Disclaimer: Oh where, oh where did my disclaimer go? Oh where, oh where did it go?
A/N: Thanks to everyone who left a chapter for my last story. God I want to kick myself for that.
Ranma and the Land of SymphoniaChapter 12- Sword Dancer
Ranma surveyed the gigantic four-armed skeleton in front of him. The 'thing' had an insanely huge aura that was visible even to the naked eye.
"I…FIGHT!" the disembodied voice was all the warning Ranma got before the thing charged at him with its swords flailing. The martial artist jumped back out of the skeletons range and removed his weighted shirt, tossing it on the ground nearby.
Charging in, Ranma leaped to avoid a cut at his legs, bent his body at an unnatural angle to avoid a swing at his throat, knocked aside a downward slash and caught the final blade between his palms right before it would have cut him in half.
The skeleton wasted no time in using another two blades to swipe at Ranma, but he had already rolled under the skeletons legs. Leaping up the fighter landed a punch right on the skeletons head making it spin around 360 degrees before coming to rest.
Unfortunately the demon's torso twisted 180 degrees, simultaneously lashing out with all four swords at once.
Ranma fell to the ground, sporting a few minor cuts. He quickly backed away from horned skeleton to get some breathing room and assess his opponent more carefully. Reaching into his pocket Ranma looked through the magic lens that Raine had given him. A series of words quickly appeared in the lens beside the skeleton's picture:
NAME: SWORD DANCER
TYPE: DEMON-SKELETON
ALLIGNMENT: DARK
WEAKNESS: LIGHT
"Weakness to light? Damnit! Where's Colette when you need her?" Grumbling to himself Ranma took off his weighted clothing.
Flashback Temple of Fire:
"Hey guys!" Lloyd shouted, "Look what I found!"Lloyd pointed at a small chest in a dirty corner. It had no keyhole and looked more like a box than an actual chest.
"What's that doing in a place like this?" puzzled Ranma.
Running over to the chest, Lloyd kicked it open with his foot. The chest suddenly sprouted teeth and bit his foot.
"OW!" Franticly shaking his foot Lloyd dislodged the chest.
"That thing bit me!" The chest had hopped back a few feet and was barring its teeth like an angry dog.
"That's no chest! That's a Fake!" shouted Raine as she drew her staff. Around her everyone drew their weapons as well.
The fake turned to Ranma and promptly began regurgitating items from its mouth. The thing spit out a toy hammer, a small skull, and a shuriken.
Ranma smirked as the items came towards him, "What is this, some kind of prank?"
His smile died a painful death as the items struck his body. Too late Ranma realized the items were charged with a staggering amount of energy. The skull hit his arm and nearly bowled him over. Falling to the floor, Ranma just barely dodged the hammer by rolling out of the way.
The hammer bounced on the ground and ricocheted to hit Raine squarely in the chest, knocking her to the floor. The shuriken would have hit Colette if it weren't for Lloyd who took the blow on the arm just in time.
"What is that thing?" yelled Ranma as he regained his feet.
"A fake." Kratos calmly explained as he dodged another barrage of items from the chest, "They were used by nobles to keep thieves from stealing their treasure. Unfortunately the fakes stopped everyone, including the nobles, from getting at the valuables."
The battle was fierce. Every time a person tried to get close to it, the Fake would shoot off some charged items forcing the person to retreat or dodge. The thing seemed to have an almost infinite supply of toys and bones.
Genis let off a cry of "Wind Blade" and several blades of condensed air surrounded the chest. Stunned for a brief moment Ranma got right behind the chest and held its mouth closed.
"Colette!" Kratos shouted, "Use your powers now!"
"Right." Spoke a determined Colette. Enveloped in a holy aura with her wings out behind her, Colette began to chant softly.
A few seconds later Colette opened her eyes and spoke two words, "Angel Feathers!"
Ranma threw the chest in the air just as Colette shouted and dived to the ground.
Four disks of light were released from Colette's wings and cut the fake chest into pieces.
End Flashback'Man I sure could use one of those spells now.'
