Okay. Here's chapter 5. A little bit of Ranma fighting demons and other things happening. When I started this story I was aiming to make this a year long war though I'm not sure if I can get it to go that long as several parts of the story are starting to settle in good and the main section of the story, that involving the amazons, musk and phoenix, is going to start taking off with battles against the demons, spiders and undead. I suppose the story will go on as long as I manage to spread it out over as much time as I can make it. but as I said things are beginning to fall into place where I absolutely have to move certain things along.

Phew, alrighty, read and review and tell me what ya think.

I own nothing of Ranma ½ and never will.

Forward: It has been a month and a half since the arrival of the musk prince and the Jusenkyo guide. In this time Ranma, Ryoga, and two hundred amazons have mastered the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken, the Hiryu Shoten Ha, and the Bakusai Tenketsu though the splitting cat hairs is a technique that has evaded most amazons and others. By this time the stalemate with the demons has been understood to stem from the demons sending most of their forces to fight Myara and Elgass who are amassing armies or fortifying positions of their own.

The Chinese army has moved to the edge of the Bayankala mountains due to the stories of villages being destroyed and have begun to move slowly through the area trying to understand what is going on. Tarou has begun to aid due to the fact that his mother's village would be attacked once the demons were done with the three tribes and he also wants revenge on Myara for injuring him. Ranma, Ryoga, and several amazons who show great promise in the art have been given magical artifacts from the phoenix tribes vault to aid in the fighting of demons. Saffron has remained near the room of bindings to keep seals intact but believes that he can now begin to foray out himself to attack enemies. Especially as the demon king is sending larger and more powerful forces out to fight.

Genma is currently recovering from a beating from Tarou once Tarou learned that Genma and Soun had, allegedly, slain Happosai meaning that he couldn't get his name changed anymore. Several times during the last month the phoenix and amazon guards have detained Ranma when he tried to sneak out to aid in the fighting because, 'girls shouldn't have to fight these things' as he said, he took two days to recover from the bruising he received from the amazons. Ranma over the last month has been forced to admit that the amazon women warriors are extremely good fighters, some of them even matching him and Ryoga after their training was complete.

Ranma received a pair of tiger skin boots from the phoenix tribe as the artifact given to him, or rather her, as they would only work with Ranma's demon aura put out by his female side. The boots themselves had a padded underside like a real tigers paws and ended with several small claws at her toes, the tiger striped boots extended to her knees and ended in a cuff of white fur. While Ranma originally didn't want to wear them, due partially to the fact they were related to a cat, he swiftly learned that they would only appear in girl form and fade out in boy from and would grant his girl form a massive speed boost over his base speed. Due to the spreading darkness from the breach and the larger demons coming into the fray Ranma realized he would have to take all the boost he could get to win especially after seeing the grievously injured brought in time and time again only to be healed and sent back to the front lines.

Unfortunately Ryoga has gotten lost; the tribes at mount phoenix have lost a combined number of three hundred warriors counting the fifty who have been permanently crippled. And Ranma and others have been noticing the continually falling spirits of the remaining elders and phoenix tribesmen that are included in the war briefings.

Story start

One Tiger-skin clad leg kicked the air slowly as the redhead watched the demon forces tromping by underneath the tree she was hiding in heading towards the mountain to make a side strike against the defense forces guarding the mountain. The last twenty of the demon forces were gripping the ends of large chains that drug a large stone box almost seventeen feet tall and ten feet wide that was floating on the air behind them. 'Stupid Ryoga had to go and get lost.' Ranma gave another mental curse as she thought about the missing martial artist who should have been here helping her and the amazons 'Come on, come on come on!' A second after the last thought flickered through her mind a loud blaring horn echoed over the demon forces causing them to draw up short and with a triumphant cry Ranma dropped from her perch to get some long desired revenge on the bastards that had killed so many.

Impacting feet first Ranma drove one demon into the ground then bent backwards to avoid another's swipe. Bending further backwards she placed her hands on the ground and kicked up planting a foot into that demons chin launching it into its fellows causing it to drop the large chain it had been still holding in one hand. Kicking up a dust trail behind her she dashed into the forces arrayed against the amazon strike team throwing demons left and right and allowing her to get free to the other side of the conflict where Dowel was swinging her massive halberd and turning enemy forces into red smears on the ground.

Tarou slammed both hooves into the nearest two demons crushing them into a red paste and beginning to lay into the nearest enemies with massive swings that turned the recipients into shattered wrecks. The massive minotaur spun in time to see a large demon wearing red plate armor charging him and let fly with a massive punch that, surprisingly, only knocked the demon back slightly. Retaliating with a strong strike the demon almost knocked Tarou over backwards and caused the minotaur to cry out in pain before launching himself against the demon again.

