The Tales of the Dragon Warrior

Metal Bandits, Hanafuda Cards and Objectively Terrible Ideas

Jade could hear the sound of the crime bell ringing loudly and people screaming as she, Tai-lung and the Five approached the musicians' village. It was later in the day, almost dusk, and the orange light of sunset shined upon them. They ran across the dirt road that led down to the village on foot, before jumping off a nearby ledge to get there faster via free falling. Jade let out a scream of delight as she and her lovers plummeted towards the ground. Her anxiety about her fight with the metal bandits had been forgotten for the moment. She could panic and agonize over her upcoming battle later, but right now she was gonna let herself enjoy what she did and put her worries in her back pocket.

Within seconds of jumping, Jade had landed on her feet in the middle of the musicians' village, striking a Very Badass Pose™ with the rest of her lovers as she did so. Laofu, who was standing beside her, shot her an exasperated look.

"Is posing everytime we land somewhere really necessary?", Laofu asked. Jade grinned at him.

"Yes! How else are people supposed to know that we're badasses?", Jade responded, and her lover rolled his eyes. While she and Laofu had their exchange, the residents of the musician's village began to cheer in happiness at her arrival.

"The Dragon Warrior!", one young man exclaimed. Off to the side, away from the civilians huddling together for safety, was the one-eyed leader of the bandits that had come to take all their metal. The bandits were all scruffy looking people of varying ages, with black hair, red eyes and wicked sharp teeth. The leader took one look at Jade and his face became stricken.

"Black and white hair... it can't be.", he muttered under his breath so no one would hear, before shaking his head to rid his mind of whatever he was thinking and pointing to the seven kung fu masters.

"Get'em!", the bandit leader yelled. His underlings rushed towards them with snarls and swings of their weapons. Jade didn't miss a beat.

"Come on!", she yelled, rushing forward into the fray, and the rest of the newly anointed Dragon Harem followed.

A bandit swung his sword at Jade's head, and she ducked to avoid it. He swung again from right, so she side-stepped to the left. Again from the left, so she side-stepped to the right. Then he tried to swing up at her, but the girl just took a few steps back to avoid him. The bandit tried to swing from above, but Jade grabbed his sword by the handle mid-swing and stopped it, before punching the bandit in the gut and sending him flying into a gong two other bandits were trying to cart off while everyone was distracted. The civilians cheered at the successful attack, but Jade paid them no mind. There were still people she needed to take down.

Meanwhile, Hou was tussling with a bandit of his own. He slid underfoot of his opponent, trying and failing to trip him up, before standing himself up on his hands and jumping into the air as his opponent took a swing at him with his sword. He then kicked him in the head and used him as a springboard to go after another bandit, kicking him on top of the head as well before weaponizing two cymbals he had gotten his hands on earlier by clashing them against the other bandits head, which knocked him out. It wasn't Hou's usual bo staff, but Jade would give the man points for creativity.

Tianyu was a little ways away, trying to keep a blind old civilian out of harm's way. Said blind civilian was sitting on a small rock, playing a pipa as the unconscious bodies of bandits fell around him, uncaring of the chaotic scene he was in the middle of. He played even as Tianyu carried him overhead and out of the way of falling bodies, dashing left, then right, then left again. Once the bodies stopped falling every other second, Tianyu finally set the man down on a safer patch of land and left to deal with another bandit. Said other bandit was swiftly dealt with when Tianyu hit him in the neck with an acupuncture needle, paralyzing him with his tongue lolling out like a fool. All it took was a hard kick to the face to knock the bandit down after that.