The next day. Training Ground.
I came back to the training ground again with Katara joining me. We had already contributed the fish that we hunted yesterday night, so Gran-gran let us train for today. It seems that she knows about this place, and she doesn't even worry about the Fire Nation navy spotting us.
She also told me that the Fire Nation doesn't really take the whole Southern Water Tribe seriously anymore since they thought that they had already taken all the waterbenders with them. They're just deploying small patrol vessels here to intimidate them and not give them thoughts about training waterbending. And so we can train, but we still have to be careful around here.
I made Katara sit beside me in a meditating position and tasked her to feel and sense the water and try to get familiar with it first. It's what Nova taught me, but I don't really know if she will have the same rate of learning as me. After all, I have the essence of black with me while Katara was just a normal... though I think she will do just fine after seeing how fast she learned yesterday.
While she did that, I also trained by standing and closing my eyes, then breathing in and out, back and forth. I'm now practicing my ice bending, and Nova told me that this method is the best for training your icebending. I just breathed slowly, and I could feel the temperature around starting to get colder. Even with my cold protection clothes, I could still feel the coldness, which was distracting me a little.
"Um... teach, why is it getting colder?" Katara said.
I opened my eyes and saw the water in front of me had now turned into ice, with white fog still around. It seems that training ice bending while someone is beside me was a bad idea.
I looked at Nova who was sitting there with hardly any cover except her underwear and just smiling at me like what she's seeing is fun. I couldn't help but sigh.
"Open your eyes, Katara."
Katara slowly opened her eyes. "So... Is this Ice bending?" she said with excitement rising in her tone.
"Yes, it seems that I will just distract your training, so I planned to move away a little."
"No! I mean, no, please let me see how you do the icebending," Katara said, embarrassed a little.
Hm. I guess she can do that. It will benefit her if she saw a method of training I'm doing right now so she can have a general idea of how to do it.
"I will only agree to it on one condition." I've been really bothered by this, so it's a good opportunity to stop it. "Call me by my name from now on instead of teach."
Katara seemed surprised for a second before chuckling. "That will be easy, Haru."
"Alright, while I do my training, I will try my best to explain it to you to get you the general idea of how my ice bending training works. Listen well, Katara," I said. It felt weird to teach someone older than me by probably one year, but I'm her teacher for now, and I don't know how to act like a proper teacher or master.
Katara nodded with an attentive look.
Seeing that, I started training again, with Katara moving a little away from me. I explained to her what Nova had taught me from what I remember, and Nova seemed to be also interested in adding new teachings to it as she asked me to relay it to Katara. It's understandable since Katara and I are very different; she has limited talent, and I am limitless. There's no doubt that with Nova's teachings, Katara would improve quickly.
After all, Nova was the reason I could grow this fast.
After I was done with my explanation, I came back to my training, focusing on it fully, closing my eyes and controlling my breathing. Meanwhile, I can feel the ice in front of me is getting bigger and bigger by the minute. It was getting cold, but it was bearable enough for me to keep going.
--
Katara watched as Haru continued his breathing practice. The area in front of him was now so big that it could already be called an iceberg. Even though she saw much more impressive icebending techniques like this, the one in front of her was made by a boy who only learned this in one day, the fastest growth she ever heard. Even when Gran-gran told her about the stories about her aunts and uncle who could waterbend and ice bend, they had to learn their skills for months of practice.
She doesn't really know if only one day of learning was real, but by how simplistic Haru was in his techniques when she saw him bend fishes yesterday out of the water or when he was creating his shelter using snowbending, it's probably close to what he is saying. She's not saying he's lying, but it's just unbelievable because in order to learn snow or ice bending, you have to at least have some good mastery of waterbending, from what her Gran-gran said at least. She can't even start practicing icebending right away even if she asked him because she's not proficient enough for it.
Haru taught her that she needs to sense the water and familiarize herself with it if she wanted to learn snow or ice bending, because in order to learn the two greater styles, she needs to feel the water in its solid state. And then she also has to practice again to learn about creating ice out of the liquid form.
