Author Note : Jesus Christ, it's been a while since I've posted anything and I wanna apologize for that. School has been pretty annoying and I got no time to write until now.

This is another one of the longest chapter I have written. It's almost 15k words and I hope it won't be a bother for you to read it all. Since I've been absent for quite some time, I will be uploading another chapter that I have completed right after this chapter has been published.

Well then, let's continue where we left off.

Chapter 57 : Journey To The North

Four days has gone by on the road. The temperature was a little bit warmer than usual, a sign that's we are getting closer to the Gansu province. Wait nope, nevermind, I just asked Crane and he said we are already have entered the Gansu province and all we need is to get to the capital city Lanzhou.

I would like to say I have been doing a good deal of development and progress in training the art of Wing Chun with Yip. I was able to block and counter more of his attacks, lasting longer than usual. But in the end, he'll just up his performance and whoop my ass. The others have also said that my sparring matches with Yip are becoming more entertaining each time we sparred with one another, particularly Tigress who enjoyed watching me getting floored by the southern martial artist.

The path we're moving on is becoming visible more dry with less presence of green or any sort of vegetation. The sun's hot ray was slowly starting to get unbearable. Luckily, we learned this mistake from our trip to Guangzhou and brought enough umbrellas to cover ourselves from the hot rays. To my relief, I can see farmlands and farmers working hard on growing crops, meaning we are getting closer to the city. After about three more hours of walking, we eventually saw a large city up ahead and all of us can't wait to catch our breath once we get there.

Going through the main entrance of the large city, we have finally made it to the capital city of the Gansu. It was still noon and we need to find a place for us to stay at for the night. After a short moment of walking, we stopped at a comfortable spot.

"Master Yip." Tigress called him as the cheetah turned his attention to her. "We have done what you have asked for and safely escorted you here to meet this old friend of yours. We will be expecting you to meet us back here from tomorrow's morning." Before we could leave the area, Yip spoke.

"Wait, I know a place where we all can stay at." Tigress motioned for him to go on. "My old friend, Houmie, his house is large enough for us all to stay for tonight."

"Thank you Master Yip, for saving us the trouble of finding a place to stay." Mantis sounded pretty content about the cheetah's offer.

"Your welcome, Master Mantis." Yip smiled. "Come, I will show you the way to my old friend's place."

All of us continued our walking on the road path and made a couple of turns there and here. We were able to reach our destination quicker than we expected. At front of us, stood a wide, two story tall house made mostly out of wood while the rest of were from stone bricks on the lower part of the building. It looked to be owned by someone who seemed to stood above the status of middle class.

We made it to the front door and the cheetah proceed to knock on it. Shortly, the door opened and revealed a boar wearing a dark green vest and black pants. He was a bit shorter than the same height me and Yip. Not even a second, the two recognized each other as they both wrapped themselves in a reconciling hug.

"It's been one hell of a while, Yip." The boar spoke.

"Same goes for you, Houmie." The cheetah chuckled as the two reunited friends separated from their hug. The boar looked behind Yip and saw us. His eyes instantly widened in utter surprise.

"Masters of the Jade Palace!" He exclaimed before calming himself down. "Forgive me for my outburst, I was not expecting anyone of you to show up."

"These masters here are on a mission to meet the commanding general in the Main Barrack. But they also require a place to stay for tonight."

"No need to ask, it would be an honor to have the Furious Six and the Dragon Warrior staying over at my place." Houmie looked at us. "Please come in, make yourselves at home."

We complied as we entered the building. It was refreshing to see the furnitures and other things inside of a house. Hell, it's even more refreshing to be in one after sleeping for twelve nights in the camping tents out in the wild. We placed our traveling backpacks down and got ourselves a seat. The boar walked to us with a small tray with several cups filled with steaming hot liquid.

"Tea?" He asked, placing the tray on the table. We took each cup for ourselves and carefully sipped the hot liquid.

After we got enough rest our body need, we left our seat and made our way to the exit door. Yip said he'll stay and chat with his old friend.

"We'll be back after we discuss with the commanding general here of our mission." Monkey spoke as he was the last to exit the building.

We strolled in the street path in a quickened pace and were able to reach to the gates of a large militarized base. Recognizing who we are, the guards opened the gate and let us in. Not too long after entering the main building, I noticed we were receiving curious and amazed looks from most of the military personnel who are gawking at us. Shortly enough, we passed through a couple of hallways until we stopped at a certain office door. A "You may enter." was heard from inside the inside the room.

Tigress opened the door as we all entered. Inside the room, a brown bear donned in a nicely decorated dark orange robe with a black sash wrapped around his waist. He looked as he was waiting for our arrival.

"Good afternoon, masters." He stood up from his desk's seat and greeted us with a bow. "My name is Zhihao, general of Gansu's military force."

"We have received your message from Captain Yun. He told us your men has spotted these 'Mongolian insurgents' sneaking around the Great Wall, planning on another invasion, am I correct?" Tigress said.

"You are correct, Master Tigress." He sat back on his seat. "As what you have heard from Captain Yun, my men has been witnessing some strange movements near the Great Wall. We highly suspect it could be scouts from the Mongolian insurgents. We try to track down their movements or any sort of trails they could left behind, but unfortunately, even my best trackers could not find the source of these movements. Hence the reason I requested the aid of you masters from the Jade Palace. Here, take this permission scroll, I've heard the security in the Great Wall were very strict lately, this will help you all to deal with the guards there without any problems."

"Thank you, General Zhihao." The striped feline took the small red scroll from the brown bear. "We will head there at tomorrow's morning."

"It was an honor to meet you Kung Fu masters. I wish you all good luck on your mission against those insurgents." We exited the general's office and left the Main Barrack and began making our way back to Houmie's house.

A satisfied groan broke out from my mouth as I stretched my limbs on the bed's soft mattress and pillow. The slumber from last night on this soft bed is just what my body and mind needs after enduring twelve days sleeping on the unbearable camping tent in the open wild.

Finishing a small breakfast while resting up in the house, we left the house and restocked our food and water supply after a quick trip to a nearby store. We arrived at the same spot where we told Yip to meet back with us today. Soon enough, a familiar cheetah and boar become visible to us as the two approached us.

"Good morning everyone." Yip greeted. "I have arrived as you told me and I will be assisting you on your mission. Also, my old friend here seemed to be eager as well to help you all, he seemed to a huge fan of you masters."

"Yeah, the moment I heard you guys were going on a mission to the Great Wall, I just can't contain myself. Masters, I request your permission for me to go along with you and aid you on your mission." Houmie requested avidly.

"You have already proven yourself with that bravery and eagerness of yours." Tigress approved. Houmie looked like he's gonna squeal in excitement. "Come, we are leaving the city for the Great Wall." She motioned for the boar to follow as we proceed our way to the other exit gate via north.

It took about a day and an half for me to start seeing the famous enormous tall and long wall of China. It was truly a magnificent sight for my eyes to bear at this true piece of art, sadly, I couldn't see much of the long wall since it's currently nighttime. There were numerous bright torches being lit up, providing a good amount of light for the Imperial guards patrolling on the wall and for us to see the Great Wall.

We approached the wall with a wide entrance with two guards beside it. Tigress handed the small red scroll to the guards and they immediately let us in. It took some time for Yip and Houmie to join up with us after the guards asked them several questions before letting them proceed inside the wall.

On the second floor within the wall, we entered into each of our own bedroom as an Imperial guard guided us. The bedroom I'm in wasn't that good, but it wasn't that bad either, looks comfortable enough to say the least. I took off my long-sleeved vest and placed my body on the bed before falling asleep.

Awakening from our slumber, we were able to put up a good amount of speed and we're already on the top of the Great Wall looking for any clues. With the soft morning sunlight, the Great Wall looked far more beautiful than it was last night as I scanned and looked at its gracious patterns and designs along with its amazing details. I also noticed Po who was struggling to not share the same expression as mine on his face.

I kinda dreamed about seeing the Great Wall Of China when I was in my much younger adulthood. I used to watch several online videos of famous bloggers hiking and walking on the Great Wall and they never fail to entertain me. But being on the actual thing itself is a billion times better than watching videos of others people walking on it and complaining about not being able to go there. My thoughts stopped as our orange team leader stopped on her track, causing us to stop as well.

"We should split into two group for us to find any clues more efficiently. I will go with Crane, Viper, Monkey and Mantis. The names I did not mentioned will form their own group." Tigress spoke.