Ranma found herself back to back with Shampoo against almost fifteen enemy until bladed chains swept down from the trees impaling ten of the demons and leaving the way clear for the two fighters to fall back and group up with other amazons. "Thanks Mousse!" Ranma shouted as she dodged another strike and hit with a knife hand causing the demon to stumble back choking before she hit it with an axe kick that buried it into the ground. Hearing a roar of pain from her left Ranma spun that direction in time to see Tarou stagger backwards after being struck by two red armor clad demons.

The two field commanders, each capable of commanding a force between fifty to one hundred demons, had allied against the large creature and were doing quite well until field commander number two was kicked through a tree and into a boulder. The demon jumped up only to find itself facing another demon only this one bore a simple black slash on her left cheek, marking her as a member of a royal demon clan.

"Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken!"

The six hundred blows that impacted the red armor in only a second set off a loud ringing through the trees and bruised Ranma's hands but did little to the armor except lace it with a few cracks. Ducking barely in time to avoid getting her head torn off Ranma threw herself backwards and grabbed the nearest thing she could that she thought would hurt the demon…the floating stone box. The large creature didn't even get the chance to be surprised at the girls strength, when she jumped twelve feet up and brought the box downwards, because he became a crushed demon a moment later.

Panting the red haired demoness spun around to see the rest of the demons had been felled by the amazons and Tarou. The redhead tried to keep her lunch down at the sight of the dead demons and continually reminded herself that these creatures wanted to kill everyone on earth and would torture and slay even children for their own pleasure. It was still a small consolation when she realized she had been forced to kill. The strike team began to assemble to begin another hunt when there was a sound behind them; turning and watching in surprise they barely dove for cover when rock spikes came blasting free of the box Ranma had used as a demon crusher and the stone sides collapsed outwards.

The creature that stood slowly from the rubble was big, taller than Tarou even and covered in an emerald green carapace. The creature had a thick lower body with six legs and a slim joint that must have been like a waist that allowed the upper section of the body to rear up making the creature almost fifteen feet tall. The upper body was a conglomeration of three thick segments, with fourth small triangular one being the head, each segment tapering into a joint that was only half the segments width at its widest point, meaning that each joint was around three foot wide as compared to the six foot wide centers of the segments. The creatures upper body had four arms, two on the lower segment that ended in three long fingers tipped with sharp claws and two arms on the segment above that that ended in seven foot long serrated edged blades that the creature brandished at the strike team while letting out a angry hiss.

Two amazons went down before they even had a chance to know what hit them and Dowel's halberd simply ricocheted off of the carapace of the high level demon. But Dowel's assault gave Tarou and Ranma time to react to the creatures assault on their forces. The minotaur rushed in and planted a massive blow to the creatures side that cracked its carapace and sent in stumbling to the left even though it was held in place by its six legs. Ranma leapt up and used her downwards momentum to strike a blow at the demons head only to have it whip an arm up and grab her by the ankle smashing her to the ground and raising a scythe arm to slash at her. Dowel leapt up struck at her opponent.

"RAIN OF STEEL!"

Hundreds of blade strikes slammed into the demons head cracking the carapace and causing the creature to let out a keening wail before slashing Dowel from the sky with one scythe arm. Dowel disappeared in a blur of motion allowing a scythe arm to cleave the rock she would have landed on and Ranma skidded to a stop setting the giant woman down and checking her for injury. It was only Dowel's heavier armor that had kept her from being sliced apart, even so she had taken a deep gash in her side and her armor was almost cleaved open. The young demoness turned and rushed back to the fight slamming a full strength punch into the center segment of the demons upper body only to have her arm break through the outer carapace to get stuck within the now jagged edges.

With a shriek of rage the demon reached down and grabbed the girl tearing her free of its armored shell it lifted her up and swept its blade arm back readying to bring it down on her only to have a massive spike of golden flame blast the blade arm free of the body. Large gold feathered wings glinting in the light Saffron floated down to settle gently on a rock and glare at the large demon.

"I would put her down now if I were you." The phoenix god strode from the rock towards the demon, which slammed Ranma into the rocky ground stunning her, and leapt at the kami trying to impale him with its blade. Tarou and others watched in surprise as the remaining scythe arm melted as it was shoved at Saffron's chest followed by the rest of the creature bursting into flames and collapsing into ash in seconds.

"Take your wounded back to the mountain; I will clear the rest of the path ahead of here." Saffron rose into the air and streaked away blasting groups of demons and giving aid to the few amazon and phoenix patrols that were out that far.

