CH 6 - ATLA 5 - Lion Turtle and Bending

(Word Count: 2,367)

Another week of traveling passed by. During this time I was finally able to raise the Low Cosmic Connection by 1 level. Should I just use all the skill points I've been saving? … I'll think about it. I wanted to see if I could get some bending skills first. Other than that, not much has happened.

I pulled Book to a stop, and looked around. I was several days away from the last town, but I should be close to the valley I saw the Lion Turtle in. I dismounted and left my weapons. I was about to meet what could be considered a holy creature. I was not about to risk offending it somehow by bringing along a weapon.

I took a deep breath. It should be just around the next hill.

I made my way around the hill and, sure enough, I saw him. The gigantic lion turtle was still where I had seen him, nestled in a valley. I’ve been to the rocky mountains and the grand canyon. This Lion Turtle was easily just as large as one of those mountains, and he could easily fill the grand canyon to the top. His shell was covered in an entire forest. Now I knew why Aang had mistaken him for an island.

For a moment, I could only stand there in awe. Then, with reverence, I made my way over to stand in front of him. At my approach, the lion turtle opened his eyes to watch me.

I stopped a respectable distance away from him and bowed. Standing so close to him, I could feel the huge amounts of power he has. Seeing the lion turtle through my Chi was one thing, standing here in person, the Chi inside the majestic being was nearly suffocating.

"Greetings, great lion turtle! My name is Callan Stone." I paused momentarily to see if he would respond. He didn't, but I didn’t dare look up, so I continued. "I'm a traveler from another world. My homeworld is undergoing a transformation, a large influx of mystical energies is flooding the world and humanity won't survive it without help. The gods and spirits sent some of us to travel to other worlds to gather enough power to save humanity. I've come to ask for your help. Please, grant me bending."

I kept my head bowed, waiting for the lion turtle's verdict. 

I heard a deep voice rumble inside my head. "Long ago, we protected humanity from the dangers of the spirit wilds. Humans built cities atop our shells and they were safe. When they left to hunt, we gave them bending to protect themselves. Your name is Stone? Then perhaps it is fate that we meet here." I looked up and saw him extending his claws toward me.

One claw touched my forehead and one was placed over my heart. I closed my eyes, waiting. There was an overwhelming force that seemed to capture every last bit of my chi. The lion turtle’s energy was too powerful for me to even think of resisting, even if I wanted to. I could feel a fundamental shift in my Chi, changing its very nature. It was now attuned to the earth and I now knew how to Earthbend. Then I could feel a surge in my Chi, giving me at least 5 times what I had before. Before my Chi flowed in a small trickle, now it was like a creek. Now compared to others in this world, I had roughly 1.5 times the Chi the average bender. Still far from the reserves of the masters, but I wasn't at the bottom anymore.

"Thank you"

"Use the gift well."

~ CatAR ~

"AHAHAHAHAHA!" I cackled gleefully as I flung boulders about. I stomped my foot down and a large wall rose up in front of me. I punched out and the wall broke apart and was sent flying, destroying the tree behind it.

Pretty soon I was flat on my back, panting, and completely out of Chi. "Ahaha, that was amazing!" Earthbending was so cool. I couldn't wait to get good enough to Metalbend and Lavabend. Then there were the crystals that Aang would bend. Also there were the sand benders. Not to mention the Seismic Sense. So many things to learn!

I pulled up my system screen and there it is! Earthbending, and an additional 300 WP. Now I have a total of 1050.

[Earthbending LVL 4/100]

Reduces Chi cost of earthbending by 0.5%/LVL

Increases the control over earth by 0.9%/LVL

Increases the amount of earth you can move by 5%/LVL

This may be why I was able to earthbend for as long as I did. That and the Cosmic connection. ‘Man, everything is turning out great! I’m so glad I came to ATLA first.’ … I just jinxed it didn’t I?

“There’s the earthbender! Get him!” in a panic I bolt up to see a squad of fire nation soldiers running at me. Crap! I forgot that I was back near a town. They must have heard all the ruckus I was causing. 

“Come on, Book! Let’s go!” We hightail it out of there, Book leaving the soldiers in the dust.

~ CatAR ~

Luckily, I didn’t get any sort of wanted poster for my head. That would have made it a hassle to go be trained under Piandao. If he even accepts. Hmm… I could probably have a talk with Iroh to see if he can give me a white lotus tile. That should give me an in with the swordmaster. 

Focusing on the Cosmic Connection and he felt a converging point in destiny within the next few days. Using Chi Sense, I reached out for Aang to see where he was. The Gaang was flying on Appa in the skies above the south of the fire nation colonies. Not much to go on. I try sensing Zuko. He was currently sailing on his ship in the open sea, again nothing to go on.

Okay, think. What was the order of episodes in season 1? The Gaopan village was already flooded, that means the episode with Jet already passed. It was the great divide, then the storm! I check Aang’s location again, and sure enough the direction they’re coming from is from the great divide. Man, having 10 Intelligence is great. I can remember so many more details than I normally would.

That means that if I head over to that abandoned town Taku, then I can run into the Gaang and help Sokka and Katara while they’re sick. I can't remember if that was a quest or not, but I wanted to anyway. I’ll have to wait until Aang is already gone, because I don’t want to risk interfering with Aang and Zuko’s encounter. It plays a large part in Zuko becoming Aang’s teacher.

After that, I can go wait in the Abbey until they show up. That means skipping helping out with the volcano but they handled it just fine. My priority was getting tea time with Iroh. Obviously.