"Let's go, guys." Po said.

The team divided into two groups and headed to the opposite direction with me going with Po, Yip and Houmie. The sun wasn't that bad as it's still early in the morning, making our job a lot more tolerable.

During our search for clues or anything related to our mission, we couldn't find anything suspicious or strange. The only thing we keep getting is the quiet morning breeze. Suddenly, several explosions not far were heard. The wall shook for a moment and I felt the shockwave of it as I nearly stumbled down. Without saying a word, we were already bolting our way to the source of those explosions.

Arriving at the place were the explosion has taken place, I saw several figures dressed in full armor and fully equipped. They are engaging the Imperial guards fiercely. A significant chunks of the wall were destroyed and blackened from the explosions.

"It's a surprise attack! The Mongols has took out all of the smoke signaler! Defend the wall at all cost! For the-" A high ranking Imperial guard's words were cut off as three speeding arrow struck him on back as he fell dead on the brick floor.

I quickly looked down and saw no one was coming from below the ground but was coming from within the wall itself.

Shit, don't tell me they were hiding within the walls this whole time... !

The four of us split up in each of our own and head to deal with the enemies. A heavily equipped lion engaged me head-on as he swung his large curved broadsword at me. I made a quick roll, dodging his slash. The lion was well-trained as my combo of punches didn't touched him as he dodged all of them before kicking my chest with a push kick. I fell on my back and the large feline raised his broadsword up before he brought it down. I rolled to the left as his slash missed me.

I quickly got up and struck him on the side of his hip with a hopping side kick, knocking the lion to the ground. I attempted to continue attacking him while he's on the floor, but he sent a ground kick on abdomen and caused me fell on the floor. The lion stood up and charged towards me his sword raised. Timing and waiting for the right moment, I lunged from the floor and tackled down him to the brick floor as he dropped his weapon. I sat on his abdomen and sent enough pounding punches to his face to knock him out.

Quickly getting back on my feet, I heard heavy footsteps coming towards me. I instinctively made a mad dash to avoid whatever was charging at me. Regardless of me evading what was coming at me, I was met with a sharp and burning sensation on my upper back. I cried in pain and fell on the floor during my dash. Noticing that cut didn't hurt that much and did not killed me yet, I swiftly stood up.

At front of me was a wolf dressed in a type of hooded coat made out of thick and dense cloth. He is armed with two curved thin swords. Both of his sword's blade has some traces of fresh blood on it which I believed the blood belongs to me and the other Imperial guard he perhaps have slain. An angry growl was emitted from me.

The hooded canine rushed towards me and started swinging his pair of swords with wild speed and deadly accuracy. I caught his both wrists and sent a kick aiming for his abdomen. He countered my kick as he dashed forward and launched a close-ranged knee-strike to my midriff, causing me to let go and fell down.

Damn, these Mongols insurgents are quite some tough bastards...

I collected myself up and placed on my fighting stance. My opponent spun around, making several swings with his swords in a rotating motion. Luckily, I was able to barely evade his helicopter-like attacks and struck him with a clean overhand punch. The wolf showed some good resilience as he was able to withstand such a well-landed blow and stopped himself from stumbling back. Briefly, I sprinted towards him. He swung his both swords at me which I evaded the two blades as I ducked down, performing a sliding sweep kick. The wolf lost his balance and dropped his weapons.

Before I could get up and approach the wolf and sit on his abdomen and knocked him out like how I did with that lion, the wolf rolled his back to the wall as his back rested itself on the wall. I saw one of his paw went into his coat as he quickly rummaged whatever was in his coat before pulling out a curved dagger and threw it at me. I reacted fast enough and narrowly dodged that sudden attack. The wolf got up as his hood fell down, revealing the top of his head to be fashioned with a typical Mongolian warrior hairstyle. He picked up his curved swords and charged at me.

He began swinging his swords, causing me to start dodging as his blades were slowly and steadily gaining up to my flesh. I looked back and saw that dagger he tried to threw at me which had embedded itself into the brick wall. I grabbed the dagger's handle and pulled it out and blocked a fatal slash from the blade of my opponent. He engaged me offensively as he started using more stab attacks than slashing.

Blocking another fatal blow from his blade with my dagger, I sent several kicks to his shin, causing the wolf to start crumbling down. As I sent a downward punch to his face, he caught my fist and kicked me on my sternum, flinging me away from him as my back collided against the brick wall. The canine picked up one of his sword before approaching me.

He raised his sword and brought it towards me in a stabbing motion. With my full willpower, I fought through the haziness and fatigue, quickly leaning my head away as his sword's blade stabbed and got stuck on the brick wall. I swiftly made a quick roll to the side, distancing myself from the wolf.

My canine opponent growled and pulled out another curved dagger from his coat before lunging at me. I caught his wrist with my unarmed hand, preventing him from stabbing me. With the dagger still in the grasp of my other hand, I instinctively shanked the dagger into his upper arm. Small drops of blood sprayed into my face and torso as the wolf let out a scream filled with great pain.

With the pain stunning him, this allowed me to sent a spinning elbow strike to the side of his head, knocking the wolf out for good. I then proceed to assist my comrades and the Imperial guards to fight off these Mongolian insurgents.

As the last insurgent went down, victory for us and the Imperial guards was secured. The guards were seen picking up the dead bodies of both sides and I also saw several Imperial-dressed falcons quickly flew over to the Great Wall as the Imperial guards handed them message scrolls before the falcons took off at a very rapid high speed.

It's still crazy to know that they did not come from below the ground but from within the walls. They must have a very large amount of patience while staying out of the guards's sight and hearings. I overheard one of the Imperial guards said these Mongol insurgents might have planted explosives on the fire and smoke signaler, destroying most of the wall's alarms. They were planning on taking out the signalers before overtaking the Great Wall before conquering China. It was a good thing we were here to stop that from happening.

Anyway, the four of us would soon grouped with the other group. They also seem to be roughed up by the skilled Mongol fighters. Hell, they even got some good hits on Tigress as her fur is a mess and her clothing got dusted.

"Are you guys okay?" Viper's concern kicked in.

"Yep, we're all good here." Po nodded. "What about you guys?"

"We are fine as well, except the part where these Mongols surprised us by how skilled they are in combat." Mantis spoke.

"I know right! There was this one really big ox guy who keeps evading my attacks and it looks to me that he could have the same speed as me!" Po said enthusiastically.

"I have to admit with what Po said, these Mongol warriors were indeed formidable and I had a handful of trouble dealing with them." Tigress admitted.

Before we could continue on with our conversation, a different high ranking Imperial guard approached us.

"Masters, my men were able to interrogate and obtain information that you might want to hear." Our orange team leader gestured for him to tell us. "One of them told us that if you kept going straight towards north, you will be able to see their campsite where all the insurgents reside there once you reach Inner Mongolia."

"Thank you, this will has helped us a lot in our mission." Tigress thanked him before turning to us. "Get the traveling bags ready, our journey has resumed."

Our two-day journey on the scorching dessert of Inner Mongolia has been incredibly strenuous, and the hot and dry temperatures of summer did not help one bit. The water supply is about sixty percent and I am still very glad we brought these umbrellas from the Valley Of Peace with us or else we'll be fried by the sun's powerful rays. The quiet walking has ceased when our panda friend decide to ask the boar something.

"So Houmie, I have something to ask of you." Po piped up with a question.

"Yes, Dragon Warrior?"

"Since you're tagging along with us and all, I take that you know Kung Fu, right?"

"Indeed, I've been training in Kung Fu since I was a young piglet alongside with my old friend Master Yip."

"Awesome." Po was trying to contain his excitement. "Now that you told you train alongside with Master Yip in the Thunderstorm School, do you know Wing Chun?"

"Of course I do, that is the main martial art style of the Thunderstorm Storm." The boar chuckled. "Say, once me and my buddy Yip finished helping you masters with this mission, perhaps me and him could teach you all some Wing Chun moves."

"No way! Are you serious?" Po's excitement bursted.

"I am, and once we are done with all of this, you and friends will be countering your foes's attacks with the speed of a thunderstorm!"

"You sounded like you think teaching is easy." Yip chuckled.

"Oh what's that? It seems you still remember very well how I wiped the floor with you in our first fight, eh?" The boar smirked.

"I was just a new student and you were already a senior student, how can I possibly defeat you back then?" Yip lowered his brow. Houmie remained quiet.

