"Yes! I won!" Korra yelled as she passed the finishing line, leaving Akashi behind to deal with the obstacles she had thrown in his way. She deactivated her Avatar state and was about to start celebrating.
"Congratulations." Akashi clapped as he appeared in front of her.
She stopped and turned her head.
The fire and the wet ground were still there.
But Akashi wasn't behind them.
He was in front of her.
That meant he had gotten there before she could finish the race.
And that would mean…
"You won?" she asked.
Akashi tilted his head. "I find myself questioning that as well, knowing that I had to deal with country-level destructive force."
Korra laughed a bit and said, "Come on. It's not like you weren't cheating with that… you know, moving the air around you, making smaller, faster balls. What's a bit of earth, fire, and water?"
Akashi turned.
The spikes of the ground almost turned into pillars. The fire was quite hot. And the water had just materialized from thin air.
"Did I activate my Avatar's state?" he asked.
"What's a bit of cheating between us?" She asked, bumping her fist against his shoulder. "We're kissing, right?"
Akashi crossed his arms, as if considering the offer.
"Sure." He nodded. "Still, I have a condition."
"Yes?" she asked.
"If we ever wrestle in bed, never use the Avatar's state." Akashi demanded. "There's death by snu snu. And there's death by thousands of Avatars."
"Haha. I promise." She said. But Akashi doubted her as she was more petty than him.
"By the way, I've noticed some half-bald woman in you." Akashi said. "What is she?"
"Oh. That's Avatar Yang Chen. It was thanks to her skills that I managed to stop you from advancing." Korra said. "Didn't work, it seems."
"Tell her that I called her half-bald monk." Akashi said, not afraid to have a beef with one Avatar spirit.
"Hahaha. She may haunt you." Korra laughed, taking it as a joke.
But Akashi didn't take this race as a joke. Instead, he took it as a victory and a valuable lesson to keep.
He learned a few things. Korra, while still connected to the Avatars, was still dangerous. Some Airbending master managed to pull him out of his no-air-resistance state. Other than that, she had control over all of the elements, and the power she could exert was beyond control.
However, he learned that no matter how powerful his enemy was, he could always escape.
And he still had some skill points. And he believed that if he mastered flying, there would be no one able to chase him down, even Korra while mastering the Avatar's state and having all of the Avatars in her air.
Now, thanks to flying, the air wouldn't resist him, and would boost his speed. Not only that, but he wouldn't have to use energy.
You know, the faster you move, the higher the mass, the more energy you need to keep moving. So, by mastering flying, he could move without spending much energy. And he would be way faster than he is now. Even if he chose to walk.
But… he couldn't simply use points to level up flying.
Even Amon, the toughest living bender, could only level him up by 3 levels.
And a bloodbender like Tarrlok wouldn't help him get one level.
So, the skill points were very precious. And he needed to use them considerably.
'Luckily, the system limited the levels of flying to 10. If I could get the first four or five levels in a couple of months of training, I could use 5 skill points. I have nine skill points. I'll use 4 now to level up my wavesbending.'
[Wavesbending up to level 15]
'What can the Avatar do to stop a Kamehameha wave?'
Tenzin, who was standing by the side, held the sides of his head.
"My temple!!!"
In order to win the race, Korra had done some serious damage to the terrain.
She scratched the back of her head.
"I will fix it." She said.
Akashi turned to Tenzin and asked, "That was a good learning experience. When is the next evaluation?"
Tenzin took a deep breath in, exhaled, and then repeated for a few times.
"You're progressing at a good rate. In fact, you can get the arrow of an airbending master. When are you available?" he asked.
"I'd like to humbly decline the offer." Akashi waved his hand.
"Why not?" asked Tenzin. "You're very skillful."
"I feel like I have still a lot to learn," replied Akashi, lying through his teeth. Truth to be told, he didn't want to shave his head and have that ugly blue arrow ruining his looks.
"You're still young, so you still have time to change your mind," Tenzin talked as if Akashi taking that arrow was a conclusive matter.
Korra whispered in Akashi's ear. "I don't want you to get that arrow either. You're as good as you are."
Akashi turned and looked at Korra's face.
'Is she trying to rizz me? She's doing a good job. It feels good to be the one to get attention.'
Akashi smiled, "Being praised like that. I feel like I can take on two bloodbenders at the same time."
"That…" Korra paused for a second, "would be an achievement."
"As if you can." Tenzin deadpanned. "Unless you are the Avatar, you can't."
