The Dark Lords Strike Back, Chapter 3/3a [R/SM cross]

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The Dark Lords Strike Back, Chapter 3/3a [R/SM cross]

Postby claymade » Mon Nov 07, 2011 6:54 pm

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma 1/2 or Sailor Moon in any way, shape or form. All associated characters, trademarks, etc. are the property of Rumiko Takahashi and Naoko Takeuchi. I'm just telling some stories about them.

Author's Note: I've got a bit of a larger-scale question this time out as far as C&C for this chapter goes. Specifically, I'd hoped to make the sequence that I just finished into a single chapter... but after finishing it, I'm having second thoughts as to whether it's too cumbersome, and should be split in half. Consequently, I'm posting in two separate posts what's either the first and second halves of chapter three, or else chapter three and chapter four, and I'd like to solicit you guys' feel on whether it works better with it broken up like that or not.

Anyway, one way or another, hope you enjoy!



Chapter Three: Assault



Ranma leapt through the night air, the tops of buildings shooting past in blurs beneath him as he hopped from one roof to the next in time with the army around him. Well over a thousand martial artists, a shifting sea of color and movement, all hurtling toward Juuban with one single purpose, one single target.

The pigtailed fighter's speed kept him near the forefront of their force, and so he was one of the first to see their destination. Putting on an extra burst of velocity, he launched himself earthward, ricocheting off a wall before landing in front of a small café with a sign proclaiming it to be called "La Crepe."

The rest of the army was falling into position as well, filling the streets and rooftops behind him. Ranma ignored them, following Cologne as she hopped on her cane toward the building. She didn't so much as pause at the doors, hitting them with a swift strike that smashed them inward. The two of them continued inside, moving past the empty tables and chairs to the far side of the room. "Here," she announced.

It didn't look like much to Ranma, just a blank wall, but he kept silent and watched. Cologne ran her thin, wrinkled fingers along the plaster, then turned back toward their forces. The other clan leaders had entered by then, and she addressed them all. "Have your warriors order themselves, and be ready to go through with all possible speed. I do not know for certain how long I will be able to hold the portal open."

The orders were relayed back out, and soon a line began to form. The Musk were going through first, with the other tribes following in the sequence that had been decided during the war council. Cologne, for her part, was preparing to force their entry. She had drawn numerous chalk symbols in a full circle around her, and another, smaller circle on the wall they were facing. Her brow was furrowed in intense concentration, focusing on her task.

Suddenly, Ranma felt the hairs on the back of his neck prickle. He glanced over his shoulder and saw that, even as Cologne was gazing intently at her preparations... Meihui was gazing intently at her.

The pigtailed fighter swallowed. He didn't know much about this magic stuff, but if Cologne's current level of concentration was any indication, he was willing to bet that it would leave her vulnerable while she was casting it.

If Meihui decided to take advantage of the opening...

Slowly, trying his best to be inconspicuous about it, Ranma moved closer to Cologne. He stood behind her, covering her blind spot, his every sense alert. "Hey, old ghoul," he murmured. "Mind if I stick around and watch while you do this?"

Cologne looked back up at him, a wry half-smile flitting across her face, and Ranma wondered if she knew what his worries were. "If you wish, son-in-law," she told him.

Then she turned back to the wall. "Stand ready!" she called out, her voice cracking like a whip. "We begin!"

The line of warriors crouched in preparation. Taking a deep breath, Cologne raised her cane and slammed the tip into the wall, directly in the center of the circle drawn there. The old woman's life energy flowed down the wood, the symbols lighting up with an ethereal glow. Immediately to the right of that point, a dark, circular portal appeared in the wall, about wide enough to fit four people abreast.

"Go!" shouted Cologne. And with that, the waiting martial artists burst into motion, shooting through the gate in blurs of speed.



**********



"Your majesty!"

The youma's panicked voice echoed through the chamber of Queen Beryl's throne room, causing murmurs to ripple through the huge crowd of youma that made up her court. A path opened through the assembled monsters, allowing the shouter to race up and kneel before the red-haired monarch. The youma's skin was a pale, pasty white, and her eyes were blindfolded by strips of cloth covered in countless arcane sigils.

"We are under attack, my queen!" the monster blurted, panting for breath. "My wards have been tripped! Just a few moments ago the Juuban portal to the human world was forcibly opened!"

Beryl's lip twisted in anger. "The Sailor Senshi again?" Without waiting for a reply, she waved her hand over the crystal ball on the top of her staff, reaching out with her will toward the source of the breach.

Her eyes widened at what she saw. This was not the Sailor Senshi. This was not any foe she had ever encountered. Strange, bestial warriors were pouring through the portal in a long stream, filling the chamber beyond. None of the youma sentries were anywhere to be seen, doubtless already killed.

The queen's mind whirled. Who in all the hells were these assailants? How had they even known of this place? What unheard-of enemy dared challenge her in her own domain?

She shifted the focus of her scrying to the human world, outside the portal. There was an old woman there, using a simple-yet-effective spell to hold the dimensional gate open as the stream of warriors coursed through. She thinks she can match the Dark Kingdom in sorcery? Beryl thought contemptuously. I will end this here and now.

"Muster the army," the queen ordered in a short, clipped tone. "It will be useful for wiping out the stragglers that have already passed through." Then, leaving such details to her subordinates, Beryl focused her will into her crystal ball. In holding the portal open as she was, this amateur mage had connected herself to the spells that the queen herself had laid there. And such connections could be used both ways. It would be inefficient... but to stop this invasion cold it would be more than enough.



**********



It wasn't even a full minute into their attack when everything started to go to hell.

The Musk had gotten all of their fighters through the portal, and the Silk Lotus tribe—next in line—were starting to enter as well. Nervous energy danced through Ranma's body as he watched, but so far everything was going according to plan.

Then, without warning, a wave of nausea slammed into him, a feeling of corrupted power that made the bile rise up in his throat. He whirled, to see tendrils of black magic writhing around the edges of the portal, snaking their way toward where Cologne's cane touched the wall. The instant they touched the weapon they began to wind up its length. The elder focused harder, projecting more of her life energy into the wood to hold back the sudden onslaught, but she only managed to slow it slightly.

In seconds, the vile magic reached Cologne's hand. The ancient master let out a hiss of pain as the tendrils stabbed into her skin, burrowing into her wrist, blackening the flesh at the point of entry. The corruption continued to fight its way up her arm, forcing its way past Cologne's straining defense. Ranma's eyes darted back and forth, trying to figure out a counter to what was happening to the old woman, but he could think of nothing.

"Stay back, son-in-law!" Cologne snapped, as the corruption reached her shoulder. Sweat was pouring down her face, and her arm was trembling. "This is... not something you can assist against. It will only infect you too!"

The pigtailed fighter licked his lips. He was fully aware of how meager his knowledge was on such magical matters, but he couldn't just stand by while this spell ate Cologne alive. He looked back at the portal, and saw that the Silk Lotus were still charging through it. They hadn't gotten even a fourth of their army to the other side yet!

Ranma spun back to Cologne, and saw that the old woman was down on one knee. Her breath was coming in strained wheezes, but she still held her cane to the wall, holding the portal open. The corruption had spread to her chest, its tendrils reaching toward her heart.

She was fighting tooth and nail, her face contorted in an expression of agony. Lifting her head, she screamed something defiant in Chinese at the portal, punctuated by an extra flare of her battle aura. She was pouring out everything she had, every last remnant of her strength. But it was not enough. Not nearly enough.

There's no way she'll be able to make it! thought Ranma. He might not know much about magic, but he had to try something. The pigtailed fighter took one more look at the spell, trying to get a sense of how Cologne's ki was fighting it. Then he gathered his own battle aura to one hand in a wild-guess attempt to do the same. He reached down for Cologne's cane—

—when a tiny blur shot between them, and a small hand slammed into his chest, sending him flying backward. Meihui landed next to Cologne, raised her hand, and clamped it down on the cane, adding her life energy to the struggle.

The corruption wavered, some of its strength diverted to attack Meihui. It began to work its way up her arm as well, but its pace had been slowed. Cologne looked up, newfound determination entering her eyes as the two masters pitted their combined strength against their enemy.

Meihui lifted her free hand to her mouth, and bit down hard on her thumb. Blood flowed from the wound, and the ancient mage began to move with blinding speed, using that blood to write a sequence of intricate symbols down the length of Cologne's cane. When finished, the symbols burst into blinding crimson light, and the corruption's pace slowed even more.

Ranma turned back to the stream of warriors, and saw that it was now the Joketsuzoku that were charging through. He watched, fists clenched, as warrior after warrior blurred past, one tribe changing into another. The dark spell continued to spread through the bodies of the two masters, but they held on together, without faltering.

Finally, the last warrior leapt through the portal, and Ranma whirled back to Cologne and Meihui. "All right, you're clear!" he told them. "Now how do we get you out of this?"

With an effort, Cologne raised her head to look Ranma in the eye, a small smile on her face. "I am afraid... that is not an option, son-in-law..." she forced out. The dark magic had ravaged her entire body, her face, her limbs, her chest, and Meihui wasn't much better off. "Go. While there is still time."

"No!" Ranma shouted. "There's still... There's gotta be some way I can..."

"Not this time, son-in-law." Cologne shook her head. "I am... not the one who needs your help now. Go to them. Quickly." She took a deep, shuddering cough, black bile escaping her mouth. "Go, Ranma!"

Ranma took one step backward, then another, then tore himself away and dove headlong for the portal. Behind him he heard a wet ripping sound, and the mystical gateway dissolved into nothingness just after he shot through.

The pigtailed fighter landed in a roll, ending in a crouch. He found himself a world away from the simple façade of the Juuban café. Rock walls surrounded him, a dark tunnel stretching off into even deeper gloom. The rest of the army had already pressed onward, leaving him alone.

Except... as his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he realized that was not quite correct. There was one other figure standing there, waiting in silence. Ranma looked up and met Shampoo's eyes. "Great-grandmother...?" she said, her voice barely audible.

Ranma opened his mouth to say something to her, to try to console, to try to explain. But he hardly ever knew the right thing to say even at the best of times, and the right words failed him utterly in the face of this. He could only stand there unable to voice his sorrow and regret.

The Chinese girl closed her eyes, then nodded. "Ranma come, then," she whispered. "Army make attack fast as can. Must catch up."



