After much speculation, the time finally came for them to figure out exactly what a dungeon sweep meant.

All four guilds were gathered around the arena, adequately hyped for the coming day.

"AND WELCOME BACK TO DAY TWO OF THE GUILDED GAMES!" Loudred shouted. "I'M YOUR HOST, LOUDRED, AND TODAY I'M JOINED BY MY THREE TEAMMATES: STANTLER, DRAGAPULT, AND NOCTOWL!"

The three Pokémon entered the arena.

"NOW, FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO'VE BEEN TO THE GAMES BEFORE, YOU MAY RECOGNIZE TEAM BROADCAST! STANTLER, DO IT!"

Stantler's horns began to glow while the air above the arena appeared to be distorting. The distortion got darker, and soon took the form of a black rectangle.

"NOCTOWL! DRAGAPULT!"

The Noctowl's eyes glowed for a moment, causing two pink beams to shoot out of him. One went towards Dragapult, while the other went to Stantler. As they both made contact, the black screen gave way to a live stream of the arena, centered on Loudred. Even once the beams faded, the stream still appeared to be running.

"They just made a jumbotron…" Rune commented.

"AS MANY OF YOU KNOW, THE DUNGEON SWEEP INVOLVES GOING INTO A MYSTERY DUNGEON, BUT WE CAN'T EXACTLY HAVE SPECTATORS DOWN THERE. SO OUR CAPTURE CREW IS HERE TO GIVE US ALL A LIVE LOOK AT WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE DUNGEON! CAN WE GET A ROUND OF APPLAUSE FOR THEM!"

Another round of cheering echoed through the arena.

"NOW FOR THE COMPETITION. THE DUNGEON SWEEP IS A SEARCH TO FIND THE TREASURE LOCATED IN BREACH MOUNTAIN'S OWN MYSTERY DUNGEON. THE FIRST TEAM TO FIND AND RETURN THE TREASURE TO THIS ARENA IS THE WINNER!"

He held out what looked like a rescue badge. Unlike an actual badge, the entire thing was a solid gold color, with no space in the center for a crystal.

"A TREASURE BADGE IDENTICAL TO THIS IS LOCATED SOMEWHERE IN THE DUNGEON. EACH GUILD IS ALLOWED TO SEND IN FOUR POKEMON. WHETHER THEY SPLIT UP OR REMAIN AS A TEAM IS UP TO THEM, THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS IS HOLDING THE BADGE WHEN YOU STEP INTO THE ARENA! GUILDMASTERS, PLEASE SELECT YOUR SQUADS."

Lucario stood in front of their bleacher, looking at his guild. "Alright which of you fuckers wants this one?"

Combusken's hand immediately shot up, while Sneasel, Hawlutcha, Chimchar, and Rockruff raised theirs with slightly more patience. Blizz decided he might as well try too. Seeing that Blizz was interested, Kibo put up a paw as well.

Lucario looked at his candidates. "Not running Hawlutcha again, you already kicked enough ass yesterday."

"I understand."

"As for everyone else… Combusken, you're on."

Comusken fist pumped. "We're gonna sweep this!"

"Sneasel, you're leader. Treat Combusken like a more dumbass Dewott. Don't let him fuck things up for you too much."

She smirked. "Seems doable."

"… Chimchar, you're in too."

"Won't let you down!"

"Hmm… Rockruff."

"Understood sir!"

Blizz couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed. Made sense though, their team was still kinda new to all this.

Lucario seemed to pick up on that though. "Apex, you guys get priority tomorrow or day after if you want in."

Blizz nodded. "Gotcha."

"Now let's see you guys FUCKING GET IT!"

The rest of the guild shouted together. "YEAAAA!"

The four Pokémon from Lucario's guild walked towards the arena.

Blizz didn't really care who the other guilds were sending, but he was slightly interested in Hydreigon's— Their lineup was Zangoose, Shedninja, Raboot, and Zorua.

He didn't have much time to dwell on anything else before Loudred's shouting filled the arena once again.

