So, not gonna lie, after this chapter I am seriously considering changing the rating to M. Any thoughts on that? Also I am trying something new, where I post "news updates" under my profile that previews next week's chapter, if you've never clicked my name, check it out.
Chapter 11
The Cure
The Charizard tails glowed in the night sky like red laughing skulls. Hanbei looked down from the back of his mount into the black water of the Great Wall, swirling like a thick sludge, and just as deadly he knew, teeming with all manner of water Pokemon guarding Fontaine's bordering river.
The warrior sitting in front of him clad herself in copper mail with a helm fashioned like the narrow snout of her Charizard. Selise, the daughter of one of the orange cloaks, though Hanbei could not remember which. Hanbei himself wore golden mail with silver trimmings about his pauldrons and an orange cloak snapping around his back, fastened for dear life by a ruby brooch carved into an Ignis flame.
He had left Tomodachi at the palace to march with the rest of the troops, while he went ahead with the Charizards. The little Pokemon had wailed when left behind, but he would be safer that way. He couldn't leave the Lampent charm there either. He wore it in pouch around his waist. Yuuwaku, the Ampharos, dangled in the Charizard's arms. It seemed electric Pokemon feared heights no more than they feared the ones who dwell in the sky.
Of the Pokemon in their army, the breadth of the mighty river could only be crossed by Charizards. Amazing Fontaine has found a way to tame such a force, he thought. When Nagayasu came to him with a plan, shock could scarcely describe his surprise. He'd thought the Lockforts on the river would be heavily guarded, but Pigface had been right, the usurper apparently couldn't be bothered to man them properly.
They lost only one Charizard in the skirmish to win the fort, executed all nine soldiers there, and left the rest of their force to hold the position until the bulk of the army arrived. One squad had been sent south, one north, both of about equal size to capture the other two western Lockforts. They were instructed to turn their flames to the skies when they captured them.
Just after dusk the ebon candles flickered to life against the shadows of the mountains to signal the flight across the river. Once all six Lockforts were captured, Hanbei would be in control of the Great Wall. He would close all three locks, stop the river from flowing, then the main force would be able to cross without worry.
Presumably, a small platoon awaited them on the other side of the river as well. However, the light of their own signal must have alerted the Fontaine warriors, they would be ready for them. They may have already sent for aid, Hanbei thought. Yuuwaku was powerful, he could tell when he touched him for the first time, but could even he be enough to hold the position if all of Fontaine knew they were coming?
Hanbei drew in a cold breath as the eastern Lockfort came into view on the far bank. It sat squat, dug into the ground like a half buried Roggenrola, bristled with battlements and one tall tower looming over the water. This is no fort, this is a castle, Hanbei thought as the huddled mass of stone grew and grew.
The dark and empty windows made him even more nervous. Not a single one was lit with candle flame, nor any torches to be seen on the battlements. Perhaps there were no soldiers guarding it, or mayhaps they retreated. The warriors they'd executed had all claimed to be citizens. It was widely known The Waterfall took his throne on the backs of smallfolk warriors, not with proper lords or knights, perhaps the soldiers had fled the fort at the sight of the Ignis signal.
The windows felt like eyes to Hanbei, and at any moment that horrible red pupil would roll around in each one of them, beat him down from all directions. Was this a nightmare? Had he really flown with the Charizards? Or at any moment would Hideyoshi appear to burn him? It was impossible to tell without the still dusknoir in the corner of his room telling him whether or not he was awake.
They came up on the eastern bank when the Charizard in front of them bobbed and took a sharp dive. The cursing whispers of arrows fluttered, some so near his helm he could feel their breaths. Suddenly the Pokemon beneath him fell away. His stomach lurched as they plummeted toward the water. A nauseating swing beneath the hail of arrows gave them a burst of speed and put land underneath them.
The hissing of a hundred Ekans launched volleys of water javelins. From the fort, from the land, from the water, hell, as they arched back downward from the sky as well. The red fleshy tip of an arrow burst through the back of Selise's neck. As they took a turn her limp body nearly dragged him off the mount as well.
