Seaside Battle

Disclaimer: The usual, Ranma ½ is not mine.

…

Akane chased the shadow sprite over the flooded remains of the city. They dodged through a doorway and out the opposite missing wall of the building, the sprite jumped through an empty window and onto the collapsed adjacent wall. Skidding onto the red roof tiles that had slid into the road the sprite suddenly stopped and turned around. Akane's momentum carried her forward as she skidded on the tiles herself. The shisa leapt, claws extended and bit into the shoulder of the shadow sprite. A terrible shriek sounded from her quarry as the sprite faded away.

Before Akane could recover from the chase a sharp pain hit her shoulder. She spun to find the heedless ones and the ogre had followed and closed in on her. One of the heedless ones prepared to spit again as the ogre hefted his spiked club high. Akane jumped to the side before the club crashed down, smashing the roof's support beam Akane had been standing on.

Gathering her breath Akane roared as loud as she could. The heedless ones and ogre visibly flinched and froze in reaction. Using the opportunity, Akane jumped on the club still on the ground and bit the arm of the ogre. His arm dissolved away leaving a stump for an appendage. The ogre swept his other arm toward the shisa and Akane dodged to the side.

She dodged again as the ogre took another swing when movement caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. Far more sprites, ogres, and heedless ones were crawling up from under rubble and out from behind what structures were still standing.

Akane swiped her claws into the ogre and used him as a springboard to bite the nearest heedless one mid-air. As the ogre and heedless one dissolved, far more spirits circled around to join the fight. Akane stared back determinedly.

….

Ranma was getting more and more antsy. Silence had descended over the group as they travelled down the road. Ranma started urging Arata to go faster and faster. Thankfully the Godling didn't oppose this. In fact at one point the Godling Himself raised His hands, concentrated for a moment, and then the horses seemed able to move faster than before.

….

Akane took a huge breath and roared. All around her the forms of her enemies fell down stunned. She roared again and those who had fallen burst into dust. To save her breath she pounced on a nearby ogre and pushed him into a heedless one who spit acid at a shadow sprite. The ogre, heedless one and shadow sprite turned on each other and quickly dispatched one another. Akane swiped at the legs of more ogres and shadow sprites and as before roared to extinguish them and stun the minions behind them.

She continued fighting as her adrenaline pushed her on and on. This was the culmination of years of Tatewaki Kuno encouraging the village boys to battle Akane day after day. This was a release of all the uncertainty, stress and fear Akane had built over the past year. So what if she no longer was human and half-her family and all of her friends and neighbors thought she was dead. So what if Gods thought she was an amusing pawn. She was Akane Tendo and she would fight to keep these evil forces out of her world. She took a huge breath and roared. A shockwave burst out from her and her enemies dissolved.

Akane stood on the crumbling remains of a wall and panted. Her throat and muscles ached, and it felt good to stand still for a moment. She raised her head high and closed her eyes as she enjoyed the sea breeze and the sound of the waves hitting the coast.

A thundering wave drew her eye open.

Out from the water a large dark figure arose.

A draconic head was followed by a long thin body covered in spikes. On top of the head a crown of horns surrounded a human dressed in armor wielding a katana. Akane could only stare at the masked figure riding the sea serpent. The individual pointed and the serpent expelled a torrent of water and acid toward the shisa. Akane ran to the side but a blast hit her tail and burned terribly. The wall she had been standing on was gone, smashed and melted.

Akane roared, trying to stun the sea serpent, however, it only paused. Its rider urged the serpent on and the creature dove down pushing a huge wave toward the shore.

Seeing the wave coming, Akane scrambled to find the tallest piece of rubble to climb up. Finding an old tower she scaled to the top in three swift jumps, just in time as the waves crashed against the brick and mortar. The shisa clung to the remains and prayed that they wouldn't give out.

As the wave pulled back to sea Akane heard the sound of screams. Twisting to look landward she saw desperate faces amongst the fresh remains of a building struggling against the pull of the water. These must be the few people who had not yet fled and who had been hiding. Among them Akane saw Ukyo with her giant spatula. The chef slammed her signature weapon into the ground wedging the utensil into place. Ukyo then reached out and started grabbing people as they floated past and pulled them over to the anchored spatula.

Suddenly the water disappeared near where Ukyo was, creating a circle of falling debris. In the center of the circle stood Fey, Her arms outstretched. Fey then proceeded to pluck people out of the water near the edge of Her circle and set them dripping in the center. When Her dazed rescues gathered their wits about them they heaped Her with praise and thanks. The more praise She received the bigger the dry circle became. Soon a large zone was free of the waves that flowed neatly around. The survivors did their best to grab others still at the mercy of the current.

Hearing an ominous drawing of breath, the shisa turned her attention back to the serpent just as the dragon let out another shot of acid straight toward her tower. Akane leapt, her heart in her throat. She hit the water like a cannonball creating a wave of her own. To her distress she sank like a stone. In a desperate panicked move Akane gathered her remaining breath and roared. To her astonishment the waters surrounding her parted long enough for her to get two good breaths before flooding back toward her.

