"We should head back to the tower, this is not part of our mission." Ranma said reluctantly as Kikori and himself sat on the roots of a tree, "I know you don't like to get involved in stuff like these."

"Ranma... this isn't like you." Kikori said shaking her head, "I'd thought you'd jump at the chance of fighting the Musk."

"This isn't our fight," Ranma said again, keeping a straight face, "even if we did help him, we're only two, he's about to fight a war."

Kikori turned away and stared at the ground in front of her, "A lot of people will die..."

"Yeah..."

"There has to be a way to stop it, or end it quickly." Kikori frowned in concentration.

Ranma sighed as he watched his partner in deep thought, "Look Kiko-"

"No YOU look," Kikori interrupted glaring at the pigtailed mage, "If a civil war starts, a lot of people will die, there will be kids, like us, losing their parents! There will be more orphans! I won't allow it!"

Ranma blinked and backed up slightly at the intensity of Kikori. The two sat silently, staring at each other underneath the tree, unmoving, trying to make the other back away from their point of view.

"I'm not interrupting anything am I?"

The two mages jumped and turned towards the source of the voice. Herb raised an eyebrow, "I'm just here to ask when you are going to return to the tower. When you are, I will send with you a message to tell them that if I win, I will send a messenger to continue the negotiations."

"That wou-"

A cry of a pigeon stopped Ranma in mid-sentence. The three looked upwards to see the pigeon swoop down and land on Herb's shoulder.

"One of the wolf clan's messenger pigeons, what is it doing here." Herb muttered as he removed the small roll of paper around the pigeon's left leg.

"What is it?" Kikori asked anxiously.

"This is not good..."

Act: 1 Chapter: 21

A Priestess' Tear...

"Today, we will uphold the heritage that is Musk." Spice bellowed as the restless Musk soldiers listened below the balcony in which he stood, "Today, we will put the end the blasphemy that my father and my brother have tried to infect our proud nation with. Today we will once again embrace our warrior heritage! So go forth, let the creatures of Jusendo once again know the fear of Musk!"

Cheers echoed in Spice's ears as spears and swords are raised into the air by the soldiers below him. Yes, we will be reborn again, let all that comes between the Musk die a quick painful death.

"Why are we doing this?"

"Our king orders it! It will be a great honor!"

"Bah, all we're going to do is slaughter defenseless villagers, what's so great about that!"

"The amazons are going to attack us if this goes on, are we going to risk our lives and leave our families again just to fight?"

"Coward! You should live the fight! It is the way of the Musk!"

Song sighed as his ears twitched irritably, I hope the pigeons that we sent out has reached King Herb. Even if half of us don't agree with what is happening, we can't rebel against the king. Not without another valid leader anyways, and all the soldiers with a flag is all for Spice's idea. This is going to be bloody...

"Geez, why am I doing this again?" Ranma huffed as she brushed aside the few red strands of hair from obscuring her view, "Can't believe Lime and Mint actually had the nerve to hit on me."

Kikori giggled, "Well, you DO make a cute girl you know."

Ranma looked down and grimiced at the choice of clothes the villagers have given her, "I really hate this skirt and shirt. Can't they at least dye it all black, brown isn't really my color."

The priestess gave her now female partner a once over, "Well, at least it looks good on you, unlike me. I still can't believe they gave YOU the skirt..."

Ranma chuckled, "I'd have to agree, brown burlap doesn't fit you. I guess we should be thankful they have extra clothes to spare, I mean, this village isn't exactly the richest village around."

"I know what you mean." Kikori whispered as she glanced around the village. "I still don't understand why Herb told the entire villager about the planned raid, it would be better if we just stopped it before it happened."

"Politics," Ranma replied, "Something about doing that is suppose to be bad and will put Herb in a position where he can't get onto the throne again."

"All matters aside I hope this plan works." Kikori muttered grasping her necklace, "There's already too much pain here."

"It's almost time, I think we should head towards the western entrance of the village, if what the message said was right, they should be entering from there." Ranma frowned and headed towards that direction, "We shouldn't even be doing this..."

