0.

~\({O})/~

33.

Traveler's Demise

~\({O})/~

Outside Noe Town

The road through Mist was long, vibrant, and cloudy.

More clouds were rolling in from the sea, and the frigid winter air was turning the would-be-rain into flakes of falling snow. Soon, Zoroark's mane had a dusting of frost on it that was growing heavier by the minute. He shook it off periodically to clear it of snow—he didn't need even more moisture hanging around in his fur.

Alexis and Elliot travelled at a fast pace, faster than Zoroark could keep up with at a leisurely stroll. He was about to break out into a jog to catch up with them when suddenly a flash came from behind all three of them. Zoroark looked back to see the figure of the xatu from before approaching them from behind. It must have teleported here.

Elliot looked behind himself and Alexis, catching sight of the xatu who was walking towards them.

"Greetings, traveler!" he waved back at the xatu, catching the attention of Alexis. "Where are you headed?"

"Why, to Pokemon Paradise," the xatu stated. "Your zoroark friend said he was going there, and I thought I would tag along. It's better to travel in groups than alone, after all."

Considering it was the exact train of logic that Zoroark had just used, he couldn't exactly object. But why this group? And when had he said where he was going? He got the gist the xatu was following him, and gave the pokemon an uncomfortable side-eye.

Alexis' expression was flat and carried all the energy of a granbull babysitting a group of energetic wooper.

"I'll allow it," he sighed after a minute. "But be prepared to travel rough!"

The walk continued. Zoroark hung behind, walking with the xatu who didn't seem to be entirely occupying the real world right now. He watched as a single yellow butterfly alighted on the xatu's wing. Instead of waving it off, the xatu inspected it closely, then whispered something to it. The butterfly took off, attracting the xatu's attention until neither pokemon could see it between the tree branches and the snowing sky. Then the xatu went back to staring at the distance blankly.

After a few moments of walking, Zoroark waved his claws in front of the xatu's eyes. The xatu silently looked at him. The stare was enough to make Zoroark immediately feel uncomfortable in his fur.

"Hey, we should walk a bit faster," he said, pointing to Alexis and Elliot who were getting farther and farther away from them with every step. "They're going to leave us behind at this point."

The xatu looked up ahead where Zoroark was pointing.

"Ah. Sorry, I get caught up in my thoughts sometimes."

The xatu put his wing on zoroark's mane. There was a flash of light, and before Zoroark could say or do anything they were suddenly much, much closer to Alexis and Elliot than they had been before. Zoroark looked around in dazed startlement.

The xatu looked at him with concern. "Hmm, did I disorient you? Apologies. This seemed like the fastest way to catch up."

Zoroark took a moment to regain his head, then shook it off. "No, it's fine. Just took me off guard."

His insides swam with confusion. Had he, a dark type, just been… teleported? What was this xatu?

The xatu clutched his wing much closer to his body than what looked comfortable.

"I'll ask next time."

That didn't help the confusion.

"Alright," Alexis said, reaching the top of the hill they'd been climbing for the last minute. "This is your last chance to turn back. From here, we go off-road."

Zoroark finally recovered enough from the teleport-induced haze to gaze upon what lay ahead of the group.

Beyond the summit of the hill lay a forest of green and autumn red. The mountains in the distance were shrouded in mist and snow, and the beaten path snaked through the trees like a winding onix. In the distance, a shroud of white mist eclipsed the looming stone mountains behind it.

"By the beaten path, it'll take three days to reach Pokemon Paradise," Alexis said. "We're taking a shortcut." In a single motion he unhooked a scalchop from his hip and pointed it right, towards the autumn-colored forest that lay off the path. "That forest you see is a mystery dungeon. They call it Traveler's Demise. It's one of the more powerful ones around on this continent. Dangerous for any non-explorers, but it cuts our travel time in half. Elliot and I use it when we have to get across the continent in a hurry. But if the two of you aren't up to it, we aren't going to delay our trip to accommodate you." He redirected his scalchop right back to the path the path. "Take that road, and you'll safely reach Pokemon Paradise two days after we do."