The Charizard's roar thundered across the sky. It gave a sharp wingbeat and had Hanbei not thrown his arms around its neck, the speed would have dismounted him like a lance to the chestplate. Hanbei's heart pounded in his throat, please don't drop us please don't drop us!
An unrelenting stream of fire poured from the Elise's Charizard's mouth across the length of the southern battlements. Hanbei watched blackening bodies doing a horrible dance lit by the crackling blaze. The beast whipped round, Yuuwa was bleating loudly now, obviously forgotten by his carrier.
What was left of the other Charizards were making their first passes over the fort now, dropping their loads into the forest of stone, flames and war. They gave him a scare, but the arrows' noises had faded nearly away and jets of water seemed to lean more lazily than before. Why should I let them have all the fun? He groped for the Charizard's neck, bonding with a fire Pokemon so duressed was difficult, but what choice did he have? He felt the Pokemon's heat course through his veins until he thought his armor would become a stew pot to boil him alive.
The Charizard roared again and soared low over a fresh crowd of Fontaine soldiers. Man and Pokemon scattered as another hellish breath swept the wall. All accept one. Clad in the cerulean plate and a seafoam cloak he stood bold, peering up at Hanbei with just one eye, the other a black leather patch.
Hanbei accepted the challenge and urged his mount forward. Wait, he thought. Where is his Pokemon? He caught sight as he flew by. An Empoleon hoisted itself over the stone crenels to flank him. He reigned back on the Charizard to turn back around but it was too late. A sound like a raging sea came with a forceful fist of water, a river all its own to his back.
A flying jumbled missile of Ampharos, Charizard, and Hanbei careened over the one-eyed warrior. When his mount hit the ground he would have spilled his brains all over the wall if not for his helm. Hanbei's body quivered as he pushed himself from the ground. Helm flayed away from his cheek, his left leg bent queer in his armor.
His new Charizard rose to fight the Empoleon, a tall, flightless, avian Pokemon, naturally armored in black steel and bladed blue plumage. "Go Charizard!" he yelled from his spot on the ground. It needed small encouragement. After being shot down, they had traveled a fair length away from the warrior, but the Charizard darted back to the Empoleon just as quickly.
"Boldac!" the man shouted to brace his Pokemon. Elise had not trained her Charizard well enough. It collided with the Empoleon, then something went horribly wrong. Charizard took several lashes from the Pokemon's blades and several smaller water spears. It wrapped its claws around the Empoleon's neck and rammed it's head into its iron face, but the effort seemed to do little more than irritate the other Pokemon.
A stream as hard as the first, if not more sent the bloodied carcass of the Charizard rolling to Hanbei's side. He would've tried to revive it, but he saw the Pokemon's tail was completely extinguished.
Voices and the clangor of blades rose around him as his fellow Ignis warriors landed within the hunkered walls. The mysterious soldier and his pokemon stalked toward him. "The fort may fall, but you will not live to see it," he growled, his long, gray hair clinging to his forehead.
"I yield!" Hanbei shouted.
"What?" the warrior barked. "You should have yielded before your Pokemon died defending you. It is much too late for that."
A lightning bolt dropped from the sky, striking into the stone with an ear-splitting crackle. The warrior and his Pokemon gave a frightened yelp. What in Arceus? Hanbei thought. Yuuwa's hoof came down next to his face. "Where have you been?" he asked, struggling to his feet. "Get him Yuuwaku!" Hanbei commanded.
"I don't think so!" The warrior called as his Pokemon leapt from where another lightning bolt crashed. Hanbei got frantic, he groped for the sword around his waist. Then a familiar roar came from the stars. Three more of the Charizard tamers had spotted him.
"Damn," the warrior spat. "You will pay for this, boy! Boldac!" he called before the two made a hustled dash for the edge of the wall and leapt off. Hanbei gave lopsided chase to the edge of the wall, but the man was gone by the time he could peer over the drop of the wall. A short enough fall, he thought to himself. The thrumming of the Charizards' wings filled his ears.
"Are you injured my lord?" It was Stella, more beautiful than her sister Elise, but hidden under the same armor. He could only guess if she'd recognized the dead Pokemon yet. Seeing her made him remember the meaty arrow tip and made him queasy.
"I am sorry!" he shouted to her.
