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Chapter Six: Strike

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The waterbender in Jeong Jeong's tribe passed healing water over both Jeong Jeong and Ty Lee after Zuko brought them to him.

"Are they all right?" worriedly asked Zuko.

The healer nodded, the water glowing around his hand as he worked. "He shattered his shoulder blade from the fall. The girl however, has lost most of the tissue on her shoulder from the burn. If it were a simple scorch I could heal it easily, but I am afraid it is burnt too far."

Zuko gulped. "Will she," he trailed.

"She won't be able to use her right arm for a while, much less move until it's healed properly." The healer murmured. "Fetch me some healing ointments from the village then leave us, this will take some time. Your teacher will be able to move around in the morning I'm sure."

Zuko nodded and set out to the Fire nation colony village as quick as he could, eager to train with Jeong Jeong in the morning.

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Ty Lee groaned quietly as she awoke, seeing Zuko kneeling in front of her calmly. She struggled as she felt ropes tied around her, attaching her to the wooden beam holding up her tent in Jeong Jeong's camp.

"How did you find us? Why did Azula send you?" demanded Zuko.

"She wanted to get the bounty on Jeong Jeong." Ty Lee said. "Can I have some water please?"

Zuko lifted Ty Lee's chin and drained some of his water pouch into her mouth. "Ah." she smiled. "It's been a while Zuko. You're looking," she admired his body after a month of training. "Fine. Enjoying the summer I see."

He ignored this. "Is Azula in Ba Sing Se?"

"Yes." Ty Lee nodded. "Mai's with us too."

Zuko's eyes widened. "My uncle and Jin! Are they in danger?"

"Mai wanted to cut your girlfriend's throat when she first saw her if that's what you're asking. But they're both fine." Zuko held his forehead and stood up off the ground. He felt a throbbing headache come on and Ty Lee's words didn't help. "You look stressed, maybe you should-"

"Stop talking!" his classic temper flared. "For just once all right!?"

Zuko rubbed his temple. 'Azula wouldn't be in Ba Sing Se without reason. She's planning something for sure, I have to go back.'

Ty Lee titled her head at him. "Zuko?"

The firebender sighed. "Yes?"

She smiled and closed her eyes. "It's good to see you again."

Zuko hesitated in his response, first observing the description the [System] gave her which floated above her head.

[Ty Lee - Level 29 Chi Blocker]

"You're a very sweet girl Ty Lee," Zuko paused and took note of how his uncle spoke. "Please feel ask if you need anything."

"Aw, that's so kind of you!" chortled the acrobat.

[Congratulations! You have unlocked a new |Romantic Route|: |Ty Lee|]

[Congratulations! You have gained +5 Affection points with |Ty Lee|!]

[Current Relationship: Childhood Friends (34/100)]

[|Route Description|: Ty Lee has been part of your friend group from when you grew up in the Royal Palace of the Fire Nation since you both were little. While a devout and loyal follower of your sister Azula, she still is a very charismatic and energetic girl who is very kind.]

Zuko quite honestly didn't care about this because he wanted to get right back to training with Jeong Jeong. He walked out to the river where his teacher was standing, his chest wrapped in bandages to hold his snapped shoulder blade in place.

"Are you still able to bend master?" asked Zuko respectfully as he stepped into the river bank with his trainer.

The man nodded. "Yes. Now we have already focused on the mental and physical aspects of firebending, but now we will apply that training directly to combat. There will be a Fire Days Festival in the village and there will also be an annual tournament hosted in sparring and forms. At the end of the month, you will compete in both to show what you have learned. Is that understood?"

"Yes, master." Zuko bowed.

"That girl. Do you know her?"

"Yes Jeong Jeong, I do. She's a friend of my sisters and wished to capture you and collect the ransom my father put on your head."

He stroked his beard. "Should I still be worried?"

Zuko shook his head. "No master, she wouldn't try it again especially now."

Jeong Jeong saw the look on Zuko's face. "Is something the matter Zuko?"

He nodded. "Azula's in Ba Sing Se, I'm afraid for uncle's life as well as Jin's."

"Jin. This is your lover?"

Zuko breathed in deeply. "Girlfriend."

"Hm, well you are free to leave whenever you like. However, you have only just begun your training and there is still much to learn."

