Akashi was getting slammed up and down, to the roof and then to the ground. His heart felt pain. Having used 5 points on vitality, and knowing that he had 5 left, made him feel a pang of pain. The fact that defeating Tarrlok now didn't give him a single level up was enough to make him hesitate.
Well, there was also the fact that Amon had come up with a good strategy to counter Akashi's sound waves. Even if Akashi could resist, he was still getting slammed and ragdolled.
If there was something Akashi had done wrong, it was miscalculating how strong Amon was. That man was a menace, nothing like his little brother.
"So, it's a skill issue," Akashi resisted.
It was a blessing to have high vitality points, because he could still think clearly despite taking all of that damage, as if his body's durability had increased drastically.
[Airbending up to level 22]
[Wavesbending up to level 11]
With the new mastery of air, Akashi found himself capable of bending the air with the least amount of movement.
He moved his fingers slightly. The air in the room raged and gathered into a sharp compressed wind that hit Amon in the mask, forcing him to slip and take a step back.
Akashi regained some control over his body that moment, and he clapped his hands, creating a large sound wave with a deadly vibration.
The target, Amon, took a bending stance. What followed was a nearby water from a fish tank, creating a water barrier between him and Akashi. The water barrier absorbed some of the shock before gliding backward.
Akashi clicked his tongue, knowing that he wasn't just facing a bloodbender, but a very high-skilled bender.
The dangerous thing about Amon was the fact that he could bloodbend an army with his mind alone.
And if he followed the cartoon's time, Amon was capable of playing hordes of animals like puppets, as a kid. No movement was required.
Now, that kid was a grown-ass man.
"Shit…" Akashi cursed as his feet didn't land on the ground as he had lost control over his body again. But at least, he had time to do something. He managed to create a small Rasengan and throw it at Amon, who gracefully dodged to the side. The wall behind Amon got destroyed, followed by a large explosion.
Akashi's loading time for his powerful finisher move got smaller with the level ups.
Amon had a drop of sweat on his forehead. Had that hit him, he would have died.
"Fuck it!" Akashi screamed, veins appearing on his forehead, anger dripping from his voice. He was resisting the bloodbending with nothing but sheer will.
"I'd have a clear chance of winning if I use those points. But it's too hard to get these points, unless Korra let me spank her ass in avatar state and system count it as a win… I need to kick everyone's ass here. I can't just be an airbender with a lousy build focused on vitality!"
Akashi grunted in frustration. If there was something he didn't like, it was the feeling of lack of control. And the fact that he was getting forced to use points against his desired build gave him an awful aftertaste.
But he wasn't completely hopeless. Because of the new mastery over airbending, he could do things he couldn't do before.
"If you don't stop, I'm going to stop the blood from flowing to your brain," Amon threatened. "Don't make me kill you."
"You'd be the one to regret it." Akashi clenched his fists, and 4 air spinning balls appeared in the air. Amon opened his eyes widely as if it was too late to stop those balls from getting thrown at him. The fact that a smaller one had caused so much damage to a solid wall was enough to make him raise his guard. But four… and they flew to him, who had no choice but to run away and use bloodbending on himself to increase his speed.
Each spinning sphere exploded, creating massive air spheres that appeared from thin air, making the whole building shake. The concrete that got caught turned into nothing but cement. Only metal building materials showed resistance.
Seeing this, Amon had no choice but to let go of Akashi, take his brother, and hide somewhere from the massive raging storms that had just occurred.
"Ha! Ha!"
Akashi panted, as resisting bloodbending and creating four massive air destruction attacks had drained him from both stamina, Chi, and vitality. Not to mention that he got slammed between the wall and the roof so much that he had started doubting that he had gotten a concussion. But he had a small regeneration perk, and that should negate any lasting damage before it could happen.
But nevertheless, he managed to push Amon back with the stats he had.
He thought of a way to win. He could go after Amon now. Stall for a battle, hide and strike. There's a possibility of winning with his current level just as there's a possibility of getting off guard.
But he had another idea. A better idea. When you fight a boss, it's better to take all of the minions down first, get a few level ups from them, and win with less difficulty.
Yeah, and there is the fact that there are cameras here and there. And that he had been trying to make allies with the equalists to turn against Amon, so that would make them allies.
But beating the shit out of everyone here was justified, because once he got some level ups, he'd use the gained stats on vitality and other stuff and come back for Amon, full of stamina, Chi, and Health Points.
As the raging winds calmed, Amon appeared, standing.
But Akashi wasn't in sight.
"Be careful, Amon. I'm going to take down everyone here. And you are the last." Akashi promised.
Amon turned his head in the direction of the sound, but he found no one.
Suddenly, his ear bled. His eardrum got attacked silently. Amon quickly bent his own blood, using healing to negate any damage that had just happened, with nothing but his blood.
"Sneaky bastard."
Amon clenched his fists. With Akashi not in sight, it wasn't Amon who had the upper hand, but the airbender, who had skills meant for silent assassination. Amon turned his head to the spots where the massive air spheres hit.
The ground was polished by the thickest and hardest stones, yet it was cut through deeply and destroyed.
"Well, you're losing everything. So, just sit down in the corner and wait for daddy to come back with the belt," came Akashi's voice again.
Amon grunted, "childish."
-x-X-x-
"That's…" Hiroshi Sato was in another building in the basement of the equalists, looking through the screen and projector he had invented. Next to him was the lieutenant, watching what was happening live. Picture after another was being recorded every 0.1 second, transferred through a wire and projecting through a light projector.
It was an invention that would flip the world upside down.
But for an obvious reason, Hiroshi couldn't take all of the credit, as the idea was presented by Akashi himself, even the idea of turning the pictures into zeros and ones—which happened to be machine language—for live transfer, was his idea.
"Can we watch this again?" the lieutenant asked.
"Yes, so it seems." Hiroshi explained, "The film is still there. It's 10 pictures by a second."
"Who would have thought that we had been played by a bloodbender this whole time, and to claim that was are equal. We're nothing but tools for someone greedy for power," the lieutenant groaned as he clenched his fists, rage seething through his clenched teeth.
Hiroshi closed his fists. "He approached me, told me that he could bring justice to my dead wife by dealing with all of the benders all at once. Yet, he'd been a bender this whole time… Lieutenant, are we idiots?"
"We're fools." Replied the lieutenant.
"So, what do we do now?" asked Hiroshi.
"I won't fight anymore. I'll take my people with me, and leave him to be." Said the lieutenant.
"But… what about him." Asked Hiroshi, "He'd be able to get away with this, and no one would be able to stop him."
The two paused for a moment, as if thinking of a solution, which soon surfaced.
"What if we chi-blocked him before he could do a thing?" said Hiroshi.
"Seems like a plan." Nodded the lieutenant, "We need to convince the others first. And we can persuade Akashi."
As they had a hidden filming camera, they knew that Akashi had been brought here sneakily by Amon and Tarrlok.
"There's no need," Hiroshi shook his head, "It was his plan all along."
The lieutenant, as if confused, turned to Hiroshi. "Excuse me?"
"The fact that we are seeing this was planned all along weeks ago, by him." Said Hiroshi.