She roared again and when the water around her parted she took a deep breath and roared once more. In this manner she cleared a path for herself up onto a collapsed wall.

The serpent's rider just pointed and once again her steed shot acid toward Akane. The shisa bellowed her challenge, which to her amazement deflected the shot. Before Akane could push the attack the serpent spat and Akane was forced to roar again. As Akane roared a third time she feared she was stuck in this hopeless impasse with her just deflecting the serpent and never getting any hits in herself.

It was then with excitement that she heard the familiar roar of another shisa. She spun toward the gates of the city to see a horse and cart stopped with figures of the Godling, a human, a misty spirit and a golden shisa running towards her.

….

Ranma sped past the others, heaving another breath so he could roar again. He stopped to let his voice echo across the water toward the sea serpent, relief entered his chest when he heard Akane (Akane!) echo his roar a moment later.

The serpent swayed in a dazed fashion. Ranma hurried forward once more, chasing the receding water. He heard Akane roar and added his voice. Again and again they roared in unison, and the sea serpent was starting to sway unsteadily and move more sluggishly. The draconian mouth panted heavily, let out one last growl, then the long serpentine body slowly sank into the waves.

….

As the serpent sank into the sea, the katana wielding rider jumped for land with a curse. The sea serpent raised its body in arches as it turned and swiftly swam away. The flood in the city receded with the withdrawal of the scaly opponent. The rider sent a glare toward the two shisa. To Akane's surprise she could see the rider was a woman. In three short bounds the masked woman was upon the crumbling wall where Akane stood and swung her sword. Akane ducked and the katana passed harmlessly overhead.

All around ogres and shadow sprites rose out of the ruins where the waves no longer reached. Akane could see Ranma fighting his way through them to get closer. Concentrating on the opponent at hand, the female shisa swiped her claws at her opponent's legs. With a feminine shriek the masked figure stumbled backwards. Instead of falling off the wall however, a shadow engulfed the masked woman and lifted her to a more stable footing. Anchoring her legs in a more stable stance, the woman swung the katana toward Akane again. Flattening against the wall, Akane tried to think. The easiest way to defeat the woman, or separate her from the shadow entity that now obviously influenced her, was to roar. Taking a deep breath Akane was just about to roar again when Ranma behind her roared. Keeping her eye on her opponent Akane was disappointed to notice not the slightest flinch or sign of damage in the katana wielding woman. She just continued to wildly swing her weapon trying to hit Akane. Akane dropped down to the ground to avoid the blade's strike.

The woman raised her head and glared at Akane through the mask. A moment later the shadow's features solidified over the woman. It was the demon shadow sprite that kept escaping from the shisa in the past. Her horns had grown more; curving back around her head like ram's horns. Earlier the tips had ended just below the sprite's ears, now they curved forward beyond her face effectively forming a natural helmet. The leathery bat wings now had claws at the end of each joint. She grinned maliciously reveling long fangs. "Shisa, you may have chased me off before, but you will not separate me from the host my Master gave to me. She is strong and willful. With my hand guiding her strikes she will not miss again." At the end of her taunt the shadow sprite faded back into the masked woman. She leapt down from the wall her katana swinging straight for Akane.

Akane jumped sideways and sidestepped again. The sword's arch followed cutting strands of fur from her already burned tail. Akane huffed; if she came out of this battle with a bald tail she was not going to be happy.

Ranma chose that moment to strike, jumping up on the open side of the masked woman, rearing back shifting his weight on his hind legs and thrashing out with his forelimbs in rapid, blurring motion. It must be his Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire Technique.

The woman dodged to the side and twisted the blade to defend but not before rips appeared in the sleeve under her armor and blood dripped from her katana-wielding arm.

Ranma dodged back as his advantage disappeared and the blade swung through the air where his head had been moments before. Ranma glanced back at Akane and gave her a significant look followed by a head jerk toward the woman and shadow sprite. Akane got to her feet interpreting his signal as a request to try rushing at their opponent with both of them on either side to see if the invisible wall between them would push the shadow sprite out.

Tensing her muscles, Akane waited until Ranma growled to run around the woman against the wall. Akane could see the barrier forming between Ranma and herself, and with a slight head nod they both rushed forward. The woman slammed back into the wall behind her and briefly the shadow sprite reappeared, but with a snarl the sprite kept her hold on the masked katana wielder.

Akane turned intent on helping Ranma continue the attack but was side-tracked when a heedless one spat at her and she had to dodge. She spied Ukyo slicing her spatula at an ogre, Tofu with a glowing sword locked in battle with a shadow sprite, and the Godling clearing a path of the minions with what looked like an energy blast. Turning toward the heedless one who attacked her, Akane leapt with her claws fully extended.

….