Author's note: It is time to begin a new chapter of The Frog Dojo, my friends! New adventures ahead and... well, that's pretty much it. Let's go!
The light of the setting sun glowed over the mountain trees. A thick wall of snow covered the ground on this silent evening with the birds happily chirping and the wind creating a melody with the tree leaves. A beautiful, peaceful village laid at the feet of this mountain. The perfect image of what one could wish from such a place: harmless residents, kids running around while laughing, and everyone just enjoying life as it came and went. The people of this village consisted of farmers, cooks, and dancers.
However, even the most serene place in China wasn't safe from the shadows of danger. A certain group loomed in the dark, their sinister eyes glowing as they stared at the villagers going on with their everyday lives. A particular pair of golden eyes seemed more malicious and excited than the others. "Should we attack now, boss?"
A pair of lips twisted into a sinister grin below those golden eyes. "Of course. Why should we wait any longer? Attack!"
Then, the calmness was destroyed by coyotes who leaped into the village, the alarmed villagers screaming and running in panic as their homes were getting destroyed and set on fire...
"Come on, come on, baby! I can do it!" Yukan nervously mumbled as he pressed the buttons of the arcade machine.
"You are not going to win this one, orange face!" Kivuli replied with a smirk as she also pressed the machines' buttons, but with more precision and agility. "Aaaand... I WIN!" she beamed as the arcade machine declared: "WE HAVE A WINNER!"
"Aww, dang it!" Yukan groaned, crossing his wings with a pouting look. "How can you beat me like this? You don't even play arcade games that often!"
"Comes naturally I guess," the martial eagle replied with a smug look. "Besides, it doesn't help that I've chosen a Capoeira fighter while you chose a kickboxer; everybody knows that Capoeira is already strong in real life, so it's even better in a video game."
The sun parrot let out a scoff in response. "Capoeira isn't that great; from what I've heard, it's just the user that flips and dances all around, doing random moves."
"Which is why it's unpredictable and dangerous," Kivuli replied back with rolling her amethyst eyes. "How about we go back to the Dojo and rest for a bit? Unless you want me to beat you one more time at this game?"
Yukan gave a scoff as a response to her smug look. "Let's go; I feel like having a cup of tea. But don't go thinking that I will not claim a revenge match in the future."
And so, the two avian friends left the arcade to return to their Dojo. Two have weeks passed since the end of the Legendary Tournament and things went back to normal in the Valley of Peace for the inhabitants and masters. During this time, the amount of mission demands and bounties for the Dojo rose higher than before. The reason was probably that the watchers of the tournament's final phase got so impressed by Yukan and Kivuli's performances that they held the Frog Dojo in higher estime now.
As they arrived, Yukan couldn't help but smile at the familiarity of the place that was now his home. The square-shaped building still looked great with its octagon windows and radiant garden around it. It was hard to believe that two months already passed since he left his country and arrived here. To him, it felt like all of this happened yesterday. So much has happened since. But the most important thing is that he found somewhere he felt he belonged to.
When they entered, the duo found the building mostly empty. The members were probably busy with all the work demands they received on the mission board. It didn't take them long before noticing their good old master sitting in the living room with a tea service on the table. "Hey, Master Shujinko. Good morning," Kivuli warmly greeted him.
To their surprise, the little frog did not respond and instead looked at a piece of paper in his hands. This caught Yukan's attention. "Master? Is something wrong?"
Shujinko turned toward them after a few seconds, giving them a surprisingly serious look. "We need to leave at this very instant, my young students."
"Why's that, Master?" Kivuli asked with raising a confused eyebrow.
As a response, the amphibian showed the message paper he held in his hands. "I received this moments ago. You remember the group of coyotes that you confronted with Shining Eagle at the Tuvani Village and at the tea shop, Yukan? Well, they attacked another village today and they want me to come up or they will kill the villagers."
"What?!" Yukan exclaimed, his emerald green eyes widening in shock. They then narrowed into a glare. "Darn those coyotes! They never stop doing bullshit!"
"We must go now. We never know when they'll get impatient and start killing the villagers!" Kivuli pointed out.
"Indeed. I must just get something first." Master Shujinko stood up and left the living room to go to his quarters. He returned a few moments later with a strange object in his hands. A small dagger with a curved wooden handle and a sharp blade made of stone with purple streaks marking it. The two avians couldn't help but give it a curious look as they never saw any wood or stone of this type in the region. And since when did Master Shujinko owned a dagger?
"What's this thing, Master?" Yukan asked.
"There's no time to explain; I will tell you another time. Now let's go!"
Yukan, Kivuli and Shujinko managed to reach the village at the base of the mountain after only two hours. The first thing the trio took notice of being the worrying silence of the place and the fact that all the houses were burnt and destroyed. There wasn't a single living soul in sight, as if they had entered a ghost town.
"What the heck happened here? Are we too late?" Yukan asked, looking all around in hopes of seeing at least one villager.