Outside of the mineshaft…
On one side stood the chosen's group. On the other side were Sheena and her guardian. Both sides seemed to size the other up.
The Wind Guardian had an outer-world look to it. It was colored white and skinny as a rail, possessing a vaguely humanoid look to it while floating in the air. It possessed no legs but rather had a single garment that covered the lower portion of its body, which didn't seem to be there.
Directly behind its head was a circular shaped object with a demon head sticking out the back. There was also a large paper seal on the object, probably to keep the thing bound to its master.
Sheena took out several cards from her robe and got into a fighters stance. The cards had strange markings on them and looked like seals a priest would use.
"Prepare yourself chosen of Mana!" she shouted.
Lloyd scratched the back of his head, "Is she really going to attack us with those things?"
"Don't let the weapon fool you Lloyd. Those cards are just as dangerous as a sword." Said Kratos.
At an unseen signal Lloyd and Kratos rushed forward to meet the assailants head on. Lloyd ran up to Sheena and slashed at her with his basic sword combo, only to be repelled as the assassin formed her cards into a miniature barrier and blocked his strikes. She retaliated as swordsman finished his combo.
The cards seemed to fly from her hands a short distance and return to her like a boomerang. It reminded Lloyd of the Fake in the fire temple, as the cards looked deceptively innocent while packed with energy.
Lloyd was caught off guard and the cards slipped by his defense impacting him in the chest and knocking him onto his back. Quickly regaining his feet Lloyd had just enough time to jump away as Sheena yelled out "Pyre Blast!"
The cards in Sheena's hand formed into a sphere with a fiery core and shot from her hand. The attack missed Lloyd and detonated harmlessly behind him.(1)
Kratos and the wind guardian squared off against eachother. The mercenary used his sword with the deadly grace that comes from years of practice while the guardian used the claws on its hands as a weapon.
Ducking under a slash and sidestepping an uppercut Kratos scored a direct his with the Demon Fang. Unfortunately the creature made a quick recovery and scored a small scratch on his arm.
Backing up a few steps, Kratos chanted softly to himself. When the Wind Guardian was within reach he shouted out his spell.
"LIGHTNING!" The sword that he was carrying briefly turned blue as Kratos did a quick jab, scoring directly on the Guardians chest. Blue electricity briefly surged over the monsters body as the thunder seeped through its veins.
Once again, the creature made an impossibly quick recovery and lashed out at Kratos, but the Mercenary was ready for it this time and sidestepped out of the way.
Lloyd ducked under another Pyre Blast and brought up his arm in time to block the next card strike.
"How many of those cards do you have?" Asked Lloyd as he went on the offensive, making several slashes at Sheena's hands to stop her from employing her cards again.
"Enough to take you down!" the assassin jumped back from another of Lloyd's swings and jumped into the air, releasing several shuriken like cards.
It was then that Colette finished her spell, "ANGEL FEATHERS!" 3 discs of light flew towards the incoming cards, knocking most of them out of the air and continuing on towards Sheena. The assassin was barely able to put up her guard in time before the discs hit, knocking her out of the air.
Quickly regaining her feet Sheena ran towards Lloyd who got into a defensive stance. The female ninja brought out another set of cards and prepared to attack only to jump to the side at the last second before she would have reached Lloyd.
She ran past Lloyd straight at Colette preparing to attack, only to trip as Raine's staff hit her legs. Sheena barely rolled out of the way in time as Genis shouted out, "FIREBALL!"
In the Mines:
Ranma threw another Demon Blast to cover his retreat from the Sword Dancer. The fight had been dragging on for a long time and it had not been going in his favor. So far he had managed to avoid serious injury by a combination of skill, agility, and a bit of luck. The thing may not have been a very fast walker but it attacked with speeds that rivaled his own.
The ki blast hit the demon head on but it was shrugged off just like all his other hits. Gritting his teeth Ranma charged in again, furiously dodging two of the swords and getting nicked by the third.
Ranma acted on pure instinct and caught the fourth that came towards his head. With an almighty wrench Ranma kicked off the ground taking the sword with him and breaking off the skeletons hand in the process.
