A Frozen Light [Ranma 1/2 / Destiny]

[JumperPrime]

While I understand why she thinks so, it's still incredibly ironic for Ikora to refer to Ranma as quiet.

Click to shrink...

Well, she hasn't known Ranma very long. Ikora's a smart cookie. She'll figure it out pretty fast.

 

[Windborne]

This was a fun chapter, if you need help with the lore, Byf and Focused Fire Chat do amazing jobs explaining the lore behind everything in Destiny. Though you'll need literal days to get through it.

One complaint though since I saw this get tagged with Ryouga as a character on FFN, I'd actually prefer to not see him in this story since you have him as a fairly important character in Tangled Fate already. Maybe you could use other characters you haven't used like Ukyo or Shampoo instead?

 

[Blaflaix]

If there was anything on Earth that had probably outlasted the Golden Age it was probably Ryugenzawa…

Click to shrink...

Don't be so pessimistic.
I'm sure Happosai is still wandering around!

 

[Twei]

I don't know what I expected when I clicked this thread, but... it's alright!

So I'm watching it.

 

[MadeInBelfast]

Colour me very very interested. Really enjoyed everything so far.

 

[Neruz]

Don't be so pessimistic.
I'm sure Happosai is still wandering around!

Click to shrink...

He probably isn't actually; there's a distinct shortage of teenage girl's underwear to steal and draw Qi from to extend his unnatural and unwanted existence.

So he most likely starved to death awhile back.

 

[Bel]

He probably isn't actually; there's a distinct shortage of teenage girl's underwear to steal and draw Qi from to extend his unnatural and unwanted existence.

So he most likely starved to death awhile back.

Click to shrink...

And then we find out the reason the Cabel/Hive/Fallen/Awoken/etc have problems with Humanity/the last city is that in the Golden Age, humanity shipped Happosai off-planet just as soon as they could, and he's been wandering around out there for the last couple hundred years...

 

[Neruz]

And then we find out the reason the Cabel/Hive/Fallen/Awoken have problems with Humanity/the last city is that in the Golden Age, humanity shipped Happosai off-planet just as soon as they could, and he's been wandering around out there for the last couple hundred years...

Click to shrink...

Plot twist; the Fallen genuinely believe that all humans are immortal, panty-stealing, kleptomaniacal molesters.

Encountering Guardians did nothing to dissuade this belief.

 

[Grounders10]

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A Ranma ½ x Destiny Crossover

A Frozen Light

By: Grounders10

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Chapter Three

A Duel of Fire and Ice

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​

Arena Five was near the base of the tower, relatively speaking. In Ranma's experience, it was a bit strange to refer to the fifteenth floor as near the base of a building, but the Tower had over a hundred floors and from the top, the trip down to the fifteenth took over three minutes. Even with an elevator. Honestly, Ranma had been half tempted to just get off at the next stop and slide down the side of the building instead. It would have been faster.

It also would have probably set off a few alarms.

So instead, she suffered through the long elevator trip down to the fifteenth floor. As she stepped out of the elevator the first thing she noticed was the groups of Guardians and FOTC personnel congregating in large groups around the large clean lobby. A hubbub of incomprehensible conversation drifted around the room. From what she could see it looked much like she would have expected of a Gym's lobby back in Japan or China.

Unfortunately, due to the large number of people crowding the room, a number that was increasing even as she stood there with more people coming off the elevators, she couldn't see the signs that may have pointed her to Arena Five.

"Any idea where arena five is?" she asked Kiko. Her ghost did something like a shrug.

"How often do you think I come down here? Not like a lot of people die in the gym," she said with a flat deadpan.

"Map?" Ranma replied equally flatly. Her ghost spun in the air for a moment.

"Right hand door," Kiko said, "Far end of the hall. Follow the hallway beyond. It should be the tenth door on the left."

"Thanks," she replied as she started working her way across the room. She had to wonder if the arenas were always this busy. Was there some kind of event on? Maybe a fighting competition of some kind? Shrugging it off she found the heavy fire doors leading into the hallway Kiko had mentioned.

Some of the groups, many wearing armour and carrying weapons, and even a few with ghosts out; were flowing into the same hallway. All of them were taller than she was as well. It was one of those things about being a girl she hated. Being petite in height was a pain.

"Seven… eight… nine… This it?" She asked, getting a nod from her ghost. She frowned as she watched several large groups disappear through the heavy doors of the arena. "I think, I might know why there're so many people here," she said.

"Gee, it isn't like you challenged Shaxx to a duel or anything," Kiko hissed quietly, "I'd be willing to put Glimmer on everyone in the city knowing about it by now. You realize arena duels are televised, right?"

"... And free to watch?" she hazarded a guess. Kiko bobbed an affirmative as another group of Guardians, which all seemed to average three for some reason, entered the arena.

She sighed. How did she get into these situations all the time? "Greeeeat," she groaned before rolling her shoulders and striding through the door.

The entrance let out onto the top of a long flight of stairs that led down to the side of an arena the size of a football pitch. To the left and right were seats that wrapped around the entire room. Most of them were already filled up and yet more people were flooding into the room.

And down in the area was a one-horned man in armour setting up stands of weapons with the help of several frames.

"It's been… Ten minutes? Where are all these people coming from?" She asked as they descended the staircase towards the arena.

"You realize you aren't the only person who lives here, right?" Kiko asked, "And, I'd bet that a bunch of this lot are skipping out of their posts if they can. It isn't every day that Shaxx gets into a duel. Traveller what were you thinking." Her ghost whimpered. "You're going to die so many times."

"Your confidence is absolutely inspiring," Ranma deadpanned as they reached the floor of the arena and walked onto the concrete floor. Whispered raced through the crowd behind her as she walked past the working frames and out to her opponent. The giant of a man was surrounded by half a dozen racks of spears, swords, maces, and more exotic weapons. Was that a billhook?

"So you came." His voice, harsh as he turned to face her, "I can't tell whether it's foolishness or courage."

"You issued a challenge. I can't turn that down," she said with a shrug as she turned her attention to the thronging crowds that were staring down at them. "Funny how things don't change all that much after the world ends." How many times had she seen crowds form out of nothing to cheer, or jeer, the participants of a fight? How many times had she seen the sides of Furinkan's soccer pitch packed to the brim with hundreds of students, teachers, and other bystanders?

Far too many times to count. This was her normal.

"Rumour travels quickly," Shaxx agreed, "So, ground rules. We will be doing three rounds. Since you came to apply for registration I'll treat this as a test of your hand-to-hand skills. Assuming you manage to impress me enough you'll get that part of your certification out of the way."

She snorted. "I'm not the one who needs to worry about impressing," she said, crossing her arms.

Shaxx snorted. "You've got guts, but I've seen far too many young brats like you before," he said, "First round will be hand-to-hand. Split into two halves. The first half will be without light, the second half you can use it to augment yourself. No weapons allowed. No overt manifestations of Light. No arc, no flames, no void."

She nodded. Which probably meant he'd take offence to her pulling out any obvious Ki tricks. Well, that wasn't a worry.

"Second round will be with weapons with the same restrictions. Both the first and second halves. Round three will be a no-holds-barred duel. Weapons, hand-to-hand and full light powers. Feel free to show me your full potential, Saotome," Shaxx said, she could hear the viscous smile behind his helmet, "One last thing. Each round only ends when one of us dies or surrenders." She gave him a sharp glance and he laughed. "We're Guardians. Death is an inconvenience, get used to it."

"And that is why you're going to lose," she said as she shook her head, "Death is defeat."

"Hmmph, only for others." They stood there for a moment. "I've brought out a few weapons. If you'd like to select which ones you might want to use for the second set-"

Ranma tapped the bo staff she had pulled from her pocket against her shoulder. "I'm good," she said as she rested the white oak staff against her shoulder.

Shaxx regarded her for a moment, before waving away the racks of weapons. Frames shuffled the dozens of weapons away. "That's a nice trick, I'll admit," he said, "Now we wait. Normally I would take charge and run a duel like this, but officiating one's own duel is both poor taste and questionably legal. So I sent Zavala a message a few minutes ago. He will be here soon."

Ranma slipped the bo staff back into her pocket. "... He's the Vanguard guy, isn't he?" she asked, thinking about what she had heard from Cayde and Ikora.

"The Titan Vanguard, and the Vanguard Commander. Be honoured. It's rare to see him out of his office," her opponent said, "Oh, one last detail. Ghosts remain outside the arena area until one of us falls or concedes. Then they can come to revive you or heal you. Clear?"

"Got you," she said. She wasn't planning on dying here, so it wasn't too big of an issue.

"Well, that sucks," Kiko muttered as she flashed into existence, "Good luck Ranma. Please try to not embarrass me? Please?" Ranma rolled her eyes and shooed her towards the edge of the field.

"I'll be fine," she replied. Her ghost gave her a worried look before darting out of the arena. Ranma turned to face Shaxx, looking up at his masked visage, arms crossed under her chest. Shaxx mirrored her, staring down, his face utterly unreadable, with his arms crossed over his chest.

They remained standing like that even as the crowd surged with energy and started cheering.

"Shaxx! Shaxx! Shaxx!"

Well, it wouldn't be the first time people underestimated her.

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"What a contradiction," Ikora sighed as she took her seat in the small viewing box set aside for the Vanguard, Speaker, and representatives of the various political factions in the city.

"I'm not surprised. Well, not too surprised," Cayde said as he took his own seat. "She had a bunch of stories to share. Her time was rather wild."

"So you've said," she murmured as she looked down at the forms of Shaxxa and Ranma facing off in the center of the arena. They were both stock still and staring the other down with crossed arms. "It's just… she was so quiet yesterday."

"I'd put money on her being in shock yesterday," Cayde replied as he pulled a hip flask from a pocket and took a swig. "Aah, that's better."

"Drinking, now?" she asked as a pair of representatives of New Monarchy entered the room. The flamboyantly dressed men greeted them before finding seats lower down in the box. A Dead Orbit representative followed a moment later.

"About the best time to drink. Ya know I feel sorry for the kid. Going up against Shaxx?" Cayde snorted, "That's not something I'd want to do. Still, if she's half as good as she suggested the early rounds should be interesting."

"I guess we'll see."

"That we will." Everyone in the box bolted to their feet as the Speaker entered.

"Speaker, welcome," Ikora said, bowing deeply. Cayde waved absently.

"Don't normally see you this much," the Exo said irreverently, "You sure you're good to be here?"

The Speaker chuckled. "I'm old, but not fragile Cayde," he said as he eased himself into his seat in the row above them. Ikora could hear joints pop as the elderly man settled. "I had to come see what our latest Guardian had gotten herself into."

"It is… Not something I expected," Ikora said with a shake of her head. It was like watching Shaxx confront a child. It was unusual for a Guardian to be so short, outside of those who returned as children. Technically Ranma was a child, even if her biological age was older than the City's legal majority. Not even two decades old compared to Shaxx's centuries of experience.

"Nor did I, but I can only imagine what prompted this," the Speaker mused as he waved for them to retake their seats.

As they got settled once more, Ikora let her attention wander from the arena to the stands where small groups of Dead Orbit, Future War Cult, and New Monarchy supporters could be spotted amongst the crowd. Most were FotC or Guardians. It was unsurprising to see so many turn out, despite the sudden nature of the duel. It was rare to see Shaxx actually engage in a fight anywhere in public and the wider Guardian Orders and people of the Last City all but venerated the ancient warlord. His popularity was certainly always high, even if it never reached the cultist levels of obsession that Osiris had… not necessarily enjoyed. Endured perhaps?

She spent a moment contemplating the correct terminology for how her old mentor had considered his fanatical followers, before setting it aside. She had better things to think about than the long irrelevant opinions of Osiris. After all, that was Zavala she could see making his way down the steps to the arena floor amidst raucous cheers from the crowd.