"ALRIGHT TEAMS, LET'S HEAD TO THE DUNGEON!"

He led the four teams away from the arena, though the live stream followed them, with Dragapult providing an aerial view. Eventually, Loudred's shouting was reduced to an echo as they had to rely on the stream to hear what they were saying.

"HERE WE ARE!" Loudred stopped in front of the final staircase of Breach Mountain. "ONCE I SAY GO, YOU ARE ALL PERMITTED TO TAKE OFF!"

The teams all crowded around the staircase. While it was fairly large, there was no way all 16 Pokémon could run down it at the same time.

"ON YOUR MARKS!"

Sneasel tapped the shoulders of the rest of Lucario's team. Combusken looked confused, but relented, as they all took a position behind the first rush.

"GET SET!"

Hydreigon's Shedninja seemed to be doing the same as Sneasel, floating behind the group. He happened to be the only one from Hydreigon's doing this, however.

"… GO GO GO!"

Even without any external factors at play, 11 Pokémon all trying to cram themselves down a single staircase that could maybe fit three at most would've been a bit chaotic.

There were external factors at play.

Immediately when Loudred said go, Hydreigon's Raboot used Double Kick, trying to clear up some space for the rest of his teammates to rush through. While this did work in getting Zorua and Zangoose through before anyone else could react, it also meant the representatives of the other guilds were moderately irritated.

Golisopod's Palpitoad tried to retaliate with a Water Gun, which Raboot jumped out of the way of. This did, however, hit Beheeyem's Metang, who understandably was not super enthused about being hit with an attack unprompted.

This situation evolved to a shitshow, with Lucario's team standing in the back of it all.

On the live stream, Blizz saw Sneasel grab onto the rest of their team before the focus shifted away from them. When Dragapult's POV returned to where they were standing, they all vanished.

"IT LOOKS LIKE HYDREIGON'S TEAM HOPED TO CAUSE SOME CHAOS RIGHT OFF THE BAT, WITH GOLISOPIOD'S AND BEHEEYEM'S TEAMS DUKING IT OUT IN A FREE FOR ALL! BUT WHERE DID TEAM LUCARIO GO? DRAGAPULT, CAN WE FOLLOW THE TEAMS THAT MADE IT IN?"

Dragapult obliged, flying through the walls of the mountain, giving the spectators back at the arena a look inside the mystery dungeon.

Both Hydreigon's and Lucario's teams were tearing through the dungeon interior, sprinting through each room to see if the treasure was hidden there.

Lucario's group split into two squads, with Sneasel and Combusken on one side and Rockruff and Chimchar on the other. They were constantly checking their badges, which were updating with floor layouts from the other squad. Once they verified that the entire map was filled, they met up at the staircase and went down.

Hydreigon's group was more unified, with Zangoose, Shedninja, and Raboot sticking together. Blizz couldn't see Zorua anywhere, but figured that probably had something to do with Illusion bullshittery.

Lucario's and Hydreigon's teams ran past each other a few times, but didn't do anything beyond some hostile looks.

Golisopod's and Beheeyem's groups were much further behind, but didn't waste time sweeping through floors that they assumed the other guilds already looked at. They did still have to track down the staircase though, which took some time.

Despite the coverage of the dungeon, Blizz still couldn't find Zorua. It had been a while by this point, for her to have never been forced to drop her disguise would have been odd.

After two hours of tearing through the dungeon, Chimchar spotted a glint of light in the corner of a room. He ran over to examine it, and held it up to the light, revealing the treasure badge.

Loudred, who returned to the arena not long after the competition began, noticed the pickup. "AND CHIMCHAR OF LUCARIO'S GUILD HAS TRACKED DOWN THE TREASURE! ALL HE HAS TO DO NOW IS RETURN TO THE ARENA- WHAT'S THIS?"

The "this" in question was Zorua, slowly walking towards the arena with a golden badge in her mouth. She stopped in the arena center, and gently set down the treasure badge.