"Damn that guy has an insanely strong grip!" Ranma mumbled to himself, "Oh well, at least I got one of his hands.
His face fell as he saw the Sword Dancer bend down and pick up his hand and reattach it to his body. Casually waving its hand, the sword Ranma had stolen began to vibrate and struggle in his grip.
Ranma let the sword go without much of a fight. He needed to conserve his energy for this guy and his ki reserves were running low.
Charging up another ki blast Ranma ran towards the sword Dancer, aiming for its head. Jumping into the air the martial artist released the blast as soon as he was level with the Dancer's head. The skeleton raised one sword to block the ki blast and cut it straight in half, the two pieces passing harmlessly by its head.
Back flipping in midair Ranma just barely dodged the sword that passed under his head in mid-flip. Unfortunately another sword came around and made a deep cut in his thigh.
Biting back a yell Ranma fell to the ground on his back, just in time to roll along the ground as the demon skeleton began stabbing the ground in an effort to impale him.
Finally regaining his feet after the fourth stab, Ranma jumped out of the creatures range, careful to land on one foot. Tearing off a strip of his shirt the warrior bound his leg with the makeshift bandage to stop the freely flowing blood.
'He's got to have a weak point somewhere! But I've hit him everywhere and nothing seems to slow him down short of pure disintegration!'
Forcing himself to ignore the pain in his leg Ranma ran forward again, sidestepping the downward slashes. As the last two swords came at him from above while the other two came at him from the sides Ranma dived between the skeletons legs, turning in midair so he was looking up at the monster.
As the skeleton was getting his swords ready Ranma struck the Sword Dancer in a place that would leave any normal man incapacitated, with a chi enhanced uppercut, following it up with another Demon Blast.
This shot seemed to register with the Sword Dancer as its torso turned around with amazing speed creating a small whirlwind of swords. Ranma fell back onto his back with a deep gash in his chest.
The Demon wasn't finished however, raising two swords above its head he brought them down right into Ranma's shoulders. This time Ranma didn't hold back the shout of pain.
Ranma swore he saw the creature grinning as he raised the final two swords about its head that were aimed for his chest and head.
The Anything Goes Martial Artist stared definitely at the skeleton above him.
"I'm going to win this even if I have to bring this whole mountain down on TOP OF YOU!" Summoning the last of his reserves Ranma fired two Demon Blasts at the wooden supports.
Somewhere Above Ground…
Sheena was a good fighter but even she had her limits. As it was she was finding herself hard pressed to fight four people at once, even if three of them were magic users.
Kratos gathered ki into his sword making it glow almost pure white. The Wind Guardian was putting up a remarkable fight and it had taken an incredible amount of damage and was still going too.
However there was one critical weakness that the female ninja had not taken into account when the Wind Guardian was summoned. Kratos ran towards the creature and jumped straight over it while releasing his Demon Fang. The guardian turned its back to let the shield take the damage but that was what Kratos had been counting on.
Running towards the monster again, Kratos brought his sword down, not on the creature, but on the seal that bound the Wind Guardian to its master.
At first nothing happened, but then a thin line appeared on the paper behind the Guardian. The paper divided into two pieces, turning into ash as it fell to the ground. The Wind Guardian, free of its seal, disappeared into the air.
The battle halted as the four people looked at a tired and worn Sheena.
"That was very sloppy." Commented Kratos as if he were talking about the weather, "You should have never placed the seal in plain sight of the enemy when you bound the spirit."
"D…damn you!" gasped the female ninja, out of breath, "Just you wait, I'll get you for this!"
The dialogue was interrupted as the ground suddenly shook, making everyone (except Kratos) briefly loose their footing. A single thought passed everyone's minds as they saw dust escape from the mine entrance.
'RANMA!'
Kratos started for Sheena but Raine got their first. She grabbed the assassin by the collar of her robe and shook her, "Ranma. Where is he?" she practically shouted into her face.
"Ran…ma?" she asked confused.
"The person who fell into the mineshaft with you! Where is he?"
