Naru
Peaceful times are something to salvage, that's what I learned after we arrived back at the Nest from Myriad, and that's exactly what I've been doing for the past two weeks. Nothing bad or unexpected came up, so our lives as Ravens were back to the way they were supposed to be. Beforehand, as much as I loved my life at the Nest, I sort of began to take it for granted, being given a month of peace after our first mission spoiled me right away. Even if everything that happened at Myriad only took place over the course of two days, it still completely broke the calm life we had at the Nest. Now that I had that experience, I was going to take advantage of whenever we didn't have anything going on as much as I could.
After Kuro and I both passed out in the middle of our room and proceeded to wake up in an… interesting fashion due to us both falling asleep right next to each other, our lives continued as normal. The medicine that Vero gave us wore off by the time we woke up that morning, but neither of us felt nearly as bad as we did initially, despite soreness still being present. Honestly, soreness felt like a gift compared to the condition I was in after the battle we sustained, so it didn't bother me, not one bit. Both Kuro and I were well enough to continue our schedule of training with mentors and going on mostly delivery missions. However, that was going to change today, as we were assigned a bigger task than expected.
Essentially, four of us, Kuro, Kage, Vero, and myself, were going to travel to an already destroyed old town. Within this town was another group of four pokemon, who seem to claim that old place as their territory and attacked anyone who came too close. To me, it sounds like something a group of ferals would do, but these were not ferals. Luckily, they weren't Void members, and they didn't seem nearly as malicious or bloodthirsty. According to Core, they hadn't killed anyone, just hurt them a bit, forcing them away. This may have been the first mission we took that involved battle, but we were more than prepared. All of us have had some kind of experience battling Void members in the past, so going up against pokemon that weren't aiming to kill took away a majority of my concern regarding the mission. We still might get hurt, but not to the degree we have been in the past.
Not only that, but we had a leader coming with us, as for our first real task that is supposed to involve battling, we were to be evaluated. The higher-ups in the Nest needed to know what we were capable of when it came to that kind of task, so the four of us would be tested in a way. The leader coming with us? Kai.
I knew that I've had little to no interaction with the absol, but what I knew about Kai makes me anxious of any moves he may make. Past events have shown me that Kai is capable of helping others, even if it's a ruse of sorts, which was a comforting thought, but in no way confirmed anything. He was still a Void member, so we needed to be careful around him. Although, Kuro had talked to me about his mixed feelings when it came to Kai.
Since everything that happened in Myriad, Kuro, Shiro and I always sat in a small circle in the middle of the room to just talk to each other. Shiro is the one who came up with the idea, and I'm happy that she did, it made our communication as a team much better. Anyway, during one of these times, Kuro brought up Kai, and told me about some uncertainties he had about him. Namely, he wasn't too sure what the absol was really like in terms of his personality.
While he's at the Nest, he obviously needs to put on a facade, so it makes sense that, despite being a Void member, he'd act nice to the pokemon surrounding him and try his best to not raise suspicion. However, Kuro told me that a lot of Kai's actions feel… genuine, as if he's not faking. For example, he acts concerned about Kuro when they're mach-battling, if Kuro takes a hard hit, or Kai notices that Kuro is starting to slow down and tire out. He doesn't say anything, but it's clear from all of his actions that he's showing concern towards Kuro. Of course, this could all be a very well-acted facade, which Kuro acknowledged, but he's still unsure what Kai is really like. I mean, if Kai killed one of Kuro's parents right in front of him and he's still considering that Kai might not be terrible, then he has to be pretty convinced. Hopefully Kai isn't just a master at deception.
Speaking of mentors, after the four of us are done with this mission, my mentor, Shard, will battle each of us one on one, in order to evaluate us in that kind of situation. So this way, we were being tested for how we work together out on a mission, and how we work when we're alone in an intense battle. We'll be given a number out of fifteen as a statistic to a bunch of basic attributes, and that will be used to determine what sort of tasks we'd be allowed to take on, and what ones would be either too easy or too difficult. I had no problem with this, but I was a little bit nervous to be tested. Only a little though. Like with the mission we're going on, this was nothing compared to our recent experiences. It was just the aspect of getting scored that was stressful, not the danger. Of course, I preferred the fear of a low score, rather than fear of whether I'm getting out alive or not.
