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| Part Sixteen: Legendary Battle, Ranma vs. Talon | |||||||||||||
| By Richard LeBlanc | |||||||||||||
| In the temple - Ranma and Talon stood perfectly still as if waiting for the other to make the first move. It was then that Talon began to smile. He vanished. Ranma closed his eyes and could see from where he was about to be attacked. He spun around and deflected the attack with his staff before it came close to hitting him. | |||||||||||||
| "You are pretty quick boy," Talon remarked as he danced away from Ranma. | |||||||||||||
| "Spare the games Talon. I have no desire to talk with you or impress you. For what you have done - only your death will suffice," Ranma rebutted. Talon quietly laughed as a halberd flew from the wall and into his hand. | |||||||||||||
| "You truly are a student to my school. Then by all means - try to take my life. Many have tried - none have come close to succeeding," he mocked as he did a series of moves that looked like a graceful dance. Ranma dodged to the side as a telescoping blade arched through the air and cut deep into the rock floor. | |||||||||||||
| "You will have to do better than that to stop me!" Ranma said as he leaped at Talon. | |||||||||||||
| Those that were present watched in sheer amazement at how Ranma was fighting. It was as though he had undergone some metamorphosis. In some instants Genma and Soun could swear that they were watching their master fight. In other instants Mousse and Shampoo could see Cologne. | |||||||||||||
| However - in spite of his empowerment - Talon still landed a powerful strike that sent Ranma up and across the room in an arching motion. Ranma flipped himself up to his feet and glared at his enemy. | |||||||||||||
| "You are more than you seem lad. I am impressed," Talon said as he stalked his way towards the only enemy that was left standing. "Pity you have to die," he added as he took on a stance from a school long forgotten. Ranma and the others watched as the villain seemed to be moving in slow motion. Ranma closed his eyes and could see how his enemy was seeing him. | |||||||||||||
| "Don't take your eyes off him boy!" Genma shouted. But the warning came too late. Talon seemingly vanished and appeared inches away from Ranma. Much to the surprise of everyone and the shock of Talon - Ranma caught Talon by the throat! | |||||||||||||
| "Attack of the shadow step won't work on me!" he stated as he kicked Talon away. The evil master was mildly stunned at how the boy was able to block the attack - let alone know it by name. | |||||||||||||
| "Perhaps you are right. Why be fancy about it?" Talon rationalized as he raced at Ranma. The teen cracked his knuckles and waited for the moment to strike. Everyone watched as the two threw punches and kicks faster than the eye could follow. It was then that Ranma was hit with such force that he was flung into the distant opposing wall. Ranma pulled himself out from the indent in the wall and glared at his enemy. | |||||||||||||
| "You are far more skilled than anyone your age should be. But there is still much that you have to learn. "Fist of the Flaming Skull!" Talon shouted as a small flaming fiery skull soared across the room and smashed into Ranma's chest. Much to his surprise and the others who had witnessed the attack - nothing happened? | |||||||||||||
| "Was that the best you could do?" a confident Ranma rebutted - unaware of the fumes he was inhaling from his smoking shirt. Talon quietly laughed. "What? What's so funny?" he hesitantly asked. | |||||||||||||
| "Arrogance - when one has power like me - one has the luxury of cloaking oneself in it. When one is young like you - it can be a most fatal - mistake," Talon stated with a smug smile. Ranma was going to comment when he heard a sound that sent a chill down his spine. "Behold the true power of the flaming skull - suffer at the hands of that which you fear most!" he mocked. Ranma tensed up as he looked over his shoulder and saw a cat perched in the crater he had made. He then looked around and saw hundreds of cats around surrounding him - looking at him like he was on the menu. | |||||||||||||
| "Oh - he really shouldn't have done that," Genma muttered. | |||||||||||||
| Talon looked over at the boy's father and pondered what it could mean. When he heard Ranma howl out like an alley cat. He got a vague notion. He watched as Ranma crouched down on all fours and hissed. | |||||||||||||
