Suki lived quite peacefully in her village all her life. She was the main warrior, as the previous warrior appointed her, singled her out among her equals.
They saved the island from various pirates or bandits, and they seemed very strong. When the firebenders arrived, this actually seemed to be the case.
Before Kira appears.
Prince Zuko inspired some kind of fear, with his words or posture, and he also stood out against the background of the warriors around him both in strength, bearing, and even charisma. But Aki did not stand out. One of many soldiers, until you look into his eyes.
After she looked into those indifferent, cold eyes, which completely revealed the person hiding behind the mask of "her" guy, she realized that this time the pirate and sea rumors did not come out of nowhere.
When he looks at you, pointing his weapon at the same time... well, Suki could believe that some drunken pirate could shit himself from fear. She is too familiar with this rabble and, unlike some bards who embellish their lives and characters, in reality they are all just pathetic rats who rob the weak, and as soon as they come across someone a little stronger than themselves, they panic and hysterical. And here is such an imperious look.
But nevertheless, surprisingly, Kira was able to unravel everything carefully and without hurting anyone's pride. At least in public. Suki was never stupid and, judging by how quietly the prince sat, something like that was said to him. But what?
But, however, then this monster in human form had an idea: to hire Kyoshi warriors. On one hand, it's a crazy idea, but on the other hand, it gives the island protection from the Fire Nation. She doesn't believe in some kind of agreement at all.
More precisely, no, she understands that it was possible and indeed something like that was discussed, but as soon as the Fire Nation wanted it, they, despite any conventions, would quickly capture the island. The example of the thinking of Zuko, for a moment - the prince, is indicative in this matter.
However, the path was not as terrible as Suki thought. They and the girls were not touched, not pestered, not even tried to change their uniforms, they were only given a few red inserts, purely for the sake of identifying their own during the battle.
One of the warriors tried to be indignant, but Kira, piercing her with her icy gaze and a tense smile - although, apparently, only Suki noticed this, because her friend, who was being smiled at, broke into a smile and even blushed slightly - said that in the heat of battle You just need to calculate yours with your subconscious, so let's wear a bright red light, please.
Well, there were no more questions on this point, that's understandable.
Then the warriors and Suki in particular were rudely taken for a show off. Although they all really wanted to fight Kira in real conditions.
And yes, just as Suki thought, when he looks straight at you and holds a weapon, preparing to attack, there is just a cold, sticky sweat running down your back.
It is possible that she, that the girls did not hold back at all and beat for sure and with all their might, it's just a pity that nothing worked. Kira was not only faster and more agile, but his technique was clearly at a different level.
The captain's victory was almost a dry one, because he did not wound any of the warriors, he only beat them. If he had acted at least without the fear of cutting them, the result would have been at least faster, Suki figured in her head. Fighting with an absolutely sharp weapon and not injuring anyone with it is generally a separate level of mastery of this very weapon, but that's another conversation.
But then came a closer acquaintance with the army and the Fire Nation. Suki didn't know why Kira took her with him, maybe to scare her, that this was possible on the island? But the villages were simply terrible. You simply can't live like that, well, you can't, that's all... It also turned out that one of the villages was ruled by his brother and, apparently, Kira had no plans to do anything to him. Is it possible to call punishment for all this fucked up just a rod?
This is where Suki decided to act: the hostess where they were sheltered had let it slip more than once or twice, and she definitely must have leads on someone from the Earth Kingdom. It took a lot of time to prove that she didn't want harm, but only wanted to punish Kira.
But the warrior received contact. And I also learned how to find messengers in villages. And now in each village Suki sent a report in which she wrote down their entire path and all their plans, as well as everything that she learned from Kira about his personality.
Oh, for some time she even waited for the moment when they would be overtaken. But everything changed when they crossed the border. She expected to meet happy people, a good army with brave soldiers, like in fairy tales, but it turned out...
