I'm back again!
...Really, are we surprised at this point? I'm certainly not. because...ya know. I get a little bit lazy with this one.
But I'm still going strong and somewhat competently! How much? See it here in this chapter!
Their brief conversation has caught Shifu's attention the moment they spoke of it. It seemed all too familiar once he was actually granted time to process the words. The Elements...where and when has he heard about them before? He was very certain he had heard of them, but the recollection was a bit sketchy at best. Still, it was worth the attempt, at the very least.
The Elements...hm..now if I recall correctly, it is said that the physical manifestations of Earth, Metal, Water, Fire, and Wood would appear and come to the world's defense in a time of darkness. They would then assume their roles as the world's protectors, usurping the ones they deem unworthy of that role. Shifu thought while stroking his beard, eying each of the Elements with narrowed eyes. There's no doubt that the power they're showing is very much real...but I do wonder if they are who they say they are. It's highly likely that they aren't.
"You see it too, don't you?" Mei Ling said as her arm was around Shifu's, staring at the arena, which was becoming more devastated by the moment with the current battle going on. "Their powers may be real, but that doesn't mean they aren't frauds, does it?~" She said with a knowing huff. She's b een quite adep a tellin a fraud from the real thing, even from the most subtle of differences that would otherwise make it impossible to tell the difference. "Still, I do admit that I'm a bit concerned for those kids. Their enemies are powerful, fake or not."
"Po doesn't seem too concerned about them." Shifu sighed while gazing towards the panda in question, who was casually eating with Master Bear still, and could easily tell by the bears eyes that he wasn't worried about his friends at all. The confidence in them was very clear, so he doesn't bother cheering. That, and he has a lot of food in his mouth, so he wouldn't be able to speak clearly anyway. Fenghuang was simply observing the new Five, which was shared by the other members of the original Five. Shifu nodded silently as he turned back towards the arena to observe them.
Tigress was gazing across in view of Earth, who was snarling quite angrily at how nonchalant she was about his very presence, despite who he was and who he was leading. She didn't seem to view him as anything worth mentioning at all. She was seeing him like a really bad joke. Monkey's terrible puns were more amusing than he was. That's how lowly she thought of him, because she wasn't fooled by him or the others for a second, and neither were the others. It was quite hard for them to take them seriously aside from their very real power over their namesakes. Anything else was simply not worth their ackowledgement.
This was an outright insult towards Earth, and he didn't tolerate it.
"Don't you look at me with that condescending look...don't think that you have the right to look down on me!"
"I would have to actually acknowledge you to look down on you. And I don't really acknowledge you at all." Tigress deadpanned. "I know what kind of person you are. You think that because you have some kind of big title that I have to respect you no matter what, despite how much of a scumbag you are." She emphasized while getting into stance and clenching her fist. "No thanks. We prefer to act upon character than title. And you guys are really not worth our respect."
"Why you-"
"DISRESPECT IS REAL!" Monkey yipped as he leaps forward and kicks Earth in the head, lightly knocking him over, and then Mantis swiftly moves forward and kicks him in the knee, which fully knocks him over, resulting in crashing on his face. "
"Haha! Chump!" Mantis beamed while landing on Monkey's head while grinning madly.
"What the hell..." Earth grumbled while standing up, nursing his aching head. "Why...you interrupted us?! She's my target right now, not you!"
"The amount of damns we give about that might as well be none!" Monkey beamed again as he leaps forward again and kicks upwards to his chin, making him land on his back. "You're supposed to be the manifestation of five elements to protect the world, right? Like we care about something like that!"
"The world doesn't need protectors with overblown egos!" Viper shouted as well, slithering past Earth and using her tail to grab his leg. She then swung him around in an arc, smashing him against Metal, knocking them both to the ground. "You think that just because you have such big names relating to the elements, that you're free to reign over people?!"
"I bet you're not even actual protectors!" Crane cawed as he flapped his wings, while Fire does the same from a wide distance. The clashing of wind and flames caused a raher spectacular combination of the two, swirling around each other before ending in a grand explosion of the two chi's. It created a smokescreen that briefly impaired their vision, but that didn't stop Crane in the slightest; he zooms forward, spiralling around before turning and landing a heavy kick to Fire's chest. The attacked knocked some air out of the fellow avian, who shook his head as his wing covered itself in flames and slashed at Crane's chest. He briefly flew back, barely avoiding being burned.