Kikori gave Ranma a glare, "Don't you ever say that again."

"I thought you're always complaining about us getting into situations like these."

"My father and mother gave their life trying to save these people, I don't intend to cheapen their death by not doing anything." Kikori stomped off leaving a stunned Ranma behind.

"Kikori..."

"Herb, the raiding party is about to attack the village." Mint said kneeling in front of the dragon price, "Your orders?"

"We will wait for the two mage's barriers, then we will proceed according to plan." Herb replied coolly, "If we don't stop my brother here, there won't be another chance as good as this to stop him."

"They are coming!" Lime hissed.

"Lime, stay here with me, Mint, I want you to sneak to the other side of the main street." Herb commanded, "Don't let anyone see you."

"As you will."

"Then, let the battle be met..." Herb muttered.

"Just like the message said," Ranma smiled, "well, lets give them a surprise road block shall we?"

"With pleasure," Kikori gave a small smirk before washing away all expression from her face and falling into deep concentration.

"I call forth, the barrier of souls!" Ranma muttered, the air in front of the two mages flickered slightly, "Here they come."

"Ready."

The battle cries of the Musk soldiers suddenly filled the air. The villagers all froze at the battle cries that sounded more like a stampede of assorted animals about to crash through the village. The two mages braced themselves for the impact of the Musk raiders against the barriers that they have created.

"Pillage everything!"

"Burn everything! Kill all that comes in our way!"

"For King Spic- urk!"

Both of the mages fell to their knees at the force of the soldiers charging into the barriers. Without warning, Lime and Mint both charged out from hiding and stopped behind the raiding party, both of them with a one hand glowing in magic and the other, holding a sword.

"Musk raiding party!" Herb yelled from the side of the road holding a glowing red ball of magic on the palm of his hands, "You are trapped and at my mercy. I will let you live, if you go back now and give my brother this message: stop the raids, or else."

All the musk glanced at each other as the leader of the party was crushed between the barrier and his own men, "We will retreat and take your message with us..."

"Well, that went well." Ranma grinned, "But I still don't get why I had to change into a girl."

Herb nodded, "You needed to change because the raiding party will notice you and Kikori if you were to wear your own clothes, they will know something is amiss. That and I am curious as to what your curse is when Song informed me of it."

"And here I thought there was some hyper sense that I will avoid if I changed to a girl," Ranma muttered, "Just when I thought the curse is useful."

Kikori laughed softly from where she laid, "Well at least the plan went off without a hitch."

"Go to sleep Kikori." Ranma said drawing his cloak over his partner's shoulders, "You'll need the rest after stopping THAT much Musk from charging through your barrier, even I felt it and I set up mine behind yours."

"I'm not frail Ranma." Kikori fumed before letting out a yawn.

"But you still need your rest. Plus, it's late, I think we'll need all our energy for tomorrow."

"Fine..."

Herb chucked, "Well, now that I've basically declared war on my breathen, I need to regain my sigil flag to rally the people that still follow me to my side."

Ranma blinked, "What don you mean? Can't you just, you know, go in and tell the people that follow you to... well... follow you?"

"It's not exactly that simple," Herb sighed, "There are laws that prevent minor uprisings but that same law is preventing me from dethroning my own brother..."

Stone wall on all four sides, without an exit. The only way out, a single piece of rope that is lowered on the command of Spice. Things didn't look good for Song as he kept a neutral expression on his battered face and glanced around 'The Pit'.

"What do you hope to accomplish by assisting my brother, Song of the tracker wolf clan." Spice growled, "Because of your actions, twelve of our brethren has fallen and our raid was stopped by five, FIVE people!"

"I do what I must for the good of the Musk." The wolf like man replied earning him a punch to the gut.

"I'll decide what is good for our people." The Dragon-man growled, flaring his nostrils, "Where is my brother."

"I don't know."

Spice roared and picked Song up by the collar of his shirt, "Where is my BROTHER!"

"I sent all our messenger pigeons in all directions in hopes that one has reached him," Song grimaced, biting back the urge to spit at the man in front of him, "I have no idea where he."

