Ch. 38 - The Great Pretender's inner strength

Feeling the searing pain on his chest, Leo tried his best to breathe, albeit slightly painful the more his chest heaves.

"Leo!" Shouted Master Shifu, his tone mixed with concern towards his student.

"He was easy to deal with." Tai Lung chuckled, his voice laced with arrogance. He then shifted his attention to the trembling Master Shifu, trembling not out of fear but out of regret.

"Raaghh!" Not liking what he sees, Tai Lung roared in jealousy before kicking the defenseless Master Shifu.

Why does Master Shifu care about Leo when he didn't care about him years ago?

Who is Leo to get such treatment from Master Shifu?

*Thud!*

Landing harshly on the ground, Master Shifu groaned in pain before jumping out of the way right after sensing that Tai Lung was going to attack him.

As soon as Tai Lung slashed the marble tiles of the ground, he growled and parried Master Shifu's heavy kick.

"You are getting old, Shifu!" Tai Lung mocked, after feeling the weakened strength of Master Shifu.

"I have rotten in jail for 20 YEARS! Because of your weakness!" Tai Lung angrily growled, finally releasing all of his pent up anger towards his former Master.

"Obeying your master is not a weakness!" Master Shifu retorted as he put up his stance again.

"You knew! I was the Dragon Warrior!" Tai Lung walked in front of Master Shifu while pointing to himself.

"But when Oogway says otherwise. What did you do?" Tai Lung's breathing has become heavier, the more he releases his pent up anger.

"WHAG DID YOU DO?" Tai Lung yelled.

"Nothing!"

"You were not meant to be the Dragon Warrior, that was not my fault!" Master Shifu was quick to retort Tai Lung's words.

"Raaahhh!" Tai Lung screamed and slashed his claws towards Master Shifu.

Just as Master Shifu wanted to block Tai Lung's strike, someone suddenly yelled.

"Gotcha bitch!" It turns out to be Leo, who was looking for an opportunity to strike and when he finally did, Leo quickly took out Jett's dagger that he got from a Gacha draw and stabbed Tai Lung on his back.

*Quelch!*

"Aggh! You coward!" Tai Lung yelled out in pain, however just as he was about to take the stabbed dagger out of his back, Leo kicked the hilt, further deepening the dagger's blade inside.

Leo then karate-chopped Tai Lung's throat.

"Kakh!" Tai Lung spits out his saliva as he feels excruciating pain in his throat, as if he had just drank a cup of lava.

Leo then followed it up with a blowing kick on Tai Lung's face, throwing him backwards, even colliding with several artifacts that were kept for hundreds or thousands of years.

Blocked by dust, Leo squinted his eyes at the clouds of dust before Tai Lung sprung out with blue flames on his paws.

'That still happened?' Leo's face twitched slightly upon seeing the familiar scene, who would've thought that those blue flames are destined to be in Tai Lung's paws.

"Graaawwll!" Tai Lung roared and with his flaming paws, slashed his claws towards Leo.

*Swoosh!*

Dodging the claws, Leo smoothly maneuvered his body, not only dodging the claws but also countering with a swift kick to the jaw.

*Bam!*

What he wasn't expecting though was for Tai Lung's jaw to be as hard as steel.

"Grrr!" Tai Lung growled in anger before punching Leo's chest.

*Bam!*

"Gagh!" Leo endured the pain and held Tai Lung's arm.

"Huh?" Just as Tai Lung was confused, Leo grinned and threw him outside of the Jade Palace.

*Fwooosh!*

Leo then jumped towards Tai Lung mid-air before launching a strong down-kick that brought him down towards the stairs.

*Boom!*

*Crack!*

Cracking the stone ground, Leo then landed on Tai Lung's face before slipping down on the long stairs with Tai Lung's face still underneath Leo's foot.

*Thud!* x5

For every step that they landed on, the back of Tai Lung's head kept colliding into it.

"Grraaregh!" Not liking this one bit, Tai Lung tried to flip it over and let Leo take the bumps. However, knowing what happened in the movie, would Leo allow him to do it?

Staying still without moving, Tai Lung failed to flip the table and continued his head-banging on the stairs.

***

A few meters down the stairs, Po was breathing heavily as he was going to rush towards the Jade Palace, only to be met with a shadow up above.

"Huh?" Po looked up only to see two figures falling towards him.

"Oh no."

*Boom!*

Thanks to Po's chubby body, Leo and Tai Lung just bounced from him and landed on a nearby cart of fireworks.

*Crash!*

Recovering first, Leo quickly smacked Tai Lung with his elbow upon seeing him trying to get up.

"Stay still, Tai Lung, we're not down yet." Leo muttered to himself and when he heard Tai Lung growling, Leo went down from the broken cart and grabbed ankle.

