"What the hell are they talking about?", I said very confused. Ruan looked terrified, he obviously did something to upset these guys. There were three of them, each wearing face wrappings covering their mouth and head only revealing their eyes. They also wore strange body armor, a leather looking chest piece, with metal wrist cuffs. Ruan started to back up slowly, he hesitated but said "The pride..", I was going to respond but he turned around and charged down the ally way.
"Run Khai, follow me!", Ruan Shouted. This time I didn't question him, why would I? We both ran out of the ally way, and into the streets. We didn't care who was in our way, if they were they were on the ground in seconds. We ducked and swerved around vending carts and street lights. We could hear the three benders behind us, they were close behind. "Ruan where are we go-", I was caught off by sand shards. Those were hardened sand spirals the used as projectiles when they compacted their sand together, but was nothing compared to an earth benders ability. Shards had been thrown left and right but never actually hit us.
Market stalls and potted plants had been either destroyed or shattered by the projectiles. At one point I had slid under a vegetable stall while Ruan had jumped over enough to get passed the hanging canopy that protected the lettuce type vegetable. We continued to run.
The benders themselves had launched a sand compacted ball that had smashed through the stall, sending bits of wood and lettuce everywhere. We could hear the vender as he screamed, "My Lettuce!", I could help have the most sudden Deja Vu feeling ever but I ignored it.
"Alright Khai we should loose them, I have a plan but we need to go a bit further are you alright with that?", said Ruan. More sand shards had shot further, impacting buildings and destroying stalls. "Run or die, sounds like an easy question Ruan, are you being rhetorical?", I said. Ruan looked back an kind of chuckled a bit, and his eyes suddenly got bigger. "Shit, Khai behind you!", Ruan stopped dead in his tracks and sprinted towards me. I tried to slow down to find out whats going on but he had been going faster and I had no time to completely stop running. Ruan tackled me, the impact was so great it had knocked the breathe out of the both of us. We flew backwards, more towards the benders.
I panted, trying hard to get my breathe back. The ground shook and screams could be heard from every direction, not surprising. There was a loud thud and the sound of stone been crushed could be heard. Ruan was on his hands knees, spitting onto the ground, and I tried my hardest to get up. I couldn't, I had been weakened greatly from Ruan's tackle. I had just enough energy to at least prop myself up on my elbows. I looked at where the ground had impacted and saw that a giant compacted ball of sand had been in it place, it had cracked in thirds on impact but if Ruan hadn't pushed me back I would have died, crushed like the flute player.
"Are..you...al-alright?", Ruan asked panting and still spitting on the ground, it was clear he was in enormous pain. Before I could answer the boulder had converted back into its original sand form. It was rising in the air almost in a snake form. The sand gripped itself around Ruan's leg, and dragged him in the air, Ruan dangling and grunting as he was hurled into the ally way next to us where we both had landed, avoiding that boulder.
Seeing that, allowed my hatred to enter my body, I felt a new power coursing through my veins. I got up, know matter how much my body ached. I wasn't going to let my friend be killed by these bed sheet wearing fuckers. One had been floating levitating with the help of the sand he was bending under his feet. The other two were on the ground, one moving his arms forming the sand that had hurled Ruan.
One of sand benders not doing anything was now smiling, a cocky, arrogant sort of smile and he started to laugh. I got to my feet holding a street lamp for balance. "Smug bastard!", I shouted not knowing what he was laughing about. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed something move, almost a morphing sort of motion. I looked realizing what he was laughing at. The snake shape sand in the air had reformed almost in a hammer shape minus the handle. It swung down smashing into my rib cage sending me flying into the ally way where Ruan had been attempting to get up. We had landed next to each other. "Khai..", Ruan sputtered out. My whole body ached, I clenched my rib cage, my finger dug into my side. I had blistering fury now, overwhelming rage rushed through my body. On my back I noticed the three benders walking closer to us.