"Useless fool!" Spice flings Song as if he is nothing but a baby, creating a dent in the stone wall where Song had hit, "For this offense, death is your punishment."

Song gripped on to his arm where it hit the wall, gritting his teeth and ignoring the pain that shot through his whole body, he stood up and stared the dragon prince down, "Then know this, I would rather die than to watch as you destroy the Musk."

Spice cackled suddenly, throwing his head back, "You still... heh... you still believe that my brother can overthrow me? You insolent fool, my brother is without his sigil flag, while I hold all to with me on top of the castle in which I reside. Do you really think that Herb can manage to take the sigil flag from me. Only with it can he over throw me and he can NEVER touch it again!"

Song growled, bearing his teeth, "You forget SPICE, your brother is the stronger of the two of you, he WILL defeat you..."

The dragon prince stiffen, his left eyes twitched sporadically as he tighten the grip of his fist, making poping sound, "He... is... NOT... my BETTER!"

Song didn't feel a thing; he was already numb with all the pain already dealt to him by Spice even before his 'interrogation'. All he felt was the weightless feeling as he sailed towards the stone wall of the pit and the fear the suddenly felt as he stared into Spice's eyes...

Red... the bloody beast as taken over...

All Song can do is pray for the last few seconds of his life for the safety of his people.

He never finished his prayer...

"That is either the most ingenious thing I've ever heard, or the stupidest... I can't deicide." Ranma muttered as he ate another roasted bird that Mint has captured early in the morning.

Kikori sighed, "I guess it makes a lot of sense since it WOULD basically stop a lot of uprisings from the general populace, but wouldn't that make an even bigger gap between the royalty and the normal people?"

"The sigil flag isn't a symbol of royalty as the two of you seem to think," Herb replied absently while chewing on his own roasted bird, "It's actually a sign that states you have your whole clan backing you up no matter what the situation is. The holder of flag is usually given it by the members of his own clan freely, not earned through some trials or voting by other people. Of course, my own flag is different. I inherited the flag from my father when I reached my tenth year."

"So basically, at the age of ten, your father gave you partial control of the Musk people by giving you this sigil flag?" Kikori frowned.

"To an extent, yes," Herb sighed, "But how I got it doesn't matter, the problem right now is that I don't have the flag with me, so I can not rally the men that is with me to my side, even if I did try, they would not join me because of the law."

"That sucks..." Ranma commented, throwing away the bones of his breakfast, "So I guess you'll need to get that sigil flag of yours right?"

"Yes... I would." Herb muttered, "Ah, I can not, in good conscious ask the two of you to help us. You have already helped more than necessary, I believe it is time that the two of you went back to your tower."

Ranma opened his mouth to reply, only to be stopped by Kikori, who is tugging at his sleeve, "We need to talk Ranma..."

The pig-tailed mage frowned, "But..."

"...please..."

"What is it Ki-chan..." Ranma said softly, "We have to go back to the tower and give our report."

"stay... please..." Kikori said softly hanging her head. Her hair slid forward, covering her face. She reached out to Ranma's sleeves and gripped onto it with strength that Ranma had never seen.

"Why?"

The priestess shook her head, "I have to... do this..."

"Kikori, don't be unreasonable, we've finished our mission, let's go home." Ranma wrapped his arms around her shoulder, "You're the one who's always complaining about our mission always screwing up."

"It's different this time..." Kikori murmured.

"It's because of your parents isn't it?"

Ranma watched as his partner lifted her head to face his once again. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she stared into his own with her blurred eyes, "It's NOT about my parents! It's not angry drunks chasing us, or corrupted mages trying to take down the tower. Spice is trying to kill off villagers around the Musk city just for things he already has. Parents will die! There will be more kids like us. I don't want to see kids here turn into the ones in the tower... they all look so... so..."

"I know what you mean..." Ranma sighed. Using his free hand, he wiped off the tears from his partner's face, "Go figure, the one time I'm not getting us into trouble, you'll have to feel obligated to do it for me..."