"Can the same be said for you?! You're supposed to be the 'New Furious Five' the ones who shall take up the mantle! Yet you're speaking and acting selfishly!" Fire ranted while he gathered his wings together, a flaming ball of chi gathering within, before he shouted aloud and throwing it towards Crane. He swifly dodges it, but Fire moves quicker and smashes his wing into Crane's face, then a flaming kick to his head sends him flying back, until he readjusted himself and stayed airborne.
"We've already stated our aversion to being called heroes. Of course we're selfish!" Crane shouted back whille flapping his wings. They were both airborne, but they made sure to stay within bounds. They would still have to hit the ground in order to be considered out. "But we're not bullies. And given the way you guys are acting, you guys are very likely to be bullies. We don't take kindly to bullies, you know! No one should lord their titles over others the way you five are!"
"Your disrespect towards the Masters is unexcusable!" Fire shouted almost incoherently as he flapped his wings, sending yet another wave of flames towards Crane. The latter narrowed his eyes as he swiftly spins around, the wind catching the flames without damaging him, surprising Fire for a few moments. He then stops spinning and throws the wave of flames back towards Fire, who narrowed his own eyes and went on to dissipate them. He was about to tell Crane off for that tactic not being effective, until Crane swiftly flew towards him and kicked him hard in the abdomen, briefly taking even more air out of him.
"Tell it to someone who cares, jerk!" Crane shouts as he swiftly spins aagain and kicks him again, sending him flying. Crane wasn't done; he flys even faster and appears right behind Fire and once again kicks him, this time sending him straight down into the ground, right through the edge of the arena and taking off a major piece of it causing some debris to fly outwards. The crowd was in a bit of an uproar from from how hard he crashed, and Fenghuang in particular nodded in approval of Crane's ruthlessness.
"Tch...!" Earth gritted his teeth at the disqualification of his teammate. He focused on Tigress, who had quite swiftly parried another one of his strikes, in which Mantis leaps high from over her head and kicked him in the cheek, and then was tripped up by Viper who was waiting behind him, before she slithers off to help deal with Water. "You all are unbearable!"
"You're incredibly whiny. Have you lorded your superiority over others because you're stronger than them? And now you're whining because we're working together." Mantis deadpanned. The angry glare on Earth's face confirmed this, and rolled his eyes. "Yyyeeeaaaaah...you're a prick."
"WHAT?!"
"Yup. You're suuuuuuch an annoying piece of work." Mantis shrugged. "Oh look at me, I'm the supposed 'manifestation' of an-" He cut himself off as Monkey leaped and kicked Earth in the nose again, causing him to be pushed back. "Whoops! Monkey interrupted me! Our bad!"
"But not really!~" Monkey snickered, landing on his feet, and he slipped up and fell on his back, groaning in slight pain. "Okay, ow! What the heck was that?!"
"Pathetic! You keep yammering on and on to confuse us and leave us wide-open! That won't work forever!" Water shouted as a wave of water was thrown against the others.
Crane narrowed his eyes as he seperated his wings and flapped them powerfully, briefly stopping the water in it's tracks. Though his eyes widened as he noticed Metal pierce through the water...sword-first. His armor shifted some metal into a sword and was intent on stabbing through Crane. Tigress interrupted immediately, parrying the sword strike, and Monkey leaps forward and kicks Metal in the face. Viper once again follows up, with extra agility granted by the water on the ground, and swiftly trips up Metal, and he falls on his back. She then slithers towards Water, briefly leaping up and tail-slapping him across the cheek.
"Pay attention, now!~" Viper shouted as she swiftly dodged multiple wooden spikes sent towards her by Wood.
Mantis was quick to deflect most of them to keep them from impaling Viper, and he deflected most of the wooden spikes with a glare. They were getting far too intense with their attacks, so it was becoming necessary to remain completely on guard in order to keep them from doing anything fatal. Mantis then swiftly turned and noticed Earth stomping the ground, the earth rising below him and sending him flying into the air for a few moments, nearly sending him out of bounds. A gust of wind caught Mantis before he could fully fall, and he was pushed back onto the platform. He sighed with relief, briefly nodding in acknowledgement of his assist.