Having just given away all of his earnings, Zoroark didn't have the poke to purchase rations for a three-day trip to Pokemon Paradise. And it sounded like straying from the beaten path here was going to lead him into a mystery dungeon, even if just to hunt for a minute. But as long as he wasn't going alone...

The xatu stepped forward. "Please count me in. This isn't my first dungeon trip."

Alexis looked somewhat miffed. He turned his gaze expectantly to Zoroark.

"Yeah. Count me in too," Zoroark said. If he could handle what had happened on the Demetrius yesterday, he could handle a trip through a mystery dungeon with a pair of experienced guides.

Alexis looked like the world had forsaken him. "Again. I can't guarantee either of you will make it out safely. At the very least you'll probably have to do some fighting on the way there. Do you really want to do this."

Both Zoroark and Xatu's faces made it clear they intended to see this out.

"…Alright," Alexis sighed, hooking the scalchop back to his side and waving them onward. "Follow us. And keep your guard up.

~\({O})/~

Then

Zoroark couldn't remember much of his childhood. Most of what he knew he had been taught by Primarina, who had been his caretaker ever since he could remember.

Primarina used to live on the Mist Continent. He worked as a scribe for a politician in Pokemon Paradise, and like all 'mon from the Mist Continent, he had a name. Zoroark had been taught to always address him as "boss", though, so he didn't learn it.

He'd turned up as a kit all alone in the middle of nowhere when Primarina was accompanying a delivery of supplies from Noe Town to Pokemon Paradise. It was common for poorer pokemon to abandon their kits in the middle of the wild due to being unable to care for them. Opinions on the matter ranged from the parents being unable to afford to care for them to the parents being too savage and uneducated to raise a child like civilized 'mon. Zoroark had never considered himself a savage, though. All he knew was that he had clung to Primarina desperately enough that the pokemon reluctantly took him along, intending to drop him off somewhere in Pokemon Paradise.

There was no family or institution in Pokemon Paradise that would care well for a zorua kit. Primarina had considered smothering the kit and throwing the body out with the weekly garbage deposit—there was no way to know what harm caring for a zorua would do for his reputation. But at the same time, the zorua line had a unique ability that could benefit him down the road. All he had to do was raise the 'mon correctly, and the public never needed to know who his mysterious charge really was. Instead of smothering the zorua, Primarina fed him and gave him a bed for the night.

Zoroark knew that last bit because it was what Primarina reminded him of whenever he had acted out in the past.

Primarina raised him to clean up all the odds and ends that Primarina himself didn't have time for. To sweep the floors—"use your head fluff, you'll have tons of it for dusting when you're older"—to do the paperwork—"you'll have big, large claws when you grow up, perfect for inking in signatures"—and most importantly, to use his innate power to create illusions to hide himself—"no-mon can ever know what you are."

One day, when he was young enough to still be a kit but old enough to understand sentences and simple logic, Primarina sat him down and showed him a book filled with pictures of different pokemon.

"Choose one," he said. "Which one do you like the best?"

After five minutes of looking through the pictures, Zorua had chosen the one he later learned was called "fennekin." He chose it because it looked almost like he did, except for the yucky bright colors. But that was okay, because there was a picture on the side of one with a grey and pink coat, which looked even closer, better than all the others.

Every day, Primarina made him maintain the illusion of disguising himself as that creature. First for a minute, then five, then ten, then an hour. When Zorua didn't, he withheld food. "If you can disguise yourself as a bowl to steal cookies at night, you can do this," he said when Zorua complained.

Zorua still stole the cookies. He was just craftier about it.

Soon, the day came when Zorua was allowed to accompany Primarina outside of the apartment they lived in. By now he was practiced enough to consistently maintain the illusion of a fennekin for almost six hours, so Primarina must have finally felt safe taking him out of the house. The two of them took a walk through the wide streets of Pokemon Paradise, where a large statue of a heroic-looking oshawott and a pikachu decorated the town's main square where Post Town had once been. They walked through the streets, finally stopping to rest at a white, somewhat battered fountain in a back square of town that wasn't frequented often. Beyond the fountain, there was a view of the setting sun. Zorua had never seen so many new things, smells, pokemon, places before—all he wanted to do was run off and check out all the new things that were right in front of him. But Primarina had silently motioned for him to sit down, and he had been taught never to disobey Primarina. So they sat by the fountain instead, slowly watching the sun go down.

