[3rd POV]
Master Thundering Rhino.
He was young once. He was bold, foolish and reckless.
But most importantly, he was strong.
He was the son of the renowned warrior, Master Flying Rhino. And unlike those sons of great figures, he did not fall under the pressure of having such a great father.
He was strong, so he thrived.
He let his own strength and fame get to his head. After he fought against ten thousand serpents in the Valley of Woe and came out as the winner, he thought he was unstoppable.
He became prideful and boasted about his achievements.
He declared, "I am the strongest of my generation!!"
A statement he wholeheartedly believed in at that time.
That was a wrong move. That was a grave mistake on his part. He had invited a disaster upon himself, he had no excuse.
'He' came.
"What is this nonsense I heard from across the country? You must've been pretty loud." He came knocking to his father's castle.
A snow leopard.
"I am Tai Lung. the Dragon Warrior. And I have come all the way to see what the strongest of my generation was like." He said with a smile.
'He is mocking me.' the young rhino thought to himself.
A duel.
He thought he was strong, no he thought he was the strongest.
He realised during that fight, he was not strong.
He was delusional.
He put in all of his strength, he used every technique his father had taught him, he fought harder than he ever did before.
But he was just embarrassing himself.
In front of Tai Lung, his best was a joke.
Tai Lung was just too fast.
It was then that he launched his most powerful attack yet. He put everything behind the attack. To take back his honour, to take back his pride.
But Tai Lung shut it down with a joke.
"That was a nice hit, of course unless you were aiming for me."
A joke.
A sentence that haunted the great Master Thundering Rhino ever since.
...
...
...
He opened his eyes, coming back to the present as he looked at the platform where his two students sparred with each other in preparation for the upcoming Wushu tournament.
He gripped the mighty Warhammer in his hand and tried to shrug off the bad memories of the past. He did not know why he was reminiscing about such times all of a sudden.
He was no longer that young rhino, bold and foolish. He was now the ruler of Gongmen City, leader of the Kung Fu Council and renowned as the strongest living master right now.
Master Thundering Rhino.
There was no one in this world who did not know his name. People sing prases of him and retold his tale of glory.
Unlike Tai Lung who was hated by the people. His story was not one of disgrace and evil, Tai Lung could never compare to his glory now.
Greatness was being accepted by the people.
And 'He' will never be accepted by the people.
"Master Croc, make sure you guard your abdomen next time. Your scales cover your backside so use spinning attacks, defend with your back and spin to attack. Not only will it make you unpredictable, it will give more momentum in your swings." Rhino advised his student.
"Now, again!!" He said, prompting his two greatest students, Storming Ox and Croc to begin sparring again.
He hit the ground with the butt of his Warhammer to accentuate his order. It would not be wrong to call them his two greatest pupils, yet it won't be right either.
His greatest pupil was Wubao. The guardian of Mielin City and the number 3 spot in the Kung Fu Council.
Sadly he was no more, he was ruthlessly killed by Tai Lung in his rampage.
'Tai Lung.' Rhino thought and squeezed the handle of his Warhammer.
He will get vengeance for his student someday. He was confident in beating Tai Lung who wasted 20 years rotting in jail.
On the other hand, Rhino had grown a lot and got stronger during the past 20 years. If they were to fight against, the fake Dragon Warrior would stand no chance.
He had heard about the news of his escape before. Not just he, but the whole of China was aware of the escape of the Villain deemed evil by Oogway himself.
There were many rumours about how he immediately brought chaos to a tavern, how he rampaged in Mielin City in his anger and even killed the guardian of the city.
Not only that, he later had the audacity to claim that it was a duel to the death initiated by Wubao himself. That fucker, of course, Wubao would initiate a duel to the death to prevent having you attack the people.
Later on, it was said that he fought with the Dragon Warrior and somehow, the prophecised warrior was able to earn Tai Lung's respect and he admitted his inferiority.
That seemed to be a big hit to his pride as he stayed cooped up in the Jade Palace, under the surveillance of the Dragon Warrior ever since.
If only he came out of the Valley of Peace, Master Rhino would've sought him out for battle. It was sure to be easy to defeat someone who had not grown in 20 years.
Maybe he was redeemable, Rhino mused to himself. After losing his pride, maybe he will be able to set Tai Lung on a good path.
He was brought out of his musing when he saw Gazelle walk towards him, confidently rocking her childbearing hips.
Rhino had to stop himself from lashing out when he saw her dress.
"Tell me Gazelle, why are you dressed as a slut again?" Rhino asked and pinched between his eyes,
Gazelle stopped and looked at him with a shocked face, "That is NOT how you talk to a lady."
She pushed her hair and touched her ass, "I am not letting you have this cake, like ever, because of that comment."
Rhino scoffed, who would want to associate with a female that mastered Longmei Quan? A Kung Fu that takes advantage of seduction and charm during a fight.
The ability to release pheromones at will that could throw any male opponent off, fighting in a way that would distract the eyes, using your own beauty to make the opponent of the opposite gender hesitate to attack you etc. It was all under the kung fu of Longmei Quan.
It was a rare Kung Fu, but in the hands of Gazelle whose beauty and species complement the Kung Fu, it was a dangerous combat style.
"Anyways, as your informant, I have something to report." Gazelle said in a tone a little more serious than before.
She was the main source of information for Master Rhino and the Kung Fu Council. In return, she was allowed to own all the brothels in Gongmen city.