I was walking towards the far east edge of the Nest, which wasn't a spot I visit very often. It was sort of out of the way from Kuro and I's room, and there wasn't much there to begin with, so I never found myself in the area unless I was aimlessly wandering. Waiting there should be Kage, Vero, and Kai. The three of them got everything they needed to ready beforehand, while Kuro and I were preoccupied with showing Shiro more areas around the Nest. Because of this, Kuro was finishing up our preparation in the store area of the Nest, and would meet with the rest of us at our departure point. I was going before him in order to notify the rest of them why we ended up being later than expected. Luckily, the abandoned town wasn't too far away, so leaving around noon was a viable option. Hopefully, the other three would forgive Kuro and I for poor planning. Now that I think about it, we're kind of bad at planning things out…
After a few more minutes of walking, I saw a small group in the distance waving towards me. Vero and Kage were standing next to each other, facing me with smiles, while Kai was standing off to the side. I waved back with one of my forepaws and began to walk towards them, returning their expressions. Like all other areas of the Nest, this one had a long stone path leading to the edge of the place, separated by a thick line of grass. The surrounding area shared the violet shine that the rest of the Nest had, looking pretty much identical to where Kuro and I lived, but with a few different twists and turns. Luckily, those turns weren't enough to get me lost, hopefully the same would be true for Kuro. His sense of direction has been getting better, but I still worry at times.
"Hey, Naru!" Kage greeted as I made it to the group. I nodded my head to him in acknowledgment.
"Hi! Sorry to keep you guys waiting, but we were showing Shiro a few more places she should know how to get to." Even if it made us late, I think Kuro and I had a good reason. Shiro lived here now, so she needed to know where everything important was.
"Not a problem. I don't think this will take all day anyway, based on everything we know so far." Vero said, placing one of her claws under her chin. "Then again, keeping on schedule isn't exactly my strong suit." Like Kuro has his problem with navigation, Vero had a hard time staying on a normal schedule for her different tasks. I think it partially had to do with the fact that she didn't have a mentor to teach her, other than Kuro giving a few tips here and there. Because she didn't have someone else's availability to think about, she did pretty much all of her scheduling on her own, which ended up being just a bit sloppy. Functional, but it had its issues.
"I'm sure we'll be fine." Kage pat Vero's back a few times. "All of us will be keeping track of what we'll be doing, so I'm sure our group will operate perfectly fine."
"Hopefully you're right. We've been getting back from missions way too late as of recent." Vero responded with a sigh. The two of them haven't been taking on particularly difficult tasks lately, but they've had to go to a lot of different places in one trip, which I'm sure was exhausting, and took a while.
"Well, we just need to drive a small group out of this abandoned place, right? If we think of an efficient way to do it beforehand, then it shouldn't take long." I said with assurance. Once Kuro made it here, I wanted to discuss what exactly we were going to do in order to get them to leave. I mean, if we could just ask them nicely, that would be great, but I doubt it. Although, that would be a lot faster than having to fight it out…
"While we're waiting here, do either of you have any ideas regarding how we can approach this? I doubt anything is going to be accomplished peacefully." Kage asked among the group. I tilted my head and looked up into the clouded sky. The sun has been hiding out a lot lately, and the weather has been decreasing rapidly, or so I've heard. When you're a ice type, cold air just kind of flows by you, feeling no less warm than any other day. Because of this, I didn't really react to the change in the air all around me, but most of the other pokemon did. Kuro and I always wore scarves as an apparel choice, not to warm up, but the abundance of scarves within the Nest as of late keyed me in on the lowering temperatures. Well, that and the comments from all of the Ravens roaming around.
"I think we need someone to lure them away from wherever they're waiting." Kage and I looked at Vero. "Another thing I figured out about this group is their way of rejecting pokemon from their 'territory.' They like to fight in one particular part, and they have specific protocols for said area. If we can manage to lure them away from that part of the town and into another, then we'd have a much easier time." I thought about Vero's suggestion, which didn't seem to have many problems. The only problem I could think of was why nobody had done this before. It seemed like such a clear way to take them off-guard, but then again, there's no guarantee that it hasn't been tried before, and it just didn't work. But, along with that, there was one other thing. How would we lure them in the first place? That seems difficult if they work so well in the area they'll be waiting in. Not to mention, won't they notice that they're being led?
