Author's note: Obligatory '69' reference. No, I'm not sorry.
On another note, I hope all of you that celebrated Hanukkah had a lovely holiday, and if I don't post beforehand, I'm wishing the rest of you a merry Christmas, a blessed Yule, and happy holidays for any others I may be missing.
Perhaps Lunala and the Starstorm trio were having a horrible time, perhaps Delphi's group had a daunting task ahead of them, and perhaps the rest of the expeditioners had a terrifying group of foes standing in their way…
… But to two figures, things could not have been better. The top of Megalo Tower was perfectly serene while everything below went to hell, and the occupants thereof reveled in it. Heavy stone pillars comprised the corners, and multiple translucent flower-like glassy 'petals' kept the summit enclosed with glowing blue and purple 'veins' that illuminated the space just enough to see the surroundings inside. A certain Delphox had her face practically pressed to one glassy translucent surface, her wild purple eyes glued to a certain gleaming draconic figure in the distance, and her Nihilego partner stuck close to her with one tentacle hand gently stroking her between her ears.
"This is fucking beautiful," Salem laughed.
"Void think so too," the Nihilego sweetly replied.
The sky cracked, attacks flew, and all the while, the Delphox's smirk grew bigger and bigger. Of course, the visions that danced in both of their heads, courtesy of that same gleaming dragon down below, made things all the more clear- Necrozma's view as they stared down Lunala and the three expeditioners with her, as their disowned emissary tried to appeal to their old self's empathy, as they shattered the goddess' shield, as Astrid's face contorted in wrath and the other former human herself started to scream in rage… It was beautiful. All so beautiful. Void stopped stroking her host for a moment to delicately clap her tentacle hands together in bliss, swaying lightly back and forth.
Salem snickered. "You were right about everything," she said amusedly. "You knew there was a big chance she'd reclaim Arashi when you sent him, you knew they'd try to make a move either way while Necrozma wasn't at full strength, and you knew they'd come straight to you if you were patient.~ You haven't had to lift a tentacle at all this whole time, and honestly, I doubt you will even if they somehow get past who's in their way now."
Void too made a metallic chuckling sound. "Astrid have insider, former goddess, and other smart Pokémon on her side. Void take it all into consideration, because Void tired of her escaping."
"And you were right," the Delphox laughed again. "Not a damned thing has gone well for them, and even if they do manage to scale this tower and challenge us, I doubt they'll be in any condition to win."
The Nihilego patted her host before floating behind her, gently flattening her ears out, and perching herself on her head. "Astrid's partner talk about synergy… but they not have our synergy.~"
At that, Salem started cackling, her voice getting a slight metallic edge to it as Void's grip around her tightened.
. . . . .
Almost as soon as the words left Lunala's mouth about how she might go dim again, she was releasing light of her own- a Moongeist Beam to counter Necrozma's Photon Geyser. The Starstorm trio instinctively wanted to dart out of the way, but their goddess was unmoving against Necrozma's onslaught, thus they too stayed put while readying attacks of their own. Two beams of light met in the air, and the creature behind the more ethereal one already seemed to be pained from sheer concentration.
"You know, I'll always say there's a light at the end of the tunnel, but this is not what I had in mind!" Arashi exclaimed, squinting from the blinding brightness but still trying to get good aim for a Dark Pulse.
"You think if I pray, your world's gods might answer?" Raijin mused aimlessly.
Astrid didn't say a word, only shaking her head with a less-than-amused expression. Divine intervention in a way that benefited her and her comrades was a moot point if there ever was one.
Lunala's form shivered just a bit like someone trying their hardest to grab the fists of someone far stronger than them, and indeed, Necrozma's attack did seem to be overwhelming hers. Nonetheless, she hollered "NOW!" at her comrades.
The Starstorm trio let their attacks fly as Lunala's fizzled out, and the goddess quickly flew upwards and out of the way. Necrozma, though, still didn't seem fazed at all- Astrid's arrow was dwarfed by their blazing body, and Arashi's Dark Pulse was like water in a volcanic chamber. Being huge and blinding was already par for Raijin's attacks, but the two Pokémon quickly caught on that their comrade was already exerting himself a great deal trying to wear down a literal fusion of gods, for the energy they felt radiating from the Xurkitree's attack as well as the way his form quivered a bit when letting it go almost frightened them too. Nonetheless, as hard as Raijin may have hit, the boundless energy of Necrozma's form practically swallowed it, and the blazing dragon looked more annoyed than pained.