**********



Queen Beryl gazed into her crystal ball, her lip twisting in distaste. She had hoped to cut this upstart army in two with one swift stroke, but instead the ones holding the portal open had managed to resist her long enough for all of them to get through. It was nothing short of galling.

Still, it was only a momentary setback. She continued to scry on the attackers, and saw that they had divided their forces into three groups, no doubt to move faster through the narrow tunnel network. A clever tactic, but it will be your undoing, she thought. I will not allow you to rejoin those three pieces. I will keep you divided, and crush each group one by one.

She saw that one of the three enemy divisions was lagging behind the others, and she turned quickly to one of the youma in her court. "Edraen!" she snapped. "Take twelve of the most powerful ranged youma you can find and mass teleport them to the choke point in the eastern tunnel section. If you move quickly, you can occupy the bunker there before they reach it. That alone should be enough firepower to hold that passage."

Then she turned to another youma. "The group in the western tunnels will pass near the training barracks," she continued. "Have Darak's rabble intercept them. They outnumber the enemy group badly enough that even they should be able to prevent them from reaching the main chamber."

Now Beryl smiled. "And that will leave the remaining group to face the entirety of our main force alone."



**********



Ranma and Shampoo ran through the winding tunnels, following the route that their group had been directed to memorize. The pigtailed fighter hoped that someone was keeping close tabs on Ryouga; this place was confusing enough for him, and he doubted that the lost boy would make it two consecutive steps on the right path without someone to drag him by the hand.

Soon he heard angry voices echoing up ahead, shouting in Chinese. He sped up, and before long rounded a corner that brought the rest of their third of the army into sight. To his surprise, they were not moving. An uneasy sensation building in his stomach, he pushed his way through the press of mercenaries, Pheonix warriors and mages, until at last he reached the heart of the disturbance.

Kiima and a young woman in a mage's robe were locked in a shouting match, as Lao Shihong watched them with detached disdain. The young mage was hysterical, practically in tears, and it looked like Mousse was holding her back from attacking Kiima herself. The nearsighted warrior was trying to get a word in edgewise, but the other two kept shouting him down. Ryouga was holding back Kiima in similar fashion, though in his case he looked completely lost as to what the argument was about.

So was Ranma, for that matter. "What the hell is going on here?" he muttered to Shampoo. "Can you translate?"

Shampoo nodded. "Girl is apprentice to Meihui. By Jiuxue Mystic law, if leader die in battle, command must pass to apprentice."

Ranma swore. "And Meihui was in command of this group. I'm guessing Kiima doesn't agree?"

"Kiima only barely accept Meihui as over her in first place, and Meihui is full-fledged elder," agreed Shampoo. "She not take orders from apprentice, no way. But apprentice-girl think Kiima taking over command is affront to dead master... and she too, too sad and not thinking straight."

"Got it. Thanks." With that, Ranma shoved his way to where the three leaders stood and walked right between them. "You damn idiots!" he roared.

The sheer ferocity of the shout got their attention, and Ranma did not let it slip. "I can't believe you morons are actually fighting at a time like this!" He turned on the mage girl, leveling his finger at her. "You! Your master just got killed, and you're standing here arguing over who runs things while the ones who killed her are right down the tunnel? Doesn't sound to me like you're too broken up about it. Sounds to me like you're glad she's gone, so you can take over!"

Ranma couldn't have gotten a more dramatic reaction if he'd stabbed the girl in the chest. Her face went completely white, and she convulsed as though struck. "That's a lie!" she screamed at him. "That's a—"

"Then prove it," the pigtailed fighter snarled at her. Without waiting for a reply, he rounded on Kiima, who was smirking at the turn of events. "And you! I don't really care what kind of leader you want to call yourself, or how superior you think you are to us 'landlings.' All I know is I'm going to go fight the youma. So if you want to 'lead' you'd better get in front of me—if you can. Otherwise, you can just sit here and rot like cowards, while the rest of us go out there and save your sorry feathered asses!"

With that, he turned away and began to jog down the tunnel. Everyone from the Nerima group began to follow behind him. Then Ranma heard the sounds of more and more feet joining them. The numbers were growing with each second, though he did not turn to look. Eventually, Ryouga drifted over until he was running alongside his rival. "They're following," he said quietly. "All of them. They're following you."

The pigtailed fighter nodded, a bit of relief seeping into his heart. "All right," he said, starting to speed up his pace. "Then let's give 'em something to follow."



**********



Herb charged forward, rock walls shooting by on either side of him as he led his division of the allied army forward. As they raced down their assigned path, the dragon prince felt the battle-thirst rising up inside him. He increased his pace, eager to engage the enemy.

The tunnel widened, and soon they burst out into a larger sub-chamber. Far ahead, they saw a regiment of youma racing in at an angle to cut them off. Some of them were shooting as they ran, but the monsters were less than accurate at such a range. Few attacks even forced their targets to dodge or deflect.

A feral smile spread across Herb's face. They had predicted, based on what Cologne's pet monster had told them about troop placement, that this group might intercept them here, that his group would be the first ones to taste real battle. It was time to show these creatures just who they were dealing with.

The dragon prince adjusted his course to hit the enemy head-on, and the warriors thundering behind him followed. The martial artists' group was over seven hundred strong, and Herb estimated that the youma ahead were nearly three times their number.

Not as many enemies as he would have liked. But then, the day was still young.

Once they had blocked the exit to this chamber the youma scrambled to a halt, throwing together a hasty firing line of ranged youma, protected by another line of melee fighters in front of them. In response, Herb raised his fist in a signal, shouting out his command at the same time. "Wolf pack!"

The order had barely escaped his lips when more than two-score warriors dressed in wolfskin shot ahead of the rest of the force, fanning out, their speed increasing until they were effortlessly outpacing the others. They hurled throwing knives as they went, striking with terrifying accuracy and speed. Blades seemed to simply appear buried in youma throats, or between youma eyes, throwing their front ranks into disarray.

Some of the enemy managed to return fire, sending a volley of projectiles at the oncoming warriors, but the wolfmen avoided the onslaught with contemptuous ease. As they closed, they abandoned their knives and drew their swords in unison, the steel gleaming down the line of blades. More youma rushed forward to try and patch the holes in their line, raising their weapons to prepare for the imminent clash...

...and then the wolf-born Musk revealed the true extent of their inhuman speed.

As one, they all simply vanished from sight, moving at a velocity that even Herb's eye could barely discern as anything other than teleportation. One instant they were charging toward the enemy line, then next they were past it, youma behind them exploding into dust from sword slashes they hadn't even had time to feel. The wolfpack pressed the attack, darting back and forth through the enemy force in criss-crossing blurs of death.

Still, Herb knew that even they could not keep up such speeds for long. On their own, the sheer weight of numbers would eventually crush them. He raised his fist again, in another signal. "Hawk flight!"

At his command, the brutish, tiger-born warriors dropped to one knee, each one lacing his fingers together and holding them out. Behind them, a row of thin, angular Musk with talon-like hands each planted a foot into those waiting hands, whereupon the tiger warriors hurled them forward with all their might.

The hawk flight shot through the air like bullets, angling their path with near-supernatural grace. They tore into the disorganized youma force, talons shredding and ripping. Added to the wolfpack's rampage, the cohesion of the enemy was close to failing completely.

Then the tigers themselves hit.

Their attack was like watching an origami crane get struck with a sledgehammer. The huge tiger warriors stampeded through their enemies, striking left and right with devastating strength. The few, disorganized attempts at retaliation barely nicked their inhumanly tough hides. The rest of Herb's battle group charged in after, exploiting the breach to full advantage.

Herb, for his part, increased his own speed, rushing toward the thickest part of the enemy force, the only remaining knot of resistance, clustered around what seemed to be the youma commander. He gathered his battle aura about him as he ran, a blazing cloak of power. Then he leapt up into the air with a cry of "Ryu Sei Hisho!"

The dragon prince soared over the enemy formation, even as the constant ki blasts that he was using to keep himself aloft obliterated it. Youma screamed and fell in his wake, bodies crushed this way and that, limbs smashed and mangled. He eventually ended his trail of carnage, skidding to a stop in front of the enemy leader. "Herb, prince of the Musk Dynasty!" he challenged as he strode toward her, igniting a razor-sharp ki blade from one had. "Face me!"

The towering, horned youma did not give her own name, only charged at him with a deep bellow. Herb met her with a lunge and a single swing of his blade, cutting through both the arms she raised in a block and removing her head from her shoulders.

He turned, and saw that behind him his forces were quickly wiping out the last remaining resistance, while still more youma were fleeing in abject terror. "Onward!" he shouted, gesturing toward the now-unprotected exit. "Let's claim that witch's life!"



**********



Ryouga charged down the tunnel alongside Ranma, his umbrella held at the ready. The rock walls blurred past, winding left and right as they raced toward their target. Behind them they heard the rumble of hundreds of pounding footfalls, the sound of the rest of their division following hot on their heels.

They rounded the next corner, and caught sight of a small patrol of four youma. Ranma immediately put on an extra burst of speed, racing ahead to meet them. One of them managed to make a panicked swing at him, but he flowed around the blow effortlessly, swinging the Gekkaja as he went past to slice through her leg at the knee.

She screamed as she toppled, only to have Ryouga slam his shoulder into her as he passed, sending her crashing into the tunnel wall. Simultaneously, the lost boy swung his umbrella with all his strength in the other direction, at another youma. She raised her arms in a block, but that was a mistake. The sheer force behind the unbelievably heavy weapon snapped her arms and carried through to slam into the side of her head, flinging her away.

Ahead, Ranma pounded one of the two remaining youma into unconsciousness with a storm of Amaguriken punches, which she was helpless to defend against. The other tried to level a weapon at him—some kind of hand canon—but Ryouga ripped a bandana off his head and hurled it before she could fire. The bladed fabric carved a gash across her face, and she staggered back, clutching her head in pain. That allowed Ryouga to close and bring his umbrella crashing down on her skull.

The two of them ran on, barely having slowed. Ryouga glanced over at his rival, noting the stony expression that he wore. He didn't know for certain what had caused the pigtailed fighter's shift in attitude, but—having seen Cologne's condition before he had gone through the portal—he could make a pretty good guess.

The lost boy's lip twisted. He hadn't known the old woman as well as Ranma had, but the thought of her death still ached. His fists clenched, and he focused his attention forward, at the task at hand.

