Chapter 16
Yamcha and Yang were not the first match to go on. First Son Goku and Yurin would take the stage. As Yurin walked out onto the arena platform, Yang noticed that she had a paper talisman in her hand. Opening up his senses to mystic energy, Yang was struck by the dark power radiating off the talisman, he could tell it was a thing of dark magic and that it would likely enhance whoever it was attached to with mystic energy at the cost of enslaving them to the will of the creator of the talisman.
Just before Goku stepped out, Yang put a hand on his shoulder and said, "Be careful, she has some tricks up her sleeve with that talisman."
Goku looked at the arena, saw the talisman, and nodded. "I won't let her put that on me." He said.
As the pair squared off and the drums began to sound, Yang frowned. Something was off, Yurin was strong, but not enough to be able to tag Goku with the talisman now that he was on guard. Something was off. That something revealed itself as the match started with Yurin attaching the talisman to her own head. Yang realized too late that the boost to strength from the talisman would make Yurin competitive in the match for no trade-off, as she could not be enslaved to herself. An aura of dark magic surrounded the crane student as she lunged forwards, attempting to hit Goku with a knife-hand chop to the neck. Fortunately, the monkey tailed boy was still fast enough to dodge the attempt, ducking the chop and retaliating with an attempt to sweep the crane student off her feet. That sweep was jumped over and a furious exchange of blows began as Yurin attempted to render Goku physically unable to continue with strikes aimed at pressure points. Goku for his part managed to parry and dodge the attempts and still throw in a counterattack every once in a while. He still had the edge in pure physical combat it seemed as he parried a two-fingered strike aimed at sealing off the movement of his right arm at the shoulder and retaliated with a kick that caught Yurin right under the chin and sent her rocketing up into the air.
Goku followed with a jump, aiming to take the fight to the sky, only to rocket past Yurin as she somehow managed to dodge mid-air. Yang had never seen someone do that before. In fact, as Goku tried to turn his descent into another attack, Yurin managed to float out of the way again. There was no denying it this time, Yurin could somehow fly. As Goku landed back on the ring tiles, Yurin managed a slow, controlled descent, touching down lightly. Words were exchanged between the combatants briefly that Yang was unable to hear from the fighter's waiting area before the match resumed with a renewed intensity. Even though Yurin could fly, she would still need to be where her opponent was in order to win the match, and even with the talisman empowering her with dark magic, it was clear Goku was still stronger than her by a decent margin.
As blows continued to be exchanged, Goku would consistently manage to gain the upper hand, hammering in 1 or 2 good blows before Yurin retreated to the sky. However, her lack of ranged techniques was beginning to show as she was always forced to descend once more to continue the fight. The fight dragged on for several exchanges beyond what it probably should have, but eventually, Goku managed to tag Yurin with one punch too many. A straight punch to her solar plexus sent her hurtling to the grass out of the ring before she could regain control of her flight enough to fly up and Goku advanced to the next round. Yurin stood up, peeled the now spent talisman off of her forehead, and sulked back over towards Tien and Chaotzu. The small pale crane student tried to console her for her loss, but Tien was clearly focused on his match with Muten Roshi as he followed the old master up onto the stage.
As the pair stared each other down, they exchanged words. Yang couldn't hear what they were saying from where he was, but it seemed as if Tien had outed Jackie Chun as Muten Roshi, as the Old Master removed his wig along with his jacket. Roshi immediately bulked up into Improved Max Power, which Yang's Ki Sense told him should put him on par with Tien's current power. As the match started, the pair flew into a furious exchange of blows arms moving fast enough to seem a blur to the audience that was only decipherable by skilled martial artists. Roshi attempted to hammer home punches and elbows, only for those attacks to be turned aside by Tien expertly. The 3 eyed warrior seemed content to let Roshi spend himself on his defenses for the first exchange before turning his last 2 parries into a grapple, grabbing the old master by the wrists and hammering in a series of knee strikes that caused Roshi to stagger away from him clutching his ribs. More words were exchanged before the pair launched into yet another exchange of blows, this time with Roshi getting the upper hand as he managed to turn a series of punches into a series of feints that ended with Tien blocking the punches, but taking a kick to the solar plexus which he hadn't seen coming. The 3 eyed warrior was heading for a ring out before he too stopped mid-air and floated back into the ring.
As the pair stared each other down, Tien concentrated for a moment before sprouting 2 extra arms from his shoulder blades. Now with 2 extra limbs, he advanced on Roshi, exchanging yet more words before the pair locked into a third exchange. This time it was all Roshi could do to defend from the onslaught of attacks Tien sent his way with 4 arms and 2 legs. A punch would be ducked only for Roshi to have to parry a knife-hand aimed for his throat and a kick aimed at taking his legs out from under him at the same time, only for another punch to need to be dodged before he was finally tagged by a hammer blow from the extra arms knocking him to the ring tiles. Roshi would tuck and roll away from Tien's feet trying to stomp him into the ground and spring up into a leaping kick only for that kick to be blocked by Tien's arms and Roshi have to block an immediate counterattack by Tien's extra arms. Finally, Roshi managed to tag the Crane Student with an unexpected thrust kick, which although blocked, sent Tien skidding backward, making some space between the fighters.
