17. Fire

During the time before the solstice, I managed to do a lot of things. Yui began to practice more complex techniques, these were not yet changes in the aggregate state of water, but also simple manipulation of water is fraught with many different techniques that are not always easy to perform even for masters.

Soon enough I will be able to open the first chakra, which will increase all my characteristics at once. This chakra is blocked by a sense of fear, in order to open this chakra, you need to consciously find your main fear in yourself, and overcome it, while I don't even know what I'm afraid of, of course there are some fears, but these are not even themselves, but simple fears, there will most likely be something from the subconscious, where people often unknowingly stuff and forget the most traumatic.

Things are going well at the south pole, but people are afraid of the new arrival of the Fire nation warriors, maybe they have already written off the Southern Tribe, but when they decide to come and see why there is no connection with this detachment for so long, they will definitely take revenge for the Southern Invaders.

On my last visit, I hoped too much for the disguise of a new village, but here people are also far from stupid, they can even start combing the tundra floor.

As a last resort, an underground tunnel was made that ends two kilometers further from the village, a temporary bunker was also equipped there, which will allow residents to stay there for up to two weeks without worrying about anything, of course they will have to change food after a while, and the exit itself will be cleared of piled snow, but I think it's much better than sitting and waiting for the arrival of fire people.

In the meantime, they will be safe in time for me to appear.

In order to buy time for the residents themselves to evacuate or somehow warn them about the attack, it was decided, together with former hunters, to make traps in the old village, which they definitely would not disdain to fully inspect. They did the same around the new village, some of them will create enough noise so that even the most deaf can smell something wrong, well, I hope the screams of the soldiers that will fall into them will serve as a fairly accurate signal for the residents. Having warned people where not to climb, they organized a patrol that would look to see if any animals that could discredit the presence of the traps themselves had fallen into the traps.

Throughout the whole time, every time I went through the portals, I took a rodent with me. This has had an effect, already now the rodent appears with me in the southern tribe in one piece. But during my experiments with the rodent, I completely forgot that they do not have their own bending, and they have a meager amount of vital energy. It turns out that a sufficiently strong bender can walk this path even without my help, while when crossing with a non-mage or a weak gifted one, I can safely protect him with my energy. Although the rodent is small, I spent half on it, but what if even my reserve is not enough to protect a person? It is necessary to get a person who will definitely not be pitied, but in the meantime it is worth trying to drag some cattle, I think it will be harder with them.

I do not stand still in the bending of blood, it began to turn out to move the blood of one rat, and some unnatural movements, even his relatives avoid him, but this is already a success. It turns out that it was necessary to feel exactly where and how the blood moves and where it interacts with vital energy, at first I thought that you just need to move the blood to the hand, for example, and it will start moving itself, no, everything lies in the reactions that the body produces when blood and vital energy touch in certain areas. It's the hardest thing to recognize your own blood and vital energy, because it's part of your body, we don't think how to raise our hand, we just raise it, there's the same analogy here, even the bloody puppet technique was created more subconsciously, the body itself tried to adjust the movement of blood with vital energy, and it was so good before, I already thought that it was really so easy to manage your blood.

Why was Amon able to use blood bending to block Korra's bendingal abilities? Why could he control a crowd of people without a single movement? Because he knew exactly how to manipulate blood, he was able to understand if not all the vital energy, then some important part for sure. This is what I need to strive for.

A significant day is approaching, the solstice, for which I have about 18 hours, during which time I have to find the dark spirits I need, finish with them or him as soon as possible and get out of the spirit world, I have no desire to wait there for the next solstice.

It is worth understanding in advance which element I should choose. I would like to find some spirit of time or space, but even if there are such, you need to find them first, they are rare anyway, it will also be difficult to develop such elements, rapid development with insufficient numbers for devouring is impossible, and there are no techniques or scrolls for these elements among people. Okay, something I rolled out my lip too much, maybe there is no possibility of getting a new element at all.

It is clear that you need to choose from three main elements, water is already there, earth, fire and air remain. In fact, the bending of water is a very flexible element, with the help of it I can defend myself well, attack quickly enough and there is some mobility, one minus - until I learn how to get water from everything that surrounds me, I always have to carry some water with me.

Air would also be useful, but to glow with such an element now is one hundred percent to bring trouble on myself, of course I'm a cool bender, but I definitely won't stand up against the whole country, especially since it's constant tension, it's a danger to loved ones, too many minuses.

Earth and fire remain, both elements are very tasty. As the earth developed, it would give me new branches of this bending - this is the manipulation of metals and lava, it is also not a problem to find teachers of this element, but fire has one feature that I really need.

Fire mages interact more closely with their qi, in fact, in order to create fire, they program their vital energy, and it seems to me that they even add a little bit of it in the process of creating fire, which they get automatically. Conquerors of fire create their own element, of course, if there is something to burn in the air, you can't fight fire in a sealed space, but you still need to be able to get into such a situation.