"I'll never understand how he does that," Cayde sighed as the hunter tracked their friend on his way down to the arena. She chuckled. It was always amusing to watch Cayde vent about Zavala's popularity. Like he didn't have his own enthusiastic supporters. Especially amongst his hunters.

Shaxx and Ranma turned away from each other as Zavala approached them. "I'm surprised Shaxx asked Zavala to referee this," she said. The two were famously at odds with each other.

"Hey, you know Shaxx better than I do," Cayde said with a shrug.

Down on the arena floor Shaxx, Ranma, and Zavala were talking. The redhead nodding to whatever Zavala was saying. She brushed her red hair back behind her ears and crossed her arms behind her back. She was even rocking back and forth on her heels. Between that and the guileless smile, Ikor had to sigh in despair. The girl had no idea what she was in for.

"What even happened between them?" she asked again.

"You don't have any faith in our latest Guardian?" The Speaker asked.

"Against Shaxx?" she asked rhetorically. The Speaker chuckled.

Zavala waved the two fighters to their positions then turned and walked to the sidelines. The speakers of the arena crackled. "Welcome Guardians to an unexpected event," Zavala said, his voice booming from the speakers. Cheers erupted from the crowd. "Today a new Guardian, Ranma Saotome, will be taking the first part of her certification examination. Due to differences in opinion Lord Shaxx has elected to conduct her examination personally."

"Differences of opinion?" Ikora repeated as some in the crowd jeered. What sort of differing opinion would prompt Shaxx to opt for an officially booked duel as a form of testing? "There are times when I wonder if we give him too much leeway when it comes to certifications," she said to Cayde.

"Hey, he does pretty good. They're certainly hard to pass. Remember that one guy who took sixteen years to pass?" Cayde chuckled, "Still…" He crossed his arms as Zavala announced the rules and conditions to the audience. Cheers erupted again when he brought up the 'to the death' caveat. "She must have really pissed him off."

Ikora nodded. She would have to talk to Ranma afterwards to find out what she had been thinking.

"Lord Shaxx, Ranma, are you ready?" Zavala asked as a large array of screens unfolded from the ceiling.

"What is there to get ready for?" Shaxx's voice rumbled to the cheering of the crowds.

Ranma flicked a lock of hair over her shoulder. "Well if the old man is ready, then why wouldn't I be?" she asked, a condescension in her voice was clear to everyone. The video screen zoomed in on her face. To Ikora's surprise, there was a lazy, even slightly mocking, smile on her face.

"Then we will begin, in five… four… three…" Shaxx raised his hands into a ready position, his feet sliding down into an aggressive stance, ready to charge. Ranma, in stark contrast, had her arms behind her back and her eyes closed as she rocked back and forth on her heels. On one hand, it made Ikora want to sigh and look away, on the other, there was something about all of this that was bothering her.

"Two… One!" Zavala let out a brilliant flare of light. Shaxx broke into a run, his feet pounding the ground hard enough for the thunk of his boots to be heard over the cheer of the crowd. The twenty feet between him and Ranma disappeared in a blink as the tall Titan barrelled down on the small rookie before him. Ikora almost closed her eyes as he reared back with a punch.

It was lucky she didn't.

Ranma leaned just slightly back, rotating on a heel to allow the fist to pass her face with an inch to spare. The second strike was likewise avoided, as was the third. As the fourth blazed in her footing shifted from casual to something more serious. She ducked beneath strike as she spun, one foot striking out to catch Shaxx in the side of his knee. There was a loud crack that sent a gasp through the crowd as the Lord of the Crucible started to fall.

With grace unheard of amongst Guardians Ranma swept around the far side of the warlord and swept his other foot out from under him. She caught his right arm as he tumbled and twisted as she brought her foot down on his head. Something cracked loudly, the sound amplified by the sound system of the arena. Several hundred pounds of muscle and metal crashed to the ground milliseconds later, driven by the seemingly innocent slipper-clad foot of a petite redhead.

The sound echoed through the room.

In the heartbeats that followed that short exchange, two things entered Ikora's shocked mind. First, the crowd, so loud and brazen, had fallen silent. Secondly, Shaxx wasn't moving.

"Well shit," Cayde breathed, "I guess she was being honest after all."

Ikora nodded slowly as Zavala walked out into the ring and checked Shaxx. His ghost scanned the unmoving Warlord. "Due to loss of consciousness, Lord Shaxx is unable to fight. The winner of the first round is Ranma Saotome," Zavala pronounced to the silent room.

It didn't stay silent for long.

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The explosion of noise rolled over Ranma as she watched Shaxx's ghost float over to the downed Guardian. It's exo-skeleton unfolded as it released a pulse of golden light. As it quickly zipped away Shaxx groaned and sat up, cracking his neck as he did so.

"Now that was interesting," he said as he stood up. Ranma watched with a raised eyebrow as he rolled what had been moments before a dislocated and snapped arm. "That was an interesting technique Rookie," he said, "Perhaps you do have some skill." It was a less grudging admission than many she had received over the years.

"Says the old man who got knocked out in ten seconds without landing a hit?" she asked sarcastically. To her surprise he laughed, his voice booming over the crowd.

"Touche Rookie," he conceded, "Tell me, are you as skilled with weapons?"

"Some. Not too bad with a sword, and I do use a staff every once and awhile," she replied. And that ignored the much more… varied weapons and tricks she had picked up over the years, but she doubted he would be too impressed if she listed 'tea stir stick' amongst the rest.

"Hmph," he waved to the frames around the outside edge of the arena, "Bring my hammer." Ranma produced the bo staff from earlier from her sleeve and tapped it against the concrete floor to renewed shouting from the crowd. She honestly couldn't tell what they were thinking or feeling. They didn't seem to be condemning her or complaining, just generally enthusiastic shouting.

A few moments later the frame returned bearing a large warhammer sized for use with two hands. Shaxx took it from the robot and leaned the weapon against his shoulder with one hand.

"Positions, both of you," Zavala reminded them. Ranma walked back over to her place and slid into a proper stance this time. She had baited him once, but he wouldn't fall for it again. Shaxx hefted his weapon in both hands, weighing it before sliding into a stance of his own. Once again he looked like he was preparing to charge.

The cheering of the crowd swelled once again as the tall purple man in armour returned to his own spot. He raised both hands again. "We will begin again in five…"

Ranma examined Shaxx's stance. Bent forward he clearly intended to charge once again. His style, as much as it could be called a style, seemed to rely on relentless aggression. It was, essentially, a more violent and brutal form of what Ryouga had practiced. She hadn't seen enough to know whether to call it less refined than the bandana'd boy, but there was a visceral brutality that Ryouga had never possessed.

"four…"

Shaxx's hands gripped the great hammer in his hands and Ranma made a note to avoid a direct clash. Like before she was at a disadvantage in the strength department. It wouldn't have been an issue if she was being allowed to augment herself with her Ki, but without it she was going to have to evade. And that was the same for her staff. Durable it may have been, but she didn't want to test it against a direct strike from that hammer.

Who knew where she'd be able to get a replacement.

"three.. two…"

Both parties tensed as the cheering peaked again, a subtle chant of "Shaxx! Shaxx! Shaxx!" still present within the larger more incoherent screaming.

"one… BEGIN!" Hands dropped and she launched herself forward at the same time Shaxx did. They came together much more quickly than before and she was forced to duck under a horizontal swing of the hammer. Her reply swing of the staff was deflected by the shaft of the warhammer.

He came at her again, his hammer swinging up from below. She stepped around it and lashed out with her staff, thrusting it up towards his head. It skipped off his furred shoulder plate as he moved aside. A second blow was deflected by the warhammer and she was forced to evade as he pushed through her attacks. He was relying on his armour to make up for the fact she was faster than he was.

"You should have picked a better weapon," he said as she avoided yet another swing. The hammer chipped the concrete as he continued the swing through a complete arc that dragged slightly across the ground. It was a display of strength.

But it also left him vulnerable.

She jabbed her staff straight through his non-existent guard and the armoured guardians doubled over with a squeak. She smacked the warhammer from his hand with the staff before spinning to give her strike more power as she swatted him across the face hard enough to throw him to the floor away from the warhammer. The stadium had fallen silent again.

"Next time," she said as she rested the bo staff on her shoulder, "If you're going to wear armour, remember to wear the codpiece." Then she brought the staff down on his head, repeatedly.

He eventually stopped groaning.

-0-0-0-0-0-​

Ikora sighed and palmed her face. "Did she just…?"

"Hit him in the nuts? Yup," Cayde confirmed, the p popping as he took a swig from his flask. "Glad mine are made from metal now. She's a scary girl."

"... Why is it always the quiet ones?" she asked as she fought a smile. This was going to be a day Shaxx was never going to live down, she was going to make sure of it.

"Since when was she quiet?" Cayde waved at the stadium with his flask.

"It would seem," both of them looked behind them as The Speaker spoke up, "That we have all had very different meetings with our newest Guardian."

"Well yeah. You didn't have Yakitori with her while talking shop," Cayde said.

"But we did talk. It was quite fascinating," The Speaker said.

Down below Zavala waved the two ghosts forward. "Winner of the second round, Ranma Saotome."

One of the New Monarchy representatives cursed. "Twice! What sort of monster is she!" Ikora raised an eyebrow as he cursed and, along with his fellows and most of the other representatives of other factions, pulled out tablets to transfer credits to a particularly smug looking Future War Cult representative.

"She is skilled, but the next bout is with powers, isn't it? Shaxx will crush her then," another said, tapping his fingers on his armrest.

"Augmentation, but yes, I doubt someone this new knows much about her powers. This should be over quickly," the first agreed as he pointed a finger at the man he just had to pay, "I'll get my money back."

"Hey, don't complain just because the dark horse is winning," he replied. Cayde snorted at that.

"Hmm?" Ikora glanced towards her friend.

Cayde leaned over. "Ranma apparently means 'Wild Horse' in old Japanese," he said.

"Aah," she chuckled. Yes, that was amusing.

-0-0-0-0-0-​

Note to self, just because the body of a Guardian disappears and reappears when their ghost resurrects them after severe trauma, didn't mean the blood scattered everywhere else vanished. Like on the end of her staff. Ranma scowled at the bloody staff and tossed it into her pocket. That would keep the blood fresh enough to come off easily when she got around to cleaning it.

"A cheap shot, but I can't fault you," the remarkably unscathed Shaxx said as he adjusted his once again intact helmet, "I'm more surprised no one else has taken advantage of that issue before."

"After sparring with Ikora so much, there's a reason I dress as I do," Zavala said with a shake of his head. Shaxx laughed.

"Ha, well she never felt the need to do that to me. Tell me, what have you been doing to irritate her so much?" Shaxx laughed harder when Zavala turned away.

"Back to your positions. We'll start the third round momentarily," the Awoken Guardian said.

"Bah, I'll find out somehow you know that Zavala," Shaxx said before turning to her. "From here on, both of us will be allowed to augment ourselves with our light. No external manifestations, but let's see what you can do without holding back as much. Don't expect this to be as easy."

She scoffed. "I've been waiting for a challenge. Don't expect to suddenly have the advantage just because," she replied. He was skilled, but it was a bit like Kuno. He was better than Kuno, actually, but what had held the old Kendoist back had been a lack of Ki mastery to go with his technical skill. The question was how far could Light take a warrior. Did it grant the sort of speed he would need to keep up with her? Would it make him too durable to hurt?

It would be interesting to find out.

"I'll admit Rookie," Shaxx said, "You are proving to be quite a bit more competent than I expected. Let's see how far it takes you." He turned away and walked over to his spot. She mimicked him and as she took her spot once again breathed out slowly. Letting her Ki flow was second nature and keeping it suppressed like earlier had been almost as much of a handicap as being fragile without it had been. This was going to be a different fight.

