By Canice Gustave
Egoism clearly shown on his face, Adon lunged towards his
former master, and threw an elbow with such speed that it seemed
that he didn’t do anything. Sagat merely raised his leg to
block the attack and quickly responded with a volley of punches,
ending the short display with an uppercut, snapping Adon’s
head back and sending him airborne. Landing hard on the ground
with a loud thud, Adon immediately flipped into his stance,
recovering rather quickly from those lethal attacks.
"Hmph! Pathetic!" Sagat said with contempt. Adon didn’t
reply, mainly because Sagat was right. He was quicker than he
once was. He had truly underestimated him.
A slight grin adorned Sagat’s face as he saw Adon go into a
defensive stance. A swift jab was thrown, followed by a kick to
his shin, to which Adon blocked. Sagat continued his assail with
the same revelation of punches, which Adon parried once more.
Though he was defending against Sagat’s punches, Adon found
himself unable to launch a counterattack, and was realising that
his arms were slowly beginning to become tired. Sagat seemed to
notice this, and thus increased the power and speed of his blows.
Adon’s body racked with pain as each hit home, his fighting
spirit and adrenaline being the only sources keeping him
conscious. He realised he only had one chance to slow him down,
for the period. He had to focus on his eye. Hopping backwards
just barely out of the reach of a left hook, he sprung himself
backwards into one of the many stone pillars that embellished the
battlefield. Using the strength available in his left leg, he
sent himself forward towards his target.
"Jaguar Tooth!" the arrogant Muay Thai warrior yelled
as he extended his right leg towards Sagat’s face. At one
time, Sagat had no counterattack for such a move, something he
rarely worried about. Now he would punish him with the one move
that stood a chance against his.
"TIGER BLOW!" the champion roared. A quick wave of fear
passed through Adon’s body as he collided with a vaulting
Sagat. All Adon felt were around seven blasts of chi, which
seemed to burn through his body, before he spiralled into the
same monolith he leapt from. Sagat landed and watched with an
unpitying eye as he watched his former student fall from the
skies, and back down to the hard earth.
**********
Dan opened the match with a right jab, extremely slow but all the
while expecting it to connect. Sakura blocked the attack and
prepared for a left jab, which came slightly faster than the
first but was still easy to block. Dan almost looked pissed as he
continued with an outside crescent kick to her right which she
ducked.
He must be testing me… the teen thought as she
parried a left jab. She responded with a jab, followed instantly
by a kick to his ankle and ended her combo with a mid-roundhouse
connecting with his midsection. The attack wasn’t powerful,
but the result of Dan being doubled over, the wind being knocked
out of him made her think otherwise.
She can block the basics. the Saikyo warrior noted. Let’s
see how she does against the true skills of Saikyo.
Dan flew into a solid roundhouse kick, throwing most of his might
into the blow, which Sakura managed to block, the force sending
her backwards. Annoyed that his attack didn’t connect, Dan
threw two incredibly fast punches, but completely missed due to
the fact they were launched in blind fury. Sakura immediately saw
an opening.
Attacking Dan with a blow to the midsection, she followed it up
with three more strikes, and ended the raid with a leaping
uppercut, adding two more blows under Dan’s chin, launching
him upwards and into a nearby market stall. Dan threw the
contents off him and went into his stance. Though he easily
recovered from Sakura’s "Sho-o-ken" technique, the
laughter of the small market crowd, as well as Sakura’s
because of the hilarious grimace on his face only added to his
fury.
"You will pay for that!!!" Dan almost shrilled, his
voice on the verge of cracking. Sakura stood fast, ready for the
next attack Dan would use.
Dan suddenly leapt forward, and aimed a flurry of kicks towards
the adolescent fighter. Caught unexpected, Sakura attempted to
duck under the flying knee, but took it straight on the chin,
forcing her body to the side. Dan railed into her twice more
sending the novice fighter to the ground. Dan landed and
immediately showed his egoism with one of his patented taunts
towards the floored Sakura.
"Doshita! Doshita!" he cried to the crowd that favoured
him. "Dosh-" he stopped in mid-sentence as he heard a
slight groan from his opponent while she pulled herself off the
ground. Though she was hurt by the attack, she showed no sign of
it, and easily proceeded into her respective stance.
