Chapter Eighteen

Indoor Arena

"Sakura Kasugano!" the Shadow Priest called out.

The moment finally came for the young Japanese girl. For days, she had waited for the moment when her name would be called to do battle in the ring. Now the time came and she was ready for it.

As Sakura stepped into the ring and made her way towards the middle, she began to wonder who her opponent was going to be. Watching the past matches, she has seen some very tough opponents. Even those who didn't make it to the next round showed great strength and charisma.

Sakura was able to hear the cheers coming from her friends Ibuki, Asuka, Maki, Mika, and newcomer Cassandra. She smiled to herself, feeling a bit more confident. Even if she did lose… no… losing wasn't an option…she had to win!

Once she was in the middle of the ring, her opponent's name was announced. "Linkara!"

Sakura turned her head a bit in search for her opponent and once she laid her eyes on her, she could've sworn that she felt a sweat drop just above her brow. Throughout the tournament, she had seen many fighters in different shapes and forms and Linkara, if she remembered correctly, was a Shokan… half human half dragon with copper skin, thinning long black hair that almost created a Mohawk style, ripped muscles, red eyes, and four arms. From the looks of her smaller height and size compared to the much larger of her kind, Linkara looked to be an older teenager.

Linkara walked over to the middle of the ring and stopped a few feet from Sakura. The young Shokan laughed a little. "So, I'm fighting a human? This will be easier than I thought."

Sakura immediately put her clenched fists up and got into a fighting stance. As she moved, the tail of her white headband behind her slightly swayed. "Don't underestimate me just yet."

Immediately after the statement, the Shadow Priest called for the match to begin and quickly after, Sakura and Linkara wasted no time. The two charged at each other, ready for battle.

Linkara lifted her lower arms up, which were clasped together, and brought them down in quick speed. Sakura saw this in time and ducked down sideways. Immediately she found an opening and landed a fist in Linkara's abdomen. Linkara wasn't prepared for the move and she backed up a bit in slight pain. However, because she had well-developed muscles in her abdomen, it wasn't enough to distract the Shokan.

Sakura brought up a leg and attempted to perform a high kick. However, Linkara was able to block the move, and then grab her leg with both of her left hands. Before Sakura could react, Linkara managed to throw Sakura over her head causing her to fly a couple of feet back and land hard on her side.

"Owe…" Sakura mumbled under her breath hoping that Linkara didn't hear her. Then, she noticed Linkara lifting one of her feet up. Sakura's dark eyes immediately widened, realizing what was about to happen. She quickly rolled out of the way and Linkara only managed to stomp on the ground.

With that, Sakura got back on her feet just in time to see Linkara lift up her other leg to kick her. Sakura blocked the move and tried to follow it up with a punch of her own. Instead she found Linkara blocking the move with one of her lower arms.

The two exchanged moves like this for a bit with both girls playing offense and defense. Soon, Linkara was able to overpower Sakura and managed to push her back before kicking her in the abdomen. The force of the kick nearly knocked the wind out of Sakura and she found herself coughing a bit.

The young Japanese girl looked up at Linkara's face as she tried to quickly recover from the blow. Normally when she was watching from the sidelines, Sakura would see determination in the fighters' faces. With Linkara however, she didn't see it at all. Instead, a smirk was stuck on her face and her eyes seemed to take pride in the situation that she was in.

If I'm correct, she's being overconfident, Sakura thought. I hope I'm right. She had hoped she was right because it was a good advantage for her to take.

It was then that Linkara spoke. "Are you finally cowering in fear? I can almost see it in those pretty eyes of yours."

Sakura realized that her eyes were definitely a bit wide, showing an emotion that currently didn't exist within her heart in that moment. She slightly shook her head and narrowed them then, showing how she was really feeling…

Determined.

"Don't jump to conclusions just yet!" Sakura barked out. She then bent her knees, clenched her fist, and jumped up. "Sho-Ru-Ken!" she called out. Linkara felt a hard punch under her chin and flew a couple of feet in the air before hitting the ground on her side. She managed to sit up, ignoring the pain, just as Sakura made a 360 degree spin in the air, then landed back on her feet.

Sakura stood there, deciding to give Linkara a chance to get back on her feet. They stood about six feet away from each other at this point. Linkara only stood there as Sakura had her fists drawn, ready for more.

"Let's see if you can handle this!" Linkara called out as she lifted all four of her arms in the air. Immediately, a green energy was drawn into her hands forming four small circles. Although Sakura was still on her guard, she found herself slightly lowering her clenched fists a bit, unsure of what to really expect next.