She slid into a stance and waited.

"Round three, hand-to-hand. No weapons. Light augmentation permitted. No external manifestations," Zavala announced. He raised his hands. "We will begin again in five…"

"four… three… two… one…"

"BEGIN!"

"RAAAAAH!" With a booming shout Shaxx hurled himself towards her. She let slip a curse as she sidestepped the ballistic Guardian. His feet hammered the concrete, sending cracks spiderwebbing through the floor before twisting on his heel to launch into a kick. Once, twice, three times she ducked and weaved around his strikes before he brought a picture perfect axe kick down. She stepped out of the way, but the strike came down hard enough to shatter the floor.

Concrete dust filled the air as shards of shattered concrete went everywhere. It wasn't the end of Shaxx's blitz offensive either. He took advantage of the smokescreen to switch tactics. His first punch of the round ripped a hole in the dust cloud. She blocked it with a forearm, deflecting most of the blow upwards as she stepped into his guard. Her fist crashed into his hard breastplate and rather than shatter like she had expected he simply slid back a few feet with a grunt.

It was impressive, but Ryouga had been harder.

Another punch, from his left hand, blazed in and she swayed aside, sliding it a spinning kick that he dodged. He was definitely faster now, and a lot tougher. Their fight must have appeared to be almost dance-like to those watching as they ducked and weaved around eachother. Ranma would occasionally managing a strike against Shaxx, but he wasn't making the same mistakes. Strikes to the legs and lower body were intercepted and his body armour was definitely being reinforced.

"The Light really is impressive," she admitted as she danced backwards after an intense two minute long exchange. Both of them were breathing heavily, but that ended quickly.

"You say that like you aren't also using it," Shaxx said. She laughed.

"I'm trained to use Ki. The light keeps getting in my way so far," she said. Before he could respond and possibly ask for details, she stepped things up. Zavala had said no external manifestations. Fine. She didn't need the fancy stuff for this. Her form blurred as she pushed her limits.

Shaxx reacted even as she started moving, his fists moving to meet her. She stepped around his punch and kicked him in the side. Once, twice, three times, ten times, twenty times, one hundred times. To the world it would appear to be a single strike, but those observant enough would be able to count the six hundred kicks she had just hammered into the side of Shaxx.

Physics took over from there. Impossibly durable or not, his armour shattered as the momentum from the barrage rolled into his body. The force hurled him across the arena towards the sidelines. Despite the shock, speed of flight, and undoubtedly numerous internal injuries from her attack, Shaxx got his feet under him in time to hit the ground again. Concrete shattered beneath his feet as he skidded to halt.

The crowds had begun to cheer again, but this time she could make out the faint echo of her own name amongst the multitudes cheering on Shaxx.

Ranma hadn't been idle as her opponent flew. She chased him, slippers pounding the broken floor as she charged, then leaped after him. Twisting her body to maintain momentum, she came down in a flying kick as he looked up. He threw himself out of the way and came up out of roll as her kick impacted with the force of a crashing jumpship. More dust rose to fill the air as she launched another follow up. Concrete chunks the size of bricks crashed off a shimmering barrier of energy before they could pelt the crowd.

She didn't expect him to be already moving. As she emerged from the dust cloud Shaxx was waiting for her, his fist already in motion. She failed to evade and blocked the strike awkwardly. The bones of her forearms creaked and she winced with pain as the blow lifted her off the ground and hurled her back towards the center of the room.

Bouncing off the ground she bled momentum in a series of flips in time to sidestep Shaxx's own ballistic drop. Both his feet hammered the ground as he landed. The arena shook with the impact. "Hahaa, at least you're a challenge!" he shouted as he launched into a wild barrage of strikes. They were less refined than her or Ryouga's had been, but getting hit again was not much of an option. She had the feeling that if she blocked like that again she would probably have a broken arm.

By this point it was clear what sort of fighter Shaxx was. He had skill, but it was that of a brawler. Someone who had built their fighting style by instinct rather than by repetition and forethought. He was a berserker. Rampaging, unstoppable, and capable of immense brutality. There was just one small issue she was noticing. For all his strength, speed, and indeed skill, there was a degree of recklessness to his actions that she wouldn't have expected to find in a fighter as old as he claimed to be. That had to be a product of being able to literally return from the dead. Death wasn't the end. It wasn't something to be avoided at all costs. Not to him.

"You're sloppy," she shouted as she interrupted his assault, stepping through a small gap in his defenses and crashing an elbow into his breastplate. His momentum reversed, throwing him across the arena. She took a moment to rest and let her breathing settle. She was going to need to take this more slowly, cautiously. A furious assault would let her end this, but there were two more rounds and she didn't want to try and test that claim of coming back from the dead quite yet.

Shaxx rose from the hole she had put him in. "And you're too cautious girl. Show some spirit," he shouted, likewise taking a moment to catch his breath. "You're a Guardian now. Take a few risks."

"And that's why you're going to lose here," she said, sliding into a more defensive stance reminiscent of Tai Chi. Shaxx rolled his shoulder and she could see him wince as he put weight on his left side. Not too surprising, that was where she had kicked him. Regardless, it didn't seem to affect his choice of strategy. With a shout he charged forward again, leading his attack with a punch.

She slapped his strike aside and gave ground, bleeding the momentum of his charge. She ducked and weaved beneath and around kicks, swaying aside as he continued into a barrage of punches and even ducked below a spinning roundhouse. At last, she saw an opening. He came in with a right hook, his right leg coming forward as he placed his all into the strike, and she slapped his hand up and away as she stepped into his guard. He tried to pull back as she reached up with her right hand and grabbed him by the helmet even as she slammed a kick into the inner knee of his extended right leg. His knee snapped, the crack echoing above the roaring crowd, and the giant of a man toppled, crashing to the ground once more.

Not giving him a moment to recover she slammed her foot down where his head would be. A desperate roll took him out of the way of her foot, and straight beneath her. His hands locked around her leg like a vice and he yanked her feet out from under her. He lunged for the throat with both hands. She grabbed him by the wrist as she hit the floor, her right leg holding him back by pressing her shin against his neck.

For a moment they struggled, the larger and quite strong man pinning her to the floor, driving small shards of concrete uncomfortably into her back. "Get off," she snapped.

"Not happening."

She rolled her eyes and brought her other leg up with force into Shaxx's lower body. Something popped and he froze and she stifled a wince at the high pitched wheezing noise as his arms stopped pressing down on her. Not wasting her opportunity she slipped out of his no longer resisting grip and reversed their position. She slammed him into the ground and wrapped and arm around his neck.

"You know," she said, "You really need that cup." With a quick motion she snapped his neck, granting him a merciful reprieve from the pain. She breathed out slowly and sat back. "I'm getting way too used to killing you," she said to the corpse she was sitting on.

Shaxx didn't reply.

She looked up as the crunch of breaking concrete, audible over the crowd that was once again going nuts, announced the arrival of the referee for this mad duel. "Do you actually do anything or are you just here to announce when someone dies?" she asked.

"Neither of you has tried to break the rules," Zavala said as he crouched down beside her. His ghost scanned the body.

"He's dead," it said before it paused. "Again."

"I don't believe I've ever seen Shaxx lose so many times in a row," Zavala said with a shake of his head. He gave her a look. "You are something special." She snorted.

"He's not that good. In the past I could have named a dozen people who could have handed him his ass in about the same time I did," she said. And that was discounting the use of any truly spectacular tricks like the Hiryu Shoten Ha… Could she even do the Hiryu Shoten Ha or Moko Takabisha anymore? She'd tried to do the latter before, but all she had gotten was some Light-based death orb.

"And to think, I thought we were just chasing the Golden Age," Zavala mused before standing and turning to the audience. "WINNER OF ROUND THREE! RANMA! GHOSTS, ATTEND YOUR GUARDIANS!" He glanced over at her and waved for her to get up.

Feeling stiff she stood up reluctantly. Fighting like this was starting to take it out of her.

"RANMA! Oh my god~!" She blinked as Kiko buzzed her head before flying a few circles around her. "You're amazing~ Seriously, three zero with Shaxx. Oooh, I knew you were good but thiiiis~" She winced as her ghost's voice went off the end of the scale for a moment.

"Kiko!" she hissed, rubbing her ears.

"Erp- sorry," Kiko said apologetically, "And wow you look rough. Give me a second." She stared as her ghost erupted into golden light, the eight outer component parts of her ghost splitting open to reveal a pulsing golden orb of light. A wave of said light washed over her and she gasped as her fatigue vanished into the ether. Her sore muscles were restored and even her clothes had been put back to normal. The blood, dust, and small tears in the material disappearing beneath the warm healing light of her ghost.

"Wow," she said softly as Kiko reassembled herself, "That was… Wow." She felt all warm, tingly, and full of energy.

"I'm not just good for bringing you back from the dead," her ghost said smugly, "Ready for round four? Think you can keep the winning streak going?"

"What happened to 'oh god you're going to die'?" Ranma asked with her own smirk.

"That was before I watched you pop Shaxx's nuts twice," her ghost replied with a deadpan that made her wince, "Seriously, you've probably developed a reputation from that." She let her head droop.

"Yeah… Yeah, probably," she sighed. A flash of light announced the return of Shaxx.

The titan was as utterly pristine as she was. Even his armour had been restored to the state it was before she had hammered him hard enough to make even Ryouga regret it. He popped his neck. "Ah, I hate breaking my neck. It always leaves me with a phantom pain for days," he said with the sort of casualness she felt no one should have towards dying. "That, and a kink where it snapped. Do you have any idea how hard it'll be to sleep after this?"

"... Then try not dying?" she suggested with the tone one takes with a toddler who is complaining about something they obviously shouldn't be doing. Shaxx chuckled.

"That would be the solution, wouldn't it?" he chuckled.

"Are you both ready?" Zavala asked.

"Right away?" Ranma asked, looking around the shattered arena.

"It is not uncommon for a Guardian to fight in worse conditions than these," the purple man said gravely. Shaxx nodded his agreement.

"Most of the places you'll travel to are heavily damaged from the events of the collapse and the years that followed," Shaxx said, his tone shifting to that of a teacher, "You have to be ready to fight even in the most desolate locations."

"... I'm used to fights that wreck buildings," she said flatly, "I was referring to the fact that people usually like fixing the arena between rounds when it gets this bad. You know, before we accidentally punch a hole through the floor."

Shaxx scoffed. "There is twenty feet of reinforced concrete in both the floors and ceiling. Even Guardians would have a hard time breaking through that," he said, "Now, where is my hammer…" He turned away and walked off, presumably to recover the hammer he had handed over to the frame from before.

"I'll give the both of you five minutes. Then we'll begin," Zavala said, stepping away and bringing a hand up to his ear.

Five minute rest? And she wasn't even tired anymore. She turned her attention to the crowd. Maybe she could learn a few things from watching them? Then again, maybe not. Most of them didn't look particularly noteworthy.

-0-0-0-0-0-​

"Damn it!" Ikora raised an eyebrow as the New Monarchy representative punched his armrest before pointing accusingly at the FWC representative. "You- You- I don't know how you did this but-"

"Are you honestly suggesting he's cheating?' the other New Monarchy representative asked as he patted his friend on the shoulder. "Just give him his money and stop betting for now."

The first man sagged as the FWC guy chuckled. "Hey, you win some you lose some," he said, "I got lucky today."

"Really wish you took me up on that bet," Cayde said, "but I guess I'm just going to have to settle for Shaxx getting his ass kicked by a little girl." He paused. "Literally."

"You mean the bet you suggested on the elevator?" she asked.

"Yeah, that one."

