Dragon's Bond

Chapter 7

Beach

Crimson smiled as she sat back on the lawn chair at the beach that she, her father and Amelia, his

fiancé, were currently relaxing at. “It sure was nice of those people to give us some clothes.” She

said with a smile.

Ranma frowned, currently in his female form. “Nice? They worked us like dogs just to pay for

them. They were monsters.” The three travelers had been on the road for several days, helping

people along the way for small sums of money while they journeyed towards where the next piece

of the map was supposed to be located.

Crimson was currently in her human form and her time as a dragon had just ended an hour before

so they had decided to stay at the beach for the three day duration of her temporary

transformation. She stretched her arms as she watched the waves lap against the shore. It was

hypnotic. She had never seen a body of water as large as this before and the new experience was

wonderful. She was content to just sit there on the chair and watch her father play in the water

with his fiancé.

Ranma looked her way and she smiled wider and waved at him while he gave Amelia a piggyback

through the waves that kept threatening to push him over. Him who was currently a her, wearing

a simple one piece swimsuit. It probably wasn't necessary considering the beach was mostly

deserted save for the adventurous trio. Crimson snickered. *I guess Papa-san has a little feminine

modesty after all.* Her thoughts were broken when Amelia jumped off Ranma's back and the red

headed girl waved at Crimson to come on over into the water. Crimson shook her head.

Ranma rolled her eyes and ran up the beach quickly, she bent down beside Crimson's chair and

smiled. "Come on in the water. It's great!" Ranma enthused. "It'd be good for you to cool off and

relax."

Crimson shook her head, put on a neutral expression and looked away from Ranma. "I'd rather

not."

Ranma looked confused. "Why not? The water's really nice."

Crimson frowned and stared at the cloudless sky above. "It's not that papa-san... it's just."

Crimson gave a quick shake of her head and leaned close to Ranma to whisper in his ear, as if

afraid that Amelia would hear her, even though the other 'real' girl was way off playing in the

small waves.

Ranma listened intently and her eyes widened a moment later. "You can't swim?" Crimson put her

hand over her mouth, giving her a stern glare. " Oh... I... see." Ranma muttered in a very

monotone voice. “I guess it makes sense though... I’ve never have taken you swimming before.”

Amelia smiled as she saw Ranma walk towards the water with Crimson right behind her. Ranma

walked into the water without so much as a flinch towards the sudden temperature change.

Crimson tried to follow in her father's footsteps but the moment she touched the water she

screamed and jumped back about five feet onto the beach. Ranma groaned as she watched this.

"It's gonna be a long day."

******************

After a long day at the beach Ranma, Amelia, and Crimson decided to head back to the resort

about a mile down the beach. It was a very large, elaborate hotel just past the sand with large

trees towering it and giving it a very earthy feel, as if it were built right into the forest, The beach

was also far busier the closer one got to the hotel. The beach wasn't without it's attractions either.

Apparently it was a very famous place for people to vacation at in the summer weather, there

were always contests, races, and eating competitions, as well there were many vendors and shops

along the edge of the beach. Ranma smiled as she walked hand in hand with Amelia, the princess

on Seyroone still insisted on stuff like that but Ranma didn't mind nearly as much anymore, she'd

gotten better.

Amelia was entranced with all the sites and her head darted back and forth between all the

different races, contests and food vendors. "Wow!" She said. "It's so nice that we decided to stop

here today. This place is so neat."

Ranma chuckled. "I'm surprised Crimson picked up swimming so fast." She noted. "Not like

Akane 'the rock'." Ranma then gave a little chuckle.

Crimson chuckled. "Wasn't that the old fiancé that you didn't like?" She asked with a little giggle.

"I liked your stories of her, they were really funny!"

Ranma smiled and she kicked a little stone across the sand and into the water. "I didn't think it

was funny at the time. I thought it was painful."

Crimson giggled again and let her eyes wander. Her eyes widened as they drifted and landed

onto the sight of a poster taped to the side of a vendor.

Ranma yelped in surprise when she and Amelia were suddenly shoved aside roughly to the ground

by Crimson who shot by them like a shot of skin coloured lightning towards the vendor that she

had eyed. Ranma's eyes narrowed as she glared at her daughter, and spit out some sand that had

accidentally made it's way into her mouth. Amelia sat up from her place on the ground and

brushed off some of the sand that had been sprinkled upon her during their fall. "What's she so

excited about?" She wondered.

Ranma noticed Crimson just staring at a yellow coloured poster over on one of the vendors. "I

wonder." She said sarcastically with a role of her eyes as she got up from the ground.

Just as Ranma reached Crimson after getting up off the ground, the young Dragon girl spun

around and grabbed her swimsuit top with her hands and put on a childish, pleading gaze.

"Daaaaaadddyyyyyy!" She whined sweetly while giving him puppy dog eyes. "Can I please enter

the swimming competition?"

Ranma looked confused as she looked down at her daughter. "Huh?" Ranma then looked up at

the poster on the vendor. "Swimming contest eh?" Ranma leaned closer to the poster to inspect it.

It read:

Beginner's Swimming Competition!

Register in the lobby of the

hotel for your chance to win

a mystery prize of a lifetime

supply of pudding and ice cream.

If the participant's parents are not 100%

on their child's abilities they may use floatation devices.

Ranma's eyes glazed over as she stared at the last seven words of the poster. "Free...lifetime

supply...free...ice cream." Ranma began to drool as she stared. Ranma shook herself out of her

fantasy and put on a serious face. "Crimson my daughter. I have decided to let you enter the

competition."

