Cecila cursed, "Shit!" the moment she heard that familiar voice shout his location for everyone to see. Twirling around to the gates, she cursed herself a fool as the gate instantly disintegrated due to the boys attack. She was surprised the entire thing was destroyed, she was fairly sure metal wouldn't be affected by the spell, but she guessed it didn't matter. The gate may not have been destroyed if this was a normal mage, but the log used to seal it would have been.
"KILL HIM!" She screamed, pulling her rapier from its sheath as she broke out into a run. Her undead/living hench men were shocked by the action, but her order brought them out of their stupor and the few who had a clear line of fire raised their cross bows and let loose with a hail of arrows.
Ranma flipped around, barely managing to dodge the bolts as he weaved in and out of the hail of deadly arrows. "One shot Ranma, make it count!" he mumbled under his breath as he summoned as much energy from the ethereal stream as he could. In the past he had been able to create an armor of sorts comprised out of pure magical energy, but he had been unused to his unique ability at that time. Now, armed with his growing knowledge of magic, he was able to focus the energy in much more useful ways.
Jumping into the air, he focused the flow of magic to gather at the end of his fist, a ball of milky blue energy mixed with spots of white instantly forming into existence as the magic passed through the stream into his aura, where it was quickly molded into the spell he desired and sent to his out stretched hand.
Cecila almost tripped as she felt the enormous pull of magic, the entire ethereal stream screaming to her senses as the boy before her forced it to his will. She had never seen anything like it before, except.. except for one day over a year ago. Dear gods, this was that guy?
Slamming into the ground on one knee, Ranma slammed his fist with the energy into the ground while screaming the name of his tech attack, "HEAVEN'S WRATH!"
The ground around him instantly cracked, as if he was casting a 'Quake' spell. Quickly the cracks shot out from him, a pale blue light glittering from the cracks as if something beneath the surface was glowing with the power of the Almighty. A shimmering field of white rose up around him, towering nearly five stories in height before it flashed out all around him, like a wave crashing quickly towards a beach.
Cecila was pushed back by the wave of light, but felt only a medium of burning pain around her entire body. She didn't understand why a spell so powerful would do so little. She didn't understand, that is, until she heard the wail of agony erupting from the majority of her men. The majority that had been turned into the undead. She could only spar one of them a glance before his skin literally peeled away, melting off his form as it's eyes exploded in a blaze of bloody gore. All around her the undead fell, destroyed by the numerous waves of light blasting out from the boy.
Struggling to her feet as the cracked earth reformed into a perfect landscape, seemingly undisturbed by the recent wrath of god that had transcended it's surface Cecila threw the boy the meanest glare she could summon, a glare that promised retribution for his attack.
Ranma would have groaned, if he could, but the ungodly pain he had done to himself by combining the spells Quake and Holy Light really really hurt! He would need a few minutes to recover, and as it stood he was a sitting duck whenever his enemies recovered from his attack. "I hope Theo and Pantha show up.." he winced as Cecila started stalking up to him, ".. show up REAL god damn soon!" he screamed mentally.
***
"Theo! That's the signal!" Pantha hissed, breaking out of the foliage the two had been hiding in and making a break for the castle entrance with Theo in close pursuit.
The two had inched themselves closer to the structure very slowly, so they could be closer to help their friend when the time came to finally attack. They were just about to enter the castle when they received the shock of their lives.
"HEAVEN'S WRATH!" they heard Ranma scream. Pantha had kept on running, and would have walked right into the effect of the spell if Theo hadn't tackled her from behind while shouting, "GET DOWN!"
The waves of holy light engulfed the entirety of the metal castle; Theo and Pantha knew the agonizing screams of those who died at the hands of Ranma's attack would remain with them for the rest of their days. Those blood curdling screams crying out in absolute horror and agony, they swore it sounded as if the souls themselves were crying for release, for an end to their pain.
As the waves subsided, the two quickly jumped to their feet, "Holy shit!" Pantha breathed out, obviously shaken by the event.
Theo gulped. That had been... powerful, very very powerful. The white magic erupting had been enough to dwarf the vortex of darkness he had felt at the center of the castle. What the hell had Ranma done in there?
***
"You little bastard! I'll fucking kill you!" Cecila screamed, grabbing the boy by the scruff of his shirt and pulling him up to meet her face to face.
Ranma cracked a smile, weakly retorting, "Promises... promises.."
Cecila saw red. Pulling back, she launched a devastating punch into his solar plexus. He winced, coughing up a small bit of blood from the force of her strike. She pushed him roughly backwards where he fell to the ground, far too weak after his attack to even remain standing. The warmage brought her hands together, a spear of dark flame erupting into existence as she chanted her spell, the words themselves forming and guiding the energy she channeled from the stream.
She pulled back to launch her attack, an attack that would forever wipe the boy from the face of the earth if it connected.
"AAAAAAAHHHHH!" Cecila suddenly screamed as a arrow bolt came out of no where, flying through the air and piercing her right shoulder, driving through the bone and spraying a flood of her blood as the arrow broke through the other end of her shoulder. Her concentration lost, the Dark Spear faded from existence as she staggered back, eyes wide in shock.
Her men were still far too stunned by the boy's spell and the death of their comrades to be of much use, but her scream as the arrow pierced her served to snap them out of their hazes quickly. Drawing various weapons, the survivors began rushing towards the gateway.
Pantha let loose another hail of arrows, pulling, notching, and firing off arrows in rapid succession. Her arrows hit true for the most part, piercing their targets were they crashed to the ground.
