A Brave Story

Author Notes: I have several warnings for you and first among them is the fact that this is my first Fic, and that English is my second language. This is a Ranma/Fantasy story and I am stealing from every author under the sun and hope to get away with it. I used to be a big fan of World of Warcraft, you will see a lot of elements from that game, and if you pay attention you might even catch something from Final Fantasy Tactics.

This is a R/A Fic; you might see other pairings, though at this moment none have been planned yet. If you really believe that Ranma ½ or any of its characters belong to me you need some serious help. Ranma belongs to Rumiko Takahashi, WoW is property of Blizzard Entertainment, and Final Fantasy Tactics is property of Square Soft.

The main idea for this piece came to me in 2007, for personal reasons not much has been done since. Nowadays (2011) the story is in the process of being polished and some of it will be rewritten. Do not expect it to be updated very often, but it will be finished. Eventually.

A Brave Story

Chapter One: Of Wolves and Men

Alesmerad plains, two miles north of the Ramir River.

Hiroshi halted suddenly and tried to regain his breath. After finding refuge behind a bush-covered hill he looked around frantically, his partner Daisuke, dropped to the floor behind him looking equally exhausted. Their ragged breath and sooth-laden clothes being evidence for their present struggle.

Daisuke -the taller of the two- clutched between his arms a tightly-bound, leather package, while his friend held a short sword at the ready. The battered pair sat in silence for a few minutes in an attempt to come to grips with the situation. The red sun was hiding over the horizon while a cool breeze ran among the green grasses of Alesmerad.

After a few minutes, Hiroshi crawled carefully until he could safely see over the hill and to the plains below. Not willing to risk their hiding spot he had to make do with the poor visibility that his position afforded him. "Do you think they will come after us Dai? We must have traveled at least forty miles before we lost the horses…"

"I don't know Hiro. Did you see how fast they moved?" Daisuke's disturbed gaze fell to the ground. "God what the hell were those things?" His eyes haunted, saw not the soil and the grass under their knees, but the terrible images of their comrades -and the soldiers of the mighty Scarlet Guard- being cut down like lambs at a slaughterhouse.

Hiroshi moved back and keeping his position low turned around to see his friend. After looking at him for a second, he knew that the haunted look on Daisuke's face might be found on a mirror, had he one to look at.

"I… I think they were of the Musk, the beast men from the West. I had never seen one before, but the stories they tell…" Hiroshi looked nervously at his belly, where his leather armor had been shredded by the sharp claws of a wolf-like man. The creature had been huge; standing upright and at least half a meter taller than himself. Only his good luck and the inch-thick armor prevented his flesh from being ripped apart and from letting his guts be spilt on the floor. "I just can't imagine why they would be all the way here, their lands are over a thousand miles away."

Daisuke tried to find a more comfortable position to lay on the rough ground. He wished they could move down the hill, where the taller grass would cushion them better and make for a more endurable situation. Giving it up as a lost cause, he turned to Hiroshi looking even more upset. "Do you think that some of the others made it?"

Not feeling confident to answer one way or another, Hiroshi thought about their weeklong journey from Diamond Fortress. It had all started as an exciting change of pace from all their dull assignments back at the Fortress, or the slightly better courier missions to and from Nerima City. Lord Rezla himself had requested for a small contingent from the Obsidian Knights, as an attachment to his larger, Scarlet Guard squadron.

Even though it seemed strange to ask for a group of less experienced soldiers to escort a battle-hardened elite force like the Scarlet Guard, it was explained that they would go as support only, to serve as a scout unit. So it was then that with minimal fuss, Hiroshi, Daisuke and three other men were dispatched from the Fortress. Most of them had no real combat experience, and with their leader – Lord Saotome's own son – younger than some of them, nobody expected them to see real action other than the normal necessities expected from a long journey.

