Okay, here is chapter 4. This one is a little rushed actually and is only a little plot development. As it stands the next chapter will be a month long jump into the future showing how far Ranma and Ryoga have developed their skills as they begin their fighting against the demons. Ranma and Taro are not the best of friends and will fight quite often since for some reason Taro is attributing Happosai's supposed death to Ranma's family. Herb is as arrogant as ever and won't teach Ranma or Ryoga anything as he doesn't believe they have the ability to ever match him.

Thanks for the reviews and keep em coming, need to know what ya think of this thing.

I own nothing of Ranma 1/2 and never will, the only creatures is own are Elgass and Myara, and the Demon King as I came up with their backstory's on the fly.

PHOENIX MOUNTAIN

Black hair rippled slightly in the wind as the pigtailed boy watched more wounded being brought into the mountain and listened to the warriors talking about the strangeness of the demons assault forces. Apparently the demons were only sending small assault forces against the defenders instead of the full force of their army, speculation was running in different directions from the demons fighting someone else to the demons not wanting to chance a full defeat before they had enough superior forces. Looking at the injured Ranma was starting to wonder how long the forces arrayed in the mountain could hold them off.

His senses told him Ryoga was approaching and he was actually glad the lost boy was going to try and train with him today. The two had worked out their differences with a fight late last night that had ended in a stalemate with Ranma explaining the reason he hadn't been able to be there on the fourth day, Genma had knocked him out and when he had woken up they were already on a ship to Tibet. The lost boy hadn't had to go far to find Genma as the older martial artist had been looking for Ranma and thus had begun another fight with Genma getting clobbered.

Lately Ranma hadn't been to happy with his father due to the fact that his old man had been hiding out instead of helping with the war effort and had actually been tried to get Ranma to sneak away with him. A short fight later and the older martial artist had abandoned the idea.

"About time you got up." Pushing himself to his feet Ranma turned and headed for the room cologne had showed them yesterday.

The two boys blinked and stared at the sight of the large room now dominated by almost one hundred fires and amazons at each fire trying to learn the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken technique. "You're going to fall behind at the rate you're training at boy." The old ghoul pogoed forward to watch Ranma closely then turned to Ryoga "you as well boy, work harder if you expect to become anything closely resembling a true warrior."

"…show her." Ranma muttered as he knelt by one of the unoccupied fires and began to train.

12 MILES FROM JUSENKYO

Rock cracked, then cracked more until finally with a loud cracking report the boulder with the spider mark shattered and sent shrapnel blasting outward into the trees and opening a large hole almost six foot wide. The dark pit beneath was still for a moment before a large hairy leg slipped out of the darkness and a shape pulled itself free and out onto the forest floor. The spider stood at five foot tall and was covered in short brown hairs that made it stand out amongst the forest greens. Only moments after the first another spider followed and another and another until almost one hundred large spiders stood upon the ground.

A group them turned and began to tear at the rock at the edge of the hole breaking it open more and more until the hole was quite a bit larger than before. Darkness shifted again and a leg four foot thick and covered in short black hairs slid out followed by more until the next spider, making the others look tiny by comparison, pulled itself free of the hole and. Unlike the other spiders this one only had two red glowing eyes and a mouth full of needle sharp teeth instead of fangs, the carapace of the spider wasn't fur covered but a shiny black armor like exterior that glistened in the morning sunlight.

The spider turned to her children and spoke in a whispery hissing tongue that sent the smaller creatures rushing into the trees to begin to spread out throughout the forest. With hundreds more spiders pouring from the hole behind her the spider rested after the ordeal of breaking the binding until she sensed approach. The spiders moved to protect their creator and had barely gotten into place before the forest erupted in a flurry of motion and demons began to pour into the clearing.

Demon forces impacted the leading spiders in an attack that was surprisingly effective given the spider's longer reach and more powerful overall strength. Evil fought evil, both forces wanted their leader to rule which meant that they had to wipe out the competition and destroy the enemy leader. The battle was going well for the demons until the large spider pushed herself up and moved forward tossing demons in every direction and tearing the heads off some of the more offensive ones. The massive spider watched as a larger version of the smaller demons came into view wearing a set of crimson plate mail and began to crush its way through the smaller spiders.

Giving a loud shriek of anger the giant spider strode over her children and confronted the beast. With a loud roar the demon leapt forward and slashed downwards with its axe only to have the weapon ricochet off of the black carapace of the spider who then proceeded to tear apart the demon swiftly and move on to other enemies. Seeing their filed commander destroyed the other demons fell back wishing they had been having better luck lately, first it was the skeletons following that massive dragon and now it was the spiders following that large spider. The field commanders had started to speak of how the lord was angry with the fact that his forces were being defeated by such paltry enemies.