Up ahead, the route branched into a T-junction, one tunnel continuing straight ahead, the other turning left at a ninety degree angle. Based on his memory of the map, it was the straight-ahead path that they needed to take.

But then, he wasn't exactly the most reliable source in such matters.

He charged onward regardless, flaring his aura. The junction approached, as he ran toward it at full tilt—

—and then, just before he reached it, he heard Ranma curse. The pigtailed fighter skidded to a stop, killing his forward velocity just before he reached the corner. Ryouga had time for a half-instant of perplexity before his danger sense began to scream at him.

Too late. His momentum carried him out into the junction, just as Ranma swung his leg out in a low sweep, hooking the lost boy at the ankles. Ryouga tumbled forward, just as a blindingly focused beam of magical energy shot at him from the left, burning through the air right where his head had been. He tumbled forward, rolling along the ground as fast as he could, as a dozen other projectiles tried to track his path, some energy, some physical. He just barely reached the other side untouched, taking cover behind that corner just as Ranma had taken cover behind his.

Now that the youma had revealed themselves they began to shoot in earnest, filling the passageway with concentrated suppression fire. Ryouga peeked around the corner, then had to jerk his head back immediately or be hit by a barbed spear travelling at an unbelievable velocity. Even as it was, he was hit by chips of stone from where it clipped the edge of his cover.

The brief glimpse he had managed to take had not been encouraging. The youma were holed more than thirty yards down the tunnel, inside a compact molded from the surrounding stone itself. Youma were packed behind its walls, allowing them to flood the entire passage with their attacks from a position of cover. If the human army tried to take it, the corridor would become a killing field.

And by now, he was getting the distinct impression that it was that direction they were supposed to be going in after all.



**********



Loofah led the charge of her division, warriors pouring through the tunnel behind her. They had crashed through every Dark Kingdom patrol they had encountered, and were now seconds away from reaching the rendezvous point.

The mouth of the tunnel rushed toward them, and then they burst out of it into a gigantic, arching cavern that stretched out before them. Far off into the distance, across the cavern's wide plain towered the craggy edifice of Beryl's palace. It was a single, mammoth tower of stone, rising up out of the rocky floor almost to the ceiling. Bridges and ropes extended out from it to smaller surrounding spires at seemingly random intervals. Near the top, the stone was fashioned into the rough outline of a skull, leering down at them with malice. And even though she knew its size intellectually, it still took Loofah a moment to adjust her perception to the sheer scale of the structure.

They were alone on the plain, the first group to emerge from the tunnel system. Loofah wasn't surprised; their path had been the shortest, and they had expected to be the first ones to reach this point. Now it was their task to defend this end of the cavern, to prevent the enemy from occupying the other tunnel mouths until the other two divisions arrived for the combined push.

Ahead, she could already see stirring from the menacing structure, as well as the other spires near it. Doors were sliding and swinging open as youma poured out of them, some flying, some running, some crawling down the walls of the structures to reach the ground. The ever-growing mass of creatures swarmed across the plain toward the human army, an overwhelming wave thundering out to crush its far, far smaller opposition.

"Prepare yourselves!" shouted Loofah, as she raised her cane in a signal. Around her, the three armies in her division moved into formation. The Silk Lotus took the front lines, while behind them the Joketsuzoku warriors drew their heavy bows and notched their arrows. Behind them, the Yakusai Poisoners set into place scores of small wooden catapults which many of them had been carrying on their backs, and loaded them with a generous helping of the gourds that they wore on their bandoliers.

"Steady..." Loofah called out, watching the approach of the horde with a grim expression. This would have to be timed perfectly for maximum effect.

Many of the ranged youma were already starting to fire as they ran, and with a fair degree of accuracy. The Silk Lotus countered by throwing up colorful, swirling Iron Cloth Shields to intercept the incoming attacks. Loofah did not let any of it distract her from her calculations. "Steady..."

The ancient warrior waited a few more seconds, then shouted "Catapults, now!"

Immediately, the Yakusai Poisoners manning the catapults fired them, hurling their payloads in unison. The shower of gourds arced through the air to rain down on the youma army, shattering as they struck, spilling clouds of green smoke. The youma caught within those clouds began to scream and thrash, the acidic concoction eating away at their bodies with terrifying rapidity.

The Dark Kingdom advance faltered, and the Joketsuzoku took advantage of it, sending volley after volley of arrows hissing through the air toward the enemy ranks. Their marksmanship was impeccable. Youma died by the scores... but still they came on. It was like trying to push back the tide. For each monster that crumbled to dust, even more were swarming up behind.

"Archers, above!" Loofah shouted. The cloud of flying youma had almost reached them. Obediently, the archers shifted their aim, sending their waves of arrows up at those youma, along with rapid-fire bursts of ki from Soap and Loofah. Many youma were picked out of the air, but far too many survived to return fire, peppering the human formation with projectiles and magic blasts as they strafed back and forth over the battlefield, banking left and right to dodge the shots coming up at them.

Soon the youma ground forces crashed into the Silk Lotus warriors, the din of battle increasing even more as the Iron Cloth wielders fought to hold them back. Scarves and sashes shot out to become writhing, twisting blades, slashing back and forth in sinuous, intricate patterns as their wielders spun and cut. Even the cloth robes they were wearing hardened around their very bodies, effectively becoming lightweight suits of armor. Their child-like leader was a terror to behold, manipulating over thirty long cloth weapons simultaneously with his ki, each one constantly slashing out for youma to kill, whether in the air or on the ground.

Yet still the youma horde came. Relentless, overwhelming, with no end in sight. They were managing to hold the line, but they had barely made a dent in the ocean of enemies clamoring for their deaths. Savage, monstrous battle cries filled the air, mixed with screams, crashes and explosions.

We can't hold them back for long, thought Loofah, as she took stock of the battlefield while firing ki blast after ki blast at the swarm overhead. We'll need the other two groups if we're to even have a prayer. Ancestors, grant that they arrive quickly...



**********



Ranma swore again, and from the other side of the corridor, Ryouga could see that his rival's mind was racing, trying to find a way to break through. The pigtailed fighter swung his arm around the corner, blindly launching a one-handed Moko Takabisha in the direction of the youma bunker, but the ki blast was torn apart by the constant stream of enemy attacks before it had gone more than a few feet past Ranma's palm, and he had to yank his hand immediately back to avoid a concentrated salvo that chewed into his side of the wall, spraying him with stone shrapnel.

"Damn it, we can't waste time like this!" Ranma shouted in frustration over the noise of the youma barrage. "They're gonna need us at the front! We can't let them just pin down a third of our army!"

Ryouga licked his lips. Ranma was right, of course. If they were stopped here, it would be devastating to their chances of stopping the Dark Kingdom. Of saving everyone back home. "There's no choice," he agreed quietly. "We have to break through."

"I just... can't figure out how!" Ranma shouted back. "If we try to charge them, it'll be a massacre! There just isn't anyplace to dodge!"

At that, Ryouga let out a tiny snort. "That's so like you, Ranma..." he said, looking over at his rival with a lopsided smile. "Always thinking about martial arts like it's only about speed..."

Ranma turned to look at him, their eyes meeting as the constant hail of blades, energy beams and other deadly projectiles tore through the air between them. "Hey..." Ranma began, a worried frown growing on his face. "Hey, P-chan, what do you mean by that?"

Ryouga lifted his massive umbrella, opening it up fully. It gave a small click as he locked it into position. "Get ready," the lost boy said. "This will be your chance. Wait until the shooting stops... and once that happens, attack. And don't let up. Not for anything."

"Wait! Ryouga, wait a sec! Ryouga!"

But Ryouga had already turned away, looking forward. He held his opened umbrella in front of himself like a shield, took a deep breath, and fixed an image of Akari in his mind. Her gentle smile. Her caring words to him. Things that he would never, ever allow these monsters to hurt.

Then he hurled himself around the corner, and into the youma barrage.



**********



Syvellen crouched in the cramped confines of the bunker's second level, firing the spear-gun in her arm as fast as she could through the slot in the stone wall protecting her. On either side her comrades added their suppression fire to hers, and beneath them the lower row of youma did the same. The long stretch of tunnel was entirely filled with their attacks, providing no opportunity for their enemies to mount any response.

But then, to her surprise, one of them did so anyway. He rounded the corner and charged toward them, protected by nothing more than an opened umbrella.

It was so pathetic that Syvellen almost laughed aloud, even as she switched her aim to target the fool specifically. So did most of the other youma, their attacks tearing into his defense in an uninterrupted stream.

His umbrella was far tougher than it appeared, absorbing shot after shot, blast after blast as he plowed forward, but under the sustained bombardment it quickly began to weaken and come apart. One magical attack tore off a large chunk of the umbrella's left half, opening that side of him to their fire. A handful of steel spikes slammed into his stomach, impaling him, while a spinning buzz saw blade slashed open his cheek.

Still he ran on, twisting and weaving while he swung what remained of his umbrella to intercept the most damaging of the attacks. But many more were getting through now. His body jerked and spasmed as it was hit by countless projectiles both physical and magical, blood spraying every which way as he was stabbed, burned, cut and blasted. One particularly super-charged beam that he could not quite avoid tore through his right shoulder, shattering the joint and making that arm useless. But still he bore down on them, an aura of life energy blazing around him like an inferno as he charged forward with a savage battle cry.

What in all the hells is that human made of? thought Syvellen. It seemed impossible that anything could survive such damage... but this attacker's resilience was nothing short of terrifying. Already he had covered well over half the distance to them! Hastily, she prepared another spear, firing it at his legs in an attempt to cripple his advance.

He used his left arm to swing the tattered remains of his umbrella low, knocking her spear away, but that allowed even more attacks to strike him elsewhere. By now his chest was a bloody ruin, so badly mauled that the bony white of his rib cage could be seen in many places. And yet he still bore down on them, closer and closer.

More of her comrades had followed her lead, and were targeting his legs as well. They were smaller, harder targets to hit, and he defended them fiercely, but with the sheer number of youma shooting one of the attacks soon got through. A half-dozen small metal spheres covered in barbed spikes slammed into his right leg, tearing into the flesh. He stumbled forward, off balance long enough for Syvellen to line up the perfect shot. Her spear gun barked, sending a high-velocity spear angling in just under the human's kneecap, driving clean through the joint and out the other side.

The human let out a howl and toppled. But even as he fell, he managed an acrobatic twist of his remaining leg, getting it underneath himself enough to make one last, awkward lunge forward. He dove forward with all his might, landing in a heap near the base of their bunker.

