Aang had a determined look on his face and began to run at his foe with superhuman speed that Ranma wished that he could learn to duplicate, since one of the aspects the he was still perfecting was his speed. But the king used the side of his foot to sweep across the land, which seemed to have the effect of turning the ground that Aang was running on into something that resembled quicksand. The young Avatar fell into the sand trap slowly sinking into the ground. The danger only grew as the ruler sent two more boulders to smash the young man on either side.
But the airbender managed to give the king the slip as he focused what little air that had been trapped along with his body beneath him and shoot himself into the air, unleashing another blast of wind that knocked the leader and his stone sheet he stood on back against the wall of the arena. The King then raised the stone that he had just used to try and smash the Avatar and pulled it out towards the arrow headed boy. The young boy saw it in time and did a back flip that barely allowed him to get up and over the floating boulder. The effect looked like it was going to hit the king but the king used his earthbending ability to smash it to pieces much like a breaking point attack. Then the ruler then lifted the entire gate of arena to throw at Aang.
The arrow boy screamed out in shock as he began to run around in circle with his superhuman speed. Creating a whirlwind he took in the thrown mound of earth and threw it back at the leader of the city. Unflinching the King brought his hands together and threw them apart, ripping the giant stone into two halves. But from the other side of the stone came the Avatar as he pinned the king with his staff. Of course Ranma could tell that they king had won as one half of the large earth mound floated over the two of them in a way that would have crushed them if it fell.
'It's just like me whenever I fight against one of the old-timers, they always use some kind of tricky fighting style that seems ta pull out an upset victory. That means that the king's not so crazy, which means he has a mind like the old ghoul, and that means that his after something, but what? ' Ranma thought to himself as he noticed that Aang had discovered the rock over his head.
"Hehe! Well done, Avatar. You fight with much fire in your heart." The king told the arrow boy as the he moved the rock to the side of the arena. The ruler then fell backwards into the dirt floor of the forum and disappeared underground leaving only a king shaped hole.
"Huh?" wondered several young people watching.
It was then that the king arrived at on the balcony that the Water Tribesmen and the Nerima crew were standing on, causing a little smile to cross his face as the Avatar used his staff to reach the balcony. The Avatar looked surprised to see the other trio on the balcony. The king spoke, "So Avatar you have some resourceful friends or I have some poor guards. Well, you have passed my test and you friends will be freed if you can answer my question."
"That's not fair! You said you would release my friends if I finished you test!" Aang said with a hint at anger at being pulled around and Ranma was going to agree when Cologne spoke.
"I think that it might be a good idea to listen to the king, at least for now." Cologne told them as she gave a wink to the air nomad.
"The beautiful lady is right." The king gave his own wink at Cologne making her blush and Ranma and Shampoo feel a little ill. "Besides what's the point of test if you don't learn anything?"
"So what's the question? Might as well get this done with," Ranma replied trying to figure out what it was that Cologne was planning; he hated having to be between two old people with crazy ideas. At least he knew that Cologne or Shampoo could find a way to break the crystal if they needed to.
"Answer this one question and I will set your friends free. What is my name?" That stunned everyone but Cologne as the king told them that they didn't have very much time before the crystals caused a fatality.
The sextet looked at each other in confusion as Aang said, "How am I supposed to know his name?"
Katara spoke next with an idea about how to learn it, "Think about the challenges, maybe it's some kind of riddle."
"Perhaps it is something that you already know but have forgotten," Cologne said as she looked like she knew something. But most of the others were still focused on the name to notice.
"I got it!” Sokka said as he explained his answer, "He's an earthbender, right? Rocky! You know, because of all of the rocks… “A moment of stunned silence followed as everyone contemplated on how bad a guess that was.
Katara give the official answer of, "That’s an interesting answer but let’s keep that as a back up for now, any other ideas?”
The Avatar looked thoughtful as he went over his most recent memories, "Okay, so back to the challenges. I got a key from the waterfall, I saved his pet, and I had a dual."
"What did you learn young one?" Cologne asked him as they all put their heads together.
"Well, everything was different than I expected." Aang told them as they saw the crystal grow over the cheek of the water girl as she asked the arrow boy to continue. "They weren't straightforward; to solve each test I had to think differently than I usually would."
"Remind you of anyone, Aang?” Cologne asked as she saw the recognition on his face as he exclaimed that he knew his name. Ranma was trying to wonder how it was that Aang knew the king's name or how Cologne seemed to know it also. From her questions, the tone of her voice, and the look on her face she knew who the king was.
Shampoo was the one to speak up first, "So who is the king? What is his name? How do Aang and Great grandmother know his name anyway?"
(Posted Mon, 16 Apr 2007 13:36)
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