Surprised, the man backed away as you landed light-footed in front of him. With a swift kick, you put distance between him and Bi Han before positioning yourself at the grandmaster's side.

His eyes briefly wandered to you. Right then, the instructions were clear. He only wanted your support, not for you to use your abilities.

That would be the worst outcome of this evening for both sides. Not only because you could cause massive damage, but also because it would paralyse you for the next few hours.

He needed you for the next missions. You nodded briefly in agreement. You didn't want to fail any more than he did. Especially if it meant falling back into that disgusting dreamless sleep.

Once again, the will to persevere appeared in the brown eyes of the chosen one. His grip on the knife tightened.

Both you and Bi Han stood with your backs to the bar. There was nowhere to go except the open.

The man who was still sitting there drinking was not impressed by your presence. Given the strong odour of alcohol, he was probably no longer able to do so.

Your opponent's shoulders tightened. You prepared yourself. At that very moment, he came towards you with his weapon raised.

As if you were one and the same person, you and Bi Han dodged to either side in a half turn, opened your centre and let him stumble in. He struck uncontrollably with the knife, the blade buried itself in the wood and stuck for a second.

The Grandmaster seized the moment to encase his hands and weapon in ice.

Unbothered, the man at the bar poured himself some more alcohol. Then he helped himself to the magically grown ice to cool his drink.

Impressed by both his attitude and ignorance for the moment, you raised an eyebrow and snorted.

Grunting angrily, Liu Kang's champion tried to break free, but the ice was hard and Bi Han was out of reach to be in serious danger.

With a grin hidden under your mask, you returned to his side. Brown eyes fell on you, scrutinising you from top to bottom. Only a few strands had fallen into your forehead. Nothing else had changed.

You nodded to make him silently realise that nothing was wrong with you. The hard expression on his face softened. But only for a second until your attention left him and turned in the direction of the footsteps.

The second man had joined you. He tilted his head and thought for a moment. You frowned in confusion. Bi Han didn't even bother to turn towards him. In a serious situation, that would have been a fatal mistake.

But here it was just a test against a few beginners. And he was the grandmaster of the Lin Kuei. A power imbalance that could not have been greater.

You watched the remaining man intently as he suddenly took off his hat with conviction and threw it like a sickle. It whizzed smoothly through the air, only to smack the back of Bi Han's head completely unspectacularly and without causing any damage.

The grandmaster frowned in irritation.

"Ugghh!", he turned to the man with a growl.

You almost had to laugh. As if nothing had ever happened, the man shrugged his shoulders and grinned mischievously. He had a certain kind of charm, you had to give him that.

"Incompetent.", the way that Bi Han said it almost sounded defeated, tired of the events of this night.

Chuckling to yourself, you crossed your arms in front of your chest and raised your chin to gift him a very amused look.

"Creative, to say the least.", you said.

He threw a glance over his shoulder down to you, his eyebrows knitted together. Only a low sound made his throat vibrate.

He didn't find this funny. Not in the slightest.

But even though this moment was extremely entertaining for you, you made a mistake. You let yourself be distracted.

The man suddenly hurried to a pillar on which a round, sickle-shaped throwing star was hanging and grabbed the weapon. Everything in your body tightened.

Before Bi Han could even react, you jumped between him and the blade, which spun on its own axis due to the momentum of the throw. Your fingers tensed. Magic was crying out to be used, but it was already too late.

The blade was so well sharpened that the wound it slashed across your arm burned like fire. (S/C) skin opened and rich, red blood gushed out.

The cut wasn't deep, but it was long and bloody. When the weapon hit the wall behind you with full force and got stuck, blood was already dripping down your fingers.

A gasp escaped your lips. With one eye squeezed shut, you pressed the flat of your hand onto the wound to stop the bleeding.

You could have used your powers to stop the whole thing within seconds, but this wasn't an emergency and you were still needed.

"Ho!", the man pointed to the bloodstained blade that was now stuck in the wall. "That works."

You took a barely noticeable step back to steady yourself. A huge shadow swallowed you up. Suddenly, an icy shiver ran down your spine.

Behind you, Bi Han froze.

All the muscles in his body trembled with tension. Holding your breath, you straightened your back and dared to look up at him.

The aura that surrounded him seemed to make the air tremble. It was suddenly so cold that goose bumps appeared all over your body. Even Liu Kang's chosen one seemed to notice, because he frowned in confusion and looked around. You shook your head slightly.

But a thin layer of spiky ice was already spreading over the Grandmaster's knuckles.

"I have had enough of you.", he growled in such a calm, levelled way that it made you suck in a sharp breath.

But the man in front of him was way too confident to realise that he was about to face the wrath of a godlike creature.

"Then go, before I put you down like the rest of your Lin Kuei.", he replied with a smug expression.

"You haven't a prayer against the Lin Kuei's grandmaster."