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

Chapter 30: The Ring of Fire

It continued swinging its blade around at Hunter, its fighting style aggressive and deadly, barely giving him any time to breathe since the Demon itself didn't need to do so. "I know of your branding, Slayer. You earned that marking by killing my kin." It spoke as the two locked blades and it pressed its weight down on him. "But killing one of us means nothing next to my might. You will be a worthy opponent to be swallowed by the darkness!" It yelled, removing its blade and lifting it to smash down on Hunter, who quickly rolled aside as the floor itself had cracked under the sheer power of the strike. The roaring fire around them blocked out whatever advice the Five may have to give Hunter here, so he was on his own.

Speaking of which, the Five were watching from outside on the edge of their seats, all clearly worried by what was happening within the ring of fire with Hunter facing off against this dangerous opponent. "Hunter's good, but this thing is relentless..." Monkey pointed out to the group.

Crane nodded in agreement with Monkey. "He needs to find a weakness and strike at it quickly and decisively." He gave his input, although it was all academic since they couldn't help even if they could see a weakness. Looking at Tigress, the group saw her looking genuinely concerned, feeling frustrated and angry that there was nothing they could currently do for Hunter.

The fight meanwhile was progressing in neither warrior's favour, although if Hunter didn't figure something out, and quickly, he would be on the losing end. Hunter managed a few meagre blows while evading getting hit, but it was nowhere near enough. As Crane had said, he needed to strike a decisive blow... As he leapt away from another strike, he miscalculated and almost ended up in the ring of fire... However, he came up short of his intended dodge distance because of that reason...

Luckily, he was far enough away that the Demon had to adjust its strike. Managing to hit him mostly with the flat of its blade. Hunter was sent sprawling through the air, smashing through the statue of Grand Master Viper in the square. As he recovered, the Demon leapt atop the ruined statue before leaping once more, this time at Hunter himself. He tried to roll away, but the edge of the Demon's blade slashed his side.

Hunter yelled out and managed to land in a crouched position. However, the fire of the Demon's blade had taken hold, and Hunter's entire upper body was set alight by the hit. He stood up while essentially on fire, however, without flinching, Hunter grabbed his tunic and pulled it off of himself. He disrobed his entire upper body, discarding his now burning clothing into the ring of fire, now fully topless, maskless and facing the Demon.

This was the first time the Furious Five had seen Hunter without anything on his upper body, or even his hair unobscured, seeing his markings and brandings. Po was the only one in the Palace who had. On seeing him like this, Tigress felt her face heat up, but she simply put it down to the flames... that's all it was, right? She knew it wasn't the time, but she realised how well the robes hid his muscular figure. He was built for battle and it showed. And those markings on his body... they were fascinating... And the way his body glistened in the heat of the fire and the battle... She quickly refocused on the fight, putting her wandering thoughts down to the fact she'd never seen a being like Hunter before so unobscured...

For his part, Hunter was done playing around now. When he discarded his clothing, his eyes burned with the same fire of the arena he was standing in. Hunter was pissed off. His breathing becoming more erratic, he lifted his sword above his head and yelled out with a snarl on his face, charging at the Demon with reckless abandon unlike usual. He wasn't going down without a fight. Being suddenly barraged with an attack as it was preparing its own charge, the Demon was caught completely off guard. Attempting to defend itself, Hunter found that it held a woeful defence... He then realised that this Demon held untold aggression but due to that, it was poor on the defensive...