When we entered the Hall of Warriors, we were surprised to see that Master Shifu was seemingly ready to head out – I was sure that Zeng had shown him the letter as well.
"Master Shifu, are we going to fight them off?" Po asked and went straight to the point.
Our old Master nodded. "Yes, this time we won't flee. Besides, backup is on its way."
Backup? Did he mean that he somehow had contacted other Masters and asked them to come help us? Nonetheless, it'd be nice with some help if another army came to attack us again. Master Shifu then told us that the villagers would most likely leave to get to safety again, just like that other time, and-…
"Po!" We all jumped in surprise as the name echoed all throughout the Hall of Warriors. We turned around and saw Mr. Ping. The little goose hurried over to Po and started rambling. "Po, son, we have to go! There's an army coming and… and... and..."
"I know dad," Po said in a calming voice, trying to calm down his father. "But Shifu, the Five and I are going to stay and fight them…"
"No Po! What if they're a thousand? And they probably have weapons, and…"
"Don't worry Mr. Ping," Crane told him, trying to calm him down too. "We won't fight alone; some more Kung Fu Masters are coming to help."
This seemed to calm down Mr. Ping a little, but he still took the time to tell Po to be careful and not get hurt… and of course to remember that Mr. Ping would most likely go back to Shan City.
As soon as Mr. Ping had left the hall, Shifu told us to go get Hai's swords from his barrack. Hai uses Wood Sword Style to fight, and yes, he also uses wooden swords. His particular swords are incredibly solid, and I haven't seen anything that was even close to breaking them.
Crane and I entered the barracks and walked down the hallway and entered Hai's room. The room looked like it usually did; there was Hai's bed, the wanted-posters of us on the wall (Yes, we had all been wanted at one point, but that's another story.) and the note I once wrote to him… in that note, I had told him to do what he felt was right and… now it only felt painful to think about it.
But there were no swords in the room. We even looked under the bed, but there was still nothing. Of course Hai wouldn't go anywhere without those swords. They were originally given to him as an insult, but they turned out to become his most valuable belongings.
We quickly returned to the Hall of Warriors to tell Master Shifu that they were gone.
"Hmm… Strange," he just said in a somewhat mysterious tone of voice.
"What's strange?" Viper asked.
"Last time I went to check, they were there," our Master replied. That meant that Hai must have been back at some point! But how had Hai been able to sneak inside without us noticing?
Suddenly we heard some noise coming from the outside. The six of us hurried outside, and we could hear that the noise came from the village – the army had arrived already.
With no words and without hesitation, we hurried down the long staircases to encounter the attackers. When we arrived in the village, we ran against the stream of panicking villagers who hadn't fled yet. We came to the marketplace and stopped as we saw the attackers close in… and were in for a shock.
The attackers were a squad of forty people or so, but who they were, was what shocked us the most. For the most part they were… wolverines and vultures – seemingly the same we had fought a year and a half ago when we first met Hai. But there were also some crocodiles, seemingly some of Fung's minions. And last but not least, there were gorillas and wolves – seemingly those who had been part of Lord Shen's army!
Why were they together? Three different types of bad guys that never should join forces… besides, they had fought against one another during the Millennium War!
They all wore the same armor; black armor with the word Siwang Hu, which means Death Ark, written on their chest armor. I didn't know what this Siwang Hu was, but certainly not good if it made villains join forces.
We took on our usual battle stances, which felt odd without Hai standing between Po and I. But eventually the six of us rushed into battle.
Po and I took on a group of five or so wolverines and about six or seven wolves. We had fought them before, but it felt so wrong to see them together; it was like mixing two different words to make a gibberish – just like the time where Po and Hai tried to figure out how to combine 'Awesome' and 'Epic' into one word.
I blocked the first wolverine's wooden club as he tried to attack me, then slammed it away and kicked him in the stomach area. The next wolverine came to attack along with a wolf. I used both my hands to block their wooden clubs – one from each of them. I then jumped into the air and hit both of them with a spin kick. When I landed, another wolf tried to attack me with his wooden club. I jumped forwards and slammed it out of his hand and then punched him in the face. Then two wolverines tried to attack me at the same time with a body slam. I jumped aside, and as they tried again, I punched one of the stomach and the other in the face, both at the same time.
