in their late teens, so it was fine.

'How do I visualize magic?' Bran muttered and got lost in his thoughts.

The rest of the journey was spent in silence. Raven had turned himself into the size of a palm and slept on Bran's shoulder at some point.

*Whoosh*

An arrow flew rapidly from behind some bushes targeting Bran's back. Raven opened his eyes slightly to look around before he went back to sleep once more.

As for Bran, he turned around and blocked the arrow with an ice block that had formed on his hand. He quickly jumped back and assessed his surroundings.

From behind one of the trees, a man walked out. He was large and his face was scarred all over. "Boy, hand over all the gold on you."

'I am dressed in simple clothing and even hid the pouch in my clothes yet they specifically asked me for gold….'

After a thought, Bran asked, "So you saw the king give me the rewards and followed me here?"

The large man sneered, "There are ten of us here, if you value your life, you should obediently hand the gold over to me."

Bran shook his head, "No. I earned it on my own. If you try to hurt me, I will not spare you."

Raven had taught him to be kind to people but also to be ruthless to his enemies. If there are no grounds for reconciliation, always eliminate the threat or hide your intentions until you are stronger, if they are too powerful.

The large man gave a signal and eight other men surrounded him on all sides. The archer was still hidden.

Without giving the other party a chance to react, Bran conjured an ice dagger and threw it at the location where the archer should be. A scream sounded from that direction.

The other bandits were shocked. Where did that white dagger come from?

But, before they could even get their bearing, three more daggers accurately pierced through the three bandits at the side of Bran. Only then did the leader of the group shout, "What are you looking at? Attack!"

Bran conjured a long sword this time and parried the axe thrown at him while he bent back to dodge a spear. The man who had stabbed forward at Bran's heart with the spear looked down at his own torso, which felt cold, only to find an ice sword stabbed in there.

The fight continued and Bran deftly moved around the attacks while dodging left and right while conjuring different ice-based weapons like needles, hammer, sickle, saber, and even a brick at one point.

When the last man went down, he checked every one of them to see if they really died before piling them up with some wood and setting them on fire. He had heard from Raven that dead bodies might cause plagues if left in the open.

Bran was proudly walking back on the road when he heard Raven's voice by his ear, "You could've just frozen them all at once. Why show off against untrained bandits?"

Hearing that, Bran almost tripped over nothing. He laughed awkwardly and increased his pace.