Playing Waterbending (Avatar: Last Aibender SI)

500,000 experience points. That was too much to process at once, even for me.

It was like a full month of grinding.

But on the other hand, we had trapped a lot of enemies in the explosion.

I had just received a share of the experience points, even though the earthbenders didn't.

I guess it was because I had a partial hand in the job, and thanks to the title, I got this reward.

Had I killed or defeated all those soldiers on my own, I would have been entitled to between 2 million and 4 million experience points.

'So, that's the power of hunting thousands,' I thought to myself while waiting for my ears to stop ringing. 'I'll make sure to clean up areas with dangerous beasts.'

I thought about going down and defeating the remaining firebenders.

But come on.

That's a feat only someone like Madara Uchiha or the Avatar could pull off.

I wasn't a one-man army.

And the idea of me going down there and fighting all those soldiers while having blind spots was ridiculous.

If I had bloodbending, I might have been able to pull it off.

'Wait a second. Cum-bending is a sub-bending of waterbending. I might be able to twist their balls easily,' I thought. 'But I'd rather not take a stupid risk and die stupidly. Not until I spend the experience points I've earned, which I'll save for later, after taking down the remaining enemies.'

The ringing in my ears calmed down, and I could hear more clearly now.

The earthbenders were in the same state.

They looked over the top of the wall, excitement taking over their faces.

"We've taken down the army!"

"The Fire Nation soldiers didn't stand a chance!"

"It's an assured victory. We should attack them now."

"Yes! Let's jump over and finish them off!"

I raised my hand and ordered, "No one moves until I say otherwise!"

"Huh? Why wouldn't we move?" A middle-aged man, quite large, grabbed me by the shoulder and said, "We have to strike now while they're weak and shocked. With metalbending, taking them down would be child's play."

I grabbed him by the shoulder and pressed. "You idiot. What we have here are people who spent years in jail without proper physical activity. By the time you reach the back lines of the Fire Nation army, you'll be exhausted. Even if you win, you'll die."

"But—"

"I'm trying to preserve as many lives as possible," I said. "You can go alone or take those who support you, grab some dust, and try your luck. But I don't think the same trick will work twice. The moment you throw dust at them, they'll ignite it, and you'll kill yourself along with your enemies. Do you want to die?"

"But we can win with metalbending!" he objected.

"Let them approach first," I said, pushing him back into the line.

I looked into the eyes of the earthbenders, who were excited but also deeply pondering and reflecting on my words.

I was being completely honest.

This war had happened because of me, and since I didn't want them to lose their lives, I had taken responsibility for saving them. I had saved my people by shifting the Fire Nation's attention to this village, and now I was saving them again.

"For now, we will wait!" I ordered. "This is an order!"

I turned my head.

There was a reason I was confident they would attack.

The Fire Nation soldiers had taken many days to arrive here.

If they wanted to retreat, it would take just as long.

If they turned their backs to us, we could still attack them, and they knew it.

On the other hand, explosive materials weren't something new to this world. They knew we were out of ammo.

And from the explosion that had just happened, although a few tanks had been destroyed, they still had a high chance of surviving such an attack.

So, if my guess was right, they would send the tanks now.

They still had a numerical advantage and could easily defeat 100 earthbenders. I believed they had the statistics on the prisoners and knew how many earthbenders we had.

With 400 or so soldiers, they had a high chance of killing the earthbenders.

First, they'd crack the wall with their tanks, then kill us.

At worst, they'd approach and hold the wall, trying to starve us out or wait for backup while preventing us from setting more traps.

And then, our trump card would be played.

"That's…" Haru, who was standing next to me, said, "horrifying. There's barely a recognizable corpse among the enemy."

"Do you remember what the envoy said?" I asked, trying to remind him of what would have happened to us.

"Yes. Everyone would die, and they wouldn't spare anyone if we didn't give up our lives," he said. "But do you think they'll just turn and run away?"

"Just because they're our enemies doesn't mean they're not human," I replied. "And I don't mean that in a good way. Humans are cruel, emotional creatures. They'll take time to reorganize themselves and attack us."

"You seem quite confident," he mused.

"They don't have another choice," I replied. "Unless I'm too stupid to see the bigger picture, they have no option but to attack. If they expose their backs to us, we'll chase them and unleash dust tornadoes on them."

Since the earthbenders could control earth particles, they could ignite the dust from a distance.

You might be wondering why I didn't let them ignite it earlier and instead wasted an alcohol bottle with an ice spear.

I could give you 500,000 reasons for that.

"Oh, it seems you're right," Haru commented.

"They're sending the tanks first," Tyro pointed forward. "Is this the time for the metalbenders to shine?"

"Wait," I said, looking down as they approached. After the tanks came within 50 meters, they paused for a moment. We didn't do anything.

Another 400 or so soldiers advanced.

A few of them tried to shoot fire blasts, which hit the wall.

"They're out of bombs!"

"Dirty earthbenders! Be prepared to pay for your tricks!"

I smiled. The water from the nearby barrels floated up and landed on my back, forming tentacles.

"Everyone!" I shouted. "It's time for a face-to-face battle! Crush them!"