"Do you know why I took you out here?" Primarina asked after a while. Zorua-as-fennekin shook his head, staring up at Primarina was curious eyes. The look was not returned.

"I've received a promotion," Primarina said. "We'll be moving to another continent within the week. Once you evolve, you'll be working full time as my secretary."

There was silence for a moment more; Zorua-as-fennekin couldn't think of anything to say. The sun had nearly disappeared behind the buildings at this point. Primarina tentatively rubbed a flipper over Zorua's head. Zorua looked up in surprise—this was one of the first times Primarina had treated him with something more than indifference.

"I thought you should see where you grew up at least once before we left."

~\({O})/~

Now

Traveler's Demise

The woods changed as they entered. The air around Zoroark took on a smell like something was rotting in the distance, and the tree canopies above looked all wrong, like they were mirages against the clouds. The air of a powerful entity hovered all around them.

And yet, Zoroark was the only one who was unnerved by it.

Xatu walked alongside him calmly, and both Elliot and Alexis were on-guard but didn't look unnerved. Zoroark glanced at the xatu as they walked, but its face was unreadable as always.

"Doesn't any of this… unnerve you?" he asked, in an awkward attempt to strike up conversation. "The atmosphere feels wrong."

"I used to be unnerved by dungeons," the xatu said. "But then I figured acting on fear is when you're the most vulnerable, you know? So I just don't."

The sudden sound of rustling behind them caught the attention of all four pokemon in the area. Alexis looked back.

"Stay close to us, please!" he called back, sounding somewhat annoyed.

"May I?" The xatu asked, holding up a wing. Zoroark shuddered just a bit, but nodded. A flash of light, and in less than a second, they were facing Alexis and Elliot's backs.

If Alexis noticed they had teleported, he didn't react to it. "That sound you heard is the sound of dungeon ferals in the background," he said. "Most dungeon ferals are constructs of the dungeon; a self-defense mechanism for those who harm it. These ones are explorers who fell victim here. They shouldn't attack us during the day so long as we stay in one group, so don't wander off."

"Pokemon… fell victim here?" Zoroark asked.

"I did say this path was dangerous," Alexis said.

"Don't worry, we only have to worry about that if we're trapped in here for more than two days in the real world," Elliot said with a nervous laugh. "It should only take us half of that to get through this one."

The first floor of the dungeon was crossed without any hassle at all. Zoroark could hear see sense the ferals hiding in the dungeon corners, but none of them had attacked the group or made any threatening moves yet. The second, third, and fourth floors were also crossed without much issue.

On the fifth floor, Zoroark noticed it was beginning to get darker. He looked up at the sky, seeing the mirage above painted in shades of orange through the clouds.

"Is the sun already going down?" he asked, holding his claws over his eyes so the setting sunbeams didn't roast them out of their sockets. "It was morning when we entered."

"The stronger the dungeon, the more time passes outside while you're in it." They reached a clearing, where Alexis dropped down his satchel and motioned for the group to stop too. "And the faster you spend your energy. We'll stop here for the night. Won't be safe in a few minutes; all the ferals come out when the sun goes down."

It quickly became colder as the night fell, but they went without a campfire. Alexis immediately vetoed the idea when Zoroark brought it up.

"That's just asking for trouble," he said. "Lighting a fire is a good way to attract every feral in the dungeon to your location.

"Don't forget, you two are hunting for yourselves," he said when met with Zoroark's hungry stare as he and Elliot pulled out their rations from their exploration bags. Zoroark immediately shrank back a little. He'd forgotten.

Xatu teleported away. He returned a minute later with a rattata impaled on each wing, one of which he politely thrust at Zoroark. "Are these acceptable?"

Zoroark caught the dead rat with a look of surprise—he'd eaten actual rats before, but eating other pokemon made him squeamish.