MANY MILES FROM PHOENIX MOUNTAIN, CLOSE TO MUSK DYNASTY BORDERS

Near Dusk

Elgass skittered through the trees watching for anymore demons as she approached what she hoped would be a valuable pawn in the coming war against both the dragon queen Myara, the demons that roamed the countryside, and the strange beings that now inhabited this area. The massive spider looked closely at the large stone carved with the symbol of a nest of snakes that covered the entrance of a cave; gathering her power she lashed out with a hail of blue lightning's that began to chip away at the rock until it was completely destroyed.

Light shone through the cave as the sun began to set and played across the desiccated husk of a corpse resting against the back wall of the short alcove set behind the stone and the bones of the right hand twitched slightly. The corpse began to shudder then jerk in and thrash around as its lower jaw opened in a soundless scream, the scream became a lot less soundless as the beings body finished regenerating and the wail echoed from the mountains, from the musk lands to Phoenix Mountain. The naked body, now easily identifiable as a beautiful woman became clothed in velvet dress that hugged her body tightly and dark green eyes opened to survey the opening of her prison.

In the fading sunlight it appeared as though the woman's hair actually moved as she stood and walked to the exit of her prison and surveyed the spiders currently standing outside. Completely within the sunlight it was obvious that her hair did move as it was comprised of small snakes that hissed and bared their fangs at Elgass and her young. "I am Medusa, you have released me? Why?" The features of a high born noble twisted in distaste at she listened too the spider.

"I have need of your powers witch. Serve me and I shall grant you what ever you wish." The hissing rumbling voice that spoke from the demon spiders maw didn't actually match the movements of the creatures mouth but then it was a demon spider capable of its own magic's so that wasn't a surprise.

"I serve none, be they mortal, demon, god, or astral being." Medusa looked coldly upon the spider infront of her recalling the ancient tales she had read of the spider while researching her own magic. "Much less a being who raises its army from the bodies of children."

"YOU DARE!" The thunderous roar that came from the demon spider shook the mountainside and Medusa took an involuntary step back in surprise "I freed you! Very well, if you will not serve then your essence shall feed my power!" Letting loose a shriek she sent twelve spiders leaping towards the snake haired woman who let out a snort of annoyance. A light flashed from her eyes and stone spiders crashed to the ground in front of her and all down the mountainside spiders froze in place as they turned to stone. Medusa almost congratulated herself until she saw the demon spider was still alive and was now rushing up the mountain towards her. "Your power cannot harm me witch!" The spider leapt and Medusa took to the air using her magic to get out of the immediate reach of the mistress of the dark; the snake haired woman glared down at the being below her "If it is a fight you wish then it is a fight you shall have!"

"HELLION!"

Sweeping one arm up above her head a spark of dark blood red light burst into being on her hand and the ground split as a massive hand punched up through the rock and pulled the rest of the being upwards after it. Elgass recognized the creature immediately as it was an exact duplicate of the creatures she had fought earlier only this one was almost twenty feet tall and wore black plate armor inscribed with dark runes of power. This was no simple mirrored demon but a high class demon that no mirror could duplicate.

With a hissing incantation Elgass increased her size to match the demon and the two titans clashed shaking the mountain with their strikes and shattering rock with careless blows. Rearing back the massive spider let loose a flurry of blows that shattered armor and sent the demon reeling but was unable to follow up as four fireballs slammed into her back courtesy of the flying witch, something that allowed the summoned demon to grab the spider and try to lift her off the ground so it could slam her down. Digging in purchase with six legs the spider threw the demon into the mountain shattering the rock face and sending the mountain crashing down on top of the summoned being. Before she could gloat and turn to kill the annoying witch the falling rubble crashed down over her as well ricocheting off of her black armored carapace burying her under massive boulders and other rock.

Medusa smirked at the rubble pile that had once been a mountain even though she knew that it would take more than that to kill that creature and sped off through the air to Jusenkyo to offer her services to the dragon queen. In exchange for a few things of course.

Descriptions

Boots of the Tigress: Boots crafted from the hide of a demon cat they bear with them strong enchantments that give the user extreme speed in short bursts that also allows the user to jump higher than they normally could. They were created from the hide of a powerful demon cat that once terrorized the phoenix mountain area; after it was dispatched by lord Saffron it was skinned and its hide was crafted into several items of power, one set of these being the boots, another was a set of tiger skin wrist cuffs that were lost to time.

Rain of Steel: Dowel's technique that has her leap into the air and rain blows down at Amaguriken speeds with the intent to slash her opponent into small itty bitty pieces. This attack is usually fatal and is only used in battle with a sharp weapon, preferably a halberd as it has the needed reach. This technique has been used in sparring sessions but only if Dowel has a blunt object to use.