Then it came to her… Linkara was collecting energy in order to shoot out a projectile at Sakura. As Linkara concentrated on collecting her energy, Sakura began to do the same as well, thankful that even though it wasn't the perfect projectile, it was still useful in situations like this one.

Soon, Linkara was able to form all four energy balls into one big ball. Once they were formed, she immediately shot them out towards Sakura. Even while preparing for her own projectile, Sakura was able to get out of the way of the projectile quickly. The audience in the path of the projectile were long out of the way from it as it flew over their heads and crashed into a wall. Since day one, the audience had grown used to dodging out of the way of flying projectiles coming from the fighters in the ring.

Then, as Linkara turned to face Sakura, she was suddenly met with a blue energy that hit her hard in the face. The last thing Linkara heard before being rendered unconscious was "Hadouken!" She then flew back a few feet and landed on her side in a heap.

After a moment, the Shadow Priest stood up. "Winner: Sakura!"

Suddenly, the applaud coming from the audience didn't matter to Sakura. Her allies' cheers and screams of excitement took over the applauding making the young Japanese girl smile.

"YEAH! I did it!" Sakura cried out. She then cried out a "Woo hoo!" as she punched and kicked in the air for a bit before skipping over to the ringside to meet with her friends.

"That was great!" cried out Maki.

"You did awesome!" called Ibuki.

"Thank you," Sakura said smiling.

"Just do us a favor next time," Asuka said smirking. She then lifted up a hand which contained a white and red shoe. "The next time you get excited, try not to lose your shoe and nearly give someone a concussion."

Sakura looked down then and noticed that her left shoe was missing. Immediately she blushed, almost forgetting her long-time habit. "Um... oops," was all she could mutter.

Beach Arena

"Winner: Yang!" the Shadow Priest called out. The audience clapped as Yang walked out of the ring after knocking his opponent out unconscious by using his finishing move in which he called the Raishin Mahhaken. He had performed the move in such speed that no one was able to figure exactly what he did. Whatever it was, it didn't matter anymore because the one half of the Twin Dragons walked away the winner of the match.

Yang was able to hear cheering coming from Yun and Yin, who stood on the sidelines to support their brother. "That was awesome!" cried out Yun. "For a moment there, I thought he had you!"

Looking back at his opponent, Yang realized how menacing his opponent was even when rendered unconscious and being placed on a cart to be lured out of the area. Obviously from another realm, the opponent was male with red skin and black tattoo designs on his body. He was lean and cut and though he had great strength, Yang's speed was the one that prevailed in the match.

"Um, yeah, I guess," Yang said rubbing the back of his neck.

Yin smiled excitedly. "This is great! Yang and I are both going to be moving on to round two. Now let's hope Yun does the same tomorrow."

Yun stretched his arms out. "I'm pretty sure I will, no questions about it."

Nearby, Lei and Chun Li were watching the tournament as well, mainly because Lei would be fighting today. "Yang did a pretty good job despite the odds," Lei mentioned.

Chun Li smirked to herself. Although things had been quite busy for her, she was thankful to be able to have some chat time here in Outworld with the Lee siblings, who were trained under their grandfather Gen, who happened to be Chun Li's master from childhood. She had been already aware that Gen was the one who received the invitation to the tournament. However, due to his illness, he was unable to attend and he passed down the card to his young grandchildren. Although, she was saddened about Gen not coming, she figured it may be for the best. Besides, it would seem that Gen felt they were ready to take on battles as these ones in the tournament and Yang just recently proved that. Gen would had been just as proud as she was.

"He definitely did a great job," Chun Li said replying to Lei's comment.

Lei looked at Chun-Li then. "And you did a great job as well last night. Congratulations on getting in to round two."

Chun-Li laughed a little. "I appreciate that, but that's the fifth time you've said that."

Lei let out a small nervous laugh then. "Um, guess I did. Well, I guess I'm just anxious for my match to begin. I've been sitting here since breakfast ended and now it's past lunch time."

"Just be patient, that's all you can really do."

It was then that the fighter for the next match was announced. "Titan!"

The audience fell silent when a opponent similar to Yang's opponent stepped in. However he was a bit bigger and bit more menacing than the last guy. His sadistic grin showed off two rows of sharp yellow teeth and he had a set of red eyes which made one seem like they were looking into the deep depths of Hell.

Lei let out a small whistle. "This guy looks tough. I feel really sorry for the poor bastard who has to face him."

"Lei Wulong!" the Shadow Priest called out.

