Chapter 96

I lunged forward, leaping into the air and lashing out in a flying Dragon Kick of the Great Kung Lao as Goro attempted to create another fissure in the arena floor to break my stance. I sailed over the splitting tiles as my foot burst into Chi-stimulated flames just before smashing into Goro's ribs. The large Judoka grunted in pain as I felt his ribs creak under the pressure of my kick, even as his side was burned by the flames. He still had enough presence of mind to grab my leg and spin, tossing me down onto the tiles a few feet behind him.

I landed on my back and shoulders hard, cratering the tiles underneath me and bruising my upper back from the force of the landing. I wasn't down and out yet, though, and managed to roll to the side in time to avoid a rolling tackle from Goro, who rolled forward in an attempt to knock me down as I tried to get back up. I slammed a kick into his side from the ground, hitting him in the same place that my flying dragon kick had earlier, damaging his ribs further. Goro grunted in pain, but I pushed off him using my kick to gain momentum, sliding away from the grappler while we were both on the ground.

I skipped to my feet and began charging a Denjin Hadouken for two seconds using the power of the Chikara no Hadou. As Goro got to his feet, he must have realized that I was charging a Chi Beam from the Ansatstuken, because he stomped the ground as I let my attack fly. One of the Arena Tiles was knocked free of its morter by Goro's Stomp and upended using his Geokinesis, providing Goro with a slab of ceramic to hide behind. My Denjin Hadouken smashed the Tile apart and kept going, but it was robbed of enough of its power from smashing through the makeshift cover that when Goro crossed his arms in front of him to block what was left, it didn't have the power to finish the fight.

There was still an explosion of Chi, light, and heat washing over Goro as he blocked, and Goro's forearms were burned red from the attack, but he managed to power through and blur forward, body-checking me with his shoulder and knocking the wind out of me. We tumbled to the arena tiles together as Goro tried to land on me with an elbow strike and I rolled out of the way, getting back to my feet, huffing and puffing as Goro did the same. We stared each other down for a few long moments and I noticed that my Denjin Hadouken had done more damage than I'd thought, as Goro's forearms were red, raw, and bloody.

"Nice move. Who the hell do you think you are, Bobby Boucher?" I questioned as I caught my breath.

"I am unfamiliar with that name. I assume it has to do with American Football?" Queried Goro.

"Yeah. College Level, but yeah." I nodded.

"You have wounded my arms, I had to get creative." Shrugged Goro.

"About that. You look pretty hurt. Do you still have anything left in the tank?" I asked.

"I will not surrender. I still have one more clash left in me." Intoned Goro.

"Fine. Bring it on!" I roared.

And with that, Goro gathered his Chi, I did the same, figuring he was going to try something big. My Powers of Analysis had time to work on his fighting style and they told me that anything big from Goro was likely going to involve grapples, so I prepared to send my Chi down into the Dragon Lines to teleport away using the Techniques of the Great Kung Lao. I turned out to be right on the money with that, as Goro rushed forward moments later, arms moving like he tried to grab me. Immediately, I sent my Chi down into the Dragon Lines, disappearing and reappearing behind Goro as he missed his Grapple.

I moved in, using a Chi-powered move that Chin Gentsai said he had learned from Master Fu Wen-Chi back in the day. It was a Chi-powered Drunken Boxing Move, throwing myself headlong at Goro in a leaping, spinning, headbutt. Goro managed to turn around in time to see me, but not to defend against the sudden, unorthodox, technique. I slammed into his side and this time, felt his ribs give way, breaking as we both fell to the ground. I tumbled backward and rolled onto my feet, standing up. From his spot on the ground, Goro glared up at me holding his side.

"What was that?" He questioned with a wince.

"That was the Crazy Corkscrew Opens Wine Bottle. A gift from my most recent Sifu, who learned it from the Illustrious Master Fu Wen-Chi, a student of the Famed Beggar So." I smirked.

"And you avoided my attack." He grunted, grabbing his broken ribs as he tried to get to his feet.

"It seemed like a better plan than letting you grab me. That would have had me in trouble, right?" I queried.

"The Arashi No Yama: Nekko Nuki has never failed to swing a fight my way before if I could pull it off." Confirmed Goro.

"Stormy Mountain Uprooter?" I asked.

"You have to see it in action to get it." Shrugged Goro, wincing.

"Look. If you're in that much pain from your ribs, you might want to forfeit." I opined.

"So it would seem." Frowned Goro.

"If you forfeit now, I can hand you a Healing Potion I learned to make from an Alchemy Grimoire of the Count of St Germain. The guy was able to deal with the Whirlwind, a notorious bunch of Demonic Vampires, so you know his stuff is good." I offered.

"Very well. I forfeit." Agreed Goro.

And with that, I was declared the winner of that bout. I handed Goro one of my Healing Potions as well as a Chi Replenisher that I'd learned from Penny Halliwell back in San Francisco. Apparently, she'd picked it up from some of the Demon Hunters out in Chinatown there who used Chi. Apparently, there were a few of them affiliated with the Temple of the Shaolin Order of Light which was about forty-five minutes North of the City in Northern California. One of them even had some ability with Taoist Alchemy that he'd shared with Penny, who had shared it with me during the whole Luther debacle that I'd been helping Amanda and Rebecca out with.

Regardless I downed potions of my own, before lighting up a Red Apple Cigarette as the arena tiles had to be replaced. Goro's fissure technique was pretty destructive after all. By the time I was finished with my Cigarette, the ring tiles had been replaced and I stepped up once more to face off against my next opponent. This one, it turned out, was Nikaido Benimaru, the guy who had tried to hit on Athena the other night and had been a creep. As I made to step back into the Arena, Athena put a hand on my shoulder. Looking over at her, she shook her head.