Crimson jumped up and threw her arms around Ranma in a huge hug, one that would crush a

normal person, Ranma was no longer just an ordinary person though, to him it felt like a gentle

embrace. "YAAAAY!!!"

**************

Ranma, Crimson, and Amelia smiled as they walked into the dining room of the resort, it was

quite an elaborate and expensive resort and it was very fancy. The dining area was basically a very

fancy restaurant. Ranma, Crimson, and Amelia took a table near the wall and picked up the menus

that lay on the table ready for them. Crimson smiled wide as she perused over the menu, but for

once her mind couldn't care less about food, it was far from it. Crimson set down the menu and

began spinning around a fork absent mindedly. "I can't wait till the competition tomorrow!" She

said excitedly.

Ranma nodded. "Yeah, but it'd be nicer if the prize was a very large sum of money AND the

lifetime supply of pudding and ice cream."

Crimson shrugged. "The prize doesn’t matter, I just want to win! I'm gonna show everyone how

good a swimmer I've become!"

Ranma smiled. "Yeah I think you'll do great Crimson. It's a good thing it's tomorrow, if it was any

later we'd miss it. We've got to head out and find the second piece of the map."

"How far are we from the next piece?" Amelia asked Ranma.

Ranma pulled out the map from his traveling garb, which was the only real set of clothes that he

had on this world, and unrolled it. There was a map of a piece of the world with a dotted line

attached to an 'X' on one side of it and a written 'You Are Here' on the other side. "Uhh according

to the map it's up in a temple in the mountains nearby here. We should be able to make......."

Ranma trailed off and then put up a finger to stop any questions that they may have asked and his

ears perked up. "Hold on." All was silent Crimson's ears perked up as well out of curiosity.

About three tables away two men sat across from each other with worried expressions on their

faces. One man was an old portly fellow with a long white mustache and medium length hair, the

other man was a young man with a business like suit/cloak on, he had a thin pair of glasses and

two jeweled bracelets. "What am I supposed to do about this Reigan? The beginner's race is

tomorrow! With all of the disappearances I may go out of business withing a year! I can't take all

this! The boundaries you set out aren't doing anything anymore. People are starting to disappear

again!"

The man on the other side of the table Reigan put up his hands to calm the old owner of the beach

resort. "Mordath, my friend, I can't help you anymore. That magical barrier was the last thing I

could think of. I only know defensive magic and it looks to me like you have a monster on your

hands, possibly a sea dragon."

Mordath shook his head. "No Reigan I'm sure it's not a sea dragon. One of those would have been

far too noticeable, if it truly is a creature that we're dealing with than it must be smaller. There

must be something you can do old friend!"

"Hello?"

"AAAH!!!" Mordath screamed as he clutched his chest and shuffled over to the wall. He glared at

Ranma who had just showed up beside their table with Crimson and Amelia following.

Ranma chuckled nervously under the man's harsh gaze. "Uhh Listen, I was just a couple of tables

down and couldn't help noticing that you had a bit of a crisis on your hands."

Mordath composed himself and sat back upright at the table. "I don't have time for games boy!"

He said harshly. "This is an adult matter."

Ranma frowned. "Me and my daughter have a certain expertise in monster extermination, or

evacuation."

Mordath leaned towards Ranma, suddenly interested in what the boy had to say. "Go ahead boy.

I'm listening."

Ranma smiled. "I've mastered all fighting techniques and magic abilities, I could keep watch while

the race is going and make sure that there are no disappearances. If anything happens during the

race, which my daughter is participating in, I'll take immediate offensive action against whatever

threat may be the cause of it."

"Is that all?" Mordath asked.

Ranma smiled. "Of course. If it’s dead it won’t be able to cause much trouble now would it?

Naturally a small fee will have to be awarded to me for completing such a job."

Mordath snorted and turned his head away from Ranma, who was still smiling. "Forget it kid! I've

got a resort to run here. I don't have the money to spend on a punk magic student who's just

trying to show off for a quick buck."

Ranma smiled "Fine. I'll just take my daughter out of the race, inform the other parents about this

life threatening problem and then you won't have any money at all." Ranma then turned to leave

and get back to his meal.

After about two steps the man reached out and grabbed Ranma's arm to stop his retreat. "Wait

young man." He said. "I'll pay you. I don't care the cost. Just help me keep my business from

dying."

Ranma smiled, he, Amelia, and Crimson then all sat down in the booth with the two men. "First

off." Ranma said. "Tell me, in detail, what's been going on here?"

Mordath leaned forward and began to speak in a much quieter voice. "It all started about two

years ago. Every month or so a person or two would go missing out in the water. This had

happened for about six months before we really began to notice. More people started to go

missing and we started to monitor the waters thinking that it was some sort of sea creature. We

noticed that once people went out a certain distance from the shore, that was when they'd

disappear."

Ranma had a serious expression on. "Have you ever seen whatever it is that's been taking these

people"

Mordath shook his head. "No, nobody's ever caught a glimpse of it. After we found out where it

was the people went missing I called Reigan here to put up a magical barrier to keep people from

going too far out, and to keep whatever that creature was away from my customers." Mordath

leaned back and sighed. "Then, about two months ago, more people started to disappear, despite

the barrier! And they've been disappearing closer and closer to shore!"

Ranma looked thoughtful. "Hmmm I'll do some investigating tonight and then continue the search

tomorrow during the race." Ranma smiled and stood up out of the booth and motioned for his

fiancé and his daughter to follow. “This is a difficult job, and a dangerous one at that. Monster

hunting isn't cheap. I'll give you my price tomorrow morning."

