Sliver King Ranma
by Lord Dragon Claw
Disclaimer: This end up.
Chapter Two: Task and Kanji Mages
It had been about a month and yet Ranma had quickly taken control of the entire hive's comings and goings. He was directing his slivers to come up with new breeds, and had already thought of two: Amphibious and Gardening Slivers. Amphibious for obvious reasons. Gardening because he needed to attract more forms of mana to Yavimaya. He only had access to green and red and very little supply of blue and white (mostly green though). He also wanted black, just so that he could have a full set.
The Amphibious Sliver wasn't much of a problem to conduct the evolution for. He just had to have some slivers eat a large number of frogs, toads, and fish. Lots and lots of fish. Especially that large sixty-foot eel that had attacked the coast last week.
The Gardening Slivers were proving much more difficult to breed for. He had thought of everything, and short of having his slivers devour the elves, nothing seemed like it was going to work. And eating the elves would've had bad PR with the other races on Yavimaya after all.
To top it off, a strange reptilian species began popping out of huge fissures in the ground, attacking his hive. They were usually bipedal with two smaller arms and a short tail to balance themselves. Their heads were huge and contained some evil-looking tusks as well as several rows of sharp teeth. He had contacted Multani about them and the old Maro-Sorcerer told him that they were called "kavu" and were dangerous and efficient predators who sometimes hunted in packs. The last time they had appeared, Yavimaya was under attack by the Phyrexians over 300 years ago. Apparently, Ranma's very presence had drawn the beasts back to the surface.
How to solve this problem? asked Ranma rhetorically, though he was sure he was going to get an answer.
maybe you can eat it? suggested Sliver.
Actually, I think that's a good idea, agreed Martian.
I'm hungray too! said Neko.
You're always hungry! stated Lavos. And that shouldn't be possible!
Ranma shook his head. He was pretty sure he was no longer sane. Not like he even cared anymore.
see that? asked Sliver. that kavu move trees around!
Yup. Sliver was right. One of those kavu was transplanting trees around and...
Ranma summoned some of the more expert hunters in his hive to start feeding on the kavu that moved trees around. In fact, he figured they should just use the stupid lizards as a new food source anyway. Yavimaya no longer needed these ancient reptilians anymore for it had the slivers to defend it now.
Another couple of days later, one of his scouts, a Watcher Sliver, spotted something that made it nervous. It requested that Ranma come check it out.
"So where is the scary thing?" asked the King.
Over the next rise, replied the sliver, pointing in the right direction.
"Say, is your grammar getting better?"
I guess so...
"Good. Keep working on it."
Ranma quietly climbed over the rise to find something that shocked him. A beautiful human woman. Here. In the middle of the Yavimayan forest. And she didn't look anything like the few druids his slivers had seen.
She had black hair in a wild mane and brown eyes. She had a pair of large goggles that looked as though they were used for welding sitting on her forehead. She wore black leather that was almost skintight and had a black studded belt around her waist. She also had a black scarf made of silk. On the ground next to her was a very heavy-looking coat, as if she had expected the weather to be very cold. Why it she would think that it would snow in the tropical climate of Yavimaya Ranma might never know.
Using his heightened senses, Ranma picked up that she was thinking out loud and hadn't noticed him yet. He also picked up that she had a huge amount of red mana at her disposal.
"I should have ended up in Argoth when I used that teleportation scroll Jodah had lying around," she mused as she looked around. "Well, what was left of Argoth at least. This place looks more beautiful than the stories said Argoth once was, before the Brothers' War... Oh, I wish Jodah was here so he could tell me how I botched that stupid spell. And the world is supposed to be in that stupid Ice Age that a certain elf 'Walker refused to end. Jodah, you wuss! How come you had to let yourself get enthralled by that damn Weaver King!? He made me kill you before I managed to kill him... I wish someone would come and tell me where the hell I am!"
