Author's Note: This is something of a filler chapter, therefore it's shorter than usual. I realized that this update would be too big if I didn't break it in half, so there you go. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it regardless.
Daytime was fading, though because of Kotal Kahn's blood sacrifice, the light remained strong and warm. The gathering of armies marched from Kleve – some on horseback but most on foot – and just beyond the eastern gate of the Centaur city, they turned around a huge shoulder of bare rock and plunged into the sea of grass rolling in the wind. Down they went in a long, winding file, but at the bottom they spread out in thicker columns. Here in the valley, the path led them to a ford where the shallow waters babbled noisily on the rocks. The rebel army crossed the stream without difficulty and continued on.
The road now led east across the valley, which stretched from distant horizon to distant horizon, with mountains rising tall into the sky to the north. Fields of rough grass, golden yellow in the sunshine, covered every speck of dirt, hinting at a warm summer day, but the Bīnglěng Di Dìyù blew cold air onto the land from the heights of the northern mountains, reminding them all – and especially those who had been to Mòhé – of winter.
Kuai Liang, who was at the head of it, looked back. He could not guess their exact number, but he had amassed a large army of allied forces, many thousand strong. He had estimated they numbered around 45,000 total. And they were all counting on him to lead them to victory over Onaga's army, which reports estimated around a hundred thousand. Those were not great odds, but with any luck, they'd win the field using strategy just as Hannibal did thousands of years prior. Not damn likely, his father's doubtful voice suddenly said in his head, but he quickly muted the sound. Then, without realizing he did it, he closed his eyes and squeezed Anya's hand, thankful when she squeezed it back to reassure him.
That was one benefit about being married to a touch psychic, he supposed: he never had to say aloud what was bothering him.
Now Kuai Liang glanced at Tomas, who'd been unusually silent since before they'd left Kleve. Fury burned in his eyes, though, and it didn't take a psychologist to know he was thoroughly pissed off about something.
"What are you looking at?" the cyber-ninja hissed in annoyance when he caught his best friend staring.
"What's wrong with you?" he demanded to know. "Did a Centaur kick you in the face or something?"
"No, my pr̆ítel, but I can't help but wonder why you've allowed a horse's ass to walk beside us when he should be at the back of the line," he replied as he shot an evil look at Fujin.
Kuai Liang looked at the Wind God in surprise. The god's face was a storm cloud of anger as well, but he said nothing as he stared straight ahead and simply pretended he hadn't heard Tomas insult him.
"Tomas, what are you doing?" Anya asked softly and uncertainly. She kept darting her eyes back and forth between the two.
"I'm just wondering why he's here," the Czech man growled. "I mean, if history has taught us anything, it's that gods can't be trusted. They are selfish and evil, even if they come to us as benevolent beings. Isn't that right, Wind God?"
"You know nothing of what it means to be a god," Fujin finally hissed back.
"I know they have no honor," he shot back. "Especially you. Tell us, why did Raiden choose you to take over for him? It couldn't possibly be because you're good at your job, which we all know is a lie. Maybe he found out you were sleeping around with his love interest, and he decided to send you in his stead in the hopes that Onaga would torture and kill you once and for all."
"Watch how you address me, mortal," he cautioned, his eyes growing misty. "I will hurt you in ways you haven't begun to imagine."
"Tomas," Anya said, resting a hand on his shoulder to comfort him. "Stop while you're ahead. Remember Bandiagara?"
The cyber-ninja immediately shrugged it off and said, "Don't bother, Wind Bag. You've already done all the damage that you can to me."
"Goddammit, Tomas!" the nurse yelped in exasperation. "I swear to God that if the next two words out of your mouth aren't 'Okay, Anya,' then the third word will be 'Oh, my God, my crotch, my crotch, you've punched me in the crotch!'"
"Stop it, Smoke," Sonya snapped at him. "This isn't the time or the place to debate philosophy with a god."
"She's right," Johnny agreed. "We have bigger fish to fry. We don't have time to fight with each other."
"No, we just have the time to throw that pathetic excuse for a god a pity lay, am I right?" he hissed as he glared at Kailyn.
Fujin roared. He lifted his arm towards the cyber-ninja, undoubtedly to blast him, but Kuai Liang and Kotal now stepped in. The Cryomancer grabbed his best friend, who was ready for a fight, and Kotal pushed Fujin backwards by his chest. The Wind God blessedly allowed him and stumbled backwards in silence, but Tomas was harder to restrain because he wriggled to get free of his friend's arms.
