Once again, thanks to everyone for the tremendous support on the piece, and my special thanks to IceFireFrenzy for favoriting this story.
As always I own none of the characters I'm about to use…because…because I just don't okay?
It is the second day of the Gathering Tournament, one hundred and twenty-two Pures died yesterday in the arena and sixty four more will die today. As customary with the Tournament the higher "seeded" Pures will fight first, since their matches will most likely end quickly and anti-climatically. As the day carries on the quality of fighter drops but the odds of a winner are more even making for a more exciting spectacle.
The first match of the day is between a Pure aptly named Monster and Outworld's Saurian. Argus signals the beginning of the fight but the Saurian is nowhere to be seen, murmurs in the crowd are heard, Pures who have championed the Saurian wonder if this was merely a trick by Outworld to get as many Pure's as possible to lose their powers so that they may invade them at the end of the Gathering.
Monster encircles the arena looking around starting up at Argus asking him to end the match by forfeit, but Argus shakes his head saying that the Saurian is in fact competing as he speaks. Almost instantly a mist flies through the air and lands all over Monster's face. Monster screams in agony as the corrosiveness of the material eats through his armor and works through to his skin. Eventually the mist starts to melt Monster's face and eventually Monster's dead corpse collapses in a slump to the ground. The Saurian reveals himself in the arena, and detaches himself from its golden walls. The audience stands and applauds the Saurian and the Saurian quietly exits the arena.
The Saurian's true realm of birth is in a newer gift realm called Zaterra. Zaterra to this day has not developed human life as Saurians still remain the most advanced species in the realm. The Gift Realm was created for a Queen of the God Tetsurri, however the Queen saw the primitive planet as not of something to protect but an entire realm that could be developed of species that would serve and worship her. As creatures started to develop on Zaterra the Queen created herself as the matriarch of the realm, in exchange for their worship and servitude to her, the creatures on Zaterra would receive a small amount of her essence, giving them unique mystical abilities. The species were so grateful to the Queen for sharing her "gifts" that the species of Zaterra worshipped her and loved her to the fullest. However because of the Queens lack of thoroughness the realm's species did not evolve in the typical way that many other realms evolve. Instead of the Saurians dying off and mammals ruling the planet until the human species developed, the mystical reptiles continued to rule the planet, eventually the reptiles developed human forms but they still kept their Saurian like features, scaly skin, sharp teeth, and nostrils instead of noses. The Queen became disgusted with the development of her species and forced them to be slaves or warriors to her husband instead. The Saurians became disgusted with her realizing that their matriarch was nothing but egotistical and vein. However they couldn't revolt against her because they would lose her essence and they all would revert back to their more reptilian ways. The Saurians began developing the abilities to morph and camoflauge their entire bodies to hide from King Tetsurri and his Queen.
Eventually Onaga and his immortal army invade Tetsurri's realm, he tried to force the Saurians to help fight the army but instead the Saurians all swore allegiance and bowed to Onagu, seeing him as their liberator rather than a warlord. Tetsurri was killed and his realm was destroyed, but for their loyalty Onagu kept the queen alive and gave the Queen to the Saurians as a gift of good faith. The Saurians imprison the queen and extract her essence from her to further develop their species. Instead of destroying Zaterra Onaga chooses to simply annex the realm and now sees them as a crucial ally to his empire. Eventually over time using the Queen essence to accelerate their development Zaterra is able to develop their first Pure, and now that Pure fights for Outworld in the Gathering Tournament.
As Monster's body is gathered up on a cart and wheeled out of the arena the next two competitors enter the arena. One is a massive individual who carries and axe and a spiked club and adorns himself in spiked armor, his face is covered in a black mask, as his dress fits he appropriately goes by the name Executioner.
The second Pure to enter the arena is Earthrealm's Liu Kang. The crowd murmurs at his diminutive presence compared to Executioner, some are even wondering whether or not the Elder Gods have stacked the deck against Liu Kang winning to prevent better odds of Onaga invading Earth. Argus signals the beginning of the battle and almost immediately Executioner charges at Liu Kang, he then spins his body at such a high rate that he becomes a human spinning blade. Liu Kang crouches himself and then launches into a flying kick over the top of the spinning blade and directly into the face of Executioner. The immense power of the kick knocks Executioner to the ground. The Executioner charges at Liu Kang once more but Liu Kang launches a fireball out of his hands and directly hits executioner. Executioner violently screams in agony and collapses to the ground turning into a charred corpse. Liu Kang kneels next to the dead Pure and bows to it paying the dead warrior his respects before he exits the arena.
Liu Kang was born in the year 1676 AD on Earthrealm in the Honan Provence of China. He was born into a family of poor laborers who worked as servants to the rich. Their family lived in a shanty town near a polluted river, the area was controlled by many crime organizations. His anger with his the hopelessness of his life causes his Pure capabilities to reveal itself as he was being attacked by a gang because his mother didn't have money to pay them. An exiled Shaolin Monk named Bo'Rai Cho sees this and realizes that he has accidentally discovered the Pure.
Bo'Rai Cho was exiled from the Shaolin Temple for his disrespect to Elder Monks and his excessive drunkenness. However he sees this opportunity to restore his place in the Temple so he buys Liu Kang away from the land owners, Liu Kang does not want to leave his family behind but his family insists that he must leave because he will certainly be killed because of his violence toward the gang members. Bo'Rai Cho knew that if he simply came to the temple with Liu Kang in hand they would see it as him bargaining himself back into the temple and he would further disgrace himself. So instead the two travel to another temple in Japan another temple that was hidden from the rest of society this temple was known as the Temple of the White Lotus. Knowing their rivalry with the Shaolin Monks the White Lotus gladly accept Bo'Rai Cho and the pure into their temple. For ten years the White Lotus Society honed Liu Kang's abilities, they soon also learn that much of Liu Kang's power comes in the form of a dragon, since the dragon is ultimate god of the Universe, Bo'Rai Cho and the White Lotus see this as a sign of a great destiny for Liu Kang.
Eventually the White Lotus cannot keep Liu Kang from Shaolin Monks forever and the monks eventually find Liu Kang. However as a deal made between Liu Kang and Bo'Rai Cho Liu Kang will not leave the White Lotus Society unless Bo'Rai Cho comes with him, without choice the Shaolin Monks accepted the pure as well as the return of their exiled monk.
Onaga enters Shao Kahn's quarters and smiles, "Your Reptile was impressive today, his eventual victory will allow his lizard race to expand to a pure realm, this will create an even greater allegiance to our cause."
"Liu Kang looked impressive as well." Kahn answers.
Onaga smiles, "I wouldn't worry about him, the Elder Gods will not allow him to be a victor for much longer."
Looks like were around two or three more chapters before this story ends. I apologize for any errors I didn't have a ton of time to skim the piece, if you find anything confusing let me know and I will fix it. Till next time….