Playing Waterbending (Avatar: Last Aibender SI)-Chapter 78

Katara bit her nail under her glove, feeling anxious after hearing Pakku and Ryuk arguing about her.

Although she was provoked by Pakku's words, she felt she had nothing to prove to him.

At the same time, she was quite afraid.

After all, she had lived for almost 18 years, and all she had been able to learn on her own was how to move a water ball and create a wave of water.

The rest was taught to her by Ryuk, who had learned everything he knew in the year he'd received his training.

Ryuk always encouraged her, telling her she was very talented, but Katara had a feeling he said that only to spare her feelings—though she appreciated the emotional support.

At the same time, she knew there were individuals who were worse than her at bending.

But the world definitely had plenty of talented people.

To fight against the best trainee here, who had been training under Master Pakku?

'Ryuk... why do you want me to embarrass myself?' she thought, full of self-doubt.

As Pakku left to get his student, Ryuk walked up to Katara and slapped her on the back.

"What are you nervous about?" Ryuk asked casually.

Katara glared at him.

"You're going to make me embarrass myself in front of everyone!" she replied, her eyes wide.

Ryuk smiled widely, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking.

"I assure you, you're better than everyone here," he said with confidence.

"Yeah, but I'm a total waste of effort. I've been a bender for most of my life, and I can't defeat someone who's had less than a year of training. In fact, I learned from him while he learned on his own." She said, her voice trembling with emotion as tears almost welled up in her eyes.

Ryuk placed his hands on her shoulders.

"So, you're agreeing with Pakku, who says that women can only heal and cook?" he asked, his tone provoking.

Katara shook her head. "You can cook."

"You're damn right," Ryuk replied with a grin.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Katara asked, raising an eyebrow, clearly not understanding his awkward phrasing.

Ryuk stood beside her and slapped her on the butt.

"If Sokka can beat a bender with a boomerang, I'm pretty sure you can do more," Ryuk encouraged.

Katara took a deep breath. "Alright. I'll do it."

Ryuk tilted his head and exhaled deeply.

He needed to deal with her mental block so she could believe in herself.

She was talented and had been picking up on his lessons quickly, learning new bending forms more easily than him.

But still, she was like Neo—she needed to believe to unlock her true potential.

He was here to be her Morpheus.

'Damn. I'm missing TV. I wonder what's happening in Squid Games 3... or John Wick Chapter 5...'

"Okay, Ryuk. Call your student." Pakku said, coming back with a man around Ryuk's age.

He stood in the middle of the training ground.

The rest of the training soldiers stepped to the side at Pakku's command.

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Ryuk gave Katara a strong slap on the butt, pushing her forward.

Katara, embarrassed to be spanked publicly, felt angry. She turned to Ryuk, her face flushed. She scoffed and then faced her opponent, a middle-aged man wearing an arrogant expression.

The moment Ryuk slapped her, Katara was pissed off and had a sudden urge to punish anyone in front of her.

"This is Jakko," Pakku introduced. "He's my best student in this batch, and he has the potential to reach master level in a few years."

"Okay, let's get this over with," Jakko smirked. "I'll make sure it ends quickly, so stop wasting my time."

Pakku smirked and walked toward Ryuk, thinking he was going to make easy money teaching the young man a lesson about how the world worked.

"Start," Pakku said.

Jakko took a bending stance and pushed forward, a wave of water rising from the icy ground and charging toward Katara. She stomped on the ground, splitting the wave into two and pushing it out of her way.

"Not bad for a chick," Jakko said as he placed his hands on the ground. He lifted them, and the ice around his hands transformed into two long water whips.

Seeing this move, Katara's eyes widened.

Seeing her expression, Jakko taunted, "Bet you can't do this. I get it; it's a very advanced move, and it would take years of training. Someone like you might need decades to master it."

At the same time, Katara thought, 'Is that it? Is he for real? And they're thin. His control over water isn't bad, but calling him near master level is pathetic.'

Seeing Katara's jaw drop, everyone around started chuckling.

'No wonder Ryuk says I'm underestimating myself. Wait, how does he know how good other benders are? Maybe he's just having faith in me, which is nice. Or maybe this Jakko is just playing a prank on me. Let's test the water,' Katara thought as she closed her mouth and shook her head in disappointment.

She extended her hand and spun once. Water from the ground rose, creating three tentacles around each hand. They felt thicker, and their ends were frozen solid into ice.