Mordath nodded. "Fine." He then waved them off and they left the restaurant...with the remainder

of their meal.

************

Later that night after the beach was closed down and most people were asleep at the resort or

gone, Ranma and Crimson, clad in all black skintight wetsuits walked out onto the beach. Ranma

sat down in the shallow water as the change swept over him, changing his sex from male to

female. "Crimson, I want you to stay as close to me as you possibly can, keep a high defensive

barrier up at all times since we don't know what it is we're dealing with."

Crimson nodded as she treaded into the water. "Hai Papa-san."

Ranma stood up and smiled. She took Crimson by the shoulders and smiled affectionately at her.

"I want you to use Aqua Move the entire time we're underwater, If we were to get in a fight

underwater then you'll need all the movement you can get." Crimson nodded and then started to

chant a spell, Ranma followed her actions and they then created mystic bubbles around them that

would allow them to breath underwater. After that spell was erected they started chanting Aqua

Move, which would allow them to move in water as though it was dry land.

Ranma jumped up high and dived into the water head first, Crimson followed and soon the search

was on. The two girls didn't even bother looking for anything in the shallow ends where most

people could touch down at the bottom, they went straight to the barrier where it all started.

Crimson put her hand where the barrier was located and felt along it. It was still functional and

felt like steel, as most barriers of this type did, only it was completely invisible. "Nothing could

get through here without the proper know how papa-san." She noted.

Ranma nodded and swam alongside the barrier for a while trying to find some break in it, she

stopped and looked into the distance where there was a dim red glow. "Crimson!" She called back

to her daughter. Crimson was beside Ranma in a mere moment. She didn't have to ask since

Ranma was pointing at what he had found. Crimson looked at the glow inquisitively and cocked

her head slightly to the side.

"What is that Papa?" She inquired.

Ranma began to swim slowly towards it with her daughter at her side. "That's what I plan to find

out. I already have a small suspicion as to what it might be."

Ranma closed in on the glow and smirked as she laid eyes on the cause. "Just as I thought." The

red haired sorceress noted. The anomaly in question was a large hole in the magical barrier, a

small red magical ring, creating an empty space in the barrier.

Crimson stared at the break in awe. "Papa-san that's a very high level spell to use. Manipulating

other existing spells takes a lot of power."

"I know." Ranma reassured her. "That's what brings me to my next question. Why would... wait a

minute..." Ranma placed his hands about an inch over the red ring of power, absorbing a small bit

of it's aura to determine the power that was used to create it. "This energy is pure evil." She noted

as she pulled her hands away. "There's no way that this can be anything human."

"What is it Daddy?" Crimson said as she grabbed her mother's arm for a little more comfort.

Ranma smiled and dislodged herself from Crimson. "Only one way to find out." With that Ranma

shot herself through the hole in the barrier to look around a little more on the other side.

Crimson reluctantly followed and they dropped down to the bottom of the ocean. They stopped

just before hitting bottom. "Hold on." Ranma said, holding out a hand to stop Crimson from

going any farther. Ranma called out the incantation for the lighting spell and held the small ball of

magical light out in front of her. The darkness of the deep water lit up in a moment and Crimson

gasped in horror at the sight below them.

Human bones and skeletons lay scattered among the bottom, some of them still had chunks of

flesh on them, some looked like half rotted corpses, and some looked like they were freshly

drowned. All of them had horrifying expressions on and in the distance there was a much larger

mound of human bones that covered, nearly, the entire ocean floor.

"Who would do such a thing?" Crimson wondered shocked at the horrific scene in front of them.

Ranma just shook her head and stared at all of the death in front of them. "I don't know. I've

never heard of anything like this anywhere." Ranma reached out towards the corpses with her

magical abilities and taped into the astral plane. She felt around the energy but she couldn't find

what she was looking for. She opened her eyes in surprise. "It CAN'T be!" she stated as she

lowered her magical senses.

"What is it?" Crimson asked.

Ranma looked confused. "No souls. There's no souls!"

"What do you mean no souls?" Crimson asked. "Why aren't there any souls?

"When someone dies their soul descends through the Astral plane into the next plane of existence,

after they've departed there should be residual traces of their souls in the bodies and in the astral

plane. I can't feel any traces at all. They're completely gone!"

Crimson and Ranma's ears perked up at that point as they heard a sound in the distance. Ranma

looked up at where they heard it and Crimson whipped her head around to see where it was

coming from. It sounded like chanting. There was an explosion of red energy from beyond the

watery graveyard that shot straight up. It split into thousands of tiny magical orbs and spread out

among the corpses, a single orb entering each body.

"What the...?" Ranma muttered as he watched.

Crimson gasped again and pointed toward the corpses which began to move on their own.

"Daddy someone's reanimating the bodies!"

Ranma frowned. "It's obvious what's going on here now." She muttered. She grabbed Crimson's

hand and began swimming in the direction of the hole in the barrier, which was now closing in on

itself.

Ranma and Crimson picked up the pace and managed to make it through the hole moments before

it was to small for them. The both of them turned back to the barrier once through and stared at

the reanimated bodies of the victims. They were scratching at the barrier to no avail. Ranma

noticed something move quickly through the water in the darkness beyond the zombies but it was

gone almost as soon as it had appeared.

**************

Amelia rushed to door where Ranma and Crimson were just returning from their initial patrol of

the barrier. She wrapped her arms around a still female Ranma and planted a kiss on her fiancé's

wet lips. Ranma smiled and returned the kiss. Crimson just smiled goofily. Amelia stepped back

and frowned. "Oooh Now I'm all wet!"