The conversation continued, each one of us stating problems with any ideas that were brought up. All of the possible ways to approach the situation seemed to have way more issues than our initial one, making them seem impractical, but we still had no idea if we would even be able to pull off the first thought. I mean, tricking them into changing locations was one thing, but actually doing it was a whole other ordeal. In order to get all of them away, then we would probably need one of us to do it, as oppose to all of us as a group. There were too many variables to keep track of at the same time if we did it as a group, so we'd need one of us to be bait, while the others prepared to ambush them in another area. However, that also came with risks, as the plan would call for one of us to last against more than one opponent, which would be rather difficult to do. Even with this in mind, we couldn't think of anything else tangible. Have we ever even had a plan for anything..? We usually just act on instinct… Maybe that's why we need to be evaluated in the first place…
Our small group continued discussing possible plans or strategies we could use if we had to run them out of the abandoned place. We still wanted to ask first, just to make sure we're not battling for no reason. Again, I highly doubted that just asking them to leave would work, but it was worth a shot. Then again, what would we even be evaluated on if we just asked them to leave and they did? Maybe… we'd be graded on how we handled the mission..? A few minutes of somewhat futile planning went by, and next to no real progress was made. However, we did see a familiar umbreon walking towards us in the distance, which brought a smile to my face. Looks like you didn't get lost, good for you!
"Hey Kuro!" Kage shouted out as Kuro continued walking towards us. He let a small smile creep onto his face and lifted one of his forepaws to wave, before picking up his pace and reaching us. He pushed his scarf a little bit further up his face, probably because of the cold air.
"Hi everyone. Sorry for being late, I got held up a bit trying to buy supplies." Kuro informed. It wasn't really a surprise, the store area was always crowded, especially around morning and noon.
"It's no big deal, we had some things to talk about anyway." Vero responded. "We'll inform you of everything on the way to this destroyed town." Kuro nodded his head. Collectively, the other three pokemon in the group let out a breath, creating a misty cloud in front of their faces. Once he realized everyone was here, Kai finally joined the rest of us, which made me tense up a little bit.
"We should get going now, especially if you don't want to be back late." Kai said in a monotone voice. I couldn't read him at all. He didn't sound one-hundred percent emotionless like the flygon I spoke to a while back, but whatever feelings that were present definitely took a back seat.
At first, we all just wordlessly followed Kai as we were leaving the Nest. I guess none of us were used to him being around, especially considering all of the information we had that he didn't know about. Kuro and I both knew that Kai wasnot only a Raven, but a Void member, and both Vero and Kage knew that Kai had a lot of knowledge that he shouldn't have. Because of this, none of us really felt comfortable around Kai, despite him just silently leading us to our destination. After a little bit of walking, Kage, Vero and I explained everything we put together to Kuro. He brought up pretty much all of the same possible problems that our plan had, but also realized that we didn't have very much of a choice.
We ended up deciding on our first idea, assuming that asking them kindly to leave wouldn't work, which it wasn't going to. One of us was going to lead the four pokemon into a different part of the town where they didn't have as much of an advantage as they did where they usually drove pokemon away. As for which one of us was going to play bait, it looked like Kuro had the best shot. We'll know for sure after we get individually evaluated by Shard, but it seemed like Kuro lacked in offense quite a bit. His attacks were pretty light compared to the rest of us, at least, his attacks other than whatever he hit Grace with when she had us cornered. Plus, his recoil made it hard for him to use any of his really damaging attacks without major risk. However, what he lacked in offense was more than made up for when it came to stamina. Kuro could do a lot, and I mean a lot of moving around quickly and intensely without winding himself. This would be good for getting away from pokemon he might be trying to lure. Not to mention, if he really needs to, he could use his tendrils to make his ability to get away much faster and more fluent. He was easily the best candidate for being bait, even if the title was less than enticing.
Vero had a map of the destroyed town, on it she marked where this group usually greeted the pokemon trying to take the ruined town from them, as well as where she wanted us to ambush them. We didn't know how large the area this group had the advantage in was, so we played it safe and made out ambush point a pretty large distance away from the group's assumed location. While this was safe for the plan, it did make Kuro's job harder, and even though he said he was okay with it, I couldn't help but feel bad for increasing the expectancy of what he needed to do.
The rest of us were to wait in position to catch the group off guard. Kage and I were stationed at opposite ends of a building that had been knocked down, while Vero was overhead on one of the few structures that was still standing. Kage and I were supposed to rush at the enemies right after Kuro managed to get them close enough, and then Vero was going to leap down and help us out, hopefully pinching the group between us. Kuro may need a moment to catch his breath after he makes it back, but once he does, we'll have a four on four battle, one without them having a territory advantage. That was the closest to a fair confrontation we were going to have, but there was still the matter of not knowing how strong they were. For once… we actually have an organized plan!
