AN - 18 - Endurance

The combat between the two behemoths was brief and savage. They closed with each other, snarling, clawing, biting, lashing their tails. Their tangled forms thrashed back and forth. Finally, the dragon boldly lunged at the hydra, biting hard and severing one of its serpentine necks. In turn, the other five hydra heads bit into the dragon’s torso.

The two beasts staggered apart, bellowing in agony, shifting back to their human forms in an eyeblink.

Deep gashes crisscrossing his chest, Liu stepped over to Kahn and looked down at him.

The Warlord was on his knees, trying to stanch the bleeding from his neck wound with the palm of his hand.

“Your blood flows, Kahn,” Liu said. “Just like the blood of a mortal.”

(...)

The two glowing faces turned to Liu.

“Now the fate of the universe will be decided as it should be,” one of them said.

“In Mortal Kombat,” said the other.

Desperate to avoid his father’s fate, Kahn got to his feet and wobbled toward Liu, raising his fists, trying to snag hit him with a combination of blows. But there was nothing behind them, nothing left of his power. Liu slipped most of the feeble punches, blocked the others, and then finished Kahn with a devastating uppercut that sent him high in the air.