Tanya sighed, dropping her hands from Ranma's brow where she had ben focusing her magic as a way to let her Husband gain a feel for the 'Etheral Stream.' It was amazing, to her at least, that his strange abilities did not originate from the Etheral Stream in the slightest. Fighters, like Julia Diggers and the various weapon masters drew up the Etheral Stream to increase their strength, power, and even used to for attacks. They of course called this Ki and Chi.
However, they were wrong. Ranma used what he called 'Ki' and 'Chi'. Inner life force and the life force of nature respectfully. A whole new energy source as far as Tanya knew, which is the only reason she agreed to meet with Julia Diggers later this afternoon. She and her husband were curious about this.
Sighing softly, taking her husband hands in her own she thought about how to comfort him. "Ranma, don't take it too hard. People train their whole lives to access the Etheral Stream." she raised his hand to her own, her warm moist lips kissing gently along the knuckles, "You'll get it. You just need to keep trying."
Ranma took a deep breath, holding it as he watched and listened to his wife. After listening to her, he released his breath and nodded. "Yeah. I'll never give up." he said with a smile that soon became lecherous, "So long as my sexy kitten is here to guide me back when I get lost."
Tanya tsk'ed, though she had a blush, "What would the Armsmaster say if she came upon us in the throes of passion, screaming each other names as we force one another to ascend the heavens in orgasmic delight?" he tone mocking, teasing.
Julia coughed, some how appearing with out Tanya or Ranma sensing her presence. "She would probably snort, find some water, and douse the lovers."
Tanya choked, looking at Julia as a deer would head lights. "Eh.. heh.. heh.."
Ranma howled in laughter at that. It was always so much fun to tease each other, espically when some one catchs one of them in the act. "Hey Mrs. Diggers." he waved, trying to get control over his laughter. Its amazing what a glare from his Wife could do in that regard.
Julia chuckled, though it was rather forced. Her entire demeanor screamed 'On guard and ready for anything.' Not that Tanya, or Ranma could blame her. Ranma knew Tanya and the Digger family did not get along due to their past...
Hopping to his feet, "Well Mrs. Diggers, lets get this over with." Ranma said.
Julia nodded, turning around and walking away from camp. Ranma and his wife followed. They didn't have to go far, a open clearing in the woods were they had set up camp was nearby.
Julia turned around, "A all out sparring session, no death strikes or permanatly damaging blows." she turned a glare at Tanya, "No outside interference. We fight until one, or both can no longer fight. Agreed?" then she looked back to Ranma waiting for his nod.
Ranma frowned. He really didn't like this woman glaring at his wife like that. One again he reminded himself that he, and his wife, would have to earn this woman's - not to mention her families - trust if they were ever to put the past behind them. "Agreed."
Thus the battle began..
Ranma grinned, falling into a defensive stance.
Julia frowned, recognizing the confidence the boy had in his skills. She herself leaned back, bringing her left elbow up and formed a fist, extending her left arm forward also forming a first.
Ranma scanned, finding numerous holes the in woman's defences that he felt safe to exploit. As he moved towards the warrior a memory tickled at the back of his mind, something Tanya had said about his opponett. Something...
Julia frowned. While the boy's charge was good, his stance excellent and he also seemed to move with a fluidic grace of one long since a Master in the way of fighting, his intellect obviously wasn't that high. It was obvious to the Arms Master that the boy had fallen for one of the many 'holes' in her defence, the ones she had put there on purpose in order to trick her opponetts into thinking she wasn't a big a threat as she generally was.
Ranma's plans changed half way to his target. He remembered everything Tanya had said about the Armsmaster and her fighting ability, he trusted his wife in all matters even if his evalutation showed differnt. It didn't make sense for one of the best fighters in the world to have such obvious holes in her defence, so he could only conclude it was a hole intentionally left in her defences. The better to lead unsuspecting morons to their inevitable beat downs.
Jumping to the left, Ranma used his inertia and Ki strengthed legs to fly through the air.
Julia frowned following her prey into the air. Obviously she had been wrong in her earlier assumptions.
Ranma grinned, the woman had taken the bait. Ranma kicked off a pine needle tree, unknown to Julia he had snaged to hand fulls of the pine needles while rebounding, and flew in a straight line for his target.
Julia closed her defences slightly, bunching up her legs in preperation for some kind of defence.
Ranma shouted off, "KACHUU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN Revised: Haimatsu Hari Renda!" and went about shooting single threads of the pine needle, each pine needle imbued with a portion of his Ki.
Julia saw the attack just as Ranma summoned his aura. She didn't understand the purpose of it. It definatly wasn't a Ki Projectile, and he was too far away - though closing fast - to make full use of a punch/kick speed technique. What was he up to?
Julia gambled by pushing her legs out, the action giving her a bit more inertia - which she used to flip over the incoming Ranma. It was here she realized her gamble failed. Tiny slivers of.. something flew out of Ranma's hands at rocket speed, the tiny little things digging deep into her armor and scoring first blood across her back. Oh would that boy pay.
That wasn't the end of Ranma's game though. As Julia flew over head he ceased his attack, turned over and grabbed at Julia's hair. With a great tug he robbed her of some of her speed/inertia and prepared to continue this fight in the air.
Julia gritted her teeth as the boy used her own hair against her. She used Ranma's leverage against him, and added her own strength to the change of inertia, flipping around and nailing the boy in the face with her feet.
