Author's Note: Here's another part of this Chapter. Most of what I need to say are at the end, so let's just get to it.
Alrest: Population, Dwindling
Part 9: Gormott & Uniques
Feeling well rested, the moderately large group pressed onward through the forest, finding many monsters within including spiked caterpillars called Caterpiles, four-legged spiders called Arachnos, and rabbits with an arm-like tail called Bunnits. Ash, in particular, was interested in these Bunnits, saying they remind him of Aipoms back in his world. Soon enough, they began seeing light coming from the direction they're heading.
"Up ahead is the forest's exit," Dromarch informed, "We should be able to get a good view of Gormott from there."
Hearing that, Rex and Ash rushed ahead to see the view, with everyone else following behind. Before long, they all made it through the clearing... and are rewarded with a breathtaking sight.
Beyond the cliff they're standing on was a large, grassy plain filled with all manner of wildlife, flowing water, and large trees. Off in the distance, they could make out a small city, and beyond that was what appears to be a mountain range... with a stone head of a horned giraffe! Everyone stared in awed at the view of the entire plain, especially Ash, Kari, and their partners. Nia, however, had a smirk, seemingly proud of everyone's reactions.
"Oh my goodness... What a wonderful view...!" Pyra commented in awe.
"Yea... It's views like this that really make my journeys all the more rewarding...!" Ash added, a big grin on his face. Pikachu was too busy appreciating the view to reply.
"This is great!" Rex agreed with the Trainer, "Especially after slumming it on Gramps' back for so long!"
Azurda didn't seemed to appreciate that comment. "Hmph. It served you well enough," he remarked. As everyone continued to gaze at the scenery, Nia stepped forward and got their attention, pointing toward the city in the distance.
"Over there is Torigoth, biggest city in Gormott," she explained, "We'll accompany you as far as the city. After that, I'm afraid you're on your own."
That last comment took the others by surprise. "On our own? You mean you're leaving?" Rex asked.
"I'm afraid so," she responded, "After all, you could probably guess why I can't be seen with you."
Remembering her story, the group could tell that it involves Torna. "But you're not with them anymore, right?" Kari attempted to reassure Nia, but to no avail.
"That's as may be, but that doesn't mean the rest of Alrest knows," she reasoned, "If you all are seen with me and Dromarch, they'll label you as associates.
"Besides, even if they tried to kill me..." she added with a sigh, "... that doesn't change the fact that they're the onl-closest thing I have to a family."
Everyone couldn't help but feel bad for Nia. Kari noticed a pause in Nia's explaination, but decided not to comment on it, thinking it to be a sore subject for the Gormotti.
"Anyway, let's go," Nia called out as she and Dromarch continued on, moving down the left path toward the plains. Everyone else looked at each other for a bit before following after her.
They all made their way down the path and exited straight into the plain. On ground, it looked even more vast.
"If we're to make it to Torigoth before sundown, we better get a move on," Nia recommended, shifting her attention to a pack of strange, feline-like creatures nearby, with a particularly large one laying on the rock in the middle, "As well as not waste time with the wildlife."
"I'm guessing those are bad news, right?" Ash guessed as Pikachu gazed at the pack.
"They are if you're not careful. Feris are quite territorial and, unlike the wolf-like Volffs, are quite dangerous," Nia explained, pointing at the large creature on the rock, "Especially when backed by a particularly strong alpha."
"A Unique Monster, I'm guessing," Rex seemed to understand, though Ash and Kari are still curious.
"Unique Monster?" Ash repeated.
"Unique Monsters are much stronger than the typical monsters in the area," Nia explained, "Whether they're leaders of a pack, an outcast that's been kicked out, or just a particularly strong one, they are very dangerous monsters that are known to cause trouble to people passing by."
"I've heard of Unique Monsters during my salvaging works; there have been salvagers who got attacked by Unique Monsters during their salvaging runs," Rex informed, "Attacks from Perplexed Stoyan have been the most common, especially around Leftheria, though there have been talks of Holy Lancer Efrain. Oh, and don't even get me started with Cloud Sea King Ken..."
Rex sounded annoyed at that last part, and even Azurda looked annoyed at that mention. "Don't remind me, Rex. I'm still trying to forget the fact we nearly got eaten!" he retorted.
Not wanting to comment on what Rex and Azurda experienced, Kari turned her attention to the names the salvager mentioned. "So, are all the Unique Monsters named?" she question.
