ATLA: The Bleeding Flame

NOTE: Extremely disappointed in this chapter, and the next to come. Had been planning this transition from the beginning and still haven't been able to come up with a satisfying way to execute it. Don't care to spend any more time on it so here ya go. Not even gonna bother running it through Grammarly, so please excuse any errors.  

Gonna spend a day or so attempting to salvage Chapter 6, I'd hate to give yall 2 mid chapters back to back.  

(POV Vlad) 

The last two years had been uneventful to say the least. While I'd upended quite a few villages, after the first-year people started to become familiar with my appearance. From then on, just strolling into a town and starting a culling became less and less easy. My success stemmed from my ability to hunt. 

I was supposed to instigate the battle and set the terms to be favorable to me. At a certain point I began showing up within a certain radius of a village, and was immediately besieged. Clearly, I'd gone a bit overboard and put the outskirts on high alert. Thankfully, they were too far away from any major provinces to receive help. Some back alley self-taught earth-benders were no real issue to deal with in the grand scheme of things. 

Another issue was traveling. It could take anywhere from days, to weeks, to months to travel between settlements. Finally, and perhaps worst of all, an intense boredom was overcoming me. Initially I'd been set off the leash for the first time. Everything was new, and everything was a chance to learn. 

I finally got to put into practice the basics I'd mastered and fine tune my skills and instincts in real combat. Yet now, things just seemed... monotonous. There was no rush, there was no. When I encountered a village now, instead of anticipation and joy at the prospect of growing in strength or having a struggling battle, I felt disappointment and pity. 

The intensity of my boredom was reaching a breaking point, if these fodder couldn't satiate my appetite for growth, then what could? Pretty soon I had given up entirely on my culling's, wandering aimlessly in search of something, anyone who could bring back the rush I'd once felt. 

That's when it happened. I was no earth-bender, I had no connection with nature or the world around me. Despite that fact, you could have been deaf dumb and mute and still felt the tremors that shook the floor beneath my feet. My mind began to race 100 miles a minute, an earth-bender had to be nearby, and whoever they were, they were not some village grown fool. 

In no time at all I followed the sound and feel of the tremors, heading toward where they were strongest. Before long my ostritch horse began to lose its balance, the world around us shifting this way and that and its feet being torn out from under him. Giving up on the mount, I tied it to a tree and took to the trees. 

Even from up here the quakes and vibrations were throwing off my balance. Leaping to and fro, I felt the intensity of the tremors reach their peak and the hunt was on. Using the treetops as cover, I carefully approached the source of all the havoc, only to find a couple large brown furred beasts brawling one another outside a tunnel. 

If I were to recall correctly, I think these creatures were called badgermoles. I didn't know much about them other than the fact they could earth-bend. And that was all the information I needed. While they were distracted and bickering, I began frothing at the mouth. Literally. 

A fog quickly began to envelop the surroundings, my veins began to squirm, and my skin turned a blood-red. Without warning I began my assault, from above I let my blood flow freely, forming a spear of flame that I drove with full force into one of the beasts. 

At least I attempted to. I had been mid-air when I saw both beasts casually turn their heads in my direction, and from the earth sprouted a wall that collided with my spear utterly shattering it. In the same instant from underneath the wall a stake of earth shot upward in attempt to skewer me on end. 

Wide eyed I managed to place a hand on the stake, sending myself flipping over it, and onto the ground beside one of the badgers. The moment my feet touched the ground without so much as moving a muscle I watched as one of them lifted four large boulders and launched them forward like tossing an apple. 

Preparing to dodge them, I felt the ground beneath my feet soften, and before I could react, I had sunk below the knee. There was no time to think, if those boulders hit me, I'd die. Plain and simple. Call it instinct, a miracle, an act of God, or a whisper in the back of my mind. It didn't matter, in that moment there was no thought behind my actions. 

As the large stones closed in on me, I inhaled a breath of air, from within my stomach, my throat, my very pores, I felt blood gather and build. I held it as long as I could directing and controlling as much as I could collect in a single moment. 