Syvellen craned her neck, trying to look down out the bunker's firing slot at their fallen enemy. He was close enough now that getting a good angle on him was difficult, but she managed. He was still trying to advance, using his one functional arm to drag himself forward, leaving a bloody smear behind him as he went. The other youma had returned to saturating the corridor with suppression fire, but Syvellen wanted to make sure that this one was finished off for good.

She had to lean her arm in an extremely awkward fashion out the firing slot to get a bead on him, but she managed, aiming straight down from above as he continued to inch forward in his hopeless advance. With a mocking smirk, she fired a spear down into his back, pinning him to the rock floor below. Then, for good measure, she fired a second one, with the same effect.

To her astonishment, even then the dying human did not stop trying to advance. Even pinned into place he twisted his body, stretching, straining, fighting for every last inch as he reached out toward them with his remaining hand. Until, with a final effort, he managed to press the very tip of his finger into the stone wall of their bunker.

Then Syvellen's eyes went wide, as cracks began to appear in the stone, radiating out from where he was touching it. They spread through the bunker wall, its structural forces suddenly turning against each other with ever-increasing pressure. The youma around her had begun to notice it too, yelling panicked shouts and questions back and forth. Syvellen, for her part, turned and made a flying leap away from the wall as fast as she could.

Not a moment too soon. Behind her the wall was ripped apart in a violent explosion, lacerating her back with shrapnel. The youma still standing next to the wall weren't so lucky, and their shouts turned to screams as they were shredded by the full force of the blast. Syvellen hit the ground hard, tumbling end over end until she hit the bunker's far wall.

Shakily, she pulled herself back to her feet lifting her head to take in what had just happened. Immediately, her blood ran cold in abject terror. The entire forward wall had been obliterated. The youma who had been defending it were strewn everywhere along the ground, most of them seriously wounded.

And thundering straight down the corridor at them was the entire army they had been charged with holding back.

In desperation, she tried to ready a spear and launch it at them, but the one in the lead—a pigtailed human, clad in red and black—was on her far too quickly. He launched himself at her with a cry of rage, and the last thing she saw was the blade of his staff slashing around toward the side of her head.



**********



"Your majesty!" The youma's voice carried a tinge of panic to it. "We've lost all contact with the youma in the eastern bunker!"

Queen Beryl's lip curled, and she reached down, moving her hands over her crystal ball, changing its focus to the bunker in question. The sight that greeted her made her eyes flash with anger. The location had been completely overrun, enemies pouring through it in their charge, all defenders long since dead.

"Your majesty!" came the voice of another youma, sounding even more distraught. "We've received word that the Darak's training regiment has been obliterated to the last youma! The enemies were barely even slowed down!"

A low murmur ran through the gathered throng of Beryl's court. True, the training regiment had been rabble... but they had outnumbered the enemy they faced by a huge margin. It was becoming clear that these unknown assailants were not to be trifled with.

"Your majesty! Your majesty!" Another youma was shouting now. "More attackers, your majesty!"

"What? How?" demanded the queen, fixing the unfortunate messenger with an angry gaze. "I collapsed the Juuban portal myself—are you saying they opened it again?"

The youma quailed. "No, my queen!" she said quickly. "This isn't from the Juuban portal. Our detection wards on the Arctic perimeter were triggered a few moments ago. Someone has just teleported directly there!"

"Teleported...?" Looking down at her crystal ball, she shifted its focus to the source of the new intrusion, expecting to see more of these unknown enemies, attacking on yet another front.

What she actually saw was quite different. Five girls dressed in colorful sailor fuku, making their way across the frozen wastes.

No! Not now! Beryl thought, cursing to herself. Were the Sailor Senshi in league with these new adversaries? Or was this independent action by both of them, coordinated merely by the shared fact of Queen Metallia's imminent release?

Either way, it was the worst possible timing. In any other situation she would have simply crushed the Senshi's impudent attack with the full force of her entire army, but that was impossible now that her domain was being assaulted on multiple fronts. She had to prevent the attacking forces from overrunning her defenses. But at the same time, she could not lose sight of the fact that the blonde-haired girl at the center of the Senshi formation could potentially ruin everything herself... just as the girl's mother had done so many, many years ago.

"Queen Metallia will be revived shortly," the queen said, as she gazed into the crystal ball at the descendant of the woman who had imprisoned her. "I will not allow you to interfere!" Then she addressed the throng of youma surrounding her throne, rising to her feet as she spoke. "Whoever wants to give them a death sentence, come forward!"

The response was immediate, as a voice called out in reply from somewhere in the crowd of youma. "Please allow us, the DD Girls, to take that assignment!"

Then a glow appeared in the air before her, and a group of figures materialized in a burst of short-range teleportation. Five of them, all different colors, all scantily-clad, all with translucent wings like those of a dragonfly.

Queen Beryl nodded once. The DD Girls were one of her most deadly squads. If she was forced to divide her forces, then they were an excellent choice for killing the Senshi. That settled, she turned to the other youma of her court. "Gevaris!"

Another youma stepped forward, this one with dark red skin, scars criss-crossing her body, and a sheathed sword strapped across her back. "Yes, my queen?"

"Take the rest of these youma and lead them to the main cavern to join the battle there," Beryl commanded. Then she turned to address her court as a whole. "All of you are my elites—the most dangerous warriors from each of the four Dark Kingdom armies. With your powers, I trust that you can handle both the enemies fighting there now, as well as the ones that broke through the eastern bunker."

"But... but your majesty," spoke up one youma. "What about the remaining prong of their attack? The one led by the beast-men?" the red-haired sorceress could see that the casual annihilation of the training regiment was still weighing heavily on their minds.

By way of a reply, Queen Beryl took her staff in hand and teleported toward the battlefield in a flash of crimson light.



**********



Modra walked down the rocky tunnel, heading toward the portal to the Arctic plain, with the rest of the DD Girls following dutifully behind. A vicious smile was on the pale blue youma's face as she anticipated the battle to come.

The memories were as fresh in her mind as the day they had happened. Memories of the battle at Furinkan High. Memories of the indignity of being saved by an enemy, by a pathetic Senshi weakling. She clenched her fists, reminding herself that soon the humiliation would be expunged forever.

Reaching up, she removed her headpiece from her forehead, looking down at its outline of wings outstretched. She smiled. Its magic would be perfect to use against soft-hearted opponents such as those girls. And there was a certain irony in killing them with the very artifact that she had obtained due to that very conflict in Nerima all those months ago.

Laughing to herself, Modra fastened the headpiece back around her forehead. Prepare yourself, Sailor Mars, she thought, as she continued toward the Arctic portal. I have not forgotten the promise I made to you. At long last, the day has finally come to settle things between us once and for all...



**********



Running at full tilt, Prince Herb led his division as it burst out of the tunnel system and into the arching central cavern. He gave passing notice to the gigantic Dark Kingdom palace towering at the far end, but his attention quickly focused on the battle already raging closer at hand.

He could tell that his allies were barely holding their position, dwarfed by the horde crashing against their defensive line, battered by airstrikes from the youma flying through the air above. There was no time to lose. His troops fanned out behind him as they sped across the plain toward their target.

The three tribes under his command bore down on the distant youma force, hundreds of weapons at the ready, hundreds of voices roaring out battle cries as they charged. But the youma army did not even turn to meet their attack. Herb could scarcely believe it. Is their commander an inept fool? he wondered. Leaving their flank so undefended! This will be a slaughter.

But it was then, as his army thundered closer and closer, that Herb realized they were not completely unopposed. Up ahead, there was someone in their path. One single figure, striding toward them. The long hair running down her back was a fiery red, and she wore a flowing purple dress. In one hand she carried a metallic staff with a crystal sphere atop it. She surveyed them all with a look of contemptuous disdain... and despite himself, Herb felt a small chill run down the length of his back at the raw malice in her eyes.

This was no time to play around. "Mint!" the dragon prince shouted. "Take her, now!"

The words had hardly left his mouth when the young wolf-boy seemed to vanish from sight. Moving with an inhuman speed that was all but teleportation, Mint shot forward, hurling his knives as he went. The deadly blades shot toward the woman, but a few feet before they reached her they ricocheted away in bright flashes of energy as they struck an invisible barrier.

Mint veered right, speeding in circles around her as he hurled knives from every angle. But none got through. Herb could tell from the outline of the energy discharges that the shield was spherical, encasing her completely.

Even more of his warriors were joining in the attack now, shooting arrows, knives and spears toward the advancing woman. The countless projectiles beat against her barrier like raindrops against steel, doing nothing to slow her as she continued to walk unconcernedly through the assault.

They were almost at close range now, the martial artist army swarming in from all sides to engulf her. Without warning, the woman stopped walking and raised her staff high above her head. A blinding glow began to coalesce within the crystal ball, even as she slammed the staff back down, tip-first, into the ground at her feet.

Herb's eyes widened as a huge sphere of energy exploded from the impact point, filling his vision with white. It surged out from the impact point in all directions, ripping up the ground as it went before crashing into the army's front line. The prince had only an instant to react, checking his forward momentum and leaping backward in hopes of lessening the force of the blast. He used his Ryu Sei Hisho to project a stream of ki, flying backward even faster as he crossed his arms in front of himself.

Then the blast caught him.

It felt like he had been hit by a freight train. The wall of force smashed his arms into his chest, sending him flying through the air like a rag doll. The cavern floor and ceiling switched places over and over in his uncontrolled tumble, but by the time he landed he had managed to get his legs under him. He skidded back, his feet carving small furrows in the stone before he ground to a halt.

Most of the others were not so fortunate. An army's worth of warriors rained down from above, crashing to the earth everywhere around him with cries of pain. Many of the hardier ones staggered to their feet, but the red-haired woman was already advancing once again. She raised a single hand as she walked, a sphere of dark crimson energy gathering into her palm, which she then hurled at a cluster of warriors to her right.

The blast of concentrated magic struck one of the Tian Wu Swordsmen in the chest and exploded with earth-shaking force, ripping his body apart and killing or maiming every warrior in the vicinity. The woman didn't spare the carnage a second glance, merely walked on, using the same attack to slaughter another group on her left.

Herb roared, and launched himself forward. She glanced over at him as he blurred toward her. Then she made a small gesture, and over a score of jagged stone spikes materialized out of thin air, floating behind her. Another gesture sent them all rocketing toward the oncoming warrior simultaneously, with loud cracks as the projectiles broke the sound barrier.

