Akashi had changed and recovered a nice portion of his stamina. Currently, he was dressed in comfortable Air Nomad clothes.
"Apparently, I don't have to work out today." He stretched his arms up and to the side, as if warming them up.
The kids were around him, looking smugly at him, except for the oldest. But it seemed that she had a hint of a challenge in her eyes, wanting to put him in his place. After all, he had treated them like kids, which the oldest hated, and he had said he was better than them, who had been bending the air since they were born.
Akashi stood in the middle of the yard and extended his hands. With a pull backward, he created a strong wind sphere that pulled the air from the surrounding area. He then pushed the sphere to the ground, making it roll while he controlled its direction with his hands.
"Okay. You're not that novice anymore." Ikki said. "But to say you mastered that trick, you should at least be able to do this." She jumped and spun, creating a sphere of air between herself and the ground. "You should be able to stabilize yourself above the sphere and use it to move around."
She moved around him while crossing her legs above the sphere.
In this realistic world, there was a major difference between it and a cartoon.
The air was colorless and quite invisible.
Unless there was dust, smoke, or earth particles in the air, you wouldn't see it coming.
Ikki currently appeared to be floating.
The only indicator of the spin was the dust rolling in the direction of the spin beneath her.
"Hmm… Let me try." Akashi controlled the sphere that was moving around to come to him. He then waved his hand a bit, making it get bigger. After that, he jumped and sat on it. The sphere rolled with him a few times before he managed to find the balance point and balance himself above it.
"It's easier than I had expected," Akashi teased the little girl.
"Humph. If you want to say it's easy, why don't you move around." She gestured to him.
"Sure, a master like you won't find it hard to do so." Jinora added. Her tone was calm and seemed serious, but it was obvious that she was mocking him from the context.
"Okay."
Akashi smirked.
[Airbending up to level 10]
He was going to use the points eventually, but he had waited for this moment to measure his progress and know his own level when it came to bending.
Akashi moved fluently while riding his spinning sphere.
Tenzin crossed his arms, as if he was impressed.
"It seems that you didn't neglect your training like I had anticipated. Good, very good." Tenzin remarked. "Also, very talented."
Akashi almost shot him a glare.
You know, there's no better way to anger a kid than making them jealous.
To get praises that not even the kids got in their lives in front of them would definitely get under their skin.
Even the oldest started narrowing her eyes at him.
'Kids… Like cats. They hold grudges briefly but are easy to provoke.' He thought to himself.
Akashi turned to Penma, who put her hand on her forehead and sighed deeply, before glaring at her husband.
"Well, if you are that good, why don't we have a race." The oldest said.
"Yes… Yes… No way you can beat me up." The middle added.
The youngest just crossed his arms and said, "If you can't beat these two, you can't hope to beat me."
"Okay. Let's race."
Akashi stepped down from the air sphere.
'Little do they know, I still have six skill points.' Akashi patted Meelo on the head. 'Though, no attribute points for now, unless for wisdom or Vitality. And having extra agility is always good.'
Meelo, seeming to realize that Akashi was teasing him with that smile, looked offended and bit Akashi's hand. Akashi waved his hand up and down, trying to shake the little brat off.
"Ouch…" Akashi clicked his tongue. "Okay, you stay here."
"Humph." Meelo harrumphed and crossed his arms.
'I guess the youngest one is the most jealous one.' He thought to himself.
Very soon, he got into the line with two girls almost less than half of his size.
"Okay. We're going to have three laps around the temple. Whoever finishes first is the winner." Tenzin declared.
"Ready. Start."
He declared, and the three soon summoned their spinning ball and got on top of them, racing forward.
Akashi found himself being behind.
The oldest, who seemed to be the most skillful, was in second place. And Ikki was the first. Akashi was last, obviously.
The first lap finished like this with Jinora trying to push.
Akashi looked at the system's screen, directly at his stats, and he put 2 Skill Points into Airbending Skill Tree.
[Airbending up to level 12]
Suddenly, something within him changed.
