Chapter 91

Terry burst forward, lunging for me with a punch wreathed in Energy and forcing me to dodge out of the way. I sidestepped the burning punch and threw a Combination, the Blazing Dragon of the Great Kung Lao. Two Punches and a roundhouse kick followed by a flaming punch using the Dragon's Fist Technique of the Great Kung Lao. Unfortunately for me, Terry blocked the first two Chi-Powered Punches and ducked the kick before avoiding the flaming punch altogether by tumbling backward.

As he stood up, I bulled in using the Senshippou of Master Tung Fu Rue, the Chi-Powered Punch and Kick combination allowing me to eat up space in the blink of an eye. Terry parried the kick, but the punch smashed right into his mouth, sending him staggering back. I tried to press my attack but was forced to break off and dodge when Terry Rebounded with a leaping, Chi-powered, Axe Kick that was fast enough to leave afterimages in the air. I just barely managed to avoid the blow which came down on the tiles of the arena floor, shattering the stone.

As I backed away, Terry rubbed his lip, hand coming away bloody. Terry looked over at me and cocked an eyebrow.

"That was Tung Fu Rue's move, how the hell do you know that?" He demanded.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" I smirked.

"Hey, Jackass, Master Tung Fu Rue was one of my teachers, and I damn sure didn't see you around! Just who the Hell are you?" Scowled Terry.

"Beat me and I'll tell you." I offered.

"Heh, you know what? You're starting to piss me off." Growled Terry.

"The feeling's mutual, but you're not gonna beat me by talking at me." I taunted.

Terry let out a shout and channeled Chi into his fist before slamming it onto the ground. As soon as he did that, a wave of burning Chi erupted out of the tiles, charging toward me and splitting the arena tiles in half as it did so. Terry leaped ahead toward me above the wave even as I launched myself upward using the Gekiro of Master Gen. The flying, gravity-defying, vertical kick technique met with another of those axe kicks from Terry as we clashed some thirty-odd feet in mid-air, and as the two Chi-powered techniques met, a shockwave echoed through the arena, bursting a bunch of lightbulbs in the ceiling above us and causing glass to rain down on the arena.

Both of us kicked the other away, and both of us landed hard, cratering the stone arena tiles as we did so. Of course, neither of us was down for the count yet, and I managed to kip back to my feet around the same time Terry did. Once again, Terry burst forward with another of those blazing punch techniques. This time, I used the Senkugoshoha of the Ansatsuken to counter-charge him, slipping his blazing fist and planting my own, Chi-enhanced, fist into Terry's stomach, even as his blazing punch passed by my right ear with less than an inch to spare. Terry was blasted backward by my attack, and I began to channel Chi into a Dai Shou Ha Blast, the Chi Blast of Master Tung Fu Rue blasting forth out of my outstretched hand for Terry, who crossed his arms in front of him, channeling Chi into them to block the blast.

The Dai Shou Ha would've utterly thrashed a Normal Person. Honestly, it probably could've done a number on any of the IFVs or lighter tanks currently in Service with the US Army. Terry, though, seemed to be able to take the blast with only moderate damage. As the glare of light from the blast faded, I could see his arms were burned and I'd literally blasted the ridiculous trucker hat off him, but he was still ready to go.

"You think I can't defend against my own Teacher's Techniques? Think again! Try this on for size!" Shouted Terry, before channeling a ridiculous amount of Chi into his fist and slamming it into the ground.

This time, a veritable geyser of Chi ripped itself out of the tiles and Terry began hammering at the Ground, each punch sending another pillar of Chi up out of the tiles. As I dodged, the pillars of blazing power followed me. I dodged the first by leaping to the side as a pillar of burning Chi the size of the Stinger Convertable I'd given Cordy back when we'd first started dating erupted out of the tiles. The next one I managed to avoid just by leaping back away from it. The last one, though, I couldn't dodge. Not unless I wanted to be out of bounds and rung out. Instead, I channeled my Chi and hardened my body using the Kongoushin Technique of the Ansatsuken.

When this last, blazing, pillar of Chi erupted underneath me, I used the Kongoushin to tank it. It wasn't enough, though, and I was forced to rely on a bit of magic to make it through unharmed, using the precious moments the Kongoshin bought me to cast a Resilient Sphere around myself allowing the pillar of blazing Chi to envelop my position without further fear of getting burned up. I dismissed the Resilient Sphere just as the Pillar receded into nothing, making sure nobody caught that bit of spellcasting.