The dragon prince did not slow his charge in the slightest. The instant before the flying stones tore into him he thrust out his palm, paving his way using the full force of his battle aura. The red-haired woman raised her eyebrows a little in mild surprise as his ki blast shattered the rock spikes with its detonation. He plowed through the cloud of shrapnel that remained of them, and reached close range with her.

"Ryu Sei Hisho!" Herb took to the air, banking to the left as he swooped in an half-circle around his foe, kept aloft by the ki blasts he was driving into the ground. The woman spun to track him—only to have the ricochets of his technique slam against her shield.

Magic and ki clashed against each other in blinding bursts of light as the Musk ruler hammered his foe's defenses from every direction. But she stood her ground without any sign of distress, glaring at him from behind her barrier as the constant explosions of energy sent stark shadows playing this way and that across her face.

Behind her, more of the army had regained their footing, and they wasted no time in charging to assist their commander. The woman didn't bother looking back at them, merely slammed the tip of her staff into the ground again. Without warning, countless stone arms erupted from the rock in a wide radius around her, latching onto the legs of anyone they could grasp.

The dragon prince flew back, dodging furiously, and managed to escape the spell's radius, but there were many others whose reactions were not as fast. The air was filled with the sounds of screams and snapping bone as the stone arms crushed whatever they could, while at the same time dragging their victims back down into the earth with them.

Herb's anger blazed even hotter—and he focused all that fury into a single shot. The energy blast roared toward the woman, the mere wake of its passing carving a furrow into the stone beneath. It broke over her shield with a shockwave that shattered the stone arms for yards in every direction, making her barrier shake visibly. For the first time in the battle, he saw a look of slight exertion creep into the woman's expression.

But the shield didn't even come close to actually breaking, and as the last flickering traces of his attack faded, he saw that she had already raised her staff to point directly at him.

"Impressive, that a worm such as you could push the queen of the Dark Kingdom this far," she mused, as crimson energy began to build inside the crystal ball at the staff's head. "Now die."



**********



Loofah glanced over to her left, as the entire battlefield was illuminated by repeated flashes of crimson energy coming from where Herb's division was fighting. Even from this distance, she could make out the tiny, broken bodies of the warriors that those attacks were flinging this way and that through the air.

It was like watching someone swing a sledgehammer back and forth through a room filled with children's dolls.

"Loofah!" The ancient master's thoughts were interrupted as Soap landed next to her, breathing hard. "Loofah, Herb's group is getting torn apart! You have to let me go help them!"

Gritting her teeth, Loofah blasted another flying youma out of the sky. "Send them help? We ourselves are barely hanging on as it is!"

"And how long will we last if that woman they're fighting finishes them off and joins the battle here?" demanded Soap, her eyes blazing angrily as she shot down two more monsters. Both of them knew the reason behind that anger, and for Soap's desperate desire to join that fight, though neither of them spoke it aloud.

The vile, corrupted presence that they could feel imbuing each of the magic blasts tearing through Herb's forces was exactly the same presence that they had felt imbuing the magic that had killed Cologne.

Loofah hesitated for a split-second, trying to decide where best to spend her resources. If they didn't kill the threat running rampant in Herb's area they were all lost, but without Soap's help in fighting off the fliers they wouldn't last much longer here either. Which was the greater threat? Was there even a correct choice? From her calculations, it seemed that doom faced them either way.

But then her finely-tuned ki senses detected something else, something that sent a vicious smile across her wrinkled face. "Go!" she shouted to Soap, who needed no second bidding. She was racing toward her new battlefield before the word had even finished falling from Loofah's lips. Loofah, meanwhile, began to bark out commands to every warrior within earshot. "Stand ready! Prepare to counterattack!"

Her statement was met with looks of disbelief. They were staring defeat in the face, and she wanted them to attack? Loofah said nothing more, only waited, continuing to shoot at the fliers as she watched the roiling battle before her...

...and then, a few seconds later, the final remaining division burst out of its tunnel with a loud battle-cry, swarming toward the left flank of the youma army, led by Cologne's son-in-law with the Gekkaja upraised.

The enemy scrambled to meet the new threat, their attack on Loofah's division faltering in intensity. "Now!" the old woman shouted, leading by example with a barrage of ki blasts that tore through a large swath of the youma front line. The large-scale technique took a great deal of her remaining strength, but it was the perfect time for its use. The tipping point she had been waiting for. Her warriors took up the charge, hitting their now-disorganized foes with everything they had, while Ranma's force did the same from the other direction.

Wave upon wave of Phoenix warriors swept across the battlefield, bombarding the youma line—not with arrows or spears, but with a rain of small white eggs. The monsters below raised their arms to shield themselves from the strange attack, but when the eggs shattered they vomited out sprays of tendrils, grabbing the nearest foe and wrapping them into a much larger egg that formed in the blink of an eye.

Even as the panicking youma tried to figure out what was going on, the ground forces hit their line, attacking furiously. Wherever they came across an egg they smashed it, grabbing the head of the youma inside and forcing her to look them in the eye. Puzzlement at this bizarre behavior swiftly turned to dismay, as the newly released youma suddenly started attacking their former comrades, joining with the enemies they had opposed until moments ago.

Once they had expended their supply of the imprinting eggs, the Phoenix warriors continued their flight, straight into the swarm of flying youma, engaging them in air-to-air combat as they swooped and wheeled this way and that through the enemy ranks. Now it was not just fire from the ground that the fliers had to contend with, but threats in the sky as well. Attempts to strafe the army below left them wide open to the Phoenix attacks, while defending themselves against those meant they weren't watching for the arrows shooting up from the Joketsuzoku archers.

Below, the human ground forces were pressing their advantage, their enemies caught in a pincer between the two divisions. Step by bloody step they drove the youma back. Loofah caught brief glimpses of Ranma himself, throwing himself into the battle like a man possessed, a barely-followable blur of red and black. His enchanted blade flashed back and forth with Amaguriken speed, slashing down any youma that came within its reach. Blood rage, and no mistake, Loofah noted. That boy lost someone getting here.

It was unfortunate—but then, that was war. There would be time for such thoughts afterward, if they were still alive. Turning back to her forces, she urged them on. "Attack!" she shouted. "This is our chance! Attack!"



**********



Herb gasped for breath, his shoulders heaving as he faced the witch-queen. The right pauldron of his scale armor had been torn off, and he was bleeding from deep gashes on his face and torso. He and the tattered remnants of his division surrounded Beryl, who looked back at them emotionlessly. Then she lifted her hand, and fired a huge bolt of energy straight up.

The dragon prince burst forward in a run. He had already seen her use this attack once before, and now he knew its timing. High above them, her bolt burst outward into a shower of hundreds of smaller beams, arcing around to plummet back down to earth, a veritable rainstorm of destructive energy that chewed up the ground in every direction. His remaining warriors scrambled backward, trying to get out of range.

Herb, however, had noticed the previous time that there was one other safe area left by this attack—the air directly above Beryl herself.

With a burst of his Ryu Sei Hisho he flew over her just before the rain of magic hit, and used that vantage point to pound two more ki blasts into her barrier while everything around them was ravaged. His attacks had no visible effect, and he had to fly in a twisting, midair dodge as the witch-queen tried to snap off a more concentrated blast directly at him. He soared in a tight, earthward spiral, landing in a crouch right at the edge of Beryl's shield.

Blasting it doesn't work... the dragon prince thought, as he wrapped his battle aura around his forearm, molding it into a blade of a sharpness impossible for normal materials. But perhaps this will!

He spun around, putting all his weight into the swing of his ki sword, trying not to break her barrier, but rather pierce it with a single, focused slash. His ki clashed with her magic once again... and as he pushed, he felt his attack cutting through.

With a triumphant shout, he slammed his palm into the wrist generating the ki blade, using the force to help push it in. It plunged deeper and deeper in toward Beryl's neck, and he saw the queen's eyes widen in surprise. But just when he thought he had finally cornered her, his blade hit a second shield, layered underneath the outer one, stopping his attack cold.

Herb cursed, his ki blade vanishing as he leapt away. His attack had failed, and he was in much too close. Fury contorted the queen's features, and an inferno of chaotic energy appeared in each of her hands—black in the left, red in the right. She then slammed both hands together, and from the impact a storm of lightning exploded outward. Herb flew backward as fast as he could, but it was coming far too fast...

...and then he felt a tiny hand latch onto him from behind, and saw a wooden cane plant into the ground as Soap sprang off of it, the ancient master adding her velocity to his own. Between the two of them, they managed to stay just ahead of the storm until at last it reached the limit of its range and spent itself.

Beryl would doubtless have continued to attack them, but she was immediately set upon by Mint. The small speedster darted to and fro around her, his sword swinging in countless rapid slices. He didn't have anywhere near the strength to cut through her shield, but his assault diverted her attention, the constant flashes of magic energy from his strikes doubling as a way to obscure her vision, even as Lime charged in with a roar.

Soap looked like she was about to head back into the fray as well, but Herb caught her shoulder. "Listen!" he snapped, talking as rapidly as he could. "That shield of hers is near-impregnable. I doubt any of us have the power to break it outright... but if you focus your power into the sharpest possible cutting edge, it is vulnerable to being pierced. Do you have any techniques that can do that?"

The ancient master glanced back over her shoulder at him, then nodded. "The Chuan Chu Yao Zhen is probably my best one."

"I'm familiar with it." Herb frowned, thinking hard. "But I doubt it will be enough. It's not just the one shield; she's layering them. At least two layers. Probably even more than that based on how they were spaced." As they spoke, a series of thundering explosions came from over where Beryl was fighting, punctuated by screams from his men.

"Well do you have a better suggestion?" asked Soap, a hint of acid in her voice.

Herb took a deep breath. "Yes," he said. "Let me go first. I'm going to hit her with a Long Zhi Mao."

Soap gave him an appreciative look. "Impressive. If that doesn't work, then I doubt my attack would fare any better."

"Which is why, if it doesn't work, there will be only one option left," Herb told her. "We will need to combine the two techniques."

"Combine?" Soap gave him a puzzled look. "How on earth would you combine a Long Zhi Mao with a—" She broke off, her eyes widening a little as understanding dawned. "Ah. I see."

"Good," Herb told her. "Now get ready. I'm making my attack while the others have her distracted." Then without waiting for a reply, he launched himself at the witch-queen.