Ranma backed up a bit in defense. "Hey it wasn't my fault. You're the one who jumped on me!"

Amelia smiled, picked some towels off of the bed, threw one at Ranma and one at Crimson. "How

did it go? Did you find anything useful?"

"Yeah! But I think that Mr. Mordath has been covering this up a lot longer than he told us he

had." She responded nonchalantly.

"What do you mean?" Amelia asked as she pulled a towel out of the closet for herself. "What did

you find?"

"Thousands of corpses on the ocean floor, that's what! And it's the work of an obvious magic

user. I think it's some sort of rogue sorcerer, or wizard, while we were down there, somebody

reanimated all the corpses and tried to trap us on the other side of the barrier." Ranma replied

with a thoughtful expression.

"Did you get a good look at the wizard?" Amelia asked.

Crimson shook her head. Ranma did the same. "It was too dark down there." Crimson stated.

"I did get a glimpse of something though, but I couldn't tell what it was. There's something

else too." Ranma said.

"What?"

"Evil." Crimson stated.

"All the energy I sensed in that area was pure evil. There also wasn't any traces of the dead's souls

in the astral plane or in the corpses. That's really confusing me because that shouldn't be possible."

Ranma finished. She took off her wetsuit and dressed into a white muscle shirt and some boxer

shorts, for bed. Amelia was already in a pair of pajamas, and the engaged couple climbed into the

single bed in the room. "Let's drop the subject for now and get some rest. We'll continue

tomorrow."

Crimson smiled. "I still have to compete in the race!" She stated as if she had forgotten all about

it. She then got ready for bed in record time and put a sleeping spell on herself. She dropped to

the floor like a sack of potatoes and fell fast asleep.

Ranma stared at the spot on the floor that her daughter's body was currently occupying. "Okay

that was just weird." She muttered.

*************

The next morning had quite the hustle and bustle of people at the beach as everyone who was

even remotely interested in the amateur beach race was present on the beach, whether they be

parents, siblings, vendors, or supervisors, it seemed everyone had something to do for the big

event that morning. All the children were standing at the edge of the water on the beach awaiting

instructions as to what they were currently supposed to do. Many of their parents attended to the

toddlers and youngsters that were there, one of the more outstanding and noticeable groups were

a trio near the middle of the large gathering.

There were two people in their teens wearing black suits with gold trim in certain places that

made it look out of place in the fantasy realm and more futuristic in fashion. The deep black

haired male with the ponytail was obviously Ranma. He was wearing the armlets of Zan-Sovee

over his suit's sleeves, a sword slung over his back, two daggers strapped to his legs as well as

some armored shoulder pads. Amelia was at his side and wore a very similar suit except she

lacked the bladed weaponry that Ranma possessed. The black sheep however was Ranma's

Daughter Crimson, who looked as though she were about the same age as he. She was wearing a

one piece, red swimsuit, flippers, orange floatation devices strapped to both of her arms, a hair

net, a snorkel, a face mask to see underwater, and a pink blowup tube around her waist.

The girl did not look happy. "Daddy!!" She complained. "Why do I have to wear all this!? None

of the other kids have to!" Ranma stepped forward and adjusted the strap on her goggles so that

they were tighter. "Oww! They're too tight!" She whined.

"I'm just concerned about your safety." Ranma reassured her. “And you’re not allowed to use

magic.”

"But you said I was a good swimmer!" She whined.

Ranma's smile faltered slightly. "I said you were good for your age. You're not on the Olympic

swimming team just yet. Besides," He said. "There is the worry of whatever's been killing the

people around here. That's our main goal is to find out what it is, and get rid of it." Ranma

paused, looked concerned and then smiled mischievously. "Just go out and win us that life time

supply of pudding and ice cream."

Crimson smiled and nodded. "Okay Daddy!" She said cheerily before walking towards the waters

edge to join the rest of the children.

Ranma walked back to Amelia and nodded to her. "You know what to do right?" He asked his

fiancé. She nodded and then leaned in to kiss him. Once their lips parted Ranma began to walk

towards the water. He turned back to her just as he entered the water and the curse changed him

into a her. "You know the signal." She then cast the water breathing and movement spells and

jumped in.

"I hope this works." Amelia muttered under her breath. As she watched her fiancé dive under the

waters.

****************

Crimson felt a little bit silly standing amongst so many young children, she was actually no older

than any of them were but she looked much older for some reason. Obviously because of magical

purposes from when she had met her father. He had told her about the strange flow of energy that

he had felt from the egg. She couldn't care less about that right now though she just wanted to

win. Crimson looked intensely at the man who was standing at the edge of the beach who was

supposed to start the race. It was a magic user she could tell by his aura. It was also the man who

had created the barrier. Crimson wasn't paying a whole lot of attention when they were talking

with her father so she didn't really remember what his name was. She had this feeling about him

though... she didn't like him. She was confused by her own feelings towards the man and was

surprised that she of all people would judge somebody so quickly, however unintentionally.

Crimson shook that out of her head and tried to just concentrate on the race, the first actual

competition she'd ever really competed in. Her heart was racing like a jackhammer at the prospect

of winning against all these other kids and free food. She looked back to the race starter with a

new fire in her eyes, just as he raised his arm.

"READY!?! SET!?! GO!?!" He yelled across the beach accentuating GO with a bright flash of

magical energy. Crimson was the only kid that was looking directly at the race starter so she was

blinded temporarily by the light. She groaned as she stumbled around blindly in the completely

wrong direction. Her eyes were throbbing and everything was completely black. Crimson walked

into something soft and fell to the ground on top of it. She felt around what ever it was she landed

on and that was when her vision started to come back.

