Chapter 71: 71 - Teaching Blood bending
Bumi alongside Levi was sitting on the balcony of a big room on the side of the royal palace, drinking tea and enjoying the fresh air.
Bumi had just come back from his fight with Aang leaving him with the last challenge, to figure out his name, as for Sokka and Katara they were getting encased in rock candy right now, all of this was told to him by Bumi.
"You sure are full of surprises." said Bumi casually with a raised eyebrow as he looked at Levi, "You almost scared me to death."
"Yeah, sorry about that, I was just getting used to my spirit state, and I didn't know you could see me." said Levi awkwardly he also felt a little bit guilty about that but it wasn't his fault he just pooped there unwillingly.
"Of course I could see you, are you underestimating me." said Bumi in an offended tone.
Before Levi could reply a guard opened the door of the room and spoke, "Sir the avatar is here to see you."
"Let him in." replied Bumi forgetting the previous matter.
Hearing Bumi's command the guard walked out and before long aang walked in, when he saw Levi drinking tea with Bumi he wasn't that surprised instead his smile became brighter.
"I know what your name is." said Aang in a happy tone as he stared into Bumi's eyes.
"I thought about all the challenges you made me go through, all of them forced me to think differently, to think outside of the box." said Aang before a grin covered his face, "Bumi you're a mad genius." he said as he rushed and hugged Bumi tightly.
"Oh Aang." said Bumi in an emotional tone as he returned the hug, losing his playful and unserious attitude for the first time since Levi met him. Seeing this scene Levi couldn't help but feel out of place.
Soon Katara and Sokka were also led inside soon after and they couldn't help but beam in happiness once they saw Levi, only for it to turn into doubt and then annoyance before finally anger as they saw him sitting leisurely in perfect health drinking tea.
"Levi! You're alright?" asked Katara with some doubt in her tone.
Levi only turned his head away not meeting her gaze as he sipped on some tea, he was feeling so guilty that he didn't even want to meet her eyes.
Seeing this Katara was understandably angry, she knew her brother well enough to understand what was going on and instantly knew that he wasn't in any real danger, and might have even been in cahoots with the king of Omashu.
At this time the crystal encasing Sokka suddenly got bigger and extended a sharp edge towards his head, "AGHHH hurry up and remove this thing from me, I am going to die." screamed Sokka in fear.
"Oh, I almost forgot about that." said Bumi as he extended his hand and broke the crystals, before he bent over and picked it up chewing on it, shocking everyone besides Levi.
"Rock candy, quit the delicacy, hehehe." said Bumi and started laughing, making Levi and Aang shake their heads.
"One thing still bugs me though, how did you convince Levi to play into it?" asked Aang turning towards Levi and conforming Katara's guess as she glared daggers at him.
"It didn't take much convincing really, Levi is also an old friend of mine." said Bumi but he didn't elaborate.
"Huh?" exclaimed Aang, he didn't think that his current friend would be friends with someone he met one hundred years ago, especially considering the age difference.
"Wait, What?" Sokka
"Since when do you know the king of Omashu?." asked Katara her curiosity overshadowing her anger and getting the better of her.
"Ha-ah, we met a while back." answered Levi, sighing, he didn't know how to explain to them that they met to test if he was the avatar.
"So all of this was just a game for you two." said Katara with an annoyed tone of voice making even the king feel a little guilty.
"Hey, what did I do? It was all his idea." said Levi, protesting making Bumi glare at him feeling betrayed.
"Come on Katara, Bumi just loves to play, plus it was fun." said Aang defending Bumi and Levi.
"Fun? While we were worried sick about him he was here sitting in luxury and sipping tea." retorted Katara, almost screaming.
"Alright, I admit, I shouldn't have made you guys worry, how about this, I'll teach you a really cool water-bending trick as compensation." said Levi making Katara's face brighten.
"Deal." she said excitedly with no hesitation.
"This doesn't taste bad at all." said Sokka interrupting their conversation as he started chewing on some rock candy, he wasn't as pressed about Levi and BumI's game as Katara was.
