This one, I enjoyed. Hope you like it!

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I was woken up the next morning not by the generals shouts and the guards pulling my blanket off, but by a metallic tapping on the stone. After blinking away the sleep, Lee came into focus in the silhouette in the doorway.

"Wakey wakey, kid. Come to the training area. And dress the same as you did yesterday"

When I arrived at the training grounds I saw Lee conversing with a couple of non-bender soldiers. But when he noticed me he pat one of them on the shoulder and called out.

"Get over there. We're starting with a spar."

"Yes sir" I stood at attention the way the general told me I should.

Lee waved a hand at me dismissively "Hey, I'm not the general, don't do that. It's weird coming from a kid"

"Yes-Oh, ok... Lee?"

"That works. Now get over there"

I decided to take his 'get over there' as a step away a few yards. But as I was walking away I heard a long and slow shing, like a sword coming out of its sheath. When I looked back, Lee was twirling his blades around in a warmup dance. It was an amazing sight, I stood paused for a moment watching him windmill his blades, move them in sync with each other, and send a few test swing at an imaginary opponent. The blades made no sound as they cut through the air, despite their moving so quickly.

I felt myself start to sweat at the idea of fighting him, a non-bender. "Lee... is it safe?"

"Is what safe?" He look down at the blade in his hand for a moment and then back at me with a big smile on his face "oh please, I'm a master. Besides, I dulled these last night especially for today" he ran the blade across the tip of his thumb, and blood gushed out from the wound cause by the dull blade "see?"

I stared at him for a moment, unsure of whether or not he was joking.

"Shit!" He jogged away from me, in the direction of the medical building "I'll be right back! Practice your forms or something until then!" It felt nice laughing with the crowd instead of being laughed at.

He returned fairly quickly, considering how deep it looked like he cut his thumb. It was wrapped up its a gauze now, but it didn't seem to hinder his ability at all.

This time with certainty that his blades were dull, he preformed his warmup. And I watched again, just as amazed as the first time.

One last stretch of his neck, a shake of his arms and he looked at me, brandishing his swords with a terrifyingly confident look in his eye. "Ready?"

I didn't trust my voice, so I chose to nod shakily.

I opened with the same attack that the general had me do. Both heels planted in the ground, lift a pillar as tall as myself with my arms. Break it into thr- I was on the ground. I hadn't even felt the thud of his blade on the back of my legs until I was in the air, tossed up like a ragdoll.

I landed hard on the ground and he came into view above me.

"Tsk tsk. Bad job. The general may have taught you about the importance of your stance, but if that's all you focus on then you're dead. Again!" He smacked me in the thigh with his blade and stepped back into his original position. "And get that stone back in the ground! We're starting fresh!"

I tried again, except faster. Only to have same thing happen before I even pulled the stone back out of the ground.

"Again!"

Again.

"Again!"

Again.

"Why the hell would you do the wrong thing over and over again?! You must enjoy being smacked around!"

Fed up, and in a bout of frustration, I ignored what the general told me the day before, and tried to do it on my own. There was a patch of already broken ground behind me, and near there were a couple of fairly large stones I could bend into the fight.

I did the same as my previous knockouts, but this time I was ready. Lee attacked from the same place each time, right behind me. And he had just done it again. Instead of breaking the pillar into pieces this time, I readied myself to shoot the stone from the ground behind me into Lee's back. I felt the weight of the stone on my bending, and when I knew he was behind me I ducked. The large stone came flying through the air and directly for his head.

I felt a rain of pebbles bounce across my back, and two thuds on the ground near me. When I turned around I saw that the stone had been smashed in two, and that Lee was smiling wildly at me.

"Good job! You finally got it!"

I stared up at him from my protective fetal position on the ground, obviously defeated. "What?"

His smile calmed by a fraction, but it was still there. "Non-benders are at a huge disadvantage when fighting benders of any element. So we always have to think on the edge. Integrating fighting styles, tricking our opponent into making a mistake, finding some work around to their bending. And if you can't think the same way, then you're going to lose to some little trick that you didn't see coming." He motioned with his sword to get up "c'mon, I'll actually start teaching you stuff now." He suddenly turned back around as if he'd forgotten something and pointed the sword at me. "And hey! I don't wanna hear any whining about 'I'm an earth bender, why do I have to learn non-bending fighting styles?' I'm the teacher here, shut up! It makes your bending better anyway."

"Y-yes sir!" he raised an eyebrow at me "oh... I understand, Lee. No whining."

"Atta boy. Now, I'm not going to teach you swordplay. Earth benders are notoriously bad at it, and I'm not going to risk wasting my time. You will, however, be learning the fighting styles made to counteract fire bending, and earth bending. Whether you're good at them or not. I don't know the water bending counter, but my colleague here does"

A man with a single sword at his waste waved at me with a bored look from his spot in the shade of the building. "So he will be whooping your ass every now and then too." With a flourish, he sheathed both of his blades without a hint of hesitation to make sure they were positioned correctly "Any questions?" I slowly shook my head, impressed as I was. The general was very talented, he commanded his element beautifully. But there was something about Lee that screamed much louder than anything the general had. Lee was skilled,he had worked incredibly hard to earn his position and only looked so amazing wielding his weapons because of his hard work. "Good, let's get to work. Ill show you the earth counter first. Show me your starting stance!"

I entered my stance, preparing to spend hours in it when he pushed me over with a single finger on my shoulder "we've got a lot to do if that's all the general taught you yesterday. You're an earth bender, hard as rock, solid as stone. I shouldn't be able to push you over so easily!"

I gathered myself off the ground and got into the stance again. This time, with a grin, I pounded both feet into the ground and closed the earth around them.

The general would have broken the ground I was standing and sent me flying, but Lee just started laughing. "I'm going to enjoy teaching you!" He did however knock me over with a finger again.