Two wolves and a wolverine tried to attack me, but suddenly someone else hit them with a midair kick. It was Weifeng, a member of the Storm Clan who lived in a forest a few kilometers away from the Valley of Peace. With them, we might have had a chance of winning! You see, they're not only Kung Fu Masters, but also specially trained ninjas!
Weifeng is their only female member and she's a deer. She has brown fur with just a hint of red and she wears green and brown robes, so she can easily blend in with the forest environment she lives in.
A few more wolverines and wolves were about to attack her, but suddenly a powerful gust knocked them out. You might think it sounds weird, but it also takes a much trained eye to see what really happened. Luckily I was just barely able to see what happened.
Just as the wolverines and wolves were about to hit Weifeng, Jufeng and Fengbao dashed in. Jufeng is the leader of the Storm Clan and is an eagle with dark brown feathers, while Fengbao is a black panther and the calmest member of the group, mainly because he's mute. They both wore the same outfit as Weifeng, like always, and here's what happened:
The two dashed forwards at an incredibly high speed, then did various punches and kicks when they got close enough to the soldiers, quickly knocking them out. If you didn't have a trained eye, it would have looked like there had been an explosion in between the soldiers actually. I looked over to look at Weifeng, but she was gone. Then I looked around to see that a similar thing happened to the other soldiers as all four ninjas went into action. When the many soldiers were all knocked out, the four ninjas landed in the middle of the marketplace and soon walked over to us.
"Are you okay?" Jufeng asked us. We all nodded. "We were contacted by this little Zeng-guy… pretty fast for someone who isn't a ninja… oh, anyways; we were told that Shifu had sent him to get some backup against those dummies."
"Yeah, but you ELIMINATED them!" Po said in his usual excited voice. The four ninjas just chuckled and thanked him. Suddenly a dash of feathers nearly hit Feng. Feng is the smallest and youngest of the Storm Clan and a duck. He has plain white feathers and is barely taller than Zeng. Despite the fact that he's just a child, he's almost as good as his teammates when it comes to fighting.
The vulture landed on the ground where he was joined by even more soldiers – far more than earlier! Even with the Storm Clan by our side, it would be hard to fight all these soldiers.
We lined up – all ten of us – and then charged into battle. I took on a group of crocodiles this time. I took on the first, delivered a few punches in his chest, then one powerful punch that sent him backwards. I then went on to the next crocodile and hit him in the face with a double spin kick.
Suddenly something hit my arms and ensnared my wrists – a chain. The crocodiles tried to drag me away, but I put all my powers into my arms and yanked them backwards, thus making them fall over. I got a hold of the chain and used it to ensnare around five or seven soldiers. I made sure to bind it tightly and as I went on to the rest of the soldiers, Po made sure to knock them all out.
I kicked a wolverine in the chest, then punched a vulture in the head when he tried to tackle me midair. As we all fought, we quickly got the upper hand. The soldiers might have been superior in number, but we fought with technique – that was why they wouldn't be able to defeat us.
But as we were fighting off the wolverines, someone suddenly knocked me aside with a powerful kick. I rolled on the ground for a brief moment, but quickly got to my feet again to see who it was.
"Who are you?" I growled at the newly arrived opponent. She was a clouded leopard, having pale gray fur with darker brownish gray spots on her face, arms and tail. She wore a dark blue vest with black trims as well as brown pants. She also had a black headband on, and obviously she did like me and wore other robes under her clothes, to hide her 'feminine' body parts.
Suddenly four other clouded leopards rushed in and attacked my teammates. They all wore seemingly the same outfits and then I recognized them. They were students of Junjie and he called them the New Furious Five. Junjie is a Kung Fu Master, who has had quite a few conflicts with Master Shifu in the Past. Mainly it was because Master Oogway decided to let our Master take over Jade Palace instead of Junjie. This only led to a grudge and Junjie has tried to get rid of Master Shifu and us before, so that he could take over his place here in Jade Palace.
"A member of Siwang Hu," she replied as she and her teammates lined up with the rest of the soldiers behind them. Suddenly I noticed the silver colored badge on their headbands, with the name 'Siwang Hu' written on it in gold. "We're here to eliminate you."
"Wait, so Junjie is really going to try again?" Po asked somewhat annoyed, somewhat innocently. He probably couldn't tell that Junjie seemingly had nothing to do with this, since these were all villains we had faced in the past, and that this Siwang Hu was, what had brought them together in an alliance.