"I have to admit, that was good" she proudly exclaimed.
"Came close to winning there." Dan’s fury slowly
subsided due to her praising of his self taught attack. The rage
for the killer of his father would forever consume him, as long
as he learned to control it. That was one thing Gouken couldn’t
do, which was what he would now do. He looked up at the sun again.
The day was slowly beginning to end, which meant he had to end
this soon.
Sakura suddenly rushed forward, as if to end the fight and took
to the air. Her body spun as she descended and extended her foot
outward. Dan saw the attack coming, as if in slow motion, and a
smirk adorned his face as he sensed victory coursing through him.
Dan took a step forward, intending on ending the battle with his
favoured "Koryuken" technique, which was simply an
altered version of the dragon punch. That was, until his foot
stepped on a flat piece of rock.
"What the…" he started as he slipped on the smooth
stone, enough time to stop his focus of chi and leaving him with
enough vulnerability for Sakura to end her technique.
"Shunpukyaku!" he heard her cry before her heel crashed
into his chest. He flew in to the air upon impact, yet he managed
to somehow avoid falling on his back, instead landing on his feet.
Cursing his misfortune, he looked up in time to see Sakura with
cupped hands, near the underside of her armpit, holding what Dan
recognised was a blue sphere of energy.
Dan raised his hand to the side of his head and waited for the
small orbs of energy that collected into it. Keeping his gaze on
Sakura, his eyes widened in disbelief as he saw her slowly
enlarge the blue-white globe to the extent of her having to
increase the distance between her palms to contain it. So amazed
at her chi manipulation and utilisation, he was oblivious to the
fact that he was collecting more chi than he usually did.
After holding it for some time, Sakura shifted her weight that
was focused on her rear leg toward her front leg, and hurled the
spherical energy forward. The action suddenly triggered Dan about
his chi summoning, and he whipped his arm forward, hurling his
chi in the process.
"SHINKUU HADOKEN!!" Sakura yelled, as if to add
emphasis to the size of her fireball. An immense blast of energy
escaped from her outstretched palms, targeted at Dan, who gave a
lower cry of "Gadoken!" whilst a smaller, weaker
looking energy ball flew to make impact with Sakura’s.
Just as Sakura’s fireball travelled to connect and dissipate
with Dan’s, it suddenly began to decrease in size until all
that remained was a small, mushroom shaped source. It continued
its shrinkage until it dissipated into the atmosphere, just as
Dan’s passed the location where it dispersed. The release of
such a source of chi had drained almost Sakura’s fighting
spirit as a result, leaving her extremely tired. She had used too
much energy, and was now paying the price for it.
Dan’s fireball soared across the battlefield and towards
Sakura, who had brought up her weary, weakened arms to block,
knowing all too well that the fight was over. As it connected,
Sakura braced herself for the pain that would soon come.
Instead of the one strike Dan expected, he blinked in shock and
amazement as he heard five, machine-gun like shots inflicted upon
the defending Sakura before she spun to the ground, semi-conscious,
and defeated. Dan still stood in his shock-like state before a
message flew to his head about what he’d just done.
"I JUST CREATED A NEW MOVE!!" the Saikyo fighter yelled
before he threw multiple taunts to the now cheering crowd.
Leaping upward, he lifted his left leg and flexed his left arm at
a right angle, while he screamed out "YAHOI!" He landed
and walked over to his opponent, extending a hand which she took
to help herself up.
"You’re not bad…for a kid" Dan said "But
in the end, you were no match for my Saikyo skills!" he
spoke arrogantly at that point, before he turned and continued on
with his quest.
Towards where his path began.
**********
"You are nothing…" Sagat growled into the barely
conscious fighter. "Remember this…" a small,
sadistic grin glided across his lips. "Against the Tiger,
the Jaguar can never win" Adon cracked an eyelid open,
allowing light to flood his mind once again.
Sagat clutched the limp Adon within his huge grasp and held him
above eye level, grinning as he brought him down to fully end the
battle.
