CHAPTER 7 – CAVES AND TRAPS

The corridor they were running down appeared to be an old mining shaft. It was rough-hewn from the rock, and had wooden supports every few meters to hold up the ceiling. Oil lanterns gave off little pools of light, and wooden planks in the middle of the corridor prevented them stumbling over the uneven rock. Ranma and Kanade had slowed down from their full-paced sprint earlier, and were now running along at a fairly easy pace. Ranma could have kept running much faster, but Kanade didn't have the stamina to keep up. Fortunately, her clones had a similar level of endurance, and weren't gaining any ground. In the dim light of the corridor, Ranma couldn't make them out, but from their heavy breathing they seemed to be about ten meters behind him. Every so often they would put in a bit of effort to catch up, he carried Kanade until they dropped back again.

They had been running down the corridor for about ten minutes when the board Ranma stepped on clicked. That was the only warning Ranma got, but it was enough. His danger sense going into overdrive, he leapt forward, dragging Kanade to the ground as he fell. The ceiling slid to one side above them, and a massive block of stone swung down the passageway on a pendulum. A cut off scream and a sickening crunch of bones told them it had caught at least one of the clones behind them. Ranma helped Kanade to her feet and they started moving again.

'What the hell was that?' Ranma asked wildly.

'That was a trap'. Kanade examined the new graze on her elbow with some annoyance.

'Why didn't you tell me there was a trap? Are there any more?

Kanade just shrugged, and said 'Next time I will tell you', before she started running again.

Ramna shook his head in irritation, and ran after her.

It was half an hour later, and Ranma was beginning to wonder what he'd gotten into. They'd encountered the ruins of another trap – all the planking had been destroyed underfoot, and the giant ball that had destroyed them was wedged against a narrowing of the corridor. Fortunately it wasn't in the direction they needed to take; Kanade had led him down a side corridor.

Ranma had then been led through a virtual maze of corridors branching off from each other. The sounds of pursuit faded as the clones spread out to search the network of corridors. The last of the corridors had ended some time ago, depositing Kanade and Ranma into what appeared to be a natural cave system. A river ran through the middle of it, and had deposited enough sand on the bank that they didn't have to worry about stumbling over rocks here either.

Despite the cave appearing natural, there were signs of human interference here too – the most obvious being the flaming torches set into the walls to provide light. There were other signs too though – Steps carved into rock faces to allow them to change levels, pillars of carved limestone supporting the roof.

And as they rounded the corner of the cave, Ranma found another. The cave had split off from the river, the river going underground, so the cave had narrowed to a much smaller passage, rather than the cavern it had been. This passage had been blocked off by a door, set in modern looking (Check description from episode 2)

Ranma gingerly pressed the 'open' button, and sprang back when it hissed, gears cranked, and it ponderously opened out. On the other side of the door was a short stretch of corridor – perhaps ten meters? – that ended in another doorway. Ranma could see more of the cave through the open doorway. The walls of the corridor were tiled, the room itself lit with flurecent lights, though no power cables were evident. He looked at the room, and eyed Kanade dubiously. (wrong word).

'Have you been through here before?'

Kanade nodded.

'Was there a trap?'

Kanade shrugged. 'My passage did not set off a trap. The remains of someone else were lying on the floor though.'

Ranma wondered idly how she could be so cavalier about death, but dismissed it as unimportant. They had to concentrate on keeping themselves alive at the time being.

'So is there another way through? Another way to this 'Guild?'

The girl hesitated, then nodded, and pointed back the way they had come. 'That way.'

They had made it back to the river before the clones, fortunately. There was a place where the river was quite shallow, and they leapt across

CHAPTER 9 – SAFFRON FIGHT

Saffron let loose another blast at Ranma, and once more Ranma dodged, flying ever closer to the phoenix-king. Somewhere behind him the ki-blast detonated against the mountain, causing a minor landslide. Saffron almost summoned yet another fire-blast, but realized he wouldn't have time before the boy was on him. Sighing in frustration at the impudent mortal attempting to assault him, he instead darted to one side, much to the surprise of one Ranma Saotome, who sailed past with a comical expression of surprise on his face. If Saffron hadn't been in the midst of a murderous rage, it may have even raised a chuckle from him. Instead, he summoned a fire-blast to follow the irritating man-thing as it plummeted back to earth, then swooped down with his kinjakan to finish Ranma off.

Ranma was in trouble and he knew it. The ground was coming up awfully fast, and that slowly growing roaring sound in his ears could only be another of the damned demi-god's blast things. He was trying to think of a way of escaping the situation when he noticed something moving at his fast approaching landing site. Akane. But what was she doing here? And more importantly, how on earth was he supposed to protect her from the Ki-blast that was even now singing his back? It wasn't just enough for him to survive the landing, he had to shield her as well? He shivered slightly as the cold mountain air blew past him, contrasting sharply with the hot blast chasing him down… and it gave him an idea. He focused his own ki, and pushed it into his aura, warping and shaping the air around him as he fell. He stopped trying to slow his decent, instead speeding up. The cold air circled around him, and around the blast right on his heels. At least it wasn't getting any closer now he was actively trying to go faster. He shot towards the ground, and he could see Akane turn to look at him, gaping as both he and the blast behind him shot towards her. She turned to run, but it was too late.