***
Bumi observed Sokka closely and smirked, seeing that the young man didn't show any sign of being surprised. Though Bumi was now used to him not even showing anything that he felt on the outside. This left the old king reassured that if someone tried to scheme against Aang then he had someone who would be able to pull him out of it.
*
Taking Sokka over to a special colosseum-like platform, Bumi smiled as he saw the young man just curiously looking around and seemingly wasn't worried about anything. The old king had to admit it, he was a little impressed by Sokka's fearless demeanor.
'But at the same time, such carelessness could lead to incompetence.' - thought Bumi, clenching his fist and causing the ground below Sokka to crack, making him stumble. Within an instant, a pillar of rock shot out of the walls and towards his head.
With only a slight and noticeable movement Bumi had manipulated the earth to teach the young man that being careless wasn't a good idea, even when the enemy seemed friendly. Unexpectedly, Sokka moved like water, and even though the ground below him shook, his balance didn't and he crouched down dodging the rock pillar.
"Rocks these days seem to fall strangely," Sokka said nonchalantly, smiling at Bumi and walking past the still erect rock pillar. "Don't you think so?"
"Kakakakaka!!" Bumi laughed crazily, he was amused. No, beyond amused. - 'Aang was very lucky to get a comrade like this. Even before I attacked he had sensed the danger. What monstrous instincts.'
What Bumi didn't know was that this was all due to Sokka's [Sense Danger] Skill, which at Level 10 allowed him to sense danger a whole second before it happened. Of course, Sokka wasn't going to tell him that, but he also learned something else.
'He can not tell what I am thinking or feeling by sensing the earth below him.' - contemplated Sokka. Though never directly mentioned in the series he believed the Bumi was like Toph and could sense the earth vibrations with his feet. This ability gave the people who mastered it another ability, to sense when people were lying or not.
That was why Sokka had been only telling half-truths and technical truths every time he talked with Bumi. But he didn't feel confident in this yet and would have to make sure that it also worked on Toph too. He suspected that this was due to [Gamer's Body].
"What are you waiting for? Jump down." Bumi instructed him and pointed towards the middle of the colosseum-like structure below them.
Sokka sighed and jumped down. Though he and Bumi seemed to be alone, he had a sneaking suspicion that there were guards hidden in these walls. Well, it was a sneaking suspicion until he checked the Map. Which showed that yes, they were hiding in the walls.
Fwish!
Sokka jumped down gracefully, and due to his high Agility, he looked like an airbender to the untrained eye. "If you are going to have me fight, can you give me a weapon?"
"No," Bumi denied his request. "Sometimes you will be left stranded in enemy territory without a weapon. Let's see how you handle it."
*sigh*
Sokka sighed, and shrugged. In the end, he wasn't going to reveal his inventory here just to prove the old King wrong. "Well, who is my challenger then?"
"Challenger? You mean challengers right?" Said Bumi before he walked off and the earth around the colosseum opened up and men in rags came through. They are armed and some amongst them seemed even like earthbenders.
What Bumi was trying to teach Sokka here was that he needed a better charismatic charm. True, the young man was friendly and nice, just like your favorite waiter. But what Bumi was trying to make here wasn't a waiter, but a General.
Bumi was quite sure that Sokka wouldn't be able to beat so many people, there were almost a hundred of them. So he either had to solve this by sweet-talking or being born, the latter would teach him some humility, while the former would improve his charismatic abilities and test them to their limits.
*
Unknown to Bumi, Sokka had a whole different plan. Instead of being shocked or scared of this, he was happy.
__________
[One Hundred Man Challenge]
Defeat a hundred skilled warriors in one battle. Clear Bumi's challenge, failing is a way of cleaning it too.
Objectives:
1 - Defeat 100 Men
2 - Make them submit to you. (Time Limit: Before Bumi comes back.)
3 - Turn these men into worthy soldiers (Time Limit: Before Bumi comes back.)
Rewards:
For completing Objective (1) - 100,000 Exp
For completing Objective (2) - Random Egg
For completing Objective (3) - Sky Piercer Spear
__________
Sokka was excited at this and the malicious expression combined with his sharp eyes seemed to freak out the prisoners.