The people looked and were in fact poorer than on the other side - not the army, but a rabble of bandits, and so on and so forth. It was then that Suki decided to wait with the reports and see.
And after that she didn't write anything. From village to village, nothing changed and she began to ask questions, which, unfortunately for her, Aki began to answer. And about factories, and about production, and about initial globalization. He did not forget to mention that fire and air are two elements on which, in theory, nothing can be built, and it was the earthbenders that had to go far ahead in progress. Although, after thinking, he made a reservation that, perhaps, the temperature of the flame is important here and moved on, without developing the topic of why exactly the Fire Nation went ahead.
And what does the flame temperature have to do with it?
She also received an answer to her question about her brother: it turned out that Aki himself would be happy to somehow punish his brother more strongly, but at this stage he would be easily dismissed - Aki does not have such influence.
Over time, Suki somehow stopped even constantly noticing his not entirely frank emotions, and began to focus on his actions.
There he bought food for a simple poor man from the village. Just walking around - if Suki had not started to carefully watch his actions, she might not have even noticed. They walked and talked - here I bought bread, there I gave away one loaf.
And there are a lot of little things like this that make up a person's character. Akimaru stopped being Kiroi in Suki's eyes and became just Aki.
Her friend. A comrade with whom she will have to do a lot of things and establish a good life in many villages. A brother in arms, with whom they will fight a crowd of enemies more than once...
That's exactly how everything was in Suki's thoughts, she had already forgotten about her betrayal - after all, everything was fine, only the past itself found the girl. They were caught off guard by a bunch of earthbenders.
Well, now there are very difficult dances ahead. I quickly pulled the rapier out of its sheath, throwing it away immediately - they would only get in the way.
"Hmm, well, let's see what you are," the chief earthman chuckled, knocking a stone out of the ground and sending it at me as a seed.
I dodged this easily, hastening to get to the enemy and taking out a lighter. It's fire time, isn't it?
Suki, go ahead! - I shouted, putting a lot into one fiery, almost directed explosion towards the border. Instantly, a whole river of blue flame appeared, this touched quite a lot of the soldiers of the earth, most simply did not expect this and were scattered to the sides. That's where the warrior ran, I have no doubt at all - right along the bed of this "river", where I barely had time to divert the flames away from her.
She ran through the entire fiery corridor in ten to fifteen seconds and disappeared into the bushes. Nobody chased after her, because I am the main target, and that's good. But now I can use everything that I have in my arsenal.
Are you serious? Sacrificed part of your strength in order to save the traitor? — the man apparently decided to talk a little more.
"Something like that," but I didn't chat, snatching the rapier at maximum speed and swinging it.
A second and a wave of air of enormous force comes from my rapier, which killed one soldier who did not have time to evade the suspicious garbage. Several were simply offended. Basically, the factor of surprise played a role: they had fairly complete information about me and understood that, in theory, there should be no magic, and I swung the rapier too far away.
"What the..." the main one, who was talking to me, didn't understand, as I was already flying at him with a huge leap, but he didn't eat his bread in vain and managed to put up a wall of earth, into which I crashed with my feet, however, immediately pushing off and still flicking the lighter once.
This time I decided not to waste time on trifles and immediately lit a fire around, making a light spinning top, my plan was simple - to repeat the tornado, like that night, only on a smaller scale and with fire, but it didn't work out. Stone blocks flew from different directions, and you know, I need to concentrate to cause something like this, but I had to dodge and the whole cast got confused.
Therefore, I decided not to do anything on such a large scale for now and began to spin around as if in a frying pan, over time trying to get close to different soldiers, which was quite difficult.
Of course, they were not used to fighting such nimble opponents, but nevertheless, quantity completely replaced quality, and I hardly had time to dodge one when the next cobblestone flew in from the other side.
But at the same time, I tried to reduce the distance to the enemies somehow, in general I danced towards them with all my might. It turned out average, but adding fire and air, I finally began to slowly knock out one after another.
