Vampire Savior
by Shade
Disclaimer: It's not my fault.
~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 2: Blood Will Tell
~~~~~~~~~~
The vampire demon was suddenly too busy clutching
his groin to pay much attention to anything else.
Saotome rewarded his lack of vigilance with
a rapid flurry of full power kicks into his
fine featured face. Three hits splattered
Dimitri's nose, the sixth dropped him to his
knees, and Ranma closed in for the kill.
"Dokuja Tanketsu Sho!"
His flat palms slammed into the reeling monster's
chest, striking where in a normal person the
heart would be located. But if Dimitri still
had a heart, it was black and dead as a lump
of coal. The attack merely inflicted a great
deal of pain to the vampire, which was something
that the overconfident villain was unused to
after his long exile to Earth.
Tonight Dimitri was going to get a refresher course.
"Geimon Tetsu Sen Shi!!"
Ranma's hands arced down and repeated the strike,
this time hitting his opponent dead center in the
abodomen. The pressure delivered by the points
of his fingers ripped straight through the fiend's
withered stomach, and Dimitri jackknifed forward
in sudden agony.
A front snap kick brought him up straight for a moment.
Then Ranma finished his unconventional combo.
"Haku Dato Shin Sho!"
This time the force of his rapid fire
finger strikes went straight through
Dimitri's body.
Ranma hit the bastard over a dozen times,
not holding back an inch, knowing that he dared
not give his opponent a chance to go back on
the offensive. There was no time to worry
about fair play or the fact that he'd vowed
to never use the forbidden techniques because
they were so dangerous. He was in a fight
for his very survival now, and even the
old horror of killing Saffron was now
trifling in comparision to the sudden
confrontation of his own impending extinction.
He wanted to live.
It was almost funny, only when faced with death
did he finally realize that all of his previous
problems seemed so meaningless in the grand scheme
of things.
"Filthy Barbarian!"
Dimitri drew back, spitting obscenities and promises of a long
and painful death at his opponent. His once elegant features
were cortorted into an ugly mask of hate and rage, exposing
the true monster that lay beneath the noble's facade.
Never, in all the centuries he'd sent on Earth, had he been so humilated!
A weakling human had actually managed to injure him!
It was an insult that could not be borne!
"You *hurt* me...Now you will pay the ultimate price for your crime!"
An eruption of raw blazing red power shoved Ranma away, forcing the
young martial artist to dig in his heels and crossblock with his arms
to avoid being overwhelmed by the sudden surge of evil strength from
the now completely enraged vampire.
{Damn! Its just like fighting Saffron all over again!}
Ranma was good, but he was only human.
{Calm down. Think Saotome. Strength isn't everything in a fight,
there has to be something I can counter with, an opening,
a weakness I'm just not seeing! I can't lose! I won't lose!!}
Crimson fire bathed Dimitri's half-naked form as his body swelled.
Inhuman muscles bulged forth as he reverted to his true shape,
a hideous seven foot tall bat-winged monster with glaring red eyes
and an oversized mouth full of large razor sharp teeth.
"Die Human Scum!!"
Scarlet lightning and ruby bats of pure flame blasted forth from
Dimitri's chest. There was no chance to dodge, no safe spot in the
lethal barrage.
There was only instinct.
"Hiryu Shoten Ha! Revised horizontal blast!!"
Ranma reached into the deepest core of his being for the crystal purity
of the Soul of Ice, embracing its chilling power with the raw strength
of complete desperation. The glowing blue dragon's head of pure cold
chi that erupted from his out thrust hand roared like a hungry beast as
it spiraled out to meet the other attack.
Distantly he could hear sounds of alarm from the house, as they finally
figured out where all the noise was coming from. But that was only a
secondary consideration, for that was when the two blasts collided.
"Hnnnh!"
A sound like a thunderclap struck both combatants as the heads of the two blasts exploded in between them. Even with both feet braced in anticipation the violence of the tornado's birth drove Ranma back.
"Haaaaa!!"
His feet sank deeply into the loose soil as he kept fueling the howling storm
that spun around him. Of his opponent he could barely keep track, the monster
was only a dim speck being hurtled around in the dark vortex above. The martial
artist fought to hold the tornado's power back, he had put too much of himself
into that last attack. His own technique threatened to take him now, he no longer
had control over it. It was a wild thing, loosed of any restraint, and all
he could hope to do was ride the danger out.