"Can't believe you're still thinking about food at a time like this." said Katara as she grabbed the rock from Sokka's hand and threw it from the balcony.
"Hey! My rock." protested Sokka, looking as if he was about to cry.
***
On a random street below Omashu Royal Palace.
A shop stand was parked in the middle of the street, supported only by a wooden piece behind the wheel to stop it from rolling away. A middle-aged man with gray hair wearing a green turban and green clothes was shouting at the top of his lungs beside it.
"Cabbages, Cabbages for sale, the best cabbages in the earth kingdom, come and get your Cabbages." he shouted at the top of his lungs and it was working.
While most people wouldn't be interested in buying Cabbages, the man's enthusiasm drew quite a lot of customers.
"Thank you so much, don't forget to come back again." said the man as he handed the change along with a bag with two cabbages to a young woman with a child.
'Ahh, I could do this forever.' thought the man in happiness.
Just as he was about to attend to his next customer, a green rock candy fell from above, the cabbage seller looked at it for a bit before ignoring it, attending to his business.
But as if by some divine intervention the rock rolled directly towards the wooden piece stopping the carriage from rolling away, it barely touched it but that was all it took for the wood to snap out of place as the carriage started rolling away.
Before the middle-aged man could react his carriage started rolling away and crashed against a wall at the end of the street, his Cabbages rolling all over the place and getting accidentally stepped on by passersby.
"MY CABBAGES." he cried at the top of his lungs as he ran towards his fallen cart trying to salvage what was left of his merchandise. His scream was so heart-wrenching that someone would think that his offspring just died, everyone walking by turned to look in shock, some felt pity for him while others couldn't help but frown at his overreaction.
***
"Oops." Levi didn't know whether to laugh or cry for the poor guy as he looked at the scene from the balcony of the royal palace, quickly disabling his eagle eyes before anybody saw him.
"What was that?" asked Bumi as he turned to look at Levi.
"Nothing much I was just talking to myself." replied Levi, it seemed here in the palace, or maybe Omashu as a whole, that was the best excuse as nobody found it weird.
"Oh." and he was right as Bumi just made a sound that he understood before he continued drinking his tea, this being his third cup.
Everybody was sitting around the table enjoying Iroh's tea, including Sokka, Aang and Katara.
"So Bumi, you're thinking what I am thinking?" asked Aang, his eyes shining.
"How to increase the protection around the palace?" asked Bumi, making everyone look at him weirdly, there was already an absurd amount of guards as it is right now.
Levi couldn't help but feel a little guilty for the dozen times today, when he had sneaked in here previously there was barely anyone around but now the place was crawling with guards, it could be said that he was the reason the guards had to work extra hours.
"No, not that, the other thing." Replied Aang as he snuck a glance at a cart sliding down the delivery system some distance away from the palace.
"Ohhh, great idea let's go." said Bumi as he immediately got up followed by an enthusiastic Aang.
"What are you guys talking about?" asked Sokka, curious by their eagerness.
"You can join us too, Sokka, you'll love it." said Aang, sokka didn't seem to mind as he also got up to follow them, "How about you katara."
Before Katara could reply Levi interjected, "Trust me sister this isn't something you want to be part of." said Levi, making Katara stop in her tracks, the other three didn't mind as they ran out of the room.
"Alright, now about that trick I mentioned." said Levi casually, earning him a smile from Katara as she jumped to her feet.
"Let me get some water." said Katara excitedly as she turned around.
"No need sister sit down." said Levi as he put his teacup down, a confused Katara only followed his order.
Scanning the room to make sure they were not being watched Levi finally spoke, "What I am about to teach you can be considered a subcategory of water bending just like water healing, but it is also one of the most dangerous forms of bending out there." said Levi giving her a moment to process his words before continuing.
"You're forbidden from showing it to anyone else without my permission." said Levi in a stern tone making Katara show a serious look, she wondered what could be so serious that Levi had to be so cautious about.
"You have My word, unless you allow it I will never teach it to anybody." said Katara with a solemn look on her face.
