Volume Three: Deng Wa
Chapter LII
Iron Antlers I: Rage
Behind the green mist approached the deer silhouette with gruesome antlers of black and basil on spikes, showing you large roots entwined with large to thin branches. Jade eyes of hate loomed with the following blades whirling around Wang's wrists, glinted by specks of green dust as its edges sharpened.
The yak's snout deepened in astonishment. "Hell of a dramatic entrance."
No shit. Gripping the tsuka, Chen Xing unsheathed his straight katana, the elegant details on Heaven's Wrath blade throbbing lights of silver, ice cobalt, and green. It did not take long to show this sword's light radiating into Chen Xing chi once the tiger remained his ground, facing his former competitor bathed in emerald.
"There you both are! Now that mountain did not bury you into ashes," Wang clenched his teeth with despise. "I will cut off your heads and crush the rest of your remai—"
"Deng Wa."
The tiger uttered the ancient name cutting off Wang's ending word. He sought Wang's eyes, slowly broadening in silence as if your angry parents called you, your spine swarming with intense coldness. "You and my white dragon met before. You called yourself the Master of Blades, Master Wuxi's Fifth Disciple," Xing said, slinking in a defensive stance ahead of him. "That is your name, isn't it?"
Behind Wang, you sought a triangular face of white, whose two fading black on those eyes drenched with stains. With a furtive manner, the deer led his steps back halfway. "Oh, yes. I found my discovery of you," Chen Xing noticed. "You are the evil badger who ruined victims' lives, even the Supreme Warlord of all of China. And now you are robbing someone's life, someone who still loathes my guts. It appears you have been around for a very long time. The Mind of Metal showed me what you have been."
This child learned my origin. Antagonize him.
Wang locked his scowl on Xing. "Says a blasphemous fool who robbed me in the Tournament," he mocked.
"Words of yours are not from the real Iron Antlers," Xing said. "You behave like him, but you are not that warrior."
The deer contorted his grimacing composure. "You are speaking to your rival, Xing," he sneered.
"Oh, no. My former rival is in chains, and you are toying with Iron Antlers there," he pressed against the deer's specter. "Wang, I know you can hear me, still despising your friend. We'll get you out."
"I am free from agony, you imbecil," Wang contorted. "I found freedom from the misery that every last one of you did rip my heart inside out. And now, I will turn back all of you for what you did."
Deng Wa is forcing Wang to speak tormentedly.
"The way I robbed your glory? The way your father abused you?" Chen Xing asked. "Is that what this is all about?"
"EVERYTHING!" the deer screamed, clenching Kai's knives. "After I steal the rest of chi from all the people of China, you will be the first to mount your head on my Throne's armrest and, above the chair, shall grasp your beast!"
Kai stepped beside his feline teacher. "I do not know what your boss you will do to you, Wang. Tiny Badger is taking your life, the same thing he robbed me and others before us. Dog, Elephant, and Lady Leopard. They did not deserve to be taken. Neither anyone deserves to hate one's own and every being."
The three heard four green fireballs crashing into a couple of cottages on both sides, and several jombies rampaged into rooms, breaking out of structures as villagers ran in horror. "Look around, Wang. It's madness. Tell your boss to stop this incursion and that storm," Xing said. "It is not too late."
"The storm sustains on its own by my magic. It is too late for me to revoke the unstoppable," the deer retorted, lifting the blade at his rival. "If you want this over, you might as well kill me with that fucking Wuxi trick!"
Kai and Xing gripped their weapons in defense. "Please, don't make me and Kai do this," the tiger warned.
"FIGHT ME!"
And the Iron Antlers hurled his knives, starting the fight. His chains quivered into wavering motions of stark emerald lightning as Kai and Xing split both ways, dodging incoming knives. Growling, Wang committed wringing his waist, with enough strength from his limbs slashing blades into three houses; Kai made his successful spin in the air and almost had his tail hit links once Xing bowled twice, and cottages ripped apart into fragments, sliding down to their sides.
