***
A sacrifice a day keeps the grim reaper away. Pakku stood opposite of me, and by his stance, I could tell that while he had a nonchalant look on his face, the old man was on guard. With a normal spear in my hand, I wondered how I should beat him?

The water around him moved like a serpent as he shot it at me. Katara looked on anxiously, worried about her well-being.

Don't look so down, little sister. Your brother isn't that weak, even against a waterbender in his habitat. 

Charging at Pakku, I felt the ground under me shift, as it turned into water. I was barely able to jump away and not be submerged in water. 

Water circulated him as he shot out some ice projectiles, waterbending had both good defensive and attacking. While the old man's mindset might be a little outdated, he was a master waterbender and showed that clearly. 

I felt the chilly feeling before the attack even came and had to jump up as the ground turned into icy spikes. If I openly used waterbending, then Pakku wouldn't be too much of a challenge. 

While I was mid-air, instead of attacking, he turned the ice around him into water, with only a small slab of ice to stand on. "You might be a good spearman, but you choose the wrong fight. No matter how good, without footing, you can't even get close to me. If we were on land, I would have lost. But here… the advantage I have is too overwhelming."

"You really like the sound of your voice, old man," hearing my chuckles, his eyes narrowed in anger. 

As I was about to land on the ground, spears of ice came mercilessly. There were over a dozen of them. You know, he might be trying to kill me, or at least hurt me very badly. That wasn't smart of him because if he is willing to hurt me, then I will return the favor too.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Using my spear, I broke all the ice but was pushed back by the attacks. Feeling the ground below me get softer again, as if to turn into water, I jumped to the side and immediately charged at him, halting at the end of the pond and using every ounce of my agility and strength to leap at him. 

He tried to attack, I did backflip mid-air and changed my position slightly. Just enough to dodge each ice attack. 

Pakku's eyes widened as he saw me get close to him. He tried to move his hands, but it was too late as using the blunt side of my spear I hit his throat and left him gasping. With the momentum of my leap, I tackled him and we were both thrown outside of the water pond, getting up immediately after I pointed my spear at the old man. "There when you were hit with the blunt part of my spear, I could have used the sharp side. Also, even in the beginning, you underestimated me. So if I threw my spear then, you would have been dead."

While he had been on guard from the beginning, Pakku had grossly underestimated me. I couldn't put all the blame on him, as by now my movements were bordering on the supernatural. I was stronger than my size suggested, and I was also faster than my strength might suggest. My body has become something unnatural.

Standing up, I looked every spectator in the eye and spread my arms in a welcoming manner. "Anyone who wants to fight me, or disagrees with my opinion. Come forward, this is your chance. Show me that your traditions are worth following, or maybe they are just something holding you back. Outdated traditions have no place anywhere. You are losing valuable waterbenders just because you are stubborn. To me right now you are a foolish tribe, as only fools would do something like this."

Some of the people in the crowd frowned, and most of them were annoyed. The angry ones, clenching their weapons, and some waterbenders stepped forward. 

"You're a tribe that is intentionally weakening themselves during a war. Do you want me to close my eyes and bow down saying that you are strong when you aren't?"

Traditions that created a sense of belonging to the tribe were good. But ones like not allowing female waterbenders to learn how to fight were downright stupid. So useless traditions like that need to get lost in the annals of time. 

Well, while I used the tradition as a way to invite their anger. I didn't care about it much, if the women wanted changes, they could revolt themselves. Becoming the world's white knight police wasn't on my agenda. A person would have to be conceited as hell, or just stupid, to think that their opinions on things were always right.

But I needed an excuse, and this tradition was an excuse as good as any. This way it would make people angry and they would attack me. Why would I want that? Obviously to beat the hell out of them. 

In times of peace beating them up might be considered violent and unnecessary. 

**
One by one, they came and tried to fight me. But after Pakku, I was easily able to incapacitate the others, but I made sure to not hurt them too badly. The more meat shields were between me and Azula, the better it was. She was dangerous.

As dinner came around, Katara was sitting next to me while Aang was dining with the chieftain.

"You hurt my teacher so bad he can't teach me today," she pouted, looking at me with a pointed gaze.

She needed to learn how to act angry better. Her worry was showing in her eyes and brow. "Don't crunch your fingers, or pick at your food. If you want to act angry, do it well enough to at least trick me."

"Ah…"

"There are people way better than me at reading people out there that will be able to see your intentions. So at least learn enough to trick me," at least well enough that I would need to use the interface to tell if she was lying or not. 

To thrive in any human civilization, you need to be a good liar. The greatest of kings of conquerors were amazing liars, the best of their generation. Of course, history will never say and put them on a pedestal of glory.

Looking at Yue, I noticed that she was looking at me and as soon as our gazes met, she looked to the side, embarrassed.

Giving her what she wanted would be dangerous. I will have to keep myself accessible, just outside of her grasp. As soon as I give her what she wants, she will realize that the crush on me was something temporary. 

BOOOOOOM!!!

Suddenly an explosion rang out and the palace seemed to shake. 

What the fuck just happened?! Azula!

BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Another explosion rang, this one louder and seemed about to crumble down the palace. What the hell were the guards doing?! 

[Danger Sense has sensed extreme danger in all directions!]

Fuck!

I grabbed Katara in a princess carry and immediately jumped off the window. The others could die for all I cared. It's their fault for having such incompetent guards. 

Clack!

As we land on the ground, the ice below me cracks like a spiderweb with me in the middle. Looking around, there were no attacks or soldiers. "Where the hell are the attacks coming from?!"

Looking up, I saw the full moon and frowned. Was Azula dumb enough to attack during the full moon? No, there was no sign of attack and everyone was confused and panicked too. The people had woken up and were running around panicked. There were no signs of where an attack might have come from, even though some houses had crumbled down. 

Azula, that smart bitch. Where the hell is the attack coming from?

BOOOOOOM!!!

Suddenly ice under my feet split apart, opening a huge ravine in the ice. The palace crumbled down as its foundation became unstable. 

The attack… was coming from under the ice.

**********
A/N: If you wanna join my Discord server to ask any questions or see character pics. Here it is the link:
https://discord.gg/bqadGRAUHA