From what she can saw, Haru was now at the step of practicing to create ice out of water, and it looks like he's fast at learning it; the iceberg was enough proof of it.
And after Haru was done with his teachings and came back to his training, she also did that as well. 'Push and Pull.' These are the words that she kept repeating to herself as she trains. It sounds short, but because of this, she finally improved. Before, all she did was control the water because that's how she thought of waterbenders, but it's actually more than that; you control the water, but you are going to lead it as well like a wave or the flow of water.
She continued that pattern for an unknown amount of time. She was too focused on the wave she is creating that was getting bigger and bigger as time went on, that she didn't even notice Haru coming to her. "Katara..." Surprised, she immediately swung her hands at him, but Haru easily caught it with one hand.
It was easy to get herself together, so she sighed in relief after realizing it was just him. "I'm sorry! I'm too focused on training that I was surprised by your voice!" That'll be bad if he got mad. From all the time they're together, Haru was probably the most serious and unexpressive person she knew. She could guess that the reason he's helping her in her training was because they accepted him, but even then, she actually does not know his true personality at all.
Haru looked at her with his usual expressionless face that seemed to hide what he's thinking. "It's alright. I'm just here to say that I will move to a different area for another training of mine."
Different area? Why? This area was already big enough for them to train with their all without hurting either of them. "Is there a reason that you need to do that? I will just move away if you need more space."
Haru seemed to glance at the side and thought for half a minute. He then nodded at the air, which Katara found weird, though she won't question that. He might just have agreed with his thoughts, so that's why he nodded.
"You see, I have a training in which I imagine imaginary opponents, like warriors from my tribe or Fire Nation soldiers attacking me, and I have to defeat them using my bending abilities. The reason I want to go to another area is because I will fight like I was fighting a non-bending master, and if I do that here, you might get hurt or worse," Haru explained.
He's training with imaginary opponents? Is that one of the reasons he improved really fast? If that is, then she has to see it and learn it as well.
"Please let me see it! I will just move away from here! Please."
Haru thought for a moment before nodding. "I guess you can do that, but if I hurt you, then that will be on you, understand?"
Katara nodded happily. Although Haru may seem heartless with the way he said it, for her it's just refreshing to see a man that doesn't treat her like a girl and says anything in front of her face without even being bothered. Is this how all the boys act? All the boys and men of their village, including the warriors who left for the war, treated her with kindness that even when she did something bad, they'd just smile at her like it was nothing. Even her brother, who likes to make fun of her, also did that.
"I understand! Thank you!"
There she moved away far from their original position and sat at a higher ground to see what was going to happen. Haru was just standing there in his waterbending stance and was looking forward. Then, like there was someone attacking him, he also attacked using the water around and dumping it to the side. Without a doubt, anyone would have broken bones if they were hit by that much water with that speed.
She observes how Haru uses his waterbending, snowbending with subtle use of icebending. It may not be as powerful as the waterbenders of her village, but it's getting close to that. She saw how he tries to evade and avoid something, which she assumes is the imaginary person attacking him, but then he will get back to the start again. That means that he died? Likely. But she had to ask him for that.
For a while, Haru seemed to be getting back and forth at the starting point like he was dying multiple times. She stopped counting the deaths when she reached the number 50. Is the imaginary person really that strong? She honestly couldn't figure out how Haru was able to do this like it was a real battle; that seems really hard for a brain to do. Though she will still ask him about this since it might also help her training.
"Amazing." Haru had just created a large circle wave formation which will not leave any escape paths and will engulf any non-benders inside. He then started shooting snow spikes many times towards the middle of it. Massive snow spikes also started forming and moving to the middle at a speed so fast that Katara knows it was meant to kill someone.
Haru stopped at that and panted rough. Then he sat down and looked up. Handsome... That's the first thought that came to her mind. And... he can actually smile! She also couldn't help but smile seeing that since his usual indifferent expression is now broken. And the reason for that means that he was able to kill the imaginary skilled master he was talking about.