~ CatAR ~

A couple of days later, I was in the abandoned town of Taku. The town was made of all stone and looked like it had been carved out of the mountainside. I even saw the pavilion where the Gaang will stop to rest. I think I have another day or two before the avatar shows up, so I go set up my camp on the other side of town.

With my camp set up, I sat down to meditate. Using Chi Sense I confirmed where they are. Sokka was currently talking to that old fisherman who will take them stupidly into a huge storm. Heh.

Let’s go practice my Earthbending!

There’s one thing that I would like to try, and that’s Seismic Sense. This was a relatively safe place to practice. I went to find an open space, took off my boots, and tied a strip of cloth as a blindfold. This way, as I practiced earthbending, I also focused on the vibrations from my feet and practiced both at the same time! I marvel at my genius sometimes.

The style of earthbending I’m going for is a mix of the pro-bending that Bolin uses in Legend of Korra, where he stays light on his toes and moving until the very moment where he digs in and earthbends, combined with the baguazhang style that I learned from Pathik instead of boxing. I didn’t want to be slow and stuck in one place while I’m earthbending.

Although, with the classic earthbending style, they are able to lift huge walls of stone and hurl boulders larger than themselves. So, I still wanted to learn the classic earthbending. It's just while I’m fighting, I wanted to mainly focus on the quick and light style. 

So, I went through the baguazhang forms and I tried to combine it with earthbending. When I lash out with my fists, I launch out a boulder. When I use its circular footwork, I spin out a wave of earth around me. It’s a bit janky at first, because I paused a usually flowy movement to earthbend. But I eventually got the hang of it.

Throughout it all, I felt for the vibrations in the earth. I try to gauge where exactly the boulder’s I launched ended up, and how far out I managed to send the earth waves. I also tried to watch out for any walls I created.

It took me several cycles of using up all my Chi, which only took about 30 minutes, resting, and then repeating, but I finally managed to stop twirling into my own walls. As it turns out, it utilizes a small bit of your earth-attuned Chi, which would explain why it’s only earthbenders that can do this.

I got the skill.

[Earthbending LVL 4 => 14/100]

[Baguazhang LVL 64 => 70/100]

[Chi Manipulation LVL 50 => 65/100]

[Seismic Sense LVL 1/100]

Uses a bit of your chi to allow you to see through the vibrations in the earth. Can “see” clearly up to 10m/LVL. This perception quickly becomes less defined until you’re able to sense nothing after an additional 10m/LVL.

I took off my blindfold to see the absolute mess I’ve made in the courtyard. Today’s been a long day. One good thing though, is that Seismic Sense is a passive skill that is always active, so I didn’t need to specifically train it. Just like with Muted Steps. Wait, actually now that I think about it… I started walking around a bit. Yeah, thanks to Muted Steps, there is almost zero vibrations generated from my foot falls. I’ll have to actually meet Aang to know, but I reckon that my footsteps are even lighter than twinkle-toes himself. Hmm… I got another idea. If I can combine my Muted Steps with Earthbending, I think I can make it so that I’m invisible to Seismic Sense. Here in this world, only Toph and the badger-moles seem to have it, but in other worlds there are plenty of creatures that use it!

Then like an idiot, I spend several more hours focusing my chi on my feet to try and stop the vibrations of my steps. But I did succeed in the end.

[Earth Softened Steps LVL 1/100]

Using your chi you are invisible to Seismic Sense.

Lowers the chance of someone hearing you while sneaking by 0.9%/LVL

Now I have an improved version of Muted Steps! Although it does use my chi to do it, so I can’t always use it.

It was now past midnight. Book was already asleep by the fire. The Gaang should be here tomorrow evening.

~ CatAR ~

The next day, I continued practicing my earthbending. Mastering this skill was my priority, as it leads to so many more. I still wasn’t skilled enough to bend metal or lava. This time, I focus on the extremes. I alternated between lifting as large of a boulder as I can for as long as I can, to train the limits of my power, then I tried to control as many tiny pebbles doing different things as I can, to train the limits of my control.

It was like patting your head and rubbing your belly at the same time. Eventually I catch myself making the pebbles to the same thing.

Then I tried to compress the large boulders down to pebbles. One of the coolest moves in Avatar to me was in the final showdown between Aang and Ozai when Aang, while in the avatar state, compressed huge boulders down to rocks then fired off bits of them like a machine gun. It completely shredded a strip of the stone forest. I don’t know why, but that attack stuck with me. Now, I have the chance to recreate it.

I had to stop myself from laughing like a B-rated villain.

Unfortunately, actually compressing a boulder seemed to take an exponential amount of Chi the more I compressed it. I only managed to shrink the boulder by about 1m in diameter. I still have a long way to go.

I also tried to earthbend a platform of rock underneath me so that I can fly, but it just doesn’t work that way. When lifting earth, you serve as the foundation. It's like sitting on a plank and trying to lift both the plank and yourself with it.

Also, in order to earthbend, I was still moving my entire body. So, I took some time to practice bending without moving. At this point in time, it's impossible. But I can bend a little bit using only my hands. The effect is only about a third of what I can do normally, and it uses a lot more Chi. It's super inefficient.

All of this training put the power scale of ATLA into perspective. It showed me just how far above the powerhouses like Aang, Bumi, and Toph stand above the rest. I'm still nowhere near their level.

I sighed and kept practicing, both the power and control the entire day. Though I do occasionally take breaks to cool down in a stream nearby and to draw. During these breaks throughout the day, I would also use Chi Sensing to check on the Gaang. Throughout the day, Sokka was getting worse and worse until they eventually decided to find somewhere safe to rest. That's when I started cleaning up the mess I made in the courtyard, smoothing everything back flat then I hid in my camp.