A/N: Hi guys, here I finally am with a new update! This is a pretty long chapter, and please, I'd like to know; these next chapters will be pretty long - at least the ones regarding the tournament... would you like me to cut it in half, or would you prefer it to be one long chapter? Please let me know. :)
So anyways, there are some more story elements in this story with more revelations in the next, so stay tuned. ;) I hope you enjoy! BTW, I'd be happy if you could also check out my new story, Leave All Behind. :)
"Tigress, is something wrong?" Po asked.
"No I'm fine." Tigress simply sent him a faint smile and shook her head. Tigress didn't like the fact that she had to lie to her friend, but at the same time, she knew it was for the better as she did not want them to worry about her – after all, the second round of the tournament was about to begin.
"Po, really, I'm fine," Tigress said, seeing the panda's somewhat worried face. "You should just focus on memorizing those rules."
"Oh, right," Po agreed. Crane had written a list with the tournament rules for Po – at least the traditional ones. Po looked back down at the list once again.
Warnings:
Kneeing and elbowing
Attacking to the head, neck, throat, ears or groin
Attacking or locking the joints
Attacking or pushing with head
Pulling hair or clothes
Using any technique determined to cause injury
Receiving coaching during the round
Disengaging or clinching to avoid contact or competition
Disqualifications:
Excessive and dangerous use of force
Three warnings
Attacking the opponent's eyes
Unsportsmanlike behavior
"Wait, so this means Master Shifu can't help us, like at all?" Po asked surprised. The group made their way across the palace's courtyard and headed for the arena.
"Yes, of course," Crane replied. "We're Masters after all – we're supposed to be able to take care of ourselves."
"True… but what if it was really, really necessary?" Po asked.
"Then it's just 'too bad, so sad' – simply put," Mantis pointed out. "Besides, wouldn't you feel a little dependent to need Shifu's help during a fight?"
"Okay, now that you mention it, yes," Po admitted.
The six warriors eventually came to the arena and entered through their gate. They were once again greeted by a cheering crowd, confetti and music. After waving a little at the crowd, the six made their way over to the bench on which Shifu waited for them.
"Master Shifu, what do we do?" Po immediately blurted out, somewhat surprising Shifu. Po briefly looked over his Master and saw Junjie sit with a mischievous smile on his face. He had probably trained his students to use weapons. Just great.
"What are you talking about, panda?" Master Shifu asked.
"None of us have had any expanded weapon training," Po said. "Monkey knows how to use a Bo Staff, but we're still done for!"
"Hey!" Monkey said, not utterly satisfied with Po's comment.
"No offense, man, but seriously; what do we do?"
Shifu thought for a moment. He could clearly feel that Junjie was watching with a joyous and sly grin on his face – even though smiles made no sound, Shifu could almost hear it.
"Master, what do we do?" Tigress asked, though a lot calmer than Po.
"You just do the best you can do," Master Shifu said determined. "I have faith that you can win this nonetheless."
"Alright," Tigress said determined. "But who will go first?"
"Depends on the discipline," Master Shifu replied and waited for the round to begin.
"Honored citizens!" Master Chao started, already causing the crowd to start cheering. "The second day of the tournament is about to begin!"
"Today will be the day of weapon skill," Master Zihao explained once the crowd was done cheering again. "First discipline is usage of the Bo Staff!"
The crowd started cheering and Po and his friends all looked over at Monkey.
"No, not for the first round," Shifu said, thinking strategic this time – if Monkey got hurt in some way, which was unlikely, the group wouldn't have anyone to fight – at least not someone who was specialized in using the Bo Staff.
"Mantis, you're up first," Shifu said, surprising everyone.
"Me?" Mantis asked surprised.
"Him?" all the others asked.
"Hey!" Mantis said, having changed his opinion about the idea. "I can handle this!"
"Can you even lift the Staff?" Monkey asked teasingly, getting a cold glare from Mantis.
As Mantis growled a sassy answer back at Monkey, Shifu looked over to see who Junjie had requested to battle. But it seemed that the fox hadn't chosen anyone just yet.
"Quite interesting," Junjie said once he saw Mantis walk over to pick up a Bo Staff. "An alternate pick, hmm, Shifu? Should I have Gorilla demolish him? Or should I…? Why not… Stag, you're up!"
"Right on it," Stag said and spread his cover wings and his wings beneath and flew towards the arena, grabbing a Bo Staff along the way.
