2.1
[Fate Grand Order] [Ranma ½]
Ranma Saotome vs Grand Order: The Summoning (Anata Suruu)
"No catalyst this time Senpai?" Mash asked as she and Ritsuka set up the summoning chamber for the typical 'First Summon' of the Loop, as had become routine for them of the course of time.
"Well neither Cu or Altria are awake, so I decided against it, besides, it's always fun to try something new," the currently male Master of Chaldea smiled as he pulled away, leaping back to the door with great speed as Mash pulled down her goggles she'd obtained a few Loops back while Ritsuka pulled down his own goggles and pulled the switch.
The standard light of a Servant Summoning filled the chamber behind the glass window… and when it died down, someone they'd never seen before was standing there.
"Huh… far from the first time I've been summoned," the young black haired man noted, swishing his braid around before crossing his arms. "Ranma Saotome, my class is Assassin for some reason," he started before raising an eyebrow at the two unfamiliar faces. "Oh you're new."
"Uh… hi," Ritsuka waved politely to the man. He didn't exactly recognize the name, so this was probably a Fused Loop like that one with Kirby or that other one with Leman Russ… where the man had made off with the Storm Border as the Loop had been ending, annoyingly enough. Something about 'Warp travel tests'.
At least Vortigern had gotten a kick out of it as Ritsuka had complained to him about that, rather than having the normal end of Loop dream conversation with him.
"Hmph, what are you names kids?" he asked before stepping off the platform as Mash opened the door for him politely.
"Um, I'm Mash Kyrielight, a Looper here in Chaldea," she said with a polite bow to him as Ritsuka waved again.
"Ritsuka Fujimaru, Anchor for Chaldea. We've only gone through about…" he started mentally counting. "About… four hundred fifty five Loops? Well I have, Mash here has only been through about seventy of those."
"I'm surprised you've bothered counting, but if that's how young you are, meh," he waved them off. "Chaldea… Chaldea… hmm, I think I've heard Shirou mention this place once or twice, I'm surprised it's actually its own Branch now, but weirder shit has happened," Ranma commented before crossing his arms. "So what's the story here?"
"Um…" Mash tapped her fingers. "Our job here at Chaldea is to recover artifacts like the Holy Grails scattered through time to the various singularities, either naturally manifested or placed there by an outside force. Our current mission is to investigate the Incineration of Humanity and…" Mash started before Ritsuka sighed.
"He's probably not bothering yet, so I'll be brief… Our enemy is Solomon, King of Mages, but it's a lot more than just that… we can't say more because if we do so well… we very quickly learned that he can very easily kill us if he figures out certain facts, he's… clairvoyant." Ritsuka muttered, and Ranma scoffed.
"You do know that he can't see inside your Pocket, right?" Ranma questioned. Ritsuka paused for a second, before he put a hand to his face and started to mumble under his breath incoherently. "Keep that in mind, how big is yours?" he muttered before casting one of Twilight's anti-scrying spells under his breath. No one was going to peep on his conversation.
"I've got maybe a small room in size." Ritsuka admitted, and Mash nodded.
"Mine's slightly bigger than Senpai's right now. He doesn't have a lot of chances to get stronger." Mash admitted and Ranma raised an eyebrow at that one. The Anchor's Pocket was smaller than his fellow Loopers? Well… it'd happened before.
"Anyway, we can talk about it later, so have you got anything actually interesting so far?" Ranma questioned
"That… entirely depends on your definition of that, you're obviously a Looper, we've only had a few visits so far. Kirby, Leman Russ and Claude and Edelgard so far," Ritsuka admitted as Ranma smirked.
"Kid, since none of them have clearly told you, let me tell you something," he said with a smirk, pointing at himself with a cocky grin. "I'm Ranma Saotome, first and oldest Looper in Yggdrasil, and don't let anyone else tell you otherwise."
"The oldest!?" Mash asked in shock, before bowing. "I'm sorry for my rudeness Saotome-sama!"
"Knock that shit off," Ranma said with a snort, Mash quickly righting herself as she adjusted her glasses. "Now then let's get started shall we? This is a new place, so even if there's nothing challenging here, it'll at least be something new to do."
"...I think I may know something, but it won't be happening for a little bit, maybe. It's a common Variant."
"Oh?" Ranma asked as Mash nodded.
"The Nerofest Senpai?"
"Yeah, big tournament set up in a Singularity where Nero manages to summon lots of Servants at their absolute strongest-" before he could continue, Ranma just punched his fist into the palm of his hand.
"Sign me up, I've got ass to kick."
"Can I at least summon other Servants… Leman was very cocky about how he could handle anything here and after he got um… temporarily killed we finally managed to convince him that we do need to summon other Servants." Ritsuka asked calmly.
"Null Loop?" Ranma felt the need to ask… and then actually raised an eyebrow when both of the young Loopers before him shook their heads in the negative.
"He died five seperate times that Loop… and stole our ship." Mash admitted with a hand to her face.
As Ritsuka said that, Ranma just started smirking. First, he'd been a little intrigued at the prospect of a new Loop being Activated.
Now?
Now he was interested.
2.2
[Fate Grand Order] [Ranma ½]
Ranma Saotome vs Grand Order: Nerofest (Anata Suruu)
The Twelve Labors
Ranma Saotome bounced up and down on his feet as he stood in the arena, Ritsuka behind him (as he'd had to be, him the Master and he the Servant). Ritsuka had put most of Chaldea on standby during the Festival, gathering materials around Rome, while Ranma himself had taken up Ritsuka's offer to let him go up against the entire 'Nero Festival' on his lonesome. Apparently Leman had been capable of fighting on his own up until he'd had to fight Medb's round. Apparently, she had an ability to permanently charm any male target, even if they were otherwise immune to being charmed, forcing Ritsuka to use a Mystic Code to let him actually fight. These things apparently ran on some sort of weird logic that made them really, really hard, even by Baseline standards here.
This was the first bout, up against Herakles with the full power of the Twelve Labors. Overall, something he'd dealt with before, and something he planned to use as a warm up.
He'd smashed the golems easily, and then Herakles had come out, the crowd roaring as Ritsuka gripped his hand tightly. The young Master was wearing his 'Super Mystic Code' as he called it, one that allowed him to use every single one of his various Baseline spells on rapid fire if necessary. Not that Ranma expected to need any of the help.
