Chapter 16.
Shen.
That's impossible. Shen stared, beak agape at as the cannonball arced overhead, scarlet sparks showering down on them. Shen felt panic rising in his throat. He and everyone around him craned their necks back in disbelief. No, no one could have ever done something like that. It defies nature itself!
Shen turned with eyes bulging toward the panda standing in the center of the courtyard with a cheeky grin on his face. Then the panda reached his arm out and beckoned tauntingly. The cannonball that he had just sent flying crashed through the rooftops, cementing in Shen's mind that, impossible or not, the panda had really, irrefutably deflected a cannonball with his bare hands.
For a moment, he could feel his voice catching in his throat, as though a palpable, invisible fist was reaching in and stuffing the words back down. He could never do something like that a second time, and never to all of the cannons at once. Shen's beak twisted upward into a grin, and his command tore itself out of his mouth.
"KILL HIM!"
With a roving gaze, he watched each cannon in the firing line turn itself toward the panda. But the panda also turned, and Shen's grin fell from his face as the chains of the Kung Fu masters shattered along the line, and they began to charge.
"Fire! Fire! Fire! Reload my cannon, you idiot!" Shen ordered, whipping his head around to each of the wolves at the cannons who had apparently grown clumsy with their torches as the warriors quickly closed the distance between them.
When the first cannon of the volley fired, the panda stopped in his tracks and centered his footing. With the same whirling movement, he once again redirect the shot, and this time, instead of flinging it up into empty space, pivoted in a half-circle and flung the fizzing cannonball right back. The projectile slammed into the mouth of its own cannon, ripping the nozzle open in a fray of metal and tossing the gunners backward toward the audience. The other gunners hesitated for a moment.
"Keep firing!" Shen said, lighting his own reloaded cannon. "Fire at will! He can't block all of them at once."
A few other cannons discharged, but the targets were already moving too quickly and some shots burst against the broken walls around the Tower of Sacred Flames and against the houses surrounding the plaza while the panda continued to return the others. Splintering wood sprayed into the air, falling upon them in a rain of spears. The warriors were nearly upon them, and Shen reached his hands into his sleeves and flung six knives out, leaping off his cannon as he did so.
Damn it all!
It was the barbarian invasion all over again. The cannons could only hold up at a long range. How did the panda arrive so soon? Everything would have worked if it hadn't been for him.
Chaos fell upon them as the wolves abandoned their posts and drew their weapons to face the Kung Fu masters head on. Out of the corner of his eye, Shen could see the peahen trying to fade into the screaming mass of the crowd that was surging away from the destruction as the rest of the wolf army poured out from over the rooftops and into the plaza to join the fight.
"Not so fast, you," he said, stomping her foot to the ground and tripping her. She gasped in pain as she collapsed onto the chains that bound her wings to her body. "Lang!" Shen called, and the Wolf Boss appeared by his side.
"Take her away. Do not let her escape," Shen said, before letting go of the peahen's foot and sweeping away, back into the fray. From the depths of his robes, he unfolded his curving pole-arm, swiveling it in his right hand while he prepared another throwing knife in his left. Shen dove through the rush of wolves being tossed back and forth by the superior hand-to-hand skills of the Kung Fu warriors. He caught sight of the flashing black and white form in the crowd and charged toward it under the cover of the brawling crowd.
The panda was unsuspecting, and Shen raised his wing back to send the throwing knife right into the panda's back, when someone careened into him with the force of a falling ironwood tree. Shen pushed his attacker away with a hasty sweep of his train as he tumbled over himself, crashing backward into a cluster of wolves.
"Never! Not on my watch," the tigress spat, placing herself between Shen and the panda who had realized what was occurring behind him. The two stood back to back, covering each other's blind spot.
Shen hissed through a clenched beak, pushing himself back onto his feet and sizing up the situation. The houses around them were ablaze and crumbling from the rogue cannon shots, embers floating through the air like glowing snowflakes. The wolf pack and even the gorillas who had entered the fight were being tossed around by the combined strength of the warriors. Mentally, Shen cursed himself. If only he hadn't panicked at the sight of his factory going up in flames. His army was scattered across the rioting city, his arsenal was decimated, and he had failed to kill the panda…again. His grip on the pole-arm tightened until pain shot through the shafts of his feathered fingers. How can everything fall apart like this? When everything was so perfect, how can it suddenly all fall apart?
"Lord Shen! Look out!" one of his subordinates shouted, pointing a finger behind him.