"COULD THERE HAVE BEEN TWO TREASURE BADGES IN THE DUNGEON? WELL IT DOESN'T MATTER NOW, ZORUA OF HYDREIGON'S GUILD HAS RETURNED WITH THE TREASURE! MEANING HYDREIGON WINS ROUND TWO!"

Hydregion's guild rushed the arena, tossing Zorua up and down as the spectators exploded with yells.

Blizz couldn't help but feel bad for Chimchar though, watching the expression on his face change from pure excitement to disappointment as the announcement came through his badge.

Blizz also couldn't help but notice his Guildmaster's face tightening a little. It looked like he was gonna say something to Hydreigon, but Scizor stepped in before the words could leave his maw.

"NOW JOIN US TOMORROW FOR THE… ERR…" Loudred stared at the sheet of paper he was holding, confused. "JOIN US FOR THE CHESS BRACKET? SURE, WE'LL GO WITH THAT. JOIN US FOR THE CHESS TOURNEY TOMORROW MORNING!"

"…They have chess here," the Prince commented. "Of course."

The Prince walked off, slightly off-put by the revelation. Seeing that things were wrapping up anyways, the rest of the guild followed suit. Before heading out, Blizz stole another glance at Zorua, who seemed to look more conflicted than someone who just won the event for their guild and being aggressively celebrated should be.

Back at camp, Apex was gathered around a separate campfire, insulating themselves from the mood some of their teammates were in.

"That was really darn weird," Kibo commented, looking at Shinx trying to cheer up the downtrodden Chimchar. "Zorua just came out of nowhere after Chimchar got the badge."

"Her being able to search the dungeon unnoticed was doubtless a consequence of her ability," the Prince responded. "I find the notion of multiple badges to be more concerning."

"…Do you think Hydreigon cheated?" Rune asked, having deciphered what the Prince was implying.

"The possibility cannot be ruled out."

"We could just like, ask her," Blizz pointed out. "Not like we're strangers."

"It's a bit late for that though, isn't it?" Kibo asked, gesturing to the night sky.

"Yea," Blizz relented. "I'll ask her later."

As the conversation trailed off, the team returned to their tent, resting their bodies in preparation for an intense day of chess.

"THEN LET'S FUCKING GET IT!"

"YEAAAAA!"

"…Is this really what we should be doing before a chess tournament?" Rune asked.

"Probably not," Blizz answered.

"Alright fuckers, to the arena," Lucario commanded.

"Before we depart, I believe we should sort this out now," Scizor interjected. "Would anyone here who knows how to play chess please raise their hands?"

All of Team Apex, alongside Sneasel and Shinx raised their hands.

Scizor looked over the volunteers. "…All four of you are illiterate but you understand the rules of chess?"

"Haven't played in years, but yea," Blizz answered.

"… You remain one of the most perplexing groups of Pokémon I have encountered."

They marched over to the arena, where four tables were set up with chess boards of varying sizes, to accommodate for the different types of Pokémon present. The pieces themselves seemed to be not too different from Earth, with the only real difference being that the knight resembled a Rapidash.

The crowds seemed to be much more sparse than the past few days. A lot of the other guilds were missing Pokémon as well.

Blizz realized that his guild was missing some Pokémon too.

Loudred, meanwhile, didn't let that get him down. "AND WELCOME BACK TO THE THIRD DAY OF THE GUILDED GAMES! TODAY WE HAVE A BATTLE OF WITS IN STORE, THE CHESS TOURNAMENT!"

Around 10 spectators cheered.

"RIGHT NOW LUCARIO AND HYDREIGON EACH HAVE ONE POINT, A VICTORY HERE WILL BE A HUGE ADVANTAGE! BUT BEHEEYEM IS THE UNDISPUTED MASTER OF STRATEGY, OR MAYBE GOLISOPOD WILL COME OUT WITH A SURPRISE VICTORY! ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN HERE!"

Loudred paused, hoping for an applause but not getting anything. After a brief silence, he continued on.

"NOW, GIVEN THAT MOST POKEMON, MYSELF INCLUDED, DON'T KNOW WHAT CHESS IS, WE HAVE A MUCH SMALLER BRACKET THAN THE COMBAT TOURNAMENT THE OTHER DAY. WITH THAT SAID, OUR FIRST ROUND IS BEHEYEEM'S KIRLIA VS HYDREIGON'S FLAREON!"