Ranma managed to sneak up on her and decided to announce himself. "Wish granted!" he called out from four meters behind her.
She yelped and turned around pointing a finger at him. Before he knew it, Ranma was engulfed in flames hotter than any of the ones Saffron once threw at him. His clothes were instantly turned to ash.
"DAMMIT!" screamed the woman. "He was my first contact!"
Ranma noticed something: as fast as the fire could consume his hair or skin, it regenerated at the exact same rate.
Any idea why I'm still alive? he queried.
You remember the Full-Body Cat's Tongue Shiatsu and the Phoenix Pill? asked Martian.
Yeah.
The Full-Body Cat's Tongue Shiatsu wears off.
So?
The Phoenix Pill doesn't. That's why Saffron's fire didn't do as much damage as it should have.
Still doesn't explain why I'm surviving these flames that are much hotter than the stupid bird's.
It's because you're part Lavos, chimed in Lavos. A Lavos is supposed to survive the heat from entering a planet's atmosphere and the heat from the core of a planet. Though you only have a fraction of a Lavos's power, you still have that adaptation to a degree.
It made sense to Ranma. After asking Lavos how to put out the flames, he extinguished them.
"That hurt, you know," stated Ranma to the woman.
"What the-!?" She set him on fire again. And Ranma put it out.
"Would you please stop doing that? I haven't done anything to you!"
"Why don't you burn!? What the hell are you!?"
"I am the Sliver King."
"Slivers?" She set him on fire again. He put it out again.
"I am going to ask you for the last time to CUT IT OUT!" Suddenly realizing something, Ranma moved his stinger down in front of him. "You jerk! Those were my only clothes!"
"Oh. Sorry." She then made a show of trying to look behind his stinger. They might not be the same species, but she considered this unburnable guy to be really cute. Too bad they got off on the wrong foot.
Once Ranma realized what she was doing, he blushed. He then asked his other personalities if there was a way to get his clothes back. He really didn't want to go around naked. The other slivers might not care, but he at least wanted some form of civilization around here. Martian came up with a solution: Martians could shape-shift clothing onto themselves. Ranma tried it, producing a facsimile of his favorite red silk shirt and black silk pants combo.
"I thought you said they were your last set of clothing..."
"I just figured out a trick to conjure new ones. By the way, my name's Ranma, King of the Slivers of Yavimaya."
"So that's where I am! Anyway, my name is Jaya Ballard, the best Task Mage there is!"
She kind of reminded Ranma of himself back when he was in Nerima.
"Well Jaya, how did you end up here?"
"I was using a teleport scroll to get to the frozen wastes of Argoth, but no such luck. I'm looking for a way to get back at the Phyrexians for killing my friends."
"Jaya?"
"Yeah?"
"The last of the Phyrexians died out about 250 years ago."
"... WHAT!?"
"They no longer exist! I'm serious! That's what Multani said!"
"Multani? But, he's been dead for more than 500 years!"
Ranma was confused. Then he had an idea.
Hey Lavos? Any possibility that Jaya came from an alternate uni... er, multiverse?
Very likely. Her dimensional signature is slightly out of phase with our surroundings. The Rift above Yavimaya may have transported her to our reality.
Ah. Thanks.
"Jaya, calm down. I think you came from an alternate multiverse."
"What?" She looked at him as if he were crazy.
He took some time to explain things to her. He also explained that he was also displaced from his home universe.
"Okay. Jodah once explained to me his theory about multiple multiverses and something called quantum physics and whatnot. I guess his theory was correct."
"I think the main cause for you to be dropped here is the Rift above us."
"Rift?"
"Caused by something Multani called the 'Destruction of Argoth'. Can't you feel it sucking the mana away from the land at a steady rate?"
"Well, yeah. I can feel it... Wait a minute! Did you just say 'Argoth'?"
"Yeah..."
"I was trying to get to Argoth! I guess I made it after all!"
"I guess that means that Yavimaya was once Argoth..."
