Avatar: Awakened Gamer

(Warning: Gruesome descriptions.)

Chapter 119

…
The Fire Nation had many military camps around the Earth Kingdom, it was the biggest Nation amongst the four after all, so it required a lot of personnel to keep hold of what the Fire Nation had already gained there. 

Even amongst all of them, Camp 187 stood out. Or as the presiding soldiers called it, Golden Duck Camp. Working here was a dream for everybody, you got paid extremely well and there was barely any fighting around here. 

Essentially, you got paid for doing nothing. 


The base had around 5,000 soldiers and amongst them around 800 firebenders. If a fight somehow broke out, more soldiers could be drawn from the other nearby camps.

Zomak was a normal soldier working in the Golden Duck, and he couldn’t be happier. He did miss his family from back home, with his son having recently been born, and he hadn’t seen the little guy yet. 

Today was just another day in the camp, he played cards with his friends, another boring day where he would be paid and could send some money back to his family. This is his third kid, his third son actually, the heavens had blessed him in this life. Zomak wondered if he had been some wise sage in his last one. 

“Call.”

“Shit!”

“Zomak you bastard!”

“This is the third time today!”

“He’s cheating.”

Zomak smirked. “I told ya, I was a Saint in my last life. Helping thousands of people, that’s why I’m blessed with good luck in this one.”


“Fuck, this bastard is cheating. Just look at that smug look on his face.”


“Yeah, bet it makes him happy stealing from his brother in arms.”
“Fukin cheater.”

“Yes, yes, I am cheating in life. Bow before your glorious saints you bastards.”

This was how it always played out, whoever won amongst them would be accused of cheating. Despite his smug face, and holier-than-thou attitude, Zomak had done the same against his friends too.

For most, war was a dangerous and terrifying prospect, especially for the common soldiers. But for a few, the war can be a blessing in disguise. 

He had been to the frontlines once and it was a nasty place, with blood, and death in each corner. People were dying everywhere. Corpses burned and charred, a couple of his friends’ heads were smashed by earthbenders, and another got shot in the eye with an arrow. 

Watching his friend gurgle at his words as the tip of the arrow exited from the other side of his skull had been something Zomak still had nightmares of. A chill went down his spine just thinking of it. 

He believed in the Fire Nation's plan to spread their glory, but dangerous battles like that weren't his thing and he hoped to never participate in one again. If he's called, he would rather break a leg and say that he's unavailable than go into that hellhole again. 


As Zomak was walking about to go and get his friends, he noticed a big man, about two heads taller than even those gigantic komodo-rhino riders. 



By the green clothes on him, it was clear that he belonged to the Earth Kingdom. There were also two Fire Nation soldiers escorting him. 

Was he a prisoner? If he's a prisoner then why isn't he in handcuffs? 

Zomak was confused by this. But he knew when to keep his mouth shut, as Colonel Oa came out, with an expression of rage on his face.



**
"You know the meeting place! Why the hell did you come here, Fun Shi?!" Colonel Oa whispered to the big-built man.  

Fun Shi smirked in response, making the colonel even angrier. If it wasn’t for the money, he would have already-

Before anyone could do anything Fun Shi pulled out a dagger and stabbed the Colonel on the chin. The tip of the dagger came out from the top of the Colonel's head. 
Silence reigned through the camp, then there was shock at what had just happened. All this happened in less than a second, and every firebender within the vicinity got ready to blast fire, drawing their first backward. 


Fun Shi’s eyes were like a hawk, and his smirk turned into a full-blown smile. 


"The Beifong Family sends their regards!"


With that said, he jumped back and started running away before the Colonel's body could even hit the ground. 

Even though everyones' minds were in jumbles, they knew that the earthbender running was bad news. Within an instant fire was thrown at him, the doves of firebenders made it impossible to escape without injury.

But as they attacked, the assailant was able to dodge most of the attacks with agility and grace that was well beyond humanly possible, especially for someone his size.

His body bent at impossible angles as if he didn't have any bones in his body.


"Hit that bastard!"

"Don't let him escape!"

"Build a perimeter!"


Hundreds of soldiers attacked, but most of them missed. 

As fire covered the air around them, burning everything, the smell of smoke permeated the air. Eventually, an attack landed on Fun Shi, as he could no longer stand on the burning hot ground.

Not long after, another blast of fire hit the assassin right in the face. The taste of burning flesh hung around the camp.

Even as his skin sizzled and the blood on his face boiled, the man didn't scream or say anything. 

But no man could ever resist the pain of being burned alive. The firebenders took their forms and shot out short blasts of fire again, catching the clothes of the man in flames. 


The attacker burned, his hair turning into smoke and his screams soon started coming. "AHHHHHH!!!" 

He yelled out in pain, as the firebenders threw even more fire at him. Their anger and frustrations piled up. Everyone knew that from today onward, due to this incident, their camp would cease to exist. 

