DISCLAIMER: I do not own Soulcalibur or Mortal Kombat.
Taki clamped her foot down in her opponent's back, pinning the malfested down.
"Speak! Where is your master?"
The malfested man struggled briefly, then gripped himself by the head and snapped his own neck. Taki groaned, stepping back.
"You wouldn't expect that kind of loyalty from a malfested."
Taki turned to see a portal beside her, and as she started to look closer, the portal vanished, and the path she was looking at suddenly became a courtyard, with a temple not far away. A strange yellow creature made of metal was standing in the courtyard, looking at her with its soulless eyes.
"Who are you?" It demanded, its voice carrying an accent she had never heard before in addition to the echo from the armour it wore.
Taki folded her arms. "I am not the cause of this."
"That remains to be verified. You will report to the Grand Master for questioning. Comply or you will be taken by force."
Taki stepped back, readying her two knives. "You may not be malfested, but you might as well be."
The suit of armour stepped closer. "You have been given orders by Lin Kwei unit Cyrax. Accept them or I will destroy you and bring you to the Grand Master in pieces."
After waiting briefly to verify that Taki still wasn't surrendering, Cyrax suddenly disassembled, appearing beside Taki and kicking her in the face, sending her staggering. Taki recovered quickly and charged back, leaving a string of afterimages as she collided with Cyrax and slashed him across the stomach with her knife. She turned her back to him and waited for him to fall, but rather than the sound of a metal suit falling she heard a strange whirring sound.
Reacting on instinct, Taki leapt away, narrowly escaping being bisected by Cyrax's circular saw blade. She landed several metres away, watching as the spinning blade retracted back into Cyrax's hand, a phenomenon she had never seen before. Cyrax split into a string of parts again, appearing behind her and swinging his fist at her, only for her to block this strike and counter by stabbing him in the stomach, causing purple fluid to pour from the wound. Taki jumped back, avoiding Cyrax's next attack, and examined her blade, sniffing the fluid that was on it. The fluid was colder than blood though not completely cold, and it smelled more like oil than blood. As Cyrax advanced again, Taki dashed at him, jumping up and kicking him in the side of the face, spinning him around and emitting a loud clunking sound, which gave away that Cyrax was metal, not a man wearing metal.
Taki thought quickly, and remembered she had met a creature similar to this in Astaroth. Cyrax would be much harder to fell than a human, but he wouldn't keep fighting if she injured him enough. Cyrax dashed forward again, swinging his fist at Taki, though this time he was holding a round object. Sensing something wasn't right, Taki jumped up and over him, charging at him from behind and spinning through the air upside down, kicking him twice. Cyrax detonated the bomb he held, shooting Taki back. Taki landed heavily on her back, grunting with the impact. She stood, glaring at Cyrax and readying her two blades again. Cyrax took a fighting stance in response, and the two ninjas started circling each other.
After several seconds of circling, Cyrax swung his hand, turning it into a spinning saw blade as he swung it, while Taki dodged the swing and stabbed his arm. Cyrax reacted by swinging the saw blade repeatedly at her, while she struggled to blocking with her blades. While she was able to block the swings, the spinning blade was noticeably cutting into her knives each time they connected, and she knew this wasn't an exchange she was going to win. Taki jumped back quickly, dashing at Cyrax and kicking him in the leg, resulting in another clanging sound. She then dashed several metres away and charged again, hitting him hard enough to spin him around. She then jumped above him and launched herself down, slashing him across the chest with both blades, causing wounds that sent the strange purple fluid spraying in several directions.
Cyrax gripped his injuries, seeming like he wasn't in pain, but was concerned about his damage. Taki was amazed at his durability. Cutting through him had been harder than cutting any armour she was familiar with, and the wounds she had dealt him would have been fatal to any human and most malfested. Deciding she couldn't give him a chance to recover, Taki charged again, punching him in the face and staggering him, but this time he caught her and punched her back, displaying speed not too much slower than her own.
Taki dashed away from him, running around him at high speed to get behind him, then charging at him from behind and slashing his throat from the side as he started to turn. Cyrax's throat leaked yet more of the purple fluid, and he stepped back, holding his throat to stop the fluid leaking out. Watching this, Taki realised that this creature had to have a weak point. Something allowed it to function, and that something was not in its chest, and cutting its throat hadn't stopped it.