"Good, Now before I teach you this I need to explain a few other things to you first, every element has its sub-bending categories, the same way water bending has water healing, fire benders can also bend lightning for example." said Levi making Katara's eyes go wide in shock at the last part..
"You don't need to worry about it sister, thankfully for us the greed of the fire lord will be his downfall, for now the knowledge of lightning bending is only accessible to the Fire Nation royal family." said Levi easing Katara's worry, he couldn't imagine what would happen if the knowledge of lightning bending was available to every fire bender.
From what he remembered from the legend of Korra lightning bending was one of the easiest sub-bending elements to master alongside metal bending, one thing was for sure, the final battle from the show would have gone way differently if lightning bending had widely spread.
"Earth benders can also bend lava just like air benders can master the ability to fly, but that doesn't mean these are the only sub-elements that exist." said Levi, making Katara's eyes go wide.
"How could earth benders bend Lava? Isn't that more in the fire benders alley? And Aang can fly?" asked Katara in genuine wonder, she knew the value of the information she just heard and she couldn't help but turn her head and look around fearing someone else might hear it.
"The exact opposite actually, just like we water benders can freeze water earth benders can melt rock, it just a change to the state of the element, at its core it is still the same thing, as for flying only one person had ever mastered it in history so I doubt Aang could do it." said Levi, explaining in simple words so Katara could understand him.
"I see that does make sense." said Katara.
"Now you might be wondering why I am telling you all of this." said Levi to which Katara only nodded, "I am going to teach you about a sub-bending ability of water bending that few even knew about, let alone mastered." said Levi his smile getting bigger as he saw Katara eyes going wide.
Seeing her not saying anything Levi decided it was better to show her rather than explain any further.
[Ding]
[Blood bending activated]
Katara was confused why Levi had just gone silent all of a sudden when her eyes widened in pure horror as she saw her hand reach for the teacup on the table on its own, she tried to stop it but she couldn't, soon she grabbed the cup and brought it near her mouth.
She couldn't even control her body to scream or help or give any signal that she was being controlled.
She was horrified again to find her mouth open without her consent as she sipped on her tea, her throat muscles moving on their own to swallow, finally after what felt like hours she regained control of her body as she sat up in shock panting heavily as sweat ran down her forehead.
Taking back his outstretched hand Levi couldn't help but sigh, he tried to ease her into it but in the end she was still frightened.
Although Levi didn't regret it, she was going to learn Blood bending one way or another and he preferred it was him that showed it to her.
For one to make sure she was in a safe environment and secondly to make sure she didn't see blood bending as something negative and evil and do something idiotic like refrain from using it, just like any other element or weapon, it depended on the person wielding it.
And by taking control of her body now she will be prepared in the future in case she encounters any blood benders.
Seeing her calm down a little Levi spoke, "That was blood bending, an ability exclusive to only a select few water benders and even then only under the full moon."
"That….was scary." said Katara after she calmed down a little, her hands still shaking.
Holding her hand Levi could feel her shaking ease down a little, she was beginning to calm down, "Sorry for that sister, but I needed to do it that way, to show you that blood bending isn't evil, it depends on the person who wields it and to prepare you for the future" Said Levi with a sorry tone that made Katara's shaking stop.
"Ha-ah, I understand." said Katara, sighing.
"Wait, you said that water benders need the full moon to use blood bending." asked Katara skeptical as she looked at the sun hanging in the sky, with Bumi, Aang, And a crying Sokka sliding down a rock cart below it before disappearing from sight.
"That's mostly true, most water benders will need the full moon." said Levi with a slight smirk on his face.
"Let me guess, you're built different." said Katara.
"You know me too well sister." said Levi, making her roll her eyes.
"Still I just started getting the hang of water bending, I don't know how long it'll take me to blood bend." said Katara in a downcast tone.
"I have a feeling it will be sooner than you realize, I believe in you sister." said Levi, making Katara beam.
"Now let's go through some basics." said Levi as he started explaining basics of water bending for her followed by the basics of blood bending, if he was going to teach her he would go all the way. With his mentor skill in effect it didn't take long for Katara to get the basics down
***
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