Shaolin Monks

Hiding behind the trees of the Living Forest was Cassie, Jacqui, and Takeda assessing the situation at hand. Takeda used his telekinesis to read the minds of the Outworld forces. He hears discontent in Kotal Kahn's mind as he continues to weigh his feelings towards the deaths of Mileena and Kotal K'etz. Ferra thinks of ways to cook everyone in the forest. The grotesque vision caused him to slightly gag and leave her mind. He listens to Sindel's mind but is immediately forced out. The same outcome occurred when attempting to listen to Kung Lao & Lui Kang.

"Anything yet?" Cassie questioned. Takeda opened his eyes and removed his fingers from his temple.

"I can't hear anything from the dead guys."

"They are very much alive babe," Jacqui responded.

"You know what I mean," he groaned. She snickered and shook her head. Cassie alternated her attention between them both. Takeda and Jacqui cleared their throats and nodded. Takeda focused his mind on D'Vorah and started to get a migraine. Voices numbering the hundreds of thousands were communicating between one another. He was unable to keep up as it wasn't clear who was talking about what. He cut his connection from her but not before coming across Kitana's mind, which made him gasp.

"What is it?" Cassie asked.

"The princess…she's still alive," he confirmed.

"Let's assess what we know so far," Cassie began. "Four different individuals have been resurrected, but only three have arrived. We can assume the fourth person was a man named Bi Han. We also know that Li Mei mentioned something about a blood god?"

"Listening into the vampire's mind, I'm assuming it's what they call their deity. Possibly even the power that's used by them."

"That's what I'm going to use to help our guys," Cassie stated confidently.

"I believe I know what you're planning," Jacqui commented.

"You're probably right," Takeda added. Jacqui slowly cocked her head and looked at him.

"You know reading my mind might be a good way to end the relationship," she joked. Maybe.

"What? No. What would make you believe that?" Takeda rolled his eyes and smirk. He could feel Jacqui's demonic glare piercing his face. "What? Honest, I haven't."

Lui Kang and Kung Lao linked their eyes together before looking back at the other shaolin. Kung Lao tosses his hat towards his cousin's foot. Jin moves his foot and stomps on top of the hat. Kung Lao frowns and signal's Lui Kang. Lui fired a close-range fire ball which Jin absorbed with his staff. He then fires it towards Kung Lao who narrowly dodges it. Li Mei stomps on a nearby tree branch and kicks the shards towards Lui Kang. He quickly releases his nun chucks to defend himself against them.

"Lui, you aren't that skilled in using those," Chan mentioned.

"Don't help the enemy Chan. Even if he is your older brother," Kung Jin reminded him. Chan shook his head.

"Lui isn't like your cousin. He won't use unfamiliar moves unless he's sure he would succeed. Don't underestimate his skill."

"You underestimate my cousin." Jin points to the hat beneath his foot. "If I release my foot from this hat…"

"I assumed as much," Li Mei muttered.

"You'll have to move sooner or later," Lui Kang boasted. He began swinging his nunchucks at Li Mei. She dodges most of the swings but still feels a spare amount of the impact from his attacks. Lui follows up with a 4-layer kick to her shin, upper leg, abdomen, and face, respectively. She falls back, but immediately pulls herself back forward. Chan, Lui, and Kung Lao smirked as they recognized her stance.

"You can't stop me, Earthrealmer," Li Mei announced. Purple aura surrounded her palms as she pulls her arms back. She uses the strength in her legs to propel her forward and she releases a flurry of palm strikes. The strength of her attacks slowly pushes Lui Kang back one step at a time. With the others distracted, Kung Lao decides to use another dive kick towards Jin. However, Chan was able to guard against the attack, although he still felt the pain of his attack against his arm.

"Quick thinking, but it might not be quick enough," Kung Lao boasted as he thrusted his other foot over Chan. His body dived straight into Jin's staff while Chan falls back. Jin quickly spins his staff forcing Lao onto the ground. Lao sweeps Jin's foot as he lands on his hands. Lao swiftly teleports beneath the ground and reappears as he swoops into the air. One spin on his toes causes a violent gust of wind to force the heroes away. Li Mei's flurry of attacks start to wane on the other shaolin as her vision was obscured by his kick. Lui Kang forces her to a stop with a quick 3-inch punch to her gut. His strength knocks the wind from her chest. She holds her breath for as long as she could before hitting the ground. She quickly rose to her feet as her breath seemed to return rather quickly.

"It seems theres more to you than we thought," Lui Kang commented. Chan was shocked by what was displayed.

"That should've blown a hole through your body," he stated.

"My mother's magic can fortify more than just buildings," she retorted.

"We need another plan if we're going to stop them," Jin whispered.

"There is one way we can handle this. I know you're a quick learner," Chan stated.