What a fucking Avatar he is! - one of the earthlings yelled, which drew my attention to himself and received fire and air.
The most effective thing is to launch a small wave of fire and, literally immediately after, a cutter from the air, only wider, so that the person automatically dodges the fire and gets hit with air.
True, after the fourth time everyone here understood my idea and began to work differently, but nevertheless the plan was good.
When I got very close to one of the soldiers, they began to fight in close combat. The most common weapons they have are two hammers of some kind with short handles, tattered Torahs, or one huge one.
Of course, I dodged such weapons, but they ate a lot of porridge and they swung them at quite a decent speed, so I simply could not manage to counterattack, just like at the very beginning of my training with the master.
Of course, if you gave me a little more time, I would have made it. Not two seconds: get close, try to hit, jump away, but at least thirty seconds, which they simply don't give me.
The enemy immediately tries to move away and continues to pelt me with various attacks.
In addition to flying blocks, various peaks and pits often appear right under my feet - if I weren't an airbender, I wouldn't have survived. I don't know how even a very strong fire or water bender should act in these conditions, but I was lucky. The wind really helped with maneuvering.
Even pinning me in a corridor made of boulders and throwing a big one over it didn't work - I just jumped out and even stabbed one of them. I just couldn't say how many there were - they, dressed in green, didn't all fire at once, and during such a high-speed battle, counting where the attacks were coming from and how many people were simply unrealistic.
In general, there were really a lot of people and after just ten minutes I realized that this was a futile place. At the fastest pace, I need to hold out for about three to four hours. This is simply impossible, they throw earth at me so much that I have to turn around faster than a snake in a frying pan.
I needed to somehow create a tornado around myself without meditation in a few minutes.
The idea came unexpectedly, you just have to not stand still! Well, no, I'm not captain obvious, I just have to use the same method as everyone else. Kata!
The truth is your own, so to speak, depending on the situation.
I began to perform even greater feints, as if performing, not only did I dodge the stones flying at me, but I also began to perform somersaults on the spot, with my hands like a windmill, and other tricks that I saw in the scroll of the airbenders. The breeze inside itself suggested what was next, and over time, literally after about thirty seconds of such feints, I realized that I could release a tornado.
Which is what I did.
A cyclone began to form around me and immediately increase in size; various screams, crunches and groans were heard around me:
Fuck, you fucking fagot, I will cut you and all your...
And so on, the mat stood right, well... damn.
To take a little break, I released control of the tornado; it didn't change anything, but now I was just in the center of the tornado, about three meters from the ground, and looked at my surroundings.
And I decided to add some sparkle by flicking my lighter. In a few seconds, the tornado was supplemented with light.
Ultanul is so ultanul, but judging by the fact that the screams have stopped, this needs to end. In theory, it should be easier than last time, if only because there was a much smaller tornado, but somehow I didn't feel it. Straining with all my might, I began to subdue the tornado. It feels as if you are trying to push a rubber ball into a box whose height is less than the diameter of the ball. Even though it is made of rubber, it bends with such difficulty, it is simply impossible.
But over time, I managed to put in something I couldn't handle and the storm began to calm down, little by little, but in ten minutes I managed. There was just chaos around: corpses, blood, uprooted trees, churned up earth, as if they had walked around with a plow, several times. Somewhere else, red flames, in general, pure hell on earth, like dinosaurs with a burning arse, ran by.
True, I hardly had any strength left, it was even worse than last time, and I passed out. Glory to Agni, by this time I heard voices and stomping, calmly falling into oblivion.
The first thing I felt upon waking up was cold and damp. They poured a tub of cold water on me.
Having torn my eyes, I suddenly realized two things:
Firstly, it wasn't my poor fellows who found me. Secondly, I am tied to a chair, in some kind of prison uniform, somewhere underground in a dark room, which was illuminated by two small candles. Tied with high quality - with stone ropes, a bitch, which encircled my body on the chest, on each limb, and even tied my head behind the forehead. And the fingers were pressed to some surface.
