Jaheira1000: Hey Mina! Sorry it took so long. I had another back op. I'm glad I got this up by Christmas though. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: Why must I torture myself by saying it?!? It's not mine!

THIS CHAPTER IS DEDICATED TO LIOKU. YOU ASKED ME TO UPDATE SO NICELY :P ALSO TO BLUEGREENGRAY!!!

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CHAPTER SIX: Duelling?

It was finally the day of the duel. Kai stood calmly in his normal pose against the wall, but everybody else was fussing like they would never see him again.

The duel would continue until one of the competitors gave up, or until the Elders' decided he had no more chance of winning. Both competitors would receive their choice of weapon and had to wear the traditional uniforms. These consisted of comfortable Chinese shoes, baggy black pants like Ray's normal outfit and black Chinese shirts with red ties and sash.

Both competitors made their way towards the fighting arena, which consisted of a very large clearing. Both approached the Elders' who had before them, a large array of weapons.

Jun immediately picked up the flashiest weapon, a large broad-sword. Everybody was curious to see which weapon Kai would choose. He looked around, before settling on a well-crafted pair of short-swords.

They had golden handles with a glowing red gem set in the base of the hilt. As he lifted them from their resting place, the gems glowed slightly. The Elders' looked at each other, but said nothing.

Having made their selections, the two adversaries faced off, awaiting the starting signal. Inwardly Jun was smirking. How much damage could a pair of short-swords do?

As they received the start sign, he rushed forward. Everybody gasped as he swung his sword straight towards the other boy's chest. He wasn't planning on wasting any time. At the last moment, Kai twirled around, avoiding the sword and leaving the smallest of scrapes on Jun's left arm. Jumping back, Jun looked at the thin trickle of blood.

Maybe he had under-estimated his opponent. As he lunged forwards again, their swords crashed together. Kai had crossed the two swords to defend.

Smirking, Jun kicked at Kai's feet, causing the other boy to stumble slightly. Just as he was about to take advantage of the slip, he realised that the other boy hadn't slipped, but pretended to, in order to get a gap. Jumping back, he narrowly dodged a blow aimed at his shoulder. This guy was good. Deciding to finish the fight, Jun changed his stance and approached more cautiously. The fight was getting interesting, he would break Kai's defences once or twice, but the other boy was just too fast. Jun almost had him with his last thrust, but the aggravating bluenette just leapt backwards in a beautiful arc to land on a tree behind him. Looking down at his adversary, Kai decided to stop playing around.

The spectators were speechless. Jun's arms and legs were covered in small scratches and he was panting, while Kai was uninjured and looking like he hadn't even warmed up. As the blades came together once more, Kai pushed forwards, intending to finish it. Seeing the smallest of gaps, Jun lunged forwards. Seeing him just in time, Kai ducked and rolled away slightly. They all heard a small ripping noise as the right shoulder of Kai's shirt was torn before he tackled Jun and pinned him, with the two blades scissored around his neck, the points embedded in the ground.

There was a moment of silence before the Elders' moved forward. Noticing the torn shoulder of his shirt, he quickly used his other hand to cover the claw mark, making it look like his shoulder was injured. Running towards him, Mariah threw her arms around his neck and hugged him. Blushing, he pushed her away slightly.

Mariah's grandmother also came forwards and noticed him holding his shoulder. Moving to stand in front of him, she demanded to see his shoulder. Paling slightly, he declined. She tugged slightly at his hand.

Finally, with some help from Gary, she managed to prise his hand away from his shoulder. As she saw the mark she gasped and clutched at her heart. Everybody gathered around her while, unable to speak from pure shock, she simply pointed at Kai. The Elders', noticing her reaction, also moved forwards. Seeing the mark, they all immediately started whispering to each other.

Frowning at their reactions, he demanded to know what all the fuss was about. Instead of answering him, the head Elder simply looked at Gary's father, who nodded slightly.

To his surprise, the older male stepped forward and pinned his arms behind him.

"What do you think you're doing?" He demanded. The older man refused to look him in the face. The Elders' stepped towards him and made another motion with their heads. The adults nearest them, grabbed hold of the Breakers who had been moving forward to help their friend. The head Elder smiled and spoke English for their benefit.

"Don't worry, we won't harm him. There is just one thing we would like to see." At this point, Kai had a pretty good idea about what was going on, but a small voice in his head was practically screaming at him to prevent them from finding out about the mark on his back.