"Heh, at least I still remember how I made you cry for your momma." The boar's words made all of us chuckled, except for the cheetah who became quiet with a small blush.

Our walking has ceased when we spotted a large campsite from afar. We took stayed on a sandy cliff and began looking down at the campsite. There were multiple tents of various sizes been placed at specific points while the largest and most decorated one was placed in the middle. I could see a good deal of activities going on down there such as Mongol insurgents patrolling around the campsite and the non-combatant ones were doing some heavy work and chores to maintain their campsite.

"Anyone got a plan?" Po asked.

"It is best if we wait till nighttime, we will be spotted very quickly if we are to get to the campsite at noon." Yip spoke. "Master Viper and Master Mantis, since you are the smallest amongst us, your role is to take down their sentries." Our two cold-blooded comrades nodded to the cheetah. "Me, Houmie, Lukas and Master Crane will be taking on the left side while the rest will take in the right side."

"It seems like a good plan, Master Yip." Tigress agreed. She appeared to be impressed by the cheetah's quick thinking.

We moved away from the cliff and head back to prevent further detention from the insurgents. After some time, we set up our small little campsite and began resting and preparing ourselves to take down the large campsite of the Mongol insurgents.

Once the sun has fully settled below the horizon, the soft light from the moon shined and covered the desert terrain, giving the sandy ground a bright glow that was exquisite to look at. The temperature between day and night vary greatly. It went from dry and hot to now breezy and chilly.

After getting enough rest and preparation, we 'folded' our tents into a much smaller size and placed them inside our traveling backpacks. We returned back to the same cliff from the one where we stood at noon and began analyzing the scene below the campsite of the Mongols.

I could see that every non-combatants ones were not present in the outside and are probably inside their tents resting after a hard day of work. The armed insurgents on the other hand were still patrolling around the campsite. There were no change of their numbers from then to now whatsoever.

Before we could start finding a way down from this cliff, a large amounts of loud footsteps were heard coming from behind us rapidly. Some of them were seen riding on the back of armored horses. As they stopped, the ones riding on the horses jumped off, allowing the armored horses to reveal their towering height as they stood up.

"Don't move." A tan colored wolf spoke. He appeared to be donned in heavy decorated armor and has his decorated bladed spear pointed at us, causing the other insurgents to do the same with their weapons as well. With all those highly decorated stuff he's wearing, this wolf must be the leader of this Mongolian insurgent.

"Damn! How did they know we were here?" Monkey exclaimed. The insurgent group's leader grinned as he lifted his arm up.

Soon, we heard some flapping sounds which grew clearer every each second. A raven donned only with a pair of black pants has landed on the wolf's forearm.

"We've been watched this whole time?" I exclaimed. Because of the raven's feathers and clothing were in full black, they were able to camouflage themself in the dark night sky.

"Do not think of us as mere bandits, we are far more than that. Once we breach and overtake the your damn wall, we will rule over this nation once more like my ancestors has. And I, Khasar Khan, will be the new emperor of China."

"Not gonna lie, I've been hearing that a lot from other foes like you. It's kinda getting boring to hear the same phrase over and over again, don't you agree?" Mantis scoffed.

"Heh, that's a pretty good one." Monkey chuckled as well as I, but I decided to keep it bottled it in my mouth. The tanned wolf growled.

"Silence, you puny insect, or I will have your head cut off by displaying such disrespect to your soon-to-be emperor!" Sheesh, this guy is really full of himself, makes me wanna give him a good whack to keep his snout shut. "Men, take these intruders to 'The Pit'."

Eventually, they lined us up and began leading us to their campsite with their weapons still pointing at us. Reaching the insurgent campsite, I saw most of the armed guards gave us contemptuous and cautious looks and gazes. We approached a tall and wide tent before entering it which I believe it's 'The Pit' from what Khasar has spoke of.

From what I can see, it looks to be some sort of a fighting arena, a very brutal one if I'm not mistaken since there were dried blood in the sandy ground. There were various seats for the spectators and a much fancier one for the leader. They would soon led us to the sideline of the arena which was a small caged cell. The insurgents shoved us in there before locking the cell's iron bar door.

I can see the insurgent leader climbing a makeshift staircase to the fancy seat. Once he reached there, he took a step forward and raised his arms, enthusing the audience as various excited shouts and yells were heard.

"Gentlemen! I would like to make an announcement that me and the boys has made quite the capture. For the past few months, these matches were nothing but bland and dull, makes you wanna fall askeep, right?" The crowd responded back with a loud affirmative shout. "Well you are all in luck, because we have captured China's finest warriors! May I present you the Dragon Warrior and the Furious Six!" The audience started going wild when the insurgent leader present us to them. I heard a low growl coming from our boar comrade. He dashed to the cell door, gripping its bars as he shook it vigorously.

"If you think me and my comrades are going to participate in your sick games, then you're wrong!" Houmie yelled. Khasar who was standing on his fancy spectating platform noticed the boar's sudden burst.

"I believe you will, or else we'll just simply kill all of you." He threatened with a grin. "Say, let us make a deal with you Kung Fu masters. If any of you can defeat our own elite Kung Fu warriors in a fight at the arena, I will let you and your friends go. And if you all were to fail, then you'll die, simple?" Houmie seems to relaxed himself a bit. "Alright, I shall take your silence as a 'yes'." Khasar paused. "Since you spoke first, why don't you go first, show us what Kung Fu really is?" The boar let out a huff.

"If you want me to show you what Kung Fu is, then open this gate." Houmie said.

Briefly, an insurgent came up to our cell and unlocked the cell door for Houmie. The boar made his way to the arena and stood still, waiting for his opponent. A brown robed antelope entered the tent, approaching the boar. The two would started eyeing one another before bowing and putting on their stances.

The antelope initiated the fight with a flying side kick. Houmie was pretty damn quick despite his slightly bulky and pudgy build as he ducked down, evading hat flying kick. He recovered and advanced towards the gazelle and started attacking his opponent with a couple centerline punches. The antelope leaned his head, dodging all of Houmie's punches and struck him with a strong jab to the face, causing the boar fall on the sandy floor.

Houmie made a quick professional kip-up and dashed towards the antelope with a speedy roundhouse kick. The antelope blocked his attack, but staggered greatly from the force of the boar's kick. Houmie sent another roundhouse kick with his other leg, catching the gazelle off guard as it struck him on his face, flinging him as his body twirled in midair before crashing on the ground. The boar soon then gave his defeated unconscious opponent a bow.

"Interesting." Khasar said. "Let's see how you will fair against three?"

At the entrance of the large tent, entered a jackal, a crocodile and a tall muscular horse. All three of them wore brown robe and are barefooted. The three warriors approached Houmie as they all exchanged bow to each other before getting ready. Their match would soon be interrupted as a loud voice emitted.

"Hold it right there!" The warriors ceased what they were about to do and looked at the entrance.

At the entrance, stood an average height jaguar. He appeared to be shirtless, revealing his lean and muscular build. The only piece of clothe he wore is only a pair of black long pants and has white wrapping wrapped around his forearms and ankles. The most noticeable feature of him wearing a strange-looking amulet around his neck. We were confused by his sudden entrance. I noticed the southern martial artist has a shocked and widened expression on his features.

"Master Yip, what's wrong?" I asked.

"No... it can't be..." Yip spoke. The jaguar heard the cheetah and began slowly walking towards our cell. "... after all these years, I've finally found you." As the jaguar neared our cells, he flashed a malevolent grin.

"Ah, Master Yip, it has truly been a long time since the last time I saw your face in the Thunderstorm School."

"Bruce, what in the world are you doing with these insurgents?" Yip questioned.

"Well, since I've 'betrayed' you along with everyone else in the Thunderstorm School, what purpose do I have there?"

"Betrayed us? No, it's not like that, you were-"

"Arrogant, egotic and insolent, not worthy enough for you, eh?"

"Huh?" Yip lifted his brow. "What are you talking about? I do not intent to say any of those towards to you."

"Then perhaps you do once I have my back turned."

"That is enough! Tell me why you are with these insurgents!" Yip raised his voice.

"I joined up with these Mongols since they treated and appreciated who I truly am while you in the other hand, turn me down with disdain despite I gave everything I got to gain your acknowledgement. Thinking about that makes me feel very glad that those bandits who 'captured' me and brought me here through a 'trade'."

"I don't understand... this... this is not who you are." Yip uttered.

