August 2nd, 9:00 PM

Kyoshi Island

Top of Mt. Kyoshi

Jacob stared down into the volcanic crater. "You could have mentioned he would have an active volcano as his base!" His head fell forward at Suki's biting comment. "Look, I'm just as surprised as you are, I bet he did this himself. But our luck actually worked with us for once. Anyone else, this would be horrible. Trying to fight in the middle of that without a firebender would be hard to say the least." She fanned herself to cool down, the heat that radiated off the glowing molten rock reaching up and grabbing them around the throat. "Yeah? And why not for us?" He smirked and settled down into a lotus position. "Because we've got an earthbender with some great incentive. I'm going to collapse some of the rim of the volcano on him. It'll push the lava higher and that base will become very hazardous very quickly." The base was a fortification made from stone, more than quintuple the size of the houses down in Chek. It had small battlements and crenellations around the outside walls, and a large iron-reinforced stone gate leading over the pit of lava it was centered in.

"Hey, wait a minute. Something's going on down there." He rose and peered over the lip of rock separating them from view. Someone was running towards the gate, a well-dressed girl a little younger than Suki. There was something black and heavy around her neck, with a piece of chain dangling from it, in sharp contrast to the bright red dress on the rest of her. "A collar." A true abomination was running close behind; it looked like a wolf had fused with a star-nosed mole and then grew several times larger. It set upon her in seconds, biting the collar around her neck and dragging her kicking and screaming back into the fortress. She looked up at the ridge for a split second and Jacob pulled them down. He looked over at Suki and saw her shivering. "I take it you know what that thing was?" The look on her face was so unnatural that he started to become concerned. "Hey, are you alright? Talk to me." "Did you see that girl?" He nodded. "Yeah. Lava flood is out. The fact that there's a collar and something to retrieve runaways tells me that she's not alone in there." She shook her head and shivered more. "I think… I think I know her. That was Hikari, she was supposed to have left for the mainland two days ago, just before you came." Jacob pressed a finger to his forehead. "And who told you that she left?" A look of sheer horror dawned on her face. "The governor came to visit us personally and made a point on the evils of the outside world. He said she would end up impoverished and… violated." His hand trailed down to his sword. "It looks like after our mission, there's a bit of justice to dispense. He's clearly working with Arisaka. Let's go." They vaulted over the ridge and slid down the steep crater.

Seconds before they hit the lava, Jacob stomped his foot on the ground, forcing a thick layer of basalt to the surface for them to run across. Suki whipped out a pair of fans and fell into line just behind him. Fires lit alongside the walls, and the commotion inside was alarmingly loud. "Jacob, we're going to have to move if we want to get in. The door's on our right." He smirked and put his hand on the pommel of his sword. "They'll be expecting that. It's much smarter to make our own door." Arrows shot at them from the parapets, forcing him to draw his sword and deflect them. 'Almost none of these would've hit us, and the other ones wouldn't have been lethal. Amateurs at best.' Feet from the wall he shouted "DANCING BLADE!" He let out a flurry of blows at the stone fortification, the green blade in his hands becoming a blur. He kicked the wall and it fell inward, revealing a large open room with only a single thing in it; the hellbeast from earlier. Jacob gave it no time to react, charging straight at it. It's mouth opened and a long, whip-like tongue lashed out at him. Suki blocked it with her fans, allowing him to duck under and continue his charge. He closed the gap in milliseconds, blade arcing down onto it's head and bifurcating it easily. There was no immediately obvious exit to the room, so he did the only thing that made sense: Driving his sword into the ground and making a pillar of earth slam into the nearest wall. It crumbled to dust, revealing the courtyard within, decorated with fire nation banners and red-hot iron braziers.

Nearly thirty fire nation soldiers were phalanxed there in full armor, swords in hand. 'Mostly level twenty-ish, some of them benders, others not. I'm going to paint this place red. Well, if it wasn't already.' He ran straight into the thick of them, slashing wildly. His blade tore through the armor and swords trying to block him, covering him in blood and bits of bone. The lucky ones died instantly, chopped in half with their bodies leaking blood and guts or having their brains pierced straight through. The unlucky ones fell to the ground, pawing at the holes in their chest as their life sprayed everywhere. Every time a blow was about to land on him, Suki was there to deflect it with her fans. Something was off about them, though; instead of the normal gold, they were a bright electric blue.

~ 30 hours ago ~

"So I'm going to be blunt. In the case that he's not alone, I'm the one of us that's going to deal the most damage. And I need you to enable me to do that." She stared at him in confusion. "How am I supposed to "enable" you?" He grinned. "Well, the main thing that keeps me from going crazy in solo fights is that I am, in fact, fairly vulnerable to being stabbed, burned, smashed, etc. That's where you come in. If you watch my flank, I don't have to worry about defending and can pour on the damage. Your style is about redirecting and blocking off attacks, right?" She frowned and eyed him suspiciously. "Stabbing and smashing, I can do, but I can't stop a ball of fire." He folded his arms, before letting them rest in his lap. "What if I told you that I can make you able to? What do you think about that?" She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "I'm not sure what you're going to do, but I want to find out." "Alright then. What's your favorite color?"

