Matron Sigourne led a relatively decent and open-minded band of drow, which was why they needed a new home. That led to a deal with the dragon god Bahumut, which involved making a human child their prince. It was a strange situation and she didn’t see the value in the petulant brat, but obviously he was expected to be important in the future.
Her confusion wasn’t unexpected as she had yet to discover Ranma was trained to be a warrior, much less that he was a martial arts prodigy. At age ten he could maim an adult martial artist. Although not as strong as he would be as a teenager in later years, he could still lift a boulder the size of a dwarf weighing a few tons and could crack the same boulder into large chunks with his bare hands. He was not quite strong enough to flat out shatter boulders or gouge his fingers into stone, but he was still far stronger and sturdier than most adult warriors.
Skill-wise he was actually a bit more dangerous than he would be in his teenage years since he had yet to learn restraint or subtlety. He was still in the time of his life where he was mastering all the major martial arts. He was already skilled in them, but because they were new to him, he was eager to show off his skills and talk about them. He had not yet hit the plateau of his teenage years and become more reserved and secretive with his martial arts.
His skills would become obvious as an undead horde broke into the gathering, a zombie ogre leading the charge and absorbing crossbow bolts without pause.
The drow were unable to stop Ranma as the boy darted forward, kicking in the hulking zombie’s right knee. The joint snapped, the lumbering corpse collapsing to the floor with several wet thuds.
Ranma was already bounding to the side to acquire a spear. When it came to weapons, the spear was by and far Ranma’s favorite, and after giving the issue some thought, he’d decided smashing undead with a weapon seemed the way to go after his brief encounter with the previous skeletons.
The spear whipped around him in arcs, cutting with one end, bashing with the other. Against the skeletons he snapped their bones at the thinnest points, avoiding strikes to the ribcage, hips or skull. Against the zombies he targeted the joints instead, specifically the muscles and connective tissue holding the joints together, aiming to dismember their limbs first.
He could strike them with stronger blows, such as a twisting upwards slash with the butt of the spear into a zombie’s chest hard enough to burst the chest and send it back, but the quick targeted strikes allowed him to dispatch the undead with minimal effort. Not out of any effort to show restraint, but out of a desire to simply tear through the undead horde, breaking the wave of undead in an expedient manner, using skill as well as power.
With the charge broken, the rest of Ranma’s forces joined the battle after getting over the shock of the attack and their child prince meeting the horde head-on.
To Sigourne’s relief Ranma didn’t leave the hall, seemingly content to break the tide. The young prince casually standing with his spear at the ready, assessing the situation, was a far cry from the sullen boy she’d known so far.
The undead were driven back, the necromancers having fled from Ranma’s glare, a defeat by a ten year old human being quite demoralizing. The mess was reasonably cleaned up and the get together somewhat resumed. The party guests that were Ranma’s future potential allies had gone from ridiculing the boy to giving him a bit of respect.
The biggest change was in Ranma, faced with the prospect of rejoining the party, he heaved a sigh and the life visibly drained out of him.
Sigourne was understanding for a drow and capable of recognizing her mistakes and fixing them. After seeing the rather commanding presence the boy had while fighting, it was obvious her current training was actually ruining him. He did need to become more refined, but that presence he had while fighting would also be essential to cultivate. She needed to learn more about him and adapt her training to refine that spirit instead of slowly snuffing it.
Also, it was rather troubling that her attentions were considered more life draining than fighting an undead horde.
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(Posted Sat, 17 Aug 2013 20:17)
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