The sun baked the white sands of the beach with its hard glare, one of many that joined to see the morning's round of combat.
Kotal Kahn sat at the helm in a throne of bone and wood, with only Rain and Skarlet at his sides. His eyes cast like the sun into the hot sand, the wood slab caked over support the fighters with a squared circle. Skarlet peered from the Kahn's right over to Rain, the horizon beyond them, and then as the first wave of fighters arrived, her eyes cast solely upon the white robes of the Thunder God as he marched with a handful of Earth Realm's defenders.
No others to intervene, Kotal Kahn nodded for Raiden to approach, no sorcery or trickery between them on the same sand that saw blood spilled the day before.
"This contest will be Outworld against Earth Realm." Kotal Kahn announced.
Rain sat back, his face veiled in purple silk attached to a gold facet that wrapped from ear to ear, only the best of Edenian fashion. As an Edenian, he relaxed, free to watched as this would not be his fight.
"Well met, Kotal Kahn." Raiden greeted with a slight nod of deference and stepped back three steps until he met the line of his fighters.
Stryker and Sonya to his left, Nightwolf and Johnny Cage to his left.
"This is a contest acknowledging the ancient traditions of the realms, Raiden. There will be no more breaking of these customs now that I preside over the contest."
"One can only hope, Kotal Kahn." Raiden returned, but it was no longer his time to speak and as soon as their eyes broke from one another, he stepped back further to allow the defenders of the realm to choose among them who would fight this battle.
"Johnny Cage," Kotal Kahn singled him out, "you did not truly defeat Ermac, but I have granted you victory out of sheer respect for your will to live and ability to fight. I have seen enough from you for now."
Johnny closed his eyes behind black shades and let out a long breath, relieved, and took a step back.
"Nightwolf," Kotal addressed him next, "you're heart is not in this fight for Earth Realm."
"Your heart is corrupted by Quan Chi." Nightwolf spat.
"Should we fight, you would not be the first Nightwolf I have killed." The Kahn stared the Native down and saw the memory of his massacre in the forests that lead to the Nightwolf before him. "It will not be today."
"If the Great Spirit wills it, I will make it this day." Nightwolf reached for his axe, but a voice reached out to him from behind.
Raiden whispered, so only Nightwolf could hear, "stand down, this is not your fight."
With hesitation he obliged.
The knock of leather boots on hard wood drummed close to the inner circle of the arena and the three that sat before them eyed the Earth Realmer that had chosen to fight.
"Who are you?" Rain pondered, half joking.
"Lieutenant Kurtis Stryker." As if in formation, ready to march into battle at the drop of a hat he stood, hands behind his back, uniform fresh and baked upon his flesh under the glaring sun.
There was a long pause as the three watched the sun press down on the defenders of Earth Realm as they sat in the shade of a blood red linen stretched between bone pillars of ancient ribs. Such was the way of Kotal Kahn's Mortal Kombat.
Stryker waited, gum in maw, patience thin.
"Who will represent Outworld?" Raiden demanded.
Adorned in an attire fit for the Soviet Union, as if ready to march on behest of Stalin himself, black and red and her face covered by a leather mask, Skarlet stood from her seat upon high and stepped down to enter the arena.
"A girl?" Stryker balked, though he knew Sonya stood behind him.
"I am no girl." Skarlet stood six-feet from her enemy. She pulled herself from the long coat that weighed her down in the heat. She had a dagger tied to her thighs, as well as a vial of blood to her waist, the rest just clothing from head to toe. No armor, no need.
"Fight!" Kotal Kahn instructed, his voice carried the weight of the tournament behind it and carried throughout the island sands.
Stryker spat his gum across the distance between them and quickly drew the hand guns at his waist to quickly seal the deal for himself, but as she should have been smacked and disrespected by the distraction, Skarlet reached for her vial and lunged for her opponent.
One bullet popped off and cut through the fabric above Kotal Kahn. He followed her well, the next bullet through the soviet hat that blew off her head.
The vial popped open and out spilled what seemed like drops of blood scattered around Skarlet. This halted Stryker as he had never seen such impotence in combat, until the drops elongated into seven small spikes that raised shoulder level to her.
"Capitalist pig" Skarlet show one after the other at the American.