However, the Starstorm trio couldn't help but to be thankful that they themselves hadn't been hit by Necrozma's Photon Geyser, for the power behind it had become all too clear seeing as the ground in its path had a crevice scorched into it, and the sand and rocks included in it had been liquefied into red-hot glass and runny yellow magma. Anything in its path surely would've met the same bleak fate.
Astrid and Arashi exchanged a wide-eyed glance, completely dumbfounded by the sheer destruction Necrozma was evidently keen on wreaking, and a few static-esque sounds like gasping came from Raijin too, though he didn't say a word.
Lunala, however, did have some words. "Keep it together, you three," she practically hissed, albeit not out of malice or anything negative directed at them.
Necrozma, on the other hand, was perfectly at peace while their crystalline pieces started to glow stronger, and moments after, all four of their targets were taking shelter under Lunala's Wide Guard again while multiple Power Gem lasers rained down on the vicinity. Even under the relative safety of the shield, the Starstorm trio flinched as the beams collided, and looked to Lunala as if she were trying to stop the sky from literally falling on them all.
"A-ah, I'm gonna need a potion or some serious recharging after this," Raijin remarked hesitantly. "Lunala, you might not be the only one going dim."
"You better mean that in the context of fainting and not dying," Astrid said flatly, getting a surprised look from Arashi as the words left her mouth.
"If that happens, it's not gonna be by any will of mine," the Xurkitree quickly replied.
Nonetheless, their shield cracked and faded, and so did Necrozma's attack, but another was quick to follow. What looked like blue lightning welled up in the Blinding One's crystalline jaws, and the Starstorm trio quickly scattered out of the way of the Dragon Pulse that followed… though the air in front of the place they used to be cracked and opened into a wormhole, the other end opening directly above Necrozma. Lunala was obviously the perpetrator, and she wasn't letting up either. A glowing pink sphere of energy coalesced between her bony hands, and she fired off a Moonblast moments later at the dragon of light, but neither that nor the wormhole redirection had any effect when Necrozma gave a flap of their bright wings and darted out of the way.
"You're my friend and my brother! Listen to me, dammit!" the goddess exclaimed fruitlessly, melding into pure shadow and disappearing.
Even if the Starstorm trio couldn't see her, Necrozma apparently knew exactly where she was, for their gaze darted around then rested right on the place beside them where she rematerialized, one wing drawn back. She smashed them right in the head, which apparently disgruntled the fused one enough to make them growl in discomfort, but they apparently had a move of their own ready too. One of their crystalline hands curled up with only one claw sticking out, and that one claw rammed into her chest in a sure-hit Smart Strike.
Crack!
"Uaaugh!" Lunala cried, eyes going wide.
Astrid and Arashi's eyes went wide too, for the goddess had one of those gleaming claws jabbing straight out of her back.
"Lunala!" Raijin exclaimed in panic, another Signal Beam forming between his hands. "Dammit, Necrozma! You're making this insanely difficult!"
"Not yet, gods damn it!" Astrid likewise cried, nocking an arrow.
"Please tell me she can take a hit like that!" Arashi yelped.
Yet again, a Spirit Shackle, Dark Pulse, and Signal Beam flew, and yet again, they were swallowed by a wormhole. Necrozma quickly removed their claw from Lunala's chest and turned their attention back on Team Starstorm, another rain of Power Gems following. The three of them prepared to move, but another Wide Guard kept them safe from both Necrozma's attack and their own deflected ones that came clashing down with it out of the fused one's wormhole. The goddess herself melted into the ground, then rose back up behind them, still alive and looking focused albeit with a very obvious break in her ribcage.
"Don't you worry yourselves with me," she breathed. "If you have to, I will tell you."
They didn't question her, but Arashi questioned something else.
"W-why isn't Necrozma locked down?!" the Greninja exclaimed. "Astrid hit them with Spirit Shackle! They shouldn't be darting around like that!"
The one with the spectral arrows had different thoughts. "And pray tell, Arashi, what shadow do you see that I could stitch down?" she asked haplessly. "They are literally a creature made of light. The only shadows here are the ones they're causing."
It hit him, and it seemed to hit Raijin too for the way he twitched.
"Oh, sheesh, you're right!" Arashi exclaimed reluctantly.