Just then, her heart skipped a beat when he suddenly looked up to her. She quickly avoided eye contact, but she could feel the heat in her face.
"He's cute, right?" A voice came behind her.
"Yeah..." she said subconsciously. Just then her brain immediately recognized that voice, and she immediately looked up. "Sokka! You scared me!"
Her brother gave her that usual expression that says he doesn't believe it. "Scared you, hmm? A scared person doesn't have a tomato face. Are you sick, my good sister?"
"You!!" She can't believe that her brother will really make fun of her while Haru was looking!
Sokka quickly raised his hand. "Woah, calm down, I didn't hear you say anything!"
Katara just pouted and turned around. "I will not wash your clothes for a week starting today! You have to learn something new instead of making fun of me anyways."
"Come on! I didn't really hear anything! I promise!"
--
I looked at the direction where Katara was, or more specifically, the new arrival which was her brother. They seemed to be fighting about something.
"Nova, what are they talking about?"
"Katara said you're cute. What do you think?"
Cute? Like what you said at your pets? I don't really care if that was meant to be an insult or something, so I just shrugged. Other opinions about me doesn't matter when I'm stronger than them.
Nova chuckled. "It means that she's attracted to you."
So that's why... Thinking about it, there's no benefits of relationships other than having a child which you can pass all your skills, knowledge, and wisdom before you die. On the other hand, it will hinder my training if I have to bother with someone. My growth is fast enough, and I don't want it to slow down even a little. I like the feeling of getting stronger and not being pitied at for being miserable again.
"Let's not think about that. Besides, I have you, so I don't need someone for company." I stood up. "I feel better now. Let's start again."
Nova smiled. "Okay, Haru~"
Nova was now dual-wielding machetes with black handles and really good quality blades. I have seen warriors use machetes before but I have not seen them use two at the same time, so I'm wondering what fighting style she will use against me. The dual machetes are probably from the Fire Nation, which made this interesting since with all the encounters I had with them, they only use spears and swords.
In a matter of seconds, Nova ran up close to me, which would take fighters about three times to reach. She was playing with the machetes in her hands, passing them to each other back and forth. It was a new style and she seems to be having an easier time evading my attacks with swift maneuvering in the air.
I sent her a lightning-fast snow chain and she would roll in the air. Her dark-blue dress gave her a unique look, I would say that this style really suited her.
She's now in front of me, spinning as she severed my legs and head, or at least that's what could happen to me if she's a real person. I looked at the new dead me and sighed. It felt like I was back to my starting point every time I died. I couldn't even kill Nova two times in a row.
"What's the problem, Haru?" She asked with a concerned expression.
I've been hesitant for a while now, but I think it's time for me to learn this... "Can I start my close combat training today? I think I did pretty good at my bending training today, so I plan on learning the basic close combat, just in case of a scenario where there's no water around me." The truth is, I just don't want to be pathetic when we're doing a battle practice. In every fight, after Nova gets close to me where all my bending skills couldn't do anything more to stop her, the only thing I could do was close my eyes and let her kill me.
I can't evade or avoid her attacks as she does. Her styles are changing, and each of them is very direct and hard to counter, and I don't have the skill to fight back. While I do hunting with the warriors of my village, I mainly do ambushes and attack the weakest animals since I'm not strong enough to hold those myself. And another reason is, training never came to my mind before, the only thing I thought every day is kill to survive, so I hunt by instinct. And if the hunt's targets are really dangerous, I wouldn't join and instead go for fishing, which is not really sustainable since they are very limited in numbers.
"I guess we can do that. But Haru... Almost all things in this world have water, so you won't have to worry about being in a place without water. Plants and trees have water. And if, for example, you are imprisoned inside a place specially built for water benders, you still have something that you can use..." Nova said, stopping for a moment to smile at me.
"Bloodbending," I said.
"Yep, that's how powerful the blood bending is. Though we will continue this talk later after you have mastered waterbending." Nova then landed in front of me. "Now, shall we start your close combat training?"
I nodded.
xxx
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