As Sagat’s knee rushed to crush Adon’s ribs and lungs,
he managed to glimpse something snake out and strike him directly
at the side of his face. Sagat immediately released his grip on
Adon and reeled back, using his hand to cover his eye.
Adon wasted on time as he leapt towards Sagat in a forward
somersault, his leg forming an arc of chi as he neared his
adversary, initiating his technique known as the Jaguar Revolver.
His foot connected with deadly accuracy with Sagat’s right
shoulder, striking twice before he repeated his attack twice more,
sending the huge Sagat to the ground. A grimace adorned his face,
angry at himself for having such a weak spot. He got to his feet,
in time to see Adon leapt backwards to catch him off guard with
another Jaguar Tooth. Sagat’s lips curled in to a grin as he
leapt to meet Adon with another Tiger Blow. Adon vaulted himself
forward, but came at a steeper angle, skilfully evading Sagat’s
leaping uppercut. Sagat realised he’d made a tragic mistake.
Adon glanced up, to the falling Muay Thai Champion and smirked as
he basked in his soon to be imminent victory. Pulses of energy
began to surge into him, his chi flaring of with great intensity.
Upon the sole of Sagat’s feet touching the ground, Adon
threw his fighting spirit at the warrior.
Four crushing elbows slammed into Sagat’s chest, each one
accompanied by small, wispy trails of chi. Sagat for a brief
moment, though Adon’s initial plan of attack being a bit
foolhardy, but was unaware that his assault was just the
beginning.
"Jaguar Thousand!!" Adon yelled as his arm pierced a
multitude of strikes all targeted at Sagat’s midsection. The
last hit flew straight and struck directly with Sagat’s scar.
His mind suddenly brought up the painful memory of how he
received the scar. It was all too much for him and he landed with
a thunderous thud.
With his arms crossed in an arrogant manner, Adon chuckled as he
marvelled over his victory, his achievement of the Muay Thai
Championship flooding through his mind. He couldn’t help but
make one last comment.
"You always were just an old tiger, teacher" he mocked.
"You didn’t deserve the title of Muay Thai champion
from the time you lost to Ryu. That eyepatch and scar only
hinders how weak you’ve tru-" he stopped and watched in
shock as he saw Sagat leap up from the battlefield and gaze over
towards Adon. Adon watched in fear as he noticed the flare of chi
emanating from his convulsing muscles. His eye was gleaming white
with fury as he flew towards Adon.
"TIGER GENOCIDE!!" boomed Sagat as he swiftly threw
himself forward, defying his huge physique with a Tiger Knee.
Landing as fast as he went forward, he went airborne with a Tiger
Blow, smashing his fist into Adon’s jaw. Yet again, the Muay
Thai warrior landed and swiftly rose into another, more powerful
Tiger Blow, sending Adon’s body spiralling into the distance.
Sagat landed in time to watch his former student crash into one
of the ivory columns. Crumpling in on himself, Adon fell to the
earth a final time, knocked out from the champion’s assault.
"Pathetic…" he muttered with contempt. A smile of
victory adorned his face for a brief instant, but was quickly
replaced with his abhorrent sneer as thoughts of Ryu envisioned
his mind.
This is simply one step towards your demise, Ryu…
he thought and merely turned from the battlefield. Suddenly
stopping for a moment, he turned to the side, and saw a man
wearing a red uniform, with a navy like cap of the same colour.
An emblem of what appeared to be a skull with wings could be seen
on the cap. His blue cape swayed violently behind him, though no
wind was present. Sagat found his aura disturbing.
"What do you want?" Sagat questioned. The figure simply
grinned. A particularly evil one.
"You are a powerful fighter Sagat. You could be useful to me"
he replied.
"Not interested" Sagat muttered and began to distance
himself from the figure and the battlefield.
"Even if it guarantees Ryu’s demise?"
Sagat stopped in his tracks. Not even questioning how the person
knew of his intentions, the desire of Ryu’s destruction
clouded his suspicions and easily confirmed his decision.
"You have my attention" he spoke. The mysterious one
again smiled.
"Welcome to Shadaloo, Sagat…"