The two Pokémon sat down on opposite sides of one of the mid-sized tables.

"CHESS, BEGIN!"

Kirlia, sitting on the white side, made the first move.

"IT LOOKS LIKE KIRLIA HAS MOVED ONE OF HER ORB PIECES FORWARD, NOT ONE BUT TWO SQUARES!"

Flareon responded by moving his queenside knight.

"AND FLAREON MOVES HIS RAPIDASH, JUMPING OVER THE ORB PIECES! THIS DUEL IS ALREADY HEATING UP!"

Blizz decided that Loudred's commentary was not that helpful here.

He idly watched the game, but got bored pretty early on. Flareon put up a good fight, but Kirlia ended up stomping him.

It was a similar story for almost all of them. Blizz, Kibo, and Rune; along with Team Terrae, Shinx, and Sneasel all got knocked out by a member of Beheeyem's guild in the first or second round. By round three, there was only one Pokémon not from that guild still in the tournament.

Said Pokémon was not going to let anyone else forget this.

"At last I have found a challenge befitting of my status," the Prince gloated, returning from his successful game against Beheeyem's Metang.

"I don't think anyone doubted you'd be the best of all of us," Kibo commented.

Blizz agreed. "Yea, like what was that thing you did with the pawns?"

"En passant. I was surprised that my opponent would give me an opportunity to use the move though."

"I don't think I've ever heard of that before…" Rune whispered.

"Evidently none of you understand the mental acuity developed by playing chess."

"NEXT ROUND, UMBREON VERSUS KIRLIA! AND THIS IS THE FINALS! THAT MEANS IT'S ALMOST OVER!"

"Now if you'll excuse me, I have a tournament to win."

The Prince did not win the tournament.

"She must have been reading my mind," he grumbled. "There is no way someone could have anticipated the strategy I employed against her…"

"She's psychic, you're dark," Kibo reminded him. "Pretty sure that's not possible."

Blizz and Rune took advantage of the rare circumstance where Kibo was the one dealing with the Prince, and focused on Loudred's closing commentary.

"WITH THAT, BEHEEHEYEM'S GUILD WINS DAY THREE. THAT MEANS THAT IF LUCARIO, HYDREIGON, OR BEHEEYEM WIN TOMORROW, THEY BECOME THE VICTORS OF THE GUILDED GAMES! SO GET READY FOR THE RACE DOWN BREACH MOUNTAIN!"

At last the spectators seemed to return to a normal volume, shouting at Loudred's reveal.

The guild cleared out, equal parts surprised that one of their own managed to compete with Beheeyem's guild at a mind game and disappointed that they bothered staying all the way to the end only to lose.

Blizz decided to break the awkward silence among his team. "Hey, any of you guys planning on entering the race tomorrow?"

"I'd reckon it'd go pretty darn terribly for me," Kibo admitted.

Rune considered it. "I might… I'm not super fast, but there aren't many ice types here."

The Prince rolled his eyes. "I have exhausted all of my energy competing today, I have no desire to enter any further competitions. What of you?"

"Dunno yet. Probably will."

A new voice spoke up. "So you guys are entering the race!"

The four turned around to see Bagon, with the rest of Team Terrae not far behind her.

Blizz gave them a wave "Hey guys."

"Sorry if Bagon eavesdropped on you, she doesn't quite understand personal space," Zorua apologized.

"Not a problem, we were just talking about tomorrow," Kibo responded. "Running into y'all is always welcome."

"Would you all happen to be entering the race tomorrow then?" Flareon asked.

"Certainly not," the Prince responded.

"Well, Vulpix and I are," Blizz answered.

"Please be careful…" Tailow whispered.

Blizz leaned in a bit, not hearing Taillow. "Sorry, what did you say?"

