-Chapter 7-
"It says here that all the matches from here on in will be staged." Katara said as they ate dinner the night after Toph finished the last of the preliminary rounds.
"What you mean like how it was when Toph was the blind bandit kind of staged?" Sokka asked wagging a fork with a sausage on it at Toph.
"Yup." She said as she got up to start washing the dishes.
"Sweet." Toph said with a very Toph-like smile on her face.
"Hmm…" Aang said thoughtfully.
"What's on your mind?" Katara said as she picked up Aang's plate from the table.
"Do you think it would be a bad idea to use the avatar state in the final round?"
"YES." Toph and Katara said together.
"Yeah you're right, I could own you guys without it." He said smiling stupidly.
"Good one Aang." Sokka said patting him on the shoulder.
"You couldn't beat Momo in a duel without the avatar state Twinkle Toes." Toph said dismissively as she walked to her room.
"Ok time for bed." Katara said and shooed everyone out of the kitchen.
-The next morning-
They all sat down to watch the first of the two waterbending fights. Iroh had joined them and was watching intently as the battle raged below him.
"So why didn't you enter?" Aang asked Iroh when the fight ended and the victor was announced.
"I'm a little old to be fighting the avatar." He said jokingly.
"Well I'm up." Katara said nervously and walked down into the ring.
Her opponent was a well built middle aged man. He wore simple waterbending clothes and looked extremely confident.
"Let the match begin!" The announcer yelled.
Katara drew water from the pool in the center of the ring and created the octopus stance. Her opponent did the same and Katara struck out with one of her many tentacles of water. Her opponent easily blocked it but she kept it coming adding water from the central pool all along. Soon her opponent was being overwhelmed by the sheer amount of water Katara could command and his confident smile faded away.
"GO KATARA! WATERBENDING SLICE!" Sokka yelled from the stands.
"Shh you'll ruin her concentration." Aang said pushing Sokka off his bench.
Katara wasn't even fazed and she continued her relentless barrage of tentacles. Finally after almost five minutes of struggle she managed to snag a tentacle around her opponent's waist and break his form. She then proceeded to throw him out of the arena with the same tentacle.
Katara stepped off the stage triumphantly and walked over to Toph.
"Top that." She said smugly.
"I will." She said as she walked into the ring.
"There were now only 2 water benders 4 Earthbenders 4 firebenders and 1 airbender left." The announcer yelled over the din of the crowd which was followed by a murmuring of "1 airbender?" from the crowd.
"That's right." Aang mumbled angrily.
Toph's opponent was almost as young as her, no more than 3 or 4 years older, he had a strong build and wore no shirt to show it off.
"What your just a little girl!" The guy exclaimed incredulously.
"And you're a muscly rocks for brains idiot!" Toph taunted mercilessly.
"We'll see about that." He said and took his stance.
"Let the round begin!" The announcer yelled.
They both stood there waiting for the other to make the first move.
"What're you waiting for?" Toph taunted to try and egg him into moving first.
He tried to use her taunts as a distraction to strike first and he sent a huge boulder flying toward her but Toph easily broke it into pieces and simultaneously made a pillar of rock shoot up from under him which launched him ten feet into the air. He smartly sent a rock flying at her from the air so she wouldn't see it and it collided painfully with her chest. She was knocked off her feet but she felt him land hard and she sent a boulder at him to distract him while she got up. He dodged it and sent a barrage of Earth at her, which she easily blocked and sent a counter barrage at him. The battle continued in this manner for a good ten minutes each struggling to gain dominance over the other until Toph finally won out from sheer endurance. He had begun staggering tiredly and his attacks slowed. Toph sent a large slab of rock at him and he was too worn out to do anything because unlike Toph he was dodging rather then blocking attacks, which takes a great deal more energy. The slab collided with him and he flew 30 feet off the edge of the arena.
"Good fight!" Toph said as she showboated her way out of the arena.
"Whatever…" He mumbled and walked into the crowd.
"So what're we doing for lunch today?" Sokka said after they were done congratulating Toph.
"Not yet Sokka. I want to watch Sparky's fight."
"Fine but I was thinking we could go to Iroh's tea shop - Shh it's starting!" Katara interrupted him.
Zuko and his opponent stepped into the ring. His opponent was tall skinny and plain looking.
"Let the round begin!"
Aang quickly noticed how different a fire bender vs fire bender fight was from any of the other fights. Instead of giving it all they had into an attack, they always seemed to hold back a little bit because if your opponent attacks and you don't have time to block it then your done for. Unlike in Toph's fight where she made a small mistake and got hit by that rock if Zuko or his opponent made a mistake they would be toast. Literally.
The round was lasting an awfully long time and neither combatant seemed to have the upper hand, unlike in Katara and Toph's fight where they had been clearly more skilled then their opponent. Eventually Zuko tried a new strategy and started walking towards his opponent whilst deflecting his attacks. He closed the gap between them and they were soon throwing punches as well as fireballs. Fortunately Zuko was considerably stronger then his opponent and managed to punch him hard in the gut. His opponent doubled over and Zuko punched him again and he toppled over the side of the ring, he landed hard on his back and just lied there. The whole room went silent. Then slowly his opponent stirred and everyone breathed a side of relief. Zuko jumped down out of the arena and offered him his hand. He took it and got shakily to his feet.
Every one started talking at once and got up to leave. All of the fights for the day were over and people were already placing bets on the outcome of tomorrow's fights.
I know this is a stupid place to end this chapter but I g2g away to Florida and I probably won't have time to finish it so I'm sending it in un edited. Sorry!