Herakles roared and charged, and Ranma smacked his fists into each other. If this was a full powered Herakles, that meant he'd need to actually put in at least a small bit of effort to pierce God-Hand's ability to null attacks of 'B-rank' or lower.
He rushed forward, easily sidestepping the swing of Herakles' blade, and ducking under an exceptionally fast kick, dust going everywhere as he uppercut the Berserker. The mad dog of a Servant actually dodged backwards, leaving Ranma to actually raise an eyebrow.
"He actually has a lot of his skill Ranma! He's not just a senseless Servant!" Ritsuka called out, and Ranma smirked as he watched the Berserker raise his sword with clear intent for more than just smashing him into the floor. Ok, so harder than the version of Herakles from Shirou's Loop… good, it meant he could have at least a slightly more fun fight.
So he decided to take it up a notch, going fast enough to basically appear in front of the Berserker and aiming to take his head off with one punch. He was very nearly met with a fist to the skull in turn, but he evaded it easily, kicking the Berserker in the knee to knock him down to one leg before attempting to kick off his chest.
The Berserker however dropped completely to the ground instead, messing up his plan and causing him to hit nothing as he was grabbed by the leg and thrown across the arena. He righted himself. So… this one could actually think?
Still with a smirk on his face, he flipped, kicking off the arena wall and launching himself at Herakles, the Berserker shooting up and flying at him as well, foot clashing with stone blade… and the stone blade shattered from the impact, though the Berserker turned himself just enough that he only got half his chest sheared off from the kick, rather than having his head crushed. Ranma skid to a stop as Herakles roared, his chest growing back. "That's one…"
The Berserker spun around, and rocketed at him, fists up as Ranma suddenly was put on the defensive against the exceptionally large Servant, who'd swapped from powerful strikes to some sort of Martial arts style, Pankration. A style he'd picked up from Chieron one Loop that he'd learned as actually quite similar to Anything Goes in concept.
He very quickly figured out that attempting to block was quite painful, since the one attack he had blocked had actually managed to get through his ki defenses and left a minor bruise, so he kept dodging as the Berserker continued to attack while at the same time keeping his guard up in such a manner he could respond to almost anything.
As a Looper, this would have been no challenge at all.
As a martial artist, Ranma was actually quick to enjoy this. He was fighting a true master of an art that didn't have many users, and who despite being a massive monster of a man, was still keeping himself defended rather than simply relying on his durability.
He parried a punch, returning with one of his own, only for said punch to be caught between knee and elbow; Herakles using those massive spikes that were growing out of his elbows to catch him, just barely, and giving a hefty blow to the arm. Ranma actually winced for a moment as he felt the bone snap, before punching Herakles' arm off at the elbow, freeing his own and jumping away as he quickly activated one of his various healing factors, the bone fixing itself as he spun his arm around. Herakles' own arm wasn't regenerating, signifying to Ranma that he'd yet to actually take a life off him. But with that arm gone, taking a second would probably be quite easy.
So he ran forward, adding in a pair of ki blasts that Herakles dodged around, but he was corralling the Berserker into an area he couldn't dodge. He launched forward, leaping into the air before outright bouncing off of it to come down like a hammer on the Berserker, foot extended and aiming for the head.
Rather than try to grab his leg, like Ranma had expected, the Berserker completely dodged the attack and grabbed him by the waist, pinning his arms to his side and squeezing. It hurt, but not enough to stop him headbutting the Berserker, knocking his head back and freeing him from the grab and giving him enough of an opening to land a solid uppercut to the other Servant's chest.
The upper torso of Herakles damn near exploded in a shower of blood as Ranma stepped back. "That should have taken off a few lives," he muttered. Ritsuka coughed to draw Ranma's attention as Herakles was standing back up, regenerating.
"Uh… he has a bit of a unique quirk… only one life can be taken off at a time," he admitted, and Ranma just deadpanned at him
He turned back as Herakles roared, raising his regenerated fists, still without a weapon as he and Ranma charged each other, engaging once again.
It took another five minutes before the final life was expended, and he'd still had to go through the Greek Hero one more time. Ranma hadn't even come close to losing, but he had a few bruises, and he'd had his leg broken once before resetting it. He was grinning. This wasn't a challenge, but damn if it wasn't a bit of fun.
Pandemonium
"I thought I told you I was doing this alone," Ranma stated bluntly as Ritsuka was leading a young girl, Medea Lily, and Tristan over.
"I will admit, I am also surprised at Master's decision." Tristan remarked as Ritsuka looked to Ranma.
"The Hassan parade admittedly has a nasty gimmick. Each one you take out will curse you in a different way, and certain ones have the ability to just outright take you with them a few seconds later if you don't clear their curses. I'm only bringing them along so you can fight without issues," Ritsuka admitted.
"I'm good at removing curses!" the young version of Medea said with a smile as Ranma frowned. He would probably be fine, no matter how many curses were stacked onto him, if they could affect him at all. Heck, even a delayed death wouldn't be an issue… actually…
"Nah, I got this. It only goes on the person who kills them right?" Ranma asked as Ritsuka nodded slowly. "Then I've already won."
Ritsuka didn't even get to ask as he walked into the arena with the hundred and two hassans. All the various assassins raising their weapons as Ranma just put his hands together to make a quick hand seal.
Suddenly, the arena was filled with a hundred and two Ranmas. Ritsuka blinked as Medea dropped her staff in surprise while Tristan tilted his head.
"What an interesting Assassin mister Saotome is Master," Tristan noted as the slaughter began, each clone taking out one Hassan in record time each. It only took maybe five seconds for every last Assassin to be taken out, and all of Ranma's clones vanished afterwards.
"Too easy, next," Ranma said in a bored fashion as Ritsuka rubbed the back of his head.
"You know what, let's leave him to that…'' Ritsuka muttered softly as Ranma looked rather bored now. After Herakles, nothing had even given him pause yet.
History's Oldest Hero
Both Siegfried and Medb had been easily dealt with by Ranma, the latter taken out by his exposed weak point and a single pinpoint strike, and Medb just by Ranma swapping over to female form and beating his way through her army and her.
