Chapter Twenty: Capturing the Palace
The Masters saw the lioness dash away. There was little time.
"Get ready, guys!" Vixey shouted.
She threw a ball at her own feet and disappeared into a white cloud of dust. Immediately, Ruili and her forces panicked and became frustrated. They all looked at whatever direction the Masters could have disappeared into. Then Ruili realized something important and looked back at where the Masters had been - and still were.
"It was a distraction, you imbeciles!" she screamed.
By the time the lionesses had realized this, too, the Masters were breaking a hole in the lioness circle. As soon as they were free, the Masters scattered. Shifu, Tigress, and Jin ran for Ruili and chased her as the otter leapt off Rong Da's shoulder. The others ran to disable and destroy the cannons positioned on the cliffs.
Po managed to defeat three lionesses and shove their cannons off the cliffs before seeing his reflection in a battle axe as it missed him by a hair. He turned to see Rong Da and rolled out of the way of his axe in the nick of time. But he was slow getting to his feet.
"Po! Watch out!"
Tigress jumped out of nowhere and shoved him away from the cliff and the bear.
"Ah!"
Po swore he'd just seen her jump out of the way. But her small cry of pain mid-jump struck him to the core. Rong Da approached her as she knelt to deal with the pain.
"This is for my brother!" he screamed, lifting his axe high overhead.
"No!" Po cried, throwing his entire body at him.
They started to tumble upon impact and Po barely untangled himself from his enemy as the bear fell off the cliff and out of view. He stood there for a few more seconds before turning and running to Tigress.
"Are you okay?!" he started.
Tigress winced and took her paw away from the wound site.
"It stings," she said honestly, "but it isn't even bleeding. I'm okay."
They turned when they heard other cannons firing.
"Get to those cannons!" Tigress shouted, racing ahead of Po.
KLANNNNGGGG!
The wok hit the lioness full in the face, knocking her out instantly. Mr. Ping started running toward another enemy, but was knocked aside by Tian. She jumped out of the way of the incoming attack she'd just saved the goose from and knocked three lionesses away at once. But they were closing in.
Then there was a rush of tigers and the lionesses scattered. Tian reserved the moment to analyze the situation.
"We're losing people fast," she told Xinli. "The cannons damaged several structures and we're trying to get people out."
"I think it's time we used our secret plan," the tiger told her.
Tian nodded.
"Good luck," she said before rushing off to rescue more allies.
Xinli started to climb up a nearby house.
"Hold them off!" she shouted at her friends.
She climbed to the roof and looked at the endless number of lionesses. She'd been particularly frightened when they emerged from the streams shortly after the raiding party ascended the stairs.
"Why are you fighting us?" she shouted. "Do you really think your husbands will be at peace with you doing this?"
There was little difference in the sea of lionesses. Mr. Ping hid under his wok as a lioness tried to flatten him. Tian was thrown into a building as one of her spells failed. Ox and Croc were beginning to be overwhelmed by the endless stream of lionesses.
"Save your breath, stripes!" Guai Hu shouted, starting to make her way toward the building Xinli was on. "Do you really think they'll listen to you?"
"Think of your children!" Xinli continued, unfazed. "Do you really think Ruili will just give you your children back after the fighting's over?"
There was an obvious stir among the lionesses now. They stopped fighting and simply stood there, watching Xinli. The others from Miao Zhen kept their allies from attacking, letting their friend continue her work.
"Ruili won't give you your kids!" Xinli proclaimed. "She won't because the fighting won't end! It never will!"
The lionesses started to murmur and worry.
"Don't listen to her!" Guai shouted. "What use are children anyway? They're no good for anything!"
Instantly, the lionesses turned angrily to her.
"Do you hear what she's saying?" Xinli shouted, raising her staff. "That just proves it! Ruili will never let you go home! But all who fight for us will go home! Strike for the Valley! Strike for the Emperor! Strike against Ruili!"
The lionesses all converged on the cougar, those closest leaping onto her. Then, like a bomb went off, the lionesses were thrown back. Guai, in her rage, jumped onto the building to race after Xinli. The tiger then jumped off in the opposite direction. All the Miao Zhen warriors ran after the two.
Tian stood up wearily. She looked toward the direction where Guai and the tigers had run and then at the horde of lionesses, most of them weeping for the end of the fighting. Then she looked up at the Jade Palace.
"Is everything all right?" Elder asked.
