93 - Bonding with the Moon spirit

Hearing Iroh’s threatening words even General Zhao was shaken, he couldn’t help but take a deep breath in before he exhaled and slowly lowered the Moon spirit back into the pound, seeing his action everyone around relaxed except Levi, and that was what Zhao was counting on as he launched a blast of fire directly into the pound.

‘Now,’ thought Levi, his eyes shining, pushing Void Monarch to the limit. He pulled a Koi fish from his inventory that looked the exact same as the moon spirit except it wasn’t moving. Using the Void monarch he instantly switched the moon spirit with the normal Koi fish as the moon spirit appeared in his hand flailing wildly.

Invisible seals immediately fell on the now struggling Koi fish in Levi’s palm, sealing away its thoughts and actions before finally sealing away its connection to the outside world, the moment he did so the entire world seemed to have turned gray as if there was a piece missing from it.

It just so happened that Zhao’s attack collided with the pound the moment Levi sealed the moon spirit's connection to the outside world, due to the cover of the fire blast and the speed the switch happened nobody noticed anything.

“Noooo,” screamed Iroh at the top of his lungs as he jumped into the middle of Zhao and the fire benders, launching punches kicks, and fire attacks wildly and dismantling them in barely ten seconds like they were a bunch of kids, unfortunately, they bought enough time for Zhao to escape.

‘Things should fellow cannon from here on out,’ thought Levi as he gazed at Yue before turning to look at Sokka, he sighed deeply before he teleported from there.

***

Appearing high in the sky Levi immediately started the bonding process, this was why he had gone through all the trouble and meticulous planning, it was to bond with the moon spirit! The moon spirit was destined to die anyhow today so Levi wanted to see if he could get anything out of it.

He was afraid the spirit bond wouldn't work cause the moon spirit was in physical form but his worries were unfounded.

[Ding]

[Spirit bonding initiated]

[The target is a high-level life form estimated time 15mn]

[Ding]

[Resistance detected]

[Estimated time increased to 40 minutes]

And so, Levi waited, he didn’t care about what happened next, the danger to his siblings was long gone, they were now at the oasis mourning the “death” of the moon spirit, away from all dangers, so he waited the entire span of 40 minutes.

After the first ten minutes, a giant with the shape of a fish made of water standing on two legs appeared outside the spirit Oasis, it was glowing in a clear blue light, spreading its light all over the northern water tribe, Aang was in the chest of the giant, his eyes and tattoos glowing.

‘Korra could never,’ Levi thought with a smile as he saw Aang like that.

The northern tribesmen seeing the giant made out of water seemed to finally regain a trace of hope as they prostrated to it when it passed through, in fact every tribesman was prostrating to it, hoping it would save them from their hopeless situation, except the fire nation soldiers.

The giant waved a hand and a giant wave of water swept the Fire Nation soldiers and their vehicles away, either drowning them or crushing them against the ice walls and under their vehicles.

Next, the giant moved to the border of the tribe and started devastating the fire nation’s fleet, they kept firing flaming rocks and fire attacks on him but they dealt no damage at all, it was as if they were throwing a pebble in the ocean, they stood no chance.

After twenty minutes passed Levi saw Zuko facing Zhao on top of a bridge in the middle of the tribe, the young prince was in better shape than the canon and had the upper hand.

After twenty-five minutes the moon finally reappeared in the sky, the giant water giant jolted in its place as if in disbelief.

It looked at the sky before turning back towards the Fire Nation fleet and sent a giant wave of water that pushed the fleet away and flipped dozens of ships on their back before it turned around heading back into the tribe.

But just as it was doing so it suddenly looked up, looking straight at Levi.

‘Oh you’ve got to be kidding me,’ thought Levi with his eyes twitching as the giant looked at him, he knew that right now it wasn’t the ocean spirit who held the wheel, it was Ravva, thankfully by this point the Koi fish body of the moon spirit had already turned into light particles and entered Levi’s body.

‘Does she think she stands a chance now that she got the help of the moon spirit?’ Levi couldn’t help but question with a smirk as he stared straight into the giant's eyes, his intentions clear on his face, bring it on.

Fortunately for Ravva, she seemed to have a brain this time as the giant turned around and went on its way after staring him down.

‘Guess she doesn't want the smoke.’ thought Levi as he watched Ravva retreating.

The giant melted and followed the river running in the middle of the tribe, it stopped for a moment below a bridge extending its clawed hands and grabbing Zhao who was fighting against Zuko and dragging him down before continuing.

Levi filtered out everything that happened after that, he closed his eyes in meditation as he floated in the sky using Void Monarch, the red dragon had come back and merged with him a while ago.

Finally, forty minutes passed and the system’s notifications rang out as he felt his connection with another spirit.

[Ding]

[Bounding successful]

***

Back in the spirit pound

“Yue, Yue, please say something,” Sokka kept repeating as tears fell down his face, he refused to believe the reality before him even though Yue’s body had started to turn cold.

“Sokka, she’s…she's gone,” said Katara, her voice shaking as tears started falling down her eyes, most of them for her brother’s current state rather than Yue’s death.

Sokka’s crying voice came to an abrupt halt as he looked in front of him at the spirit pound, as if seeing something they couldn’t, Katara looked over but she couldn’t see anything.

