I waited for the grey beast to make the first move. He charged straight at me with his large hammer, slowly rising above his head. As soon as he was close enough, down came the massive weapon. The size and weight of the hammer made it easy to avoid. But seeing how it was held by an even bigger opponent, I couldn't afford to make any mistakes. If I did I'd die, simple as that.
I shot to the right a second before the hammer had near buried itself in the stone brick walkway. I took my chance and jumped into the air towards Fennu and gave him a powerful tail whack, managing to hit his shoulder as hard as I could. As I landed and jumped back to give myself some distance, he didn't even seem to have been fazed by the attack. The grey gorilla gave a low dark laugh.
"Is that all the strength your pathetic body can muster? If so you've already failed".
I ignored the comment as Fennu easily ripped the hammer out from the ground and spun it round revealing a new addition. A thick iron blade with a jagged edge. Again he slammed the weapon into the ground in my position sending several large pieces of sharp broken stone fragments my way.
I twisted my body at every turn, at every angle as the pieces flew past me. If I had tried blocking them I'd have been sliced to ribbons. One stone jagged past my side. A very small rip of what you might get from a paper cut but was just as painful.
I chose to charge this time seeing how retreating would no longer be an option. Not that I would have taken it to begin with. The ape swung the blade end to the side to try and cut me in half. I ducked and slid under it and performed a tail jab into his stomach. At least it had more of an effect as Fennu grunted and allowed the heavy end of his weapon to fall into the ground while he held it, allowing me to again jump into the air, spin forwards and bring my tail over his head with enough force to bring him to one knee, but far from enough to keep him down as he roared angrily, showing his sharp teeth before catching me off guard and jumped to his feet in a flash before kicking me in the face with a massive foot.
I had had my mouth open as well. The kick had broken several of my teeth, including one of my fangs. I landed onto the floor and my back scraped across the stone pathway.
It hurt. It hurt a lot. My mouth stung in agony as I rose slowly spitting out tooth fragments and blood. I still held my ground. I had to.
By the time I had gotten back into a fight stance, Fennu had already reached me and had tried slamming the hammer once more into me. I spun round and hit just under the lethal part of the hammer barely pushing it to the left as it cracked more stone bricks. Without a moments delay I spun back round and slammed my tail into the gorillas legs, doing just as much pain to myself as I had to Fennu.
The gorillas behind had stopped their attack to watch their leader crush me like a bug. At least I was buying time for the villagers as well which fueled my endurance. Not that it mattered anymore.
Before I could have pulled back, Fennu had, at lightning speed, stepped right onto me. I was more than aware that it was over for me but I still thrashed helplessly against his strength. I wasn't going to go down pleading for my life. I was going to show that I was ready to fight until the end. Fennu just watched me try to squirm away while a horrible twisted smile spread along his face.
"I've been waiting a long time for this python". He spoke as he applied more pressure, trying to crush me.
"Then I hope you don't mind waiting a little longer"!
I twisted my body and sunk my broken teeth into his foot as deep as I could. It was the only thing I could have done. The grey gorilla roared and lifted his foot up off the ground and tried to shake me off. I could taste blood. Both mine and the gorillas. It was disgusting but there was nothing I could do to keep it from flowing around and onto me.
Unfortunately, as I was a python and not a cobra, I could not inject venom into Fennu, according to my last lesson with Viper. But I still carried a unique ability of which I had already performed once without even realizing it. I tried wrapping as much of my flailing body around the gorillas foot and squeezed, nearly crushed it. As soon as I couldn't hold on any longer, I flew back and crashed into a small abandoned wooden cart, sending broken wood everywhere.
Looking back, the gorilla was planning the same tactic he tried earlier and was going to send a wave of sharp stone straight at me. He seemed to be having trouble standing properly now because of his near mangled foot.
Let's see how he likes a taste of his own medicine.