Her vision was still foggy and she leaned down closer to get a better look at whoever it was she

had landed on. "I think I fell on a person." She stated out loud as she leaned in just a bit too close

and planted her lips on another pair. She pulled back abruptly and blushed. "Uhh Oops?" she

offered to the person as she got up and her eyes got good enough that she could deduce that it

was a human female. She had on a skintight one piece bathing suit and shoulder length purple

hair.

"Sorry ma'am." Crimson said as she rushed back to the water where the other kids already had

quite a big head start. "I didn't see you there."

Xellos sat up and smiled as he touched his lips where the young girl had kissed him. "Oh my! I

wonder why that dragon thought I was a girl?" He said to himself as he watched her make an

inhumanly long jump into the water to catch up to the other children. "I think I'd like to make my

appearance soon. Better make a good impression too." He noted he then disappeared from sight.

*******************

Ranma swam towards the barrier as fast as her magic could take her. She had a smile plastered

across er face She was really starting to like Amelia she was a good kid and was very pretty as

well. She wasn't quick to jump to conclusions and didn't have a big, quick, and easy temper. She

also had, for the most part, stopped ranting which meant she must value his opinions as well.

Ranma was also happy because the job they were doing was really easy. If all went well the

monster would be dead before reaching the surface. Then they could collect their money, get

some food, climb up to the mountain shrine and get the next piece of the map. No problem!

Ranma frowned when she came up to the barrier or rather she didn't come up to the barrier. It

was completely missing, it had been taken down. The only way that was possible was if the person

who made it wills it to stop being generated and stops supplying power to it.

"Reigan." Ranma growled under her breath. "That slimy little rat! He's either helping whatever it

is that's doing all the killing or he IS the killer." Ranma looked towards the surface where the kids

were swimming including her daughter, whom she'd be much more worried about if she wasn't

confidant that she was able to take care of herself under such circumstances. "I better go to the

surface and set off the signal!" She noted before taking off towards the surface.

She was almost near the surface when she was pulled back under by something that had wrapped

itself around her legs.

"YOU ATTEMPT TO STOP WHAT CANNOT BE STOPPED MORTAL! TRIFLE NOT IN

THE MATTERS OF MY MASTER! YOU WILL NOT LIVE!! THE MORTALS ABOVE ARE

OFFERINGS PROMISED BY ONE WHO IS WORTHY!!" Came a voice from the blackness as

it pulled Ranma under.

The pigtailed sorcerer couldn't see anything but a tentacle stretching into the blackness, but she

guessed that whatever was attached to it was not pleasant. "How could I sit back and do

nothing!?" Ranma asked the unseen monstrosity. "Those are innocent people that your taking and

murdering! I'm going to stop you whether your master likes it or not!"

The voice grew angry. "THEN YOU WILL DIE!!" With that the creature appeared out of the

depths, it's gigantic maw stretching out to consume The Pigtailed girl and her soul.

Ranma reacted instantly stretching out his palms and calling forth. "FLARE ARROW!!" Ranma

sent hundreds of flaming magical arrows through the water towards the creatures maw, body, and

the tentacle that was holding onto her. Once the creature released her in a scream of agony

Ranma cast another spell to get away quickly. "DIEM WIND!!!" She screamed in the water, the

spell then shot her out of the water in a cannon of magically compressed air pressure and into the

air where she let Levitation take over.

She let down her water breathing spells and once she was high enough in the air she spread her

arms and called forth more magical energy to do one of the spells that she herself created.

"NOVA FLARE!!" She called out creating a blinding flash of magical energy around herself.

****************

Amelia sighed as she sat on the beach bored. Once the race actually got started there wasn't much

to it, the kids swim, the rest of the people go about their usual beach activities or watch. It was

like another day at the beach... but with no company. Ranma was in the water keeping

surveillance, Crimson was in the boring amateurs race. She thought she'd seen someone that

looked like Xellos for a moment but she couldn't spot whoever that was anymore and was just

feeling bored as she sipped on her cola and stared at the race.

Something came out of the water moments later and flashed blindingly for a short moment. It

startled her for a moment but she then realized that it was the signal that Ranma had told her

about. Amelia jumped up off the beach and cast Levitation so she could reach Ranma.

"What's going on Ranma!?" She called out to him as she reached her hovering fiancé high above

the water.

"Reigan! Ranma called back. "Reigan dropped the barrier so that this thing could get in and kill

everyone in the competition!"

"WHAT!?"

"He's working with this demon thing for power or something! I'm not exactly sure but the thing

called him 'one who is worthy' so I'm guessing it's letting him live in exchange for the souls of

innocent people!" Ranma said, never taking her eyes off of the water below. Ranma's eyes

widened. "Oh SHIT!!" She yelled.

Amelia looked to where her pigtailed fiancé was looking and her eyes widened in horror. It was a

shadow, beneath the waters heading towards the children in the water. The thing was, the creature

that was beneath the waters was about three times bigger than Crimson's Dragon form. "Mr.

Mordath won't be happy." She noted.

Ranma motioned for Amelia to follow her and rushed towards just above where the thing was.

They reached it and no sooner had they then Ranma started to charge up an offensive spell of

immense power. At first it looked as if she was casting a Flare Bit but the magic kept growing

past the power level of that spell and Ranma let go of several large basketball sized balls of

magical light towards the giant shadow with a yell of: "BLAST BOMB!!!"

Amelia gasped when she heard those words from Ranma's mouth. "It's not possible... No human

can cast that spell without..." she stuttered. *Only Rei Magnus has ever been documented as

having cast that spell. He was a legend of magic usage, but he's never cast it to this power.* She

thought.