Tailow was struck by a wave of terror realizing she backed herself into a corner where she must directly speak to someone she doesn't know very well. Zorua stepped beside her, trying to provide some comfort. Eventually she was able to summon enough willpower to expand on what she said, slightly louder.

"If you look across the horizon, the incoming cloud cover looks like it will bring a heavy storm tomorrow… I really don't want you guys to get hurt…"

Blizz followed along, staring out at the horizon. While there was a group of large clouds out in the distance, they seemed to be pretty far away.

Still, Absol's warning about an impending disaster at the Guilded Games echoed through his mind.

"That's really helpful, thanks. Are Taillow like, good at weather stuff?"

"Oh… no, not really… I just really like learning about that stuff…"

"She's super smart about sky stuff!" Bagon shouted. "She sat down and explained all this stuff about aerodynamics that just went straight over my head!"

Taillow seemed equal parts embarrassed and shy now. "Please, I'm not that smart…"

Flareon sighed. "Do not sell yourself short, dealing with this behavior is excruciating for all of us."

Those words did not help Taillow, who proceeded to lock up even more.

"Sorry about this," Zorua apologized again. "I think we should head back to camp for now."

Blizz nodded. "No worries, see you guys tomorrow."

The two teams parted ways, returning to their respective campsites.

On the way back, Blizz considered the race. There was probably gonna be a storm tomorrow, and he had to get down a snow covered mountain as quickly as possible.

The situation seemed familiar. He remembered the dream he's had a couple times, where he's sliding down snow and is launched into the sky, then his useless subconscious decides to wake him up before seeing what happens after he lands.

It was in this session of reminiscing that something finally managed to click about that dream.

"… Hey Prince! Kibo! I'm gonna need your guys help!"

Within an hour, Blizz was on an outcropping beneath the mountain's plateau, sanding down a plank of wood. He got Kibo and the Prince to help him knock over a tree, then had Kibo cut off a chunk using Dragon Tail. Now, he was using leaves from his Leafage to chip away at the rough exterior.

He idly sang a song from Earth as he worked.

"I don't ever wanna feeeel… Like I did that day…"

Unknown to Blizz, someone was watching him work and his kinda pathetic attempt at singing.

"What the hell are you up to?"

Rune looked at Blizz as he walked over to the stadium. "That was your big plan? A snowboard?"

"Hell yea. You know how Prince was talking a while ago how my name was probably short for Blizzard? I think I figured out why."

"…You think you used to be into snowboarding?" Rune was not convinced.

"I had the same reaction," the Prince confirmed.

"Look, trust me on this. I was testing it a bit last night, and worst case scenario it's fun as hell."

"Are we neglecting the incoming storm then?" The Prince asked, gesturing to the sky, which was completely gray. Already there were small snowflakes coming down, and it looked like it would be getting worse very soon.

Blizz shook his head. "Nah, the storm makes it better."

"Please don't die on your way down," Kibo half-joked.

"Ehh, I probably won't. Rune, you're responsible for saving me if I do."

She groaned in fake-annoyance. "Only if I'm not winning."

"Deal."

"Alright, which of you fuckers is racing today?" Lucario asked, cutting off their conversation.

Blizz, Rune, and Sneasel raised a hand.

"Alright, that checks out. Everyone else, follow Scizor, he'll take you down the mountain the way the spectators use."

The guild split up, as Kibo and the Prince gave their final good lucks to Blizz and Rune.

"You two got this!" Kibo encouraged.

"I have precisely zero faith in your capacity to win this," the Prince stated. "Please surprise me."

It took Blizz and Rune a moment to figure out that that was supposed to be supportive.

"Hell yea I will," Blizz declared.

A gust of wind blew through the plateau as the snowfall began to intensify. Blizz tightened his grip on his makeshift snowboard.

"Alright, we're leaving now so we don't get stuck in the storm," Scizor decided. "Remember, we are not coming back here, so don't leave anything behind."

The Prince grumbled something about being treated like a child as he and the majority of the guild walked away.

Lucario called Blizz and Rune over to him. At some point between hearing Lucario yelling at them and reaching him, Sneasel appeared at his side.

