NT: Chapter 98

As time sped back up, my Megakinesis locked down Shermie and Nanakase even as a flash of power and light crashed through the Arena. Nightwolf, in what had to be a display of Shamanic Power, began chanting in Lakota, which I didn't speak but should probably learn, and drawing on mystic and spiritual energy as he did so. He'd sent T. Hawk and Michelle Chang away to help Kensou, Nikaido, and Goro deal with Chris' Backup Plan. In the meantime, Chizuru, Yagami, and Kyo began to chant in Proto-Japonic, the form of the Japanese Language Spoken during the Yayoi Period, when the Yamata-No-Orochi was first Sealed and I could tell that they were synching up the Spiritual and Mystic energies as they did so.

"What. . .the fuck?" Questioned Nanakase.

"What are you waiting for? I need your blood!" Demanded Chris as another wave of Energy cracked out across the arena, this one smashing the tiles of the arena around Chris and causing tiny bolts of electricity to spark in mid-air.

"I. . .can't. . .move!" Insisted Shermie.

"You won't get the blood sacrifice this way you Psycho!" I insisted.

"Is that so?" Queried Chris.

"Yeah. It is." I nodded.

"You might think that, but there are all these people here. I'll bet if I kill enough of them, it can power a full transformation." Smirked Chris.

"I won't let you!" I insisted.

"You won't be able to stop me! I can feel its power awakening within me. Just a trickle, but it's enough to do this!" Sneered Chris, as he stretched his arm out.

A lash of bluish-white energy flared out at the stands, crackling for a spectator seated just above the retaining wall near the billboard advertising for Bepsi Cola. The poor bastard practically had his life force and soul ripped out to fuel the transformation, screaming the whole time. That caused a panic in the stands as people rushed for the exits.

"Damn it! Athena! Deal with Nanakase and Shermie!" I ordered.

"On it!" Agreed Athena, flashing forward to knock out the two other fighters so they couldn't kill themselves and I wouldn't have to focus on keeping them locked down with Megakinesis. Meanwhile, Chris frowned momentarily.

"Not enough! Not yet!" He shouted.

Chris fired more crackling bolts of bluish-white light at the people panicking in the stands. As the bolts crashed down around the stands, four more people had their life force and souls sucked out of them before Athena managed to knock out Shermie and Nanakase, ensuring they wouldn't kill themselves. As she did so, I let go of my Megakinesis and blazed forward toward Chris, who growled and fired a Lance of Blue-White energy at me that I slipped aside from, drawing on my Chi to use the Senkugoshoha of the Ansatsuken style to breeze past the lance of soul-sucking energy and slam a fist into Chris that smashed him back a few steps. Unfortunately, another wave of power crashed into the Arena, shattering the entire ring and causing bits of broken tile to levitate off the sheer power.

I tried to follow up by launching a roundhouse that was aimed at taking Chris' head clean off, but he just ducked the blow, firing another bolt of blue-white energy. This one struck the Official, ripping the life force and soul out of the man. Another flash of power and Chris bombed forward at me, planting his fist into my gut and blasting me backward with a maniacal laugh. I skidded to a halt a few feet away, retaking my guard as another wave of power shattered the arena lights overhead, causing sparks and glass to rain down on us.

"Good! More! I need more!" Laughed Chris.

He fired two more bolts of blue-white energy into the crowd, sucking the life force and souls out of a Woman and a Man, but that was all he got as Nightwolf's Spirit Chant reached a crescendo and the spirits of his tribe grabbed hold of everyone still in the arena that wasn't myself, Athena, Chris, Chizuru, Kyo, and Yagami and forcibly transported them out of the Arena. Thankfully, so long as we could keep Chris contained here, the death toll should be confined to those eight people and no more. Thankfully, it seemed that ordinary people didn't have powerful enough souls for the Yamata-No-Orochi to do more than manifest the barest part of its power within Chris.

"No! Not yet! It's not enough!" Raged Chris.

"I think you've done enough already!" I huffed, straightening up from Chris' Punch.

"You! How dare you defy the will of Gaia?" Asked Chris, with a snarl.

"Because this isn't Gaia's Will!" I shot back.

