The crowd was in panic. Suddenly, all over the stadium, fiends were appearing out of thin air. Dingos, Garudas, Sahagins and drake-like fiends.
Akane and Kimahri quickly stood next to Yuna and Kasumi to protect the physically weaker girls from the fiends.
"Wh-What's going on?" Akane asked nervously.
----
Ranma stormed out of the Auroch's locker room after changing back into his old clothes and back into his boy form. He quickly realized the situation.
"Damn fiends," he shouted and jumped up to the spectator's seats. Immediately, three canine fiends attacked him. He took all of them out at once with a mighty spin kick, then he jumped over to Akane and the others.
"Are you all right?" he quickly asked them. Akane nodded. "Yes, but the fiends just keep up coming. If this doesn't stop, I don't know how long we will be able to fight them off."
Ranma took a quick look down into the water sphere, where Tidus and Wakka were fighting some Sahagins. Then he spotted another man fighting the fiends, on the other side of the stadium.
He was a tall man, dressed in flowing, red clothes. He was wearing shades and wielded a huge sword. Ranma had to admire his power... with just one swipe of his blade, the stranger managed to cut down one of the drakes!
Then his eyes spotted something up ahead, on a pillar...
It looked deadly! It had deep purple fur like a shadow of the night! It had sharp-looking claws and deadly fangs. It's eyes were a gleaming red and it's mane an ebony black. On it's tail, a bright flame was burning without hurting the monster.
It was something right out of Ranma's nightmares!
It was...
"C-C-C-CAAAAAAAAAT! CAAAAAAAAAAT!" Ranma screamed and run around the stadium in a wild panic.
Akane sighed in desperation. "Oh, no! Not that again!"
----
Tidus and Wakka pulled themselves over the balustrade and watched Ranma zip around the spectator's seats.
"What's up with him?" Tidus asked in bewilderment. Wakka just shrugged. Then, both of them saw the red-clothed man slashing down fiends.
"Sir Auron!" Wakka shouted in surprise.
"So, you know him, too?" Tidus asked. Wakka nodded. "Yeah... best guardian there ever was... Let's help him!"
They rushed towards him, just in time as a big Garuda swooped down to attack Auron.
----
Ranma desperately tried to find a place to hide, where he wouldn't be found by this... monstrosity! A small part of his brain also seemed to remember that it wouldn't be a good thing to succumb to the Neko-Ken!
Carbuncle and Fenrir tried their best to snap Ranma out of his panicked state of mind... but it was useless! And if Ranma didn't calm down, he couldn't summon them.
It was all too late, anyway!
A dark shadow landed in front of Ranma. It's eyes were gleaming with fury, it's teeth were clenched and the flame on it's tail was burning violently.
"Kill!" It muttered in a growling voice. "Need to... kill!"
And somewhere, in Ranma's mind, something snapped.
Carbuncle and Fenrir suddenly found themselves facing a strange, furred Ranma with cat-ears and a tail, who was hissing madly.
'I would presume that this is 'Neko-Ranma',' Fenrir pondered.
Ranma's real body crouched down on all fours, while his eyes took on a strange gaze. His movements seemed primal and out of instinct.
"Meeeeeeeooooowwww!"
The Alpha Fiend realized the increased power of its opponent and seemed to think about something.
But then the Neko-Ken forced Ranma to attack, and the Alpha Fiend welcomed him with fangs and teeth.
Growling and hissing, the two opponents fought wildly while destroying seats and curtains with their slashes.
----
"What is he doing?" Wakka wondered. "He's acting like... like a fiend!"
Akane and the others joined them as the fiends crowded them together.
"He entered the Neko-Ken," Akane explained. "He's deathly afraid of cats... I have to go and help him. I'm the only one that can snap him out of this."
Auron took down another mighty opponent. "His mind is in turmoil," he silently said. "He's facing one of his biggest fears! He has to overcome this barrier by himself, or that fear will haunt him for the rest of his days!"
"But I..."
Auron turned around to face Akane. "Does he mean a lot to you?"
Akane blushed slightly. "Well, yes!"
"Then help him... by not helping him!"
Akane worriedly looked over to the other side of the stadium, where Ranma and his opponent were just jumping over the stadium walls.
"Ranma..."
"Look out, Akane," Tidus cried as a flying fiend swooped down to grab her with its claws.
But suddenly, it evaporated in a cloud of pyreflies.
"What the...?" Akane stuttered.
A giant creature had appeared inside the stadium. It was a deformed, vaguely humanoid monster, wrapped in chains and bandages. It kinda looked aquatic in appearance...
But it didn't need to move, as it was firing powerful beams of energy out of its one visible eye. Where the beams hit the fiends, they instantly were destroyed.
Yuna looked to where Maester Seymour was standing, high above them in his loge. He was gesturing to the fiends, and the Aeon followed his orders.
"What... what is that?" Kasumi whispered. That creepy Aeon scared her.
"Anima," Yuna quietly replied. "The Aeon of pain..."
----
The Alpha Fiend painfully landed on some merchant's cart as it was thrown over the wall. The crowd fled in panic from this creature.
Neko-Ranma bounded over the wall after his prey, his Ki forming an insanely powerful battle aura around his body.
"MMEEEEEEEOOOOOOOWWW!!" he cried.
The Alpha Fiend jumped out of the way and seemed to ripple and shift while moving...
When it touched the ground again, it has changed its appearance. It still looked like a giant, vicious cat, but now it was covered in dark purple scales and had a long fin growing from its tail. The now aquatic Alpha Fiend hissed and jumped into the ocean water.
Neko-Ranma carefully approached the edge of the pier and sniffed. He seemed to know that his opponent didn't just flee...
And then, the scaly monster shot out of the water, high into the air, while its ebony mane sharpened into multiple spines.
"1000 Needles!" it shouted, and fired a deadly barrage of spines at its enemy.
See other episodes by Shritistrang
(Posted Sun, 16 Jul 2006 12:53)
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