The echoes of laughter suddenly stopped.

"Nice joke," Katara said to her foe. With one step, she glided across the ice at high speed.

Jakko, surprised and panicked, waved his whips at her. She easily defended with one tentacle, dispersing the water form of her foe, and soon found herself in front of him.

Jakko abandoned his flashy move and tried to gather more water from the ground.

Katara moved her fingers, which were covered in water, forcing Jakko's leg to move forward. His legs split 180 degrees, and he lost his balance. Without wasting any time, Katara used her tentacles to create shackles around his legs, feet, hands, arms, and even his neck.

It was clear by now that she had won, and her opponent was in no condition to fight back.

"I give up," he uttered after struggling to free himself, but to no avail.

Katara let go of her hold and turned to Ryuk, smiling.

She had just defeated the so-called talented waterbender, and she never imagined it would be this easy.

Maybe being blessed by the spirits with waterbending had its advantages—Ryuk's talent was something else. Something out of this world.

She turned to Ryuk, who smiled and stretched his hand out to Pakku.

Pakku's eyelids fluttered.

"I won't pay you?" Pakku objected.

"Are you objecting, old man?" Ryuk replied, his smile fading into a frown.

"We agreed to test their waterbending skills. Your student used bloodbending. That's cheating. Without it, she couldn't have won," Pakku said angrily.

Ryuk rolled his eyes.

"Have you seen it? She was toying with your student. He could only control two water tentacles, and she controlled six. He never stood a chance. After that, she just played with him. If she used bloodbending from the start, you wouldn't have had a chance," Ryuk argued.

Pakku scoffed. "My student wasn't serious at all. He was about to get serious, but your girl used her dirty trick on him."

"Okay, Pakku. Blood is mostly water, so the fight was still waterbending," Ryuk shrugged. "I understand if you don't want to pay, but do you really want to be known as the man who refused to pay his debts?"

Ryuk was playing his mental tricks on Pakku.

Katara tilted her head.

It was just like Ryuk had said.

Just like when she had won through waterbending, she had used a bit of bloodbending.

If it was really about winning, she could have used ball bending and twisted her foe's... well, balls.

But she wanted to test her talent.

And to be fair, she was getting very confident now that she believed she could take on that grandmaster.

He was quite arrogant, and she wanted to beat him. But like her grandma used to say, you have to respect your elders. Katara wouldn't feel right beating up a child or an old man.

"It's not about money. It's about playing fair," Pakku said.

"Just so you know, Katara could have taken your student—and you—in a second if she used what I really consider dirty tricks," Ryuk said, flashing a vicious smile.

"Oh really? What could be trickier and dirtier?" Pakku challenged.

Ryuk's eyes widened.

Pakku's eyelids stretched, feeling something moving.

"Blood isn't the only liquid you have," Ryuk said. "Have you ever heard of the name 'Nutcracker'?"

Pakku paused and slowly said, "Wait... wait..."

He had heard of the Nutcracker title, which happened to be Ryuk's first title. Everyone in the Order of the White Lotus knew about it. The tale of 50 bounty hunters getting their balls twisted.

And just now, without making a single move, Ryuk had controlled his balls.

If Katara knew about this form of bending too, she'd have the power to defeat him—and his student.

Only now did Pakku realize that Katara had been going easy from the start.

But how could she do that?

From the beginning, she had acted nervous, biting her nail and everything. Her body language screamed that she was a weak woman who knew she was weak.

Ryuk released his grip on Pakku's balls, allowing him to sigh in relief.

"How about this," Pakku said, raising his hand, sweat dripping from his forehead. "I admit it. Your woman is strong. But that's just because of the extra form of bending, which is very powerful. How about this: double or nothing?"

"Double or nothing?" Ryuk repeated, intrigued.

"Yes. A battle of pure waterbending. Only bending ice and water are allowed. The loser has to pay double to the winner," Pakku said.

Ryuk did the math. "So, if I win, I get 40 gold."

"No, you only get twenty," Pakku replied.

"No, I've won the first battle, which entitles me to 20 gold coins. If you double that, and I win, I get 40. If I lose, I'll only have to pay 30 coins."

"Why not forty?"

"Because I already have 20—10 from you, leaving 30 from my pocket in case I lost. If I win, you pay me 30 gold." Ryuk said.

'I thought that I had to pay him 20 if I lost. That young man. He doesn't let anything slip.' Pakku smirked. At least he had saved his wallet.