A New Challenge

-Chiba Hiro

(I do not own Ranma ½ or any of its content, it all belongs to Rumiko Takahashi and other media.)

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Chapter 16: Climactic Battle! Ranma vs. Hikari! Pt 2

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"I think it's about time to make things a little more interesting, don't you think so?" Hikari insisted.

"Interesting, how?" Ranma asked, now in his female form, and lying on the ground, paralyzed.

"I see you also agree that we must stake a little more on this battle than that. What fun would it be to lose, and have your hostages taken, and you lose everything you hold dear? I think that's a boring way to end this duel. I say we bring this fight to the next level, how about you?" Hikari smirked from behind his oversized cowl.

"Well, I'd hate to see such a big fight like this go to the dumpster if there's no stakes behind it! Alright, I'll take you up on your offer! What did you have in mind?" Ranma replied.

"How about we put your friend's lives at risk on top of yours? Let's say you win the duel, you get your friends back safe and sound, and you are free to do whatever the hell you want with me." Hikari suggested.

"Yeah, that does sound compromising, but you only said what you'd do if I win. What if you won? What will you do then?" Ranma asked.

"I'm very glad you asked. If I won, your friends are still freed, but I may do whatever I please with you. Either way your friends will be freed anyway; it's just a matter of surviving for yourself. How do you like that? Is that fair enough?" Hikari suggested.

"It's fine with me, but I'll hold you to it if you do lose." Ranma said in a threatening tone.

In the corner, the pig and duck were squealing and quacking up a merry storm as Ranma raised the stakes of the duel.

"Do you think you honestly have a slight chance against me? I have yet to reveal all four of my secret techniques, and I just used my four points paralysis technique. I'd say you already lost even before the battle got underway. Here I was thinking that you'd be more of a challenge the way you defeated my Shikigami, but no matter, you will face defeat today!"

"I don't care if my limbs are already paralyzed! I'll still defeat you!" Ranma declared.

"From where I'm standing, you don't look very convincing. How are you going to break my four points paralysis technique?" Hikari asked.

"A martial artist has more than one way to paralyze his opponents, and the most common way to paralyze your opponent is to block the flow of ki in the body at a certain area, and if you can hit these areas with careful precision, while applying a reasonable amount of ki to it, the two energies will react, causing my flow of ki to be blocked, thus leaving me paralyzed. Am I correct?"

"You hit the nail on the head with that one." Hikari commented.

"What most martial artists don't know about paralyzing is that it can be reversed. If the opponent who was struck by the four points paralysis, like you demonstrated, you can apply more force to these areas with twice the amount of ki you applied. That is, if you applied twenty percent of your ki into me, I can double it, and overcome this road block by forcing forty percent of my ki against your ki, thus breaking your paralysis." Ranma explained.

"If you think you already figured it out, why don't you try freeing yourself right now? Prove to me that you're not just saying this to give me a lesson in ki class." Hikari taunted.

"You'll regret you ever even crossed me!" Ranma shouted, and her aura flared in a blazing red around her. With her power at forty percent, she backed up her theory and broke free of the paralysis.

"Let's fight for real this time!" Ranma declared.

"So, you were holding back this whole time? I thought you had always been serious, but it turns out that there's more to a Saotome than meets the eye. I shouldn't underestimate your insight; it appears that you're not as dumb as you look." Hikari commented.

"That's it, pal! You're going down!"

Ranma lashed out with more speed than she'd ever used in her life. In a space of a second, Hikari let Ranma connect with his stomach, thus leaving him on his knees. Ranma did not let hikari recover, and kicked him again. It may not have been very honorable for a martial artist of Ranma's caliber, but Hikari had not been honorable, so why not return the attitude.

"You! How…did you…move…so fast?" Hikari asked through choked breaths.

"It's simple, really. What you failed to understand is now that I'm in girl mode, I gain more speed than ever before! I may have lost a great deal of strength, but the ki boost I gave myself increased my speed by forty percent! If I were to go full speed, you'd be on the ground, dead." Ranma boasted.

"Incredible…" Hikari whispered to himself. "I admit that you caught me off guard the first time, but it will not happen again."

He stood up, and disappeared yet again. Ranma used her ki sensing ability, but she sensed him a little too late. Hikari swung his leg at her chest, and knocked the wind out of her the way she did just a moment ago.

"That's a dirty trick!" Ranma shouted, clutching her chest, and heaving in pain.

"You should be grateful now that you're female; I was going a little easier on you, I hope you don't feel too bad. Yet, you should feel honored." Hikari said in an upbeat tone.

If that's what he calls going easy on a female, I'd hate to see him when he's going at full power, she thought. Oh well, I guess I'll have to use a little bit more power.

Hikari shifted to a defensive stance, and applied a little pressure to the atmosphere around him. He was going to use one of his techniques again, it seemed, but Ranma had been shifted onto her knees, and a crater had appeared beneath her, causing her to fall onto her front side. It felt like the gravity around her was being pressed on her fifty times the pressure.