"They're dungeon ferals," Alexis said when Zoroark questioned him about it. "They're plum out of their mind, won't ever get it back. Trust me, you're doing the world a favor."

Elliot used a few expertly-controlled thunderbolts to roast the rattata corpses until they were fully cooked through. Zoroark would have preferred to eat it raw, but he didn't want to be rude, so he didn't say anything. He ate it dry, burnt in some places, and stringy.

"Two of us should keep watch half the night, and two the other," Alexis said. "Watch for any attacks from dungeon ferals, also watch for other explorers who may be passing through. It's unlikely that any outlaws are hiding out in a dungeon like this, but watch for those too. They may have entered right after us. And especially watch for fog and roars in the distance. If you catch anything that remotely sounds or looks like either of those things, wake whoever's asleep immediately. It means we're out of time."

He picked up a pile of leftover twigs from the campfire and deliberately snapped two short. "Whoever draws the short sticks from this pile gets first watch."

Alexis and Xatu drew the long straws. Elliot and Zoroark drew the short ones.

"I guess it's decided," Elliot said glumly, staring at his short stick. "I always draw the short ones…"

The xatu slept standing up, staring at the moon just like he stared at the sun. Zoroark wondered how he could possibly be comfortable in that position, but that ranked up there with his question of "how is he not blind from staring straight into the sun all day" and would probably never be answered.

Zoroark leaned against a tree, trying not to nod off to sleep. Even though it couldn't have been more than four hours since they'd entered the dungeon, he felt as if he'd been awake for almost two days. Maybe this was what Alexis meant when he'd said energy was spent faster in a dungeon.

Elliot, sprawled out on the ground across from him, seemed to be having the same problem he was. Zoroark decided to strike up some idle conversation so that they didn't both fall to sleep.

"Tired?" he asked.

"No more than you are," Elliot replied. He yawned, folding his arms and staring up at the dungeon's mirage of a moon. "I'm used to it. Enough night watches in these dungeons and being tired doesn't really bug you much anymore."

"Do you usually do the night watches?" Zoroark asked, stretching.

"Alexis does his fair share too," Elliot said. "But eh, he's team leader. He does the planning and chooses the missions, I do most of the grunt work on the side."

That sounded very familiar to Zoroark.

"You two are partners, though. The famous duo that saved Mist. Shouldn't you be equals?"

"None of that would have been possible without Alexis," Elliot said. "All of it wouldn't have been. He built it. So he leads, I follow. I don't have the chops to be a good leader, anywho."

"Doesn't sound fair to say that if you haven't tried," Zoroark said.

"It is what it is," Elliot said, shrugging from his place in the dust. "What about you? Alexis told me your ship went down in the middle of the sea, but that's all he said. Since we're sharing."

"That's all that happened," Zoroark said after a moment. "We were traveling across the ocean, and our ship went down. I washed up on Mist."

"Weren't you going somewhere before?" Elliot asked. "Why stay here?"

"I'm heading to Pokemon Paradise now," Zoroark said. "That's why I went with you."

"Hmm," Elliot said, but didn't pursue the dodged question.

After a moment, he got up. "Our watch is just about over," he said. "Let's go wake the others."

Zoroark nodded and stood up too.

~\({O})/~

Then

The Exeggutor

Two weeks after Primarina had taken Zorua to the fountain, the move happened. The apartment flat the two had lived in for so long was packed up, and Zorua-as-Fennekin watched a bunch of 'mon carry the boxes out.

A ship had been purchased specifically for the occasion—this ship was to be their new home. Zorua was still young but knew how to read with precision. Even from a distance, his sharp eyes could see the ship's name: The Exeggutor.

Primarina had impressed some higher ups with a recent scuffle involving mixed up cargo at the Waterport and been appointed by Cloud Nine as the Ambassador of the Water Continent. This meant that their lives would soon be almost entirely spent on the open seas, as aside from a small group of cartographers who hadn't registered with the guild system yet, there was no central guild on the Water Continent for the ambassador to oversee. No matter how many times Zorua puked over the side of the ship or how many days he spent queasy in the cabins below, he had to adjust, because the job also meant more paperwork.

