It wasn't far now. Taven had fought his way through Shao Kahn's fortress in Outworld, rising up through the levels as he fought off numerous defenders, from tarkatans to shokan to centaurs to the honour guard. He had defeated a woman named Mileena and he had shattered a gigantic bewitched statue of Shao Kahn himself.
Long had he imagined what such an adventure could entail, ever since the emperor had first set his sights on Taven's homerealm of Edenia over ten millennia ago. Only, those old juvenile fantasies had seen Taven fighting his way through the fortress alongside his younger brother, Daegon, toppling the emperor together and being welcomed home as champions by their mother and father. Oh, if only he could have known back then what his future would hold...
Now, finally, he was certain he'd reached the massive, gaudy upper section in the shape of Shao Kahn's head and famous helmet. The chamber he had entered was adorned with banners and lit with braziers, but was otherwise devoid of anything of note. The opposite side of the chamber lacked a wall entirely, a rounded balcony overlooking some part of the fortress grounds or other. Taven estimated that this was the mouth of the head.
A lone shokan stood at the balcony looking down over the area beyond. At first, Taven thought he might be overlooking the troops of the ever-expanding army, but approaching the four-armed creature instead suggested to Taven that the shokan was lost in thought, an almost sombre expression in his body language. He certainly didn't seem aware enough to notice as Taven stood next to him and looked down at the courtyard below - the area where Orin's final portal had first delivered him.
"Enjoying the view?" Taven asked his fellow sightseer.
The shokan seemed startled by his presence, but he did not attack, as Taven had predicted and prepared himself for. Rather, the shokan eyed him up, analysing the potential threat the intruder posed. No doubt, he'd think Taven at least worth dealing with if he'd gotten this far. But if that was his assessment, he made no move to act upon it. Yet.
"Who are you?" the shokan asked in a surprisingly amicable tone Taven would not expect from one of Shao Kahn's minions. "What are you doing here?"
"At ease, Shokan," Taven replied, trying to match the shokan's tone. "I am looking for Quan Chi. Have you seen him?"
The shokan shook his head, but not in denial - rather, this response seemed to be one of exasperation. "The sorcerer has made yet another enemy, has he? Well, it matters not. He is with the emperor. I am Goro. I have been ordered to let no one pass, under penalty of death."
"My death? Or yours?"
Goro chuckled bitterly. "There are few these days who would take such a tone with me. You are confident in your abilities, Edenian. Let us see if your skills can back that up!" The shokan swung one of his four arms at Taven. Intentionally or otherwise, Goro's words had given Taven enough warning to allow him to dodge the blow. The second blow was not so easy to avoid, but he was far enough away to only get clipped in the side. But even with his mother's armour protecting him and the attacker's blow just barely striking him, the power behind that blow was very apparent and still managed to knock Taven's torso into a brief spin, disrupting his orientation.
The instant he turned back to face his opponent, he found a giant two-toed foot colliding with the centre of his chest. The force behind the blow was enough to send him flying back into the centre of the chamber, as he imagined that first glancing blow would have, had it been on-target. Even with his demi-god status and the protection of the armour, Taven found himself lying winded on his back, his ribs feeling like they had come a hair's width away from being cracked from that single strike. They came close to being shattered completely when Goro followed up by leaping into the air and coming down on the spot Taven had been lying in before he scrambled out of the way, mere moments before the ground shattered beneath the shokan's huge mass.
Still clutching his aching ribs, Taven prepared himself for the next attack, but it never came. From the swift assault that had just been unleashed upon him, it was clear to Taven that Goro was not simply strong, but fast as well. Goro could easily maintain the upper hand if he simply continued his assault on his opponent, who had no doubt been through more tiring kombat over the last few days than Goro had. And yet, the shokan simply raised himself up to full height, turned threateningly and stared Taven down.
"Your heart is not in this, is it?" Taven guessed. "Your service to Shao Kahn is, as I would wager most are, mere obligation - not true loyalty. Am I correct in my assessment, Goro?"
Goro said nothing in response, just continued to glare.
"I see. Well, if you allow me to defeat you, your disloyalty with be veiled in failure, and your oath will not be broken in your master's eyes."
"It is not the emperor's wrath I fear."
"I assure you, my task is more important than some oath between a warrior and a tyrant. The Elder Gods themselves decreed that long ago. Longer ago, I'd wager, that even your entire lifetime."
"Just who are you, Stranger?"
"I am Taven, son of Argus. My task is of the highest import, and I see that facing you head-on will only delay the completion of my task. Thus, I ask that you aid me by letting me defeat you. If it is pride that restrains you, I will be glad to face you at full strength once I complete my task and ascend to godhood."
"An ascension to godhood, is it? You are quite open for an intruder in the emperor's fortress."
"I sense that your true allegiance lies closer to my own than to Shao Kahn's."
"You must have inherited your foresight from your mother, Delia."
"Perhaps. Or, perhaps your innate nobility shines through regardless of circumstance."
This time, Goro's laugh was far less bitter. "You intrigue me, Taven. You intrigue me like few others ever have. It is unfortunate, then, that I must crush your bones beneath my heel. If only your clairvoyance was such that you could foresee my mighty stomp coming down upon you from directly above you. Were you aware of this, you would be able to dodge back and strike me from behind while I am vulnerable. Alas, goodbye, Taven. Your quest is at an end."
Goro bent his knees low, taking only a second to build up the strength in his mighty legs to launch himself high into the air, taking advantage of the chamber's high ceiling to rise to twice Taven's height above the ground. As Taven had foreseen, Goro's enormous mass came down on Taven's position. He how faced where he had leapt from as he landed slightly behind where Taven had been standing, allowing him to strike Taven from behind if he somehow missed. Fortunately, Taven had forseen this and dodged back just enough to avoid being crushed without moving out of strike range. A mighty leap of his own brought Taven's fist up, level with the exposed back of the shokan's skull. Burning with the flames of his mother, Taven struck Goro's occipital bone, sending him staggering forward.
Taven lunged forward after the shokan's lumbering form, sliding low and taking out his leg and sending him crashing to the ground like a mighty oak, shaking the entire chamber with his sheer weight as he crashed into the same spot he had already fractured with his first leap. Taven then lunged once more, this time bringing his fist down directly onto the back of Goro's head and sandwiching it between the burning fist and the hard ground beneath him, which cracked and shattered and eventually gave way, Taven flipping back to avoid taking the fall along with his foe, finding his feet lading less than an inch from the large hole Goro's prone form had created. If the fortress guards weren't on high alert before, they certainly would be now.
Taven could only say a silent thank you to the noble warrior who had sacrificed his dignity for Taven's success, and hope that he would prove capable enough of making that sacrifice matter. It would truly be a shame if such a warrior were to meet his end in the collapse of the realms and not at the hand of a worthy opponent. And a part of him hoped that he, Taven, would ultimately prove to be that worthy opponent someday.
While browsing clips for my new "Mortal Kombat Characters' Last Words" video, I found original Goro's last line to be in this scene and I liked the exchange between the two characters, which inspired me to take it and apply the MKK depiction of Goro to it as a warrior who is amused by cocky quips and who is not a villain by choice, but bound by honour to be so. There was just always something so sombre about Goro standing at the balcony to me that fits with this characterisation far better than "Shao Kahn saved his life, so he does a total 180 on his morality and will kill Kitana on command."