This was the first time we took on a mission that was perceived as 'difficult' right up front. The rest of our challenges came from obstacles not really related to our overall task, but this time was different. We were facing a challenge head-on, and it wasn't one that was life-threatening, just a test. Honestly, after thinking about the plan we came up with and considering that this wouldn't end with someone coming back with broken bones, I was excited. This was the first time I was really pumped up for completing a task at the Nest, and I wasn't going to waste this feeling. After all, we still needed a good evaluation. With a giddy smile on my face, I walked with the rest of our group, excitedly staring at the dusty structure that was coming into my view.
Kuro
I walked through a wasteland of broken down buildings and dust, on my way to the far east end of it. The ground under me reminded me of a desert, except, instead of sand caught in my paws, it was orange-colored dirt caked to them. This place clearly hadn't been through renovation of any kind in a very long while, as not only were most of the structures, well, not standing, but the entire place was covered in dust. You'd think that if a group of pokemon were holding this place, they would still poke around a bit, but by the looks of it, nothing of the sort took place.
I memorized the map that Vero showed us for the most part, at least the important sections of it. I knew how to get to where this group allegedly was, and I also knew how to get to our rendezvous point where we would ambush them to the best of our ability. I was sort of worried that I wouldn't be able to successfully lure the group away from their home area, as that would not only affect me, but Kage, Vero, and Naru. This would go down as a failed mission, as well as hurt our evaluation from Kai. I felt… just a bit pressured, but I was able to calm myself down with deep inhales of the frigid air around me. I didn't mind cold weather too much. I picked up quite a few survival skills while I was on my own, one of which was being able to deal with any sort of weather. Finding warmth in the middle of a dark forest wasn't the easiest thing in the world unless you want to start a forest fire, so I relied on building a resistance to the weather that pierced through the warmth of my fur. It took quite a while, but I managed to adapt to weather changes as they came and went. I had to admit though, having a scarf made everything a lot easier.
After a bit more traversal through the broken down town, I reached the point in which this group allegedly greeted pokemon and attempted to run them out. I took a deep breath before heading further into the area, keeping track of my surroundings. Most of the knocked down buildings were made out of bricks, and others were made out of glass, at least the exterior was. Luckily, the broken glass didn't make its way to the circular clearing of red dirt I was standing in. Nature was a beautiful thing, but it could be brutal to places like this, which are left behind. Half of the buildings were buried, another fourth of them leaning down, barely standing, and the remainder, while up and off the ground, had numerous holes and damage to the whole structure. This place was messed up beyond belief, but there was nothing wrong with the environment itself, so it could probably be renovated. It would take a lot of effort, but it was salvageable. Maybe that's why pokemon are trying to take this place back from this group in the first place.
I was just about to make the mistake of settling in with my thoughts, but I heard something scrape against one of the knocked-over buildings from about ten feet away from me, to which I jumped back and got into a battle stance. I already felt my heart rate begin to pick up, despite the fact that I haven't even seen whatever made that noise yet. I backed away from the source of the sound, preparing myself for someone to jump out from behind it and attack. My guard was up, and I wasn't going to be surprised by anything. At least, not anything combat related. Behind the building, I heard a lot of whispering, quiet whispering, but I could tell that it held an irritated tone. After the whispering picked up more, I heard a loud smack, as if someone got slapped. That was followed by a grunt, and then the noises calmed down. What in the world…
I was about to back up more, but then I violated my own state of mind and my body jumped as a lurantis hopped up from behind the knocked over building. They locked eyes with me for a second, and then turned their body to the side on one leg, sticking one of their blades into the air, as if they were posing. A second later, out came a crobat, who flew a few circles around the lurantis before positioning themselves just barely off of the ground a few feet to the right of the lurantis, pointing their wings towards the empty space in between them. Right after that, a poliwrath jumped up too, and stood just a few inches in front of the other two, crouching down into a position like they were about to charge forward. Finally, a golisopod climbed over the knocked-over structure and stood behind the other three, spreading their arms far apart, able to embrace the others if they wished to. I just stood still, not moving at all. I wasn't really afraid, but that most certainly caught me off-guard, just as I thought I was prepared for anything. These pokemon looked like they were setting up for a picture, not like they wanted to fight.
"Okay!" The poliwrath yelled in a gruff voice before looking up at me.
"Now we're all here!" The crobat yelled out.
