TLOK: Oh, Brother... I'm a Fire Bender (Patreon)

CHAPTER 4

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A few months later...

"Huff... Huff... Huff..."

William breathed out as he did another push-up.

It seems that fire bending was the most athletic bending style out of all 4, so training your stamina and body was a must. But since his body was still growing, his workout wasn't that hard on him for now.

Well, Keishi calls this light, but this was already hell.

20 push-ups, 20 pull-ups, 20 lunges for each leg, 30 squats, 20 sit-ups, 40 Russian twists, and a 2-mile run, twice a day.

Literal hell.

Pushing himself up from his push-up pose, he pants at the soreness of his arms before doing the leg exercises first before moving on to pull-ups, his hands feel like they were coming off.

Looking over at the other side of the training hall was Korra doing water bending moves without actually bending. It looked very familiar to tai chi, with the slow and wave like motions, flowing like water as she executes every stance without stopping.

It was really impressive, and mesmerizing too.

By the time that she was done, he had subconsciously finished all his leg related exercises, feeling the familiar burn. She breathes out slowly before going into a neutral stance.

"How was it?"

She asked.

"8/10. Needs more stylish points."

He replied with a thumbs up as she grins.

He could safely say that they were acquaintances now, as they meet up every day at dawn to do their training. It was actually her that started the conversation, which he thanked whatever god this universe had since he was an introvert at heart.

She asked about him, mainly his home since she had never talked to a kid that caught the attention of Katara so much before, as he was living with her for now.

Since explaining that he was from another world was going to catch a lot of attention, as she had frequent training sessions with Katara, he skillfully (Note: horribly) maneuvered the conversation away from him to her.

The stories that she had were amazing. From learning that she was the Avatar to her latest adventure with her polar bear-dog hybrid, Naga, to catch some fish for the village, was funny to him as she had no idea how to story tell, leading to some interesting misunderstanding between the two.

In the end, he told her about himself since she told him about herself, mostly just his likes, dislikes, and his interest in fire bending.

And Naga was a sweetheart. Hands down one of the cutest things that he'd seen for a long time. And she was fast. Like, really fast. She was as fast as a car, he thinks, as there weren't any other examples other than cars that fit the description, but you get it, she's fast.

"Alright, get back to bending, Korra. You still have earth and fire bending stances to go before we're free."

"Pssh, you're boring, William! All you do is train and train, even when its break time! Why not go out with Naga and me sometime?!"

She says with a hopeful question, as he ignored the remark.

"Time's ticking, Korra. You don't want Master Katara to bite you for the laziness like yesterday..."

"Boringggggg, ughhhhhh..."

Stretching his body as he cooled down from the burning sensation of his body, he silently waits for his teacher as he watched Korra continue her bending, gracefully practicing each move to perfection and with a slight hint of aggression, as expected from earth bending.

Watching all his acquaintances (Katara, Korra, and Keishi) bend, he noticed something fascinating, with each person, their bending style is completely different. 

Katara's water bending was soft, while Korra's water bending was aggressive.

Keishi's fire bending was aggressive, but more to counter attacking while Korra's was usually strike first, think later.

Each person's bending style is different. Korra was an aggressive fighter, Katara was a defensive fighter, Keishi was more on the both side. 

So that made him think. Fire bending is an aggressive style with you having to go head on. Could a fire bender have a passive fighting style even though fire bending was mostly "BOOM BOOM", and how does one fire bend defensively? That was an interesting take as it creates a lot more options for him.

Could he bend like an earth or water bender with fire instead of the other elements? Would it decrease his firepower? What are the effects of using other bending styles? The options of a fire bender are increasing more and more.

He should ask Keishi this. He was the master fire bender after all.

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Korra finally convinced him to "have fun" with her.

Keyword here, "have fun".

"Hahahahaha! Look, Naga, a snowman!"

Korra fell to the snow, giggling hard at the sight of him getting engulfed in snow from her water-snow bending.

He was so not having fun.

Heating his body up using his meager fire bending skills, he managed to melt the snow around his body.

It's been almost a year ever since he ended up in the Southern Water Tribe, and he was kinda surprised that nothing happened to Korra at all, being the Avatar and all that. 

He honestly thought someone would kidnap her at this point, or threaten to end the world, but nope. Nada, nothing at all.

Asking Katara this, she replied.

-

"No one knows that Korra is the Avatar, only a select few outside the Water Tribe knows about her."

"But doesn't the world need the Avatar?"

He asked, curious about the topic of the Avatar.

"Well, the world is currently in peace, so unless something happens, no, the Avatar is not needed."

She explains before drying the newly washed clothes by sucking all the moisture out. Damn, instant dried clothes. That was something to behold.

"And how is your fire bending going, William?"

"Well... Not much. Master Keishi said that my body is almost ready for the practical fire bending."

And boy is he ready. His physique was so much larger, along with the muscles that came with the training. Especially abs. His body now had a visible 4 pack, even though it was barely visible, but abs!

People in the modern world would kill for these babies.

"Very good, I must say, William, you have quite the discipline. Even Korra does not diligently follow her routine to a T, much to her physical instructor's dismay."

That prompted a chuckle from both of them. Korra does not like orders, especially since she was a more hot-headed Avatar than Aang. 

Katara and William had a weird relationship. It was more akin to a mentor-mentee relationship than a grandmother-grandson relationship, something that William was thankful for. 

She was still wary of him, though it reduced in the past few months living together, which he respected. After all, he would do the same if something happened to walk up to his tribe without any warning and memories.

-

Visible air could be seen when he breathed out, as he ducked to dodge another snowball. 

Arriving a few miles from the Tribe, they were playing a rendition of dodgeball against one another with snowballs. He created the game to entertain Korra with her active tendencies along with training his reflexes, a win-win for the both of them. 

Each person could have only two snowballs at once. Once thrown, the other party gets their turn with their two snowballs. Then they will continue to throw them at each other until a party gets hit. The losing party would start first next round.

Something really cool was that his reaction time was insanely good. He was able to dodge a snowball that changed its path due to Korra's water bending, fluidly changing his body's direction with ease.

"WHY! CAN'T! I! HIT! YOU!?"

She yells with annoyance as she continued bending the single snowball, as it was still technically in the rules, to which William gave a shit-eating grin.

"Train for another ten years before thinking about it!"

"Arrghhh!!!"

Losing her temper, the snow on the ground suddenly lifted in a wave like motion before it covered William on the spot.

FHOOM!

Realizing what she had done, she muttered an "Uh oh" before quickly bending the snow away, revealing a soaked William who just had a resigned face. 

"... You need to learn to control your temper, Korra."

"Sorry."