"Remember, don't hurt him too badly." She warned.

"I've still got potions to spare if I do." I pointed out.

"In that case, I guess you can hurt him a little." Smirked Athena.

"Man, you really don't like the guy, huh?" Questioned Kensou from nearby before taking a sip of Bepsi from a can.

"He's a creep, Kensou." Scowled Athena.

"I'm just saying." Shrugged Kensou.

And with that, the two got into a minor argument. I let out a small chuckle at the continued interplay between my teammates. Once Kensou had gotten over his crush on her, he and Athena really had started acting like brother and sister. Siblings are the only type of people who fought that much but did it amicably, after all. At least so I'd been told. It wasn't as if I had any experience in that department myself. I doubted that Kano had thought that far ahead, and while Ba'al might have, he definitely had kept any siblings secret from me. I'd been the only one in the lab I'd woken up in, after all.

Regardless, I stubbed out my cigarette and headed into the Arena to face Nikaido. The Brash, Spiky-haired, Blonde was tapping his foot against the recently replaced Arena tiles from impatience. I didn't want to keep him waiting too long. He might decide to start running his mouth if I did that, and that would piss me off something fierce. It was the Goa'uld DNA, I supposed, it couldn't really handle trash talk from idiots. Something about the inherent disrespect involved in the act. Of course, getting into the Ring didn't stop the trash talk from coming either. This was Nikaido, after all.

"Finally! I thought I was gonna be waiting forever!" Scowled Nikaido.

"If I made you wait, it's only 'cause you deserve it." I retorted.

"Oh yeah? What for?" Queried Nikaido.

"My teammate over there tells me you were being a pushy creep with her the other night." I insisted.

"Psh, I was just being a bit flirty is all. If the Idol Princess over there couldn't handle it then I dunno what to say." Scoffed Nikaido.

"You know, some folks don't appreciate that kind of thing." I pointed out.

"Whatever. We gonna fight or what?" Asked Nikaido.

"Yeah, we're gonna fight." I nodded.

"Awesome! I owe you one for that bullshit the other day anyway." Intoned Nikaido.

"I saved your life. That was Akuma of the Satsui no Hadou." I insisted.

"You sure drop a lotta names. Akuma, the Count of Saint Germain, Fu Wen-Chi, and the Beggar So. Well here's my name! I'm Nikaido Benimaru, the Shooting Star! Get ready to lose!" Boasted Nikaido.

"We'll see." I huffed.

Then I took a stance. Nikaido did the same as the announcer called out to ask if we were ready. I nodded at him, while Nikado was more impatient, yelling at the Announcer to get the show on the road already. As the announcer announced the start of our bout, I engaged my powers of Analysis on Nikaido. In contrast to the grappling-heavy style of Daimon Goro, my powers of Analysis informed me that Nikaido was primarily a striker, a Shoot Boxer from his stance. I could also tell thanks to having practiced discerning this sort of thing by analyzing Goro, that Nikaido was an Electrokinetic.

I would probably have to use some of my Magic here to avoid getting badly electrocuted. With an arcane gesture and an incantation, I cast a fourth circle Protection from Electricity Spell on myself. This, it turned out, I did not a moment too soon, as Naikdo rushed in at me, fist crackling with electricity. I used a Karate-style outside block to block the punch, and my spell took the discharge of blue electricity like a champ, allowing me to slam a pair of jabs and a front kick into his face in a Chi-Powered Dragon Seeks Path Combo of the Great Kung Lao, rocking him back on his heels.

Nikaido fell back away from any follow-up, lip bloodied from my attack as he sucked the blood off his lip and spat it out onto the arena tiles. He looked at me with a frown, before growing out low in the back of his throat.

"How the hell did you do that? My Raijinken should've affected you a little!" He demanded.

"I guess I'm just better at this than you are." I smirked.

"Now you're starting to piss me off!" Warned Nikaido.

"Trust me, the feeling is mutual." I responded.

Then Nikaido let out a shout, charging me again, and the fight continued in earnest. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here we have the next chapter. Ulysses beats Daimon Goro, though they utterly wrecked the ring in the process. Goro's Jiraishin technique was used a lot, after all, and that sort of thing really damages the ground. Now Ulysses is facing off against Nikaido Benimaru, whose brash and edgy personality is rubbing him the wrong way. And that's on top of Nikaido being a pushy creep toward Athena. Fortunately, he has spells that can effectively make him immune to electric attacks, something he's used to great effect in the opening exchange of blows.

Other nineties stuff in this chapter includes mentions of the Great Kung Lao and his techniques as well as the Shaolin Order of Light and Kano are from Mortal Kombat, the Ansatsuken, its techniques, and Akuma from Street Fighter, Bobby Boucher from The Waterboy, Penny Halliwell from Charmed, the Northern California Shaolin Temple from Kung Fu: The Legend Continues, Demonic Vampires, the Whirlwind, and the Count of Saint Germain are from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Red Apple Cigarettes are from the works of Quentin Tarantino, Bepsi is from Multiple Anime including Lupin the Third, and the Fourth Circle Protection from Energy Spell is from Second Edition Dungeons and Dragons. Finally, Ba'al and the Goa'uld are from Stargate. Everything else is from King of Fighters.

At any rate, the next chapter will be the rest of the fight with Nikaido Benimaru and the beginning of the fight with Kusanagi Kyo.

Stay tuned. . .