What has happened before:  Several of the main characters
from the cast of Ranma have been drawn to a world
populated by magic and magical beings.  Now, Ranma (known
as Raeni) must gather his friends (and enemies) to do
battle with an unknown foe.  Transformed into toddlers,
and with their memories gone, they were raised as natives
for ten years.

Last time:  Raeni met up with Aarun's allies, who turn out
to be a tribe of captured orcs.  After consulting with the
leader, she now knew more about their enemy, and they
planned an offensive.  Uerris, meanwhile, continued to
battle Daved.  It was mostly one-sided.  The assassin's
inhuman abilities have driven her into flight.  In her
fear, she managed to summon her native weapons and now
turned to fight with renewed heart.

Sword and Sorcery
Chapter 17

by D.Fire
phongb9@idt.net

	Raeni and Aarun returned to the opening of the
tunnel, near the surface of the ground.  After Gihari had
finished her story, Raeni had decided to set out
immediately for the surface, overriding Aarun's idea of
resting for a short while.  Although Uerris might still be
holding her own against the assassin in the 'real' world,
as evidenced by an unchanging state 'within', it would not
do to assume she was doing well.  

	Raeni theorized that if Uerris had killed the
assassin, this place would start coming apart at the
seams.  On the other hand, if the young ranger had lost,
Daved would be back here to brag or to finish Raeni off. 
That neither had happened was a good sign, but she wanted
to try to escape before something bad happened and their
luck ran out.

	After Aarun had stowed his torch, both ranger and
mage approached the opening to the surface.  Aarun, being
once more the polite gentleman, lowered to one knee and
prepared to give the sorceress a boost to the surface.  A
glare from Raeni nixed that effort though. "Are all the
guys in your family slow learners or what?" asked Raeni
acidly.

	Rising to his feet, Aarun used his hands to feel for
the holds he had used before to climb out of the pit. 
Although he was offended by the question, he wondered at
what the girl meant in saying "all the guys".

	After he scrabbled in the darkness for a short time,
Raeni grew impatient.  Laying a hand on the ranger's
shoulder, she stopped his efforts and gave an exasperated
sigh.  "Never mind that.  Just hold on."  She held out an
arm and when Aarun didn't respond, she added disgustedly,
"The arm! Hold on it and I'll get us out of here.  Just
don't yell if we take off unexpectedly."

	Believing that the young mage was about to cast a
spell of levitation or some such, the ranger reluctantly
took hold of the proffered arm.  He did almost let out a
shout at what happened next.

	Raeni clamped one hand tightly onto his arm and
surreptitiously secured a hold on his belt with her other
hand.  Without warning, she bunched her legs slightly and
leapt into the air.  They shot out of the hole like a fish
jumping out of water.  This was where Aarun was about to
yell.  The ground rushed at them, and although Raeni had
put them up there, he didn't think they would be able to
land safely.  At the last second, Raeni shifted her weight
so that she would meet the ground first, and an image
flashed through his mind of her legs breaking like twigs,
but that never happened.

	Raeni landed softly, cushioning the impact for Aarun
as well.  When she felt his footing was secure, she let go
of his arm, only to have him fall to the ground.

	Quickly, the mage bent over and checked her
passenger.  "What's wrong, Aarun?"

	"I-I... Y-you..."

	Raeni shook him lightly, gently saying, "Snap out of
it, Aarun.  It was only a little jump."

	"B-but you..."  His next words hurt Raeni the most. 
Without thinking, he blurted out, "What are you, a
monster?"  Although his daughter had exhibited unusual
strength, it wasn't anywhere near this level.  He wasn't
too sure Uerris could carry a passenger as easily.

	Raeni's eyes hardened, and she replied, "No, Aarun. 
But I could be very easily."  The last was admitted
reluctantly.  The first time Master Hariule had taken her
to a nearby town had been easily the worst encounter she
had ever had with human nature.  They had called her a
monster then, too.

	The mage had only been a naive ten-year-old, excited
by the prospect of someplace new.  So upon entering town,
she had ignored her teacher's warnings and proceeded to
examine the town, by rooftop of course.  As she had
bounded from one roof to the next, taking in the sights,
she had eventually noticed people looking and pointing her
way.  Her first thought had been that someone had been
following her, but when she had looked back, she hadn't
seen anybody.  Only when she'd come closer to one group
and heard yells of "red-haired demon" and cries of fear
had she realized that they had been, indeed, yelling about
her.

