Chapter 3: Just Another Thursday
Ashrah rushes forward with her new friends, eyes narrowed at her former master. While Haisley is intent on keeping the element of surprise, there is no way for the main group to hide their approach.
"Quan Chi," the one Quan Chi called Nitara calls out a warning, and the sorcerer and his lackeys turn aggressively to face the intruders. The sorcerer's menacing entourage all turn to glare at their opponents, and Quan Chi merely smiles at their leader.
"Yet again, you evade capture, Ashrah." His smirk is so close to patronisingly proud, it's infuriating. "And now it appears you've found allies." He breathes the word with grating condescension.
"We are joined against you, sorcerer," Ashrah snarls. "You won't be stealing any souls."
She leaps towards her former master, but Nitara intercepts. Desperate to stop whatever ritual Quan Chi is continuing, she blocks any blows Nitara delivers before slashing with her kriss. The Vataernian cries out and cradles her arm, backing out of range.
"That blade's enchanted," she accuses.
"It was forged to destroy evil," Ashrah explains with narrowed eyes. "It's slain many of your vampire kind."
"We can't help what we are," Nitara argues. "That we drink blood doesn't make us evil."
Nitara steadies herself before going on the offensive; she swipes at Ashrah, pushing forward in a fury. As the demoness and Vataernian clash, the others are tangled in their own fights; Baraka hacks brutally at Havik, though the military Outworlder blocks and deals his own blows well enough; Havik's partner, Darrius, aims spinning kicks at Johnny, who parries and lunges with his sword; Kung Lao and Syzoth face off against Sareena, the enemy demoness slashing nimbly and skilfully with daggers, her dark eyes – so similar to Ashrah's – narrowed in focus.
Haisley observes all this through the thicket as she carefully picks her way towards the altar, keeping an eye on Quan Chi, but the sorcerer doesn't pause in his chanting, seemingly unaware of her approach. An obvious weapon advantage hasn't presented itself to her – at least, nothing better than a sturdy stick – despite her searching intently, but she's not comfortable delaying her attack any longer, given the rapidly thickening green aura within the soul stealer; the element of surprise will have to be enough.
Once she's manoeuvred herself into the optimal position on a higher branch, she assesses Quan Chi's awareness again before launching herself at the sorcerer. Swinging from a branch above, she kicks him in his shoulder, knocking him down the few steps from where he had been chanting. He stands as she lands, his teeth bared.
"Insolent Earthrealmer," he spits.
Haisley laughs. "You have no idea, cailleach."
From her vantage point, she kicks away the backhand he swipes at her before using the arc of a portion of the soul stealer to swing herself around and down the stairs to aim a jab of her legs at his own. She doesn't manage to fully trip him, but he stumbles as he dodges, giving her an opportunity to dart forward and grab his robes, wrapping them around his arms to pin him. She is just about to smack his head into one of the metal supports when the breath is pushed from her lungs in a blinding green flash and the faint sound of an ethereal scream. She doesn't realise she's flying until her back hits the ground and she rolls backwards once. She struggles to her feet, coughing out a "fuck" and blinking the stars from her eyes to glare at the sorcerer as the glow in his hands fades. He turns back to the soul stealer, raising his hands and resuming chanting.
"Nope," Haisley growls, pushing her body forwards and dashing towards him. "No way. Not gonna happen."
But she's barely taken three steps when the soul stealer roars to life; a sickly green light spears the sky from its roof, and the clouds, the ground, the very air itself grows heavy with darkness. The light spear pulses once, flashing across Quan Chi's triumphant grin, before a scream from behind her snatches Haisley's attention. She watches in horror as an ephemeral blue wisp is drawn from a nearby tree, coalescing into a face twisted in agony. It grasps for the bark, its journey momentarily slowed before it's ripped from its arboreal home, like a thread snapped from a cloth. More and more souls are pulled from the trees, their anguish and desperation filling the air. Haisley clutches her ears and drops to her knees with a cry, alarming her compatriots.
"Kid!" Johnny shouts as he runs towards her, his fight – along with the others' – halted in light of the soul stealer's activation. He lays a hand on her shoulder. "What's wrong?"
She groans, her eyes screwed shut and her teeth gritted. "It hurts them. They're so scared. I have to help!" She tries to uncurl herself, but another shriek forces her to the floor with a hiss once more.
Johnny keeps a comforting hand on her as he stares at the vortex of screaming faces and sickly light. The column continues to thicken until a figure descends from it; within his robes, his skin is the barren grey of a landscape burnt to ash, and his eyes flash the same green as the soul stealer energy as he glares at the battlefield.
