Duyao shut the tome heavily. Three thousand and seventy two pages and not a word about the Kingswood Brotherhood? She glared at it. 'The Underworld: A Short Summary of China's Less Savoury Groups'. Snorting she shoved it aside and made to grab another book.

Lee slammed the side of his trident into the tome, slashing it's three thousand and seventy two pages clean in two.

Duyao looked at the bunny, who's form was shaking with rage. The frog frowned deeply at him. "Is something wrong?" She asked icily. He couldn't have figured it out...

"Do you know who I am?" The rabbit hissed menacingly.

"What is wrong with you?" She asked instead.

With a flourish he brought the point of his trident to her throat. "Answer my question!" He demanded viciously.

So much anger... So he knows... "No idea." Duyao rose, shoving the trident away from her neck. Before she could react the other end of the weapon slammed into the side of her head. Then Lee hopped forwards with a powerful kick to her chest. The amphibian rolled backwards and leapt over the trident's sweep. Upon re-landing she blocked the trident's shaft, forcing it to vibrate madly, and by extent forcing her opponent to focus on holding it instead of stabbing her with it. Duyao took this opportunity to send him flying backwards via a kick to the chest.

Lee fell hard on his back, his ribs shooting agony through the rest of his body. Hastily, he picked himself up, twirling his weapon around his form as he focused on the opponent in front of him.

"What do you want?" She asked, shoving the desk aside to prepare for more effective.

"You. Dead!" He thrust forwards, as fast as lightning. But Duyao was just as quick and punched the trident downwards, where it sunk deep into the wooden floor. Lee stumbled forwards, his balance entirely lost. Then Duyao tore forwards, her fist raised. The rabbit recovered in time to sidestep the blow, however the frog's fist crashed into the floor, sending a wave of energy around her that knocked Lee off his feet.

"What do you want?" She snarled, picking him up by the front, and forcing him to look into her eyes.

"Revenge!" He yelled, spitting into her face and thereby blinding her. Duyao stepped backwards and was immediately floored by a powerful leg sweep.

Lee felt pain shoot further through him as his bad leg knocked Duyao off balance. He winced, but bore with it, before slamming his other foot into her gut.

The frog gasped for breath as the wind was forced out of her. Acting quickly, she brought her feet up and landed a powerful double-kick to the stomach, before getting to her feet and catching her breath.

As Lee flew backwards, he caught his weapon by the edge and steadied himself. He pulled the trident free from the floor, and swung it at her. She bent backwards to avoid the sharp metal, before shooting back up and coming in with a swing of her own.

Lee fell to the floor, his limp ear throbbing with pain. He had been too slow with the swing. I need to move faster. He spun around and jabbed forwards at the approaching frog, who pounced back to avoid a fatal wound. He twisted himself to his feet, before swinging at her stomach. His aim was a little off, but nothing could have made him feel better than the sight of her blood spraying out from the connection.

"What is wrong with you?!" She exclaimed. She couldn't hurt him-he was merely a child. Yet he was intent on drawing out conflict.

"I already told you!" He pounced forwards, all his weight behind the thrust. It would have gone right through the amphibian had she not avoided the attack. But she was too slow to avoid the subsequent swing that aimed for her head. A gash was left on her cheek, and blood flew like fireworks into the air.

Duyao hopped away. "I am warning you now, stop this madness!"

"Madness? Look at me, and tell me what you see." He snapped back.

"A child trying to kill me." Revenge... Revenge... I wanted revenge too...It all goes back to revenge.

Lee hated the cool look on her face and swung up at her. This time Duyao caught the weapon and held it tightly in place.

"What your father did to me was unforgivable." She said, dropping all pretense.

"So you killed him for it? You killed my mother too! You orphaned me!" Lee jabbed at her neck.

Duyao stopped the thrust in it's tracks just before it got the chance to kill her. "And what would you have done in my position?" She threw him off, making the rabbit stumble back. Before he could regain balance, Duyao kicked him in side, knocking him off his feet. "Your father got what he deserved." She raised a fist.

Han was still in a bad mood half an hour later. It wasn't that he had any kind of grating obsession with Cat. Just that he didn't really have anything else to do or think about. Well he could think about the Kingswood, but that wasn't something he particularly liked thinking about.

Kang Aru was satisfied. After coming out and (arguably) costing Han the fight he was at peace and not too anxious to try and take over once more. Stupid demon. Thought the wolverine. Then he remembered the name of Cat's technique. "Speed demon? Who ever heard of something as stupid as 'Speed Demon'? I bet it was named by some ten year old."

