Volume Three: Deng Wa
Chapter LI
Falling Stars
"What is that?"
A light, maybe a distant avian figure, carried its pulsing green lantern Tai Lung spotted. More followed from behind, shining among the stars as if the horizon of dancing ribbon emerald reverberated its sheet of ray, touching all of China. Casting a stream of thin and cold air in his wheezing lungs, Shen thought that these stars were impossible to approach close but always moving at night toward the west.
These stars are not stars.
The bear master gaped as the insect's wings chirped on his shoulder. "Whoa! Is that what I think it is?"
"No, it's not!"
Following those angry pulses soaring closer to their incredible advancement emerged green balls of light crashing throughout the tall ridges and outskirts of the Valley of Peace. One slam and the other built debris in the distance and green stars showering above the village continued soaring onto random routes. After tens, later reaching hundreds, a short screech with an emerald comet advancing nearby ruptured three blocks down to the south, and another slammed a few yards over the river bridge near Shen and Po.
"JOMBIES! We are under attack!" Mantis declared all the citizens and Masters.
Once the bell on the zenith peak next to the Jade Palace rang, citizens of the Valley of Peace ran with horrors; Masters of Jade Palace departed out of Mr. Ping's restaurant before a blunt snout intensified behind the bridge. Four Jade Warriors emerged on it with pulses of grinding metal and rubble stones. Geese, crocodiles, and —
"No! That's Master Buffalo Ram!" Po pointed, and the giant beast bellowed its resonant glass taps.
Managing to perform her feline style as four jombies darted at Po and Furious Five, Tigress could see her panda student barging out of the Noodle entry with citizens. "Stripey!"
"Lei Lei! On me!"
They focused and commenced their assault against jombies once green comets storming down from the sky crashed at the inner village and a few peaks in the distance. Tai Lung settled his fast fists on the beefy reptile's underarms; springing on structures and roof tiles, Mantis creaked his wings as he tackled geese with Master Monkey, who battered his hands on the other crocodile with spiky wrist gauntlets.
"Citizens! Set your defenses in your homes, and fight against Jade Warriors using your chi!" Shifu called out the people as they followed his command, prepping their defenses inside homes and out through the lanes at will.
Wringing her lengthy body, hissing before springing her lethal agility under jombies, Viper pierced her sharp tail toward joint connections of these stones, her chi of light rose and tangerine rupturing bits of fractures. Once glimpsing at the avian jombie with a long beak and ebony wings ascending behind the affray, Crane launched in the harsh breeze with his sharp whistling feathers, pummeling his talons under the bird's long neck and chest, pinning the jombie down to the other side.
Right before the bovine hurled his round fists in Tai Chi movements, Po fastened his horse stance and launched his improving arms at Chi Sao, his flabby arms swiveling in defensive positions as the panda kept thrashing his fists. Giving haste after a short snout, slightly disoriented by the bear's hard blows pushing him back, the buffalo spun in the air and spread his feet, booting Po's wrists.
"Take cover!"
Straightening his pole, Shen walloped the horse forward repeatedly as a pig villager shouted with his children passing beside him. Fast enough to drive a jombie off balance to a wobble but kept advancing with his feet to a good position, the peacock angled his right leg and spun him back. Reaching in front of the horse on the cobblestone with a brisk leap, Shen plunged his pole tip into a fierce warrior's chest, the bird's webbed golden chi fluctuating with the horse's whirring cry.
Diverging the bear youth's round punches, Lei Lei attempted to unleash her grasp while battering the panda jombie's ribcages, but her rival around her size buffeted elbows and side kicks. She winced at once and reeled her steps twice; her rival thundered its shrilling with glass shatters, and Lei Lei led herself forward with fast jabs, her third punch whopping his muzzle. Giving her a shout, she gyrated her body and landed her heel kick to his jaw, knocking him down.
Right on time, her panda companion in a red and yellow pattern vest and yellow trousers beamed down his crimson chi on jombie's chest, breaking stones apart. "Ha! Saved by the bell this time!" the bear teenager chirped.
"Fan Tong, you guys go help those people over there! Quick!" Lei Lei shouted, her light yellow sash whipping at another panda jombie crossing the street. She rounded another with a perfect hoop under the stone's belly, spinning in the air as all fragments split its emerald and amber light apart, freeing the victim.
