The shell of the Native American warrior stared emptily back at Raiden, whose gut-wrenching distress upon seeing one of former best friends reduced to nothing but a mind-controlled zombie almost spurred him to jump back into the crowd and hope Fujin would cover him. But Raiden barely had time to stand up straight before Quan Chi raised his hand as the signal to all of the kombatants on the ground.
"Round one!" he shouted, bringing his hand down. "Begin!"
Within the next few seconds the fights broke out into mayhem; there were no bounds dividing individual matches, and so warriors not intended to face each other ended up colliding as their opponents threw them into the middle of other participants' battles. However, Quan Chi did not seem too inclined to call foul play on any of this.
Raiden had barely had time to establish a fighting stance before Nightwolf shot forward and delivered a hard right hook to his head, sending Raiden spiraling into Scorpion and another, unknown fighter's match. Luckily, Raiden managed even in his shaken state to dodge one of Scorpion's kunai and swung himself around into another opening on the ground.
Unfortunately, that meant Nightwolf had another clear view of him, and Raiden only barely turned around in time to narrowly miss another one of the shaman's punches. For a short time, Raiden could not find an opening in Nightwolf's defense and had to resort to dodging around his opponent's hits. With each subsequent step Raiden took, however, he brought them both closer to another group's fight. Exasperated from trying to keep track of where everyone was going, Raiden couldn't block in time when Nightwolf grabbed him by the hem of his robe and delivered a forceful kick to his abdomen.
Raiden could feel the crushing impact as his lower ribs cracked while he went flying backwards through the air. The blow was worsened once he hit the ground, and he lay there, trying to allow the pain to die down, even as Nightwolf approached him.
Quan Chi smiled menacingly. He had been paying special attention to their fight, enjoying the torment through which Raiden was currently being put. It was even more fun than he expected. Wherever Shinnok was now, Quan Chi hoped he was watching with as much amusement as he was.
Unfortunately, he had to keep an eye on the other fighters, too. Luckily most of the matches were beginning to slow down as well. Once enough of the competitors seemed to be down, Quan Chi made a signal. Everyone in the stadium turned deathly quiet as they waited for the master of ceremonies to speak.
"End of round one," he bellowed. The fighters who could still get up did so, and the three who remained motionless were carried out by Tarkatans on standby. Their opponents most likely received instant victory and would proceed to the next round once the first few sets finished.
With more space now, the other two remaining groups of fighters had room to spread out. Raiden and Nightwolf, on the other hand, stayed in place as Raiden struggled to get up.
Quan Chi, feeling the process was taking too long, discreetly summoned a spell that forced Nightwolf to pick Raiden up. With a violent push, the shaman on the ground moved Raiden away, and the latter stumbled slightly again before he regained his stance.
"Round two!" came the cry from the top of the pyramid. "Fight!"
Much to his own surprise, Raiden was prepared this time; now that the adrenaline had kicked in, he was able to swiftly avoid Nightwolf's first attack. However, the next came much more quickly, right for Raiden's ribcage again.
But this time, Raiden caught the hit. True, Nightwolf had managed to hit him in the sore spot, but again to Raiden's disbelief he had a good hold on his opponent's arm. Acting instinctually, he twisted the shaft of Nightwolf's forearm and swung his leg under Nightwolf's, breaking his footing. He managed to work in one final shove that sent Nightwolf flying in the opposite direction, putting a fair bit of distance between them.
Still, Nightwolf, running on nothing but Quan Chi's black magic, quickly brushed off the impediment and got up again. In the meantime, Raiden had finally fixed himself, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike. He tried to remind himself that this was not truly Nightwolf, but the doubt nagging at the back of his mind weakened his resolve slightly; he pushed it out, however, and worked to make sure his instinct remained in control.
Quan Chi looked on disapprovingly at what had just transpired. He tried to remain confident that his minion would resolve matters quickly.
Nightwolf charged at Raiden now, apparently striving for a simple, brutal attack that would finish things immediately. Raiden, now beginning to take cues on how Nightwolf was fighting, used Nightwolf's speed and trajectory to deflect his arm and slide around his foe. At the same time he kept his arms tucked in close to his torso, feeling little sparks of static electricity running along the length of the fabric from the robe.