The heavy winds pressed in from all sides. They seemed to whisper to him
"Let go." "Let us take you.", but he refused to give in to the seductive
voices. He ached all over and his chest was burning something fierce.
It seemed that the hits he'd taken from Dimitri had done more damage
then he'd first thought.
Ranma didn't know how long he struggled inside the heart of the twister,
but gradually he finally noticed that the deadly wind was dying down.
And not a moment too soon, his resistance to the storm had taken a
heavy toll on his reserves. His legs were shaking when he finally
stepped out of the deep impression in the ground.
But that was the least of his problems.
{Did I get him?!}
He was answered a few moments later by a loud thud as a dark form slammed into the ground.
{I did it. I beat h-}
The last thing he felt was a sharp blow to the back of his neck.
And then there was only darkness.
~~~~~~~~~
"Hey! Keep it down! People are trying to sleep you know!"
Nabiki had long since learned to tune out the regular sounds of Ranma's
occasional nocturnal battles with Ryoga or some other idiot who decided
that they couldn't wait for it to be light outside before trying to beat the
living snot out of the young Saotome.
But having the backyard blown up, followed by a full fledged tornado
in the street, now that was going too far! She needed her beauty sleep!
"When I get my hands on you, I'm going to give your wallet such a *pinch!"
She was beaten to the first floor by Akane, her younger sister was already
muttering about "bakas" and "punishments" as she stomped her way towards
the door.
Nabiki paused to give the guest room an evil look.
"That damn panda can sleep through anything!"
~~~~~~~~~
"Can you stand?"
A growl answered him from the depths of the crater.
"I'll kill him!"
"No, you won't. He's of more use to us alive."
Only the fact that he didn't stand a chance against the elder vampire
in his weakened condition stopped Dimitri from disobeying his orders
and even then it was a close call.
With a muted growl of thwarted rage, the vampire lord stood up.
"Control yourself."
It was digusting how these snotty little upstarts had no sense of dignity.
Dracula wondered (not for the first time) how on earth such a barbaric ruffian
had managed to survive so long as a vampire. In his day such fools were
impaled through the bowls and left hanging above his lawns to die a long
agonizing death. Really, even this young mortal had more class then his partner.
"We have what we came for. Let us be off."
~~~~~~~~~
Inside a bedroom in the Nekohanten a single cry broke the silence of the night.
Cologne switched on the lights, still shivering from the evil presence
that had brushed her dreams. A fine cold sweat covered the old Amazon's
shrunken form, and the Village Elder was afraid.
Something terrible had happened.
She dressed quickly and stepped into a seldom used room near the back of building.
Here a small shrine had been mounted for the Gods and Goddesses of the Chinese Amazons.
Lighting some joss sticks and placing them within the craved bowl set in the center of
the shrine, Cologne did something she had not done since she had been pregnant with
Shampoo's mother's mother.
She prayed.
~~~~~~~~~
Saffron paced in front of his throne impatiently.
Unnoticed in the shadows of the room, a solitary
figure watched the impatient ruler with a heavy heart.
Kiima was deeply worried about her charge. She feared that the elders
had made a terrible mistake in choosing to again restore their Champion
to his full power so quickly.
Always before the tribe had let Saffron grow as one of their own,
giving him time to mature and remember the responsibilities that
were his domain.
But in recent years regional events had conspired to deprive them of that luxury.
First had been the probes of the barbaric Chinese Army.
The winged people had needed the full power of their still toddling icon.
But the change in him afterwards had been apparent to all.
The adult Saffron had been arrogant, short tempered and unstable.
And then he'd been slain by a single weak human.
The disaster of that and the destruction of the hot water spring
that served their community had been simply devastating to her
people's morale.
They had been afraid.
They'd needed their leader.
So for the second time Saffron had been brought back into his prime
before mind and spirit were ready to handle the strain.
But now he seemed to be obsessed with only one thing.
The complete and total destruction of the young man
who had dared to injure his divine being, Ranma Saotome.
Kiima feared that her lord's obsession was blinding him
to the real threat.
But still she said nothing.
For it was not her place to speak.
She could only serve.
And pray that Saffron's vendetta would not doom them all...
