Cloudless Authors

Chapter n

The footsteps seemed to quickly come to the front of the temple doors and faint clicking sounds could be heard. Then scraping on the stone outside. Then silence.

"Did you hear that?" Shifu asked.

Tai Lung nodded. "I'm not into judging someone from their footsteps," he said in a low tone of voice. "But I didn't like the way those sounded." 

Shifu twitched his ears in an attempt to hear more of the noise. He turned his head. Twitched his ears. Turned his head again. Twitched an ear. 

Click click. 

Shifu snapped his head towards the open walls by the moon pool and pointed to a spot behind the corner where the opened  walls met the closed ones. "There!" he exclaimed. 

Tai Lung moved to find the owner of the menacing footsteps, only to jump back when another explosive flew in and went off by the moon pool. Nothing was too disturbed other than the floor and the Sacred Urn of Whispering Warriors, (though this thing was always broken), but the blast had startled Tai Lung and Shifu enough to keep them away from the noise. A few seconds later, a dark cloaked figure leaped through the smoke and came to a scraping halt in front of the two. 

"My, my, what have we here?" the figure cackled gleefully. "Kung fu masters still breathing? And with insides intact, I see." 

"You threw the explosive earlier!" Tai Lung accused. 

"Guilty as charged," the cloaked killer answered. "But I see you still live, which means I don't get my reward." 

They quickly drew two blades from the folds of their sleeves and lunged at Tai Lung who was quick to duck out of the way. Shifu dodged to the other side of the Sacred Hall of Warriors and was quick to grab a nearby shueld for defense. 

The figure took out a large glass sphere which was attached to a thin strand of rope. As he began to swing it about, Shifu couldn't help but notice the very dark powder bouncing about. 

"He has gun powder! Be careful!" he warned Tai Lung. 

Tai Lung did a double-take. "As in the stuff used for fireworks?" he exclaimed. 

As if to answer the question, the assassin released the glass pendulum towards Master Shifu who quickly ran out of the line of fire. The glass shattered against the pillar which created enough heated friction to set the gun powder off, blowing the Jade Pillar practically in half. The assassin then threw a few more explosives over in Shifu's direction, creating large blasts and huge puffs of thick smoke. 

"Shifu!" Tai Lung called out. "Are you okay?!" 

The assassin whipped their head around and threw another explosive at the snow leopard. Tai Lung noticed it coming and just managed to jump out of the way and avoid getting hit by massive debris. He started to make his way over to Shifu only to encounter more explosives. He timed the direction and speed of the assassin's throws before zipping blindly through the smoke and leaping over to where he last saw Shifu. An explosion went off behind him which forced him across the floor and into the wall where all the Sacred Scrolls were held. He was quick to get to his feet though and immediately spotted Shifu sprawled on the floor by the moon pool, struggling to get up. 

"Shifu!" he exclaimed, running over to help his former master to his feet. 

Shifu groaned in pain. A few more scrapes and a burn mark had been added to his list of injuries. "It's nice to know you haven't lost your touch despite the Wuxi FInger," he observed. 

Tai Lung smiled a little. "Thanks," he said. He got Shifu to his feet and then glanced around for any sign of the assassin. "Alright, where is he?" he snarled.