Thundering his harsh growl, Xing started first and hammered his sword horizontally against Wang's head, delivering the deer to pivot and press his blades against the tiger's strength. Performing considerable skills of slashing four times in different angles, perfecting his stone stance forward while Wang parried, the tiger plunged his fifth lunge to his belly, thrusting the deer back with his slide, which left his long trail.
Not able to let his rival commit another aggressive attack, Wang snapped his emerald eyes at his first challenger, darting onward, and swung his blades relentlessly as Xing turned to diverge again. Once glimpsing at Kai as the deer and the tiger lunged their weapons near their faces, Wang launched his front kick to Xing's belly and sidestepped from the yak's double halberd slashing near his back.
Persisting to combat the deer with enough resilience and bold strength against the small, Kai rotated his halberds with flows of eight cuts onward when Wang receded while blocking, two blades of emerald and silver clinging with sparks. The deer hurled one knife above Kai's grips, making the yak flinch and easily catch his own weapon handly, but Wang jabbed his hoof palm, his chi energy surging with lime sparks of lightening, tossing Kai off balance to the ground.
The deer wrung his chains, revolving them around his wrists. "On your knees," Wang grumbled.
Chen Xing dashed forward with his battle cry and leaped above with his sword straight down. Hammering his opponent's head once, the tiger let out his firm stance of stone, his katana swinging water flows, unflustered against Wang's strong parries side to side. Spinning his whole weight with his weapon, Xing struck down above Wang's head, and the deer crossed against it, forcing the tiger's strength.
"Wang, LISTEN TO ME! Deng Wa has been manipulating you!" Xing glared. "Let me help you!"
Wang amplified his harsh grunt and snapped with his blades igniting sparks from his grips and propelling the tiger; reeling his string of chains, the deer hurled under Xing's legs and dragged him down with a quick snap. Retrieving his blade, Wang sprang his long jump among the battle of avians crossing by with gold arrows and talons, throwing one weapon and the other between his feline foe.
Right before his apex commencing for Wang to catapult down, a large barrel was pitched first, in bits wrecking the Iron Antlers from killing Xing, who armed over his head in apprehension. The deer crashed on the meadow path across the snow meadow, his chains yanking back with him with his blaring blades. Finding the one who threw the barrel first, he sought Kai heaving Xing's weight from his hoof.
"That was a mistake, Kai," Wang roughly crooned in disgust.
Once the two warriors regained their stamina to rechallenge Wang, their eyes caught a swift streak of snow and sickly green blending into a gale behind the tower peaks of Guilin Mountains. The shroud storm of basil and white stars stretched its center long and wide. "Hit the dirt!" Xing exclaimed before he and Kai crashed on the snow, lying prone in cover. The whole Earth shook its threatening shockwave, blasting the snow everywhere.
Ringing ears intensified, the two warriors showing their visibility of dread and shock. Kai inspected his hooves, dyed in fading dust of dying yellow chi, and Xing's limbs and core, revealing the silver stream of veins.
The deer wrapped his chains over his wrists. "Your time is running out, freaks! Two more kicks, and you all will fall before me!" Wang glowered with his wicked laughs.
Across the main road, alleyways, and among insides, villagers on platforms and windows hurled their volley of chi toward endless hordes of emerald stones close to their front barriers, countless birds soaring by with amounts of screeches and death grunts. And on this cobblestone course, filled with the living and stones in affrays, Tai Lung and Tigress pushed forward to their advantage against jombies, and their avian Crane was supporting two felines in the harsh air, knocking multiple aces with his golden wings and talons.
During their combats, most could briefly see Guilin Mountains soaked in basil and fierce green lights probing from the behemoth storm, which was slowly growing its wide far from the northwest hike. With exceeding bashes ripping stone flesh by degrees from her radiant chi, Tigress finished off two jombies of leopard and wolf by linking her main limbs and feet against their necks, rolling their bodies into bits.
