Rushing through the bamboo forest, Ren pushed through greenery and leaped over a fallen stump. Sensing a sudden drop of pressure in the air, his golden eyes surveyed his surroundings thoroughly.
A trail of green whizzed past his vision as he stopped in his tracks, feeling a slight shiver run down his spine.
With a sudden playful grin splitting his face, he took a giant leap in his spot and dodged a sudden tackle from Mei, who tried to take him by surprise, "Gotta do better than that, Mei—!" He called out with his tongue stuck out cutely.
"Oh yeah—!?"
Ren whipped his head up to see MK sky diving towards him, "Oh shit—" He was then tackled straight out of the air, by Monkey King's apprentice.
As they crashed into the ground, Ren used his cloak to create enough space to slip out of his clutches.
Mei came rushing in with her sword, her cackle ringing out in the air as she clashed with Mk, who barely had time to collect himself. She had hidden herself in the environment, taking advantage of the green terrain for her own kind of camouflage.
Mei pushed him back with her strength, "Didn't think you were much of a crashing the party kind of dude...!" She grinned, her horns flashing in green color at the reaction of her excitement.
MK smirked and pushed her back with a flash of yellow from his markings, "Nah... I just dropped in to make this party a little more... Exciting—!" His tail lashed out and grabbed her leg, yanking her off her feet.
Mei let out a betrayed gasp, "You tripped me—!? Have you no honor? No shame??" She laid on the ground dramatically with the back end of her hand on her forehead.
A blur of purple flashed above Mei with a umbrella, "Don't worry Mei, I'll avenge your honor—!!"
MK quickly twirled his staff and bent backwards to dodge a jab of Ren's umbrella, a confident smirk appeared on MK's face, "Ready for round 2?"
Ren back flipped out of the striking range of MK's staff and levitated just a few feet off the ground. Twirling his umbrella and then opening it to give him some shade, he held a hand over his mouth with a small giggle, "Let's make this a little more fun—!"
At that MK and Mei had to both roll out of the way as Ren started to shift into his projection beast. It's eyes flashing gold as it lowered down at them with a guttural shriek into the air.
The duo of friends both glanced at each other with smirks.
Mei was the first to start sprinting towards the beast, not before she smacked MK momentarily with her tail.
"Ow—! HEY!! What was that about honor—!?" MK called after her as he smacked his staff into the ground, sending his form flying into the air.
"Honor is for the warriors only, geek—!!" Mei let out a laugh as she rushed up Ren's lashing tail with abnormal speed, her steps light and her sword out like a dragon's claw.
MK let out a mocking gasp, "That's low—!"
Ren felt a burst of adrenaline as he sent Mei flying up in the air.
"WHOOOOO—!!" She screamed out as she focused her chin on creating her dragon projection.
Now that the other projections were out in the field, MK saw no reason to holding back.
"Monkie-KID—!!" At that, his staff enlarged and the monkey mech quickly transformed around him. As the giant mech landed, the other two projection beasts let out a defining roar to the skies and charged forward to meet the mech in the middle.
Ren unhinged his jaws.
MK raised his enlarged staff.
Mei leaned back to erupt a large abundance of fire.
"I think that's enough 'training' for today."
A eruption of shadow chi flies out of the ground. It started to whip out like ribbons of string fabric and hold the projections down.
MK fell out of the mech as it just self destructed, "WOAH—!"
Mei and Ren put up more of a struggle as they're projections roared in defiance. But sooner or later they gave up due to exhaustion and Macaque's projection stood above them with a grin. It's ribbons pinning them down until their owners fell to the ground with a thud.
MK glanced up from his spot, to see Jinhua with her hands on her hips and Macaque standing behind her with his projection slowly caving back into the simian.
"Ughh... Ma'...!" Ren whined from his spot on Mei. They both had collapsed on each other during the fall, "We were training—!"
Macaque smacked the kit in the head with his staff, "Yeah, because decimating our backyard is 'training'. This isn't the city where you destroy the buildings everyday to defeat a villain. This is our home, please respect it."
Ren blew a raspberry at the simian and started running off to get away from his Pa's wrath, "You can respect my left nut—!"