"The Hell? Your hair's not even ruffled?" Demanded Terry.

"You're gonna have to do better than that if you want to ring me out, you know." I smirked.

Instead of replying, Terry rushed forward with another blazing punch, though this one was less powerful. I don't know whether it was taking the damage from my Dai Shou Ha, me rattling him, or just him expending so Much Chi already in this match, but I wasn't about to question it. I slipped aside from the blazing punch and slammed a punch of my own into his ribs. This time, Terry was just a moment too slow to parry or block and I felt something give under my knuckles. I was pretty sure I'd just cracked one of his ribs, not that he seemed to care too much from the way he slammed an uppercut into my jaw that split my lip and lifted me a foot off the ground. I slammed down hard, before rolling to the side instinctively. That turned out to be the right call, as Terry flashed into one of those Chi-Powered Axe Kicks, the power of which shattered the tile I'd been lying on.

I kipped to my feet and made to smash an axe kick of my own onto Terry's prone form, only for Terry to flip up onto his hands and launch himself upward at me in a drilling kick that caught me full in the chest, bruising my own ribs as it sent me slamming down onto the tiles hard enough to leave a me-shaped hole in them. Terry flipped back onto his feet as I extricated myself. He was breathing hard and wincing, but still put his fists up in a stance.

"Not bad, but you're still worse off than me. You might wanna think about quitting. Let the rest of your team handle this." I offered.

"Hell no! I don't quit, even if I didn't owe you one for stealing my Teacher's Techniques!" Spat Terry.

"Newsflash asshole, Master Tung Fu Rue literally wrote a book on how to do all this stuff! He put it out there, I didn't steal shit!" I growled.

"Nice one, but you can't learn martial arts from a book!" Retorted Terry.

"No, YOU can't learn Martial Arts from a book." I taunted.

"I know I said it before, but I really wanna punch you in the face right now." Growled Terry.

"Like I said, the feeling's mutual." I smirked.

Terry began channeling his Chi one more time. This time, I figured it was gonna be the decisive exchange. Whoever was left standing after this one would be the winner. I channeled my own Chi and prepared to end this. When we both blasted forward, it would be in two, completely different attacks. I launched myself into the Flying Dragon Kick of the Great Kung Lao, while Terry charged forth with a blazing fist of Chi that seemed more compressed than the last time he did that.

Fortunately, my kick carried me up and over his outstretched fist and smashed right into his face even as he released a ripple of exploding Chi from the end of his fist that burned up the air behind and under me. My own kick smashed into his nose, breaking it and blasting him into the tiles, digging a furrow through the stone as he skidded along the arena floor to come to a halt even as I backflipped off his face.

"Huh. That would've hurt if I'd been hit with it. Seems incomplete, though. Did I piss him off enough to try an experimental Technique?" I wondered.

Deciding there'd be time to answer that question later, I called over to the official to start the count. Terry was out cold, though, and didn't manage to get back up in time. I nodded and headed back to my Team, nodding to Kensou and Athena as I approached.

"One of you take the next one. I'm gonna need a minute." I admitted.

"You don't look too hurt." Frowned Kensou.

"Looks can be deceiving. I used up a decent chunk of Chi today and have a bruised rib. Gimme a bit to catch my breath and heal up." I insisted.

"All right, I guess that means I'll go next." Nodded Athena, stepping out into the partially demolished arena. I didn't envy the janitorial crew tonight, they were gonna have to replace a bunch of lights and the arena tiles. That second one for the umpteenth time.

Athena found herself up against a pretty scantily-clad brunette as I chugged a healing potion and lit up a Red Apple Cigarette, content to let the potion do its job. The bout wasn't that close, her Opponent was an acrobatic fighter, Shiranui Mai, of the Shiranui Shinobi Clan. I vaguely recalled from the information downloaded into my brain by the Black Dragon that the Shiranui specialized in Acrobatic Chi Techniques and Fire Techniques as a Shinobi Clan. However, Athena used her psychic powers to counter both, using Megakinesis to deal with Acrobatic Attacks and her Psycho Reflector Technique to defend herself from Mai's Flames.

Eventually, Mai was worn down through a combination of Chi Powered Kicks and Athena's Psycho Ball. The outcome had never really been in doubt. Maybe if Mai had been Lin Kuei instead it might have been closer. Their Cryomantic Magic might have given her the edge. If She'd been Hayabusa Clan, that might have also swung things her way. They had enough Dragon Blood in them to possibly throw off some of what Athena could do with her Psychic Powers. A Shiranui, though? They only had Chi and their Chi's ability to be used in fire-based Chi techniques more easily. Athena's psychic abilities would have always won her the fight.

