Volume Two: Eyes of Hate
Chapter XXII
The Boar Problem
"Where is Spots?"
The boar with raging red eyebags tossed the poor goose across the side of the tan brick road; the villager begged for mercy at Masters as the gang snapped their snouts at him, raising their lethal weapons. "Tell me where he is, Stripey."
"You have done enough damage to hurt the villager, Jianfeng. If you want Tai Lung, you will go through me first," Tigress defied. "Why did you and your clan come threatening the village?"
"Because your whiskers told me to tell my boys, genius," Jianfeng spat. He pointed his hoof at Masters and the Nine. "You see that, gang? Tai Lung is such a coward to face me. He and that bitch almost broke my arm!"
Xing glared his stone eyes in disgust. "I'm sorry. Do you have to insult my aunt like that? It would be best if you watched your language," the Nine's Leader warned.
"Now who's talking to you, scarface? Who are you? Does that scar ever heal?"
The Dragon Warrior stepped in and introduced his colleague. "Chen Xing is my successor, and you should have been grateful to be alive. If Gongmen City weren't for him, many people would have been killed that day," Po finished his words on the rest of the throng clan, whose mutters were vociferous. "Someone who I used to loathe before said to me. Wounds heal. Stand your guys down, Jianfeng."
Turning to his mentor beside him in mesmerizing, the peacock Shen focused on the Boar Clan's alpha. Panda's wise well.
Jianfeng plunged his large ax shaft on the tan brick floor beside his feet. "We will not. I made a promise to my dead father's goal, which on day one, as his son grows up to fill his ambition. Oh, yes, he and his boys were after Whiskers, and we all know who that leopard is! He murdered my father, so I am going to be doing the same thing!"
The insect sprang once on Monkey's shoulder. "Solving vengeance isn't going to help out, Jianfeng!" Mantis snapped.
"Starting on that, Spots said something about his pride, can shatter bones across the village, one by one! BOYS! HUNT ALL PEASANTS AND TEAR THEM APART!"
"Nine, spread out!" Xing commanded.
"Stop them! Counter-attack* their raid!" Po shouted.
Masters and the Nine scattered into alleyways and paths throughout the heart of the Valley of Peace, chasing Jianfeng's groups who began slamming doors. Swarmed across these complex roads that were wide enough to barge in any business and rent apartments, Mantis rapidly bounced amidst bamboo stands and into thin spaces from revealing one boar's eyes. His partner Monkey swung his tail on wavy tiles throughout other tilted roof tiles, detecting snarls under the alleyway where numerous strings hung saturated and dry garments. A group of Jianfeng using spikes scurried.
A gray goose in tan robes at the other side with the dow villager stumbled away, shrieking. Spikes group darted through, and one slipped his hoof forward, tottering their limbs as they fell. Numerous skins of yellow bananas had laid; Monkey quickly shot more than ten bananas at once in the sky. That strategy was not going to be changed in his life after all. That got 'em! On the curved tile, Monkey leaped down and snatched the bamboo pole from the accessory stand. Farther back at the small courtyard, while Monkey smacked their heads and one nearly crawled away, Mantis curled and thrashed two boars using cleavers.
The Nine's Doctor with Mantis sprang and curled her body across the courtyard, kicking one's head and the other as she hopped twice. Their eyes caught the other two hogs wielding daggers smashed in a two-story complex building with wide tiles of light green. Mantis mounted on the spiral column, and Hong rapidly barged in the wooden door right when the owner's voice shrilled her cries.
"COME HERE!"
The tall bandit clenched the bunny child's arm after slapping her mother, who fought back in defense. Hong shattered the boar's ankles she booted, delivering wails from him. She unleashed her lethal blows on his chest, throat, and crown on the wood floor — the second platform filled with the insect's war cry and the window's cracked panels.
Outside of the bunny owner's accessory shop, Mantis hopped off the window and peeped at other hogs sprinting across by, smashing the stand's tarp ahead. Viper and the Nine's Serpent Fanshe advanced on their bellies, squirming their lungs. Tigress straightened her fast punch at the boar's snout; Viper fastened her tail on his limb, his fist clouting his crown. The cobra flailed his end under the small boar's knees, and Fanshe flipped forward. The bandit crashed onto the structure and fell.