	One moment, she was happy to finally be with people. 
The rejection of those same people had hurt, and she
responded with a child's instinct, causing her to reveal a
side of herself that she hadn't known existed.  In that
moment of realization, she had almost become what the
others had called her.  Anger had surged through her
veins, feeding a small ball of lightning forming in the
palm of one hand.  She had been so furious that she hadn't
even noticed it.  Only the paling of the faces of below
her and the scattering of the mob did she finally realize
what she was doing.  She had sighed forlornly and let the
accumulated energy fade away and turned to find her
adopted father behind her, giving her look tinged with
both approval and sadness.

	Although still new to her power, she could have
easily leveled the town, and on that day, she had found
that she had a dark side as deadly and powerful as the
monsters of legend.  Hariule's sad eyes had drained what
little fury had remained in her heart.  Those people had
never known how close to creating a real monster they had
come.

	But in time, Raeni had come to revel in her
difference.  She'd come to accept that she'd always be
stronger than most, faster than most, and the most damning
of all, more powerful than most.  When her memories of
Ranma's life had come crashing back, it had thrilled her
to learn that there were possibly six more individuals
similar to her.  But that sad day in that town had never
left her heart, a painful lesson of life that would never
be forgotten.

	'Enough reminiscing,' Raeni chided herself.  It did
no good to think unpleasant thoughts at the moment. 
Things were looking bleak enough by themselves.

	Aarun had remained silent while Raeni was lost in
thought, but now he tentatively said, "I-I'm sorry for
calling you monstrous.  That was rude and thoughtless of
me."

	Without batting an eye, Raeni replied, "Damn straight
it was!"

	The ranger flinched at the tone.

	"Oh, forget it, Aarun.  It was never said, okay?  I'm
no Akane, so you won't need to worry about me malletin'
ya!"  When the man looked puzzled at her last statement,
Raeni gave out a short bark of laughter at her mysterious
statement.  "Never mind.  Come on.  We've a mess to clean
up."  Straightening up, she yanked Aarun to his feet. 
"Okay.  Which way, O guide of mine?"

	Aarun found his bearings and led the way, but he was
pulled up short by Raeni laying a restraining hand on his
shoulder.  Concerned, he asked, "What's wrong, Raeni?"

	"Nothing yet.  But it just suddenly occurred to me. 
I don't want to go into the heart of this place without at
least trying out my tricks first.  Therefore..."  Without
warning, she uttered, "Mirus."  A ball of light formed
above her hand, and she pointed upwards.  The ball jumped
from her palm and sped upwards to hover about ten feet
above their heads.

	Aarun wanted to yell at the girl, but she was right. 
It would do no good to charge into the ravine where these
creatures congregated unless they knew they had a viable
weapon.  His previous efforts with his enchanted sword had
proved fruitless.  He hoped that only several would come. 
Unfortunately, if enough of these creatures appeared, they
would be able to ring and entrap him and girl.  "Worse
comes to worse," he reasoned aloud, "we might be able to
dive into the tunnel."

	He saw Raeni's nod as she waited patiently for
something to appear.  It looked like Raeni was having fun.
Didn't she realize how deadly these things were?  Instead
of looking nervous, the mage was standing there slowly
cracking her knuckles in anticipation, a smile pasted
securely on her face.

	As the girl began limbering up, Aarun reached his
limit.  "What are you doing?!" he yelled at her.

	Giving a look that said, "Whaaat?", Raeni replied
succinctly, "You don't want me to get a cramp in the
middle of battle, do you?"

	Aarun spluttered a reply, "N-no, of course not!"

	"Well then, leave me alone!"

	"But don't you realize these things are dangerous?!"

	Raeni gave him a cold stare.  "Of course I do.  But
I'm just bettin' I'm more dangerous."

	The nerve of this girl!  Despite her strength,
despite her magic, he still couldn't believe her
arrogance.

	"If you don't think I can handle it..."  Raeni
pointed at the opening in the ground.  "There's a hole. 
Go jump in it!"

	Fuming, Aarun turned red in anger.  'I should leave
this arrogant witch to her doom!  But no, I won't leave. 
When she gets in trouble, I'll be here to bail out her
prideful butt!' he thought confidently.

	Seeing that the ranger was not leaving, Raeni's whole
demeanor changed.  Tiredly she said, "Look.  I think you
really should go jump in that hole."