"This is who I am, Master Yip." The jaguar's gaze soon shifted from the cheetah to the tanned wolf. "Master Khasar, I would like to ask for your permission to take on the boar along with the Dragon Warrior and the entire Furious Six at all once. Once I'm through with them, I will fight Master Yip myself afterwards." The tanned wolf replied with a nod.

And here I thought that Khasar bastard was the one who is full of himself, but this guy here is just being outrageously ridiculous since there is no way he can beat all eight of us at once. The jaguar, or Bruce, noticed my expression.

"Do you doubt my ability, hairless ape?" Bruce glared at me.

"Well, you are fighting against eight professional Kung Fu masters at once, how do you plan to beat all eight of us?" I answered with a serious face.

"I do not need a plan to beat all of you, because I fully know I already can." Bruce said before stepping to the center of the arena. He looked at the three warriors. "You three are not required for this fight, go sit somewhere else if you want to see what I'm about to do to these Kung Fu masters." The three warrior nodded and bowed before heading off to the sideline and sat there to watch.

As the insurgent unlocked our cell, we (except Yip) walked out of our cell to the arena. We grouped up with Houmie with our fighting stance readied. Crane went offensive and engaged the jaguar.

Crane performed several quick sweeping attacks with his wings and all of them were blocked by the feline. Bruce grabbed Crane by his wing, restraining his wing's movements before shoving him back. The feathered warrior recovered his balance.

"Crane, I'll go low and you'll go high." Viper whispered which Crane nodded.

The two Kung Fu masters rushed towards the jaguar. Crane flew up and performed a flying side kick, descending diagonally towards the jaguar. Viper slithered in a zigzag manner and lunged forward with her tail preparing for a low sweep attack. Bruce did a rapid corkscrew twist combined with a split kick, striking each head of the avian and the serpent, causing the two masters to be flung back.

"Are you two okay?" Houmie asked with concern.

"Yeah, we're fine." Viper assured, shacking her head.

"Alright, you and me, Monkey. Let's kick his ass." Mantis growled as Monkey nodded.

Monkey leaped and sent a spinning jump kick to the feline. Bruce leaned his head, evading the primate's attack and struck him with a jab as he fell down. Mantis sped to the side of the jaguar and lunged towards him. Bruce was incredibly fast, being able to keep up with Mantis's speed as he blocked all of his attacks. The feline detected the praying mantis from behind, performing a quick sidestep as he dodged a sneak attack from behind. Mantis get frustrated and went for a frontal attack which allowed a Bruce to simply do a strong flick with his finger, sending the green bug meters away before tumbling down.

"Come on Tigress, we can do this." I gestured.

As me and Tigress charged towards the jaguar, Bruce went offensive as he dashed towards us. The striped feline engaged him as the two big cats started exchanging furious blows with one another. I quickly joined in, giving Tigress a hand in overpowering the jaguar. Bruce placed a firm kick on my sternum, flinging me away as he decided to focus his full attention on Tigress. The tiger was able to land a handful of hits on him before performing a palm strike on his chest which sent him flying.

Before he could tumble, Bruce placed his paws in the ground and did a back handspring, stabilizing himself as his feet returned to the ground.

I caught the jaguar by surprise with a spinning back kick on his back, pushing him as he fell face first on the sandy ground. He got up and spat out some sand from his mouth before growling. Bruce turned and lunged at me with his claws extended.

Oh dear...

As he started swiping his clawed paws, my mind immediately played back the reflex training I had with Yip. I stood on a centerline stance and began blocking and countering his swipes. I quickly caught his forearms and began performing some quick Chi Sau movements with them. Bruce was caught off guard with my hand movements which it allowed me to land a clean straight punch to his face as the feline stumbled back. I saw Tigress moved to my side as she regrouped with me.

The two of us advanced towards him, flanking him from both sides with fast attacks and maneuvers. Before the two of us could fully overpower him, Bruce jumped and did a stationary scissor kick on each of our chest, knocking both me and Tigress back. I groaned in pain as I collected myself up. Noticing that I'm more weakened than Tigress, Bruce lashed and went right towards me.

"Lukas, look out!"

Right after I heard the Tigress's words, I felt the front of my face was met with a strong and sharp pain from a high hook kick of the jaguar. My body flung back greatly as I tumbled on the ground before losing my conscious.

Seeing her best friend being struck like that, Tigress felt a burning fury built up as she roared and leaped towards the jaguar with flying side kick. Bruce's ears twitched as he leaned his body to the right as her flying side kick missed by an inch. While she's still in midair, he grabbed her grabbed her by the leg and threw her at the opposite direction which her body crashed and rolled on the ground.

Tigress did a kip-up and was quickly back on her feet. She sprinted to the jaguar and began swinging her arms and legs at him. Bruce avoided her attacks and when Tigress was about to do her signature powerful palm strike, he caught her by her wrist, stopping her attack before placing the tip of his finger on her midriff. The jaguar soon performed a one-inch punch on her midriff, causing the tiger to be flung several meters back as nearly all of the air within her lungs has been pushed out. Her body flew and crashed on the wall of the arena.

"Tigress!" Po shouted.

"Dragon Warrior, come now, we will defeat this bastard together!" Houmie said. Po nodded as he and Houmie began their attack on Bruce.

Po went with a high hook punch and Houmie did a sliding sweep kick. Bruce made a swift hop, avoiding the boar's sweep kick. As his body remained in midair, he saw Po's large fist was coming to his face. Bruce quickly put up his arms and blocked the panda's fist from smashing into his face. The force of the Dragon Warrior's fist was great, flinging the body of the jaguar at a great distance.

Bruce growled at the black and white fighter before lashing out towards him with both immense speed and a roar. Po was caught off guard by the jaguar's speed as Bruce sent a strong straight punch on Po's face, stunning and allowed Bruce to do a spinning back kick on his sternum as the panda flew back from the sheer force the jaguar's body has generated. With Po being temporarily out of the fight, all is left of the eight masters is the boar Houmie. The boar's expression showed he was indeed intimidated by the jaguar's capability. Houmie's growing unnerving feeling has halted as hope has replaced that feeling when the other masters stood back on their feet.

As I began hearing a combination of faint yells and shouts, I can feel my mind is starting to slowly regain its conscious. Once my sight has cleared itself after I was able to open my eyes, I felt a significant amount of pain on my face and a stinging headache pounding inside my head. This caused me to quickly lifted my torso up from the sandy ground as placed my hands on my head and face, suppressing numerous incoming painful yells I could have released upon shortly waking up.

Damn... what a fucking kick my face just took...

I glanced around saw everyone except Houmie were hurt considerably by Bruce's fast and powerful attacks. I stood up with the rest of the others and regrouped with the boar. The discomposed look on Houmie's face went away the moment he saw us regrouped with him. We didn't need to say anything as all of gave the boar an assuring nod before all of us charged towards the jaguar.

Monkey shoot out the first attack and managed to nail Bruce with a flying drop kick on his chest. The jaguar was pushed back significantly and appeared to be stunned by the primate's attack, allowing Po to whack him with a good punch to the face. Viper snuck up behind the jaguar and sent a whip-like attack on his back with her tail, causing the feline to shout in great pain. Bruce turned to the green reptile behind him and sent a fast low kick to Viper. His kick was stopped when the orange feline kicked his feet away and struck his face with a side whip kick.

The jaguar is quickly getting overwhelmed by all of us attacking him consistently nonstop, leaving him with no time to recover. I ran towards him and leaped as I spun my body around rapidly, performing the Tatsumaki Senpukyaku as my spinning feet struck him in the face four times. My fourth and last kick sent him stumbling greatly. Right when he recovered his senses, Bruce was caught off guard by a small green blur which grabbed him by his tail and swung him around, slamming him repeatedly on the ground before tossing him several meters into the air. The avian saw this and quickly took off from the ground. Crane wrapped his wings around Bruce's body tightly and proceed to dive to the ground in an upside down manner, performing what seemed to be a spinning aerial suplex. A booming thud was heard as dust and sand flew crazily from that 'explosion' which made me and everyone including the audience to cover our eyes.

Once the sandy fog starting to settle down, I could see a bird-like silhouette walking towards us who was obviously Crane. Suddenly, another silhouette emerged from the ground and it doesn't like good.

"Crane, behind you!" A loud shout was made from Viper.

"Huh?"