At first, the objective of the mission had been declared to be on a need to know basis. After a few days of travel and a little persuasion, Hiroshi had discovered that the reason of the long journey was no other than one more lame courier mission, and while this one was much more entertaining than any other in the past, it still irked their somewhat reckless leader to no end. Ranma Saotome, who from the beginning wanted nothing to do with the mission itself, had been ready to leave everything behind in a mad rush back to the Fortress to have a little chat with his 'Old Man'.

In retrospective, Hiroshi wished they had done so.

Daisuke was looking at the package in his hands a bit dubiously. Earlier in the day, when captain Ranma had thrown the object at him while parrying the blow from one of the beasts and told them to escape, they assumed it was what had prompted the attack on their party. Two days earlier, it had been given to the Scarlet Guard at the edge of the forest to the north, by a decrepit-looking old lady that balanced her tiny body on a gnarled staff, which still looked in better condition than she did. At the time, she was with two -obviously female- figures covered in cloaks from head to toe.

The package -unimportant as it looked- had been kept inside a tent with three armed men at all times. While the Scarlet Guard had always behaved in a very professional way, the moment the package had been delivered to them their countenances changed, and everybody seemed to act with more intensity, a fact that somewhat alarmed the group from the Fortress.

"Should we go back and see if we can find any of them?" The hesitant voice of his comrade distracted Hiroshi from his reverie. "I don't feel like traveling for weeks with no supplies and we haven't seen any of the creatures since we left the camp this morning."

Hiroshi thought for a moment before answering. "I'm not sure that's a good idea Dai." He looked over the hill and towards the river. "There are some trees near the river bank, we should be able to find some cover there for tonight, and tomorrow we can decide on what to do."

Daisuke nodded, he too was exhausted.

He knew his current form was incapable of showing feelings other than fear or rage, yet he also knew his glee would be obvious even to creatures with senses as pathetic and dulled as those possessed by men. If their sense of smell were at least a tenth of a fraction as powerful as his, they would not only smell, but see his bloodlust in beautifully detailed color.

He considered himself to be a hunter, and of all the prey he had ever hunted, none gave him the delicious satisfaction that killing men did. Their expressions and smell of fear were intoxicating. These two would prove to be particularly so, after making him work so hard to find them.

So he ran. He ran and jumped, and he also sniffed the air knowing the scent was fresh -no older than a few hours- which for one with experience such as his was proving to be child's play. His strong muscular body was perfect for the chase. His long stride made long-travel easy, while his keen eyes afforded him good visibility even under the dim light of the cloud-covered moon.

If any creature saw him, it would think that he was a wolf, though no mere wolf could be as big as a horse or stronger than a bear. His fangs were thick at the base but long and sharp like curved daggers, while his messy mane gave an air of madness to his countenance.

He slowed down to a stop next to a small hill. His prey had obviously spent some time in the small patch of grass between the bushes. Yes, he could smell their sweat and fear. He looked around for a moment, his long ears twitched and his nose sniffed. Water. Running water. Most likely a river and his prey had gone on that direction.

Coriander –for that was his name- started at a somewhat sedate pace on the human's trail, his long canine strides eating up the distance. The longer he kept his pace the louder the running water seemed to be and the sharper the smell of human fear became. After several minutes of travel he could finally see a small copse of trees at a distance. Being several feet high and with a healthy amount of branches, the trees seemed to be the perfect hideout for a night of rest that no doubt was the reason behind the human stench calling to him. A few feet away from the trees the river stream laid –twenty five to thirty feet wide- it's current flowing from the mountains in the west to the sea in the east.

Quickening his pace Coriander did not have to conceal his presence or his scent any longer, by then the clouds had dispersed, and he could clearly see the moon sitting on the sky in all its magnificence. Allowing a deep instinct to take hold of him he gave a loud, sharp howl in reverence to it, and to the kill that was about to take place.