The moment their shield started to fade, Necrozma had a Photon Geyser ready to fire off at them, and a wormhole opened yet again courtesy of Lunala that redirected the Blinding One's attack back at them. Still, Necrozma wasn't to be outdone, for another wormhole opened that directed it right back at the original targets, to which the Starstorm trio darted aside and Lunala darted the opposite way. None of them were hit, but just like with Glimmer's Hyper Beam, a clear path of destruction was scorched through the landscape behind them, though it didn't stop there.
Boom!
Someplace off in the distance, some unfortunate floating island had to have received a nasty impromptu terraforming session from the way they could hear ground cracking and catch the glimpse of a huge explosion's flash far, far away in the cosmos. Surely if some unlucky Beast had been in its path, they wouldn't have had time to register any pain- they would've just been incinerated all at once.
"Fuck you, Necrozma!" Astrid hissed, grabbing yet another arrow.
She wasn't sure if a creature made of light would care about getting shot in the eye, but she tried it anyway and aimed her arrow up at the gleaming dragon's face… where it promptly bounced right off of their prismatic glowing armor when they turned their head to stare straight back at her. As if sending their own silent 'fuck you too,' the Decidueye found herself with one claw pointed at her, another Photon Geyser taking form at the tip. She said nothing, but the words running through her head were rather colorful.
Raijin, though, fired off a Discharge in what would've looked like an attempt to counter the attack with his own had he been able to stand up to Necrozma's ridiculous strength. Rather, it just bought the Starstorm trio another second to get out of the way when it stalled the Photon Geyser for just a second before getting swallowed. Arashi darted one way and Astrid darted the other with a flap of her wings, but not before grabbing her Xurkitree comrade with one set of talons and yanking him out of the way along with her. Yet again the ground behind them was looking far different, bits of rock turned to magma and much of it scorched into uniform blackness.
"Thanks," Raijin said quickly. "I might've gotten melted too if I didn't move fast enough."
"Same to you," Astrid replied just as quick, casting one quick glance to the place they'd been moments prior.
An Ice Beam from Arashi outright melted before it could even reach Necrozma, and even if it hadn't, the Blinding One twisted aside so that nothing could hit them. Lunala aimed another Moonblast at the fused figure, and into another wormhole it went, the other end opening behind the goddess herself. She flew aside, letting it fly back at its original target, but it still missed nonetheless when Necrozma too flew out of the way.
"Are you alright?" Raijin asked the feathered ghost, getting cloaked in a bright rainbow light. "You seem oddly angry, not that I blame you."
"Oh, I've been better," Astrid replied, yanking another arrow free. She too melted into the ground while her comrade fired off a blinding Dazzling Gleam, but when she re-emerged next to him again with her arrow nocked, she kept on, "Don't worry. I've just got a lot of pent-up negativity to work through."
Both she and her comrade's attacks still did nothing, as Necrozma was evidently more intent on delivering another Smart Strike to Lunala and avoided them both in the process. The goddess hastily put up a Wide Guard around them all, looking startled herself as one of her former friend's claws punched through it. She was safe, but Necrozma clearly wasn't wasting the opportunity and unleashed a Dragon Pulse within the shield, which elicited a shout of protestation from the goddess as she scrunched up inside to avoid it still.
"W-what do you even call this?!" Arashi exclaimed in objection likewise, looking stunned at the gods' antics. "There's playing dirty, and then there's this!"
"Bullshit, Arashi!" Astrid hollered. "You call it bullshit!"
"Seconded!" Raijin agreed.
The goddess dropped the shields fairly quick, and when she did, she revved up another Moongeist Beam. "I'm busting you out of this trance if it's the last thing I do," she declared.
Necrozma laughed, their crystalline armor shining brighter again. "You can try.~"
The Blinding One swiftly maneuvered out of the way of Lunala's attack, shooting off a Power Gem in multiple directions as they did so. A wormhole of Lunala's opened whenever her own attack missed, trying to redirect it back at Necrozma, but the gleaming dragon still evaded it… which in turn caused their rocky beams of energy to shift around just as swiftly, even more so with a few flaps of their wings. For the Starstorm trio, that was bad news, and they noticed it just as fast when the lasers started closing in on them too quickly to avoid.
"No-!" Arashi started to exclaim.
"Don't panic!" Lunala shouted.
That seemed like a moot point, but they found out exactly what she meant when more wormholes swallowed up each of them. Astrid and Arashi both couldn't help being startled for a second, but just as quick, they were out of the path of the Power Gem beams and instead in close proximity to Lunala in the air. Astrid noticed it and flapped her wings to stay up, while her other two teammates dropped out behind Lunala and instead latched onto the bony frame on her back (at least, the intact parts around her shoulders).
