Levi raised an eyebrow when he saw one of the ships repel his first attack before it hit. Just when he was about to attack again, he spotted Iroh on the deck of the ship in a fire-bending stance, apparently he was the one who disabled his strike just now, which made him halt any further attacks.
Looking to the side, he saw Aang further in the distance taking down one fire nation ship, but to say he was doing a poor job would be an understatement. He only succeeded in taking down the first ship because he had caught them off guard; after that, it was a struggle for him to take down even one single ship.
'Not that I could judge him, I haven't taken even one out yet,' thought Levi in embarrassment as he decided to try and put more effort into it.
He could take out dozens of ships if he wanted to, and maybe the entire fleet if he had enough time and put in enough effort, but something like that happening would destroy the worldview of everyone around.
Except maybe Aang and his close ones, all the other people might turn against him, the four nations may even have a truce to deal with him first, he knew the greed and inner works of people and he knew they would never allow one person to have that much power, he knew better than to be their common enemy, he wasn't afraid but there was no need to take unnecessary actions.
Taking a deep breath Levi went even higher up, he fully activated Limit breaker before he waved his hand to the side and conjured golden canons adorned with glyphs and runes all over, there were five in total, the light of the sun reflecting on its golden surface almost blinding, he held them in place by an ice platform before pointing it down towards the ships.
Conjuring another five big ice balls, he shoved them into the mouth of the cannon and fired.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM
It was only thanks to his high stats that he could even see the ball shoot out of the canon. The sight of it completely demolishing a fire nation ship was beautiful to watch. Only after a few seconds did the sound of the ice ball hitting the ship reach him, but by then he had already loaded another volley and fired.
BOOM BOOM BOOM
Other fire nation ships went down.
Boom
'This should be enough for now, I can just say taking down those ships took a lot from me,' thought Levi with a satisfied smile as he landed on Appa's back.
"Levi, that was amazing, with you here, the fire nation is nothing…" Aang's words caught in his throat as he saw Levi panting, gasping for breath, and soaked with sweat all over. He felt his entire world collapse. "Levi, I…I am sorry, you did your best, we can go back now," he said with a guilty look on his face.
"No…haah….I…ha…can go..for another round," said Levi as his legs started shaking and he fell on one knee, "Just…give me some…time to recover," he spoke barely able to say one full sentence without gasping for another breath, if his acting skill wasn't already maxed he would have gained ten levels just for his performance.
Seeing this scene, Aang felt his throat tighten as he clenched his fists, "No, we are going back."
"But…"
"I said we are going back," said Aang in a firm tone, almost screaming as he clutched Appa's reins, "Appa yeep yeep."
Levi ended up smiling even though he didn't want to; he felt kind of bad playing Aang like that, but it was necessary.
AN: Some of you might ask how he is conjuring ice and ice balls; he is not; he is extracting water from the atmosphere before freezing it, but his proficiency with water bending is so high, coupled with Limit breaker it appears to anyone else like he is directly conjuring ice balls.
—
Appa landed in a square in the middle of the Northern Water tribe. Arnook, Pakku, Sokka, and Katara were waiting for them.
"Levi, that was you, right? It was amazing, we could see the ice balls all the way from here," said Katara excitedly as she ran towards Appa to greet them.
"It doesn't matter, there are just too many, we can't take on all of them," said Aang, his tone harsh and louder than he intended. A mix of helplessness was hidden within, but everyone around understood his frustration.
Katara was about to speak, but the scene that greeted her next wasn't what she had expected.
While Aang was fine, even though his expression was down, Levi's face was pale, and he seemed to be barely able to stand. Seeing this scene, Katara's eyes watered as she put her hand to her mouth and asked in a shaky voice, "L..Levi, what happened to you?"
"Sorry for making you worry, sister, it is nothing serious, but it seems I had overexerted myself," said Levi with a weary smile as he leaned on Appa's fur to support himself. He decided it was time to stop gasping for air.
"Just as I had expected." Pakku's voice cut them off as they all turned to look at him, "You pushed yourself far beyond your limits. It's a good thing that tonight is the full moon; you should be able to regain some of your strength by then. You can rest now, you have done more than enough." Arnook wanted to retort; he seemed to still want Levi in the fight, but one look from Pakku shut him up.
Levi was shocked by Pakku's words. He didn't expect the master water bender to back up his act, but he appreciated the support nonetheless, so he didn't say anything.
"Ha-ah, I will do my best to recover. In the meantime, try to hold on," said Levi with a tired voice as he struggled to stand up and walked away from there. He even stumbled in his steps a couple of times for good measure. Arnook asked if he wanted some help, but Levi just waved it off.
"Aang, can't you do something?" asked Katara.
"I can't, Katara. I tried, we both did, and now with Levi out of the fight, I don't know what else I could do."