1 MILE FROM SPIDER DEN

"Put me down idiot!" The shout from the dragon prince, currently princess, along with a strong punch forced Lime to drop the boy turned girl and stop himself to make sure his prince was okay.

Herb was having a very bad day, at first information had been sketchy on an attack against the amazons that had forced them to leave their homes. Then had come the information that dynasty's seer's had a vision of great evil in the pools of Jusenkyo and therefore Herb had been dispatched with his two guards to find out what had happened. The three had fought through a few weakling demons and then headed into Jusenkyo. Herb gave an angry growl as she remembered her fight with the ancient dragon that had taken up residence over her people's property.

The dragon prince leapt to the trees and began to travel swiftly for the edge of the musk lands by the expedient road of treetop jumping until she heard a startled cry from Mint. Spinning around she was surprised to see the warrior hanging upside down from a tree with a section of spider web wrapped around one foot. If her senses had bee any less developed she wouldn't have felt the strike, instead she dropped from the tree and kicked forward throwing a dagger that struck the webbing and dropped Mint to the ground.

"Lord Herb behind you!" Mint's shout caused Herb to spin around and drop under a strike that would have decapitated a lesser being and launched a kick that shattered the creature's carapace and sent it flying. The dragon prince found herself slowly staring up, up, and up some more into the twin red glowing eyes of a massive spider that had to be at least thirteen feet tall. "This really isn't my day." The prince muttered and found herself barely able to dodge a strike from one leg that turned a boulder into rock dust.

"FLYING SWORD OF THE DRAGON!"

The ki blade cut through the air and struck the side of the spider only to shatter instead of breaking through the carapace. The spider let loose an angry shriek and spun to face Herb while blue lightning's began to play across its armored form making it look to be in the middle of a lightning storm. Herb dodged back then blurred out of view with another shouted attack.

"SOARING DRAGON SPIRIT!"

The flying dragon prince bounced several ki blasts into the spider only to have them splash across the things carapace and dissipate harmlessly into the lightning's surrounding the spider. The beast shrugged them off and struck out at the prince catching her a glancing blow that sent her flying through several trees and into a boulder to be retrieved by Mint as the wolf-boy dashed by. Herb used Mint as a springboard and leapt into the air flying upwards then letting her flight end and plummeting downwards towards the spider impacting it and pushing it to the ground which let Lime slam a tree trunk into its head.

The spider shrugged off the hit and then seemed to crouch slightly causing the lightning's to flare and sending a spike of pain up Herb's leg causing the prince to cry out in pain. Herb tumbled from the spiders back only to be smacked by a leg again and driven downward creating a large crater in the solid rock. The fate of the dragon prince wasn't looking very bright, especially when Mint and Lime couldn't get close enough to aid in escaping from the spider.

"THUNDERBOLT CUT!"

A slim figure dropped from the treetops wielding a Zanbatou and bringing the nine foot blade downwards in a arc that slammed the massive blade onto the back of the massive spider shattering the carapace and exposing internal organs. The spider screeched in pain and stumbled to the left before collapsing allowing the figure that had struck it down to rush to Herb's side. "My lord, it is good that I have found you."

"Spice?" The surprise in the prince's voice was obvious as he looked at the musk female.

Short cut green hair rippled as the girls yellow eyes examined the prince to make sure he was okay before stepping aside to allow the men to assist the prince. The girl watched the guards fussing over the prince until they both got clobbered for their annoyance. The girl turned to watch the spider only to see it twitching and begin to push itself upright while the broken carapace healed swiftly to a solid shining black. "My lord!" Spice swept her zanbatou into attack position and leapt into the trees then into the air and plummeted downwards again.

"THUNDERBOLT CUT!"

With a loud ringing sound the massive blade ricocheted off of the spider's carapace and Spice found herself dodging several strikes until she could retreat to the others only to find them already falling back and retreating into the forest. The musk girl chased after them catching up at a section of collapsed cliff and decided that now would be a good time to impart her message to the prince before he got further from Phoenix mountain.

"My lord I bring news from the Emperor." She waited until the prince had finished bandaging a wound and pouring heated water from Lime's canteen onto himself before she continued. "The city and citadel have fallen under attack by the demons that have been roaming through the woods the last day. They are throwing large amounts of forces against the walls though the enchantments are holding for now." The girl kept a watchful eye on both of the princes guards as they kept a eye out of the rubble they were hiding in trying to spot if the spider had followed them.

"The Emperor wishes you to travel to Phoenix mountain and gain the aid of the phoenix and the amazons if they have survived the attacks." The girl watched the expression on lord Herb's face and knew that he was actually considering disobeying and heading back to aid in the defense of the city. His decision was easy though with his fathers orders and he quickly ordered Lime, Mint and Spice to get moving.