Now, the second to last round stood before him, Gilgamesh.
Ranma had faced the King of Heroes many times before, so in his mind this was already decided.
Beating his way through the various centaurs without a break in his stride, Ranma looked up at the King of Heroes as the golden man looked down upon him.
And like that, he began his normal tactic of raining down hell from the Gate of Babylon, something Ranma easily dodged even as the King very quickly doubled down on his assault, speeding up and opening portals in locations rather than just directly behind him and forcing the Looper to dodge flying axes and chains going at speeds that the King of Heroes rarely bothered with.
"Oh, so you are being serious!?" Ranma asked with an excited look on his face, only for Gilgamesh to whip something out in response, forcing Ranma to dodge at high speed as a blast from Ea ripped into the arena where he'd been standing; the assault never let up, forcing Ranma to keep constantly flipping, dodging, and even teleporting.
He teleported directly behind Gilgamesh in order to try and attack him from there, only to clash his fist against several shields that had been flung out of the Gate of Babylon, with Gilgamesh refusing to move as Ranma kept up the ceaseless evasion, dodging constant waves from Ea, and the full arsenal of the King of Heroes' endless treasury.
It was actually a thrill to fight a King of Heroes going all out. He was actually getting cuts and scrapes from this, and nearly had a chunk of his torso ripped out by a massive spear. When he'd finally gotten close to the King of Heroes, he'd actually pulled out a second weapon to block his strikes, and had nearly point-blanked Ranma with Ea, who had teleported out of the way just to continue going.
He only needed one good hit to take him out. But he was actually making him work for that hit.
Ranma kept ramping up, further and further, until he was little more than an occasionally appearing phantom, and the King of Heroes was similarly keeping pace. He opened portals before Ranma even appeared. He hadn't reached lightspeed just yet, but he was wasn't far off.
By the time he'd reached the tipping point, he was actually covered in cuts and scrapes that were healing over as fast he could gain them. He rocketed towards the King of Heroes, finally done with this fight. Even as he brought up an array of divine shields, Ranma just ignored it, electing to instead warp behind the King of Heroes and hitting him in the back of the head with a punch faster than the speed of light.
When the smoke had cleared, his body and armor were dissolving as Ranma took one breath of air and looked around at the utterly obliterated arena… actually he hadn't noticed, but over the course of the fight, most of the landscape had been utterly decimated. Craters dozens of feet deep, mile long gouges in the earth. Millions of weapons, slowly dissolving into mana were all around him.
"...You good now?" Ritsuka asked as he walked up, Mash coming up alongside him as Ranma chuckled.
"Yeah, that was a pretty good starting match. What's next?"
When he saw the kid's smile fade into a more serious look, he had to raise an eyebrow before giving a mental shrug and lowering his arms from the back of his head.
"London."
2.3
[Fate Grand Order] [Ranma ½]
Ranma Saotome vs Grand Order: Solomon (Anata Suruu)
The City of Demonic fog… Ritsuka had been exceedingly careful about who to bring along with them to this place. Ranma could see the worry in the kid's eyes, and he had physically dragged the kid into his own Pocket to get some answers.
"Kid, Ritsuka, what's going on, what's got you all worked up?"
"It's Solomon… this is where we run into him." Ritsuka revealed; the pair standing on a field of grass, a planet Ranma had grabbed at some point or another.
"London, really?" Ranma asked, before sighing. "Well, whatever, I'll beat his ass, don't you worry," Ranma said, putting a finger to his chest with a smirk on his face.
"...That's what Leman said."
Ok, sure, knowing that Leman had fought Solomon and probably lost was one thing, but while Leman was a pretty old Looper, Ranma had already beaten Gilgamesh, the very same extra serious one that had managed to kill Leman Russ in one of his five deaths interspaced throughout this Loop.
Ranma was pretty confident going into it. The City of Demonic Fog easily being a rather relaxing murder mystery writ large, with Mash and Ritsuka going around solving problems, and even managing to recruit the little Jack the Ripper and Nursery Rhyme to their cause with candy, kindness and a bit of extra belief in stories. Ranma had punted the bastard Makiri out and had similarly thrown in a couple ki blasts and the like to kill the Demon Pillar. When Tesla had started walking, Ritsuka had already had the rest of the London Servant crew ready to jump him, and they'd taken Tesla out with ease.
The strange, strange horse riding woman had been similarly dealt with easily. Apparently it was one of Artoria's many alternate selves as it were… and then… he had showed up.
The man Ritsuka and Mash had been fearing since the day they'd started.
Solomon.
Ranma, being who he was, told them he'd dealt with it, and to stand back.
Solomon floated there, looking down upon him as he approached. "So you're the big bad Solomon. I've heard a lot about you," Ranma said with a smirk. "Apparently, you've got a bit of a rep,"
"You too. Ranma Saotome, the big bad lead warrior of Chaldea," Solomon started, clapping slowly, Ranma noting the ten rings he wore. Nine gold, one silver. "I gotta say, your own reputation ain't bad either. Heck, facing down the King of Heroes and defeating him at his strongest?" the mage laughed.
"Well I'm not one to brag," Ranma said with a smirk as he pulled his hands out of his Pockets. "So Sol, what's it gonna be? Are you willing to try taking me on full force?" Ranma questioned as Solomon laughed.
"A better question, you wild horse, is if you're ready to be tamed," Solomon flexed his fingers, cracking his neck. "I promise you, only one of us is going to be walking away from London tonight."
Ranma grinned. "You got that right pal. You're going home in a body bag. Or better yet, not at all," Ranma declared as Solomon laughed.
"Oh yeah? Bring it on then. Take your best shot against the King of Mages! The Grand Caster!" Solomon threw out his arms as Ranma smirked, getting into a ready stance as something, off in the distance, arose.
He looked to his left, and then his right. He could barely make out the Demon God Pillars that had arisen, but they weren't doing anything, not yet. In fact they were exceptionally far away from the fight. "What, afraid to put your backup dancers in harm's way?"
Solomon chuckled as he pointed a finger towards Ranma. "Oh, they're perfectly fine, right where the-" before he finished, Ranma suddenly felt a ripping pain in his chest, having just barely dodged out of the way of the magical laser that had been mere millimeters from his heart. That bastard had just shot him mid sentence. "-y are."
