Kung Fu Panda: The Hunt For The Heir (OC x Tigress fanfic)

Chapter 23: Brushing With Death

This was it. Her final moments. She hadn't imagined it'd end quite like this. Tigress heard the others struggling against their restraints to try and get free to stop the Salamander from striking the fatal blow coming her way. She just hoped it would be quick and as painless as possible. As Tigress closed her eyes and simply waited for the end to come, she was surprised when it in fact didn't. Instead, a clanging sound rang out in front of her. Opening her eyes to see what had happened, she was shocked to see a sword had blocked the Salamander's own from making contact with her...

Turning her head to see who wielded the sword, she was astonished to find it was The Hunter who had saved her from certain death at the hands of these warriors. The last time she was so relieved to see someone was probably Po and the Masters coming back from the Spirit World after his fight with Kai. Tigress watched Hunter move the Salamander's blade aside and kick her away. "If you want to kill them, you'll have to go through me." His voice held a dark edge to it as he stood in a ready position.

Po was definitely ecstatic as he saw this happen. "Whoo! Yeah! I told you! You guys are chop suey now!" he exclaimed with a smirk on his face and a laugh, although Hunter appeared to not be paying attention to the Five right now, instead choosing to focus on the battle at paw... or whatever.

Tigress appreciated and understood that mentality, it was the smart move and precisely what she would try and do. Although she would probably still have some amount of concern for the rest of the Five and Po, Hunter seemed confident that they were safe for now. Part of Tigress wanted to say something to Hunter, but she held back. He needed to focus right now. "Kick her ass!" Mantis cheered Hunter on.

She watched as the Salamander became rather angry at being denied Tigress' life, deciding to try and end the battle herself by attacking with reckless abandon in the hope to at least get a swipe in at him. She had no such luck. The Five and Po all looked on as he seemingly effortlessly blocked whatever she threw at him, until he saw an opening, trapping her sword in the ground and stunning her with his pommel, spinning and impaling the Salamander on his blade, withdrawing it from her as she collapsed to the ground in a pool of her own blood. "He definitely 'kicked her ass'." Monkey pointed out to Mantis.

Tigress had to admit she was impressed with his skill so far with his blade, although she found herself keen to find out exactly how he would perform against someone more calm and collected than his previous opponent had been. She saw one of the guards run out of the Forest and yell that the guards they had sent inside were dead. Tigress found herself smiling a little, remembering how Hunter picked off those away from the main group, and how he'd applied the same tactics here. The leader spoke to Hunter then. "Using stealth and trickery? I should've expected such dishonourable tactics from a freak like you." he snarled at Hunter.

Tigress snarled in return at the leader for that comment, with her newfound perspective on The Hunter she realised just how damaging that word could possibly be. She certainly knew it would cut deep with herself, even if she didn't show it. Like when Po mentioned how her feeling nothing was super hardcore. Hearing it spoken out aloud like that by someone really hit her hard. She heard Hunter chuckle at the leader's taunt. "That's rich coming from you, Makaku. Burning down farms? Demanding food for free? Using hostages? Tell me which of us is the dishonourable one here again, I must have misheard." Hunter gave as good as he got by the looks of it. So the leader's name is Makaku? Interesting.

Seeing the leader gearing up for an attack, the Five struggled more against their restraints. "We need to help!" Viper exclaimed, attempting to get her tail free to pick the lock on the chains binding them together.

However, upon seeing Hunter deliver a swift side kick to Makaku's head, sending him sprawling across the camp with pieces of his now shattered mask littering the ground, Crane spoke a slightly upbeat tone. "Something tells me he doesn't need our help." he pointed out, although they all still tried to get out to at least do something. Makaku was the leader, and so surely was the best sword combatant of the group... And Hunter had beaten him back almost effortlessly, but numbers could still overwhelm as the Five well knew.