"What dark magic is this?!" Ashrah bares her teeth.
"We are Ermac," the figure responds, myriad voices echoing together as he speaks. "A collection of souls bound by Quan Chi's magic. We live to obey his commands."
Quan Chi wastes no time, pointing at the group with a triumphant grin. "Kill them."
Ermac demonstrates his eagerness to serve the purpose of his whole existence by immediately firing a mass of green energy; the first one knocks Johnny back, and the next three do likewise with Kung Lao, Ashrah and Baraka all too easily. Syzoth manages to catch him by surprise leaping onto his back in his Zaterran form, arms grappled around his chest as they tumble backwards, but Ermac manages to manoeuvre himself to face Syzoth and blast him backwards, too. Haisley had managed to snap a branch off one of the trees nearby – easy to do now that it stands desiccated – and swings at Ermac from behind him. She stares at her hands in horror as it shatters against his large glowing frame and his only response is to turn around to regard her almost curiously before backhanding her across the face, sending her flying into a nearby tree. Ashrah charges again, but Ermac simply drags her forward with his magic into his waiting fist before flinging her aside. As she struggles to get to her feet again, Havik and Darrius step up to her.
"Quan Chi must succeed if I am to liberate Orderrealm. I'll not let him fail," Havik promises.
Ashrah scowls at the duo and nods to Haisley as the Earthrealmer joins her, snarling. "Killing one realm to free another is a heinous proposition! One I won't let you fulfil."
Havik lunges forward followed closely by Darrius, obviously hoping to catch them off guard. Ashrah deftly arcs her kriss in the way of Havik's attack while Darrius kick is intercepted by one of Haisley's, her foot snapping up to deflect it wide. She twirls a kick at the back of his currently planted leg, and Darrius stumbles as his single point of balance is disturbed, but he's too well-trained and too stocky to have been knocked down like Haisley had hoped. She receives a backhand across the face for her efforts, and falls to the floor with a grunt. As Darrius steps closer to deal more damage, however, she springs at him, crunching a rock she picked from the ground into the side of his knee. He lets out a shout of pain and surprise, bending to cradle his knee on instinct, and Haisley swings the rock into the side of his head once, and a second time to knock him out. Ashrah roundhouse kicks Havik to the floor at just that moment, and the two women nod to each other in camaraderie once again before Ashrah quickly slices through an ethereal green skull, which had been aimed at her. Haisley and Ashrah both glare at Quan Chi, who merely sneers at the demoness.
"I always feared you would be trouble, Ashrah," he says. "You're not compliant, like your sisters."
There's pain behind her snarl. "And now they're dead by my hand because you sent them against me. I'll never forgive you for that, Quan Chi."
Quan Chi swirls his arms, sickly green energy trailing behind their movements, but Haisley is in no mood to deal with whatever hocus pocus bullshit he's planning; she springs forward and slide-kicks towards him, kicking up the arid dirt into the sorcerer's face to interrupt his spell. As he snarls and blinks at the particles in his eyes, Haisley kicks at the back of his knees, and Ashrah uses the opportunity of his stumble forward to slash at his chest with her kriss.
Haisley isn't surprised at the demoness's martial prowess – Ashrah had insinuated earlier how skilled she was as part of an assassin's group – but she is surprised at how well the pair play off each other. They handily press the offensive against Quan Chi, tag-teaming their blows and techniques to enhance the other's.
Quan Chi copes irritatingly well with the two-on-one onslaught; more than once he comes dangerously close to incapacitating one of them, usually Haisley as he surprises her with quick spells or his startling strength when she assumed he would rely more on his magic than physical attributes. When he combines them to devastating effect – such as kicking the air from her lungs before filling her nose and mouth with acrid smoke that she has no choice but to gasp on – it's only Ashrah's interjection that both interrupts Quan Chi's spell and allows Haisley the time to recover. Eventually they manage to subdue the sorcerer, as Ashrah kicks him back just as Haisley swings a rock at his head, and he sinks to the floor and doesn't move.
Ashrah glares at his limp body. "When I am finished here, I will finish you."
She immediately glances upward and hurls her kriss over Haisley's shoulder, scowling as Ermac halts it in mid-air before it strikes him and twirling herself to grab her weapon and slash at him with it. Disorientated by the demoness's speed and by how close the weapon had flown past her, Haisley takes a few seconds to catch up to the battle. Still clutching the rock she smacked into Quan Chi's head, she sprints towards the fray, swinging it towards Ermac's averted head before feinting and throwing it forward and dropping low to kick at his legs. At the last second, Ermac whirls to catch the rock, defending his legs and swinging it at her in one irritatingly smooth manoeuvre. She can't help but cry out as it cracks into near her temple, and she drops to the floor while her vision bursts bright and blurry. Through the stars and throbbing, she can just about make out Ermac rearing back to strike her again, and she attempts to scramble back away from him. Before he can deliver the blow, though, a large blur the colour of moss and bracken crashes into him with a hissing snarl, knocking him back away from her. A hand under her arm begins dragging her back, and she blinks until Johnny's intense expression fuzzes into focus.
