Hey, everybody. Back with another chapter. I'm so sorry I took such a long break. Sometimes I just lose interest or get writer's block. But I promise I haven't abandoned the MACU.

Let's get to the chapter.


Chapter 12- Ancient Powers

On the bank of the lake of Ta Lo, the defenders and the Ten Rings are gathered. The soul suckers that had begun to escape from the Dark Gate had come across the lake to the village to attack both sides. After one had sucked out Death Dealer's soul, and Ying nan had proven that only Ta Lo's dragon scale weapons could kill the creatures, Razor Fist had ordered the Ten Rings to stop fighting the defenders and join forces with them to kill the creatures.

What had resulted was a frantic few minutes of trying to get prepared while a few Ta Lo warriors held off scattered soul suckers. People from Ta Lo began handing out weapons and shields to the Ten Rings warriors, as well as replacing any broken ones.

Natasha and Yelena had realized at this point that they couldn't just rely on their own weapons anymore, and had gone to the armory to get weapons they could actually use against the soul suckers. Yelena had selected a staff similar to the one Ying Nan had been using. Natasha eventually selected a pair of daggers made entirely from dragon scales. The two had now made their way out to the lake's bank to await the arrival of the rest of the soul suckers.

Now, the defenders of Ta Lo and the Ten Rings' army are assembled in formation on the shore of the lake. However, most of their attention is focused on the sight at the base of the Dark Gate. They cannot make out the figures, but everyone can see the flashing lights and bursts of energy as Oliver continues his duel against Wenwu.

Yelena turns to look at Natasha, seeing her worried expression. "Don't worry, sister. If he's already lasted this long against the Mandarin, Oliver won't lose to him easily."

"I know, but I'll never not worry about him," Natasha says.

Right then, across the lake, as Oliver and Wenwu are still fighting, the damage to the Dark Gate allows the soul suckers to break a hole in its face big enough for streams of them to begin flying out the gate. Their screeches can be heard across the lake as they begin flying across the lake, ready to hunt their prey.

"Ready!" Natasha shouts, and everyone hefts their weapons as they watch the soul suckers approach.

Natasha settles into a fighting stance, ready to start attacking the soul suckers whenever they get within range. Then, everyone hears something. Almost a strange rumbling from within the lake. Then, right in the center of the lake, the water erupts upwards, ande to the shock of everyone watching, a beautiful silver and red Chinese dragon surges up out of the water, twirling into the air as it snaps its jaws at the soul suckers, snapping up a dozen or more with every bite. Everyone watches in shock as the dragon rises further into the air. Their shock only amplifies as they see that Shang-chi is actually riding on the dragon's head.

However, everyone's focus quickly re-centers on the soul suckers, which are still flying right at them. Guang Bo orders the archers forward. Everyone, including Katy, draws back on their bows until, at Guang Bo's command, they loose their first volley of arrows, killing dozens of the creatures.

"Ready up!" Natasha shouts, and a number of those armed with melee weapons move in front of the archers, including herself and Yelena. Natasha narrows her eyes as the soul suckers continue to approach until they finally reach the bank. As the first soul suckers get within range, Natasha leaps into the air, slashing her daggers through the air and disintegrating two of the soul suckers.

The fight quickly devolves into a free for all on the bank of the lake as the defenders, both from Ta Lo and the Ten Rings, attack any soul sucker within range. The fight quickly spreads beyond the small spot where they've assembled on the bank of the lake. The dragon, who those from Ta Lo now recognize as the Great Protector, flies straight towards the village, destroying soul suckers with its tail as it waves it from side to side while snapping up any soul sucker within range of its jaws.

On the ground, Natasha is slashing with abandon at the soul suckers, while ducking and rolling to avoid any of them getting their tentacles wrapped around her. As she looks up at the dragon, she smiles. At least their fight just got a lot easier.

On the other side of the lake, the duel has not lost any of its intensity.

Oliver ducks under one of Wenwu's rings as it flies right at his face. Wenwu shoots three of his rings at Oliver, but Oliver blocks all of them before drawing an arrow and firing it towards Wenwu's leg. Wenwu easily blocks the arrow with a lash of several rings.

Wenwu gathers up five of his rings into a circle and flings them at Oliver. Oliver holds up his bow and let the rings deflect off of it, only for the rings to circle back towards him. Oliver does a combat roll to avoid most of them before firing an arrow right into one of the rings, knocking it flying through the air. Wenwu summons his rings back to him.

Oliver fires a rapid volley of three arrows at Wenwu, but Wenwu brings his arms up in front of himself, the arrows deflecting off the rings. Wenwu then extends out the rings from his left arm, lashing them at Oliver, several times, but Oliver manages to duck and roll before charging at Wenwu.