As he ran back toward the fight, he saw that Mint and Lime were both down, their attack taken up by other survivors of the three armies. Lime was still moving even while prone, trying to crawl his way across the ground to reach Beryl. Mint was completely motionless. Anger filled the dragon prince, anger that he channeled into his attack.

There was no holding back now, no hedging his bets. He shot along the ground, pouring all the speed he had into this one last charge. As he ran, he formed another ki blade around his hand, this time concentrating on sharpening the tip as much as he could. He was a blur, a living missile, hurtling in with deadly intent.

For his final lunge, he used his Ryu Sei Hisho to propel himself straight forward, adding that technique to his already staggering speed as he stabbed his ki spear with all the power and momentum he could muster straight toward Beryl's heart.



**********



Queen Beryl cursed under her breath as she released a blizzard of tiny energy blades from her fingertips, ripping three swordsmen to shreds that did not dodge it fast enough. But more fighters leapt relentlessly forward to take their place, keeping up their attack on her with suicidal determination.

It was like fighting against an aggravatingly persistent swarm of flies. What can these insects possibly think to accomplish against me? she wondered, as she immolated several of the warriors with a wave of spellfire that ignited everything—even the stone itself—in a wide arc in front of her, sending her assailants scrambling backward. Are they simply too foolish to flee? Surely they can see that their pathetic strength cannot hope to—

Her train of thought suddenly broke off as she sensed a sudden spike of immense killing intent from behind her. She whirled, just in time to see the beastman leader, his eyes blazing with rage, cover the last remaining distance between them at an unbelievable velocity and stab his energy blade straight at her chest.

There was no time to do anything except focus all the power she could manage into her existing defenses. His strike speared directly into the magic barriers, piercing the first two layers as though they weren't even there. The third shield was where his thrust began to slow, and he only managed to dig partway into the fourth layer before it halted.

Still he pressed on, straining to drive the attack deeper, the energies flaring white-hot at the point of impact. The queen gritted her teeth, a vein throbbing in her forehead as she fought to hold him back, but he still managed to force his blade the rest of the way through her fourth shield. The tip struck against the fifth shield, where it finally stopped for good.

Beryl looked the beastman in the eyes, a mocking sneer on her face. She could tell that he had expended all his strength getting this far, and she still had two full shields remaining that he had barely even scratched. Quite the sting... for an insect, she thought contemptuously. But still just an insect in the end.

The beastman met her gaze without flinching, the determination in his eyes undiminished. He opened his mouth, and roared out a single word. "Now!"

Immediately, a small figure leaped up into view from behind the beastman. It was a tiny old woman, the same one who had helped him earlier. She had run up without Beryl seeing, in the blind spot created by her partner. Two fingers of her right hand were extended, and at her fingertips glowed a single spark of life energy so focused that it was nearly blinding to look at.

The ancient crone extended her fingers in mid-jump, aiming the glowing spark directly at the back of the beastman's shoulder. "This is for my sister, witch!" she screamed, as she released the attack.

The spark burst from her fingertips in a long streak. It hit the beastman's shoulder, bypassing Beryl's shields entirely as it sliced through his arm lengthwise, until it burst out of his palm. From there it tore through the remaining two shields, and then punched a hole straight through Beryl's torso, sending her blood spraying out behind her.

The queen of the Dark Kingdom staggered back, looking down in disbelief at the gaping wound in her chest. She tried to take a breath, but found that she was only sucking in blood. Even as she struggled to comprehend what had just happened, the beastman was lurching back to his feet. His eviscerated right arm hung uselessly at his side, but he paid it no mind. He merely formed another blade around his left and lunged at her with a bloodthirsty howl.

And for the first time in millennia—for the first time since the day she had challenged Queen Serenity herself—Beryl knew fear.

That fear gave her wings. She cast the only spell she could, cast it faster than she would have ever dreamed possible. As the beastman's blade slashed down at her head, her body vanished into a glow of red, teleporting away from the battlefield as she fled for her life.



**********



Herb felt the lack of resistance as his strike cut through the suddenly-empty air to carve into the stone floor beneath. He let out a roar of thwarted rage, sucking in deep breaths as his battle fury slowly subsided.

From behind him, Soap walked up, leaning heavily on her cane. Her own secret technique had evidently taken quite a bit out of her as well. She looked at the shattered ground where Beryl had stood, then spat to one side. "Pierced one of her lungs," she said disgustedly. "Bah. Was aiming for her heart, but hitting those accursed shields must have turned the shot a bit."

The dragon prince grunted. "Hopefully, it should still be fatal enough." He looked down at his ruined right arm. He was losing a great deal of blood from it, and eventually infection would set in. For this fight, it would only get in his way.

Once more, he formed a ki blade around his left hand, then used it to cut off the tattered remains of his right arm at the shoulder. Once the bulk of the limb had been severed, he ran the blade back over the stump again, slower this time, using the searing heat of his ki to cauterize the wound. Smoke and the smell of burning meat rose up from his shoulder, and his face twisted into a rictus of pain, but he finished the task before turning to his men.

Some were standing, some were limping, some were pulling themselves to their feet. Most of them were injured, many of them severely. In terms of numbers, the survivors were a pale shadow of the force they had started with, but their expressions showed no sign of fear, no indication of retreat. They were the faces of men who would fight to the death to finish the battle their comrades had died for, heedless of their own lives.

Herb gave an approving nod. "Enough delays!" he shouted, gesturing with his remaining arm. "We attack!"

And with a hoarse battle cry, the remnants of Herb's division charged onward toward the main battle line.



**********



The moment Queen Beryl's body materialized back in her private quarters her knees buckled, and she fell in a crumpled heap on the ground amidst a growing pool of her own blood. Her breaths were little more than wet, gurgling wheezes. She knew that she was dying.

Only one chance remained. Pushing through the pain and disorientation, she tapped the last vestiges of her quickly-fading strength. Calling on all her vast sorcerous knowledge, she held her trembling hands over her wound and cast the most powerful healing spell she knew. Red energy crackled and flowed around the injury, and she clenched her teeth, willing the magic to work. I... I can't die here! Not like this!

After many long seconds, the spell completed. The queen went limp, her strength utterly depleted by the desperate effort. She could breathe again, and right now each breath of air felt like the most precious thing in the world.

It took several tries before she was able to pull herself into a sitting position, propping herself up against one of the nearby walls. She looked down at the staff still clutched in her right hand, and reached with trembling fingers for the crystal ball at its top, using its magic to survey the state of her forces.

The elites she had dispatched, led by Gevaris, were racing toward the main battlefield, and had almost arrived. It could not happen too soon—the battle itself was nearing disaster for her forces. All three of the enemy divisions were now attacking her army together, driving back her disorganized and demoralized forces. Beryl clenched her fingers tightly around her staff, until her knuckles whitened, wondering again where these inexplicable foes had come from, foes that had put her plans in such jeopardy.

But there was nothing she could do about them right now, except hope that the elites could turn the tide. Instead, she turned her focus to the Arctic surface, to observe the fate of the Sailor Senshi.

Even in the midst of her pain, a smile crossed the queen's face at the sight that greeted her. The DD Girls had almost completely wiped out the Sailor Senshi. The dead bodies of Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Mercury and Sailor Venus were littered along the snowy ground in a progression from the point of their first arrival in the Dark Kingdom.

True, they seemed to have taken most of the DD Girls with them in death, leaving only the leader Modra alive. But that was of little concern; those youma were replaceable. What was important was the final removal of the Moon Kingdom threat. Even now, Modra was levitating out of a crater caused by their battle, a smile of victorious gloating on her face, the limp body of Sailor Mars held in her tentacles like a trophy.

Then, dropping the young Senshi off to one side like so much garbage, Modra continued to rise as she turned her attention to Sailor Moon, who was standing there in stunned horror. Beryl leaned closer to the image in the crystal ball, forgetting all else in the anticipation of seeing the young princess ripped to pieces—

—and then the youma's rise was halted, as Sailor Mars's hand clenched tight on one of her trailing tentacles. The youma looked down in shock at the Senshi, who was not quite so dead as she had thought. That shock turned to fear, as she realized the position that Sailor Mars had her in.

She tried to pull away, but before she could, searing flame shot up the length of her tentacles to consume her entire body in a raging inferno. The Senshi's suicidal attack culminated in a huge explosion of flame, shattering her surroundings and completely annihilating her opponent.

Despite the agony she was in, a scream of thwarted rage escaped Beryl's throat. Damn those worthless youma! she thought in disgust. They couldn't kill the most important target! She knew of only one person in all the foes assembled against her who was—potentially—powerful enough to harm Metallia directly, and thanks to Sailor Moon's accursed bodyguards, Beryl's impromptu assassination attempt on her had failed.

The queen closed her eyes, trying to think, trying to ignore the crushing weight of pain and fatigue that ate away at her. What could she do? She was in no condition to fight a Sailor Senshi head on herself, let alone fight the princess. She could try to recall some of her elites and hope they would return in time... but how many of them? Recall too few, and she risked Sailor Moon breaking through them to attack the slumbering Metallia. Recall too many, and she risked them not being able to stop the attacking army. She remembered the sight of the beastman lunging in at her for the kill, and a shudder ran through her at the thought of facing him again.

Then, suddenly, the solution occurred to her. She didn't need to risk diverting any of her elites. She knew the perfect means of attack, one that the soft-hearted girl would doubtless be unable to bring herself to fight against.

Planting her staff into the ground, she used it to pull herself slowly back to her feet. She took a deep, ragged breath, then projected her voice through her crystal ball to one of her servitor youma in a control room in another wing of the palace.

"Begin the awakening sequence for Endymion's capsule," she commanded. "And once it is completed, inform him that I request his presence in the throne room."



**********



Her feet pounding across the stone, Gevaris led the youma of Beryl's court as they raced across the huge cavern toward the raging battle. A grimace of distaste crossed the youma's face as she took in the sorry state of their forces. What do those fools think they're doing? she wondered.

Glancing back over her shoulder as she ran, she made a series of quick hand gestures, directing each squad to the locations where their powers would have the greatest impact. Then, as they drew nearer and nearer, she reached behind her back and drew her sword from its sheath.

The blade glowed an eerie, spectral green, faint wisps of smoke emanating from it as she held it at the ready. She could feel the weapon thirsting for the lives of their enemies, a thirst that intensified the closer they drew.