"Keep out of there for the moment, kid; let some of the others keep him busy."
"Fuck you, Cage, I can help…" she rolls to her knees before pausing there, pressing her forehead into the dirt, "…just as soon as the ground stops rocking."
She takes deep breaths, willing the dry earthy scent to ground her as the sounds of her comrades in full conflict with the highly skilled monster fill her ears. She grits her teeth in apprehension and rage as she hears Johnny cry out from beside her as he's slammed into the ground, then presumably thrown as his shout rapidly grows fainter.
Meanwhile, Kenshi is similarly frustrated as he grips Sento in resolve. "I can't let them die," he promises himself.
Swallowing his fear, he judges Ermac's position from the recent sounds of the most concentrated fighting, and charges towards it with a bellow. An immoveable wave of concussive force meets him, knocking the air clean out of his lungs and firing him back to heavily roll to a stop. He pushes himself to his hands and knees with a grunt, but begins to panic as he realises his family's sword – and his only weapon – was knocked from his hands as he was hit. His frantic breaths and heartbeat loud in his ears as he scrambles blindly around trying to find Sento again, he almost misses the whisper of voices in the air, like steam escaping a pot after the lid has been lifted.
"Kenshi Takahashi…"
His face snaps towards the voices. "What?" he breathes, a strange mix of apprehension and hope in his voice. "Who is that?"
"Your ancestors," the voices answer gently. "Come to us."
Hesitantly curious and hopeful, he carefully but unerringly feels his way towards the voices. The wave of sensation he feels as he closes his hand around Sento's hilt is more than relief; a peace and self-assurance that has been absent for many years blooms in his chest before it bleeds throughout his limbs and across his scalp.
"In this your time of need, the Taira will not fail you," the voices promise.
As the wave reaches his eyes, it fans across them, and the lingering pain is soothed. He exhales in astonishment as a bright flash quickly sharpens into shapes and images; dry earth, broken trees, comrades and enemies in varying states of injury across the battlefield. And one unfamiliar person glaring at him with glowing eyes before coiling and springing forwards in an attack.
More prepared, Kenshi sneers, dodging out of the way of every attack Ermac throws at him, before driving Sento straight into the creature's chest. As Ermac cries out, glowing tendrils siphon from him into the sword. Ermac manages to push Kenshi off him, quickly launching magical projectiles at the swordsman as he skids. But Sento frees itself from Kenshi's grip, swinging of its own accord to absorb the projectiles and protect its wielder before hovering in place, ready for Kenshi to dazedly reach out and grab the hilt once again.
"It siphoned his souls," Kenshi muses. "It now has his power!"
Ashrah rushes up to his side with raised eyebrows. "That was unexpected."
"You're telling me," Kenshi nods before grinning. "Shall we finish this?"
"Let's; this fight's not over. I'll defeat all of Quan Chi's minions."
The pair square off against Ermac, who glares in response.
"We are many. You are one," he says. "We will destroy you."
Ermac lunges forward, obviously hoping to catch the pair off guard, but with Kenshi's sight restored, Sento's new abilities, and both Ashrah and Kenshi both bolstered by these new boons, they eventually out-pace and out-manoeuvre him. As Kenshi deals the final blow to knock Ermac to the floor, Ashrah sneers down at him.
"Resistance is never pointless," she insists.
Ermac struggles to sit up, still glaring at pair even as he winces. "We are many. You are one. We will destroy you." His continued threat holds less menace now, as his many voices echo and interrupt one another even in a groan.
"What's wrong with him?" Kenshi raises an eyebrow.
Ashrah frowns. "Kombat must have weakened the magic that binds his souls together."
Ermac reaches forward, and Kenshi and Ashrah both tense for another confrontation, but his face suddenly morphs into the most human expression they've seen yet, one twisted with desperate hope.
"Sindel, I'll find you!" a single voice promises, before the body collapses unconscious.
"What was that?" Kenshi asks, but Ashrah has more pressing matters on her mind.
"Watch him," she orders. "I'll shut down the soul stealer."
With no one left to stand against her, she easily sprints to the alter of the soul stealer, eyeing the large red crystal they had seen Quan Chi's companions had completed when they first came across the group. She stabs her kriss into the crystal, where it lodges but doesn't break. As she puts more force behind it, she ignores the cry of her former master from behind her.
