Chapter 26

Sokka looked towards the door and started counting, "Three, two," with each number the knife started digging more and more into the warden's neck. "On-"

"You bastards!! Open the door!" yelled out the warden, and the exit to where the earthbenders were kept opened, Sokka hit the warden with the but of his knock on the back of his head and blacked the man out as his head swished to forward and his face planted into the ground.

'Did I hit him too hard?' - wondered Sokka. 'Well, it doesn't matter either way if that guy dies or not.'

With that in mind, he raised his bloody knife to the air and yelled. "Men!! Let's take destiny into our own hands today!"

The roar was like that of a merciless beast, and the earthbenders charged, stomping on the downed warden. What no one else seemed to notice was that due to the stampede, the warden was squashed to death and had met a brutal end. Sokka noticed this but didn't say anything.

Instead, he was using his [Sense Danger] skill to dodge fireballs and catch arrows mid-air as he led the charge against the prison. The Fire Nation soldiers were fighting hard, with their leader already down, they were disheartened. After all, even if they somehow won, what were they going to do?

No one knew anything, and Sokka took advantage of the confusion mercilessly, throwing his knife at a soldier with a spear and picking up his weapon. As soon as he had a weapon at hand, he jumped up and amid battle and due to the son obstructing their view, no one noticed his weapon changing. Even those who did, would at worst think that their eyes were playing tricks on them.

He had equipped the spear Sky Piercer which increased his stats by 50 Strength and 40 Agility. Essentially, with this boat, he became an unbeatable monster on the battlefield. He mercilessly cut up Fire Nation soldiers without mercy.

Unlike how many people might contemplate killing others and how it was wrong. Sokka didn't care. They were endangering his life, he wasn't foolish enough to go easy on an enemy who was ready for all intents and purposes to kill him.

Suddenly, a squad of firebenders formed and shot an array of fire at Sokka, who swung his spear, creating a swish of wind that pushed the fire upward. Then with a step that made his foot dent the metal floor below him, Sokka entered a spearmanship stance and the atmosphere around him turned into that of a deadly martial beast.

By now, every Fire Nation soldier had one thought in mind.

'We can not beat him!!!'

That was the daunting reality that dawned on them, and that was when a sense of utter despair surrounded their hearts. The soldiers and guards didn't want to die, they too had families and children, wives, parents, and siblings waiting for them.

No one wanted to die.

The single thought of survival and sense of pure despair made the Fire Nation soldiers see no way of winning this fight.

Maybe if they had continued fighting, they would have had a chance to defeat Sokka as they were in familiar territory while he wasn't. But in their minds, the battle was already over, there was nothing to fight against as the pig couldn't war against a butcher.

When Sokka saw this, he at first contemplated going and killing all of the people here. It would send a message and uproot anyone who dared to fight against him. But in the end, he decided against it as doing that would only bring trouble and that would also add some tension in the group.

Sokka knew that Katar would stay by his side no matter what. Because that was what family does, but Aang's pacifistic nature might get twisted.

All of these thoughts went through his mind in a split second, and just as he was about to decapitate a soldier who had fallen on the ground. Sokka twirled his spear and pierced the metal below him.

Clang!

With that, the battle became as quiet as a ghost town and the earthbenders couldn't believe that they had won even without their bending. Sokka looked everyone in the eye like a force tiger. "Everyone! The battle is won!"

"Is this reality or a dream?"

"No way… we won without bending."

Some earthbenders dropped to their knees as tears came out of their eyes. Looking at their hands, the men felt a sense of freedom and elected joy rise within their hearts. Sokka smiled at this and then looked back towards the Fire Nation.

For one side he had become a Demon and for the other, he had become a Saint. Two sides to the same coin. Sighing, he lifted his spear in victory. This kind of victory would have been impossible without some of his skills even though Sokka had not a lot of battle experience. Skills like [Danger Sense] could replace that and fill the gap.