"God damn I still have no idea how you do that shit," Lucario said, not startled in the slightest.

Sneasel looked at Lucario innocently. "Do what?"

"Fuck it, not dealing with that now. So here's the thing: we have a huge ass blizzard coming in soon. Two of you are ice types, which is fucking great. You guys just go as fast as you can."

Sneasel and Rune nodded.

Lucario turned to Blizz. "You, though, are probably gonna be eating shit. I know you have some fuckery planned with that wood thing, but unless it involves digging underground the snow is gonna kick your ass."

Lucario reached into his bag, and took out a pair of green goggles, the same pair Blizz saw on display back at Leavanny's shop.

"Absol told me you were interested in these things. Well good news, they're really good at dealing with weather that's absolute shit. I was gonna hold it for when your team hits silver, but this seems like a pretty damn good time.

Lucario tossed the pair of All-Weather goggles to Blizz, who had to drop his snowboard to catch it.

"Uh, thanks…" He stared at the red tinted lens, letting his mind run wild. The sense of familiarity with the goggles was stronger than anything he'd felt before. He slowly wrapped the strap around his head, and pressed the goggles to his eyes.

That was as far as he got before a flashback made it really difficult to tell what else was going on.

A storm was pounding a mountain slope, covering everything in a deceptively peaceful layer of snow. The only metrics that this was extremely wrong were the pine trees with half their trunk covered and the nearby ski lifts with piles of snow almost reaching the wires.

The snowstorm would have been a lot calmer if it weren't for the dozen or so of human tourists screaming as they desperately tried to make it down the mountain on their skis or snowboards.

In the rear of the group was a single human on a snowboard, wearing a familiar pair of green goggles with a red lens. His entire body was covered, making it impossible to make out any of his features.

"Hey, maybe if you dumbasses tried yelling more maybe the blizzard would slow down," he yelled, getting fed up at corralling the amateurs down the mountain.

"How are you so calm about this?" one of the stragglers asked him as he tried to get back onto his feet.

"I've done hills in worse blizzards than this, now hurry up, I don't want them to close this place down because you guys decided to go up with the storm brewing."

"R… Right…" The straggler got back onto his board and tried to catch up with the rest of the group.

The human in the back just sighed. "One of these days someone's gonna eat shit up here."

Once he was satisfied that enough of the group was far enough down, he jumped, and took off down the hill on his own board.

"Blizz, are you there?"

As the flashback ended, Blizz realized that three Pokémon were staring at him with varying levels of concern.

"Oh yea, just thinking about something." He gave Rune their patented 'this has to do with being a human' look, who picked up on it immediately and backed off.

"Don't do that shit on the race, got it?" Lucario asked.

Blizz nodded. "Yea, no worries." He picked up his board and walked ahead of the group, hoping for a quiet moment where he could dwell on the memory.

He vaguely followed what went on, but was thoroughly convinced of one thing: the dude with the goggles was him, back when he was a human. The voice was definitely his own, and just the way that he carried himself matched up way too well.

Before he could give anywhere near as much thought on the subject as he would like, he reached the destination.

Each guild had a few Pokémon entering the race, though most of them didn't seem that fast. He looked past Beheeyem's Metang and Golisopod's Magikarp to focus on Hydreigon's representatives: Pidgeotto and Rhyhorn.

They seemed to be deep in a conversation with their guildmaster, who was trying to hype them up.

"Remember! If both of you manage to lose everyone in the guild will fucking hate you! So don't do that!"

Blizz got the vague sense Lucario was better at that sort of thing.

As the final Pokémon approached the starting line, Loudred began his narration for the day.

"WELCOME BACK TO THE FOURTH AND POTENTIALLY FINAL DAY OF THE GUILDED GAMES! RIGHT NOW WE HAVE A THREE WAY TIE, BETWEEN LUCARIO, HYDREIGON, AND BEHEEYEM! IF ONE OF THEIR REPRESENTATIVES WIN THE RACE, THEN THEY TAKE HOME THE TROPHY!"

Loudred paused out of instinct, before remembering that all the Pokémon that would normally fill the quiet with applause were scattered throughout the mountain.