Moments later the balls of light exploded against the water in raising tongues of blue white flame.

The creature screamed in pain and finally came up from it's watery veil. "YES!" Ranma said. She

turned to Amelia who was now looking at Ranma's ears curiously. "Now that he's out in the open

we can fight him much easier, lets get down to shore."

Ranma then began flying towards the beach where all the people who were watching the race

were now running away, towards the woods or the mountains, they obviously didn't care, they

just wanted to get away. On her way to shore Ranma sent out a telepathic message to her

daughter. <"Crimson! We've got to get all of the children out of the water as fast as possible.

Turn into your Dragon form and forget about the race we've got a really big, really angry monster

to deal with.">

Crimson received the message from her father/mother and triggered the transformation through

the talisman and the head piece that she still wore. <"Yes Papa-San!"> She said. Using levitation

to give her some space from the other children so she wouldn't hurt them.

The children in the race were all screaming about the monster but their fears were tripled when a

red dragon appeared out of seemingly nowhere and began circling them. Crimson swooped down

close to the water and picked up a large group of children with her claws to carry them off to

shore. They were screaming irrationally thinking that she was going to eat them but they stopped

and just looked puzzled when she dropped them off at the beach and went back for more. Soon

all the children from the water were running for their lives too and Crimson joined Ranma and

Amelia at the beach.

"All the kids should be safe." She said as she landed on the beach to wait for the creature which

was just now recovering from the extremely high level attack spell. The creature was huge. It had

a large bug like body with four large tentacles protruding from the front, and eight legs. The

creature also sported two large arms sticking out where the ninth and tenth legs would most likely

be. The arms were larger than the legs and sported a razor set of claws. Between the impossibly

large head and the body was a surprise though. A very humanoid figure looked as though it was

attached to the beast. It's head had three large spikes on it and the hair that surrounded it's head

looked like tentacles themselves, he had a large red eye in the middle of his chest which was skin

and bones and his rib cage was on the outside of his body. He had two tentacles sticking from his

back but they were relatively small. His eyes were blood red and his teeth were like a row of

jagged knives shoved between black gums.

"Not exactly a pretty fellow now is he?" She asked her companions jokingly.

"Uh sweety?" Amelia asked.

"What?" Ranma responded.

"He's coming this way!"

Ranma looked back over to the creature which was slowly plowing through the water towards

them menacingly. "YOU HAVE INTERFERED FOR THE LAST TIME HUMAN!" It seemingly

screamed in it's gravelly and evil voice. "MY MASTER WOULD NOT TOLERATE SUCH

INSOLENCE FROM A RACE SO PITIFUL AS YOURSELVES!! THIS IS WHY YOU HAVE

BEEN DEEMED UNWORTHY TO RULE THIS PLANET!"

Ranma scoffed at the hideous creature and yelled back angrily. "WE'RE BEING DEEMED

UNWORTHY TO RULE JUST CAUSE WE HAVE A LOVE FOR LIFE AND DON'T WANT

TO DIE!?! WHOEVER YOUR MASTER IS HE CAN SHOVE IT UP HIS ASS FOR ALL I

CARE!!!"

Amelia touched the pigtailed girl's shoulder. "Ranma do you really think we should be agitating

this thing?"

Ranma waved the idea off. "Are you kidding me?" Ranma then whispered to her. "We want it to

get as close as possible to shore so that there's no chance it could run away. We have to kill this

thing today!" Ranma then turned back to the monster which was getting closer.

"YOU FOOLISH MORTALS HAVE NO IDEA WHO IT IS YOU DEAL WITH DO YOU!?"

The monster questioned as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "I AM ONE OF THE

SECOND GREATEST POWERS NEXT TO MY MASTER! ONE OF THE GREAT FIVE! I

AM A MAZOKU KING!! YOU SHOULD BE BOWING BEFORE ME AND SACRIFICING

YOUR SOULS WILLINGLY TO MY MASTER!!"

Ranma smiled and whispered to herself. "Just a little closer now."

Amelia gasped at the words the Mazoku King had just revealed to them. *We might need Ms.

Lina's help if this guy is who he says he is. Darkstar may have been a walk in the castle courtyard

compared to what we may be up against now.*

Ranma began to taunt the Mazoku King. "MY RACE DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY! You

want us to beg and scrape? Come and make us!" Ranma said getting into a fighting position.

"VERY WELL!" The Mazoku King shouted. "YOU HAVE CHOSEN DEATH!!" The beast then

began to charge after them from the water as fast as it could.

"TO THE AIR!!" Ranma shouted to her comrades as she took off with levitation. Amelia

followed her lead and Crimson took to the air on her wings. They did this at the last moment so

the hulking beast crashed into the side of the beach side resort, smashing a large chunk of the

beautiful establishment in a hail of mortar, rocks, and wood.

Ranma turned around and fired of another "BLAST BOMB!" at the creature. The basketball sized

balls of light slammed into the creatures back in explosions of blue white fire once again.

Crimson then turned around and chanted a large spell to materialize at the monster's feet. "You

who crosses between sky and earth, gently flowing water, gather in my hand and give me power:

DEMONA CRYSTAL!" A fog then sprouted up from the ground beneath the Mazoku King and

froze him in place.

Crimson and Ranma then sided up beside each other facing the creature. Ranma gave a quick

mental command and they began chanting a spell together. "Darkness beyond twilight, crimson

beyond the blood that flows, buried in the sea of time is where your power grows. Let the fools

that stand before us be destroyed by the power that you and I possess!: DRAGON SLAVE!!!!"