"I sense... something's wrong," Tian replied. "Very wrong. But I can't tell which direction it's in."
"The bats!" cried one of the lionesses as they all started to scatter. "Watch out for the bats!"
"Bats?" Tian started.
Then she and Elder dove under the larger pieces of a collapsed building as small objects impacted the ground around them. When the hail stopped, Tian picked up one of the projectiles. They were tiny arrows with incredibly sharp heads. She and Elder looked out at the specks of black in the sky.
"Move!" she screamed as another barrage rained down.
A smaller lioness, likely to be barely of fighting age, dove for shelter next to Tian. She was sobbing.
"How do we stop the bats?" Tian asked gently. "Please tell us. The sooner this fight ends, the sooner you can go home."
The girl looked at her, shaking and with wet eyes.
"They can't fly well at day," she said. "They were there in case we turned. I don't want to die!"
"You won't have to," Tian told her.
"Just stay here and we'll handle the rest," Elder said.
The two elders were about to emerge from their shelter when the lioness caught Tian's sleeve.
"And they don't like fire," she told her.
There seemed to be a blaze in Tian's eyes.
"Oh, do they?" she started. "Well, I'll just see to that."
She ran off as others began lighting arrows.
At the Jade Palace, there was pure chaos. Lionesses where everywhere, trying to find and subdue the Masters. But they were learning that this was as hard to accomplish as it was chasing a mole around its own burrow, even with their numbers.
While Shifu and the girls kept appearing and disappearing due to the secret passages, Po simply fled into the Hall of Heroes. He ran to find a good hiding place as lionesses streamed into the building. They didn't have to look far. As they began to creep closer to him, he leapt out from behind the pillar.
"D-don't make me use this!" he warned.
He started moving his hands as if he was brandishing a quarterstaff. But they could see... nothing. Just as they started to laugh at him, he swung at the closest lioness, hitting the side of her face with an invisible force and knocking her out. The rest of the lionesses looked startled.
"Hooyeaah!" Po shouted. "Invisible Trident of Destiny! Come get some!"
The lionesses got angry again and started to pounce. But the panda merely swept them each aside with his weapon.
Until one of the lionesses hit the trident just right that it spun out of Po's hands. They could only tell this happened when it clanged to the floor.
"Uh, wh... What about the..." Po started as he backed up. "The Invisible Shruikens of... Invisibility... ness? Of Awesomeness!"
He pretended to throw shruikens, but the lionesses didn't even flinch. Po felt the wall against his back and tried to think of any ideas that wouldn't end in his death.
Before long, however, the lioness closest to him flinched and fell to the floor. Then the rest of the lionesses acted like they were being peppered by something before falling as well.
Po looked up and found that he and the lionesses weren't the only ones here.
"What took you idiots so long?" Taopa asked, descending one of the pillars. "We've been here for hours."
Approximately two dozen other Polecats remained in their hiding places.
"You guys only hid in here?" Po asked.
"Don't you remember how many of us there are?" Taopa asked sharply. "I have people in the woods, the barracks, and the Training Hall. We have reason to believe that Ruili is still somewhere in the barracks, but we couldn't track her without giving away our positions."
"'Kay," Po said. "Got it."
"And if that otter's still alive after all this," Taopa told him, "you'd better not get in my way when I skin her alive."
Po looked rather frightened. He inched toward the door as the Polecat turned and climbed back up to her post.
Po ran out the doors and was surprised to see Qilan running toward him.
"Have you seen Jin?" she asked, quite obviously very worried.
"I haven't in a while," Po told her. "Why?"
Qilan turned to look at the Valley, she and Po seeing a huge burst of fire form in the sky and scattering the tiny black spots flying overhead.
"Tell him Xinli wants to see him," she said. "Make sure he knows!"
"I will!" Po shouted as the tiger ran back toward the Valley.
Then he turned in time to see Tigress running by.
"Tigress!" he called. "Taopa says Ruili's probably in the barracks!"
"I know!" Tigress told him. "I just saw her heading this way!"
Po started running with her and the other Masters made their way to the two.
"Jin!" Po said. "Xinli wanted to talk to you!"
Jin hesitated, looked back at the Valley for a moment, and then quickened his pace.
"Let's finish Ruili first," he said. "I can talk to her after that."
"There she is!" Crane called. "She just went inside!"
The Masters charged through the barracks doors.