"Yup. Each Unique Monster has a unique name that sets them apart from others of their kind. That's why they're called 'Unique' Monsters," Nia answered, pointing at the large Feris once again, "For example, that there is called Sad Bernard, a leader of a Feris pack in Gormott. It's not as dangerous as the other Unique Monsters, only having a danger level of 12, but it's still tough enough to give us trouble."
Expecting a question from Ash and Kari, Dromarch continued on. "Each Unique Monster is given a danger level depending on how dangerous they are to the populace," he explained, "They are labeled as such as a warning to people traveling in the area. Alrest is dangerous enough as is."
Dying Titans, war between countries, and Unique Monsters... Alrest is certainly looking more dangerous than Ash and Kari thought. "Yikes... We better watch ourselves, then," Ash warned, with Kari agreeing.
With that, the group continued on, seeing many more monsters such as the horse-like Eks, avian Rhoguls, and the aforementioned Volffs. However, as they get closer to the city in the distance, Nia started glancing around nervously, something that Pyra was quick to point out.
"Nia, is something wrong?" she asked politely. Nia, upon hearing Pyra speak, gave a sigh of relief.
"Sorry, it's just... There's something in Gormott that's rather... infamous," she explained, "It's called Territorial Rotbart, and it's known to pass through this area on occasions."
"Territorial Rotbart..." Ash repeated as he thought about what they spoke of earlier, "Is it another one of those Unique Monsters?"
"Indeed, and a dangerous one..." Nia replied, though still a bit nervous, "Unlike most Uniques here on Gormott, Rotbart has a danger level of 81..."
"81!? It's that dangerous!?" Ash exclaimed, freaked out over a monster having that high of a danger level, and who could blame him!
"Yea... We better get to Torigoth ASAP," Nia recommended, though Kari appears to be looking elsewhere, both her eyes and Gatomon's widening.
"Does it happen to be a giant ape...?" she questioned in a fearful tone.
"It actually is. It's called a Gogol," Nia answered, a skeptical look gazing toward Kari, "Why do you ask?"
Kari need only point in her direction to answer Nia. Ahead of her was a gigantic red ape with an orange mane of fur... and it's looking right at the group!
"RUN!" Nia shouted as the group started running away. Letting out a roar, the Territorial Rotbart began rushing toward the retreating group. The group ran as fast as they could, but the giant Gogol was just a bit faster as it caught up. Once it got close enough, it readied a punch and flung it forward.
"PIKA!" Pikachu cried out, alerting the others of the approaching punch. They dove out of the way, just barely avoiding the giant punch, but the Gogol wasn't done yet. It readied another punch, this time toward Rex. He brought out his sword in hopes of blocking the attack, with Pyra generating a barrier to help. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough as the punch still managed to break the barrier and send Rex flying into the ground.
"REX!" Azurda cried out from within Rex's helmet, seeing the young salvager hurt. Nia, on the other hand, glared at such a foolish action.
"You idiot! There's no way you're blocking a hit from this thing!" Nia scolded, getting on Dromarch for some fast travel. Kari and Gatomon, as well as Pyra, all rushed toward the fallen Rex, though Pyra's movement was a bit sluggish. Seeing the Territorial Rotbart marching toward the gathering, Ash had to think fast.
"Pikachu, get that ape's attention with Thunderbolt!" he ordered. With a nod, Pikachu unleashed his attack, zapping the ground directly in front of the giant ape. Noticing this, Rotbart turned to where the attack came from, its focus now completely on Ash and Pikachu.
"Ash! What are you doing!?" Kari cried out in worry once she noticed what Ash has done.
"Kari! Gatomon! Get everyone to safety! I'll distract this overgrown ape!" Ash exclaimed as he and Pikachu began running from Rotbart. Though still worried, Kari helped Pyra to lift Rex off the ground and move him to a safe location.
Once the Gogol was far enough away from the group, Ash and Pikachu held their ground against the approaching Rotbart. "Pikachu, see if you can hit its head with Electro Ball," Ash ordered. Pikachu hopped into the air, an electric orb forming on his tail, and with a flick of his tail, flung the orb toward the Gogol's face. The attack made contact, but all it seemed to do was stun it a tiny bit. "That didn't work..."
Angered by this, Rotbart prepared another punch to flatten the Trainer and Pokémon. Before the punch could connect...
"WILD ROAR!" Dromarch called out, launching a stream of water from his mouth toward the Gogol. While it had pretty much the same effect as Pikachu's Electro Ball, it at least distracted it long enough for Dromarch to reach Ash and his partner, Nia still riding on the tiger's back.