Quite to sense the bovine's strength so overwhelming to shatter blockage against the panda's parries, Po regained his fingers, wavering once he retreated further while facing his jombie foe. An unlikely interference from a brute warrior made the bear relieved once shaking his limbs, which he caught hitting against hard and thick layer surfaces from the buffalo's strong arms. With a creamy roar, Tai Lung flowed his combination of heavy thwacks, landing in precise target marks under ribcages, liver, and jaw with a vicious uppercut. Once trapping the buffalo's main arm, twisting him to the side, he signaled the panda with a quick gesture, and Po thrust his paws onto the jombie.
The buffalo's stone glass ruptured into waterfalls, and a flesh form of Master Buffalo Ram let him reverberate his roar with drain energy.
"Master Buffalo! I got you!" Po caught him with his whole weight against his upper shoulder, supporting him toward the archway. He let the bovine master lean his back and sit. The Furious Five and former nemesis combatants Tai Lung and Shen kept their pressure on jombie newcomers emerging from side to side and to and fro counterclockwise, nonstop in odd numbers of two.
Submerging his wince with headaches while pressing his hoof against his left eye, Buffalo Ram looked upon the warrior who freed him from being a wild jombie, filling his breath in awe. "Dragon Warrior?" he croaked, trembling his head. "No, the boom. Panda, how many booms did you hear?"
"Wait, what booms? What are you talking about?" Po questioned confusingly.
"The storm. . . Wang and his teacher created it—"
Buffalo Ram looked around the whole Valley under siege, filling horrors and the angry sky of charcoal green, followed by one basil rain and the next fury spheres. "No, it cannot be," the bovine feared, his head quivering. "The first wave of invasion has started; we stand between stones and mortals."
"Yeah, I have noticed, like five balls of fire hit the Valley," Po figured. "I say six, seven, eight — okay, never mind."
A whooshing sound from the green sphere of white wrecked into the front barriers of the Valley, and Bao Panda fixed his crimson sash on his temple. "I am going to set firebombs near Mei Mei's apartment! Cover me, Masters!"
"Lead on."
"Right behind you, kid!"
Viper, Mantis, and Monkey allied with the boy. Once the three warriors bounded over the river bridge, giving Bao support, Po crashed against the side of the archway once a shrilling limelight ball from above flew past them. None were hurt once they checked themselves around, and the bovine master grunted his wince, his hoof grabbing the bear's sleeve.
"Dragon Warrior, we have three waves left. Listen to me close, and no questions," the buffalo lowered his glare. "The first has started the invasion, and now you will face thousands of Jade Warriors everywhere. The second will start to drain your chi. The third gets even worse—"
"Hold that thought."
Tai Lung thundered his short growl as soon as three wolves, stained with vibrant colors of basil and lime blotches, dashed on fours beside the corner of Noodle Restaurant. The leopard offset hard blows from his tall wolf opponent once the peacock darted his way to the second canine with two daggers. The striped feline launched her fierce kicks against the third one beside her brother, her paws linking Tai Lung's as he forced his whole weight, throwing her kicks toward two jombies.
Shen countered the wolf's daggers by lashing his crimson pole on the upper shoulders; with his best defensive act on disarming the assailant's weapons, the peacock whaled his knees and head, knocking the jombie toward the bottom. Acting quickly, slamming his pole, he launched, thrusting his whole weight in the harsh air. Shen made his pole shoot through the wolf's chest with a single pulse of yellow rays, shattering stones apart.
Tai Lung locked his fingers into darting joints where his first jombie attempted to brawl first but quickly snapped by compelling thrusts of chi, freezing the attacker at first and then breaking out of the wolf bandit. Shoving spin kicks in precise hits at her third jombie's legs, Tigress finished him off by locking his front step, rotating her claws into bashes.
The third jombie wobbled himself with his tongue out, his faded vision scrutinizing the wooden board beside the Noodle Restaurant title. "Not my dumplings," he fainted.
"Thanks, Tai guys!" Po said before the buffalo master rumbled his snout.
"By the Gods, I remember the fourth blast will happen," he broadened his vale eyes, clenching his whole head in annoyance and dread. "Why in the name of all the Gods do we, the subjects of China, despise that number?"
"I need you to focus, Master Buffalo. What about the fourth wave?"