"RIGHT, ALL OF OUR WONDERFUL SPECTATORS ARE LOCATED AT THE FINISH LINE. NOCTOWL! DRAGAPULT! IF YOU WOULD!"

The two Pokémon flew out, creating the same jumbotron effect they did on day two. Blizz noticed Stantler was missing, probably projecting at the bottom of the mountain.

"NOW, WHO'S READY FOR THE RACE TO BEGIN!"

A lightning bolt answered his question, followed a second later by the rumbling of thunder.

"LOOKS LIKE OUR COMPETITORS WILL BE COMPETING WITH THE WEATHER AS WELL AS EACH OTHER! FLYERS, YOU MAY WANT TO STAY CLOSE TO THE GROUND TODAY!"

Hydreigon's Pidgeotto flinched, but kept her focus steady.

"MOMENTARILY, THE RACE WILL BEGIN! THE FIRST POKEMON TO MAKE IT TO THE BOTTOM OF THE HILL AND ACROSS THE FINISH LINE WINS! THERE ARE NO RULES ON THE WAY DOWN, JUST DON'T KILL EACH OTHER. WE HAVE OUR MEDICAL STAFF ON STANDBY READY FOR ANY EMERGENCIES THAT ARISE!"

Rune looked nervous. "This is starting to scare me…"

"Just use Snow Cloak and get the fuck away from everyone else," Lucario advised.

Rune nodded.

"RACERS, STEP UP TO THE STARTING LINE!"

"Fuck them up," Lucario encouraged, as Blizz, Sneasel, and Rune got ready. Blizz placed his snowboard on the ground, and attached his feet to it using his magic gecko powers.

The other Pokémon looked at him, somewhat confused, but focused on their own preparations.

"ON YOUR MARKS!"

Rune flinched as a round of thunder echoed through the canyon. Once she calmed herself, she activated Snow Cloak, becoming near-invisible in the blizzard.

"GET READY!"

Blizz tightened his new goggles. They fit perfectly.

"…" Loudred was enjoying the tension. "… GO GO GO!"

Immediately and unsurprisingly, one of Hydreigon's Pokémon decided to be a dick. Rhyhorn used Earthquake, which threw Blizz and Sneasel off their feet. Rune had already vanished, and no one had any idea where she was.

In the chaos, Rhyhorn and Pidgeotto managed to take off. Not letting this get him down though, Blizz got back onto his feet and started down the mountain.

Very quickly, he learned a couple things that were not immediately obvious in his test runs. Treecko's are not quite as heavy as humans are. As a result, he had to put a lot more force into his turns to keep his speed reasonable.

After a very short distance, Blizz decided to discard any notion of maintaining a "reasonable" speed. His turns became much less drastic, and at some point he was just zooming straight down the mountain.

The goggles nullified any effects that the blizzard would have on him, allowing him to direct all his attention on not crashing into any of the abundant trees or occasional rock formations.

It didn't take long for him to pass Magikarp and Metang, neither of whom were capable or interested in trying to attack him.

Blizz managed to settle into a rhythm, continuing to pick up speed as he descended the snow-covered mountain. Turn away from the cluster of trees, jump over the rock formation, go directly down the straight away, don't run into that new cluster of trees- pick yourself back up after colliding into that cluster of trees.

He was having the time of his life.

"HELL FUCKING YEAAAA!"

As he was tearing down the mountain, he could make out Dragapult keeping pace, his gaze centered squarely on Blizz.

Deciding to show off just a bit, he accelerated towards a flat section of the otherwise very steep slope. This flat region lasted for a couple meters, before abruptly dropping off.

It was less of a jump and more of a sudden removal of the ground beneath him, but it was close enough for Blizz. He used Pound mid-air to start spinning, managing to get three rotations in before landing.

Did he lose speed doing that? Yes. Did he lose time trying to get back to his feet after he face planted? Also yes. Did that break a limb or two? Hopefully not. Did he care?

Hell no.