Tai Lung pressed on two crocodiles beside fruit carts once the three pandas, Jing, Nu Hai, and Fan Tong, across the alleyway maintained their defenses against a group of feline and canine jombies. Gripping the spike ball from the reptile, Tai Lung battered one under his jaw and the second's belly, his feet thrashing twice at the first's head behind him.
Nu Hai formed her rotated paws into casting bold roars of cobalt rays, springing its blue dragon string through the side of the alleyway. During close-quarter combat, infusing her silver light from her paws while roaring with the tiger's snarl, Jing thrashed the antelope's chest and nerve points; she clenched one and quivered jombie's whole body in front, piece by piece falling before she knocked him down. Interfering between two pandas, drawing a ruby sword glimmer with its caw, Fan Tong slashed a few coming in his ray: one eagle under his belly, the owl's front body, and the panda's heart. The third jombie took him a few attempts to pierce the stone as if the panda stone performed parries with a giant bamboo.
Once other flashes of emerald spheres slammed farther down the alleyway, summoning six more jombies, Jing joined Fan Tong and dashed onward. Tai Lung and Tigress finished a group of badgers and weasels attempting to mount on their knees and slashed these felines aggressively. Emerging from the apartment complex roof popped five archers and two porcupines. They freed arrows and quills; Tai Lung and Tigress delivered their parries and acrobatic spins, dodging several bolts and throwing those back at them with yellow lights.
Once behind cover with Tai Lung next to the wooden cart in ruptures, Tigress sought the avian master flying down to the roof and hurled his round yellow light at all four jombies, putting down the rest before two stones engaged him. Mastering his defensive blocks, Crane twirled one porcupine's limbs, disabling his archer. The second porcupine coiled behind and ran toward the edge of the ridge and spotted Nu Hai finishing the wolf jombie with her blue orbs hammering down.
"Above you!"
Tigress propelled her dawn orb toward one porcupine jombie, whose fists whirled two daggers leaping down to Nu Hai. Without hesitation, the girl sprang to the side as Tigress's chi pummeled into the porcupine's body, crashing him down next to Nu Hai.
"Thanks, Master Tigress!"
Both feline masters headed down to the cobblestone and heard thunderous, fading cracks from the north, and more than twenty-one green orbs wrecked into houses, filled with villagers' horrors. A multitude of jade Warriors at the eastern road raced onward, bearing armaments. Despite being outnumbered, the only option was to flee with civilians from the hordes, both felines heard uneven breezes bellowing, and Crane, delivering his apex above them, widened his wings.
"CACAWWW!"
His wings gushing a gale of light dawn surged into several, pulsing its hard collisions on jombies and most of the structures puffing out snow and lanterns. Each stone into chunks of ripple green broke its flesh free, bathing many out of puffs of gold dust; all soldiers tumbled on cross paths. Crane safely landed next to Tigress, who filled her brief compliment on his execution.
"Nice work, Crane."
"How many of those stones are out there?" Crane asked while puffing his harsh breaths.
"Too many to count the rest," Tigress commented, her eyes staring at the emerald storm. "Is that the village where my nephew is?"
"I can only hope Kai and Xing will fight that deer right now!" Lei Lei popped her fingers.
"Guys! Look at the stairs!" Fan Tong pointed, and all eyes followed.
More than thirty flashes of charcoal green orbs slammed into the Stairway and over the ridge boundary, creating junks of debris and grayish puffs billowing, unveiling specks of emerald eyes slithering down to the Valley. "Jombies are heading down there!" Lei Lei feared.
"DOWN!" Nu Hai screamed.
All warriors taking their leap closer to the shelter, hit the snow. Once more, another flash of green emerged from the north, becoming extreme and threatening by its greater size, forming its giant size with iron spikes that spun inward. Five houses across two blocks east surged its drenched debris smokes.