"Say, where is Multani? I haven't talked to him in five centuries." Ranma had a sudden realization and looked at Jaya funny. "What?"
"How were you able to live that long? I knew an old lady and a perverted old man who were each over three-hundred years old, but they actually looked their age!"
"A secret of the Unseen Academy which Jodah showed me."
"Oh. Well, Multani is stuck in the Rift. I communicate with him through this." Ranma pulled Multani's mask from sub-space.
"How? Do you talk to it?"
"No. You wear it and it opens a psychic link with him."
"Can I see him now?"
"Sure, but let's find a more secure location, such as back at my hive. Wouldn't want you to get eaten by a random kavu or wurm. Wearing the mask induces temporary paralysis."
"Well? What are we waiting for? Let's get going!"
Ranma began leading Jaya back to the hive, stopping to scratch the Watcher Sliver at the base of her skull, eliciting contented clicking noises from her. Jaya nearly set the poor sliver on fire though, but she managed to dodge it, thanks to Ranma's training.
"Jaya, I can't have you constantly trying to kill my slivers. You need to stop trying to toast them."
"Why? Aren't they just mindless drones?"
"NO! They aren't. I made sure of that. They are now thinking individuals just like you and me."
"Oh. Sorry."
"Don't worry about it!" Ranma knew she wasn't going to set any of them on fire, except for him as they both knew he could easily survive it.
After talking to Multani, Jaya agreed to help Ranma with his cause to save Dominaria. Shortly after, Ranma completed the evolution of the Gardening Slivers. They began to make a bay near the hive and an island in the middle of the bay. After they were finished putting a swamp on the middle of the island, the slivers began panicking. Ranma and Jaya chose to investigate.
In the middle of the newly finished swamp was a man with black hair just standing there. His green eyes were unfocused as if he were blind. His hair was tied in a samurai's topknot that went into a waist-long ponytail and his dark red robes were the same color as blood. On his belt was a katana and a jitte (a small knife with an additional but smaller blade just forward of the main blade; used for catching an opponent's blade) in their respective scabbards as well as a pouch. The man also looked Japanese. Jaya thought that the man also looked cute.
Ranma soon realized that the man was somewhat confused. So he addressed him.
"Hello? Can you understand me?" The man turned to Ranma and cocked his head, so Ranma tried it again in Japanese. This time the man understood.
"Hai. Wakarimasu." Realizing that Jaya didn't understand Japanese, Ranma quickly cast a translation enchantment on the man.
"Okay, can you understand me this time?"
"Yes I ca-... What did you do to me?"
"I enchanted you so you could understand our language."
"Ask permission next time." The man scratched his head and sighed. "Well, since I'm blind and removed from my home plane of Kamigawa... can I stay here?" Ranma had heard the term "plane" before. It was what the denizens of this multiverse called a world.
"I guess. My name is King Ranma."
"I am Jaya Ballard."
"My name is Umezawa Toshiro," said the man proudly. "But my friends call me 'Toshi'."
"Well Toshi, welcome to the continent of Yavimaya of the plane named Dominaria!"
"Thanks. Um, what were those things that hissed and made clicking sounds as soon as I arrived?"
"Those were Ranma's slivers," answered Jaya.
"Never met a sliver before. Are they anything like an Orochi or a Nezumi?"
"No," answered Ranma. "If you don't mind me asking, were you born blind?"
"No," sighed Toshi. "As punishment for not doing things exactly the way she wanted, my Megami, the Myojin of Night's Reach, blinded me and stranded me here."
"Well, I asked because you have an enchantment on your eyes. Let me see if I can remove it."
Ranma concentrated and was able to remove the enchantment from Toshi, though it left Ranma virtually exhausted. He was hungry enough to eat a whole wurm!
Somewhere else in the Multiverse, a certain kami became pissed that her charge had one of his punishments lifted only shortly after she had bestowed it upon him.