"Are they really serious about this?" Master Zihao whispered to Master Chao. "How are we going to judge a battle if we can't even see it?"
"Excellent question," Master Chao said, completely forgetting to answer on purpose. "Alright, citizens! Masters! Let the first round begin!"
The sound of the gong was heard and Mantis gripped the Staff tightly with his claws. Stag on the other hand was holding it by his hands, though supporting it with his antlers.
"So you finally want to face me in battle?" Stag asked somewhat proudly. "A bit different from just arguing, huh?"
"It'll be my pleasure to win this time!" Mantis said, self-confident and ready to fight.
Tigress sat down on the bench next to Shifu, ready to watch the first match. She discretely looked over to see Jinshu sitting on the bench, arms crossed and one leg over the other.
Though she did it discretely, Jinshu seemed to notice and looked over at her. He sent her a little smile, looking somewhat shy. Tigress immediately wondered about last night.
Maybe it hadn't even been meant to happen; maybe he just wanted to flirt with her; maybe it was because she rejected him that he told her about his past; maybe it was all an act.
And if it wasn't? What could she do about it? She didn't have any feelings towards him, did she? And even if she did, what could she do about it? Master Shifu certainly wouldn't like it and neither would her friends.
"… even see anything, Tigress." Tigress snapped out her trance-like exchange of looks with Jinshu.
"Sorry, what were you saying, Po?" she asked, somewhat embarrassed. Tigress returned her sight back towards the arena, understanding what Po meant with the little bit she had heard.
"I said, we can't even see anything," he said. "The battle…"
He was right; all they could really see were two Bo Staffs that seemed to fly back and forth, hitting each other now and then.
Mantis tightened his grip, then jumped into the air and slammed his Bo Staff downwards.
Stag positioned his own Bo Staff so that it blocked Mantis' incoming attack, then spread out his wings and flew upwards, forcing Mantis upwards as well. Mantis hadn't been prepared for this and almost lost his balance.
Mantis tightened his grip on his Bo staff again and smashed it towards Stag as he flew towards Mantis, who blocked again.
Stag then decided to hold his staff with his two antlers and jumped into the air, doing several front-flips until his staff finally smashed against Mantis'. As Mantis kept blocking it Stag suddenly jumped up with a backflip. It wasn't supposed to hit Mantis, which it didn't, but it was targeted towards his staff.
After spinning all the way around, Stag smashed staff upwards against Mantis'. This not only caused Mantis to fall onto his back due to the force of the impact, but it also caused him to drop his staff.
"This round goes to…!" Master Chao had to stop and squint for a short moment in order to see who had actually won. "… Master Stag!"
The crowd started cheering, but obviously there wasn't much of a fan base for Stag. This only caused Mantis to snicker, much to the stag beetle's annoyance. In fact, Mantis didn't take the loss that badly because of this… but it was still a little off-putting to see the torch in the Six's end of the arena be lit.
"Alright, Master Shifu, you just got my butt kicked," Mantis growled once he got back to the bench. "Pick someone who knows what they're doing!"
"Of course," Master Shifu said calmly, though a little annoyed. "Crane, you're up."
"Crane?" Monkey asked confused. "But…"
"I'm saving you for last," Shifu whispered to Monkey. It actually seemed logical to Monkey, now that he thought about it.
"Right, I see," Monkey said and sat back down. "Now go get them, Crane!"
At the same time, Junjie had also made his decision, snapping his fingers, looking over at Eagle. The avian took off with a few powerful wing-beats and soon she was soaring towards the middle of the arena, keeping a good distance to Crane.
"I guess this will be interesting," she said. "We could make this an airborne battle."
Crane didn't answer, but simply shrugged. He wasn't quite helped by her cocky and self-confident nature. Maybe this wouldn't end as pretty as he hoped. Nah, he'd be fine, besides there was nothing to worry about now; he hadn't even seen Eagle fight yet!
Crane grabbed a Bo Staff with his right talons, threw it into the air, making it flip several times, then caught it in his wings, holding it in a defensive position. This got quite the applause out of the crowd.
"Not bad," Eagle said, taking a step towards Crane. "Let's see how you fight then."
"Contestants, ready…" Master Chao stopped to make a dramatic pause. "Begin!"
Eagle switched her staff from her left to her right wing, doing some pretty impressive swings and flips.
Crane didn't let himself be intimidated by this. On the other hand he did a few similar tricks just for display. Finally the two avian Masters jumped towards each other.
