Playing Waterbending (Avatar: Last Aibender SI)

"It's pretty windy tonight." said Toph.

Katara bit her lip, grabbed water from a bottle, and threw it in front of her. The water spread, circled, and created a spinning sphere that froze, trying to take on the wind and the sand.

Upon contact with the sand, Toph's eyelids widened.

"Seems that there are bounty hunters around here," Toph said, cracking her fists. "I need something to beat up."

"Should I crack their eggs?" Katara asked, clearly in a vengeful mood.

Whenever Toph teased her or did something to annoy her, Katara would be in a bad mood for the whole day and might take her anger out on someone or something else.

"Hold on," I said.

Because it was the desert, the air was quite dry, and it was hard to see with my extra sense.

Well, it's not like I couldn't spread more water.

But I still had my eyes.

"It's okay." The storm enveloped us, but the water barrier held firm. The cloud we were on dissipated, and we had to land. I bloodbent my team to lessen our fall. As we landed, the cloud spread widely, allowing me to scan the surrounding area with my waterbending sense.

I could locate about 40 men hiding, and a few of them were visible.

"There are more hiding under the sand," Toph said. "They're earthbenders who specialize in sandbending."

I put my hand under my chin.

"They have good qualifications to learn metalbending quickly," I murmured.

"Are you serious?" Toph rolled her eyes. "They just tried to kill you. Do you think if we fell from the sky, they would miss the hundred thousand gold?"

"To be fair, I would do the same if I were them," I said, cracking my fingers. "But they're not very trustworthy."

"Okay, let me deal with them," I smiled.

To be fair, even if I were desperate to get them on my side, I would pass without hesitation or regret.

Nutcracker.

That was a title I had earned after sparing the life of a bounty hunter, who spread the tale.

At first, I thought I'd have an intimidating reputation that would make people avoid messing with me.

But it gave my allies a title to tease me with.

Fuck!

"Okay," Toph said. "You have 50 seconds."

"50 seconds, why?" I asked, looking forward.

Four men were gliding on the sand from every direction.

"I'm quite frustrated," she replied. "Don't you feel anything?"

I tilted my head, spreading my waterbending sense, trying to feel if any danger was approaching. Then I realized she had used the same sentence I used to confuse her into confession.

"Ughh…"

A groan of pain escaped the mouth of one of the visible sandbenders.

Katara was pointing her hand at him and pulling backward.

She might not be powerful in bloodbending without the moon, but she could move small limbs.

She could also make the balls clash against each other.

The man who had been gliding on the sand lost his balance and then held his groin as if he were in pain.

No matter how good you are at bending, or acrobatic dances, it's all useless in the face of bloodbending (Nutbending). The only way to win against one was to do it like Korra, which was to have plot armor that suddenly gives you airbending while nerfing the bloodbender you're facing.

"Wow…" Toph put her hands on her hips and said, "She's quite pissed off, isn't she? I wonder what happened to her?"

I gave her a side glance, as if she didn't know what she did to piss Katara off. I had heard part of their conversation, and I could tell that Toph knew exactly why.

"I don't know," I replied, deciding to focus on the task at hand.

Since I did want to clear my name, I decided to take the lead.

There were about four sandbenders that I could leave for Katara to fight.

At the same time, I decided to ask Toph. "How's your vision under the sand?"

"Not accurate, but enough to deal with them," she replied confidently.

"Okay." I clapped my hands. The moisture in the air gathered again and compressed into a cloud that headed toward me.

I had located where the sandbenders were hiding.

Instead of attacking blindly, most of them had been hiding and observing our way of fighting. It was a good strategy, I admit. It was even better considering that I was rumored to defeat many benders at once and even kill a full squad of bounty hunters.

But they didn't have full information about my abilities, and that was their mistake.

It would have been better if they all attacked at once and didn't ruin the element of surprise.

But I guess ignorance isn't always bliss.

After all, you can mess with the wrong guy based on the wrong data.

I jumped, and the cloud, now about 1x1 meter in size, landed under my feet and carried me.

I scrolled around at a speed no human could achieve without bending power.

From under the sand, two figures flew as I swept by, and they continued chasing me.

They tried to struggle and resist, so I increased the chi input. In other words, I increased my bending power.