Arashi let out a sigh of relief. "Thanks, Lunala!"
"Don't mention it," the goddess brushed him off. "Just hold tight for a little while!"
They definitely weren't going to let go, that was for sure.
Necrozma wasn't thrown off at all and likely was happy to see all of their targets in the same place, thus another Dragon Pulse followed shortly thereafter. The winged ones gave a flap to avoid it, and off into the cosmos it sailed.
"Okay, you three," Lunala said, forming another Moonblast between her bony hands. "You two Pokémon are fully evolved now, and Raijin, I know I don't have to worry about you, so don't be surprised once you start feeling that wormhole energy. I guarantee you there's more coming."
Astrid and Arashi both perked up, though the latter looked more intrigued than the former.
"H-hold on! Does that mean it'll affect us the same way and we won't, like, melt?" Arashi quickly inquired, a Dark Pulse forming at his fingertips. "Remi had mentioned that before, well… y'know what happened!"
The Decidueye blinked, plucking another arrow loose from one wing. Of course, that melting feeling when she'd been a Dartrix was awful, but before it had gotten to that point, she had felt fairly energized… And if it meant thrashing the gods she felt less than friendly towards with what amounted to their own power, she was completely on board. The edges of her beak started to curl up in a grin as she took aim.
"Exactly right," Lunala affirmed, letting her attack go.
Both her Moonblast and Arashi's Dark Pulse flew at the same time, albeit immediately into a wormhole of Lunala's opening before one of Necrozma's could swallow it. However, the Blinding One still wasn't caught by surprise, for they instead pointed one claw up into the other end of the wormhole that opened overhead, countering with a Photon Geyser that overpowered their attacks. Lunala was the one having to avoid instead, darting out of the way with another frantic flap of her wings, while Necrozma still seemed largely unfazed. Again the Blinding One turned their gaze on Astrid as she fired her arrow, and yet again it bounced off of their prismatic armor, which elicited something of a chuckle from the gleaming dragon.
*… You truly were the right choice,* the fused one's ethereal voice sounded in her head as one claw pointed at her next. *That loyalty you show to your now-defunct purpose is the kind of loyalty that Void deserves. The only problem is getting you to change.*
She growled, eyes flashing with fury. "Fuck you, Necrozma," she breathed.
Moments later, she was giving some quick flaps of her wings to avoid a Dragon Pulse that followed at her, though some of the feathers on her wings were grazed by the draconic energy and turned to blackened quills on their ends. She made a tiny startled whimper, but didn't pay it mind for any longer than was necessary. At the same time, Raijin let a Signal Beam go, which was another narrow miss when Necrozma jerked themselves aside. Still, the gleaming dragon had plenty of firepower to expend, and Lunala and the two on her back were shortly staring down a Photon Geyser.
"Alright, here's the second!" Lunala cried, shaking Arashi and Raijin off.
Before the two she carried could be startled, they were engulfed by wormholes, and Lunala herself seemed to vanish into shadow. The Greninja and Xurkitree were dropped onto the ground again, and Necrozma's eyes darted around as if not sure whether to attack the two of them, Astrid in the air, or wherever the unseen Lunala was lurking. Evidently, though, they didn't have much trouble deciding, for they quickly whirled around with one blinding wing held in front of their head as Lunala reappeared with a Phantom Force, the gold frame of one wing clanging against the gold crystalline frame of Necrozma's. She withdrew before their other clawed hand could Smart Strike her again, but at the same time, Raijin loosed another Signal Beam at the Blinding One that they didn't notice in time.
"Gyah!" Necrozma cried in protest.
That was evidently enough to get the Blinding One to target everyone again, for their crystalline bits started to glow brighter again before Lunala was Wide Guarding them all from a Power Gem striking in every direction. The goddess hissed in exertion, as if she were trying to stop the walls of reality from caving in on all of them.
"Th-they better forgive me once this is over," Raijin said hesitantly from within the shield, plugging his limbs into the ground for the brief moment of respite that they had.
Necrozma, though, had other ideas and turned to stare straight at the Xurkitree next with lasers still blazing. "You aren't worthy of forgiveness, Six-Seven, and you never will be."
The emissary in question twitched for a moment as if he were frightened, or despairing, or both, but he said nothing.