PHOENIX MOUNTAIN

1 DAY LATER.

Kiima frowned as she stared out at the sky and noticed several of the guards escorting something in to land on the same balcony that she herself was standing on. The captain of the guard had seen quite a lot in her life but a massive winged minotaur carrying the Jusenkyo guide wasn't something she believed she would ever see again. "We're sorry Lady Kiima but we intercepted this…um…creature and the Jusenkyo guide out at the edge of the sentry range. They appeared to be trying to get here my lady." The guards watched the captain and only departed when she gestured for them to leave.

"Honored phoenix lady, I must speak with Lord Saffron." The Guide looked extremely agitated and Kiima was about to ask him about the creature, most probably a Jusenkyo victim, when another group of gaurds came running in. "My Lady! The Musk prince Herb has arrived with several warriors and stats that it is imperative that he be allowed to speak with Lord Saffron!"

"More and more trouble." Kiima muttered, she just hoped this wasn't more bad news.

Descriptions.

Soaring Dragon Spirit and Flying Sword of the Dragon are both cannon manga Herb attacks. In the Flying Sword of the Dragon Herb slashes his arm up to create a blade of ki to cut his opponents down, he used this attack to chop the top of the mountain open. In the Soaring Dragon Spirit the dragon prince fly's while bouncing ki blast off of the ground to hit his opponent from different directions making it hard to judge where the attack came from.

Spice: Spice is female musk, one of the few to be warriors and only allowed to be a warrior due the fact that her jaguar blood gives her strength equal to Lime's and speed beyond Mint's. She has short green hair and pointed ears with dark yellow eyes with slit pupils. She is considered a runt by musk standards and somewhat flat in the chest area which is also one of the reasons the men don't mind her being a warrior so much. Spice is still a musk female and is submissive to any Musk male and defer to any male she believes knows more than she does. While she is a master at using the zanbatou she also has claws that are powerful enough to tear through armor on the off chance she loses her sword.

Thunderbolt Cut: This attack is almost impossible to do with anything but a zanbatou due to the fact that one needs the weight of the blade to aid in the charging of the attack. The wielder uses the blade like a bolt of lightning to split their opponent down the center and it has been speculated by those that have seen Spice use the full powered version that the strike moves at the same speed as lightning and packs a punch just as powerful. A true master of the musk martial arts once stated that he saw Spice through a lightning bolt from her blade to impact a target a second before the blade itself reached the target, giving reason for the attacks massive strength, the man was believed to be drunk.

Elgass mistress of the dark: A demon spider created by a dark sorcerer by the effort of merging a crystal orb containing an enchanted spider web with his apprentice. The sorcerer didn't have much time to admire his handiwork before the now insane creature went on a rampage and destroyed the sorcerer's tower, not before torturing him slowly though. For years the spider remained hidden in the wilderness picking off anyone who got close to her domain until she was almost slain by a group of wandering knights. The spiders mind began to break free of its constraints and the evil being that arose was later referred to as the Mistress of the Dark. Seeking to advance her kind she stole into villages at night and abducted children no older than six and took them into the wild, once she had returned there she encased them in a webbing of her own design that began the work her few remaining dark magic's were capable of. Within two days the webbing would break and a new spider would emerge, while not as large as her nor nearly as powerful she had the beginnings of an army and continued to abduct children to add to her forces.

By the time the forces of the warlords of the time could ally against her she had an army within the thousands and began to crush her opposition. During this time Myara ruled the skies with her dragon's after her awakening and Elgass decided to make a deal with the massive beast. The dragon didn't take the deal with the type of seriousness that Elgass wanted and the spider had the few humans who worked for her send information to a king of the time about the lair of the dragon. Elgass began to slowly loose ground over the course of several hundred years and eventually retreated into the dark underground where she plotted her revenge on the mortals of the world. In a bid for dominance she summoned a female Satyr into her realm and demanded that the poor creature play a song to lure food to the spider armies so they wouldn't have to leave the safety of their lair.

The Satyr was terrified into playing the song given to her not realizing what she was causing to happen. The music was magically enhanced and swept across the land to nearby city of Merlain where it enthralled the entire population of children and led them from the city while putting their parents to sleep. The children numbered in the thousands and Elgass was able to increase her army to a level she had never had before and move against the surface world. The spider had made a tactical error, with the capture and transformation of an entire city's children the warlords allied into a force greater than any before them had ever brought to bear. Elgass's forces were crushed under the sheer raw amounts of manpower brought to bear against her and she found herself pushed back into the wilds of what today is china and pursued by the forces of the warlords.

In the end it took seven of the most powerful mages, including two dark wizards, to imprison the spider as none had the power to defeat her entirely. Unable to break the transformation the remaining spider legions where forced into the same prison as Elgass and were sealed away hopefully never to become free again.