'Shit' Ranma groaned as he flipped over and braced himself, landing carefully. This woman was strong, monstrously so. He didn't think anyone could hit as hard as she could. Skill wise he knew she was still hiding the majority, but that didn't matter. He had fought many battles with people equal, or higher in terms of power and skill and always came out the winner, in the end.
Julia landed, ignoring the searing pain in her back from Ranma's strange pine needle attack. She wiped around, just in time to see Ranma land. Opening her center to the etheral stream, Julia quickly gathered the pure energy that comprised the source and let loose with a moderatly powerful(for her) chi blast.
Ranma's eyes widen slightly, he noticed Julia smirk when he did that. The ball of milky white.. something.. flew towards him. It felt like a chi attack, but he couldn't feel any emotions raidiating off the blasted thing. The power.. the power on the other hand he could.
Quickly accessing his inner being, Ranma let loose with a "MOKO TAKABISHI!" a weak one though, no point in wasting his strength in trying to overcome something that powerful.
Julia frowned, the boy was using his emotions to gather his Ki. Not a good thing.
The ball of milky white met with shimmering blue - the small impact enough to disrupt the stability of her Chi projectile and explode violently across the clearing.
Julia back flipped away from ground zero, immediatly flowing into an aggresive stance as she charged the dust cloud generated by the explosion. She closed her eyes, that sense would be useless and more a deterant than anything else. She remained cool and in control as she ran for her target.. only... she couldn't sense him!
Julia's eyes flaired open, already well past the dust cloud their attacks had generated. Her cool facade faded as the blood pumped in the excitement of the battle. The fight, the battle was what she lived for, and this one was turning out to be more than she expected.
Her senses flaired to life! An overhead attack! She looked up, raising her arms in defence of an attack she couldn't see. Nothing.. until the ground beneath her erupted with a shout of "BAKUSAI TENKETSU!"
Ranma smirked, watching the woman engulfed in the secret Amazon technique. He wasn't stupid though, that attack wouldn't gain him much respite. Cloaking himself once again in the Umi-Sen-Ken, Goshin Dai Ryu Sei Fu, or Body Defense Shooting Star Cloth, Ranma faded from view.
Julia growled, using the various peices of stone flung through out the air as leverage to regain her balance. That attack HURT! The explosion had suprised her, thats for sure, and the rocks had pounded into her back before she could get control of her ascent. Normally that wouldn't be bad, but whatever weapon he had used to attack with earlier had been pushed deeper into their wounds. This punk was going to pay!
Landing with all the grace of an alley cat, Julia expanded her senses in search of the little twerp. Nothing.. wait... the air coming towards her.. an Invisibility technique! She was left with no more time to contemplate as her target appeared raining blows fast and furious - though Ranma's control impressed her, obviously the boy knew to keep his head in a battle. A lesson G'Nolga had yet to learn.
Julia managed to block most of the attacks, the surprise of the situation let the boy land numerous blows upon her face and chest - Though she was oddly impressed with the way the boy skillfully avoided her sensitive areas.
Countering with a back flip, Julia slammed Ranma with a knee to his chin then skillfully cleared the back flip, and flowed into the boy - Who had managed to recover from her powerful blow.
Julia pondered things as she prepared to way lay holy hell on the boy.
'That invisibility technique was NOT magic. He wasn't even drawing on the Etheral Stream, and that was something Julia couldn't understand.'
Julia met Ranma in a series of blows, both very skilled. Julia was by far the more skilled, but she was amazed at how quick the boy was adapting to her techniques.
'What other tricks does he have?'
Julia began channeling the power of the Etheral Stream, preparing to finish this fight once and for all. She noticed subtle changes in the boy's Ki path, but couldn't for the life of her figure out what he was doing.
'Whatever it is, it doesn't matter.'
There! Her opening, the boy had spread his arms - obviously going for the attack in exclusion to defence. Well, Julia vowed to make the boy pay for that.
"MASTER BLOW" Julia exclaimed as she focused her attack, connecting with the boy straight in the chest
"HAKU DATO SHIN SHO!" Ranma called out at the exact same time as Julia. He knew whatever attack he was about to be hit with was going to hurt, but he'll take the woman out at the same damn time!
Julia gasps as Ranma quickly struck certain points in her body, her remaining Ki and Chi reserves blowing out her back as the boy flew away from her hit - the boy crashing against - and THROUGH the pine tree he had earlier rebounded off.
Julia collapsed to her knees then to her face, all her strength leaving her. Whatever attack the boy had done destroyed what was left of her strength. She couldn't even move!
Minutes past, Julia heard some rustelling going on in the direction she had knocked Ranma to. Odd thoughts of the boy standing up after that blow quickly being squashed. She didn't care how good he was, he took that blow full force. It just had to be Tanya caring for him.
A shadow appeared over her, and if Julia could groan she would have. It figured she would be helpless like this before one who probably would like nothing better than to end her life.
Tanya lifted the prone and unresisting form of Julia into her arms, slowly carrying the girl to their camp site. When the fight had ended Tanya had immediatly run to her husband, quickly taking care of his wounds first before helping the Armsmaster. Ranma was in bad condition, but he wasn't in danger of dying. He would need to rest for a few days to regain his full strength.
Tanya laid Julia down next to a pot of water and some rags, and went about tending to the Armsmasters wounds.
Julia frowned when Tanya tended her wounds. Why would the woman help her like this? Then she boggled when Tanya showed her what Ranma had used to damage her back. Pine Needles. The little pup had used Pine needles!
She was unable to voice her.. astonisment at that fact, still far to weak to do anything more than breath..
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(Posted Thu, 15 May 2003 20:15)
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