"You'll be cornered!" The lurantis shouted.
"Do you want to challenge us?" The golisiopod said rather calmly. All of the others shouted, but he just spoke normally.
I stared at the group of four, baffled by what I was looking at. I was just… confused. All other pokemon who I've battled in the past have either attacked me right off the bat, or prepared themselves to counter, but these pokemon were posing in front of me, and recited some kind of organized speech. I snapped myself out of the small trance I brought my mind into and looked back at the group, but not in a battle stance. For some reason, I felt like they weren't going to sucker punch me. I took in a breath, and tried to communicate with them.
"Umm… Are you the group that keeps on running pokemon out of here?" The golisiopod put on a smirk, but didn't break the pose that the four were holding.
"Ah. You're here about that. I should've figured." The rest of the group put on the same smirk that the golisiopod had. "That's exactly who we are. But you must be wondering: Who are we?" Wait… What..? I'm confused. Didn't you just say…
Without hesitating, the lurantis of the group turned her body towards me and crossed her blades in front of her face. The crobat spun in circles and then faced me while much higher in the air than before. The poliwrath rose his hands into the air and curled them up into fists, and the golisiopod held the same position that he had previously. Each of them took in a deep breath.
"WE ARE THE FOUR SAINTS!" They all yelled simultaneously.
I flinched from the sudden volume change, but then just looked at the group, still posing in front of me. They were staring at me expectantly, as if waiting for a reaction, but I just tilted my head in confusion. Who… Are these pokemon..? I didn't know how to feel about them in the slightest, so I just stared forward at the group, waiting for them to do something. After an admittedly awkward few minutes of wordless staring, the lurantis' eye twitched, and she let out a sigh. She abandoned the pose the four had and walked next to the crobat, who had lowered himself much closer to the ground. She began to glare at him.
"I told you that name was ridiculous!" She shouted, another increase in volume that I wasn't expecting. She took one of her blades and smacked the crobat over the head with the dull side of it. He looked like he suppressed a shout, and then slammed into the ground. He looked back up at the lurantis.
"S-Sorry Dice… I thought it was fine…" He croaked, obviously a little bit stunned by the sudden smack to the ground.
"Now now, that was a little bit harsh, don't you think?" The poliwrath said, also breaking from his pose and walking towards the crobat and lurantis, whose name seemed to be Dice.
"Well, our name was supposed to sound threatening and intimidate others, not send them into a blank stare of confusion!" Dice yelled, pointing one of her blades towards me. "I mean, look at him! He's not even fazed!"
"I don't think the name is the problem, I think it was the delivery." The crobat slowly rose up off the ground to meet with his colleagues. "I mean, we didn't exactly take him by surprise like we wanted to…"
"And whose fault was that?" Dice looked back at the poliwrath, who nervously chuckled.
"I just tripped over myself, alright? Hitting me over the head wasn't necessary. You probably attracted more attention with that than me shuffling around!" The poliwrath retorted.
"Even so, I wouldn't have had to do that if you didn't trip in the first place Al!" Dice yelled back.
"How can you be so aggressive Dice? It was just a few simple mistakes…" The crobat chimed bashfully.
"Oh, shut it, Soar." Dice dismissed him. "You didn't even remember what you were supposed to do for our pose."
"I didn't understand what Gyro told me to do… and I thought you were supposed to show me exactly how he wanted me to fit into that pose." Dice looked visibly flustered by this comment.
"I assumed that you'd get it on your own! All you had to do was fit into the middle of all of us, not fly thirty feet into the air!" Dice looked like she was about to clock the crobat, Soar in the head again. Right before she made contact, the golidiopod, Gyro, grabbed her claw.
"Now isn't the time to be fighting among yourselves like children. Remember, we have a challenger here." Gyro shook his head slowly and backed up behind the other three, while they faced me.
I was still just staring at them with my head tilted. I didn't know how to react to them at all. I mean, if they were the ones who had been driving pokemon away from this place, than I was expecting something miles among miles away from the group I was standing before. I certainly got the whole 'not killers' vibe from them, but other than that, I didn't know what to think. How was I supposed to? I said I'd be ready for anything, yet here I was, completely baffled by this group of four pokemon. Just as I was organizing my head to say something, Gyro began to slowly walk towards me. He stopped about ten feet away.
"So about my question earlier, are you here to fight us?" He calmly asked. He seems like their leader…
"You're not entirely wrong." I responded, not feeling quite as dumbfounded as before. "I'm here to try and get you to leave this place. It can still be salvaged and become a functioning town." Gyro just smiled and continued staring at me.