"Then I guess I'll-" He rushed forward, summoning an array of shadow clones mid leap, all of them spreading out to go fight the two Demon Pillars while he tried to ram his fist into Solomon, only for the King of Mages to have already warped away before he'd gotten within punch distance. "Have to dance with you my-" he spun on his heel and kicked out, only for his foot to meet a spell bolt, a surprisingly small one, kicking it out of the air. "Self."
'Huh, not that strong. Figures, but that laser had a lot of power behind it,' Ranma thought to himself as he teleported behind Solomon, only for a block of ice to not only appear, but entrap his fist as the King of Mages vanished again. He grit his teeth and lit his arm aflame, turning the ice to steam in an instant as he looked around, Solomon appearing as memories started flooding back from his shadow clones. Solomon appeared briefly in one's vision before an entire group of them had gone pop from a single small laser beam that he pierced through the brain, exploding the moment they touched brain matter.
The second group however was ready for Solomon when he appeared, Ranma himself teleporting behind the King of Mages as he rammed his fist into his face. Fist met cloth, ripping his clothing… but it didn't pierce flesh. It didn't even bruise his flesh as Solomon chuckled, before the man glowed. Ranma quickly put up his arms in response to the energy build up reflexively, only for nothing to happen aside from an immensely bright light, whiting out the entire area as he felt more memories return to him as five more clones were popped from that same specialized killing laser.
When the light died down, Ranma readjusted instantly, going for Solomon as he raised his hand. A great force attempted to descend on Ranma, probably akin to roughly the gravity of planet Vegeta, but failed to slow him down at all as he put his fist through the air; Solomon already gone, long before he'd managed to close the gap, even at twice the speed of sound.
"You're fast and tricky, you know that King of Mages?" Ranma pulled his fist out of the wall he'd punched, shaking his hand as Solomon crossed his arms.
"I gotta admit, it's pretty rare that someone gets close enough to actually touch me. And you've got a heck of a lot of tricks," the man said with a wicked grin
"And you just happen to be a one trick pony with no sense of improv, not exactly worthy of your-" Ranma leapt forward at near lightspeed, instantly in front of the man and punching him in the jaw with a full force punch. "Title."
Solomon didn't move, in fact he didn't even react and Ranma suddenly saw a smirk form on the King of Mages' face. He vanished again, and Ranma felt stone crawling up his arm. He snapped his arm out, the stone covering it flying off as Solomon spoke.
"One trick, huh? I've got a lot more than that," Solomon started as Ranma flipped out of the way of a massive fireball, a simple spell more than likely. He heard a scream as a Demon Pillar rose up from beneath him. He kicked off the thing, uprooting it as he launched himself at Solomon, who he could see floating over Big Ben's lightning rod. He was in front of him in an instant… and there was a hand on his chest.
Just as he fist was about to impact Solomon, Ranma's body froze solid from a massive magical spell placed on him by touch, the sheer wind force of his attack not even connecting; knocking away clouds in the background and dispersing much of the Demonic Fog as Solomon's hair whipped in the wind kicked up. The mage smirked as Ranma instantly warped out of the ice, lighting himself on fire to remove what was inside of him.
"Really!? More ice?" Ranma asked, a bit annoyed as Solomon snapped his fingers with a cocky smirk on his face.
Not even a second later, Ranma was involved in a massive explosion that lit up the night sky. The moment it was over he could feel air trying to rush back into the now empty void. He had a few burns on him; Solomon had turned a near 100 meter radius around him into pure Hydrogen, which had exploded as Ranma had lit himself on fire to get rid of the ice on and inside of him.
'Ok, he's smart and pragmatic, I'll give him that,' Ranma mentally admitted as the King of Mages vanished again. His eyes snapped to the left as he met a pair of spinning magical blades with two ki blasts, blowing them out of the air as Solomon apparently vanished again.
"Come on, you just gonna keep running around?" Ranma taunted before he had to dodge another homing laser, the small pink beam chasing him… as three more shot out of the ground beneath him, a fifth invisible one tore his shirt in the back and outright detonated on contact, and two more completely different spells shot at him from above and from atop Big Ben.
He fired back at the lasers after leaping out of the explosion, causing the four chasing him to detonate with enough force to blow up the entire block, which he'd avoided being caught in by simply warping away. The spell dropping in from above had been a bolt of lightning, and the one from Big Ben had affected the clock, seemingly not doing anything as Ranma vanished and tried to put a spiral power enhanced fist right through Solomon's back.
The clock of Big Ben struck midnight just as he had been about to impact, the loud gong heralding the mage's disappearance yet again. Ranma grit his teeth before his hair went yellow, standing on ends as Solomon spoke.
"Oh? You're finally revealing even a fragment of your true power? Not even the King forced you this far… then again, against him you could actually avoid his attacks," Solomon started as Ranma vanished, reappearing right behind where he'd heard the voice. He came face to face with a large demonic eye. The moment he had appeared, in fact, the moment before he had, an explosion had gone off; one he'd warped right into. Ranma shot out of the dust cloud and straight into the air.
As he was about to belt out a taunt, he noticed the now eight demon pillars that had sprung up around London. "What, more friends? They aren't even doing anything," Ranma stated bluntly as Solomon appeared on the ground, arms already raised. Rather than waiting to see what new magic trick Solomon was planning, Ranma instead barreled forward, pounding his fists against Solomon's arms rapidly. However, despite the power being packed behind each hit, the Mage of Mages didn't even flinch from the furious assault.
"That's all you got horse boy?" Solomon asked with a smirk before Ranma saw his eyes flash. A weight fell upon his body as he kicked off and began punching at a rapid pace, impacting a golden magical barrier with each strike; one that seemed to be appearing only when he was about to hit Solomon, the King of Mages not even bothering to dodge them as Ranma was suddenly struck from behind, sending him forward mere inches, but inches enough for the King of Mages to once more get his hands on him.
The moment the hands met Ranma's chest, Solomon vanished, this time with Ranma in tow, to a point high above London. Solomon vanished, Ranma attempting to follow with a teleport of his own… only he didn't go anywhere, a golden magical cage around him as red lasers fired from the demon pillars around London, all aimed at one target.