Theo spared Ranma a glance, only long enough to see the boy raise a hand shakingly to give him the thumbs up, before turning back to the small group of men and the wounded Cecile who was already struggling to her feet. Raising his hands, he summoned the power of the stream and shouted "AURA BEAM!"
A shimmering orb of light popped into his hands for a breif moment, before releasing a beam of fractured light that slammed into Cecile, flinging her back and knocking down some of the men rushing to attack them. "Strengthen." he grunted, feeling the magical energy surround his body and infuse his muscles.
***
Pantha managed to shoot off another two arrows, scoring hits, before she was forced to back step to dodge a sword thrust. The man pressed his advantage, scoring a few nicks and cuts against the were-panther that did nothing more then annoy her, since he lacked silver. Discarding her bow for the time being, Pantha whipped out her bowie knife and took a sword thrust to the gut. Grabbing the blade, she pulled herself on the long sword and slid closer to it's wielder, who was surprised by the act and did nothing as she slashed him across the face, splaying blood and destroying his left eye and sending him down screaming in pain.
***
Theo was not a martial artist. Never pretended to be, so one shouldn't expect him to be very proficient in this field. While that may have been true in another time, that was neither the here nor now. In this world he had been traveling with a martial arts guru who loved to spar, whether you wanted to or not didn't matter. So he had managed to pick up a few things, mainly in the realm of dodging.
Making a decent showing of himself, Theo managed to dodge and weave through the various sword strikes of his enemies, countering as best he could. He managed to crush the face of a one of the thugs, he was surprised at the force of his blow due to his strengthen spell, which was a mistake as it left him wide open for a wicked slash across the chest that sent him to his knees. He wasn't stupid, he grunted, ignoring the pain, as he rolled forward to avoid an overhead slash and countered by kicking at the man's leg. The sickening snap of his knee breaking was heard before the man fell to the ground screaming, his scream joining the numerous wounded.
***
Pantha hadn't been able to reclaim her bow, the remaining enemies had made sure to keep some one on her, to keep her pinned in melee instead of giving her free shots with her deadly sharpshooter skills. She had ripped the sword out of her gut, the wound healing quickly, and began using Florentine style against the attackers. She wasn't very proficient, but she was doing very well for herself, managing to duck, weave, counter, redirect, and all those other wonderful things that stopped her from becoming a bloody stain on the ground.
***
Cecila groaned as her senses returned. God damn, this just wasn't her day. An entire gang of thugs being taken out by three people. It didn't help matters Queen that bastard vampire had gotten a little too greedy with their lives, animating them after the blood had been drained from them. Nope, this wasn't good. Sparing the fight a glance, she immediately realized they weren't going to win. While Ranma seemed to be the most dangerous in an up and front fight out of their little group, and he was still currently lying on the ground recovering from his attack that crippled her forces, Pantha and Theo were still adequate enough to take care of the remaining thugs.
Sneaking up as best she could, she inched herself closer and closer to Pantha; pain flaring in the wound the little bitch had given her. Oh, she was going to make that bitch pay for this!
***
Pantha grunted as the remaining two men abandoned their weapons and tackled her to the ground. She had managed to pierce one through the chest for his efforts, his body already cooling as she focused her attention on the remaining thug. She struggled against the man, and was finding to her immense displeasure he had pulled a Silver dagger from nowhere and was at this very moment stabbing at her neck.
Grabbing the hand holding the knife, it's deadly edge no farther then an inch from her neck, she put as much strength as she could muster into keeping that knife at bay. The human seemed surprisingly strong; even now she could feel the knife slowing pushing it's way towards her unprotected jugular. Kicking out with her legs, she tried to throw the goon off her body, but to no avail.
"Shit!" Pantha cursed as the familiar searing sensation of silver contacting her skin made itself known. She locked her purple eyes on the man, noticing the blood rage singing through his eyes and the scowl of intense hatred on his lips. He meant to kill her, and she knew it.
As she felt the sharp silver's edge begin pierce her neck slowly, her steady gout of blood flowing down her neck, she was relieved to find the pressure all of a suddenly gone, Theo grabbed the man by the back of his hair, using his magically enhanced strength to rip the bastard off of Pantha, before slamming him head first into the ground with a look of absolute rage across his face.
***
Cecila winced, the sound of some one's face getting smashed in making her feel sick. Didn't help matters she was seeing it either. Still, the man had done his job; Pantha had laid her head back and closed her eyes, one hand pressed over the wound in her neck. Theo was far to busy dealing out immense pain to even notice her.
"Perfect." she grinned mentally, as she reached out and grabbed Pantha's leg and began channeling energy from the ethereal stream, "BURN AND FRY BITCH!"
***
"BURN AND FRY BITCH!" Pantha bolted up as she felt some one grab her leg and shout those words, she tried to pull back but she was far to late as Cecila's hand began to send huge volts of lightning racing through out her body. She started to scream as the pain racked her body.
***
"DIE DIE! BURN BURN! BUAHAHAHAH!" Cecila chuckled as Pantha flopped around on the ground. Just a few more seconds and that bitch would be dead! Yes! Hahahah! Serves her right! Shooting her in the shoulder! Pfft, did she expect anything less then death for that shit?
She was substantially curious when a piercing pain flared up from her neck, like a bee was stinging her, before darkness over came her.
***
Ranma puffed, pushing Cecila's unconscious body off the slightly smoking form of Pantha. He knew he got lucky with that Shiatsu strike, he didn't think he had the strength left to knock her unconscious.
Pulling himself over to Pantha, he grunted, "Pantha.." he hissed, not in anger, but in the pain still assaulting his body, "You're one bad puddy cat." he grinned.
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(Posted Fri, 30 Jan 2004 20:17)
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