In the end, the Fire Nation soldiers were imprisoned and the corpses were burned into the coal factories. Sokka personally made sure to collect any personal belongings of the enemy soldiers that had died and ordered the ones who had lived to return these things to the deceased families.

He needed to get a headstart on the process of healing. While he won't spare anyone who got in his way, Sokka didn't need to disillusion himself and demonize the enemy needlessly. They were human too and he understood that humans held grudges. He also knew that the ceremonial service he was doing was mostly so the families of the people he kills won't come after him for revenge.

Night settled over the water, but the prison was brimming with light. Which surprised Aang and Katara. By the time they came flying on Appa, everything was over, and the whole situation had settled.

"What happened here?" Asked Aang and as they got closer they got a clearer look and saw Sokka sitting on the ground as the head of a group of prisoners in rags. Though some were thin, some seemed sick and old, while everyone seemed like starving homeless people. There was a sense of joy amongst the people, as they laughed amongst each other.

Aang was the first to understand what the people were feeling. "Hope…" he muttered.

"What?" asked Katara. They had made a plan to come and rescue Sokka, but it seemed like the whole ordeal was not needed. Her brother had taken care of things himself. This has become a trend in recent times. He always seemed to solve his problems by himself.

But seeing him smile so genuinely and laugh with other people made her happy. Having noticed them, Sokka waved at Katara and Aang. "Hey~ come here and let's enjoy a feast, guys."

"Guys? Do I look like a guy to you?" Katara pouted while walking towards her brother. Both of the siblings knew that she was just acting annoyed, and there wasn't any outrage to her words. But still, that was enough to start a banter between them.

Aang, having already seen this coming, did the one thing he considered sane and went along the fest and picked the vegetables while introducing himself. "Hi, I am Avatar Aang. call me just Aang please."

Though Aang was sometimes perturbed by Sokka's strange actions, he couldn't help but smile at having such a friend. He had been very lucky this time. - 'Sokka, thanks for being my friend and helping me.'

-Sokka POV-

Did Aang start swinging for the other team? Why is he looking at me like that and smiling? Hopefully, I didn't change things that much…

Deciding to stash these thoughts at the back of my head, I no longer thought about them and instead was writing in the [Dimensional Chat]. While the feast was happening, I was communicating with Zabuza and freely giving him information about my world. This way he would come to his conclusion that we were from different worlds.

If I told him directly, he wouldn't believe me and ask how I knew about it since he hadn't revealed any information about himself. Instead, letting him figure it out would be the safer option. After that, he could open up about himself more once he knows that from another world I couldn't do anything to him.

If this worked out, then we can start talking about Jutsu and he could maybe send some over. By that, I meant sending a copy-paste scroll on the chat by writing it himself. Then I copy the scroll in this world and try to see if it will turn into a skill book.

This will be a long-term goal that will probably take a lot of time to accomplish. But it was better than nothing. The [Gamer Interface] was trapped within the limits of this world, though it can push those to a ridiculous degree, the confinement will still stand.

But, if I could get in contact with another world's skills. Then the whole ordeal changes. Just imagining it made my heart race and got my blood pumping.

Chapter 27

"Thank you for saving my father!"

"Young man, if you need help, don't forget to call us."

"When this is all over, let's get a drink!"

Sokka smiled at the people waving at them as he, Aang, and Katara were on Appa. He had freed the people and given them the will to keep fighting, even in a desperate situation. Now, even if they were in a desperate situation, where bending was unavailable, these people wouldn't give up.

These people that had once had their will and pride broken, now had unbreakable willpower.

Sokka waved at the people and smiled. "Let's get some drinks together when this is all over."

The men who he had freed looked at him with surprise before they all smiled. Haru's father, the man who was the leader of the earthbenders, came forward and clasped his hands in respect. "Sokka, this village will never forget what you have done. If you ever need help, don't forget to call us."

Sokka nodded, a small smirk on his face as Appa's tail swiped off the ground, and with an order from Aang, it glazed into the air.

