Tournament - The Scorpion King vs. Predator

[corvette1710]

The noonday sun turned the dunes of the Sahara a brilliant white, beautifully pristine slopes extending past the horizon, the only evidence that anything else existed being the incredible azure expanse above it, cloudless and clear.

It was here that the armies of the Scorpion King would soon march. If one listened, one could hear their footsteps, their immense thunderous din, from over the horizon. So great was the number of soldiers that they were coordinated not by terse command, but by sonorous horn, for even the loudest voice could not carry over an entire column of marching infantrymen. Each man in the army was trained and conditioned, each equipped with a long spear and a hide shield, and a short sword at their hip. Officers rode horses of impeccable breed, and their rank was emblazoned on a metal tag hung from a leather thong about their neck, ranging from tin to steel.

But the true majesty of the army was the King himself. Mathayus was a warrior of unmatched prowess—the greatest to ever live, most would agree. His physique was as if sculpted from marble, rippling muscles and long, flowing black hair draped over broad shoulders. He was unarmored, and this would not change come time for battle. He was an Akkadian, the last of his kind, a legendary assassin made ruler by right of combat, having killed Memnon the Conqueror some two years prior. His copper skin glistened with sweat, for the desert reached more than one hundred degrees this time of day.

He rode on camelback, his preferred steed due to their intelligence relative to horses. On his hips he wore twin scimitars, and in a saddlebag were many other implements of murder and war. On his face was an aggrieved expression.

“Do you believe we will be victorious in Thebes?”

“The answer has not changed, my love. Waset will elude you. I must again ask you not march on the city—take another target, any other, and you may yet succeed,” the sorceress Cassandra said with a sigh. Mathayus would not meet her eye, his jaw set as he looked out over the dunes. She knew he would not be swayed. Thebes—or Waset, to residents of the former Upper Kingdom—was a target Mathayus had his heart set upon acquiring. Her hand rested on his face, and he put his own hand on hers in order to gently pull it away.

“I cannot heed you, sorceress. Menes has been pushed back time and again—Thebes is his last stronghold before Aswan, a far less defensible city. Balthazar would want us to continue.” Mathayus finally looked to Cassandra, their eyes meeting for the first time in that conversation. Balthazar had been lost a year prior on the campaign, but not fallen in battle—assassinated and killed in single combat, by the looks of things. He was found without spine or skull. “I will soon prove your vision wrong. Fate cannot stop me.”

On the last word, Cassandra began to smile but then collapsed, almost falling from the camel if Mathayus were not there to hold her. Mathayus knew it to be a prophecy.

***

The Yautja stood at the bow of his personal craft, his small, beady eyes scanned the stars ahead of him, which were overlaid by the ship’s onboard computer with the names of destinations, species of note, and warriors of merit. The great dark sea beckoned him closer, the void calling his name.

He turned back to piloting apparatus and sat down, dragging a long, claw-tipped finger over the interface in order to zoom the star map into a particular area, and from there again, until he’d settled on a small system of eight planets, on which only one had notable lifeforms: N’ithya.

The civilizations on N’ithya were ramshackle—perhaps a millennium had passed since the Yautja had discovered the world and brought some small measure of technology to its inhabitants in the form of pyramids. Some six or seven cultures had been visited by Yautja emissaries, who were hailed on arrival as gods.

The Yautja tapped N’ithya on his console and the planet expanded to fill his view, a large hologram showing its topography with small areas filled in to mark civilizational boundaries and dots to mark notable warriors’ rough locations on last scan.

Something piqued his interest, now that he examined N’ithya more closely: A large shaded area on the map showed the territory of one called the Scorpion King. A blinking area of shaded land signified territorial expansion, and this blinking area had last been updated one year prior, when the Yautja challenged and defeated a warrior in the region.

But the cluster of dots signifying worthy warriors was still significant. The Yautja mulled over the idea of taking them all as he cycled through their files until finally he rested on the greatest of them: The Scorpion King himself.

Just looking at the warrior king excited the Yautja, his mandibles extending and retracting and a long, clicking growl projecting from his throat.

Yes…this is the prey.