I grabbed as much of the broken pieces of cart as I could and in a foolish type of bravery, charged straight at the gorilla. His blade sent the stone flying in my direction. I barely managed to dodge each and every one. Still I kept coming and threw one piece of broken wood forward and into my mouth, holding it like a knife and throwing the rest of the sharp pieces at Fennu. All of them bounced off his fur doing nothing but maybe produce a few pinprick sized holes, and in return he threw one of his large fists at me. I jumped into the air in front of his hairy fist as it collided with the ground, spun round and thrust the wood into the side of his face.
I was slammed into the ground by an arm as Fennu roared, holding up both arms to his face, dropping his weapon.
I couldn't see anything, his hands covered his whole face. But there was blood. A lot of it, dripping under and through his fingers. A lot of it stained his fur. He stumbled backwards and when he finally removed his hands...
The piece of wood was stuck in his eye.
He did not hesitate to pull it out.
I only saw his eye for a millisecond, or whatever remained of his eye. I saw that I had hit him right in the middle of his eye. The whole thing had gone red. From the wound or the blood, it was hard to tell. His crushed foot seemed to be taking it's effect as Fennu was finding it hard to stand. Having to try and battle pain from both his eye and his foot made it difficult for him to fight back. Now was my chance.
However I hadn't counted on the gorillas to act as a large black wall between me and their leader with spears, swords or any other kind of melee weapon that seemed appropriate to try and fend me off and fell back with their master. It took three gorillas to move Fennu, and another two just to carry the large hammer.
The coward.
One of the gorillas were bloodthirsty enough to run straight at me with a sword, breaking the rank and tried to cut me in an attempt to get revenge for his leader. I easily sidestepped the weapon as he tried to stab me and wrapped around his arm, lifting him and slamming him onto his head behind me, knocking him out.
I had to pause for a second as some blood forced its way up my throat, making me spit it out. Half my face was covered in blood. Who's blood I didn't know but it must have made me look like a demon or something as a couple of the massive soldiers quivered slightly and took a step back. Despite the pain I felt in my mouth, I smiled.
I charged right at the horde. I saw a few crossbows aim above their brothers in front and fired. Seeing how they needed to go up before coming down, it was a piece of cake to dodge them. But I still needed to hug the wall whenever they landed as the blast radius was a little larger than I first expected after feeling a wave of intense heat wash over me.
I closed the distance quickly. I was only maybe ten feet away from ending this once and for all.
"ALRIGHT! LET'S DO THIS"!
What the...? Was that Po?
I looked back and indeed it was! He and the rest charging straight down the street. But... I couldn't see Yinshen anywhere in sight. You'd have thought that she'd have been leading the charge. But no, she wasn't anywhere.
I viewed as the warriors ran past me and into the wall of gorillas, knocking most of them to their feet before taking them down. I was about to join them until something grabbed me from behind.
At first I thought it might have been Yinshen. But I was surprised to see that it was Crane using his talons to try and drag me back. AWAY from the battle!
"Crane! What are you doing, let me go"! I hissed, trying to break out of his grip.
"You've done enough! We need to get you out of here"! He argued back. Had Viper personally asked him to try and save me?
How could he, the both of them, not realize how important this moment was? Especially to me?! Well I'm not letting him get away this time!
This was going to hurt...
I grabbed onto the nearest object I could wrap my tail around. We passed a large barrel and I barely had time to grasp it. I then pulled hard causing me both relief and pain. Relief being that I was out of his grip. Pain being that his sharp talons accidentally cut through my skin. Only a small bit but it was enough to cause Crane to look at his now blood tipped toes in shock. Yes, I wanted to take Fennu down that badly.
I used that bonus to my advantage and sped back before he could come to terms on what he had just done.
I should have realized that a second obstacle would be in my way as Viper found me charging down the road and blocked my path after knocking down a gorilla and dragging me forcefully to the side.
"Don't even think about it Mike. We've got this under control".
"I already had it under control". I shot back and paused as I felt something wet, about a small drop, slide down my chin. The look on Vipers face was one of fear. Especially when she saw one of my fangs missing.
"Mike. Open your mouth".
I shook my head, not daring to open my mouth again.
Viper looked more along the lines of afraid rather than angry. Her fear scared me more than her usual mad self. But... if what I'm about to do earns me another slap, or ten, what does it matter? I have to stop this before it's too late.