*Clank!*

Taking him from the cart, before Tai Lung could fully recover, Leo threw him towards Po.

"What?!"

"Do your thing!" Shouted Leo to the confused Po.

"Do what?" Po shouted back, then suddenly saw the body of Tai Lung flying towards him.

"Wooaahh!" Po quickly dodged and let Tai Lung fall hard on the ground, his face slamming down so hard on the ground.

"Ooh!~ That gotta hurt!" Po winced in pain even though he wasn't the one who fell.

"The wushi finger hold!" Leo shouted, which made him regret later as Tai Lung was awake and heard what he yelled.

"What! How am I supposed to know that?" Po replied and stepped back upon seeing Tai Lung twitching and trying to get up.

"Wushi Finger Hold?" Tai Lung muttered to himself before angrily retorting.

"There is now this fat panda knows that forbidden technique! Shifu couldn't have taught it to him!" He yelled.

"Are you sure about that?" Leo smirked, however this smirk was short-lived when Tai Lung roared and turned around to face Po.

"Shit! He can't fight that well yet!" Leo wanted to slap his forehead for his idiotness, only to be shocked when Po managed to parry and even counter attack Tai Lung's strikes.

"Oh right, he's the protagonist." Leo chuckled and decided to go and help Po.

*Footsteps!*

Running towards the unsuspecting back of Tai Lung, Leo jumped and delivered a dropkick towards him.

"Grarrgh!" Tai Lung suddenly turned around and grabbed Leo on his neck, surprising him.

'What!?' Leo then delivered a fast kick on Tai Lung's face, slightly distorting him, which is enough for Po to slam him belly on Tai Lung's face.

Further disorienting him, Leo landed on the ground and swept his legs on Tai Lung's ankles, making him fall on the ground.

"Arrrggh! Enough!" Facing such embarrassment just by fighting two newbies who were lucky enough to be given the title of the Dragon Warrior, Tai Lung smashed his hands on the ground, making a shockwave that pushed the two Dragon Warriors back while also creating a large crater on the ground.

Tai Lung then flew out of the clouds of dust, heading towards Leo's direction, his fingers all folded except for his middle and index finger.

'Shit! That's his special technique!' Leo's brain quickly alarmed his body upon seeing the familiar technique. This is the same technique that he used to take the Furious Five down.

As the fingers collided on his chest, Leo's body instinctively raised his left hand and struck Tai Lung back in the same finger posture as Tai Lung.

*Bam!*

What surprised everyone watching was instead of Leo falling down on the ground, paralyzed. It was Tai Lung instead who was paralyzed on the ground.

"W-What?! H-How is this possible?" Mustering up the strength to speak, disbelief can be seen on Tai Lung's eyes, not believing what just happened. As a matter of fact, he wasn't the only one shocked as Po, Leo and also Master Shifu who was watching from the stairs were shocked at this sudden turn of events.

Po and Master Shifu then shifted their focus from Tai Lung to Leo, the perpetrator.

"H-How did you do that, Leo?" Po stuttered while his eyes were glittering like the stars in the night sky.

"I-I have no idea." Leo replied while staring at his hand then to his chest.

He clelaru felt himself getting paralyzed at that time, however when Leo's fingers struck Tai Lung at the same moment, the paralyzation on his body disappeared, though he could still feel some slight numbness on his body but not to the point of being paralyzed.

'Could it be the Water Steam Rock Smashing Fist Volume 1?' Leo seems to have found the answer. Though the martial art manual was incomplete, it still has a few techniques that show a sample of what redirecting force would look like.

From what Leo saw, that's what he just did. Or more like what his body did.

"Good job taking him down, Leo. Leave everything to me." Deep in his thoughts, Leo was startled on hearing Master Shifu's voice in front of him.

When Leo looked at his master, all he could see was nothing but amazement and satisfaction.

"Yes, Master." Leo bowed his head slightly, showing his respect to his master.

"We'll talk about what you just did later, the Kung Fu style is quite familiar to me." Master Shifu then finished talking and turned to look at his fallen former student.

"Here to laugh at your failed student? You'll kill me now? To put an end to your mistake?" Tai Lung silently muttered, which was loud enough for Master Shifu to hear.

"No, I won't kill you, Tai Lung." Master Shifu then kneeled in front of Tai lung.

"Hahaha! See! Your weakness is showing, Shifu! Do you think by sparing me, I'll forgiv-."

"I will bring you to the Spirit Realm." Master Shifu interrupted.

"-Huh?"

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[POWAHHH stonseee]

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[Next Chapter: Ch. 39 - The Great Pretender became rich in Reputation Points!]

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