Cyrax held up his hand, turning it back into the spinning blade as he was obviously preparing to cut her to pieces with any hits he landed. Realising she couldn't allow that blade to hit her, nor could she win if she relied on blocking, she needed to get his weak point before he hit her with the blade. As she thought, Cyrax vanished into a burst of parts and appeared behind her, his location marked in advance by the parts coming back together there. Taki dashed away in time to avoid the saw swing, but cried out as the saw still cut her across the back. She turned to see the blade imbedded in the post not far from her, stained with her blood. Cyrax appeared next to it in a burst of machine parts and reclaimed his blade, advancing on her again.
Seeing that she needed to finish him before he hit her more, Taki dashed away from him, running around the courtyard to get behind him, then jumping up and launching herself down at him, landing on his shoulders and rapidly stabbing her blade into his left eye. Cyrax let out a mechanical cry and swung his saw at her, her speed allowing her to narrowly escape being killed. She landed a few paces away and watched as he staggered, his face leaking the purple fluid as well as blood, indicating she had finally stabbed something organic.
Cyrax started to advance again, though he was staggering and seemed almost confused. Taki dashed again, spinning him around and jumping up above him, then slamming down on his head with both blades, leaving several cracks in his helmet and causing a fresh spray of purple and red to shoot from his eye. Taki readied herself to deliver more blows, but Cyrax finally fell backwards, landing on his back with a heavy metallic clang, strange sounds still coming from his helmet to indicate he wasn't dead. Taki bowed to him, shaking her head at whatever event had turned this skilled and, she suspected, once perfectly human warrior into a mockery of a human being. She knew that whatever answers to that could be found in the temple before her, but also that the more important issue was what had happened to cause her world to merge with this other one. Sighing, Taki jumped away.
Analysis:
This one was fairly close, but in the end Taki had the edge in skill though not by much, while Cyrax so obviously had the edge in reach. In strength Cyrax has an advantage, and had he managed to catch her and hold onto her he could have carved her up, but Taki can trade blows with Ivy, Cervantes, Astaroth and the like, and is thus quite used to enemies with greater physical strength than her own. Taki obviously has the edge in speed based on being the fastest in Soulcalibur gameplay, keeping pace with Starkiller in Soulcalibur 4's opening movie, and trading blows with Mitsurugi who can dodge musket shots as well as being faster than Ivy who reacts to a musket shot after Cervantes starts firing it in the opening movie of Soulcalibur 3.
With that in mind it came down to weapons and armour. More specifically whether or not Taki could figure out how to kill Cyrax before he managed to hit her and hack her to pieces. When wielding blades like hers it would generally be stupid to go for the head since stabbing through a skull with a small blade, especially when that skull is wearing a helmet, is not easy. That is why Taki generally goes for the neck and chest for kill shots. In Cyrax's case she needed to make an exception, as most of his body is machine, making killing him by stabbing his heart unlikely at best, and killing him by cutting his throat basically a pipe dream, since the reason cutting someone's throat kills them is because they bleed out, something Cyrax won't need to worry about much, since the only thing about his original body that is still human is his brain. However, Taki is a very capable combatant, and when she sees that his vitals aren't a problem for him, she is likely to go for the next thing that would logically be important, and if you think about it, even if he'd survived the skull hits and his brain hadn't been a weakness, stabbing him in the eye would still be guaranteed to have an effect by blinding him, so either way it was better than hitting areas which used to contain vital organs.
In closing, it was a game of strategy. Taki needed to figure out Cyrax's weakness while Cyrax needed to figure out how to take away Taki's speed advantage by catching her. In that instance Taki has a clear advantage, having a better battle record as well as the fact Cyrax himself complained about the fact the Cyber Initiative would result in less imaginative, less intuitive ninjas. This was supported by Cyber Sub Zero's defeat by Kabal when later Cyber Sub Zero is shown to be stronger than Kabal, as well as the fact he is shown to not even be able to think for himself beyond basic programming until his slaving programs are deactivated. There is plenty to suggest that the robotic Lin Kwei are less capable in many regards, the main one being their abilities to think and adapt.