I flew right past Viper, ignoring her plea for me to stop and sped through the battle before me. A couple of gorillas, stupid enough to try and stop me, ended up with their heads buried in the ground and I kept going. I managed to run and fight for ten minutes before coming to a clearing and leaving the foot soldiers to Po and the five. Fennu had gotten quite far as I could no longer see him, but tracking him down was simple. Just follow the blood. But another problem approached.
The airship had sped down to the town during the battle. I doubt it was dropping off any more troops, but picking them up. One in particular.
"Oh no you don't". I hissed and headed straight for it. I heard someone fighting as I drew closer.
As I finally reached the airship, I saw none other than Yinshen already on the deck of it! Fennu seemed to be protected by only a handful of guards, but not for long the way she's going at. She must have been waiting to ambush them, which would explain why she wasn't helping the others.
I quickly slithered towards it as it began to slowly move upwards. The damn thing was taking off! Damn it, this was like straight out of a movie it was that intense. The ropes used for lowering the gorillas down hung loosely over the side and I barely grabbed one before it lifted me into the air. Seems that there is only one way to go now. I shimmied up the rope as fast as I could. This was perhaps the only chance I was going to get of stopping Fennu, and I wasn't going to pass it up.
The second I had reached the railing above, I had to jump up. One of the few gorillas still remaining from Yinshens wrath chose to fight me with his bare hands. Quickly, I grabbed the rope I had just been climbing up and pulled. The thing flew up into the air and I controlled it like a whip, sending it crashing down in front of the gorilla nearly hitting him.
The force at which it crashed into the ground was strong enough to send a few cracks along the woodwork. Considering the end was tied in a knot, it could easily be considered as much a weapon as a ball and chain would. But unlike the gorillas, my intention wasn't to kill.
Instead, I pulled the rope back and shot it back out towards the gorilla, hitting it straight in its head with enough force to make it fall onto its back. With the nasty bruise that now showed itself on the center of its head, it wouldn't be getting back up just yet.
I looked back up to see Yinshen take down the last of the gorillas standing between her and Fennu. I slithered up to her, keeping my eyes on the grey monster who just rested on one leg using the wooden wall as a support. The head of his hammer touching the ground as he held the very end of the handle. His other hand covered his still bleeding eye. I could actually see a very small puddle of blood beneath his foot.
I looked up to Yinshen. She looked back.
"Ready to finish this"? She asked, smirking back at the easy target. I didn't feel comfortable under her gaze.
"... Yeah, let's".
We slowly made our way to the near defeated gorilla, but not fast enough to deny him the chance to speak.
"It seems I underestimated the both of you. You've brought me to my knees, but I will not submit defeat to a worm and a cat".
"That's just what I was counting on".
Yinshen revealed her claws and had the look of a murderer while Fennu, the look of a man who's given up. I felt a little afraid, I couldn't be a part of this. And I'm not letting her be a part of it either.
I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her back. She just calmly turned to me.
"What's the matter? Never been one to take a life"?
"No. And neither are you. We're taking him to Chorgom".
I let go of her arm and she just looked back at the gorilla now sitting down. She looked back to me. I could tell that she wasn't convinced.
"I don't think that's going to happen".
"Yinshen, would your master want this from you"? I asked sternly.
"...He'd want me to do the right thing".
She turned back to Fennu.
"And that's exactly what I'm going to do".
I was about to speak back, until-
*WHAM*
She had hit me in the face! Even Fennu seemed surprised at this new tactic.
I barely had enough strength to try and stand back up. Too much had been taken out of me. Yinshen just walked over to me, not even looking sorry for what she had done. She took her time to reach me and bent down.
"I don't expect you to understand, but there's only one way to deal with a problem as big as Fennu".
I could only gasp and speak.
"Yinshen... please. Thi-this isn't you"... I tried reasoning.
"Just stay down little human, if you know what is best for you".
She stood back up and walked away from me.
I can't let this happen. I can't!
