A Daemon's Second Chance (Tales of Berseria x Kingdom Hearts)

Chapter 7: Mulan's Potential

Sora, Donald, Goofy, Velvet, Laphicet and Mulan were the first to notice them.

"What are they?" Mulan asked.

"Heartless." Sora answered.

"They just keep popping up." Velvet said calmly. The three soldiers they were dealing with before noticed them too.

"Oh, yeah?" the yellow-armored one asked, then they took off.

The six heroes prepared their weapons.

"Ping, I hope you're ready." Laphicet stated, emphasizing her alibi name. Mulan nodded, and they all charged in pairs. Sora and Donald paired up and started casting magic attacks on the Heartless. Laphicet and Goofy were basically the frontal assault, swinging and bashing their weapons on the incoming horde. Velvet and Mulan were doing the same as them.

It was obvious that Mulan lacked combatant training, cause she kept slipping up throughout the battle. Velvet had to help her out anyway she could.

"You need to get your head and body straight!" She scolded Mulan as she saved her from a couple Heartless.

"Sorry," she replied, looking ashamed. Velvet shook her head and started to fight new kinds of Heartless, for which Laphicet described as Nightwalkers.

After defeating all of them, they were all called over by Shang. The six walked over to him.

"You four," he asked, addressing Sora, Donald, Goofy and Laphicet, which Shang noticed he was much younger than the others. "What are your names?" Each told them their name. "You four are welcome in my troop. Your battle skills are encouraging." he told them, all of them looking a bit proud of themselves.

"I am the son of Fa Zhou..." Mulan started to say, but Shang cut her off.

"You should return home." he told her. Mulan was taken aback at this.

"B-but..." she stammered, "That would dishonor my family!"

"You'd rather dishonor my troops?" Shang asked her scornfully. That ticked off Mulan.

"Don't make me...!" She scowled, ready to attack the captain. Velvet waved a hand out in front of her to calm her down. Sora stepped forward.

"If Ping trains hard and does his best, he'll get stronger in no time." He summarized to the captain.

"We'll help her through her training." Velvet told him, "We guarantee that he'll be good enough in no time." Shang looked at the two boys, then at Ping, thinking about what they said.

"Just give us an assignment!" Sora suggested, "We'll show you how well we can work together."

"And I'll even give him a few pointers." Velvet added, "Trust me, after we finish training Ping, she'll be more than your average warrior."

"So...you want to be tested?" Shang asked Ping. She nodded in response. "Our orders are to ambush Shan-Yu's army on their way here." Shang explained, "They should be coming through the mountain pass.

"We'll smash them!" Donald exclaimed.

"I doubt that." Shang responded, "You four will be the advance party. Scout out the mountain for my troops."

"That's it?" Sora asked, leaning back on the air, "No problem. Right?" he asked Mulan.

"R-right." she responded. Velvet sighed. She couldn't stand Mulan's lack of self-confidence.

"I'll brief you on the details later." Shang told them, "Return when you're ready to depart. Remember, the smallest mission may have the greatest purpose. Stay alert!"