***

A great, white moon. A black sky tinged with the red and orange of a burning city, towers of smoke billowing into the air. The blaring of war horns, the waving of great red flags. Above it all, glowing yellow eyes.

The scene changes. The desert is quiet and gray beneath the moon’s pale light. The clang of clashing weapons is in the air as Mathayus meets blades with a hulking form. His twin scimitars are locked against some sort of gauntlet blade, and she can see his white teeth gritted in struggle. The huge figure’s back is to her, so she can’t see its face, only the dreadlocks on its head and the glint of its armor. Its skin is a mottled yellow, and as she watches it raises the hand that isn’t keeping Mathayus at bay, two blades on its wrist catching the light of the moon.

A flash of metal blinds her, and she is awake. Above her head is a war tent, and she lies on the bed of a stationary palanquin. As she rolls over to get up, she notices Mathayus watching her from a stool on the other side of the room. It seems to take him a moment to recognize she has awoken.

“It has never been so severe,” he said as he rose to go to her side. “Your visions have been taking a greater toll on you these last years. They didn’t used to.”

“They have also become... more severe. More specific. More grim.”

“What have you foreseen?” Mathayus grabbed a pitcher of wine and a goblet, poured the former to fill the latter, and brought it to her lips. She sipped gratefully.

“It is hard to divine. I saw a great moon and a burning city—Thebes, if I correctly recognize the symbols on the flags. I saw no direct indication of victory for you, nor for Menes. In the sky I saw… something that looked like glowing, yellow eyes. Cruel eyes. But it is the second half of my vision that worries me most: I see you in combat under the moonlight with a warrior of incredible stature and strange weaponry. You were under great strain to hold him back. The vision ended with flashing steel, and no victor was shown to me.”

Mathayus frowned for a moment, looking pensive, then spoke. “If Thebes is burning in your vision, it is likely that we have breached its great walls. This may be a sign of imminent victory.” He pulled her close and kissed her forehead. “It is five days to the full moon, as you described. We will reach Thebes in three. Rest up.”

***

The Yautja reached N’ithya the same day the siege of Thebes began. With a slide along his command console, the ship began to descend through the planet’s atmosphere, cloaking itself so as to be indistinguishable from the clouds and sky to the simple oomans below. The ship landed outside the view or hearing distance of any path taken by an ooman in the last year. Disembarking onto the shimmering sand, the Yautja’s face turned into something like a grin, or whatever would pass for it among his people.

The time would soon come to face down his true prey—along the way, though, was small game.

Night began to fall and the siege continued to rage. It was a simple matter for the Yautja to scale Thebes’s walls along the far side of the city under cloaking device. The city watch was too busy keeping up with signals from the walls under siege to notice him as he made his way toward the royal palace.

King Menes’s guard were not great warriors, and they died as they lived: Inconsequentially.

The Yautja pushed open the doors to the king’s chambers and found the king was ready for an attacker. The muscular man brandished a polearm and swung it at the alien’s form with vigor.

Vigor that was all but useless before the might of the Yautja. With a raised arm he caught the shaft of the weapon just below the head and broke it off, the blade clattering impotently to the floor.

“What are you?” the man asked, fear invading his eyes.

It was a question the Yautja had heard from oomans many times over the years, but even if he could understand beyond contextual implication what they were asking, he wouldn’t answer. They were game to him, and game didn’t need reasoning. Game existed to be hunted.

“What are you?” the Yautja shot back at him in a warbled, mangled version of his own question, in his own voice, then rushed forward and extended his wristblades at the same time, such that the two were one motion. The king was too slow and caught both wristblades in the chest, and the Yautja picked him up one-handed, the bleeding king kicking helplessly at empty air, unable to scream due to his punctured and lacerated lungs.

Blood bubbled from the king’s lips as he looked at something behind the Yautja.

That was all the indication necessary for the Yautja to turn and catch the thrown knife before it hit him in the back of the head. In the doorway was the true object of his hunt: The Scorpion King.

An excited, trilling growl left his mouth as he dropped the dying king.