Next to me there was a table with some tools, and opposite me stood a typical Chinese man. Here's a look - two thin mustaches above the lips, one on the chin, hanging a little down, a decent-sized receding hairline or maybe even shaven, judging by the neatness, narrow eyes, a lean body of medium size, in dark-looking clothes, reminiscent of the people of the earth.
Bitch, I got it. I just got myself into trouble and it seems like I'm screwed.
Usually, when captured, the simplest recommendations are to tell everything you know. It is necessary to act as a hero in exceptional cases, and everyone understands that the information will be pulled out in any case, but it's better this way than after severe torture.
But here's the thing: I don't know anything. My mission is quite simple and even logistical; no one gave me information on the current location of troops, any appearances or passwords.
Only now, who will believe me. An officer? An officer. Be kind enough to lay out everything you know.
I didn't say anything first, I just waited for this guy's actions. And he did not let me down, so to speak.
"Well, Captain Aki," he began, "let's not quarrel." I just need answers to my questions, and I am not very eager to use these tools.
— And which ones, may I ask?
-Are you an avatar? — the captor asked the question straight away, "you used air and fire in battle." These are two elements.
Your mother. Your god's soul is the udder of the mother tribe. This is already very bad. I don't believe in fairy tales, they say everyone around, except for the bad Fire Nation, is waiting for the avatar to return: I've heard too much about how business works here - they saw it in a coffin. And it seems they took me for him. What the hell?
Oh, did anyone survive the battle? - I began, braving and not giving the appearance that I realized the level of ass I had ended up in, - I don't know what kind of fairy tales he told there, but I am a swordsman who wields fire at a mediocre level.
"That means it's bad," the man sighed heavily and went to the tools, taking out a thin long needle and a wooden hammer.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
Hey, why do it immediately for the bad? What avatar am I? Why would an avatar even be in the fire army? — I tried to delay the inevitable.
"That's what I want to know," he said casually, tucking the needle under the nail of my index finger and swinging it to hit me.
It's good that the saving wind filled my consciousness completely and completely, but even through such an anesthetic, echoes of terrible pain rushed to me when the mustachioed gentleman tapped lightly on the other side of the needle.
A cry of pain involuntarily escaped from my throat.
-Are you an avatar?
This will be a long time pastime.
Two identically dressed military men were dragging me by the arms. My feet dragged along the ground, and I myself could barely stay conscious.
They tortured me for who knows how long, but they hammered a needle into me several times under each fingernail. The wind in my head helped, but it was not a panacea. The pain was strong, sharp and sharp, and broke through any barriers, let's call it that.
They threw me into some damp cell, where there were absolutely no conditions: just a stone box, even without light. At least they don't seem to be planning to feel sorry for me at all. And I didn't know how to get out of this shit, because all my magic went into maintaining life in me, apparently, and the wind in my head, protecting me from completely unbearable pain.
The blood underneath the nails looked as if someone had painted them with black paint, I managed to notice this while still there. So far these are all the changes in my body. Oh yes, except that I lost my voice from screaming.
It's good that I'm still an airbender - I don't know how it works for others, but if I didn't have my native breeze in my head, I would have already gone crazy. Apparently that guy is not experienced in this matter and does not understand that you need to start small, after all. Otherwise you might end up with a vegetable.
Although I don't understand the word at all in this matter. My thoughts just go somewhere and, apparently, I just need to sleep. After all, my "adventures" here are not over yet. I would gladly say everything I know, it's a pity that I, bitch, don't know anything, and I'm telling him this directly. I answer the questions asked clearly. Although it may be for the better, otherwise, who knows what would have happened to me. Maybe if I tell you that I am an airbender who figured out how to disguise himself as a firebender, they will immediately lead me to the chopping block. And what? There's no point in going to jail, is there any point? It is only the bad fire nation that puts them in prison, and the good earth nation that immediately executes everyone from the other nations.