Jab after jab they poked like needles at his uniform, but could not pierce as he swatted and defended what felt like a swarm of bats, or large mosquitos. Once he saw a clearing for her, he raised both guns and shot them straight on.
Flashes of blood shattered in the air between them, but where she should have been, there was only sand and distance. Stryker followed her movement up into the air where the four remaining spikes of blood then aimed down at him.
Each shot down at him at once as her hand gestured down with them. Her body lowered as he was barraged by those small spears of blood. His only defense was to shoot again. Each bullet shot up, out and tried to follow Skarlet down.
All he had left had missed, save for one that grazed her right shoulder and stuck into the bone pillar behind her.
Time paused as she reached up to feel the open cloth peel away to a stream of blood. She snickered beneath her breath, the injury stung worse than any capsule of blood had. He recovered fast from her barrage, but she stood in place, her fingers covered and the lines of red traced along the curves of her pale flesh.
"Hands behind your head and drop to your knees." Stryker ordered after he dropped one gun to maintain control of the only one with a single bullet left. "It's over for you."
Skarlet stood in disbelief. Her eyes traced his, the rest of the world blind to her as Stryker closed the gap between them enough to give him a point blank shot through her skull.
As he locked eyes with her, the barrel stared her down just as intently, he edged ever closer, focused and ready to put the blood witch down if he needed to. If he could see behind that mask, he thought he'd see a criminal with no escape, ready to surrender, but as he thought that, she let out the faintest laugh that grew and a slight movement drew his eyes from hers to the fingers that dug into her shoulder.
"You're really dumb, aren't you?" She caught his gaze again just in time to catch him by surprise as her hand whipped the shards of blood that hardened in the air and cut into him from chest to waist.
The gun cut from his grasp, he watched it fall and dropped to his knees to reach for it. Skarlet closed the gap before he could wrap those reddened fingers on the handle. She stomped for them, only to meet a baton swat her at the ankle. He jumped up to strike her chin and kicked her back onto the wood floor.
"You're a real cunt." Stryker spat, "you know that?"
Rain leaned toward the edge of his chair, his eyes cast from Kotal Kahn to Skarlet, with no ability to help. He waited as the Earth Realmer raised his gun and stalked Skarlet point blank.
She backed away from him, her blood and his mixed as it pooled where she grabbed to pull away from him until he nearly onto of her and the barrel of the gun between her eyes.
This moment, as their eyes met one last time, he cherished this as he had every time he put down a rogue civilian. A criminal by any other name, she was a murderer and a beast that could not be left alive. This moment he realized those human laws no longer applied and the only way out was death.
Hers.
Nothing from Kotal Kahn.
Nothing from Raiden.
Skarlet, if she could let him see beneath that mask widened that bruised jawline to a manic grin. She had spread their blood in a line across the floor and he had still yet to learn.
Slice!
Bang!
In a split second his hands were cut in a saw-like motion by the blood that caked them and the trigger pulled back to let loose its last bullet that shot through the mask as Skarlet twisted her face to brace for the hit.
As she opened her eyes, the lieutenant was on his knees and hands at her feet. She used the blood to pedestal herself to a standing position. Like a cane that hardened and then the river that flowed beneath them, so seamless, he hadn't even noticed the dagger at his throat and the girl behind him.
Rain clenched the arms of his chair and licked his lips with approval. As he voiced for her, Kotal Kahn broke the silence just an instant before and cut him down.
"Finish him!" Kotal Kahn urged.
Sonya held back, and the other defenders of Earth Realm forced back, Kotal Kahn's promise of no intervention now played against them.
"Shallow cuts." She chanted the mantra to herself beneath the mask, "shallow cuts."
The blade slid between his fragile human flesh and let the river break the forest line of skin and race down. Still alive, he held his throat and watched as she raised the blood that fell around them from their battle into the air above the two of them, including the which flowed from within. His fingers poor dams and collapsed as those shallow cuts widened and deepened and the cloud of blood pooled above the two.
"It's so hot out, Piggy." She danced in her enchantment, intoxicated by the metallic aroma and the taste in the air. "Let's make it rain."
Her eyes never broke from Rain's as the blood fell like daggers into the collapsed corpse of the Earth Realmer and the remaining blood misted and fell like water down onto entirety of the arena.
Eto vam, her thoughts projected through the intent of her eyes as they stared.