ATLA, In A Darker World

'Dammit! Can't a guy get a break around here?'

Saying this, Luca didn't even think and let his body do the thinking for him.

The eighteen-year-old boy made a mad dash into the vast vegetation before his eyes, as fast as his legs could carry him.

At night, without any fire torches to light the way, a human's vision was severely limited. If one wasn't careful, they could fall into traps, get injured, trip on a stone, encounter dangerous animals hunting at night, fall of the side of a hill, hit their head against a hard rock. ... Luca had already experienced the last one.

In short, travelling on foot at night and with rapid pace was dangerous.

Fortunately, the moon didn't withhold her light tonight and Luca's perception had gone up by several notches.

Quite literally. Before this, his perception stat was at nine points. It worried him as he had no idea how to increase it.

Now, it was as high as fourteen. A full five points increase, going up by more than half.

He didn't notice it at first, but now, the increase it brought to him could be felt clearly.

Luca felt .... Like his eyes had finally been opened. Or rather, like he had opened the legendary mysterious sixth sense.

His eyes had also been enhanced to unknown degrees. His vision in the dark was much better than it was before, and he could feel the objects in his surroundings better.

Sure, although it wasn't as outrageous as echolocation, bullet time, Sharingan or 360 degree vision, it was astounding in its own right.

Alright ..... Where was he? Oh, right. Thankfully, his perception stat had increased allowing his movements in the grassland area to grow smoother.

Coupled with the fact that this wasn't a jungle terrain, his straightforward movement was unimpeded.

But make no mistake. Luca never had any ideas of outrunning his pursuers on foot. That was simply wishful thinking.

For an Eagle Hawk to be released, the ones chasing him should be a mounted search party.

Their Komodo Rhino's outpaced him by far. If he kept on running blindly, then an inevitable capture was what awaited him.

He certainly wouldn't have that. So since escaping was out of the question, then there was only one option left.

An ambush.

That's right. He had already given up on running away and had decided to take a head on stand.

Of course, that didn't mean rushing to fight recklessly.

Luca wasn't stupid. His running was simply to open up space between them for uncertainty.

Placing an ambush at the spot you were last discovered wasn't practical. So take the opportunity while the Eagle Hawk was gone and find a proper ambush point.

He didn't know how far away the cavalry were. The amount of time it would take to get here could be anywhere between ten and thirty minutes.

Sure enough, he was right. The search team of Fire Nation soldiers arrived at the scorched forest and advanced rapidly. How long had it been? Ten minutes? Fifteen minutes?

Caw!

Time elapsed and before long, they were here. The first to arrive was of course the massive bird of prey to indicate where it last saw the target. The boisterous band of stomping hooves followed, coming to a halt right at the edge of the scorched forest.

Under the bright moonlight, the area was further illuminated as unlike Luca, the Fire Nation had torches to light their path.

Firebending showcasing Its usefulness.

"Sir, the tracks end here.....". A private uttered while kneeling near a set of deep footprints. He pointed forward, displaying their movements heading forward.

'We're close ….'. The bearded sergeant nodded, his face serious. Now was the time to end this.

As it would be harder to follow the tracks within the vegetation. Luca's footprints wouldn't be easily shown.

"It's close enough. Send the signal flares….".

"Hm!" An archer by the side nodded. Then he drew his bow and placed a special arrow with a special tip at the end of it and aimed upward.

Special explosive arrows used to signal nearby Fire Nation soldiers. After all, there was more than one scout team searching for the rebel under Captain Han's forces.

This flare would let them know where exactly to go.

Even if the rebel could hide for a while, he would be outmatched once encircled with dozens of Fire Nation soldiers. By then, there would be no escape.

Bang! In the once peaceful sky was now a colorful explosion similar to the fireworks used in festive celebrations.

Three of them shot into the air at the same time, alarming those in the surroundings for miles.

"He couldn't have gone far. Spread out, search everywhere".

The rumbling sound of stampeding Komodo Rhino's resumed as the beasts galloped onto the grassland.