"Like what master?"

Jeong Jeong explained. "First, your performance at lightningbending is still very poor. You lack serious control and alignment in your chakras, even after training properly, you cannot release nor transfer lightning properly."

"Well, why?" Zuko asked impatiently, the river flowing smoothly past his ankles.

"Until you have dealt with your inner turmoil and decided the direction you wish to take yourself, you still will have a confused mind, which is the main source of your energy. Your bending will suffer greatly, especially such a refined art as lightning." Jeong Jeong raised his hand to the forest and river around them, Zuko looking. "Take the beauty of the wilderness. Does it not all flow in harmony within itself? The wind runs through every blade of grass, through every leaf, equally, and pushes it all gently where it pleases."

The tips of the trees and grass all waved in the same direction, the river doing the same in its flow. "There is a singular direction and purpose to nature, and within it, it is all connected. You are quite different. You are still split in between your past and future lives, wishing to become strong enough to defeat your father and yet also wishing to protect the ones you love. If you leave now without deciding this, you will never be able to bend to the fullest of your ability, or even live properly."

"So, what do I do?" asked Zuko.

Jeong Jeong as always had the answers. "You must choose whether you must stay or leave. It is your choice."

Zuko thought about this for a moment, standing with his firebending master in the center of the river. "I'll stay for another month training with you for the tournament, then I'll leave to Ba Sing Se and confront my sister and the Dai Li."

Jeong Jeong bowed to Zuko who bowed back. "So be it." Jeong Jeong turned downstream. "Now, for your first lesson in striking, we will again return to focus. While you lack enough training for fire focus techniques, you will still improve greatly from these lessons." Zuko understood as his teacher kept explaining. "Part of my back has been fractured, and yet, my chakras and mind remain whole. Even though I have suffered a grave injury, I still am able to bend fire. Observe."

Jeong Jeong closed his eyes and the moment he opened them he extended his open palm outward and a flame jet was burning in front of his palm. Zuko thought it was already astonishing that this very aged man was able to incinerate a small portion of a forest with a single physical attack, but it blew him away at what happened next.

Blowing downstream, the small jet of flame that appeared at Jeong Jeong's palm exploded into a torrent that stretched as wide as the entire river, and stretched nearly the length of a Fire Nation fleet battleship. Zuko again grew jaw dropped at the 'Explosion Torrent' technique.

Zuko remained silent as Jeong Jeong ceased his gigantic flame that grew hot enough to perhaps melt steel. "At the moment of contact, when you begin your technique, your entire mind must be cleared. Was I thinking of the problems in my life and the fact that I was teaching when I performed my technique? No, the only the thing that mattered was the technique itself to me. That must be your mental process when bending fire."

Zuko nodded as Jeong Jeong added something else. "Now, we begin your training again."

Jeong Jeong gave Zuko drills that once again pushed him beyond his physical limits. There was no meditation, just pure exercise.

He carried water buckets up and down the river with its water waist high, the boy grunting as he dragged them upstream. Zuko's legs felt like they were going to give out, but he kept pushing. He had no idea why Jeong Jeong was nodding in approval but it was because Zuko was activating muscles he had never even used in the water.

Zuko had to carry his teacher around on his back, jumping over tree roots and rocks in the forest. Once he tripped and fell, grunting in frustration and picking his teacher back up, running once again.

He did pushups by the river bank, pull-ups on tree branches, and crunches while his knees sat on tree branches. While he extended and rested, Jeong Jeong slapped a bag of sand into his stomach, making his abdominals stronger. He ran in the sun carrying Jeong Jeong on his back, he lifted rocks and threw them, and above all, he bent fire day and night.

The river bank lit up like a candle at night as Zuko bent fire at his master, the two practicing together. Jeong Jeong easily evaded his student's quick fireballs the size of boulders and other flame jets that flew towards him, closing the distance between them the whole time.

Jeong Jeong flicked his student up into the air with a leg sweep that dragged up river water and slammed Zuko down into the river bank. Jeong Jeong helped him back up, the both of them soaked in river water, and continued sparring.