'One day, soon, you guys will be called to war. So don't forget what I have done for you today.' – thought Sokka, before he turned around and gazed at the clouds. "Just a little bit more…"

...

Aang and the rest of the crew were flying on Appa's back when they noticed something strange below them. It was like a dark scar in one of the mountains, but looking closer, one could see that it was just a burned forest.

The beautiful trees that surrounded the burned sight only brought to the surface just how beautiful of a place it could have been.

"Should we visit that place?" Aang asked Sokka, who was now the unofficial leader of the group.

By now, Aang knew that he couldn't act recklessly, so he had to have Sokka's help with these things. The oldest amongst them knew how to handle these things and never did things that would be unnecessarily dangerous.

"Yes," Sokka nodded. "Let's go down there, if it's nothing of note we can quickly get back on Appa if everything is okay."

In reality, Sokka remembered this incident as well and how a spirit would appear. So he didn't plan to interfere too much. But, he wanted to try and use this to enter the Spirit World.

Recently he got information through the Gocha that there was a cursed spear that would turn their user mad in the Spirit World. Raising stats naturally would be hard as he didn't have a place with time dilation, also he didn't have time to train stats as the return was not worth it. Rather, if he trained his skills, it would have better returns in fighting power.

Maybe after this war was over, he could train his stats. But right now, the best he could hope was that his stats increased while he was training his skills.

Having a strong item could temporarily cover that weakness, at least until the war is over. The [Sky Piercer Spear] was good, but Sokka hoped that the Cursed Spear was better since it had such an elaborate description.

[Due to planning ahead, Intelligence increased by 2]

Sokka dismissed the notification as Appa landed on the ground. His haze was like that of a hawk as he observed everything around.

'A burned forest, this isn't anything too big in my last world. But Aang will probably blame himself for it, he always assumed too many duties as the Avatar.' – pondered Sokka, and just as he predicted, Aang blamed himself for all of this. Katara reassured the young man that the forest would grow again and pointed towards the acorns on the ground.

Sokka ignored all of this and just looked around with sharp eyes. Someone was looking at them, well he was looking through the Map and saw that it was a spirit.

[Heart-Eating Willow Tree]

Sokka clenched his teeth at that because this was something that hadn't happened in the original timeline. So it meant that it was caused by him. He glanced towards the tree for a split second, as if acting like he was looking at the forest, and saw that a beautiful blossoming sakura tree on the other side of the mountain had question marks as levels and it was recognized as a living and intelligent being.

If it was anyone else they would hide and run away from the monster, but Sokka had other ideas. Right now, when together with his spear [Sky Piercer, then his stats would rise tremendously and become able to fight someone way past his level.

"Excuse me, are you the avatar?" an old man with the top of his head bald and the rest of his hair gray approached the group as he cautiously and nervously walked through the burned forest. It was as if he was afraid of what might come out. The man rubbed his long gray neckbeard as he ogled Aang.

Before Aang could answer he jumped off Appa and told the rest of the group. "Aang, I have something to take care of. I will be back in a bit."

Sokka stared at the cute fox in Katara's arms and it looked away from his gaze as it buried its head in his sister's clothes.

"Also, little fox, protect Katara," with that said, he immediately dashed off into an unburned part of the forest. Leaving Aang to deal on his own with what the villager seemed worried about.

...

Sokka jumped from tree to tree, as he pulled out [Sky Piercer] from his inventory, which increased his Agility another fold. From now on, it entered the stage of a supernatural speed and no normal human eye would be able to catch his movements.

He blitzed through like a shadow and within a split second, he was in front of the beautiful sakura tree. A naked green-haired woman, her body firm, soft and beautiful with jade-like skin, she stood at the root of the tree and looked at him seductively.

Sokka's heart skipped a beat, this was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen and she didn't have any imperfections in her body. Everything about her was attractive.

"A strong warrior without bending? Just the kind I like," said the woman, smiling at him and endearing him a gesture.