Or you have a vitality higher than any human could acquire, which was something limited from birth. But that was for normal humans. As for Akashi, he could simply turn levels into stats and acquire power beyond that of a normal human… maybe even a peak human.
'Well, I lack strength to reach peak humanity. But as an airbender, what use is strength for me? Maybe it's useful. It may increase my defenses, and help me take shots from other types of benders. Maybe, the reduction in HP gets less and less. Well, I have 9 strength points, so, it would seem to be impossible, or super hard, to get an additional point. In order to get a perk, I would need to get it to 20. I need at least 2 levels. Or to increase it naturally by one point, and get another level up.'
"So, what are you thinking of?" Korra asked as she waved her hand in front of his face.
"I remembered that I have some businesses to attend to." Akashi said.
"Why don't you stay for lunch?" Penma asked.
Akashi humbly declined and said that he had a lot to do, considering that he's jobless now. Well, he lost his assurance and paycheck. He needed to get a new assurance as an entrepreneur.
That, and he needed to do some heavy lifting and hunting planning.
Plus, he had a plan to override the whole Earth Kingdom, and he may end up gaining a whole lot of experience points.
With Korra's evil uncle on hold, which he didn't know when he would show up, Akashi would try to use the best of his time.
Besides, he didn't get worried. In fact, he was more relieved. Korra had mastered airbending earlier, same for the Avatar's state.
If there's a way to prevent her uncle from influencing her would be… He still didn't remember. But Korra needed to learn something from her uncle. And that what gave him power over her to mentally suppress her.
'Is it some spirituality… If it is, she should have mastered meditation by now. She had reported that she went to the spirits world anyway. I should only worry about my levels.'
After exchanging words with everyone, teasing the kids a bit, it was time to leave the island.
Tenzin had offered Akashi to help him. But the latter said that he would use the spinning air ball to travel through the sea.
Korra offered to accompany Akashi to the shore. There, they agreed to meet for a date at some time.
"Let's have a goodbye kiss," Korra said, like an innocent late teen.
Had the chief been in her place, she would have grabbed his crotch and took him to the bedroom.
But he liked it this way.
"Sure." Akashi replied. He and Korra kissed a farewell kiss. And just to make it more dramatic, Akashi gave her a slap on the butt. She opened her eyes widely, blushed hard, but didn't overreact.
"See ya later." And as he said that, he turned into a blur as he drove above the sea.
And the best thing was that no one could see him. So, he stopped in the middle of the blue ocean, and slowly, focused on flying.
The air carried him, as if it was an extension to his body. He could float as if he could walk.
But as he noticed, his flying speed was quite slow.
"No problem."
Akashi waved his hand. With the air carrying him and lessening his weight, it would come in handy in other techniques.
Staring at the sea, and knowing that there would be nothing but sharks and sea animals under, he decided to test something.
Since he got his airbending up to level 25 in that race, more than he used when facing Amon, he decided to try something. Back against Amon, he had managed to create four Rasengans from thin air and controlling them.
He lifted his hand, creating a large vacuum core, almost as large as his upper half and made the air spin in different directions, taking sharp form, before getting compressed by the vacuum.
'A giant rasengan… wind rasengan. With a massive vacuum core. It's handy to create big vacuums anyway. Anyway. Let's try this. A combined technique.'
The giant rasengan changed its form, and the sharp wind spun in the same direction. Akashi compressed it until it was the size of his hand.
"It got too easy with the level ups." He muttered as he pointed to the sea.
*BOOM*
The compression was released, and a massive shockwave occurred, pushing the wind to the sea. With his wavesbending, the shockwave got amplified way more than before.
The sea got split, creating massive waves. A large hole appeared.
[Killing a sea monster. +10k experience]
[Killing poor fish +20 exp]
[Killing a shark +++]
Akashi nodded to himself. He had invented a good attack. Although it took a massive amount of experience, it was very deadly. Despite having less range than rasengan, it did more linear damage.
After Akashi got back to Republic City, he got his paperwork done. He made announcements for hiring, and he bought a few assets to start a restaurant chain. He had enough time anyway.
'Being jobless after a long time makes me feel withdrawal symptoms.'
Currently, he was at the gym. Everyone was staring at him strangely, using the free weight, doing a few sets with three to five reps.Some of that era's gym bros told him to do more volume if he wanted to get stronger. Some called his techniques wrong. But he simply ignored them and worked like a power lifter, hoping to gain a single strength point.
And after getting done, he got back to his house, to have some meal for himself.
On the way, he checked on the mail.
And he found something.
"A letter from the court… let's see." He muttered.