(To be continued...)
by Shade
Disclaimer: It's not my fault.
~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter 2: Blood Will Tell
~~~~~~~~~~
The vampire demon was suddenly too busy clutching
his groin to pay much attention to anything else.
Saotome rewarded his lack of vigilance with
a rapid flurry of full power kicks into his
fine featured face. Three hits splattered
Dimitri's nose, the sixth dropped him to his
knees, and Ranma closed in for the kill.
"Dokuja Tanketsu Sho!"
His flat palms slammed into the reeling monster's
chest, striking where in a normal person the
heart would be located. But if Dimitri still
had a heart, it was black and dead as a lump
of coal. The attack merely inflicted a great
deal of pain to the vampire, which was something
that the overconfident villain was unused to
after his long exile to Earth.
Tonight Dimitri was going to get a refresher course.
"Geimon Tetsu Sen Shi!!"
Ranma's hands arced down and repeated the strike,
this time hitting his opponent dead center in the
abodomen. The pressure delivered by the points
of his fingers ripped straight through the fiend's
withered stomach, and Dimitri jackknifed forward
in sudden agony.
A front snap kick brought him up straight for a moment.
Then Ranma finished his unconventional combo.
"Haku Dato Shin Sho!"
This time the force of his rapid fire
finger strikes went straight through
Dimitri's body.
Ranma hit the bastard over a dozen times,
not holding back an inch, knowing that he dared
not give his opponent a chance to go back on
the offensive. There was no time to worry
about fair play or the fact that he'd vowed
to never use the forbidden techniques because
they were so dangerous. He was in a fight
for his very survival now, and even the
old horror of killing Saffron was now
trifling in comparision to the sudden
confrontation of his own impending extinction.
He wanted to live.
It was almost funny, only when faced with death
did he finally realize that all of his previous
problems seemed so meaningless in the grand scheme
of things.
"Filthy Barbarian!"
Dimitri drew back, spitting obscenities and promises of a long
and painful death at his opponent. His once elegant features
were cortorted into an ugly mask of hate and rage, exposing
the true monster that lay beneath the noble's facade.
Never, in all the centuries he'd sent on Earth, had he been so humilated!
A weakling human had actually managed to injure him!
It was an insult that could not be borne!
"You *hurt* me...Now you will pay the ultimate price for your crime!"
An eruption of raw blazing red power shoved Ranma away, forcing the
young martial artist to dig in his heels and crossblock with his arms
to avoid being overwhelmed by the sudden surge of evil strength from
the now completely enraged vampire.
{Damn! Its just like fighting Saffron all over again!}
Ranma was good, but he was only human.
{Calm down. Think Saotome. Strength isn't everything in a fight,
there has to be something I can counter with, an opening,
a weakness I'm just not seeing! I can't lose! I won't lose!!}
Crimson fire bathed Dimitri's half-naked form as his body swelled.
Inhuman muscles bulged forth as he reverted to his true shape,
a hideous seven foot tall bat-winged monster with glaring red eyes
and an oversized mouth full of large razor sharp teeth.
"Die Human Scum!!"
Scarlet lightning and ruby bats of pure flame blasted forth from
Dimitri's chest. There was no chance to dodge, no safe spot in the
lethal barrage.
There was only instinct.
"Hiryu Shoten Ha! Revised horizontal blast!!"
Ranma reached into the deepest core of his being for the crystal purity
of the Soul of Ice, embracing its chilling power with the raw strength
of complete desperation. The glowing blue dragon's head of pure cold
chi that erupted from his out thrust hand roared like a hungry beast as
it spiraled out to meet the other attack.
Distantly he could hear sounds of alarm from the house, as they finally
figured out where all the noise was coming from. But that was only a
secondary consideration, for that was when the two blasts collided.
"Hnnnh!"
A sound like a thunderclap struck both combatants as the heads of the two blasts exploded in between them. Even with both feet braced in anticipation the violence of the tornado's birth drove Ranma back.
"Haaaaa!!"
His feet sank deeply into the loose soil as he kept fueling the howling storm
that spun around him. Of his opponent he could barely keep track, the monster
was only a dim speck being hurtled around in the dark vortex above. The martial
artist fought to hold the tornado's power back, he had put too much of himself
into that last attack. His own technique threatened to take him now, he no longer
had control over it. It was a wild thing, loosed of any restraint, and all
he could hope to do was ride the danger out.
