Chapter 3-The South Pole

When I woke up after hitting a rock, the first thing I saw was a big-eyed face.

"Scat." — I chased a small animal away from me, I think it was a lemur... or so I thought, until it opened its bat-like wings and flew away from me — another local hybrid. — this world was full of hybrids of various animals I already knew, but after the monsters of the previous world, it's hard to surprise me in any way.

I sat up and looked at myself, my body was aching, my legs were broken, my ribs were broken, my spine seemed to be intact, my arms were still intact, as was my skull. I got off easy enough yet.

I had food, so the only thing I could do was lie on the rock and regenerate. As I lay there watching this flying lemur, I came up with the obvious idea of making myself a wing suit. As this flight showed, I don't have enough aerodynamics and maneuverability, and even if Airbenders had to use gliders to fly, I could use a crutch to start with, too. The more time I spend in the air, the faster I'll learn to fly without a wing suit, or maybe I'll just be able to create wings out of fire, or ice, or metal.

Before leaving my relatives, in addition to food, I collected a few comfort items in my spatial pocket, including fabric and sewing accessories. It's true that the fabric wasn't very suitable for creating the wings of this suit, but I can just remove the waxed cloth from the Airbender gliders. When he was fully recovered, he went back to the air temple and made himself a suit of the red cloth of the Fire People, and attached to it wings of the orange waxed cloth of the Air Nomads. I would be testing it over water, and I would like to avoid another collision with a rock, but it was already clear that the red and orange suit would be too noticeable in the air, and I would have to somehow repaint it in blue or blue. I saw some berries here, like blackberries, but larger, you can try using its juice as a dye. As it turned out, this berry was very sour, and its juice really well repainted the fabric, in the end I got a blue suit, with blue webbed wings, which had open feet and arms.

And here you are again making something, instead of doing magic.≫

— It's to make it easier to learn to fly.

I put on this suit on the edge of a cliff near the sea, and jumped off the cliff, began to emit a concentrated stream of fire with my feet, while spreading my arms to spread the wings of the suit. Now the flight was not only fast, but also controlled, after a couple of attempts, I also learned to land normally in this suit, so now I could continue my journey to the south.

While I was in the Air Nomad Temple, I always had that flying lemur hanging around, and even when I was testing my winged suit, it flew right next to me.

After purposefully heading south, I noticed that this big-eyed winged beast was flying right next to me.

— You're pretty pushy." Do you want to be my pet? Then I'll call you Yakitori, or maybe Yakiniki, or just short for Niki? — I said, looking at this flying piece of meat with a smile, the first two suggested names are the names of Japanese fried meat dishes, and the last name just means "Meat". The animal realized that I wasn't going to be much of a master, and if anything happened, I wouldn't be afraid to just eat it, so it shouted something after me and flew back to the island.

"That's it, fly back home, flying meat. I shouted before continuing to fly south, because it's cold, this animal, accustomed to a rather warm climate, will definitely not survive there.

Once I was fully equipped with the wing suit, I could fly at a speed of about eight hundred kilometers per hour, which is two and a half times faster than under water, but I clearly didn't have the strength to overcome the sound barrier, and even at this speed, I can fly around the entire planet in a couple of days of continuous flight.

I took off from the outskirts of Air Nomad Central Island, and it takes me a little more than four hours to reach the south pole from there, but after flying for three and a half hours, I noticed five metal steam-turbine frigates of the Fire Nation sailing directly towards the Water Tribe settlement. Since I lived in the palace of the rulers of the Land of Fire, I knew about the "Southern Invaders" - a unit of the fleet that should periodically visit the Southern Water Tribe, and stupidly exterminate those who did not have time to escape, first of all they were interested in Water Mages, this is done to prevent riots. The flags of the Southern Invaders bore the image of a sea raven, so I was sure that the intention of these ships was that they were sailing towards that settlement to start a massacre.

I've ruled the Empire myself, so I know what "war" is and I know that people die during war, but I've never liked the genocide of the civilian population, especially here it's not justified by anything, the Fire People didn't give up the lands of the Southern Water Tribe, this is a genocide of the nation, just because they don't belong to the Fire Nation. Right now, I could just ignore the ships of the Southern Invaders who were probably planning to massacre the Southern Water Tribe, but I decided to step in anyway.

I can theoretically kill the crews of the Fire Nation ships, but I have an easier way to stop them — by disabling their ships. Every ship has somewhere a couple of boilers that generate steam for the two turbines that turn the frigates ' propellers, if you throw your modified fireballs into the boilers, it will damage the steam turbines, and the ships will simply stop moving.

Now the soldiers on these frigates were preparing to land and fight the defenders of the Southern Tribe village, which was why the boiler rooms were not guarded in any way. I went down to the water, put my wing suit in my space pocket, and swam to the ships under the water. It wasn't hard to get inside the ships, and I also knew where the boiler room was located.

"Well, I hope it works. I looked at the spinning sphere of fire that looked like a small sun.