Oliver and Wenwu exchange several quick blows before grabbing and grappling with each other. As they do, Wenwu says, "You'll never defeat me, Avenger."

"I beg to differ," Oliver says before he manages to twist his bow under Wenwu's arm. Oliver then hooks his other arm around Wenwu's shoulder and manages to throw Wenwu several feet over the rock.

Right then, Oliver looks up and sees the great Protector overhead, with Shang-chi leaping down from the dragon's head. Shang-chi slides down the Dark Gate, landing next to Oliver. Shang-chi looks at Oliver and says, "I have this handled. Go help the village."

Oliver nods, trusting that Shang-chi knows what he's doing. He fires a grappling arrow up into the air that wraps around one of the dragon's horns, pulling him up onto the dragon's head. The dragon flies back across the lake towards the village to continue aiding the villagers.

Oliver waits anxiously atop the dragon's head as the dragon nears the finally. Finally, it reaches the village and dives in low, allowing Oliver to leap off of its head from a relatively low height. Oliver tucks and rolls as he hits the ground to soften the impact.

Oliver springs back up to his feet and immediately spots Natasha a few yards away, grappling with a few soul suckers. Oliver quickly fires an arrow, killing one of the soul suckers before picking up a fallen dagger and charging towards her as several more soul suckers try and set their sights on Natasha. Oliver leaps over the body of a Ten Rings soldier that had his soul sucked out and slashes the dagger through the air, disintegrating three soul suckers.

Natasha looks at Oliver in a bit of surprise as he appears almost out of nowhere to her, then smiles. "Good to see you, honey," she says nonchalantly.

"You too, but let's fight first, talk later," Oliver responds before whipping around and cutting down another soul sucker. The couple race into the cloud of soul suckers flitting around them, attacking any of them within reach.

As the two are reunited, Yelena is fighting tooth and nail against almost a dozen soul suckers. As Yelena jabs the end of her staff into the belly of one of them, disintegrating it, another one manages to get its tentacles around one of Yelena's arms.

Yelena thrashes her arm around, trying desperately to free herself as another soul sucker manages to grab hold of her. After a few moments, Yelena manages to switch up the grip on her staff and swing it over her head, killing both soul suckers that have latched onto her. Yelena then again shifts her grip and whips the staff around above her head a few times, killing several more soul suckers. Another one tries to fly at her head, before Yelena jabs the end of the staff at it and disintegrates it. Yelena pauses for a moment to take a deep breath before jumping back into the fight.

As the fight continues, Oliver is continually monitoring the entire fight in addition to whatever he's doing himself. He's getting a bit worried. Despite the countless soul suckers they've killed, several dozen villagers and Ten Rings soldiers have died by now, victims of the soul suckers. And despite their weapons and skill, the casualties are slowly mounting.

After what seems like an hour, but in reality is just a few minutes, Oliver is using his acquired dagger to cut up several soul suckers. Right then, Oliver hears something from across the lake. Oliver turns to look, and along with the rest of the defenders, watches in horror a massive creature suddenly bursts through what remains of the Dark Gate. The creature looks like a more contemporary dragon, but with what looks like several wings and a series of tentacles out of the bottom of its body. The creature bellows, its cries heard for miles.

"The Dweller in Darkness," Ying Nan says in fear. Oliver feels a sense of dread just from the sight of this creature.

Xialing realizes she needs to help her brother. She waves down the Great Protector, using the rope of her weapon to wrap around one of the dragon's horns to get up onto the dragon, which takes off towards the Dweller in Darkness.

Oliver watches as the Great Protector flies towards the broken Dark Gate. However, a soul sucker that flies right at his head reminds him that their fight is not over yet. Oliver lunges back into the fight.

The fight continues for another minute until a loud roar draws Oliver's attention. As Oliver turns to the lake, he sees the Dweller in Darkness flying towards them at low altitude. At the same time, some kind of light is streaking across the water under the Dweller. It's identity is solved when it gets under the Dweller and erupts upward with the water, knocking the Dweller up into the air. The Great Protector flies up to the Dweller and begins flying in circle around it, summon tendrils of water to bash and restrain the Dweller.

Oliver watches in amazement as the Great Protector works to restrain the Dweller in Darkness. At the same time, he notices that Shang-chi and Xialing are on the dragon's back, watching carefully, ready to help with this attack on the Dweller at the right moment.