Before Crane could fully turn around, the silhouet behind him gave the avian a hard blow on the back. The audible sound of that hard blow has caused the sandy fog to cleared itself in an instant as the feathered warrior's body flew and crashed on the wall of the arena. Our expressions widened when we looked at who struck our feathered comrade on the back and it was none other than Bruce. He seems to still have the capability and strength of inflict such powerful attacks after taking all of our attacks.

In a blink of an eye, Bruce dashed towards Po with a surpassing lightning speed. He struck the panda with an overhand punch. Combined with the momentum of his dash, the jaguar was able to sent the panda flying meters away as Po crashed into the wall within less than a second.

Bruce noticed Viper's guard was off and went for her. He extended his paw towards the snake, grabbing her by the neck and struck her in her abdominal area, causing nearly all of the air in her lungs to flew out before he began choking her. A speeding little green blur was seen speeding up towards the jaguar, lunging towards Bruce. His ears twitched as he turned and smacked Mantis away with the tail of the serpent which his paw is still gripping on. The strike which Mantis took has created a loud smacking sound which was not pleasant to the ears at all.

Bruce noticed the serpent was unconscious before casually tossing her snake body to the ground as Viper's body rolled briefly. I quickly sprinted to her and lifted her up lightly as I began checking on her, praying that the jaguar bastard did not killed her from depriving her of oxygen.

Fortunately while placing my ear on her scaly chest to check on her status, my hearing has sensed a heartbeat and I felt faint breathing coming from her mouth. A relieved sigh was expelled from me after knowing she's still alive and kicking inside. I gently rested my snake friend's unconscious body on the ground before standing up.

My fists tightened themselves and I'm getting a strong feeling that I won't be able to contain myself anymore. An angered battlecry was released from my mouth as I lashed out and ran towards the jaguar.

"Lukas, control yourself!" I heard Tigress yelled at me, telling me to stay down before we could go attack him strategically. My anger has gotten the best of me as I chose to ignore the tiger's order and proceed to attack the jaguar head-on.

I swung fists at him, desperately trying land a blow on any parts of his body. Bruce dodged my attack with ease before striking me on my chest with a hard side kick. Before my body start flinging, he grabbed me by my both wrists, stopping me from flying off and placed a front push kick on my sternum. I flew back and tumbled on the ground. I was unable to get up due to the swelling pain within my chest area after taking that kick from him.

Both Monkey and Tigress rushed towards the jaguar and began attacking him. The golden snub-nosed monkey bent down and went for the jaguar's feet with a swift leg sweep. Bruce grinned and countered the primate's sweep kick by directly kicking Monkey on his face before his leg sweep could even reach to his feet.

Tigress lunged towards Bruce from a blindspot by the side of his body. She struck him on his midsection with a roundhouse kick before doing another one with her other leg, hitting him on his back. The tiger's two kicks has stunned him greatly, enabling her to get behind the Bruce and wrapped him in a tight double shoulder lock.

"Now Monkey!" She shouted.

Monkey recovered himself quickly and rushed towards the restrained feline and leaped forward with a speeding, flying side kick. Bruce flashed a small grin as he performed a rapid brief backflip in a stationary manner. As he flipped his entire body, he caused the primate's flying side kick to struck Tigress on her back instead of him. Right after kicking his tiger comrade unintentionally, Monkey crashed onto Tigress as the two masters fell and tumbled on the ground.

That unnerved feeling returned to the boar as he just witnessed Bruce, who just took out the Dragon Warrior and the entire Furious Six. A small chuckle was emitted from the jaguar as he turned his focus on the boar.

"Looks like it's just you and me." He said.

"It is." Houmie simply replied while preparing his fighting stance.

Bruce attacked Houmie with a jab which Houmie swatted it away and delivered a successful well-placed punch to the jaguar's face. Bruce lurched back and growled at the boar's successful strike on him. The feline sent several roundhouse kicks to the boar only for them to blocked and swatted away. Houmie struck Bruce with a side kick to the side of his hip. His body staggered and was stunned as the boar fired a strong palm strike on his chest, thrusting the jaguar back at a good distance.

Houmie continued on the offensive, attacking the jaguar with salvo of rapid punches. His barrage of fists soon broke through Bruce's defense which Houmie sent a fast uppercut under his chin, causing his head to recoil back in an upward motion and his body as well as he fell on his back.

The feline growled before doing a swift kip-up. Bruce leaped forward and did a double flying kick which Houmie blocked them. He tried to grab the boar by his vest's collar, but Houmie stopped that as he slid his hoof close to the jaguar's throat, obstructing his body movements before before sending an elbow strike on his chest as Bruce's body quickly went down to the ground. The boar looked down and sent a hard stomp to the fallen big cat. Bruce's pupils instantly became slit as he swiftly leaned his head as Houmie's stomping foot missed his head.

Bruce sent a ground kick to the knee of the boar, causing Houmie to fall on one knee before kicking his face with another ground kick. The boar did a quick back roll to distance himself from the jaguar. Bruce lunged forward with a flying knee strike as Houmie blocked it. Absorbing the force of that flying knee strike caused his guard to break as he stumbled back greatly.

The boar quickly moved up to the jaguar and swung a heavy punch to him. Bruce weaved his head, evading that devastating punch before bending down his body and lunged forward. He wrapped his arms around the boar's lower body, lifting him up over his head and threw him. Houmie performed a swift safety roll to minimize most of the damage from Bruce's throw as he collected himself back up.

Houmie dashed to him with a fast side kick, only to be caught by Bruce as he wrapped his arm around his leg before using his other fist to perform a hammer fist on the side of his knee. An unpleasant twist was heard as the boar yelled as he stumbled back significantly. Stunned, Bruce sent a low kick in a stomping-like motion on the same area of his knee, creating a horrible cracking sound. Houmie screamed in harrowing pain as he instantly fell on the ground. A wicked chortle was heard from the feline.

"Heh, is that it? Is that all you got?" Bruce taunted, mockingly swaying his arms.

"Fuck you!" Houmie spat while still trying his best to suppress anymore painful screams. The boar attempted to stood up, only to feel another massive shot of pain which his body collapsed as he fell down face-first. Bruce put away his fighting stance and snapped his fingers as two insurgents arrived at the arena to pick up the injured boar. "No, I can still fight!" Houmie pushed the 'medics' away and was able to barely stood on his feet. He then placed his fighting stance back on.

"You are in no condition to continue the fight anymore, I say you should accept any help that is being offered to you." Bruce motioned his paw at the two 'medics'.

"Why should I accept the help from these vile invaders?"

"Because your life depends on it."

"I do not care if I die or not, as long as I live, I will continue to fight and rid this world of bastards like you and-."

Houmie's words were cut short as a loud yawn was heard from Khasar who appeared to stood up from his fancy seat.

"What a shame..." He spoke. "... you could have lived longer if Bruce did not shattered your knee like that." Khasar let out a 'sad sigh' before drawing a strange-looking metal thing out of his robed armor.

A very loud booming clap was heard followed by a very brief flash of bright light. Houmie's body froze for few seconds as a hole appeared on the back of his head. Eventually, his body dropped as the boar fell face-first on the ground. His eyes were still opened, but were devoid of any signs of life in them. A small pond of blood began leaking out from the hole of his head.

I quickly looked around for the source of that loud booming clap and was able to traced it to Khasar. My eyes widened in shock as the tanned wolf appeared have what looked to be a revolver on his paw. The gun's barrel was smoking after firing that shot.

"HOUMIE!" Yip screamed the name of his deceased friend.

Soon, the insurgents placed us back in our cell. The cheetah grabbed the bars of the cell cage and started shaking it violently before shouting.

"WHY DID YOU KILL HIM!?" Yip demanded with a scream.

"The pig is no longer in a suitable condition to provide entertainment to us, which is why I must dispose of him before he will bore us all to death." Khasar turned to the two 'medics'. "What are you two fools waiting for? Take that pig away at the 'usual place'." The two 'medics' nodded before lifting the boar's body up, leaving the tent.

The jaguar's wicked expression on his face changed to a pitiful one as he stared at Houmie's lifeless eyes. Bruce turned his eyes to Khasar.

"Master Khasar, why did you kill him?" His tone sounded like it has changed as well from boisterously condescending to a remorseful one. The wolf looked at Bruce.

"Be quiet, you overgrown cat. In this campsite, I choose who gets to live or to die, do you understand?" Bruce remained silent and slowly nodded. "Good."

