Her opponent, Moka, just continued to look in shock as the woman, Hara, waterbended and threw some ice spikes to Moka.
Moka dodged them by jumping to the side and before he could react, Moka was hit in the chest with a powerful water attack that knocked him off balance.
As he fell, he noticed that the ground beneath him was melting. The ice beneath his feet was instantly turned into water and as if something dragged him into it, Moka was instantly dragged into it before the water froze.
Silence rang through the entire place as they saw Moka's head sticking out of the ice ground.
'This isn't the skill of a beginner!' thought Moka as he looked up at Hara who was looking at him with a serious look on her face.
Hara was actually much more skilled than most people would believe despite just having two weeks of training under both Pakku and Genji. But it was exactly that misunderstanding that made everyone drop their guards and led to Moka's defeat under Hara's waterbending.
Moka's defeat wasn't because of any special ability or trickery, but simply because of Genji who had taught Hara with his instructor skill.
He was able to teach Hara and the other women easily and with his instructor skill, he had helped them quickly understand the moves and attacks. This allowed them to become much stronger much more rapidly and also gave them an advantage against their opponents despite their short term training.
What Genji taught them wasn't equivalent to suddenly becoming experts or completely better than the disciples of the other elder. It was just one simple move and teaching that Genji had taught them.
How to steal the control of someone's water/ice and to 'be quick and decisive'.
Just these two things were taught to them and this had already made them good enough to easily take down their opponents as long as they kept calm.
They were still taught basic moves, but these two things were their main focus for their second week of training.
Hara used her newly acquired knowledge to its fullest extent and defeated Moka instantly.
The crowd was stunned by this turn of events. All of the men were dumbfounded as well, having no idea how to react. Some were angry, others worried, and many of them confused.
As for the Chief and the other elders, they were shocked and didn't know what to say. They had expected Moka to win, but seeing Hara beat him so easily, they couldn't hide their surprise.
One could hear a pin drop in this silence as they looked in shock at how Hara had won against a man, Moka.
Clap,,, Clap...
The sound of slow clapping resounded in the area and everyone snapped out of their shock. Most women clapped and cheered at the sight of Hara winning. Some men joined their cheering, but the conservative men and women remained quiet as they looked at this scene with frowns.
Especially Arnook as he narrowed his eyes.
Various women cheered at the sight of Hara beating Moka. One of her teammates even jumped up on stage and hugged Hara as she expressed her joy.
Arnook, however, stood silent with his arms crossed, glaring at Hara.
The glare didn't last long and his anger was no longer directed at Hara, instead, he turned to the blind man standing next to Pakku and the other women.
'This all started when he got here... I need to deal with this,' thought Arnook with a frown on his face.
Then, like if nothing had happened, Arnook smiled and stood up.
"Wow! Amazing! Women are indeed also as amazing at waterbending as men!"
Suddenly, everyone went quiet and they turned to look at Arnook with confused looks on their faces. Even the elder's held looks of confusion on their faces. They couldn't believe what they just heard from Arnook.
"However... it's a shame we have to end this fighting for today. Tonight is the night of the Spirit Festival and our custom requires us to dance to appease the spirits. Preparations are in order!"
Everyone was surprised by this sudden announcement and the reason behind it.
The Spirit Festival? Dancing?! Why did he call them now?
Arnook nodded and said: "Yes, dancing. Everyone must come together and celebrate the Spirit Festival. You are not allowed to fight until then. We can only expect great results from you after this festival. If you fail to show your full potential during this time, it will reflect badly on me as the leader of the tribe."
Everyone remained quiet and just looked at Arnook with blank looks on their faces whilst they whispered amongst each other.
"Hey, isn't this too... sudden?"
"Yeah. I wonder what the chief is planning."
"We don't even do this Spirit Festival anymore. It's been more than five decades since we last did this festival."
"I don't think I remember the dance anymore."
"I'm sure it will come back to you."
"Right... but what about the fighting? It was going to be something crucial..."
"It won't matter if we fight today or after the Spirit Festival."
"Right! Not like something can change overnight."
Everyone slowly began to disperse.
There weren't that many remaining, but among them was Genji and the chief Arnook.
Arnook stared at Genji with a deep look on his face. A frown slowly surfaced before he turned around and left with the elders of the tribe.
'I'll do whatever to keep the tribe safe.' Arnook thought. 'And I need to make sure that Genji doesn't cause any problems for the future of the tribe. No matter what, I must get rid of Genji.'
...
"Sounds like your Chief is planning something," said Genji as he turned to face Pakku with a smirk on his face.
Pakku looked over to where Arnook was sitting before turning to look at Genji, "I'm sure it's nothing."
Genji shook his head and faced over to where Arnook was.
'Arnook. You annoy me greatly for some inexplicable reason,' thought Genji as he balled his fists.
The wish to punch someone like Arnook who is in power but doesn't see how certain things need to be changed for the 'greater good' is greatly filling Genji.
Just one punch. One punch would be enough for Genji. It might be what's needed to knock some sense into Arnook.
'I swear I will only punch him once,' thought Genji as he clenched his fists. 'Maybe...'