Kikori giggled, "I'm sorry Rammie..."

"You're the family that I had for most of my life." Ranma said quietly, "In a sense, your like a little sister to me."

"I'm older than you Ranma."

"Feh, by two whole months, whoop dee do, like that would make much of a difference."

"I'm also much more mature than you are, according to many other people..."

"Oh shut up."

"You just can't accept the truth!"

"Lalalala, I can't hear you..."

"We're helping you whether you like it or not Herb." Ranma said plainly as they reached the camp site again, "You'll need all the help you can get."

"But-"

Ranma grinned, "Hey, your brother tried to assassinate us ya know. It's a matter of principles ya know, can't have people try to kill me and Kikori and let them get away with it."

"I've sent Fudari with a message to the Amazons," Kikori said with a small smile, "They would get the message by late afternoon."

"Ha! About time the stupid bird earned it's keep." Ranma snorted, "It's not like it did anything for us."

SCREECH!

Ranma's eyes twitched, "I thought you send you sent it away already,"

Kikori blinked, "Yes I did, I guess Fudari was getting her bearings..."

Herb chuckled as the eagle chased Ranma around in circles trying to claw his eyes out, "Doesn't your eagle have a message to send?"

"Fudi! Stop that! Go deliver the message!" Kikori ordered.

Ranma growled again as he watched the eagle fly away, "Stupid bird..."

Herb massaged his head as he tries desperately to find a way to get his flag, "This is impossible. There's no way for me, or even Mint to sneak in and a direct confrontation is suicide..."

Kikori looked around biting her lips, as if trying to decide if they should do something or not, "There might be a way..." Kikori said uncertainly, "But it won't give you a lot of time to go into your castle and get the flag."

The three musk men turned towards the priestess, "Any chance is better than no chance."

"Well... you know how the barrier I can erect can withstand any force as long as my will holds right?" Kikori started, "I've been working on a way to direct it so that it will only block a small area so that is more concentrated, therefore, giving me, theoretically, half of the stress I would normally experience."

"Then you can hold your shield for an indefinite amount of time!" Herb said excitedly.

"Yes, but it takes too much concentration to actually direct the barrier, so while I can do this, I won't be able to see the attacks coming my way..." The priestess sighed, "It's stupid, I don't even know why I said that..."

"No wait." Ranma said suddenly after being silent for the whole discussion, "I can help guide how you move your barrier..."

"Ranma?"

"From the text that Herb showed me, I know I can guild your magic as if it is my own, as long as you filtered it through your body already." Ranma said cautiously, "But I don't know how I would go about it."

Herb raised his eyebrows, "You got that just from reading some of the basic magic text that I've given you?"

Ranma nodded, "From what I saw from your text, you don't treat the different types of magic, which our tower has grouped, differently. Rather, it's all mixed together. So if I know how, I might be able to guild the barrier to the place that it's needed."

Herb nodded, "You can try, but I must warn you, the power of the gods are not to be fooled around with. From what I heard of Kikori's incantations, she is a channel of her goddess's powers. Be careful when you try."

"I don't think you should try this Ranma." Kikori whispered, "It's not common knowledge, but a lot of mages has be seriously injured when they tried to use some of the priest spells. I heard from my teacher, a student of hers died trying to cast a minor healing spell, just because she was over confident."

"Don't worry," Ranma said confidently, "I've been on the receiving end of a battle priest's spell, I know how much power a priest spell has. From what I'm told, you feel as much stress from the spell as the power of the spell. So if I can take an offensive priest spell, I'm sure I can handle your spells."

Kikori nodded, "If you say so."

The four men watched as Kikori closed her eyes and started to murmur quietly, before long, a small blue circle appeared in front of her, "This is it. Try punching it Herb, don't hold back, even if I'm not strong enough to take a hit, the shield will block it and won't harm me."

The dragon prince nodded and exhaled, mystical flames surround his fist as he charged and threw a haymaking at the small blue circle. The small magical barrier flared and knocked back Herb leaving him with a stunned expression.