Mantis: Powerful high class demon unable to be duplicated this creature's hide is almost impenetrable to bladed weapons as it merely shunts them to the side or weathers the strike unharmed. A martial artist of powerful enough standing can crack the carapace of a mantis but would have an extremely hard time breaking through, though other demons of a higher power find they are capable of penetrating its carapace they soon find out that causing enough damage to take out one of the creatures, with their highly redundant organ system, is very difficult.

Medusa: Medusa was once a musk sorceress before the musk started to oppress the women of their dynasty. In fact she was the empress of the musk as they had only placed women on the throne in several hundred years. In a bid to protect her people from a dark evil she created a spell that fused her with a powerful mystic snake which gave her the ability to turn beings to stone with a glance and increases her already powerful magic's to levels not seen in almost a thousand years. Unfortunately it also drove her into a sort of insanity and she decided that to save her people she would seal them all in stone and rule over a empire of statues. The only saving grace was that she seemed incapable of harming children and would go out of her way to protect them from all harm.

It took twelve mages and an entire army of musk warriors numbering in the thousands to defeat the sorceress and imprison her body behind an enchanted stone as they feared her words "Death's dark shawl fears the light of the sun." The warriors sealed her corpse in a cave hoping sunlight never touched her form lest she rise again from the grave to try and retake control of the Musk. It was after this incident, and several others involving female sorceresses and several princesses who slew their brothers to try to take the throne that the Musk began to oppress the females of their dynasty.

Hellion: A summoning spell created by Medusa during the war with her people that summons an alpha level demon to her aid. The demon is a specialized type that will not die if defeated, it will merely return to the hell planes to await another call thusly the summoner can summon the demon countless times in a row only having to worry about their power pool.

Note: a bit about Ranma's strength in this story verses cannon Ranma. In the manga female Ranma was capable, at the beginning of the manga, of lifting ryoga's umbrella in one arm, Akane in the other, and leaping to a rooftop a ways away. Male Ranma was capable of shattering a boulder, thrown by Tarou, that had to be at least several ton worth of weight and didn't seem to have any trouble at all doing it. By the time Ranma faced Saffron he was much much stronger, something I have seen miswritten in countless fics. He was hitting Saffron with a three ton boulder, statement made by Ryoga, and Ryoga stated that that was light compared to what Ranma normally hit him and mousse with.

Going by this I have tried to come up with a chart of Ranma's strength both manga and this fic.

Manga Ranma, post Saffron.

Male Ranma: Max tonnage able to swing around in a fight… around 10 to 12 ton.

Max lifting tonnage, no swinging just lifting… around 15 to 17 ton

Female Ranma: Max swinging tonnage… 7 to 9 ton.

Max Lifting tonnage… 11 to 13 ton.

It is my belief, and from seeing things in the manga that Female Ranma is weaker than male Ranma but not by the massive amount some people make her out to be.

Manga Ranma, beginning of series.

Male Ranma: Max swinging tonnage… 2 to 4 ton

Max lifting tonnage…7 to 9 ton.

Female Ranma: Max swinging tonnage…1 to 2 ton (possibly only one ton total.)

Max lifting tonnage…3 to 4 ton (Possibly only 3 ton total.)

My Fic Ranma at current time.

Already knows Amaguriken, Hiryu Shoten Ha, and Bakusai Tenketsu

Male Ranma: Max swinging tonnage… 7 to 9 ton

Max Lifting tonnage… 10 to 13 ton

Female Ranma: Max swinging tonnage…17 to 20 ton.

Max lifting tonnage… 21 to 25 ton.

Shadow Ranma (Is only female): Max swinging tonnage…34 to 40 ton

Max lifting tonnage…48 to 52 ton.

Ryoga, from what I've seen while reading seems to be around 2 times or more Ranma's brute strength and only gets stronger as the series goes on. So yes Ryoga is still stronger than Ranma, werewolf Ryoga is even stronger than demoness Ranma, though he falls short of shadow Ranma. I cant help but think of the strengths of the characters as it has always been a pet peeve of mine to see people write Akane as stronger than Ranma or others in brute strength, even though Akane can NOT punch through solid stone, something even shampoo can do, and shampoo once beat Akane in an arm wrestling match even though Akane didn't know about it till shampoo broke out of the game thing, this was the super soba noodle storyline. From reading the manga and watching the series it's fairly obvious that the only a few main characters are weaker brute strength wise than Akane, Ukyo and Kuno are two of them, though they outclass Akane in skill by a wide margin.