Crane blocked Eagle's attempt to attack, then quickly pushed her backwards, then jumped into the air, grabbing his Bo Staff with his talons, attacking her while he was still flying.
Eagle easily blocked Crane's moves as he kept attacking. Eagle then spun around in a circle, attacking. Crane let go of his staff with his left talons and landed, grabbing onto the staff with one of his wings.
Doing like this, Crane held it vertically and easily blocked Eagle's attack. Crane then brought it into both his wings, did a few flips and attacked Eagle once again.
Eagle blocked this, spinning her staff with her wing. She then went for Crane's feet.
Crane gracefully dodged by jumping, then blocked another attack even before he landed on the ground again. Crane grabbed the one end of his staff with his wing, then spun around in a circle and smashed it towards Eagle, who easily blocked the attack.
Eagle tried her best to do a counter attack, but suddenly something in Crane's mind awoke – something he hadn't felt in a long time; for years to be exact. It went all the way back to his days as a janitor at the Lee Da Academy.
In his mind, he somehow started imagining that there was laundry surrounding Eagle. He did not know why it suddenly occurred to him, but none the less, he felt more confident with it.
Crane simply imagined that he was collecting laundry, striking somewhat randomly towards Eagle, the latter being just barely able to block. The many random attacks seemed very spontaneous to Eagle and eventually Crane managed to disarm her – in other words defeat her.
This simply happened because of the special technique he used; having used staffs to take laundry off of clotheslines countless times, Crane had learned and developed a special technique for doing so. It basically involved Crane doing countless fast jabs with his staff, finally managing to make Eagle lose it by hitting just the right place: right next to where she held onto it. Besides, it was difficult for either of them to hold onto their staffs with no fingers.
"And the winner is Master Crane of the Furious Five!" Master Chao announced, getting quite the applause from the crowd. Crane just smiled, somewhat shyly, tilting his hat a little back, so that people could see him a little better.
"Not bad," Eagle replied with a teasing tone of voice, though Crane could hear that she wasn't quite satisfied with the result. Walking towards the bench, Eagle tossed the staff at one of the otter palace workers, feeling a little 'under the weather'.
Crane on the other hand handed his staff to the otter nice and easy. After that, the skinny avian landed on the bench beside his friends. It was with a satisfied smile that Crane saw the torch in their end of the arena become lit up. Who knew cleaning could be this useful?
"Nice going, Crane!" Po said excitedly and the others congratulated his victory as well. On Junjie's half of the bench, everyone remained quiet though, only interrupted by a snap from Junjie's finger and the sound of Gorilla getting off the bench.
"Yes, that means I'm up!" Monkey said, somewhat excitedly and jumped off the bench with a few front flips, getting quite the applause from the crowd.
"Showoff!" Mantis called, just getting a laugh out of Monkey as he made his way towards the center of the arena.
At the same time, Gorilla made his way to the arena as well, though in a more calm fashion compared to Monkey.
Once both primates stood in the ring of the arena, Master Chao announced, "Contestants ready?" The two bowed for one another. "Begin!"
Monkey immediately swung his staff about, doing a lot of crazy spins and techniques. It was mainly for intimidation, but unfortunately it didn't quite have the desired effect.
"Are you done?" Gorilla asked dully.
"Alright, alright, don't be such a downer," Monkey said in a teasing tone of voice. Just then Gorilla started out with the first attack. Monkey blocked it and countered with a similar attack, though aiming a bit lower.
Gorilla jumped into the air in response, but managed to block the attack at the same time. Gorilla then attempted another attack, which Monkey blocked.
Monkey used his staff to jump high into the air, then swung his staff downwards towards Gorilla, who managed to block. For a short moment, Monkey managed to balance on top of his staff, but with a few backflips, he got back onto the ground again. As soon as he landed, he also had to block another attack from Gorilla.
Monkey soon countered with an attack on his own, but Gorilla managed to block this as well.
Gorilla then counterattacked with a powerful thrust with his staff. Monkey just barely managed to block, but he almost fell backwards due to the force of the attack.
Pulling back Gorilla repeated this. However, this time, Monkey dodged instead. Monkey quickly saw how much force Gorilla put into the attack and how little everything-else he put into it. Maybe this was his weakness – if Monkey could take advantage of this somehow, he'd be sure to win! Probably at least.
As Gorilla approached with a similar attack, Monkey dodged, but this time he also managed to hit Gorilla's staff around where the larger primate held onto it. This caused Gorilla to drop his staff.
