Disclaimer: I do not own Ranma ½, I do not own Tales of Symphonia. This is purely a work of fanfiction where I can twist the characters to my will! Muhahahahaha! Cough cough Sorry about that.

A/N: Thank you everyone for your reviews and for god sakes I will not be turning Ranma into a monster, come on. Anyway, as for the pairing situation, I am going to stay away from Nerima. I was thinking Sheena, but I'll consider any suggestions. On with the story.

Ranma and the Land of Symphonia

Chapter 2: The Battle at Martel Temple

Ranma was running blindly. The land was unfamiliar to him so he ran to the only place he knew there was some aspect of human life. Straight towards the light. If you asked him later, he probably couldn't tell you why. It was as if he was drawn there. After 2 minutes of super sonic running Ranma slowed down to a walk. He was in a forest of some kind. Probably Iselia forest if what Marble told him was correct.

He thought through his situation. He had no where to go, no idea which part of the map he was on and no idea how he was going to get food. His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of marching feet on the path he was on. Jumping up into a tree he saw familiar red and brown uniforms of the desian guards.

'Damnit, how did they find me so fast?' he thought to himself. There was no way they could have gotten from the ranch this fast. However, they did not seem to be looking for him. The group passed right under the tree and continued on towards the temple.

'This cant be good' thought Ranma. He had from Marble heard how the desians opposed the journey of regeneration and sought to kill the chosen and it was up to her guardians to protect her. Ranma thought this over for all of 2 seconds before silently following behind them. He had a bit of a bone to pick with them anyway.

They reached the temple in two minutes where Ranma witnessed an exchange between two people. A huge man with a morning star and a shorter man wearing robes as well but with slightly colored patches on it. He carried a red sword. Ranma witnessed the exchange.

"Lord Botta, the priests have holed themselves in the central chamber and defending against all of our attacks." The big one said.

"With the troops here it will be childs play." He addressed the soldiers, "You 5, come with me." Botta, the giant and 5 of the 20 soldiers went into the temple. The sounds of battle broke out. Not long after a priest came out of the entrance wounded.

"Looks like they left some for us after all. Time to finish this one off," said one of the guards. He went over to the man and drew his sword.

Let it never be said that Ranma was without honor, but when the odds are stacked against you 15 to 1, fair fighting is a myth. There was no shout, no battle cry, just the sounds of two guards being hit hard enough to impact the temple wall and leave their impressions.

"Who the hell are you?" shouted one guard who saw what happened. All of the guards turned their heads towards him drawing their weapons. Some in the back drew crossbows.

"I'm Ranma Saotome of the Anything Goes School of Martial Arts." He grabbed three arrows out of the air that were shot at him, "I accept your challenge."

Even as the first few guards were rushing him, he jumped behind them, taking the bolts in his hand and throwing them at the bowmen. All of his shots hit the neck area and in the moment of distraction that they had he was on them, breaking one crossbow, breaking another's arm and throwing one person in the path of the oncoming infantry. Then, he concentrated on the weapon bearers.

Ranma was normally a nice person. Few things could make him truly angry and he often knocked people into unconsciousness, but with the desians it was different. He had seen them mercilessly whip, beat and now kill humans right in front of his eyes, so it was understandable that he had some fury to work off.

The desians never had a chance. True, they had weapon training and were better than average, but all their training didn't hold a candle to Ranma. He deliberately got in close so that the desians would be in the way of one another. He grabbed the whip of one that snaked out towards him and swung the unsuspecting desian at the end of the whip around in a circle before throwing him down the hill the temple rested on. A roundhouse kick took out the guy trying to sneak up behind him.

Several punches later it was over. All of the desians were lying in a bruised and battered heap at his feet. It was this scene that the giant walked out to, with Botta trailing behind. "What the hell happened here?" said the giant. Then he noticed Ranma, "You mean to tell me that you did this, don't make me laugh. Ill crush you."

Without warning, the giant attacked. Ranma immediately dogged and assessed his fighting style. He had seen it before. Big, powerful, soaks up blows and slower than molasses. Ranma easily dogged the blows and retaliated in openings you could drive a truck into. He wasn't doing much damage though. Meanwhile the giant was getting frustrated with his lack of success. The blows were not hurting, it was more of a blow to his pride than anything else. Ranma's insults didn't help either.

In a fight as this one, there are two possible outcomes. The smaller guy wears out the bigger one with repeated blows or the big guy gets in one shot and ends the fight. Unfortunately for Ranma, one desian bowman had gotten a second wind and fired a bolt directly at Ranma's back. This caused Ranma's danger sense to go off and instinctively jump out of the path of the bolt. Looking behind him to where the target was, he left himself open for a second too long and took the huge impact of the giants mace in his chest.

When Ranma was 12, Genma toughened Ranma up by repeatedly bashing him into a tree until it broke. This did make Ranma tougher but there could only be one thing said about a fury enhanced morning star, swung at you by a giant. It hurt.