Not long, the gross smell of burning flesh filled the air, as hundreds of firebenders threw attacks at him.

"This bastard is hard to kill," said one of the firebenders as they burned the man with glee on their faces. Some amongst them were put off by the screams. But none felt an ounce of pity for the assassin. 

"AHHHHH!!!" The howls of pain from the man were nightmarish as his skin peeled off, his eyes popped out of his sockets. His teeth fell out as his gums burned with the tongue dangling about. His eyes still moved about widely.



***
-Sokka-


The pain was deafening, being burned alive. His HP kept falling continuously, and the Status Page was filled with Burning effects. It was the most painful experience he had ever felt.


He could feel his muscles being burnt, and the tears in his sockets boiling. 


It was inevitable, attacking at such a place. He knew that using any of his moves like spearmanship and waterbending would be the end of his plan. He had to struggle through this pain and survive.

Gamer’s Body will heal all of this without even leaving a scar, at least that was what he told himself to try and distract his mind from the agonizing pain.

Even under transformation, this was a dangerous thing. Sokka had been unable to meet the Colonel in a  place with no one around, as the Colonel seemed smart enough to know that would have been a bad idea. Deep down Sokka had hoped the leader here would be someone blinded by greed, but that didn’t seem to be the case. 


Everything felt like it was on fire, and these benders couldn't stop attacking. But even under such blazing fires, within the corner of his mind, Sokka knew what had to be done as he saw his HP plummeting to levels where he became uncomfortable. 

He crawled in a fetal position, hiding his hand from view as he pulled out a dark purple pellet and crushed it. 

POOF!

Purple smoke burst all around his body, and it covered the camp. While still burning and on fire, the firebenders hadn’t stopped shooting fire even though they couldn’t see anymore. Though Sokka did feel them pause for a split second, likely worried if the gas might have been flammable. It wasn’t, an explosion that close would kill him for real. 


Equipping some boots that looked like they were made of alligator leather, Sokka clicked them and the world around him shifted. He felt like he was slurped up by space itself, going through its tight throat and being spat on the other side.


The next thing he felt was cold liquid dosing over his body. The water made frying sounds around him as his body’s heat settled down and the fire disappeared. 


Where was he teleported to? Sokka had no idea and was unable to think clearly. It was the first place that came to mind. The plan had been to teleport to a nearby river if he hadn’t been able to escape that place. But it wasn’t that easy to think clearly and have an image in your mind when being burned alive.

All he could think of was water. So here he was. 

Opening his status page, he saw his HP was below 10%. That had been close. 

Initially, he had thought there would be at most hundreds of people, but instead, there were thousands of them. Even with the Gamer Interface, that would be hard to deal with if he only had to use abilities from this world and some other weaker abilities from other worlds. Thankfully he had planned in case he couldn’t escape too.


At one time, he had contemplated going and just killing Ozai. One slash to the neck while he slept and that would be it. But things were harder than that, the Royal Family that had survived a dynasty at war for hundreds of years. 

They had many methods to stop poisoning and earthbenders from digging underground and assassinating the Fire Lord. 

Also just killing Ozai would have another power-hungry guy take his place. No, Azula must sit on the throne. 

Having Ozai killed, even if Sokka succeeded, the chances of the world falling into a deeper mess were astronomically high. Other rulers could become paranoid of him and even orchestrate his death for as long as he lived. The world wasn’t in the control of the many, but the few, those same people were human too and could feel fear. 


Sokka closed his eyes, thinking of how he could go about killing the Fire Lord. It would likely be in an enclosed space, and with many people. Guards and an army would likely be at the palace. Decoys, body doubles, and much more. Things that he couldn’t even think of probably were in operation. Also enclosed spaces with no water and no room to dodge never panned out well for him.  


He sighed, getting rid of such thoughts, knowing that the road he was choosing was the fastest and best one he could think of.

Manipulating the water around him, and taking control of it, Sokka activated water healing as his Gamer’s Body was having a hard time healing the damage. 

Looking down at himself, Sokka winced, as he saw a big part of his lung had been charred. Fire damage was harder to heal than normal and it gave a status effect. 


He would keep that in mind for when the next time came around when he had to burn alive and orchestrate a death. Sokka hoped he would never have to do this, but sometimes you had to be harsh on not just others, but yourself too to get the results you wanted. 




****
A/N: I contemplated writing this part a lot. Should I change it? Could Sokka do something else? Is he the kind of guy to put himself through this kind of danger? Many, MANY times I thought about this. How far is Sokka willing to go for his goals? I reread many of the chapters, trying to get a feeling of how he had grown. In the end, I decided to write it, because Sokka does have the guts to rush this, especially with the time limit he has. 


P.S: After that, I decided to post the chapters. I was still writing them daily, just thinking if I needed to change something. Though during the editing chapters ended up longer than usual.