	This sudden change caught Aarun off guard.  "W-what?"

	"Don't you get it?  I want you to vamoose."  His face
grew more perplexed.  Raeni continued, "I want you to make
like a tree and leave.  Beat it.  Scram."  When she still
received no response, she yelled, "I want you to GO AWAY!"
Again she pointed at the crack.  "Preferably down that
hole."

	"Are you crazy?  I've fought these things before! 
You need me here.  With me alone, I didn't stand a chance!
But with both of us..."  His voice trailed off as he saw
two of the lumbering beasts approaching steadily from a
distance.  Scanning all round, he saw two more from
another direction and still yet another from a third
direction.  The first group looked to arrive by itself
while the second and third groupings would arrive
together.  He pointed them out.

	"I know," came the reply.  "Why do you think I was so
desperately trying to get back there?"  Sighing, she
explained, "With this many, I'll have to worry about you
as well, and I can't afford that."

	Raeni's blunt assessment staggered the ranger.  'This
girl IS crazy!' he thought.  He opened his mouth to
protest but she cut him off.

	"Look!  You fought one of those things yourself,
right?"  At his nod, she quickly continued, "And did you
even scratch it?"  Negation.  "Well, this time, do you
have any new tricks hidden behind your sleeve?  Think
you'll do any better?"  This time, the answer was slow in
coming.  "Then get down that hole!  Worse comes to worse,
I'll join you and we think up another plan!  But I won't
be able to join you if they capture you first!  Got it?!"

	By now, the first group had managed to cover half the
distance they were at previously.

	Finally, Aarun slumped his shoulders in defeat.  He
couldn't find a flaw in her reasoning.  But he wanted to
be on hand if something went wrong.  "What happens if they
knock you unconscious and I have to rescue you?  I won't
be able to if I'm down there."

	She retorted, "And what could you do to rescue me?" 
It wasn't working.  The ranger refused to budge.  For one
moment, she battled an urge to grab him and toss him down
there herself, but then with an exasperated toss of her
hands, she compromised, "Okay.  You stay on the surface,
but you stay away from me, deal?"  A reluctant nod.  "With
the racket coming from me, they shouldn't even bother with
you, but if they start chasin' you, I want you out of
here!"

	Galled at taking orders from someone half his age,
Aarun tersely nodded a final time.  With the way she had
manhandled him before, he did not doubt that she would
again, if she thought it necessary.  He reluctantly moved
away from Raeni as she watched him warily to make sure he
didn't try anything 'heroic'.

	After the older man had moved back to the edge of the
opening, he turned around and watched the creatures
approach Raeni.  So far, as she predicted, they were
heading for her and did not even deviate toward him,
although as far as he could tell, she hadn't done anything
to attract them.  Actually, she was still watching him and
seemed unaware of the golem 'sneaking' up behind her.

	Aarun was about to let out shout when the closest of
the creatures began its first attack on Raeni.  It pulled
a fist back, clearly planning to bludgeon her, but as its
fist passed near her head, Raeni leaned.

	'Whoa.  Did I just see that correctly?' wondered the
older man.  Shaking his head to clear out the
hallucination, he watched again as the creature's second
attack mimicked the first, but with the opposite fist.

	Raeni leaned the other way.

	'It happened again!'  The ranger couldn't believe it.
Seeming to have an extra joint down by her ankles, Raeni
had just dodged two powerful blows without even shifting
her feet!

	Seeming to have reached a conclusion, Raeni finally
moved from her initial position.  Transitioning from
almost complete stillness to blinding speed, the girl
jumped away from golem attacking her.  She landed about
ten paces away.  The mage immediately turned back around
to face her opponent.  Sighting her prey, she ran full
speed at it and leapt into the air after covering half the
distance.  Raeni's jump this time took her high into the
air, at least 30 paces.  At the top of her arc, the mage
took ahold of her two-handed blade in both hands and held
it for an overhand swing.  She came down like arrow from
heaven.

	Dropping almost too fast to see, Raeni's graceful
form plummeted from the sky, her blade held before her. 
Her positioning was perfect.  The two-handed sword met the
golem's head and cleaved it in twain.  The blade continued
down the length of the body, barely slowing the force
behind the blow, until the golem, once whole, lay in two
equal pieces on the ground.  But Raeni had misjudged her
intended force.  The blade cut down, through thin air and
into the soft ground.  A huge dust cloud formed from her
blow, completely obscuring the area around her.