"Impossible! He told me it was and he is never wrong!" Spat Chris.

"News flash! Even the Yamata-No-Orochi can make mistakes! Nobody's perfect, not even the Gods!" I shouted at him.

"Fine! I'll just have to take the Life Force and Souls I need from you by force!" Snarled Chris.

He bombed forward fast, almost faster than I could react to, thanks to the eight souls he had already absorbed, plus his own power and that already invested in him by the Yamata-No-Orochi, a blazing corona of Purple Energy suffused him as he did so. I didn't have enough time to get out of the way, but that was what Contingency Spells were for. I felt the Level Three Spell of Alacrity take hold, giving me the extra speed necessary to move out of the way of the blazing attack. I only strengthened myself further with Psionic and Mystical Enhancements beyond the basic Chi Enhancement and Alacrity Spell that I had been using this whole time. It put me on even footing with the boosted Chris and I bulked myself up further with the Geki Hou, tearing my shirt and pants to shreds as I condensed Chi into my muscles, tendons, and bones even further, bulking out immensely.

"My turn!" I shouted.

I leaped up with renewed intensity and slammed a bicycle kick of the Great Kung Lao into Chris, kicking him multiple times before landing and hitting him with a flip kick from the Great Kung Lao. My storm of kicks launched Chris into the air and I launched into the Resenkyaku of Master Tung Fu Rue, the Violent Thousand Legs allowing me to fly up and kick Chris multiple times in mid-air before flipping around and smashing into him with an axe handle strike that smashed him down back into the ground, smashing him through the arena floor and into the basement.

I followed him down there, landing in a three-point crouch in time to guard against an uppercut. Surprisingly, the force behind the uppercut smashed through my guard and was followed by a pair of punches that were wreathed in a corona of purple energy, smashing into my face and ribs and splitting my lip open while bruising my ribs and burning my skin with energy. A follow-on uppercut smashed me back through the ceiling to land on the arena floor up above hard. Chris came bombing up out of the hole as I skipped to my feet, spinning about mid-air in a falling roundhouse punch that was wreathed in yet more violet energy. This time, however, Athena had my back, launching a Telekinetic wave at me that knocked me aside and out of the path of Chris' Attack.

As Chris roared in anger, he lashed out with a wave of violet energy toward Athena, who summoned her psionic powers to form a mirror of psionic energy to reflect Chris' attack back at him. Chris leaped out of the way of his reflected attack and landed right in front of me as I blurred into a lunge before launching the Hyakurenko of Master Gen at Chris. The Hundred Chained Hooks attack was a blur as I lashed out with a number of two-fingered, pressure-point strikes at Chris, hitting a number of Chi Points and pressure points in rapid succession in the hopes that the attack would render him incapable of fighting.

It worked only to a point as Chris sank to his knees as I withdrew, only for another crack of thunderous power to burst through the arena, smashing into the retaining wall between the arena and the now-empty stands and cracking the concrete apart. Chris surged up and hammered a swiping backfist wreathed in violet flame into me that burned my face and bruised my orbital bone, sending me reeling even as he launched a blast of violet energy at me. Thankfully, another telekinetic assist from Athena had me lurching away from the path of the attack.

"Ants! All of you nothing but bugs! I'll squash you!" Raved Chris as I stood, nodding back at Athena, my cheek burned from Chris' attack and my right eye starting to swell shut.

"Got your back!" Huffed Athena.

"Right. You go left, I'll go right. See if we can't pincer this asshole!" I commanded.

"Got it!" Agreed Athena.

Chris roared in anger as he launched a massive blast of Blue-White Energy at Athena and I, hoping to suck out our souls. We broke apart, and the blast sailed through empty air to splash against a billboard advertising Dawson Convenience Stores. The advertisement burned up from the energy and the metal billboard glowed white hot as the attack superheated it, but quickly cooled, leaving carbon scoring on deformed metal. Meanwhile, I blasted toward Chris from the right, using the Senkogushoha of the Ansatsuken Style to duck a blast of violet energy as I came in. My fist slammed into Chris and smashed him backward even as Athena smashed into his stumbling form, an edged corona of psychic energy lancing into him even as her Chi-Powered Uppercut knocked him upwards.

