Let's see if some of Musaki's words boosted up Liu Shang's confidence. And don't think I forgot the battle!
Chapter 15: Believing in Myself
The next day comes around and it's the second day of competing and Liu Shang was definitely anxious about who he's gonna take down next, but he remembered some of the words that Musaki told him after the first day of finals competing that he needs to believe in himself and know that his skills are what brought him here and to where he's at now. He lets out a big sigh and whispered to himself, "This is it, Liu. Just remember...follow your heart and believe in yourself and your skills."
With that ounce of confidence, he shakes himself off and walks in the Rai Song Stadium in confidence and as soon as th crowd starts cheering, he's more than ready to head into the arena. He then seeks Mojag, Taji, Kang-Dae, Jaa and Musaki coming by and he walks behind Musaki to keep up with the others. Musaki looks behind and sees Liu right there, giving him a smile. Musaki smiled back at himand gave him a little high-five to determine that he'll gain his respect in the Valley.
As the finalists arrived, the crowd cheered as loud as they ever made and they split in one side while the remaining contestants stayed where they are. Oak Sung comes over and he looks at the others and said, "Good morning, all! Welcome to day 2 of the finalist round!"
The crowd cheered loudly as ever and went crazy-nuts to see some more action coming in while the contestants looked at each other in the eyes, bringing their A-games together.
"First up...Liu Shang takes down Kang-Dae and then, my grandson will take on Jaa and Taji will take on Mojag." Oak Sung added.
Liu Shang looks at Kang-Dae in the eyes and the jackal growled at him, all serious and stuff like he was gonna annihilate this young lion, but Liu stayed focused on what he's gonna do and got himself down on all fours waiting for him to strike him down.
"Lion...prepare to enter in your little grave of losing. This is for the big boys and you're just a cub! You have no chance of beating me." Kang-Dae smirked.
Again, more shots of Liu Shang's skills because of his age and he lets out a small growl after hearing this from someone else and as the gong rang, Kang-Dae immediately ran to him, but Liu grabbed his fist before the jackal could lay a punch on him and threw him on the other side of the ring. Kang-Dae landed on himself backwards while looking at Liu Shang from upside down and he growled at him, got himself on his feet, ran up to him and attack him by jumping on his back, tackling him down in the process.
Liu Shang did not like that at all, so in the process he bodyslammed Kang-Dae by using his back in order to get him off his back. Kang-Dae completely wanted to finish Liu off, so he brgan using some of his kung-fu tricks to beat him down by scratching, pushing, shoving, kicking and the more Liu got punched, the more fierce Kang-Dae would be, but Liu grabbed him by the legs and kicked him in the butt and it landed him back down to the ground.
Kang-Dae gets himself up and snarled at Liu Shang, almost as if the young lion made an offense and he said, "I will not be taken down by a cub!"
That was enough for Liu Shang to hear as he lets out a huge roar and charged at him in full force by using his claws to strike him down and he leaped up in the air and kicked him using his back legs, then he swung at him numerous times while doing flips and kicks to him in the face and pinned him down to the ground, growling lowly.
"Never...call me...a cub...again!" Liu Shang growled.
That felt like a very personal attack to him and Kang-Dae ignored his comment and just kicked him in the face and charged at him, but Liu Shang knew when to keep himself cool in something like this and he went towards Kang-Dae and head-butted him in the process and grabs his wrist and flips him down to the ground...hard.
Everyone in the crowd went crazy nuts for Liu Shang's moves and when they cheered at him, Liu felt like he was the star of the competition, even though he doesn't see it that way. But he was cool about it anyway and wouldn't trade this experience for anything and for the first time...he completely believed in himself.
'Thanks, Musaki. Now I am fully believing in myself.' Liu thought.
Next up, it's Musaki against Jaa. Jaa reveals his claws and is looking forward to crushing Musaki down, but Musaki wasn't really that intimidated with his toughness because he's like a dude version of Tigress, only younger and more tempered than anything. Jaa looks at Musaki and said, "I'm surprised that you're even capable of taking down someone like me."
"Yeah, well...I have Tigress to thank for that because looking at you, I see a little resemblance." Musaki said.
Jaa growls at him menacingly and he just straight up quickly attacked him on the spot and punched, kicked, shoved and pounced on him as hard as he could go to defeat Musaki, but he was unaware that Musaki's got something under his sleeve. As he got himself up, Jaa went forward to punch him, but Musaki grabbed his fist and then flipped him to the other side of the stadium.
Jaa gets himself up and asked, angrily, "That's how you wanna play the game, huh?"