They lure in travelling males to these brothels and simply ask for information. You only needed to give them some drinks and a pretty lady to ask and the males will tell you more than you wanted to know.
They would boast about what they did, what they have done, and what they were going to do to impress the ladies in there.
Due to this, they even held the secrets and dirt of many other kingdoms. There was even a noble who boasted about the defence system he built for his Kingdom. Retelling all of its strengths and structure in hopes of impressing the beautiful mare and antelope of the establishment with his intelligence. He was a pig and insecure about his body so he was proud to boast his intelligence.
"What is it?" Rhino asked.
"A strong unknown master had entered Gongmen City. I do not know his identity but he claimed that he was a guardian of a kingdom. He also had a long tail and liked eating fish, which made it likely that he is a lion, tiger or leopard."
Rhino hummed, "Is that all?"
"Hmm.." Gazelle put her hand under her chin, deep in thought, "He was also digging for information about the city. It seemed that he was quite ignorant in that regard so he probably came from somewhere far from here."
"Somewhere far. Is he from Dali?" Rhino asked himself. Dali was a kingdom in the south of China in the Yunnan Province. The kingdom was also filled with tigers.
"Anyways, thank you for the information." Rhino nodded in acknowledgement before throwing a string of gold coins at her. (The coins had a hole in the middle which can be used to put them together in a string.)
"Well thank youuu~" Gazelle caught it and with a smile, she turned around to leave.
"Sorry, I got to go. I have a few customers waiting for me." She said and as Rhino watched her, she put an extra pep in her steps, boldly shaking her fat ass.
'What a slut.' Rhino thought with a frown, 'Yet she wouldn't let me tap.' he grimaced before smiling at his thoughts.
46 years and he was still full of vigor. He was at the prime state of his life, a point in a Kung Fu master's life where their experience and physical strength were balanced and at their peak.
He continued teaching his students for some time and before an hour passed since he got the information, he heard a commotion outside the walls.
The Palace had a huge area surrounded by walls that could fit an army. There was also a platform which they used to spar and hold tournaments.
Master Ox and Croc both stopped their sparring and they all looked at the main entrance gate of the Palace walls. There was a huge wooden gate fixed with metal and it was tightly locked from the inside.
The commotion died down and there was silence.
The silence persisted until it did not.
*BOOOM!!*
The gate was knocked off its hinges with a single attack as the giant gate fell down under the might of whoever was knocking.
The sound shook the entire surrounding and he came in.
He wore a dark cloak and had a draw string bag on one shoulder. He carefully looked around the surroundings before his eyes landed on Master Rhino who was standing at the top of the steps leading to the palace.
They could feel him smile.
He took off his hood with one move and the identity was revealed. The others did not know who it was but Rhino's eyes widened in recognition.
"Tai Lung."
He smiled, it was the same mocking smile Rhino remembered.
His face had not aged even a bit.
"I heard you were talking a lot again. They called you the strongest living master so I wanted to see it for myself if you had grown to deserve such title." Tai Lung said.
'No.' Master Rhino's body froze.
Why did all this seem so familiar?
It was the same as last time.
.
.
Maybe it was that realization, or maybe he was angry at Tai Lung for killing his student, or maybe it's because Tai Lung infiltrating his city. Maybe it was a bit of all of them.
The ground where Master Rhino stood was completely devastated as he shot towards Tai Lung at a speed which broke the sound barrier.
His speed was so fast that sound couldn't catch up. That made his sudden movement as silent as it could be.
His mighty body easily sliced through the air and in less than a second, he was floating in front of Tai Lung. Master Rhino brought up his mighty warhammer and with all his strength, he slammed it down at Tai Lung.
Tai Lung brought his hand up and caught the head of his hammer. A move that completely caught Master Rhino off guard.
Yet he put in all of his strength. Tai Lung would die because of his foolishness.
His figure suddenly seemed like the size of a mountain because that was the amount of weight behind his attack. His eyes glow red as he looked down at Tai Lung like he was a corpse.
The sound of his approach and the sound of his attack exploded in sync. A deafening explosion materializes in the palace ground.
*Whoooosh*
*BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!*
The ground beneath Tai Lung opened up to scream as the full weight of Master Rhino's strength pressed down on it.
A shockwave that was strong enough to blow the servant ducks off their feet erupted from the clash as it shook the entire foundation of the palace.
Huge cracks started spreading under Tai Lung's feet as the earth crumbled like ash, the force was strong enough to shake the wall until it completely collapsed.
The clash lasted one moment and an eternity as unstoppable strength met the ultimate technique.
The attack settled, reality finally processed what just happened and the result was revealed.
!!!
The onlookers eyes nearly bulged out when they saw Master Rhino still suspended in the air as he continued slamming down his hammer which was caught by Tai Lung using a single hand.
Tai Lung seemed unfazed and there was not a single scratch on his body. Yet the traumatized earth under his feet spoke volumes of Master Rhino's Strength.
It was almost like Rhino completely missed the attack and hit the earth instead. The force of the attack had skipped Tai Lung's body entirely and only affected the ground.
But that was impossible.
Indeed.
It was a Miracle.
Tai Lung revealed a smile when he met the eyes of Rhino who looked equally shocked and amused by the display.
Then Tai Lung repeated the same words he said to Master Rhino 25 years ago.
.
.
"That was a nice hit, of course, unless you were aiming for me." he said equally amused and mocking.
"Hahahahahahahaha!!" Master Rhino laughed madly and they separated.
.
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[IMAGE]
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