𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐑𝐈𝐎𝐑𝐒

3# THE ATTACK

tears were streaming down seungmin's eyes. he has trained hard enough for this day to come: a fight between him and his father.

chunks of stones and earth flew around wildly. the king realised that his son was a slightly more powerful than he himself was, so he decided to pull an unfair move.

distracting seungmin with discs out of earth, he pierced an earth stake out of the ground, stabbing him in his chest with it.

seungmin let out a grunt, his hand travelling to his chest, feeling the blood wet his shirt, before he collapsed on the floor.

king oh stepped closer, looking down on his son with malice in his face. "you should've died long ago" the man hissed, his eyes narrowing as he knelt next to the bleeding boy.

the teen coughed up blood, struggling to breathe as he just looked at his father. before he could do anything, pieces of the rocks around them squeezed around his wrists, shutting his pulse vein so he couldn't bend.

"all this wouldn't have happened if you didn't run away with that bastard" the man spat, a triumphant grin in his face.

seungmin struggled to stay awake, losing too much blood at once. "i'd rather die, fighting for the right thing, than continue living under your control."

this was unexpected for the king. but he was not disappointed. he was angry that his own child turned out that way.

yet before king oh could do anything, something suddenly stabbed him in his shoulder. gasping, he tried turning around to check who or what it was, yet just as he was about to turn his head, he saw gunil stepping towards him.

dried tears on his face, a glare full of anger and hate. he ignored jungsu, who had stabbed him with one of the daggers from his fan. he ignored jooyeon, who was standing next to jungsu, the water floating above his hand in case the king decided to attack.

"i heard you've been searching for me" gunil shouted from the distance, to which the king just stood up and walked towards him.

the two's gaze averted down on seungmin, who was on the verge of bleeding out. "seungmin!" jungsu cried out, putting the younger's head on his lap while jooyeon immediately used the water to heal the deep wound.

"jungsu... you're here..." seungmin smiled, his vision blurring, yet jungsu's warm hands on his face were more than enough.

the boy nodded, teary eyes as he wiped the blood on seungmin's mouth with his sleeve.

"i was so scared of losing you" jungsu sobbed, his fingers brushing away the loose strands on seungmin's face.

the howling of the wind interrupted their sentimental chat, jungsu looked towards the direction.

gunil was using his bending to play with the king's bending. he cut rocks into tiny crystals, sending them back to the man, he flew when the king tried to irritate him with an earthquake.

then he heard the familiar voice call out his name. "gunil!" the tension in the air shifted, he felt that two people were coming near. two?

having no time to turn around and check on who it was, he just had to rely on his mind. and that he wasn't hallucinating hyeongjun calling out his name.

gunil knew that jiseok was suddenly standing next to him as they fought the king side by side.

the earthbender slowly succumbed to the blood loss, that jungsu's dagger and the wounds seungmin gave him prior initiated.

yet gunil still wasn't satisfied. he blew a spear of a dead soldier to his hand, throwing it towards the king with exact precision.

jiseok helped him out by making the king swirl due to a gust of wind, not seeing the spear, that then penetrated him right through his back.

it was quiet after that. gunil heard his own breathing, his thoughts getting louder as soon as he saw hyeongjun walking towards the king. he wasn't dreaming this, was he?

hyeongjun just quietly put his hands on the spear, forcing it deeper into the king's body, until the pointy metal peeked out of his chest.

just then, jooyeon finished up seungmin's healing process. the younger offered him a hand, helping him to stand up and walk towards his father, who was now hugged by a blanket of his own blood, the puddle on the ground getting bigger every passing second.

the six boys surrounded the limp body of the man, not believing what just happened. jiseok carefully knelt down, his hands just centimetres above the earth king's body.

"he's not breathing anymore - he's dead."

it was silent. no one dared to talk as their gazes were averted to the dead enemy on the floor. until seungmin spat on him.

"finally" he chuckled. "what do we think?" hyeongjun then asked. "should we hang him? like, a sign that the terror is over?"

gunil then realised that it was not just a dream. his hyeongjun was back again. in less than a second he had the younger in his arms, pulling him towards his body as if he never wanted to let go of him anymore.

the others agreed to hyeongjun's idea, so they started working. piles of dead soldiers were lying around, either from the earth kingdom, or the water tribes. hundreds were severely injured, bound to die to their injuries.

they took the rope that was around jiseok's neck just moments ago, secured it around the man's neck as jiseok lifted him up with his airbending abilities, while jungsu secured the rope on the branch of a tree.

"my biggest wish came true, gunil, that's why i'm here." they both turned around to look at the four boys working on their artwork. "i'm finally human."

they ended up in a tight hug again, where gunil couldn't help but break out in tears again. the two people he cherished the most died in front of his eyes. but they both came back.

"the king is dead!" seungmin announced loudly, his voice echoing through the place and attracting soldiers from both parties.

the waterbenders cheered, the earthbenders just silently looked at the king, whose corpse was hanging there.

"as the crown prince, i, oh seungmin, move up towards the position of my father. and as the king, i declare this war as officially over!"