"Cayde, the bet could have been rigged in my favour a century ago and I never would have taken it," she replied with a deadpan.

Her friend scoffed. "No sense of adventure. I'm telling you it would be the perfect time of year to-"

"Cayde, Ikora." Their conversation was interrupted by Zavala's voice over their private fireteam's com channel.

"Yo," Cayde said.

"What is it, Zavala?" she asked, looking down at the arena where the Vanguard Commander was standing. He was looking up at their box, one hand to his ear.

"We have five minutes while Shaxx finds his hammer," he said, "What do you think of our new Guardian?"

"She isn't the wallflower I thought she was," Ikora said.

"I could have told you that," Cayde said, "But I've got to say I listened to her stories and I still didn't expect this kind of showing."

"I'll admit I'm curious about what sort of stories you heard, Cayde," Zavala said, "But that is a conversation we can have later. Guardian Saotome mentioned something she called Ki. Ikora, do you know anything about 'Ki'?"

Ki? She tapped her lips with a finger. "Ki?" It sounded similar to Chi, which was an old Asian concept about lifeforce and the balance of energies throughout the world. "She called it 'Ki', not 'Chi'?" she asked.

"That's an affirmative Ikora. Why?" Zavala asked in reply.

"I'm familiar with the idea of Chi from old text recovered from… well, everywhere, but it originated in Asia. In Old China specifically," she replied, "But Ki… With that exact pronunciation? I'm afraid I'm not familiar."

"It could be an accent thing. She's from Japan, right?" Cayde said, "You know how hard it can get to understand some people in the city because of which district they live in."

"I've always had issues with south-wall accents," Zavala noted, "That could be it, Cayde. Your thoughts Ikora?"

"What did she say about it?" Ikora asked.

"Merely that she was trained to use it and that the light kept getting in her way. You can see why I'm worried, Ikora, Cayde?" Zavala replied.

Interfering with the Light? Ikora's brow furrowed and she thought. No, the Light interfering with Ki. Whatever Ki was. "Chi, which I will note could be something different," Ikora said slowly, "has to do with balancing one's inner energies to promote good health and is said to have uses in martial arts. I've never heard of any proof to substantiate it as anything more than superstition however."

"Our new Guardian clearly believes it to be something more, however," Zavala said, "I could use any information you can gather, Ikora."

She sighed. "Keeping in mind that while she does have her memories she does come from a time before the Traveler. It could just be superstition, Zavala."

Zavala paused for a moment before speaking, "Ikora, she spoke of it like she was trying to utilize it instead of the light. She shows no surprise in her own abilities and accounts for her strength and speed. These are things we do not see even in moderately seasoned Guardians. It seems only natural to conclude that she is either a much older Guardian than she claims, or there is more to this 'Ki' than just superstitions."

"Truthfully, Zavala? I've never done a deep dive on the topic," Ikora replied, "I only know of it from discussions with several of my Warlocks who have taken in interest in pre-traveler superstitions and philosophy."

"Then perhaps asking one of them would be advisable?"

"Agreed. I'll make a few calls." It would take her a minute or two to get someone working on this.

"I can ask my Hunters, see if anyone knows anything," Cayde offered.

"More hands makes the work go faster," Ikora agreed.

"Then I'll leave this in your capable hands, Ikora, Cayde. Excuse me, but the next round is about to start," their teammate said before disconnecting.

"I hate it when he does that," Cayde said.

She snorted as pulled out her tablet and tapped the contacts list. She'd fire a few messages off while watching. If she was lucky they'd have a reply by the next intermission. "Like you don't do the same to him."

"True, true, but I do it with more style."

-0-0-0-0-0-​

It took all five minutes before Shaxx returned with his warhammer resting against his shoulder. The large man was humming under his breath, fairly out of tune but it she didn't recognize the song. "Somehow I seem to be behind in this contest," he said as he rolled his shoulders. She could hear joints pop. "I'm afraid that this is where your streak ends." A bunch of the crowd cheered with his words. He raised a fist to those cheering and the volume spiked.

She rolled her eyes and pulled out her other staff. "You've turned this into a really big spectacle," she noted, tapping the bo staff against the crumbling concrete floor.

"All matches and practice sessions are free to watch by anyone in the tower," Shaxx said with a shrug, "I had nothing to do with this."

"But you aren't surprised," she said. He shrugged again. "Do all Guardian's love showboating this much, or is it just you?" At that he laughed.

"Are all Guardian's like me? Rookie, I'm what Guardian's wish to be. Now, Zavala! Get over here. Let's get this next round started," he shouted, waving over the Titan Vanguard. To Ranma's amusement a few people chanted Zavala's name as he strode over.

"I take it you are both ready?" Zavala asked, looking from one to the other.

"When am I not?" Shaxx asked as he moved his warhammer into a ready position.

Ranma tapped her staff against the floor again before sliding into a defensive stance. Shaxx looked like he intended to take the initiative again. She'd let him. There had been holes in his fighting style before, and there would probably be holes in his armed style now. All she had to do was draw them out and she could finish this. Swiftly.

Then again, there was something to be said for taking the initiative.

Her grip on the bo staff shifted and she nodded. "I'm ready," she said, taking a second to brush a lock of hair out of her eyes.

"Very well. We will begin then, in five…" His hands went up again, "Four… Three… Two… One… BEGIN!"

As Shaxx began to move, his right foot already pumping to launch him forwards, she was already in motion. Treating the staff like a spear launched herself towards Shaxx, her feet scarcely touching the ground. Though she couldn't see his eyes, she could see the moment he realized she was countercharging. Feet dug into concrete, skidding on the loose gravel that coated the arena from the previous round, as his hammer swept in to deflect.

With inches to spare, a gap that may as well have been miles, Ranma's staff slipped past his guard and slapped straight into his chest with a sharp crack of metal and wood. A breeze whipped across the arena as he was launched backwards and up, his form flying down the length of the arena. She followed, spinning the bo staff as she flew, twisting it around held tight to her body, all in an effort to build momentum for her next strike.

Shaxx bounced off the concrete, his feet unable to get beneath him in time. She adjusted her fall, gaining another few feet to close the distance with. Even as he was pushing himself to his feet she had landed, spinning on the ball of her heel to preserve her momentum for the next, much shorter, leap.

Her opponent threw himself to the side in a desperate roll that nearly lost him his warhammer as she brought the staff down in a two-handed swing. Concrete shattered, spiderwebs racing across the floor as she put her all into the strike. Chunks of concrete buckled and popped from the ground, showering the field as she swept from her missed strike into a low strike.

Still off balance, Shaxx's legs were swept out from under him. He let out a loud 'oof' as he hit the ground again. Her staff came up once more and down again towards his head. "Shi-'' was all she heard before his helmet came apart again under her strike. The head beneath suffering much the same fate as the horned helmet.

Silence had filled the entire arena by the time she rose from her strike.

-0-0-0-0-0-​

Ikora's finger hovered above the send button as she stared down at the dead body of one of her oldest friends and mentors. "Did I just see that?" she asked Cayde.

"E-yup." The Exo was staring just as hard as she was. "Call it a guess, but I think she just stopped holding back," he said.

In the seats below the New Monarchy representatives had gone silent. The formerly vocal representative looked horrified and even the FWC representative had paused in his perusal of his tablet to stare with a very surprised expression.

"I believe you're right," The Speaker said from behind them, "It would appear that Guardian Saotome has taken Shaxx's measure. His only chance at attaining a victory will be in the next round when he can use his full power, but the same will be true for her as well." As Ikora turned her head to the masked leader of the city she could hear the unlying amusement in his voice. "Never would I think to see a day when Shaxx was the underdog," he mused.

"Neither did I," Ikora agreed. She tapped the send button on her tablet and set it aside. She could contact the rest of her list after the final round. "However it's also true that in order to pull out the full potential of the Light we inevitably create a display of Light. Straining himself like he has up until now restricts his full effort significantly."

"A good observation Ikora," the Speaker said, "I imagine the next round will be much more equal."

"Excuse me, Vanguard Ikora," one of the New Monarchy representatives had turned to her.

"Yes Representative… Mangal was it?" The man nodded.

"Yes, Vanguard. Might I ask why this Duel is being handled as it is? Most duels are a simple three round affair with no restrictions," he said.

She raised an eyebrow. "Did you forget, Representative? They announced that Shaxx decided to allow Guardian Saotome to use this event as a formal evaluation towards her certification."

"Is certification usually such a… dramatic process?" he asked.

"Hardly," she replied with a chuckle, "Allow me to explain the usual process. Hand-to-hand certification is completed with five rounds of combat. The first two test the Guardian's pure skill for the unlikely event their light were to be lost or suppressed. A rare event, but we have heard of it happening in a few instances. The third and fourth rounds are intended to test the Guardian's ability to operate during missions where overt displays of the Light may be… Unwise. The last round is a full test of the Guardian's mastery of the Light when limited to only their own limbs and whatever items they can forge with the light."

She paused. "While certification does normally take place in a public venue available for anyone to watch, I'm sure you can understand how Shaxx's direct involvement has turned this into something of a spectacle."

"Yes I can," He sighed before sitting back in his seat, "Thank you Vanguard Ikora."

"You're welcome, Representative Mangal," she replied. She turned her attention back to the arena. Shaxx was dusting himself off after his Ghost reconstituted him.

"So, fifty glimmer says Ranma wins. Any takers?" Cayde asked, clapping his hands together.

She chuckled. "How about seventy?" she asked. Cayde stared at her for a moment before laughing.

"That's the spirit Ikora. I'll take seventy," he said.

"Don't get arrogant. This round will be different," the arena went silent as Shaxx's voice came out of the speakers system. The two were back in their starting positions once again. Ikora sat back in her chair.

"I wonder how much further they can go?" she mumbled to herself. Regardless of who won the final round, she was going to enjoy needling Shaxx about his streak of losses.

-0-0-0-0-0-​

Shaxx's ghost was back by the time Ranma made her way to the center of the floor. She could hear Kiko cheering from the edge of the field in the silence that had settled. With a flash of Light Shaxx sat up. He rolled his neck before standing, small pops were audible in the silence.

His feet crunched the gravel floor as he walked back to his starting position. "You win again," he said, his voice hard, "I'll concede the point. You do have plenty of skill. Certainly more than enough for the certification."

"Thanks," she said dryly. She would have had a few complaints if bouncing him into his own crater four times wasn't enough.

"But now we move into the final round. No holds barred. Full light use is permitted. External manifestation is now permitted," he said as he stretched before he slammed his fists together. A light aura of flame spread like spider webs from his fists to cover his body.

"It won't change anything," she said, observing him cautiously. There had been a massive increase in danger after internal light use was allowed. Was there that much of a difference between internal and external? Then again, all of the examples of light she had managed to intuit had been external.

"Don't get arrogant. This round will be different," Shaxx said, holding a hand out to the side. Solar fire flared in his palm and blazing steel burned itself into reality. With a shaft as tall as he was and a head larger than his chest the hammer whose end he tapped against the concrete gave off a heat that she could feel across the room. Like the hottest summer day in the depths of the Sahara, it swatted at her with warm winds.

"You said that before," she said as she evaluated the weapon. Clearly made from 'Light' it was probably best to avoid a hit from it. Even a glancing one could be fatal. "It won't change anything because you treat this like a game," she continued, "Like death is something you can just come back from. Time after time after time without any possible consequence. It makes you sloppy. You're too reckless and leave too many holes in your form. And your form," she shook her head in mocking sadness, "You're good, but you fight with refined instinct. Your actions are practiced through battle and death, not with stringent deliberate repetition. Your footwork is loose, your punches wander, your swings sway. You act with instinct born of experience, but your form lets it down."