Shen turned around and saw the red panda Shifu leap over the rooftops to join the fight. His broken army staggered around, unable to match the physical power of the warriors and unable to reach the cannons which were now strewn about the plaza, some upside-down and others wrenched entirely out of their wooden bases. Even Lang was nowhere in sight. Amidst the insanity, Shen stood alone.
Letting the suppressed scream finally erupt from his throat, Shen beat the ground with his train, lifting himself high into the air. He locked eyes with the tigress and the panda and flung his knives one by one at them.
They leaped to the side, but one of them found its mark in the panda's right leg. Shen screeched in triumph as the panda staggered to the ground, sliding just out of the way of the other knives.
"Po, get down!" the tigress said, shielding him with her body.
Shen charged them with his pole arm drawn. He swung out in a wide arc that the tigress bent over backward to avoid. She leaned back on her arm and kicked the blade up as she flipped over onto her feet. Using the momentum of the kick, Shen swung his leg around and whipped at her face with his tail.
The tigress blocked the blow and dug her claws into his feathers, yanking Shen backward as he tried to dance away to a safer distance, and he yelped in pain.
"Not so fast, peacock," she snarled, only to have to jump away again as he flipped his pole arm around and stabbed at her over his shoulder.
"Shen, it's over! Just stop already," the panda said, pushing himself unsteadily onto his feet. Another group of wolves piled onto the tigress all at once, and she bared her teeth as she slashed at their arms.
"It's not over until I say it is," Shen said. He felt his voice shaking, and he wondered if the panda heard him at all. He charged toward the panda who was limping from his injury, trying his hardest to push the wolves off of himself. The other masters were already making their way toward them to help. Then the tigress kicked one of her attackers in the stomach and sent him flying into Shen, and the two tumbled over in a heap.
"Get off of me!" Shen said. As he hurried to his feet, he caught sight of his original cannon. Lying at its feet was his rifle which he had brought along with him. He reached out with the pole arm and pulled it toward him and took aim at the panda.
"Stop him!" the tigress yelled to her companions, but Shen smiled. Thanks to the tigress knocking him away, he would have fired by the time they got to him. If I go, you go, panda.
"Shen, hold it. Enough already."
Before him stood the wolf boss and the peahen who was free from her chains. Lang held his arms wide, blocking Shen's view of the panda. Shen lowered the weapon, his beak agape. Even the oncoming kung fu warriors stopped in their tracks, shocked. The fighting ceased almost immediately with the wolves all looking to their leader.
"What? What are you doing? I had him!" Shen said. "Why is she free?"
Lang's ears were drooped, but he did not move. Instead he reached a paw out to Shen cautiously. "I had to make a choice, Shen. Look around you." The wolf gestured at the burning houses and the unconscious bodies of his army covering the otherwise vacant streets.
"What about it?" Shen asked in a rasping voice. "You think I don't know this is lost?" he added so softly that only Lang's sharp ears could make it out. Lang was about to speak, when Shen continued, "I won't go out in shame. I am finishing what I started. I will kill that panda or die trying, and I will not let even you stand in my way, you two-faced, yellow-bellied traitorous mongrel!" He raised the rifle again, but this time leveled the barrel at Lang.
"Shen, wait a moment, try to think for a second," Lang said, holding both his arms out in front of him.
"Step aside and let me fire, but so help me, I will not go quietly. I will not stop this, madness or no!" Shen screamed. He could feel boiling tears running down his face. "Get out of the way, damn you! Obey your master and stand aside. Let me finish this!"
Lang's eyes widened at Shen's last command, but then his shoulders relaxed and he let his arms drop to his sides. The wolf looked at Shen directly and set his jaw as he shook his head. "No, Shen. Because you're not my master-"
Shen felt something snap inside him. Can't go back, can't go back. It's done. I die alone.
Without further hesitation, he lit the fuse. In the moment of stillness, between the ignition of the gunpowder and the explosion of the bullet, Lang finished his sentence.
"—You're my friend."
But the rifle did not work as it had in all the previous shots. The battered, weakened iron split open with the detonation of the gunpowder, and the rifle exploded into his face.
Shen's world erupted in fire, and the last thing he heard was a scream.
C-c-cliffhanger? I'm a horrible person. But this chapter was meant to be a cliffhanger from the minute I started chapter one. It's summer now, and I write something every day, so I will work to get the final chapter out by next week. Send me your thoughts in PM or review form!