"They're right, there is no time for this," Kuai Liang growled at him in Czech. The Grandmaster's knowledge of Czech was rough at best, but he knew that Tomas would understand him regardless. As predicted, his friend stopped struggling as much when he heard the words. Mainly, he was surprised that the Cryomancer used them; Kuai Liang rarely tried speaking in Czech because he insisted it was too hard to master. "Save your energy for the battle," he rattled off to his friend a moment later.
Finally, Tomas stopped resisting altogether and calmly stood up straight. "I'm sorry," he apologized to his friend, also in Czech. "I'm very angry right now."
"That's pretty obvious," he drily remarked.
"I'll talk to you about it later, after the battle. If we survive."
Kuai Liang nodded and motioned for him to get back into line. He saw that the army had stopped and that the front rows were watching the scene with interest. Now in English again, he yelled, "Forward!" At his command, they began to march once more.
A few minutes later, Noob approached him, his eyes smiling in cruel amusement. "Jumpy men you have under your command, Kuai Liang," he jeered. "Even the gods are nervous." He looked at both Fujin and Kotal Kahn, who masked their concerns well, but couldn't hide the worried expression in their eyes.
"It's understandable," the Cryomancer coldly told his dead brother. He never faced him, only kept marching forward.
"Are you afraid of the darkness, brother?" he wanted to know.
"No, I'm not afraid," he said curtly. "Not of the dark." He glanced at Noob. "Are you?"
The demon chuckled at that. "The dark is afraid of me," he said. Then, in an almost mournful voice, he continued: "Do you know what being a demon is like, brother? Time stops. I sleep for hours, days, weeks. And when I finally awake, I am still a creature of darkness." He paused, and now Kuai Liang curiously looked at him. "They say all hope begins in the darkness. But most just flail around in the blackness, searching for their destiny. The darkness, however, is where I shine." Now Noob looked at him. "Embrace the darkness, brother. It's the only way you can win this conflict."
Nearly an hour later, a war horn sounded in the distance, a deep mournful note that chilled even Kuai Liang's soul. The Edenian cavalry scrambled onto their caballuses, which until now they had walked to preserve the beasts' energy, shouting curses at the Dragon King's army. The new sunlight was still burning off the last tendrils of fog as Motaro led them and his Centaurs off to either wing like Sub-Zero had wanted. As the rebel army came to the edge of a long ridge with a gentle slope down, the Cryomancer noticed that the grasses in the plains below were heavy with dew and glittering brilliantly as if someone had scattered a bag of diamonds over the earth. The different clans assembled behind him, each one arrayed behind its generals, who now stood beside him.
In the light, Onaga's army unfolded below like an iron rose, thorns gleaming. Their ranks were comprised of the feared skeleton warriors, and they were arranged in a great block that was surely over a mile deep. Just a sea of undead soldiers wielding spears, swords, and axes that screamed for blood sacrifices. To the block's left was a significantly smaller block of Zaterrans, and to the right, Tarkatans. And at the front, stretched across the length of the line, leading the charge, were some familiar faces: Li Mei, Shujinko, Jade, Cyrax, Quan Chi, Sindel, Raiden, Frost, Stryker, Shang Tsung, Bo'Rai Cho, Kitana, and Mileena. The professional scoundrel, Kano, also marched with them, and Cyrax, Kuai Liang noticed, had been fully restored to his human body.
The Grandmaster hardly cared about most of their number. But when his eyes found his sister, his heart fell. He had suspected – when Raiden had appeared and when Anya had told him about Jade – that Onaga had somehow resurrected those who had died since he'd been reborn. And yet, he hadn't expected to see his own sister, the one who the Blue Dragon destroyed without hesitation, marching towards him on a battlefield, her eyes dark and enslaved like the others, Onaga's prisoner.
"Oh, my God," Anya muttered beside him. He glanced at her and saw she was covering her mouth, her eyes wide and fearful.
"Go to the rear with the other Healers," he automatically commanded. His voice was firm and authoritative. "And be careful," he added.
She gulped and nodded before she reached up and cupped his carved mask in the palm of her hand. "You be careful too," she ordered. "I believe in you." She didn't say it, but her eyes told him she loved him.
He smiled behind his mask and nodded. "Go. Now." He then shooed her off as he mentally recited a prayer to whoever was listening to keep her safe. She turned to cast him one last reassuring smile so he saluted her with the kori sword he'd just formed in his palm; she grinned before she wheeled about once more, trotted off, and disappeared in the throngs of warriors.
