THEY ARE WITHOUT MERCY. CRUEL AND UNFORGIVING. BUT YOU, ARMED WITH OUR GRACE AND MIGHT SHALL BE WORSE.
KILL THEM ALL UNTIL THEIR LEGACY IS BURIED AND FORGOTTEN FROM THIS EARTH FOREVER...
The five waited patiently in the middle of the street. Each and every one of them were ready both in body and in mind for the fight that was coming their way. Ready to battle alongside them, a group of soldiers consisting of three rhinos and half a dozen wolfs armed with swords and axes. All of them hired as muscle for a person of interest that waited patiently at the top of the Jade Palace, accompanied by Shifu and the dragon warrior himself. The furious five remained stoic, calm and collected while the hired soldiers quaked in fear knowing all too well what was heading in their direction. Even with the legendary warriors on their side they questioned if they would be victorious.
Through the long numbing silence, the leader of the five, the only tiger among them spoke up
"Are you certain that he'll be coming through this way?" She asked to any who wasn't a member of her team. Upon hearing no reply, one of the rhinos decided to answer.
"We're certain master Tigress. This... monster has always gone for the front force first. At least according to our previous engagements." He shuddered a little as he thought back to those encounters.
These hired mercs numbered at thirty plus not three days ago when they were first attacked by the thing that hunted them. The few that now sided with the real warriors were all that remained. Less than ten. That meant over twenty of them had been killed, and not in the most peaceful way either trying to protect just one guy. The crocodile that sat at the safety of the Jade Palace right this minute. For whatever reason, this so called monster seemed to be more interested in getting to him rather than his men. Of course that didn't mean to say it had any trouble tearing through anyone foolish enough to try and protect him.
In the most logical mind, it would have meant sense to just give up the crocodile. Sacrifice the few for the many type of strategy. Of course that wasn't how the warriors of the Jade Palace worked, and the mercs despite their frightened demeanour had lost far too much to just cut their losses and abandon their pay. The only difference between them was that the mercs knew the kind of man they were protecting while the five did not. All they knew was that a seemingly innocent reptile needed help from a dangerous being. That was all they needed to know anyway.
All the villagers had scrambled inside their homes the moment they caught wind of something bad about to go down. They were no strangers to being victim to bandits or muggers that they needed to take cover. The only problem was that this time it wasn't a mugger or a bandit or even an invading force that attempted and failed to conquer the valley time to time. Now they would witness something else. Something new. Something angry.
The small band of warriors remained rooted to their spot, all of them facing forwards. Every once in a while a merc would turn to look behind him or to the sides as though afraid to see something suddenly charge at them from the alleyways. The tension growing more and more with every passing second.
"You know at this rate maybe we ought to just go to him instead of letting him come to us, otherwise we're all just going to die of old age." The monkey, another one of the elite defenders joked, trying to lighten the mood.
"No." Snapped the tiger with a sharp tongue without turned away from the forest in front of her. "If what our friend up at the Jade Palace is telling the truth, it's better if he comes to us. Let him expel his energy."
No-one else made a comment. At least not until one wolf opened his mouth and pointed frantically at the lone pathway that carved into the bamboo forest.
"THERE! THERE IT IS!"
True to the canines words a lone figure emerged from the large green stalks, slowly walking towards them where the five saw what they were against. The 'monster' was nothing more than a black panther, however he stood out plain as day with his look. All he wore was a tunic and pair of pants, both of them a dark grey colour. The most interesting feature of the feline was his face, or rather lack of. It was hidden behind a circular mask that hid everything from the neck up but his small triangular ears. The mask too was dark grey and only sported two small slits for the eyes. Other than that, he wore no shoes, no gloves, not even a weapon which suggested to the furious five that this guy preferred hand to hand combat.
Upon reaching forty feet from the group, he stopped. He didn't talk and mock them, nor did he prepare to fight. He just stood there, observing the force that had come to greet him.
"You, panther!" The tiger yelled to him. "As the protectors of the Valley of Peace, we demand that you surrender and pay for your crimes!" The five had hear plenty of details from both the crocodile and the mercs to know the list of atrocities this one being had committed, at least in the last three days it had been hunting them.
"Or we could just beat this guys butt and be done with it in like two seconds." Scoffed the barely visible mantis which waited on top of the monkeys shoulder, causing a green viper to scold him for his quick, yet rude tongue.
"Mantis! That's not how we do things! We have to at least give them the chance to give themselves up first unless we have no choice!"
"Um, and when has that ever happened Viper?" The mantis replied. "I'm thinking about ten times, no... two... that one time... oh yeah, never happened and never will!"
One wolf gripping tightly onto a double edged axe, the one who had first spotted their opponent and had called him out was growing more and more unsteady as the thing in front of them looked at them. Then again, it was impossible to see past those slits in the mask. Only darkness. He could have been looking at any one of them. Including him... Specifically him...
These last few days had been very stressful for him and the other mercs. But just waiting here while their target decided which one of them to kill first was killing him inside.
In a split second, his mind made the decision to kill it. Kill the monster before it could kill him. The pressure getting to him, he charged ignoring the cries and protests of everyone else. The panther made no move but instead just waited until the wolf was close enough to swing his weapon from above, ready to cleave his head in half. He finally reacted.
In a swift motion, he caught the paw which held the weapon and squeezed, forcing the wolf to drop the axe. The wolf then swung with his other paw, which was also caught. The grip of the panther was tight, painfully so. He tried to pull back but the beast wouldn't let him. Instead he was forced to stare up at the panther while it stared back down. Even though he couldn't see its face, he could nearly feel the anger radiating off of his soon to be killer. The wolf couldn't help but whimper, knowing that it would soon end up like the others that had tried to stop this thing! How could he had been so stupid?
Then, the grip of the panther loosened slightly. Not enough for the wolf to be let free but enough for the panthers grasp to not hurt anymore. The wolf looked uncertainly at the mask and noticed his opponents arms loosen their tight posture. The wolfs fear vanished slightly. Maybe he was going to be let go?
No. He wasn't.
In a rather brutal manner, the grip tightened even more and the panthers right foot shot out at tremendous speed into the wolfs chest, no doubt breaking a good number of ribs. As the foot collided, the panther pulled the wolfs arms towards him and what happened next caught everyone very off guard.
The wolfs arms were brutally ripped right off and his body flew backwards right back to the group that still remained forty feet away. By the time the wolf landed, he was already dead, and when the group looked back up they saw the panther toss the bleeding arms to the side like nothing had happened. He then slowly cracked his knuckles and charged right at them.