And once again....


-- Attached file included as plaintext by Listar --
-- File: ranmazokuch10.txt

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **
Ranmazoku Chapter 10 - Wolf Vs. Pheonix
By PansutoTarou5925
 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

DISCLAIMER - I do not own the rights to Slayers nor do I
own the rights to Ranma �. Long live the rightful owners of
these two fine anime. This work is non-commercial and is done
only in imitation of Rumiko Takahashi and Hajime Kanzaka.
Imitation is the sincerest flattery, no? US rights owned by Viz
and Software Sculptors. If I mention the Senshi, Sailor Moon
belongs to Naoko Takeuchi(Sp, anyone?) and.. and.. I dunno
who has the US rights, but it's theirs not mine. (I'm drawing a
blank) Appleseed is the property of Masamune Shirow.

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Author's note - This story originated from an idea on
Nighthawk's page and is some guy named NesTea's fault. If
he's reading this, I'm curious to know what he thinks of all this.
Questioning me would be like questioning Xellos if you ask
when the next section comes out, because it's a secret.

ALTAVERSE WARNING - This is an ALTAVERSE. Events,
characters and the like may not resemble canon. People who are
rabid canon-thumpers beware! (and eat a Dragon Slave while
you're at it)

PREVIOUSLY - Ranma discovers he's not Genma's son, that
Xellos is his father, that he's not even human, studies black
magic under Phibrizzo, yadda yadda yadda, gets in a fight with
Ryouga and curses a decent sized crowd to act like Kuno. Then
he corrupts Hotaru into becoming a mazoku and put a world of
hurt on some poor Daimon and Eudial. Afterwards he spied on
the Inners, took Nabiki, and got Kasumi angry! Then they went
to the Slayers world and met Lina and Co under false identities.
After that they duked it out with Sherra and Ranma vanished
after touching a magic sword. Hotaru smacked around the
Senshi and now Ranma's back. Read the previous chapters,
really, I'm not good at rehashing stuff.

NOTE - [...] indicates telepathic communication between
Ranma and Hotaru in the Astral plane.

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **


Ranma eyed Saffron warily. As of yet, no one there had made a
move. Hotaru was floating in midair, crouched over the Glaive,
which was currently aimed at the ledge Cologne and the others
were on. Ranma ran a finger along his blade - being extremely
careful to only touch the flat - and turned his focus inwards for
a second. Saffron's muscles tensing intruded only dimly on his
mind. Perhaps he ought to take the offensive. "Hotaru! Do it!"

What 'it' was didn't need to be vocalized. The Silence Glaive
spoke, blasting the rock above Saffron's allies and burying them
from the debris. Ranma didn't expect that to delay them
overlong, in fact, even as he began to teleport he saw the rock
rising and exploding from the Bakusai Tenketsu, but the other
bird-person's brief yelp of surprise had distracted Saffron.

Saffron dodged with blinding speed, but Ranma still scored a
clean slash along Saffron's cheek. The Pheonix God flew
backwards, putting distance between himself and Ranma.
Ranma laughed. "It shouldn't be that hard to cut you down to...
size?" He stopped laughing. Even as he watched, Saffron's cut
healed and vanished. 'On the other hand, this could be a bit
harder than I bargained for. Forgot about his healing!'

Saffron replied with a storm of small fireballs, correctly figuring
Ranma couldn't block all of them. However, Ranma simply
teleported out of the way. Saffron didn't duck this time, he just
fired a fireball over his shoulder.

Ranma slammed into the wall hard. "Damn fireballs!" He felt his
skin quickly healing - if not quite with the speed of a pheonix,
then close enough. He flew forward out of the crater in the wall
he had made. The two combatants stopped to readjust their
views of each other.

"Not bad." Ranma allowed.

"You're not too bad yourself." Saffron agreed. A nasty smile.
"It's almost a shame I'll have to kill you."

Ranma's smile transcended nasty. "That's my line." He
teleported away from a chi blast. "Heh, Herb, don't you know
to only pick the fights you can win?"

Saffron snorted. "You should follow your own advice."


Another predatory smile from Ranma. "I always believe there's
no fight I can't win." Herb fired another chi blast, which Ranma
this time redirected at Saffron with his sword.  Ranma flew in
behind it, giving Saffron the choice of dodging blast or blade,
but not both.

Saffron simply snuffed out Herb's comparatively feeble blast
with a fireball the size of a Buick. Ranma spiked the fireball
down into Cologne with the flat of his sword and tackled
Saffron in midair. Shifting quickly, he transformed his free hand
into the claw that his monstrous form had so he could match
Saffron. 