Soon... she assured it in her thoughts, stroking the hilt lovingly with her thumb. Just be patient a little while longer... The time to kill will come soon enough...
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Re: The Dark Lords Strike Back, Chapter 3/3a [R/SM cross]

Postby frice2000 » Tue Nov 08, 2011 9:20 pm

Ranma leapt through the night air,

Odd. Thought we'd start off with a Senshi perspective section. Could use some more of knowing what the hell they are doing. Since the last chapter ended with them mentioned thought we'd see them here.

This is... not something you can assist against. It will only infect you too!"

So she knows what's going on well enough to know what's happening to her but didn't have any sort of counter in mind before she started the spell she's using? This is a little tough to roll with.

"I am afraid... that is not an option, son-in-law..."

Sacrifice is nicely written but could've used more of Meihui before you killed them both. Not enough development time to make us feel the emotions you're going for with both of them. Nicely done really though.

Ranma looked up and met Shampoo's eyes.

Hmm...Really, place Shampoo back outside the portal. Having her do this with both Shampoo and Ranma and Shampoo getting her own saying goodbye scene and Cologne talking about her being proud of her, and even more proud of her and the glory she'll earn the tribe in the coming fight would make that all the better.

"Then prove it," the pigtailed fighter snarled at her

Nice exchange here. Props.

They had predicted, based on what Cologne's pet monster

Still think the Musk would be more interested in mating with her then calling her a monster. She's already got half of the desired requirements for their old brides.

That allowed Ryouga to close and bring his umbrella crashing down on her skull.

Are Ranma/Ryouga killing some? Make that clearer it seems important.

He held his opened umbrella in front of himself like a shield, took a deep breath, and fixed an image of Akari in his mind. Her gentle smile.

Nice. With Cologne's death and this really making us think all the characters are in jeopardy. Not since the movie Serenity have i felt that the outcome of something could really actually be everyone dies. Nice work there.

Syvellen crouched in the

Some youma dialogue here would be a seemingly good idea.

human's kneecap, driving clean through the joint and out the other side.

Well...that's a lot more graphic then I expected. By far. It's good and I like it but I wonder if it's really appropriate to your source material.

The countless projectiles beat against her barrier like raindrops against steel

This doesn't work. You can't have it both ways. Your Amazon elders know magic. Your Musk fought the Amazons repeatedly. They'd have some idea of how to combat a magic user.

at the staff's head. "Now die."

Wouldn't try to retain some of these strong fighters through holding spells or the like for later brainwashingness?

It was like fighting against an aggravatingly persistent swarm of flies

Needs more shojou style laughing/taunting from her.

then used it to cut off the tattered remains of his right arm at the shoulder.

Again, gore level is a bit too far above source material.

Very nice. I still have the issues with the character development I've mentioned previously and that did hurt aspects of this for me. But I won't start that discussion again. Overall very good story and very entertaining chapter. If you disregard all my other C&C really put Shampoo with Cologne when she dies, would make that whole scene far more powerful.
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Re: The Dark Lords Strike Back, Chapter 3/3a [R/SM cross]

Postby claymade » Wed Nov 09, 2011 7:55 pm

frice2000 wrote:Odd. Thought we'd start off with a Senshi perspective section. Could use some more of knowing what the hell they are doing. Since the last chapter ended with them mentioned thought we'd see them here.

Well, I kinda figured it worked better to tell things primarily through the Nerima/DK lens for this bit. Beryl's realization fill in the backstory for the reader on the Senshi through her perspective. And really... this chapter really isn't about the Senshi at all, when it comes down to it, but rather what the martial artists were doing to clear a path for them, such that the DD Girls ended up being the only youma Beryl could throw at them.

frice2000 wrote:So she knows what's going on well enough to know what's happening to her but didn't have any sort of counter in mind before she started the spell she's using? This is a little tough to roll with.

Eh? The simple fact that someone can recognize the basic nature of a given spell--as it's afflicting them--doesn't automatically mean they have the knowledge or the power to stop it from being cast, I wouldn't think.

Sacrifice is nicely written but could've used more of Meihui before you killed them both. Not enough development time to make us feel the emotions you're going for with both of them. Nicely done really though.

Thanks! Yeah, there was a lot more material there then I really had time to cover, but to really do it in depth would have bogged the pacing of the more central aspects of the plot, unfortunately. (The Silk Lotus tribe got it even worse, in fact. I had a whole subplot planned out for them and their leader that got completely axed due to just how hard I had to clamp down on pacing for this fic to make it flow properly.)

Hmm...Really, place Shampoo back outside the portal. Having her do this with both Shampoo and Ranma and Shampoo getting her own saying goodbye scene and Cologne talking about her being proud of her, and even more proud of her and the glory she'll earn the tribe in the coming fight would make that all the better.

Hmm, I can definitely see about having Cologne say something about Shampoo, maybe a "tell my great-granddaughter" type message, to play off that theme.

The reason she's not there is because she knows that her place, in the absence of anything she can do to actually help her great grandmother, is on the other side, where she's in a position to fight whenever the portal goes down. Despite how much she doesn't want to, it's her duty to her tribe, and one of the very things Cologne would praise her for. It's one of those hardcore-warrior-culture things; having her actually break ranks and leave her assigned position would diminish that aspect of her.

(That, and when I tried to work out how it would happen, having two people there did funky things to the pacing of the scene. I will try to work in Cologne's thoughts about Shampoo more, though.)

Nice exchange here. Props.

Thanks!

Are Ranma/Ryouga killing some? Make that clearer it seems important.

Some are probably dying, yes. I'll play around with making that more explicit.

Nice. With Cologne's death and this really making us think all the characters are in jeopardy. Not since the movie Serenity have i felt that the outcome of something could really actually be everyone dies. Nice work there.

Thank you! I've really been waiting to write these scenes for a long time, so it's a relief to hear that they're effective.

Some youma dialogue here would be a seemingly good idea.

Hmmm. What would they be saying? I wouldn't imagine them talking much while just laying down suppression fire.

Well...that's a lot more graphic then I expected. By far. It's good and I like it but I wonder if it's really appropriate to your source material.

Yeah, the sort of situations in this kind of an assault are a lot different from anything I've hit yet. I understand your concerns, and yet at the same time... I don't know if I could really bear to not have it play out that way. The impact of just exactly what all the various characters are willing to go through to save the world are just such an integral part of what this chapter is about, to me... :(

This doesn't work. You can't have it both ways. Your Amazon elders know magic. Your Musk fought the Amazons repeatedly. They'd have some idea of how to combat a magic user.

The problem is, "magic user" isn't a generic thing that can be used to draw absolute equivalencies one to another.

Yes, my Amazon elders know magic. Yes, my Musk fought the Amazons repeatedly. And yes, they do have some idea of how to combat the type and power-level of magic use that the Amazons employ. However, since neither in canon, nor in my fic, have the Amazon elders ever been seen to project magical force shields around themselves, the idea that the Musk would have learned how to counter magical force shields due to those battles with the Amazons isn't really any kind of requirement at all.

(And Dark Kingdom style force shields at that--which could operate on completely different principles. Even if the Amazons did know how force shield magic worked offscreen.)

Wouldn't try to retain some of these strong fighters through holding spells or the like for later brainwashingness?

Well, you gotta remember, she's just about to free Metallia and press her ultimate "I Win" button. She's not going to risk losing that over gaining some (comparatively) miniscule powerups from a given fighter, versus just ending the threat in the most permanent and easiest method possible.

Needs more shojou style laughing/taunting from her.

Hmm. Maybe I'll have her vocalize her thoughts in that section instead of thinking them. I'll play around with it.

Thanks very much for all the suggestions!
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Re: The Dark Lords Strike Back, Chapter 3/3a [R/SM cross]

Postby frice2000 » Wed Nov 09, 2011 10:23 pm

Eh? The simple fact that someone can recognize the basic nature of a given spell--as it's afflicting them-

Hrmm...Just seems like she knew exactly what was happening to her a little quickly, and due to that it just seems like she knew it could happen. Her being more surprised and horrified while still maintaining the portal would fit better with that perspective then if she didn't think such an attack could be done. Also seems quite logical that you'd take into consideration that your enemy would have some means of destroying the lone doorway into their defensible territory so there should've been a backup plan or at the least this shouldn't have been such a surprise.

The reason she's not there is because she knows that her place

And yet Ranma is still on the other side of the portal even though he is arguably their strongest fighter and one of their leaders? Wouldn't he be among the first through then?

Hmmm. What would they be saying?

Even something as simple as, 'For the glory of Beryl blahrghghg!' or just commenting on the attack. If you wanted something bigger though (and this does require a lot of added material so I get if you reject this) since we know that youma really think, have some degree of empathy, and also have some connections with one another thanks to Beneda...Them being horrified of what's going on to would be nice. Makes sense if you don't want to have more youma follow Beneda's path, however her example makes it so that readers aren't quite seeing the youma being slaughtered as entirely evil soulless monsters since we know they can grow. If you showcase the horror on their side as well as showing that on the Ranma/human side you've got a far deeper and more interesting story. You also really describe the horror of war quite nicely. Establishing a commander youma character for these two chapters even though she'd be shallow for example and her trying desperately to hold against the encroaching forces only to see all her command, friends, and sisters die around her even if she herself isn't someone we'll like would make this very very interesting, barring that even giving a couple more youma personality so that we feel a smidgen of emotional investment when they too die would be quite nice. I assume eventually in this next go around we MAY see more youma follow Beneda's example and if that is the case introducing them here in the context of a battle before we see them get wiped and reset could be quite good. For example, the one who kills Ryouga so brutally if you totally name her and give her a foundation would be an excellent candidate in the reset time line. Just an idea really.

Yes, my Amazon elders know magic. Yes, my Musk fought the Amazons repeatedly. And yes, they do have some idea of how to combat the type and power-level of magic use that the Amazons employ. However, since neither in canon, nor in my fic, have the Amazon elders ever been seen to project magical force shields around themselves

Regardless, think they'd have some tactics they'd fall back on when confronted with a magic user other then, 'OMG WTF!!'. Even if it fails miserably some sort of plan for this eventuality should be in place considering their ancestral history, and especially since they were training together for this very fight and Beneda's intel would've strongly suggested this kind of possibility. Beneda's intel should've also indicated really powerful long haired, long nailed redheads should be avoided because they are uber too.