This search party consisted of more than a dozen men. Twenty-one to be exact, with two drill sergeants, one Sergeant and eighteen soldiers armed with weapons.

Not everyone in the Fire Nation were benders after all.

Among the group, numbering nearly two dozen, only the three Sergeants and four privates were blessed with the gift of Fire. The rest carried either swords, spears, maces, short swords, broadswords, Jii's (Halberd spear with a crescent moon shape) or bows and arrows.

Watching his men rush into the vast grassy plains, the bearded sergeant turned his gaze to the large Eagle Hawk that similarly returned it.

"Find him ….". He said to the animal with eyes that shone with human wisdom.

Caw!

The creature immediately took to the skies, flying ahead of everyone else in search.

The Sergeant similarly didn't delay and followed to join in the hunt.

"..... Well, this isn't good". Hidden within one of the scarce few trees in the area, Luca spoke lightly at the sight of the signal flare appearing in the sky.

It was bad, really bad. A search party could consist of one to two dozen soldiers. For a rebel like him, dozens of such search parties could be deployed to search for him.

If they arrived, and he still hadn't dealt with this situation yet, then he was truly a goner.

'… Gotta get outta here..... But how….'. These part of the plains were too open. The trees weren't tall and they were isolated from one another.

There were few areas with a large gathering of trees. With the little time he had, he couldn't procure a good enough hiding spot.

It was only a matter of time, his current location would be discovered.

Time elapsed.

"Sir ….". The riding cavalry returned.

"Where is he? ...".

".... We haven't found him yet".

The bearded sergeant had his eyes narrow. Turning his head up, the Eagle Hawk was nowhere in sight.

'It hasn't returned…'. The bird wasn't in the sky, meaning it was still searching. Searching for so long without locating its target, it must have gone on to look further.

On the open plains ..... It was impossible for someone to outrun an aerial creature in less than ten minutes. The Eagle Hawk couldn't find him, meaning he wasn't out in the open at all.

"... Sir, the map shows a river two and a half miles from here. If he gets into the river and flows downstream, he can escape our search area. Perhaps the Eagle Hawk is following him down that direction".

A drill Sergeant spoke with an expression of contemplation, yet the Sergeant was only half listening.

"..... Perhaps". The man had a point, but that was two and a half miles from the initial point. It was improbable to run that far in a little more than ten minutes.

"... Or, he's hiding".

The chance existed, but he already had a guess in mind.

Then, he immediately began to give orders.

"You six, double back to the point we came from, stay there and make sure nothing gets past you. As for the rest .....". Following which, his gaze carried a strong hint of malice.

"Spread out and torch the trees. Every last one of them".

He ordered while on top his mount. Once the others arrived, they would cooperate with his actions.

And every tree within a five-mile radius would be destroyed.

If the rebel was hiding, then he'll either be flushed out or burned to death.

Either works. As for the forest ... They already burned a large part down. What was wrong with burning a little more?

And so, The dark night was brightened as Fire Nation soldiers spread out and began setting the trees aflame.

Blasts of fire emerged from the fists of those who could bend it. While others without bending would go for more ..... destructive methods. Dynamite, black powder, blasting jelly.

Flames and explosions disturbed the atmosphere as the fire once again began to spread.

'Come on..... He's gotta be here somewhere…'.

A fire nation archer rode towards the nearest tree amidst the fiery destruction.

Drawing an arrow, he lit up the fuse to the dynamite at the arrow's tail end and fired it into the leafy tree before him.

One… Two…. Boom! The tree exploded as fire burnt the top area. Bits and pieces of wood flying in several directions.

Two seconds passed, and there was no hiding enemy jumping out from the explosion with his body on fire.

'Not here …'. He thought and turned around to ride elsewhere. The moment he shifted his gaze and body, it happened.

From the fiery treetop, a figure leaped towards the archer from the flames.

'Huh?'

The latter reacted, subconsciously turning his back only to have something sharp pierced right through his forehead.

Squelch!

Thud!

The sound of piercing flesh was covered up by the loud explosions. As was the soldier's fall to the floor and the panic of the Komodo Rhino.