The two humans were so startled by his melodious war-cry, that the larger of the two fell from one of the lower branches. The smaller one distressed, woke up from the fitful sleep that only prey could truly appreciate, and jumped from the same branch. As soon as it touched ground, it dashed madly towards the river, leather-bound package tightly clutched between its arms… Oh yes this one would go down first, he could see it… fifty feet… forty… thirty… he could taste it…

Daisuke could barely breath from the shock of hitting the ground with such force. Even then, the pain barely registered over the terrible chill caused by the monstrous mix between a howl and a bark that he had just heard. Picking up the sword and turning around, he could hear Hiroshi running in the other direction screaming obscenities rarely heard from the mild mannered squire. What he saw then froze him to the spot. An enormous, six-foot tall creature resembling a wolf was charging towards them. Its huge, dark eyes stared holes trough his soul with burning intensity while its fangs were bared in a mixture of fierceness and fury. It leaped once… twice… then a massive jump… Holy shit...

An immense explosion rocked the copse of trees. One moment the huge wolf was flying through the air on a collision course with Hiroshi, on the next, it disappeared between a massive ball of dark-purple flames. The last thing Daisuke felt after being thrown twenty feet backwards and into the air, was the shrapnel against his body and the chilling embrace of cold water before he knew no more.

Coriander howled in unrestrained fury. The burning pain was forgotten amid the shifting soreness of going from his beast form, into his more agile and dangerous, humanoid form. He could identify the burning smell of his flesh mixed with the foul stench of dark magic, previously witnessed among the dark shamans of his homeland.

He had barely touched the ground in a crouch, when his shackles raised once more. With another mighty push of his legs he jumped twenty feet into the air. This time he could clearly see the massive build up of dark energy and then the two beams; one from the ground and up and the other from twenty five feet in the air and down, meeting each other in a huge pillar of purple flamed explosion.

He had to dodge and summersault to avoid two more explosions before he had any idea of what was attacking him. The feel and scent of his aggressor were both young and ancient. Even then, he could not see more than a shadowed silhouette of a longhaired man, but that was all it took. The next time he felt the buildup of the -by now familiar- dark energy, he lunged forward. Ignoring the shockwave and shrapnel hitting his back, he attacked with a massive swipe of his claws expecting to cut his attacker in two. He was surprised to see his arms blocked by a set of short swords, more resembling of long, oversized daggers. The glint of a dark glow on the metal alarmed him to the fact that they were no mere, mundane weapons.

After an intense exchange of blows and counterblows, Coriander was amazed to see how even though he dwarfed the masked man –for it was wearing a dark face-mask that covered most of its face- by at least two feet and two hundred pounds, it was still able to hold its own in such a physical battle. What amazed him even more, was that it was moving just as fast as Coriander himself.

Thinking about his previous prey and main objective, Coriander was almost caught of guard when a new -even more massive- buildup of energy came tearing from the sky and blew up the tree he had been standing on, in a million toothpick-sized pieces. He was barely touching ground again and getting ready for a counter attack when his instincts screamed at him to jump once more. Looking back, he was relieved that he did so, for on the ground, on the same spot where he had been standing less than a second ago, a big dark blob was raising from the soil. It was just as tall as he himself was, and after a few seconds it took a shape that somewhat resembled a humanoid. Thick muscular arms joined a torso, that instead of legs seemed to have a long robe of the same dark material that faded once it touched the ground in shadows. One word came to his mind. Voidwalker.

He turned and looked at the masked man. Its blue eyes, being the only visible feature, were set in a determined gaze. It looked young, but was uncommonly strong and moved more like he and his people did, than any human had a right to. He could still smell the other two across the river and even though one of them was unconscious, Coriander didn't think he could get to them before this new human, or the shadow demon, acted against him.

Keeping his guard up he forced himself to speak the human tongue, and addressed the masked man in a heavily accented growl. "Who the hell are you, warlock?" Motioning with his head toward the other two, he continued. "Why do you protect them? Men such as yourself rarely provide protection for weaklings like them."

The young warlock -for it could barely be past childhood- answered in a strong voice that betrayed no fear. "That is none of your concern Musk," Coriander could see the arrogant smirk even trough the dark mask. "You have thirty seconds to leave before I kick your ass!"