"I can see!" Toshi exclaimed. Then he noticed Ranma. "That's an odd skin color for a human."
"I'm not exactly a human," said Ranma. "I'm also King of the Slivers."
"And that would make the lovely lady be Jaya, correct?"
Jaya blushed and nodded. Then she smacked herself. She was getting giddy like a child or a teenager! What was wrong with her!?
"Doesn't talk much, does she?"
"Actually, I usually can't get her to shut up." Ranma suddenly found himself engulfed in flames which he quickly put out. "Hit a nerve, did I?"
"Yeah, but I feel better," said Jaya.
Toshi was astonished. "Nani!? Naze!?"
Ranma shook his head. "Don't worry about it. She sets me on fire for stress relief. Not to worry though - I'm immune to the flames." Ranma turned to leave. "Well, let's go to the hive and see if we can't secure you some living quarters."
Ranma, even with all of his martial arts training and additional reflexes from Neko and the slivers, still managed a klutzy moment when he tripped on a tree root and went straight into the swamp water. She came up as being slightly shorter, having reddish-brown hair, and a couple of protrusions on her chest.
"KUSO!" screamed the now female Ranma. She got up and noticed the looks her companions were giving her. "What!?"
"Weren't you a guy just a second ago?" queried Jaya.
"It's a curse I've had to deal with for a while now. Cold water changes me into a girl and hot water changes me back. Before you ask, I was born a guy." Ranma then braced herself for the insults and accusations of being a freak and a pervert, but they never came. Instead, Toshi broke the silence.
"Beats the curse that Night gave me by a long shot."
"I've seen weirder," agreed Jaya. "Such as a Planeswalker who liked to switch whether he was a flat-chested female or a transvestite." Both the aqua-transsexual and the samurai looked at the Task Mage dumbfoundedly.
All the way back to the hive, the slivers teased Ranma, calling her "Queen" or "Mistress". Finally Ranma had it.
MARTIAN!
What?
Is there any way to change back without hot water?
Of course. Just shape-shift back.
Ranma smacked his head.
"What?" asked Toshi.
"I know how to change back without water. It is so obvious too." He then changed.
"How did you do that?"
"Natural ability I was born with," replied Ranma. "Though I learned I had it only a month ago." Ranma then turned to Toshi. "Say, what was your profession anyway?"
"I was a ronin-for-hire and a Kanji Mage."
"Kanji?" asked Jaya.
Toshi pulled a small stone tablet from the pouch on his belt. On the tablet was the kanji for water. "Yeah. Kanji Mages use kanji to cast their spells beforehand. Would you like to see a demonstration?"
"Sure."
Toshi pointed the tablet at Ranma whose eyes went wide. Toshi then broke the tablet hitting Ranma with a powerful stream of water, triggering his curse. Her eyebrow twitched.
"Jerk." Toshi and Jaya simply laughed.
She was furious. She thought that she had placed her pawn in an appropriate place to live out his appropriate punishment. Apparently not. She knew that there were many predators and Toshiro would have to fight for his life, while blind. Apparently the predators not only accepted him into their society, but they also restored his sight.
She would have to punish them all for their insolence. But she would have to be subtle. After all, she was the Myojin of Night's Reach, and the Night was nothing if not subtle. She would have to punish the leader of these "slivers" first though.
Little did she know that the leader of the slivers was more than capable of killing gods and goddesses. He did kill a phoenix god, after all. And that phoenix stayed dead.
Ranma was pissed. His advance scouts discovered that two other hives, one lead by the very Winged Sliver that left him when he became King, had landed on Yavimaya. And they were eating the treefolk, the elves, the druids, and other beings including the delicate faerie population. Ranma asked his personalities what to do.
Kill 'em all!!
Thank you, Neko. Anyone else?
slaughter the traitor.
You know what? You need to learn how to speak better. All the other slivers are doing it. What about you, Lavos? As if I need to ask.
