This was not, strictly speaking, a D&D world. It had similarities, but there were differences as well.
One thing in common with the typical D&D world was that the races tended to segregate. Which meant that (among other things) that human teenage boys would tell stories about elven mating practices. Elves of a similar maturity level would tell about humans with about as much accuracy.
Another thing in common with a gaming-style world was that there was something akin to experience levels. Take two largely inexperienced young elf girls who had gotten together with some friends and had a few very minor league adventures and you might run into a problem common with a lot of adventuring groups. They got cocky and confident and full of themselves. Another point in common with game-based adventures was that pride goeth before a fall. Hence their current dilemma.
Ranma came from a world where the laws of physics were less firm in some respects, and where darn near anything could be a martial art.
Nonetheless, one thing was true of this. Ranma Saotome was very very good when it came to a martial arts situation. When he saw what looked to be children's skulls made into pouches that some of these nonhumans had on their belts, and things like instruments of torture that had been well used, his reaction would have startled any number of people who thought they knew Ranma Saotome.
He was fighting at his best, not pulling punches, and doing something that almost never happened in Nerima. He was taking this all completely seriously. Part of it was the universe around him that he was reacting to on a purely unconscious level. It was a far more serious universe after all. If the orcs had shown up at first on his home plane they'd likely have skewered him before he'd have taken the fight even vaguely seriously.
Leaping into the group, he palm struck the nasal guard of one guard's helm - smashing it and the nose it covered deep inside the orc's skull.
Pivoting and ducking under a startled sword swipe, he reverse-kicked another orc under the chin guard and used the momentum to slide under the swordwielder.
Punching up between the legs hard enough to launch the swordsman was followed by a Martial Arts Breakdance manuever (he'd invented it after watching a dance program) to flip up, grab an orc's head in between his ankles and twist.
"VETHAK MARNAHU!" yelled one of the skull-pouch types, aiming a weird carving of an impaled skull.
Ranma felt the air seeming to get tight around him but he twisted, broke through, picked up the fallen sword and used it as a spear. He figured if the guy was kind enough to identify himself as a credible threat, the least he could do was respond appropriately.
Thorn and Mist caught up with Ranma ("just follow the sounds of a fight" had suggested Thorn) and spent a moment staring before Thorn decided to do attacks of opportunity. In Thorn's case that meant throwing rocks at anyone that looked like they were getting a bead on the fighter.
Mist looked around, found a mace near a twitching shaman of some kind, and tried to be unnoticeable as it wasn't a weapon she'd practiced with.
It didn't look necessary. Some of the orcs looked as though a catapult had been used to physically launch them. Others showed varying other signs of being no longer under 'enemy combatant' status.
At some point some of the orcs started fleeing. Maybe it was because there had been a large number and now there was a small number. Maybe it was because they realized that this perhaps was not the safest occupation they could have chosen and they wanted to explore other options.
Hard to tell, just that at one moment the fight was still raging and the next there were a couple of orcs who had dropped weapons and were running as fast as they could.
Ranma gulped breath. Thorn went over to a cage and started picking the lock. Mist looked around, shrugged, and started saying last rites for their fallen foe.
A few minutes later:
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(Posted Fri, 28 Nov 2003 13:34)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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