| "Neko-ken. Hmm. It has been a while since I saw that style," Talon stated. Ranma hissed as he raced across the room towards Talon. "Fist of water kick of stone," he stated as he placed his open palm on the floor. Everyone watched as the store rippled like water and then shot across the room like a wave towards the charging foe. | |||||||||||||
| Ranma saw the wave and leaped directly at it. everyone was shocked when Ranma exploded through the wave - unaffected by its power. Talon leaped up and over the feral fighter - landing a safe distance away. | |||||||||||||
| "In that state the boy can block out pain. How tedious that could be," he said as he clapped his hands together. A sonic boom exploded between him and the cat-like Ranma. The teen was flung away into the far wall. "Now - how does one stop the demon cat?" he playfully pondered. Ranma landed on all fours and charged at Talon again. "When in doubt - the aura of a demon dog should suffice. Ranma came to a screeching halt and hissed at Talon. Talon then vanished and instantly appeared before Ranma. "Night-night kitty cat," he mocked as an open handed punch to the head sent Ranma rolling across the room into the far wall - making another crater. | |||||||||||||
| "He beat the cat-fist," Soun muttered. | |||||||||||||
| Ranma shook off the effects of the hit and slowly got up. | |||||||||||||
| "How you feeling boy?" Talon asked. | |||||||||||||
| "What happened?" Ranma asked. | |||||||||||||
| "Nothing - everything. I tried something and - didn't like the results. You are just full of surprises you know that?" Talon said in a patronizing way. Ranma let his youthful aggression control him. He leaped over to attack his enemy. | |||||||||||||
| Talon smiled as he blocked the obvious attack and knocked Ranma down. Luckily he was able to dodge and roll out of reach before Talon could finish him off. | |||||||||||||
| "As I said to you when you were in the guise of a woman - you show a lot of promise. But you have to learn that as powerful and strong as you might have been in your circles - I am out of your league. Mine is the power of a god! A god that will once again walk the earth and grind it beneath my heel!" he stated seriously. Ranma was going to argue the issue when his mind spaced out. | |||||||||||||
| He remembered back to a time that seemed almost like another lifetime ago. | |||||||||||||
| He remembered when he and Happosai were at odds over the old masters perverted ways and how the master attacked him. It was a blow unlike anything he had encountered. It was a blow that sapped him of all his strength and rendered him weak as a baby - leaving him open to the vengeance of all of the rivals and enemies he had amassed. | |||||||||||||
| He remembered how Doctor Tofu told him that what had caused this loss of strength was the moxibustion of ultimate weakness. | |||||||||||||
| To undo the effect of that hell he had been cast into he had to train with the old ghoul - learn a technique that did not require strength so that he would be able to wrest the chart from the perverted master that had done that to him. | |||||||||||||
| He opened his eyes and looked over at Talon who was still talking. | |||||||||||||
| "Perhaps you are right. Perhaps you are too strong," Ranma stated as he did a series of flips, rolls and tumbles by where Happosai had fallen and discreetly plucked the old man's pipe from his pocket and stood defensively. | |||||||||||||
| "I see you have a plan. Well - by all means - strike lad - do your worst," Talon mocked. Ranma smiled as he raced at his enemy. Throwing a barrage of punches and kicks. His foe laughed at the obviousness of the techniques that were being used against him. But when he heard a hissing noise coming from his back - he realized it was a trick. | |||||||||||||
| "You have just been marked by the moxibustion of ultimate weakness Talon! On someone like me it made me weak as a kitten. I had no fun being on the receiving end of that fate - let us see if you do!" Ranma stated as he leaped at Talon. Talon growled as he landed a potent kick that sent Ranma rolling across the floor with the impact of being hit by a speeding car. "No - ah - not possible," he muttered as he looked at Talon as he ebbed towards him. | |||||||||||||
| "Do you think some mere mark will humble me boy? This fight bores me as do you. Prepare to meet your ancestors boy," he hissed as he stormed towards the mortal that was vexing him so. Ranma slowly got up and hesitantly backed away. How come the mark didn't work on him? And how was he going to be able to stop him? | |||||||||||||
| To Be Continued... | |||||||||||||