The two warriors stood in the arena's fighting zone with their fighting stances, prepared to continue their clash. "Are you ready to lose, Sunbird?" Snow Kid asked with a smirk.
"Nope... I'm ready to win," Yukan replied with a grin.
Snow Kid got on the offensive again, shooting ice on the floor to increase his speed. After two seconds, the yeti reached his opponent and launched a fist toward his head in hopes of knocking him out. The sun parrot, however, was not planning to get caught so easily and performed a backflip to avoid the yeti's attack before rolling out of the way. This frustrated Snow Kid a bit as he wanted to get this fight over with and kept pressing on his offense.
Yukan managed to dodge all of his opponent's attacks with agility and waited for the right opportunity to fight back with a strike of his own. And this opportunity soon presented itself. As Snow went for an ice-charged strike, Yukan backed his head far enough so that the ice energy passed inches away from his black beak. He then curled his wing like a fist and set it on fire.
"ROARING FIST!" Yukan hit his burning fist into Snow's chin for an uppercut which sent him many feet up in the air before he landed hard on the floor. This massive blow seemed really painful as the yeti got back up and rubbed some blood off his lips. He mumbled a swear before getting on the offensive again.
"Yeah! Let's go, Yukan!" Shining Eagle cheered for her friend. "It's clear that he has the advantage thanks to his fire power. If this continues, he's gonna win this match and move on to the next phase in no time!"
"I wouldn't boast too soon, Shining," Kivuli said with staring at the ongoing battle. "Don't forget that Yukan's opponent is a master of the Magic Kung Fu School. It's possible that he has a few tricks up his sleeve that could allow him to turn the tide of this match." She then rubbed the back of her head. "Unless he only became a master recently..."
Yukan kept dodging and avoiding the blows, getting pushed closer and closer to the arena's wall. Having enough, the sun parrot ducked one last blow from the yeti before going for a double punch at his face. However, this last one swiftly pushed the strike aside with his two hands and then delivered a spin kick into Yukan's guts. He followed with a strong right to his beak which knocked him back a few feet away.
"That wasn't cool," Yukan mumbled with spitting some blood out of his beak. He then grinned. "I must admit you're pretty tough."
"Indeed, Sunbird," Snow Kid replied with a chuckle. "I don't know what kind of training Master Shujinko made you go through, but if you think you're the strongest participant in this tournament, you are horribly wrong. In fact, let me tell you that there are tens and even hundred of people across China who are stronger than you and me."
"... I know." Snow Kid gave a slightly surprised look at Yukan's response. "I know that I'm far from being the strongest fighter in the world... And I never will be. But I accept it."
Snow Kid blinked his eyes a few times at this. "Wait a minute. You're telling me that you're not participating in this tournament to prove your strength? Don't tell me you're doing it just for the money?"
"Nope."
"But why are you participating then?"
Yukan stared at the floor for a moment... before looking up again. "I just wanna test myself. See if I'm good enough to make a difference..."
"Make a difference?" Kira Lee asked with a confused look. "What is he talking about?"
"I honestly have no idea," Hong Ze responded.
Shining Eagle stared at Yukan with a mix of worry and confusion. "Yukan?"
"But don't get the wrong idea; just because I'm not searching to be the strongest master in the world doesn't mean I'm gonna let you win!" Right after saying this, Yukan lifted his wings and got back in his fighting stance. Then, without warning, he flapped his wings and charged at his opponent so quickly that he couldn't react in time and got knocked down by a dive kick to the face.
The yeti kicked up and glared at the sun parrot. "Alright. I can respect whatever motivates you, but I have no intention of losing here and getting mocked by Siax. Therefore, I'm gonna show you what my ice powers can really do."
"Go ahead; this should be fun," Yukan replied with a grin.
"Be careful, Yukan! I don't think he's messing around!" Kivuli called.
Snow Kid lifted his two hands and started focusing his ice energy. "Ice Craft: Hammer!" Some ice came out of his hands and formed some sort of sledgehammer whose hold he grabbed. He then shot some ice on the floor to give himself a boost in speed as he charged at Yukan and swung his new ice weapon. The sun parrot managed to duck and went for a kick into his side which the yeti blocked with his weapon. To his surprise, it was harder than he expected and the shock made him feel pain in his foot.