"Nice work, Fanshe," Tigress approved before she and Viper raced in the tavern, out through the door toward the main cobblestone road. The Furious Five alpha quickly examined the Dragon Warrior and his peacock student Shen deflecting their poles. The peacock's one-eyed wolf ally rushed next to both, shoving his high kick on the hammer boar's snout.
Viper inspected three bandits mounting on large wooden boxes of radishes toward black roof tiles. "They're climbing, sister!"
"Let's mount on roofs before they barge in windows."
At the main road, Shen hastened his squirming dance of Cai Li Fo. Rolling on the floor from mighty boar's hammer that slammed on tan bricks floor, the peacock swiveled his pole under the hog's ankles. Po braced his jade shaft against another cleaving near the panda's muzzle. Cling! The Dragon Warrior parried one side, booting his inner knees - the boar spat his saliva in pain. "Down, Panda!"
Po ducked his head forward, and Shen's stiff pole clouted the hammer wielder's head. Wolf Boss next to the two repelled one's wrist that clenched a spike ball handle. Darted his kick against the tall bandit's side of his knee and the other, Zhong disarmed the metal ball with swift bridge paws, repeatedly striking his circle punches on both chest and muzzle. The one-eyed wolf bounded and spun his kick, buffeting the boar into the empty wooden cart.
At the right bound of the Valley, Kai followed the Nine's Masters, including their Heaver who led Xing's student ahead; they raced through opened areas of unique shop alleyways, which scented with various aromas of kitchen and detailed store signs. Three boars across the section shoved their shoulders against the red door with a small view gap in the top middle, spatting curses on gambler owners.
"Help-help-help!" the pig in light green robes scurried toward the Nine.
"This one's mine," Lotus grinned.
The bandit with an iron belt and brown trousers glimpsed at his prey, passing by unrecognized warriors in multiple cobalt robes (but Kai). Lotus furled her sky-blue ribbon stick, jerking the boar's feet. Three boars at the red door turned, unleashed hails at the Nine. "Bao, JUSTICE!" The gorilla struck his palm.
Other five boars in random alleyways trailed panicked villagers. At the same time, Lotus tapped her sash on two runners with cleavers and spike hammers, and the Nine's Master, Leader, and Heaver took on the three at the south courtyard. Xing and Ming flexed their haste limbs disarming lethal weapons boars swayed aggressively. Bao charged ahead of the giant boar with an enormous hatchet, whose snouts spat with low growls.
Kai searched for one runner chasing any villager and spotted a panda mother bearing her child wrapped with light violet silks. One boar on the second floor of a complex apartment mounted over the metal rail, tackling both pandas.
The bandit wrestled. "GIVE ME THAT RUNT!" the boar jerked the infant.
"NO!"
The panda's mother snarled her tears. The boar's back of his neck nudged twice and firm for the last. The infant's cry deafened as the girl's cinnamon eyes, streamed with light red tears, met one that towered the presence below the bandit who gasped. Kai shook his head.
"I... I was—"
Kai ignored the vicious taste of someone's guilt, jabbed the boar's muzzle. The infant's mother caught her daughter right when her head almost hit the ground, but Kai salvaged the child with his bare hoof first before the mother did. The fighting behind Kai shook two bandits collapsing, and Bao pounding his chest. A panda mother blessed her lips on her infant's forehead.
"Go on," the Mighty spared her. Without any word but stretching lips to give thanks, the panda mother embraced her daughter close to her head.
"Fluffy," the child cooed, and her mother, bearing close, fled across the alleyway.
Tigress sprinted all fours on top of the garden bound's upward roof, squinting at one bandit who slid clay tiles. Pile of leaves poured after he leaped with his spear, aiming for rabbit villagers of four. Snarled but late for turning at a rapid green streak that hissed toward the bandit, Viper slashed her tail forward, recoiling him into thin branches. Snaps and foliages fell on him with a few deep scratches throughout his arms and whole crown.