Time passed. Soon Zorua evolved into Zoroark while trying to spear fish out of the ocean, and he had to relearn how to disguise himself as a new pokemon all over again. It came faster, now that he was more experienced in knowing how to do it.

Paperwork piled up and piled up again and piled up even more. Zoroark signed things but rarely snuck peeks at them like he used to when he was younger—there was just too much to go through, and it was probably all boring stuff like allocating funds and keeping cargo shipments into the Water Continent running properly.

Soon, Primarina began to dabble into new avenues of work. At his request, Zoroark quickly learned to forge signatures. "Forgery is your natural talent as a species," Primarina had said. "Learning it will bring us into a great amount of wealth soon. This is what I've been raising you for."

Whose signatures they were, he never learned. He often suspected that Primarina kept it a secret on purpose, just in case he were to let something slip later on. But no matter whose signatures they were, the more papers he signed, the better things got for the two of them. Spare and plentiful poke began to pile up under the deck. Lively Town grew more and more prosperous, and the harbor was expanded and developed into a large sailing port. With the wealth came new luxuries for Zoroark—For the first time, he was able to sleep and wake when he wanted. He got to eat the fishes he caught from the ocean for dinner, instead of cooking them for Primarina instead. Primarina got him a fancy braixen wand that was little more than a stick in his paws, but sold the illusion tucked away in the back of his mane.

All he had to do was keep signing the papers.

"It's only small things under the radar," Primarina explained. "It won't hurt anymon important."

One day, Zoroark had been given a very important paper to sign, and a handful of signatures to forge. Primarina had given him the afternoon to get the signatures right. If he did it right, Primarina would buy him a carton of baker's pastries the next time they sailed into Lively Town's port.

He was given a copy of the paper, as well as a few letters for mailing that were full of what felt and sounded like poke, with Primarina's own flipper signature already on them. Each one had an address to a different continent.

Bribes. Zoroark was savvy enough to know that the only time Primarina sent out bribes was when a paper was going through some very important pokemon. Which meant he was forging some equally important signatures.

He felt a bit of his old curiosity returning to him—what kind of paper was this?—and decided to sneak a peek at the contents of the paper it was so important that he sign. He had the whole day, after all.

This was a drafted plan to bring the Waterport entirely under the control of the Water Continent. If that happened, the Water Continent could tax each and every shipment coming in from and going to other continents. It would net them a lot of profit, but so far there was only one of several signatures. Zoroark had been given a handful to sign onto the paper. He started with the one that looked like a bird's talons, but then stopped halfway through.

Something about this didn't seem right. Since he was forging signatures, he suspected it wasn't anyway, but this was a huge paper, and he was forging signatures that probably belonged to very important pokemon. Was this even safe to sign? Now that he thought about it—and this was indeed the first time he could have been bothered to think about it—how many of these had he done before in the past?

He figured that Primarina probably wouldn't take very well to learning that he'd read the paperwork, but he couldn't just do something this big without question. And so he snatched the paper up off the desk with his claws and headed for the Exeggutor's bridge room.

Primarina was relaxed in his luxury bath, and there was nothing but a rope around the steering wheel keeping the ship on-course. Zoroark walked in and stood a respectable distance away from the bath.

"Boss?"

Primarina looked up.

"Hmm?" he asked. "Have you signed the paperwork yet?"

Zoroark took a deep breath before opening his mouth again. He was venturing way out of his bounds by questioning an order, especially on a significant piece of paperwork like this, and he knew it. It took all of his willpower to utter his next words:

"I looked at some of the paperwork as I was signing it, and…"

Primarina sighed. "So you read it, didn't you."

Zoroark didn't say anything; he only stared at Primarina uncertainly, with the piece of paper clutched in both his claws.

"Well?" Primarina asked dismissively. "Aren't you going to sign it?"

Zoroark's claws dug into the paper enough he feared he'd rip it.

"Whose signatures am I putting on this paper?" he asked.

"That's none of your concern," Primarina said. "Sign it."

"I thought we were doing small things," Zoroark said. "Things that would just net us some wealth on the side."

"And we are," Primarina said. "I don't ask you to sign papers like this every day."