"What do you mean? You don't know me very well if you believe that," he flustered. "I haven't trained as a shaolin in years."

"But you trained as a team with the Special Forces rookies right? Cassandra. Jacqueline. Takeda."

"You've never met them, but you know much."

"It'll be a story to tell for another day, but right now I need you to trust me and follow my lead." Kung Jin closes his eyes, contemplating his options and how he'd like to proceed with the fight. "They're as strong as they were 15 years ago. Which means there is still a way for us to beat them both." Chan nods towards Li Mei who starts to catch on.

"We won't be able to produce the same results as Kira and Kobra, but this gives us time to improvise. Also, they won't have a counter for it," Li Mei explained.

"Actually, there's something else I have in mind with Kung Jin. Something I picked up from the other side," Chan corrected. Li Mei rubbed her hands together creating a stream of smoke from them. She raises her hand in the air to conjure a purple ball of energy in her hand.

"Jin, I need you to be support this time. Li Mei, you're up."

"You got it," she responds. She fires the purple blast towards Kung Lao. He spins around, drawing a concentrated gust of wind around his body. Jin tosses a Chakram towards Chan in hopes that it would help him. Chan creates a small portal to teleport the chakram towards the ground behind Kung Lao's heel. Although it doesn't harm him, it does cause him to trip as his heel swiftly slams against the chakram. Li Mei dashed forward with her fist ready. Lui Kang steps forward to defend his Shaolin Brother. As he swings his nun chuck towards her, the Nova blast she fired earlier separated into smaller projectiles that crackled like firecrackers. Distracted, Lui's nun chuck misses her by an inch as it gets caught in the inside of another one of Jin's Chakrams.

"What?" Lui Kang looks directly into Li Mei's eyes and she immediately unleashes a flurry of punches. Lui Kang fails to defend himself against her attacks and takes the full force of her punches. Kung Lao lands on his back and the blade of the chakram that stopped him made a tear in his boot. He looks above and sees Chan falling from a portal. The Shaolin slams his feet into Kung Lao's chest.

Both Kung Lao and Lui Kang inhaled deeply in the midst of getting assaulted and exhaled. Kung Lao slams his arm behind Chan's leg causing him to stumble off him. Jin tries to support the Shaolin by shooting a ball of fire from his staff towards Kung Lao. Lui Kang redirects one of Li Mei's punches and steps behind her. He uses a quick backfist before rushing to Kung Lao's aid. Lao jumps to his feet and sweeps Chan. He prepares to spin, but Lui grabs Jin's fire ball and redirects it towards Chan. However, Li Mei crafts a wooden board using her magic to protect him.

Raja's anxiety turns to laughter watching the Earthrealmers face each other. She remembers the tales about their warriors and how they've fared against Outworld's warriors in all their previous tournaments. Of all Edenia's allies, only Earthrealm succeeded in Outworld's tournaments. They've been famous amongst the Moroi ever since the Great Kung Lao's first victory and have become a movement with Knightwolf's recent victory. Many Moroi see them as descendants of the Elder Lords, like their Edenian counterparts. Unlike Edenia, however, they accepted Shao Kahn's challenge and beat him at his own game.

Sindel screams towards the warriors, knocking down both foes and allies alike. The shockwave of her scream knocks one of the trees in the forest over. The loud crash of the tree wakes Kitana. She looks around the field seeing that the shaolin were all laying on the ground. It had seemed that Lui Kang and Kung Lao took on more injuries than her allies while she was asleep. But she knows none of her allies are close to those two's level when it comes to combat. Queen Sindel seemed as if she didn't even participate in the fight, let alone her other adversaries. She had no choice. The time had come.

Kitana pulls out Shinnok's sacred Amulet that she had stolen years ago. She starts to sing a chant in a language not known to many. Well, except the Moroi as Raja read her lips. She realized that the princess had awakened during the commotion. Her eyes widened as she learned what, or more like who, Kitana was calling on. The Moroi tapped Kotal's shoulder and pointed towards Kitana. He noticed Shinnok's amulet in her hand and remembered the death of his father. He had another replay of that day, but this time he saw Shinnok in the window staring down at him. D'vorah also starts to notice the amulet and yells out "stop her before she uses that amulet!"

Everyone's eyes were guided to the princess as the amulet in her hand started to glow. None of them but Raja truly understood what was about to happen. Kotal runs towards her, but Raja darts past him as she knew he would not be fast enough to reach her. As she comes into the princess's vicinity, she kicks the amulet from her grasp. Slowing herself down at that point was a fatal mistake as she struggled to remove the hand that was surrounding her throat. Everyone stared in awe as they were now in the presence of the deceased Emperor of Outworld.

End of Chapter 25

(Upcoming—You…Will Die)