"The fourth, Dragon Warrior, is a new dynasty. You and every soul will not be around any longer. We are all soon become Deng Wa's puppets."
"Not in my watch," Po dazzled his jade eyes, clenching his fist. "I can take out the storm."
"No such thing. The only way to stop the incursion is if you seize the Iron Antlers and end this chaos," the buffalo stated as all eyes locked on him warily. "Neither of you will find him because Wang is lurking anywhere, looking for someone to chop his head off."
"Somebody's going to stop him. I know Xing will," Po figured with high hopes.
"Who is Wang looking for, Master Buffalo?" Tigress asked.
"The beast with jade swords."
Tigress sought two green balls from the south and plunged into three houses, ripping wood and clay into fragments. "We need to scatter. All jombies are attacking throughout the Valley!"
The snow leopard's rich chuffs deepened. "Then let's counter all their raids, sister," Tai Lung said, and occurring crashes from the east were easily heard, leading two felines to sprint on fours there.
Po went for the kitchen door, grabbed his Yin-Yang pole, and sprinted back with his student. "Come on, let's get some action going, Shen!"
The red panda master could see Po and Shen race down to the south of the alleyway, merging into the opening complex before he checked the bovine. "Can you fight, Master Buffalo?"
The giant suppressed his wince, pressing the side of his belly. "Your people are in danger, Master Shifu. I must fight with you."
"I will fight!"
"And so will I!"
With an awkward conversation interfering beside two elder masters, the two souls in a project battle armor with bamboo plates with wings and wraps stood aside. They found an old goose on the panda's belly, armed with chef knives. Spinning two iron woks, Li Shan stretched his back to a greater height in preparation for battle, and next to these villagers, their bunny visitor with a wok plate hat and a wooden spoon joined.
And standing beside Wo Hop, Huifang, the water deer of Jade Tusk's Poison Clan, crushed her hooves. "As a sister of the Poison Clan, I will protect the Valley!"
The bunny danced his fingers, twirling his weapon of choice. "Let's fight jombies together, Masters!" Wo Hop supported.
"Get ready to dance with sisters!"
Viper and Mantis sought Mei Mei and her pandivas in colorful, flowing hanfu robes spreading their fans and nunchucks, traversing as they brightened their dust of chi. Spreading out in half with formation, once six dozen jombies were on stairs and the other one sprinting around the perimeters, stones and mortals clashed in with splatters of amber and dawn lights, and a few bodies transforming into emerald gem forms.
Grabbing a red sash from one of the pandivas, Viper slithered behind the enemy lines and rounded it over the yak's legs, jerking him upward to fall before a few stormed near her. Bounding into the affray with enough accuracy of speed, Monkey pummeled his hands on one stone and the next, pivoting them all away from his serpent companion. One insect stirring his incredible zig-zag glides underneath Monkey's feet had Mantis clenched owl jombie's talon and repeated his bashes front and backward. About five times, the insect hurled the avian in the air.
A small ball with a small line of white sparks burst its popping fireworks, splitting the owl's stones to bits. "Just like old times! YA!" Bao Panda hurled his firebombs at a group of serpent jombies slithering nearby, along with reptile beasts. He and his group of bear youths pitching balls of fireworks cheered with war cries.
A small panda threw her fists, and the snake's mouth burst, exploding suppression with a short gong. "I GOT IT!"
"Right in the snake's mouth! Let's go!" Bao Panda gave a high-four to his cousin.
By smirking at the child briefly, Viper wrapped her sash against the antelope's wrists and disarmed his hatchet, hauling him into the pool of pandas affray. Nearly surrounded by a group of stones, Viper heard lofty steps of pacing towering above her. "Viper, on your tail!" Mantis warned.
She sought a giant ape jombie in shiny armor, who drummed his chest with his heavy fists. "Long time no see, my father's opponent!" the serpent spread her cherry lips.
Once reaching the opening area near the small junk's docking, Po and Shen spotted thirteen jombies assail their aggressive tactics through a few homes, trying to break through doors and a few mounting on roof tiles. Po was the first to sprint with his yin-yang pole and jump amidst the square, and his behemoth wave of golden chi surged through jombies before they even endeavored to jump from the light. All six jombies took down into puffs of water, saturating mortals out of emerald fragments.