Unfortunately, since strength ran in Gary's family, he couldn't release himself from the tight grip. It didn't stop him from trying though. He struggled as they moved towards him. He stopped struggling as they lifted the remains of his shirt off. Seeing him stop struggling, he was released.

The head Elder looked expectantly at Kai. Keeping his eyes focused on the ground before him, he turned his back towards them slowly. Only the Elders' knew what to expect, but even though they had been suspicious, they never imagined it to be true. The mark of the Phoenix was on this young man, which meant he was the village's next leader.

The mark on his shoulder looked identical to the one on Mariah's left shoulder. Meanwhile, the young lady in question was trying to take it all in. She was mated to Kai, but he still didn't know. She couldn't believe her luck. She had never been happier, but she was worried about how he would take it.

Everybody in the village watched in shock as the Elders' sank low in a bow. Slowly, the villagers realised what was happening. As realisation hit them, they all slowly bowed.

Blinking in surprise, Kai could only watch as the villagers all slowly bowed to him. He looked around him in shock. Silently willing them to stand up. His face felt like it was on fire. He couldn't believe it. Of all people, why him? As the villagers slowly rose again, the head Elder approached him once more.

"It seems you are more important than even we thought young one. We will be issuing another challenge. We would like you to battle our village leader." Kai narrowed his eyes while the White Tigers gasped. The Elders' had requested a battle! It was unheard of. Vaguely, Kai remembered the legacy Lee had told him about. He pressed his hands to his temples in an effort to think clearly. After a furious inner battle, he nodded shortly before saying.

"If it's not too inconvenient, could we do it right now?" Everybody was shocked, but the current leader stepped forward and accepted the challenge with an inclination of his head. The present leader was taller than Kai, though not by much, he wore the traditional fighters outfit, which looked identical to the one Kai was currently wearing with a crimson headband covering his forehead. He had dark green hair and, surprisingly, matching green eyes.

Slowly, they took up their stances. The present leader, also known as Guy Long, chose a double-bladed sword as his weapon, while Kai chose to keep his two short-swords. Everybody was watching in fear. Guy was much more experienced than Kai. This would be a dangerous fight for him.

They were very shocked to see him use a different stance from the one he had used against Jun. Observing this, Guy smiled slightly. He was actually serious this time.

The starting sign was made, and Guy leapt forward. He was much faster than Jun, and they were amazed to see Kai meet the attack head-on. As the blades clashed, dust was kicked up. The next thing anybody saw was two very athletic neko-jin's at it.

They leapt towards each other, leapt aside, threw themselves forward. It seemed like a never-ending cycle of attacking and dodging. Mariah held her breath as she saw Guy scrape Kai's cheek, leaving the tiniest of scratches on his face.

Suddenly, Guy managed to get the upper hand by making a very realistic fake to the left and in reality attacking from the right. As the blade descended towards him, Kai flipped backwards, placing his hands on the ground behind him and blocking with his feet. Kicking the blade away from himself, he completed the back-flip. Losing his temper, Guy tried rushing him. Seeing this, Kai bent his knees, and placed his hands on the ground behind him once more.

Instead of blocking the blade, however, he hooked his ankles around Guys' neck before throwing him to the ground. Before his opponent could pull himself together, Kai pinned him to the ground in the same manner as he had done with Jun only a short time ago.

Kai slowly released the villages' former leader to face the Elders'.

"Are you happy now? I defeated him. Now let me go, I'm tired." Smiling, the head Elder came forward.

"It's true that you won, but there is one more thing to be done before you may rest." With these words, the Elder leaned over and removed the headband from Guys' forehead. There was the tiniest mark of an attacking White Tiger in his forehead. It was only about two centimetres in diameter. As they watched, the picture started glowing brightly. Blocking the harsh glare from their eyes, everybody was surprised to hear a yell of pain from Kai. Another beam of light started rising from Kai's back before the two beams wound themselves together.

As the light dimmed, they saw Kai kneeled on the ground, clutching his forehead. Rushing forward, the White Tigers and Breakers surrounded him in concern. As he removed his hands, they were shocked to see the same picture there. Their shock increased when they turned around to see nothing on Guys forehead. It was as if the picture had leapt off the one onto the other, which in actual fact was exactly what had happened. They were so shocked they didn't notice the small shadowed figure disappear into the forest...

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Jaheira1000: There you go! I hope you enjoyed! Please R&R!