"It's you that better be asking for forgiveness, Necrozma!" Arashi shot back, not looking amused at the gleaming dragon in the slightest while forming another Dark Pulse. "If you have any conscience at all, that's what you'll do!"
"That's fucking right!" Astrid fussed in the air, plucking another arrow as the shields and Necrozma's attack both started to fade.
The Blinding One might've been keen on loosing an attack at Raijin next, but they instead looked back to Astrid with a completely unfazed look that said everything- they didn't care about forgiveness, and they didn't particularly want it either, especially from her. Their gaze all but said that they'd drag her to Void kicking and screaming, and if that didn't work for some reason, they'd send her back to her homeworld as a dead body. They understood exactly what enraged her, and they simply could not have cared less.
Still, when the blinding Beast rushed her in a Smart Strike, her gaze still faltered in fright. She frantically flapped her wings to get out of their path, and she did… at least, for the most part. The Blinding One's claw didn't stab her outright, but it grazed her side, ripping through her feathers and skin to make an ugly gash. She shouted in pain, for their sharp appendage ripping her skin was uncomfortable enough, but the sheer energy in their blinding form burned. Her blood evaporated straight off of their claw, and the gash was cauterized on contact. The discomfort easily threw her off of firing an arrow, and instead, one of her wings was coated in a steely glow as she Steel Winged Necrozma in an instinctive effort to beat them back from her vicinity. However, that too burned, and some of her feathers turned to blackened quills where she'd hit them.
"Astrid!" Arashi called in panic, shooting off a Dark Pulse and going wide-eyed at the sight of her singed feathers falling to the ground.
Another quick jerk aside rendered Arashi's attack moot, and to Astrid's brief panic, a wormhole enveloped her, courtesy of Lunala, that dropped her back on the ground in the vicinity of her teammates. She was thankful to be out of Necrozma's reach, but she was far more thankful to be out of the way of the goddess' Moongeist Beam, which Necrozma shot off another Photon Geyser at.
"Astrid! Are you alright?!" Arashi exclaimed.
"That looks like it has to hurt," Raijin noted reluctantly, casting her a brief glance while readying a Signal Beam between his hands.
"It does," the Decidueye said, gritting her beak and gingerly touching it with her other hand.
Her partner was instantly reaching into the bag on her back and yanking out an Oran berry that he then practically shoved into her beak. She ripped a chunk out of it and swallowed it as quick as she could, feeling relief fairly quickly. As he did so, however, she couldn't help but to notice that the Greninja's form had a slight golden glow to it as well, and when she glanced to Raijin turn, he had the same faint red glow that he'd gotten from the wormholes when Lunala had forced her evolution with them. She noticed it on herself too as she held her berry, a faint golden sheen enveloping her own body, and she didn't protest it at all.
Still, Lunala and Necrozma's attacks wavered against each other in the air, and the goddess cried out, "NOW, you three!"
She opened a wormhole in front of them all, which a Signal Beam, Dark Pulse, and Spirit Shackle all sailed into, and quickly the Blinding One had to maneuver again when the other end opened behind them. They abandoned their Photon Geyser and ducked down, letting Lunala's attacks swallow those of the Starstorm trio while they themselves went unscathed. Still, another Photon Geyser followed shortly thereafter, and another Wide Guard went up around them all.
"Gyaaaaah…!" Lunala breathed, expression pained.
"Are you okay…?" Raijin inquired, studying the goddess.
"I'm fine!" was the hasty response.
She said it, but to the ones close to her, the stars glittering in her wings were started to flicker and dim. She was a goddess, alright, but she couldn't keep it up forever. As much disdain as Astrid had for the entirety of the Light Trio, it concerned her to see Lunala exerting herself so much, even if only because Lunala was the only one capable of matching Necrozma's strength and they'd all be turned to ash without her. As much as she wanted to see the Light Trio's members take each other out in a blaze of glory, it worried her.
Still, the shield started to crack and fade, and Necrozma's crystalline pieces flared up for a Power Gem. Lunala didn't waste any time, knowing they'd surely get hit if they stayed there, and the shield dropped while another set of wormholes swallowed up the Starstorm trio. She herself zipped out of the way into the air overhead, deftly maneuvering through the rocky lasers while firing another Moonblast. Another wormhole from Necrozma redirected her own attack back at her, but it too sailed off into the cosmos as she flew out of the way.