The heavy winds pressed in from all sides. They seemed to whisper to him
"Let go." "Let us take you.", but he refused to give in to the seductive
voices. He ached all over and his chest was burning something fierce.
It seemed that the hits he'd taken from Dimitri had done more damage
then he'd first thought.
Ranma didn't know how long he struggled inside the heart of the twister,
but gradually he finally noticed that the deadly wind was dying down.
And not a moment too soon, his resistance to the storm had taken a
heavy toll on his reserves. His legs were shaking when he finally
stepped out of the deep impression in the ground.
But that was the least of his problems.
{Did I get him?!}
He was answered a few moments later by a loud thud as a dark form slammed into the ground.
{I did it. I beat h-}
The last thing he felt was a sharp blow to the back of his neck.
And then there was only darkness.
~~~~~~~~~
"Hey! Keep it down! People are trying to sleep you know!"
Nabiki had long since learned to tune out the regular sounds of Ranma's
occasional nocturnal battles with Ryoga or some other idiot who decided
that they couldn't wait for it to be light outside before trying to beat the
living snot out of the young Saotome.
But having the backyard blown up, followed by a full fledged tornado
in the street, now that was going too far! She needed her beauty sleep!
"When I get my hands on you, I'm going to give your wallet such a *pinch!"
She was beaten to the first floor by Akane, her younger sister was already
muttering about "bakas" and "punishments" as she stomped her way towards
the door.
Nabiki paused to give the guest room an evil look.
"That damn panda can sleep through anything!"
~~~~~~~~~
"Can you stand?"
A growl answered him from the depths of the crater.
"I'll kill him!"
"No, you won't. He's of more use to us alive."
Only the fact that he didn't stand a chance against the elder vampire
in his weakened condition stopped Dimitri from disobeying his orders
and even then it was a close call.
With a muted growl of thwarted rage, the vampire lord stood up.
"Control yourself."
It was digusting how these snotty little upstarts had no sense of dignity.
Dracula wondered (not for the first time) how on earth such a barbaric ruffian
had managed to survive so long as a vampire. In his day such fools were
impaled through the bowls and left hanging above his lawns to die a long
agonizing death. Really, even this young mortal had more class then his partner.
"We have what we came for. Let us be off."
~~~~~~~~~
Inside a bedroom in the Nekohanten a single cry broke the silence of the night.
Cologne switched on the lights, still shivering from the evil presence
that had brushed her dreams. A fine cold sweat covered the old Amazon's
shrunken form, and the Village Elder was afraid.
Something terrible had happened.
She dressed quickly and stepped into a seldom used room near the back of building.
Here a small shrine had been mounted for the Gods and Goddesses of the Chinese Amazons.
Lighting some joss sticks and placing them within the craved bowl set in the center of
the shrine, Cologne did something she had not done since she had been pregnant with
Shampoo's mother's mother.
She prayed.
~~~~~~~~~
Saffron paced in front of his throne impatiently.
Unnoticed in the shadows of the room, a solitary
figure watched the impatient ruler with a heavy heart.
Kiima was deeply worried about her charge. She feared that the elders
had made a terrible mistake in choosing to again restore their Champion
to his full power so quickly.
Always before the tribe had let Saffron grow as one of their own,
giving him time to mature and remember the responsibilities that
were his domain.
But in recent years regional events had conspired to deprive them of that luxury.
First had been the probes of the barbaric Chinese Army.
The winged people had needed the full power of their still toddling icon.
But the change in him afterwards had been apparent to all.
The adult Saffron had been arrogant, short tempered and unstable.
And then he'd been slain by a single weak human.
The disaster of that and the destruction of the hot water spring
that served their community had been simply devastating to her
people's morale.
They had been afraid.
They'd needed their leader.
So for the second time Saffron had been brought back into his prime
before mind and spirit were ready to handle the strain.
But now he seemed to be obsessed with only one thing.
The complete and total destruction of the young man
who had dared to injure his divine being, Ranma Saotome.
Kiima feared that her lord's obsession was blinding him
to the real threat.
But still she said nothing.
For it was not her place to speak.
She could only serve.
And pray that Saffron's vendetta would not doom them all...
(To be continued...)