Okay, that's it, go to sleep. Otherwise I don't even have the strength to move.
I woke up an indefinite amount of time later, still in the same pitch darkness. Yeah, it seems that it's not my cell, but a method of torture. They'll leave me here for a few days, and then the questions will come again. Fucking class, just class.
We need to think about how to escape right now. There are simply no other options.
But I didn't know how to cut a stone... even in the best of times I would have to try very hard, but now...
And now I'm screwed. Full.
To prison for espionage.
"Ha, what a joker you are, man," the man smiled, taking the glass and starting to wipe it, and really, what kind of bartender doesn't wipe the glass, if he hadn't done this, he would have suspected something was wrong, "what kind of war?" What are you talking about?
How about what? - I frowned in bewilderment, - a hundred years old, what else.
"Boy, stop joking already, I even have a headache," the bartender frowned and actually began rubbing his temples with one hand.
Fuck, I don't understand. Right here, absolutely. Either I'm a fool or the skis don't work. Or maybe I'm a time traveler, huh. Hah, right?
I quickly ended the conversation with the bartender and went to get people to talk. What kind of news is this?
I really hope this isn't time travel. How can I say this, after rebirth, the second one doesn't seem so impossible, right? And just like Skyrim's precepts, I woke up in prison and went to get out. There must be a dragon here somewhere... I even looked back, but thank God the sky was the most ordinary, even beautiful - blue and no clouds or dragons.
In any case, I went to the bartender at the next bars, struck up a dialogue, and this time quickly approached the issue of war. He also looked at me like I was a fool and he also had a headache.
And I did this several more times, and then I faked it to ordinary people - no one knows about the war! What the fuck? I didn't have answers to this question, so I went to get out of here. I think our command will be interested in information about the secret organization of their method of using earth magic and the fact that they were somehow able to convince everyone around that there is no war. How the fuck?
How?
I don't remember the anime well enough to tell what's going on here. All I remember about Ba Sing Se is that sooner or later both the avatar and Zuko will come here. But when and how, I can no longer say.
Okay, Agni with all this crap, it's time to get out of here. Actually, I left here with these thoughts. Closer to the wall, a continuous city began, where I had to walk along different streets for the sake of a straight path, and in one of them a rather ironic situation occurred. They tried to rob me.
"Hey, empty your pockets if you want to live," a man said impudently. Of course, two more young men immediately came out from behind the alley.
I even smiled, honestly. It was easy to beat them with one hand. And then I decided to find out a little about this strange pain in people's heads. I don't feel sorry for these scum, so I started beating up the main guy and asking leading questions about history and the Hundred Years' War.
Well, his head hurt just incredibly, but by getting to the bottom of him, I could break through this suggestion and he, already beaten with broken fingers, remembered and even described what I didn't tell him. With that I let him go.
True, he did not run away - he fainted.
So, what is it like? There are some benders here who can inspire thoughts? No, this is nonsense...
In any case, it's good that at least it's not time travel, thank Agni or whoever, otherwise I'd be tired of gaining authority, money, and so on again. And understanding the new world is also a bit of a challenge.
In any case, after some more time I approached the main outer wall itself. She was taller and thicker than everyone else and felt quite decent. Obviously, those who built it bet that this wall would simply never fall. And by and large they are right, without an avatar or some other dishonest player, it is almost impossible to break such walls.
How could I not imagine that I, as an airbender, would have to hammer this wall for a good few hours, this is provided that the earthbenders do not fully know. But now we'll find out how long to run over such a wall.
But as soon as I jumped on the wall and began to run under my feet, the stone sharply pushed me away and I began to fall. And various stones of decent size flew at me straight from the ground. Several masons stood below and aimed at me, trying to kill me. Damn it, how were they able to figure me out?