"WHOA!" Nu Hai's face was petrified, watching a whole district collapse while standing from her cover.
"Yikes! I think I wet my pants," Fan Tong quivered his feet.
"Guys! Who is that?" Jing pointed.
Emerging from the debris cast its silhouette of a giant crocodile with a six-horned crown and a lotus top, drenched in basil stones and crimson blotches around her. The behemoth reptile trundled with a threatening pose, roaring at a group of warriors.
"Oh, no. It's Queen Crocodile!" Nu Hai formed her Kung Fu stance with her two panda friends, and both felines, including their avian, did the same before the Queen propelled herself on full force.
"Spread apart!" Tigress shouted as they dodged the middle, where the Queen snapped her triangular teeth.
Amidst the affray before the red pailou, Monkey twirled his body and clouted his bamboo pole on a large bovine's face with downward horns, pulsing his chi to free the victim. Another from his tail intensified a rattling roar, and the golden snub hit the bear's left foot before he rolled in the opposite direction, sweeping the other limb. The bear jombie fell his back at once; Master Monkey started his acrobatic flip, his foot thumping one's muzzle after his screech.
"Viper, we can't hold them back!"
"They are so many of them!" one of the pandivas uttered in fear.
Bao-Panda broke through the affray once the group of jombies was in advance with their greater strength and numbers than mortals. Engaging a few targets with his bare paws, the boy drew out his purple chi of iron tortoise shells with spikes, battering and deflecting at two, yet four stones who were thrusting halberds and daggers. Knowing to be surrounded at first, Bao-Panda bashed one to the knee, the second on the upper chest with a shield strike, the third with his double kick, and the fourth dropping down to the snow.
Right on time, breaking the jombie gorilla free from emerald stones shattering apart, Bao-Panda heard a tinge of glass tapping from above. The Dragon Warrior thrashed three avians with his yin-yang pole, his robe fluttering before his land beside citizens. Another followed as if vibrations of wings thundered, spreading the train wide with the bird's caw. Shen began to aggress along his whirling motion, his crimson pole beating endlessly against jombie hordes nearby the Heavenly Stairs.
"Everyone, fall back! Get to the bridge!" Li Shan roared.
The peacock noticed most villagers holding the line against stones while plenty of pandas started to retreat. Giving more time for these people to flee, four warriors observed more than sixty orbs raining down on the Stairway. Shen, Po, and Monkey protected both flanks as three rhinos circulated forward, putting Bao-Panda cast his violet shell barrier in front of hundreds of darts and arrows showering.
"GET DOWN!"
Wrestling his yin-yang pole against the rhino's dao sword, Po glanced at the peaks, which gushed its snow and trees, the incoming basil wind shrieking close to the Valley. SNAP! The shockwave ruptured in all directions from the emerald storm, rushing remains of fragments of snow and dust screeching. Ringing ears swarmed, and once rising from his feet, Shen quickly inspected his surroundings, his chi drenching out of his winter robe.
"My chi!" his bear master gaped before he finished one rhino with his perfect parry and thrust. They heard Mei Mei in front of the Stairway's red pailou wobbling her stance as she wrapped three jombies in control with her crimson sash, her other paw slamming their heads with her gold nunchuck light. Bao was weakened with his purple chi pouring out small portions as a shrieking emerald ball slammed behind Mei Mei; rising behind the dark green smoke emerged a lynx, unleashing a volley of arrows in her chest.
"NO! MEI MEI!" Bao-Panda cried.
"BAO, come on!"
Monkey gripped the boy's arm and ran together. The quartet behind villagers sprinted across the courtyard from the river bridge before twenty more spheres collided in apartment complexes.
Twirling chains to a wild pose, Wang slashed Kai and Xing, the two warriors circulating the deer while parrying near the courtyard's Wood Factory. The deer commenced leading his feet, stomping with his metal chains spiraling, jumping above from Xing's sword slashing underneath. He rammed him with his antlers after the tiger blocked but forced him in the air backward.
