Chapter 1
The metal cylinder came barreling towards him. Taka swiped his hands forwards, sliding the metal from his back to in front of him, forming a shield. The cylinder ricochet of the shield, he quickly slid the metal onto his hands, creating a glove of metal. He dashed forward, dodging the returning cylinder. The boy caught the cylinder, still standing firm. The boy shot it towards his shins, but Taka was already too close, he leapt from the ground throwing all his momentum into the punch. The look in the boy’s face was one of sheer panic. He was doing it, he was winning. He was now so close that he could feel the breath of the boy, but something was wrong. A small smile tugged on the boy’s face, he took a small step towards the left and from the same direction came a metal cylinder. Taka could feel the intense pain as it hit him in the ribs, taking away his breath and changing his trajectory enough so that he missed the boy. He rolled through the sand, quickly making his way up onto one knee, but the cylinder hit him once more, same spot. The pain almost made him cry, the force of the hit threw him onto his back. In only a few seconds the boy was on him, preparing the finishing blow. A whistling sound could be heard, “That’s enough”. Taka threw his head into the sand, defeat, the first in quite a while. “Alright, that’s the last fight before the final exam. Taka you moved down to eleventh, Jacob you moved up to tenth. Remember the fights will be the mirror of the standings, so first place fights against 20th place and 10th fights 11th, guess that will mean a rematch between the two of you”, said trainer Larsen. He continued, “remember that if you lose this fight, you’re out. But you’re all welcome to apply next year”. He stayed down, lying in the sand, looking at the empty stands that would be filled tomorrow. The memories from his youth of watching the blade dancers in awe rushed over him like a tidal wave. A shadow came to loom over him, an open hand reached towards him. He couldn’t see who it was, but the strength of the man’s grip gave it away. Vali, the number one fighter. They had become somewhat friends over the last few months. Both of them had spent most of their free time training. But Vali’s training was obviously working better. Even though he hadn’t needed it as much as Taka. During the first placement fights, where everybody faced off against everybody, he had placed first with a clean nineteen wins and zero losses. “You can’t get so eager next time, had you thought instead of leapt you would’ve had him”. At first he wasn’t sure if Vali was joking or not, but the stonewall of a face, told him that Vali was indeed giving him fighting tips. “Yeah, I know”, was all that Taka could painfully muster. “How’s those ribs, will you be able to fight tomorrow”, Vali asked. “A bit bruised, but I’ll be fine”.
“Come on, let’s head to the showers. Can you walk on your own”.
“I said that I’m fine”. Vali looked at him as though he was a dimwit, “If you say so”. The walk wasn’t far, but the bruised ribs weren’t making it easy for him. Hiding the pain from Vali wasn’t making it any easier.
The water from the shower at least gave him some relief from the pain. The cold water rushing over the bruises wasn’t painless, but it had a weirdly pleasant feeling. When Vali came walking into the shower, any pleasant feeling vanished. Standing naked beside him made you feel like a little boy next to his father. Taka wasn’t any push over, he had some decent muscle and almost all of the fat from his youth was gone. Vali on the other hand looked like he was sculpted by the creator himself to be the ultimate warrior. His muscles weren’t the biggest, but they were big. The awe inspiring thing was that the teenager looked like his body had never hosted an ounce of fat in all his time alive. Vali turned to him noticing that he was looking, “Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask you something”, he said. Slightly embarrassed, Taka looked away and said, “ask away”. “Are you actually a metal dancer, bender or whatever you want to call it″. “Yeah, of course. I wouldn’t have made it into training if I wasn’t”. “I know, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen you bend”. Taka was even more embarrassed now, Vali fought with his bending like they weren’t seperate things. Integrating his bending into his fighting, like the blade dancers of old. “I’m not that good at it. I’m more of a fighter than a dancer”.