More violent shakes were heard as Yip shook the bars. I could see long streams of tears flowing out from his eyes and an expression which I could only describe with one word was rage. Just rage.

"Oh, I see that we have someone who is just extremely eager to show us his talent." Khasar noticed the burning anger within Yip. "Do you wish to demonstrate us your skills, cheetah?" Yip stayed quiet before raising his voice.

"Open the gate now! I shall give you a beating that you will never forget!" He shouted as the tanned wolf chuckled at the cheetah's threat.

"My, what energy you have!" Khasar snorted out a laugh. "If you wish to get me, then you must defeat my all of my elite martial artists and your former disciple Bruce. Complete these two and I will fight you myself."

Soon, ten robed martial artists entered the large tent and positioned themselves in the center of the arena. An insurgent walked up to our gate and began unlocking the cell's door. I then got worried and placed my hand on the shoulder of the cheetah, stopping him from leaving the cell cage.

"Master Yip, I mean no disrespect, but are you crazy?" The cheetah growled and smacked my hand away from his shoulder. I quickly stood at front of him, blocking the cell door. He then gave me a 'get out of my way' glare.

"Do not try to stop me, Master Lukas." The tone of his voice was surprisingly calm, but deep underneath it lies a fiery raging menace that is waiting to be unleashed and is not to be tampered with. "Soon, I will not be able to control myself. So I suggest it is best for you to let me go now." I gulped before moving myself away from the door. Once he left the caged cell, the insurgent locked the cell door back.

The southern martial artist made his way to the arena. The ten robed elite martial artists made a brief shout filled with acknowledgement, hitting their palms with their fists as they bowed to the cheetah before initiating their combat stances. Once Yip hit his palm with his fist and bowed, the fight has now began as all of the ten elite martial artists moved up to the feline.

One of them rushed towards the cheetah with a spinning jump kick. Yip caught his leg and slammed him on the ground before giving his face a very hard stomp, knocking him out. The cheetah managed to land a good hit on three elite warriors, causing them to stumble back one by one with speed that I've never seen before. This showed how much he was holding back during the Quinquennial Tournament.

A robed warrior engaged the cheetah by the side and sent a quick punch to him. The feline made a small weave with his head, evading that punch and struck him with a hard jab. The jab was not suffice to enough take him down as the warrior threw another punch. Yip caught his arm and pushed it down, causing his upper body to be pushed down as well and sent several hard straight punches the side of his head. He did a quick sweep as the robed warrior fell on his side. While still holding holding his arm, Yip spotted a kick flying at him from behind. He ducked down and performed a forward roll, breaking the robed warrior's arm as an audible crack was heard, accompanied by a painful yell.

The cheetah got back on his feet and scanned around for any incoming attacks. Another warrior decided to engage him head-on, and that was huge mistake.

He sent a high front kick at the cheetah which Yip caught his feet and pulled him closer to him, causing the elite warrior to do a semi-split. Another elite warrior dashed and went for the cheetah by the side with a punch. Yip saw that coming and planted a kick on his chest, flinging him back. The cheetah slammed his heel on the upper thigh of the elite warrior he's holding, causing a loud painful cracking sound to be heard as Yip made him do a full split as his entire leg went up to an upward to a ninety degree angle.

Yip turned to his back and swatted a cross punch away and struck the sneaky warrior with a strong centerline punch before evading a flying side kick from an approaching warrior. Another sneaky warrior tried attacking him from the blindspot of his side, but Yip sidestepped, dodging the sneak attack and palm struck him on his back as the sneaky warrior tripped and fell on his frontal body. The feline sent a front kick on another elite warrior on his sternum before grabbing his head with both paws, pushing it and his whole body down. With the elite warrior on the ground, Yip fired an intense barrage of rapid chain punches on his midsection before moving to his face as it seemed like he has took about fifty speedy punches to the face. The elite warrior was rendered unconscious before even halfway taking all of those rapid punches.

He scanned his eyes around to see who's gonna attack him. One of them lashed out to him and sent an overhand punch a Yip blocked it and sent a hook elbow strike to the side of his head. Yip grabbed him by his head and pulled it down, delivering an upward knee strike to the face. The feline turned his body around and grabbed his head and below his armpit area before flipping him as the elite warrior's body flew away in a twirling motion and dropped on the ground.

A fighter moved up the cheetah and performed a very fast axe kick as he brought his heel falling on the head of the feline. Yip stopped his axe kick by catching his foot and swept his other foot as he fell on his frontal body. While still holding his feet, Yip implanted a bone-crushing stomp on his lower back. Yip crouched down, sending a piercing downward elbow strike to the back of his scapula bone, producing a loud fracturing sound as he cried out in pain.

Four remaining elite warriors engaged the southern martial artist as all four of them began sending various fast attacks to Yip. The cheetah literally made that effortlessly evading and blocking attacks from four individuals seemed like child's play. Yip quickly switched from fast defense to instantaneous offense. He was able to strike each four elite warrior with hard and precise blows.

One of them resisted being knocked out and sent a straight punch to the feline. Yip caught his wrist and threw a hard jab to his forehead, causing his head to recoil back. With him being stunned, the cheetah proceed to gave each sides of his lower neck a downward knifehand strike. Yip sent a short ranged uppercut to his stomach before grabbing his nape as he turned and pushed his head down and struck the back of the elite warrior's neck. He instantly lost consciousness and slowly fell to the ground.

Another stealthy elite fighter snuck up behind the cheetah and threw a haymaker punch to him. Yip's ears fluttered as he weaved his head to the side which the punch failed to hit him. Right after evading that sneak attack, Yip turned his body to the stealthy fighter and began shooting salvo of fast chain punches to his chest. The cheetah continue firing those fast chain punches as the elite warrior fell on his back. Yip crouched his body down and continued on chain punching him as his body looks like it's convulsing from all those punches the core of his torso is taking. The feline soon stopped after a few more seconds of doing his rapid chain punches.

As the cheetah got up from his crouch and looked around, he spotted only one elite martial artist was left standing while the other ones are knocked out. The ones who are conscious probably wished that they were unconscious due to the immense pain that they're most likely experiencing up. Yip began slowly walking toward the last fighter. The last fighter looks like he's gonna piss himself.

A loud battlecry was released by the last elite martial artist as he desperately tried to hit Yip with a hoping side kick, only to be effortlessly blocked by the feline. The southern martial artist grabbed the both side of his head and spun him around. Before his head could hit the ground, Yip caught the fighter's head with the side of his both knees and paw.

"No no, please! I GIVE UP! I GIVE U-" His pleading was cut off as the southern martial artist began pummeling the poor last fighter with vicious brutal punches to the face as the fighter's nose began to bleed profusely. With one last rock hard punch to the face, Yip let go of the last elite martial artist's head as his head and body dropped down on the sandy ground.

After moments of silence, most of the entire audience started clapping their paws/etc in applause while many shouts and whistling were heard as well. While they took pleasure in seeing Yip brutally beating these 'elite' martial artists, me and the guys in the cell cage stood still like a handful of statues in shock of how much skill the cheetah has and the brutality he can applied with those skills.

"Marvelous work, Master Yip." Khasar applauded, clapping his paws. The cheetah looked at the tanned wolf with a death glare. "Oh don't give me that impatient look, you will get to fight me if you can defeat Bruce." A growl escaped from Yip as he turned his sight to the jaguar who has stepped into the arena. The two felines approached each other with their stances readied.

"Bruce, I still don't get it, why are you working with these people? They have pillaged China back then and are now going to do it again, you must cut ties with them!"

"Like I said moments ago, these people has treated and appreciated me for who I am while you in the other hand, turn me down and rejected every attempt I made to make you acknowledge me." Hearing what Bruce said made Yip stayed quiet for a moment.

"I thought being colder and serious towards you would make you stronger. After you have been taken away, I started reflecting upon myself of how I have been towards you. It must have hurt a lot, being turned down no matter how much effort you put on by the one you idolize so much. I... I hope you can forgive me." Yip's eyes softened, hoping that the his former disciple would forgive him.

Bruce's expression softened as well while stuttering a bit. After a few stutters, the amulet around his neck glowed green as his expression changed to a significantly sharpened one. I'm starting to believe that amulet he's wearing around his neck is affecting and manipulating both his mind and emotional state.

"It is too late for that." His sharp words caused Yip's expression to show sadness. "I have chose this path and I will see it to its end."

