Shifu put the six of us in three teams, going against whoever we were paired up with. First up would be Tigress and Monkey, followed by Viper and Crane, and last but not least, Mantis, Po and myself. Not that it made a difference as to who I was with, I was too swept away by the shiftstones power. Because there wasn't enough of an open area to train inside, we were relocated to the courtyard just outside where we waited before our master, waiting for him to call the first team forward. The courtyard had a large painted square spreading out along the middle of the floor, taking up most of the ground area, and there were just as many weapons outside than there were inside the training hall.
"Tigress. Monkey. Positions". Shifu commanded.
Tigress and Monkey stepped forwards and parted ways. Tigress stood on the right side of the arena, Monkey on the right with one of the shiftstones that Shifu had handed him once he had stepped forward. I then saw monkey close his hand around the stone and began to concentrate. Suddenly, the same glow that had engulfed Shifu earlier was now happening to Monkey. I even had to cover my eyes for a second from the brightness emitting from the primate. It took a few seconds until I could look again. When I did, I saw a huge gorilla standing on all fours, standing where Monkey had just been. I couldn't wait for my turn.
"Begin".
Tigress overcame Monkey's gorilla form easily. Though Monkey had size on his side, his attacks were much slower. The match only lasted a minute at the least as Monkey had thrown a heavy punch at Tigress who side stepped it and was able to climb up the arm he had just attacked with. Monkey tried to grab her with his other arm, missing as Tigress pushed off from the first arm and into the air, landing on the apes shoulders and was about to knock Monkey out until I heard a snap come from Shifu. My guess was that He stopped the match before Monkey could get seriously hurt. Either way, Tigress won and jumped from Monkey's head to the floor before walking off of the arena and joining the rest of us. Monkey began to glow a second time, changing him back to his smaller orange furred self. He then gave the shift stone back to Shifu before joining the line, standing to the left of me.
"Nice try mate, but remember that size isn't everything". I assured Monkey.
"Ah, I could have taken her if I had actually tried". Argued Monkey in an attempt to keep his pride. I just chuckled.
"Whatever you say Monkey". I focused back to see that Viper and Crane had already taken their places and that Viper had the shiftstone. Her choice of creature had the same problem as Monkey as I saw her transform into a large black snake, at least three times bigger than her original size, both length and width. I think she was meant to be an anaconda. I guess she didn't hear my comment from earlier about size. But then again, I would rather prefer to see how this plays out, Viper isn't dumb. "Begin". Crane immediately took off into the air just before Viper had lunged at the bird, much faster than I had expected. Like her old form, she moved like lightning. Before I could see the match continue, I heard mantis speak up.
"Hey Mike, bet you five yuan that Viper will win". This guy and his bets. How is it he's not broke yet? I looked back at the bug to see him standing on top of Monkey's shoulder.
"Deal". I replied with a smug look.
"You're betting against your own girlfriend? Are you sure that's wise"? Monkey butted in, raising an eyebrow.
"Think of it from a tactical point of view". I explained. "Viper may have both size and speed, But Crane can fly. I'd imagine he'll keep swooping down to get Viper to try and attack. Eventually she'll tire herself out, leaving her at Crane's mercy".
"And once she finds out you bet against her, what then"?
"I'll use the money to buy her something nice before she finds out. At least I'll win both ways".
"Then I hope it works, for your sake". Monkey spoke, patting me on the back reassuringly before watching the match again, which despite my confidence, I couldn't help but grow a little nervous from my foolish bet. That was until I looked back at the match to see Viper with her head clutched softly in Crane's talons. Kind of wished I had been paying more attention. Still, now I had an extra five yuan in my money bag.
*snap*
Viper turned back into her old self and handed the stone back to Shifu, once Crane had let go of her. I guess it was my turn now. As myself and the two remaining warriors had stepped forward, Shifu took a glance at all three of us, deciding who should use the shiftstone. I was near ecstatic when he offered it to me. I took the shiftstone with my tail and decided on what I could be to beat not just one, but two kung fu masters. My original idea was to go back to being human, but that was before I knew we would be having to fight each other with them so that changed everything as I doubted human me would last very long, so I needed to think of something else to turn into.
"Come on". I thought in my head. "What's the strongest, most non lethal thing I can think of"?
I really wished I had more time to think about this as I took my position on one side of the arena. I knew I couldn't choose anything that would either be extremely violent, covered in blood or was the size of a skyscraper so that ruled out most options. Luckily, one creature popped up into my head.
"Perfect"! I thought triumphantly in my head as I had made my choice. Not exactly human but it was close enough. I then closed my eyes and focused on the image in my mind. But before I could become what I had planned to become, the match was immediately stopped. Not by Shifu, but by Zhen bursting through the wooden doors, looking quite frightened.
"TROUBLE IN THE VILLAGE! TROUBLE IN THE VILLAGE"! He cried out, flapping his wings all over the place.
The second he had burst through the front door, I immediately lost my focus, keeping me from transforming.
"Everybody get to the village at once"! Shifu ordered.
Damn it all Zhen! I cursed to myself, wishing the goose had arrived twenty seconds later. At least then I would have been able to turn into what I wanted! Shifu stretched out his hand to me to take back the shiftstone which I hesitated to give back but found the strength to do so. On the bright side, I was also sent down to the village to see what all the fuss was about. Some of the villagers were glad enough to show us which way to go, and soon we found the disturbance, being caused by... Ah hell, not these guys again!