The two began a brutal midair wrestling match of claw and
blade. Without enough room to swing for a truly lethal blow,
though, the two merely cut each other up without doing real
harm.

At least by crowding Saffron Ranma prevented anyone from
taking potshots at him. He needed to think.

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Down below, Hotaru was having the time of her life. The only
one who could seriously hurt her was currently wrestling with
Ranma a hundred feet above the ground. Herb, with his magic
staff, was only interested in watching Ranma and Saffron and
waiting for an opportunity. She herself was backpedaling, using
her staff and enhanced mazoku strength to stymie all of the bird
woman's - Kiima, her name was - and Cologne's assaults.

Cologne's staff darted in, fired at her leg. She noted Cologne
wasn't wasting her time with pressure points and vitals this
time. She figured the old monkey had finally figured out she
didn't have any. It still made her only a small nuisance
though,trying to cripple her. She was pushing six feet in her
current form, and was wielding even the heavy iron Silence
Glaive one handed. Her other hand alternately blasted the two
with magical lightning and dark fire, or just slapped them
around.

Kiima's sword rushed in at the same time as Cologne's next
staff strike. Stepping forwards into the blade, Hotaru let it ram
right through her. She slipped her other hand on the Glaive and
swung the wrong end like a baseball bat, whacking Cologne and
sending the light old woman tumbling. Then she slapped her
hand on the blade, holding it fast, and wiping the victorious grin
off of Kiima's face. "What are you smiling about?" Hotaru
asked. 

Kiima screamed as Hotaru pumped a few thousand volts of
magical electricity into the blade. She dropped back, twitching.

"Herb! Stop goofing off and help us!" Cologne said. Hotaru
raised her Glaive above her, asi if to finish off Kiima. Herb
turned away from Ranma and Saffron's midair brawl in order to
see Hotaru about to slash down on the helpless Kiima.

"NO!" he yelled. "Hito Ryu Zan Ha!" Multiple blades of ki
energy flew towards Hotaru.

Hotaru turned around. "Suckers." She teleported away, leaving
Herb's attack to smash up Kiima even worse than she already
was. She reappeared behind Herb and simply tried to hack him
in half with the Glaive.

Herb raised his staff, the Gekkaja, and blocked Hotaru's
overhead strike, the sheer force of the mazoku driving him to
his knees for a second. "Ugh!" he grunted, standing back up.
Hotaru increased the pressure on him again, but their little
strength contest was aborted by Cologne's arrival. Her staff
strike was easily dodged, but she simply started backpedaling
again.

She was back to where she had started - but with one less
attacker. She felt time was on her side. After all they were only
human. Or mostly human, at any rate.

A loud thud distracted them momentarily, as a huge mass fell
from the sky.

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

The enormous winged wolflike thing that was the monstrous
form of Ranma Saotome hunched over the slightly squashed
Saffron. He stood on his rear legs, holding his sword in one
talonlike claw. "Heh. Let's see how you can survive in a
wrestling match with me now." Ranma growled, his voice
unnatural and grating now. The sheer bulk of Ranma put him
near Pantyhose's bulk, and a meaty hand formed a huge fist that
slammed down into Saffron with the speed of the Amaguriken.
The basin they were fighting in cracked, as Saffron was
slammed through the ground with inhuman strength.

Ranma's fist reared back again, and Cologne and Herb thought
this monster was going to finish off Saffron. How could
anything survive another such blow? But a huge fireball shot up
and blasted Ranma's head.

Blinded, Ranma's fist sailed wide of the mark, blasting another
hole in the floor. Ranma shielded his eyes with his arm,
narrowly missing slicing Saffron in half with the blade it was
holding as he whipped it up over his scorched eyes. He howled
in pain. 

Saffron jumped forward with the Kinjakan, hoping to turn the
tables even further, but Ranma's fist sailed out again and aught
Saffron clearly in the chest. 

Saffron grunted and opened his eyes to see the enormous bulk
of Ranma's snarling form diving towards him, that deadly little
blade - for tiny it was compared to the size of Ranma's
monstrous body - whistling in a large arc, ready to tear him in
two. He jumped forwards, accelerating his leap with golden
wings, Kinjakan blazing fire and reeled back for a mighty blow.
He came in too fast for Ranma's outstretched arms to readjust;
Ranma had committed himself fully to the attack. Saffron
grinned as Ranma's eyes widened.

Ranma's jaws shot forward, honed by years of snatching stray
bits of food from midair.