The soldier died before his body hit the ground, Luca landing right beside him. His clothes were free of flames and soothe, completely unaffected.

As for the sharp object used to kill the archer…. It was the upper half of the very same arrow he fired. Luca had broken it in half, gone intangible with the part he needed and let the explosion happen.

The movements were all done with speed and precision, something he never imagined he could do even after time travel.

His thoughts had moved rapidly, planning his best choice of action as the situation unfolded.

Of course, it wasn't all natural. The decision to use density shifting to avoid the aftermath was his active decision. As for breaking apart the upper half of the arrow to use as a weapon, that was all instinctive.

Followed by the subconscious actions, not attacking immediately, waiting for the archer to let down his guard and prepare to leave, then intentionally release a sound to draw the Archer's attention, prompting him to turn his unguarded face towards him while he leaped down and inserted and arrow through his skull.

It was imperative that the man turned around as this archer had a helmet on that covered the back of his head and only exposed his face.

The timing, the precision ... All this was done under the span of five seconds without initial planning.

As if ..... It was natural. Luca looked at the corpse beside him and his hands that made the kill without feeling a speck of negative emotion.

Had .... Had that become natural too? Taking a life without blinking. So skillfully and naturally, like he had done it a hundred times.

In fact, he had. Not a hundred though ..... Forty-nine times to be precise. While this might be his first kill reborn, it was this body's fiftieth kill. And it certainly wouldn't be the last for either. As tonight, a lot more were going to be added to the body count.

This was just the first one. In the night, Luca took a deep breath and turned to the Komodo Rhino. After the initial shock, it remained where it was.

Just watching him while making small movements. Apparently, these things weren't taught to attack those who killed its master.

Or perhaps, this guy wasn't even its master at all but a random guy going for a ride.

Point being, it didn't rush out in a panic, exposing his position. That was good, saved him a lot of trouble and brought about a good way to escape.

Unknowingly, his brain began formulating ideas again without his consent, to kill and escape from his encirclement.

The gory images of stabbing, flesh, blood in his simulated actions.....

Honestly, this was going to take a lot of getting used to. But now, it was going to save his life.

That wasn't the priority though as Luca turned to the corpse to do something else.

Blood flowed from the head and dyed the ground red.

'Extract ...'. He uttered inwardly as he placed his hand on the exposed palms. The archer was decked out in fire nation uniform. The only parts exposed were his hands and face.

The face was bleeding out, so the hands were the next best thing...

A second later, Luca's right hand was enveloped in the familiar glow of energy.

'Huh?'

Only this time, he felt something was ..... Off. Why did this feel quite different from when he was absorbing Hei Bai's Chi?

The energy feel ..... It was quite different.

"Could it be .....". He resisted the urge to open his status panel and continued his actions. It wasn't long, less than five seconds later, his actions came to a halt.

'Hold on ..... That's it?' A trace of incredulity flashed past his face at what just happened. This amount of Chi .... Why was it so pitiful? This couldn't be all right? Could it?

He quickly opened his stat panel for a moment.

— Chi: 9 — ...

"..."

'You gotta be kidding me'. A fire Nation soldier only granted eight plus. How... How..... How pitiful.

No matter how weak this guy is, he should still be a trained warrior. After all, he didn't look young.

Even if he wasn't a bender, was his Chi really that low? Was this the standard for regular people? So, did that mean that regular people's Chi was eight times as much as his initial start?

Well, thinking about that, it was kinda depressing.

Still, Luca didn't feel happy. If this was the basis, it meant that he needed to kill eight more people before his regular Chi would be enough to use Density shifting for a second.

That was troubling.....

'Focus. No messy thoughts now'. Shifting his thoughts from that topic, he began to search the corpse for valuables.

Robbing the dead were actions of bandits ….but his situation called for nothing less.

A quiver full of arrows, a bow, two short swords and seven sticks of dynamite. Luca took them all.

Then he stood up, was about to mount the Rhino but stopped. Then he turned his gaze to the corpse again, his eyes struggling before coming to a decision.

'Sorry .....'.

...

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