Viper landed. "Run!" the serpent offered rabbit villagers, and they hurried into their third-story complex, shutting their wooden door and windows. Viper inspected one of the roofs that multiple shouts thundered. Her feline sister diverted one bandit's lofty arms, swinging his lance.
Spinning by acrobatic leaps and maintaining balance amidst the center tile, Tigress leaped on his weapon handle, thrashing his head. He tumbled to one side of the roof, clawing on dry clay tiles, which more than ten pieces slipped with him. Tigress sought two spearsmen climbing over the roof fixture ahead to her left, and she weighted her fine legs, hurling the bandit's halberd at them. Both bandits launched back and knocked into the main road; one wrecked on the bamboo stand, and the other crashed in front of the wooden cart, lifting tons of fruits.
Numerous fruits showered down on more than three boars.
Monkey spun and pummeled for those who wobbled by showers of fruits on boars. Mantis trounced his limbs on the shattered blade and iron maul back and forth, throwing one small boar toward the towering hog; the insect hailed, and both bandits knocked on scraped stones floor. On top of the stretched drape of the bamboo stand close to Mantis and Monkey, Hong observed two fights filled with numerous boars collapse, now inspected Shen farther down the boulevard summoning lengthy ropes within his sleeves.
The peacock pointed his head and found one boar rushing away at a greater speed toward Mr. Ping and Li Shan. The old panda stepped aside ahead of the goose. "Oh, no, you don't!"
Under the sword boar's belly, rope darts gyrated together, forcing him back. Shen hauled rope with his foremost talon, soaring the screaming bandit amidst the air, and clouted him to the brick alleyway to his left. Two bandits of sword and ax to the peacock's right appeared and rushed at Shen.
Shen parried the ax down and kicked the other's chest, the flow of his talon hammer down to another, whose jaw clenched but flung. The peacock unfurled his red train, webbed feathers fanning; the boar, hesitant while gripping his sword, burst his cheeks in red. Shen's train descended faster, and he lashed his pole on the bandit's head.
The Dragon Warrior jogged toward Li Shan and Mr. Ping as the former Lord Shen spiraled his weapon and knocked the tall bandit's muzzle behind him. "Dads! Are you guys alright?"
"Thanks to your student, Po," Li Shan lowered his guard.
Mr. Ping gaped. "That fight is brutal, son!"
"Don't worry, Dads. The Nine and Masters are handling their raid!"
Other steps paced near two warriors. Wolf Boss caught up to both, panting. "Come on, panda! We're gaining on Jianfeng! He's losing his temper, alright!"
"That boar's ill and preposterous," the peacock disgusted.
"Look! He's about to flee! Let's catch him!"
All three warriors sped their pace into the fight.
Sweats trickled on the tiger's cheeks and under his arms. He nudged the Nine's Heaver, whose breath hastened his warm breeze. "Bao, guard south courtyard here until I call out the Nine. Bao, handle?"
"Bao, handle!"
"Alright. Forward!"
Ming, Lotus, Xing, and Kai hastened their route into another alleyway, filled with other unique shops and groceries once they entered, thrived with small trademarks of wood and festival supplies for this current season of Fall. Boiled cabbages and oak woods wafted close. Numerous supplies of kitchen and box of radishes appeared within both interiors. Five boars amidst the path swiveled their arms on most appliances, shattering pots and baskets. One alpha clenched the goose's webbed feet. "I GOT NOTHING!" the poor villager begged mercy.
The boar with a square jaw licked his own lips. "It's either you to get your feathers cooked, or I strip your bunny wife's fur!"
"Boss!" one of the four interrupted, and all five meandered their heads where their brother pointed at the path. Lotus's ribbon whipped the alpha's grip, tumbled the villager as the goose yelped while sprinting away for his wife, who hid behind the yok. A she-wolf hastily wrapped her weapon at once all five boars snarled; behind the gang, a large group of their hog brothers dashed into other alleyways, and amongst the tan clay tiles, the Nine's Doctor followed.
"You and Kai handle them, Sunzi. We'll catch the rest with Hong."
Lotus and Ming sprinted on all fours toward the side of the grocery and unique shop alleyways. Bandits bore daggers and kitchen knives, and Xing hastily found pair of butterfly knives on the wooden barrel. It was consequential enough to defend as if bandits could stand firm or be cowardly to wield any sharp or stiff weapon to use. Behind the striped feline, Kai clenched his hooves forward.