"Ashrah, don't!"
The crystal finally shatters, and the resulting blast knocks her back and everyone else to the floor. The sickly green vortex disperses, unclaimed souls scattering across the trees. Except one; it shrieks its rage to the sky before hurtling towards Quan Chi, who roars as it grabs him before it leeches wisps of something from the sorcerer. Quan Chi's body pales to a shade of ash before the spirit releases him and vanishes, evidently satisfied with its revenge and with the way its quarry's body crumples heavily to the floor. Ashrah sprints to the sorcerer's side, snarling as she sees he's still breathing.
"Since that didn't kill you, I will!" she hisses, drawing her kriss back to stab into him.
"No, Ashrah!" Kenshi stops her, and she turns to him incredulously.
"He's too dangerous to let live."
"Liu Kang needs to question him," Kenshi reasons gently. "He knows Shang Tsung's plans."
Ashrah sighs heavily, reluctant. "Very well."
Meanwhile, Johnny approaches Haisley with a frown. "You okay, kid?"
She coughs out a laugh as she picks herself off the ground. "Sure, Cage; I just ran into a bunch of evil bastards intent on ending my entire civilisation, one of whom was an actual fucking vampire, squared off against a genuine sorcerer, watched as spirits of the dead were ripped from their resting places by some fucking voodoo machine, and got completely battered by a horrific abomination created as an amalgamation of those spirits." She tosses her sweat-dampened hair back, eyes hard and steely in their adrenaline-fueled fury. "Just another Thursday."
The challenge in her eyes and her bared teeth as she sneers in dark amusement is a hell of a front, but Johnny can tell from her heavy breathing and still-shaking fists that this whole situation was maybe more than she bargained for, certainly more than she's used to. Syzoth notices, too, as he approaches beside her, and he surreptitiously steps closer to rest his hand on her shoulder, squeezing once briefly before letting go. She tenses up for a split second at his touch, but has relaxed by the time he lets go, and she turns her head minutely to give him a barely-perceptible nod over her shoulder. Moving round into her line of sight, he frowns at her, pointing to where her eyebrow throbs.
"You're bleeding," he warns, the concern in his voice heart-warming.
Immediately reaching up to dab at the wetness, she flinches as she touches it and stares at the blood on her fingers wearily.
She sighs. "Cage, come here a sec."
Johnny immediately steps closer, his expression worried. "What's up, kid?"
In reply, she reaches for his arm, grabbing his wrist to lift and wipe his forearm roughly across her eyebrow, her blood staining the sleeve of his suit.
"Thanks, pal," she murmurs as she drops his arm and walks away. Both Syzoth and Johnny blink as she retreats, but Johnny quickly glares at the young woman while Syzoth can't help the grin growing on his face.
"No problem," Johnny replies sarcastically, wiping his soiled sleeve on his thigh. A few huffing laughs escape Syzoth through his nose, and he does his best to smother his amusement as Johnny turns his glare on him but also shrugs in response.
"Right," Johnny mutters, "she can't be feeling too bad, can she?"
Either Haisley hears him or she can guess what was said, because she smirks at them from beside Kenshi, Ashrah and Kung Lao, looking more like the hellion they know. Johnny shakes his head at her but then turns his attention to Kenshi as he approaches the group.
"Well, clearly I underpaid for that," he jokes, pointing at Sento. "Did you know what it could do?"
Further proving his sight has really been restored, Kenshi looks directly to Johnny to answer his question. "The legends never mentioned mystical powers," he shrugs. "The souls of my ancestors live within it. They intend to guide me."
"Just don't forget who gave it to you, Takahashi," Johnny grins.
Kenshi chuckles good-naturedly. "I won't, Cage. Now, let's get him to Earthrealm." He gestures down to Quan Chi.
Nodding in agreement, Johnny turns to the others in the group. "I know home's here for you, Baraka. But Syzoth, Ashrah, you can come with us if you want. I'm sure Liu Kang will welcome you."
Syzoth smiles, obviously grateful and relieved to have somewhere to hide from Shang Tsung's wrath, and Ashrah beams with wide eyes.
"I've never had a home," she admits. "That would be wonderful."
Baraka slings Quan Chi over his shoulders heavily, deliberately forgoing any gentleness, and the group begins to trek towards the city of Sun Do once again.
Chapter 3, finally! Hope you guys liked it. Please leave a review just so I know I'm not posting into a void.
Gaelic translations:
Cailleach – "bitch" or "witch" (so I thought it really fit!)