"The Second technique of the Hikari Style! Force Palm Mountain Crusher!" Hikari named the technique.

"I'd like to see how you'd get around this technique of mine! Personally, this is my favorite technique to use on torturing my enemies! Unlike my first technique, this one deals with applying ki to the area around the opponent, thus causing the atmospheric pressure to increase tenfold, depending on how much ki I use! Currently, I'm using thirty percent of my ki, but this should not be difficult for it's as you said, you must apply twice the amount of ki I am using!" Hikari taunted.

Ranma struggled against the force of pressure pressing against her body. It felt like she was trapped in a narrow cage made of iron. Every time she tried to move, she felt like she had to use strength to move her limbs the way she wanted to. As Hikari suggested, she tried applying more ki, and it look like it's a lot harder to double the amount of ki if you're on the ground, and struggling against tenfold atmospheric gravity at the same time! This sucks! She thought.

Ranma closed her eyes, and began to think that she was never going to get around this technique. She thought it was hopeless to struggle against gravity, knowing that she defied gravity everyday, but this was different, this was gravity multiplied by ten. Imagine the pain of being held under ten times gravity.

Before she could lose all hope, though, Ryoga and Mousse snapped her out of her doubting thoughts. Ryoga and Mousse quacked and squealed for her to get up. Although they were both animals, and shouting things in languages she did not understand, she understood that they were quacking and squealing for her to get back up, and not lose hope. That's right! If I ever wanna see my home again, I have to survive this battle, and I can't do it if I'm doubting myself halfway through the fight! She thought; her confidence returning.

Before she knew it, her red aura flared up again, and like before, she broke through the technique. She was still panting, and heaving from the amount of force that was applied to her just now, and she had broken through two of the four techniques that Hikari had just used. That meant that she had two more techniques left, and if he was defeated before he could reveal all four, he would relent, and let all of them go free, but if he revealed all four before then, she and her friends would never see the light of day again! That was the deal before the plain field was raised.

Before regaining strength to fight again, she broke into a sprint to keep herself in the fight, before Hikari knew it, Ranma applied some ki to her feet, and ran with greater speed than before, in a matter of a half second, Ranma appeared in front of Hikari, and used her chestnut fist on Hikari.

"Hissatsu Tenshin Amaguriken!" Ranma shouted, and a flurry of lightning-fast jabs sent hikari bounding for the wall of the underground cave.

Ranma came upon Hikari, he was unconscious, it seemed. That meant he was defeated, and she won, so she could free her friends now, but she didn't know how to open the cage that held her friends. Ranma rummaged through Hikari's cloak, and managed to find a key hidden underneath them.

"Yeah! I got it! Sorry, Hikari, but it appears that I won." Ranma said, and got up to go, but she was unexpectedly grabbed by the leg.

Ranma fell on the ground, and when she looked back, Hikari had grabbed her, and he looked good as new. It's as if he never entered the fight before now! He should at least have some scratches on him, but Hikari was clean, and the force of the last impact should have left him unconscious, plus, one couldn't heal themselves that quickly, and not have evidence of being in a fight, even if he was a skilled healer, as well as a martial artist, he could not recover so quickly, there had to have been some sort of explanation. Then, it hit her, she looked to the right of Hikari, and saw a piece of paper there! The one she had been fighting until about a moment ago was another Shikigami! But, when did Hikari switch places with the Shikigami?

Then, she realized that when he disappeared for a moment, that's the only time he could have gotten the time to switch places with a Shikigami! That had to had to be it!

"You used a Shikigami! That's cheating!" Ranma complained, and Hikari let her go.

"It is not cheating. I simply used my resources to my advantage. It's nothing more." Hikari explained.

"You cannot free your friends if you cannot defeat me! I have two moves left, and if I use all of them, you lose everything, so now we have to uphold two bets." Hikari said.

"Just watch me!" Ranma shouted, and charged at Hikari again.

"It's useless! You cannot keep charging at me like this no matter how fast you are!" Hikari shouted. "You have yet to show me anything different."

Without waiting for Hikari to keep talking, Ranma came through his left defense, and attempted to catch him off guard that way, but it was useless. Hikari caught her off guard, and locked her in a strangle hold with his equally fast speed.

It didn't occur to her that there would be someone with this much speed. The way he counterattacked, and locked her in a strangle hold in less than a minute was more than enough to surprise her, and hold her in shock for nearly a second! She can't afford to be distracted again! The fate of her friends and her life rested on the outcome of the fight!

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A/N: Hi, guys! I'm back with yet another chapter1 I have decided to make another part for this finale, for it doesn't feel right to end this story here and now, that's just too much work for me. Please rate, comment, and review this chapter and I'll be back with the third part of this climactic battle! Look forward to the outcome of the fight, and see what the fates of Ryoga and Mousse, and where they'll go after this. Thanks!