Description: The holy avenging monk seeks to purify the one-eyed warrior of his sins! But Sagat has other ideas, especially involving fruit!
Terror goes a long way in small towns.
An example would be the elephant in the room -- or, more accurately, the seven-foot wall of muscle, walking through the small marketplace of this remote Thai village. A large shade hat covers his head, and he hunches his shoulders to cover his face in shadows. He wears tattered shorts and a baggy white t-shirt, although it's unclear how he even managed to get one in his size -- in any case, he probably doesn't have many, because it's stained with sweat, dirt, and other signs of honest toil.
The hulking man is silent as a stone as he approaches a stall hawking fruit, a burlap sack in hand.
Terror does, indeed, go a long way in small towns. This, the old man knows - his monk's staff in one hand, rings clinking together, he walks through the crowded marketplace. A wide berth is given the man, in his enormous hat, his eccentric robes, his tied-together sandals and his handmade clothes - here is a man who is not to be bothered, a man on a quest, and even the pickpockets steer fairly clear of him.
The unfortunate young thief who -does- try to pick the monk's pocket, of course, is quickly smacked in the hand by the massive staff, the rings beating like a churchbell in the breeze, and the old monk continues down, staff returning to neutral. The fish hanging off said staff - a makeshift pole - splatters a tad on the young one's face, a further insult to injury.
He spots the fruit stand immediately, moving over. Yes, he would dine well tonight, with this fat fish he'd caught hanging from his line and the succulent fruits of Thailand sizzling in the pot. Perhaps he'd even try a new recipe and char the fish a bit.
The monk reaches for one of the fruits as the hulking man approaches, selecting a thick, juicy-looking piece. He holds it up to the light, but his eyes, hidden beneath his hat, stray to that huge man even as the smell of the fish strays across the marketplace.
The percussive noise of the Thai language is given a newfound sense of menace by the deep, slow voice of the giant. "Wait your turn," he says, holding a thick arm out to ward the monk away.
The vendor looks from hatted figure to hatted figure, and does his best to shrink away and disappear, eyes wide with a sense of profound dread.
The giant man continues: "You may browse when I am finished." He doesn't say this as an offer or a proposition -- his voice carries blunt finality, as if he were laying down the absolute law of the land. Then, he begins to grab huge handfuls of sweet, warm fruit, dumping them into his sack.
It's rather unclear from the pace at which he shovels if he intends to leave any at all.
Sokaku looks from the enormous hand to the giant man himself. Sokaku's not shrimpy by any means - he's old, certainly, but he's still quite tall and strong, and he at least was able to take his own fruit.
He tosses a few coins at the vendor and sinks his teeth into the fruit. "Your selection is poor," he notes, "You grab whatever you can carry, without any sense of quality." His own fruit is juicy, sweet, and delicious - perhaps the best of the lot, certainly one of them. "Wasting food is a sin."
The old man's statement is heavy, carrying a weight, a gravitas, and dropping it all unceremoniously on the other man's shoulders. He takes another bite of the fruit, finishing it, and swallows before dropping the pit into Sagat's bag. "Plant it, and culture it - perhaps it will help you understand better."
The hulking figure pauses.
In fact, so does the entire marketplace. The ambient chatter, the sounds of business and barter -- it all drops away, as all eyes fix on the giant. There is a prolonged moment of this silence, before murmurs set in, not loud enough by far to intrude on the tense moment shared between the two warriors.
The huge man pushes back the shallow cone of his shade hat and looks down into his bag. He is bald, with a vicious, knotty pink scar on his temple, emphasized by the sunburnt color of his flesh. Tight, squarish Thai features are given extra weight and shadow by not only the size of his features, but by the deep grooves of age carved into his face. One eye is covered by a simple, small black eyepatch -- the other, burning with contempt.
This is Sagat, once known the world over as the Emperor of Muay Thai.
Sagat reaches into his sack and removes the freshly deposited core. "Leave, old man," he rumbles grimly, throwing the core disrespectfully at the monk's chest. "Be on your way."
Sokaku bends down to pick up the core, not a bow of respect, but one of a man who refuses to waste such a thing. He straightens, pocketing the seed. "You are Sagat," he says idly, something that really probably didn't need to be stated, as probably everyone can see it.
The old man looks up, through the hat, his eyes still hidden, but the firm, chiseled, square jaw clenched in a determined gaze. "I see," he continues calmly, "You are hiding from something. Deep in the darkness, deep beneath the shadows you do not understand, you hide...but you are not hiding from evil outside, are you? You are hiding from the evil in yourself..."
Sokaku turns to fully face Sagat, his hand dipping into his pouch to clutch around a coiled-up sroll. "I will free you from your evil," he declares, his staff sliding down under his arm, the fish splattering against the stand. The gathering of chi around the old man spikes, and the rings of his staff fly apart, hovering seperately in a most unnatural separation.