An armoured boot bled flame as it shattered concrete as Shaxx took a single step towards you. He pointed to the stands with his hammer. "Look around you Rookie. Do you see this arena? The tower and the walls beyond? I was old when the first blocks were laid! I was here when the foundation of this tower was dug! I have hunted dragons and defied hive gods! I have fought ten thousand battles to keep this city safe. I have died again and again breaking armies in the name of this city and its people."

She stared at his faceless mask and brushed a lock of hair back behind her ear again. "And, what of it?" she asked, her voice echoing around the silent arena via the sound system. "I broke a mountain to crush a dragon. I buried the Yamata-no Orochi alive. I killed a god when he tried to kill my Fiancėe, and unlike you I never died doing so. So what if you died a thousand times, it just means you failed a thousand times."

She took two steps forward, her arms clasped behind her back as she stared defiantly at Shaxx. "My name is Ranma Saotome, and I never lose," she declared before sliding into a serious stance. Her eyes closed as she took a deep breath. Letting it out slowly she steadied herself and waited as Zavala stepped up.

"Are you both ready?" He asked.

"Do you really need to ask again Zavala?" Shaxx replied. He tapped the hammer against the ground impatiently.

"I'm good," Ranma said.

"I am doing the job," Zavala replied flatly, "If you have no objections then. Round five, no limits. The first to die or surrender loses." He raised his hands. "Let's begin the final round. Five…" A few halfhearted cheers started up, but as Zavala counted down it became clear that the entire arena was tense with silent anticipation. No one was certain how this was going to play out.

"Two… one… BEGIN!" Zavala's hands came down and the Titan Vanguard extricated himself from the field entirely, retreating behind the protective shield.

Shaxx was first off the line, his feet moving faster than ever before as he hurtled forward, warhammer raised. Each footstep sent sparks showering from his feet to patter across the floor. Waves of heat rolled out before him like hunting hounds straining at the leash. The boiling heat stirred the air, creating a breeze that ruffled Ranma's loose hair.

She leaped aside as he tossed himself the last few meters. The warhammer's head exploded as it struck the concrete. The flames, hot enough that she felt as though she was getting sunburn from sheer proximity, burned a crater in the floor. Molten concrete flickered through the air as Shaxx spun on his heel, dragging the head of the hammer through the molten rock before bringing it back down again on the position she had retreated to.

She weaved through the spray of stone, but continued to retreat. The heat was practically unbearable. It almost felt like mere proximity to, that is being within five feet of, Shaxx would be enough to catch fire.

Panic surged as Shaxx swiped at her with the hammer, despite the distance, and a wave of flames blazed forth. She jumped up and over the wave of fire. Crashing to the floor on the other side she rolled to her feet and swayed under the burning hammer. She could feel her skin scorching and it was surprising that her free hair hadn't yet caught fire.

She tumbled backwards, kicking out with one leg as she slipped backwards into a handstand before jumping backwards further. Shaxx had barely pulled back in time to avoid her kick catching him beneath the chin. It bought her breathing room regardless. Moments, but moments were enough.

She breathed out, stilling the panic beneath years of training. Her will crushed the panic before it could grow further, a cold smile growing as she delved once more into the depths of the Soul of Ice. It seeped through her ki chilling her aura before spilling out into the still unfamiliar essence of her Light.

The foreign energy had naturally surged as Shaxx had pressed her, flaring like the sun to match the warrior before her. Yet as she dragged her emotions back under control and crushed her panic beneath the weight of discipline and training something within her Light sparked. The flames were quenched, but beneath her iron restraint a storm had begun to roil and tremble. Around her the temperature began to drop in defiance of the firestorm her opponent was conjuring.

The warhammer came down again, a picture perfect swing that boiled the concrete again. Fire licked at her shirt and she crushed a tiny fire that had caught on the hem. It burned her palm, but went out as she weaved around swing after swing. This was starting to remind her too much of fighting Saffron. Just trying to attack without bursting into flame was an issue. She was starting to understand the source of Shaxx's seemingly inexhaustible confidence.

The crowds were cheering for Shaxx again, their own confidence in him seemingly restored.

Still, two could play at that game. While she didn't have the Gekkaja unlike with Saffron she did have other options. Of all the things she had to leave out of her Ki pocket that day, she really could have used it, but what ifs weren't helpful. Shaxx had light, but so did she. If she could just figure it out, which meant she needed time. Anything Goes Special Technique and all that. So the first order of business was simple.

Make time.

She jumped backwards with all her might, launching herself into the air and back towards the center of the arena. For the first time she reached not for her ki, but for the light. The well of sparkling power swelled in response to her call as she called it to her palm like the power for a Moko Takabisha. Chilling sparks danced in her palm, the power strained against her control, yet will and experience with Ki kept it from running away from her.

At the peak of her leap she unleashed the gathered power, hurling it forwards. A swirling storm of sparking frost exploded from her palm. Shaxx threw himself back as the storm quenched the roaring flames across the ground. Molten rock stiffened and hardened, popping as the thermal shock set in.

She landed amidst the flames and molten rock from the start of the round. A thought gathered more Light that she slammed into the ground. Clouds of electrified frost swept out around her clearing the area of flames and molten stone.

So the Soul of Ice had an effect on her Light. That held up to what she remembered from the fight in Tokyo. Yet the form it was taking was different than she had expected. Back then she had had a sword, but without a focus like that it seemed to spread out in a mist that left the air feeling electrified even as it chilled everything in the area.

She held up a hand and gathered more of the storm within, into her hand. A glittering cloud of ice formed in her palm. Small sparks of lightning snapped and crackled as they leaped from ice crystal to ice crystal. It was enchantingly beautiful, but she could feel the temperature dropping around her just from its presence. It was like holding both a blizzard and a thunderstorm in her hand. Now, she could try and drag Shaxx down with just this, but she doubted it would be enough. Whatever technique he was using had rendered him a virtual juggernaut, if for no other reason than getting close to him was virtually impossible.

Flickers of movement in the corner of her vision caused her to snap back to the fight. Shaxx was on the move once more. The ice across the floor hissed and melted as he charged straight into the blast zone. "An interesting trick, Rookie," he shouted as he pulled back his hammer for a swing, "But you're going to have to do better than this."

Her attention slipped from the charging man himself to the hammer he had forged from the Light itself. She had felt it literally burn itself into existence, scorching the world as it formed. For all it looked like metal it was really just fire, flame, and will.

She crushed the orb of light in her hand as watched as the glittering ice started to fuse together. Light glittered within the orb, snapping and dancing within the sudden confines of the ice. Electricity, interesting.

"Keep your attention on the fight, Rookie!" She moved, all but dancing as she twirled aside and away from the overhand swing. She flicked the orb at him and kept retreating. It exploded into a cloud of electrified mist moments after leaving her hand.

"Gah." She smirked as Shaxx stumbled. It might not have travelled very far, but Shaxx has been unlucky enough to be within range of the detonation. He twitched as small bolts of lightning coursed up and down his body for a moment.

The lightning was contained within the ice. Useful, and curious.

Watching the flames surge as the lightning died off a thought occurred to her. Could she manage a Hiryu Shoten Ha? There was certainly enough heat and power being thrown around, but could she do it without being able to draw out her own Ki? Could it be done? She had the temperature requirements, but he was using Light, not Ki. Could the same principles be applied here?

A wave of hot air slapped at her again. Her hair waved in the weak breeze.

"It's all about the physics at the end, isn't it?" she mused softly. Maybe it could work, but she wasn't going to gamble on it, not yet. She needed more information.

As Shaxx closed the distance again she called up the Light once more. Ice and lightning gathered in her palm again. Rather than ball it up like before she poured more into it and let it spread across her hands and arms. Time for a test.

Rather than retreat she charged to meet him. The hammer came in at hip level, but she was one step faster than Shaxx seemed to expect. One palm coated in an swirling mist of frost and lightning caught the shaft of the weapon and guided it gently upwards as she ducked. Frost hissed as lightning clashed with fire. The heat was scorching, but her palm remained unburnt for the moment as she weaved beneath the strike. Spinning on a foot she slammed her other palm into his chest plate while pushing the frozen light out of her palm and into the material.

Metal shattered as Shaxx's stiff and twitching body flew through the air. He crashed unceremoniously to the ground by the perimeter line of the arena. For a moment he lay there twitching slight before one unsteady hand pushed him up. The warhammer, lying a few feet away started glowing before breaking apart into motes of orange flame.

-0-0-0-0-0-​

"GET UP SHAXX! COME ON! DON'T TELL ME THAT BEAT YOU!" Ikora ignored the angry shouting of the New Monarchy representative as he had stood up.

What was Ranma doing? Ikora understood the three base elements of Light. Solar, Arc, and Void. None of them induced ice from her recall. There were those who claimed that they had witnessed ice crystals when using Arc, but the essence of the storm was often unpredictable and could at times produce unreplicatable effects. Yet, at its heart Arc was simply electricity. Lightning bent to a use by will or technology.

She held up a hand and called up a spark of Arc. The lightning danced from finger to finger. Shaxx was showing signs of being electrocuted, but that was ice. Where was the ice coming from? Yes people called Arc the essence of the storm because of how it was first tamed with Light, but it was the essence of the thunderstorm not the blizzard. So what was Ranma doing differently?

"How is she doing that?" Ikora wondered aloud as Shaxx struggled to his feet. For some unknown reason Ranma simply stood there waiting, her attention on the ice dancing in her right palm. "And what are you going to try next?"

-0-0-0-0-0-​

It was the perfect opportunity to finish Shaxx off. He was wounded, disarmed, and still showing all the signs of being recently electrocuted, but Ranma held back. Instead, her attention was on the frozen Light in her hand.

"How did he make the hammer?" she asked the empty air. She had felt it burn… well it had felt like reality had caught fire for a second. Flames that burned a hole in the world in the shape of a hammer.

A small twinge of pain in her temple made her twitch. Maintaining the Soul of Ice was a mentally straining exercise. Doing so and deliberately mixing the ice cold nature of her Ki with the well of Light she now had was completely uncharted territory and proving to be much more mentally exhausting than she had expected. Still, this was an opportunity to learn and she had been through so much worse mental strain when fighting Saffron.

She called up more Light, crystalizing it will her will as she crushed it in a fist. Ice grew rapidly becoming a pole one foot long, then two feet- She grimaced as the ice shattered. Why had it done that now?

An explosion of fire and heat heralded the return of Shaxx. She turned in time to spot the warhammer burning itself into existence once more. "You should have finished me," he said, sounding disappointed. She ignored him, instead focusing on the warhammer. She could feel it as reality burned, leaving behind detailed and engraved metal. She took that feeling and dissected it, sparks dancing in her palms as her fingers twitched sympathetically as she mentally mapped out the phenomena.

Shaxx snorted as she continued to ignore him. Hefting the warhammer with both hands he charged again. "If you want a closer look, do me a favour and stand still," he shouted. Each step was accelerated by an explosion of flames that cratered the already abused ground further. Moving faster than before he rocketed towards her, bringing the hammer around in a full two-handed overhead swing.

Ranma looked up and smirked. "Thanks for showing me again," she said before dodging to the side, spinning away on a heel as her hands moved like they were guiding a staff. Shimmering mist gathered between her hands. Lightning danced and spun with ten million ice crystals, dragging the icicles together. Flakes of ice were melted, frozen together with others, and melted again to repeat the process by a neverending arc of lightning that flowed constantly through the rapidly forming haft of a polearm. It was less detailed than the storied weapon Shaxx carried. Even as the glimmering hooked crystal blade of the ice ko-naginata formed there were no decorations. No inscriptions to the sun, or decorative artistry. It was simply a weapon.

The blade of the ko-naginata met the haft of the warhammer just behind the head as it descended. Ice and fire clashing in purest form for a heartbeat.

