The semifinals (part 2)

Raiden watched with the rest of the competitors as the second fight of the finals came to an end. It had been Man-Wolf fighting Yani, they had both put up a good fight.

Man-Wolf attacked with a ruthless and beastly style, not so different from Chappas. Yani was on the defensive the whole fight as she tried to dodge Man-wolfs brutal attacks but to no avail. She did manage to draw it out desperately dodging and defending, but her opponent didn't give her a chance to counterattack.

Eventually, as Yani's stamina wore down Man-wolf caught her with a kick to the back of her knee that made her lose her balance and collapse. He then punched out stopping his fight mere inches from her face to which she signed in resignation and forfeited the match.

"Good fight," Yani said to Man-wolf, to which he just grunted and gave a small nod of his head.

The next fight was Yajirobe against Yani's sister, Yami. But this fight didn't last anywhere near as long as the last. Yajirobe showing no remorse for the other sex flashed forward as soon as the fight started as gave Yami his signature punch to the gut, which caused her to double over in pain on the floor of the ring.

The red quickly called the fight and to Raiden's surprise, Yajirobe helped his opponent to her feet. Raiden didn't expect such kindness in the finals, especially not from the unruly chubby samurai.

The last fight of the quarter-finals was the monk Tora from the Orin temple against the giant sumo wrestler Nagri.

The fight started with Nagri taking a traditional sumo stance with both his fists on the floor in front of him as he prepared himself and Tora taking a rather traditional battle stance with his hands in front of his and one foot in front of the other.

Though his fight caused Raiden to be surprised for a second time that day. Right as the referee started the fight Nagri flashed forward across the ring, at a speed Raiden thought was impossible for a man his size, and got into Tora's guard. Then with what looked like to be a very heavy slap to the chest of his opponent Nagri sent his flying out of the ring and crashing into one of the walls surrounding it.

Raiden quickly tried to sense if Nagri was using any ki, but found no ki fluctuation from the large fighter. He had done that with just pure speed and strength.

Raiden suddenly found himself wondering who would win the fight between the two large fighters in the semi-final. Especially since Yajirobe was using just his fists to fight, not the sword he was so used to.

Though for his own fight he was much less excited. He had watched Man-Wolf's fight, and while he was a good maybe even great fighter, that was using Earth's standards. He was already looking forward to his fight in the finals against one of the heavy hitters in the other semifinal fight.

Just like Raiden predicted Man-Wolf was nothing special, especially when he had just fought against Chappa. But still, he decided that he would fight. This time without using his ki, since he wanted to get a gauge on how much his pure fighting skills had improved throughout his training.

Without using his ki Raiden was no different physically than a normal athlete, albeit one trained for fighting. He managed to hold his own against Man-wolf for a little bit using his superior fighting style but still, he wasn't really his match. Man-wolf was stronger, faster, and had better reach.

Eventually, Raiden was forced to use his ki, but he made sure he used just enough to get his power level to around the same level as Man-Wolf. After that, the table of the fight quickly turned.

Man-wolf who seemed to be dominating until then was slowly and surely pushed back. This fight though was different than the others. For the other fights, there was usually one aggressor and the other fighter defended and bided their time waiting for a moment to counterattack.

But that wasn't the case for Raiden's fight against Man-wolf. Both fighters were duking it out only defending or evading a strike when it was a fight-ending blow. Finally after a few minutes of watching the slugfest with both fighters being bruised and battered the fight abruptly ended.

Raiden managed to feint a kick to Man-Wolf side caused the man to lower his arm to block. At breakneck speed, Raiden used the airwalk technique to rise about a foot in the air, making up the height difference between him and Man-wolf. This let him go over his opponent's guard and deliver a blow to the side of the head that sent him skidding across the ring.

The crowd broke into cheers and the ref finished his 10 counts making sure Man-wolf didn't make a miracle recovery. Raiden walked floated off the ring sending ki to his new wounds as a few monks made their way to the ring holding a stretcher in their hands. He doubted his half-beast opponent would wake up anytime soon so it was probably the right call.

Raiden walked over to where Yajirobe and Nagri had been watching his fight and gave them an eery smile that caused them to shiver involuntarily and said, "Good luck you two. I'm really looking forward to the finals."