Hour passed by, and all Haru did was continuously attack the two polar bear dogs with his newly acquired waterbending, which, to be frank, didn't scratch the predators as they continued to find a way to make him fall from the iceberg or a way to get him off the top.
They're circling him while looking at him with their predatory eyes, which seem to be getting angrier from the constant attacks on their backs. They're also trying other methods, like pretending to leave, but the food just doesn't leave the giant ice, as if it's now his new home.
And with the constant practice of waterbending, Haru could see steady improvements. Before, he could just lift an amount of water equivalent to a cup and could barely control it, but now he could effortlessly control it and shape it a little more sharply. Though shaping it more sharply doesn't mean it had enough power to pierce or even scratch the predators under him, on the first tries, it would just explode upon impact on the polar bear dogs.
But as he tried more, the power behind his attacks increased, enough to move the head of one of the polar bear dogs a little upon contact, making the bear obviously angrier. Instinctively, the bear he hit revealed its claws and started running upwards, scaring him a little. "Woah!" He fell back, butt first.
Nova chuckled at him. "Don't worry, they can never reach you up here." She then flew towards the climbing polar bear dog and stood on its head. "With their weight, the difficult slope, and the slippery surface of the iceberg, it will just fall without a doubt." As she predicted, the polar bear dog fell with its expression telling 'Oh shit.' It touched the ground back first, and due to its heavy weight, the layer of ice covering the body of water cracked and broke, making it fall into the water.
Surprisingly, it managed to float and even swim towards a layer of ice, which it then used to get out of the freezing water.
Seeing this, Haru began to doubt himself. Could he really kill one, let alone two of the polar bear dogs today? They're just too strong, hard to even scratch. He can see improvements to his bending ability, but he doubted it was enough to get him out of here today…
Nova floated back up and saw his doubtful expression. "Haru, don't be down. I never meant for you to kill these two today," she floated in front of him and looked at him while on all fours. "You just have to continue practicing. Once these two become too hungry and notice that they can't get you, they will then leave to find new prey." She smiled sincerely. "Besides, your improvement rate is already pretty fast, matching up to geniuses. The thing I gave you is effective, right?"
Haru nodded with a smile. "Yes, thank you, Nova," he said as he slowly stood up and then reverted to his waterbending stance.
Haru closed his eyes and whipped his hand upwards while imagining a spiky shape he wanted the water to take. In one way or another, a surprising thing happened, which not even Nova expected. The water shaped into sharp, spiky forms and instantly ascended upwards at lightning speed towards the other polar bear dog. Then, if before the water he controlled couldn't even scratch their skin, it now pierced it directly, creating a small hole in its belly where blood started pouring out.
The polar bear dog roared in pain as it felt a stinging pain in its chest, and instinctively, it started running away at its maximum speed, leaving a trail of blood along the way. No doubt that, with the amount of blood gushing out of it, it wouldn't take long before it died.
The other polar bear dog was surprised to see its partner bleeding out. It wanted to continue hunting their prey, but since its partner was running away, it just turned around and started chasing the other one.
Nova, too, was a little surprised—it was out of her expectations and calculations. Based on her estimates, it would take Haru at least a day of nonstop practicing to be able to do this, but then he suddenly, out of nowhere, experienced explosive growth. It's beyond her calculations, but she now started adjusting Haru's strength in her mind based on the feat he just accomplished.
She smiled with a little blush on her face as she started clapping. "Congratulations, Haru! You managed to kick them away!"
Haru breathed roughly for a moment, taking his time to watch the two predators running away with a focused look. "Yeah… I did it." He then looked back at Nova. "So what now? Can I come back to my village?"
Within reason, he had completely forgotten about his goal of coming to this place, and even getting unconscious in the process. He was starving before, so he arrived here to hunt for fish for his one meal today and probably for tomorrow as well. It's understandable that he forgot about it since he was back at his peak health after consuming the Essence of Blank, but still…
Nova changed her outfit from a dress into a full white bikini, revealing her fairy skin and perfectly sculpted body for Haru to see.
"Why did you change into that?" asked Haru, confused and finding it weird. Her dress already looked beautiful enough.
"Before we go back to your village, we can't be empty-handed," Nova said. "So we will go fishing!"
That didn't really answer it… he thought, then realized something. "Is that what you normally wear when going fishing where you came from?"
Nova nodded proudly. "Yup, don't you find me beautiful in this outfit?" she asked while striking different poses to show off her body, looking directly at him.
She's certainly the most beautiful woman he's ever seen, but that's about it, he's still young and ignorant about stuff like sex. His male instincts were acting up subconsciously, but it's not strong enough for him to notice.
