Zuko
The twenty-four remaining survivors from the fighting pit were now assembled in front of the gawking nobility, it was very gratifying that more than one noble lady stared at me with depraved eyes and I was sure that if I wanted to I could sleep with any of them.
Ozai walked in front of us staring deeply into the eyes of the contestants as he passed not one of them failed to show their submission as they looked down whenever he passed, I was the last in the line or the first depending on who you asked and finally, it was my turn to stare at Ozai's eyes.
I could see it clear as day, the hate, the bubbling anger and I met them with my own. We spent quite a few seconds daring the other to move but in the end Ozai moved while speaking out to the crowd.
"You've seen them fight in the chaos of the battlefield, now it's time for the champions of the Fire Nation to prove themselves by dueling." I didn't like the way Ozai was smiling as he moved about "It will be a contest of skill and endurance and tonight we have the perfect warrior to make this test possible"
The crowd's anticipation was an almost palpable thing, Iroh locked eyes with me with a look of dawning comprehension and when my eyes met his I also understood what Ozai would do.
"Prince Zuko will show us the might of the sun, my son will fight with every one of the last remaining warriors in consecutive duels until he is beaten, those who fail can try again after everyone has had a turn and if he were to lose then the one to defeat him will take his place and so on, this will end until there is only one winner." gasps rang out from the crowd at this announcement
"Every technique is valid, death accidental or otherwise won't be punished, and to make it more interesting we will give each one of the challengers a weapon but not to the champion" Ozai was not even trying to hide the fact that he wouldn't weep over my death, hell I was sure that if I died fighting he would dance on my corpse.
There was a roar of approval from the crowd and while we made our way into an area more proper for an Agni Kai Iroh approached.
"You look very worried uncle. You shouldn't be," I said while grabbing his shoulder in what I hoped was a comforting gesture "I don't tire easily"
"I know that but accidents happen," Iroh hugged me and whispered in my ear "Ozai will try his best to kill you tonight and the more you tire the greater his chance of success. Don't die for your pride Zuko"
He let me and I kept walking but I shouted back for all to hear "With Agni on my side I can't possibly lose!" it was a declaration not only to my uncle or the other fighters but to the entire ruling class of the Fire Nation, with the 'sun' on my side I couldn't lose.
The place we walked to reminded me of the place where Zuko and Azula would fight for the throne in a timeline that won't happen now, the great difference was that this had high platforms so the nobles could see without worrying about getting hit by the fire, that, and a very large statue of Ozai.
No wonder so many people curried favor with him by naming things for him or by making even more statues of his person, with one in his home it was clear that he loved that kind of tribute.
I walked to the center where a little arena was visible thanks to some tiles that were of a different color than the usual brown that was on the floor, the other participants arranged themselves in a circle around me.
"While it's not necessary, it would be for the best that you stayed within the boundaries of the floor," Ozai said flippantly as he walked to another throne that would have him looking down at us "make sure to make this entertaining for the nobles Zuko"
I didn't know if Ozai was mocking me to make me lose focus or if the idiot thought that I would attack him…perhaps I was simply overthinking things and he was just a jerk, whatever the case the fighting would start soon.
The question was just how flashy I wanted this to be, I wasn't planning on doing a test of stamina, it would show too much of my capabilities and I refused to spend the rest of the night touching sweaty men over and over again.
"Now that we're all in our proper places," Ozai said drawing out some laughs from the crowd "It's time for the participants to get their weapons"
Servants carrying spears, swords, knives, and more walked to the side of the men that would be fighting me. Some of them hesitated and to those, I would show mercy, the others eagerly wrapped their hands around their preferred tool while giving me some nasty looks.
Most of those who were eying me with bloodlust in their eyes were people from the second batch of fighters that I didn't see fight because I was too busy making sure that Mai's womb remembered what happened today for the rest of her life.
"Let's begin! For Agni, For glory, and For the Fire Nation! FIGHT!" Ozai was a great showman; too bad he was an asshole.