The imminence of death was upon me, yet something felt wrong. The rocks were 6-meters away. I still held my breath, continuing to rotate and compress the blood, deciding to set it aflame within me. Something was still missing. 4-meters now. In an act of desperation perhaps, I called upon the feeling of when I exhaled my frozen breath. 

I felt the change immediately and suddenly felt stupid, I'd thought my fire could not burn, because I was of the water tribe. This entire time, I'd assumed I was a water-bender who happened to set his blood on fire. No, I was a fire-bender who happened to bend blood. I felt it in my bones. It was now or never. 

With bellow, I released whatever concoction I'd created. Unlike my normal frost breath, in a seeming dance, the blood-flame and ice swirled around one another, their speed gradually increasing. From a blue and red to a pitch-black, three stages took place in a split second, and the still rotating mixture finally erupted. 

A wave of blood-red flame formed a cyclone, and surrounding it was a pitch black and erratic stream of lightning. Billowing forward, it engulfed everything before me in a crimson-obsidian inferno. When the boulders and my breath collided, the force of my roar tore through them like paper, boring a hole straight through their center. 

 I watched with dumbstruck eyes, as large veins opened up within the earth and trees unfortunate enough to get struck by the rogue bits of lightning. The veins were a blood-red making it seem as if the very earth itself were bleeding. As for the badgermoles? 

Small plumes of crimson-flame and black-lightning nipped at their large bodies, causing them to twitch and spasm uncontrollably, unable to move their bodies as momentary paralysis took over, and they bled profusely. Staring at their frozen bodies, convulsing and quivering in pain, while unable to move, I recalled something Fire Lord Ozai had mentioned in passing. 

Cold-blooded fire. That's what he called it. Fire so cold... it burns. 

This entire time I'd been trying and failing at creating lightning. In my mind I thought I was water-bending, ice-bending, manipulating the surroundings temperature. In reality I'd been attempting to re-create a storm within my own body. 

The formation of ice within a thunderstorm cloud is part of lightnings development. The fog, was my cloud, the ice the spark, and lightning the final product. Exhaling a breath of air, no longer was there a wave of frost, instead it was sparks of electricity that left my lips. The air crackled and rumbled in response. 

Sadly, my moment of enlightenment was cut short, as the badgermoles had seemingly recovered their ability to move. The flame that was previously attached to them, nowhere to be seen. A nervous sweat fell from my brow, I was way too exhausted after that to continue fighting them. Not that they seemed to care. 

With still wobbly steps, they began running at me with reckless abandon. Before they could begin earth bending, I glanced around for an exit, only to find the tunnel at my back. Seeing no other choice in sight, I spun on my heel and took off in into its depths. 

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I ran as far and fast as I possibly could, yet the duo not only always found me, but was ceaseless in their pursuit. My navigation of the dark tunnel was only made possible by the constantly burning flame I kept on my hand. Which might I add was getting consistently more difficult to maintain. 

I'd gone above and beyond with that ability earlier and had yet to drink any blood, or rest, to recuperate. Trudging forward, I heard the familiar rumblings of the badger duo, and was forced to pick up my pace. Making my way through the maze I noticed a strange nook, that led somewhere off the beaten path. 

With nothing to lose, I squeezed my way through, before a wall next to me opened up revealing a visibly upset badgermole. Fuck me. With all the strength I had left, I darted forward, whizzing directly past the beast and cursing its existence. Did even humans hold grudges like this? For god's sake, I couldn't kill one of them if I wanted to. What was it so mad about? 

Hearing it gaining on me, I started blasting flames everywhere and anywhere, in an attempt to slow it down, after all, it knew the dangers of my flame now and was in no rush to get paralyzed again. It was then that I saw what I could only guess was a door created with earth bending. There were strange designs and pictures etched within it, but I had no time to care about that. 

Maybe it led out of this place, or maybe it could lead me to some unsuspecting people I could dump this damn badger with. Lunging for the large door I pushed it open, not even bothering to shut the door behind me, as if a door would stop that beast. I was forced to eat those words almost as soon as they formed. 

Before my very eyes, the badgermole skidded to a halt as I passed the doors threshold, pacing back and forth for a moment before turning around and leaving. Breathing a sigh of relief, I didn't even bother asking or caring why it had decided to give up. Looking this way and that, I found a nice comfortable piece of stone floor to lay down on and fall asleep. 