Seven jombies on roofs stormed down to them in sight, and only half of them spread apart and started combating: three for the panda and four for the peacock. Shen swiveled his crimson pole on two stones (sable from below and pangolin from above, allowing him to handle the other two opponents (golden snub and kiang) circling the peacock's surroundings. There was no problem for him taking his opponents during his single combat, being an experienced defensive fighter because of his wings not in use but weapons and his talons for kicking.
The golden snub snapped his glassy shout from behind and had Shen extend his train and pivot while footing; the peacock lunged his staff twice on kiang's belly and cheek, lifting his vibrated train behind as the snub thrust his fist in between feathers. Following a fast talon grip, Shen threw him off to the side and had his other foot strike kiang's head from rising again. Ten feet from the peacock, Po spun his lime pole, landing one wolf's head with an uppercut, his right foot double kicking the crocodile's belly and upper chest. The panda sprang his feet from the floor; the antelope shoved his halberd under, which Po dodged, and plunged the pole's tip, breaking the antelope's emerald bits with the bear's gold chi.
"Come on!" Po taunted at the wolf and crocodile stones when Shen twirled his rope dart at kiang's belly, twitching him before the peacock delivered his back kick to jombie's spine. Snarling with his bare teeth, the crocodile propelled his spike ball, making Po divert his weapon. The wolf hammered his wavy sword, their pole and blade thrusting their strength. The bear shoved himself away as the crocodile threw his whole tail at him, fracturing the cobblestone surface.
Shen kept his footing to a water flow, swinging his rope dart. He faced the snub, whose angry green eyes pulsed. "Panda killer," a silvery voice of Deng Wa expressed on the jombie's face in sinister.
"So are you," the peacock sneered.
Watching the snub's move, which the stone roared and bounded onward, Shen pitched the dart with his rapid twirl, slicing the stone's fragments before engaging the sable jombie beside him. The peacock motioned his crimson pole with unbelievable speed, battering the second stone's cheek with his chi. As kiang and the pangolin spread their limbs apart on Shen's both sides, starting to dash forward, Shen plunged his pole and cast a yellow dust wave, pushing both stones into complex structures.
The peacock used his wings on his weapon, his crimson staff thrashing the tip on the sable's throat five times. His sixth strike fractured the whole glass, unleashing the mortal out.
"Way to go, Shen!" Po cheered, hammering the crocodile with the reptile's tail. Whirling the jombie, the panda flung and crushed the wolf, both stones cracking green glass bodies.
The sable tittered his glassy shout and snapped, throwing his fists at Shen. Sidestepping backward, the peacock swept his long train underneath, giving a quick glimpse at the sable in the air tumbling forward; Shen caught the jombie with his rope dart, tugging and thrashing him in one talon and the other. After the second bash, the peacock, heaving his rope, hammered sable into the fence, now flinging him in the breeze.
"Po!" Shen pulled the rope and sent the sable toward his teacher.
"Belly gong!" Po's belly smashed the sable's whole body and bound him into the air. The rest of sable's green glass stones fractured, and they heard him pitching his cry before the victim crashed into the upward tile.
The peacock swept the remains of emerald particles off from his pole. "It appears Deng Wa truly has terrible taste."
"He's trying to test you, Shen. That badger is hungry to make people angry."
"That, I assume so," he swam his head. "Where is Wang?"
"Not that I know where he be, but we keep fighting however we can until Xing finds him, Shen," Po said. "I just want you to know that you are my best student and a good friend, buddy."
The bird arched his ebony brows. "This is not what I wanted to see you goodbye, the way you showed me peace and Kung Fu —"
Shen puffed his sigh. "Thank you, Po, for everything you let your student achieve toward distinction."
The bear and the peacock sought another green fire in a fury above and landed beside the complex building. Emerging as two leopard silhouettes, they extended their claws wide open, and Po and Shen accepted their challenge.
Throbs of angry jade light became intense in the latter as the whirlwind storm arose little by little, extending its violent stream of shadowy and basil fogs. Kai and Xing pelted down the broad road as Gidahn's villagers carried farm tools and pitchforks with their chi, countering assaults against the horde of jombies across random directions. Occurring howls and shrieks in the sky, swarming with avian mortals and stones chasing and mauling each other, were hard to miss as the tiger and yak kept their eyes on the battlefield.