"When are you going to punch?" Kikori said with her eyes still closed.

Herb's eyes twitched, "I don't know if I should be insulted or be glad..."

Ranma chuckled, "Hey Kikori, can you make more than one of those?"

A nod was the reply and another circle appeared, but now each of them are not glowing as strongly, "Well Herb, redeem yourself, punch again." Ranma said jokingly.

The dragon prince eyed the circles cautiously, "Maybe Lime should punch it this time..."

The tiger man blinked and pointed to himself, "Me? But I can't hit girls!"

"It's an order Lime, just do it!"

"Yes sir..." Lime said dejectedly as he charged up for his punch. The punch connected and Kikori only winced slightly.

"Are you guys holding back?" Kikori said, annoyed.

"Trust me Kikori when I say we're not." Ranma said, chuckling as he watch Lime nurse his fist, "Well, let me try to move the barriers now. Just try to guide the energy to go through me and THEN make the barrier instead of just making the barrier."

Ranma moved in front of Kikori and steeled himself for a huge headache, "Ok, do it now."

Ranma's face suddenly twisted in agony as he clutched his head, "Argh."

"Ranma!" The three musk yelled, seeing the pigtailed mage fall to his knees.

"Keep going!" Ranma growled and slowly opened his eyes. This is incredible. Even when the priest's spell hit me I didn't feel as much strain. And that priest is suppose to be Zandia sensei's regular training partner! You don't train with Zandia unless your magic output is at least twice as much as her. But what Kikori is pull out, this is even MORE powerful than that priest that hit me. How...

"Are you ok Ranma." Kikori said with her eyes still closed.

"Ye-yeah..."

"Perhaps Lime can do this instead Ranma." Herb suggested, "We Musk have a higher tolerance to magic compared to others."

"It's ok..." Ranma muttered as directs the small barriers around, "Yeah... I can do this... just need to get used to the strain..."

"Priestess, I think you can stop now." Herb said, "Ranma can control your barriers, but I think we'll need more time to prepare for our plan."

Kikori nodded and opened her eyes to see Ranma suddenly slump down on the ground unconscious, "RANMA!"

"He tried to control too much," Herb said calmly, "He just strained himself too hard. It'll be a while before he will wake up. In the mean time, why don't we figure out a plan of attack?"

Herb let out a long, slow breath as the small group hide in the forest surrounding the Musk city, "It's now or never, the guards are changing shifts now."

Ranma nodded, "Ok, so basically, we just charge in, ignore everyone that tries to stop us until we reach the final gate, then you and Mint will rush in while me, Kikori, and Lime hold of the troops."

Herb just grunted and rushed forward, quickly followed by his two retainers, "If you don't go now, we'll just get left behind Ranma."

The pigtailed mage sighed, "Come on, it's not like we've never faced odds like these."

Kikori smiled as she rushed forward with Ranma, "I hope you've been working out, because you'll be carrying me like the last time we did something like this."

Ranma just grunted as he caught up with the three Musk warriors as they batted away the defending Musk soldiers with annoying ease. Ranma ran up the stairs positioning himself in between Lime and Mint while guarded the flank for Herb as the prince charged up the stairs flinging flame from this hands making the defenders leap for cover.

"Herb! First gate is coming up! I see a defense line set up there." Mint yelled.

"It'll take too long to fight our way through." Lime growled as he assessed the amount of people blocking their way.

"Just leave it to me." Ranma smirked and handed Kikori over to the Lime, "Hold her for me, they first gate will be down in no time."

Ranma leaped into the air and green wings of magic suddenly sprung out from his back. He swooped down quickly, avoiding arrows and spells alike from the defenders, twisting and turning all the while chanting his spell. "Furies of wind, nature's howl. Gather between my unworthy hands and let me guide your righteous fury to pierce through the hearts of those undeserving of your gifts!"