"Oh look Lei!" Chun Li cried out. She purposely made herself sound excited, realizing the irony of Lei's last comment. "Your wait is finally over! Good luck!"

I'm going to really need it, Lei thought sighing. He then forced himself to walk over the ropes and walk into the ring. He stopped about seven feet from his opponent, not feeling too right about this match.

Titan looked down at Lei, being about a foot taller than the Interpol detective. "Don't expect to win," Titan said. "And don't expect me to take it easy on you."

Lei forced himself to narrow his eyes at his opponent. Then, he got himself into his fighting stance. "We'll see how it turns out," he said as Titan got into his own stance.

"Begin!" the Shadow Priest called out.

Lei had hoped that he would have a stare down with Titan so he could take the time to relax himself a bit before beginning the fight. Unfortunately for the super cop, Titan wasn't thinking the same thing and once the start of the fight was called, he immediately charged after Lei, ready to take him on.

Titan threw a punch once he was close enough, but Lei immediately ducked under it. From there, the Interpol detective tried to jab an open palm at his opponent's stomach, but Titan saw it and caught his hand. He then twisted Lei's arm and Lei suddenly found himself in a mid-air choke hold.

"Got you now, wimp!" Titan said as he tightened the hold. Lei began struggle against the hold, trying to find a way to get out of it.

"Come on Lei!" Chun Li called out from the sidelines.

After another few seconds, Lei managed to lift one of his legs up and kicked back at Titan's abdomen as hard as he could. However, because of Lei's opponent's well-built muscles, the blow did little to effect him. Then, to the cop's luck, Titan decided to let him go by throwing him across the ring. Sand flew around as Lei rolled a few feet back before coming to a stop. Ignoring the pain, he quickly sat up.

Then to Lei's surprise, one of Titan's hands was surrounded by an orange energy, which formed quite quickly. Titan then threw his hand and a large ball of reddish-orange fire came out of it and headed towards his opponent. Lei saw it coming and rolled out of the way. The ball of fire landed at the previous spot he was in and on impact the fire exploded and disintegrated.

Lei got to his feet and began running towards Titan. "Let's see you handle this!" Once he was close enough to Titan, Lei performed varies and punches and kicks from his five fighting styles. For a moment, Titan was blocking the moves, but soon Lei found himself overpowering his opponent and managed to get a few hits on him, stunning him a couple of times.

Titan pulled back then and glared at Lei. "Is that all you got?" he demanded. He then threw another fireball at Lei, who got out of the way immediately after. Once again, the fire exploded upon impact with the ground.

Lei smirked then. "I may not have my own special powers, but at least I don't need to always rely on them."

This immediately angered Titan and he quickly began charging at Lei, roaring in anger in the process. "I'll kill you!" he yelled out.

Not knowing what to expect, Lei immediately stepped a few feet out of the way before Titan could get his hands on him. However, Lei never knew how close he was to the edge of the ring. Once Titan noticed, it was too late to stop himself and the large man found himself stumbling completely out of the ring.

"Winner: Lei Wulong!" the Shadow Priest immediately called out.

Lei nervously rubbed the back of his head. "Eh, sorry buddy, I really didn't know I was that close to the edge."

Once Titan got back on his feet, he glared at Lei and pointed at him. "Now I'm really going to kill you!"

Within a split second, Lei was out of the ring on the other side. He took a moment to grab Chun Li's hand and then he made a run for it.

"Lei!" Chun Li called out.

"Sorry Chun!" Lei called out. "But I really don't want to know what he's like outside the ring!"

Chun Li managed to let out a heavy sigh. 'What a day…' she thought.

Underground Lair

Once again, night fell and the only matches taking place were the ones in the underground lair. Sagat was amongst those watching the matches there. However, the main reason he was there was because he had a match that night.

For a while, Sagat waited for his name to be called out. Because that hadn't happened yet, the former Muay Thai champion had to endure match after match and many of them couldn't even be considered real fights.

Those who make it to round two tonight may not have the honor to make it to round three, Sagat thought.

Then finally, two matches caught his attention. He wondered if the two winners had anything to do with the army that was being formed. Their own skills seemed to be unmatched with any of the fighters he had seen all night.