One owl and two monkeys fell ahead of them, and Chen Xing plunged his claw against the three, one at a time, while Kai kept his eyes on his six. But something stirring close with an intensifying shrill had him horizontally heave his double halberd above him, and the giant bear hammered his round ax down on him.
The tiger achieved unimaginable deflections redirecting jombies from attempting to gash and slash him in cold blood. He commenced swirling his forearms into parrying and attacking two monkeys while the owl waited for himself, surrounding the fight once Kai swung his weapon repeatedly against the bear's ax jabbing his knees and head. Xing shoved his whole arm and bashed his fist toward the first, his feet pounding the other, backing the second off. Almost casting his silver chi from his claw, the tiger's coat was dragged by the owl's sharp talon, heaving him down.
Within seconds, the tiger could see the two monkeys springing into the air, shrieking their harsh glass cries at him. On cue, Xing spun his feet and rolled, thrashing two jombies off and had him stand with haste. He began engaging the owl, who snatched his upper limbs and threw him down, the avian shrieking its howl before springing in the breeze.
Wielding his double halberd within flowing motions of Tai Chi, Kai battered the bear's ax by the time the jombie rolled once more, vertically thrusting his weapon as the jombie aggressed toward him. Gaining his next opportunity to use his hooves for casting chi, Kai heard a ringing yellow disk light pelting down to the jombie's chest, and the bear collapsed to his knees with harsh grunts. The yak found a brown eagle wooshing his broad wings in advance, engaging avian warriors bathing emerald stones with his fellow aces.
"HAA!"
Kai rammed his horns behind him as two monkeys diverged apart; Chen Xing, landing circle punches at the owl's chest, shone his silver chi, his one-inch punch sending the bird through the shattering door. By then, the second monkey deepened his glassy roar, showing fangs before the first engaged Kai. Xing whopped his fists with knife palms, his feet battering and rounding his kick above his head downward.
With a quick reaction, the tiger clenched the second's front garment, the gray light on his paws jolting the inside once his light shattered stones, slamming him down. Giving his muzzle close to the jombie's head, Xing showed his scowl and fearlessness. "Hey, you! Yeah, I am talking to you, Wang! Do you want me? Is that what you like to rematch from the contest while you cower yourself behind those eyes of innocence? Come out here and fight, coward!"
And his fist smashed the second monkey's head with his chi, reviving the victim.
The first monkey tackled Kai's front body and started thrashing his head, making the yak growl in annoyance after his weapon dropped beside him. Leading into his brief struggles, Kai gripped the jombie's neck and hurled it down to the snow, hammering his left fist. The jombie developing the simultaneous act of his eyes pulsing and his feet uppercutting the yak's jaw, wrung his body upward with acrobatic spins, facing two warriors alone.
Waiting for the jombie to attack, Xing and Kai readied their fighting stances before the two emerald fireballs landed behind him, raising six jombies of Emperor Huangdi and Master Eagle's warriors in leather armor and feather and yak sigil chest plates. Most of those remaining in their positions throbbed their eyes with chirps, scattering around the village; their jombie monkey dashing onward passed two warriors.
"That got his attention," Xing puffed his harsh drums. "Now we wait."
"Are we waiting for that?" Kai strengthened his query in anxiety, pointing at the storm.
A soft crack ruptured the wind once the tiger turned to the storm. A tiny figure with sharp points and rattling chains emerged, escaping the shroud clouds and beyond the giant peaks.
"Get behind me! EVERYBODY DOWN!"
Bringing his incredible quickness with his paws circulating, Chen Xing summoned soft white pulses before he clenched his light. Right before the impact, following the blades blaring its dull drones, the slam launched snow and dirt debris, undulating forceful bashes against houses and triangle banners; this close-range radius had ripped cottages and plenty of villagers flying away with screams.
Chen Xing's chi developed a giant barrier that he learned from Master Bear in Gongmen City, which Huoju was using his army, with their dragon cannons shooting a volley of crimson fireballs that Shen shared his blueprints. The shockwave cracked the whole front once the tiger fastened his stance, and Kai helped him with his hooves pressing against Xing's back from falling. With deepening roars against the blast, Xing dropped to his right knee after the snow waves ceased their shrilling thrusts.
All they sought were a dark gray with tinges of dirt, blending with tampered rays of emerald from above. And further onward into the harsh shroud, the eyes of hate with glinting emerald antlers crept out, spinning chains with rattling duo razorblades.