Well, you gotta remember, she's just about to free Metallia and press her ultimate "I Win" button.

Makes sense.
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Re: The Dark Lords Strike Back, Chapter 3/3a [R/SM cross]

Postby claymade » Thu Nov 10, 2011 10:44 pm

frice2000 wrote:Hrmm...Just seems like she knew exactly what was happening to her a little quickly, and due to that it just seems like she knew it could happen. Her being more surprised and horrified while still maintaining the portal would fit better with that perspective then if she didn't think such an attack could be done. Also seems quite logical that you'd take into consideration that your enemy would have some means of destroying the lone doorway into their defensible territory so there should've been a backup plan or at the least this shouldn't have been such a surprise.

Hmm, maybe I could find a way to indicate that she was more surprised that Beryl could do that particular thing, but rather analyzing it and extrapolating its nature. (Even with Beneda's information, after all, it's not like Beneda has seen Beryl in combat herself, so she can't really give them anything resembling her exhaustive "spell list," and so all bets are in large part off for them in terms of what Beryl might or might not be capable of.)

I'll play around with it, thanks!

And yet Ranma is still on the other side of the portal even though he is arguably their strongest fighter and one of their leaders? Wouldn't he be among the first through then?

Well, yes. You're absolutely right; he should have been... if he'd been operating on the same principles as Shampoo. He stayed behind at first since he was worried about Meihui attacking Cologne, and figured someone had to watch her back, but certainly once that was resolved (and it was clear there wasn't much else he could do) then if Ranma had been a coldly-calculating-make-the-necessary-sacrifices-kind-of-warrior, he should have gone through as soon as it wouldn't have disrupted the army's flow to jump back in.

However, he's not had that kind of upbringing, nor does he really exhibit that kind of character, which is why he stuck around to try and somehow save Cologne until she had to yell at him to go through.

(Though technically, considering all the elder-class fighters, plus Herb, I'd say they have quite a few warriors that are significantly stronger than he is in terms of straight-up combat. And he wasn't a leader in an official capacity, until he bulldozes his way into it due to necessity. But your larger point, of course, still stands.)

Regardless, think they'd have some tactics they'd fall back on when confronted with a magic user other then, 'OMG WTF!!'. Even if it fails miserably some sort of plan for this eventuality should be in place considering their ancestral history, and especially since they were training together for this very fight and Beneda's intel would've strongly suggested this kind of possibility.

Well, yes, the Musk did have a counter from their "ancestral history" for when they fought against spellcasters (in my vision of the backstory for this fic). And that ancestral way of countering spellcasters was, mainly, doing exactly what Mint tried to do right off: speed-blitz them to death, ideally before they can even finish casting.

And, as far as ancestral history went, it served them relatively well, since as I mentioned before, none of the tribes in their ancestral history had game-breakingly-powerful-block-almost-everything shields. Heck, their ancestral approach would have worked beautifully here, if not for those.

Beneda's intel should've also indicated really powerful long haired, long nailed redheads should be avoided because they are uber too.

Well, avoiding her really isn't a viable option, not when you're as big a target as an army, and when she's as powerful as she is. Besides, they've gotta kill her sometime if they want to win. They can either fight now, or later after she's killed off a whole bunch of them by shooting them in the back as they're trying to run away from her. The former seems, at the very least, much more Herb's style.
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Re: The Dark Lords Strike Back, Chapter 3/3a [R/SM cross]

Postby Nadrek » Fri Nov 11, 2011 7:01 pm

At that, Ryouga let out a tiny snort. "That's so like you, Ranma..." he said, looking over at his rival with a lopsided smile. "Always thinking about martial arts like it's only about speed..."


My first thought as soon as I read this was 'The Baksai Tenketsu was originally a mining technique', followed by Ryouga drilling a parallel passage so they could emerge through the floor or ceiling of the bunker, completely unexpected, and up close and personal.

My second thought was the same.

As far as Cologne not countering Beryl's spell, perhaps some indication that it was just too powerful for her would make sense to those who object; I don't think any of us think Cologne has more raw power available while forcing the gate open than Beryl does.

As far as avoiding redheads on the battlefield, there's only two choices for everyone less combat capable than Elders and Herb - a kamizake rush, or staying far away. They don't have to be made as an army, but on an individual basis, so I'll buy a fair number of Musk attacking Beryl anyway.

I'm fine with the 'gore quotient' - this has been a significantly more serious fic than either source material, and war has consequences.
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Re: The Dark Lords Strike Back, Chapter 3/3a [R/SM cross]

Postby Neko- » Sat Nov 12, 2011 3:59 pm

My first thought as soon as I read this was 'The Baksai Tenketsu was originally a mining technique', followed by Ryouga drilling a parallel passage so they could emerge through the floor or ceiling of the bunker, completely unexpected, and up close and personal.

I kinda second that statement. I expected that aswell. Tho I can understand you needed something to get Ranma going near the end of the piece, tearing into the hordes.
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Re: The Dark Lords Strike Back, Chapter 3/3a [R/SM cross]

Postby Fellow Sufferer » Sat Nov 12, 2011 6:38 pm

Nadrek wrote:
My first thought as soon as I read this was 'The Baksai Tenketsu was originally a mining technique', followed by Ryouga drilling a parallel passage so they could emerge through the floor or ceiling of the bunker, completely unexpected, and up close and personal.


I think that they were rather pressed for time, for one thing - and tunneling is not such an easy thing to do.

I'm curious about the light sources in the Dark Kingdom; I find no mention of them in the narrative. Since all of this takes place underground, there's no natural light present. It's mostly apparent when they get to the huge cave which houses Beryl's Palace (or whatever it is). It occurred to me that Loofah shouldn't be able to see nearly as much as she did just then. I realize that it's a minor matter, but still a little distracting when one stops to think about it.
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Re: The Dark Lords Strike Back, Chapter 3/3a [R/SM cross]

Postby Neko- » Sun Nov 13, 2011 9:40 am

Well, they would be pressed for time, but given the option... Ryoga has two arms. Who is to stop him from using both arms sequentially to get two blasts right after one another.

Biggest issue he might have is the rubble behind him getting in his way. Wait, scratch that. The biggest problem he'd have seeing he'd be on his own on his side of the wall would be getting lost inside the mountain. There is no garuantee whatsoever Ryoga would end up where he wanted to go.

On the other hand, it's been said that Ryoga is one giant plot device (tho I'm not sure if that's canon of fanon), and as such always ends up where he needs to be when it's needed, so that might offset his direction to get to the bunker.
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Re: The Dark Lords Strike Back, Chapter 3/3a [R/SM cross]

Postby Fellow Sufferer » Sun Nov 13, 2011 10:48 am

Neko- wrote:Well, they would be pressed for time, but given the option... Ryoga has two arms. Who is to stop him from using both arms sequentially to get two blasts right after one another.

Biggest issue he might have is the rubble behind him getting in his way. Wait, scratch that. The biggest problem he'd have seeing he'd be on his own on his side of the wall would be getting lost inside the mountain. There is no garuantee whatsoever Ryoga would end up where he wanted to go.

On the other hand, it's been said that Ryoga is one giant plot device (tho I'm not sure if that's canon of fanon), and as such always ends up where he needs to be when it's needed, so that might offset his direction to get to the bunker.


But it was Ryouga who made that call, and he didn't think that 'eh, It's going to work because of my plot powers'. He thought that he might get lost, that he won't be able to get the rubble out of the way fast enough, that there may be traps built into the rock around him (or that the structure of the rock may be simply unstable enough to cause a collapse and drop the ceiling onto his own troops)... He was pressed for time, and came up with a quick and simple solution.
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Re: The Dark Lords Strike Back, Chapter 3/3a [R/SM cross]

Postby claymade » Sun Nov 13, 2011 11:07 am

Nadrek wrote:As far as Cologne not countering Beryl's spell, perhaps some indication that it was just too powerful for her would make sense to those who object; I don't think any of us think Cologne has more raw power available while forcing the gate open than Beryl does.

Good idea! I'll play around with trying to play that angle up. Thanks for the suggestion!

Fellow Sufferer wrote:I'm curious about the light sources in the Dark Kingdom; I find no mention of them in the narrative. Since all of this takes place underground, there's no natural light present. It's mostly apparent when they get to the huge cave which houses Beryl's Palace (or whatever it is). It occurred to me that Loofah shouldn't be able to see nearly as much as she did just then. I realize that it's a minor matter, but still a little distracting when one stops to think about it.

Good question... I don't recall seeing any specific light sources in the episodes I was watching to get the best handle I could on the Dark Kingdom topography... but at the same time, there was definitely enough ambient light for people to not have any trouble seeing each other, as far as the action there went either.

Fellow Sufferer wrote:But it was Ryouga who made that call, and he didn't think that 'eh, It's going to work because of my plot powers'.

This. The time taken to tunnel all that distance through solid stone might well have been prohibitive in and of itself, but the real deal-breaker was that in addition to all that, he'd be the one doing the digging.

And while, yes, he does often tend to coincidentally show up in times and places where he's needed, that's very much "meta-plot" powers, never canonically acknowledged. Him consciously relying on "meta" stuff that would be a little bit like James Bond noticing the fact that mooks always "just happen" to miss when they fire their machine guns at him... and instead of running around and diving for cover, he calmly walked straight past them whilst they were blazing away from three feet away, expecting them to just not hit him 'cause he's the hero.
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Re: The Dark Lords Strike Back, Chapter 3/3a [R/SM cross]

Postby Fellow Sufferer » Sun Nov 13, 2011 11:20 am

claymade wrote:Good question... I don't recall seeing any specific light sources in the episodes I was watching to get the best handle I could on the Dark Kingdom topography... but at the same time, there was definitely enough ambient light for people to not have any trouble seeing each other, as far as the action there went either.


Then perhaps you should invent something; or make a point of heroes noticing the unnatural ambient light of the place, messing with their perceptions or some such, creating no shadows or something.
'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean different things.'
'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master - that's all.'

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Re: The Dark Lords Strike Back, Chapter 3/3a [R/SM cross]

Postby claymade » Sun Nov 13, 2011 11:52 am

Fellow Sufferer wrote:Then perhaps you should invent something; or make a point of heroes noticing the unnatural ambient light of the place, messing with their perceptions or some such, creating no shadows or something.

Good idea. I'll see if I can work it into one of the scenes somewhere without disrupting the flow of things too much.
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