***

Mathayus knew Thebes’s walls could hold his armies at bay for years if they had to—the only option to win here was to assassinate leadership within Thebes—the king and his generals had to die. He figured he could start with the king, who would be by far the hardest mark as a result of his combat prowess and status, meaning he could give Mathayus a fight on even terms and that he had bodies between him and Mathayus. Killing others first meant more bodies could be dedicated to Menes.

But while stealthily navigating Menes’s castle, he not only met little resistance, he found dead guardsmen littered throughout the citadel.

When he finally reached the royal bedchamber, he found the towering form of the Yautja with its back turned. A knife left his hand within moments, but something must’ve tipped the thing off to his presence, because in a blur of motion it turned and caught it.

Mathayus drew his scimitars, glancing out the window. No smoking buildings. The infiltration teams he’d sent in must not have finished setting the keg charges yet.

The huge thing took thudding steps toward him, bent low in a challenge position, ready to pounce as the two began to circle one another.

Like a flash it was on him, and he was hard-pressed to even parry the giant’s thrust. The weapons on its arm were very strange—two parallel blades attached to a gauntlet.

He returned with a strike to its head that merely glanced off its large facemask, then followed that ineffective blow with a knee to its unarmored thigh. It was like he was hitting a rock. He grit his teeth and leapt back to try to put distance between himself and the monster.

It didn’t allow him space as it used its unbladed hand to deck him across the face, sending him sprawling onto the balcony, thumping against the stone columns of the baluster.

Mathayus looked up and cursed. The moon was not yet full. The prophecy was yet to come.

But that, he realized, brought with it an advantage. He had to live to see the prophecy. He looked back at the Yautja as he stood, feigning weakness. He didn’t know if it would fall for his ploy.

It leapt at him, and fell right into his trap. Mathayus dropped beneath the charging alien and used its forward momentum to put it over the side of the railing. It caught the stone, its claws digging into the masonry as it dangled over the courtyard some hundred feet below.

“It’s not time for me to die!” Mathayus raised a scimitar to chop at the hand of the thing, but it let go, saying in his own voice:

“It’s not time for me to die!”

Mathayus recoiled—that was Balthazar’s voice. He sounded desperate; he sounded afraid. Balthazar had never been afraid before. Was this thing what had happened to him? What had killed him so brutally?

It landed hard, cracking the stone beneath its feet, and let out a chilling laugh, then Mathayus lost sight of it, despite his wide, enraged eyes tracking it with inhuman intent the entire time.

Two days later, Thebes was on its last legs and Mathayus’s infiltrators had successfully breached the city walls. Mathayus watched from the riverbank as the smoke curled into the sky, framing the full moon.

Tonight is the night.

Mathayus glanced over to the dunes every once in a while as he pored over battle plans, and it was nearly midnight before he saw anything. It was brief—perhaps a trick of the eyes—but he thought he saw a flash of yellow eyes, just as Cassandra described in her vision.

He studied the area for a moment more before deciding he would leave to face his fate, be that to emerge victorious or to die at the beast’s hands. Cassandra’s vision had been unclear as to the outcome of this battle, but in the past she had seen him shot and killed and yet he still lived.

He took his scimitars with him, but left the other gear—it would only slow him down, and he needed every ounce of agility he could afford. He knew his assailant was faster than it had any right to be.

He also knew it had taken his friend, a life companion and true warrior.

He took in the details of the desert around Thebes as he walked into the dunes. Behind him, Cassandra watched with resignation. She had been trying to further divine for Mathayus before he left, but no vision was forthcoming.

The sky above was dark, and would’ve been full of stars for Mathayus to see but for the smoke and fire of Thebes. All there was to look at was the moon, and the desert the color of bone in its light.

After a few minutes of walking, Mathayus came upon a flat, clear area between three large sand dunes. Standing in the middle of the desert glade was the beast. It stared him down as he approached. It was easily seven feet tall, he could see, with a broad body and muscular limbs. It wore a loincloth with a metal belt, two metal gauntlets, and a broad facemask, but was otherwise nude and unarmored.