Chris' shirt was cut away and his torso trailed blood from the Psyco Sword attack while he was knocked up into the air. I growled, channeling Mystic Energy into an Incendiares Globus Spell, one of the few Attack Spells that Penny Halliwell had taught me, creating a relatively low-cost ball of flame. It was less power-intensive than casting a fireball from my usual repertoire because it took advantage of physics. I had a feeling I was going to need every erg of power I could conserve here.

Regardless, the spell blasted the rest of Chris' Shirt to smithereens, causing a giant burn to form over his chest and stomach even as Athena teleported above him with Psionic Power before rolling over and diving downward, wreathed in psionic power, kicking Chris back down to the ground and smashing him back through the Arena Floor to land in the Arena Basement in a ten-foot wide by six-foot deep crater in the concrete. Athena landed in a crouch next to me as we looked over toward the hole in the Arena Floor our Combo Attack had smashed Chris through.

"Did we get him?" She questioned.

"When are we that lucky?" I queried back.

"Right." Scoffed Athena.

"Watch out!" Called out Nightwolf, having recovered from his bout of major spirit magic.

Suddenly, there was a flare of power and the hole in the arena floor widened by another twenty feet by twenty feet, forcing Athena and I back away from the hole. A torrent of violet energy sparking with blue-white power, crackling like lightning erupted out of the hole as Chris rose up into the air as if levitating. Athena and I frowned as we saw that.

"He's drawn too deeply on the Yamata-No-Orochi's Power! It has partial control over him now!" Warned Nightwolf, rushing to our side, a green bow of energy materializing in his hand, green energy forming a nocked arrow as he drew back on the string. In the meantime, I looked over at Chizuru, Kyo, and Yagami.

"How's it coming over there?" I asked.

"We need you to stall him for another five minutes to complete the ritual!" Called Back Chizuru.

"Handle it!" Snapped Yagami.

"Just give us the time we need and this will be over!" Added Kyo.

I looked over at Chris, now partially possessed by the Yamata-No-Orochi. Streaks of white had gone through his red hair and a tattoo in the shape of the upper half of what looked to be some sort of Onmyoji-style Magic Seal had formed around Chris' Upper Chest and Shoulders. As he glared down at us, his right eye glowed with white light around a black, slit, pupil, even as his left eye remained Chris' Normal Blue.

"Right. Stall for five minutes. What else is new?" I grumbled.

Then, the partially possessed Chris stretched out one hand toward us, palm out. Looking down at us, he snarled in a voice that resonated with power in a way I associated more with the Goa'uld's fakery or any of the divine Gods I had met than any mortal being.

"Die!" Intoned what had to be the Yamata-No-Orochi.

Then he fired a circular wave of bluish-white light at the three of us and we had no choice but to dodge as the battle continued. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here we see the start of the Fight with Chris. Already we've gone through the Orochi Chris phase of the battle and now the Yamata-No-Orochi has partial control over Chris. Fortunately, Nightwolf had prepared a Spiritualist Spell to get the Spirits of the Matoka Tribe to get the spectators and workers out of the Arena, though it cost him participation in the Orochi Chris phase of the battle, and eight people were already killed by that point, their souls and life force used to power Orochi Chris. Now, Ulysses, Athena, and Nightwolf need to stall the Partially Possessed Chris for five minutes while Chizuru, Yagami, and Kyo charge their attack to seal the Yamata-No-Orochi.

Other nineties stuff in this chapter includes mentions of Megakinesis and the Third Circle Spell of Alacrity from second edition Dungeons and Dragons, Nightwolf and the Techniques of the Great Kung Lao are from Mortal Kombat, the techniques of the Ansatsuken and T. Hawk are from Street Fighter, Michelle Chang is from Tekken, Penny Halliwell and the Incendiares Globus spell are from Charmed, the Goa'uld are from Stargate, Dawson Convenience Stores are from Kaiji, and Bepsi is from multiple Anime including Lupin the Third. Everything else is from King of Fighters.

At any rate, the next chapter will be an interlude as we see how the Team that was employed to stop Chris' Plan B went about their mission.

Stay tuned. . .