Chapter 4: Earth Rumble V Part Two

Moving on to the next round of brackets, It's Hippo versus Fire Nation Man.

I won't get into much detail, since the only fights that interest me are with Toph.

Hippo grabs a huge earth ring from the arena ground and launches it at Fire Nation Man.

Fire Nation Man isn't as physically strong as Hippo, but he still tries to stand his ground and deflect the attack.

He fails. Just like his precious Fire Nation will in the future.

Fire Nation Man gets launched out of the ring and into the stands behind him.

Hippo celebrates with the same weird sumo dance.

The next fight is between The Gecko and unknown fighter A.

Gecko overwhelms him with agility and speed and knocks the fighter out of the ring.

Then, it's Toph against one of the unknown fighters who one against the other unknown fighter.

How come all these unknown fighters look so similar?

Anyways, Toph The Annihilator knocks him out of the ring in less than 2 seconds and moves on to her fight with The Gecko.

"Now, for the Semi-Finals! One one corner, The Blind Bandit!"

Toph gets more cheers this time around, probably because she destroyed everyone of her opponents with ease.

There are still some boos from the rich people though. They're probably betters.

"And on the other corner, The Gecko!"

The Geck gets more cheers, especially from the rich people who booed Toph.

Don't worry, when you lose your bet money, you can just forget all about it in Lake Laogai.

"Begin the match!"

He didn't say 'get ready to rumble'. He's probably saving it for the finals.

Much like her, Toph just waits and listens for The Gecko's next move.

The Gecko uses her 'hesitation' to launch multiple rocks from a distance.

Toph deflects the rocks and continues to wait for The Gecko's next move.

This time Gecko moves around Toph in a circle while jumping and launching rocks her way.

Toph seems to be getting the timing of the Gecko's attacks.

I can see her smile as the Gecko once again jumps in the air.

At the peak of his jump Toph stomps down with her left foot and brings up a medium sized boulder in front of her, then punches it, launching it like a cannon ball to the Gecko, who is still in the air.

Not being able to earthbend while airborne, the Gecko takes the hit and gets knocked out of the ring.

"The Gecko was knocked out! The winner is The Blind Bandit!!"

Xin Fu comes up on stage and announces Toph as the winner of the Semi-Finals while holding her arm up.

"We will now take a short break before the finals between The Big Bad Hippo, and The Blind Bandit!"

The cheering in the audience gets deafening as people root for whoever they're a fan of.

I hear more 'Hippo! Hippo!' than 'Bandit!'.

Of course I'm cheering for Toph at the top of my lungs.

I can see Toph smiling once she heard my voice.

She must be happy to have an actual friend cheer her on.

Since it's break time, I decide to make my way down to congratulate Toph on making it to the Semi-Finals.

"Hey, Toph! Congrats! You completely wiped the floor with those chumps!

"Hehe. Thanks, Lu. I could hear your cheering. Your pretty loud, y'know.

She said this while picking her ear and looking away.

She's an even bigger tsundere than what I saw in the show, holy shit.

"Haha. Your cute when your embarrassed, Toph."

"!?"

Toph stiffens up at my compliment, and a deep blush creeps across her face.

"Y-yeah, right. Your just saying that to make me happy!"

Toph response by punching me hard on my arm.

"Ow! Jeez, you don't gotta punch me just for calling you cute!"

Toph punches me again, her face getting redder at me mentioning her being cute again.

(A/N: How to make a Tsundere fall for you 101: Keep complimenting her, even when she gets violent in embarrassment.)

"J-just shut it, Little Lu!"

"Haha. okay, okay, I'll be quiet."

We then spend the rest of the break talking about her fights and she tells me what her thought process was throughout all of her fights so far.

Basically, she waits and listens, then launches an attack as soon as she feels a vibration. Pretty simple.

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"Welcome back, Earth Kingdom! Did you enjoy your break!? Well, get ready! It's time for the Finals!!"

Deafening cheering can be heard from all around the stadium.

"On this corner, The Big Bad Hippoooooo!!"

The cheering somehow gets even louder.

Jesus, what are these people? Voicebenders?

