Forming a united front with Korra, Roku, Kyoshi, and whatever warriors were still capable of fighting, they quickly arrived with the four of us at the lead. "It's their first time attacking in a week. I wonder what it means." Roku's words mirrored the thoughts of my own as he stood to my left; Kyoshi's face was unreadable, and Korra just seemed eager to fight.
"That is something we shall discuss afterwards. For now, focus on the battle ahead of us." Nodding in agreement with Kyoshi, the four of us stood at the front, patiently waiting for the corrupted spirits to reach us, which only took a few more minutes.
In tandem with each other, Roku attacked, thrusting his fist forward, while I seemingly grabbed the air before pushing it forward with both palms; commanding the air, I had it circle around Roku's terrifingly powerful wave of flames, further strengthening it until its power matched, if not surpassed, Sozin 's, when enhanced by the Great Comet.
When our combined attack reached the corrupted spirits, it carved a merciless path through the sea of them, burning them into pure energy, before disappearing; they'd reform themselves in the future, and hopefully, when they did, they wouldn't be corrupted. As our attack raged on, burning any spirit that mindlessly entered the sea of flames, most started to close in on us, not because they were particularly smart, but purely due to the sheer number of them.
However, we didn't allow them to get near us so easily, stomping forward while raising her arms, Kyoshi creating a dozen massive earth walls, forcing them to funnel toward our combined attack. Unfortunately, due to their sheer number, even with our tactic, we were starting to feel overwhelmed, though we, of course, knew that would happen.
Before any of the spirits could actually reach us, Korra took care of them, utilizing water collected atop the massive leaves of Jathr. "Welp, at least we got a whole bunch of them." Muttering under his breath, Roku lowered his fists, stopping the constant spew of flames, prompting me to do the same as we prepared to face the tens of thousands of spirits that still remained.
"I'll deal with the left." Glancing at Kyoshi, who dashed to the far left while sending boulders the size of houses into the sea of spirits, Korra went in the complete opposite direction, leaving Roku and me to deal with the middle, the most dangerous to ourselves, though given that our bending greatly complemented each other, it was more than manageable.
"I know this is a weird time to ask, but what is your age, Aang? You fight with a seasoned grace, unbefitting of your appearance." Launching a wave of flames in an arching angle, Roku briefly glances at me while I kick behind me, sending a powerful gust of air into tens of spirits, knocking them and the ones behind them backwards.
"Mid-twenties." "Truly? You're quite impressive; I don't think I reached your level of skill until my thirties." "Our situations were vastly different; everyone also learns at a different pace." "True. Oh, so very true." Performing a combined attack once more, we clear a whole path, which was quickly filled with a seemingly never-ending stream of corrupted spirits.
As we collectively fought against he never-ending sea of spirits, minutes were quickly added together until eventually an hour passed; by then, the wave of corrupted spirits was beginning to near its end. After a couple more minutes, the final spirit was dealt with by Kyoshi dropping a rock the size of a mansion onto it, which was beyond overkill.
"Your fans, are they merely for decoration?" Gesturing to Kyoshi, who had just put her fans away, she shook her head. "They're to help control my strength." "I know, I was asking in a joking way." Looking up at Kyoshi, she raised an eyebrow and glanced at her fans before glancing at the massive boulder, only to nod. "They might be."
Nodding softly, I placed my hands behind my back and walked towards Korra, who was being treated, alongside Kyoshi. "That seems to be a rather nasty wound, Korra." Leaning forward, I glanced at the wound across her stomach, which was pulsing with a disgusting greenish energy; clearly, she had somehow been corrupted just like the spirits.
"Ugh, thanks for pointing out the obvious." With a groan of pain, Korra blankly eyed me, while Kyoshi offered her own words. "You should take battles seriously, Korra." "I-I did, though." As Korra looked at Kyoshi with a confused gaze, she furrowed her brows and lightly nodded before distancing herself.
