[Sufficient powers for System Update detected, Commencing Update]
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[Patchnotes: Ability ranking and power ranking unlocked, Party System unlocked, removed Herobrine]
[Air bending obtained. Rank: F, Power: S]
When the flash of light and air died down one could see Alice stand next to the bison leader. Gusts of air escaped every time she took a breath. The bison leader meanwhile was experimenting with a small rock that it kept hovering in front of its face.
Alice turned towards Toph and said: „See nothing bad happened, Now do you wish to learn air and fire bending? Trust me this feels amazing, I feel like I could rip apart an entire battalion of fire nation soldiers without using my shadows or my dragonification."
„I want to see what all this glorification of air bending is all about. So yes, give me some juice." Replied Toph as she cautiously made her way over to Alice, her tremor sense on high alert since this meant that she had to walk into the herd of bison.
Toph didn't trust them at all, if they hadn't harmed Alice they were still massive flying bison and needed to be respected as such.
Alice placed her hand on Toph's head.
[Do you wish to Impart a copy of the skills Air bending Rank: F, Power: S
And Fire bending Rank: C Power: B to Toph Beifong?]
Alice smirked and mentally ordered Yes to the system. Bright light once again enveloped Alice and Toph with the latter freezing up in shock as she could feel the air around her and with that the things it touched. Her fire bending gave her the ability to sense the body heat of those around her and she finally realised that there were a lot more of the bison than she had thought at first. Most of them were hidden in outcroppings in the ceiling.
She had been unable to sense them due to them not touching the ground at all. They were hovering in place and thus hidden from her tremor sense. Quite ingenious if you thought about it. It seemed that the bison had experience fighting against earth bending masters. This in turn led Toph to believe that the air nomads hadn't fallen victim to just the fire nation.
She was now convinced that there was a larger plot at hand. It had always seemed suspicious to her that an entire ethnic group would just vanish like that. No matter how powerful the fire nation was, they shouldn't have been able to kill everyone.
But if they had help from some earth benders things made a lot more sense now. She would have to discuss this with Alice at a later date. And if she was correct then the corruption in the government of the earth kingdom was running much deeper than she was led to believe when growing up.
„So what do you think? Air bending is amazing isn't it. We will need to find a teacher that can show us how to use air bending and the same goes for fire bending. Luckily I have an idea where we can find one of the two. And the other shouldn't be too hard." Said Alice as she was experimenting with air bending. She was constantly trying to make small balls of concentrated air in the palms of her hand. After all there was one very iconic attack created by a certain yellow flash and perfected by a certain blonde haired loudmouth that she was trying to recreate.
„So you have someone in mind, who is it?" Asked Toph, still weary of the hidden bison. There were a lot of them and she didn't feel safe with that many of the massive flying creatures lying in wait. She wasn't able to tell what they would do if either of them made a move that the bison didn't like.
„Alice, are you aware that.." Toph began but a subtle tapping of the foot from Alice let her know that she was well aware of the hidden bison.
„Well then, I think that concludes our trade does it not herd leader? If you don't mind Toph and I shall be going now. Don't worry, I swear we won't tell anyone about your herd. In turn I expect you to keep our visit secret from humans, animals and even the spirits. Does that work out for us?" Asked Alice as she made her way back to Tophs side, keeping a watchful eye on the herd.
Some of the younger bison didn't seem to want to allow them to leave but a growl from the leader was all that it took for them to stand down. The old bison looked at Alice and nodded, thus allowing them to leave in peace.
It took Toph some time to realise that they had indeed escaped without any problems. She had been fully prepared to fight her way out if need be.
They made their way out of the cave and up the stairs Toph had created for them, when they reached the surface night had begun to fall and they decided that it would be best to set up camp for the night.
[Quest generated: Set up Camp Earth bender Style]
[Set up a camp for the night using only earth bending]
[Rewards: Increase in bending skill, Healing potion]
„Hey Toph, do you mind if I try setting up the camp? I want to see how good I am at earth bending." asked Alice as she began to flatten the terrain via earth bending.
Toph shrugged. „sure go ahead, I don't mind if you want to test your skills. But if it sucks I'm going to make my own just so we are clear."
Alice smirked and settled into a fluid stance, She had observed how Toph had been using her bending to move the earth. This coupled with her memories of the show led her to believe that in order to properly use bending one had to use rising motions coupled with large sweeping motions. At least at her level of skill. She put her right foot behind her body and used a sickle kick to make an undulating wave of earth spread across the mountain top. Her action caused the floor to become level and flat. Next she transitioned into a tower kick. As a result a pillar of stone rose in the middle of the flattened surface. She landed with a stomp causing the inside of the pillar to hollow out.