Saffron was crushed between Ranma's jaws. He flexed his hand
inside Ranma's jaw, intending to roast him from the inside out
and see if he could shrug THAT off, but Ranma didn't give him
the chance. Ranma flung Saffron against the wall and unloaded
another earth-shaking punch into the Pheonix God.

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Hotaru returned her gaze to Colgone and Herb. "Looks like
your birdbrain friend isn't going to last much longer. You two
should leave. I'll let you live - but how long could you hold out
against the two of us?"

Cologne and Herb stopped for a second, before Herb thrust the
Gekkajan at her. Hotaru easily parried with the Glaive.

"What, you *want* to die? No probalem, we aim to please."
Hotaru's fist snapped forward and caught Herb under the chin.
Cologne held open a small paper fan. "What's that, a toy?"
Flames burst from the fan, blackinging Hotaru's face.

She wiped off the soot. "Why, you!" she screamed, cutting
loose with an aura of power that nearly brought the two to their
knees through sheer force of the dread and hatred that it
contained. Hotaru didn't waste time, abandoning her
defensiveness in favor of trying to crush these little gnats.

Cologne and Herb hastily scrambled back out of the way of
Hotaru's swipes with the Glaive. Its business end was now
topped with a shimmering field of force and tore up the ground
just by passing near it. Direct hits broke open rocks, which then
melted and exploded.

Dodging crazily, Cologne backed up, spiralling inward. It
wasn't a very neat spiral, but with the kind of power Hotaru
was putting out, it didn't need to be. Apart from avoiding
getting killed by the angry mazoku, the sheer force of Hotaru's
aura kept disrupting her Soul Of Ice. It guttered again as she
tripped over a rock. The Glaive screamed in, Hotaru's rage
coming through the tip and emitting so much force it disrupted
space itself. Cologne panicked for a second, before realizing.
Ice. Her hand closed on Herb's staff.

"HIRYUU SHOTEN HAAA!" the old Matriarch of the
Amazons called out, as an enormous tornado snapped Hotaru
into the air.

"ARRRGgghhh!!" Hotaru's voice screamed, fading as it shot
up into the heights of the chamber.

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Ranma looked away from where he was pounding Saffron to
see Hotaru vanish into the tornado. "NO!" he yelled,
punctuating his cry with a thin bolt of energy that struck the
Gekkajan straight on, sending Cologne into the wall. She was
held up for a moment by the sheer momentum fo the attack,
then fell, slumped, unconscious.


Saffron realized this was his chance to reverse the one handed
beating he had been getting from Ranma. Reaching back he
snapped off his wings and threw them as hard as he could. The
golden wings of the Pheonix flew out, crescent blades of death.
The left wing missed, but the right wing struck Ranma squarely
in the shoulder. The monstrous limb fell off and dissolved into
the primal black magic that was the true form of all mazoku.
Ranma bellowed. In his shock from losing the limb, he
transformed back into his human form.

Ranma looked at his shoulder. Saffron stepped forward, a
fireball in his hand. "Come now, you're going to lose now.
Even you can't grow that back fast enough."

Ranma looked at Saffron, looked over to where Cologne was
lying, and turned back to Saffron. "I won't need it now." he
replied, smiling.

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Hotaru slammed into the ceiling, having been taken completely
by surprise by that last attack. She snarled. Already her injuries
were healing; but that attack had been a stroke of genius, using
her own innate dark power against her. She felt a little sick; it
had scrambled her a bit on the Astral, even. 

Fortunately for her, Cologne was concentrating on Ranma's
battle with Saffron. Her eyes fairly glowed when Ranma's arms
was cut off. The Glaive shot up; the words "Silence Glaive
Surprise" almost came to her lips. But then Ranma's own
words reached her.

Just what did he have in mind?

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Saffron smirked at the one-armed mazoku in front of him. Did
he really think he could defeat the mighty Pheonix God with
such a handicap? Saffron blurred forward, the Kinjakan
snapping through the air.

Ranma calmly moved aside, the staff flaring to incandescence as
it neared Ranma, scorching the earth as it hit. Saffron swung
again, to be met this time by the impossibly strong mazoku.
Ranma's blade caught the staff on its flat, and only a swift step
to the side prevented Ranma from slicing him with that sword.

Ranma concentrated for a second, and the sword pulsed with a
dark force all of its own. "Fear the power of my sword. With
every taste of power it grows stronger." Saffron snarled and
redoubled his assault. The blazing Kinjakan burned with
Saffron's power, as Saffron sought to overwhel the injured
mazoku. Ranma's own sword fairly hummed as Ranma poured
more and more of his strength into the blade. It now hummed
with a chainsaw buzz, and every time their weapons clashed
great gouts over energy erupted, blasting everything around
them. The walls began to blacken as the two fighters glowed
with a power scarcely imaginable to mortal martial artists.