The Starstorm trio dropped back out of their wormholes in the air further above Necrozma too, and Arashi and Raijin both latched onto the goddess again while Astrid flapped her wings to stay up. The Blinding One didn't let up for a second, a Dragon Pulse shooting up at them and the winged ones having to fly quickly to avoid getting hit by it. Necrozma followed Lunala more so than Astrid with the draconic beam of energy, and another Moonblast, accompanied by a Dark Pulse and Signal Beam that flew along with it, crashed down onto the ground below as the gleaming dragon too maneuvered out of the way. The boosts from the wormholes were becoming more readily apparent- Raijin's beam was even brighter still, not even regarding how hard the Xurkitree was exerting himself in an attempt to quell the fused god, and Arashi's Dark Pulse was just about as dark and draining as Lunala had looked at the bottom of Vanishing Swamp.
Astrid, though, took the liberty of firing another arrow at the fused god's face, which they seemed to notice, albeit not quite fast enough to make it bounce off of their crystalline pieces again. They looked almost surprised, then outright annoyed, when the prismatic piece making up their right eye cracked from her shot.
"You-…!" they breathed, not quite sounding pained but definitely sounding pissed off.
"Fuck you," Astrid said, the edges of her beak curling up a bit in glee.
However, Necrozma evidently didn't stay flustered for long, since another Power Gem blazed out from their crystalline pieces again, making Lunala have to hold them off with a Wide Guard. Her stars flickered even more, as did the glow held in her chest.
"Lunala, you swear you're okay?!" Arashi exclaimed.
"Don't worry yourselves with me!" the goddess shot back, likely not meaning to sound as stern as she came off. "I'm a goddess! I can take it!"
When Necrozma cut off the Power Gem and instead sent a Photon Geyser up at her, evidently, she couldn't, for the shield she held around herself and the two on her back shattered.
"H-huh?!" she cried in dismay.
She shoved both Arashi and Raijin off of her back and into two wormholes, but the goddess herself was looking less bright than she had been before when she was slammed by Necrozma's attack.
"Lunala!" Raijin cried as he vanished into his wormhole.
The shield around Astrid faded too, and the Decidueye herself looked almost worried for a moment. Lunala went plummeting down, and the feathered ghost dove downwards too when a Dragon Pulse was fired off at her next. She didn't stare straight at Necrozma, but her expression quickly turned from being almost happy to being flustered.
Arashi and Raijin dropped back down on the ground, the former looking frightened and the latter giving a twitch of dismay, and Astrid darted towards them both as quick as she could before landing again. Lunala appeared to try flapping her wings or somehow pull herself up, but she wasn't successful and crashed down into the burnt soil and cratered ground. The Starstorm trio would've tried running over to help her, and Astrid started to slip the bag off of her back, but the sight of Necrozma quickly going in for a Smart Strike kept them at bay. Astrid and Arashi both held their breath, and Raijin froze in horror… but before the Blinding One's claw could pierce through the goddess' head, she melded into the ground in the way that only a ghost could. Even so, the Starstorm trio knew they couldn't afford to be relieved yet.
Astrid and Arashi both shielded their eyes some more when Raijin fired off a blinding Dazzling Gleam, but Necrozma yet again darted aside and let it sail off into the expanses of space.
"This is crazy!" Arashi exclaimed haplessly, shooting another Dark Pulse that was yet again avoided by the Blinding One darting to one side.
Lunala re-emerged behind them, throwing up another Wide Guard around them all when a Dragon Pulse was again aimed at them. She couldn't hide how dim she was- the stars in her wings had burnt out, and though she hadn't been turned black yet, her glow was looking fairly dulled.
"It sure is, Arashi," Lunala acknowledged. "And I expected no less."
"I'm expending everything I've got," Raijin mused, plugging into the ground. "I'm probably gonna need a potion soon, but… it's not doing much good seeing as they're so hard to hit."
That much was true, no one could deny. Between the wormholes, them darting around, and Spirit Shackle blatantly not working as it usually would, they were all blasting and shooting away to no avail. Of course, that could be said for both sides- Necrozma wasn't hitting them for the most part either, but defending against the Blinding One was still putting a heavy burden on them, especially Lunala, regardless.
Astrid glanced at the cauterized wound on her side, then at her burnt feathers, then at the gleaming body that had caused it… and took a gulp of reluctance before she said, "… I've got an idea, but… Arceus above, give me strength."
Her comrades gave her a glance, not quite sure what she was getting at, but when Lunala's shield dropped, they figured it out fairly quickly…
… As well as why she would say a prayer for strength beforehand, too.