"That can't be," Kivuli mumbled as they arrived in the middle of the village. "They can't have done this so soon! I swear if they have..."
Master Shujinko suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, raising a hand to make his two students do the same. He turned his head to one side and the other a few times, narrowing his yellow eyes. "We're being surrounded!"
The little frog took his Crab Style fighting stance while Yukan got into his Reverse Praying Mantis and Kivuli summoned Purple Rainmaker before taking her own fighting stance. As if on cue, at least twenty figures jumped down from the rooftops around them and formed a circle around the trio. A group of coyotes. They all brandished sharp swords, axes, maces, javelins, and arrows.
"Hello, guys. Been a while," Yukan greeted them with a smirk.
"I don't remember saying in my letter that you could come with any friends, Shujinko."
The old frog sighed sadly and turned his head. A new figure came out from the circle of coyotes. A female dragon with red scales and an exposed golden underbelly. "Hello, Fyra. It has been a while, hasn't it?"
"Shut up, old man!" the dragoness angrily replied.
Kivuli blinked her amethyst eyes, looking alternatively between her master and the dragoness. "... Is that your girlfriend, Master?"
"SHUT UP! YOU CAN CLEARLY SEE THAT I'M YOUNGER THAN HE IS!" Fyra exclaimed in an undignified tone.
"But who are you? And why did you do this to those villagers?" Yukan asked.
"So this old frog didn't tell you anything?" Fyra asked with crossing her arms. "I'm not surprised. He's too much of a coward to tell the truth. I'm sorry if taking this village caused you any trouble, but that was the only way to lure him into coming here. Have you brought what I asked, Shujinko?" The amphibian turned his body sideways to show the little dagger tied to his waist. "Excellent," Fyra said with a grin. "Now give it to me, and nobody will have to get hurt."
"Fyra, please," Shujinko said with a slightly begging look. "I already told you that you don't have to do this. Whatever the Scorpion King told you, it's nothing but lies. If you free him from his prison, he's gonna hurt a lot of people."
"Keep your stories for yourself, old man!" Fyra said. "If you refuse to comply, I'm gonna take it by force."
"Not a chance," Yukan declared with taking place beside his master. "If you want to take anything from my master, you'll have to go through me!"
Fyra grinned a little bit. "Even if I hoped that Shujinko would come alone, I still brought some back-up in case." The dragoness moved out of the way as a figure walked beside her.
A male Jamaican monkey with light brown fur and a light grey face. His hair was tied into many back-length braids and his whole body was covered by a black jumpsuit. Just the look in his brown eyes indicated that he wasn't here to mess around.
"So... what's the plan, Master?" Yukan mumbled toward Shujinko as the situation wasn't exactly in their favor.
"I will take care of Fyra," he replied. "Yukan, you take care of this monkey, and Kivuli, you neutralize these coyotes and find where they are keeping the villagers. You need to act quickly before they hurt them."
The martial eagle nodded, turning around and charging into the group of coyotes surrounding them. Yukan, meanwhile, cracked his wings and approached the monkey. "Alright, we can do this two ways: the easy way or the hard-" He never got to finish his sentence as the monkey leaped on his two hands and delivered a spinning kick to the sun parrot's beak, sending him crashing into the destroyed home's wall. "... way?"
Spitting some blood, the sun parrot charged at the primate, clutching his wing like a fist and setting it on fire. "ROARING FIST!" The primate performed a side dodge and then jumped to catch Yukan with a tilt-a-whirl headscissors that made him flip and land hard on his back. After recovering, he realized a detail. "Hey, that's a move Kivuli used against me at the arcade earlier."
"Possible. The martial art I'm using is called Capoeira," the monkey said while balancing himself from one side to the other with his legs.
"C-Capeoira?!" Yukan exclaimed, his emerald green eyes widening in surprise. "... Great, I'm in for a world of hurt now."
#
Not too far from there, Shujinko and Fyra clashed, attacking each other with matching fury. They successfully blocked and dodged each other's attacks. Of course, Shujinko still had the advantage thanks to his small size and his Crab Style of Kung Fu. He already landed a few strikes to the dragoness' legs, leaving small bruises there.
Both warriors eventually charged at their respective opponent and the force of their attacks colliding pushed them away from each other, causing them to skid across the ground towards the opposite ends of the village. Fyra readjusted her position, eyes narrowed toward her opponent. She rushed forward, swinging her sharp tail tip in a down stroke motion toward Shujinko's head.
The old frog pulled the dagger from his belt and blocked the tail tip with it. Not giving up, Fyra pressed on her attack, producing a CLING! noise. Eventually, Shujinko had enough and went for a leg sweep which knocked Fyra off-balance. She immediately flapped her wings to put some distance between herself and her opponent.
"Darn it...!" the dragoness groaned while panting.