I had to admit that the way Athena could manipulate pure psionic energy like that had me a little jealous, but then I was better than her with Chi and she couldn't do magic at all. We all had our own strengths, after all, and it seemed that Athena's was psionics. Regardless, she stepped down to let Kensou take the last fight against an opponent that was the Spitting Image of Terry. Apparently, this was his brother, Andy.

As Kensout fought, I engaged my powers of Analysis to watch the fight. Andy was a lot more technically structured of a fighter than his brother. While Terry fought like he improvised a lot of his techniques off of general principles, Andy seemed to fight like a Normal Martial Artist. The problem was that Andy was good, better than Kensou was, at any rate. That much was apparent as they fought. Eventually, Kensou slipped up and Andy drilled into him with a whirling, three-punch combo that smashed Kensou back and set him up for a Chi Blast. A large, spherical, ball of Chi that somewhat resembled a modified Dai Shou Ha slammed into Kensou just as he managed to get back to his feet and blasted him out of bounds.

Kensou came to a stop against the retaining wall of the arena that divided the floor of the arena from the stands, a Kensou-shaped indent in the reinforced concrete, with his torso all burned up. He was unconscious as well as out of bounds, meaning Andy Bogard had beaten him twice over. I sighed on seeing that and handed a healing potion to Athena, who cocked an eyebrow at me in question.

"Give this to Kensou, make sure he swallows it. It'll heal him up." I informed, stubbing out my cigarette and flicking the butt away.

"Right, so you're done sitting the rest of this out, then?" Questioned Athena.

"What the hell? Last match of the day for us anyway, right?" I queried with a shrug.

"I guess." Agreed Athena, taking the potion and hurrying over to force-feed it to Kensou. I stepped up into the Arena and nodded at Andy Bogard. He frowned but nodded back.

"You know, you pissed off Terry bad." Frowned Andy.

"He had it coming. You ought to worry more about yourself." I warned.

"Are you sure you want to do this? You've already fought twice today. How much more do you have in the tank?" Asked Andy.

"Guess you're about to find out." I smirked.

I took a stance, Andy did the same. As the Official asked if we were both ready to go, I nodded and so did he. Then, almost as soon as the Official called for the start of the match, Andy blurred forward in a rushing Elbow Strike that was so fast that if I was still at the Level I had been back in Sunnydale, I probably wouldn't have been able to keep up. As it was, I managed to sidestep the point of the Elbow and throw a punch at the side of Andy's Head. In response, he leaned out of the way, slipping around the punch and circling back to attempt to slam his own back into mine with enough power to knock me down in a maneuver I recognized as the Tetsuzanko of Master Tung Fu Rue. Instead of letting him do that, I tumbled forward in a shoulder roll, dodging the attack entirely, popping back up to my feet, and taking a stance.

"Pretty slippery." Remarked Andy.

"It was better than letting you hit me." I shrugged.

And at that unspoken signal, the warm-up period was over. The next exchange would be for real. With that in mind, I began channeling Chi, preparing to throw a Dai Shou Ha the second Andy tried to close the gap. Then, with a shout, Andy moved forward. I thrust my hand out, firing the Chi Blast.

And the fight had begun in earnest. . .

XXXX

AN: All right, so here we have the fights between Terry and Ulysses, Mai and Athena, Andy and Kensou, and the start of the fight between Andy and Ulysses. Where Terry took the principles taught to him by Tung Fu Rue and modified the crap out of them till they were pretty much unrecognizable, Andy is a lot more of a standard martial artist when it comes to techniques. He's just a really, really, good standard martial artist, so he beat Kensou. Now Ulysses has decided to step in.

Other nineties stuff this chapter includes mentions of the Black Dragon, Great Kung Lao, and Lin Kuei from Mortal Kombat, Master Gen and the Ansatsuken from Street Fighter, the Hayabusa Clan from Ninja Gaiden and Dead Or Alive, Cordelia and Sunnydale from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Stinger Convertibles from GTA Two, Red Apple Cigarettes from the Works of Quentin Tarantino, and Megakinesis and Resilient Sphere from Second Edition Dungeons and Dragons. Everything else is from King of Fighters.

At any rate, the next chapter will have the main part of Ulysses' Fight with Andy, then we'll have the meeting with Nightwolf about what to do with the Yamata-no-Orochi.

Stay tuned. . .