Zuko nearly collapsed as he dragged buckets of water on his shoulders upstream, panting and grunting as he rested on his knees. Ty Lee watched from her tent by the river, wanting Zuko to get back up again and keep trying. Zuko tripped over yet another tree root in the forest, this time bloodying himself in the process.

Zuko kept getting defeated by Jeong Jeong time and time again when they sparred, the boy getting continually more frustrated. At the lowest of his training, he had pushed his body too far, his muscles giving out multiple time.

He stayed resting in his bed in the house Jeong Jeong gave him, exhausted more than he had ever been in his life. He began to feel a small spark inside his chest, like the flame jet Jeong Jeong could summon. He stood up out of his bed, almost stumbling but standing back up. Zuko made it to the river bank and balled his fists, prepared to let all of his anger out.

When he did, he opened his mouth and fire flew from his fists and breath, gouts of flame turning the river into steam.

Jeong Jeong appeared after Zuko's anger in the form of flames died down and he stood in the river with him again. "That anger. Manifest it into two energies, and then re-direct it through your body."

Zuko began to nod slowly. His two lives, his two paths, grew as memories and feelings in his mind, and he began to divert them into two separate energies within his chi, the confusion between his two sides focusing into a single one to contain and then separate both of them. Then, as if an explosion had burst through his chi paths, bolts of light blue energy began to zap and sparkle around his body.

His yelling began to grow as his hair floated from the sheer amount of [Chi Points] he was consuming, redirecting the lightning he produced. Flying down the river, Zuko's lightning began to crackle and sparkle, lighting up the entire river bank.

Jeong Jeong smiled widely at Zuko the boy gasping and staring at his fingers in disbelief at the focus and control the man helped him achieve.

[Congratulations you have improved at |Firebending Skill|: |Lightning Bending|!]

[Lightning Bending (Level 3 - Level 4)]

The next morning, after Zuko had completed all of his drills with a new found energy and strength, Jeong Jeong and Zuko bowed to one another on the ground on meditation mats, signifying the end of Zuko's second month of training.

Fire Days Tournaments were jokes to Zuko, and this was no different, especially now. In forms, when performing the form 'Elegant Fists' Zuko wowed the entire village with strikes so precise they burned a new color of flame no one had seen, bright yellow.

Everyone applauded as he took first place in forms, shortly followed then by sparring.

"Ready?" the town elder raised his hand as the two young men prepared to spar. "Fight!"

Zuko immediately countered the coming flames with a leg sweep across the wooden platform, his opponent crashing into the ground. As Zuko jumped into the air with a fist that was lit aflame, the town elder yelled. "Stop!" Zuko landed and his fist was extinguished, an inch away from hitting the other firebenders face.

The elder raised Zuko's hand. "Winner!"

Everyone murmured as they applauded, never seeing someone win a fight so quickly.

The other opponents Zuko faced were jokes as well, either being swept or thrown out off the platform by Zuko's strikes. By the end, the final opponent Zuko faced was a man twice his size and just attacked first after the match began. He started off by bending fireballs that were easily blocked as he ran toward the man. Then he did a throw over his leg when he closed the distance between them and threw the man into the ground, smashing him through the wood of the platform.

Since the man couldn't really get off the ground from the power of Zuko's attack, he was declared unable to fight and automatically conceded the match.

After he was given first place for sparring, everyone cheered. Zuko turned to see Jeong Jeong nodding from beneath his hood and Ty Lee who was being watched closely by Jeong Jeong even though she was still too weak to run off, the girl smiling at Zuko as she munched on some treats she bought at the festival.

Zuko knew he was ready to return to Ba Sing Se, and fight whoever he had to. He had reached |Level 32|, physical abilities reflected as well in this improvement.

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Here's a quick response to a review: xxxGmanxxx: Lightning bending requires a lot of training to improve, Zuko pulled off his lightning release through force of will. Also, he can only improve it through practicing it, there is no way to use experience points to improve it.

Anyways, hope you all enjoyed the chapter. If anyone wants to check out a RWBY story of mine where Jaune is OP, has the Gamer power, and has a harem, feel free to check out "Arc of Legend" on my profile. Next story I'm updating is my SAO one, and then my RWBY story.

If anyone here reads Arc of Legend and would like to answer a poll I just put up about it, please feel free to answer it on my profile. I bid you all a great day awesome readers!