Macaque held up a fist, "You little shit—!" But he refused to move from his spot.
Jinhua patiently tapped her fingers on her crossed forearms, "You three are utterly irresponsible when controlling the usage of your chi, that you become too exhausted to fight the other half of the battle."
MK and Mei let their heads hang at the statement.
Macaque chuckled at the sight and twirled his staff idly, "You little misfits depend on your power a little two much. Your not sorcerers or magic users like Ren. Your warriors. You should use put more trust into your weapon."
Mei raised a brow, "Trust in my weapon? Like do I play patty cake with it or something?"
MK blinks for a moment, "Wait so your telling us our weapon's have feelings?"
Jinhua chuckled at their questions, "No, of course not. It's like one of those sensory objects that read your body movements and act upon them."
Macaque them jabbed a finger at MK's staff, "The reason why you can barely control your staff is because it has a difficulty, reading your movements and actions."
MK tilted his head in confusion while glancing down at his staff, "I don't understand..."
Jinhua kneeled down and held the staff up for him, "What he means is, you tend to overthink your actions and the staff can't read everything. So it goes haywire trying to act upon all your thoughts."
Mei held up a hand, "So if he just focused on one thing at a time he could control his abilities better?"
Macaque grinned and pointed his spiked staff at the apprentice, "Correct! Kid has severe ADHD, so it was bound to happen either way. We just have to work around it."
Ren floated down to be head level with Jinhua, "How about teaching him how to counterattack or parry? It would probably help boost his hand-to-hand combat skills without exhausting his powers."
Mei brightened at that, "OO—! Let me be his training partner!" She quickly stood up with a bright smile.
Jinhua pondered for a moment, "MK does have a bad habit of trying to end things in one attack..."
Macaque scoffed, "Sure reminds me of a certain someone." He crossed his arms.
Jinhua sent her lover a small look, "It was his responsibility to prepare his successor, yet he leaves him untended for a random vacation."
Macaque knew that look and frowned, "C'mon, you really think he left to a vacation?"
Jinhua was quiet for a moment as she glanced over to the chattering trio of young demons. Her eyes softened for a moment before they sharpened, "No. But he was still irresponsible for leaving MK like that without prior warning. Look what happened." She gestured to the determined look in their eyes.
Macaque sighed, "They're scared. And they should be."
Jinhua felt her form straighten at the words, "Are you saying they can't protect themselves against the enemy?"
Macaque shook his head with a sigh, "I'm not saying that at all. I'm saying they're scared because you can't protect them as they're protecting figure."
Jinhua turned to face him with her ears pinned back in frustration, "Macaque..."
Macaque shook his head and pointed his tail casually over to the laughing children, who probably popped a joke, "You probably don't see it because of those multitude of bonds, but they look up to you for protection and guidance. Even when your weak and tired, they feel determined to get stronger so that you won't have to protect them no longer."
Jinhua glanced down at her gloved hand, an annoyed frown slowly appearing on her lips, "It's hard. I know that. But they aren't ready for this enemy. They aren't ready for what's to come. Hell— Even I know Wukong is afraid of this woman—!"
Macaque stepped forward and waved away his staff. His hands reaching out and holding her gloved one's in his, "That's why, we prepare."
Jinhua met his gaze with an almost sorrowful glossed look, "But what about Bai he.... Macaque.. I don't wish to sacrifice a little girl for someone else's plans of world domination. These children have yet to learn of the sacrifices of war... I don't wish to put them through that harsh reality."
"Then we won't. We won't let it happen." Macaque squeezed her hands with a stern gaze fixated on hers, "We find another way around this. We always have."
Jinhua felt her eyes water. Releasing a soft sigh, she wrapped her arms around the simian with a content smile, "I love you, you know that?"
Macaque smiled into her shoulder, his hands slowly wrapping around her waist in comfort, "I know. You wouldn't be here if you wouldn't." He earned a small chuckle from the demoness.
Jinhua buried her face into the crevasse of his scarf, "Let's prepare for the worst."
Macaque's grip tightened at her request, "Okay." Was all he answered back.