"Then I have no choice but to fight you." There were pain in his tone as Yip said that.

The two big cats bowed to one another before putting their fighting stance. The southern martial artist went for the first strike with a fast centerline jab. Bruce blocked it and threw a straight punch to Yip. The cheetah leaned his head away as the jaguar's fist missed before sending a low kick to his shin, staggering the jaguar and delivered a centerline straight punch to his abdomen, pushing him back.

Bruce growled and slowly moved up closer to Yip. The jaguar sent a fake jab to the cheetah as Yip didn't even bother flinching before sending a real one. He blocked it as Bruce sent a double jump kick to the cheetah. Yip blocked his two kicks before blocking several fast roundhouse kicks. Blocking another roundhouse kick, Yip spotted a slight opening and took it, placing a push kick on the jaguar's chest as Bruce stumbled back.

The jaguar dashed towards the cheetah, grabbing his arm as he perfomed a shoulder throw on him. Yip placed his feet on the ground firmly, stopping his the back of his body to fall on the sandy ground. Bruce quickly took notice of this and shifted his grip on Yip's arms to wrapping his arms around his midriff and did a backward suplex. Being fast on his recovery, Yip quickly began collecting himself up. As Bruce still has his both grip on the cheetah by his shoulder, he pushed Yip's shoulder down as the cheetah's upper body followed and started sending ferocious knee strikes to his midriff as the southern martial artist lurched back considerably before falling on the ground.

While still on the ground, the cheetah's stance was still intact. Bruce shoot a spinning roundhouse kick which Yip ducked down, evading it before getting up and spun his body around with his arm extended. During his spin, he managed to slid one of his fingers across Bruce's eye, stunning him as Yip delivered a good centerline punch to his face. Being pushed from the cheetah's punch, the jaguar was able to land a kick on the cheetah's chest while stumbling back.

As the two felines moved slowly in circles around one another, Bruce leaped forward with a flying front kick. Yip blocked it and gave the jaguar a barroagebof chain punches to the guarded face before shifting to his unprotected abdominal area. The jaguar forged through the pain and delivered a palm strike on Yip's sternum, pushing the cheetah back.

Bruce gave no time for Yip to recuperate his sense as he leaped and performed a jumping double side kick. The first kick was blocked and the second one shattered his guard which allowed the jaguar to do a seven-twenty degree hook kick. With some serious luck, Yip narrowly evaded that spinning hook kick by a centimeter or two. The jaguar dashed to the cheetah and began sending numerous furious roundhouse kicks. Due to how fast his kicks were and how fast he can send them repeatedly, this left Yip with no other choice but to block all of them. The sixth roundhouse kick totaled his blocking guard, rendering the southern martial artist to be stunned.

The jaguar wrapped his arms around the cheetah's body, lifting him up and slammed him on to the ground. Before Yip's body crashed on the ground, he grabbed Bruce by his forearms and flipped him, causing the jaguar to be slammed down on the ground face-first while Yip stood up.

As Bruce tried to regain his feet's bearing, Yip did an axe kick, striking Bruce on the top of his head with his heel. The cheetah swiftly moved up to the jaguar and crouched before firing numerous intense chain punches to the top of his head, prompting the jaguar to start defending himself with his arms placed around his head. Noticing that his rapid chain punches is not doing enough damage, Yip swapped his rapid punches with elbow strikes which appeared to be penetrating through the jaguar's defense.

Yip's rapid elbow strikes would came to an end as Bruce launched his laying body upwards, striking the cheetah with a surprising headbutt under his chin. Yip tottered back before stabilizing himself.

Both big cats engaged each other in a Chi Sau 'contest'. After a handful of paw movements from the two warriors, Yip appeared to be gaining the upper hand as his handwork is gradually starting to overwhelm Bruce's. The jaguar snarled before nailing the cheetah with a fast and precise eye jab on both eyes with his fingers. Yip recoiled himself back greatly from the pain.

As Bruce swung his fist towards Yip, the cheetah closed his both eyes before leaning his head back as the punch missed him. A growl emanated from the jaguar as he began sending incredibly fast punches to the cheetah, but all of them were evaded as Yip continued leaning his head back. The southern martial artist stopped Bruce's attacks by delivering a clean hook punch to his face before placing the tip of his finger on the the core of Bruce's torso. Yip's powerful one-inch punch caused the jaguar's body to be propelled back at a significant distance while sending multiple gust of sand flying.

Bruce groaned in great pain as he tried getting up, but the pain on his body's core was too much as he fell back on the ground, clutching the core of his body. The amulet charm around his neck glowed bright green, causing the jaguar's eye to glow bright green as well. Bruce let out a feral-like roar and lunged towards Yip like and wild animal, completely ignoring the pain and started swinging his arms at him savagely.

Yip dodged all of his swings before quickly grabbing a hold of the amulet charm and yanked it off before throwing it to the ground. Bruce's glowing eyes and feral-like behavior returned to normal after having the amulet necklace being removed from him. The jaguar took a few breaths as he calmed himself down.

Shortly, several armed insurgents entered the arena with their weapons pointed at the feline, confusing him as he stared at the armed individuals. An insurgent picked up the amulet charm from the ground and snuck up behind Bruce. He quickly wrapped the strings around his neck before locking it. The charm immediately glowed bright green along with he jaguar's eyes as well. Bruce turned to Yip.

"It seems like pure luck has saved you, Master Yip. But next time, you won't be so lucky at all." The jaguar was clearly using irritation and annoyance to hide the humiliation of him being defeated by the cheetah.

"No, it is simply means that you still have a lot more to learn." Yip spoke.

"Tch..." Bruce scoffed before sitting at the sidelines.

"Khasar Khan!" Yip yelled the name of the insurgent leader. "I did what you told you me to do, now come down here and face me!"

The tanned wolf chuckled as he got up from his decorated seat and began descending through the makeshift staircase. Khasar eventually arrived at he arena with full armor and appeared to be equipped with a guandao. The two mammals placed their stance.

Khasar exhaled a battle cry, charging towards Yip as he swung his bladed staff to the cheetah. Yip sidestepped and kicked the wolf in the chest as he stumbled back. The canine again ran towards the feline, swinging his guandao at him.

As he got frustrated with the cheetah constantly evading his swings. Khasar lifted his blades staff high above his head and brought it down with great velocity. With too much force, the guandao struck the earth and it's blade appeared to be stuck on the hard sand. Before he could pull it out, Yip delivered a hard punch to his face, sending Khasar to instantly fall on the ground. The cheetah's enraged expression has returned, only to be more vicious this time as Houmie's killer is now at front of him.

"As what I have promised, I shall give you a beating you will never forget." Yip has his paws clenched into very tight fists as he started walking to the fallen wolf.

"Not if your dead."

"Huh? Wha-"

Third Person POV

BANG!

Yip's body recoiled a bit before becoming rigid as a rock. He slowly lowered his head down and noticed a hole on the side of his chest with deep red fluid leaking out from his wound. The feline slowly started slumping down before falling on his back. The wound trauma on the side of his chest has caused him to lost his consciousness.

A wicked grin grew on the tanned canine's face as he was able to drew his revolver out quick enough and shot the cheetah with it.

The caged masters watched in shock as the southern martial artist fell on the ground. The one who is truly shocked by this was the jaguar. Seeing his former master getting shot like that, Bruce slowly began grunting which led him started snarling in an increasing rage. The amulet around his neck began to glow increasing brighter than usual. Before it could take control over his mind, Bruce let out a loud yell.

The necklace charm sensed the jaguar's own will is fighting back against its control as it kept on increasing its brightness of its glow. Eventually, Bruce grabbed the amulet and yanked it off of his neck before throwing it down to the ground. Shortly, the color of his eyes returned to normal.

The armed insurgents saw this and tried to restrain him, but Bruce noticed them coming and quickly struck them all away. The jaguar ran towards Khasar, tackling the him to the ground.

"Bruce, what are you doing?!"

"Something I should have done a long time ago!"

Bruce tried to grab his gun, but the tanned wolf gave the jaguar a struggle. After moments in their fierce struggle, Bruce managed to overpower the canine as he made the wolf point the revolver to himself before pulling the trigger. A flashing loud bang was created upon the trigger being pulled as Bruce killed Khasar with his own gun.