	Inside the cloud, the other golem attacked and Aarun
heard the sounds of battle, mostly thuds of something on
metal.  Soon after, the young mage staggered out of the
cloud, coughing terribly.  "<cough>  <cough>  <hack> Oru!"
she yelled, pointing her finger at the looming shape
forming from the clouds.  A small ball of fire shot from
her finger, growing exponentially as it left her hand.  By
the time it had reached the obscured form, the fireball
had grown to its full size.  It impacted loudly on the
golem, and a faint burnt smell reached Aarun at his
position.

	The golem showed no reaction as it burst out of the
cloud and chased after Raeni.  Although flames still
wreathed its form, it paid no heed nor did it need to. 
The magical fire seemed to be doing nothing to harm it.

	Raeni dodged the flaming fists aimed at her.  She
seemed to pause to consider something, and then made up
her mind.  The mage quickly sped around the enflamed
creature but took measured steps.  On her face, Aarun
could see an intense look of concentration.  Suddenly, she
threw up one hand, shouting, "Hiryu Shoten Ha!"

	A wind came out of nowhere and circled the raging
monster, quickly intensifying to hurricane speeds.  At the
same time, a column of blue flames rose from the ground
within the encircling winds, buffeting the trapped golem. 
The ranger watched in awe as the creature slowly floated
up from the ground,.  The wind made Raeni's hair flutter
wildly, but most of its energy was directed around the
standing golem.  At first, the creature rose slowly, but
with increasing speed, her attack pushed it quickly high
into the air.  10 paces, 20 paces, 40 paces.  Soon, all
Aarun could see was a speck, almost indistinguishable in
the backdrop of the coloration of the sky.

	Raeni also followed its trajectory upwards with her
eyes.  He watched as she strained her sight to track it. 
A few seconds later, Aarun heard, "Oh, shoot!"  Raeni
scrambled away from the battle site and dove to the ground
just as the golem came tumbling down in the exact spot
from which it had been launched.  Expecting something
major to happen, the old ranger ducked his head beneath
his arms to shield his face.  He kept his eyes just
peeking over his arm, ready to duck if something came
flying his way.

	Aarun watched as the artificial creature fell from
the sky in a slow tumble.  It slammed into the ground and
an odd thing happened.  The thing went literally to
pieces, really, really tiny pieces, stirring up another
dust cloud.  The cloud was only half as large as before,
which shocked the man beyond words.  If the dust stirred
up by the impact of the golem had only half the power of
Raeni's original attack, and that meant...  He didn't even
want to think about how much power this young girl
wielded.  His previous evaluation had been correct;  Raeni
really did have monstrous power.

	The girl slowly rose from where she had lain prone
awaiting the impact.  The edge of the dust cloud was
within arm's reach of her, and she, thankfully, was on the
clear side.  The mage steepled her hands together and
narrowed her eyes in concentration.  Flinging her hands
apart, she shouted, "LAIRU!"  From her hands, an invisible
wind emanated, blowing powerfully at the raised dust,
slowing moving it away from the crash site.

	Soon, the dust had cleared completely and both ranger
and sorceress saw the results of Raeni's handiwork.  The
first golem she had destroyed lay in two unmoving parts
exactly where they fell.  The second lay scattered in
unrecognizable chips in a small crater two paces wide. 
The two equal halves of the first creature lay in a larger
crater that encompassed the second crater.

	Seeing that the second and third group of these
creatures were still some distance away, the young mage
beckoned to Aarun.  "C'mere and take a look at this!" she
said excitedly.

	As Aarun approached the area of battle, he saw what
the sorceress had referred to.  There, embedded in the
material of the golem, lay a skeleton, and it didn't look
human.  Around the encased bones, layers of...
something... had built up.  The ranger swung his gaze over
to minutely disassembled golem.  Over there, tiny chips of
black were intermingled with larger pieces of white.

	Aarun was about to pick up one of the dark pieces
when Raeni beat him to it.  Bending over, she snatched up
an obsidian chip and examined it intensely.  Immediately,
she dropped the piece in her hand and reacted as though it
were incredibly hot.  Grabbing Aarun's arm, Raeni dragged
him away frantically.

	"What?!  What's wrong?" shouted the ranger at the
mage's abrupt action.  His eyes widened as he saw
individual pieces of black slowly rise from the pile.  He
watched, fascinated, as the creature slowly reformed.  At
first, pieces of bone flew together, assisted by various
chips of obsidian.  Then, as the skeleton took shape, more
and more of the black flew up to attach to the steady
frame.

