Kung Fu Panda: The Hunt For The Heir (OC x Tigress fanfic)

Chapter 29: Demons & Darkness

A/N: Hi everyone! Sorry for not publishing for a while, I might have to push my schedule to a once a month release. Because I have a job now! A permanent one! While this is good for me, more money, a decent salary etc. It means I will be a bit too busy to write as often as I was. I will still reply to comments and such! But I have much less free time now, which is the downside. Thank you all for commenting and reading though, and I'm sorry to have kept you waiting so long!

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The Five, Po and Hunter all continued moving through the outskirts of the Black Forest. The traps had ended a while ago with the group all managing to avoid any further incidents along the way. "There is a strip of wetland we must pass through before we approach the boarding area to my village." Viper informed Po and Hunter as they all continued walking carefully, making sure there were no surprises on the last stretch of the journey.

Mantis groaned and hopped from Monkey's shoulder, landing on a nearby log floating in the water of the bog near where they were walking. "Man, I don't remember the trip taking this long..." he said in a tired tone of voice.

Tigress rolled her eyes at that. "This is the short way, remember?" she pointed out to her fellow Master.

He then pointed at her with a claw. "Exactly!" Mantis exclaimed in response. Everyone rolled their eyes at Mantis complaining since he wasn't even walking himself.

Before anyone could say anything to that effect in response, Hunter stopped and looked at Mantis for a second before glancing down and then backed up a step with a shocked expression on his face. "Mantis, wait, that's not-" Before Hunter could finish his warning, suddenly the 'log' Mantis was standing on began to move on its own before revealing itself to actually be a feral alligator resting in the waters...

As it began to move, Mantis also began to realise his possibly fatal mistake. "Oh shit!" he exclaimed as the Alligator jumped a little in place, sending Mantis flying up into the air.

While the alligator moved to likely swallow Mantis whole as everyone only just realised what was happening, Hunter quickly drew his sword and ran forwards before smacking the alligator hard on the tip of its snout with his pommel, making it growl out in pain and quickly retreat into the water as Hunter quickly snatched Mantis right out of the air and jumped backwards away from the water just in case there was a reprisal attack.

Everyone was watching in surprise then as Mantis leapt onto Hunter's shoulder and hugged his neck tightly. "Yeah I don't think I'll be jumping onto anything submerged in water ever again..." he said with a bit of a shudder, panting from the shock of it all.

Looking at Mantis, Hunter chuckled at that. "We all learn from our mistakes." he pointed out as the group continued to move on.

Po was impressed by Hunter's swift reaction. "That was super cool!" he exclaimed excitedly, to Mantis' obvious chagrin. "I mean, not the part about you being in danger, more the part where Hunter saved you from certain death!" Po pointed out slightly sheepishly.

The group were more vigilant from then on, travelling through the rest of the swamp with little to no trouble. When they finally exited out of the dense swampland, before them lay a seemingly barren pit with cracks dotted around it in the ground. "Okay, let's go!" Viper said and was about to rush across the pit in question. Just before she could make it fully into the pit, Hunter noticed something and quickly grabbed her tail, yanking her back towards the group as she yelped. And just in time. A geyser of boiling hot steam suddenly erupted from where Viper was about to go. Unfortunately, Hunter wasn't quite quick enough this time and she was still injured from the intense heat. "Ahhh!" she yelled out in pain.

Everyone seemed surprised by what had happened and glad for Hunter's quick reflexes. "Good job, Hunter." Tigress said in relief, knowing what might have happened had he not quickly acted. He nodded in response, barely acknowledging his actions. "But how can we cross now? Viper is the most capable for such a task..." she pointed out, looking to the slightly burned Master in question.