As Mathayus drew to dueling distance of about ten paces, it slowly reached up and unhooked a dreadlock from its head, a sharp hiss escaping from it as it detached. It placed its hands upon the facemask almost gingerly, and then removed it slowly, ritualistically exposing the most disgusting creature the Scorpion King had ever encountered.

“You’re even uglier than Balthazar.”

[Callisto]

Learn More About
The Scorpion King
Read more about The Scorpion King at Wikipedia
Official Site: Universal Studios Links: Wikipedia page Scorpion King-photo gallery Official Movie Site

Predator
Read more about Predator at Wikipedia
Official Site: Twentieth Century Fox Links: Wikipedia Planet AVP Fox Movies

[Fox]

Thanks Corvette for kicking off the Fantasy vs. Sci-Fi tournament with what looks like an excellent entry.

I look forward to reading and savoring it over a cup of fine coffee in the morning, as is my routine. 

But thank you in advance for getting the Tourney rolling.

 

[Macklemore]

If he's refusing to use his ranged weaponry, Mathayus definitely has a chance but not as high of a chance as he would if he was actually the Scorpion King (Bad CGI and all). No name Yautjas manhandle bison, can push open giant metal gates, and can kick military trucks over. Great story, though. I legitimately enjoyed it.

[Hugo Fowl]

Very entertaining. I particularly enjoyed how you managed tie together specific mythos elements that make it feel like a united whole. Off the top of my head I see the second mummy movie, AvP(both the movie and novels) as well as of course, the Scorpion King itself. 

As to the match itself, warriors have killed Yautja before in single combat. It's tough as feck-all, but doable. Also, it's the Rock. Lol.

In context though, if the Scorpion King doesn't use his cunning, he's gonna end up as another skull on the hunters belt.

[corvette1710]

9 hours ago, Fox said:

Thanks Corvette for kicking off the Fantasy vs. Sci-Fi tournament with what looks like an excellent entry.

I look forward to reading and savoring it over a cup of fine coffee in the morning, as is my routine. 

But thank you in advance for getting the Tourney rolling.

 

Of course! I've meant to participate in previous months, but I've had a hard time actually sitting down to write. Now that this one is out I hope I can put another one up, I'm just figuring out what I want to do from here.

9 hours ago, Macklemore said:

If he's refusing to use his ranged weaponry, Mathayus definitely has a chance but not as high of a chance as he would if he was actually the Scorpion King (Bad CGI and all). No name Yautjas manhandle bison, can push open giant metal gates, and can kick military trucks over. Great story, though. I legitimately enjoyed it.

I agree the Predator has an advantage in strength, overall, but that's not the only question of the match, I think. A pressing question is, how fast is the Predator here, as compared to Mathayus? Predators are consistent aim-dodgers, but Mathayus defeated an outright arrow-timer in single combat. I'm not so certain he should be written off in this matchup (despite not occupying the disgusting and yet probably effective form of "The Scorpion King"). I would agree that in overall physicals he's at a disadvantage, though.

56 minutes ago, Hugo Fowl said:

Very entertaining. I particularly enjoyed how you managed tie together specific mythos elements that make it feel like a united whole. Off the top of my head I see the second mummy movie, AvP(both the movie and novels) as well as of course, the Scorpion King itself. 

As to the match itself, warriors have killed Yautja before in single combat. It's tough as feck-all, but doable. Also, it's the Rock. Lol.

In context though, if the Scorpion King doesn't use his cunning, he's gonna end up as another skull on the hunters belt.

Thanks! I really love both of these series, and I wanted to make them flow together. It just so happened that the Predator mythos doesn't conflict with the timeline of the Mummy or the Scorpion King in any major area.

As for the match, it was sort of one of the themes I was going for, where an Arnold-esque action star like the Rock has to face off against the Predator. It's definitely the case that the Scorpion King will need to rely on more than just his brawn to beat such a foe.

[Fox]

A very entertaining and engaging read.  very well put together, great imagery and detail.  I enjoyed it, thanks!

I could see either winning.  Guess I'll vote for who I'd want it to be in the story.

[corvette1710]

8 hours ago, Fox said:

A very entertaining and engaging read.  very well put together, great imagery and detail.  I enjoyed it, thanks!