The glimmering blade of the ko-naginata shattered like a dropped crystal wine glass. The haft shattered a moment later as the cracks propagated down the length of the weapon. Ranma cursed and abandoned her attempt with barely enough time to escape with her life. Her leg had caught fire and was promptly extinguished with a wave of mist.

She had tried to replicate the hammer in reverse. Rather than burn an object into reality she had tried to simply freeze her Light, and reality with it, into a desired shape. Forging a weapon from the churning blizzard that was her Light at that moment. That attempt had failed, but maybe another? Perhaps if she had a better picture of the weapon in her mind?

As Shaxx's next swing came in she stepped back, calling up the ko-naginata again. The haft was smoother than before, though still rough like it had been chiselled from a larger piece of ice with stone tools. It too shattered. As did the next, and the next, and the next after that.

Ice and fire danced across the broken landscape. Flames melted the landscape only to be hardened by an icey mist, only to again be melted and frozen again. Ten minutes past as Ranma tried her technique again and again. With each repetition the haft smoothed, the blade grew shaper, the ice clearer, and small inscriptions began to appear across the almost metal-like ice that increasingly shimmered with the raging lightning within.

"Why. Won't. You. DIE!" Shaxx snarled as after another minute of clashing their weapons locked, the warhammer finally caught upon the tsuba of her naginata.

"I told you already," she grinned. She had finally built up a sweat from more than just the heat. Her muscles ached from keeping up high pace for so long and the strain of forming weapon after weapon from her Light had long since prompted a headache to form behind her eyes, pulsing in time to every flicker and flash of her opponent's weapon. And yet, she was enjoying herself. Sure one of them was going to die, but like Shaxx had said, they could come back from that. It was a fact she'd come to accept by watching the man in front of her die time after time.

"Death means I lost," she said, "I never lose. I never fail." She broke the stalemate, sweeping away out of the way of his strike gracefully before bringing her own overhead strike down in a slash towards his neck.

Shaxx twisted aside at the last second and threw himself back as the tip of her weapon struck the warped and twisted rock that had once been a concrete floor for the first time. A blast of mist rolled out from the impact zone. It quenched flames, cooled molten stone, and sent small bolts of lightning in all directions.

By some miracle Shaxx avoided the after affects as he leaped away. "Perhaps a different tactic then," he said. Ranma blinked as the warhammer shrunk to a one-handed warhammer. At the same time his left hand lit up with purple void light that expanded out into buckler.

Several people in the audience yelled, "BULLSHIT!" She ignored them even as laughter spread through the audience.

"SHAXX! SHAXX SHAXX!" the cheering was starting up again. She rolled her eyes. The faith people seemed to have in Shaxx was impressive if nothing else.

Shaxx weighed the hammer in his hand before hurling it towards her. She leaped aside. It whipped through her position and exploded into a flare of fire on impact with the perimeter barrier. A second hammer was in the air as soon as the first exploded.

She scowled at him as she dodged the hail of thrown hammers. Mildly glowing craters were blown out of the floor in rapid succession. So he was planning on keeping her at a distance. Depending on how much those hammers cost him might be able to wear her down a bit. It was hard to say, but on the off chance he could keep them up indefinitely she would have to go on the assault.

Fine, she could do that.

Zigging when she might have otherwise zagged, Ranma leaped straight towards Shaxx with her ko-naginata outstretched. The spear of ice met the buckler in a clash that lasted a heartbeat. A burst of frost blew outward from the contact, carrying dancing sparks of lightning with it.

Ranma stepped back and lashed out against his legs. He hopped backwards as she continued to press forward. Buckler and hammer met blade, butt and haft again and again. Fire and frost flared outwards, altering the landscape of the field yet more. The footing was so treacherous by then that every step had to be taken with care so as to not fall into a dip or a hole in the floor. Even the slightest stumble at the speed they were going would spell defeat for one or the other. And it was only getting more treacherous as waves of frost were melted, coating the floor in increasing layers of water that was promptly refrozen and re-melted again.

The battle shifted after a further five minutes of back and forth with neither landing a clear hit when Shaxx leaped backwards. He hurled his shield with a single smooth motion of his arm. Ranma threw herself under it, coming out of a roll only to find the small warhammer descending from on high right where she was. A desperate reversal of course saw her tossed around by the fiery explosion that followed.

"Ow," she winced as she stood up using the ko-naginata to prop herself up. Her breath was coming in deep gasps that slowly petered out. To her surprise Shaxx hadn't moved to attack her. He was kneeling on a rare dry spot, his chest heaving. They were both getting exhausted from the constant full power sprint that their battle had turned into.

"I'll admit," he said, with a cold chuckle that was just loud enough for her to hear, "You are as good as you claimed, heh, Rookie."

"Ready to give up then?" she asked as she stood up.

"Not a chance. A Guardian does not surrender," he replied, "He fights until his last breath, then rises again to face the darkness once more." He slowly stood up, one of his furred pauldrons sliding off to crumble against the ground. He slammed his fists together and to Ranma's surprise a storm of lightning erupted, flowing outwards from his form. "I have one last gambit, Saotome."

One final strike? She smirked. She could feel the whirling currents of the wind as the lingering heat and Light mingled throughout the room. Perfect conditions for her own ace. She stood straight and gave her ko-naginata an experimental twirl. The wind swirled with her action.

"One last pass, winner takes all?" she suggested.

Shaxx's laugh boomed through the arena, reverberating off the walls even over the cheering of the crowd. "Winner takes all indeed. Show me your strength, Rookie!"

Ranma grinned and started spinning the ko-naginata around her. Channeling a thread of cold Light through it to pull at the energies that had spilled out into the room. Slowly, they drew towards her as a spiralling morass that shimmered at the edge of her senses.

Shaxx braced himself against the floor as the tension built as they stared each other down across the arena. At least, she thought he was staring back at her. With that opaque helmet he could have just as easily been counting the people in the crowd behind her wearing orange. There weren't any, she had counted earlier, but that helmet did make things difficult to read with Shaxx. That was, she figured, probably the point of wearing a faceless helmet.

Lightning surged around Shaxx and Ranma felt the hairs on the back of her arms stand up even as she spun and danced with the ko-naginata. Then, with a surge of lightning bright enough to dim the lighting of the room, Shaxx launched himself like a missile, bleeding a storm of electricity behind him.

There was barely time to react, and certainly no time to think, as Shaxx crossed the distance with a speed only outpaced by Lightning itself. She spun with the ko-naginata held tight against her hip and thrust it forward, dragging the aura of the room with it, and added just the slightest twist to the strike. She could feel the energies of the room twist and pull as her preparations clicked over and passed out of her control.

With a grin up at the hurtling hurricane of lightning barely three meters from her she released the slightest burst of her own power to catalyse the reaction. With a 'zzrap-crack' and the roar of wind the entire world went white.

-0-0-0-0-0-​

Shaxx was really going all out, Ikora mused. She couldn't name the last time someone had forced him to get creative like this. Just sitting where she was so far away she could count more dirty tricks and misdirections than she could remember from the last time she had seriously fought Shaxx.

That had been about sixty years prior during an accidentally unscheduled Crucible match.

Ranma was proving to be every bit as dirty of a fighter, albeit one with considerably more grace and refinement than her old friend. She had a solution for every bit of misdirection and took everything in stride as though she had seen it all before and expected nothing less. Perhaps she had seen it all before. If half of what Cayde had shared, and he had admitted he hadn't shared much, was true then Ranma could scarcely be called uninitiated in battle.

No, the longer the battle lasted the clearer it became that the young redhead was not the underdog.

"Zavala's left the arena," Cayde said suddenly. She blinked and her eyes zipped to the sidelines where Zavala should have been. Technically he still was, but he was now standing outside of the perimeter of the barrier.

"So he has," she noted. He was probably looking to avoid dying in the crossfire. While it was rare, there were occasions when a referee for these sorts of duels would get killed in the crossfire.

She chuckled. Zavala probably didn't want to miss anything just because he took a stray hammer to the head. And speaking of hammers…

Shaxx had just ditched the Hammer of Sol and the Sentinel shield he had been using, throwing away both to gain some distance. She cocked an eyebrow as Ranma was blown off her feet. When Shaxx failed to follow up, and even fell to one knee, she let out a small sound of understanding.

"They're both exhausted," she noted.

"Yup. How long has it been since we saw Shaxx this tired?" Cayde asked.

Thinking about it she said, "... Never." This was a first as far as she could recall, though that may have been due to the fact that the crucible allowed ghosts to restore their Guardians. Duels where neither side had the aid of their ghosts were virtually unheard of and normally remained the realm of the certification examinations.

Down on the floor Shaxx slammed his fists together. The signature lightning aura of the Fists of Havoc surged around him. He and Ranma were talking, but their words were being drowned out by the crowd and by the crackle-zap of Shaxx's aura. Despite that, her old friend's laughter still managed to reverberate over the crowd even without amplification. Across from the laughing giant the much smaller Ranma was spinning the spear she had been slowly refining throughout the battle.

That spear had been probably the biggest surprise thus far. To see a new technique created, refined, and polished within twenty minutes to the point where it stood beside many other famous techniques was almost surreal. It was like watching history in fast forward. Such efforts were normally the domain of months or even years.

Not a twenty minute duel.

Her retrospection was broken as she felt something stir in the ring despite the barrier. "Cayde," she said as she stared at the redhead who seemed to be dancing with her weapon, "Ranma is doing something."

He raised one metallic eyebrow. "Really? I couldn't tell."

"I'm being serious here."

"So am I."

She rolled her eyes. "I can feel it despite the barrier." That brought her teammate up short.

"Oh."

"Yeah." The issue was she hadn't a clue what Ranma could be doing, and she was sure it was Ranma. This didn't feel like anything she would associate with the Fists of Havoc. And speaking of the fists, Shaxx looked about ready to-

Concrete shattered as Shaxx launched himself forward, a bright white and blue streak of light that zipped across the arena, searing itself into their retinas. A heartbeat before he reached Ranma the young redhead thrust her spear up towards the descending Shaxx.

Then the world disappeared in a brilliant white flash and the deafening roar of an unleashed hurricane. The world shook as winds lashed across the audience.

Moments later the bright spots in her vision disappeared as Ophiuchus, her ever silent ghost, let out a pulse of refreshing light. Her hearing returned at the same time and she found herself treated to the sight of a thoroughly wrecked arena. Even as she blinked a few times reflexively a large chunk of the ceiling above the arena fell, crashing through the unstable floor into the maintenance level below.

The main lights had been knocked out with red emergency lighting coming on automatically. A lot of the audience rubbing their eyes or clutching their ears. Ghosts throughout the audience were letting out pulses of light to speed the recovery of their Guardians. More important, however, than the state of the audience, was the massive ragged hole in the wall directly opposite Ranma Saotome. Terminating ten feet above the crowd and carrying on to rip open the maintenance level above, pure sunlight was pouring into the arena that was normally completely cut off from sunlight by thirty feet of rooms, walls, and five feet of external concrete plus the two feet of titanium alloy plating on the exterior of the tower.

While her angle was terrible, she could see the twenty foot trench ripped out of the ground in front of the redhead whose ghost was now healing her.

And to top it all off there was a small layer of frost spread over everything.

"Oh fuck me with a sparrow," Cayde breathed, "What the hell was that?"

"That, is a very good question," she replied, already moving for the stairs with the full intention of heading down to interrogate the remaining combatant. She absently wondered how long it would take Shaxx's ghost to bring him back from this. "Come on. Let's get down there and find out what-"

That was when the security lockdown alarms started blaring. "Alert! Alert! Detonation on level fifteen! All FOTC and Guardian personnel to combat stations! We are under attack!"