"But signing this looks dangerous!" Zoroark said, raising his voice before he could catch himself. "What if somemon finds out and traces it back to us?"

"No-mon is going to care," Primarina said. "We're bribing pokemon; why do you think I gave you the money?"

"I don't want to sign it," said Zoroark.

Primarina sat up in the bath with a splash. Water landed at Zoroark's feet and came close to spraying the paper.

"Are you disobeying me?" Primarina asked, his voice dangerously level.

"I only said I'd sign small things," Zoroark said firmly. He had been taught to always obey Primarina, but… there were limits. There were limits. Right?

"Sign it, or you won't eat until you do," Primarina said.

Memories of being starved until he did what Primarina asked gnawed away at his mind. But even more than that, if he backed down now, it was admitting defeat forever and he knew it. There wouldn't be an opportunity like this again. He had to make a stand.

Primarina had looked away at this point, probably confident Zoroark was going to do whatever he asked. But Zoroark didn't move from where he stood. Ever so slowly, he tugged on the paper more and more, until it split apart with an audible rip.

Primarina looked over at the sound of the rip, his eyes fixing themselves on the two torn halves of paper. Surely that made a statemen—

A blast of water hit him out of nowhere, throwing him against the wall of the ship's cabin. Suddenly thrown to his back, Zoroark coughed and sputtered in shock. The waterlogged paper in his claws limply disintegrated.

"Allow me to make something very clear," Primarina said, rising from the bath. His expression was stone cold. "You are alive today because of my mercy. You exist to serve me. Don't forget that again."

Before Zoroark knew it, a flipper was staring him down.

"Get up," Primarina said. "We'll get you another copy of that paper to sign. If you're interested in eating tonight, you'll sign it properly. And you can forget about the pastries."

~\({O})/~

Now

~Alexis~

Alexis sighed, staring up at the moon that was slowly but surely moving across the night sky. Only half an hour until the sunrise. And then they'd continue moving again.

"You can sleep, you know." He looked over at the xatu, who was staring at him motionlessly. Truth be told, it was creeping him out a little. "Or look somewhere else. I'm not that interesting."

The xatu didn't blink, or move, for the first ten seconds. Then it stood up.

"I'm here with a warning," the xatu said.

"Really?" Alexis said, silently drawing his hand to a scalchop where no-mon could see. Was this xatu some kind of bandit? "And what's that?"

"Please take me seriously, Alexis."

That made Alexis stiffen up for a moment. Something was familiar about that sentence, the way it was said. He just couldn't put his finger on it. He relaxed his position only seconds after.

"Lots of pokemon know my name," he said. "Was that supposed to catch me off guard?"

"Did it work?" Xatu asked.

Alexis turned himself around, facing Xatu fully. "Who are you?"

"Just a humble messenger," the xatu said. "Here with a warning."

"For a humble messenger here with a warning, you're a very shady 'mon," Alexis said. "I'll ask again. Who are you?"

"Somemon you know from long ago," the Xatu answered.

"Never knew a xatu before," Alexis said. Though his paws never strayed far from his scalchops.

Heed my message," the xatu said, ignoring Alexis' question. "There's a storm out there. It's on its way. It will demolish everything you have built, and wipe away everymon you know. Time is running short—"

Then it clicked. Quick as a crashing wave, Alexis drew his scalchops and threw them.

"It's you!"

With a bright flash of light that lit up the clearing and a good portion of the sky, the xatu teleported away in an instant. The scalchops hit the wood of a tree and quivered there.

Alexis snarled, then leapt up and ripped his scalchops out of the wood. They left deep cuts in the tree where they were pulled out.

It was endless. No matter how many times he killed that thing, it always came back. It always came back, just for him. How many times? How many times before he could strike the final blow for good? How many times before he could finally send it to the past where it belonged?

A low rumbling spread throughout the dungeon, followed by the beginnings of a howl in the distance. The dungeon winds hurtled through the clearing, nearly blasting Alexis clean off his feet. They brought the smell of rancid meat and dungeon feral with them. And in the distance, he could hear their howls.