Wood tried almost furiously to impale Viper with wood spikes from below. Viper slithers around each of the large wooden spikes, causing larger holes in the platform. Viper, unlike her opponent, was staying calm and focused on him. Numerous jumps over certain logs, and large stumps relating to actual trees growing from said platformn, but she wasn't disillusioned at all. Viper then spun quickly and whipped him in the face, knocking him to the ground. He almost gets back up from this, until Viper begins looming over him. He wanted to glare back at her in defiance...but Viper's was proving to be more powerful. Falling prey to her glare, most of his defiance disappearing quickly.
"Now...you wouldn't happen to be trying to kill me...would you?" Viper hissed menacingly.
"U-Uuhhh..."
"That isn't very polite. We're in the middle of a public tournament...there are children watching us. You wouldn't be trying to expose them to something that wouldn't be too much for them...right?" Viper hissed again...her eyes grew a bit darker at the prospect.
"O-Of course not...I m-mean if I-"
"That's not a good thing, you know. That's not good at all." Viper hissed quietly, her eyes turning into furious stars. "I'll have to remove you from the premises mysellf so you can't do such a thing..." Viper soon leans in closer and whispered quietly. "Here's what's going to happen...you're going to drop yourself out right this instant. If you delay...afterwards...I'll eat you. And you won't be able to do a thing about it~"
Wood blinked a bit as he nervously chuckled. "H-Haha..there's no way. I know you're the daughter of Grand Master Viper...you wouldn't do such a thing!"
"Yes. Fortunately for me, Grand Master Viper is my father, so I managed to stay kind. Unfortunately for you, I was mostly trained by Fu-Xi. And he's quite ruthless with disposing annoying threats." Seeing the look in his eyes to signify that he still didn't believe she would do it. That was, until Viper slowly opened her maw and prepared to launch at him...
...
...NOPE.
Wood immediately leaped off the stage, frantically shouting 'DON'T EAT ME!' on the way down. Viper huffed and soon slithered away, feeling quite pleased with herself. Earth promptly facepalms at this, while the others didn't seem to mind too much.
From the stands, with dumplings in his mouth, acknowledged Viper's method of intimidation. Ah. She's done something like this before. With those rat guys...bandits...huh. I wonder what would happen if she just began doing that for real...? She'd probably complain because she wouldn't be able to eat food from Dad and me. He either ignored the more disturbing implications of Viper eating her enemies to make sure they don't bother her again...he didn't care...or he didn't really know about it. It was most likely the third. Certainly the third. But it also wasn't too hard to acknowledge that he might not have a problem with it.
Fenghuang certainly didn't. She actually laughed at Wood crying for mercy.
Water watched with disbelief as Wood disqualified himself purely out of fear. "Wood?! What the heck are you thinking?!"
"Hey...ya forgettin' something?~" Monkey whispered quietly from behind him. Water's eyes widened and swiftly turned towards hm, only for Monkey to kick him upwards, and Mantis top assisted by leaping upwards and kicking the reptile out of bounds, crashing against the wall.
Metal and Earth stood side by side, being the only ones left in the group. Earth clenched his fists as he stomped again, waves of earth moving towards the Five. They all jumped upwards to avoid the wave, and most of the earth debris from earlier begins to launch towards them. Mantis was quick to zip to multiple forms of debris and smash them into pieces. Metal roared as he gripped his metal sword and leapt up towards them, attempting to cut them apart again...Viper promptly avoids it and smacks Metal in the face. Tigress them grabs Monkey and threw him towards the larger simian, who then kicked him in the face as well, since it was the only part of him that was seriously exposed. The kick connects once again, sending the larger simian crashing downwards into the ground, cracking the arena. He was lying on the edge, unconscious...before falling off the edge and out of bounds.
Only Earth was left. He wasn't happy about it.
"You...you...YOU..."
"You mad, bro?" Monkey taunted sticking his tongue at him.
"What did you expect? We're clearly the better coordinated team." Crane added in with a smile.
"While your own team is only interested in it's own self-benefit. Not caring for other. No compassion." Viper said with a glare.