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Cologne and Herb were awestruck. The two could not move
before the spectacle of power in front of them. Even when the
power being put out forced them back, sliding them back across
the floor like so much loose garbage, the two did not avert their
eyes, did not utter a word. It was a clash of titans that they
could never hope to match in power.

Cologne hoped ferverently that the two killed each other.

The two were so mesmerized by the power struggle between
Ranma and Saffron that they failed to hear the sound of an agry
mazoku dropping from the ceiling onto her feet, nor did they
see the aura coming off the pissed Dark Senshi behind them.
Hotaru stalked up behind them, Glaive raised in both hands
above her head.

"DIE!" Hotaru shrieked, the Glaive snapping over Cologne's
head. As Herb's head whipped around at the sound, her leg
lashed out, punting him skyward. Even as Hotaru lifted Cologne
off the ground, strangling her with the pole of the Glaive, Herb
reversed his direction of flight and returned, sped by a fresh
increase in the power coming off of Saffron and Ranma.

"Ryu Sei Hisho!" Herb said, firing his special double ki blast.
Hotaru simply gritted her teeth and stomped on the annoying
Ryuuzoku. 

With Cologne vainly trying to resist her innate mazoku strength
and Herb firmly under her boot, Hotaru laughed. "Worms! I'd
have let you go, but for that last attack I'm going to have to
eliminate you." Cologne's struggles grew a little more feeble,
and her eyes were beginning to swim with blackness from the
intense pressure. Hotaru wasn't just cutting off the air, she was
cutting off the blood as well.

Cologne tried to think of a martial arts technique - any
technique - that could help her in such a situation. Her ki was
low and she wasn't in a good condition to use it anyhow.
Nothing else would faze the mazoku - unless...

She gritted her teeth. She'd hate to feel indebted to Mr. Part
Time,  but there was no need for him to hear of this anyhow.
Her hand slipped into her sleeve. She felt her hands slip into the
pockets her ki made, and found what she was looking for. A
few packets of hot sauce she kept in weaponspace, along with
spare forks, knives and the like. She reached up and popped
them in Hotaru's face.

"AIIIIEEE!" Hotaru shrieked, covering her eyes and dropping
Cologne. Her other hand shot out and cracked across the back
of Cologne's head. The Amazon Matriarch flew off, impacting
against the wall with a loud THUD. Herb escaped from under
Hotaru's foot. Angry, blind, and now beyond all restraint,
Hotaru started swinging wildly, blasting everything nearby.

Cologne watched as Ranma and Saffron continued their battle,
the ground below them now glowing slag, but the fight
continued above ground. Cologne noticed the two Jusendo taps
melting. At least it would be a while before the Pheonix People
could bring Saffron to maturity again.

She watched as Ranma seemed to spiral backwards, as if he
were going to perform the Hiryuu Shoten Ha. But his aura was
enormous, almost as huge and energetic as Saffron's. So that
couldn't be it?

Or was he just on the defensive, playing the waiting game?

What was Ranma up to?

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Ranma continued to give ground, looping inward. The Bras
Blade was untouched, pristine, and shrouded in black magic,
whil the Kajakan was more battered, the power of the magically
sharp blade damaging even it, but it too glowed with the fire of
Saffron's magic. Ranma backed up and reached the center,
tripping.

The Kajakan leapt forward, seeking his heart.

Ranma stabbed forth with the Bras Blade, smiling, as he poured
every ounce of his black power into the tip. He called out the
name of his impromptu attack, that used the danger of mixing
black and white magic - "MARYUU SHOTEN HAAA!"

The Demon Dragon Ascending Wave. Mixing magic of black
and white was dangeroud, but this was a directed danger. An
explosion of immense power ripped skywards, tearing apart the
ground and sucking the waters of Jusendo upwards. Meanwhile,
Saffron was blown backwards, borne away on a storm of
darkness.

Ranma began to absorb the ancient power of Death Fog, which
had lain dormant in Jusendo these many years.

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Cologne's eyes widened in horror. The dark tornado seemed to
explode outwards, expanding and consuming the chamber. It
expanding walls slowly spiralled towards her. Heedless of her
injuries, she sprang to her feet. "Herb! Get Kiima and escape!"
Her voice was barely carrying over the infernal roar of Ranma's
attack, but Herb ran out from behind his rock, her finger
pointing at Kiima telling him all he needed to know.

Besides, only a dunce would have realized that the wall of
swirling darkness advancing upon them was a bad thing.