"Perhaps horse was too high of a compliment," Solomon noted as Ranma shouted, bursting the barrier and rushing out of it towards Solomon, only for the Mage to vanish as Ranma realized they hadn't been targeting him.
All the demon pillars had fired at Solomon, who's place was now occupied by Ranma. The attacks not being lasers, but more akin to instant explosions.
And with eight all firing at once, and with a surprising amount of power put behind them, Ranma was suddenly knocked from the air, and into a crater in the ground, gritting his teeth as he pulled himself back up.
"Still standing. Man you're a stubborn one, you know that?" Solomon spoke before closing his fist.
"Same to you!" Ranma shot out of the crater mere moments before it could actually explode, he turned towards Solomon and shot towards him. He impacted the King of Mage's stomach with his fist, fully intending to put it through him and turn him into paste.
Instead, all he got was a raised eyebrow and little more than his fist meeting rock hard abs without even causing a bruise, even as around them the surrounding two blocks of buildings were leveled by the shockwave alone.
"More than expected, but not by much," Solomon noted before vanishing again. Ranma quickly flew away from a full array of purple lasers coming from all directions as the Demon pillars started flashing, every one of their hundreds of eyes constantly locked onto him wherever he teleported to as he started flinging ki blasts back; blasting the lasers which, upon impact, exploded hard enough to once more light up the night sky.
Solomon had stopped toying with his food at this point. And Ranma was starting to have trouble finding a place to dodge to, when the air was nothing but explosions wherever he went. He was dodging around rings of light that homed in on him, lasers that were no longer exploding when shot, outright driving through his Ki blasts and trying to go right for him instead. The damn Demon Pillars were still barraging him with pinpoint explosions as he ducked down to street level to get out of their sightlines.
The moment he touched the ground it lit up with hundreds of runes, and he found himself being shocked by electrical energy, magic that continued to flow through his body. He got up, only for several blades to rip out of the ground, stabbing through his feet through the runes beneath him as he grit his teeth and pulled his way out, but even as he flew away, the entire runic array continued to blast him with electrical energy, with the demon pillars once more locking onto him and barraging his form with explosives.
He teleported, high up into the sky, breathing heavily with his body covered in burns and blood. There was a chuckle from his side as Solomon spoke again. Ranma whipped to the side, throwing a punch from behind Solomon the moment he'd spoken.
Said punch was caught by Solomon's own hand, and the entire sky was clear of clouds as both Ranma's and Solomon's arms were vibrating. Solomon spoke without even looking at Ranma. "How does it feel? To be beaten by the best?"
"You ain't the best! I am!" Ranma retorted with a rapid series of punches. Solomon vanished just before he could put his other fist into his back. He had about had it with this cocky bastard, constantly teleporting, endless tricks, magical spells, and an attitude.
He kinda realized it was like fighting a mirror of himself only as a mage instead of a martial artist.
"Well, I think I've had my fun, See ya." Solomon noted, actually floating below Ranma and giving a cocky wave before vanishing once more.
"Oh no you don't get back here!" He shot downwards, flying back towards London. And when he came to a stop only seconds later… it was gone. Well, the signs of their battle were still there, but the Demon Pillars weren't. He couldn't even sense them. Slowly, and very carefully, he touched the ground, practically waiting for the array of runes to activate again.
Nothing.
He started warping around, the area was utterly saturated in energy from the full force of their battle, most of it being the lingering power Solomon had shot off as well as all of the Demon Pillars. He even checked where they'd been, and aside from rubble covering the holes that they'd made, they weren't there.
Still in combat mode, he kept flying around the city, searching for any trace of Solomon as the magic energy started to fade away. It took him a good twenty minutes of searching, with absolutely no contact at all, before he finally landed and dropped his Super Saiyan form. "Yeah well fuck you too!" he shouted, expecting the bastard to hear him. He started to walk back towards Big Ben where he'd left Ritsuka, Mash and Mordred.
Ritsuka took a very deep breath as Mordred was whistling. "Damn kid, that's one hell of a Servant," the Saber pointed as Mash was still holding up Lord Camelot. Twenty different Holy Grails had been placed near her just to barely keep the force of the fighting from killing the trio, Lord Camelot still fully deployed nearly twenty minutes after the fighting had stopped.
"Yeah… he's… so far beyond what I expected," Ritsuka admitted, gulping as Mash looked towards him.
"Should I drop it, Senpai?" she asked, and he shook his head.
"We wait until either Ranma comes back, or Solomon comes to gloat," he admitted, well aware of the King of Mages typical behavior, thanks to Mordred being the usual survivor and him mirroring off of her.
It was another two minutes before Ranma finally came into view, hands in his pockets, but his clothes were wrecked. He had an annoyed look on his face as Ritsuka sighed in relief. "Oh thank god," the Anchor muttered. "Ok Mash, you can-"
"DON'T!" Mordred panicked suddenly, and as both Mash and Ritsuka were about to turn to her, he saw it happen before he could even turn his head.
Ranma, walking towards them. Solomon suddenly appearing… and then everything went up in flames and smoke. Mash screamed as Ritsuka raised his hand. "MASH! THREE COMMAND SEALS!" He ordered, burning all three as the familiar Noble Phantasm known as Ars Almadel Salomonis exploded against Lord Camelot; a force easily capable of destroying entire worlds engulfing them with the fury of a mad god; all the rage and thunder and of an apocalypse in the space of a scant few seconds.
Mash kept screaming as the heat burned through Lord Camelot, Ritsuka holding steady as Mash, who thankfully had become a lot tougher over the course of her various Loops already, fell to her knees; steaming and panting as Mordred ripped her armor off, smoke coming off of her body as she too was burning up.
Ritsuka was similarly in a very poor state as Mash slowly looked up, her eyes only meeting the back of her shield, which had held without a scratch. The shield powered by her unbreakable will and determination had held… and before them was nothing but fire, ash, and destruction. All of London that had been before Lord Camelot annihilated, with only Big Ben behind them, and the surrounding buildings directly behind that still standing, but heavily warped from the heat alone.
