Round 1. Fight!

The penny that Kai through in the air started to descend and the moment it hit the ground, their fight was going to begin. The three opponents are in their battle stances, just waiting for the silver penny to begin their match. They looked at each other straight in their eyes, not one of them blinking. The penny was closing on the ground with just a few seconds more, and…

*Ting*

Without wasting a single second, the two opposing Earthbenders quickly moved before Kai and sent several medium-sized rocks right at their target with blazing speed. Cracks took place where the large chunks of rock were formed. Kai looked at the large projectiles that were heading for him with a calm expression. He smirked and thought to himself, while still staying in his boxing stance.

'Seriously? They're starting off by throwing a couple of pebbles?'

Earth projectiles drew closer and closer to him, but he was not a bit worried. When they were already at reaching distance, Kai quickly reacted swiftly, and smoothly evading some of the projectiles that were passing him by like they were just paper planes. He ducked, sidestepped the incoming objects, and single-handedly destroyed the rest using his fists and his kicks. He immediately returned to his boxing stance and looked at the two so-called 'Earthbending Masters' and called them out,

"Come on, guys! Seriously?! Y'all are gonna start off like that? I didn't train for months at a time, to just throw some rocks at each other in the end."

Tola and Ganu didn't say a word to him and kept staring at him indifferently.

"Well?!" Kai continued, expecting a response from them, but nothing.

Kai just shook his light lightly at their lack of response. It seems that they were just treating Kai like he was just a waste of their time. Recalling a few moments ago, when Kai suggested how they would start their fight, the one named Ganu looked at him like he was amusing to him. He just closed his eyes and sighed sadly,

'I really hope that they're not underestimating me. For months and months, I've been looking for a fight, and a fight I will have. But if they keep doing, so, well… then that'll be the BIGGEST mistake of their lives.' Kai thought to himself while staring back at his two opponents; narrowing his eyes.

Kai then quickly retaliated with roks of his own, but were much larger than the ones Ganu and Tola threw at him. With a series of jabs and kicks aimed at the large rocks in front of him, they flew through the air toward the two Earthbenders. Ganu raised up a large earth shield that protected both him and Tola from Kai's attacks. The projectiles smashed into the shield with tremendous force, but the shield stood vast.

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

*BOOM*

After the rain of attacks from Kai ended, Tola then split the rock shield in two, kicking one half toward Kai, and Ganu kicking the other half. Kai saw them coming, and he quickly did a beautiful butterfly flip, and the first large arrow-shaped rock flew under him and crashed behind him. Kai landed on his feet very nimbly. Using the surrounding rubble from the earlier attacks, Kai quickly summoned them to his right arm, forming an armor made of rock. He condensed the rock armor as quickly as he can, and using his armored arm, he punched the incoming earth projectile with all his might.

"Hup!"

*BOOM!*

The rock projectile exploded on impact, against Kai's rock-armored arm! Small debris and clouds of dust spread through the air. The rock armor started to crumble, because of the impact. He then quickly summoned the surrounding rubble again, but this time they covered both of his arms. Kai also made sure to condense the rock armor to be stronger and more durable.

Tola and Ganu weren't fazed that Kai created two earth gauntlets, so they kept their composure. Then both of them started to separate from each other and slowly started to walk around the Lotus pattern in the center of the platform. Kai knew their intentions and decided to move forward to the center of the stage. They stopped, and now Kai was in the middle of the stage, with Ganu and Tola on opposite sides of him. The fight was at a standstill for a moment, and the three Earthbenders, well mostly Kai, waited for one of them to make another move.

Kai's heartbeat began to speed up, and he could slowly feel the adrenaline spreading to his body. He could barely contain his smile, which went unnoticed by them, at first. Before they continued the fight, Kai began to speak, catching the attention of Ganu and Tola.

"Now, that's what I'm talkin' about. I dunno if you two started to take me seriously or something. But, I just wanna say that I'm expecting a FIGHT, and I hope that youse are gonna me give one…"

Kai then started to lower his rock-armored arms, his smile began to slowly disappear, and he continued with a low tone, "… Because if you DON'T, I'll make sure you two are gonna regret it."

Neither of them said anything to each other after that, and just continued their standoff. Kai was standing there in the middle of the stage with his Earth gauntlets by his side and prepared himself to make the move first.

Under the wooden pavilion…

Tenzin and the rest of the spectators were silently watching the fight unfold. Tenzin was rather impressed at the way Kai handled himself fighting against two very talented Earthbenders, and the fact that he could summon up an Earth armor very quickly. The others present, except for the two quest, were also impressed, however they didn't take to kindly at his brash behavior. With Tenzin, the one thing that made his eyebrow raise was the fact that Kai was very, very combative. That made Tenzin come to the conclusion in his mind that Kai was someone who loved to fight, someone who loved the rush that it gave, but at the same was also very calm when doing so.

Like how he was able to easily and swiftly avoid the first attacks that would make a normal Earthbender have second thoughts. Even though they were still in the beginning phase of the fight, so far, Kai was able to show Tenzin what he was capable of and that he had a lot of potential. He could overlook his combative personality, because Lin already warned that he could be like this, and also that he somewhat reminded him of someone of a certain someone.

"I wonder how he would fare against Avatar Korra?" Tenzin suddenly said out of nowhere.

The three Lotus members frowned at what Tenzin had said and the one that stood next to him spoke, "Tenzin, what brought this on all of a sudden?"