Hotaru opened her eye without hot sauce in it and eyed the wall
of darkness warily. Sure, this was obviously Ranma's, but she
had the feeling that it would take out anything, regardless of
affiliation. Seeing the others fleeing, Hotaru decided to teleport
outside.

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Outside, everything had been blasted away. The roaring tornado
of black magic screamed skywards, and gale force winds ripped
over the land. Of Saffron and Ranma, nothing could be seen.

Suddenly, as abruptly as it had exploded across the landscape, it
vanished.

Ranma hovered over a blackened, smooth glass crater. His arm
was fully healed, and he flexed his regrown hand. Ranma
sheathed his sword. "Power," he said simply. Ranma shifted
into his female form, then returned to male.

Ranma looked at Herb. Herb suddenly shifted to his female
form. Ranma smiled. "The power of Jusenkyo is mine. The
power of Jusendo is mine." Ranma pointed his finger at a
nearby mountaintop, which promptly exploded into ruins. He
cut loose with good old fashioned maniacal laughter, which
echoed across the reshaped landscape. 

Herb-chan and Cologne shivered and quickly slunk away.
Kiima, however, started looking for Saffron's egg. He was
obviously dead, or he would have flown down to challenge
Ranma. She shifted painfully. Obviously her wing had been
broken in the fight, and it would take a while to heal. Her left
arm hung limply as well, and her eye on that side was swollen
shut as well. She had to get Saffron and get him to safety. Then
she'd have to make the journey to Tokyo. They needed stronger
allies against this monster.

Ranma stopped his laughter and saw Hotaru. He teleported next
to her in a flash. "Hey, Hotaru!" he said, smiling broadly. "Pack
your bags. We have a trip to make!"

Hotaru smiled back. "You're going to lay claim to one of the
two open positions as Mazoku Lord?" Her smile widened into a
grin.

"Of course."

"Then.. shall we go?"

Two mazoku vanished from Earth, making a brief stop in
Tokyo to give Nabiki some instructions. 

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Afterwards, Cologne and Herb had gathered the collected Musk
and Amazons. Cologne rapped her new staff on the challenge
log to get their attention. "Listen, my people!" she gravely said.
"There is a new force for evil in the world. Despite our proud
and storied past, we cannot prevail alone. Beyond that, the dark
power of Jusendo is awakened. We cannot stay here overlong.
We must abandon the lands of our foremothers and go to
Tokyo, there to meet with others who can help." Cologne
paused and looked over the assembled crowd. "The force we
fight we cannot possibly confront and beat alone. I know your
hearts tell you this cannot be, but it is true. We two, and Saffron
besides, were not enough to win. We would be like wheat
before the reaper."

Herb took over. "There are those who possess a power
different than that of the mazoku, but strong in its own way.
We need to go to Japan and get their help. That is the only way.
Neither we nor they can kill the mazoku alone. But combined,
we stand a chance."

A voice cried out from the crowd. "Just a chance?"

"Better than no chance!" another replied. The crowd erupted
into a thousand arguments. Cologne and Herb tried to get them
under control, but it was not until hundreds and thousands of
shadows swept over them that they were silenced. "Look! It's
the people of Pheonix Mountain!" the second voice cried out.

"If even the proud people of Pheonix Mountain seek allies, you
MUST see that flight is our only option!" Cologne yelled.

It took a few hours, but the Amazons were on the move. The
day after, the Musk began an eastward trek as well.

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Nabiki laughed, as she looked over her assembled army. Ranma
had taken one of her pens and enchanted it, giving her the
power to command the minds of animals cursed by Jusenkyo.
Between that, the Chiuusuton, the waters of Jusenkyo, and a
nearby anthill, she had quite the credible force built up. She
took each thousand soldiers under the command of one of those
Brass Demons Ranma had shown her to summon. Soon she
would have enough troops to send a force to storm one of the
nearby Red Army bases and seize weapons. Most of them
would be slaughtered, but then again, she thought, looking at
the army of tigers, yeti-riding-bull-holding-crane-and-eels,
wolves, Asuras, and other assorted nasties. Once she had
uniforms and weapons she could equip a force that would
attract less undue notice.

>From small time loan shark and blackmailer to potential
conqueror. Yes, her sights had been set much higher by her deal
with Ranma...

 ** *  *   *    *     *      *       *      *     *    *   *  * **

Heh heh! And the first arc of Ranmazoku ends! Hope you
enjoyed it. I'll probably start the next arc in October.

Until then... 

Well, I will write more Ranma Gets A Gun in the interim..



                                   

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