The wolf-man could not help but grin menacingly. "Oh? So you know about us?" He laughed in a deep, bark-like tone. He is brimming with confidence; lets show the runt. "No matter. You will not live to tell the tale!" He had to be fast to avoid the Voidwalker, and more importantly, the youngling's own magnificent defenses, but he knew he could do it. No mere child could hope to stand against the might of the Musk Dynasty.

Gathering his remaining strength in to his legs and claws, he jumped forty feet into the air. "WOLF FANG SLASH!" Once he reached his maximum height, Coriander shot down at an incredible speed, covered in a deep yellow glow and barreling down like a boulder-sized meteor.

Hiroshi shivered and fell to his knees. The water was colder than he had expected. He was glad that he had been able to get both, Daisuke's unconscious body and the package, to this side of the river. More than once he had almost convinced himself to let the package be taken away by the current in favor of saving his and Daisuke's lives, but the burden of knowing how many brave men had died trying to protect it, left him with no heart to do so.

He was still confused by the explosions going off at the other side, and he still didn't know if it was safe to wait and take a breather. What he knew was that in his current condition, he could not move another finger even if that massive wolf were to be found chewing happily on his foot.

He turned to Daisuke in worry. The exhausted youth felt somewhat relieved that even though his friend was unconscious, he was still breathing deeply and looked to be merely sleeping. That first concussion-wave had hit him pretty hard, even though he had been a good ways further than Daisuke from the explosion. What the hell is going on over there? Who is setting off all those firewo… Hiroshi was interrupted from his musings by a deep guttural roar, followed by a massive backlash that threw him on his behind.

"WOLF FANG SLASH!"

Coriander breathed deeply and smirked. He could feel his body completely drained of strength, and even though just opening his eyes seemed to be a challenge, he had done it. His nose would not lie to him and it was telling him that a good amount of human blood had been spilled tonight. He breathed again for good measure, and felt almost giddy with the excitement of victory. No mere human brat could ever defeat him.

Just before he decided to open his eyes and take a look; a sharp, deep-freezing chill went up his spine, then he felt the familiar build-up of dark energy. His eyes shot open in an instant and he was both amazed and terrified at what he beheld in front of him.

Indeed, human blood had been spilled tonight, but his young opponent wasn't out of the fight yet. Coriander was standing in front of the youngling. His right claw deep to the knuckles inside the human's shoulder. It had its eyes closed and was clutching at his wrists, but instead of the expected scream of agony, it had a deep frown of concentration upon it's masked features.

That was when he recalled his first impression of the young human. Its scent had been both young and ancient, and while he had forgotten about it during the heat of battle, it came back and hit him like an iceberg. It was then that Coriander, leader of the Wolf Pack of the Musk, heard the end of a muttered sentence.

"…Unstable Corruption…"

Soft as they were, the words hit him with the force of a stampede.

Pain like he had never felt before invaded his body. His skin was fire and his flesh was charred to the bone. His blood became burning oil inside his veins, and his brain was being eaten by the most foul of creatures. His eyes shot open in agony and as he pulled his claw, the wounded human fell to the ground. Coriander looked at his arms and body and he could see no flames, no worms eating his flesh, and his ears were not filled to the brim by brain eating insects. Yet it did not matter; for a pain, a torment that had never been suffered by creature -beast or man- was eating him from the inside. His body and head burned and his soul was chilled by the most terrible of northern winds.

He clawed at his skin and pulled his hair and closed his eyes, but darkness brought no comfort, for deep inside his mind, he saw it: Dark, massive empty plains and in the middle, a monstrous entity. Bigger than a mountain, ancient and -more terrible still- it's shadow; a dim, greenish-aura that consumed with plague everything it touched, his land, the lands of his ancestors, the Musk. The massive creature moved slow and was unstoppable, everything on its path became barren and was consumed, the men, women and children alike…

Coriander, in his terrible afflicted state could see nothing but the terror in his mind. He did not feel when his body, in an unconscious attempt at finding a refuge from the fear and pain, reverted into his wolf form. He did not see the stricken look on the young man that could not believe what he had done. He did not even realize when his crazed body began a frantic run to the west, and to his people, in search for deliverance from his affliction, where there was none to be had.