At this, the crowd started applauding loudly and Monkey waved around at them, bowing several times as well.
"And the winner is Master Monkey of the Furious Five!" Master Chao announced, getting a giant applause from the crowd.
"Now, ladies and gentlemen," Master Zihao started. "We will move onto the second round – sword skills!"
"Sword skills?" Po asked as the crowd started cheering again. "Uh! Let me take the first round, please!"
"… Fine," Shifu said. Seeing that they were already ahead of the Six, Shifu saw no problem with it and let Po have his way. "Go ahead, Panda."
"Eagle, you're up," Junjie said on his half of the bench. "If you can handle it, that is."
"Of course I can, Master," Eagle said confidently. Taking off directly from the bench, she flew towards the middle of the arena, grabbing a sword from one of the otters on the way. She gracefully landed and waited for her opponent to be ready as well.
Po made his way to the center of the arena. Just his mere presence was enough to get applauses from the crowd. This annoyed Eagle a little, but she eventually chose to ignore it.
"Contestants ready? Begin!" Eagle did a few quick tricks with her sword, then took on a battle stance and waited for Po to make the first move.
"Nice moves," Po said eagerly and tried with some similar moves, though they weren't quite as fluid as Eagle, almost causing her to laugh by seeing it.
"How do you like this?" Eagle asked and made the first attack, not bothering waiting for Po to do so. The first strike was a direct one aimed at Po's chest area. Po brought up his sword to block, then made an attack on his own. This one was aimed a little higher and Eagle easily knocked Po's sword aside and made another strike, which Po was just barely able to dodge.
Po then struck towards Eagle, which she blocked. Eagle then jumped into the air with a sideflip, smashing her sword towards Po at the same time. Po barely managed to block this attack and then replied with a strike on his own.
Eagle jumped backwards, dodging. She then jumped into the air and spread her wings. Somehow she was able to soar and also able to attack Po at the same time, holding her sword in her right wing.
Po was somewhat impressed by this and it also caused him to be surprised when he was attacked by Eagle. Po almost missed the first strike, but eventually blocked the next incoming ones and he was also able to attack back.
Eagle landed again and turned her sword, so that the blade was pointing downwards, then jumped into the air. As she did this, she made herself spin around, while turning herself so that she was completely horizontal.
Po blocked the move, but soon Eagle tried with the same technique, though she spun the opposite way this time. As Po blocked the move again, Eagle turned the sword so that she held it with its blade pointing upwards like one usually would.
Eagle then sent a series of slashes against Po, who could barely manage to block it. Finally the two warriors clashed their swords against one another's. They stood like that for a few moments.
Then the two started pushing against one another with all their force. Suddenly Eagle stepped aside with a spin and Po fell onto the ground. He managed to make a roll when he landed, but that was when he realized that he had dropped his sword.
"And the winner is Eagle of the Selected Six!" Master Chao announced. This did get applauses from the crowd, but not enough to make it worth mentioning; there was barely anyone who cheered.
This was much to Eagle's annoyance, but at least she had still won. As she flew back towards her teammates, Junjie looked at Jinshu, telling his grandson to prepare for the final round.
"Tigress, I'm certain you can do this," Shifu said confidently. Tigress quickly nodded to her Master and got off the bench. As she got to the middle of the arena, she picked a sword and Jinshu joined her on the way.
Tigress and Jinshu both clearly remembered the night before… the things they, Jinshu for the most part, had said. And now… now none of them said anything at all, afraid they might say something wrong. It wasn't till they reached the center that Jinshu spoke.
"Tigress, I need to talk to you," he said, sounding somewhat humble.
"… Can't it wait?" Tigress asked rationally. "We're in the middle of a tournament and all…"
"But it's about last night… I…"
"Contestants, ready?" master Chao asked. The two quickly bowed to each other. "Begin!"
"But it's important," Jinshu insisted.
"Then what is it?" Tigress hissed lowly as the two started circling around each other.
"It's just… About yesterday," Jinshu said as the two kept circling each other. "I wanted to know…"
Jinshu didn't get to finish as Tigress made the first strike. She was aiming for his torso, but Jinshu jumped into the air, dodging her slash. He landed with a short roll, then as Tigress tried to attack him from behind, he brought up his sword so that it blocked her attack from hitting his back.
"What about it?" Tigress asked after Jinshu had spun around in a circle, still on his knees, trying to attack her. Tigress had blocked the attack and Jinshu had gotten to his feet while their swords were still clashed against one another.