Ritsuka looked down into the hole left behind, alongside Mordred and Mash, all of them still shaking from the violent and instantaneous attack. There, barely visible through the smoke and heat haze they saw it, right in the crater's center, practically fused to the ground.
Ranma, unconscious and covered in burns, laying face first and practically fused with the glassed land from the heat.
"Holy fuck." Mordred screeched as Ritsuka and Mash watched, waiting for the heat to dissipate.
Instead, they'd only left when they were Rayshifted out with the Singularity's collapse, and Ranma rushed to the medical wing to treat his wound.
Ranma awoke to an unfamiliar setting. The last thing he had recalled was… utter pain for a brief instant before... nothing.
"You're awake." Ranma stood up, realizing very quickly he was in a hospital bed. Doctor Roman, the director of Chaldea, was sitting in a chair across from him. "You're tough Ranma, honestly… Are you sure you don't have EX ranked endurance?" the doctor asked as Ranma looked at him.
"How long?" Ranma asked with dawning horror.
"It's been about twelve minutes since you three returned from Londinium, and ten since you've been in that bed," the good doctor supplied, and he breathed a sigh of relief. "Again, I'm surprised, given that the attack that hit you apparently annihilated all of London according to Ritsuka and Mash. The Singularity thankfully collapsed and corrected itself normally, as Ritsuka said it would with something so… unnatural occurring to kill so many people and do so much damage without explanation."
"Get out," Ranma started as Roman blinked.
"I was about to go get-"
"Get out Roman," Ranma ordered, and the orange haired doctor gulped before leaving quickly. Ranma was alone.
Alone with something he hadn't felt in a long, long time.
He had lost.
To a non-looping villain.
Sure he hadn't been killed, but that was still a beyond massive blow to his ego. He, the First Looper, with access to all of his power, hadn't beaten his opponent. Said opponent had toyed with him, fucked off, and knocked him unconscious.
"That no good, rotten, sneaky piece of shit," he growled, the air beginning to heat up as his ki started to stream from his body in visible waves of glowing red. "YGGDRASIL DAMN YOU!" Ranma roared, the room exploding in an instant, all the electrical equipment being fried, the lights going out as sirens started blaring. Outside the door, he could hear Chaldea going into full on panic mode as he floated there; the bed, the room, and the next five rooms around him annihilated just from the sheer weight of the anger tinted ki he was exuding alone. If he had been anywhere else, there would not even be a planet left.
The only thing keeping him from blowing this place to high hell, was the fact that if he did so it would have killed Ritsuka. The kid was nowhere even close to other loopers when it came to durability. That was the only reason.
Solomon, King of Mages, had beaten him.
Even worse, he had done so while acting like him! The cocky bastard! Ranma was beyond livid.
He floated there, screaming obscenities in his head, before just pulling himself into his Pocket and then really letting loose.
He spent probably hours there, blowing crap up. He was fairly sure he'd blown up five solar systems worth of stuff by the time he was done and had finally calmed down enough he was sure he wouldn't blow up Chaldea on a whim.
...The worst part was the kid had warned him. He'd warned him that another Anchor had come here and died five separate times. And Leman Russ was the 40k Anchor, an extremely tough one to boot. And he'd up and been killed five times.
It stung.
But as the rage finally dimmened from his eyes, Ranma came to a realization. He'd gotten mad. He'd gotten angry, and he'd been beat. Now? Now? After having that happen to him?
He was going to get even the next time he faced off against Solomon, King of Mages, or rather, as his actual name was…
"GOETIA! I'M GOING TO BEAT YOUR ASS!"
Ranma Saotome vs Grand Order: The Plan
[Fate Grand Order] [Ranma ½]
After he'd finished, Ranma popped out of his pocket to the sight of a very wrecked medical wing, still in the process of being repaired by the various members of Chaldea. He didn't even bother with their stunned looks as he walked up to one of them and looked down.
"Ritsuka, now," he said, the blonde and pudgy young man gulping.
"H-he's in the summoning chamber right now I think…" the man said, and Ranma vanished, appearing in the Summoning Chamber and looking around.
Ritsuka was currently talking to a young blue haired boy, that Hans Servant from London, and Mash was nowhere to be seen at the moment.
He just walked up behind Ritsuka and threw the other Anchor's ass into his own Pocket before Pocketing himself.
Ritsuka, when he appeared inside his Pocket, was face first with the metal floor of one of Ranma's many Death Stars. Of which he now owned far fewer thanks to his recent bout of rage. "Ow…" Ritsuka picketed himself up and looked around. "Huh… did Astarte kidnap me early this time?" Ritsuka muttered as Ranma spoke up.
"We need to talk kid," Ritsuka spun around on the ground, looking up at Ranma with surprise in his eyes. "About that bitch."
"Solomon?" Ritsuka asked, Ranma's glare briefly intensified at the name as Ritsuka slowly picked himself up off the ground and dusted himself off despite the broiling anger coming off of Ranma.
"Goetia, every detail, I want it now," Ranma ordered as Ritsuka looked around. "We're in my Pocket, so there is no way he can hear us, I'm certain of it, now spill."
"Goetia is…" Ritsuka started, taking a deep breath before sighing. "He's the first of the Seven Beasts, the 'Evils of Humanity' He represents the Sin of Pity," Ranma snorted causing Ritsuka to glare at him. Ranma glared back, and the younger anchor shaink under his gaze before adjusting his collar. "He… has a lot of power behind him."
"I figured out at much, now I want you to tell me how the fuck I wasn't doing crap to him," Ranma started as Ritsuka closed his eyes.
"Well… let's start with the basics… Goetia is problematic due to his Beast Skill, Nega-Summon as we've learned it's called from our data banks and scans. It's a skill that specifically negates Servants," and Ritsuka pointed at Ranma. "It nullifies almost all damage you've been doing, like maybe five percent of whatever you were hitting him with was getting through," Ritsuka started and Ranma snorted.
"Five percent of me? Kid I've done entire loops with the strength of a baby, if you're telling me-" Ranma started and Ritsuka stamped his foot down.
"You want me to tell you everything or not, Mister Ranma!?" Ritsuka shouted at him before taking a very deep breath as Ranma held a hand to his face.
"Right, whatever. Go ahead," Ranma said as Ritsuka turned around and looked up towards the ceiling.