	Meanwhile, Raeni dragged him back to the edge of the
hole.  "Stay here," she hissed.  "I know how to deal with
these things, now."

	He only nodded mutely in response.  But what could
the mage do against something that regenerated like THAT?

	***

	Raeni headed back towards the obsidian golem.  Taking
care to watch for any attacks from the reforming golem or
from the other creatures that now loomed close, she
approached her foe.

	'They react negatively to life energy.'   She had
realized this earlier.  When she had dive-bombed the first
of the golems, she had subconsciously tried something new.
She had charged her sword with chi.  It had come
instinctively while she had fallen to the earth.  

	With the advice of Aarun and Gihari (Raeni did
listen, but disliked to show her ignorance) and their
previous experiences in battling these creatures, she had
expected her enemies to be at least as hard as iron, or
perhaps even harder.  She had seen that even Aarun had
gouged a sizable chunk from the wall with his swing.  That
her blow had been stronger was irrelevant.  If the ranger
could do that much, then at the very least he should have
done some visible damage to the creature he had fought.

	Aarun, however, had explicitly stated that his blows
had skidded of the hard shell without doing any harm. 
Raeni had made sure of that point by asking several times.
That's why she had wanted to put as much power as
possible into the first blow.  If she bounced off, as she
had fully expected to do, then she would have to try
something else.  She had been willing to sacrifice her
sword to the experiment, if it had come to that.

	The momentum from dropping from the sky had added
greatly to her strength.  As she fell to the earth, she
had felt the strangest sensation.  It had crept up her
back and out her arms, a movement of energy.  That was
when she had realized that she was actually charging her
sword with the energy of life.  It had felt similar to
making a Mouko Takabisha blast, but vastly different as
well.  Before, the energy had been externalized and had
felt like fire in her hands.  This sensation had felt as
natural as rain falling from the sky.

	Over the past few battles, Raeni had felt a growing
confidence in her ability to manipulate chi.  It was as
though her learning of the mystical arts had somehow
spilled over to her ability with the higher forms of the
martial arts.  She wondered if this enlightenment had
happened to all those who had crossed over to this world. 
Uerris, obviously, had no chi attacks, but that didn't
mean much.  Ucchan, back in the old world hadn't
progressed yet to that point, and Uerris in this world had
stunted her magical growth tremendously.

	Raeni had placed all of her strength into that blow
and more, and her reward had been unexpected.  The golem
had been evenly split down the middle, and her strike had
gone through its shell like a hot knife through butter. 
That had been confusing at first.  The dust cloud thrown
up hadn't been any fun either.  She had barely managed to
block the second creature's relentless attacks with her
chi-depleted sword.

	She had managed to buy some time with her whirlwind
attack, but that had been only a temporary reprieve.  The
scattered pieces of the second golem had given her the
final clue.  Force had shattered its form but had not
damaged it in the slightest.  When the piece in her hand
had latched onto her life energy like a leech, she had
known immediately the nature of the beast.  She had been
drained often enough by Hinako-sensei to recognize the
telltale energy depletion.

	A quick glance with chi-charged sight had proven it
beyond a doubt.  The chips had radiated a sense of
emptiness, a black hole of life energy.  When she had
swung her gaze over to the perfectly bisected golem, the
two separate pieces had been devoid of life... or death. 
The reforming pile before her had no such lack.

	While pulling the unaware ranger away, Raeni had been
furiously thinking.  What was the difference between the
first and the second?  Even if her sword had parted the
first with ease, the mage would have thought one of the
pieces would still be twitching, or even both pieces. 
Only now did it come to her.  She had been more correct
about naming them golems than she had known!  'Of course! 
If the creature really is a golem, then somewhere inside
it, there has to be a focus, something to hold its power. 
I must have destroyed the focus when I cut the first in
half!'  Now was the conundrum.  How was she to find the
focus a second time?  She would have to watch for it
carefully, and she couldn't count on a second lucky blow.

	Grimly, she flexed her arms and looked down at the
sword.  She had managed to charge it before, but that
flash of inspiration had long since disappeared.  Even she
would have to practice before she could pull off that
trick again, the sorceress reluctantly admitted to
herself.  The 'dice-em-in-two' option was out.