She looked from one of her companions to the other. "Beg pardon my lord? I asked if you were injured my lord!" she said, raising her voice. She does not realize yet, he thought.
"I am fine," he yelled back. "You saw that warrior, yes? Pursuit him, he is dangerous and we'd do well not to let him escape!"
The two that were not Stella flew off in the direction Hanbei pointed. "What is the status?" he shouted.
"We've taken most of the fort. We are breaking through to the Northern side now, but they have planted a Gyarados in front of the tower, it remains untaken. The risk is too great," she explained.
Hanbei turned toward the tower, rising above a sea of orange haze as the whole fort burned in patchwork flames. "Take me there!" he shouted. "My armor is broken, I can hardly walk," he shouted.
Her Charizard's feet bludgeoned the stone floor as it landed. She dismounted and helped him strip down to his chainmail suit. It was then her Pokemon sniffed about the carcass of what Hanbei supposed could be its kin as well. This did not sit well with Stella. She had finally made sense of it.
"My lord," she looked sullen. "My sister."
He stayed quiet as her eyes went red. "Please, Stella. She died an honorable warrior's death." Heavy metal boots clacked from the far end of the wall. Six of the water soldiers were sprinting toward him, Pokemon in stride as well. A blue-furred ape, Simipour, two younger Empoleon Prinplups and three Bibarels. "We can't stay here!" he said. "Yuuwaki!"
Another lightning bolt tore two of the warriors and their Bibarels asunder, but the rest were approaching too fast to strike proficiently. He grabbed her arm and wrenched her away, their Pokemon in tow.
Stella gathered her senses and led him down a stair to the dark interior of the fort wall. A warrior met them at the bottom, but she pounced with sword in hand to open his throat, while her Charizard took care of the Prinplup. This was bad. Inside, Yuuwa's lightning bolts were useless. The footsteps began to descend the stair.
"C'mon!" Hanbei shouted. They darted through the halls, lit by the red light of Yuuwa's tail. The place was a maze, as was the last Lockfort they'd stormed. They swung around to a dead-end that narrowed to a small cell, footsteps still sounding close behind. "Damn! Where now?" He yelled aloud, as if the soldiers needed help finding them.
Stella was rolling a brass vase toward the hall they'd come from. She spilled a sticky liquid the color of purple blood across the floor. "Torch oil?" he asked as the Cerulean armored mob rounded the corner.
"For Elise!" she hollered. Her Charizard spat an ember and the hall lit with a blinding flash. Stella was thrown back into him. The heat more intense than courting Elise's Charizard, Hanbei thanked Arceus for shedding his armor. The soldier's screams boiled in the rushing flames as they ate the liquid and flesh alike.
Stella lay limply over him. It took a few moments to catch his wind back as he tasted foul swaths of lamp oil and burned flesh. He shook Stella, "Get up!" he said. "You're brilliant, you've done it! Oh I could kiss-" As he spun her around he saw the blackened skin stuck to her metal helm.
"Fuck!" he groaned, throwing the corpse aside. Her Charizard sniffed at her. Dare he defile her bond as well? No, he dare not. Hanbei left her and the grieving Pokemon, the small flames still suckling on the bodies brushed him as he passed. The noise outside grew quieter as his forces were winning or dwindling he did not know. He caught no sight of warrior of Pokemon as he reasoned his way through the dark, cloaked in Yuuwa's red light.
He let who he presumed to be this fort's commander scamper off into the night. Could he have been Motochika, The Waterfall himself? Hanbei had heard the usurper was a young man, but smallfolk rumors always in plenty. That man could still be here, following him. He felt for his sword again, but cupped the leather pouch instead, feeling the weight of the Lampent charm.
As he crossed a dark hall, his heart kicked. He thought he'd heard laughter. From one side. Which side? The other. But he could not see what lay beyond the veil of the red light. Please let it be the Dusknoir, he thought, wondering again if this were in a nightmare. A skittering sound, like teeth rolling across the floor made him whip around, but Yuuwa stared blankly at him, unwavering. "Did you hear that?" he asked. This could not be a nightmare, he had never been given a way to defend himself before, and now he had Yuuwa.