The jaguars grabbed the revolver and shot several more incoming insurgents, killing them. He threw the empty gun with great force at an armed insurgent who was guarding the cell cage, knocking him out. Tigress took a quick step back before doing her signature palm strike on the iron bar doors, breaking and sending it flying as the flying door struck a few other more insurgents. The team soon regrouped with Bruce as they all surrounded themselves around Yip's body, guarding him.

"Guys! He's still alive!" Crane stated, giving great relief for Bruce and the others once they know the southern martial artist is still alive.

Shortly, it looks as every single armed insurgents in the campsite started storming inside the large tent. They all charged towards the Kung Fu masters. Bruce and the team let out a fierce shout as they started attacking every incoming insurgents.

Two days has passed ever since Crane has taken off to alert with the Imperial forces and return back with them. It took us what felt like an hour or more to clear out the entire campsite. While we may be professional Kung Fu masters, all of us has sustained some non-life threatening injuries, the injuries themselves looked as they won't even be causing any scars. We tied up them up and locked the rest of the defeated insurgents in caged cells.

The non-armed workers were pretty friendly as they appeared to not give a damn what would happen to the insurgents, they even thanked and fed us for freeing them from the insurgents as most of them said they hated Khasar's leadership. They told us nearly half of these workers are captives who got captured by the insurgents. Fortunately, some of them used to be doctors as they managed to treat Yip by pulling out the bullet before cleaning and patching him up good, stabilizing his condition.

While we're outside on the lookout for anymore threats to come, I spotted a flying silhouette nearing to the campsite and there were also a large amount of Imperial troops marching towards the campsite. As the flying figure got closer, I was able to see it was Crane. Me and the others regrouped as the avian landed at front of us.

"Great, can we please go home now?" Mantis spoke as we chuckled a bit.

"I wish, but I gotta have a word with the Imperial forces before leaving." Crane said. A long sigh was heard from the green bug.

"Fine, let's get this over it."

After a lengthy conversation with the Imperial troops's leader, we loaded our gears and stuff and started heading back to the Great Wall. Before we could start leaving the desert of Inner Mongolia, we also told the workers that they are free to join us in our trip and each of them can find a new home in China or return back there for the ones who got captured by the Mongol insurgents. They were beyond happy with our request as they all started removing the tents, rolling and folding them up into smaller piece before they all could tag along with us.

Enduring another long arduous journey, we were able to see the Valley Of Peace not far from where we're at after traveling in fifteen and a half days in total. Damn, I just realized we've been away from our home for about thirty-one days. As we stopped, we turned to southern martial artist and his former apprentice.

"How's your injury?" Po asked.

"Well, the doctors said the projectile has missed my lungs by an inch, I am very certain I will continue on living." Yip pointed his finger around the side of his bandaged chest.

"So, I guess this is goodbye." Viper spoke.

"It seems like it. I promised my wife and my two sons that I will return before summer is over." Yip nodded. "I just wanna say again that I am very grateful to you all not only for treating my wound, but for also helping me bury my friend Houmie at his birthplace Lanzhou as well, it means a lot to me."

"There's no need to thank us, it was the right thing to do after all." I said. "I also want to say thank you for these great lessons you gave me during our traveling. Those Wing Chun moves were proven to be very useful and could really come in handy in the future."

"Well, I cannot say no when it comes to teaching." Yip smiled. The cheetah turned to us. "Though the journey has brought sadness and lost to me, I was also able to find happiness and joy in it. The journey was extraordinary and it was truly an honor to travel along with you masters. I bid you all farewell." He and Bruce bowed to us.

Soon, the southern martial artist and the jaguar took off to the other dirt path and start making their way back to Hong Kong.

As the two felines are walking on the dirt path, the two did not said anything. There was a moment of silence between the two until the jaguar spoke.

As the two felines are walking on the dirt path, the two did not said anything. There was a moment of silence between the two until the jaguar spoke.

"Master Yip." Bruce called, catching the cheetah's attention. "I'm... I'm sorry for what I've done in the past."

"No Bruce, it was my fault as well. I should have treated you like an elder brother would, but I didn't because I thought it would soften and make you weak, and I was wrong. If I didn't had treated you so harsh, you would not have resorted to bringing those bandits to our school and fight them all by yourself to prove your worth."

"Your wrong, it is my fault. It was my arrogance and need for your acknowledgement has caused me to led those bandits in our school. It... it even costed the lives of my fellow students." His head lowered before he lifted it up. "Master Yip... I... I don't think I can return back to the Thunderstorm School after what I did. Hell, I don't even deserve to your hold your family's name 'Mon' anymore.

"Bruce, I forgive you, there is no need for you to not leave your home and to remove the family name 'Mon' from your-"

"My name is no longer Bruce Mon. You may call me... Bruce Li from now on." There were a brief silence between the two felines. "To atone for the wrong actions of my past, I shall leave China and return to my home country in the United States." Sadness was presented in the cheetah's face, but he sucked it up.

"If that is what you believe is the right thing to do, then I will not question your reason of leaving China. But tell me, what are you planning to do once you return to your home country?" Yip asked.

"I will spread and promote Chinese Kung Fu there, teaching the weak on how to defend themselves from danger just like what the legendary Grandmaster Oogway did for people in China hundreds of years ago." Reaching to a dirt path that split itself into two long paths, Bruce looked at Yip. "I guess this is farewell, brother." He paused. "I'm... I'm going to miss you... like a lot, you know."

A couple thin streams of tears started flowing out from the jaguar's eyes. Abruptly, Yip quickly wrapped his arm around Bruce, bringing him in a tight hug. Not even a second, the jaguar too wrapped his arms around the cheetah.

"I will miss you, too, little bro." A great deal of affection was plastered on Yip's tone.

After some time, the two felines separated from their embrace. Each of them parted and headed to their own separate path.

Few Days Ago

In the scorching desert of Inner Mongolia, there's a small group of troops marching to a 'particular' campsite. They are donned in light armor and armed with weapons and has wide umbrella protecting them from the sun's ray.

Once they reached the 'campsite', it was devoid of tents and there were no one there at all. They searched the empty space of the former campsite, they all regrouped.

"Did you find anything, Qiang?" A light armored hyena spoke.

"Nothing." An armored lynx replied. "Strange, where the hell is Khasar? Actually, where the hell is everyone at?" The lynx turned to the hyena. "Any idea, Rong?"

"Yes, something definitely must have gone wrong in campsite if the spot where they laid those big tents at are empty."

"Lieutenant Rong!" A deer soldier called the hyena, catching the attention of the two lieutenants. "There's something I think you should really see."

The two lieutenants followed as the deer solider led them to a certain empty area. The hyena and the lynx looked around and saw nothing.

"Umm, I think the heat might be getting into your head." Qiang said.

"There, look!" The deer pointed.

The two lieutenants followed the deer's hoof as it led their eyes to a slightly dried corpse.

It appeared to be tanned wolf whose armor and body were covered by large amount of speck of dust. Not far from the corpse, was a necklace amulet with its green jewelry being shattered. Rong picked the necklace up and began inspecting it.

"This is a 'Cāozòng Necklace', we used to have a large quantity of these before when we were recruiting younglings into our army." Rong said. "The Emerald Claw's army size used to be a lot bigger back then. We had quite a handful of these amulet helping us on manipulating the minds of those children and orphans into joining us. However, our storehouse got raided by Imperial forces and we were forced to retreat, leaving behind a large quantity of these necklaces." An annoyed growl came from the hyena.

"I have a question." Qiang asked which Rong nodded. "Is it possible to remake these necklace again?"

"I don't think it's possible, we're just going to end up wasting energy and effort on trying to recreate something we have forgotten a long time ago." Rong shook his head horizontally. "Come on, let's go report back to General Joutei and tell him that Khasar and his men has failed us and are no longer alive." He motioned his paw.

Not long, they all left the empty campsite and started making their way back to the militarized hamlet of the Emerald Claw.

Author Note : Pretty long, isn't it? I hope the long length of this chapter didn't gave you a difficult time.

I've watched the entire Ip Man series. The story and fight scenes were really good. The most hardest thing I've written in this chapter was the scene when Yip fight those 10 elite warriors. I had lost count on how times I have to pause and replay that scene in the first Ip Man movie where Ip Man fights 10 karate black belts to write that fight scene.

Once again, if you're having fun reading the story, feel free to give this story a Follow/Favorite/Review. They really help me pull myself back into writing shape. After reading this author note, the next chapter should be up by now. I'll be seeing you folks in next chapter.