"Come, and be purified of your sin."
COMBATSYS: Sokaku has started a fight here.
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Sokaku 0/-------/-------|
COMBATSYS: Sagat has joined the fight here.
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Sokaku 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Sagat
The marketplace clears. They don't even wait for Sagat to respond; they just haul ass, knowing full well that they don't want to be around for this. Vendors run off with as much of their goods as they can, and the rumble and whine of wheeled carts erupts in surroundsound.
Sagat drops the half-filled burlap sack to the ground. "You presume much," the massive Thai fighter says, and it's clear that he does not find this a charming personality trait. "I do not appreciate old men imposing themselves upon my business." He pulls the t-shirt off, exposing his giant body fully, taut with muscles that have been worked to almost inhuman density and definition.
Up Sagat's body is that horrible scar, as if part of him was shredded and burnt away, replaced by a sick swath of scar tissue.
Veins pulse as Sagat flexes, rolling his shoulders and cracking his neck. "Your parlor tricks will not save you," he states, walking toward Sokaku and grunting, unimpressed, at the chi stunt of the floating rings.
And then, with no warning, Sagat's arm comes up, fist soaring at a velocity a man his size shouldn't be able to attain, the punch pointed directly at Sokaku's jaw.
COMBATSYS: Sokaku blocks Sagat's Jab Punch.
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Sokaku 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Sagat
Sokaku brings his staff around in a spin, deflecting the mass of Sagat's blow with the strike as he slides to the side. The old man raises two fingers, his staff swinging back and forth, rings singing together as though they were a summoning bell. The beads hanging about the old man's neck click and clack together, humming at the gathering of power, and the chant that emits from the old monk's mouth seems to silence the rest of the world.
"Om. Da ma ka ra sha da so wa ta ya un ta ra ta kan man..." Though the chant seems plodding and slow, it's already over by the time the old monk slams his staff into the ground, and it's only the echo hanging about the marketplace. The staff's rings soar to the top and click together, and the Earth seems to scream in pain.
Chi explodes around the old man, whirling fire spiking upwards into the sky and dispersing in the clouds, heat waves sending people scurrying for cover. But the man's control over the chi, or magic, or whatever it may be is truly greater than meets the eye - not a thing is damaged but the ground beneath his feet...and perhaps Sagat, if the other fighter is truly unlucky.
The fire spikes away, and Sokaku has resumed his stance, ready once more to strike at his enemy with the fury of his righteous, sorcerous ways.
COMBATSYS: Sokaku successfully hits Sagat with Vortex Inferno.
- CRAZY Hit! -
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Sokaku 0/-------/-----==|==-----\-------\0 Sagat
Sagat is indeed struck by the whirling flame of Sokaku's chi. He grimaces, body clenching, starting to double over -- but the only noise he emits, despite the horrific pain of the burning sensation of chi coursing through his body, attacking his spirit as much as his flesh, is a single, deep grunt.
When the flames subside, Sagat rises again to his full height. His upper lip trembles, forming a violent sneer, his one eye blazing more fiercely than any flame could. He takes a moment to stare down at Sokaku, glowering with demonic rage.
Sagat swings his arms up and out, flexing in cruciform, letting his muscles pop and twitch as he suddenly snaps forward. He slams his fists together at the tops, the motion so fast that it creates an audible 'whoosh' of breeze. And when those fists collide, Sagat's own chi comes to the fore, a glowing orange boomerang shape launching toward Sokaku's upper body.
"TIIIGUUUUUUHHHHHH!"
COMBATSYS: Sagat successfully hits Sokaku with Tiger Shot.
! VENGEANCE !
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Sokaku 0/-------/=======|==-----\-------\0 Sagat
Sokaku is hit in the stomach by the enormous blow. The old monk flies back, stabbing his staff down as he soars from the chi-charged hit; the staff catches in the ground, and the old man spins about it once, settling back down into the ground.
"Powerful," he notes, rolling his staff in his hand once before leveling it at the other man.
His fingers slide to the side, and he drags them down in a diagonal slash as he begins to chant. "Om ri shi ka no sa ru."
The staff spins and swings up once more, a diagonal in the same path as his fingers...but this time, chi slashes upwards, dragged along the strike. From the staff, a creature - no, a monkey, with a small bo-staff and a little gold crown, riding a yellow cloud - rockets towards Sagat. The effigy of the Monkey King raises its miniature nyoi-bo as it nears Sagat at lightning speed, bringing it down for a mighty slash before the whole thing disippates back into the air around them.
COMBATSYS: Sagat dodges Sokaku's Wild Monkey Slash.
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Sokaku 0/-------/-======|==-----\-------\0 Sagat
Sagat sidesteps the wee Monkey King, staring in disgust at the little monarch before it vanishes. "I see," Sagat says, rubbing his chin. "You are the type who fights with toys."
