Baki stepped out of the banquet hall into the night. A full moon hung overhead. Cold wind hit his wounds, the destroyed shoulder, the burns across his chest, the cuts and bruises from fighting through dozens of men. He stood still for a moment and let his breathing settle.
Then the screams started in the distance.
He walked toward the sound. By the time he reached it, everything had gone quiet.
Bodies covered a stone courtyard. Dozens of them, wearing the formal clothes of wealthy heirs. Their guards lay nearby with weapons still in hand. Nobody had made it out.
A man stood in the center of it. He was enormous, easily seven feet, built like something that didn't belong in a normal room. Long hair past his shoulders. His bare torso was covered in tattoos, dominated by a dragon that coiled across his entire upper body, its head resting over his heart. He was cleaning blood from his hands with a silk cloth, slow and methodical.
Wang Wei cowered behind two masked bodyguards at the far edge of the courtyard. When he spotted Baki his face twisted. "You! You're still alive?!" He turned the tattooed man. "Tianho! Kill him! I'll pay you triple! Just kill that bastard!"
Long Tianho didn't look at Wang Wei. His eyes stayed on Baki as he dropped the cloth. "Interesting. How did you reach here? What were the Red Dragon doing?"
Baki met his gaze. "Currently, they are not doing much. Most of them are down. But you are?"
"Long Tianho. Leader of Red Dragon." He gestured at the bodies around him. "These men were planning to use this gathering to absorb T Group's assets. I was hired to prevent that." He looked back at Baki. "You defeated Hou Qing?"
"He was strong," Baki said. "He surpassed his limits mid fight. So I spared him."
Something moved behind Long Tianho's eyes, quick and unreadable. "He actually did it?" He rolled his shoulders. "You must be truly strong then. It's a shame that I have to kill you."
"Wang Wei hired you to protect him," Baki said. "I'm here to kill him. It's all professional, isn't it?"
Long Tianho stepped forward. "It is. But fighters of your calibre are rare. It will be a loss to kill you"
Baki chuckled. "The answer lies in the heart of the battle. Let's find it."
They moved at the same time.
Long Tianho's fist came at Baki's face like a wrecking ball. Baki raised his guard and the impact drove him back three feet, his boots carving lines through the stone. His forearms went numb instantly.
Long Tianho closed the distance and threw a straight punch at Baki's chest. Baki sidestepped and countered with a hook to the ribs. His fist connected and it felt like hitting concrete. Long Tianho didn't react. His backhand caught Baki across the face and stars exploded in his vision. He tasted blood.
Baki spun with the momentum and threw a spinning back kick. Long Tianho blocked it with his forearm. The sound echoed like a gunshot. His arm didn't move.
"Speed without power is meaningless," Long Tianho said.
He stepped forward and drove a fist straight down. Baki rolled aside and the punch cratered the stone. Cracks spread outward in every direction.
Baki came up throwing combinations, targeting joints and pressure points, fast and precise. Long Tianho blocked or absorbed everything with minimal movement. Then his hand shot out and closed around Baki's throat.
He lifted Baki off the ground with one hand. Baki grabbed the wrist with both hands and couldn't break the grip. Long Tianho pulled him close. "The previous fights seemed to have taken their toll on you."
He threw Baki like a javelin.
Baki's body hit a stone arch and the structure collapsed around him in a shower of rubble. He rolled to his feet gasping. His already destroyed shoulder screamed.
Long Tianho walked through the dust unhurried. "Too much pressure can even bend iron."
Baki wiped blood from his mouth. "Or, it can forge a sword."
He coiled every muscle in his body and compressed everything into one point. He blurred forward.
His fist hit Long Tianho's crossed guard with everything behind it.
CRACK!
Long Tianho's feet plowed backward and carved trenches through the stone. He slid ten feet before stopping. He looked down at his forearms. The skin was red. He looked up. "Hmm. You're correct. It seems I was being too conservative."
He exploded forward.
His fist hit Baki's guard and every bone in both forearms cracked. Baki's body shot backward through the air, through a wooden fence, and into the trunk of a massive tree. The tree shook from the roots. Leaves came down in a wave. Baki slumped to the ground with his arms hanging useless at his sides.
His body flooded with endorphins. The pain went distant. He pushed himself to his feet.
Long Tianho approached without hurrying. "Do you not feel pain?"
Baki's arms came back up slowly. His body was refusing him and his will was overriding it. "Pain makes me sharper," he said. "You're the strongest opponent I've faced since coming to China. No. The strongest I've faced anywhere in a long time."
"Then you know you can't win," Long Tianho said.
"I didn't say I'd lose," Baki said.
Long Tianho's expression shifted slightly. They charged at each other.
Baki stopped trying to match the strength and became fluid instead. He slipped punches and hit back at the liver, kidneys, and floating ribs. He landed three shots for every one he took. But every shot he took was devastating. Long Tianho caught him with a hook and his jaw dislocated. He shoved it back with his palm and kept moving. An uppercut lifted him off his feet. He twisted mid-air and brought his heel down on Long Tianho's shoulder on the way down. Long Tianho grunted. The first sound of pain he had made.
They separated. Both breathing hard.
"It's been a while since I pushed myself like this," Long Tianho said. "Feels good to fight someone strong."
"I feel the same," Baki said.
"Then let's push ourselves to limits tonight!" Long Tianho's style changed. He started moving in short, explosive bursts, perfectly still one moment and already throwing the next. The transitions had no warning in them. A jab landed before Baki could read it. A hook to the ribs followed. A knee to the gut. Three hits before Baki could process the first one.
Long Tianho grabbed his arm, yanked him forward, and headbutted him. Baki's vision went white. He spun him and drove him into the ground with a suplex. The stone shattered under the impact.
Long Tianho stood over him. "Don't give up. Don't let it end. Make me enjoy more." He reached down toward Baki's throat.
Baki's eyes opened.
In the half-second between Long Tianho reaching and his hand arriving, Baki was gone. Long Tianho's hand closed on empty air. Then agony hit his ribs as Baki's fist came from an angle that had no visible origin point, already buried deep in his side.
Long Tianho stumbled back. His eyes went wide. Before he could locate Baki, a knee drove into his kidney from behind. He spun and threw a backhand. His fist hit nothing. Baki appeared in front of him and an uppercut snapped his head back. Blood sprayed from his mouth.
Long Tianho straightened, a grin spreading across his face. "Yes. That's it."
He dragged his thumb across his split lip. "Every strike sets my blood on fire. I haven't felt this alive in years."
Long Tianho lowered his stance. A wild light burned in his eyes. "Again!"