"We can be selfish, but we're also not pretentious assholes." Mantis also added.
"All that potential, and you can only use it for your own benefit and to lord your "Superiority' over others...what a complete waste." Tigress stated with folded arms and closed eyes...then she has the gall to turn her back on him. "Don't embarrass yourself further. Drop yourself out."
Earth clenched his fists, began growling erratically, and bared his fangs at Tigress's disrespect. While Tai Lung, in the background, was laughing his tail off in a moment of amusement and pride for his sister's attitude. Earth was much less amused and his own pride has been very much torn apart.
"GGRRAAAGH!" Earth launched towards Tigress with his claws outstretched. Tigress simply sidestepped and the back of her fist collided with his face.
"I gave you an out. You didn't take it. I'll do it myself then" Tigress decided, turning around and kicking Earth in the side of his head, dizzying him and destroying his sense of concentration even further than it already was. Then she strikes him hard in the chest with a double-palm strike, sending him flying...through the stands. The spectators casually moved aside and watched him crash hard, losing all consciousness. With the last member of the Five Elements defeated, Tigress huffed as she readjusted her scarf and lead her team to the stands.
Meng Tao smiled as he raised his arm. "The winners are the new Furious Five! Their potential has clearly been displayed today, and they're very impressive indeed!" It was very subtle, but he first gazed towards the sky, in which the moon was slowly moving towards the sun. He nodded wickledly towards the stands, in which two people accepted the acknowledgement. Another cloaked figure, and...Junjie. Master Chao was a bit confused by Junjie's sudden gesture, but ignored it for the most part.
"Great job, Aunt Tigress! And Viper, and Mantis, and Monkey, and Crane! You all were amazing!" Peng said with beaming eyes and swishing tail.
"You kicked their asses, that's for sure!" Lian smirked widely.
"Your friends are certainly impressive, they've certainly proved their worth today." Master Bear nodded towards Po, who smiled gleefully.
"Of course they proved their worth! They're my friends!~" Po replied with a simple and knowing smile.
Meng Tao smiled slowly towards the Emperor, who raised an eyebrow in slight confusion. He then closed his eyes. Everyone is clueless, and they still don't realize what's about to happen in a few moments...
Very good. My telepathic link is still intact and woking properly. I had to deal with a slight...problem, in regards to the peacock prince, but he is of no threat. The eclipse will be starting soon. I sense how some of those youth have powerful free will, so the spell might not work on them...so we'll have to simply make them easier to kill.
Agreed. Are you ready, Fai Suan?
Yup! Are YOU ready, Junjie?
Certainly. And what about you, our leader of this little operation? Pang Bing?
Of course I am. Now it is up to you...
Amongst the crowd, the same cloaked figure smirked evilly as he lightly strokes his thick white mustache, his expression expressing sadistic glee in what would surely be his greatest work yet. Right...so, Shifu. Let's see how your students fare against a technique used creatively from the older, bigger leagues! With this, he clapped his hands together.
Shifu raised an eyebrow as he noticed something odd...paw marks. White paw marks began appearing all over the inside of the stadium, numbering in at least the hundreds, and they were glowing a very bright white, which blinded almost everyone. Po in partcular was having a hard time seeing, while Mr. Ping tried waving around for an explanation. "Hey, hey! What's going on!?
"This chi feels familiar...what the hell?!" Fenghuang growled while trying to search for the culprit. But Shifu recognized this technique all too well. It was known as the Five-Fingered Blast Punch. And the only person he knew could possibly use such a dangerous technique was the one who had attempted to assassinate the Emperor many years ago.
Shifu then looked straight ahead of him, across to the other side of the stadium, where he could see him. A white mustache, a blue hat under the cloak, gray and white fur. And the amber eyes. Those insane, chaotic, amber eyes...Shifu's own blue eyes widened, both at his realization, and the fact that this person was able to delay a technique that should go off in a couple seconds, for an entire DAY, while everyone who could be a possible threat was gathered in one place. His mind frantically shouted out:
PAI MEI!
The resulting explosion was large, it was white, it was surging with chi, engulfing almost the entire stadium, and it could be seen from miles away atop a mountain if one observed.
No time was given to fully escape the powerful blast...