However, everyone has momentarily forgotten that the Dweller isn't alone. The Dweller opens its massive mouth as the hordes of soul suckers begin flying in with the souls they have claimed, and begin dropping those souls into the Dweller's mouth. As each soul goes down itsa throat, the Dweller's chest begins to glow a bright purple, the glow increasing with every soul. Finally, once it has received enough souls, the Dweller lets out a burst of power from its body, bursting the water cage the Great Protector had summoned.

The Great Protector roars in frustration and flies to meet the Dweller. However, the Dweller hit the dragon in the face before grabbing it along its body with its massive claws. Shang-chi and Xialing start to fall off the dragon, but Shang-chi uses the rings to save them from falling any further.

Oliver dives aside to avoid another soul sucker, allowing Yelena to kill it a second later. Oliver looks up at the massive monster, watching as it restrains the Great Protector and begins trying to suck out its soul. Oliver feels a chill, knowing that if the Dweller gets the soul of a dragon, it may be unstoppable.

Oliver carefully reaches back and draws an arrow as his bow begins to glow and crackle with energy. Oliver is about to use a secret power of his power he's only tried twice, and both times were tests conducted under the direction of Thor. He's been hesitant because it draws so much power, meaning he won't be able to use any other special powers.

Oliver fits the arrow to his bow and aims it carefully for the Dweller's neck. Then, with a deep breath, Oliver looses the arrow.

Oliver watches the arrow streak up and drive deep into the Dweller's neck, embedding about half of its length in the beast. Then, the body of the arrow begins to glow with a bright light as a cloud gathers over the lake. Then, with a mighty crack, several massive lightning bolts streak down from the cloud, striking the Dweller in Darkness. Electricity surges through the Dweller's body. The beast bellows in rage and pain and releases the Great Protector, unable to hold onto the dragon due to the massive amounts of electricity surging through its body. Oliver smiles as he watches the effects of his arrow. He hadn't been certain this would work.

The Great Protector quickly recovers from the Dweller in Darkness' attack. Roaring defiantly at the Dweller, it flips around and dives towards the water. The Dweller in Darkness roars and follows the Great Protector downwards, exactly as the Great Protector wants. As they get close to the water, the Great Protector again summons the water upwards into a vortex to entrap the Dweller in Darkness.

On the Great Protector, Shang-chi looks at his sister, nodding to signal her, and she nods in return. The two siblings stand up and start running up the dragon's back. After a moment, Shang-chi leaps off the dragon's back, running over the Dweller's body. As he does, Xialing uses her weapon to wrap around the Dweller's snout, with the Great Protector grabbing the rope in her jaws to better restrain the Dweller.

This gives Shang-chi the chance he needs. Leaping up off the Dwller's body, he fires all of the rings down the Dweller's throat, causing the Dweller to roar in pain as Shang-chi is blown up into the air. Then, he begins to fall again as he sumons the rings up through the Dweller's belly,.

On land, everyone watches in awe as Shang-chi builds up the power of the rings while he falls, all while the Great Protector maintains the vortex of water. Then, Shang-chi makes one sharp movement with his arms, and the rings release their energy as they burst up out of the Dweller's body. All of this explosive energy tears through the Dweller's body, and the Dweller in Darkness is blown apart.

Everyone watches as the fragments of the Dweller's body rains down into the lake as Shang-chi summons the rings back to him. The Great Protector then flies up and catches Shang-chi in midair, flying and Xialing back down to the shore.

Oliver is at the shore to meet Shang-chi as he climbs off the Great Protector's head. Oliver allows himself a moment of awe again at seeing a real Chinese dragon before he refocuses on Shang-chi.

"That was a hell of a display of power, Shang-chi. You alright?" Oliver asks.

"As much as I can be," Shang-chi responds.

"Your father?" Oliver asks. Shang-chi just looks grim, which is all the answer Oliver needs. He reaches out and pats Shang-chi on the shoulder before stepping aside and letting Shang-chi walk over to Katy.

As Oliver looks out over the lake, he feels a sense of relief that they had defeated such a dangerous threat. But, as he looks across the lake, he sees what looks like a mirage of sorts over the lake. A demonic face, red, with dark long hair and a high collar of a cape. The face seems to smirk a bit before it vanishes. Oliver narrows his eyes, wondering what that was, and wondering if maybe the fight isn't over, or if it's a portent of something to come.


And, I'll end the chapter there. I hope this was a good chapter.

So, the Dweller in Darkness has been defeated. Next chapter will wrap this story up and prep for the next story, which will be the big Mephisto story (and yes, that was a mirage of Mephisto there at the end).

Not sure when the next chapter will be up, but it will come, I promise. Until then, please leave a review, and stay tuned!