"Where's the Dragon King?" Erron drawled.
"This one does not see him," D'Vorah offered as she scanned the field.
It was true. Onaga was nowhere to be seen. Sub-Zero's stomach was suddenly a hard knot twisted so tight that it hurt. That was odd. Usually, in battles such as these, the commanders insisted on being there to oversee operations.
"Perhaps the Dragon King is so confident in his victory that he sees no need to be here," Jataaka murmured softly beside them.
"If that is the case, his arrogance will be his demise," Kotal said, crossing his arms.
"Let's hope so," Sub-Zero replied. Now he looked at his generals and said, "It's time. Get into formation now. And remember, if any man runs, I'll cut him down myself."
At his command, they started yelling orders at their clans to get them into the proper arrangement for battle. He would lead the center just as Hannibal did thousands of years prior, and for the same reason; it was the only way he could ensure control over his plan. The warriors had to see him amongst them in order to keep them from breaking the line. If one person so much as stepped the wrong way, they'd all be slaughtered. He was accompanied by Kia, Jataaka, and King Henryk as well as a thousand archers who stood calmly behind him, stringing their bows. Quivers hung from their hips, and they had arranged themselves into three long lines that stretched along the ridge. Between them, pikemen formed squares. Behind them was line after line of Edenians and Hydromancer Warriors who carried spears, swords, and axes.
At the outermost wings was a small group of Cryomancers – perhaps ten each – who were protected by a much larger contingent of Seidan Guard. Hotaru joined the left wing while Johnny, Erron, and Ermac joined the right. There were some five hundred men on either wing, their bodies heavy with the weight of their rune-inscribed armor, and several worked at the rear of their ranks to set up their artillery.
Just inside the wings were the Centaurs and Edenian cavalry who rode upon mighty caballuses. Five thousand men and Centaurs massed together on either side like great steel fists arranged in perfect square blocks. Motaro led the warriors to the left.
Inside the Centaurs and Edenians, arranged in a rectangle more narrow than wide, but deeper than the other formations, were the Shokan singing proud songs of battle and beating their weapons against their shields to make a shrieking cacophony of noise. Goro led his people – another five thousand on each side – to the left while he put Sheeva in charge on the right. Kintaro and many of the other Tigrar class joined her.
The Falcata – led by Kailyn – took the leftmost side of the center, and they were joined by more Hydromancers, Edenians, and Sonya and Jax. In the block formation beside them was Smoke, Noob, Sareena, and Scorpion; they were joined by ten Cryomancers including Captain Zheng He, and they were tasked with keeping them all alive. The Edenians had raised standards indicating various family houses; a burning phoenix on a sea of yellow, a white unicorn on a field of purple, a crane, a leopard, and many more.
At the rightmost side of the center, Kabal, Kenshi, and Nightwolf prepared for war with Queen Catja and more Hydromancers and Edenians bearing colorful standards. Just inside of them, Fujin, Kotal Kahn, D'Vorah, and several thousand Edenians prepared to protect another ten Cryomancers, though Fujin stayed closer to Sub-Zero than the others so that together, they could recreate their stunt in Eridu.
Sub-Zero turned around to examine his army. His heart pounded inside his chest in time to the enemy drums, and under his layers of leather and steel, his brow was cold with sweat. Whereas the skeletal soldiers were a heavily mailed throng of undead knights that were impossible to kill, his army was a hodgepodge of fighters: archers in leather jerkins, a swarming mass of undisciplined warriors, peasants armed with scythes and rusted swords, half-trained boys from every Edenian village. Most of them were ancient enemies who barely tolerated each other long enough to address their common problem.
"We're going to die," Smoke mused beside him, having yet to join his group, giving voice to what Sub-Zero left unsaid. The Cryomancer nodded. Had he lost his mind? Why did he think he could pull this off?
"The best way to escape a problem is to solve it," Kotal Kahn told him as if sensing his self-doubt.
As the Grandmaster contemplated his words, a loud war horn blew again, its voice as long and low and chilling as a wind from the north. The Edenian trumpets answered in short bursts that sounded brazen and defiant, yet to Kuai Liang, they sounded smaller and anxious.
"Where there is hatred, sow justice," Smoke suddenly startled him. His voice was firm but reverent. "Where there's injury, pardon. Where there's doubt, hope. And may a swift and certain death befall anyone who stands in your way." The cyber-ninja looked at his friend. It's not much of a prayer, my pr̆ítel. But it's how I know this isn't over until the Dragon King is dead."