With a rush toward Iron Antlers, the mighty intensified his bold roar, his double halberd thrusting and side sweeping his weapon. Firmly into great parries against the giant's strength, becoming strained from his brutal combos, Wang diverted two halberd swords onward, giving Kai his momentum to twirl his weapon on his side before reencountering.
Each blade hits with harsh clangs sparked cobalt and green before the deer braced his duo blades against Kai's long halberd, starting to thrust near Wang's muzzle. "Life is crueler, isn't it?!" the deer spat. "Mine is even worse than yours, General!"
Hearing the tiger's roar, Wang battered Kai's with his single bolt of lightning from his duo swords, allowing him to take his round step with chains spinning, and then flipped above, missing Xing's katana near his tail. He yanked his left link and caught the tiger's main grip; in a simultaneous act, Wang burst his battle cry and jerked his chain, disarming Heaven's Wrath as it flew over the village, and his other link fastened its twirls on Xing's whole left arm, rounding his entire weight the tiger screamed.
Around the air, Xing was thrown in front of the Wood Factory, and his white dragon's scathed belly cloaked him from the gate. CRASH!
"KITTEN!"
Kai bellowed and rushed with his heavy feet, and Wang made his acrobatic spins with his chains whipping the ground and through the sides, backing the giant off. Kai was about to push forward with his halberds, but one green blade darted first amidst two handles, dicing apart.
"You stay right where you are, husband killer," Wang grimaced, his hooves streaming green light. "This is between Xing and me."
He pushed his hoof forward and cast a gush of lime lightning, driving Kai in the air and wrecking him in a two-story wooden cottage. Crumples of scrolls flooding above Kai's head swarmed with shreds coming from small debris as the cottage owner cried out behind the cover under the kitchen dash. Quivering his head in a grimace, puffing out a blunt snout, Kai lowered his eyes as something caught his attention reading the scroll's top article.
Former Lu Disciple Teacher Dead
"At long last, this fight is between us, Xing!" Wang growled through the Factory's Gate, his forearms bathing with piercing jade. "DO YOU ACCEPT MY REMATCH?"
The tiger glowered, drumming his low growl once he straightened his Chi Sao block with his claws glittering silver. "I accept."
Throwing Kai's blades beside his feet, Wang charged on fours and engaged the tiger.
During his close encounter, Chen Xing developed his defensive flexibility through his claws parrying Wang's emerald fists. The deer commenced kneeing twice into the tiger's stomach, allowing him to break the feline's defenses; quickly enough to block again, Xing angled his body to the left, shoving Wang's round fist in the opposite direction, which had him hit the wooden dummy's column.
Snapping with his intense discomfort, Wang rounded his kick high and slammed the table's edge with his might, flipping it between them. Once sighting the whole flat, collapsing several tools and under-progress dummies, Xing caught Wang's other foot bashing the entire table, flinging it toward him. The tiger hit the floor, and the table wrecked through the collapsed logs into bits.
They again reengaged with fists and blocks, starting Xing's circle punches while Wang countered with his forearms bending side to side when moving onward. The tiger trapped the deer's left hook and palmed the other toward his muzzle; disoriented from one jaw and near the throat, Wang headbutted Xing's, his right foot booting the feline's knee and stomach. Wang clenched the cart wagon's rod and smashed to the front; Xing rolled to the left before the impact occurred, wood bursting apart.
"No weakness! No mercy!" Wang mocked his father's words, throwing his extended hoof toward Xing's face.
The tiger deflected his arm from casting a green pulse that attempted to throw Xing off; Chen Xing elbowed to the upper chest and clouted his knuckle toward his lips, his left fist thrusting a hard blow on Wang's chest. The feline regained his short breaths and moved closer to Wang, hurling his feet, one front, and the sidekick. Wang spiraled his limbs and caught Xing's right foot, twirling his elbow under the leg by lifting and tossing the tiger to the side. The deer jumped and spun his double kick to Xing's ribcage and upper limb.