~ Present Day ~

One of the benders in the group threw a blast of fire at Jacob's head, grinning under his face guard. "Your little whore can't block this! Burn, infidel!" To his shock, one of her fans flashed out into the fire's path and waved it right back at him, searing his helmet onto his face. Before he had time to scream, Jacob thrusted his sword into his gut, leaving him there to bleed out. He moved onto the next soldier, the last one remaining. He was clearly the smartest, and also the highest leveled at 34. Instead of blocking, he shifted out of the way of Jacob's attacks, and he slashed at Suki's legs, knowing she was the main reason he hadn't fallen. "You think we didn't see this happening?" Jacob dropped his sword and turned on a dime, slamming a fist into his armored foe's helmet before the curved metal got within a foot of Suki. It stunned him for long enough that Jacob had time to jump into the air and shout "POWER DUNK!" His fist crashed down, cratering the helmet. Blood, bone and brainmatter oozed out of the eyeholes.

When they were finished with the slaughter, she put her hands over her mouth. He rubbed her back soothingly, speaking in a calming tone. "It's alright, Suki. I can handle it from here if you need me to." She took a shaky breath and steeled herself. "No. I can't quit, not until we're done. The spy himself is still left, right?" He smiled and patted her back. "Atta girl. Yeah, he's deeper inside. None of these guys were even close to his level. Remember, stick with the plan, and he won't even be a threat."

The basement of the fortress was an ornately decorated room, sconces hanging above rich carpets with detailed patterns of fire and flowers. One in particular was right before the large throne at the back wall, the fire nation crest. The man sitting on top of it was grinning madly, his red irises marking him as a chosen of Prometheus, with a thin mustache on top of a scraggly face full of sharp angles. His build was unimpressive, but not weak, and the dark red robe he wore obscured much of it anyhow. He got up from his position at the throne and stalked towards the duo, like a predator hunting his prey. "Ah, so the icon of Gaia finally arrives. I was wondering how long you would keep me waiting. I'm going to thoroughly enjoy that reward from the princess, and Prometheus will not leave me uncompensated. I think I'll have some fun with your pet, too." Jacob's mouth set in a hard line. "If you dare to touch Suki, I'll knock your head off, Ari- ugghhh." He clutched his side and looked down at the sword stabbed through him. The look of absolute shock and betrayal he gave her as he fell to the floor was enough to stop Arisaka in his tracks. Suki didn't speak for a moment before she dropped to one knee. "Praise be to the Fire Lord Ozai, long may he rule."

Arisaka looked confused for a moment before it dawned on him. "Ah, I see. Very good work, little spy. Come here, I must reward you for such excellent work." She kept kneeling next to the bleeding corpse, head down, unmoving. Arisaka clapped his hands, very pleased with himself. 'She knows the proper procedure for addressing a superior, do not move until you are touched on the shoulders. She is the real deal.' He strutted over, a spring in his step and a cocky grin on his face. When he reached her he tilted her chin up towards him and moved in. "Here comes your rewa-" His blood ran cold as her lips curved upwards and she said "In his own words, checkmate." A quiet voice from behind him spoke, and even though it had little volume, the words struck pure, unadulterated terror into the spy's heart. "I told you I'd knock your head off for that, bastard." He whirled around, a ball of fire in his hands, already trying to incinerate the now-standing Jacob. 'But that's impossible! He should be dead!' To his horror, the sixteen-year-old completely ignored the red-hot flames and slammed an uppercut into his jaw, shouting "DUREYEH!" Suki had already backflipped far away, anticipating what was about to come. The uppercut didn't stop at his jaw, cleaving through it like paper and continuing up to his brain. 'I lost to a boy a third of my age?! How on earth could he be this strong?!' There was an explosion of gore as his fist punched right through the brain's soft tissue and slammed into the top of his skull. This failed to break, instead launching up and pulling the rest of his spine with it, leaving a headless bloody stump to drop to its knees and fall to the side. "I might not be the most pure soul, but I know one that's black as coal when I see it."

Jacob pulled the sword out and tossed it aside, with shockingly little blood coming from the hole. "Great job, Suki. You could be an actor." She walked over, forcing him to sit as she wrapped his chest in bandages. "I could only act so well because of how much you assured me it wouldn't hurt you. That should've gone right through your stomach." He glanced over at his HP bar, hovering at 73. 'Well, it definitely did hurt, but not as much as it would've.' He made a motion with his hands, and a few small rocks slipped out of his mouth. "I used these to bend it out of the way. It did basically the same damage it would've if you stabbed through my arm." She stopped bandaging him and tied a small knot. "We did it." He smiled warmly at her. "Yeah, we did. I can't thank you enough for coming along with me. Now let's go rescue some hostages." The sound of several dings rang through his head as she helped him off the ground. 'I can take care of that later. There's still work to do.'