Another example, lightning - in the series, we were roughly told how it is created by special destabilization of qi flows with the addition of fire energy, the bender releases an electric discharge. Another good reason to take fire is the technique that we were shown in the story of Korra's avatar, when she was struck by a dark spirit and lost her memories.

The energy reading technique, like that was the name of that ability, it allows you to read a person's energy, that is, you can view not only physical health, as water benders do, but also the state of your spiritual body, this is your energy, channels of vital energy, and the mind itself. Maybe this technique can't cure, but knowing the problem with it, you can fight it, that's what this ability gives us, allowing us to diagnose almost everything. There is an idea that this technique is based on the manipulation of vital energy. All this can only be learned from your own experience, well, or sneak up to the Sages of Fire and read all their teachings, maybe Wang Shi Tong has knowledge of this ability, although he definitely should have it, after all, the spirit of knowledge, just like that he does not send his assistants anywhere, I think he even knows approximately where something new opens in this world, and already knowing the approximate place, he sends his assistant spirits.

***

Sitting on the grass near the Oasis of Spirits, watching the sun come out from behind the horizon, simultaneously with which tension began to appear in the air. Being here right next to the portal to the Realm of Spirits, it already feels like the boundaries that separate the two worlds are getting thinner.

As soon as the local luminary completely appeared over the horizon, I entered the portal. I don't know what processes take place at the solstice, but even in appearance the barrier has become dimmer and thinner.

Gathering his strength and covering his body with a thin film of compressed water, he went towards the barrier. When I came into contact with the barrier, the energy to maintain the protection went away at a high speed, but step by step I was able to push myself completely beyond that side.

Already being in the Realm of Spirits, the almost spent reserve of energy began to be rapidly replenished from the local background. I found myself in a valley that was surrounded by many rocks of different shapes, which were periodically struck by lightning.

A certain limitation of thinking is inherent in the campaign, and I, concentrating on the attacking aspect of water bending, completely forgot about other directions. It's good that I have enough skill to create a flying platform out of water, after all, the spirit world is not inferior in size to a human one, and to overcome such distances faster by air. And it's good that I didn't forget to take a lot of water containers with me.

Having created a carpet of water, I flew in a random direction, only the element of lightning is felt in this place, of course the lightning itself is also strong, but I don't think it will open the element of fire to me, I will have to fly further.

Continuing to float through the air, his sensitivity scanned the places with the greatest fiery energy. I need to find the fire spirits as soon as possible, the faster I find them, the faster I can digest the new element. The time when the element of water appeared, I was out for half a day, if this time passes according to the same scenario, I may not have time to return home.

There is a contact! Turning sharply to the left, I flew at great speed to a place with a saturated background of fire energy. Hovering over the right place, I saw a rift in the ground inside which a fiery river flowed, while the right targets playfully splashed in it. It would be quite nice if these fiery salamanders did not shove the feeling of hunger in all directions.

So you need to think everything through. I feel only four spirits, three lower and one middle, the task is easy, but what about the appearance of a new source?!

Think I'll buy a hat, at that time it was the average spirit of water when I was the lowest, so if I think logically now I need to absorb only the lower spirit so that at least the element I need appears, yes the source will be weak, but the whole assimilation process should go much easier, and only then I will gain this element "mass". I'll do it well.

Concentrating on the water in the wineskins that I had prepared in advance, I began to gradually compress them into the shape of bullets, three of them I need to fill up at a long distance, so as not to accidentally absorb them.

Abruptly sending water bullets into the spirits of fire, the flight of which was accompanied by overcoming the sound barrier, I saw how, after issuing a dying and seemingly a little puzzled cry, the salamanders disintegrated into energy particles. Until I saw how the last particle of energy does not fade in the air, I did not even approach.

Wiping the sweat from my forehead, I flew with a jubilant smile at the lower spirit, which continued to look stupidly for its relatives. Creating an ice sword in one hand, I jumped right onto the back of the unsuspecting spirit. A sharp swing of the sword, and the head of the spirit disconnected from the body, not having time to fall to the ground, melted into energy.

At that time, I had already managed to move away from the lava river and sit down on the ground, feeling in my gut how the energy of the fiery spirit was digested by me. I wanted to shout at the top of my voice: "Yes, after all, a new element!", but knowing what should follow did not allow me to do it, I had to wait with clenched teeth for the beginning of the appearance of the source, which did not take long to wait.

The whole body, both spiritual and physical, was consumed by pain, and knowing that they are fused together, the pain feels twice as strong, or it's already me winding myself up. In the first minute, the whole body was just soaked with tension, but the pain must be endured while being conscious. It seems that my guesses have been confirmed, the pain is of course very strong, but not directly cutting off consciousness, I think I can hold out.

For the first hours the pain only increased, but for the next four hours it began to subside a little. As soon as these torments were over, I sprawled on the ground in the shape of a star with an extremely wide smile on my face. Thinking to myself: "It was worth it"