Throwing it into the boiler, I quickly closed the metal door, and went to the second boiler room, where I repeated the procedure, and then quickly left the ship. At this time, my sphere began to absorb the flame inside the boiler, swirling and accumulating it inside itself, after which it significantly exploded, destroying one turbine, and setting fire to a warehouse with coal. A few seconds later, another explosion occurred, destroying the ship's second turbine. I had already entered the second ship at this time, and began to perform a similar procedure with it.

A crew of Southern Invaders frigates stopped to find out what had happened to the first ship, and while they were there extinguishing the first frigate, I blew up the second one, first one boiler exploded, destroying the first turbine, and then the second boiler, destroying the second turbine. Then they realized that these explosions were not accidental, their ships were being attacked from the inside. I did not go inside the third frigate, but tried to destroy it in a slightly different way, throwing a fireball not directly into the boiler, but into the chimney, from there it should also fall into the boiler and explode as before. My theory was confirmed, and another ship was disabled.

Now that three of the five ships were incapable of independent navigation, the Southern Invaders now had to either sail away, using the last two ships to tow the other three, or continue the attack, but then there was a chance that the last two ships might also be disabled. The commander of the Southern Invaders decided to retreat after all. Using ropes and chains, entire ships began to tow the damaged frigates to the dock for repairs.

I'm sure they'll be back soon anyway, but I'm ready to once again clear their chimneys with my fiery spiral spheres.

≪Yeah, we're a pro at cleaning chimneys.≫

In general, this encounter showed that I was not so defenseless against five Fire Nation warships.

After making sure that the Southern Invaders ' frigates were retreating, I flew where I wanted to go. From the air, as I flew over the ice of the south pole, I saw another Fire Nation ship, but it was an older one, frozen in the ice, and it was probably the Water Mages who were able to disarm it like this.

If possible, I could drag the ship farther to the south pole and live right in that boat, or build myself an ice castle like some ice princess and live in it, sometimes singing songs about letting go and forgetting something, or create myself a huge, fragile ice mirror that can easily break into thousands of pieces.

If on the outskirts of the southern continent, day and night alternated, then right at the southernmost pole now there was a polar night, which usually lasts for half a year, followed by a polar day, which will also last for half a year. However, even though it was night here, the darkness was dispelled by the greenish-bluish aurora. It was incredibly cold at the pole, but also incredibly beautiful, with blue transparent ice everywhere, refracting the light of the aurora borealis.

There is also a very dense spiritual background, so go to the place where this aurora comes from, maybe there is a gap in the Spirit World.≫

I went to the ice mountain, which seemed to emit a bluish-greenish light, and there really was such a dense spiritual background that my energy was restored almost instantly.

≪This is where we will live, you can start building your ice princess castle, just learn how to control the ice.≫

It was cold at the South Pole, and there were huge polar polar bear hybrids running around with dogs that attacked me a couple of times, but only added to my meat supply. However, despite all this, I was much more comfortable now than I was in the Fire Master's palace. Freedom is what I've been feeling for the last few days since I left my family. Right now, I don't owe anyone anything... Apart from learning magic, I can do whatever I want... mostly I should want to learn magic, and recently I really want to learn it.

Ice magic was the opposite of Fire Magic, the only thing they had in common was that they were both related to temperature control. The fire was fickle, and if it wasn't maintained, it would die out pretty quickly. Ice was static, and could constantly maintain its shape after creation, but it was also much harder to control than fire. Fire Mages create their own flames from their internal energy, and it takes too much Qi to create Ice purely from energy, but this ice is better obeyed than ice created from the surrounding water.

To control the surrounding ice, I had to imbue it with my inner energy, and then it somehow obeyed me. As with Fire Magic, Ice Magic could be enhanced with special stances and moves... which ones I didn't know, but I knew quite a few of these stances, so I just picked them up by brute force. The best result was shown by techniques where only the hands are involved, while the movements should be as smooth as possible. In fact, Ice Magic can be attributed to Water Magic, which is why the movements should be smooth, like the flow of water.

I didn't manage to build an ice castle in one go, and to be precise, I only managed to slightly change the shape of the ice floe that I was using to test my ice management techniques and stances. I was pretty tired during the day, so I decided to go sleep in the frozen ship anyway, otherwise I wouldn't want to be the polar bear dog's dinner at night.

I felt pretty comfortable at the pole myself, it was about minus seventy degrees here, but I could keep my body temperature up with magic. While exploring the ship, I found quite a few traps left by the Fire Nation soldiers for anyone who wanted to loot the ship. When I passed one of the cabins, I noticed a mirror there, and in the mirror I saw my smiling face... I was so happy to get out of the palace that I unconsciously always go with a happy face, even when there is no special reason for joy.

I was fairly comfortable in the captain's cabin on the ship, but I think I'd be better off sleeping right at the south pole, near the opening to the Spirit World. This way, I can quickly become stronger, and quickly develop a Domain where I can accumulate extra Qi. Right now, I feel like I don't have enough energy, and if I have to fight several fire mages at once, I'll probably lose... or rather, I'll have to fly away from them, but I won't be able to defeat them unless it's at night while they're sleeping.

