Chapter 40

The news of an approaching army of thousands shook the village.

Thousands.

What did that number mean? A complete disaster.

I walked over to the scout.

"What did you do first when you saw them?" I grabbed him by the shoulders and asked.

"I turned and ran away," he said.

"How the hell did you know they were in the thousands?" I yelled.

The villagers and earthbenders, whose numbers didn't even reach two hundred, were looking at the ground, their faces sweating.

"I… I saw them covering the horizon, so I assumed the number," he said.

The villagers' faces lit up temporarily.

"But they are above a thousand," he added. "For certain."

It seemed my soldiers' morale was quite low.

Well, mine was a bit low too, and I was feeling a bit of fear.

No matter how talented your army is, they wouldn't be as strong as the Avatar.

Thousands was also a big number.

I needed to raise the morale of my men—and women—a bit.

I walked to the center and yelled, "Everyone!"

They turned their attention to me.

"We've been preparing for this for so long," I said. "The firebenders and their soldiers will taste a battlefield where they can't bend. They will be crushed and burned by their own fire. Their armor will be their graves. Their tanks will be what crushes them.

"Aren't you excited to crush them?"

There was a moment of silence.

But soon, I got an answer.

"Yeah!"

"We've been training for so long!"

"I'm excited to see them. With the strategy we have, even if they were tens of thousands, they wouldn't stand a chance."

"Let's fight them!"

I clapped my hands and said, "Okay, okay. For now, let's not get too excited. Let's activate the traps."

"Yes. Right. The plan."

The villagers started becoming active, following the strategy I had discussed with them.

They took the explosive powder we had been making and went outside the walls.

'Come on,' I thought. 'It's not time to fall back.'

As everyone started working, I decided it was time for me to preserve my energy.

I needed to rest well and then spend my energy wisely on the day of the battle.

For the last few days, since Katara had arrived, I hadn't spent my experience points and had been focusing on training the earthbenders.

Now that everything was complete, I needed to conserve as much energy as possible.

I wasn't in a hurry to use my points.

But for certain, I needed one thing.

[Titles slots have been upgraded to 2]

[50,000 accumulated experience has been used]

[For the next upgrade, 100,000 experience points are required]

'What a generous system,' I thought. 'It wants me to turn into a mass murderer.'

I sighed and left for my tent.

I grabbed a bottle of expensive alcohol or wine bottles that I had stolen from the commander's chamber on the ship.

I poured myself a drink and started drinking.

-x-X-x-

"Ryuk, can I come in?" Katara's voice called.

Before I could even give her permission, she entered.

"Sure," I said, looking at her blue eyes as she scanned me.

"You've managed to convince a few hundred people to stand against a large army," she said. "I want to know how you have so much courage."

"The real question should be, why?"

"Why?" she asked curiously.

"You'll have to wait a couple of days first," I said teasingly.

"What's the point of suspense? It's not a children's story that Grandma tells to pass the time," she replied, frustrated.

"Do you really want to talk about the war now?" I asked.

She shook her head.

"I wanted to check if you're okay," she said. "You've gotten a bit pale."

I smiled and looked at my hand, which was quite white now.

'Seems I can't say "escape" in Japanese during this war.'

Katara held my hand and sat beside me.

I looked at her for some time.

Both of us were adults, and we were in a tent.

During times like this, cortisol, the stress hormone, takes over the body. You know, it makes one lose sense and do whatever they can to relax.

There was one thing I could think of as I looked at her blue eyes, full lips, and exposed neck.

"Wanna relax a bit?" she asked.

"Definitely," I said, shaking the bottle of alcohol in my other hand. "Wanna try?"

"What is it? Fruit juice?" she mused.

"Alcohol. We don't have it in the South Pole, but it's quite good," I said. "Well, not that good the next day. And weed is better."

"Like seaweed? What's weed?" she asked.

"No. It's just good stuff," I said, taking a gulp from the bottle and passing it to her. She took a big swig at once.

"It's quite acidic, and bitter." she commented, exhaling loudly. "But what's the fruit?"

"I guess it's grape wine. It's quite tasty." I replied.

"Sure?" she nodded and drank a few more gulps before passing it back to me.

"So, earlier," I said as I wiped the corner of her lip with my finger, "when you asked me if I wanted to relax, what did you mean by that?"

"I meant what I meant," she said. "The last time I was nervous—when Rakasha, or when I thought she would snitch on me—I kissed you."

"Did it help you relax?" I asked curiously. Katara, or women from this world in general, were quite different from those in my previous life. They didn't go through high school drama or anything. Not to mention, we grew up in quite an isolated place. So, I was a bit curious about her perspective.

"Well, it felt like I could leave without regret if I did the things I wanted to do," she commented, looking into my eyes and then at my lips.

I got the signal and responded.

Also, if you think about it, we weren't used to drinking. Things got out of the usual routine. Her cheeks were already getting rosy.

"Well, one may leave after two days," I said, grabbing her chin with my fingers and slowly approaching her.

I kissed her for some time. Her response became more aggressive as she kissed back.

I didn't know what came over me, but I responded with more aggression, pushing her back and moving my lips from her mouth to her neck. There was a small moan that escaped her lips each time I sucked on her neck, which meant it was her sensitive spot.

"Ryuk, what if someone comes in?" she said, panting slightly.

"Oh… we'll bend it out," I replied, not really knowing what I was saying.

"I mean…"

"Well, everyone's too busy. You're afraid your brother might come in."

"That would be traumatizing."

"Don't worry. I saw him going to comfort some village girl," I said. "No one's coming in."

"It's my first time," she said. "Can you be, you know, gentle?"

"How did you know you need to be gentle?"

"Can't tell you. Girls talk," she said, hugging me, her lips landing on mine.

I pushed her onto her back and got on top of her, grinding something else other than my levels for the first time.

-x-X-x-

We all make mistakes.

Some are big. Some are small. And some make you discover a new type of bending to deal with the big mistakes you make when you get drunk.

I looked at the notification I had received a day and a half ago.

[You've discovered Cum-bending]

[+3,000 EXP]

I had never known the system could play jokes.

I was standing at the top of the wall, looking at the huge artificial black cloud covering the sky. On the ground, an army was marching.