Leave no survivors.
Martian? How about you?
I agree, except we should let some of them live and join the hive. The ones who choose not to should be eaten.
Wonderful. You're all insane, you know that?
So are you.
Ranma decided to ask his two human companions what he should do.
"Toshi?"
"What is it?" answered the ronin, while using his jitte to carve a kanji into a stone tablet.
"There are two other sliver hives in Yavimaya now, and they're eating the people I'm supposed to protect. One of them is a traitor, a Winged Sliver who was in my hive but I allowed him to leave of his own free will. Any ideas on how to handle them?"
"Do what I always did to traitors: slaughter them. You gave that Winged Sliver two chances to prove his worth, and he's failed them both. Besides, if any of them decide to join your forces, I say you should let them."
"You're essentially telling me to go to war with the other hives?"
"If you want to call it that." Toshi stopped scratching marks on the tablet. "Ah. Done. Allow me to introduce the kanji version of the spell 'Firebolt'."
As he said the name of the spell, a fireball launched from the tablet held in Toshi's hand and engulfed Ranma in flames. Ranma quickly put them out.
"Hey, you didn't break the tablet!"
"Iie. Firebolt was designed to be a multiple-use spell. Combining my kanji magic with it, I now have an infinite supply of fireballs at my disposal."
"Ah, well I'll take your advice into consideration. I need to ask Jaya her opinion."
A few moments, and he found her practicing her dodging skills with the Amphibious Slivers. The frog-like slivers stopped charging her when Ranma entered the chamber.
"Jaya?"
"What?"
"There are two hives invading Yavimaya. One of them is led by a Winged Sliver who used to be in my hive. They are eating the elves, treefolk, druids, and..."
"Let me turn them to ash for you!"
"Oh... Toshi told me to declare war on them..."
"That works too."
We should kill them, agreed one of the Amphibious Slivers. We can take whatever genetic data they have. Plus, they are eating the ones whom you charged us to protect.
That decided it. The next morning, there would be blood. And ash.
The crack of dawn heralded Ranma's opening offensive against the enemy hive on the north shore, the one with the Winged Sliver (407 slivers strong). Ranma started the assault with a spell Lavos called "Evil Star", which decimated about half of the enemy's ranks. It left Ranma fairly drained of his mana, but it was worth reducing the hive's numbers. It was a large red sphere that phased out of nowhere into the center of the enemy hive, and then shimmered before disappearing again.
The enemy slivers took to the skies (meaning that Evil Star hadn't hit the Winged Sliver or hadn't hit him hard enough), but quickly found themselves at the mercy of Ranma's slivers as his hive leapt into the air and shot out spidersilk nets. Jaya contributed by incinerating many of the slivers with her various red mana spells. Toshi preferred to slice 'n dice, though a few slivers were swallowed up by the ground and crushed.
Ranma himself fought by allowing Neko control over his body. Crouched on all fours, Neko-Ranma would leap into the air and pounce upon the enemy's numbers, biting and slashing with his claws, tails, and stinger.
Within hours, there were only eight remaining enemy slivers left. The Winged Sliver, two Screeching Slivers, a Bonesplitter Sliver, a Ward Sliver, and three Gemhide Slivers. All eight of them were surrounded by Ranma's forces (of which suffered only thirteen casualties).
Ranma addressed them. "Out of your force that decided to invade my territory and eat the peoples who inhabit it, there are now only eight of you remaining. Except for your leader, the Winged Sliver, I give you a choice: join my hive or perish."
Both of the Screeching Slivers, the Ward Sliver, and two of the Gemhide Slivers decided to join Ranma's hive. The remaining three slivers (as well as the corpses from the battle) were quickly devoured.
The reasons the five new slivers gave for joining Ranma's hive were quite simple. The Screeching Slivers respected Ranma's superior tactics. The Ward Sliver was impressed by Ranma's strength. So were the Gemhide Slivers, but they were more impressed by his ability to protect his own hive while launching an offensive against another.
