Probably the only update this week. Thanks to the people who followed and/or favorited.

Farseer3669 - If I need your help with a particular chapter, I'll let you know :)

On with the story !

Chapter 4

I woke up at the right time, so that I could be ready when the gong rings. Just as yesterday, when it rang, we all got out of our rooms to greet Master Shifu. He greeted us back and we went to the kitchen for breakfast. It was pretty much the same as yesterday, and I really didn't want to speak. At this hour, I'm not used to communicate... So I ate in silence, and we soon got to training, just as every day. This was the morning routine. But Master Shifu broke into the Training Hall with a worried look on his face. He said: "I just received a letter from the chief of a nearby village. They have been attacked by a rather large group of bandits, and according to them another village had already been raided. If they keep heading south as they did before, they may reach the Valley of Peace today."

We listened to the news. All of us knew what he was going to say next. "It is your job to defend the Valley, and I believe you will be able to beat these bandits by yourselves. But be careful: they are many, and they are well organized compared to others."

Okay, so these are not your usual bandits. And we get to go down into the Valley. First time I get to defend it along with the Five. I sincerely hope it will go well. We swiftly ran down the stairs, told the citizens to stay in their homes and started looking out for bandits. Soon enough they arrived, and Shifu had said the truth: damn, they were far over a hundred. And they were moving with ranks formed. I noticed that there were archers in the backline and decided to tell the others: "Guys, it looks like they got archers behind the front line."

Tigress saw them as well: "You're right. If we have to fight, we will split into two groups: Mantis, Crane and Monkey, you will take out the archers while the rest of us take care of the other bandits."

She had said 'if we have to fight', but I was pretty sure they'd not give up with such a huge advantage in numbers. As each of their steps made them come closer to us, I made myself ready for battle.

The wolf that looked like the bandits' chief looked at us and said: "Eh, looks like we got ourselves a few opponents there."

Tigress talked back: "This is your last chance to give up. If you don't..." She got into a fighting stance. "...Then we'll have to fight."

The guy answered: "Well that's funny. Do you really think I'm not going to stop when we are so many against you six?" He smiled evilly and then shouted: "Destroy them!" And on these words, they started running at us with loud cries. As planned, three of us immediately got to the archers while we stood our ground and started fighting the other bandits.

I soon realized that their use of weapons was not extremely advanced, and that actually got me thinking: if I was fighting one of them, when he tries to hit me with his sword, could I actually be faster than him and strike in the opening he left? I'd definitely have to try it out.

Just as I thought about this, one bandit came at me alone. While he raised his sword to hit me, I simply struck him with a hard punch in the chest. That knocked him out cold and sent him flying into the others who were following him. Maybe this technique was not okay when fighting lots of them at the same time, but when fighting only one man, it was quite effective.

Soon, a group of five or six came towards me. The first one had a sword too, but I could not afford to use the technique because the others would be here soon enough. When he tried to hit my head with a slash, I ducked and grabbed his arm. I twisted it, which made him let go of his weapon in the process; I called out for Viper and threw him at her so that she would finish the business. I turned back to my other opponents, just in time to dodge his mace. As the others were surrounding me, I got down to the ground and performed a leg sweep that luckily made everyone lose their balance. While they were falling, I managed to kick two of them away; hopefully they would not come back.

The others had recovered but I easily dodged their attacks – although it was quite close – and punched both of their faces. I did not have time to rest as another group came by. The fight went on for some time and I managed to bring many of them down. At one time I finally got a chance to look around to see how the fight was going. Viper seemed to be doing well, and the three guys had succeeded in taking most of the archers out. I saw Tigress fighting the bandits' chief, who was putting on quite a fight. Tigress still had the upper hand. But something was not right. One archer was still standing, and he was aiming for Tigress; she couldn't have seen him because she was busy fighting the other guy. Thus I was the only one who could prevent the arrow from hitting her, and possibly killing her. The archer was too far away; I couldn't get to him on time. I didn't know what to do, and the arrow left the archer's bow. My instincts came kicking in.

I jumped in front of the arrow's initial target. I grunted in pain as I took it in the shoulder. It was painful as hell, but not enough for me to stay down. I got up and walked towards the archer as fast as I could, grabbing his arm as he was reaching for another arrow and punching him in the face, easily bringing him down. I looked back and saw Tigress had defeated the leader. I looked at my shoulder, the one that had the arrow in it. I had lost quite a lot of blood, but I would be okay. I proceeded to take this arrow out of my body. It was not difficult but it hurt so much! I rejoined the fight but it was already nearing its end, and soon enough we had dealt with all of them.

We regrouped and of course, they noticed my bloody shoulder. The first one to ask about it was Crane: "Hey Tiger, what happened to your shoulder?"

I answered, still slightly in pain: "I got shot. In fact, while Tigress was fighting with the bandits' leader, a sneaky archer was aiming at her. I had no choice but to get in front of them."

They stared at me with wide eyes. So I continued: "Heh, that's still better than the possibility of one of us getting killed."

At this moment, Tigress spoke up: "Truth is, I had not seen this archer, so... thank you."

I smiled: "It's only what I had to do."

Viper then said: "We need to get this wound healed. So while we get these guys to jail, you go up to the Palace and search for Shifu. He will help you with that." I silently agreed and started walking towards the stairs that led to the Jade Palace. I had a bit of trouble standing though, probably because I had lost some blood, and was still losing some. Seeing this, Tigress came with me and helped me up the stairs. "I could have made it to the top alone." I said.

"Come on, we saw you lost some blood because of this, and you may need help just in case. And that's the least I can do for saving my life." She said.

As soon as we got to the top of the stairs, we went to the barracks so that I could rest in my room. Tigress said she'd get Master Shifu to come and help me with my wound. Literally a few instants later, Shifu was here with enough to take care of my wound. When he entered he said: "I heard about what you did during the fight. It is very brave of you."

I replied: "I could not just stand there and nothing. Moreover, I'd rather take this arrow in my shoulder than let it possibly kill one of us."

Silence then fell in the room, as Shifu disinfected my wound (yes, that really hurt) and placed bandages on it. He told me that I had to rest for at least the day, and maybe more. Seeing that it was the afternoon now, I decided I'd better try to sleep a little and get up a little later. With that said, I got to sleep; I thought I had fought quite well back there and was satisfied by this, and I was happy that I had done enough the Valley and the people I could possibly call my friends. One of these days I should get to know them more, and maybe I'll be able to evoke my own past afterwards. It wouldn't be done just yet though; these memories are at least as painful as the arrow I took, if not more...