He did not see anyone for a time. Long enough to remember how exhausted he was. Even his chainmail suit felt as if heavy metal hands were wrenching down on his body. Again, reaching for his sword, his fingers naturally found the charm.
Finally he felt the cool breath of night air. He entered a hallway split several times by the light of windows. To hell with finding the exit, a voice growled in his mind. He leaned out the window, somehow he'd descended to ground level. He slung himself onto the grass of the center courtyard.
His eyes fell on the base of the tower, surrounded by his own men and their Pokemon. A long Gyarados batted an Emboar away with it's broad tale. It bore sword-size fangs to back away the other warriors and Pokemon, but there was little it could do to pursuit them. Gyarados flew in the water, but on land they were sluggish. Hanbei stalked toward the commotion, surveying the high walls and their blasted dark windows. It appeared the fort had been taken, save this Gyarados and its fool warrior probably stowing away in the tower doing Arceus knows what.
There were just seven men, all clad in copper Ignis armor. One man turned round and hustled out to meet him. "My lord!" Hidenaga called, blood covering his sword arm shimmered in the light of the fires.
It took Hanbei a moment to find his voice. The young squire's eyes widened. "You are wounded!"
The blood on his face, he felt it there now, fingering its way down from his forehead and over his exposed cheek. Hanbei yanked his helm away, threw it to the ground then kicked it across the field. "Are these men all we have left?" he asked.
"No," Hidenaga tried to approach him, but he waved him off. He didn't want help, didn't need it. Damn it! He cleared his throat. "We have ten wounded and two were left to tend them."
Nineteen of thirty warriors was not so bad a score. "Make way!" he shouted, surprising himself with his own authority.
The men did as they were bid, calling their Pokemon to their sides. The Gyarados growled at him with blood in its eyes. It coiled its long blue body in front of the tower entrance and held its massive head over some of the walls. Its jowls could swallow a man whole. A big one. Hanbei thought. "Yuuwaki!" he pointed, looking at his yellow and black charred Ampharos. It gave an awkward thrust of its long neck. The Gyarados roared in pain, crumbling beneath the weight of the crashing thunderbolt. Just one hit and it lay limp, probably only fainted, tough bastard creatures they were.
The other Ignis warriors gazed at him dumbstruck. Many of them had no exposure to electric Pokemon and a Gyarados felled with a single blow was simply too much to fathom. "I know, shocking isn't it?" Hanbei said as he marched through the ranks. "Don't just stand there paralyzed, remove it," Hanbei ordered. An Emboar and a Darumaka, a round, red ape Pokemon known for breaking stone walls, pushed the Gyarados aside.
Hanbei stopped at the entrance of the tower. "Go, tend to the wounded."
"My lord, I cannot let you enter the tower alone," Hidenaga stepped up. Brave boy. "Quiet! I command you to tend to the wounded. I will flush the rest from the tower." About the time he ascended the second floor of the dark tower, he gave thought to an ambush waiting for him at the top. Still he climbed the spiraling stairs under the red light. He could hear no noise until he reached the wooden door at the top.
Hanbei recognized the sound of rolling parchment all too well. He is sending a Starly! he panicked. Hanbei thrust his foot into the door, sending it shuddering inward on its aged hinges, along with a pointed pain up his thigh. The Starly he'd expected fluttered out the window in firght, leaving the message behind. He limped into the room, trying not to look weak, but there was no ambush. Only an old man clad in Cerulean armor hunched over a table, eyeing him like a cornered Mincino under his long, ragged hair.
"How did you pass Tempest?" he wailed.
Hanbei limped over to him and ripped the paper from his hands, skimming it. "Valiant effort, but this will never reach the usurper," he said. The man had even been clever enough to recognize them as Ignis soldiers.
"Bastard boy!" the old man growled, leaping at him. Hanbei was in no mood for such play. He sidestepped and the man nearly fell over himself. They eyed each other for a long time.
Hanbei folded the parchment and held it over the candle flames that lit the wooden table. The man edged forward, but Yuuwa stepped between them. "You will have your Pokemon end me then? I'll not be taken prisoner," he threatened, voice quivering as he eyed the Ampharos.