But oh well, the problem wasn't that bad, so when I landed on the ground, it only took a few seconds, I didn't run so high, so they didn't have time to shoot me in the air.
I managed to notice eight different benders in the air. Purely theoretically, it was possible to finally charge the tornado with all the might, but of course I won't do that. Peaceful, innocent people, no matter how stupid it may sound, are not guilty of anything and I don't want to kill them.
In general, regarding this battle, at first I was calm, after all, I coped with a much larger number of more elite soldiers, but somehow I forgot to take into account my condition and equipment.
I realized that everything was not so simple when they started throwing stones at me, and I just spun and spun and even fell into a slight panic, I didn't want to be captured again, the mere thought of this causes almost primitive horror, but nevertheless, throwing away the first second panic, I began to spin the air around me with the help of additional circular movements of my legs in parallel with dancing. This helped reflect the stones and feel them better. The more I diluted the air with my inner one, the better I felt it, so it turned out very well.
And then I started answering. Huge wind blades that hit the stone wall pierced it and crushed the bender behind it so that he even flew off.
It took me about ten minutes to do everything and after the turning point there were only corpses left, without wasting time I jumped as high as possible and ran up the wall.
About ten minutes and I was at the top, there weren't many guards from above and I immediately took them out by jumping up and throwing a huge wind cutter into the walls under me, this was enough to leave a decent several meter crack on top.
Then I carefully landed on a protruding brick and stared at Freedom.
I finally got out. For some reason, until this moment I still felt like I was in a cage, but now I don't. Almost not. All that remains is to jump off and run on the first windmill.
Taking a deep breath, I threw myself to the side with air with maximum force and began to plan. This time I came up with the idea of simultaneously inflating myself with air and thereby flying away from Ba Sing Se.
I flew for a decent amount of time, but nevertheless I was able to move a very decent distance from these walls without standing on the ground. Someday I will destroy them and laugh madly and maybe even suck some beauty.
Yes, the body, for some reason, stopped slightly, remembered that it was male and began to show clear signs that it was time to talk closer to someone.
But first I'll run as far as possible, eat, run some more, sleep, eat and run some more. In general, I will run as far away from Ba Sing Se as possible.
Napoleonic plans given my condition, but what can I do?
After two days of travel, I could say that I had escaped a very decent distance. Even with all the desire, the news about such an interesting me simply could not reach these places. I literally slept for several hours, then quickly ate and ran, ran... I don't know how I kept up this pace, but in fact it only let me go while I was running. Every time I did nothing, it seemed to me that these strawberries would jump out of the bushes and drag me into their dungeons.
It seems I'm starting to have problems with the cuckoo. Feeling free only when running is not really normal, no matter how you look at it. Okay, I think this will go away on its own with time.
In general, I stopped in some town of a decent-looking people of the earth. Honestly, during all the time that I was running, one single thought came into my head: it's very difficult for me to fight even against average stoners. Well, that is, of course, I win, but winning using my trump card in the form of a tornado is a very bad victory. Not to mention that I shouldn't really be using air magic at all.
But I almost can't defeat strawberries with "fire" magic or a rapier. And here I need to do as the master taught me - study the enemy. So I decided to find someone to teach me the craft of the earth.
Okay, who am I lying to, what skill, at least it will show the general basics, then I will leave saying that I can't do anything, and then I need to find a normal sparring partner, Strawberry. Hmmm. Problem.
The first thing I did in town was to go to the local bakery. Let them look at the hand, maybe treat it somehow, thank God there are no traces of infection and characteristic twitching either on the fingers or in my closed fracture, so I won't shoot the characteristic fingers, let them think that this is just a natural deviation, but my hand examined.
The local doctor sighed and smoked me with some kind of herb, straightened my arm normally, then applied a splint and told me not to pull my arm out of the "plaster" for two months, looking into my stunned eyes, she added that if you are still a bender, then after two weeks carefully You can try it, if it doesn't cause pain, then use it at your own discretion.
