"What?!", struck by surprise, Kitana jumped back to avoid a sizzling ray of lightning that you send her way.

Power flowed through your veins. It felt like every cell in your body was boiling with heat and electricity. A crackling sound rang in your ears as you took a quick step to cut off her escape route.

Surprised, she jumped back and sent her fan whizzing through the air. You were careless. One of the blades cut your cheek, deep enough to draw blood.

Startled by the pain, you flinched back. Two quick steps and the princess had air to breathe again.

A murmur filled the crowd.

Something warm dripped over your skin. Confused, you raised a hand to wipe the spot with two fingers.

A thin layer covered the tips, sticking under your nails. Adrenaline made the hair on your arms stand up.

"Ha, I'm impressed!", you mumbled as a grin spread across your lips. "It's rare for me to get hurt in a fight. Never, to be precise."

Her eyebrows knitted together, Kitana frowned. Her lips curled.

"That's the power of lightning that the first champion had possessed.", she said with a sharp undertone.

"Earthrealm used this power all the time. Why should we give it up now?"

"It wasn't agreed that way!"

"We had agreed that Earthrealm would get a second chance. It would continue to fight the way it started the tournament. That includes the lightning seal of the Elder Gods.", a satisfied grin twitching at the corners of your mouth. "Are you going to give up?"

"Never!", with two hasty steps, the princess was suddenly in front of you again.

The blades of the fan whizzed through the air again, with such speed that you could feel them cutting through the sound.

Goose bumps ran down your spine.

Smoothly, you shifted your weight backwards, arms raised and a bolt of lightning sprang from between your fingers.

It struck Kitana's chest with full force. She gasped in surprise, small jolts of electricity paralysing her arms and legs.

Your hand clenched into a fist. Muscles tensed as lightning danced across your skin. You punched the princess in the pit of the stomach with full force.

The blow was so powerful that it knocked her off her feet. She crashed to the ground with a gasp. Her face showed pain and astonishment at the same time. She obviously hadn't expected you to fight with the seal as well as Raiden had.

You wasted no time and went in for a kick. The lightning spiralled around your leg in the shape of a punch, sparkling teeth opening.

She barely managed to roll out of the way. Wood splintered as your foot stomped into the ground. You could feel a vibration eating through your flesh and muscles, all the way to your bones. It felt like they would break at any moment under the tension.

Murmurs and gasps filled the crowd. The thunder of the drums had become a quiet rhythm.

Something tingled in the back of your mind. Perhaps it was the power of the lightning. Or maybe your own mind was slowly getting lost in the battle.

All your life you had done nothing else, but for the first time it felt right. For the first time it felt like you were doing what you were meant to do.

Fight.

Winning didn't matter. You just wanted to feel what it was like to fight when there was something at stake. A strange thought, but one that drove you on.

Kitana raised her fan, folded this time, and tried to stab at you with the tips of the blades.

You slid to the side, grabbed her arm and pulled one leg under her feet. A surprised gasp escaped her. Again she fell to the ground as blue lightning bolts wrapped around her body.

Clenching her teeth, she tried to resist your hold but you grabbed her by the back of the neck and forced her over your shoulder.

Panting and kicking, she let her blades whiz in all directions. Blindly, she caught your neck.

A burning pain ate its way into your windpipe. Overwhelmed by something you had never felt before, you dropped her and stumbled back, one hand pressed to the spot.

Thick strands of blood oozed from between your fingers. All at once your body temperature dropped. The wound was not deep but it was your mind that was going crazy.

Again and again you tried to feel the wound with your fingers but there was too much blood. Everything was sticky.

It was warm and then cold as soon as it started to dry. It ran down your neck in small rivers and was absorbed by the collar of your armour.

Breathing heavily, Kitana got to her feet again. Sweat glistened on her forehead. She was already out of breath. Her hands trembled as she tried to regain her fighting stance.

Your lightning bolts must have hurt her badly. She could barely keep her fingers tight enough to keep the fan from slipping out of her hand.

When had the fight started?

A few minutes ago?

Or had it been longer?

You could hardly tell, your own body was enduring and you had been taught not to show weakness. Or to overcome it.

So you stood facing each other, Kitana bathed in sweat and exertion and you drenched in your own blood.

It hurt like a fire licking over your skin. Then as if long, poisonous teeth were digging into your flesh. You could breathe, which meant the wound could not be deeper than the layer of fat. Still, it bled like a pig's throat had been slit.

The cheering of the crowd had died down. All eyes were on you, full of wonder and worry about what might happen next.

And once again you found yourself hating being looked at by so many at once. Like an animal at the zoo. An attraction that would quickly lose its value, that had to work for its existence.

No, you didn't want to be like that. Maybe a place at Johnny's side wouldn't be right for you after all.

A shiver crawled down your spine.

Where had this thought suddenly come from?

Seized by rage, you wanted to launch another attack. Kitana's fan suddenly fell to the ground and she raised her hands.

"This fight ends here.", her voice trembled with exertion.