I could see either winning.  Guess I'll vote for who I'd want it to be in the story.

Thanks! That's what I was going for--a match you could theoretically call even, based on the circumstances.

[SSJRuss]

This was really well written, Corvette. This almost felt like a professionally done fan film or something. 5 stars all the way.

I'm not well versed with The Scorpion King but I know enough to say the odds are even. Predator has the strength, like others have said, but I think Scorpion King has enough wit and grit to get past that and land a fatal blow. It's tough to say though because it won't take too many attacks for Predator to end the fight. If I could vote a draw, that's what I'd go with.

Thanks for participating this month. You're giving me a run for my money

[JohnnyChany]

Very well done, sir. I am leaning toward Mathayus, but admittedly based on personal bias on how I would like the story to go down more than any scientific reasoning. 

[corvette1710]

1 hour ago, SSJRuss said:

This was really well written, Corvette. This almost felt like a professionally done fan film or something. 5 stars all the way.

I'm not well versed with The Scorpion King but I know enough to say the odds are even. Predator has the strength, like others have said, but I think Scorpion King has enough wit and grit to get past that and land a fatal blow. It's tough to say though because it won't take too many attacks for Predator to end the fight. If I could vote a draw, that's what I'd go with.

Thanks for participating this month. You're giving me a run for my money

Thanks! It's been a while since I busted out the old fic pen. I'm really glad this was an enjoyable read!

[DSkillz]

Welcome back to the match-making fold, Corvette! It's been awhile.

Great match here. This one's gonna be hard to top for the tourney. Regular ol' human Mathayus is going to have his hands full against a Yaujta, for sure. The biggest advantage he has is that the Predator opted to take off his mask, severely limiting his vision. Unlike Dutch, though, Mathayus hasn't set traps around the area to wear the Predator down. He doesn't have the tools to wreck the Yautja's tech, either. I also wonder how much his scimitars can pierce the creature's hide. Mathayus's only real shot here is if he uses his full cunning and knowledge of the deserts.

Now, a Yautja going against undead Scorpion King Mathayus? That would also be very entertaining to see. I'm not sure how much, if any, faster and quicker the Scorpion King is than your average Predator.

[corvette1710]

7 hours ago, DSkillz said:

Welcome back to the match-making fold, Corvette! It's been awhile.

Great match here. This one's gonna be hard to top for the tourney. Regular ol' human Mathayus is going to have his hands full against a Yaujta, for sure. The biggest advantage he has is that the Predator opted to take off his mask, severely limiting his vision. Unlike Dutch, though, Mathayus hasn't set traps around the area to wear the Predator down. He doesn't have the tools to wreck the Yautja's tech, either. I also wonder how much his scimitars can pierce the creature's hide. Mathayus's only real shot here is if he uses his full cunning and knowledge of the deserts.

Now, a Yautja going against undead Scorpion King Mathayus? That would also be very entertaining to see. I'm sure how much, if any, faster and quicker the Scorpion King is than your average Predator.

It's good to be back. Like I said, I've been sort of ruminating on different possible matches for a few months (since the site came back), this happened to be the one that I was able to fully put onto the page.

The way I was choosing to write the combat interaction between the Yautja and Mathayus was that the scimitars posed some danger to the Yautja if Mathayus landed a blow against flesh and not metal.

If the Yautja wins, I might write him against undead Mathayus. We'll have to wait and see.

[Callisto]

Match Final Results

Member Ratings:
CBUB Match Judge : 5 Stars x 2
CBUB Member : 5 Stars
CBUB Match Judge : 5 Stars x 2
CBUB Match Judge : 5 Stars x 2
CBUB Match Judge : 5 Stars x 2
CBUB Match Judge : 5 Stars x 2

FPA Calculation:
11 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 0 = 11 Total Votes
( (11 * 5) + (0 * 4) + (0 * 3) + (0 * 2) + (0 * 1) ) = 55 Total Stars Score
55 / 11 = 5.00 Total Rating

MATCH SCORE
The Scorpion King: 7
Predator: 5