He hooked his scalchops back on his sides, and picked up his bag. That was the dungeon shifting. The xatu had already gone through the staircase. And that blast of light had to have awakened all the ferals on the floor too.

There was no more time to waste. Alexis got to shaking awake Elliot and Zoroark. Both rose, looking at him groggily.

"Wake up," Alexis said in a harsh whisper. "We need to get moving." He began quickly packing up their supplies and slung the newly packed satchels onto his side.

"Wh… what for?" Elliot asked, only half awake. Zoroark shakily pulled himself up into a sitting position beside Elliot, his ears still unfurling from sleep.

"Dungeon ferals are here," Alexis said, throwing Elliot's bag to him. The pikachu caught it groggily. "There'll be packs descending upon our location any minute now. We need to get as far away as possible before they catch up."

"What happened to the xatu?" Elliot asked.

"Gone," Alexis said. "Ran off while we were sleeping."

A wave of silence suddenly spread over the clearing as a low howl pierced the air. It wasn't far off.

Something brushed through the trees behind them.

A controlled surge of electricity from Elliot's tail lit up the area around them. For just a second, the flickering yellow light illuminated the shape of a skeletal lycanroc quickly slinking off into a trees.

"Over there!" Zoroark called out, pointing Alexis and Elliot to where he had seen it.

"Where?" Alexis asked, looking around. "I don't see anything."

"It's hiding in the trees," Zoroark said.

Another one behind them. All three heads snapped over to where a bush had just been rattled. A large, bipedal wolf-like pokemon was stepping out from the trees, staring at them through pitch-black eyes. Elliot charged up a thunderbolt, ready to strike the pokemon—

Pellets of rocks shot through the air like bullets. Both Zoroark and Alexis were hit head-on, and Elliot was thrown to the ground from being pelted on his back. A second lycanroc, on all fours, bounded into the clearing. Its eyes were just as black and soulless as its companion's. In a split second, the bipedal wolf dove for Elliot, its mouth with gleaming razor sharp teeth wide open—

Elliot's tail sparked with high voltage and collided with the wolf's jaw. The wolf was thrown back towards the trees. The other wolf dashed towards Zoroark, but was slashed across the face with a swipe of Alexis' scalchops. It fell to the floor and dashed off into the woods with a whimper.

"This way!" Alexis waved them all down the path with his scalchops. "Before they catch up with us."

The three of them sprinted down the path, looking out for other dungeon ferals along the way.

"Keep an eye out," Alexis said as they ran. "They could come from anywhere."

The trees to their right suddenly creaked, and all of the sudden a splintered log hurtled onto the pathway—

—The log flew through the air and crashed onto the pathway with all the force of a collapsing rhydon. An ursaring crashed out from behind the trees, swiping at Alexis and Zoroark with all its might. Alexis jumped backwards, colliding into Zoroark and pulling him back as well. Twin pairs of scalchops went sailing at the bear's face, but the bear deflected them with its razor-sharp claws.

The ursaring was sent flying to the side by a thunderbolt from Elliot's tail. Elliot dashed through, scooping the scalchops up in his tail and batting them back towards Alexis.

"Catch!"

Alexis caught them, sending one flying not a second later into the ursaring's skull.

It didn't die. Even though the dungeon feral had a scalchop buried cleanly into its head, it was still standing. It dropped to all fours, preparing to charge them down. A thunderbolt from Elliot knocked the scalchop out of its head but did little else, especially as it began to lope towards them with a snarl.

The ursaring suddenly stopped. It turned to the left, let out a bellow, and ran off that way. Zoroark got to his feet, ceasing the illusion.

"It thinks we went that way," he said.

"Then let's get out of here before it catches on," Alexis continued, walking over and picking up his scalchop. "Keep an eye out for those lycanroc too. They're probably following us by now."

Sure enough, Zoroark could hear more pokemon slinking through the trees. It couldn't be just the two lycanroc at this point. Three… four… now there were too many to count.

"Hey," Zoroark said, his ears swivellng rapidly around. "How far are we from the stairs?"

"Odd question to ask," Alexis panted out. "Why?"

"I'm trying to figure out whether we should run for it or fight."