Growling with sensation, Xing slid on the floor before Wang battered one log to bits and hurled sharp bits toward him; gasping while standing in haste, the tiger dodged to the right and advanced. Roaring for concentration, the tiger began to pivot his body, leaping upward and hammering his left foot down to Wang's front neck, avoiding his sharp antlers from getting sliced. Wang parried Xing's foot before engaging him with his emerald hooves clawing and bashing toward ribcages. Shifting his paws on arm bridges from green pulses, Xing delivered his haste palms thrashing under the deer's side of the ribcage, blocking another limb to land his fist on Wang's right cheek.
Grimacing in annoyance after wobbling, the deer threw his round kick, and the tiger barricaded his two forearms, lifting his heel foot against the other leg from kicking. Xing delivered his blocking counters with fluidity from Wang's fists targeting the feline's throat and heart; unable to ease his rage, the deer landed palm strikes twice on Xing's jaw and upper chest.
Nearly stumbled on his feet in slight distortion, Xing kept his guard above him, his silver eyes churning to a white after Wang pulled his fist in the air. The tiger, thrusting his claws forward, cast a silver chi breeze as it bashed Wang back a few feet apart near the broken table from the entry; twirling his Chi Sao after locking his horse stance, Xing stormed forward and circled open palms, deflecting the deer's forearms.
Wang, broadening his emerald eyes, threw his counter fists against Xing's unstoppable blows in round motions; each hit from the tiger's chi shattered Wang's green limbs. Beyond the swiftness, Xing broke his defense and walloped the deer's chest before his tenth blow, leading his two claws to thrust him.
The deer snarled in the air, making his quick grasp onto chains as his lightning led to, flinging Kai's duo knives (one to the feet and the second cut through Xing's right shoulder arm). Wincing his intense growl, Xing pressed his wound when the first sword kept dicing the line through an extended platform and several structures around him. Beside the feline's feet were sharp butterfly knives with fragmented wooden dummies.
"What a fair fight, isn't it, Xing?!" the deer taunted, retrieving his blade. "To see you weak before you weep behind your Grandmother's hanfu for losing the competition? Instead of the tournament, I shall have your head as a fair trade!"
Never.
Wang burst his shout and leaped with his blades, and Chen Xing caught both butterfly knives instantly. With a defensive mechanism, the tiger repeated his slashes to where Wang darted, both edges vibrating metal shrieks with sparks of emerald and silver, and the silver dominated further on the deer's face. Shifting to the left after his successful deflection, Xing bashed the knife's side on Wang's muzzle; pivoting to the opposite made the tiger clobber again, gushing the deer's gore out from the snout.
"Trade this, Deng Wa," Xing grimaced and flung his claws with his silver ray of chi, propelling Wang into the air. He sought the deer plunge through the second-story complex building with upward tiles and the main road.
"KITTEN!" The Wood Factory rumbled to wood fragments as Kai reached for Xing's paw and dashed away. The front entry was tumbled by several cracks, two gates collapsing toward the debris.
"You alright?" the yak supported him and checked Xing's shoulder wound that slowly poured dark cherry gore.
Rumbling his throat, Xing clenched his teeth. "Wang almost had me."
"That boy needs to go down, Kitten," Kai articulated. "You will no apprehend him with your chi much longer."
Xing fastened his glare at the Iron Antlers, whose duo blades fluttered chains across the breeze. "I know what I have to do," Xing groaned, meeting Kai's eyes. "If the third wind kicks in, Kai, I will break his dad's promise — Wang has to go. It's the only way to eliminate him with Deng Wa."
"Then we put him down together," Kai nodded, pressing his hoof's chi onto Xing's wound. The cut ceased the gore and mended the wound from warm to extreme heat. "With me, Kitten!"