SF: A Warrior's Path Prologue
By Gouki

The small, droplets of water fell from the dark, grey-black clouds where it landed and ran through the reddish-ginger hair of Ryu as he ran a hand through it, studying his opponent. He was Sagat, champion of Muay Thai and most feared man in all of Thailand. Wearing a brown cloak that adorned his huge 7 foot frame, covering all but his overbuilt chest muscles, he seemed to stand still, letting the fairly strong breeze sway his cloak to the side. Below the waist he wore pale purple shorts followed by the bandages covering his tremendous feet, being the only source of footwear. Coiled around his hands were also bandages. Reaching up to Sagat’s chest standing up Ryu looked up at him to see him stride an overconfident grin on his vicious looking face and adjust a black eyepatch that covered his right eye. Ryu quickly went into his stance, but couldn’t help but have doubts about this fight. Sagat slowly let his cloak fall to the floor before he went into his.

Sagat was the first to attack. He threw a jab, aiming for Ryu’s face. Ryu crouched with ease under the obvious attack and countered with a leg sweep. Angry that his attack didn’t land, he threw a kick to the side of Ryu’s head. Ryu fell down to the blow and quickly rolled to the side to avoid a stomp by Sagat. Ryu kicked himself up and went into a defensive pose. Sagat rushed in with a flurry of punches, to which Ryu avoided, blocked or parried. He continued, trying to find a break in his guard. Ryu could do nothing but block but he couldn’t keep this up, unless he could find an opening. He did. Sagat’s kick came too late, giving Ryu the chance to counterattack. Starting off with a jab to the midsection, Ryu followed it up with a left and right hook to the pelvis. An elbow came next, then an uppercut to the gut. Ryu leapt up into the air to finish his assault with a flying roundhouse. It connected with the right side of the head near the eyepatch. Sagat growled in pain as he stumbled, but remained standing. Ryu suddenly realised that was Sagat’s weak spot.

Holding his hands apart, Ryu saw as an orange chi appeared and flew back and forth between Sagat’s open palms. Holding it for long enough, Sagat fixed his gaze on Ryu and released it forward…

"TIGER!!" he yelled as the orange wave of energy flew towards Ryu, who leapt over it. He came down with a kick to Sagat’s face, making sure it connected with his eye. Leaping high into the air, Ryu spun around and hit Sagat with three consecutive kicks to the head. The effect of the hurricane kick sent Sagat to the ground. He leapt up to his feet, blood leaking from his nose but more angrier than before. Before Ryu had time to react, Sagat reached out and grabbed Ryu by the head. Holding him high into the air, Ryu gave a cry as Sagat threw a series of knees to his body. Sagat repeated this until he felt the warmth of Ryu’s blood drip along his leg before he gave him one last knee. Ryu landed on his back and got up, only to fall down again. The last kick had caused Ryu to cough up blood, forcing him to hold a hand to his stomach to stop himself from expelling more. Sagat, seeing Ryu' s struggle to keep himself up, ran up to him as if to finish him off with the last blow. In his eagerness to destroy Ryu, Sagat didn't notice that Ryu was just barely upright and channelling his chi to his blood covered fist before he cried out the name of his technique...

"SHOOOORYUKEN!!" A flash of bright chi cut through the air as Ryu leapt up with his arm fully extended into a rising uppercut, connecting with Sagat’s chest. Sagat gave a yell as he landed onto the ground. His last vision was of Ryu before all around him went black…