The Crimson energy that built up around the two suddenly shot forward out of Ranma's hands

and Crimson's mouth. Halfway through their flight the two balls of energy twisted together to

become one giant beam of energy. Ranma suddenly grabbed Amelia and began flying away from

the blast radius. "Come on! This isn't your everyday Dragon Slave!" Crimson too was flying away

not wanting to get caught in a blast that big.

The two merged balls of energy impacted with the frozen Mazoku lord and exploded. The blast

was, understandably, twice the size of a regular Dragon Slave and the three adventurers watched

once they were from a good distance.

Amelia was wide eyed at the sheer destructive power that these two people possessed. Ranma's

Power far surpassed Lina's; that much was obvious. But with both Crimson and Ranma together

She would not be surprised if their power was unrivaled by any human being. She was actually

beginning to wonder if Ranma truly was as human as he claimed to be. The blast died down soon

and Ranma frowned.

"This is not good." Shee said as laughter began to ring out from the crater.

"THAT THING IS STILL ALIVE!!" Crimson screamed.

Ranma frowned deeply. "I'm going to have to use a Giga Slave." Ranma noted.

The creature limped out of the crater towards the three of them. It was quite badly damaged but

far from dead. "FOOLISH MORTALS!! YOU HAVE INJURED ME INDEED BUT I AM FAR

FROM DEAD!! THERE ISN'T A SPELL THAT EXISTS THAT YOU COULD USE ON ME

WITH ENOUGH POWER TO GET RID OF ME!! YOU ARE DOOMED!!"

Ranma clashed her armbands of Zan Sovee and began to chant the highest black magic spell that

existed. Power began to grow between her armbands. "Darkness beyond blackest pitch, deeper

than the deepest night! Lord of Darkness, shining like gold upon the Sea of Chaos, I call upon

thee, swear myself to thee! Let the fools who stand before us be destroyed by the power you and I

possess! GIGA SLAVE!!" Ranma shot out her hands but nothing happened. "WHAT THE

HELL!? I've used this spell before, what's wrong?" The creature began to laugh maniacally.

Ranma looked up at the thing with a horrified expression on her face. "That's who your master

is... The Lord of Nightmares, You Mazoku Kings work under the Golden Demon Lord!"

Amelia gasped and the Mazoku King began to laugh. "YOU MORTALS ARE NOT AS DUMB

AS I FIRST PUT YOU OFF TO BE! AND YOU ARE POWERFUL AS WELL!! MY MASTER

WILL LIKE YOUR SOULS!! THEY WILL MORE THAN LIKELY MAKE UP FOR THE

POWER LOST ON THOSE OTHERS LOST TODAY!!" The Mazoku King's Carapace opened

up on his back and four oversized leathery dragon-like wings sprouted out. It then took off into

the air and began flying towards them at an impossibly fast speed for something so big.

Ranma motioned for the other two to follow her and they began to fly away from The Mazoku

King out into the Ocean. "We have to get as far away from dry land as possible!" Ranma told

them.

"What are you doing Ranma?" Amelia asked confused. "That's the most powerful spell in the

world! There's no black magic spell that's higher than the Giga Slave."

"NO!" Ranma said. Rather forceful, seemingly oblivious of the Mazoku King that was gaining on

them. "There's another spell. A more powerful spell. One that's equivalent to the power of four

Giga slaves, but it's only been used once before, that was in the creation of the spell." Ranma said

as the land behind them disappeared.

"What?" Amelia asked flabbergasted. "I've read all about magic, and I've never heard of it! Who

created it?" She asked.

Ranma noticed the monster catching up to them and sped up, as did the rest of them. "I DID!!"

"WHAT!?!?!?"

"I've learned every single magical spell that exists in this world so far, minus the spells that

have been lost to the sea of time. Galnaav suggested that I try creating my own spells, saying that

with every spell there is an origin. Someone had to create them at some point. I created quite a

few spells but they were either performance enhancing spells that didn't have any real offensive

capabilities or hybrid spells. I started looking into an energy called Gaia and decided to try and

create a spell with it. I decided to start big which was a mistake. I was planning on making a spell

that was equal in power to the Giga slave but more controllable and less chaotic. Instead I got

something that was four times the destructive force and size, the only thing I managed

successfully was the destructiveness. Problem is, there was too much. I called it the Earth Nova,

because I destroyed so much earth with it that it was like a mini super nova." Ranma paused but

then smiled. "I think that this spell may be our only hope against the Mazoku King!!"

Amelia stared at Ranma amazed. *He created a spell... four times the power and size of a Giga

Slave.* She thought utterly stunned by her fiances revelation.

Ranma smiled as she looked back realizing that they were far enough out now to use the spell.

"Time to get this show on the road!!" He then ordered Crimson to fly straight up just as she did.

They all began to fly straight up, non stop. The air was beginning to get thin and Ranma cast one

of her spells for everyone. "BREATHING ORB!!" This allowed them to breath easily despite the

high altitudes. The Mazoku King was following them too, flying straight up. *Good.* Ranma

thought. She told Crimson and Amelia to get above her so that they couldn't be caught in the

blast, she then began the incantation. "Light beyond the brightest suns, life beyond the greatest of

beings, power from the heart of the earth, flow between my soul." Green wisps of energy flowed

up from all directions towards Ranma from the earth and a green energy began to circle around

her. She clashed her armlets together just as she had done when trying to cast the Giga Slave and

then all of the energy gathered in her hands which she then pointed straight down at the Mazoku

Lord. "Give me your power let none stand before us, let those who are unworthy fall beneath our

might for the betterment of all: EARTH!!! NOVA!!!!!" Ranma cupped her hands forward and a

whitish green beam of energy streaked towards the Mazoku King, still traveling towards them.

