"Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your patience!"
The blond announcer's voice thundered through the high-powered speakers, shaking the entire Martial Arts Temple until even the overhead canopy vibrated.
"The Top Eight matches of the World Martial Arts Tournament officially begin now!"
The afternoon sun scorched the arena. Heat pressed down like a heavy blanket, thick and suffocating, as if a storm were about to break.
Though the blood from the earlier matches had already been scrubbed away, the faint metallic scent still lingered in the air, clinging stubbornly to every fighter's senses.
"First match of the quarterfinals!"
"Disciple of the Crane School, Tien Shinhan, versus the assassin who returned from death, Tao Pai Pai!"
A deep bronze gong rang out.
The curtain rose on the quarterfinals.
On the platform, two figures faced each other from a distance.
Tien Shinhan stood bare-chested, his muscles carved like granite. His stance was steady and grounded, breath calm and immovable, as though he had fused with the arena itself.
The third eye on his forehead narrowed slightly. There was no fear in his gaze. Only a cold, almost merciful detachment.
Across from him, Tao Pai Pai was a mockery of the word "martial artist."
Beneath his iconic pink robe was no longer a living human body, but cold alloy bones and intricate hydraulic mechanisms. Sunlight reflected harshly off the silver-gray metal plating that replaced half his face.
His crimson electronic eye spun rapidly inside its hollow socket, emitting faint static as it ran precise combat calculations on the opponent before him.
"Heh heh heh…"
Tao Pai Pai's laugh grated against the ears. The sound was synthetic, filtered through a mechanical voice modulator, rough and grainy, like rusted metal being scraped raw.
"My dear junior."
"That little runt named Chiaotzu… the sound of his bones snapping was beautiful."
"Did you know? When I crushed his ribs, the look in his eyes… despair, helplessness… it was better than the finest stimulant."
Tien's eyelid twitched.
His hands slowly clenched at his sides, joints cracking like gunfire.
"What, you want to kill me?"
Tao Pai Pai caught that flicker of emotion and laughed even louder.
"Yes. Hate me. Rage against me."
"Come at me with all that filth in your heart."
"I will show you what true power looks like when perfected by technology!"
"Perfect?"
Tien finally spoke. His voice was low, heavy, terrifyingly calm.
"You call this pile of scrap perfect?"
"Tao Pai Pai, you threw away your body for power. And in doing so, you threw away your dignity as a martial artist."
"What stands before me now is nothing but a coward driven by fear."
"Shut up!"
The words pierced straight through Tao Pai Pai's deepest wound.
The nightmare he could never escape.
The humiliation of being blown apart by Goku's grenade.
"I'll tear you to pieces!"
The stone beneath his feet shattered.
With the explosive force of his mechanical legs, Tao Pai Pai launched forward like a fired shell, wind screaming around him.
"Super Dodon Ray!"
His wrist rotated unnaturally, revealing a dark cannon barrel.
With a shrill turbine whine, a highly compressed yellow energy beam erupted forward, blending ki with raw thermal output.
The air warped violently along its path. Even the concrete platform was gouged into a blackened trench.
The crowd erupted.
"That's a cannon!"
"Is this even legal?"
"Run, that thing will kill someone!"
"This isn't a martial arts match. It's a war machine!"
But facing an attack powerful enough to punch through tank armor, Tien merely shifted his body slightly.
The movement was minimal, precise, as though he had already seen the beam's trajectory.
The blast skimmed past his shoulder and slammed into the reinforced wall behind him.
Boom!
Concrete exploded outward, leaving a crater two meters wide.
"What?"
Error messages flooded Tao Pai Pai's electronic vision.
"He dodged it? Impossible! His reaction speed should not exceed my targeting system!"
"Your eye sees data."
Tien's voice cut through the smoke, cold and clear.
"But it cannot see ki."
Before Tao Pai Pai could react, a large hand burst through the dust and clamped down on his prized mechanical arm.
Tien's hand.
Calloused, powerful, gripping the joint like a hydraulic press.
"You increased your strength and defense with machines."
"But you lost a martial artist's instinct for danger."
Tien stared at him from inches away, all three eyes blazing.
"I will defeat you."
"I will answer for Chiaotzu."
"Let go, you traitor!"
Panic crept into Tao Pai Pai's voice. He struggled violently, but the grip did not budge.
Desperate, his right arm snapped forward. A high-frequency vibrating blade extended instantly.
The blade blurred, emitting a piercing hum as it thrust straight for Tien's throat.
"Die!"
Krillin narrowed his eyes from the sidelines, a cold smile forming.
"Relying on toys. You really are going backward."
Clink!
A crisp, impossible sound echoed across the arena.
Tien caught the blade with his bare hand.
White ki erupted visibly around his palm, and with sheer force, he crushed the titanium alloy blade into fragments.
Metal shards scattered across the floor.
"That's impossible!"
Fear bled into Tao Pai Pai's voice.
"That blade is reinforced titanium! No human hand could…"
"Because your heart has already rusted away."
Tien roared.
His muscles swelled, ki surging outward like a tidal wave, blasting the smoke away.
He twisted his hips and wrenched hard.
"Break!"
Screech. Crack.
Metal tore apart with a sound that made the scalp crawl. Sparks exploded from the joint as black oil sprayed like blood.
In front of tens of thousands of horrified spectators, Tien Shinhan ripped Tao Pai Pai's entire mechanical arm clean from his body.
"Aaaaagh!"
Tao Pai Pai screamed as he crashed to the ground, wires snapping and smoking from the torn stump.
The arena fell silent.
No one spoke.
Tien leapt high into the air and came down like a missile.
Boom!
When the dust settled, he stood at the center of the ring, holding the twitching mechanical arm like discarded trash.
With disgust, he tossed it off the platform.
It landed at the feet of Master Shen, the Crane Hermit, whose face had gone deathly pale.
"Take your garbage."
"Get out of the tournament."
Tien looked down at him, gaze sharp as a blade.
"If you do not leave now, the next thing I tear off will be your neck."
Master Shen trembled.
Staring at the disciple who once obeyed him unquestioningly, now powerful enough to suffocate him with presence alone, he could not utter a single threat.
Clutching Tao Pai Pai's broken body, he fled the arena amid the crowd's contemptuous jeers.
Tien closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath, the scent of sea air filling his lungs.
"Chiaotzu…"
"I've avenged you."