Sagat tenses his body and then, with a burst of strength, leaps into the air, attempting to close the distance between himself and Sokaku and come down knee-first toward the mystic warrior. "I prefer to fight for real," he growls as impact grows imminent.
COMBATSYS: Sagat successfully hits Sokaku with Strong Kick.
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Sokaku 1/--=====/=======|===----\-------\0 Sagat
Sokaku brings his staff around, a bit too slow. The force of the blow knocks him backwards again, and he skids to a halt with his staff once again.
"Hm." He says calmly, raising his hat a bit. It's now that the other fighter would see the penetrating gaze of the old man, the eyes that burn like lightning, judging like a hammer from on high. He raises his staff, and the force of the chi gathering rumbles under the ground and in the sky, the sky going dark as clouds gather into a localized, tiny hurricane. Whether magic, chi, or sheer coincidence, the lightning ripples down into the staff, crackling about him. His words - undoubtedly a chant to focus himself or his power - are lost in the wind and rain erupting from the sky, pouring down like torrents of tears and whipping about in a savage, primal fury.
Sokaku slams his staff down once, twice, three times, four - the number of death - and the lightning strikes him, channeling into him and through him, lending its force to his own.
The ground cracks beneath his blow, almost unnoticeably, and the fire roars up around him, heaven meeting earth within the old sage. The staff swings up again, but this time, it is no spell, no magic summoning - it is an attack, an attack taught perhaps by the ancient Monkey King, embodying his pure fury. Indeed, the golden crown, the nyoi-bo staff, they gleam in the darkness of the storm, auras of chi wrapping about the man and his weapon.
It comes crashing down, a hammer of divine fury and earthly rage, ready to mete out justice to the one-eyed warrior.
COMBATSYS: Sokaku successfully hits Sagat with Sokaku Splat EX.
? Strange Hit! ?
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Sokaku 0/-------/------=|=======\-------\0 Sagat
The divine hammer cracks right into Sagat's big bald head. THOCK.
Sagat stumbles backward, momentarily dazed, and nearly falling over. He trips when he smacks into someone's rickety wooden vendor stand, and falls backward into it, the jungle heat leaving the wood well-rotted and thus easily shattered. Laying there, sprawled, in the wreckage of the stand, Sagat comes to his senses.
And then, Sagat is up. He's not just up, he's moving, and he's not just moving, he's /sprinting/. The giant man barrels toward Sokaku so fast that he could well be a human bullet, his chi surging around him, leaving shadowy afterimages as Sagat moves. And then he leaps.
Sagat leaps knee-first again, attempting to surge forward in blatant violation of the general priniciples of aerodynamicism, not losing a bit of speed. "TIGUH!" If the knee connects, he spins and ducks before Sokaku can even fall, launching upward into a fierce, driving uppercut. "TIGUH!" And then -- again. "TTTIIIGGGUUUHHH!!!"
And that's how you do a Tiger Genocide.
COMBATSYS: Sokaku fails to interrupt Tiger Genocide+ from Sagat with Makibishi Masher.
! VENGEANCE !
*KNOCKED AWAY*
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Sokaku 1/-----==/=======|=======\-------\0 Sagat
COMBATSYS: Sokaku can no longer fight.
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Sagat 0/-------/=======|
Sokaku is already reacting. His hand dives into the pouch on his belt, an enormously long scroll flying out into the air. The staff slams down into the ground, an impenetrable pillar ready to interpose for the old monk and the enormous fighter even as the scroll rolls open, proudly displaying its kanji to the world.
"Om ni ri tan so no ra ma ki bi li ma shu ra!" The old man chants. The intonation echoes in the air, hanging there like an albatross about the necks of everyone in the marketplace, and the scroll's kanji flares up, white fire burning around the elegant scrawl before consuming the scroll in a burst of energy.
The second Sokaku charges into Sagat, but it's the second one, not the original, who's hit by the blows; the clone is knocked upwards by the uppercut once, twice, and falls to the ground, rolling helplessly until it shatters into a million pieces. A charm, written in what Sagat could only conclude was blood, soars out of the doppelganger, sticking harmlessly to Sagat's head - it reads 'I Will Return To Save You From Yourself' in the same elegant scrawl as the doppelganger's summoning scroll.
As for the old man and his fish...he's gone, disappeared - perhaps by magic, perhaps by speed, perhaps by something else entirely. The storm continues to rain on, a dark, looming sorrow over Sagat, as though the sky were weeping for his sins.
Sagat glances at the note, ripping it off his head, and simply crumples it up and throws it aside. With a deep scowl, he retrieves his shirt and hat, and walks over to continue filling his sack with fruit. He doesn't have any witty comments to make, or reflective epithets for the fight. He's mostly just tense and annoyed by the hassle.
COMBATSYS: Sagat has ended the fight here.
Log created on 17:10:30 11/07/2008 by Sokaku, and last modified on 19:05:30 11/07/2008.