"Kai, grab something defensive and help your teacher!" Xing advised his student without looking back.
The main boar snouted his saliva. "CUT THEM IN PIECES!" His left partner advanced his cleaver, and Xing parried twice, bridging on his arm and the other hitting his muzzle — the side of the blade slapped. The other stepped in with his jabbing knife; Xing deflected his blade and battered his snout.
The two boars behind their main rushed to the groceries' sides and went after the Mightiest Warrior. Kai nimbly found a nine-foot bamboo beside his right foot and wielded ahead, swiveling left and right on both hogs who retreated. "Go around that giant!" the left one with bulky arms and a fat belly told his partner. Once the other hastened wildly, Kai chopped the bamboo in half, gripping one, and the next half kicked where the runner's head. A thin boar crashed on the oak panels.
Local villagers within shops close to Xing and Kai shrilled their soft cries behind boxes and within containers. The boar rushed toward the bull, swinging his cleaver as Kai deflected his bamboo. Each cut diced its side but boldly to not go through the bamboo. Hails from warriors across the village were thriving while Xing mostly parried his butterfly knives against the wildest boar swinging his knife, and Kai disarming the other one after the bull banked the other way. The Mighty rammed his whole head, crashing the boar across piles of kitchen equipment nearby.
The next one that Kai booted the half bamboo stick shot toward him. The bull hastily grasped the bandit's wrist in precise, neutralizing the knife, which collapsed. His thumb squeezed on a joint harder, uplifting the boar's whole hoof upward, under his arm flared within; The boar bandit squealed. "So unworthy," Kai disapproved.
The bull twisted his wrist, bowling the hog on the rough floor. The bandit roared in pain, and the Mighty thwacked his head.
The Nine's Leader shifted his accurate parries, side by side when the main wielded only two daggers swaying to truculent blows; both conscious boars rose behind the tiger. Xing booted the main's chest, leaping on one closed wooden barrel and the bamboo dash. One mounted first ahead of him and the other beside the tiger oscillated his dagger. Xing jumped with his striped tail, the blade nearly slicing one of the boar's hoof.
The tiger thwacked the small's head with his butterfly knife after parrying once on the hog's straight blow. Maneuvering his leg from another blade swooshing under his foot, Xing hammered the main's forearm, dropped his dagger. The other thrust his feet, leaping Xing off the surface. The feline's knife faltered from the main boar's forearm, his elbow striking his chest, and he rounded his punch.
Xing hit his shoulder on the bamboo appliance where the goose as the wood maker hid under the table. Quickly found a large oak ring to grab, the tiger shifted his body. The main boar's arm barged in the ring's gap, launching in the air, and slammed two hogs ahead. Farther down, Kai rammed the other two bandits at once.
How did I do that?
Xing tugged his limb in the oak ring and the other, diverting his round of Chi Sao flow. No way!
"SHOW OFF!" the main boar spat his saliva, sprinting to Xing.
Leveling his guard with one oak ring attached, the tiger cuffed his main paw and the other, the ring tilting in each thrust of block and attack. Pummeling with utmost combos on ribcages and the hog's jaw, Xing twirled the loop, pounded his crown. Both boars on the rough surface gaped at their boss's knockdown, bawling from Xing's roar. As they retreated, Kai snatched their throats, thumping their heads.
For a moment, Kai's wrinkling cheeks bent more from his half-grin. The next thing once the bull drew closer to his teacher, who chuffed with coarse, the green insect sprang at the end of the unique shop alleyway. "Rhino guards got here in time! Xing, we're almost getting to Jianfeng! Gather your group!"
The Nine's Leader nodded. "Come on, Kai," he beckoned his student. Xing inspected for the price of oak rings, which cost cheaper by its sturdy material. He paid some yens on the wood maker's table, and both warriors followed Mantis. "Nine, assemble!" The tiger shouted.