Seeing his opening, Snow slammed the ice hammer into Yukan's side, knocking him a few feet away. "Argh! Darn it!" the sun parrot groaned and clutched his poor side in pain. His opponent decided to not give him a chance to recover as he tossed his ice hammer away and lifted one hand. "Ice Craft: Sword!" This time, an ice sword was formed in his hand and he got on the offensive again.
Yukan narrowly avoided the ice sword that was swung in his direction, though it scratched at the part of his torso left exposed and gave him a little cut. Unfortunately, the yeti did not stop there and kept swinging his ice sword over and over again, the sun parrot dodging it and being backed off closer and closer to the arena's wall. If it came to this, he would have no more room to dodge and this match would be over.
Unless... Yukan allowed himself to be backed into the wall. Then, just as Snow attacked again, he used it to push himself and leap over the yeti. As the sun parrot was in midair, he lifted his wings and sent many little glowing light green orbs floating toward his opponent. "Huh? What are those?" he asked upon noticing them.
"FIREFLY BOMBS!" Snapping his feathers, Yukan made the little orbs explode in small bursts of flames all around Snow Kid, making him scream in pain. After landing on his two feet, he looked to see the result which was the yeti lying down with burn marks on his body, but nothing too bad.
"He got him!" Po exclaimed.
"Is it over? Did Yukan win?" Crane asked.
"No; look," Tigress said and pointed as Snow Kid weakly got back on his feet. He panted in exhaustion and glared his blue eyes toward Yukan.
"Alright, playtime is over, Sunbird! I'm gonna send you back to the ice age!" He lifted his two hands and started focusing a huge amount of ice energy. Yukan's emerald eyes widened as he realized his opponent was preparing a powerful attack that would surely knock him out for good. The best action to make was to launch a powerful attack of his own. He started focusing his fire energy in his stomach and took a deep breath. Then, both opponents shot their attack at the same time.
"WINTER BLAST!"
"PHOENIX BREATH!"
Yukan spat a huge breath of fire while Snow Kid shot an enormous blizzard of ice. Both attacks collided, creating a lot of steam that almost pushed some of the watchers down and even made Kira Lee flip on his back. However, as strong as both opponents' attacks were, the elemental advantage was on Yukan's side. His fire managed to melt through Snow's Winter Blast and crashed into the yeti in question. Yukan soon put an end to his attack and fell on his knees out of exhaustion.
He then looked up... and widened his eyes. Snow was lying down with even more burn marks. But this time, he did not kick up. Nunzio quickly went to check on him and see if he could continue the match. It did not took him long before giving his decision. "Master Snow Kid is unable to continue the fight! Therefore, the winner of the fourth match is Master Sunbird!"
"YEEEES!" Po beamed as Yukan widened his emerald eyes in surprise. He did it! He won the match and qualified for the third phase! "I KNEW YOU WOULD WIN!"
"He is quite impressive," Tigress admitted. "I understand why Master Shujinko took him under his wing."
"Seriously? And after this, you wonder why I'm teasing you all the time?" Siax mumbled with rolling her eyes as her yeti friend was carried away by the medical team.
"I can tell he's gonna need a LOT of fresh water to recover from this fight," Crane said with rubbing the back of his head.
Yukan, meanwhile, walked back up on the platform to go join his friends. "Nice job, Yukan!" Shining Eagle beamed with lifting her wing for a high-five. "That was a total victory!"
The sun parrot, however, did not look that happy. "It wasn't a total victory, Shining."
"Huh? What do you mean?" the golden eagle asked, lowering her wing down.
Yukan turned his eyes to look at the yeti who was still being escorted away by the medical team. "While it's true that we were very close in terms of close combat, I can tell he has much more experience in battle than I. His technique was completely different and his elemental powers were bigger. The only reason I won against him is because my fire could defeat his ice. If life had blessed me with another element, I would have probably lost."
He then looked down. "I don't know if I'm strong enough..."
Author's note: Yukan has defeated Snow Kid and joins Po, Siax, and Kira Lee amongst the qualified for the third phase! I think this might be one of my most favorite fights I have written in this story so far. Do you think the other Frog Dojo members will do the same?