Here is proof that benders do indeed have some kind of physical enhancement. It remains to understand what it is and whether it can be somehow strengthened. But these are already dreams, dreams, uh-oh.
It turned out that in this town there is an academy of earth benders. Of course, it's paid, but nevertheless, it's something, and I also stole a fair amount of money from the casemates of the stone hands. Therefore, regardless of the price, I came and signed up.
I rented a local hotel and honestly went somewhere around four days every day for the standard two hours. And I realized that this was some kind of mess.
No, from the very beginning I was confused by the too... loose appearance of the "teacher" and too no... movements. I saw how strawberries move and these are rough, sharp and straight movements. Earthbenders reek of some kind of firm confidence and assertiveness, but this guy stinks like the last businessman, but not a bender.
Actually, four days later it finally dawned on me and right in the middle of the class I gave up and went to the hotel. So what to do? Do more push-ups? No, of course, this helped me begin to regain my shape, no matter what anyone said in a week it was impossible to completely work through all the muscles, and even in such an exhausted state, the loads that the "teacher" gave seemed completely childish.
Therefore, I was struck by the idea of having some fun with some local girl and going on to look for God knows what. I still have no idea where I am from a geographical point of view.
The thing is, Suki and I traveled too... freely. And I don't remember the entire map of the earth. And where we were, and where I am now, I don't give a damn. Maybe I was running in the other direction from the right one?
Something will have to be done about this, the guys are probably worried about me, but unfortunately, first I'd better pump myself up and come in even better fighting shape than vice versa. I need to get stronger, and then I'll take care of the inspection. In the end, I hope Suki figured out what needs to be done and will at least make some noise in the local villages. The main thing is to make noise, not to do things.
In general, I dressed more decently, left all the weapons in the room and went to the local bar. I started drinking drinks, listening to the conversation around me and picked up one interesting dialogue:
"You heard, the Blind Bandit killed everyone again," said one vacationer to another sitting next to him.
Yes, no one has ever defeated her before. Is this even possible? Did you see how she moved?
"Okay, let's be quiet, this is an underground arena after all," the first one came to his senses, starting to shush his friend.
So-so. And this is already interesting. An underground arena, somewhere in this city, where there are such earthbenders. O-very interesting. The original goal had already been forgotten, although not completely, but nothing could be done about it, I wanted to find out as much as possible. Therefore, without further ado, I began to sip my drink ten times slower and watch a couple of friends out of the corner of my eye.
Having waited for one of them to go out, I quietly sat next to him and when he went into the alley to take a piss, I went behind him and grabbed him in a painful hold from behind, so that my face was not visible, and began the interrogation:
—Where do underground battles take place?
What? What are you talking about...
Oh, why don't I just say this information? What will happen to him personally for this? But oh well, I don't know the local rules, maybe he's really afraid of something. In any case, I twisted my arm even more and repeated the question.
Yes, what are you talking about, man? Ay-ay, let me go, please, take the money...
"Don't make a fool of yourself," I turned even harder, "if I push a little more I'll break both of your arms, so tell me where the arena is and I'll leave you alone."
That's how I got the address, and at the same time the schedule of fights. It turned out that everything doesn't happen there as often as I would like and the next fight is in four days. Well, it looks like we'll have to stay in this town.
For several days I just chilled out in the hotel and trained. I stopped my form anticipating the subsequent beating, because I plan to fight with the locals in the arena. No magic. And what? Air magic cannot be shown, much less fire magic. That's all, you'll have to deal with it with one hand and a rapier, maybe using the air a little for acceleration or for chopping blows.
By the way, my black nails seem to last a long time, because I simply couldn't imagine how to get the blood out from under them, honestly. In theory, it will go away on its own with time. And if not, then I'll think of something.
Although I had already come up with the idea, by and large, I took to a local sewing workshop scraps of the fabric that I had stolen from the local agents and paid for them to make me a pair of gloves, simple white gloves.