Sokka tried to say something but no words came out, soon he closed his eyes and right after Yue’s body disappeared from his embrace as if it didn’t belong in the physical world to begin with.

***

[Bounding successful]

[The user has successfully bounded with the Moon spirit]

‘Finally,’ thought Levi as he felt his connection with the moon spirit, he closed his eyes to try and feel any new changes that might have accrued to his body or bending, and feel any new power he might have acquired.

He stayed with his eyes closed floating in the sky for a long time, trying to glean anything he could and he felt…nothing! Not a single thing was different about him.

“System, what is happening?” he called out, hoping the system would clear it out for him.

[Ding]

[The user does not draw his power from the moon or ocean spirits and thus his water bending is unaffected by merging with them]

Reading the notification Levi almost shed tears.

He had been happy years ago, when he first received his bending, at that time the system told him his water bending was not bound to the moon or ocean spirits, he felt that he was special and that his bending would grow to surpass all others, and from a certain point of view he was right. But reading the notification he felt as if all his hopes and dreams were crushed.

All that effort, gone for nothing, not even the slightest benefit, I would even be ok with scraps, anything would be better than this, he thought.

[Ding]

[The user gained Water breathing from the koi fish]

Hearing that notification, instead of being happy that his unspoken wish came true he wanted to strangle the system, he felt it was making fun of him, sadly that wasn’t possible, it was like having an itch on his back that he couldn’t scratch, it was driving him crazy.

***

Teleporting to his lodgings Levi saw his clone scrambling all around the place with a contemplative look on his face.

“What are you doing?” Levi couldn’t resist asking.

“What? Oh, I was thinking of ways to apply invisible seals to the place.” Clone Levi was so engrossed in his musings that it took him a while to process Levi’s words.

Hearing his answer Levi who was already in a bad mood had black lines appear across his face, he took a deep breath first to calm his nerves before speaking, “That won’t be necessary, you can disable now.” he said calmly.

Clone Levi seemed to be hesitating, but in the end he only nodded before he disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Sigh

Sighing Levi fell on his bed and closed his eyes the next moment he heard knocking sounds coming from the door.

Knock Knock

Opening his eyes he was surprised to see his light coming in through the windows, it took him a moment to realize that that brief moment of closing his eyes had likely been hours, he had slept in without realizing.

Knock Knock

“Levi, are you in there?” Katara’s soft voice came followed by knocking on the thin ice door.

“Yeah, get in,” said Levi holding a grunt as he stretched and lowered the thin ice wall.

He didn’t have his Ethereal sense on so he was surprised to see Aang and Sokka fellow after her as well.

“How are you feeling?” Katara was the first to ask as she sat by the side of his bed.

“Better than yesterday,” he said and it was the truth, he didn’t feel as bad as before for the bonding failure, Sleep is indeed the best medicine, he thought.

Although the others seemed to misunderstand as looks of relief passed through their faces, “You shouldn’t overdo it like that again, it is dangerous, promise me.” said Katara with a stern tone.

“Ha-ah, I promise sister, I don’t want to be bedridden again either way,” he said, making her sigh in relief.

“We won,” said Aang with a smile.

“All thanks to you,” added Katara, making Aang blush.

“And why is the most talkative of you guys silent,” asked Levi looking at Sokka who hadn’t said a word ever since they came in, even though he knew why, but he had to act the clueless part.

The mood in the room instantly fell at his question, the air becoming noticeably heavier.

“Yue, she’s…she sacrificed herself to save the moon spirit.” Sokka was the first to speak and break the silence answering Levi, Katara held his hand to comfort him but it didn’t seem to have much effect.

“I am sorry to hear that,” said Levi, his remorse obvious by his sad tone, although he knew what would happen and even though he didn’t care much for Yue but he knew how much his brother must be hurting right now, that's why the remorse in his tone was genuine and not fake.

“I should have listened to you and stayed away from her,” said Sokka with a bitter smile.

“It doesn't matter brother, what's done is done,” said Levi, doing his best to comfort his brother.

“Did you know this was going to happen?” Asked Sokka all of a sudden looking at Levi, all three of them did.

“I didn’t, but I had a bad feeling about you two getting to know each other,” said Levi with a straight face, the others didn’t doubt his words.

“Thank you, Levi, I…I should have listened,” said Sokka with a bitter smile on his face, making Levi feel a lump in his throat. This was what he had tried to prevent, but in the end it still happened anyway.

“We will let you rest for now, make sure to rest well, alright?” said Katara as she got up and headed towards the door, giving the other two a subtle glance to do the same which they did after saying their goodbyes to Levi, soon it was only him left in the room.

Maybe I should head to the spirit world and try leveling up my spirit body, thought Levi as he teleported from there.

AN: Well what did you expect would happen when he bonded with the moon spirit? Of course nothing, Levi’s water bending has nothing to do with the moon, it is his own, that is the price he had to pay in the first place to get free of that binding, it wouldn’t make sense if he could get the best of both worlds.

And I kind of love it this way, I hate it when everything is always handed to the MC (I am a little guilty of doing that too), so when something doesn't go their way it's refreshing.

AN2: Instead of writing the thinking of characters between ‘...’ I started writing it in italics, I noticed a lot of famous authors and writers do the same and I also noticed that it is easier to read, for me at least, tell me what you think.