Chereads / Harry Potter The Bender / Chapter 18 - A Duel with the Earth King's Might

Chapter 18 - A Duel with the Earth King's Might

"I am not entirely sure that this is a prison cell." Harry said as they looked around the room they had been taken into. There was no door since it opened with Earth bending, the room has three green beds in the centre with three green drapes hanging from the ceiling above them. "I've been in dungeons and prison cells before, this is much nicer."

"He did say it was newly refurbished." Aang pointed out.

"New or not, we're prisoners here!" Sokka reminded him. "Why didn't you do anything?" Sokka asked Harry. "You're the 'Emerald Dragon', you couldn't do anything?"

"Most of my solutions involved burning everyone and everything to the ground," Harry said with a shrug. "I can still do that if you want." Harry offered.

"Um...no." Sokka eventually said.

"Fussy." Harry said under his breath before he began speaking out loud. "The King said that tomorrow Aang would face three deadly challenges, so the way I see it we still have a chance to make it out of this. And if that chance doesn't work out then we still have 'Plan B'."

"Is 'Plan B' by any chance a plan involving you burning everyone and everything to the ground?" Katara asked.

"Pretty much." Harry confirmed with a nod just before the room opened once again to allow two guards to come back in.

"You," One of the guards said as he pointed at Harry. "come with us, the King wants to speak to you." He said, he was either unaware of the rest of the gang tensing or was simply ignoring it.

"Well, aren't I popular today?" Harry said in a light voice before turning to the others. "Relax, you'll see me back with you lot before you can even say 'Sokka's an idiot'." Harry said before calmly following the guards out, ignoring Sokka's protest.

"So," The King of Omashu said when Harry was brought into his throne room. "how are you?" He asked in a kind voice.

"As well as I can be." Harry shrugged. "And yourself?"

"Good, good, or as good as someone my age can be." The King said with a grin. "Now, I just want to say...I know who you are."

"Really?" Harry asked, slowly shifting into a fighting stance.

"Oh yes, Emerald Dragon, I know exactly who you are." The King said with a snort. "We need to talk."

.......

Aang let out a sigh as it was finally time to complete the last of his 'deadly tests', the first was the easiest and had quite simply been telling the King what he thought about his new outfit, though Aang didn't really think that that was actually one of the tests. The second test had been managing to get the King's lunch from a strong waterfall and then retrieving his pet which hadn't been the little bunny that Aang originally thought it would be and ended up actually being the goat gorilla that had spent a large amount of time chasing Aang.

The worst part about all of these challenges was the time limit, Sokka and Katara had had special rings placed on their fingers, rings that made crystals that kept growing until they were covering more and more of Katara and Sokka, if Aang didn't want them to be completely covered then he would have to complete the tasks before the crystals started suffocating and/or crushing his friends. To make matters worse, Aang still didn't know what had happened to Harry.

"Your final test is a duel." The King said as they stood by a combat arena. "And as a special treat, you may choose your opponent." He added just as two tough looking men walked in. "Point and choose." The King told Aang.

"So...you're saying whoever I point to, that's who I have to fight?" Aang asked.

"Choose wisely." The King said in a voice that held a hint of warning.

"I choose...you!" Aang said, pointing at the King. Whatever Aang had expected for a response did not involve pure and genuine laughter, so naturally he was surprised when that was what he had gotten.

"Wrong choice." The King said after several moments of chuckling. The King straightens up and removes his outer robe, proving himself to be a powerfully built old man. He earthbends Aang off of the balcony, making him fly into the arena. The King jumps down right in front of Aang, and laughs. "You thought I was a frail old man, but I'm the most powerful earthbender you'll ever see." The King grinned.

"...Can I change my mind?" Aang asked hopefully.

"Nope," The King shook his head, grin still on his face. "There are no take-backsies in my kingdom." He said before he started earthbending.