"Well, what are you waiting for? Get on!" Nia yelled. Not needing to be told twice, Ash and Pikachu hopped onto Dromarch's back as the tiger Blade sprinted away, able to out-speed the Gogol despite the added weight. They soon came across a rock and, seeing the Gogol far enough away, hid behind it. Not saying a word, they waited until Rotbart was no longer looking for them. After a while, Rotbart lost interest and walked away, leaving the quartet sighing in relief.
"Man... That was too close..." Ash commented in relief. Nia, however, turned to the Trainer in frustration.
"What the hell were you thinking!?" she scolded, "If we haven't gotten there sooner, you two would just be a bunch of pancakes! What made you think that tackling this thing by yourselves was a good idea!?"
Even Pikachu couldn't help but scold his Trainer for his foolish tactic, prompting Ash to sigh in irritation. "Look, I'm sorry about that! I was just trying to keep that thing away from Kari and the others," he reasoned, turning to glare at his partner, "And it's not my fault that we always seem to be chased around on every journey!"
"You mean this has happened before!?" Nia yelled in frustration, "What gives!? If you're such an experienced traveler, then perhaps you'd learned not to do something like that!"
"My lady! Ash! There's no need for arguments, not when the worse has already come to pass," Dromarch attempted to defuse the argument, "And besides, Ash did managed to distract Rotbart away from the others. They should be safe by now."
Not seeing any need to counter such logic, Nia sighed, letting all of her frustrations go. "I suppose you're right, Dromarch," she responded in defeat before turning toward Ash, "I'm sorry for snapping at you..."
Ash merely scratched his his in embarrassment. "No, I'm the one who should apologize... It's just, I can't stand by while my friends are in danger. And yea, that did kinda got me in a ton of trouble back home..."
With all the tension gone, the quartet left the rock and started heading toward the city. "The others should be waiting for us in the city," Nia guessed. Not seeing a flaw with that, Ash followed along.
It took a bit longer than expected (Ash apparently guided the Unique Monster away from the city), but Ash and Nia, both riding on Dromarch with Pikachu, managed to reach the arch that serves as Torigoth's entrance. First thing they notice was a bunch of people they recognize standing under the arch.
"Hey! You guys made it!" Rex called out, looking much better than he did moments ago. Ash and Nia couldn't help but smile at that.
"Sorry we took so long. Mr. Reckless ended up leading Rotbart farther away," Nia retorted with a smirk. Instead of getting annoyed, Ash chuckled.
"Yea, sorry about that," he added, only to be cut off by Kari hugging him.
"Oh, Ash! Thank goodness you're alright!" she cried out in worried, despite the glare she's giving off, "Why must you do this every time!?"
"Sorry, Kari... It's just, I didn't want anything to happen to you..." Ash replied in worry, prompting Kari to sigh in relief.
"I'm happy that you care that much for me, but you should know I can take care of myself," she responded, soon developing a smile toward the Trainer, "I don't want you to always put yourself at risk for my sake. Okay?"
Ash smiled at that. "Okay, Kari. I'll try to be more mindful," he promised. Kari smiled at that as the two hugged.
Seeing the two like that, the others couldn't help buy smile. "Aw, that's so sweet," Pyra commented.
"Yea. Imagine my surprise when I found out they're a couple," Rex replied, prompting the others to turn to the salvager in surprise.
"Wait, what!? They're a thing!?" Nia exclaimed.
"Oops!" Rex covered his mouth, realizing what he said. At that point, Ash and Kari rejoined with the others.
"That's alright, Rex. It's not like we're keeping it a secret," Ash reassured the salvager with a smile.
"It's just the way you found out left us in a bad mood, is all," Kari added. Nia raised an eyebrow at that.
"So wait, how did Rex found out?" she questioned. Kari and Ash wore embarrassed blushes.
"He... caught us kissing..." the Digidestined answered shyly. The others reacted with shocked faces.
"He caught you all kissing!?" Nia exclaimed, trying hard to hold back her laughter, "Oh, man! Wish I would have seen his reaction to that!"
"Wow, Rex! Didn't Azurda told you to respect a lady's privacy?" Gatomon glared at the salvager, though she has a smirk on her face.
"As a matter of fact, I did," Azurda replied, facepalming, "Really, Rex... You should be lucky that that's all they were doing."
Rex was reduced to an embarrassed mess from that, and even Ash and Kari blushed from hearing Azurda say that. "Okay, okay! That's enough from that!" the salvager attempted to derail this conversation, "Let's just move on, shall we!?"