"Hey man, I just came here to get a better meal. But this guy seems scary."
"Yeah, look at that crazy look on his face, you don't fight with people like that. They will bring you to their level and beat you up down there."
"Shut up!" Suddenly a muscular man that was two times the size of a normal human yelled out. He had a bald head and a muscular body, he didn't have any weapons on him, meaning that he was an earthbender. They were given the choice to get a weapon before coming here to fight and mostly earthbenders didn't have a weapon as they didn't need it and would just hinder them. "You guys act like cowards. We are a hundred men! Let's beat this brat up within an inch of his life and go back to eating the feast that we were promised if we beat him."
"Oh! I remember that guy, wasn't he some scary General that committed too many war crimes."
"Yeah his name was Kun, I think."
"With a guy like that on our side then there is no way we are losing."
Sokka on the other hand just stared at them and wondered why no one had charged at him yet. After all, they were a hundred people, but then he realized that unlike in the stories, these prisoners weren't dumb. The first one to charge was bound to get beat up, but after that, everyone else would get the bravery to attack.
Sokka looked at the man with the highest level and could see that it was the man who was monstrously huge. He used [Observe] on the man, now that the skill was at Level 20 it could show quite a bit of information.
[Kun (Lvl 63)]
[An imprisoned ex-General dishonorably discharged for killing and torturing Fire Nation soldiers. He would keep his enemies' heads on pikes to scare them off and would match with the heads on the battlefield. His earthbending is dangerous and styled to kill his opponents.]
Seeing this, Sokka decided that he would be the first opponent he had to try and take out. Because as the fight went along, people like him only became more dangerous and got used to their opponent's speed.
Fwish!
Sokka charged, not even leaving footprints on the ground as he ran and it seemed like he was fleeting off the ground due to how fast he moved. This was how the untrained eye saw him, but Kun, who had been in the midst of war and dodged blasts of fire thrown at him, was on guard against the attack.
"Heh, you are pretty fast for a brat," snorted Kun, kicking on the ground, causing a pillar of earth to rise around Sokka and the momentum pushed him in the air. "I know how to deal with fast cats like you, just put them in the air where they can't move."
He then shot a couple of boulders at Sokka, who was still mid-air. Anyone else would have panicked right now, as Kun's strategy was spot on. But unlike others, Sokka had [Gamer's Mind] and he was as calm as he would be while drinking a cup of tea.
As the boulder was within arm's reach, he shifted his body mid-air and used the rock and its momentum, kicking off it and propelling himself into the crows of other people. They immediately attacked him, but Sokka dodged all of the attacks with only a hair's length away from hitting him.
Hammer, spear, sword, and many other weapons swung at him, but Sokka dodged each of them. Even as boulders started raining down on him from the ceiling.
As he had predicted Kun was being a problem and had found a way to attack him without hitting his comrades.
Seeing this, Sokka grabbed one of the spearmen and used his body as a shield, and took his weapon away. After that, he quickly jumped off to the other side of the room, stabbed his spear in the wall, and dangled where no melee weapons could reach him.
With a spear in hand, the atmosphere around Sokka changed completely and the feeling of danger he radiated increased tenfold. Kun though wasn't intimidated and shot a barrage of rocks at him.
Sokka used all of the rocks to move and used them as platforms. Even while they were midair and in movement Sokka was fast and agile enough to move faster. Within an instant, he was in front of the ex-General, who was his biggest problem here.
Though he noticed another problem here and could see that Kun undoubtedly had a very rich combat experience as anywhere Sokka would use his spear to pierce the man would retaliate and attack at the same time. It would turn into an exchange of hits rather than Sokka attacking him.
But at this time, the General who had been through a hundred battlefields got attacked in a way that he hadn't predicted or ever experienced in the battlefield. Sokka threw the spear up, seemingly abandoning his weapon.
He then softly hit Kun in some positions, but the giant man's body clenched for a split second before his Chi stopped circulating and he fell on the ground like a puppet with its strings cut off.