Ikora slowly dropped her face into her palm. "Damn it." This was going to take hours to sort out.

-0-0-0-0-0-​

Despite blinking rapidly the large bright spot in the middle of her vision wouldn't go away. Ranma shook her head and closed her eyes as a wave of nausea hit her. The loud flash and explosion of sound had shaken her entire body. She leaned unsteadily against her naginata. The ice was unusually warm to the touch.

"..."

She blinked. Someone had tried to say something. What was- She gasped as a wave of light washed over her. A soothing feeling flowed through her aching muscles, leaving her feeling tired but not sore as her visions returned and her ears stopped ringing.

"Are you alright?" Floating in front of her was her ghost Kiko.

"I am now?" she offered with a shake of her head. She stood a bit straighter now that she could actually see the room. Light fixtures were hanging loose from the ceiling, a light mist of snow was gently falling to the ground, and a massive trench had been dug into the patchy hole-filled floor. Yet most telling was the massive tunnel bored through the far wall, through which she had a perfect view of the Traveler over the skyscrapers of the city.

"What in the name of the Traveler was that?!" Kiko demanded.

She shrugged. "I tried an old trick. It, uh…" She bit her lip gently as she stared up at the gaping hole in the wall. "I wasn't expecting that," she admitted before glancing around. "Where's Shaxx?"

"As far as I can tell?" her ghost began with a deadpan, "You vaporized him."

She considered that before sighing. "I hope I don't lose marks for that." She ignored the sputtering of her ghost as she examined the wall above.

Then alarms started blaring as emergency lights started up. "Alert! Alert! Detonation on level fifteen! All FOTC and Guardian personnel to combat stations! We are under attack!" Ranma's expression fell.

She was so losing points for this.

-0-0-0-0-0-​

To her surprise it was the Speaker who came for her. Flanked by a pair of nervous Guardians he had asked her to follow him. Seeing no reason not to, Ranma had dismissed her ko-naginata and followed the old man. The crowd parted before him. From the arena he led her back up to the roof, and from there into his tower and down to a nice office several floors down.

"Please wait here, Ranma," the Speaker had said as he let her into the room, "This will take some time to sort out."

"I'm not in trouble for… That, am I?" She asked, a touch nervous.

"So long as no one has been unduly harmed you should be fine," he said before leaving.

The next two and a half hours were a painfully slow wait for Ranma as she wandered around the mostly barren office. There were a few decorations; books, painting, etc.; but it was clear that the Speaker did most of his work on the roof. Eventually though, she just found a chair in the corner of the room and sagged into it.

Shaxx had put up a lot more of a fight than she had really expected. His forms were shit, but the amount of power he was packing was enough to make Saffron think twice about a fight. It was only thanks to Kiko that her everything wasn't sore, but god did she feel exhausted anyway. At least she wasn't going to have to fix her clothing since Kiko's magic seemed to work on clothes just as well as it did injuries.

Eventually, the door to the office opened and in walked Zavala, followed by Ikora and Cayde. The Speaker followed shortly after, the door being held by a Guardian who disappeared a moment later.

"That was quite the duel," the Speaker said conversationally as he made his way over to his desk. Ranma went to rise, but he waved her back down. "Sit. You must be tired after all that."

"I've felt worse," she said, shrugging. The last time she had had a fight this intense it nearly ended in her being barbequed. Come to think of it, Shaxx was about as fond of fire as Saffron had been.

"It is rare for a battle between two Guardians to drag on so long without one or the other falling," Zavala said as he took a spot in front of her. The purple man crossed his arms behind his back as he fell into a parade ground rest. Ikora found a chair to sit in, crossing her legs so as to have a better place to rest her tablet.

And Cayde was busy examining a painting in the corner humming something out of tune. It sounded oddly familiar.

"First, let us get the elephant in the room out of the way," the Speaker said from his desk, "No one has been killed by your final strike, other than Shaxx. His ghost confirms that he believes he can restore Shaxx, but he needs to first find where his body landed."

"... Landed?" she asked. The Speaker nodded.

"His shattered body was tracked by camera's flying in the direction of the Traveller. We believe he landed somewhere near the city center. His ghost is working alongside crews to locate him since it would appear you knocked out his transponder. Without it he is having a tough time isolating Shaxx's essence from the rest of the world well enough to simply restore him from nothing. It would have been less of an issue if you hadn't sent him flying so far." Ranma winced.

"I'm sure it won't take more than a few additional hours," Ikora said as she tapped something on her tablet, "Congratulations on your victory, Ranma."

"Thanks." She nodded to the african woman.

"Now, would you mind telling us why Shaxx challenged you to a duel?" Ikora asked.

Ranma drummed her fingers against the arm of her chair nervously. "Well… It started when I approached him to sign up for the certification stuff. We got into a debate about my skill and… yeah." She shrugged. "It kinda spiralled from there. Honestly not the worst reason I've been challenged. Kinda nice to just have a friendly disagreement for once."

"Friendly she says," Cayde said, chuckling. "Seriously, I do not want to see what you consider hostile." Ranma shrugged.

"I'll make sure to ask Shaxx for the details then," Zavala said firmly, "For now I'm more curious about a few things that happened during the match. While we cannot make you share the specifics of what you did, we would prefer a few explanations."

She glanced at her ghost. Kiko 'shrugged' and Ranma mirrored her. "Shoot," she said with a wave.

"You mentioned Ki. What is it?" Zavala asked.

She breathed out heavily. "Ki is… I could spend days talking theory and technical explanation, but the short version is Ki is just life. The energy of living. You've got it. I've got it. The random people down in the street have it. Pets, wild animals, everything has Ki if it's alive," she said.

"That is fairly similar to the concepts I recall," Ikora said, "But I was under the impression it was all superstition centered around healthy living."

"You're thinking Qi. That's the philosophical version," Ranma said, "That's just a state of mind. Ki can be manipulated if you have enough training. Usually as a martial artist or as a priest of some kind."

"And you have training to use it?" The Speaker asked. She nodded. "Interesting."

"You mentioned that the Light was getting in your way earlier?" Ikora asked.

Ranam nodded. "My Ki is still there, inside me. The Light hasn't replaced it, but Ki requires force of will to pull out. The Light is… It's closer to the surface I guess? Whenever I reach for my Ki I keep getting the Light. It isn't an issue when I want to use my Ki internally, but the moment I try to express it outside my body.." she shook her head.

"You get the Light instead. Curious," Ikora mused, "Hopefully we can talk some more about this Ki. It sounds quite fascinating."

"How common was this 'Ki' in your time?" Zavala asked.

"Common enough," she shrugged, "Nerima certainly had a lot of people who knew how to and I ran into them everywhere I went."

"It makes you wonder how such skills disappeared over time," Ikora mused.

"Not really? It takes years of work. Decades for most people," Ranma said with a shrug. Most of them lacked talent and a good teacher. Crazy or not, her pops had been a good teacher for most things. Ignoring the Neko-ken.

"That long? Damn. That's back before the Traveller, right?" Cayde asked. She nodded. "Yeah, I can see why you wouldn't want to spend that much time."

"If it takes decades, then how are you this powerful?" Ikora asked.

Ranma smirked. "I'm the best there is. I'm just that good at it," she said with a little shrug.

"I like her attitude. Please tell me she's going to be a Hunter," Cayde said before turning to her, "Please tell me you're going to be a hunter."

"Uh… Hunter?" She asked.

"I assume you haven't received the introduction lecture as of yet? It would normally have occurred after you signed up for the certification, but I imagine Shaxx was in too much of a rush given the spectacle that just occurred," Zavala said.

"You would be right, Commander Zavala," Kiko said politely.

The purple man sighed. "Very well then. There are three classes into which Guardians are classified. Hunters, represented in the Vanguard by Cayde."

"Yo." The Exo waved.

"The Warlocks, represented by Ikora," he continued. Ikora simply smiled. "And the Titans, represented by myself. Each group fulfills a different role within the city. The Titan Orders are the defenders of the City's walls. We place the protection of the city and humanity itself above all else. Ikora, would you prefer to explain the Warlocks?"

"That I would," she replied, "Warlocks are scholars and scientists at heart. We delve the many mysteries of the world. From the secrets of manipulating Light, to the lost history of the world. Like the Titans we have orders dedicated to different ways to approach these duties. Though unlike Titans not all of us belong to an order. Cayde?"

"Hmm, oh yeah. So!" Cayde clapped his hands together and rubbed them thoroughly. The sound of clashing metal was only slightly obnoxious. "Hunters are… Well we're free spirits. We don't like hanging around the city too much. Gets a bet crowded. You know what I mean."

"A bit," she admitted. After spending a lot of time in the wilds training there were times when she found the crowds of Tokyo a bit annoying.

"Great. Awesome. So you can understand why we do a lot of the scouting and sneaky-sneak stuff," the exo continued, "Gets us out of the city. Well, except for me." He sighed. "But someone's gotta do it."

"Quite," Ikora said, an amused tone to her voice.

"The last part of the certification process requires a Guardian to declare an allegiance to one particular class," Zavala continued, "So that they might have a representative within the Vanguard to whom they can speak about any issues that arise. Since such a decision is life defining and not easy to change all Guardians are required to spend at least a week, and no more than four weeks, with an official member of each class before making the decision. So do not worry about it right now. As a new Guardian you can come to any one of us until your certification is complete."

"And I promise to only do a light sell," Cayde said with a grin.

"Thanks," she said sarcastically.

"I'm sure our new Guardian is happy to have this information, but shall we get back on the topic we came to discuss?" the Speaker asked.

"Of course, Speaker," Zavala nodded.

"We wanted to speak to you about the techniques you showed off earlier," Ikora said, "You were clearly utilizing some form of Arc Light, but I've never seen Arc Light involve an ice effect before. Can you explain why?"

"Oh, that," she shrugged, "There's a technique called the Soul of Ice. It requires you to have perfect control of your emotions. By remaining calm you chill your Ki by depriving it of the hotter emotions like anger, embarrassment, or even fear. It's part one of a technique called the Hiryu Shoten Ha."

"Heaven's… something dragon blast?" Cayde translated, "Weird name."

"It was invented by the Joketsuzoku tribe in China," Ranma replied, "Anyway, when I use the Soul of Ice it seems to chill my Light as well. At least when I try to reach for my Ki at the same time. I wasn't expecting most of what I did back in the arena. Really I was just trying to find a counter for that damned hammer of his." She huffed and crossed her arms. "That thing was way too hot."

"It is known as the Hammer of Sol for a reason," Zavala said, "I take it then that all of the techniques you demonstrated were invented on the spot then?"

"Most," she confirmed, "The last one was an attempt at the Hiryu Shoten Ha. I'm… Not entirely sure what happened there?" She shrugged helplessly. She was still trying to put together what exactly had happened. "It was supposed to just be a tornado, not… That."

"Just a tornado. Just," Cayde groaned, "Who considers a tornado a 'just'. What sort of things have you fought that make tornadoes sound unimportant?"

"People who can level mountains," she said. Herb and Saffron were ridiculous fights.

"... I think you mentioned that," the Exo mumbled.

Ikora cleared her throat. "Based on the video footage it appears to have created a very short lived plasma burst combined with high winds and a chilling effect on the surroundings. Like a tornado formed in a thundersnow."

"... No one died, right?" she asked, frowning with worry. She had just wanted to beat Shaxx, not kill someone.

"Everyone is unharmed," the Speaker confirmed.

"That's good to hear," Kiko said before Ranma could.

"Yeah," she agreed with her ghost.

"I believe we're done here now," the Speaker said, drawing everyone's attention, "I'm sure Ikora will love to pick your brain on the specifics at a later date, but I think after today it may be best to allow some time for rest."

"I had planned on doing some shopping," Ranma said, "Though I'm not exactly sure where to go."