"I don't want to hurt you, Fyra. Please, just leave this village and no one will have trouble," Shujinko asked once again with lowering his dagger.
"Forget about this. I won't give up until you set my father free!" She then grinned. "Besides, when we last fought, I never had the chance to show you the extend of my real strength." She took a deep breath, filling her lungs. "FEAR SCREAM!" Opening her mouth, she shot a dark red and black blast of energy toward her opponent.
Shujinko managed to avoid it with a back bend. "The power of Dark Aether. I should have known. The Scorpion King truly is crazy!"
"And that's not all. POISON BLAST!" Taking another deep breath, Fyra shot yet another blast, that one being light green. Shujinko turned his head to see an undamaged barrel of water nearby. Raising one hand, he focused and made the water come out and fly before him to block the poison blast. If she was going to use her elemental powers, then so would he.
#
"Wow! So Master Shujinko possesses water powers?" Yukan mumbled to himself as he noticed the scene unfolding not too far from him.
"Don't look away from your opponent!" The sun parrot turned just in time to see a flying foot coming and hit him in the chest, knocking him away.
Swearing under his breath, Yukan set both of his fists on fire and got on the offensive again. Soon, they engaged in close combat, trading punches, kicks, and knee strikes. Since the monkey had a larger arsenal of attack, along with the fact that he could seemingly hit an endless combo, Yukan had to get on the defensive.
Eventually, he got on the offensive and swung his burning fist at the primate who dodged it and went for a spin kick that Yukan blocked. The encounter lasted very long with both fighters either blocking or dodging the other's offensives until they jumped away from each other, but immediately charged forward once more and went for a punch. Simultaneously, their attack reached the other's face, knocking them back at the same time. They got back up quickly and panted a bit while rubbing their cheek.
"You're pretty resilient, I'll give you that," the Jamaican monkey said with a grin.
"Thanks. You're very strong too. I will never underestimate a Capoeira fighter ever again," Yukan replied with a chuckle.
They charged and engaged another close combat with their attacks either missing or touching their target. The monkey actually managed to land a kick in the parrot's face before jumping back. However, Yukan followed and delivered a strong smash that caused the simian to be knocked back, but he performed moonsaults to regain his balance.
Yukan suddenly charged his lungs with fire energy. "PHOENIX BREATH!" The simian avoided the jet of fire with a cartwheel and immediately ran forward to catch the sun parrot with a monkey flip, sending him crashing into a wooden barrel which was completely broken because of the impact.
As the avian laid on his back in pain, the simian approached him and sighed sadly. "I'm sorry, I don't wanna do this, but I don't have a choice. Please forgive me." Using his strong legs, he jumped really high in the air, aiming for a double foot stomp to Yukan's torso.
"ENERGY SLASH!" The simian turned his head to see a purple slash of energy flying at him, making contact and sending him crashing into a nearby home. He fell face-first on the floor, knocked out.
Yukan groaned and looked up to see Kivuli landing next to him with her sword in wing. "K-Kivuli?"
"Looks I got here at just the right time," she remarked with a smile as she offered her wing to help her friend back up.
"Are the villagers safe, Kivuli?" Master Shujinko asked from nearby after countering another attack from the crazy dragoness.
The martial eagle replied by pointing in a direction with her wing where all the coyotes were lying down on the ground, severely injured - not enough to threaten their lives, but enough to make sure they wouldn't threaten the villagers anymore. "The villagers are free and I sent a call to the Imperial Army; they should be here in no time."
Upon hearing this, Fyra's golden eyes widened in horror. She groaned; she came SO close to reaching her goal! Swallowing her pride, she opened her wings and flew off to her defeated coyotes. "Coyotes! We must retreat! Follow me!"
As the coyotes got back up, clutching their wounds in pain and running away, Yukan saw the dragoness giving a hesitant look in the unconscious Capoeira fighter's direction before turning her head and flying away. "Well that solves it," Kivuli remarked as she pulled her Purple Rainmaker Sword away.
"You think the Imperial Army will manage to catch up with them?" Yukan asked.
"The most important thing is that the villagers are safe, Yukan," Master Shujinko said. He then turned his attention toward the defeated primate. "At least we got one of them. The Imperial soldiers will put him in jail when they'll arrive."
As he said this, Yukan couldn't but give a curious look at his opponent. Sure, he was on these cowards' side and he didn't hold back in their fight... but why did he apologize when he was about to deliver the finishing blow? And why did he say that he didn't want to do this?
"I'm gonna go ask him a few questions in jail..."
Author's note: Wow, over 3,000 words? I think that might be the longest chapter I ever wrote for this story! You guys thought I forgot about Fyra? Nope. In fact, I have big plans for her in the future.
I also have a big news to tell you; because of the Coronavirus, my school will be closed for the next two weeks. This leaves me with a lot of free time, meaning I will be able to progress a lot with my stories. Except that, constructive reviews are welcome and may the gods watch over you all.
