Strength In Unity

Chapter 13: Join Me

At the palace...

Training was at an all time high, the majority of the wolves were scattered throughout the training hall with various partners sparring in rotations, learning to move about the battle field without getting cornered. Kirscher stood alongside the few of his men who couldn't walk still and forced them to concentrate on each motion, each deflection of oncoming attacks that was displayed. From the far corner of the hall,

Master Shifu observed the mass of battle hungry canines moving in perfect time now with each of the masters. He began to notice they were beginning to pick up several of the many useful skills the Five were allowing them to learn. Po and Kirscher had an agreement that while the five would not reveal the majority of their attacks, they would give the wolves a solid set of moves that would keep them from injury for the most part. While instruction was not particularly her thing, Tigress had begun steadily working one on one with several wolves, constantly adjusting and positioning their stance. As she demonstrated the high land strike, her focus on the wolves had taken away from other masters around her.

"And then you simply release your energy into your right leg and focus on going through something not just to it, like this!" Her demolition of one of the stands sent debris everywhere, nailing Crane in the head with a rather large chunk, knocking his hat off.

"Hey! Tigress!"

"Sorry Crane."

The bird rolled his eyes and huffed over to retrieve his hat when one wolf grabbed it and leaped over the bird, letting it fall right into place on his head.

"Hmm thank you." He said politely, the wolf bowed and took another attack stance, preparing for the bird's oncoming confrontation. Running toward the Ariel attack straight at him, the wolf sucked in a breath and rolled forward and sprang off his paws into the air, greeting Crane's beak with a dusty under paw. The avian was both surprised and intrigued by this, a grin forming on his beak as he rotated around the foot of the wolf and aimed a wing chop toward the wolf's face. The dog's eyes widened as he saw the impact coming now, the preparation behind it. Feeling his new sense kicking into high gear, the wolf grabbed onto Crane's wing and drug him back down to the floor, landing atop of the bird, both wings spread out.

"urgh, nice one. You're...aauuggh getting better." Crane said weakly as he groaned straightening his spine. The canine smiled,

"I finally got you!" He said with a chuckle, nodding his head in a bow and walking away as others stepped up. The avian hadn't quite expected it to be as much of a workout as it was when the wolves were actually picking up and improvising their skills against them.

They were growing stronger, more confident in their efforts, in each strike they landed against the masters, as if they were releasing some kind of rage they'd held onto for years.

Shifu stepped toward the wolf boss and stopped next to him, still watching the sparring matches.

"It appears your brotherhood is attacking with much ferocity today, any thoughts on why that is?" He asked the wolf without looking at him. Kirscher looked up and watched for a second. Each one of them carried the same energy in their eyes.

Determined.

"Your masters show signs of fatigue, it means to them that they are not invincible. That's their motivation." the red panda gave a small amused nod,

"Do you believe any still carry anger for their losses?" He hadn't been sure why he'd asked it so suddenly and out of the blue but it had been on his mind for a while, looking up at the wolf he awaited an answer.

Kirscher looked out onto the crowd of fighters,

"all their losses were mine as well." He said, turning his head to look down at the master, "I think they all feel angry, betrayed by someone who promised to look out for them. In some ways their situation now worries them."