"You're far from the first pokemon to ask that, and we'll gladly leave once someone can take the four of us out." He looked around at the ocean of collapsed and barely standing buildings surrounding the clearing-type area we were standing in. "I guess they didn't tell you about the way this works. We agreed to leave, but only once someone could beat us in a battle. That was our condition, and it still hasn't been met."
"But, you're sort of holding this town down right now. It could become something great, as long as you give others the chance to improve it."
"I'm sure it can, but there's something you should know about us." Gyro glanced at the other three pokemon behind him before looking at me again. "We love to battle others. It's such a thrilling experience, and we all want to salvage this as much as possible. You know the best way to get new challengers? Hold an area like this, and openly state that anyone could have it, so long as we're beaten." He chuckled. "So many pokemon have come and challenged us, and some have actually given some great battles, but none have managed to beat us yet. This is the perfect way to fuel our need to find pokemon to battle!" So they just want to fight with others for fun..?
"So that's the only reason why you won't leave this place? It's not some territorial thing?" I curiously asked. I thought that the reason they didn't want to leave was that they viewed this place as their property, not as a hotspot for picking innocent fights.
"Of course not. We said that in order to draw more pokemon in. Can you really blame us though? Have you never had a battle that you just never wanted to end? Haven't you ever felt that kind of exhilaration?" Gyro seemed to excite himself as he talked. As much as I wanted to try and see things from his perspective, I really didn't have the same feelings when it came to fighting. A lot of pokemon saw it as a sport, but seeing as I spent a large amount of time just fighting against ferals for survival, it was hard to get excited from a fight. The closest I got to that was when I battled Kage for the first time in the applicants' tournament, and even then I think I just got caught up in the moment.
"Not… particularly." I shook my head. "To answer your question then, I guess I am here to challenge you four." Gyro smirked.
"Judging by the symbol on the side of our body, I can guess why. Are you the only one here? Doesn't seem like a fair confrontation."
"We'll see about that." I crouched back down into my previous battling position. I also realized how cocky I just sounded, and while that's not exactly what my intention was, I ignored my poor delivery.
"I see." Gyro backed up behind the other three in front of me. "Well then, let's stop wasting time. Dice. Al. Soar. Drive him away." The three pokemon that were just commanded to attack leaned forward, and I tensed up. Here we go…
"Finally!" I was rushed by a shouting lurantis, who crossed her blades and swung them forward. I barely ducked under one slash, and threw myself to the side, avoiding her second blade. She turned and smirked at me. "It's been a little bit since we had a challenge, don't you dare disappoint! I'm reeeaaallllyyy eager to beat someone up!" She pointed her blades at me. She reminds me of another aggressive pokemon… Just not quite as sadistic.
"Watch your back!" I attempted to react to the shouting from behind me, but a crobat slammed their body into the back of my neck, shooting me straight towards Dice. I saw her draw one of her blades back, ready to slash me. Right as she was about to make contact, I turned my body to the right, making the blade just scathe me. She quickly forced her other blade towards me, but I was ready for it. I caught the blade by biting down on it, and then swung my neck around and threw Dice at Soar, nearly making them collide. Dice quickly regained her footing and both her and Soar looked at me with smiles. I took a deep breath to recover from the first instance of combat, and readied myself again. I need to lead them away from here, the question is, how? How can I lure them without being obvious in the process? I quickly processed a few ways I might be able to change our location without looking like I was specifically trying to do so. Looks like I might have to pull some of my new tricks.
The two who attacked me earlier both launched themselves at me again. I extended my two large tendrils, feeling them erode from the side of my body with much less discomfort than usual. I blocked both Dice and Soar's path with one of them, staggering the two backwards. I used the opportunity to slam my other tendril to the ground, launching myself into the air. Soar attempted to chase me down, but before I started losing altitude, I shot a shadow ball at him, knocking him back towards the ground. The attack also pushed me back a little bit, sending me closer to the edge of the round clearing we were all in. Once gravity pulled me back to the ground at a high speed, I broke my fall using both of my tendrils, angering the nerves embedded within them. After flinching a little bit, I took a second to find my four opponents, not retracting my tendrils, as it was likely I'd need them again shortly. I spotted Dice coming in my direction and Soar quickly recovering from me sending him into the ground. However, I couldn't find Gyro or Al anywhere. That was worrying, but Dice was closing in on me too fast to give me time to think about my concerns.