Two of them turned around and raised their arms creating a sand wall blocking us in the ally way. They clenched their fists, compacting the sand making a fully standing wall. "Ruan, you know about us. Don't take this personally but you were in the right place at the wrong time", The bender said. "If you hadn't seen us contemplating our bank robbery plan in the park last night, you still would have been around to live in this hell whole. Come to think of it we're actually doing you a favor, now you will sleep in the afterlife", He said in an emotionless expression. So that how Ruan knew the bank would explode, he had witnessed it before it had actually taken place.
"Go to hell!", Ruan yelled still panting but regaining some energy. The bender smirked, "You shouldn't have said anything, that would have made your death less pathetic", He said. I had gotten to my feet, my hate had gave me the extra push to somewhat to get to my feet. "Kenten, watch out for the other one!", one of the benders in the back, who built the wall, informed the bender talking to us, who now was identified as Kenten. In the ally way were trash cans and scaffoldings. Ruan and I had propped ourselves up and each scaffolding and were side by side. The sunlight was most visible on Ruan's side so he was constantly covering his eyes.
Kenten began to raise his hands up summoning sand that had been scattered on the ground. That's when I noticed Ruan fiddling with something on his scaffolding. His right hand was moving up and down but I couldn't see exactly what it was. Kenten, who had been in the darker side of the ally way had the sun behind him so he had no problem getting what needed to be done. The sand in the air was growing bigger and bigger it had seemed to get. When suddenly I found Run's plan, he moved his arm back arm back revealing a shard of glass that had been broken on the scaffolding.
The glare on the sun reflected of the glass shard hitting Kenten right in his eyes, and that when I made my move. He dropped his hand covering his eyes, and the sand started to fall. I rushed in, the other benders noticed this and tried to air Kenten but were to slow. I rushed in slamming my fist into Kenten's stomach following up with a high knee to his solarplex. This combo sent him to the ground, coughing and gasping for breath. I smiled, seeing how I did some damage, what say I couldn't deal more?
One of the benders had rushed at me, I was caught off guard but when he attempted to attack me, Ruan dug his elbow into the benders side forcing him into the wall, he grunted as his head made contact with the wall, knocking him out cold. The last bender had form floating in the air and launched it at us. I put my leg on Ruan's hip and pushed we both made contact with the wall but we had dodged the attacked.
The bender followed up by dividing his arms instead of keeping them together making the sand separate into two different attacks. Ruan and I didn't see this coming, the sand hit us in the back and continued until we slammed into the sand wall the benders had made to block us off. We were completely encased with sand, holding us to the wall. All he had to do was squeeze his fists and it would have been all over. However, Ruan had managed to get his hand free, revealing him holding a piece of the scaffolding leg his had grabbed while being pushed by the sand into the wall.
"Feeling lucky, you arrogant fuck!", Ruan had said confidently. The bender grinded his teeth, but before he could do anything he was to distracted by the collapsing scaffolding. Wood, metal, glass, and wet cement has covered him. Releasing his bending form, Ruan and I dropped to the ground, relieved.
"You alright man?", I asked getting and and brushing ourselves clean. "I'm fine", I lied of course, my ribs hurt like hell, but I didn't want to seem weak, after seeing Ruan plan everything precisely I felt kind of like extra baggage. Kenten Had been skewered through the shin with a scaffolding pole, his screams of agony wailed into their ears.
"YOU! Damn you!", he shouted, crying in agony, wailing even louder then before. "You think this is over, we're more powerful then you'll ever be, and we're not finished yet!", he proclaimed. He raised his arms in the air, trying to encounter little pain as possible. He clenched his fist and the ground, buildings and sand wall started to shake. Everything converted to sand and it was raised above their heads. The wall was barley standing but it was enough so they still couldn't get out. Mounds of sand lay overhead and all Ruan and I could do was stare in horror and the sand grew into an abundant mass that blocked the sun. Reaching the climax of his power, Kenten's arms dropped because he passed out from pain.
The sand fell.