"OOF!" Po groaned in pain as he was knocked back by a punch across the face from Tai Lung. To his own surprise, he was actually doing pretty well against the former Jade Palace student, but the difference in power between them was too huge and the leopard was starting to regain the upper hand.

Po launched a punch which Tai Lung ducked and delivered a painful punch right into his ribs, almost snapping them off. Tai Lung took benefit of Po groaning in pain to deliver another punch to his stomach followed by a palm strike to his face which made him spit saliva.

The panda managed to shake off the pain and swung his fists at the feline who swiftly dodged them, hit a side kick right into his other ribs, roundhouse kicked his jaw, slamming him into the stomach, and ultimately finishing him off with an uppercut underneath the jaw which caused him to show a funny face before collapsing down.

"It's over...," Tai Lung mumbled with turning around and panting in exhaustion. As weak as they were, he couldn't deny this fat panda and his friends did drain a good deal of energy out of him.

"Over? I almost felt that one." Tai Lung widened his eyes. He turned and saw Po standing up once again, rubbing his body as if he barely got hurt.

"Impossible!" he growled. "How can you still stand up?! You're just a big, fat panda!"

"No; I'm THE big, fat panda," Po replied with a smirk.

Not understanding what this meant and not caring anyway, Tai Lung charged at him once again, decided to finish this battle once and for all. However, Po adjusted his rice hat (which didn't fell thanks to little neck ropes he installed during these last years) and then rose a fist toward the incoming feline. This last one saw something rather strange happening; some kind of blue Chi formed around the panda's arm and took the shape of a...fork?

"FORK PUNCH!" Po shouted and slammed his fist right into Tai Lung's shoulder. the snow leopard roared in pain as he felt something sharp piercing his skin. He slowly lowered his gaze to see that Po's punch had somehow left three little holes in his shoulder, blood flowing out of them.

"W-What was that?!" Tai Lung asked with clutching his shoulder in pain.

"It's called Fork Punch - I just told you its name."

"I know but what is it?!"

"Didn't you know? I'm a Cooking Fighter," Po said with a smirk.

"Cooking Fighter?"

"Yes. You know, the great cocks that have powers themed on cooking and that wants to explore the world to find the greatest ingredients and create their own menu?" Tai Lung just kept staring blankly at him. "Seriously? You never heard about that? Come on!"

"In that case, let me introduce you to another piece of resistance to my menu of attacks!" Po placed his paw in a Karate chop position and once again summoned blue Chi that took the shape of a knife this time. "KNIFE CHOP!"

Instinctively, Tai Lung jumped back but Po managed to swing his arm and touch a bit of his torso. The snow leopard looked down to see a little cut across his midsection which also started bleeding. How could this panda have so much power?! Tai Lung roared and went for another punch, only to get his index finger somehow caught by the panda. Smiling at him, Po rose his pinky finger.

Tai Lung gasped in realization. "T-The Wuxi Finger Hold?!"

"You know this hold, heh? Then you also know that the hardest part about this hold is cleaning afterward."

"Y-You're bluffing! Shifu didn't teach you that hold!"

"Nope. I learned it by myself," Po said with a smile and lowered his pinky finger. "Skadoosh!"

As soon as he lowered his pinky finger, a huge explosion occurred and a cloud of golden dust scattered all around the Valley. The villagers saw it in the distance and started turning back home. Po stood in the middle of the village and picked his rice hat from the ground. Slowly, the realization about what he just did started coming to his mind.

He defeated Tai Lung and saved the Valley of Peace!

"PO!" The panda was suddenly caught by a big hug from Megui who wrapped her wings around his neck. Kai and Mei Feng also joined in the big hug while Shi Xin just came with a smile and crossed his arms.

"It's nice to see you too, guys," Po happily said before Shi Xin gave him a punch on the arm.

"See? I knew you could do it, pal," the white wolf said with a smile. "You ARE the Dragon Warrior."

When the dust settled and the villagers returned, everyone looked as Po walked out of the smoke, with his friends at his side.

"Look! It's the Dragon Warrior!" one of the villagers shouted.

Soon, everyone was cheering at Po's victory, even Shi Xin, Megui, Kai, and Mei Feng who couldn't be happier for their friend.

"That's my boy! That big, lovely Kung Fu warrior is my son!" Mr. Ping said in tears from how proud he was of his son.

"Thanks, Dad," Po said, giving his father a hug.

After the two released from the embrace, Po's friends walked up to him, being joined by the Five. Tigress was still badly beaten but had apparently managed to recover enough to walk by herself.

"Hey guys," Po softly said.

Tigress stepped forward, giving a bow to the panda. "Master," she said.

The others followed suit, bowing and saying "Master" to Po.

"Master?" Po said, modest but a bit pleased. He then remembered something. "Master Shifu!"

Po made his way back to the Jade Palace, where Master Shifu was still lying wounded in the main hall.

"Master! Shifu! Shifu! Are you okay?" Po asked, running to the red panda's side.

Shifu opened his eyes at the voice. "Po...you're alive...," he weakly said. "Or are we dead?"

"No, Master, I didn't die. I defeated Tai Lung!" Po said.

"You did?" Shifu said in astonishment. "Wow... It is as Tanya...foretold... You ARE the Dragon Warrior. You have brought peace...to this valley...and...and to me. Thank you... Thank you, Po... Thank you..." He slowly closed his eyes, causing Po to get visibly worried.

"No...Master! No, no, no! Don't die, Shifu, please-"

"I'm not dying, you idiot-huh, Dragon Warrior," the red panda suddenly said. "I'm simply...at peace. Finally..."

"Oh, so I should stop talking?" Po asked.

"If you can only."


That's it, guys. Po finally defeated Tai Lung and saved the whole Valley of Peace. The others have seemingly accepted him as one of them now. Only a few chapters left, and we'll be done with the first arc of this story.

Al The Owl, out ;)