"And on the other corner! The Blind Bandit!!"

I hear alot more boos this time around. Looks like Hippo is the betting favorite tonight. I seem to be the only one cheering for Toph.

Hehehe, Hahaha!!! (Evil laugh)

I put all of the money I brought and bet on Toph.

It feels so good to win.

"Let's! Get! Ready! To! Rumbllllle!!!!!"

Xin Fu shouts the familiar words once again, albeit much louder to incite the hype into the audience.

The Hippo roars in order to taunt, or maybe scare, Toph, but of course that doesn't work.

Toph just stands their in her ready stance, waiting for Hippo to do something.

Seeing that his roar didn't faze Toph, the Hippo roars again while running towards Toph with a boulder raised above his head.

Toph then steps to the side as Hippo misses her, and brings her fist forward in a punching motion, as an earth pillar extends from the ground at the speed of a pitcher's baseball

(A/N: Around 90 mph, or 144 kph)

"Oof!"

Hippo got stunned momentarily, but got back up to swing his back fist at Toph.

She jumps just out of the way and into a crouch while slamming both her fist to the ground.

That causes two earth pillars to shoot out of the ground at The Hippo, which launches him into the air.

Toph keeps bending pillars out of the ground just before the Hippo touches the ground and continues this until he's thrown out of the arena.

The arena suddenly gets quieter.

"Yeah! That's how it's done!"

I take this chance of silence and cheer loudly for Toph.

Toph then turns her head to my direction and shows the biggest grin I've seen.

"And the winner is!! The Blind Bandit!!"

The crowd then erupts in cheers.

Well, only the ones who didn't bet money for any fighters.

Xin Fu then gets the belt from another worker and hands it to Toph.

"Now, for a special match! Who, in the audience, dares to face Earth Rumble V's newest champion!? If you win you get 100 gold pieces in prize money!"

I should take this chance to get a duel with Toph.

I'm gonna lose for sure, but a friendly battle will make our bond a little stronger.

No one seems to want to fight after seeing her deal with all of her opponents with ease.

I stand up and raise my hand.

"I'll fight!"

Everyone around me looks at me and laughs.

They think I'll lose just as badly as the others.

They're not wrong, though.

Toph looks at me in surprise, then smiles and nods.

"Looks like we have a challenger! Come down to the stage, boy! And get ready to fight!"

I make my way down to the front row and launch myself with an earth pillar to the arena.

I land as gracefully as a beginner Earthbender can and greet Toph.

"Hello. Miss Blind Bandit! Ready to get knocked out of the ring?"

"Ha! I'd like to see you try, Little Boy!"

Toph points and taunts me, going with the flow of not knowing each other's names.

I ready my basic earthbender stance, and Toph gets in hers.

"Let's get Ready to rumble!"

Xin Fu signals the fight to start.

Instead of waiting for my first move, Toph stomps her foot down and brings up a rock from the ground. She round house kicks the rock to me, like a cannon.

I block the incoming rock by swinging my elbow down and breaking it into pieces.

Before even getting my bearings, another rock appears from the dust of the first one, striking me right in the face.

My body is blown back to the edge of the arena.

I try getting up as quickly as I can, but Toph trips me up by moving the ground around me, preventing me from getting a proper stance to bend.

She then stomps again and sends a rock pillar to my gut and throws me out of bounds.

"The Blind Bandit wins! To bad! Try your luck next time, kid!"

Xin Fu then exits the arena the same way he entered, an the crowd starts to leave to go home.

I get up, still holding my stomach, and Toph comes down to me, her champions belt tied to her waist.

"Hey, there, Little Lu."

She smiles at me and slaps my back hard.

"Good fight!"

"Oof! You sure don't hold back, Toph..."

"Oh come on, don't be such a baby!"

She then grabs my arm and holds me up, and quickly pecks my cheek.

"Thanks for coming with me to Earth Rumble tonight... and thank you for cheering for me."

Toph looks away and smiles softly while blushing, then punches me in the arm, though not too hard.

I smile back at her.

"That's what friends are for."

"Hehe, yeah."

Toph and I smile at each other and fist bump.

We walk to the exit and head home together.