He tried to stand up but was too exhausted. His shoulder hurt like a bitch. He wished he hadn't had to sacrifice Thognos; the demon was bound to be pissed the next time he summoned him. A repeat of the last time he fought those thugs on the way to Nerima seemed imminent. The little shit had refused to help him, and instead of protecting him, the blue turd had the gall to cheer his enemies. And you call yourself a warlock, well; at least in your mind you do, it wouldn't be good if the Old Man found out…

Having to fight those ugly sons of bitches earlier in the morning hadn't been a walk in the park either, but at least then he had some help from the Scarlet Buffoons. Arrogant bastards that they were, he still felt bad about the ones who were slaughtered, they fought for something they believed in. Not unlike him.

Now why didn't the Old Man tell him about these Musk weirdoes. He had most likely lost Ebisu because they were not ready for such an assault, and as far as he knew, even Gosunkugi might be dead. The last time he saw him, a Scarlet Buffoon was dragging the underfed squire to a safer position behind other members of the Scarlet Brigade.

The young man removed his mask and tried to stand one more time. After a while he was able to manage a standing position without falling to the floor in dizziness. Ok, so he had lost a lot of blood. Being impaled on the shoulder by an eight-foot tall monster might qualify as a life-threatening event, but he wasn't on the mood to take bullshit. Not even in the form of his own body trying to tell him to take it easy.

He took a step, and then two; lather, rinse, repeat…

After struggling for a few seconds he was able to get close to one of the few surviving trees and sit on its massive roots. He pulled out a small ceramic jar from his side pouch, and with his fingers, took out a big dollop of the green looking ointment. Gritting his teeth he applied it to the wound on his shoulder. Grrr son of a bitch! Now I remember why I have to be more careful when fighting bastards like that Wolf-guy. Getting your wounds fixed is sometimes more painful than actually getting wounded…

Twice he had to remind himself that men do not cry, even if the closest things to human beings that might bear witness to his weakness, were the two unconscious, half-assed squires on the other side of the river. I should give them a break, they sure kicked ass today. They never lifted a sword against the Musk, but were able to stay ahead until I could help them. That took some balls.

And help them he did. Things might not have turned out as planed, but they still had that oh-so-important package in their possession. Ok, so he had had to use his little gift a little more than he would have liked to, but under the circumstances it had been his only option. And the only person to actually bear witness to it was running away like the devil was behind him trying to light his tail on fire. He was damned if even the crazy Musk would be able to get information out of that one.

The young man tried shifting on the roots to get a better position for some much-needed sleep. He was dreading the next day with Hiroshi and Daisuke; they weren't the sharpest knives in the pouch, but even they would have realized that this had not been the Furinkan Academy Festival, four months before it was scheduled to be, and that those explosions sure as hell hadn't been fireworks.

And worst of all; what the hell happened when he tried his new little trick on the Wolf guy? Master Happosai never said it would be so… effective, much less so against such a seasoned warrior as that Wolf guy was bound to be. He was going to have to talk to that Old Fart too.

"I'm never gonna hear the end of it if Ranko and the Tomboy ever find out…" sigh, who am I kidding? "…when they find out."

Voidwalker: One of the many demons summoned by the warlock class in World of Warcraft. Its main purpose, is to defend its master by keeping the attention of their enemies on itself while the warlock finishes them off. Voidwalkers can take a lot of punishment but their attack power is lower than some of the other demon classes. It has a humanoid shape with muscular arms, its lower body resembles a long robe that disappears in shadows. When walking, it glides over the terrain at a considerable pace. Most of them are of a dark-bluish color.

07/18/2011

I would like to thank anybody who got this far in the story, and would also like to encourage you to review. Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated. I still don't know how often I will be able to update, but I will try not to let it take forever.

FictionWeaver