"Er, yea! Torigoth is just through this arch, right!?" Ash added, not wanting this conversation to continue from Azurda's comment. The group, calming themselves from Rex's embarrassment, headed through the arch and gazed at the city and all the people around. Most of them had cat-ears like Nia, so it stands to reason that they'd be Gormotti.
"So, this is Torigoth," Rex commented with a whistle, "Quite a lively place, isn't it?"
Nia, however, gazed at the city with a bit of sorrow. "It hasn't changed a bit..." she spoke to herself, though it seemed Pyra heard it.
"Hm? Did you say something?" Pyra asked politely, prompting Nia to shake her head.
"It's nothing..." she assured before focusing on the rest of the group "Okay then. I'll show you to an inn, then I'm out of here."
Ash couldn't help but stare at Nia with sadness. "It's a shame you can't stay, Nia," he commented, not wanting Nia to leave.
"Yea. We'll definitely gonna miss you..." Kari added, also sad to know Nia and Dromarch will be leaving soon.
"It is what it is," Nia hand-waved it, not wanting the sadness to set. With that, the group continued on. Rex and Azurda made note of Nia's attitude.
"It appears that Ash and Nia have gotten a bit more friendly with each other," Azurda noted.
"Looks like it," Rex agreed with a smile, "After that revelation with Nia being a part of Torna, it's nice to see the two getting along."
Unawared to Rex, Nia fell back from the group upon noticing a notice board. On it were 3 wanted posters. The first two were unmistakably of Jin and Malos, but the third one...
"What the bloody hell is this!?" Nia yelled, getting the others' attention, "Don't tell me this is meant to be ME!?"
The others got close to the wanted posters, wondering what got Nia riled up. What they saw... was interesting, to say the least.
It's clearly meant to be Nia's wanted poster, but they got the face completely wrong. All they did was give her a literal tiger's head! It looks utterly ridiculous, so much so that Ash immediately burst out laughing!
"Oh, man! This is gold!" he commented inbetween laughter, "It's like they took your and Dromarch's heads and mashed them together!"
"Well... At least they got the hair right?" Kari added, trying hard not to laugh. Gatomon, on the other hand, failed in that regard, laughing as hard as Ash. Nia was unamused by the offworld duo's reactions, but before she could retort...
"A remarkable likeness to say the least..." Dromarch added his two-cents, walking by Nia's side to get a better look. Nia... did not appreciate that comment.
"Oi! What was that I heard!?" the Gormotti glared at her Blade, prompting Dromarch to step back.
"Ah, er, nothing..." he corrected himself, "I fear they may have conflated our countenances, my lady. How very awful..."
Turning her attention back to the poster, Nia had enough as she began shredding it into a million pieces and tossing it into the wind, though that did not stop the laughter coming from Ash and Gatomon. And throughout it all, Rex and Pyra had no idea what to make of it.
"Um, should we be worried?" Rex asked, unsure what to think about the situation.
"Perhaps we spoke too soon concerning Nia and Ash..." Azurda commented, already seeing Nia glaring at Ash and Gatomon.
And that's the end of that. As I said, I have a few things to talk about.
First off, Unique Monsters. Yes, I am incorporating Unique Monsters into this story. They aren't going to be plot relevant; it's mainly if they block the way to their next destination, which it will happen (some of the Uniques happen to block important paths, practically forcing you into battle against them). There is one lone exception to the 'no plot relevance' thing, but we'll get to that later. Though, those of you who played through the game could probably tell what Unique Monster I'm talking about.
By the way, the 'danger level' is indeed a play on their in-game levels. Figured that'd be a neat way of incorporating that as I'd figure Unique Monsters would probably be similar to wanted outlaws in-universe. And there was no way I was gonna leave out Territorial Rotbart! That thing is practically a mainstream of the Xenoblade games.
I was going to include a battle against Moonlighting Elwyn in this part, but the way Ash distracted Rotbart kinda left me in an awkward position concerning that, so I opted to scrap it.
Oh, and one reviewer was wondering if I was going to have Ash comment on Nia's wanted poster on how it looks like a combination of Nia and Dromarch. As you can see, I was way ahead. Yea, I had that idea from the start. Blame the fanfic Trainer to Driver, by Ssb3Goku, for that idea. I read Ash's reaction to the wanted poster then Nia, and I couldn't resist adding that in.
Anyway, that should be enough of what I need to say, so I guess I'll see you in the next part.