Instead of waiting to counter attack, I rushed towards her and tried to headbutt the center of her body, but she slipped out of the way last second and swung the back end of one of her blades into my spine. I slid in the direction I was facing, and Dice followed up by running at me again. I was about to use my tendrils to escape, but I felt my body get slammed into the ground, sending my nerves into a pulsing ache. Soar had plummeted onto me from behind, I lost track of him, and I was punished for it. Dice than collided her knee with my chin, launching me up into the air and a decent distance away. I used my tendrils to properly land, and then I shook off any pain that the two attacks gave me. Because of the direction I was launched in, I realized that I was close to the edge of the of circle clearing, and almost in the main portion of the broken down town.
I took note of my position, and hit the ground in front of me with my tendrils, sending me away from the circle clearing. I then flipped my body around to face the other direction. I was thinking about what I would do once we were out of this open area, but I was distracted by Dice launching herself up right in front of me. She smirked and prepared to send me back to the dirt, but I reacted fast enough and grabbed her upper body with a tendril, and she was the one who got sent back down to the ground. It looked like she really wanted to keep me in this clearing, so is this 'their area?'
I looked ahead of where I was descending, and took note of a broken part of a slanted building in front of me. I latched a tendril onto the edges of the hole, and then pulled myself into the building. As soon as my paws touched the solid flooring, I coughed a few times, inhaling a ton of dust. I looked around to see nothing but a very spacious rectangular room. There was nothing in it, other than the blue tiled floor and the white walls and ceiling, the room was blank and dark. I retracted my tendrils and then began to head to other side of the interior, where, much to my convenience, another hole in the wall was present. This gave me a way to keep up my pace, so I began to jog towards it, but nearly tripped when I felt my recoil kick in. I managed to stay standing on all fours, but I stopped moving for a few seconds, recovering from the sudden pain spike. It was a bit worse than usual, seeing as I used my tendrils for a pretty decent amount of time, but it still only lasted about a minute before slowly fading away. I may have been more comfortable handling my tendrils now, but the recoil was still the same as ever.
I ran to the other exit of the broken structure I was in, and then jumped out of it, landing in a place that looked a lot more like a path than a clearing. I would say it was a road, but the ground was made out of orange dirt, so it was sort of hard to determine what exactly this area used to be. On either side of the stretch of land laid more slanted buildings, along with a few that were already on the ground. On one of the knocked-over buildings was directly under the hole that I had just jumped out of, and I ran over and stood behind it, wanting to be in a secure spot while I thought about what I was going to do next. I relaxed my body, cutting off a little bit of the adrenaline pumping through my veins.
Okay… I know the layout of this place. I know a route that will bring me to everyone else, but I'm not sure if the path will be accessible, not with four pokemon chasing me down. They're too open, so I need to think of a better way to get over there. I looked up into the somewhat cloudy sky, coming up with an idea. Maybe I'd have a better time if I went over the rooftops…
As I was considering more options, I heard the sounds of movement from right above me, in the building I just came out of. I assumed it was Dice and Soar, but I still had no idea where the other two went. That was eating away at me, distracting me from escaping the lurantis and crobat. What distracted me even more was Dice yelling in the ruined structure, her voice echoing from the spacious environment. Right after the yelling concluded, I heard a loud smack, which also echoed, although this one sounded like it repeated itself throughout the whole town. This was further followed by a shriek, sounding like it came from Soar. I almost feel bad for him right now…
I shook my head to re-focus myself on finding a way to get onto higher ground without attracting the attention of Dice and Soar, one could jump pretty efficiently, and the other had wings, so altitude alone was not enough to get away from them. I gazed not too far away from the cover I was in, and saw another knocked-over structure, this one leaning close to another slanted building, which was leaning on a stable one. If I use those, than I can get up quietly, and I won't have to-
I heard shuffling from behind me and turned around, only to get the wind ripped out of my body, and I was sent back into the air, crashing into a sturdy building across from my previous cover. I fell to the ground, landing on my paws, and then looked back at where I was just standing while huffing to recover. Right where I was hiding a second ago stood Al, and he had a jolly expression in his eyes.
"You didn't think I just bailed away from the battle, did you?" He walked past the building I had just been hiding behind and rose his fists. "Although, I'll give you props. Most pokemon don't make it out of that wide space, not even the ones that give us difficulty." He chuckled for a little bit while we stared each other down. So he's the plan for anyone who makes it out of that area… I knew losing him was going to come back and bite me.