The first was of a cyborg by the name of Smoke. Smoke had faced a female cyborg as well, though she looked more human than he did. The two of them had a fierce fight and Smoke himself pulled off moves that Sagat couldn't describe. At one point, Smoke had fumed, well, smoke out of him causing his opponent to become temporary blind. Then, he took her by the head and smashed her face into his knee. Although it didn't affect Smoke's opponent that much, Sagat could only imagine the damage the move could do on a normal human…

Then, Smoke made himself invisible and whatever he did, he caused his opponent to malfunction. She shook a bit before falling forward. Then, Smoke reappeared a few feet from her. Some would think that this would count as a death in the tournament and that Smoke would be disqualified. However, since his opponent was a cyborg, she was fixable and because of that, it didn't count as a fatality.

"Winner: Smoke!" the host Shang Tsung called out. Immediately, an older human, who Sagat assumed was her master, picked her up and carried her away.

Sagat snorted a bit as Smoke went back into the audience. Thinking back on it now, it wasn't a good match as he previously thought. The winner pretty much cheated just to get his way. Then again, there weren't really that many rules in the tournament.

However, he couldn't deny the skills of the fighter who won the following match. Shang Tsung had announced this fighter as Mileena. Her opponent was named Trixie, a blonde haired girl with roller blades and small boxing gloves.

Ridiculous, Sagat thought as he stared at Trixie. How is it that people like her get into the tournament?

As he expected, Mileena had the full advantage throughout the match. During it, there were unforgettable moments. For instance, at one point, Mileena literally sank through the floor, then reappeared from the air and kicked Trixie in the head from above. The audience clapped at the impressive move. Sagat found himself rubbing his chin with interest then.

The match continued from there as Mileena continued to have more of an advantage. At one point, she performed a rolling thunder knocking Trixie to the ground. Later, she shot out two pink projectiles that were shaped like sais throwing her opponent off once again.

After a few more minutes, Trixie was finally about to get past Mileena's blocking and tried to punch her in the face. However, when Mileena pulled back, her pink and black veil got caught on Trixie's gloves and when she pulled her arm back, the veil went with her.

Mileena's face was now fully revealed. Sagat figured the sight under her veil was going to be unpleasant. Besides, the woman wore revealing clothes, a way to make people draw their attention away from her face.

However, many of the watchers didn't seem to get the idea in the first place as they gasped in horror. Half of them were now trying not to look at Mileena. Her nose was that of an ugly witch, though that really wasn't what was truly ugly… it was her mouth… no skin covered it. Instead, long sharp teeth replaced them and they looked sharp enough to bite through one's bones.

"You bitch!" Mileena snarled. She let out an animal-like growl and charged at Trixie, who she grabbed once she was close enough. As expected, Trixie was full of fear, not sure of what was going to happen next.

"Now to rip off that pretty head of yours!" Mileena called out. She opened her mouth, loving the sound of Trixie's agonizing screams.

Even with the screaming, Mileena was still able to hear Shang Tsung, much to her dismay. "Mileena!" he called out. "If you continue, you will be disqualified!"

Mileena let out a small growl, realizing that her rage nearly took her over. In disappointment, she dropped Trixie to the ground. Immediately, the young opponent quickly crawled over to ringside.

"I never wanted to be in this tournament!" Trixie cried out. "You win!" And with that, she stepped out of the ring.

Shang Tsung sighed and stood up. "Winner: Mileena!"

Sagat shook his head a little. Although the actual match itself was lame, he did admire Mileena's skills. And if it was true that she was in the developing army, he looked forward to working with her, despite her… flaw.

Once everything was calm, Shang Tsung was finally able to begin the next match. "Sagat!"

Finally, the Thailand native was finally going to fight. Sagat stepped into the ring, his enormous height already intimidating some of the fighters who had been waiting to fight. Sagat then began to have the feeling that his upcoming match wasn't going to last very long.

Then, his opponent's name was announced. "Dim!"

A werewolf-like creature stepped into the ring. He let out a small growl and his yellow eyes glared at his opponent. Sagat smirked. He may be one of the few who will have a good match tonight after all.

Once Dim was set, Shang Tsung called for the match to begin.

Although Dim was bit challenging with his animal-like instinct, Sagat was able to take him down within two minutes, knocking him out with his Tiger Genocide move. The crowd was silent as Shang Tsung announced him the winner.

Feeling angry, Sagat quickly left the arena, pushing anyone out of his way. Before announcing the next match, Shang Tsung watched him until he could no longer be seen. The sorcerer found himself admiring a fighting spirit that Sagat was thirsting for. As a matter of fact, Sagat left a meaningful impression on the sorcerer.

Shang Tsung found himself smirking then. Perhaps he may be worthy of joining our developing army…

There was only one more day left before round one was over… and the sorcerer wondered what round two was going to bring to the tournament…