Lang tossed Saras forwards, where the fox rolled through the sand and ended up collapsed on his stomach with a weak groan. "Done! I did it!" He remarked, almost challengingly.

"And in third place! It's everyone's favorite rage ball! Lord Lang!"

"Third place!?" Lang glared at Naan, who leaned against the wall, his yellow eyes unmoving. Ba stood in a corner looking surlier than ever.

"Don't glare at me. I'm only second." He indicated Babirasu, who sat grinning and eating an apple he'd no doubt been given to look like even more of an asshole. A few feet away, nursing spots of burnt fur, was Dianbo.

Saras, his tail no longer in Lang's vice-like grip, sat against the wall, rubbing at the many hurt places on his form, trying to ward off growing disappointment.

"Han?" The wolverine was sporting red facial-paint, a black eye, bent claws and a limp. The peacock only recognized him for the length of his claws.

"Oh Jiao'ao hab are you?" He was also sporting a speech impairment and several missing teeth. "Bid you hab any luck wid your riddle? I found my danuki, only it bas Bong."

The peacock's eye twitched involuntarily. The wolverine's accent was hard enough on a good day, but was almost incomprehensible now.

"I'm just on my way to the finish line." Said Jiao'ao with unforeseen cunning. "Would you like to come with me."

"Sure. But can you help me carry Bong. He's a bit heavy."

The peacock frowned at the crocodile, and his roommate. Han Guan, for all his odditities, had a strange kind of innocence. It would be easy for Jiao'ao to take him out and drag him out the arena... but that was not the honourable way. With a small sigh he grabbed hold of one of the reptile's legs, while Han adjusted his grip on the other.

He's more than a bit heavy...

Kunjingle tossed Li I forwards. Mid-air the rabbit shot out a pair of darts Tianqi deflected effortlessly. The horse responded with an air-empowered-double-hoof strike. (A normal double-hoof strike, with the added bonus of catapulting opponents even further!)

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

"Here's proof that Kung Fu Masters are good at what they do! In case you needed it!"

Li I flew past Kunjingle, but found no walls to crash through (the surrounding walls having all been destroyed prior) for a long period of time. When his back finally did become acquainted with a wall it dropped a bucket of water on him.

"And here's proof that the tournament staff are also good at what they do!"

"I'm okay!" Came Li I's muffled cry from behind the bucket. He stood up, walked forwards a few feet, changed direction, and charged right back into the wall. "Ow! Okay, gimme a minute!"

Kunjingle was not listening to him. The bear was busy tanking a blur of kicks and, for lack of a better word, air-shoves the Kung Fu Master was hurling at him. It was difficult work. The kicks hurt less if his muscles were untensed, but the 'air-shoves' went right through his flab and shook his bones. And while not very painful, it was incredibly uncomfortable. And occasionally Tianqi would somehow make the air sharp, and give him a tiny cut, and tensed or untensed the wind still hurt.

Li I was back to his feet, having discarded the bucket. Now dripping wet, the rabbit spied the battle from a distance.

"Right, Kunjingle is the most durable guy I know... and he's loosing this match up." He started tapping his foot against the sand. "Think, think, think. It's two on one, and our opponent uses the wind. And Kung Fu. What can I use against him?" He spotted Mulaohu's ridiculously large hammer. His eyes narrowed. "That'll work!"

Kunjingle tensed, letting the hoof slam into his hardened muscle. Tianqi didn't flinch. The horse jumped high into the air. He then spun downwards with a whistle like an arrow, as Kunjingle braced himself for the inevitable collision. The horse struck his belly, throwing the wind out of him. The bear fell on his rump, while the horse flipped backwards to his feet.

"Stay down! Now you shall be defeated once and for all!"

"I don't think so!" Came Li I's strained voice. Tianqi turned to see him, several feet away, trying and failing to drag his student's gigantic weapon. "Gimme one second and this'll be all over your hooves!"

"I think you'll need more than one second! SQUAWK!"

After several more seconds of strained breath, Li I dropped to the sand, panting deeply. "Really? I think I shall turn this into an idiom. Do not try to lift hammers larger than yourself."

"I failed on purpose!" Li I shot back. "Look behind you."

Kunjingle threw his paws around the horse and squeezed as tightly as he could. Tianqi squirmed frantically, his arms pinned to his side.

This was his worst nightmare. All over his front he could feel the bear's fur, flab and muscle. Around him he could feel the strong squeeze of Kunjingle's arms. He was being touched, he hated, he hated it, he hated it. He needed to burst free. To escape.

"Get off of me!"

"In an unforseen turn of events Kunjingle has caught Tianqi in a bear hug!"

Tianqi brought his legs up to get momentum, only to swing them back down into the bear's knees. The larger mammal tensed and took the blow like it was nothing.

"Let! GO!"

"I don't even know how they know Master Tianqi hates physical contact, but this is the perfect way to take him down! Great job for figuring it out guys!"

"Your weakness is physical contact?" Li I sounded incredulous. "Why would you become a master in an art of combat if you hate getting touched?"