My first opponent had a spear in one of his hands and fire in the other, he looked quite comfortable like that and I sensed trouble, I threw out two kicks that launched falls of fire at him but he repelled them with the fire of his hand and proceeded to try and skewer me with the spear.
Not one to take chances or give undue opportunities I showed off my strength by breaking the spear with a quick movement, then I grabbed the broken piece and hurled it at my opponent while he was busy dodging I blasted him away with a big ball of fire. The man had only seconds to brace himself but he managed to move just enough so the fire blast would graze him, it still sent him away with enough force to break the ground as he landed.
The soldier was groaning on the floor and a big silence spread across the arena before it was broken by the cheers of the people chanting my name and hailing Agni, the fight had barely lasted a minute but I'm sure that it was very impressive, it's not every day that you get to see a master Firebender.
I was the lowest of the low in that category but my skill was already in that realm. Servants came close to the man on the ground and when Ozai looked at them in askance but they shook their heads as they hefted up the soldier and removed him from the arena. More cheers erupted at that.
"Next fighter!" Ozai said the words as neutral as possible, but I would bet my left arm that he was angry about the result.
The next soldier to come into the circle was wielding twin swords like I do, I didn't know if he was overconfident, posturing or if he really had some skill. After all, this was a perfect place for those who weren't part of the noble circles to make themselves appear eligible or at least useful enough to contact.
The soldier gave me a shallow bow of respect and took a stance, we circled each other for a few seconds before he moved, using fire jets in his feet he positioned himself in my back to make him give ground I dropped to the floor and released a wave of fire at his feet.
He jumped over it but in the air he couldn't dodge so I charged at him on impulse helped by my own jet of fire, A fire whip was created in my hands and I used it to bind the twin swords in his hands, now weaponless the man had to use firebending to stop my charge but I found the reason why he tried to defeat me with the swords soon after his first fire stream.
While above average his fire lacked strength compared to my own and his power over his own flames was usurped by me in the blink of an eye the fire he shot at me was dispersed and with a resigned smile on his face, he let me punch him.
I had hit him in the chin just right, now the man was now unconscious on the floor and the rest of my opponents started to realize that tired or not they probably weren't going to beat me.
"Next" I said before Ozai could, drawing out laughs from the crowd as a result.
The rest of the fights went over quickly from the second one, with every win I shook the resolve of my competitors, the abilities that they had taken so much pride in were useless against me, and because of their lack of will their fire dimmed.
Now I was in front of the last one and unlike the last ten men, he had a look of confidence on his face.
It was very suspicious.
"You may begin" Ozai looked bored of the show but the same couldn't be said of the rest of my audience, the nobles waited with baited breath to see if I would emerge undefeated from the contest or if finally one of the soldiers would achieve a miracle and defeat me.
I noticed that there was a strange smell coming from his sword, it was something that I couldn't place so I looked at it with my super-vision and saw that it was covered in something that looked sticky. Poison.
While I had broken some bones in order to make the others drop out of fighting I had never killed anyone before in the competition, the man in front of me wouldn't receive the same mercy as the others.
With a bit of effort, my surroundings exploded in fire, great waves circled the limits of our battleground, and the wave of hot air that followed caused a small twister of fire to appear causing many to gasp in awe at my power and for the first time since the fighting started, I talked.
"Had you fought with a clean weapon I would have shown you the same mercy that I did the others but someone like you isn't deserving of mercy" my words were the last thing he heard as his world was enveloped by fire. The great waves I had created converged on him and in a second and turned his body into a pile of charred bones.
It was a grim end for what had been a great show, at least in my mind, but the nobles cheered all the same at my brutality just like they had done in the other matches. I seriously needed to introduce them to some normal entertainment or at least figure out how to create TV because in the long run blood sports weren't sustainable.
"That was a great finale to the fighting. Let us enjoy what is left of the night, prince Zuko I will see you when you depart at sundown tomorrow"
I knew he was lying, he was just telling me at what time he expected me to be gone.
Author note: it's back, finally. i knew i said i would return in a month and lied but i wanted to have some time to properly think about this, the updates will keep on their previous weekly time and i hope you enjoy this. as always my is below for you to check out if you want. Have a nice day!