"Sensei!"
Genji's ear twitched and he turned to face to the side, "Yeah?"
"H-how was I?" asked the young woman.
Nodding, Genji smiled, "You did great. I could hear the changes in the air and feel the water of how you managed to push him around."
The young woman smiled and giggled before running over to her friends.
'Spirit Festival... let's see how it goes...'
Genji sighed and headed towards his house to meditate.
Today was going to mark his progress to taking over the tribe, but now that Arnook pushed back the fight, Genji's plan had to wait for Arnook.
'It's only a matter of time, Arnook. There's no use hiding in your shell,' Genji thought as he chuckled a little.
"Genji?"
Suddenly hearing Yue's voice, Genji turned to look at Yue, "Yue, what brings you here?"
"I just wanted to meet you," said Yue as she looked at Genji with a smile on your face. "Where are you heading to now?"
"I'm just heading to my house right now."
"Mind if I follow you?"
"Go ahead."
Genji got to walking to his house and Yue who was walking right behind him was looking at Genji with a sweet look on her face.
"You've been wearing less and less clothes, Genji. You're…"
Yue looked at Genji with a blush on her face as she looked at Genji's body that had very little. He was wearing a short sleeved shirt and average pants, both stuff being sold in the Northern Water Tribe.
"...stunning..."
Yue whispered to herself, blushing even more.
Genji walked inside his house and went straight to his room without saying anything.
He closed the door behind him and sat down on his bed whilst Yue went ahead and prepared some tea.
***
"He's here..." muttered the Firebender spy as he looked at Genji walking from afar.
He had been searching low and wide for two whole weeks and he had finally found Genji.
"He was so difficult to find," muttered the spy as he quickly called over his messenger bird and sent the message over to Azula.
Turning back to look at Genji, the spy suddenly lost sight of him. He furrowed his eyebrows and quickly began to run around the city to look for Genji. He had luckily robbed some clothing of a waterbender and was not hiding in plain sight from all the Northern Water Tribe.
'Damn... how did I lose him so quickly!'
Bang!
Suddenly, the spy slumped down on the ground and fell unconscious.
The ice wall next to him had a hole that revealed someone's orange eyes from the other end of the hole.
The wall began to melt and two men wearing waterbender clothes exited through the large formed hole. These two men had fire in their hands that slowly disappeared.
"Is this him?" asked one of the disguised Firebenders.
"No, it's the Princess' spy."
"I'll just get rid of him then."
"Go ahead. The instant you knocked him, we had already gained the hate of the Princess."
"Tch! Who cares about her, we serve the Fire Lord, not her."
"Just get rid of him."
The men no longer talked and dragged the unconscious firebender spy away before quietly getting rid of him.
"Now... let's go kill the man that gained the Fire Lord's ire."
"Let's go!"
Quietly, the two men disappeared and went onwards to where Genji lived.
They were specially trained and they had been keeping an eye on the firebending spy the instant they noticed him being very conspicuous. They followed him for three days, but one of them had a short temper and ended up killing the spy. In the end, the spy wasn't the one they were looking for, but they kept a track of what the spy was doing.
They had obviously noticed when the spy had changed when he had found Genji. At that instant, when the spy died, they knew that Genji must be their target.
***
Later that night, Genji was eating some food with his blindfold on, and at that moment, he felt his world change.
[Ding! Skill level up!]
[<Heightened Senses> (Lvl. 40)]
[Ding! Skill level up!]
[<Hyper Sense> (Lvl. 40)]
[Ding! Detected skill(s) that has/have broken through host's mortal body limits.]
[Ding! Skill(s) have advanced.
<Heightened Senses> -> <Awakened Senses>
<Hyper Sense> -> <Spirit Sense>]
[System Remark: Holy shit! You're breaking through mortal limits host! What's next? Superhuman limits?!]
Suddenly, Genji felt like he could see everything very clearly. It was like he wasn't even wearing a blindfold!
Everything was visible to Genji and through his <Hyper Sense>, now <Spirit Sense>, Genji could vaguely see through walls. it was such an odd feeling where he could suddenly see everything despite covering his eyes. Through just his five basic senses, Genji could strangely enough feel, smell, and hear the color and 'see' his surroundings.
It was like having an evolved version of a bat's echolocation and Toph's seismic sense. Genji could just envision everything within his head so accurately down to the minute detail.
He could hear and see things from farther away. What was also crazy was that he could vaguely sense the emotions of someone.
With his <Spirit Sense>, Genji could sense and see everything around him in a 15 meter(~50 ft) radius as well as see through walls and objects. Coupled with his <Awakened Senses>, Genji could use this to his advantage.
It was then that Genji suddenly felt a sharp killing intent through his <Danger Sense> skill.
Genji continued to eat whilst pretending to not feel the killing intent. He ate like nothing was happening when he suddenly felt two presences enter his <Spirit Sense> range.
Within an instant, Genji noticed their fiery chi flow and killer vibes very clearly.
'Is that them?' Genji raised an eyebrow and subtly glanced at their direction as he looked at them through the wall. He narrowed his eyes and noticed how both men were walking towards his house very quietly.