The beam collided with the creature and continued on down to the surface, taking the beast with

it. Once it collided with the water it exploded in a massive green white explosion, that also let off

a green nova of energy in a 360 degree ring, which actually managed to reach the beach, though it

wasn't the largest part of the explosion and didn't do too much damage.

The blast died down and there was no trace of the Mazoku King. Amelia was amazed at that and

stared down at the waves that were created by the explosion, which also reached the shore and

destroyed the last of the resort.

"It's done." Ranma said before her eyes rolled back, and she fell towards the earth unconscious.

Crimson noticed Ranma's plunge and dove down to catch her. She managed to catch her before

the halfway point and moments later Amelia came down to their level. Amelia gasped as she

looked at her fiancé. Her hair was completely white.

"Let's get down to shore." Amelia offered. Amelia then flew towards the beach with Crimson

carrying Ranma right behind her

****************

Crimson landed on the beach and set Ranma down, She didn't bother turning back into her

human form. Amelia touched down and cast a small healing spell on her. "She's only exhausted

from the spell." Amelia said to Crimson. "She should be out of it for a while though." People

started to come back onto the beach, realizing that the trouble was now over.

Amelia noticed Mordath and then that Ranma was starting to wake up already. "Wow that was

fast.” Crimson noticed.

Amelia smiled as she looked down at Ranma. "Yeah... He sure is amazing."

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!! WHAT HAPPENED TO MY PRECIOUS RESORT!!!????"

Ranma's eyes popped wide open as she recognized Mordath's voice. She stood up and faced the

man who had tears rolling down his face at the realization that he had lost his tourist attraction.

"Mr. Mordath!" Ranma called out to him as he jogged over to the stumpy little man. "Hey about

our money!"

Amelia winced. "That wasn't very good timing." She noted.

Mordath turned to Ranma with a cold blue fire in his eyes. "YOU!" He said, pointing to Ranma

with a shaky index finger. ""You destroyed my Resort and now you have the AUDACITY to ask

me to PAY FOR IT!!!" The man began to sprout a red battle aura.

Ranma growled. "HEY! You asked me to do a job and I did it old man! It has a price too! The

monster was the cause of all the damage! So why don't you get Reigan to pay for it!?!"

The old man looked over to Reigan who was also coming up to the beach as well. "What's this?"

He asked, seemingly oblivious as to what it was they were just talking about.

"Reigan?" repeated Mordath confused.

"Yeah!" Said Ranma. "He was in cahoots with the Mazoku King that was infesting the waters of

your resort, he put down the magical barrier so that the Mazoku could come and take all of the

race contestants in one attack, followed by everyone else on the beach."

Mordath looked towards Reigan angrily. "Is this true!?" He asked his long time friend darkly.

Reigen took a few steps back. "Well I did take off the barrier but it was for completely different

reason I assure you." He said while wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"What reason?" Ranma asked, with a dark smirk.

Reigan sweated and stuttered for a moment, he looked around at the crowd of children and

parents that were now surrounding him and sweated. Reigen then turned and bolted through the

crowd into the open, heading for the forest.

"Crimson?" Ranma asked.

Ranma's dragon daughter then flew over the crowd of people and grabbed onto Reigen with her

hind claws. Dropping him into the middle of the crowd which just got bigger. Reigen put up his

hands to ward them off. "NO! Don't hurt me!!" He whined. Ranma punched him in the face,

knocking him out and breaking his jaw with the one hit. She then dug through the mans robes and

grabbed his money pouch.

"Ah!" She said, digging through the money. "That's just about fifty gold more than my original

asking price." Ranma then walked away. "Nice doing business with you guys."

Mordath, his resort employees, and the guests of his resort all looked down at the corrupted

wizard beneath their feet. "Oh I have big plans for you old friend." Mordath said with an evil

glare. "Big plans indeed."

Ranma smiled as Crimson's dragon form helped her and Amelia dig up their stuff. "Quite a day

huh." Ranma said. Amelia and Crimson nodded their agreements. As they pulled the last of their

stuff, mostly intact, from the wreckage. Ranma heaved his backpack onto his shoulder and smiled.

"At least nothing too strange happened."

Amelia dug up a hand held mirror and rubbed it clean on an article of clothing she found. She then

gave it to Ranma. Ranma looked confused but she took the mirror anyway and looked into it.

"AAAH!! What the HELL!!!" Ranma grabbed a hold of her pigtail and pulled it around to the

front of her face to examine it. "MY HAIR!! It's...It's....It's WHITE!!!" She screamed completely

confused. "What's going on!!??"

Amelia stepped Towards Ranma. "That usually happens to female magic users once a month.

Along with... less tolerable things." Amelia said. "It means you won't be able to use magic for a

week."

"But I'm a guy!" Ranma said. "That stuff can't happen to me!!" She said.

"It happened right after you passed out from the spell daddy." Crimson said. "It's because you

used up all of your magical energy. The same thing happened when you created it, but the last

time you were unconscious for a week. It passed by the time you woke up."

Ranma dropped to his knees at the revelation and his face went white as her hair. "No magic?"

**************

Authors notes: {Okay. 2 more to go. Man. This is tiring. Writing the stories is a lot less boring

than editing them I’ll tell you that. It wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the formatting though.

It’s a pain in the ass. Oh well. Not much I can do about that.}

Morden Night: mordennight@hotmail.com

http://mordennight.tripod.com