"Wait, was that an insult?" "No, she was genuinely advising you. But I can see how you might've mistaken it for an insult… Are you sure you were serious?" Groaning in annoyance, Korra swung her hand at me, though I narrowly dodged, causing her to stick her tongue out before giving me the middle finger. "If you want to fight, just say so, Aang!"
'Heh, she truly is an expressive one.' Faintly chuckling, I once again neared Korra, who had calmed down, the pain from her injury taking away whatever anger she had directed at me. "I'm glad no one else was injured, but now I seem like a sorry excuse for an Avatar." "Ahh, don't worry too much, among Avatars, Kyoshi is a special case. You're also the youngest; the Avatar, at the end of the day, is just a human." "Really? You sure it's just Kyoshi? You also seem to be quite special, Aang. Look at Roku and I, we're exhausted."
"Stamina is my specialty." My words were met with a silent glare from Korra, as if she could see through my lie, causing me to awkwardly cough. "Yeah, yeah. Tell that to Katara, I bet she'll be happy to know that." Rolling my eyes at her words, I sat beside her. "Did you forget, I never froze myself; it's still 90 years before Katara will be born in my world." "Ah, oh yeah, I did forget. Hehe, you'll have no stamina by then!" I had half a mind to gently hit her head, but I held myself back and just ignored her.
During the week I taught her, we exchanged information about our world, curious about the differences and similarities that we had. "Do you have a comeback other than mocking my virility?" "Yeah." "Then why not use them?" "Because I've learned that is where men are the most vulnerable! It even works in fights. I can teach you the art of-" "N-No, thank you, I'd prefer not to further degrade myself." "Eh, suit yourself, impotent bastard!"
Flinching slightly, I turned and eyed Korra, whose face was all smiles. "See, I told you it works!" Ignoring Korra's joy, I grabbed the bridge of my nose in exhaustion and distanced myself from her, approaching Roku and Kyoshi. "She makes a strong point." Hearing Kyoshi's voice, I raised my head blankly and looked at her. "You should learn from her then."
Kyoshi didn't give a response and merely hummed to herself, causing Roku to chuckle while I leaned against the trunk, exasperated at my different incarnations. After some time, the corrupted energy was pulled out of Korra's body, leaving behind a normal, shallow gash, which she patched herself using the sub-skill of waterbending, healing. The effects weren't immediate, but over time, they would speed up the recovery process. Letting the spirits bandage her abdomen, she stood up with a wince and gave us a thumbs up.
"Hah, good as new! Now, who else is hungry?" "This old man can use some fuel after such an extensive workout." Pulling himself onto his feet, Korra aggressively patted Roku's back, causing him to lightly wince before she entered Jathr, heading to the room where we eat together.
When we arrived at the room, which was modest in size, it consisted of nothing but a table, chairs, a window, and already prepared food. "Oh, are those ribs!" With speed that shouldn't be coming from someone injured, Korra quickly sat down, grabbing a stack of ribs, hungrily eating them. Watching her, the three of us sat down and grabbed our own food, filling our empty bellies with delicious food.
"We should speak to Jathr after this. We've been here for a week, but nothing much has happened until today. Shouldn't we be searching for Father Glowworm?" Roku's question was ignored by Korra, who was fully engrossed with the ribs, leaving only Kyoshi and I. "I concur; speaking with Jathr is necessary." "I don't know about searching for Father Glowworm. You saw how they were when we first arrived; they were besieged on all sides by corrupted spirits. They would've fallen that day if it weren't for our arrival." My words were met with brief silence from my predecessors.
"Hmm, I suppose you're words hold truth. If we leave in search of Father Glowworm and he sends another wave of corrupted spirits after us, they won't be able to defend themselves." While Roku did agree with my insight, he wasn't pleased by it, given his frowning expression.
"In the end, we need to discuss with Jathr." Roku and I both nodded in agreement with Kyoshi's words before continuing to eat alongside an ignorant Korra.