A ball of green magic, the size of a beach ball, appears on top of Ranma's palm just as he landed in front of the gate of the outer circle. With an unsaid signal, thousands of light green beams shot out of the ball of magic, tearing through and gate and hitting every Musk soldier, who is standing behind the gate, in the head, knocking them all out. The ball of magic continues spewing out beams as it shrunk with every beam that is shot forward until it disappeared. "The path is clear."

Herb just nodded and rushed past Ranma, who followed quickly leaving Lime to continue carrying Kikori.

"Wow, what is that..." Lime said, for once, not distracted by breasts.

"That is Ranma's second most powerful spell, or so he claims." Kikori said glancing wearily at the fallen Musk defenders, "Are they dead?"

"No, I'm not sure about the ones Ranma got, but the ones Me, Mint, and Prince Herb got are just knocked out." Lime said confidently as he squatted away a brave defender trying to attack Lime from the side, "We're just trying to get Herb's flag, not slaughter our own soldiers."

"It's no good, we can't fight our way up anymore!" Kikori heard Ranma shout, "Herb, just go with Mint to the castle and get your flag! We'll hold these guys here!"

Well, time to start casting... Kikori closed her eyes and whispered softly to her goddess. "Let the weary be soothed of their burden, numb all sensation. Let the bliss of unknowing be know to them. Let those that yearn for rest, rest in the bliss of numbness that you shall grant them. Oh goddess of healing, grant the weary their wish."

"Well, looks like we're going to make our stand here." Lime said stoically, "I hope you're ready."

Kikori nodded as she is put back on the ground by Lime. Taking a look around, all the fighting seems to have stopped for the moment as the Musk defenders surround the three intruders, "Ranma... you ready?"

Said mage just smiled, "I'm always ready for a good fight... lets just hope your parents will watch over us."

Kikori blinked and turned to the side of the stairs to find her parent's grave, "Right where my parents died..."

"Umm, not to sound bossy," Lime suddenly cut in, "But we're kinda surrounded by lots of people that are suppose to kill us, aren't we suppose to... you know... defend ourselves?"

The two Japanese mages smirked and spook in unison, "Who said we're not?"

"Huh?" Lime looked around him to find all the soldiers surrounding them move sluggishly, some even falling to the ground, "What happened to them?"

"Just a numbing spell," Kikori said, closing her eyes again, "It's going to last an hour, but the others that are not in the affect range of the spell is going to be here in any moment."

"Lime, stay around us," Ranma ordered, "If anyone gets within two steps of me and Kikori, knock them away; we'll take care of the rest."

Lime took a glance around them to find another wave of soldiers starting to charge at them. A wave of uncertainty washed over the Musk warrior abruptly, "If you say so..."

"Trust us..."

"Is Lime going to be all right?" Mint asked, worried for his friend, "He's going to be facing a whole Musk army."

"He'll be alright; he is one of the strongest in his clan." Herb replied, steeling his voice, and trying to convince himself of the same thing he said, "We are close, Mint, I want you to go get my flag, I'll distract my brother."

"But..."

"Go, it's time I end this feud between my brother and me." Herb jumped upwards towards a open window in the castle not bothering to see if Mint has followed his instructions. I want to fight him... no... I NEED to fight him. Why? Why is my blood burning for my brother's death?

Unknown to anyone, Herb's eyes glowed red for a short time before settling to it's original color, It matters not, I need to stop Spice from killing innocent people just to satisfy his lust for power.

Herb flared his personal aura, blatantly challenging his brother from the throne where is most likely is sitting. In response, the dragon prince is suddenly washed over by the feeling of his brother's aura. "I'm coming for you Spice. You won't turn our race into savages."

Mint walked silently towards his goal, the treasury. Despite being a flag of almost no worth other than political power, the flag is considered to be one of the most valuable treasures of the Musk. Carefully looking around a corner, and seeing no one, the wolf like retainer made a quick dash towards the end of the hall.

This is it... the treasury In front of the Mint is an enormous door made of platinum and gold with intricate patterns of all the animals found in the surrounding areas. Above all of the animals where four dragons, each with a different colored gem in the place of their eyes, ruby, sapphire, diamond, and amethyst.