Robbing a nearby shop was a group of scaly crocodiles, one wearing a familiar helmet with a spike sticking out at the top, stealing several small bags of money from the poor grocer, a duck in blue robes. Once the duck had handed over the last of his money, the lead croc spoke up.
"Alright, let's get out of here before"- "Before we kick your butts all the way to Chorgom Prison"? Po finished, causing all the crocs to turn round.
"Darn it all"! The lead croc yelled, resisting the urge to chuck his helmet on the ground. Although, that may have been because he had just noticed me before he had the chance to do so.
"Wait, you're with those guys"? he asked while pointing to me with one of his scaly fingers.
"Yeah, what of it"?
"Ah great, that's just swell you know? Like we don't have enough problems already"! He ranted away to himself loudly.
"You know these guys"? Crane asked me.
"I ran into them when I tried to leave the Jade Palace". I admitted, keeping my eyes on the crocs. To my surprise however, the leader smiled.
"No matter, I guess this just means we're gonna have to"-
"Do this the hard way, right"? Tigress interuptted with a smug look as though she had already been through this routine before several times.
"Hey! That's my line"! The lead croc whined. "Gaarrgh! LE DONG! GET OVER HERE"!
Before I could ask who this Le Dong fella was, the ground shook once, twice, three times. As though something big was heading our way. It reminded me a lot of that Trex scene from the first jurrasic park only no shaking water to symbolise the footsteps. Soon enough, A huge- no. A Gigantic monster sized crocodile came into view! The thing was at least twelve feet tall, towering over everyone and looked to be nothing but muscle!
"... How many steriods did they feed that thing"? I asked myself in general, never taking my eyes off of this leviathan now in front of me and the furious five.
"Le Dong, Deal with these losers"! The leader commanded as he began to escape, laughing as he did, running round the corner and leaving Le Dong to suddenly attack, charging straight at us and pulling back his fist.
"This will be fun". Le Dong spoke in a low and somewhat unintelligible voice.
"Po, take Mantis, Crane and Viper and find the rest of the bandits, the rest of us will deal with Le Dong"! Tigress ordered just before everyone dodged Le Dong's fist as it smashed into the ground, making it shake slightly. Before he could recover, Po and his team hurried past the giant creature who turned round in time to try and crush one of them with his foot. Then, without thinking, I quickly slithered up the crocs Spiked armor which covered his back and made it to the top of his head before coiling myself round his snout and neck and tried pulling him back as hard as I could. This caused Le Dong to stumble backwards a few steps, allowing B team to escape without any casualties. However, the croc ripped me off his one of his big hands before bringing me to his face.
"Now you get hurt"! He spoke and pulled his fist back, ready to cave my face in or at least he would have if Monkey hadn't swept his feet making Le Dong to fall onto his back with a heavy thump, causing him to release his grip on me. The moment he did, I spun and lunged at his gut as fast as I could, hitting him with my head, bouncing off of him like a rubber ball and onto the ground, making Le Dong groan in pain as he held his stomach for a split second. Though it didn't stop him from getting back up and trying to slam into all of us at once with a shoulder barge. I barely got out of the way, just in time for him to accidentley run straight past me and into a building, leaving several large cracks from the impact. I'd hate to be the one who has to pay for the damages for the house.
"Uh, any idea how to take this guy down"? I asked Monkey next to me, keeping my eyes on Le Dong as he turned back round, not even appearing to be hurt from running straight into a concrete wall seconds ago.
"Don't ask me! Tigress faced him on his own once and beat him"!
"How"?
"By Kicking him off the side of the Jade palace cliffside". Tigress explained.
"... Well shit". I eventually replied. First off, I don't think there' any nearby cliffs to throw this guy over. Second, how the hell did he survive being kicked off a cliffside?
"Any other ideas"?
"Nope".
"I've got nothing".
Le Dong charged again and this time instead of punching, he made a grab for Tigress, catching her off guard and tried crushing her with both his scaly hands. Both myself and Monkey did what we could to aid her only to be swatted away by Le Dong's tail as he spun round, laughing at our attempts.
"Pathetic ape and snake". He mocked before turning back to Tigress, enjoying watching her vain attempts to escape.
"Any ideas"? Monkey asked.
"Just one".
According from playing many different video games, the weakest point of an enemy as big as Le Dong was always the head. So without warning, I grabbed Monkey by both his legs, spun round in a 360 to gain momentum, and released him into the air. I watched as Monkey spun round so that his feet would crash into Le Dong's face with great force. I heard Le Dong roar in pain as Monkey hit the croc hard enough to nearly break his skull and flipped from his head to the ground again. Le Dong was distracted enough for Tigress to pry open two Of Le Dong's fingers so that she could simply jump out and spin kick one of the crocs legs so that he would fall forwards and crash onto the floor with a heavy thump. Seems the attack to the head and smashing onto the ground face, or rather snout, first was enough to knock the guy out.
"...That went well"... I spoke after a few seconds of silence.
"Yeah, but how about next time, you give me a warning before trying that again"? Monkey asked with a glare.
"Hey, at least it worked"! I defended myself.
"Hmpf".
"Mike, check up on everyone else to see if they've caught the rest of the bandits. Me and Monkey will take care of Le Dong". I nodded and sped in the direction that everyone else had headed five minutes ago. Good thing I play a lot of games.
...
Next chapter up. So glad I managed to bring back Fung and his gang into the story one more time.
P.s. I may only be able to submit one chapter every week now instead of every few days because of work related things. Apologies in advance ^^ Nevertheless, I hope you enjoyed reading. Cheerio!