„Well Toph, What do you think?"
Toph meanwhile was rolling on the floor, laughing her ass off.
„Oh spirits that bffahahaha was the most over the top bending I have ever witnessed. You do realise that you don't need to move around that much right? Such big movements are only needed for massive acts of bending. There is no reason to move more than your pinkie for bending of this level. If I had to guess, you observed some earth kingdom soldiers using their bending right?" said Toph once she had managed to stop laughing her ass off.
Alice was blushing like a tomato at this point she had tried to impress toph and in the process had made a fool of herself.
„Don't be ashamed of yourself, you picked up earthbending remarkably quickly. You just observed benders that weren't trained for any form of finesse or grace.
All they know is how to bend the earth in order to do maximum damage with what little skills the army managed to drill into them in the sort amount of training they get before being tossed at the fire nation.
It wasn't a bad assumption on your part, you didn't know any better. That being said, your shelter is well made. Personally I would have added some form of fortification but it will do for the night." Toph said.
Alice kicked a small rock and grumbled about stupid soldiers and their useless skills, her face red from embarassment.
Toph giggled as she observed Alice's antics. For someone so powerful she sure was silly. After a bit of concentration Toph managed to use a gust of wind to push Alice towards the shelter.
„Come on you goofball let's sleep. It's getting late and I guess that we will have to travel quite a bit tomorrow to find your mystery teacher, so stop moping and get some rest.
After all, I wouldn't like my mode of transport to be tired and to randomly drop me."
Alice glared at Toph for a few seconds before letting out a sigh and following Toph inside the shelter. It took some fiddling but they eventually managed to get a fire going with some of the firewood Alice had collected when she was inside her Instant Dungeon. Toph used her skills as an earth bender to create some raised stone platforms they could use as beds.
„Goodnight Toph, See you tomorrow."
„Goodnight Alice, sleep well."
And with that they soon fell asleep.
Same Night, Fire Nation Garrison. -
Pure and utter chaos was the only way that one could describe the state of the garrison. Corpses littered the floor and most of the garrison's troops were dead or dying.
The shadow maggots Alice had placed on the fleeing soldier had spread to his compatriots, hiding in their shadows they had waited until the infection rate had reached above 80%.
As soon as that point had been reached they had begun to start their grisly task. They burrowed into the bodies of the soldiers until they reached their brains, causing them agonizing pain in the process.
Once they had reached their victims' brains they began to take control of their host's nervous system, thus turning them into puppets.
They then piloted the still aware soldier to attack their non infected comrades. Forcing them to attack them in a manner similar to zombies.
The parasites didn't have the ability to use bending in any way so they instead forced their victims to use their hands, feet and even mouths to savage their former friends.
In order to create maximum terror they allowed their victims the ability to speak when not devouring their friends.
The few surviving members had managed to escape their former comrades by burning them to death. Their screams would haunt them for the rest of their lives.
They begged and pleaded, cried out for help and cursed them for killing them whilst trying to tear them apart.
There was nothing else they could do as their friends weren't in control of their bodies.
What they didn't know was that some of the survivors still had shadow maggots hidden in their shadow, waiting to repeat the same process in another garrison.
„Get yourself together men. We are officially at war with the spirits. There is nothing we can do about the dead so let us give them a proper burial."
Shouted the general as he was desperately trying to establish some form of order among his surviving troops.
It took some time and a large amount of coaxing but eventually the soldiers managed to gather their dead and buried them in shallow mass graves.
In a single night the fire nation had lost over a thousand soldiers to an unknown enemy. The prospect of a spirit hunting them down had been dismissed by the higher ups in the military. Thinking that the soldier who had first warned them about the spirit had gone insane as a result of the earth kingdom killing his unit.
But after last night the tone of the conversation would change and the fire nation would know fear for the first time in 100 years.
Word would soon reach their capital and so would the parasites…
Next Morning, Easterrn Air Temple -
Toph woke up to the sound of eggs and bacon sizzling in a pan. It seemed that Alice had awoken before her and had decided to make some form of breakfast for the two of them.
She rubbed the sleep from her eyes, got up and followed the heavenly smell of bacon.
„Good morning, what are you making? It smells amazing." She said.
„Fresh eggs as well a black forest bacon. You can't really get it anymore since that place doesn't exist anymore. I was lucky to get some. It's bacon made from wild boars that lived off of a diet of mushrooms, nuts and berries. Can you take care of making a table? Plates and cutlery are in that bag over there by the door. Oh and do you want some fresh bread with your bacon and eggs? I also have mead, wine, mulled wine, beer, water, fresh orange juice and fresh apple juice."