Sokka's eyes turned dull and he walked towards the woman, his body seemed relaxed and his spear was just about to slip out of his hand. "Beautiful…" he muttered.

The woman's smile twitched as she stood up, her green hair barely covering just the best bits of her body. As soon as Sokka got close, drool dripped out of his mouth and he extended his hand.

"Yes, come to me!" screamed the woman lustfully.

Just as their hands were about to touch, the sound of air being cut wrung out. The woman's eyes widened as her body disappeared as she yelled. "You tricked me!"

Fwish!

Sokka had an annoyed look on his face, the foolish and lustful look from before gone as if it wasn't there, to begin with. "Tch, I thought I would be able to get you with that."

Clang!

A branch of the sakura tree had moved like a snake and blocked his spear. Though the branch looked brittle, as if it could break easily, that was far from the truth as even though Sokka had used all of his strength on that slash, it was easily blocked by the tree.

-Sokka POV-

My hands shook as the tree branch moved as if it had a mind of its own. This tree spirit was probably around the same level as Unagi, but it has a smaller body and all the power is compressed.

Even from the beginning, I knew that being female was just an illusion. Because it didn't have a level or name above its head, but the tree did. Also, no simple mind-manipulation technique worked on me, so whatever she tried to do failed.

Unagi was just a big target, but this tree was different. It had no blood either, and even though I had tried to pull the water out of it, that didn't work. Which meant that the tree wasn't simple, it had to be a Spirit Tree.

With that in mind, I abandoned the power behind my attacks and tried to cut the main trunk of the tree with three fast slashes.

Clang! Clan! Clang!...

The sound of metal clashing rang out, as my attack was easily stopped. Three vines that were like whips breaking through the sound barrier attacked me, and I was barely able to dodge.

Most of it was thanks to my [Sense Danger] Skill, but even then, the speed was extremely high and I knew that if I was hit with even one of those vines, then I would die.

But, at the same time, the vines couldn't go past a certain point as I had calculated the rough trajectory of their attacks and moved half a step back from it.

Fwish!

Suddenly, the tree shifted slightly, but I had expected this. As the branches extended past their limit. Planning for "unexpected" things like this was simple.

Still, though, I wouldn't be able to escape the attack unless I used my spear to block it and then let go of [Sky Piercer]. But that would result in my death if I did that.

But this battle was one of speed, and even thinking would be hard so my body mostly moved on instinct. As another gentle-looking vine came towards me, I used the spear to block and stood my ground, even as the vine twisted and left a large gash on my chest.

The vine had twisted like a whip and went way past its calculable limit. Looking at its roots, I saw that it had uprooted itself and used its roots as legs to move around.

Oh… this was bad. Very bad.

I clutched at my chest and even though my wound was gone, the blood that had splattered on the ground was still there. Also even with such a small graze, I had lost 1/10th of my HP.

Taking a deep breath, a sweet smell entered my nostrils and immediately my eyes widened as I got another notification.

[You are under the Negative Effects of: Pink Poison]

[Strength decrease by 10, Agility decrease by 10, Endurance decreased by 10]

[1HP/second will be taken as Damage as long as the Poison is in effect]

Well, this just got worse. That was when I got another notification.

[You have got a new Quest]

[The Heart Eating Spirit]

[Survive against the Spirit. The Heart Eating Tree is a dangerous Evil Spirit that many people fear. Try and survive in any way possible.

Rewards:

???

???

Failure: Death by the Heart Spirit Tree]

Now, this was an interesting development of a scenario. There was no way I would be able to survive this onslaught head-on, and if I tried running away then I would die as soon as my back was turned.

I was strangely calm, even for being in a situation where I could die. Well, [Gamer's Mind] was wonderful in keeping me serene and not letting me panic. Once again, a dozen vines extended towards me and I knew that trying to cut or block them with my spear wouldn't lead me anywhere and would just be a death wish.

A/N: Exams suck.

Chapters in advance in Patreòn

Pa /HolyJoker

(20 chapters in advance)

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