	The young mage considered her arsenal of chi attacks.
The 'Chestnuts Roasting in an Open Fire' attack was out. 
Or maybe... she did use chi to vastly boost her speed in
that attack.  Perhaps she could focus the energy into her
fists, but no.  That idea had the same problem as with the
previous one.  She couldn't do it at will.  The idea was
sound but she needed practice and time to make it work,
despite its similarity to a known technique.

	The 'Rising Dragon Ascension' had shown to be nearly
useless.  Although it had given her some respite, with the
foe literally falling to pieces, the golem would
eventually reform with what she suspected would be no
damage.  Not only would it be unpleasant sorting through a
pile of 'undead' chips while they drained her, there would
be a definite danger of being trapped within the reforming
creature.

	This left her with only the 'Fierce Tiger
Domineering'.  She frowned as she continued watching the
golem coming together.  That attack would hopefully
disperse the chips allowing her time to find the focus and
destroy it.  But Geez, was her range of chi attacks that
small?  She'd have to work on that!

	She waited patiently as the golem reformed.  "Why am
I waiting?!" she shouted, realizing it was stupid to let
it form enough to take a swing at her.  Holding her hands
before her and pushing outward, she gathered up the
necessary confidence to allow her to fire off the chi
blast.  It wasn't hard, since she knew these things
weren't invulnerable.

	She readied her will, and a ball of blazing energy
twisted into life.  After it reached its peak size, Raeni
shouted, "Mouko Takabisha!"  and the ball streamed off at
great speed, colliding with the almost fully formed
construct.  The result was spectacular.  The infusion of
directed life energy exploded the golem, and pieces of it
went flying everywhere, some landing over fifty paces
away.  Raeni made sure to swat down the ones heading her
way.  Grinning, she said with a feral grin, "That was
fun!" and began searching for the focus.

	Fortunately for her, the young mage had managed to
follow the trajectory of a flash of color in the instant
of the explosion.  Running over to spot where it landed,
Raeni searched around until she found it, an amber globe
roughly shaped like a grinning skull.  She would have
loved to have time to examine it thoroughly, but even now,
the chips of obsidian and bone nearest to her were already
twitching.  The grinning head seemed to leer at her as she
considered her options.  

	Finally, she placed it between her hands and pressed
them together hard.  A satisfying crunch sounded, and she
opened her hands to reveal powder and small chunks of
amber.  The various pieces of the disassembled golem
stilled.  Turning back to Aarun, she made the victory
sign.

	Seeing that the three remaining golems had finally
lumbered into range, she gathered her confidence once
more, intending to toast all three with a single humongous
blast.  That idea was nixed after a moment's
consideration.  It would not do to have all three foci fly
off in three separate directions.  She'd never find all
three before at least one had reformed.  Besides, she
wasn't sure that she could track all three if they flew in
separate directions.

	Besides, she feared a blast that large would drain
her too much.  She felt she was in much better shape to
fire off three smaller blasts, though she'd have to rest
after this.  She was already feeling a bit tired.  Raeni
knew she was out of shape for throwing blasts around like
they were nothing.  Definitely, re-conditioning would be
at the top of her to-do list after this.

	She smiled in gleeful anticipation of her opponents'
defeat.

	***

	The battle with the remaining three golems had taken
longer than she expected.  Raeni had misjudged her ability
to throw chi blasts in rapid succession and had run out of
'juice' after the second creature.  So, the mage basically
led the last one on a slow chase around a set perimeter. 
The light in the sky had been banished after the last
golem came into range.  Raeni didn't want to attract MORE
of the creatures.

	She had chosen it to be last because of its size. 
This obsidian construct was only half the size of the
others, and she had felt it to be the least threatening of
the three.

	As the mage used the time to 'recharge', she toyed
with the slowly moving creature.  Just to actually test
her theory, she attacked it with her plain sword.  True,
she didn't go all out, but a sizable amount of power went
into those blows.  As expected, her strikes glanced off
the hard shell of the golem.

	The game wasn't very fair-- for the enemy, anyway. 
Raeni danced in and out of range, tempting it with choice
targets, only dodging at the last minute.  For the entire
time, the golem reacted exactly as it had the previous
swing.  

	Soon, it became a pattern.  Raeni would step into
range.  Then she'd put one hand to her face and tease it. 
Sometimes, it was a blown raspberry.  Other times, she
simply thumbed her nose.  One time, she even went so far
to shake her rear end at the creature.  Each time, as it
lunged at her, the mage would dance out of range.