Despite the amount of injuries I've received, it still wasn't enough to keep me from at least trying. By whatever strength remaining, I shot up and rammed myself into Yinshen's back, sending her off of her feet. Before she even hit the ground, I wrapped around her and pinned her arms to her side before dragging her back from the gorilla who just simply watched.
Yinshen didn't fight or struggle. Instead she just used words.
"You really think justice is the only way to prevent scum from succeeding. It's... sad in a way. As though you can't even find the strength to do the right thing when someone asks of you to do so".
"You wouldn't be talking like this if it wasn't for"-
"I may have told you many things about my life, yes. But not everything".
"What do you mean"?
"If you knew how badly I suffered under his rule, you would be in the same position I am".
"Yinshen"?
"But now"...
It was at this point I saw a different side of Yinshen. Something that had crossed my path many times but I was too blind to notice. Her need for vengeance was consuming her.
She stuck her claws into me and was able to twist me off of her. I fell to the floor with a thump.
"...It's time for Fennu, and me, to say good bye".
She un-clipped an item from her belt that I had never even noticed. A small bomb. My eyes widened.
"No. No, Yinshen! Don't you dare even think about it"!
"And you're going to stop me"?
She stepped onto my head and struck her claws against the fuse, lighting the bomb.
"I don't think so".
From underneath the black boot I struggled. But I was able to see ahead of me. Behind Yinshen, two grey feet, one being dragged along, was right behind Yinshen.
"YINSHEN, BEHIND YOU"!
All I could hear was something smacking right into Yinshen making her drop the bomb and sending her through the railings and over the edge!
"NO"!
There wasn't even any time to think and I jumped over the edge of the airship, grabbing the rope from earlier and dived aften the falling panther! Barely dodging the growling gorilla as it almost grabbed me.
Come on! Faster damn it!
I fell like a brick, straightening my body and drawing closer to the unconscious Yinshen.
*BANG*
Her bomb had gone off, that I could tell but I didn't look up. I couldn't risk taking my eyes off of her as I drew nearer and nearer until I could almost grab her.
"Come on! Almost there"...
I stretched my neck as far as I could until I could finally reach Yinshens leg! Got her!
I wrapped around her neck just in time as the rope had met its end and stopped me from falling. But it wasn't over.
I could see above that the ship was burning. Fennu was still on it, dead or alive I don't know, but there was nothing that anyone could do for the poor bastard now. The fire began to spread quickly and reached the ropes! We were still a fair distance away from the ground as well, even with the airship falling.
The only thing I could do was slide down and wrap my whole body around Yinshen and hold the rope with my teeth. I tried to hold it with as many of my teeth that were still in one piece, but the pain remained.
I swung. Back and forth back and forth, building up speed and momentum and we flew past the village. Without any sense, I let go straight towards one of the houses one the outskirts of the village, straight towards a wooden window.
This better work!
Protecting as much of Yinshen as I could with my own body, we smashed through the wood and I crashed into the floor, hard enough to bounce off it once and right into a table, knocking it over. Outside, I could hear the airship falling until at last, a loud crash proved its demise and perhaps everybody on board it.
I was breathing heavily. Everything I had just been through had taken its toll on me. Yinshen was still unconscious and I slithered off of her before clearing a small section of the floor full of wooden shards, and putting her down gently.
I couldn't risk touching her anymore. I did not know the full extent of damage that had been done to her. As far as I know, she may have broken ribs! God, I hope not. For her sake.
I looked up to see the broken window and laughed. Glad that something so reckless, so stupid, had paid off.
As I turned back, my eye laid on a pair of elderly rabbits just standing there on the opposite side of the room. Had they been there the entire time?
The pair of them had wide eyes and were too surprised, too shocked to speak or even move. Even with the apologetic smile I was giving them.
"Sorry about the window"... Was all I could say before I heard a groan from underneath me. She was in bad condition. I needed to get her help and fast.
...
Hey guys, you're probably wondering what's with the speedy update, well I have a big announcement coming up, going over the future plan for this story. I don't want to reveal anything just yet due to this being one of the biggest chapters but on the next chapter I'll explain where this story is going to go.
So for now, cheerio!