Steeling himself, Mint pushed open the door and stared right into the room, only to find two empty flag holders surround by ceremonial swords of gold and silver and other riches Mint has never seen in his life.

But the fact remained: the flags where gone...

Herb pushed open the two great doors leading to the throne room to find his brother sitting on the throne with a smirk on his face, "I have come for your life brother."

Spice closed his eyes, his smirk never leaving his face, "So you have little brother, so you have."

"So why are you still sitting there? Or are you too afraid to face me with your miniscule power?" Herb taunted slowly focusing the energy around him for his spell casting, "STAND AND FIGHT ME!"

"Why would I need to do that when I hold this?" Spice grinned and held out a banner with a blue dragon claw embroiled on it, "What will you do without your precious sigil flag?"

Herb growled as his left brow twitched, "Hiding behind a flag, how cowardly of you. I thought you're planning to rule a pack of warriors, not a bunch of cowards."

"ENOUGH!" Spice roared. His eyes flashed blood red as he threw Herb's sigil flag aside, "I'll show you who's the weak coward here! FLAME TONGUE!"

"Lizard scales." Herb said calmly as he raised his hands against the stream of flames erupting from his brothers hands. The flames hit the invisible barrier and flowed around Herb harmlessly, "Is that all that you've got brother? Let me show you power, DRAKE FLARE!"

"This trick again?" Spice snorted and made a sweeping gesture with his left arm. The ball of red magic stopped in mid flight and dispersed silently, "You should have known better to use a spell as easy to dispel as that against me."

"Flame tongue!"

"Flame tongue!"

The two dragon princes both shot streams of fire towards each other. Just as the two lines were about to hit each other, the flames from Spice's hand suddenly start moving in a spiral pattern, stopping Herb's spell in it's tracks and effortlessly pushed it back towards Herb. The younger prince cursed and jumped out of the way of the spell before throwing couple of red balls of magic towards scoring a hit. The explosion filled the room with smoke.

"I thought you were smarter than that brother." Herb smirked, "Getting hit by a spell like that, it seems you have grown soft despite your want to be a 'warrior'."

"Heh, maybe it is YOU who has grown weak," Spice said from the middle of all the smoke, "That didn't even scratch me."

Herb gasped as the smoke faded. Spice's eyes glowed blood red, magic leaked from them creating a trail of red mist, "The blood beast... You've given in to the blood! BROTHER! Snap OUT of it!"

"You don't understand, magic flows through me like a raging stream. I can feel it crawling within my very being. It fills me with so much power!" Spice yelled in ecstasy, "Can you feel it! The power! This isn't a curse! This is our BLESSING!"

Herb took a step back, "I can't let you continue this way."

"Then so be it, I will have to kill you then." Spice grinned, "It will be my pleasure to send you to the after world."

Herb screamed as he was suddenly blasted with black flames that erupted from underneath him.

"The Demon Dragon Fire, one of the most lethal spells in our arsenal of spells," Spice said pleasantly as he watched his brother scream in agony, "let see how long you can last in there brother."

Lime threw another soldier away from his little group into the Musk spell casters when an explosion sounded behind them, "HERB!"

Ranma gritted his teeth from the strain and looked at the tiger man, "Go, if he dies, then what we're doing is useless."

Kikori opened her eyes, breaking the stream of magic flowing into Ranma for the shield, "We'll need to move to the gate Ranma; it's easier to defend against them there."

"Don't worry, I'll get you two there before I go help Herb." Lime said before picking the two Japanese mages up and charged towards the walls of the inner circle.

"Heh, imagine that, we made it further than your parents." Ranma said as he threw a ball of magic towards the chasing Musk soldiers.

The priestess nodded as she erected a shield to prevent spells from reaching them, "Let's just hope we live long enough to celebrate this."

"Well, good luck you two," Lime said, setting the two mages on the ground, "I have to go."

"Good luck Lime." Kikori said without turning around, "Keep Herb alive no matter what."

"Well, start praying that we can keep ourselves alive out here." Ranma commented, "We'll need all the luck and whatever god or goddess's help we can get."