Just after Al stopped talking to me, two of his allies dropped down from above. One stood next to him, the other flew slightly above the ground, with a wing angled to rub his head. Al and Dice smiled at me, but the crobat just whimpered. Who I assumed to be their leader still wasn't here, and like before, that worried me, but I couldn't focus on that. Not with the other three right in front of me. Now I've done it… How can I get any further now? I took a moment to prepare myself to get moving again, and observed what exactly I was up against right now. Dice is really quick on the ground, Soar is fast in the air, and Al packs a punch. It was clear that I couldn't outrun the lurantis or the crobat, I may have been able to get away from Al if he was the only one here, but that wasn't the case. Plus, I needed to look out for him. He snuck up on me really well, and that punch rattled my bones. I needed to do something to gain ground over them, but I wasn't sure how to exactly. Unless… I try something new.
"Time for you to give in!" The lurantis dashed at me, and the crobat took to the skies, also rushing towards me. Al wasn't too far behind, but he was a few feet back from the other two. I took note of their position, and then focused. The rings on my legs lost their color, being replaced with a black to match my fur. The same happened with the ones on my ears and tail, but not my forehead. As soon as they get closer… The two faster pokemon were now about ten feet away from me.
"Thanks for grouping up!" I leaned my head forward right before Dice could swing at me, and Soar could try and ram me. I put my mind on the only ring I still had visible on my body. The ring began to lightly glow for a second, and after that second passed, I released a massive burst of light from my remaining ring. Dice immediately shielded her eyes with one of her blades, and Soar spun out of control in the air, flying into one of the not-so sturdy buildings behind me. Al was affected by the light too, but not nearly as much, because he was farther away. He blocked the light for only a second, before looking at me again. The rest of my rings regained their golden color, and I lowered my body, lightly smiling. Thanks for the inspiration, Naru.
I lunged passed Dice and slammed her back with my tail, sending her into the same building that Soar flew into. Al then ran at me and attempted to punch me again, but now that I could actually see him coming, I was able to react. I dodged two swings from him, and then rammed my head into his stomach, making him slide back a few feet, but not doing much damage. He recovered and then smiled.
"Your tactics don't matter if you can't hurt me at all!" He ran at me again, this time opening his mouth and shooting off two spheres of water at me. I extended my tendrils and knocked them both away. He ran at me again, and his fists began to brightly glow. He swung at me, but I caught his fist with one of my tendrils, although it hurt. A lot. He then did the same with his other fist, which I also caught with my other tendril, to which I grunted from the wave of pain sent to me. Al lowered his eyelids and struggled against the grip I had, but I made sure he wouldn't get loose that easily. Time to counter! I gave him a similar smile to the one he gave me earlier.
"Is this better?" I released one of his fists, and his momentum carried him to inaccurately swing past me, where I ducked below his arm and ended up behind him. I released his other fist and then quickly smacked the side of his body with a tendril, putting him off-balance. I used the opportunity to hit him up in the air with my other tendril, and then connect a shadow ball with him before he landed, launching him into the same building the rest of his team was hugging.
I didn't wait to see their reactions, I instead used my tendrils to hastily get to the group of collapsed buildings that were knocked down like a staircase, and then brought myself to the top of a building. I took a deep breath and ran across the roof, which felt like smacking my paws against stone. Right before I made it to the edge, I slammed a tendril on the top of the roof under me, making me wince, but sending me far down the next path I needed to run down. I gave myself a balanced landing, and then kept running down the would-be road. Now I have some freedom.
I continued to move towards my destination.
Hello Readers!
I told myself that I wasn't going to take more than seven days to write a chapter, and it only took me three of them to break that… I'm sorry. With thanksgiving and all of that going on, I had a lot to do, and even now I have to help a distant family member move, which has also kept me quite busy, and isn't even over yet. But no more excuses, I promise that I'll try my best to keep on schedule going forward! Also, happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate. I know it's late, but it's the thought that counts, right? :p
I want to thank all of you who have sent me PMs, reviews, and all that good stuff. I actually got a lot of PMs specifically between this chapter and the last, and I appreciate all of them! I don't think I've ever said this in a chapter before, but I will indeed respond to every review and PM that I get, so don't hesitate! Finally, I want to thank my beta-reader for improving these chapters before they go out! (8-BitUmbreon) [^_^]
See You Next Chapter!