„I would love some fresh bread, and I will take some mulled wine if that's ok with you" Said Toph as she raised a table and a pair of comfortable chairs from the ground with a twitch of her pinkie.
Alice grinned as she took the frying pan off of the fire and made her way over to the table. Placing the pan in the middle of the table she occupied herself by plating up the food for Toph and herself. Once she had set the plates on the table she used a rift in the air to pull out a bottle of warm mulled wine which she placed on the table in front of her before taking a seat herself.
This action caused Toph to stare at her wide eyed.
„Are you sure that you aren't a spirit? I haven't heard of anyone having that particular skill you just displayed, not to mention that you can turn into a Dragon of all things." Toph asked as she poured herself a glass of wine.
Alice giggled and said.
„No Toph I am not a spirit. At least I don't think I am, I did die once though. Eh who really cares. It's not like it would change anything."
„Wait wait back the heck up, You died? How did that happen?" Toph asked after spitting out some of her drink.
Alice grinned at Toph's antics. „Oh yes I did die. Can't remember how it happend. I think that is an after effect of floating in the void between worlds for an unknown amount of time. It could have been minutes or it could have been eons. I don't remember most of my life before the void.
It seems that staying in the void erodes your personal memories. Curiously enough I can still remember most everything that isn't related to myself. I know that my species, whatever it may have been, had the ability to observe worlds vastly different from our own. If I am not mistaken I once saw an observation of this world.
I believe it was called Avatar: The last airbender, Which incidentally is a title we both know does no longer apply. That's how I know where we might find a teacher for our air bending. It would be the titular avatar. A young air nomad that has been trapped in a block of ice at the south pole for the last 100 years."
Toph began to choke on her wine as Alice began to drop more and more revelations on her.
After she managed to get the last bit of wine out of her airways she glared at Alice and said: „Can you PLEASE not drop such massive revelations on me when I am trying to swallow my wine? I almost choked. Ok from the beginning you die but don't remember how you died. Ok I can accept that. That isn't the strangest thing I have heard about. A different world? Plausible. After all the spirit world exists. Observation of different worlds? Again plausible the spirits are known to peek at us when they feel like it. Now the big question, what did you see about me from that observation you called it?"
„I know that you are an amazing earth bender which is why I asked you to teach me your skills. I know that you don't really like your parents and that you would go on to be the earth bending teacher of the avatar. I have also seen a future alteration where you are a small cranky old woman who teaches the next avatar after this one. YOu had gray hair and a shitty back. Oh and you lived in a swamp of all places. Why you would do that, I have no idea." Alice said with a massive grin on her face.
„You are making this up. Why would I ever live in a swamp? I would obviously live in cave if anything. Swamps aren't useful at all. There is no solid ground, no sturdy surface to bend from" Toph said with a smirk on her face.
„Oh did i forget to mention that you managed to learn sand, mud and even lava bending? It must have slipped my mind"
The grin on Alice's face made Toph want to smack her.
„You know I have a potion that might give you your sight but it won't be pleasant at all. It would force your body to regenerate your eyes. The problem is that you already have eyes so I am sure you can guess what will happen if you drink it."
Toph growled. „Give.Me.It. I don't care if I have to claw out my eyes in order to fix them."
Alice shrugged. „Ok if that is what you wish to do then sure but don't say i didn't warn you. I will tie you down using my shadows in order to stop you from either biting your tongue or using the earth to kill yourself to escape the pain you will no doubt be feeling. Are you sure you want to do this? Once you take the potion it will have to run its course and there is nothing I can do to help you once the pain begins."
Toph just nodded. „Yes I need to do this. You can't imagine the humiliations I have had to endure as a result of my blindness. If some pain is needed to fix this then so be it."
„Alright then but I did warn you."
Alice pulled out the potion of regeneration she had gotten from the gacha yesterday evening and held it out to Toph.
„Last chance to back out, if you still want to go ahead and do this then I need you to lie down."
Toph nodded, took the potion and used her bending to raise a platform in the shape of a hospital bed from the ground. As soon as she laid down she drank the potion.
Pain, pure unadulterated pain flared through her body. She tried to move her hands to claw at her eyes in order to lessen the pain but her hands were bound by shadows. She tried to scream, to bite off her tongue in order to make it stop but a gag of shadows kept her mouth open.
The pain soon managed to overwhelm her and blissful unconsciousness claimed her.