"Beyond Nega-Summon, there is his other method of negating damage on top of that. Whenever he actually takes damage, he relegates it to the seventy-two demon pillars, who actually take the hits for him. Splitting up said damage by whatever fraction he desires, most likely each pillar only receiving one seventy-second of the damage you dealt. Also, thanks to the Temple of Time, Ars Paulina, and his nature as a Beast granting him the Independent Manifestation skill, he's immortal, and near infinitely regenerating."
"Near infinite? So there's a limit?" Ranma asked, already interested as Ritsuka sorta shrugged.
"Kinda… we aren't sure. The way we managed to force Goetia, or Solomon, to even begin taking damage was by fighting all seventy-two demon pillars at once. Over a hundred Servants came to our aid by summoning themselves to the Time Temple, and together they were killing the pillars as fast as they could regenerate, giving me and Mash an opening to actually fight Solomon, or Goetia, head on."
"That simple huh?" Ranma asked as he shook his head.
"I'm not done… no matter what we've done, we've never been able to kill him without a certain event happening. Without it happening, the concept of death won't be applied to Goetia. Without that concept of death, we can't kill him, or any of the seventy-two Demon Pillars. We can't destroy the Time Temple… and we can't reverse the Incineration of Humanity." Ritsuka took a deep breath as Ranma pulled up a hand.
"And that event is?" Ranma asked as Ritsuka looked away from the ceiling.
"...Doctor Roman using his Noble Phantasm, Ars Nova. Returning all the gifts of King Solomon to God. He reverses all of Goetia's achievements as well. As Goetia could only perform the Incineration of Humanity with Solomon's power, as he was made from Solomon and took his body, if Goetia isn't destroyed… and if Roman doesn't die… there will be no Humanity, and we'll fail."
Part of Ranma wanted to be extra callous about this and go 'big whoop' it would all revert back to normal next loop… but that was Sakura Syndrome, and he wasn't going to be the one to teach an Anchor to be that callous, especially since he very clearly was torn up about this.
"After using Ars Nova, Goetia will begin to break down, the Time Temple will be destroyed, and we can kill the Demon Pillars for good. In there, I've always engaged him in a fistfight to the death, once using his real body, and the second time while he was using Solomon's dissipating corpse… He'll lose his clairvoyance. He'll lose his ability to split the damage, he loses Nega Summon… he loses everything… He'll become mortal," Ritsuka continued as Ranma grit his teeth.
He could think of a million different ways to beat the crap out of Goetia now. Especially since there was a way to overwhelm him, but… he couldn't fix the Incineration of Humanity. That was literally all of human history from the dawn of time, up in flames… thinking about it, even if he wanted to be callous about it, that was a fairly big thing that had to be dealt with.
"Right… I can kill him," Ritsuka blinked in surprise, as Ranma smirked. "Kid, you're gonna learn very soon that there are lots of ways to get around not being able to kill something," he watched as the hope very quickly entered, and then left the kid's eyes.
"But… Roman," Ritsuka muttered softly as Ranma put his hand on Ritsuka's shoulder.
"I'm good Ritsuka, and when it comes to winning fights, the best. And I'll be the best forever but… I can't save him. From what I'm hearing his death is necessary, it will break everything if he doesn't fix it with his life," Ranma said softly as Ritsuka nodded.
"I know it is, but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy that fact," Ritsuka admitted as Ranma nodded.
"So, you tell me all the abilities he's capable of, and I'll give you the show of a lifetime," Ranma said with a cocky smirk. He was going to end Goetia, for this Loop anyway.
They talked, for quite a while, Ranma grilling Ritsuka on all the various spells, the abilities of the Ten Rings of Solomon, even the various personalities and powers of the 72 demon pillars. But Goetia was the real topic, his pure unbridled power and regenerative capabilities were the problem, but Ranma knew they'd been overcome in this world's Baseline with the power of allies coming together.
He was going to do it all on his own. And, even better, from what Ritsuka had explained about just how crazy things got later, he knew that with a bit of surprise… this Loop was one of the few where he could really go all out.
He was going to enjoy this.
Ritsuka was dumped back outside Ranma's pocket, with Mash, Roman, Da Vinci, and nearly every other Servant in Chaldea crowded around the spot he'd vanished from when Ranma had taken him. "Uh… hi, sorry?"
"Where did you go Senpai!" Mash shouted in exasperation.
"Uh… I was doing something," Ritsuka offered, as Da Vinci sighed.
"Don't scare us like that, please," she said, putting her hand on Ritsuka's shoulder as he sighed softly.
"Come on, let's get back to work, we've still going to keep moving forward, even knowing the King of Mages' power," Roman said with a smile, and Ritsuka nodded. They hadn't given up before, they weren't going to give up now.
Ranma may have lost… but his survival had actually given them hope that they could win, something the rest of Chaldea sorely needed. He was still probably going to get reprimanded after he came back out, but… he understood.
Ritsuka knew people, and he knew that Ranma couldn't take losing. He was going to get even, and he was going to win. For the first time, Ritsuka wanted to see what a truly ancient Looper could do.
2.4
[Cardfight! Vanguard], [Nasuverse]
The Round Table Clan (HelenTheMoon (Lermis))
It was a pretty standard loop. Aichi Awakened during class, answered Mark-sensei's question, sent a Ping and got a few back, dodged Morikawa's attempts to steal Blaster Blade, headed to Card Capital to fight, pulled out his deck – which was made to be reasonable balanced and not overly broken, he was here to have fun after all – and that was when he realized that this was a variant.
His cards were different.
No, it was still a Royal Paladin deck, but well…
King of Knights, Alfred had been replaced by "Once and Future King – Artoria", who despite the title was definitely a woman. And Gancelot was now Lancelot, was not on his horse, and looked like a tired and weary man with purple hair.
In fact, a quick survey through his deck composition revealed that his deck composition had changed almost entirely, and many of his cards had their art replaced in some fashion. Bedivere was now a… person (he honestly could not tell if that was a man or a woman) with a metal arm and blond hair, Galahad was in his deck for some reason – normally Galahad was a ride chain, but this here was a perfect guard unit that other than the white hair had nothing in common with the original, Tristan was a red-head, and Key had a significantly tamer appearance compared to his normal version – blinded eye notwithstanding. In addition, there were several units that did not even belong in the clan to begin with. Agravain and Gareth were originally Gold Paladins, but now the former looked like he belonged with the Shadow Paladins instead, and the latter was a girl in silver armor. The list went on and on. There were even a few names he did not recognize at all, like the "Mash" girl who was now the special intercept unit.