"I just… Did you feel anything?" Jinshu asked, causing Tigress' heart to skip a beat in surprise. She pulled back, then slashed downwards towards Jinshu. Jinshu blocked with his sword, causing Tigress' to be half-locked between the blade and the hand guard.
While doing so, he brought his face close to hers. "Do you feel anything now?"
It was all too sudden for Tigress to answer. Instead Tigress withdrew her sword, pulled back and slashed sideways upwards. Her bamboo sword impacted with Jinshu's with such force that it flew out of his hand. The bamboo sword flew a great distance and landed a little away from the warriors' bench.
But Tigress could clearly tell that this wasn't the case; Jinshu had lost on purpose. How else would she be able to explain the sneaky, yet somewhat happy smile on his face?
"And the winner is Tigress of the Furious Five!" At this, the crowd went wild, cheering loudly and confetti started raining. And as the torch in the Five's end of the arena was lit, it showed that the two teams were very close… but the Furious Five were still ahead with one point.
"I take that as a no," Jinshu said, putting up a straight face. He turned around, but before leaving, he said, "That's what I thought."
"Congratulations to all our contestants!" Master Zihao said, causing the crowd to cheer once again. "The Furious Five are ahead with one point, but please don't let that discourage you, Selected Six!"
"Seems that at least one person is on our side," Eagle said, crossing her arms.
"The Sacred Onyx council would like to thank all of the contestants for a beautiful performance today – we wish you the best of luck tomorrow!"
The crowd continued their cheering, but suddenly something unexpected happened. Suddenly someone entered the arena, walking through the gate that Po and his friends had entered at the beginning of the tournament.
They were a little group. Up front was their leader, seemingly. He was a white rabbit with amber colored eyes. He wore some yellow and red robes with black trims. They seemed very expensive and from the looks of it, they were.
The rabbit was followed by various people, all very different. The only thing they had in common
"Honored citizens of Beijing," the rabbit started, almost sounding like Master Zihao or Master Chao. "I would be honored if you would listen to my words for a moment…"
"Oh no, not him," Po heard Master Zihao said. "Shui, get the guards in here!"
"Yes, father," the otter said. It had been quite a while since the last time Po and the others had talked to him, but here he was. Shui quickly got a hold of some palace guards, whom Po and the others hadn't seen till now. The guards were big, strong-looking boars and as they approached the group, the rabbit snapped his hands.
In response to this, a few of the people, who were with him, approached the guards. Suddenly, before anyone could react, a fight broke out.
Po was surprised to find that these guys knew Kung Fu and easily managed to take the upper hand against the palace guards. Po and his friends immediately got to their feet due to reflex, but were told to not do anything by Master Chao.
"No, don' you get near him!" Master Chao warned the six. Somewhat confused they looked at each other for a moment, then eventually chose to sit back down again.
"Now, if I may continue," the rabbit said as the guards and his followers were still fighting. "My name is Master Yuan; the head of the Rising Phoenix Council."
"You were," Master Chao said and got to his feet. "But you were expelled and you know the reason just as well as I do – you are not welcome here anymore."
"Master Chao, I do not believe that you should be one to talk about who is welcome and who is not," Yuan said. "After all – you just expelled me because of different views."
"And as I was about to explain, these views are what will forge our future," Yuan continued. "Each one of you has come here today for a specific reason – to see a tournament of Kung Fu."
"Yuan, this is my last warning…" But Master Chao didn't get further; Yuan made a flick with his hand and in the blink of an eye, Master Chao had deflected the dagger that Yuan had thrown towards him.
The dagger landed on the tiles of the arena and soon Master Chao and several other members of the council had had to jump down from their tribune and into the arena. And Junjie also joined them, due to his wish of joining the council again – this would give him some spotlight.
"Don't worry, Chao, I was on my way," Yuan said, facing the fact that he was surrounded. "But audience, contestants; mark my words: you will all have to face a fact sooner or later; Kung Fu is nothing but a weapon of power; you might all see it as a cheap way of entertainment, but…"
Yuan didn't get further with his speech as Master Chao and Master Ai Long were performing an advanced Chi move – the Golden Lotus Clap. Junjie picked up on this move and added to it, and soon a wave of golden chi energy was cast towards Yuan and his group.
The light got so intense that Po and his friends – as well as the rest of the audience – had to cover their eyes – otherwise they would have gone blind. Once the light of the golden energy move died down, Yuan and his folks were gone.