By now, they were surrounded on all sides. On one side, the midnight lycanroc from before limped onto the path with a snarl. On the other, the midday lycanroc stepped onto the path with a matching grimace. Alexis drew his scalchops.

"Get ready to fight—"

"Wait!" Zoroark cried out. "Stay completely still."

"What are you talking abou—" Alexis began.

Then they disappeared.

The ferals were taken aback by the disappearance. They began to spread out among the area, investigating. Alexis, Elliot, and Zoroark were still in the middle of the clearing. Elliot watched the ferals spread out across the area, looking around for a trio of pokemon that were right in front of them, although they didn't seem to know it. Besides them, Zoroark looked somewhat tuckered out. Elliot turned his head towards Zoroark—

"—Don't move!" he hissed. "I'm still not good at this illusion. I don't know if I can cover you if you move quickly."

"Psst." Alexis tried to catch Zoroark's attention quietly. "Do you just expect us to stay here forever? Sooner or later one of them's going to bump into us."

The ferals investigating the area were indeed getting closer and closer. A rotting linoone sniffed around the area, crawling up close to where Alexis, Elliot, and Zoroark were. Its snout came dangerously close to touching Elliot's, who slowly leaned back at the last second to avoid touching the feral.

"Slowly…" Zoroark moved to the left, edgin towards the path at a snail's pace. "This way."

Alexis and Elliot eyed each other but reluctantly followed his lead. Whatever this was, it was working. They moved through the pack of rabid ferals that were snuffling and padding around the clearing in search of their prey, taking care not to brush up against fur, foreams, or tails. At one point, Alexis had to limbo over to avoid inching into a stantler's antlers.

Soon they'd reached the midday lycanroc guarding the beginning of the road. Alexis raised his scalchop, ready to bring it down upon the lycanroc…

It felt like everything afterwards happened in a single second. Alexis brough his scalchop down, slicing the lycanroc's head a good part of the way off. Zoroark's illusion broke, revealing him, Alexis, and Elliot plain as day to see. The lycanroc—still alive—snarled loudly, making to take a bite out of Alexis' arm—

—A thunderbolt from Elliot's tail severed the lycanroc's head from its body. It landed off to the side, completely hollow inside.

"Come on!" Alexis yelled, his voice lost in the unanimous roars and squawks from the horde of dungeon ferals behind him. They made a break for it down the path, using all their might to stay just one step ahead of the feral horde that was bearing down on them from behind. Zoroark couldn't see a single thing, but he kept his eyes on the path ahead. If anything came after them, he'd hear it before he could see it.

Elliot's thunderbolts directed projectiles away from them as they ran, Alexis sliced away branches in front of them with his scalchop. They turned corner after corner, until finally the stairway came into sight.

"There it is!" Elliot cried out. It was now or never. Alexis, Elliot, and Zoroark all dove for the staircase at the same time—

~\({O})/~

Traveler's Demise Outskirts

They tumbled out of the dungeon, falling to a heap on the ground. Elliot got to his feet first, followed by Zoroark and then finally Alexis.

"Ah, you all made it out safely!"

The xatu from before walked towards Elliot, Alexis and Zoaork, extending a wing to help Alexis up. Alexis pointedly didn't take it.

"Hey, what was the big deal?" Elliot asked angrily. "Why did you go off on your own? It's dangerous in dungeons like these!"

The xatu ruffled the feathers on its wings a little bit.

"I did say before this wasn't my first dungeon trip," he said. "As for why I left, I…"

A glint from Alexis' eye.

"…realized I had to be somewhere in a hurry, and couldn't wait until the dawn."

Alexis' eyes weren't any less cold than they had been before.

"Hey, look," Zoroark said, panting as he got back to his feet. He pointed ahead of them. "What's that in the distance?"

Alexis, Elliot, and Xatu looked ahead where Zoroark was pointing. Zoroark was right: beyond the snow-capped plains and the chilly morning breeze, lay the towers of Pokemon Paradise.

"We made it," Elliot said.

~\({O})/~

Music of the Week!

The Knight Who Was Taught To Save Dragons - Sonya Belousova, Giona Ostinelli