New Skills

Dancing Blade Lvl 22: 115/5500 "By my blade!" Launch a series of quick slashes that chain into each other. The move can be extended at the cost of more stamina, but the more slashes performed increases the chance of an enemy falling out of the move. The first hits deal very little damage, but the finisher makes up for this flaw, increasing in damage the more slashes that are performed before it.

Combo Hit: Deals 5 base damage + (sword base damage/50). Each hit costs 20 SP to use. Drop chance increases by (25% - .5 skill level) every hit.

Final Hit: Deals (71 base damage + (sword base damage/10)) * (number of combo hits used) * .2 STR. Costs 100 SP to use.

Dancing Blade max calculable damage: 14,154 (8 combo hits, maximum possible amount of hits before drop becomes certain)

KO Punch Lvl 2: 0/2000 "HIT 'EM BABY!" The user lunges forward and delivers a practically unstoppable uppercut that gets stronger the more health that has been lost. Deals 1 base damage * (Lost HP/10) * STR

Special Traits: Unstoppable, Guardbreaker (Doubles effect at level 5, triples effect at level 10), Desperate Strength

Costs: Remaining SP, cannot regenerate SP or HP naturally for 3 seconds. You may consume 5% of your HP to use this move.

Desperate Strength: If the user is below 50% combined health and stamina, this move receives a 2x damage boost. If the user is below 25% combined health and stamina, this move receives a 4x damage boost. If the user is below 10% combined health and stamina, this move receives a 10x damage boost. If the user is below 5% combined health and stamina, this move receives a 25x damage boost. If the user has 1% combined health and stamina remaining, this move becomes an instant kill, regardless of the target's HP stat or defensive abilities.

KO Punch max calculable damage: 84,788 (when at 5% combined health and stamina) ∞ (at 1% combined health and stamina)

I've realized that these numbers with no context are pretty pointless, so let me give some examples, along with a few of the mechanics for this iteration of The Gamer's powers.

HP stats: A fully grown non-bender in average shape will have 1,000 HP. A fit bender would be expected to have up to 3,000 HP. A shirshu has approximately 15,000 HP, a sky bison 75,000, and even a young dragon could reach half a million. 100 HP is awarded to humans every ten years.

Armor: Pieces of armor have armor ratings, from 1 to 100. As may seem obvious, the higher the rating the more it protects the wearer. A cloth hat has an armor rating of 1, meaning it absorbs 1% of the damage dealt to the user. An iron helmet has an armor rating of 80, meaning it absorbs 80% of the damage dealt to the user, making the iron helmet clearly superior.

Experience/Leveling: Exp is acquired one of two ways: finishing quests or defeating an enemy. For quests, the exp acquired is flat and will be mentioned directly at the time of acceptance. When being rewarded exp for defeating an enemy, three things are taken into account: 1. The enemy's final state, 2. the level discrepancy between the parties, and 3. the winner's final state.

An opponent being killed vs. an opponent being spared rewards exp at a 10:1 ratio.

For every level the loser is higher than the winner, a bonus multiplier of 1.02 is applied to the exp gained (Additively, not exponentially, meaning that defeating lower leveled opponents yields less exp).

If the winner is dealt zero or very little damage by the enemy, a multiplier of 2 is applied to the exp gained. If the winner takes 25% max HP in damage, the multiplier drops to 1.5. At 50%, it drops to 1, and will not go lower.

There is a cap to leveling up through defeating an enemy: No more than 10 levels can be gained through defeating a single enemy; this does not apply when the combat summary of exp is counting multiple enemies.

Leveling up requires 2,000 more exp every time a level is completed. Upon level up, one stat point is given to be allocated, either at that time or in the future. Every fifteen levels, one Special Point is obtained.

Skill experience/Skill leveling: Whenever a skill is used, it gains skexp, or skill experience. Amounts vary depending on total damage inflicted/negated or the time used. If a skill kills an enemy, it instantly levels up. Separate multipliers will add percentages. (Aether uses earthbending, so it gets both the 12.5% bonus from Prodigy and the 15% bonus from Gaia's Chosen, resulting in a 27.5% bonus)

Skills require 250 more skexp every time they level up, with the exception of special skills that are stronger than normal, which take 1000. When leveling up, a variety of things can happen to a skill; it can increase base damage by one point, it can gain a new modifier (Ex. Aether gained a .5 STR modifier at level 15), or it can unlock/upgrade a special trait. If the skill does not deal damage, then the description will list what leveling up does.

Critical hits: A critical hit occurs when an enemy's weak spot is targeted, and quadruples the damage dealt. Universal weak spots are the heart and brain.

Status effects: Status effects do a variety of things to those afflicted; Bleeding and Burning both inflict % based HP loss over time, while Poison can reduce SPD, STR, or any other stat. If CON is reduced to 0, it will be lethal. Status effects are inflicted in fairly obvious ways: Cutting someone will make them Bleed, hitting someone with a fireball will make them Burn, making someone drink poison will Poison them, etc. A higher CON stat will reduce the severity and length of status effects; this applies to Poison only with the initial CON stat, not after it has been reduced.