Hanbei nodded at the suggestion, "Yuuwa?" he commanded, as if asking if he would please. His Pokemon batted the old man to his backside with his tail.
"Yes, that's right," the old man said, utterly filled with fear. "You are so much a coward you must end an old man's life with your pokemon."
As tired and agitated as he was, Hanbei cared very little to hear this. Anger rose up from deep inside him. "I-I am no coward!" he barked. "You look so afraid. One who is a glutton for life at your age and you're still scared to die!"
"I am no fool. I have lived. You live simply for the service of others. Good or evil, it doesn't matter, you have no purpose of your own but to fall for someone else."
That is funny, because from my position Hideyoshi will fall for my deeds. Doesn't that make me the manipulator? A shadow twitched in the corner of the room. Hanbe's eyes drew up on something horrible that nearly took all the wits from him. The frozen Dusknoir stood in the corner of this room. It had followed him. It moved, he saw it.
"You!" he yelled at it. "You moved! You are real! You've been haunting my dreams. It all makes sense now." Hanbei felt a laugh pull itself from his chest. The old man looked at him with that same initial look of being caught with the parchment. "Stop looking at me!" He hollered. "What do you want! Leave me be! It can't be done! He's all the way in Greenleaf and his mother is marching here to Fontaine! They are as far apart as could possibly be!" Still it stood there unflinching. Hanbei stomped over to it, feeling his heart shaking with nervousness. "Did you hear me! Maybe you'll hear him then!" Hanbei said, pointing at Yuuwaki. He turned to see the Ampharos' head cocked slightly to the side with a look of plain confusion.
"Why! By Arceus, leave me be you demon of the afterlife!" Hanbei clutched two handfuls of his black, sweat-ridden hair, tearing one clump away. He went for his sword, if Yuuwa wouldn't do anything about it, he would. When he felt metal he pulled it up to the Dusknoir's face. He leapt back when he found the Lampent charm in his hand in place of the sword. After a moment he started to laugh until he was out of breath, then continued to laugh until his chuckles were clicks in his throat. He turned to the old man. "I understand now. It's this! This thing! That's why he's here," he said, feeling some drool pour over his lip.
"You! You're fucking mad!" the old man cried out. His wails were so horrible. Horrible enough to haunt his dreams, his waking life and if it continued he would never sleep again. Then where would he be? "Mad!" he wailed again, his voice so terrible a noise, like a babe screaming.
"Shut up!" Hanbei roared, feeling his voice crack into something less than human. "Lay down!" Hanbei stomped back over to where the old man lay crumpled on the floor. "Lay flat I say!" he forced his foot to his throat.
Hanbei knelt by his head as the man whimpered. I don't care how long you've lived, you have never been so afraid, and still not as afraid as I that this is all a dream, he thought as he kissed the old man's forehead. He put the purple charm down, veiling the old man's eyes with its little arms. He whimpered and sniveled and wailed, his voice would surely haunt him. Hanbei stood up and turned back to the Dusknoir, still unmoving but staring. "That's right, you sit there! I'm going to end this! I-am-going-to-end-this!"
This time he found the sword. A beautiful double-edged bastard sword with a golden hilt, encrusted with rubies from the Ignis mines. He looked back down at the old man, paralyzed with fear with the charm across his face. Hanbei had never taken a life with his own hands, had never even had a real battle before this one. Still his hands came up over his head. He cut downward, splitting the charm and the old man's head just above the brow-line.
Before he could look at the remains a wailing far worse than that of the old man's filled the room. The Dusknoir was moving now, clutching at its throat with one hand and reaching toward him with the other. It shot across the room and nearly wrapped its fingers around Hanbei's neck but stopped just short. From the shoulders, the ghost Pokemon melted away into oily bubbles which dissolved into thin air. The wailing grew so loud that Hanbei's hands flew to his ears while his knees buckled.
It was not until the dusknoir completely dissipated that the noise stopped. Silence befell him slowly, like a welcomed warm blanket. He did not know what Yuuwa made of this, nor did he care. His head swam, drunken from his own exhaustion. He knew all too well what came next and welcomed the nirvana of sleep as he fell to the stone floor. I am cured.