Mantis, Xing, and Kai darted for the main road where Tigress and the Dragon Warrior performed their Double-Death Strike as Po spun his partner over him, her feet thrashing more than five boars. Xing's partner Lotus howled her signal across the half east of the Valley for the Nine's Call, assembling Heaver behind Kai, Fanshe slithering beside Viper on a top-left roof tile of the second balcony, and all three Lotus, Ming, and Hong appearing at one alleyway ahead.
Rhino guards, bearing their halberds and acupressure cuffs, emerged behind Masters and the Nine as many advanced for the Boar Clan Leader. Obviously, the group inspected this raid that could have seemed to be difficult to prevent. Jianfeng only harmed a goose farmer, but more than that would be no further. Dragon Warrior and Furious Five (only four) wandered for the Boar Clan chief's presence elsewhere, the Nine accompanying them.
A sow in midnight silk robe thudded on the tan bricks ground. Masters and the Nine peeped at Mrs. Chow, who was screaming. Jianfeng's ax nudged behind the spine of her neck. "Lay down your arms! Or I will decapitate this wretch's head!"
A hostage situation between life and death was critical to each master. One bold move to interfere would not be simple. Each stern eyes glinted at Jianfeng, outraging death threats. The Dragon Warrior approached one step without resisting his jade staff. "Hey! Let's talk peacefully. Put down that ax. You don't know what you're up against, and killing Mrs. Chow will not solve your dad's vengeance."
"How 'bout I cleave her spine in half!"
Jianfeng pressed his ax on Mrs. Chow's neck, his left foot pinning on her back. Dust rubbed over her robes. "Take it easy!" one of the Rhino guards on the left side of the group intervened. The other dressing in a dark cyan trouser with a spike belt and wrinkled eyebags regarded. "Do you like to see the rest of the murderers in any prison who can mistreat you? They will know anyone's treason if and after you murder her. Don't do it," the guard's voice was gruff.
The panda drew his head close to his colleague's surroundings. "Buddy, can you do that 'mind control' thingy?" Po whispered to Chen Xing. He had only one advantage to do that enchanted gift that sent his Mightiest Warrior student toward the gate. The Nine's Leader locked his new oak ring, peering at the Boar Chief's feet to head. Even though a rapid squint happened once, even thrice to happen?
The rhino guard, with a stern tone, pressured the culprit. "You're outnumbered, Jianfeng. Give in, and I'll tell my guards to go easy on you."
"That 'easy policy' of yours is full of shit!"
Po inspected his colleague's soft trembles of his head. "Xing?"
The tiger persisted in squinting his stone eyes more than once. Twice. Thrice. Chen Xing fastened his breath in his muzzle. "I can't."
One hush landed behind the culprit as Jianfeng's ears somewhat clogged with earwax. For a moment, Jianfeng glanced at numerous gazes as if neither promises from justice combatants could be legitimate, unfair that multiple choices became his end of being a savage boar. He tightened his throat and jaw and sought Mantis, who chirped his wings in between wooden barrels and Viper gaining closer under the wooden cart.
"Very well, then. How do you choose to see Mrs. Chow spill blood?!"
Five warriors and two guards launched forward, but only one was right about time to end this tragic play. Jianfeng heaved his gray ax higher above his head, aiming where the sow's neck was. A rapid blow under his spine shrilled its pitching beam of sapphire ripples, and his scream rasped with shattering glass. As a stone, not a statue, his body froze, looming the boar leader's horror glance. Jianfeng fell back with his ax as the freezing body of his clunked.
The last thing with his iris glinted with a single pulse of blue before returning to his frosted vision was the eyes of the dawn with clouded fur.
Author's Note:
— Finally! You expected someone to shut Jianfeng down at the end? Give our friend Tai Lung some good pats on his shoulder, gang! Feel free to review this chapter!
—(*) This chapter I worked on about three months ago gave me some inspiration to keep the fight pacing. As a Destiny veteran player, I played a vanguard strike level "The Devil's Lair" where a group of guardians must advance to the servitor boss Sepiks Prime, as the three have to bypass the blocking passage in rent building while a group of hordes (Fallen and Hive) storm by. The ost song "Counter-Attack" kept me writing on the fight scene like there's no tomorrow. Who else here plays Destiny?!