Musaki shows off his kung-fu pose and said, "Try to catch me, pussycat."
That was a big offense to Jaa for Musaki to call him a 'pussycat' and his eyes were red like fire and just quickly beats him down for the count and pinned directly at him, with his teeth gritting and planning to claw him and said, "You just signed your death warrant!"
Musaki wasn't even shaking by his threat and he just kicked him in the stomach and flipped him down as many times as he could. Jaa wanted him to lose so badly that he was willing to do anything to break him down and he just went all out by just throwing him down and shoving him down to the ground and smacking him everywhere, but Musaki knew when to stay calm and completely went up to him, using every ounce of kung-fu he could use...he ran and leaped towards him and kicked him in the shin and did a backflip punch and stomped on Jaa's tail.
Jaa screamed in pain while Musaki shoved him back down and Jaa still landed some punches on Musaki, but dodged them as he went along and he tried to scratch him, but to his surprise and the audience's awe-struckness, Musaki used his anti-gravity lean to dodge his shots completely, which left Jaa astounded, but as soon as Musaki got himself back up, he could see that Jaa was distracted by it, which means...
Musaki finished him off with a kick to the chest as he fell down to the ground. The crowd went uber-nuts with Musaki's sweet moves and all Musaki could do is just bow to the crowd and wave hi to them. Jaa groans and gets himself up and is angrily shocked once again that he got beaten by Musaki, yet again. He went up to him and said, "How do I always end up getting beat by you? I'm freakin' hardcore, dude!"
Musaki rolled his eyes and said, "Yeah, yeah, you're hardcore. Heard that excuse before."
Next up, Taji takes down Mojag and this was something that Taji was looking forward to...and also Mojag too. Mojag brought out his musclar fist and he was gonna fight Taji...while shirtless; showing off his abs and then kissing his pecs, which disgusted Taji the most.
"Dude, less kissing, more fighting please. You're gonna make me queasy." Taji said, in disgust.
Mojag wasn't gonna pull any punches so he went ahead and rammed him down with his tusks and kicks him to the ground. Taji growls as he leaped up into the air and kicked the young boar's leg, making him trip.
Then, he nonchalantly said, "Whoops."
Mojag gets himself up and angrily snorted at him and said, "You're gonna regret doing that to me."
Mojag comes at him hard and kicks, punches, throws and flips the young blue and white wolf down, but Taji grabbed his tusks and escaped his grip, landing him down on his feet in all fours and he grabbed Mojag's hooves, throws him around and slams him on the ground multiple times.
Taji then bodyslammed him down to the ground while Mojag flattened Taji using his back, but not before Taji punched him in the stomach and head-butted him hard. Both of them continued on fighting each other and Mojag wanted to finish him off badly, but Taji made a backflip and then kicked Mojag's butt hard by using his own butt.
The crowd completely went nuts and Taji waves at the crowd, giving them the peace sign and basking in his victory. He chuckled softly and winks at a few girls, who in response winked back at him.
Later that day, Liu Shang ran up to Musaki and he said to him, "Dude, you were awesome!"
Musaki chuckled softly and said, "Not nearly as awesome as you. You threw down Kang-Dae like it's a big battle!"
Liu nodded his head and said, "Yep. All I needed to do was believe in myself...and I did. All thanks to you."
That touched Musaki's heart to know that what he said completely resonated with him and said, "It showed today."
Just then, Cody, Shao, Phoenix, Samurai and Tsunami came over and cheered for Musaki's amazing moves that day and Cody was the first one to say, "Dude, awesome butt-kicking, man!"
"You threw down that Jaa dude like nobody's business!" Samurai cheered happily.
"Definitely loved that part where you called him a pussycat. That was pure genius!" Phoenix added.
Musaki chuckled and said, "I've been waiting to use that line on Tigress, but I felt like I could use it on Jaa first."
Tsunami then looked at Liu Shang and he said, "Dude, I have a feeling that both you and Musaki might win this thing...if it was a tie-breaker."
Liu and Musaki looked at each other and they both said, "You sure?"
"Because I heard that Liu Shang might win this competition despite some people saying that Musaki would win." Shao explained.
They looked at each other, thinking there might be some rivalries going on with that, but Liu and Musaki took that in stride and Musaki only said, "Look, even if one of us don't win, we're still honored to even be here."
"I agree wholeheartedly." Liu Shang said, happily.
"Hey, you guys wanna hang out? My dad's throwing a little something for us." Shao added.
All of them looked at Shao and said, "Afterparty!"
More coming up!