"H…he's still down there!" she realized, shocked.
Raine dropped her to the ground and ran into the mine, closely followed by the rest of the gang. Sheena dropped something on the ground and disappeared into a cloud of smoke.
Ranma watched with satisfaction as the Sword Dancer tried to avoid the falling rocks. He was too weak to do anything but lie there and watch.
'So this is how it ends huh?' he thought to himself as he painfully moved his head to avoid a falling rock, 'Never thought that I'd die trying to kill off a demon. Hell, I'd thought I would have died on Earth.'
Ranma couldn't help but chuckle at that statement even as the rocks began to fall faster.
'Man, look at me. I'm on the verge of death and all I can do is make jokes about it.'
The Sword Dancer finally took a wrong step and had one of its arms crushed under a falling rock. Looking up Ranma saw an enormous rock that was steadily being dislodged as the shaking increased.
In a last ditch effort the demon-skeleton threw his sword at the rock before being buried under a pile of rubble. The sword finally dislodged the rock and it fell towards Ranma's head.
'Guess that makes it a tie then,' thought Ranma. He closed his eyes and waited for the pain… but it never came. He cautiously opened his eyes to see Kratos standing there holding the rock above his head.
"K…Kratos?" asked Ranma weakly.
The mercenary gave him a reassuring nod before barking out orders, "Raine! Lloyd! Grab Ranma and get out of here!" With a grunt of effort Kratos threw the boulder off to the side.
Ranma felt a pair of arms grab his legs and another pair grab under his arms. He was gently lifted off the ground and then he was moving. A few seconds later the section they were just in collapsed completely.
The party made a mad dash for the exit to the mines and got out, just as the entrance collapsed, sealing off the mine completely.
Ranma was laid out on the grass, his head supported by Kratos' hands.
"Ranma! What happened to you? Professor! Do something! Heal him!" Colette was a bit panicked.
Kratos silenced the chosen with a glare as cold as steel, "That's enough Colette. I'm sure that he will explain everything once he can talk."
Raine immediately called up her strongest healing spell and used it on Ranma. The wounds lessened but didn't disappear and the blood was still running. Lloyd ran to the pack that had been discarded during the fight and took out the bandages.
With the combined efforts of the chosen's group they were able to bandage all of Ranma's wounds and ease the pain with their healing spells.
"Ranma can you hear me?" asked Kratos softly.
Ranma's eyes fluttered open and looked around, "I'm not dead?" he asked weakly.
"Thankfully no." commented Raine. Now that Ranma was safe she had regained her calm and cool teacher attitude, "We were able to get you out of the mine before it collapsed."
"What attacked you?" asked Lloyd.
Slowly moving his arm Ranma withdrew the magic lens he had used to identify the Sword Dancer from his pocket.
Kratos immediately took the lens from his hand and looked into it, "Well that explains a few things." He muttered to himself.
"What is it?" asked Raine curiously.
Kratos handed her the lens and she looked through it, "I…I've never seen anything like it!" she exclaimed shocked.
"Professor?" asked Lloyd.
"We need to get to Izoold. It's not to far away and we need to get Ranma medical attention." Stated Kratos. The tone he used said quite clearly that the topic wasn't debatable, "Everything else can wait."
No more words were spoken as Raine and Lloyd helped to pick up Ranma off the ground. Ranma had settled into an uneasy sleep while Colette shouldered the company pack. Kratos kept his sword drawn all the way to the village.
A/N: Well, that was interesting. I hope you liked this chapter and the introduction of Sword Dancer, I thought he was one of the coolest enemies in the game.
(1)I always thought that in the game, Sheena's attacks were mediocre at best. Aside from her 'Over Limit' abilities (no spoilers please) she really didn't have any redeeming qualities, so I decided to add some .
Next Chapter Preview:
"The Sword Dancer is one of the greater demons of hell…"
"I shall now teach you how to defend yourself using your ki…"
"Raine? Is there any chance that you could teach me magic?"
"Stupid imposters!"
Just a little eye candy for you. Please remember to leave a review on the way out.