The recovery didn't take too long, and he was back to ripping up the mountain. The one advantage of his stunt was that he got as close to a good view of the mountain as he could in the middle of a blizzard, most importantly a flash of yellow and red: Hydreigon's Pidgeotto.

He wasn't as far behind as he expected, and decided to go just a bit faster.

Not that he had a ton of control over that, he was already going mostly in a straight line by this point. But it was the thought that counts.

Before he could overtake Pidgeotto, he had to deal with the first obstacle: Rhyhorn. The Pokémon was stampeding down the slope, which aside from being kinda annoying was also messing up the snow, meaning Blizz had to slow down a bit so as to not get his board stuck and be sent flying.

Rhyhorn, for his part, decided to make things more annoying for both of them. When he saw the Treecko coming up on him, he decided this was an amazing time to take a small break to use Earthquake again.

The attack was successful in knocking Blizz off his feet— however it also caused a secondary effect. Above the two Pokémon, a rumbling noise began as hundreds of pounds of snow and ice started tumbling down the mountain.

As if to emphasize the stupidity of Rhyhorn's decision, a bolt of lightning struck him. It only hit him because of Lightning Rod and didn't do anything, but still served as a good cosmic sign that he screwed up.

"You caused a fucking avalanche," Blizz accused, catching back up to Rhyhorn. "Happy with yourself?"

Rhyhorn started speeding up, his focus shifting from stopping Blizz to outrunning the impending avalanche.

Blizz sighed and pulled ahead, leaving Rhyhorn to deal with his own mess. Only one more Pokémon ahead of him now.

Well, it's kinda hard to tell where Sneasel and Rune are. He probably won't see them until the race is done.

Only one more Pokémon he could be reasonably expected to see ahead of him now.

Blizz was not particularly surprised when Pidgeotto decided to use Twister on him. Thankfully, this attack was both easily avoidable and would not cause another avalanche.

In retaliation, Blizz tried to line up a Leafage, but the combination of Blizz moving fast, Pidgeotto moving fast, and the wind moving fast meant that the attack didn't even come close to connecting.

As a result, he was confined to just dodging Pidgeotto's attacks.

He wasn't really sure who was benefiting more from this though. Pidgeotto definitely had to slow down to fire off attacks, none of which were hitting their target. The small adjustments Blizz had to make were way less impactful than having to constantly slow down.

When the two rounded a bend, they both saw their final goal— The finish line was around 500 meters off.

The section was mostly a straight shot down a valley, with two ridges creating walls of rock on either side. Blizz was originally gonna shoot down the straightaway, but a Gust from Pidgeotto changed his mind.

Instead, he went towards the ridge line. While he would definitely be able to go faster if he went through the straightaway, taking the ridge put him on a near equal height to Pidgeotto.

Pidgeotto soon realized this fact, but a strike of lightning on a nearby tree convinced her that flying any higher would be a really bad idea.

Blizz, on the other hand, had a particular fondness for bad ideas. Once he felt that he was close enough, he suddenly pivoted off the ridgeline and towards Pidgeotto. He managed to jump before falling off the ridge, giving him just enough height to reach the bird.

Pidgeotto didn't have much time to react before a Pound sent her flying into the ground.

For a very brief moment, Blizz felt like he was on top of the world. Pidgeotto was down for the count, the finish line couldn't have been more than a couple meters away, there was no way he could screw this up now.

Unfortunately for him, the jump meant that the grass type was now the highest object in the area. In full view of all the many spectators that have gathered around the finish line, a lightning bolt descended onto Blizz.

In the future, there would be a lot of debate on whether it was the bolt of lightning or the 10 meter drop that knocked him out. For his part, Blizz couldn't remember anything that happened after the lightning strike.

What is known for a fact was that Blizz's unconscious body was the first Pokémon to cross the finish line.

A/N: Guilded Games are done! I'm not the biggest fan of this chapter as a whole, but I think it had a couple really good moments, especially how the race ended.

Also tore into my buffer during this arc, so gonna be a two week gap before the next chapter.

Chapter 9: I Wanna Be Sedated - 1/29/21