Nightwolf stumbled and turned around to face his opponent again. He mechanically chose the same action as before, swinging directly for Raiden, who continued to step around Nightwolf's attacks effortlessly now that he was familiar with the pattern of the battle, being careful not to make any physical contact at all with Nightwolf.
"I did not know the thunder god was such an adept dancer," Baraka commented sarcastically to Quan Chi, remarking on what their battle looked like from above on the stage. Quan Chi ignored him and focused on their fight.
On the ground, Raiden continued to focus on Nightwolf's technique and rhythm. The Apache warrior continued with his method of blindly swinging around and hoping for a hit to connect. Raiden, on the other hand, was carefully timing his own movements, feeling the small spurts of static beginning to multiply and grow in intensity. As he dodged Nightwolf's onslaught, he tried to focus on concentrating as much of the energy as he could in one hand. He had not counted on the robe providing him with a huge supply of energy, but anything he could utilize at this point was welcome. And between his sharp, abrupt movements, Raiden was already producing more energy than he had initially anticipated.
He waited another minute and continued to dodge Nightwolf's endless barrage of punches. A small but fair-sized bunch of energy was now crackling in his right hand, and Raiden knew he had to time his next attack perfectly if he wished to make it out of this round alive.
He waited another moment more; luckily, maybe due to the Elder Gods finally taking pity on him (although he doubted it), the next attack Nightwolf intended for his former mentor sent him lunging forward as Raiden stepped effortlessly out of the way. But this time Raiden didn't give him the opportunity to look back around; he swiftly grabbed Nightwolf's hair with his free left hand and yanked his former student upright. In the moment Nightwolf began to struggle, Raiden analyzed all possible pressure points that were open.
In the next moment Raiden's fist smashed against a vulnerable spot in Nightwolf's spinal cord, sending the chunk of electric energy he had collected and subconsciously tried to amplify as much as he could directly throughout Nightwolf's nervous system, or what was left of it. Even though it was a fairly small amount, everybody could see Nightwolf's body as it went into minor convulsions, having not expected such an attack. Raiden took advantage of the moment to let go of Nightwolf's hair and kick him hard enough that he landed an impressive distance away and did not get back up.
Even though many in the crowd were supposedly aligned with Outworld or Edenia, those who had paid attention to Nightwolf and Raiden's match broke out into rabid applause at the unexpected counter. Those on the stage, too, were mildly stunned by the unexpected victory.
At first Raiden ignored the frantic shrieks from the audience, focusing only on his opponent. True, Nightwolf was trying to kill him. But even as his friend came at him with no remorse, no regrets, with the intention to finish him off, Raiden knew it was not of his own will. He was still mourning the loss of one of his best warrior's souls as Quan Chi signaled the end of the match.
"End of round two," Quan Chi remarked tonelessly. He looked down with disgust at the situation below. The fighter from the other two groups who had emerged victorious looked down upon their vanquished enemies. More Tarkatans were called out to carry out the corpses, one of which had to be brought away in sections.
Raiden and Nightwolf constituted the only primary match which would have to be decided by a tie-breaker. As Nightwolf slowly regained his footing, Quan Chi leered at him disapprovingly. He wanted this to end now, before he would be forced to step in and finish the job himself. But he couldn't afford to get his hands dirty just yet.
"Round three!" Quan Chi roared across the stadium. The crowd had fallen uncomfortably quiet once more, anticipating the outcome of the next round. Fujin looked on apprehensively. He was relieved that Raiden had managed to find his fighting spirit in time, but he did not know how well his friend would continue to hold out.
Quan Chi stretched the silence for all its worth, allowing Nightwolf enough time to properly set himself straight. He did not want this fool to screw up his plans any further.
"Fight!"
This time Nightwolf held nothing back; he let out a terrifying roar and charged at Raiden again. The latter, knowing he probably wouldn't have enough time to charge up another attack like the last one, could only jump out of the way as he tried to think of another plan.
