Everyone within the arena moved without even waiting for the bell to ring.
Dust erupted into the air as the ground shook beneath dozens of stomping feet. Stones flew free from the earth, hurled wildly in every direction haphazardly; walls shot upward without warning to protect the ones behind them; it was chaos out here.
I barely ducked to dodge a flying stone that threatened to knock me out of the platform.
"The bell didn't even ring!" I yelped in surprise, catching myself just at the edge.
No time to recover—I threw myself to the side as another chunk of rock slammed into the participant behind me. With a scream, he was sent flying out of the arena, disappearing over the edge.
I tensely waited for another attempt... Right, then. Looks like they've paired against themselves for the time being. The lack of a bell caught me off guard, but I forced myself to refocus, eyes sweeping across the battlefield.
"Thirteen out of twenty."
I took a slow breath, letting the Chi within me circulate rapidly. It surged through my limbs, increasing my strength and speed with every passing second until it hit the limit my body instinctively enforced.
I exhaled out loud.
My lady gave the order.
So let's go win this thing.
Stepping forward, I tilted my body just enough to let a disc-shaped slab of rock slice past me and lunged, charging straight at the nearest opponent I could find.
My target: a large, topless brute locked in combat with another participant. One glance was all it took to recognize him; my mind provided a face. Hah, one of the idiots who jeered at me earlier.
That just made this easier.
What followed was, in simple terms, a two-on-one.
The moment I closed the distance, the other fighter—let's call them Earth Bender 12 and 13—caught on. 12 flicked me a quick glance, then shifted his stance ever so slightly.
We understood each other without any words.
13 was too focused on the man in front of him to notice me closing in from behind.
He lifted his foot, preparing to stomp out a defensive wall when I slipped in behind him, hand snapping forward to grab the nape of his neck. At the same time, my leg lashed out, kicking his only grounded foot out from under him.
His balance vanished instantly.
He crashed down hard, the technique he'd been about to unleash collapsing before it could even take shape. Seizing the opening, 13 stomped forward and thrust both fists outward—I jumped back immediately as the ground surged, a slab of rock bursting forward and slamming into the fallen man's body.
Earth Bender 13 was launched straight out of the arena, his body skipping across stone before disappearing over the edge.
"12 to go."
Now that our common enemy was defeated, 12 and I eyed each other, the tension in the air rising—
He raised his hands in a form of surrendering.
"Temporary truce? As long as we can."
A moment passed before I nodded. It was advantageous to me, so I agreed.
"Fine. We've got the advantage for now—let's find a group and pick them off one by one."
I held out a fist. He smiled and bumped it. "Name's Chenu. Wu Dan rank in Earth Bending."
Fifth rank out of ten. Not bad.
"Zero," I replied. "No rank, unfortunately."
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"DUCK!"
My body dropped on instinct as a rod-shaped spike of stone tore through the air right where my head had been. Watching Number 6 overextend with a fist still thrust forward from the strike, I launched myself forward.
Grabbing his arm mid-motion and using the momentum to vault upward, my legs snapped around his neck, locking tight as I twisted my body for leverage.
Chenu followed up my grappling by using his Earth Bending to manipulate the ground beneath us, sending a split in the ground that disrupted his footing. Without anything solid to stand on properly, the body I was on slowly started to tumble down.
Even if he was slowly falling down, Number 6 tried to pry me off of his arm with his other. I overpowered him with ease, though, twisting my hold to lock both arms even if he was twice my size.
With a huff, I forced my body backward in an arc, dragging his larger frame along with me for the ride. The arc completed in a full backward flip, and his body slammed into the ground back-first with a heavy smash, the impact knocking the wind straight out of him.
Slipping out of the grapple, I wiped the sweat from my brow as Chenu stepped in and sent him straight off the platform with a lazy kick.
"Nice brawling moves!" Chenu laughed as they watched the final few participants knock themselves out.
I gave a shrug at his comment. "It's mostly instinctive." Zero technically counts as instinctive, right? He really enjoyed watching people brawl it out professionally with exaggerated moves.
Nevertheless, while Chenu calmly watched the final two participants fight it out, I took a moment to analyze my temporary partner.
Standing at about 170 centimeters, Chenu had a lean build, with muscle concentrated in the areas essential for a brawler—primarily his shoulders, core, and legs. From what he had shown in our brief exchanges, his level of Earth Bending seemed average for his age, consistent with what he had mentioned earlier.
That is... If he weren't hiding his strength, like I was.
Actually—scratch that. If he were smart, then he would definitely be concealing the full extent of his abilities for the next important fight.
Which was right now.
As the two remaining Earth Benders closed in and struck each other with a simultaneous counter, both collapsed into unconsciousness. The crowd fell silent.
Out of twenty participants, only two were left standing, both untouched by any serious damage. We stared at each other in silence as we each retreated five paces toward the edge of the arena.
Chenu broke the stalemate by unleashing a barrage of rocks with his Bending. I used a nearby ruined wall left behind by someone else's technique as cover as stone collided violently against stone.
Taking advantage of the brief protection, I scooped up the scattered pebbles behind cover and waited.
Two seconds after his barrage started, I burst out from the ruined wall at that exact moment, catching Chenu off guard. He had clearly predicted I would wait for the attack to stop before emerging, but my timing disrupted that expectation.
Rushing along the edge of the platform, I hurled the pebbles I had collected at high speed. They cut through the air fast enough to force Chenu to react immediately, raising a wall to block them.
But in doing so, he and any Earth Bender relying on direct sight created a brief opening; the wall he just erected obscured his vision.
If it were Toph I were facing, it wouldn't have been an issue for her since her Seismic Sense would have made it irrelevant. But I wasn't facing my lady right now.
I closed the distance in less than a second.
The look of surprise on his face when I shattered his hastily formed wall was something to behold before I drove my fist straight into his face with a crunch, the impact sending him flying backward.
Determined not to lose, Chenu bent the ground behind him, catching his momentum just as he was on the razor's edge. Since his body hadn't fully left contact with the ground, it was still legal!—As the emcee screamed through the mic.
But it was already too late. I closed the distance again.
My new friend could barely react in time before I drove a Spartan kick into his stomach, shattering the unstable support beneath him.
Chenu dropped hard onto the ground, landing on his back with a grunt.
A moment of silence hung over the arena before the crowd erupted into cheers.
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NEXT UPDATE: 13 May, Thursday
A/N: Had to rush to complete some assignments, sorry for the wait!
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