He nodded without expression. "Do you know any other areas around here? No matter how much time I looked at this area, I couldn't seem to find anything…" Thinking about that, he felt down again.
Nova smiled, then started explaining while pointing upward. "We don't need to move from here, with me by your side, I can point out every fish around here. Even though there are only a few of them, it's more than enough to feed you for a month if you catch them all."
Haru wryly looked down. "The boat I created was destroyed." He looked back up with a neutral expression. "So how do I catch fish from here?"
Nova pointed at a layer of ice that had broken away, now floating nearby. "You will use it. Treat it as practice, use waterbending to move it towards you, then control it once you're riding it."
There was nothing more to question, so Haru just nodded. He trusted Nova a little bit now, without her, he'd have been dead by now, probably freezing to death and being found by the two huge beasts from earlier. He could easily imagine what would have happened to his body without her.
Though still vigilant around her, after all, they had just met today, he didn't know much about her except her name and her goals for helping him and giving him her full support.
She's a weird woman, openly showing her body to him, different from the normal type of women from his village, but still, she's the only person who's helped him, as far back as his weak memory goes.
People would usually scoff at him, treating him like a dead man and not giving a damn whenever he asked for help. But Nova's smile never vanished from her face the whole time she was with him, she acted like she cared about him and even taught him his long-wanted ability, giving him a powerful liquid she called Essence of Blank.
Haru doesn't know whether that was sincere or not, but he is willing to try this for now since it's a way to bring himself out of his miserable life, and the results today were something he couldn't even imagine.
He slid down the iceberg, controlling as much water as he could muster to slow himself to a full stop before he fell into the freezing water.
"Cold…" He clenched his teeth. He tried not to submerge his feet too much so only his brown animal-skin boots would touch the water, but the cold managed to enter inside his boots anyway.
He quickly removed his boots and used his waterbending to remove all water from them and from his feet as well. Then he put them back on after his skin felt the cold wind.
He sighed in relief, having been able to experience the usefulness of waterbending in many cases, not just combat.
Nova floated to him with the smile that never left her face. "Let's go, it's just the right time since many fish have gathered in one area."
Haru smiled back at her before standing up. He reached the closest floating ice that Nova wanted him to use as his boat. If it could even be called close.
"All right. Now start using your waterbending to pull it towards you," she said.
He started using his hands to gesture pulling, focusing on the flow and intending to connect to the water and make it obey the movements of his hand. The floating block of ice started slowly moving towards him without disturbing the water's surface. His movements were calm, so was the effect.
Nova wrapped her arms around his neck and whispered in his ear, "You're learning very fast, Haru." Though he ignored her for now as he fully concentrated on getting the block of ice.
After some time, the floating ice crashed into the layer of ice he was standing on, causing minimal but visible cracks. Haru didn't bother about it as he jumped onto the floating ice he had hard-earned.
Now then, it's Nova's turn. Of course she knows that, so with a smile of understanding, she flew towards a spot not far away from him and stopped moving, waiting for him.
- - -
In total, he was able to get eight fish of varying sizes. He even caught one the size and length of his knee, so he was quite happy. This is first time he'd ever gotten something this big, with the bonus of seven others. There's no way he can be hungry for a few days with this haul, even if he eats twice a day instead of his usual one meal per day.
At first, he wanted to catch more since Nova said there were still tons of them here, but she said that if he continued, he'll catch the night before he even got back. That, to be frank, is not an ideal situation for him.
It will be very cold and dark once night comes. He particularly didn't bring anything with him except his old self-crafted spear and boat, which were not with him anymore, so the only method he could use was walking.
He was very far away from his village, if he really caught the night outside, he was as good as done. He doubted even Nova could help him then. Unknown dangers from the darkness without any torch…
And the fish in this area could wait for him tomorrow, at least that's what Nova said to guarantee that he would listen to her advice.
Haru controlled water to float on his finger and held the last fish in his other hand. It was still fighting back, so he ended its life with a swift swipe of the water he made sharply. He hummed in satisfaction as he put it onto his hood together with the others.
Then he looked at Nova and nodded. "Let's go."
--
Going back to his village was relatively easy since he only had to walk in one direction. The only problem was that his village and the fishing area he'd been at earlier were far apart. After about a 20-minute walk, he finally made it back as he stared at his so-called home with a neutral expression.
If he's going to be honest, he doesn't like it there. Anyone in his position would say the same. If only he knew where the other villages were, he would gladly migrate to one of them rather than live another day in this place. No one ever told him the location of the other villages, and no matter how far they hunted, he couldn't see any new people, just more ice. He couldn't bother to ask, since that would likely put him on their bad side and probably even get him kicked out.