“Alright, but you need to get better at it. Even if you win tomorrow, they’ll expect you to learn their way of fighting”. The blade dancer’s way of fighting, named so by the bending-lords of ancient who watched them fight and likened it to dancing, because of its beauty. That’s why the stands would be filled tomorrow. Everyone from the Air-lords to the lowest of the commoners love to watch the new recruits fight. Even if they weren’t proper members of the order, most of them still fought with the grace and beauty that only a metalbender could. There was no way that he could learn to fight like that, he was a brute, a fist fighter.
“I did bend though during the last fight, but it was just for defense, offensive bending doesn’t come easy to me like it does for you”. Vali looked at him again, with that gaze of wonder, wonder of how he could be so stupid. “Do you think that I was born like this”, he said gesturing towards his abs. He continued, “Do you think I could fight like I do when I was a little babe”. Taka was caught off guard by the anger in his tone, he had meant it like a compliment. “No, of course not”.
“Then don’t tell me I was born lucky. Everyone has to practice, even I, and yes, even you need to practice if you want to get better at dancing”.
“Yeesh, touchy subject”, Taka said jokingly. But when he turned to look at Vali, he could see that it really was a touchy subject. Because it looked like he was one sound away from getting his ass kicked. But then the anger in his face turned to a smile that felt as awful as the anger. He looked at Taka smiling broadly, “Do you want a broken rib maybe”.
“I was just joking”. Still smiling so disturbingly broad, he gave Taka a soft slap on the cheek, “I know you were, don’t joke about that again”. He just turned away, but the awkwardness lasted for the rest of the shower.
As they walked up the stairs into the stands of the arena, a large group of spectators had gathered to watch the other group of recruits train. “What’s going on”, Vali asked as they approached the group. A man turned around and looked at them, and as quickly he turned back to watch whatever was happening. They walked past the group and leaned against the metal railing, a bit away from them. An average built man was fighting against a slightly smaller woman. But that wasn’t the odd part, both men and women were metalbenders. So both genders entered into the order. The odd part was that the woman wasn’t a metalbender. She was an airbender, “Is that even allowed”, he asked Vali. “I don’t know, I guess it has to be”. The man threw punch after punch, not so strong that he would be vulnerable to a counter, but strong enough so that they would inflict a lot of pain. But the woman dodge punch after punch, moving truly like a dancer. The man threw a right hook, she dodged under it, his knee came up to meet her face, but she open her mouth and blew a powerful wind, knocking aside the man’s knee and throwing her head back into place swiftly. He tried to keep close to her, not allowing any space for her to breathe or strategize. He tried to kick her in the shin, but she jumped over his leg easily, he swung his hand, clearly not meant as a punch but as bending. A small metal cylinder flew towards her upper body. A small puff of air came streaming from her soles, it looked like she was flying, she dodged the cylinder laughably easily with a backflip. The audacity of this woman, every man in the crowd cheered for her theatrics. The man grew visibly frustrated, he started to throw ever more powerful, ever more desperate punches. But these were as easily dodged, she went over and under punches, she used her airbending to throw them off their intended target. One of the punches she hit so hard with her bending that he almost hit himself. The man was breathing quickly and heavily, clearly out of energy. She was toying with him, but that was about to end. For the first time she stepped towards him, he threw a punch meant for her head. She dodged under it, lifting her right hand slightly, stunning the man with a bit of air to the face. One punch in the kidney and one punch to the jaw, he toppled over, kicking up plenty of dust as he hit the sand. Everyone was cheering for her, “She is amazing”, Vali said struggling to talk over the loud cheering. “Yeah, I’ve never seen an airbender fight”.
“That wasn’t bending, that was dancing”, said Vali, turning to look at the woman who was taking in the small crowd. Taka also turned to look at her, she was much closer now. Close enough that he could see her very light blonde hair with streaks of brown, her almost ocean blue eyes. Her round, but still quite lean facial features. She was truly beautiful, but she was so much more than that, she was built as a warrior. With a lean figure for easy movement, but strong arms for both fighting and bending. Suddenly a hand broke his sightline, “You there buddy”. Vali was laughing, his usual booming laughter. Everyone turned towards them, even the woman. Taka could feel his cheeks getting warmer, he quickly grabbed Vali and turned to walk away.