"I don't think it has anything to do with that," Monkey pointed out as we all lined up to form an opposing line.
"Correct," one of the other clouded leopards replied. Suddenly they all charged forwards and attacked us once again. The Storm Clan took on the soldiers, while Po, the others and I fought against Junjie's students – one against one, except the girl; I fought against her alongside Viper.
I attacked her with two punches at the same time, which she blocked, then unexpectedly, she kicked me in the stomach, making me fall backwards. I landed on my back, but before the clouded leopard could attack me again, Viper sent her flying sideways with a powerful strike.
Soon after, both Viper and I fought against the clouded leopard and she was pretty good actually; she seemed to have an easy time blocking and dodging our attacks, but we also managed to stay unharmed by her, so it was a very equally matched battle.
Suddenly someone hit me; it was Monkey, who had been sent flying by the student of Junjie he had fought against. Soon we were joined by Mantis, Crane and Po, who also had suffered defeat, from the clouded leopards.
"Guys, this is bad," Po pointed out. I looked over behind the clouded leopards. The Storm Clan seemed to have a pretty tough time against the many soldiers, but at least they did better than we.
Suddenly the sound of harp music filled the air. We all slowly got to our feet and looked around while everyone listened to the sound of the harp. Where did it come from? And who could play a harp so powerful that it sounded like it was everywhere? Suddenly it started raining – not water like it usually would have, but cherry petals – small, pink petals like those you often see during the spring. Everyone started staring into the sky as that was seemingly where the countless petals came from. Soon they all started swirling around, somewhat creating a whirlwind in between us and the Siwang Hu members. Just as the music started to intensify, the petals were blown away and a person we didn't know appeared.
He was a dragon – yes, a dragon. He was covered in light red, almost pink scales, had white deer-like horns and black hair and beard. His eyes had a venomous green color that almost seemed to shine and he wore a Kung Fu jacket, which was black on the right side and white on the left, split by a thin line down the middle, and to finish it off, it had pink trims that matched his scales.
"You…" he said as he pointed at the Siwang Hu members, thus finally breaking the silence. "... are not needed in this world – this world should be purified and free of vermin like you."
I looked over at Po and Monkey, who stood beside me. They caught my gaze and they both looked truly lost, and so did everyone else. I then looked up forwards at the dragon and saw him take a step towards the Siwang Hu members.
"Who do you think you are?" one of Junjie's students asked with a growl. "You shouldn't get in the way of Siwang Hu; we'll destroy…!"
"You cannot destroy me!" the dragon interrupted him in a rather arrogant tone. "No one can defeat Chikasha Tiandao; for I am the world… and as long as the world exists – so will I!"
Suddenly one of the soldiers, a crocodile, charged him. The dragon jumped forwards and hit him in the head with a kick, knocking him down. Next thing we knew, all the Siwang Hu members attacked him. He seemed to be very calm about it, but as soon as the nearest gorilla reached him and tried to punch him, he simply brought up both hands and blocked the gorilla's enormous punch.
The gorilla seemed to be surprised, but one second later, the dragon had lifted him up, swung him around and smashed him against the ground. We could almost feel the vibrations in the ground due to the gorilla's massive weight, and I couldn't help but wonder about how long it had taken to practice that technique to perfection – I could tell that it was a matter of technique and not just strength, since he didn't seem to be much stronger than, let's say me.
The next few soldiers attacked and with great easy and agility, the dragon dodged most of their attacks and gave back with powerful punches and kicks.
"Who is he?" Viper asked as we watched him fight. Suddenly the wind started blowing as the dragon kept fighting. It was weird – not only was a dragon fighting before us, but this wind also seemed to be unnatural somehow – unreal or artificial actually.
"I don't know," Po spoke in an excited voice. "But I love his moves! You go dude!"
The dragon seemed to ignore Po's cheering and kept fighting as if we weren't even there. He performed a series of very impressive kicks and punches and soon the soldiers fled like the cowards they were.
"This isn't over yet," one of the clouded leopards growled as they all fled. "Siwang Hu will be victorious!"
And Chikasha has appeared! He is one of the new OCs for this story, and will replace Hai for now (NOOOOOOOOO!). So I hope you guys will like him, despite how much of a jerk he is, but... character-development, anyone? So as always, thanks for reading, I hope you liked this chapter and that you'll stay tuned for more! See ya'!