Thankfully, Blaster Blade was still in his deck, looking as bemused but fortunately having answers.
"It appears we are in a fused loop, my Vanguard. King Artoria and Lady Kyrielight originate from the Nasuverse loops. According to them, none of the other knights are loopers."
"So it's a simple replacement…" Aichi said with a sigh. Honestly, it was not all that difficult to deal with. Aichi was used to changing his deck and even clan despite always sticking to his theme, so changing a few strategies around was not much of a task. He could probably also ask Miss Artoria and Miss Mash to know more about his new knights.
"I wonder if any units in the other clans have been replaced…"
Euryale had somehow turned from a snake woman to a smug loli. And her skill had changed from binding cards to paralyzing male units. Despite that supposedly being Megacolony's gimmick. Oh, and did he mention that she got an extra critical by attacking male vanguards? And she could also flip over a damage counter the moment she hit the field.
The only Oracle Think Tank user who was not happy about this development was Misaki. Aichi was just glad that Artoria was a woman because he was not sure how he would deal with that effect in baseline.
"How did this turn into an aerial mech fight?"
Blaster Blade could only shrug as the crazed, blackened Lancelot of the Shadow Paladins unleashed a barrage of missiles from his F15 against the uncorrupted version of Lancelot, who responded by executing several maneuvers in his white, dual energy sword-wielding giant mech which was probably from a completely different branch entirely.
Artoria, in her Lily form which had replaced Alfred Early, had enough royal restraint not to facepalm. "Baseline was interesting."
Weren't you medieval knights? "And the mech?"
"His Master had a mysterious benefactor. Or so I'm told."
"Lady Kyrielight is yelling "crush him" from the deck."
"I can hear that." He was not entirely sure who she was cheering on.
"Koutei looks really jealous."
Indeed, the Dimension Police user, whose deck was coincidentally entirely made out of giant space robots, was clearly taking notes in the stands.
"…Should we tell them that the damage went through?"
"̷͔̖̙͖̎͛͑̾A̶̬͓̪̱͕̲̮̒̎͑̍̎R̵̭̫̙͕̝͔̲̓̓̆̉̊̉̾Ţ̴̛͕͕̮͊̒̀̈̄͜͝H̵͕̣̲̭̙̠̩̒̀̃Ů̷͚̮̰̞U̷͔̭̱͇̬̥͋̈́͗͆͐̒̆Ư̴̫̭͈̙̩͔͋͜U̴̦̞̲͖̯͐̓̾̉̅͛̎U̸̡͚͙̺͎͚̪̅̃̄̓Ṷ̶̧̼̟͚̙͖̟̒Ụ̸̝̮͉̌̓̉̑͝͝Û̸̧͈̥̎̈̊Ư̵̧̟͍̳͖̲̹̾̚͜Ư̶̢̠͇̻̝͇̬̅͂͘̚U̷͙̰̓͗͜Ú̷̧͔͎̼̥̾͒̌̐U̷̢̙̬̦͚̲̟͂͊̎̊̃͘͝Ų̵͓͇̔͜Ṵ̸̡͓̲̜͓̘͉̔͌R̴̤͖̬̈̈̋̆̾͋̚͜"̵̹̦̌̋͛́͜͝
"…Just… let them…"
After the flying jet vs mech fight, which somehow ended up leaving the designated holographic area and vanishing, and some very odd and awkward conversation with the organization staff, it was generally agreed on that in any such future cases, the players were to continue normally until proper countermeasures could be taken.
In baseline, "Clarent Sword Dragon" was a terrifying black monstrosity of wielding a wicked red sword. Now, it was a tomboy who looked almost identical to Artoria with a sword named Clarent.
"But… where's the dragon?"
"I AM the dragon! RAAAAGHGHHG!"
"Battle! With a boost from Fougal, Mash attacks!"
"Hai! Accomplish measure, start!"
"Huh?"
"Life scale of enemy vanguard…"
"Wait, what are you doing?" And just as he said that, her shield transformed into a giant sniper gun.
"Mash!?"
"Black Barell has taken form! Dead center round is set into gun barrel."
"How big is that round!?"
He… really did not like the noise that gun was making.
And the earth shook.
"…"
"…"
"…"
"Damage check. Heal trigger."
"DAMNIT!"
"Fougal, stop attacking the rearguards, please!"
"Yes, "Fougal", listen to him!"
"Fou kyu!"
"You ungrateful little-"
Artoria decided to forgo all self-control and facepalmed. Of course Merlin would find some way to hijack the deck. Never mind that the man wasn't looping.
…At least, she thought he wasn't.
Last time Aichi checked, the Neo Nectar clan did have plant girls. However, those plant girls were not naked, mountain sized, covered with moss and looking depressed.
"To be frank my vanguard, after everything this was the logical conclusion. …And Koutei looks jealous again."
"He really wants a giant mech fight, huh…"
"Normally, Genesis isn't supposed to get Ishtar for another six years."
"My Vanguard, I'm fairly certain that Genesis is not supposed to exist yet."
"Uhh, should we do something about that…?"
"It would be impolite to interrupt her conversation with Artoria."
Indeed, the raven-haired half-naked goddess who looked absolutely nothing like the original unit was currently chatting with the king of knights. Despite the two of them being in the middle of a cardfight, in a stadium.
It also appeared that "Ishtar" was not Ishtar at all.
"I seem to recall a "Lancelot" ruling?"
Yeah, Aichi remembered that too.
"Let's continue with the fight…"
It was certainly an interesting loop.
2.1: Ranma Saotome, First Looper, meet Ritsuka Fujimaru, the newest.
2.2: Nerofest is a fun variant. Test your might!
2.3: This outcome was agreed upon by several writer and approved by other readers on Spacebattles. Don't worry, ass will be kicked soon.
2.4: Open the Game!
Quality over Quantity my dear readers.