"You're the Avatar; there must be something you could do." Yue's sudden voice came from the side. Arnook wanted to go and stop her, but Pakku held his hand and stopped him.
"I can't," said Aang, his head down. "Everyone has high expectations of me, but I always seem to fail," he said as his shoulders slumped down.
"So what, everyone fails now and then," said Yue with a smile, "Here in the northern water tribe we believe our strength comes from the spirit of the moon, whenever we fail we rememb…"
"THAT'S RIGHT, THE SPIRITS," Aang screamed all of a sudden, interrupting Yue.
"Spirits?" Yue asked, perplexed and a little annoyed at being interrupted.
"Yes, if I could talk to the spirits, I might find a way."
"And how do you plan to do that?"
"The Avatar is the bridge between the spirit and physical world. Aang can talk to them," said Katara excitedly from the side.
"That's great, maybe they can give you the wisdom to win this battle, and I think I could help with that," said Yue, looking to the side and receiving a nod of agreement from Arnook.
"Come on, follow me," she said as she turned and walked away, followed by a confused Aang and Katara.
—
Levi was almost to his house, but now, he smiled as he disabled Limit Breaker. His hearing wasn't good enough to hear their conversation all the way from where he was, but with Limit breaker that was achievable, he could even filter out all other sounds.
Although something he heard Katara say caught his attention, Aang is the bridge between the spirit and physical worlds; he wondered if he could make use of him in some way to cross between both worlds.
'Of course, this is useless now with Void monarch, but it might have been a good avenue to explore before,' thought Levi.
'Right now, they should be heading to the Spirit Oasis. I should also start my preparations,' thought Levi as he entered his home. He had a plan in mind, and for it to succeed, he had to start now.
Immediately, he teleported to the southern water tribe before teleporting to Tobirama's space mark.
"Master!" exclaimed Tobirama, shocked as he put away the kunai he had taken out.
"No time to explain, a shadow clone that looks like me now, he will stay in the northern water tribe and pretend to be me, a very tired and worn-out me," said Levi, not giving Tobirama any time to chit-chat.
And his loyal summon didn't disappoint him as he nodded with a serious look and created a shadow clone without any questions, the shadow clone transformed into Levi in a burst of smoke. Grabbing the clone's shoulder, Levi teleported them to the northern water tribe.
Appearing in his home in the northern water tribe, clone Levi looked around the place. His expression was calm, but his eyes were shaken, as if he couldn't believe they were already in the northern water tribe.
"You have been through a tough fight, and you're recovering here; you are in no shape to move for now," said Levi, hoping he didn't have to explain more, and for the dozen times he was happy to have summoned a smart character as clone Levi just nodded.
Nodding in return, Levi disappeared from there.
What he was about to do might anger the moon and the ocean spirits, but the prospective rewards were just too enticing, and he didn't care; his power didn't come from them either way, and there was nothing they could do, and if he was careful enough, nobody would even find out, not even the moon or ocean spirits.
—
Spirit Oasis
Seeing the green landscape in the middle of the northern water tribe, Aang and Katara were shocked. "Grass! Oh, how I missed it," said Aang cheerfully as he started rolling in the grass beside the pond.
"It is so warm here, how is this possible?" asked Katara in wonder as sweat started to fall on the sides of her face.
"This is the center of your land; all the spiritual powers of the land gather here," answered Yue.
"I can feel it, if I meditate here, I may be able to connect to the spirits," said Aang as he circled the pond in the middle of the land before he sat cross-legged. Yue and Katara stayed to the side, remaining silent to not disturb him.
—
On the outskirts of the northern water tribe
The ice inside one of the big sewer entrances started evaporating before completely melting off as a person emerged from there.
Huff Huff Huff
Soft panting sounds escaped his mouth as his hands started emitting smoke, vaporizing the water on them before warming his body up. He had a burn scar on his left eye and wore plain gray clothes; it was Zuko.
"Crazy how easy it is to infiltrate the northern water tribe, am I right?" a voice came from the side, making Zuko's eyes go wide before he jumped and fired a ball of fire in that direction.
"Too slow," said the voice as an ice shield stopped his attack.
Before Zuko could react, a blue blur rushed at him, delivering a fast barrage of precise punches and kicks all around his body. The last thing he saw before he fell unconscious was a pair of pale blue eyes staring at him in the darkness of the sewer, seeming to see right into his soul.
'Alright, now that this is done with, I should focus on more important matters,' thought Levi as his eyes focused on the spirit Oasis with a calculating look before he teleported out of there, leaving Zuko's unconscious body on the ground.
With the way things had been going so far, the events shouldn't change even if he didn't interfere and stop Zuko, but he didn't want to take any chances. What if it was just him not being able to change them? What if the original inhabitants of this world were different?
—
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