I was unsure how much time had passed by the time I woke up; however, I felt about a singular step up from my previous state. This wouldn't do, I needed some blood or I was never getting passed those moles. Igniting some of my blood, I spread it around the surroundings without a care in the world. My brow couldn't help furrow as I saw I was within a tomb of sorts, two massive statues loomed over me, and right beside me were two coffins. Where exactly was I? And why the hell is some sacred burial site just hidden inside a random mountain? 

Approaching the walls of the tomb, I began to read the script that had been left behind. It was nothing special for the most part, the only thing that really caught my eye was the fact that this place was indeed a labyrinth and apparently 'love was brightest in the dark'. Solving the labyrinth aside, I slowly turned toward the two coffins next to me. 

With a deep bow, I gave my apologies for the act I was about to commit. Opening both coffins, I stared at the two skeletons within, before closing my eyes and extending my hand. After a few moments I re-opened them, and watched as miniscule red dots began to levitate from both bodies before combining into a singular drop of blood. 

It was no larger than my fingernail in size, but it would have to do for the time being. To have to resort to grave-robbing for a bit of nourishment. How embarrassing. With a sigh I closed the two coffins before directing the orb of blood to my lips. Suddenly, the world was flipped upside down, I felt my knees hit the floor, as an indescribable feeling flowed through my veins. 

Vision swimming, I witnessed an ocean of blood emerge from the ground, swallowing me whole. A familiar scene of an innumerable number of skeletons, and a large red-skinned demon sitting upon a throne of skulls appeared before me. Raising my head, I trailed my gaze up its ankles, to its knees, to its torso, before finally reaching its eyes thousands of meters above me. 

"Oh? How did you manage to get your hands on the blood of the first earth-benders? No matter, I can see even that single drop is causing you to go mad with bloodlust. As a reward for a job well-done I'll negate its damaging effects for you. I suggest you forget what just happened, satiate your thirst with battles and blood more suitable to someone of your level. Should you not take my advice, at least give me a good show before being consumed by your madness." With each word he spoke, I found my body slammed further and further into the sea of bones beneath me. It was as if his very voice contained a power and weight that those inferior couldn't withstand. 

Without waiting for my response, or letting me ask questions, I felt reality flip and I was once more within the tomb. Still on my knees, I felt my quickened and erratic breathing mellow. He said he got rid of the side effects. That I had reached for something way beyond me and nearly lost myself to the euphoria. He said I should forget... the feeling, the power, the possibilities, that a single drop of blood had carried within it. 

He may have removed the negative effects, but I could feel the positive ones still coursing through me. Even as I stood here now, the cave was pitch black yet my eyes gleamed within it, seeing each and every detail without issue. His last words were a provocation, he wanted me to lose myself, to entertain him. 

Sniffing the air, I could smell the blood of various creatures within the labyrinth. Each of them possessing a different taste, feeling, and power inside their blood. Selfishly keeping to themselves, what was rightfully mine. In a moment of reflection, I began to picture all the people I'd killed, whose blood I'd used to perform flashy nonsensical moves, instead of consuming. What a waste! Blasphemy! How shameful! 

Looking at the two coffins, I couldn't help but wonder, if their blood was of such high quality, what about the badgermoles? Surely not all of these creatures could be compared to those two, just because they were natures earth-benders. If that's the case then what about a dragon's, or a flying bison's blood? Just picturing it almost had me drooling. 

Wait, no. I'm still thinking too small. Dragons had been wiped out by fire-benders. Clearly that meant that natures earth-benders weren't the peak of creation. When imagining the peak of creation, one figure instantly came to mind. The Fire Lord, a dragon in human skin, a man whose very name caused nations to tremble. What power, what taste, what feeling is he selfishly withholding from me, and how can I get my hands on it? 

On a drop of blood? Is it just blood that I want, that I'm taking, that I'm claiming? No, no, no. It's not just blood I want; it's not just blood I'll take; it's not just blood I'm claiming. It's not just blood running through their veins; it's the life they have. And it's their life I want.