Unfortunately, Nightwolf rebounded too quickly to allow him time to think. He lunged back at Raiden and tried to deliver another right hook, which Raiden instinctually blocked. For another minute, he actually managed to do a decent job directly blocking most of Nightwolf's other attacks. Still, he was better at constructing strategies when he was away from Nightwolf, not desperately trying to fend his attacker off while his menacing sneer was directly in his face.
In the next instant, though, Nightwolf did something Raiden would have thought would have been beyond his capabilities as a mindless drone; he stepped back and sucker-punched the air in front of Raiden, leading to the latter catching his fist out of reflex. But then Nightwolf used Raiden's occupied hand to his advantage, using the same leg hook to break his stance that his teacher had used on him only a few minutes ago. As Raiden was left swinging for balance, Nightwolf caught his other hand and began trying to wrestle him to the ground.
"Give up now, Heyoka," Nightwolf barked in a hollow fury, in a voice that was his but shouldn't have been. Raiden looked at him in terror, painfully recognizing the nickname his pupil had adopted for him when they first met. "Earthrealm is ours. You are but one insignificant worm. We are many."
Raiden struggled to ignore his friend's disparaging speech, but his resolve continued to weaken as he realized Nightwolf was slowly beginning to overpower him. He cursed Quan Chi violently in his mind for reducing his warriors to this state, and promised he would find a way to make the sorcerer pay.
Meanwhile, said necromancer was still up on the stage, looking on with delight at what he hoped would be the end to the pesky thunder god.
Raiden glanced quickly behind him and noticed that Nightwolf had intentionally maneuvered them to a spot only feet away from one of the arena's death traps, a pit filled with spires on which enemies could be quickly impaled. All it would take was one push from Nightwolf to finish off Raiden for good.
He looked back at Nightwolf and saw his friend-turned-enemy throw one of his hands back to summon a spirit axe. With a primal roar, Nightwolf began to bring down the weapon upon his teacher.
Within the next split second Raiden acted on instinct.
I'm sorry, Nightwolf, were his final words to his friend in his head as he dropped on his back, bringing the Apache down with him. Before Nightwolf collided with him, however, Raiden used both legs to kick him off, back over his head and into the spike pit.
The entire audience fell silent as Raiden sat back up, panting. He feared to look behind him, but he knew he would have to face the sight eventually.
Turning around shakily, he looked to see if his last-ditch attempt had worked.
Much to Raiden's utter dismay, it did.
Nightwolf's body rested lifelessly on the spike on which he had been thrown, and the fresh blood from his torso glistened over the rest that had coagulated from warriors over the years at the top of the spike. Even as a mindless, minion, however, his face had still managed to register shock at his defeat, an expression which cemented as he had died in agonizing pain.
The crowd burst into roars of approval, even as Raiden looked like he was about to throw up. Quan Chi, too, ignored the crowd as he looked on in fury. He had just lost one of his best warriors to a mortal? One that had had his powers revoked? How could this have happened? !
He grew even more frustrated as Nightwolf's body dissipated into spiritual mist, the spell bounding him to Quan Chi having broken. The necromancer cursed under his breath as the crowd continued to cheer Raiden on, even as he limped miserably back to Fujin.
Luckily, Fujin caught and supported him once he made his way back into the group of warriors. Some of the others expressed approval, while others eyed Raiden warily, both out of disbelief that he had emerged victorious and apprehension at the thought of how well he would fare in a match against them, given his apparent resourcefulness.
"You did well, Raiden," Fujin congratulated him as Raiden tried to stand back up on his feet.
He gasped for air, only barely getting his next comment out to Fujin.
"Quan Chi… is using their souls… against me."
"I know, Raiden," Fujin tried to assure him. Raiden shook his head.
"I cannot do this, Fujin," he spat out, clarifying what he had originally intended. "It is too much to bear."
"I am afraid we do not have a choice, Raiden," Fujin lamented as he looked at his already weary friend. "Too much is at stake now."
Fujin looked back up at the crowd.
"Prepare yourself, Raiden," he said, not looking at his friend. "The worst is yet to come."
Be the leaf, Raiden! Be the leaf! *does the wave*