The cheetah's attitude had been the worst though. Han hadn't asked for help-Cat had offered-he had refused-then Cat had practically kidnapped him. And yet nothing truly bad had happened. Then why on earth was he so utterly bothered!?

"Hello Han."

"Fuck off! I told you I don't wanna learn your dumb technique!" Han snapped, before figuring out that the voice did not belong to Cat. "Oh-er... Sorry Tianqi. I thought you were-"

"Cat. Yes I know. I saw him take you. I thought the Kingswood had something to do with it so I went to try and find Master Flying Rhino, but it appears you are unharmed. Sometimes, the sun does rise in the east."

"And sometimes you get your proverbs right! Congratulation!" Han made to high-five the horse, but Tianqi stepped away from him.

"Don't touch me!" The horse snapped wildly. Before relaxing. "I'm sorry, I ate at the wrong side of the table this morning."

Han opened his mouth to correct the horse, then closed it again. "Technically that proverb's not wrong. Eating the wrong breakfast can be very detrimental to one's entire day."

Tianqi nodded. "Well I'm glad you're safe. The gods gave us two eyes so that sometimes we can look back on our mistakes."

"Why do you always speak in proverbs?" Han asked.

Tianqi paused for thought and shrugged. "It is a clever way of conveying wisdom. See you Han." He waved goodbye.

No no no. Don't go, then all I'll think about is that stupid cat! "Hey Tianqi! Let's talk a bit."

"About?" The horse asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Anything." The wolverine said immediately.

The horse cocked his head to the side, then nodded. "Fine. We can start with the weather."

Well... Better than staying alone...

But you're never alone! You've got me!

"Shut up!" Han growled, interrupting Tianqi's soliloquy about the necessity of clouds.

"What? But you asked me to talk!"

"Um... I was talking to my stomach."

"You mean your demon?"

"Yeah..."

Tianqi shrugged. "And without clouds we'd have no rain."

Han was not the only one ranting about the morning's incident. "And he just wouldn't do it! I showed it to him and everything. He ought to have been able to do a better job-but nooooooo I was going 'too fast'." Cat spat. "Honestly I'm surprised he isn't dead yet. The whole Kingswood is after him and he refuses to try and improve his combat."

Misty rolled her eyes. "And you were going on about how he could be a Guardian if you could just get the chance to train him." She shook her head. "You owe me fifty yuan."

Cat tossed the sack of coins at her. "He's just so thick and stubborn-"

Misty tuned him out-knowing Cat this would bother him until there was something else to occupy his mind.

She had found the fox first. He had stuttered apologies and begged for his life. She had slammed his head into the fireplace and pressed him against the burning embers. The frog had tried to fight. She had smashed his chest into a bloody crater. Then she had found the dog and squeezed the life out of his throat. The pig had taken his own life before she had arrived. Then the rabbit. He had a son. He had a wife. She had killed him and his wife, the latter had been an accident. If I kill the son then I'm a monster...

"I'm going to give you a chance to back down now. Take it and go!" Duyao lowered her fist.

The trident slammed into her shoulder, and a well-placed kick forced Duyao to loose balance. Lee rose to his feet, swinging wildly in the same motion. He missed his intended target and tore through several books.

Duyao regained her balance and swung at him, her fist connecting heavily with the rabbit's shoulder. Lee yelled in pain, before the frog slammed her foot on top of his and backhanded the bunny into a bookshelf.

Lee rolled back and spat blood. Pain, pain, pain. It was painful. He tried weakly to rise as Duyao approached.

With no emotion on her face she slammed her foot down on his chest. Lee coughed madly as blood somehow found it's way into his throat. The frog raised her fist, ready for the final blow.

I'm not a monster. "Goodbye." She spat, letting her fist fall harmless at her side. Then Duyao turned and walked away.

Lee's eyelids were drooping. I must... Get up. I must get up. If I moved faster... If I was a better son... I failed you guys... Again... Then his eyes shut and the rabbit lay still.

Footnote: This fight was pretty hard to write, purely because of the difference in power levels. Lee is hopelessly outclassed, but is the one pursuing revenge and conflict. I hope Duyao is starting to come across as a more 3D character, rather than the evil cardboard cut-out she was in the original HoT. This story and the remake will hopefully shed some more light on the subject matter that is 'Duyao'.

Also don't worry, Lee's not dead. More will be explained in the following chapters. Next time we get Tianqi's back story and maybe Cat and Misty's? As well as Han's finished back story. Also I will confirm that Lee's not dead, before hopefully moving on to the Pula/ Yue/ Jian/ Qian chapter.

I have an interesting style for writing these (VoreLover and I lost the mega document...), wherein I write one or two characters entire mini-arc, before cutting it up and fusing the characters.

Enjoy