Chapter 122 - Chapter 124

Amell was walking inside the town of Gaoling, there were people rushing, either way, causing the streets to be filled to the brim with people. Everyone was forcing their way through, and knocking down other people. All expect for Amell. Running into him was similar to morons that willingly rush headfirst straight into a metal wall. So most people that were knocked down were people trying to push Amell out of the way.

Amell didn't sense Toph inside her home so he was a bit more anxious than before, "Excuse me!" Amell grabbed the arm of a young man rushing past him. "What do you want, old man?" The young man said in disdain and annoyance.

"Tell me, why is everyone in such a hurry?" It didn't slip passed Amell that the people were more excited than he had ever seen them. So obviously something was going on, but he had no idea what.

"Earth Rumble, the fighting tournament! You never heard of it, old man?!" The man said and forced himself loose, but he only succeeded because Amell let go of his grip, otherwise he would never have escaped that iron grip.

"Earth Rumble. An underground thing maybe," Amell tapped his foot on the ground and his sense went deep and finally, he came upon the massive arena hidden underneath the earth. And his senses also picked up a little lady standing on the stage, facing off against a much bigger man.

'There you are! No wonder I couldn't find you by just searching the surface level in this town. Toph, my sneaky little lady.' Amell tapped the ground again with the same foot and a hole opened up underneath him. He fell down into it and the hole closed before anyone noticed he vanished from his spot.

On the stage underneath the town, Toph stood bravely against her opponent. And her opponent was just below two meters tall. Toph was a talented bender, maybe the most talented earth bender in the world, but she had just started and her opponent had been fighting for many, many years.

The stands were filled all around this arena, except for the front rows. People loved all this fighting, but they weren't suicidal so no one dared to sit on the front rows where rocks would be flying constantly. Usually, if someone sat here it would be the other contestants.

And right now on the front row sat a couple of contestants and watched the fight on stage. And suddenly a hole opened up right next to them and Amell flew up and sat down right next to them. The casual movement of his whole entrance what was caused the people next to him to lose control of their jaws. From nowhere someone just came jumping out of the ground and sat down like it was nothing.

"H-Hey, man. Only fighters can sit here!" A timid looking man in his late twenties said to Amell carefully. He was slightly nervous because of Amell's massive size. He towered over them even when sitting down.

Amell's hand came down on his head, hard. "shhh" Amell shushed him without even looking at him.

"What the hell!!" Another slap came down on his head, and this one almost knocked him out completely. He felt almost getting buried inside the ground.

"No talking while they're fighting!" Amell said and raised his hand to threaten the men sitting next to him, and surprisingly they all shut up. They gave him a glance full of evil intent but no one dared say anything on their own.

At this point in the match, Toph had lost her chance in going on the offensive. Her opponent had been hesitating when he saw that she was blind, but after finding out how skilled Toph was, he stopped holding back. Toph could now only defend rock after rock that her opponent threw at her.

The longer the match was going on the more ground Toph lost against him. She was almost at the edge of the arena and her opponent, the man with a shaved head took a big step forward and summoned an earth wave and it took off toward Toph. The entire stage was vibrating from this move and Toph finally smiled slightly, she kicked the ground and the man's wave stopped abruptly and he flew off it towards Toph.

"Gotcha!" He said in mid-air as he sent two pebbles he held in his hand toward Toph. One hit on the shoulder with enough power to force her out of balance, and the second one hit her in the chest and sent her to the absolute edge of the stage. With a roar from the audience, he landed right in front of Toph and with his fist covered in a hardened layer of earth, he aimed his punch towards Toph's head.

"Stupid move!" A man appeared between Toph and the punch, and the rock punch hit Amell right on his chest. The whole arena shook, and the man hurt his hand from hitting Amell right on the chest.

"That punch would have killed her. Do you have a conscience?" Amell grabbed the man's wrist and squeezed until a loud crack was heard and the man fell down screaming. Amell walked up to him and grabbed his shirt. And threw him towards the stands, and he landed and crashed into the first row while destroying a few seats.

Amell looked at the host with slight killing intent in his eyes, "I interfered so she lost the match. But if I ever see one of your competitors go for a killing strike again, I will come for you. Is that understood?" Amell said the last part really slow and also he increased his killing intent around his words. And the host was a normal person, so even though Amell barely released his aura, the man almost fainted from fear.

"U-Understood, Sir... What is your name?" The host while feeling dizzy. He tried to stand straight because he didn't wanna show weakness to all these people that he was entertaining through this event. He was feared by his own people and all of these people coming and watching his organized fights, and he needed it to stay like that.

Amell chose to ignore the host's question and instead turned towards Toph. And the girl stood there looking at him in shock and slight disappointment. "What is it, little lady? You look so upset," Amell said and smiled.

"Why are you here?" Toph said in clear disappointment.

"Let us go somewhere else," Amell tapped the ground with his finger and it flipped over and the two disappeared from the stage. And left around this arena was just pure silence.

Inside the cave where they met, the earth flipped over and the two of them now stood inside the cave. Toph who finally experienced her master's earth bending to a degree looked around in amazement, but also longing.

"How freaking strong are you? Am I ever gonna be this freaking skilled?!" She felt the frustration build-up, but Amell's hand landed on her head quickly.

"Ouch, why did you hit me?!" Toph said and looked at him.

"Watch the language. You are just a young lady, my students don't need to swear to articulate what they are feeling. Proper language." Amell said with a smile. And toph just sighed.

"Yeah, okay, so answer me, why did you come?" She changed the subject back on track quickly.

"I was away dealing with a lovers quarrel, and suddenly I felt you were injured, so I panicked, thinking that the Fire Nation got to you. But imagine my surprise when I reality you had gone and signed up for a tournament without my blessing." Amell took on a sterner tone the usual. But Toph hit him right back with an even harsher tone.

"That was the point!" She almost yelled in his face. Amell immediately lost his train of thought.

"Mind explaining what that means?" He said and properly sat down on the ground.

"I signed up to that stupid thing so that when you returned I could s-show you that I am strong, you know. I kinda wanted to you to be proud of me." Toph said with a tinge of red colour spreading across her face.

Amell immediately changed his tone to a more serious one, "Toph, a day doesn't go by where I am not proud of you. A young blind girl rising through her own weakness to become an earth bending Master. How can I not be proud of that." Amell went over and gave the girl a hug, to make sure that she understood that he was genuinely proud of her.

"Y-You mean that?!" She said while his arms were wrapped around her. Her eyes were wet, and she felt something she had never experienced before. A feeling of truly belonging somewhere. She belonged right here, next to him, that's where she felt safest, and most cared for. She wouldn't let go off this feeling easily.

"Yes, I do. But, since you lost against that baldy, I am gonna have to increase your training. Come along now, no more tears, if you are gonna try, then it should be because your arms are about to fall off thanks to my amazing training." Amell said and stormed off into the distance.

"Follow along now! We will start light, with a casual jog around the earth Kingdom!" His voice came drifting from inside the cave. Toph quickly wiped her tears and put her game face on.

"Yes, Sir!" She yelled and started jogging after her master.

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End