Kikori look a quick look at her partner to find him barely standing up steadily, "We made it this far... can't back down now."

Ranma glanced sideways quickly and grinned, "Well, Landal and gramps always say I'll be the end of both of us. So even if we didn't make it, at least I know I proved them wrong."

"It's been nice knowing you Rammie."

"You too Ki-chan, I don't know what I'll be doing without you."

The two mages steeled themselves as the first wave of soldiers poured through the open gate trying to over take them.

"Mint! What are you doing here!" Lime yelled when he met his partner as he ran towards the throne room.

"I couldn't find the flag in the treasury!" Mint replied, "Then I heard the explosion and thought Herb might need help."

Lime nodded, "Well we need to get Herb out of here first before we can try finding the flag again."

Mint nodded and signaled Lime to slow down, "Let me check what's going on in the room first. Don't want to charge into a bad situation and make it worst."

"Right."

The two stopped at the corner and snuck a peek into the room to find Herb laying on the floor of the throne room with smoke rising from his body. Spice stared down on the badly burnt body of his brother and cackled, "So close to your flag that would protect you from me, but you can never reach it! MWAHAHA! This is how weak you have become with your ways!"

Mint scanned the room and smiled, "Lime, you go help Herb, and I'll get the flag! It's just over there in the side of the room."

Lime looked at where Mint was pointing and nodded, "Ok, I'll go in first and you sneak in after?"

"Now, brother, DIE!"

"NO! HERB!" Lime yelled and delivered a punch towards Spice, who dodged it at the last second.

"Lime?" Herb muttered from where he is, "What are you doing here, run away."

"No way Herb! I took an oath to protect you, I won't let you die." Lime replied, staring at Spice, "You won't kill him!"

Spice sneered, "And why won't I? Because you're standing between us? That is a laugh."

Lime smirked, "No, because we've got the sigil flag, and as a Musk faction, we declare you unfit for ruling."

"WHAT!" Spice yelled and turned towards where he threw the flag only to find it gone.

"NOOO!"

Kikori knelt on the ground with Ranma, all bloody and burnt, in front of her as she desperately held onto the barrier spell. With an audible cracking noise, the blue barrier shattered. The priestess screamed in pain before falling on top of her partner, "I'm sorry Ranma, I should have never dragged you into this."

Spears surrounded her as darkness over took the priestess...

Not all my pre-readers have gone through this yet, so it's not fully pre-read, but since I haven't done anything for a while, I thought I'd post this up first and update it as my pre-readers finish doing their thing

Anyways, this chapter didn't turn out as I thought it would turn out. I was hoping for a chapter with a bit more action, (well comparatively I guess it has more than the other chapters) and a bit more jokes, but I ended up making a pretty serious chapter as general. I also realized that I suck at writing mass fight scenes

Sorry about the cliff hanger too I was planning a not so cliff hangy ending, but... well... sorry

Omake The not so impenetrable shield Omake

"Are you ok Ranma." Kikori said with her eyes still closed.

"Ye-yeah..."

"Perhaps Lime can do this instead Ranma." Herb suggested, "We Musk have a higher tolerance to magic compared to others."

"It's ok..." Ranma muttered as directs the small barriers around, "Yeah... I can do this... just need to get used to the strain..."

"Well lets see if the shield can hold through you." Herb suggested as he charged up for a punch.

Ranma nodded his head and braced himself for the punch.

WHAM!

Ranma flew back and hit the back of the set.

"Umm, Herb, your suppose to hit the blue circle, not Ranma's nose." Kikori said, a sweatdrop growing on the back of her head.

"Hum, quite right, quite right." Herb nodded seriously.

"DAMNIT! Ranma's out, I don't think he'll be waking up for a while."

"Umm, script guy, he's bleeding and it won't stop." Saiko said poking at her brother's head.

"I knew I shouldn't have written that scene."

Omake End Omake

Surprisingly, that scene was suppose to be in the final copy. But then, after thinking about it, I didn't think this Ranma can take a punch from Herb and actually survive so I took it out.