"H -How?" muttered the man before he entered deep unconsciousness. Sokka saw the boulders heading towards him as there were some more earthbenders in the midst and he had to take care of them too.
The spear that he had thrown in the air had come down and he picked it up with precision.
**
Hours passed and Aang completed his challenges: getting the lunch box key, finding the King's pet, fighting Bumi, and even guessing his name.
Bumi had threatened Aang with Sokka's life, well not directly but insinuated that something bad would happen to their friend if the Avatar didn't finish his challenge quickly.
As they were walking down the hallways towards Sokka, Aang couldn't help but ask. "Did Sokka get to do a challenge too?"
"Yep," King Bumi nodded and looked at Momo, narrowing his eyes. "His challenge is connected to the 87th sutra. Heart and soul look through the eyes."
"There was an 87th?" Aang wondered, what Bumi was speaking of was some monk text and he didn't remember being any sutra above the 20th.
"Oh! We are here," exclaimed Bumi excitedly. Even he couldn't wait to see how Sokka was going to finish his trial.
Katara was behind the old friends and she had a frown. Unlike Aang, she hadn't forgotten just how worried she had been for Sokka. No sister should ever have to wonder if their brother was alive or dead.
Suddenly an earthbender came out of the walls and he had a shocked look and sweat running down his face as if he had seen something straight out of a dream. "My King… something unexpected has happened."
Bumi smiled excitedly and didn't wait for the soldier's report, wanting to see the results himself, Aang followed along and so did Katara.
The soldier sulked and stared at the ground depressingly. "He never listens to what I see. Why am I even working here? My dream was to be a nude artist."
Suddenly he picked himself up and looked around breathing a sigh of relief when he saw that no one had heard that. But a strange sound interrupted him and he looked down, seeing Momo looking at him strangely as if he understood what the man said.
"Please don't tell anyone," the soldier begged.
**
When Bumi arrived at the colosseum arena, he saw something that shocked him. There was Sokka and a hundred men were lined up perfectly with Kun on the lead. They were all on their knees and bowing towards Sokka.
"""HAIL THE GREAT LEADER!!""" they all yelled out in unison. Their hands and knees shook due to how long they had had to hold that bowing position, but no one dared complain because they had seen what Sokka was able to do to 'convince' them.
"I didn't hear you!" Sokka reprimanded them, a scary look dominating his face and the air around him felt colder.
"""HAIL THE GREAT LEADER SOKKA!!!"""
"Kekekekekekeke!!!" Bumi's loud cackles interrupted the whole event and everyone looked at him. Though no man boring down dared to get up, currently they were more afraid of Sokka than their King. "How were you able to make those rough guys docile like that?"
"Well, first I used a firm hand for discipline and then a soothing palm to comfort them," Sokka said with a gentle smile on his face.
One thought went through every man that was bowing down at that moment. 'Soothing hand?! When the hell did you use that!!' - all of them had the same thoughts but didn't dare to voice them.
Bumi laughed even louder and Sokka smiled along with him as he got a new notification.
[Challenge Quest Completed]
[You have completed Objective (1): +100,000 Exp]
[You have completed Objective (2): Random Egg has been deposited in your inventory]
[You have completed Objective (4): The spear, Sky Piercer has been deposited in your inventory]
[You have Leveled Up]
[You have Leveled Up]
[You have Leveled Up]
[You have Leveled Up]
[You have reached Level 30]
[Your Gamer Interface gains a New Function!]
He dismissed all of the notifications for the moment and planned to look at them later.
***
-Sokka POV-
Bumi and Aang went on one last slide and we set off Omashu with a bag of money and rations. Bumi promised us an army if we ever went to war against the Fire Nation. As we left he gave me some advice which increased my wisdom by one point, it was good advice and how I should become the mind and monster of the group when they need one.
But the advice was nowhere near Iroh's level. That guy would give me a Wisdom point every time we spoke.
As Appa set off and flew into the sky, we departed from Omashu and I gave one last look towards the city. Now it was the time I had been anticipating. Time to check my quest rewards and what I had gotten.
*****
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Nice cap xD