"What?" Said Tenzin with his eyebrows raised. It seemed that Tenzin hadn't realized that he voiced out his thoughts. The Lotus member repeated, "You just said, how the boy could fare against the Avatar?"

"Oh, uh, never mind what I just said. Let us continue our observations." Tenzin turned his away from the Lotus member and focused on the three people on the stage. The man nodded and did the same, as well as the other members. He then did a quick glance at the two men in Earth kingdom attire on the right of him and saw that they still had their attention on the three people below. He wanted to address them, but let it be for now. Now, it was about the fight that was about to pick up in front of them.

Back on the fighting stage…

After the skirmish, in the beginning, the fight was at a standstill at the moment. Kai said a few words of encouragement to make them fight seriously, Because if they don't, in Kai's words: They would regret it. And if they knew him, they would know that Kai was a man of his word. The sun was at its peak, snow was beginning to fall, and the fighters, mostly Kai, were like a fuse ready to blow.

In a split second, Kai was the one who quickly made the first move. A rock wall was erected from out of the stage and was heading in the direction of Ganu with heightened speed. A small grin appeared on his face, and he got into his stance to prepare himself to face it.

'Looks like the Masters overestimated him.' Ganu thought to himself, as the rock wall drew closer to him and continued, 'We came halfway around the world for this? What a complete waste of our time.'

The rock wall was already a few meters away from him, while he was complaining about this whole situation in his mind. He was beginning to make his move by just destroying the wall with just his bare fist like how Kai did earlier. And as he was about to, something suddenly caught him off guard. The wall suddenly stopped and went in the opposite direction instead.

'Huh? What's going on here?'

A frown replace his grin, and a look of disbelief immediately replaced it. As the rock wall was heading backward in the opposite direction, Ganu suddenly noticed a large fist-shaped object appearing from out of the ground, and towards his face. Feeling like everything was moving in slow motion, Ganu started to bend backward. He tried to turn his head to the side, but the large fist managed to just graze his left cheek. When the fist just missed his face, Ganu tried to find his footing, but stumbled backward and landed on his back.

And rising out of the ground, Kai jumped up and raised his gauntlets in the air. Ganu, who finally snapped out of it, face dropped completely, and saw the two massive rock gauntlets coming straight down on him. His eyes widened in shock, and then immediately wanted to roll out of the way. Kai arched his body backward and then yelled out, while he smashed his rock gauntlets into the ground!

"Aaarrgghh!!"

*BOOM!*

The entire stage shook because of the impact! Kai had dug his gauntlets into the ground with such force that it created a rather large crater and a huge snowy dust cloud. The shockwave was felt throughout the whole stage, even by the people under the wooden pavilion. The sound of the impact also echoed throughout the whole base as it caught the attention of the sentries and the ones inside the buildings.

"What in the world was that?! Are we under attack?!" Said one of the sentries, who came out running from one of the buildings along with a few others.

"I don't know!" another sentry had said, who also came out of one of the buildings.

Not just them, of course, but more members were also alerted by the sudden rumbling that occurred inside the base. Thinking that it was a sudden attack, someone, who was a higher rank Lotus member, eased them of their suspicion, "It's alright, people! Nothin' to worry about! We have guests, that's all!"

"Guests?" Asked a Sentry.

The higher rank Lotus member looked at the sentries and started to explain the situation, "Remember the airship that arrived earlier? Well, that airship was carrying the Chief of the Republic City Police, Lin Beifong, and her student. That said student is doing a test at this moment. That's the reason for the, uh, the big boom on that training ground."

When he mentioned the stage, all the sentries who were there, turned their heads toward the middle of the base, where the source of the sound and the rumble was located. They saw a large white dust cloud rising from the training ground, and they began to wonder what or who was the cause of that. Their thoughts were then interrupted by the higher rank Lotus member, "Alright, people! Get back to your stations! Now!"

With that order, they immediately went to resume their post, but some of them still wanted to see what was happening at that training ground. And without anyone knowing some of the sentries did manage to sneak to one of the watchtowers that were rather close to the fight and observed from afar. They even started to bet amongst themselves, and most of their bets were on the one who was the cause of that huge dust cloud and the large crater on the stage.

Back on the stage...

Ganu was in disbelief at what had just happened. He began to ask himself, how Kai was able to muster the strength to even create the giant crater. He would have died if he didn't move out of the way! While Ganu was still trying to figure this out, under the wooden pavilion, Tenzin and the other Lotus members were watching this with their eyes wide open. The white Lotus members were the most shocked of them all, Tenzin with a look of disbelief, and the two Earth kingdom men, especially the first one, with a beaming smile.

The large white dust cloud was still lingering and the people waited for Kai to appear. Ganu was still on the ground making sense of the current situation. He then suddenly remembered his sister and looked around to find her. On the other side of the training ground, Tola was somehow also on the ground holding her midsection. It seems that the rock wall that Kai created, was meant for her and also was a misdirection.

"Didn't I tell ya?" Kai voice suddenly sounded out from inside the dust cloud that was still lingering in the air. Ganu immediately stood back on his feet upon hearing his voice, and stood ways away from him. He then made his way to his sister, who appears to be slightly injured. Then a silhouette started to emerge from the dust cloud, and Kai was seen with his fist slammed into his hand. He looked Ganu and at Tola who were collecting themsleves and started to crack his knuckles as he spoke,

"Well, let me remind y'all. one. last. time. I came all this way for a fight, and a fight I will get. No one, and I mean no one is going to leave this base, untill I get what I want. So..., " Kai then went into his stance again, and he drew his forward and urged him to come.

"..., Let's start with round 2."