"I would be more than happy to help," Ikora offered with a smile, "but perhaps tomorrow? I'm afraid there is quite a bit of work that has undoubtedly backlogged with this afternoon's chaos."

Ranma chuckled awkwardly at that. "I'll try not to punch anymore holes in the Tower?" she offered weakly? What would her pops have said if he saw how much damage she'd done?

Her awkward smile wavered as she thought of her pops and the rest. The fight had been a nice distraction, but she felt a little guilty for not thinking about them.

The door opened. "Vanguard Ikora," said the woman who stepped through. Ranma looked up with the rest of the room. Her breath caught in her throat as she recognized the long blue hair. "I brought the research material you wanted."

She knew this woman, though she had only seen her like this once before. Looking only a few years older than Ranma herself. Once, a very, very long time before.

"Cologne?"

-0-0-0-0-0-​

A/N: So here it is, a bit late but that was unavoidable since Gekkou suffered a hand injury and couldn't proofread for a while. (I am honestly surprised she managed to do so so quickly).

So due to the advice of my editor and the permission of my patrons, I'll be taking a few months off from actually posting anything. I'm still going to be writing, just not posting. I'm going to be building up a backlog for a while. Getting things into order and taking some time to work on my novel which has unfortunately fallen by the wayside in the frantic scramble to keep up with my every two weeks posting schedule… Which is probably a good reason to back off a bit. I've already got some work done, but you won't be seeing it until at least July when I'll post the next chapter of TTP. (Just in time for BBQ season~)

Stay safe everyone~

 

[Echidna]

Ahhhhhh, curse you cliffhanger! In all seriousness, this was a fantastic chapter, it was good to see the contrast of the normal Attitude Guardians have versus Ranma's, and I am very excited to see what new things she will come up. So, we have Cologne, who probably won't remember Shampoo, so my question is if we should expect any of the others from Nerima.

 

[Rakan]

Amazing chapter! The fight was pretty awesome, and now I want to see how things go down with Cologne. I was not expecting that cliffhanger.

 

[Twei]

aaa I had to reread the whole thing

Cliffhanger make me shake fist ;w;

That fight was pretty wild, though, I definitely approve!

 

[Pyro Hawk]

There's that 'new' type of Light, or was it Darkness from Light or something?, that's Ice based isn't it? Well, something like it might be found earlier than in canon thanks to Ranma's discovery I suspect. And with how potent she was just using Ki with minimal Light makes me believe that there's going to be a fair few Guardians working to learn how to use their own Ki in the near future. Which will help if their Light is stolen/sealed/lost like happened in the canon Destiny universe...

 

[Blaflaix]

And that ignored the much more… varied weapons and tricks she had picked up over the years, but she doubted he would be too impressed if she listed 'tea stir stick' amongst the rest.

Click to shrink...

I'm sure he'd be impressed by the cheerleader's baton!

"... Why is it always the quiet ones?" she asked as she fought a smile. This was going to be a day Shaxx was never going to live down, she was going to make sure of it.

"Since when was she quiet?"

Click to shrink...

"Well, saying 'why is it always the brash, belligerent ones' just sounds stupid."

I guess I'm just going to have to settle for Shaxx getting his ass kicked by a little girl." He paused. "Literally."

Click to shrink...

"I hate it when people use 'literally' incorrectly."

"What? She is female, reasonably young, and fairly small."

"Yeah, but it's not his ass that she's kicking."

"Oh right. I guess I'm just going to have to settle for Shaxx getting his nuts crushed by a little girl. Literally."

"Thank you."

We got into a debate about my skill and… yeah." She shrugged. "It kinda spiralled from there. Honestly not the worst reason I've been challenged. Kinda nice to just have a friendly disagreement for once."

Click to shrink...

Well for one thing they were actually arguing about fighting.

 

[Windborne]

Fun chapter, love it. One thing I feel I should point out. Guardians do not need to declare as a particular Class. Pre City there were no distinctions, they were called Risen or Lightbearers. Frankly Ranma would never limit himself (herself) to just one Class, she'd learn from all of them and just incorporate the techniques into her Anything Goes style. Breaking molds is very much in Ranma's wheelhouse, and becoming just a Lightbearer who can do crazy things with her Light would be much more in character than her picking to go just one single route.

I'll restate my desire to see other characters from Ranma other than Ryouga (who is pretty boring all things considered), I'd much rather see Shampoo and/or Ukyo show up. Hell even Happosai would be more entertaining than Ryouga, he'd probably drive Ikora bonkers which would be hilarious.

And for those wondering Ranma didn't just pull Stasis out of nowhere, that was her Ki reacting strangely to Light. Stasis is pretty much Darkness shaped into absolute zero crystals.

 

[JumperPrime]

And for those wondering Ranma didn't just pull Stasis out of nowhere, that was her Ki reacting strangely to Light. Stasis is pretty much Darkness shaped into absolute zero crystals.

Click to shrink...

Drifter: "You say po-tay-toe, I say po-tah-to. Looked to me like that girl sure froze Shaxx out. Get it? Froze him out? Cuz she froze him and then railgunned him straight out of the Tower through several walls?""

 

[ThePastryKing]

Just stumbled onto this, really happy to see a destiny fic exploring the effects of knowing that everyone you knew is gone, and not in a "oh, I guess there were people I loved before" kind of way. Even if it's not a focus or anything I was always interested in the lore where things like that happened for Destiny.

Also really cool to see it's a Ranma fic, especially with how wacky feats of strength get in both it and Destiny.

 

[Windborne]

Drifter: "You say po-tay-toe, I say po-tah-to. Looked to me like that girl sure froze Shaxx out. Get it? Froze him out? Cuz she froze him and then railgunned him straight out of the Tower through several walls?""

Click to shrink...

I mean yes it was much more icy than normal but it was still Arc Light, Ikora even goes into this in the chapter, but yeah it's a weird Ki and Light interaction not Stasis. Everyone would've instantly recognized it if Ranma had actually used Stasis, because they would've been freaking out and trying to kill her. It feels fundamentally wrong to Guardians when they are surrounded by the Darkness or it's used near them.

This is way before Dark Below where we first see the Darkness used in an indirect manner by Guardians much less like it's used even in the Forsaken era during Gambit in a very direct manner let alone in Beyond Light Era where the Guardian wields it. There's an actual lore reason why Darkness Zones require players to resurrect other players when they die, and it's because there's something very wrong in those areas that is instantly recognizable. It takes more light than a single Ghost can channel to resurrect Guardians in those areas.

 

[tfesmo]

Literally verbally celebrated when I saw this update. This fic and Grace and Elegance both had really cruel cliffs.

Presumably Cologne is a Guardian here, correct? Which means she probably doesn't have her memory of Ramna's time. Alternatively it could be one of her descendants, although I'm not sure how they'd be able to tell the difference.

It's kind of funny to think of Cologne getting turned into a Guardian and that effectively being a downgrade to when she was alive.

 

[Kotar]

Presumably Cologne is a Guardian here, correct? Which means she probably doesn't have her memory of Ramna's time. Alternatively it could be one of her descendants, although I'm not sure how they'd be able to tell the difference.

Click to shrink...

I'm going to guess descendant, since I'm not sure if the Ghosts bring people back in the prime of their life when they first resurrect their Guardian. I don't recall ever seeing a guardian that looked like they were past their early thirties, so there's either an age restriction or they actually do bring their Guardian back in the prime of their life.

 

[tamarak73]

I gotta be honest I was worried about how they would take stasis. I was expecting a Darkness reveal mid flight then BAM Golden gun take out do to shadows of Yor parallels.

But since Darkness can be sensed to a degree it would seem that the ice was light based enough to cover the Darkness. Also Viral chant detected.

 

[Windborne]

I'm going to guess descendant, since I'm not sure if the Ghosts bring people back in the prime of their life when they first resurrect their Guardian. I don't recall ever seeing a guardian that looked like they were past their early thirties, so there's either an age restriction or they actually do bring their Guardian back in the prime of their life.

Click to shrink...

Most likely a descendant. I'm pretty sure age is irrelevant given a few characters we know about. First Osiris is most certainly not in his prime, I mean he can get around it with skill but he's definitely an old man. Also there's Shin Malphur who was resurrected as a baby. Probably the only reason he aged to become a teenager is because while the Light is a force of life he wasn't constantly affected by it due to "his" Ghost dying when he was still an infant, and pure Light is not a good thing. It's potentially cancerous if we take Unveiling as gospel, but the Prophecy dungeon certainly showed it wasn't a good thing either as it led to stagnation and nothing changing or ending.

But Ki being a force of life means that the Darkness is probably something Ranma will never be able to wield. Not that she needs it, we as players need it because it allows us to bypass certain barriers and that's never a problem with Ranma when she can just use the Bakusai Tenketsu to blast a hole in something.

 

[Neruz]

That spear had been probably the biggest surprise thus far. To see a new technique created, refined, and polished within twenty minutes to the point where it stood beside many other famous techniques was almost surreal. It was like watching history in fast forward. Such efforts were normally the domain of months or even years.

Not a twenty minute duel.

Click to shrink...

Welcome to Ranma, there's a reason why literally every Martial Artist agreed by the end of the story that Ranma Is The Best At Martial Arts; even Happosai eventually conceded that Ranma was more talented than himself and the only reason he could take Ranma in a fight was the difference in experience between them, a difference that would inevitably wane.

Ranma is ridiculous.



Nice to see Ranma finally getting a hang of Light, also nice to see everyone else's perfectly sensible 'what the fuck' reactions to Ranma inventing an entirely new technique from base principles and observations of her opponent and then refining the technique into fully functional status over the course of a single melee.

Normally when someone says they're the best, its bragging. When Ranma says she's the best, it is just a statement of fact; Ranma really is just that good.


Looking forward to seeing what happens when other Guardians start figuring out Ki, because you know they will now that they know it exists and I can't see Ranma not at least providing a basic crash-course in How To Ki. Plus I would expect that knowing how to use Light probably makes accessing and using Ki easier, if only because of familiarity with accessing esoteric energies within oneself.

There's that 'new' type of Light, or was it Darkness from Light or something?, that's Ice based isn't it? Well, something like it might be found earlier than in canon thanks to Ranma's discovery I suspect. And with how potent she was just using Ki with minimal Light makes me believe that there's going to be a fair few Guardians working to learn how to use their own Ki in the near future. Which will help if their Light is stolen/sealed/lost like happened in the canon Destiny universe...

Click to shrink...

I believe the ice was a product of Soul of Ice Ki mixing with Arc Light; the ice was the Ki and the electricity was the Arc Light and together they formed, well, ice-lightning.

I initially thought that Ranma had 'inverted' Solar Light, but the electrical effects were pretty clearly Arc Light, which means the ice was Ki, not Light.


Apparently Ki and Light play quite well together once you figure out how, with what looks to be an overall multiplicative effect rather than mere addition; because wow even by Hiryū Shōten Ha standards that last attack was ridiculous.


e: In case anyone was wondering; young Cologne looked like this:



Gotta love the Asian aging process

 

[shinkicker444]

I hope it is a descendant, would be more interesting to me than Cologne herself.

 

[tfesmo]

Looking forward to seeing what happens when other Guardians start figuring out Ki, because you know they will now that they know it exists and I can't see Ranma not at least providing a basic crash-course in How To Ki.

Click to shrink...

It might be extremely difficult for Guardians to learn Ki since they're used to Light. Remember Ranma's descriptions - Ki is "under" Light, and she kept getting the latter when she reached for the former.

For someone who has never used Ki but is used to Light, that's going to be ridiculously hard. Not because Ki is fundamentally different, but because it's so similar to what they already have.

Although they are used to multiple flavors of Light, so maybe using that context will help.