The elders in the village always told them not to leave their pack, as that would be considered betrayal. Even he was told that, though he didn't really feel like he was part of the pack.
But Nova seemed to know everything, even the location of the fish and where it was safe to walk, so he planned to ask her later if there was another settlement besides this one and where it was located.
Soon he was close enough to his village that the village guards and some other people began to notice him, all of them wore cold expressions as they stared.
"You're still alive, brat?" one of the guards chuckled.
Haru ignored him as he walked into the village. Just then, Nova's voice came through. "Careful, Haru. One of them is approaching," she said, her tone serious, not her usual energetic self.
Haru turned around and glared at the guard who was about to grab a fish from his hood. The guard's hand abruptly stopped, his expression showed surprise and a little fear. "What? You fucking dare look at me like that!" He lashed the back of his hand across Haru's face.
Haru simply evaded by pushing himself a little away from the guard, though some fish on his hood fell off as a result. "What do you want?" he asked coldly.
The guard looked at his partner before they chuckled. "Look at this brat, it seems that successfully hunting alone is going to his head."
Haru ignored the guard's taunt as he glared at the girl a little older than him, who was about to grab the fish that fell off but he quickly kicked her hand away. "They're mine."
"Haru, duck!" Nova said urgently.
He ducked as she told and saw the shadow of a spear passing above his head, with the intention of only hitting him. Though Haru thought differently. He pushed himself forward and controlled water from a bucket outside one of the igloos, turning it sharply before slashing it across the throat of his attacker.
The guard, with his throat slashed, dropped to the ground face-first, his blood pouring onto the ice surface. He twitched for a few seconds before coming to a stop, he was now dead. All the onlookers who witnessed this wore expressions of shock, hardly believing what they had seen.
Just then, a scream broke through their shock before the scene became loud and chaotic. The other guard still looked dumbfounded as he stared at his friend's dead body and then at the boy who had killed him. "Y-you can waterbend?" he stammered, his voice full of fear.
Haru just looked at him coldly as he controlled the water again, forming it into something.
"Wait! Please spare me!" the other guard begged as he dropped his spear and raised his arms.
"What's going on here?!" an elderly voice shouted. The elder observed the scene and saw a body on the ground covered with blood all over. And since the other guard was raising his arms toward Haru in fear, she quickly drew a conclusion. "Y-you, what have you done!" She pointed at Haru, her hand shaking.
Haru looked at his hand and then at the dead guard he had killed. Did he feel bad? No. His life had been threatened, so he had eliminated him. Though it was the first time he had killed someone, so he certainly felt somewhat weird.
"I—" He wanted to say that he had done it in self-defense, but he remembered there was no point in explaining. Clearly, many onlookers had seen that he was attacked earlier, but there was no one explaining it to the elders, who were now seeing him as the villain. "He wanted to kill me."
"Seize him!" the elder ordered the guard who had surrendered earlier. The guard just nervously shook his head in visible fear. She looked at him in disbelief, then at the onlookers. "Anyone here! Seize this bastard boy quickly!"
Seeing what Haru had done earlier, the onlookers just stared, not moving at her command. The warriors were out hunting, so obviously no one would try anything against the boy, knowing that he could waterbend with deadly attacks.
Then complete silence.
"Haru, let's get out of here…" Nova said seriously.
All the people in the village were looking at him with deadly intent, there was no doubt that he would not leave alive if he stayed any longer.
'But to where?' Haru thought to her. Nova let him know that he could do this when they were heading to the village.
"There's another village about one day's walk away," she said. "Gather supplies first before we leave. Grab a torch, wood, a pot, and spices if you see any."
Haru nodded and sprinted toward his small tent. He gathered everything Nova had mentioned, wrapped them with ropes around his back like a backpack, and then quickly left the village. No one tried to stop him due to fear, it was a breeze getting out.
As he walked, Nova suddenly appeared beside him with her hands behind her back. She was now wearing a beautiful long white dress. "Don't feel down, Haru, that man really did try to kill you, so what you did was right."
"I'm not thinking about that…" In fact, he really wasn't thinking about what happened earlier. He just felt pity that he had to leave behind so many things he had worked hard to obtain or create in that village in such a hurry.
Nova smiled. "How about this? The village we're going to is a small one with not many people. They're close to the coast, so you won't run out of food no matter how much you fish, and there are also many animals to hunt," she said. "There, we can fully focus on your training."
"Really?" Haru looked at her, then looked ahead. "That's good."
Nova nodded. "Yep. Are you satisfied with my support?"
The question came out of nowhere, but Haru nodded at her with a smile. There was no doubt about it.