To make the best of a bad situation, Ranma was able to break his fall by slamming into the person who fired the bolt. Ranma got shakily to his feet trying to regain his wind. The giant was walking over to Ranma, his mace swinging over his head. Ranma was able to doge the blow aimed at his head desperately trying to recover. Unfortunately he stepped on one of the desians heads and lost his footing. He looked up and saw the giant ready to hit him again with another blow. Ranma knew that he couldn't regain his footing in time.

It was at this moment that flying disk flew from the temple stairs and hit the man in the head. This momentary distraction allowed Ranma to plant a kick in the mans midsection knocking him back several feet. It was this scene that Lloyd, Colette, and Genis walked into.

Earlier at Iselia Village:

The light of the oracle had just flashed disrupting the class. "Everyone please remain calm. I am going to go over to the temple to investigate. Please study by yourselves and do not leave the classroom until I get back."

The chosen of regeneration, Colette, stood up. "Professor Raine, should I go along too?"

"No Colette, we will send for you if there is need." So saying Raine walked out of the door.

Everyone in the class was talking excitedly. Lloyd Irving, however, moved towards the door. Genis ran up to him before he could go outside. "Hey Lloyd, what do you think your doing, didn't Raine specifically tell us not to leave the classroom?"

"It's research." Said Lloyd simply, "Don't tell me your not curious?"

Genis was weakening. "But what if Raine comes back?"

"Simple, we get back before she does." Said Lloyd matter of factly.

"Alright, but we better not get caught." Said Genis, grumbling to himself.

"Oh Colette, do you want to come along? After all, this concerns you too."

"Oh sure," said Colette. That said, all three walked out of the classroom.

Outside the village was like a ghost town for there was no sound anywhere. "Why is it so quiet out here?" asked Lloyd. There was no need for an answer as a group of monsters came in through the gate of the village.

Lloyd was a lot like Ranma when it came to thinking. He had a brilliant tactical mind and could battle with the best of them, but fell short in all other areas of thinking. Lloyd drew the wooden swords at his side and got ready for battle. Behind him, Genis took out his kenndama and focused his power into it. Colette got out her charka. The enemies consisted of two zombies and a ghost.

Running forward Lloyd rushed the zombie, dodged its painfully slow attack and countered with several slashes to its midsection. Lloyd jumped out of the way of another attack from the other zombie just as three fireballs impacted the duo. One was burnt to a crisp while the other was slightly singed. Just then a charka flew by and decapitated its head.

The ghost was another story. Physical attacks would not work against it so Lloyd took up a defensive stance in front of Genis to give him time to cast his spell. Hearing the shout of 'fireball' Lloyd leaped out of the way of the ghosts attacks and let the second volley of fireballs impact it. The body broken, the ghost faded from existence.

"Come on Colette, we need to get to the temple. Something must be up." Said Lloyd walking towards the village exit, followed by Genis.

The trio fought their way past another group of enemies and out of the village. All three ran to Martel Temple. At the bottom of the hill, there was a priest collapsed there. Lloyd immediately ran up to him. "Are you allright he asked?" Stupid question really. The man was favoring a wound in his chest and had several cuts over his body."

"De..sians." he managed to croak out, "Broke… treaty. Sorry I wasn't… able to… he…," he spoke no more as the wounds took him to the afterlife. Each person gave a quick prayer for the dead and ran up the stairs. What they saw shocked them.

A kid was fighting against a giant wielding a morning star with several desian bodies around him. It looked as though he had taken a hit to the chest and was barely able to leap out of the way of a killing blow from the giant. They saw him stumble. Lloyd started to run forward but knew he would not be in time to stop the man. Genis started chanting a spell but knew it would be to late. The rescue came in the form of Colette who threw her charka at the mans head.

The momentary distraction allowed the boy to plant a kick in the midsection of the giant to send him back about 5 feet. Ranma jumped over to the trio. "Thanks guys, now lets take this fat guy out."

When in combat, united against a common enemy, no words are needed to convey thoughts and feelings. Lloyd and Ranma both knew that they were on the same side and they were going to take this guy down, one way or another.

To Be Continued

A/N: Yeah I know that I am a jerk for leaving a cliffhanger right here but this seemed like a good place to stop. As for the next chapter, Ranma and company will meet with Kratos the 'mercenary' and Ranma will get a little lesson in humility. Since my e-mail system on this computer is really messed up I am going to answer some critic questions here.

For those of you who don't know, an exsphere is a gem that is inserted into a hand that awakens the dormant capabilities of that human. Basically, it's a power boost. However, if the gem is put directly onto your skin, it poisons your whole body. If you try to remove it, you turn into a monster. To control the poison, you need to have a key crest which will stop it from diseasing your body but will give you the benefits. All desians have these things and so does Lloyd. The only people who can make key crests are dwarves.

As to armedlords comments, remember that the only thing wrong with Raine's key crest was that the charm was worn off, and Lloyd could carve charms.

I also think that a good time for Ranma to start noticing ki would be when Ranma sees Lloyd or Kratos use the Demon Fang.

Finally, during the next chapter, Lloyd will notice the gem and tell Ranma the danger. For god sakes people, I would never turn Ranma into one of those monsters. –shudder-

Tune in next time for: Chapter 3 – Angels, Demons, and Humans