What happened next was something that Yang had only seen a couple of times before. Muten Roshi began to charge a Kamehameha wave. Tien, for his part, stood there and looked like he was going to just take the attack head-on, only for a yellow aura of ki to flare up around his body just in time for Muten Roshi to launch his attack with a shouted "Ha!" The Kamehameha raced towards Tien and the 3 eyed warrior flexed his ki with a moment of concentration just before it hit, scattering the attack into pieces with a flex of his ki. Tien was no longer holding back and Yang could feel with his ki Sense that Tien was now stronger than Roshi by a significant amount. With his signature technique spent, and his opponent now stronger than him by enough that Roshi could not win. The old master spoke a few more words to the 3 eyed warrior before allowing his Improved Max Power technique to lapse and ringing himself out.
As Roshi came back to the fighter's waiting area, he said, "That boy is a rare genius, it is just a shame that he is shackled to Shen's madness." With a sigh, Muten Roshi shook his head and sat down, defeated.
Tien for his part came back with a thoughtful expression on his face. Sitting down as Krillin and Chaotzu took their places out in the arena. Yang looked from Roshi to Tien and frowned. Whatever the old master had said to Tien, it had clearly given the 3 eyed warrior food for thought. "What did you say to him?" Asked Yang to Roshi.
"I only told him the truth about what went on between Shen and I. It is up to him if he believes it or not." Said Roshi sadly.
To Yang, it looked as if Roshi's words were having an effect on Tien, but the 3 eyed warrior would perhaps require a push to see if he would be persuaded off the path of vengeance. However, it was now that Yang turned his attention back to the Ring. Krillin and Chaotzu were fighting in a contest that Krillin seemed to be winning. The pale crane student was being pushed back by the former monk's assault. Yang could see Krillin's hands glowing with white ki as it seemed to him that the former monk had returned to the Orin Temple to learn the secret of the Buddhist Palm. Chaotzu was being forced to dodge and give ground rather than chance a block or parry with that technique active. It was a neat solution to the problem of someone being slightly stronger than you were from Krillin as his palm strikes, chops, and punches were ducked and dodged by Chaotzu. The pair worked their way across the ring before Chaotzu took to the air.
Krillin, knowing how Goku's fight had gone, refused to follow Chaotzu up into the air and taunted the Crane student, however, this proved to be a mistake, as it seemed Chaotzu did not suffer Yurin's lack of ranged techniques. The pale warrior pointed at Krillin and with a fraction of a second of concentration, shot out a finger beam at his opponent. The Dodon Ray that made Tao so feared was barely dodged by the former monk as Chaotzu began a bombardment of the ring with both index fingers, leaving behind finger-sized holes in the arena tiles every time the former monk dodged. The beams chased Krillin around the ring until it looked as if the former monk would ring himself out dodging. At the last second, Krillin planted his hands at the edge of the ring and did a handstand, turning it into a cartwheel off to the side as Chaotzu sent another Dodon Ray at him. Using the cartwheel, Krillin managed to dodge aside from the Dodon Ray and began to make his way back across the arena, chased by more rays. However, the sustained bombardment couldn't last as Chaotzu depleted more and more of his ki reserves to keep both it and flight up together, whereas Krillin was conserving his energy by using more traditional if acrobatic, movement and not throwing ki attacks of his own. Eventually, Chaotzu was forced to pause his bombardment, and that was when Krillin struck. The former monk jumped up with a flying punch wreathed in ki that connected with Chaotzu's shoulder. The Buddhist Palm technique managed to disrupt Chaotzu's Flight Technique with internal damage to force a ring out. Krillin would advance to the next round, tired, but unbeaten.
Finally, it was time for Yang and Yamcha to have their match. Yang stepped forwards confident in his ability to defeat Yamcha. Yamcha for his part stepped out as well. "Why not make an entrance?" Asked Yang.
"You read my mind!" Laughed Yamcha, as the pair vaulted out into the air, doing a pair of aerial somersaults before landing on opposite sides of the Ring facing each other. Both Yang and Yamcha immediately engaged their Improved Max Power Techniques and bulked up before assuming fighting positions and staring each other down. As the drums began to sound Yang could tell with his Ki Sense that he could beat Yamcha even with the weights on. However, one sentence from the ring announcer as the drums cut off left him with little time to ponder.
"Let the 4th Match of the 22nd Tenkai'ichi Budokai main bracket begin!" Called the Announcer.
And there was no more time for thought. . .
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Author's Note:
Power Levels for the 1st round of the Main Bracket are as follows
240: Yurin (Full Power)
252: Yamcha (Enhanced Full Power)
254: Yang (Full Power, Weights on)
260: Muten Roshi (Full Power)
262: Yang (Full Power, Weights Off)
310: Chaotzu (Tired)
345: Krillin's Flying Buddhist Palm (Tired)
360: Yurin (Enhanced by Dark magic Talisman)
375: Krillin (Full Power)
380: Chaotzu (Full Power, Ki Only)
381: Yamcha (Improved Max Power)
390: Chaotzu's Dodon Barrage
390: Krillin (Full Power, solely focused on defense)
390: Son Goku (Somewhat Suppressed)
390: Muten Roshi (Improved Max Power)
390: Tien (Somewhat Suppressed)
393: Yang (Improved Max Power)
400: Tien (Full Power)
400: Muten Roshi's Kamehameha
405: Tien's Scattering Aura
589.5: Yang (Improved Max Power, Fully Buffed with Magic)