With half the qualifying matches being done, Nunzio allowed a moment of break for the participants before carrying on. Yukan, Shining Eagle, and Kivuli took a chance to go to the bathroom and clean themselves a bit. The sun parrot splashed some water over his face and looked at his reflexion in the mirror, lost in his thoughts. Already half the phase was done. Po, Master Siax, Kira Lee, and himself were the qualified ones for now.
But could he possibly win the tournament with such strong opponents?
"Hey, Yukan," Shining Eagle called him from outside the bathroom. "Are you finishing soon? The phase is about to continue."
"Yes, yes," Yukan replied, cleaning the water from his face. "I'm finishing. I was just... thinking about our chances of winning this tournament..."
"Don't worry, about that. Even if you think otherwise, you did great back there. You have as many chances of winning the next phases as any of the other contenders."
Yukan couldn't help but chuckle a bit to himself. "You know, Shining, you and Kivuli haven't passed your fights yet. You should worry about your upcoming matches instead of worrying about me."
The golden eagle giggled a bit to herself. "Yeah, I guess you're right about that..."
#
A few minutes later, the participants were all back in the arena with Nunzio standing in the middle of the fighting zone. "The break time is over and we shall now resume the second phase. Four of the eight matches are over, meaning half of the phase is done. I want to take the time to once again congratulate those who won their matches and qualified for the next phase." Po, Yukan, Siax, and Kira couldn't help but smile with pride. "Now, let us discover the two participants for the fifth match."
The screen turned on and started running the names of the eight remaining participants. Who would get to fight? Shining Eagle? Kivuli? Tigress? Crane? Hong Ze? Daito?
Master Crane vs Daito Shun
Crane's eyes widened a bit. He would have to fight this mercenary tiger? The avian turned his head to see his opponent twisting his lips into a smirk as he jumped down in the fighting zone. "Alright, Crane! It's your time to shine! Show them your awesomeness!" Po beamed, patting his avian friend on the back.
"This is not my lucky day...," Crane whined before opening his wings and flying down in the fighting zone.
"I heard that Master Crane was the best user of the Crane Style of Kung Fu in all of China," Shining Eagle said, not hiding her excitation. "I can't wait to see him in action for the first time!"
Yukan, however, just rested against the security barricade with a scoff. "Personally, I don't really care about what happens to that guy." He then narrowed his eyes. "I only wanna see what this Daito is capable of."
Crane and Daito stood in the fighting zone many feet away from each other and with Nunzio in the middle. "So I get to fight a member of the Furious Five, heh?" the tiger asked with a smirk. "What an honor for me." Crane frowned a bit, unable to tell if he was being honest or sarcastic.
"Master Crane, Daito Shun, are you ready to fight?" Nunzio asked them.
"Yes."
"I've always been."
"In that case, let the fifth match of the second phase... BEGIN!"
Both warriors charged at each other with Crane going for a dive kick and Daito clutching his fist for a punch. The two attacks collided, creating a shockwave that the other participants felt, even from such a distance. Afterwards, the avian got on the offensive first, swinging his wing at the feline's head. This last one managed to duck and span on himself for a roundhouse kick. The avian somehow saw the attack coming and managed to block it with his wing before hitting a moonkick under Daito's jaw.
"I see his strategy," Hong Ze said to no one in particular. "Master Crane is trying to stay out of Daito's reach and attack when he has the chance. Pretty smart."
After hitting a wing swipe across his face, Crane attempted to follow by launching his talons at the tiger's chest. However, this last one opened his eyes into slits at the last moment and hit a violent elbow strike into the avian's beak to stun him. He continued his combo by catching his legs and slammed him so hard on the floor that some cracks formed there (and maybe also in Crane's bones).
"Ouch! He must've felt that one!" Shining Eagle said, wincing for the poor bird.
After recovering from the shock of the impact, Crane broke out of Daito's grasp and started swiping his wings and talons at the feline. Despite his agility, Daito still sustained a few scratches before blocking the avian's wing and delivering a palm strike into his stomach which knocked him back a few feet away.
"This is so intense!" Po said with jumping in place. "Who do you think is gonna win?"
Tigress frowned a bit. "I honestly can't say, Po. Crane has defeated bandits and criminals that had more muscle than this guy... but I got a feeling he's hiding something."
Daito unsheathed his claws and started swipping them at Crane, who lost a few feathers at first, but then started using his wings to parry the attacks. Realizing close combat would not help him in that situation, Crane flapped his wings to get high in the air and glared at his feline opponent. "WINGS OF JUSTICE!" Flapping his wings again, but harder than before, Crane sent a powerful gust of wind to knock Daito off his feet and sent him crashing really hard into the arena's wall.
"Oh my gosh! This is the infamous Wings of Justice technique I heard so much about?!" Shining Eagle exclaimed, a bright smile on her beak. "THIS IS SO AWESOME!"
"You're starting to sound like Po," Yukan remarked with a chuckle.
"Great!" Po beamed too, just after the sun parrot said that. "Crane has totally knocked him out! Nice job, dude!"
"No, Po; look!" Tigress said.
Indeed, Daito managed to kick up despite Crane's attack having visibly caused him some damage. He panted and cracked his neck before grinning. "I admit this attack did hurt a lot. I'm gonna make you pay for that!"
His joy of winning fading away, Crane decided to go for a dive kick in hopes of knocking the feline down for good. Unfortunately, he had one more trick up his sleeve. Smirking, Daito made some sorts of blue energy spikes appear all over his body. Crane's eyes widened. He attempted to stop himself, but he had accumulated too much speed and came within range for Daito.
"Shard Teleportation!" As Daito's body faded away with smoke, the spikes of his body were shot in all directions, some of them piercing through Crane's wings and torso. The other participants could only look in horror as the avian master screamed in pain, blood spilling out of his body. Then, just as the spikes faded away, Daito appeared in a puff of smoke behind the avian and pinned him to the floor on his stomach while he sat on his back.
Crane could only look up in fear as the feline planted a foot on his back and grabbed his right wing in his paws. The sinister smirk on his lips indicated what he planned to do. "Game over, birdie!" With a quick jerk, Daito snapped Crane's wing in half, making him scream in pain, loud enough for the whole arena to hear. "Crane!" Po and Tigress exclaimed at the same time.
Nunzio did not need to check on the bird and immediately jumped in before Daito could hurt him any further. "Master Crane is no longer able to fight! Therefore, I have no choice but to declare Daito Shun the winner of this match!"
Nobody cheered and instead just stared in sadness and pity as Crane was carried by the medical team. However, they all knew the bird would need a good check-up on his wing. As Daito returned to the platform with a satisfied grin, Tigress decided to confront him. "What's wrong with you?! You had already won the match; you didn't need to break my friend's wing!"
The other feline, however, just pushed past her. "Get lost, sweetie. This is a fighting tournament. If you're not ready to get hurt, then you have no business in here." After this statement, Po needed to hold Tigress back before she could jump on Daito and tear him to shreds.
"What a jerk," Shining commented, glaring at Daito in disgust. "I wish Master Crane had won this one."
"What was that technique he used?" Yukan questioned. "I never saw it before."
"I have no idea," Kivuli replied with a shrug.
Author's note: Daito wins the fifth match and joins the other four as the qualifier for the third phase. Sorry, all you Crane fans. I don't know what else to say, so... I hope you enjoyed it and may the gods watch over you all.