'This is my bar. I gotta be careful with breaking tables and everything. But these assholes wouldn't. I can't use my strongest airbending moves, but I need to preserve stamina.' Akashi jogged in place lightly, raising his fists. 'I have high agility stats. More than seven times of what I started with. So they'd need a Mike Tyson within them to stand a chance.'

The new customers surrounded Akashi from every spot. And so, they did as they approached Korra.

Needless to say, their plan was to kidnap the Avatar and take her to show Amon's power of taking people's bending away.

At the same time, they had a beef with Akashi.

So they would attempt to take him as well.

"We advise you to come with us calmly, that is if you want to keep your assets unharmed."

A man with a mustache, green attire, and two rods that had electricity dancing around them approached Akashi and said in a threatening tone.

Akashi laughed. "Three generations of your family will be dead the moment you do harm to my assets."

"Arrogant bender. We've trained to fight people like you. Chi blockers, attack."

He had to admit, the men and women who were here had high agility as they started jumping high in the air while flipping.

But to Akashi, that wasn't a thing.

A chi blocker appeared in front of him, trying to poke Akashi's chi points.

Akashi held him by the wrists.

Thanks to testing his stats against Tarrlok, he had three additional strength points.

In no time, he lifted the man off the ground and slammed him on his back, before bending over, grabbing his fist to his wrist, and launching it to his face, knocking him out in no time.

[Defeating a chi blocker]

[+3000 exp]

Decent amount of experience, but nothing much considering that he had an experience points boost of 30%.

Another approached him.

Akashi kicked at them.

[+2500]

[+1000 bonus]

And let's say that there was no air resistance to stop that kick.

At the same time, he increased the resistance behind that person, so he didn't fly away.

The result was a strong shockwave, which was amplified with Akashi's bending.

He also got knocked out in no time.

There was a momentary pause of shock. The ones who were about to attack him hesitated and stopped. The instinct of fear kicked in strongly.

Akashi moved his shoulders, warming them up.

"Cowards like you have no idea how lucky you are for me to hold back." Akashi smiled.

In martial arts, he wasn't that proficient. But fighting wasn't about knowledge. Strength, speed, weight class—sometimes they can overshadow the difference in mastery. There was a reason why they made UFC use weight classes.

"And in case you don't notice, even if you take my bending away, I'm capable of taking the likes of you down," Akashi said. "Equalists, you say. If you were any good citizens to begin with, you wouldn't come at me in a group."

"Tsk."

"Fuck him."

There seemed to be three that got provoked by his statement and dashed at him.

But Akashi had more than 7 times his initial agility, meaning he punched 7 times faster, reacted faster, and moved faster.

Taking a boxing stance, he punched them in the face at a speed they couldn't react to, with nothing stopping his acceleration.

And let's say that blood splashed everywhere.

Akashi may not want to admit it, but he used airbending… more like waves bending, or both.

When he punched, he aimed his fist at the jaw. The punch was so fast without air resistance, and the shockwave was amplified.

The result was nothing short of glass jaws and instant KO.

He had held back a little.

[+8500 exp]

[+1300 bonus]

[+1800 bonus]

[+2200 bonus]

[You leveled up to level 28]

'I almost forgot that the value in team fights is in the bonus experience.'

A man with two lightning rods approached Akashi.

He said, "Humph. You're very arrogant. Just because you were born with the ability to be—"

Akashi interjected, shaking his finger, "To be fair, I only awakened my airbending this year. I'm arrogant because you're weak and it's easy to beat you up. Hahahaha. Who do you think you are?"

"I'm the lieutenant. The second in command of the Equalists," he said, seeming to press a trigger as the black rods had sparks of electricity dancing around them.

"I'm sergeant, the second in command in the Homicides department," Akashi introduced in a tone that dripped with sarcasm and mockery.

The lieutenant raised both of the sticks and slammed them on Akashi, who extended both of his hands at them.

It was a shocking scene to anyone who saw it.

It would seem that Akashi had given up on the fight and made a huge blunder that would allow his opponent to knock him out.

But what anyone watching couldn't see was what Akashi was holding in his hands.

It was nothing. And the current Akashi was facing, nothing could stop it.

The lieutenant smugly smirked at Akashi as his hands touched the rods.

But the latter smiled at him back, making his smirk dry down.

"What the hell…?" asked the lieutenant, trying to activate the device again, but no electricity flowed out.

What Akashi did was push the air molecules away from the rods, creating a void.

In the past, it was quite tough to do so quickly.

But having leveled up his airbending to level 19 did wonders.

And as the vacuum was created quickly around the rods, what happened was that whatever was inside the device got ruined.

"I think you should get a refund," Akashi smiled, grabbing the man by the mask and punching him in the jaw, knocking him out instantly.

[+7000 exp]

[+3000 bonus]

Considering the amount of experience points, Akashi concluded that he dealt with a tough nonbender.

"Man, I love speed, and jaws…" he said.

"Get this, assholes."

Korra, who was surrounded by the other half of the anti-benders, was doing her best to fend them off.

Fuck her best.

She was using airbending and firebending.

Akashi turned to whatever remained of the anti-benders and screamed.

"Stop her, quickly!"

And instead of helping Korra, he went to the roof, jumping high, creating a vacuum around it and stopping it from spreading.

He had given his money and soul to this place.

Ain't no way he'd let it burn to ashes.

As the fire died out, Akashi screamed at Korra, "Stop using firebending!"

"Huh… why?" she asked.

And just as she asked, the people around her kicked her ass, striking every chi point she had.

Momentarily, Akashi found his anxiety calming down.

But before they could carry her out, he stood in between them, flicking his hands next to their ears, getting the right frequency and volume to make them fall on their knees, before attacking them.

By the end of the night, this bar had tables and chairs made of humans rather than wood.

Akashi clenched his fist tightly, looking at the mess.

[You leveled up.]

[Level 29]

Even the level-up notification wasn't enough to fix his mood.

Coldly, he looked at the chi blockers that groaned from the pain, seeming to wake up.

"The Police Station is on the next building," he said. "Hope you have enough to bail your ass out."

-x-X-x-

Outside the bar, a man with binoculars was watching.

"Skillful enough to take down anti-benders without having to bend them, and creative, fast, and calculative. No wonder Tarrlok found it difficult to deal with him," said the man, smirking. "Interesting. No wonder the Dai Li came for me to help them. Maybe I can reason with him."