They started shaking and groaning in pain, which wasn't the worst I could inflict.

I continued doing so until I found about 30 benders under the ground, and I bent them all at once.

It was quite mentally taxing to bend all of them at once. So, instead of bending with my mind alone, I used my hands as well. I raised my arms, and all of them rose about 10 meters in the air.

You may think this was a cruel thing to do.

But this is the Avatar world. People here had bizarre physical strength compared to humans back on Earth. Firebenders could handle normal fire without getting their skin burned. Waterbenders could handle extreme coldness without getting frostbite. And earthbenders had higher physical power than the rest.

I slammed my hand down, increasing the speed of the sandbenders' fall, crushing them into the sand. I then lifted them again. I controlled their arms and legs, bending them to apply pressure on their backs.

Sure, the groans of pain were quite disturbing.

The girls who had been holding off against five stopped what they were doing and looked at the scene in front of them with wide eyes.

"No wonder you said you're not a good bender," Toph commented. "That's another level of skill… even I can't take on such a number at once."

"I know," Katara said. "But he's charming, isn't he?"

"Yeah…" Toph replied casually.

Katara gave her a side glance.

"Katara, come over here and tie their legs and arms with ice, leave a couple of them standing," I said.

Katara nodded and walked over to the bloodbent people.

Sweat had already appeared on my forehead.

Damn. This would have been much easier if it was the full moon.

Or it could have been much easier if I decided to freeze them on the spot, which I wasn't in the mood for.

These guys were after me for one reason.

Money.

"What are you planning to do with them?" Katara asked. Since they had their arms and legs bent behind their backs, it was easy to tie them up.

"Well, they wanted my head for money," I smiled. "So, I'm going to take all of their money. If they refuse, I know how to torture them. All of them are dudes."

I glanced at the group defeated by Katara, who were still groaning in pain and rolling on the sand, unable to do much more.

"I guess you're right," Katara said. "So, how do we split the money?"

"I thought you said money isn't important?" I asked Katara.

"I said giving your head for money is a crazy and dumb idea, which I still stand by," she scoffed. "But money itself isn't bad. It can feed you, dress you, and pay your rent. Sokka's been complaining about getting some…"

"He's at a royal palace now. As a guest, with Bumi taking care of him, he doesn't need money," I assured her. "Now, let's take their money."

I turned to the ones who could still talk and weren't groaning in pain.

"Guys, I believe you know that my reputation precedes me. So, I won't repeat what I'm saying. What do you prefer, your life or your money?" I added.

Of course, in response to my question, it wasn't what I was expecting.

They turned their heads, seemingly having to make a hard choice.

I guess it's logical. After all, if they risked their lives to make money, then money is the same as their life.

"You know, I love twisting the nuts." I raised my hand and made a V symbol with my index and middle fingers. I slowly started turning them.

"Oh… Stop! I'll talk!"

One of them cracked faster than I had expected.

"You idiot."

"Shut your trap."

"Do you think money is less important than small balls? Since he's greedy, we should negotiate with him first."

"Fuck you guys! I didn't sign up for that! Without my balls, what use is money to me?" The man who cracked panted, sweat dripping down his face.

Katara turned her head and waved her hand in front of her face. "That's embarrassing," she muttered.

"I agree…" Toph joined her.

I clapped my hands, and all of the hunters here lost consciousness except for the one who cracked.

[+50k accumulated experience]

[Waterbending +5k experience points]

I approached him and asked about the location of their clan and where they hid their money.

He gave me all the information I needed.

After that, I bloodbent him to fly along with me to the location of his tribe with the girls on the cloud.

I tried to sneak into the tribe without making a sound, and since I had a stealth skill, it was an easy job. In no time, I managed to locate their treasury. I grabbed all the money I needed, gold, jewelry, and even coins from different currencies.

I got the heavy stuff in my storage while grabbing the rest in a bag.

After that, I met the girls by the tribe location.

The guy who snitched was left to live and tell the tale. The others too.

'If I don't let them live, my title would be Nutcracker.'

"Ryuk," Toph, who had her hand on the ground, said, "I think I've found a structure under the sand. It's not too far."

"You mean…" I paused.

"Yeah, a building under the sand," she said. "But I can't see it clearly."