Kunjingle barked, grunted, and held onto the thrashing equine as hard as he could.

"Oh, yes help! One second!" Placing both paws firmly on the handle of the hammer the rabbit gave a tug. Then he pulled with all his weight. Then he was running in place, his paws glued to the handle. Then he took several deep breaths.

The bear gave a shrill whistle.

"That's a good idea! But I have a better one." The bunny closed the gap between himself and his opponent very quickly. "So you don't like being touched, well this must be hell for you. Just imagine, all that fur and fat and sweat, all sticking to your body-"

"I am not a hygene freak! To jump to conclusions is to jump off a cliff."

"Oooookay, yeah Jingles lets go with your plan." Li I assumed a battle stance. "Let's play, pin the foot to the horse! Hiya!" Li I's foot connected, unfortunately, with the horse's hoof. He was left hopping in place, cradling his poor, poor toes.

"Oh I am so over this." Bending forwards suddenly, Tianqi's hooves managed to touch the sand. With decades of skill and practice behind this maneuver Tianqi kicked off the ground, bringing the bear several feet up into the air with him.

He had perfected this trick as an easy way of escaping an opponent's grip. He had practiced on mercenaries, bandits, other masters and sometimes his students whenever they dared challenge him to a sparring match. None of those could compare in weight to Kunjingle. While the technique was meant to take him high, high up into the air, where Tianqi had a massive advantage, this one failed to do so.

He was then supposed to beat up his stunned opponent and throw them down, down, down into the ground, before he came crashing down on top of them. This was not possible when his opponent was as strong as Kunjingle or Mulaohu. But, with Mulaohu he had plenty of falling time to get on top... whereas with Kunjingle, he didn't.

The two crashed into the sand, throwing up a small cloud of sand.

"See! Great organization skills right there! The sand only does that for dramatic, tension-creating effect! SQUAWK!"

Kunjingle rolled off his groaning opponent, lying weakly on the sand besides the downed Master.

"Yes Kunjingle! We did it! We did it! We won! We won!" The rabbit rushed forwards, only to collapse next to the bear. "Man, I'm beat."

"Yes you have been!"

"What?"

"There you have it folks! The final line-up! With Jiao'ao and Han Guan bringing up the rear."

Saras sighed while massaging his poor tail. Now he was out of the running. Perhaps he could work that to his advantage and find wherever Babirasu had hidden the crystal, but somehow he doubted it would be easier now.

"Just to remind you all of everyone that going forwards! Babirasu, Dianbo, Naan, Ba, Lang, Saras-"

"Wait what? But I lost?" He blurted out.

"You advance with the object of your riddles, so regardless who won the actual fight you still got through!"

"So you're telling me that I could have just followed Lang out the door?"

"Yup! But don't be too hard on yourself, your fighting back made it more fun! SQUAWK!"

"Not for me!" Saras snapped back, surprised at how angry he was that he had managed to proceed.

"You're not the one meant to have fun here!"

The fox growled. His was not the only angry voice. Naan was glaring at Ba, who he had tried to take out of the running, and was now pleasantly surprised that he had scored a win. Dianbo, judging from the burns, had done as the fox had and had fought to the bitter end. Han Guan looked like he had gotten a severe beating, but was grinning toothily (or as toothily as he could considering he had lost quite a few teeth). Jiao'ao was unscathed and looked a bit bored. Reidak and Wugu didn't look like they had done much either.

It was then that Saras realized who had not managed to proceed. Li I and Kunjingle were not among the winners...

"Kunjingle?" Asked Li I.

The bear clicked his claws together.

"Yeah, I think we lost..."

The bear sat up weakly, and gently patted the rabbit on the head.

"I guess my dad won't hear his son won an epic Kung Fu Tournament." The bunny's disappointment was palpable.

Kunjingle did not know what to say to that, but continued stroking him.

Suddenly the rabbit's ears shot up. "He'll just hear that we took down a frickin' Kung Fu Master together! Like how cool is that!? We can even exaggerate a little bit and make it like we won easily!"

Footnote: Thus end the Third Task! I think this one is definitely the most fun one so far, but the remaining three mini-arcs are all something worth reading so stay tuned! Now I may have rushed some points of this Task along, for example Dianbo vs Babirasu and Reidak and Wugu. etc, but I don't think those were really necessary for this fic.

Tianqi and Mulaohu still have some things left to do in this story and will appear again in another story... coming soon.

So now we may proceed to the next mini-arc, which I daresay, may surpass this one. Since I'm technically ahead and don't want to spam updates, I'll just leave this little request here, which you may or may not know for what it is needed...

I need six songs, any song (literally any song), and I need six in total. (If you want it for a specific character/set of characters then you should mention that). Yall can send your opinions, if I get more than six I'll either pick my favorites or use as many of them as I want/need. Any song, any genre, any time-period. It can be as crazy as you like, though I will add a rule that since this isn't an M rated fic I'd rather not have many shall we say R-Rated tunes (a bit of swearing is fine, but if the whole song is essentially **** **** ***** ****** ***** it's a no go).

Enjoy!