Thinking about the return of the Southern Invaders, I came to the conclusion that the next time they returned with a large force, at least they would double their numbers, and with ten ships, it would be very difficult for me to handle... if only I would deal with the ships on my own terms. I will need to submerge all the ships in the fog, with the help of Ice and Fire Magic, creating a dense fog curtain will not be particularly difficult, fire mages themselves rarely know how to navigate without vision, I can also feel the world using thermal vision, and then under the cover of fog, you can throw fire spheres into the ships ' pipes, and blow up their boilers. Well, this is a rough plan, maybe the next time they arrive, I'll be able to freeze entire fleets in ice with just a snap of my fingers.

When I returned to the south pole the next day and continued training in Ice Magic, I realized that my previous statement was too optimistic, and I would not be able to freeze ships with a snap of my fingers for a very long time. Now, the not particularly interesting part of magic has begun — a monotonous training session with constant attempts to control the ice. I was getting a little better at it, but it was a lot more boring than fire magic, but it was also a lot safer.

To dilute the routine, I also did fire magic, which was less effective here because of the cold. It dissipated pretty quickly if I didn't concentrate it into a rotating sphere or jet streams. Here, I continued trying to strengthen my sphere, and also began trying to create a similar sphere from Ice Magic. The first successful ice sphere, when flying, created a small ice storm that damaged the ice iceberg with small ice crystals, into which I threw this technique. It will be fun to mix ice and fire rotating spheres, and this combination technique will probably help you quickly create a veil of mist, but to test this theory, I need to create these spheres at the same time, and right now I only have enough skill for one thing. On the other hand, there was enough spiritual energy at the south pole for me to constantly use magic, sometimes ice, sometimes fire... I liked fire more, but I saw what ice can do in Esdes ' hands, and I know that it can be very useful, both in attack and defense.

After a couple of weeks on the pole, during one of the training sessions, I noticed an ice phoenix sitting nearby, it looked like a bird made of ice.

— What is this terrible Ice Magic?" - suddenly I heard a clear female voice, and it came from this ice bird.

— Are you talking?" Are you some kind of sentient spirit? And I wanted to eat you after training. I said in disappointment, spirits are usually quite strong, unlike normal animals.

— What a coincidence, I also wanted to eat you, but seeing your terrible ice magic, I lost all my appetite. You're a terrible ice mage, and it pains me to watch your ridiculous attempts to conquer the ice. this ice chicken was talking.

"Well, I'm sorry, I'm more of a Fire Mage, I'm learning ice magic as best I can. — I lit a fireball with my left hand and then this bird went berserk and attacked me, attacking me with icicles. She probably doesn't like fire very much.

"That's right! — I started to create fire waves to protect myself from the sharp icicles of the ice phoenix, this chicken continued to attack me until I thought to completely extinguish the fire and switch to ice protection only. Just in case, I had a supply of magic ice in my spatial pocket that I had created directly from magic, I only had five liters of it, which is quite small, but it obeyed me ten times better than ordinary natural ice. I used my magic ice to protect myself, creating an ice shield that was pierced with phoenix icicles.

"Hey, ice chicken, catch it!" I tossed her a round lychee fruit, but she looked hungry.

— What is it?" - the bird caught the fruit, and threw it in its beak, - Delicious, give me more, otherwise I'll kill you! this chicken demanded.

"Okay, just leave me alone. — I threw a pile of round orange fruit on the ice that I picked up on Air Nomad Island. Under the skin of these fruits was a soft jelly-like pulp that tasted like grapes, and the more ripe fruits tasted like wine.

"How delicious." - the bird took these fruits, and threw one at a time into the open beak — - Now you will feed me with them every day, otherwise I will kill you. ice phoenix threatened me.

— I'm being threatened with death by the evil ice creature again, isn't your name Esdes, by any chance?"

"No, I'm Bing Xi Feng, a spirit that embodies deadly cold, and I just hate fire!" This bird that was only a meter tall replied angrily, although if it was a spirit, it could probably change its size.

"You're a phoenix, they're usually fiery.

— You should teach me more about what phoenixes are supposed to be." That's why I think your magic is so disgusting, I've seen a lot of water and ice magicians, but this is the first time such disgusting ones, and you turn out to be an Avatar who studies Ice Magic after Fire Magic. You don't have a guardian spirit yet, do you? So I will be the guardian spirit of the new Avatar. So be it, I'll teach you Ice Magic, and in return, you'll feed me fruit. I don't accept rejection. "an ice bird landed on my right shoulder.

— I'm not an Avatar. I retorted as I looked at Bing Xi Feng.

— I don't care who you think you are, but I'll teach you some Ice Magic, and I want forty of these fruits every day in return."

"At least give me ten a day, because I don't have much of it." I suggested.

"Okay, I'm being kind today, so be it, I'll help the Avatar almost for free. — the ice spirit said that he decided to teach me ice magic, but I'll be honest, it would be better if I learned magic without him, I would be much calmer