A new muscle memory that never seemed to be there appeared from thin air.
Akashi found himself being able to bend the sphere almost on an unconscious level.
His speed increased dramatically, catching up to the two girls. Obviously, he was getting faster than them.
Sitting on the ball no longer bothered him, and he felt that he could do more tricks.
'That's it. Fuck Flying. I'm going to make Rasenshuriken.'
During the third lap, Akashi increased his bending level by one more level.
Jinora and Ikki felt wind pushing them. When they turned, they saw a massive air sphere, but Akashi wasn't on it.
They lifted their heads to see him standing on top of the ball.
"You can stand on it?" Ikki looked up.
"Never knew…." Jinora commented.
"Hey, it's unfair to make it this big." Ikki yelled.
"Not fair. Bigger ball means faster speed." Jinora nodded. "That's cheating."
Akashi had gotten down to the level of the kids.
[Airbending up to level 16]
He finished using all of his skill points.
[A Sub-bending Skill Tree can be learned now.]
The ball that Akashi was on shrunk until it became football-sized. He stood on it, still, and in no time, he left the kids behind him.
He found himself at the finishing line.
He could control his momentum, speed, and air around him.
It may seem that he increased his speed by increasing his level.
But that wasn't true.
Somehow, he could feel the air around him as his levels increased.
And at the current level he reached, he felt that he could remove the resistance from the air, causing him to move at a very high speed.
'I could bend air resistance… doesn't that mean unstoppable acceleration…. Infinite speed.' He thought to himself.
Remember.
He just jumped 7 levels in Airbending. Not one, not two, and not three. But seven.
Akashi felt that infinite possibilities had been opened before him.
"That's so fast." Tenzin said, "How did you do that."
"I did move the air around me." Akashi replied. 'I bet that he doesn't know that air resistance removing should be possible by training. Likely, when you move fast, try to bend the air in front of you to move around.
The possible weakness would be the inability to breathe? But that could be fixed.
The other weakness would be obviously the law of energy. The faster he gets, the more mass he has. With a fragile body like his, if he moved too fast, he could turn into smashed meat upon collision. And, the more mass he has, the more energy it would take to keep increasing his speed.
The kids caught up to him, sweat covering their heads.
Akashi could win.
"Try praising your kids now." Akashi said. He tried to move, but stopped, pretending to be panting. "I'm so tired. I shouldn't have moved fast." He yelled dramatically.
The competitive kids didn't understand what deception was. And they felt an overwhelming sense of victory as they passed the finish line.
Of course, when they think about it later, or when they grow up, they would then understand that they were let to win.
Tenzin laughed. "These are my girls. They really crushed you."
The girls hugged him proudly.
"We beat him dad." Ikki laughed.
"Now, if you don't want him to surpass you, you better train harder from now and on." Tenzin said.
The girls nodded, before walking away.
Jinora simply smiled while Ikki extended her tongue at him, before turning and walking away.
The girls went to him and hugged him.
He then turned to Akashi. "Seems you are quite advanced now. I may need to train you by myself."
"Yeah… Let's leave it for the next time." Akashi replied, yawning.
Those high-level airbending movements weren't without cost. His Chi was almost drained. He needed more wisdom point, to lessen the energy used and increase his own.
-x-X-x-
At the same time, next to the police department.
It was night.
From within the shadows, people in green attire appeared.
The ground suddenly shifted and acted as if it was a water surface. A man got out of it.
"What did you find?"
"Is there something linking the queen to all of this?"
They asked the yellowish man who had just gotten out of the ground. "Fortunately, not so much linking her to Tarrlok's crime." The yellowish man replied, his voice grim, holding a book in his hand. "But I have found this in the evidence room. It's almost a blasphemy against our queen."
"Did you read it?" he asked.
"No. I just had a quick time to skim through it, and knew that it had insulted her name through one page. If the Earth Queen finds that someone read it, she'd kill him on the spot. Unfortunately, we can't approach Tarrlok." He replied.
"Let's review this book together then, and make a judgment."