13. The art of extortion

…

“How did things end up like this?” Lee asked, glancing around at the spectators. Tribe chiefs, elders, heirs, and pretty much whoever else was allowed to enter the palace training grounds either stood or sat around the perimeter, waiting for the duel to start.

When he agreed to the spar, he didn’t expect it to attract such attention.

“You can’t back down now, brat,” Pakku whispered, standing on his right. “You should have thought about it a bit more before getting yourself in a situation like this.”

“How is any of this my fault?” Lee hissed out. “That brat just set me up,” he sent an annoyed glance at the girl in question, who just gave him a thumbs up in return from where she sat beside Chief Arnook. “What choice did I have? She kept bragging about me to those egotistical fools until one of them took it to heart and challenged me. Should I have rejected him then? She already introduced me as your student!”

“I’d have killed you if you did,” Pakku said, eyeing him with the corner of his eye. “Now, stop complaining and take care of him. You better not lose, boy. It’s not just my honour on the line right now. This is now a power play between two tribes.”

Lee exhaled before looking forward at his opponent with narrowed eyes. “Fine,” he said, stepping forward. “If everyone wants a show… then I’ll give them one.”

“Are you finally ready?” the boy asked, smiling carefree as he stood on the opposite side. “If so, let’s begin. I can’t wait to see what a nine-year-old advanced waterbending practitioner can do.”

Lee nodded, hiding his left hand behind him. He wasn’t going to take jibes without returning some of his own. “Since you aren’t an advanced practitioner, I’ll only be using one of my hands in this duel. If you manage to force me to use both of my hands, you win.”

“How dare you mock me?” the boy roared, pointing at him. “You’ll regret it so much when I’m done with you,” he added before sending a thick jet of water toward him.

Lee didn’t move and just stared ahead with a calm expression. The rushing water closed the distance in a heartbeat, moving like a flying snake. At the last second, he raised his right hand and pushed his palm forward. The thick stream stopped sharply as if it encountered a thick wall of tungsten, before exploding into droplets of water into the air in a semicircle.

The water droplets remained frozen in the air as if time itself had stopped for a moment. Then, they grouped in small patches before turning into dozens of ice spikes aimed at the boy.

Lee closed his palm into a fist. At once, the spikes rushed toward his opponent.

The boy hastily drew more water from below and covered himself inside an icy dome before the spikes could reach him. They struck the dome and shattered like glass against it without doing any significant damage.

Lee just smirked and opened his fist. With that single gesture, he stole control of the dome and turned it into water. He proceeded to wiggle his fingers as if he were turning a doorknob, and the bubble of water trapping his opponent began to spin and turned into a ring that slowly grew smaller around him.

Normally, such a small movement wouldn’t be enough to perform such an advanced move, but Lee was cheating since the moment the duel started. He had been using a tiny amount of dense energy along with his chi to enhance his waterbending ability.

“You were saying something. What was it again?” he mocked, causing the boy to grind his teeth in anger and frustration.

He widened his stance before pushing his arms forward in a wide horizontal swiping gesture. The ring circling him broke into two ribbons and rushed toward Lee just like the previous attack, only this time they attacked his legs.

“Don’t want to use your left hand, huh? Let’s see if you can block this with just one arm,” he yelled with a snarl.

Lee just grinned at him before lowering his gaze to the twin ribbons as they glided across the icy surface toward him. He shifted his weight but kept his left hand tucked behind his back, unmoving.

At the last instant, he slid back a step and made a swift upward sweep of his right hand. The water bent to his will. The ribbons rose upwards, their momentum breaking as they collided against each other.

He jerked his hand to the right. The water followed, wrapping around his limb to form a thick and large water tentacle. Lee stepped forward immediately and swung the water whip at his opponent.

The boy’s eyes widened, but he reacted quickly, rolling to the side to dodge. He had no choice but to dodge again as Lee continued the assault.

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The water tentacle struck across the field repeatedly. The icy surface fractured where it struck, sending tiny shards skittering outward. He didn’t give the boy a moment to recover.

After some point, the boy finally managed to conjure a thin icy barrier to block the whip. Even though it shattered on impact, it allowed him a moment, which he used to scramble to his feet.

With a ragged breath, he began his counterattack. He stomped his foot hard against the ice and moved his arms in a circular motion, sending jagged spikes of ice toward Lee.

When Lee simply flicked his wrist and smashed the spikes with his tentacle, he pulled water from below to form a swirling mass before launching it forward in a compressed wave.

Lee made a casual sweeping gesture with his hand, and the wave changed direction to rush to the side, completely missing him.

“Alright,” he muttered, stepping forward for the second time. “Let’s end it now.”

He once again sent his tentacle toward his opponent, only this time, it was much faster. His opponent could only watch helplessly as it made contact with his arm. It wrapped around his arm, trapping him rather than hurting him.

Lee pulled and yanked the boy off his feet, dragging him across the slick surface before throwing him into a nearby pool of water with a heavy splash.

A moment later, the tentacle broke apart and simply fell to the surface. He relaxed and looked toward the spectators…specifically toward Chief Arnook.

His tribal leader nodded before stepping forward and raising both of his arms. “What a wonderful display of waterbending by both the youngsters! I couldn’t be happier to know that the future of our tribes is in secure hands.”