Ranma.
What is it, Martian?
Don't you think that with a little imagination, the Screechers' DNA could be used for something productive?
Like what?
He's talking about ambassadors and emissaries, Einstein.
Shut it, Lavos! Then, Ranma realized what Martian and Lavos were getting at.
"Toshi. Jaya. Allow me to introduce Prometheus, the first Babel Sliver."
"Hello," replied the diminutive being with an enlarged head and a silver-colored hide.
"It... talked!?"
"One step closer to your goal, ne?"
"King Ranma, why didn't they respond?"
"Oh! I'm so sorry. I was startled is all," said Jaya.
"Sumimasen. How rude of me!" said Toshi.
End Chapter Two.
(What was the) Next Chapter: The other hive and convincing the elves to stay on the continent.
Spellbook:
Evil Star
In the game Chrono Trigger, it reduced the party's HP by half. In this story, it hits a large group for random amounts of damage. Ranma learned it from his Lavos personality. It is a non-elemental attack, meaning that it is composed of colorless mana.
Shapeshifting
Ranma can create clothing, change gender, change color, change size, add or remove limbs, etc. In the "Magic: the Gathering" card game, he'd have the ability known as "Changeling", which means "this creature is every creature type at all times".
Bestiary:
Kavu
A reptilian beast from ancient times. At times of need, Gaea, the "Greater Power" that some Planeswalkers refer to, releases them from their slumber. They seem to have awakened on their own though. Most kavu are green or red in mana.
Task Mage
A powerful fire mage. Capable of immense feats of destruction. Task Mages usually die young as they have a tendency to incinerate themselves as well as their enemies. Jaya's mana is red.
Wurm
A large beast with enormous jaws. By "large" I mean "large enough to swallow a dragon whole". Otherwise, most wurms resemble worms though some of them have dragon-like heads and resemble snakes. Most wurms are green in mana.
Orochi
A snake person with four arms. Native to Kamigawa. Usually green in both scales and mana.
Nezumi
A rat person from Kamigawa. Mana is usually black.
Kanji Mage
A powerful mage who casts spells beforehand by writing them with kanji on objects or small tablets and then releasing them later. Most Kanji Mages happen to also be skilled samurai. Toshi's mana is black.
Kami
One of the God/Spirits from Kamigawa. Among the most powerful are the Myojins. The Myojin of Night's Reach is a vindictive megami from the swamps of Kamigawa. Her mana is black.
Faerie
Pixies and fairies and the like. Very reclusive and skittish. Multani had once directed the evolution of Yavimayan Faeries to the point that they could skeletonize a Phyrexian in less than two minutes, but their population has been on the decline in the past eighty years. Faeries come in every color of mana except red.
Sliver Index:
Amphibious Sliver
Mana is blue. Able to swim with ease. Enables great leaping abilities and gives the hive frog-like tongues and gills.
Gardening Sliver
Mana is green. Has skills at gardening and landscaping. Ranma is using these to create an island with a swamp on it as well as some plains in order to have better access to all types of mana.
Ward Sliver
Mana is white. Has tough exoskeletal armor. Increases the toughness of the hive.
Screeching Sliver
Mana is blue. Has powerful vocal cords allowing it to screech at enemies and at prey, as a form of psychological warfare and scare tactics.
Bonesplitter Sliver
Mana is red. Has powerful muscles in its jaws, tails, and stinger(s). Increases the striking force of the hive's attacks. One of the kinds of sliver that did not join Ranma's hive.
Gemhide Sliver
Mana is green. Feeding primarily on rocks and minerals it is able to produce vast amounts of mana on its own. Has gems sticking out of its hide. Allows the entire hive to produce its own mana.
Babel Sliver
Mana is both white and blue. Able to speak any language and able to cast simple translation magic to learn additional languages. An emissary for the hive.