The Face: Tournament of Death, Chapter Twenty-Four

Sam Lee had arrived at the virtually desolate Hanoi Temple entrance. He looked around for any sign of persons, but finding none, he moved on.

Suddenly, the old messenger could be spotted fluttering down the hall, and turning to go up the stairs to the second floor. "Hey you!" Sam Lee cried, pointing at the messenger. The mustached man stopped in his tracks, and looked backward. "Ehehe..." he nervously chuckled, and attempted to run back downstairs to the hall and escape, and divert Sam from the real foe.

But he was caught. "So Shran's upstairs isn't he? That's why you were in such a hurry to get up there?" Sam asked. "Yes, yes! Whatever you do don't hurt me!" The messenger cried. Sam Lee Kim shoved the helpless and frantic messenger out of the way and proceeded up the stairs.

Shran stood, with back turned, behind a glass case full of memorabilia that looked to be fitting pieces for his handless arm. "Ah, so glad you could make it..." Shran cackled, turning his head, and revealing the sack with Mina inside.

Sam's eyes widened in shock. "Mina... still alive?" He said. "Unhand her!" He demanded, pointing his finger toward the villain. Shran put his hand to his mouth and began to chuckle. "Hand her over? Just like that? Without a fight? Ever since you found out about these operations, Sam, I knew this time would come. Your father... he was exiled off this island. He was too weak to overcome the great strength of myself and my followers. Even his own disciples fled in terror, and even joined my side. They now live in the lap of luxury, which sad to say, your father's followers could have too, if they had seen my way. But unfortunately for them, they are locked away."

"I will avenge my mother and sister... of whom both your followers have killed..." Sam said with stout determination and fist raised. "Then let's have it then, show me what useless martial arts your father has passed down to you. They should be nothing compared to my touch of death."

Sam Lee Kim narrowed his eyes, closely pacing back and forth in front of the evil Shran. "I'll have you know... my father was only responsible for part of my developing martial arts. I've travelled the world, studying various forms, and training under the great Master Gerry Poteet..." Sam explained.

"Still, you shall not overcome the metal hand that I possess right now... instead, you will die by it!" Shran excalaimed. He unsheathed a long, one-foot claw that stretched outward with red-marked stains. "A strike from this..." he continued, holding out his large metal claw. "Will end your life, the touch of death will live up to its name..."

Sam Lee Kim spread his legs far apart, and began his fluid-like steps. He encircled Shran, who also began to move at the same pace that Sam did. However, Sam Kim's first task was to get Mina to safety.

"Go ahead... take her, Samuel. I have no need for her anymore. She was just bait... to lure you here, so that I would be able to kill you. And once I am finished, she should be the next to go..."

Crumpling his brows in anger, Sam made the first attempt to strike, stretching out his hand to hit the fiend. But Shran blocked with his claw, and counter-stabbed forward. Rapidly, Sam stepped back, barely avoiding the thick, sharp, blades of the make-shift limb.

He then cautiously observed Shran's technique in his original stance once again. After sometime, Sam assaulted for a second time, this time without relenting as he put forth a flurry of jabbed which Shran was forced to block and parry. But soon it was too much for the hard-fought villain, who soon succumbed to one of Sam's hard-hitting punches.

Shran was knocked backward, and saw before him a sprinting Sam, from which he quickly sliced at with blood-red results. Sam's chest was caught by the madman's blade, and he felt upon the wound to reveal the blood that was seeping from his skin. He looked down, and proceeded to strike, thriving with determination.

A flurry of leg-kicks and jabs caught Shran periodically off-guard, and Shran was forced to retreat, and take cover upon the ground. It seems he had underestimated the great martial artist. Sam then began to speak. "I have defeated your greatest guardian, Buchio with just a few strikes... if he was your best, then I pity for your life!" Sam cried, progressing his velocity in battle.

Shran shielded himself with his metal claw, which soon Sam was able to grab with his bare hands. And even though the slicing pain had caught upon his fingers, he still twisted the piece of metal until it was completely separated from the villain's limb. He yelled out in fury, as he tore it from him and threw it upon the ground behind him, and then he stared angrily into Shran's pleading eyes.

He knew he was no match for the angry warrior. A house of mirrors he decided to flee to, and with a brisk flight of feet, Shran had hid into the reflecting forces of the multiple mirrors. Sam entered the peculiar, vast room and began searching for his foe.

Without warning, Shran took the advantage of infringed sight, and struck while Sam's back was turned, striking with a kick to the back. Sam leapt upon the ground, phased but unbound. He rolled to his feet, and Shran looked with horror at the resolve of Sam's figure.

Sam then proceeded to fall into a run, inching his way toward Shran with great speed, and finally landed leaping kick with insubstantial momentum against Shran's chest who had tried to reduce impact of the blow by fleeing backwards. But alas, even with this aid he was flung far backward, and eventually met with a pointed statue spear after crashing through a mirror wall. Sam looked upon his fallen foe with narrowed lids, unable to even honor the downtrodden. His task was done, he had defeated Shran once and for all, reclaiming the honor of his lost mother and sister, as well as that of his own father's.

He swept pieces of the glass mirror with his foot aside, and proceeded out of the hall of hands...