	After a while, it became a boring routine, but Raeni
kept it up, for lack of anything else to do.  That's why
she was unexpectedly flung backwards when the golem broke
out of its pattern of attack.

	***

	Aarun heard a surprised exclamation from the girl,
who had up until now had been doing so well.  Jumping to
his feet (he had long sunk to a sitting position out of
boredom), the ranger called out, "Raeni!  Where are you? 
What happened!?"

	A muffled reply floated back, "S'all right.  Nothin's
broken, I hope."  She groaned.  "The thing surprised me."

	Worried that something serious had occurred, the
older man called back, "I'm coming to you.  Just keep
talking."

	"No!  Stay back!" Raeni commanded him.  "I think I
have the energy to finish off this last one."

	Aarun heard the young girl call out her spell and
shielded his eyes in time to block the blazing light that
erupted.  After the loud explosion, he lowered his hand
and squinted in effort to place the mage.  In the
darkness, he barely made out Raeni's shape.  She stood
stiff and unmoving.  Now truly worried, he started for
her.  She didn't even twitch as he approached her back.

	When the ranger reached her, he laid a hand on her
shoulder.  At that point, the young mage buckled to her
knees, but not from tiredness.  She pointed and he
followed her hand.  Was it some ghost?  There, a pale
shape lay some distance away.  In a low voice, she
whispered an instruction, "Destroy the amulet around its
neck."

	Surprised that the impetuous sorceress would even
deign to allow him this final act of the battle, Aarun
walked slowly the still figure.  He hurried his pace when
he saw movement in the darkness, remembering how the
pieces had twitched from the second golem.  After reaching
the pale form, he slowly lifted the amulet from its neck,
just as Raeni had instructed.  It felt like death in his
hands.  Wanting to be rid of the thing as soon as
possible, he prepared to crush it as she had the others,
but to his dismay, he found his strength lacking.

	Behind him, Raeni's voice called out, "Just shatter
it with your sword, Aarun."  Although it was too dark to
see her face, he could hear the smile in her voice. 
Flushing a little, the ranger pulled his long sword from
its sheath, and after setting the amber stone on the
ground, smashed it with the pommel of the sword. 
Immediately, the sounds of movement around them ceased.

	Only then did ranger turn back to inspect the pale
figure--only to find both the figure and Raeni gone. 
"Hey!" he yelled as he chased after her briskly moving
form.  Raeni had immediately taken the pale shape into her
arms and cradled it gently as she had walked to the tunnel
opening.

	A few seconds later, Aarun caught up with her.  He
finally saw what had shocked her so.  In her arms, she
carried a naked male orc.  The orc was alive, since
shallow breaths accompanied the sound of light snoring.

	However, the orc was not well.  Pale, white skin hung
off an emaciated frame.  The orc looked, well... old and
very nearly dead.

	As she walked, Raeni talked to herself.  She muttered
something about "never thought I would do this" as she
gently carried the sick orc to the tunnel.  Once she
reached the edge if the hole, without any preamble, she
jumped down and walked out of sight, leaving Aarun to make
his own way down into the hole.

	As he had accompanied the mage to the hole, the older
man had noticed something odd and alarming.  Raeni had
seemed to glow a pale yellow.  At first, he had thought it
an illusion, but the longer he had watched, the firmer the
glow had gotten, until a steady yellow had radiated from
just beneath her skin.  This had been a complete contrast
to the pale orc held in her arms.  The orc's pasty skin
had seemed to pull in the light where the orc's skin
touched hers, and the ranger had been about to warn the
girl when they both had reached the hole.

	Muttering curses under his breath at the
pigheadedness of a certain red-headed girl, Aarun
scrambled down the wall of the opening to the underground.
Without Raeni lending a hand, it took him a considerable
amount of time to get down.  By the time he made safely to
the floor, Raeni had long been gone.

	The ranger hoped to catch up the amazing girl, but
even with his best efforts, Raeni never came into view. 
He wondered how the girl could move so fast encumbered as
she was with her sick charge and in complete darkness as
well.  

	The answer came after a second's consideration, at
least for the second question.  'Of course!  She can magic
up light,' he realized.  'She doesn't need the torch I
left near the entrance.  In fact, she had probably left it
for me to use,' he ruefully thought.  Shaking away
extraneous thoughts, he put all his focus into making the
best time possible to the end of the tunnel.