Additionally, I will be introducing two new OC's at some point. The Legendaries that are no longer available are Zamazenta, Giratina, and Keldeo.
Now, let's get this chapter going! (-o-)
Clara shouted, "Cambria, X-Scissor on the Ivysaur!"
"Way ahead of you!", Cambria replied, swinging his claws in an X shape and slashing the corrupted Ivysaur. It snarled and lashed one of its vines at him, but he swung around and deflected it.
The boy with a pink hat returned his Raichu, then sent out a Chespin. However, it was oddly colored, with a red back and spines and a yellow nose, as well as a yellow-tipped tail. A burst of sparkles came off of it, revealing it to be a Shiny!
"How in the world did you get one of those?!", exclaimed Rex incredulously, while Ray and his Pokemon took flight.
The boy replied, "Tell you later! Quickly, Christina, Vine Whip on the Golem!"
The Chespin yawned. "Couldn't I have slept in a little longer?"
The shadow Arcanine chose that moment to fire a Flamethrower at her.
Christina yelped and rolled to the side, the heat scorching her tail. "I'm awake, I'm awake!" She flexed the quills on her head, and they hardened and turned into sharp spikes. "Hiya!"
She scooped up some mud and threw it at the Arcanine, causing to snarl furiously.
"Wave, Muddy Water.", Victor commanded.
"Alright then!", the Palpitoad shouted, and welling up around him was a tidal wave of brown water. He rode it into the enemy Pokemon, drenching the Golem and Arcanine with muck. It hit much harder than one would think it should've, and the Arcanine nearly fainted.
The Golem rumbled ominously, and rolled into a ball. It barreled towards Cambria, but he shot a jet of salty water at the rock creature. It was knocked off course and toppled one of the Trevenant carvings.
The Ivysaur fanned out its leaves, and began to absorb light from the sun. Rex's rainstorm was clearing up, and the plant dinosaur was taking advantage of it.
Meanwhile, in the sky, Ray was steering Checkmate around the Flash Cannons the corrupted Corviknight was firing off. He was waiting for the right moment to attack, for Checkmate's only ranged move had severe recoil.
Rex flew up towards him, his Ditto an almost perfect copy of Checkmate. For some reason, this irked Ray.
Rex flew in front of the Corviknight, shouted, "Try and catch me, you metal chicken!"
With an indignant screech, the Corviknight barreled towards him. This meant that it was no longer focused on Ray.
"Checkmate, now's our chance! Steel Beam!", Ray shouted.
Checkmate complied, channeling a beam of steely energy and then blasting the corrupted Pokemon in the back. With a pained screech, the Corviknight plummeted, while Ray held on to Checkmate as he recoiled from the backlash.
Rex shouted, "Alright, I'm going for it! We're going down, Diana!"
He flew towards the ground, Ray close behind. The corrupted Golem saw them and started readying a Rock Slide...but then the shadow Corviknight crashed on top of them.
Needless to say, that wasn't good for either of them, and the two fainted.
Now that left the Ivysaur and the Arcanine.
"Checkmate, let's finish that Ivysaur!", Ray commanded.
His Corviknight shouted, "For valor and glory!" He dove towards the Ivysaur and Drill Pecked it into unconsciousness.
Rex switched out his Ditto for a small rock Pokemon with a large yellow cavity on its face. But before he could give it any commands, Wave rode in on another Muddy Water and knocked out the Arcanine.
As soon as it fainted, there was a loud boom of thunder, and a cloud of shadows rose off of the shadow Pokemon, causing them to return to their normal forms.
"Interesting...", the cloud said, "But this was only a test. Soon, I will gain more strength, and then you will know true fear."
Then it dissipated into nothing.
Everyone returned their Pokemon, and some of the citizens began to emerge from hiding. The resident healer began to tend to the defeated Pokemon, and the five trainers turned to face each other.
Ray said, "Good work, everyone. I don't like how easy this was, but it's a victory against the Darkness and that's good news."
Rex replied, "Yeah, evil smoke thing got me convinced. So...we're Legendborn now?"
Ray nodded. "I believe all of you are. There's only one reason the Darkness would strike so quickly, and at us in particular. The Legendborn are what vanquished him, and he doesn't want that to happen again."
The armored kid said, "Well...if we're to work together now, then I might as well introduce myself. Name's Ulfsigr. I was helping Professor Yellowflame fill out a Pokedex, before this stuff happened."
Victor replied, "So, you're from Tekyon? Explains the fancy armor I guess. Me, I'm just here to start fresh. Back in Unova, it feels like I got trapped in one of those betrayal fics. Here, the rules are different. Name's Victor, by the way."
The kid in the pink hat introduced himself. "My name is John Andy. I came here to attempt the Gym Challenge."
Rex chuckled. "Well, so was I, until I found out that there's NOT A SINGLE GYM in this Arceus-forsaken region! You're in tough luck, kid."
Ray said, "I've heard about the Gym Challenge in other regions. We do have something like that, although it's more like the Island Challenge from Alola than the Galar Championship. We call ours the Path of the Chosen."
Rex asked, "So, what's this 'Path of the Chosen'? Personally, to me it sounds like something one of those Legendary cults do."
Ray answered, "I'll ignore that comment. Okay, so there are eighteen arenas all across the region. Each one is protected by a warden. If you can defeat them in a battle, you earn the right to challenge the Noble Pokemon that lives in the arena."
John asked, "What is a Noble Pokemon? I've never heard of anything like that before."
Ray replied, "They are the descendants of the signature Pokemon of the original eighteen Legendborn. They are bigger and much, much more powerful than regular Pokemon. There's one for each type, and if you defeat them all you earn the right to participate in the Grand Tournament in Kingscrown City, which is getting hosted in another month or so."
"Sounds cool!", exclaimed John, "I've never heard of anything like it!"
"Why do you get to fight the one Pokemon after presumably defeating a team of Gym Leader-level Pokemon?", asked Rex, "How powerful are these Noble Pokemon, anyway?"
Ray replied, "You'll just have to find out. The Grass-type one is just outside of this town. If you'd like, I can take you there."
Rex said, "Fine by me."
Clara added, "I'd love to see what one of those is like!"
Ulfsigr stated, "I suppose that would be important data for my Pokedex."
Victor grinned. "Just you wait, I'll beat that warden and his noble in no time!"
"So, everybody wants to go? Alright then.", replied Ray, "You might want to heal your Pokemon first though. These battles are pretty intense."
AN: That's another chapter done! Feel free to tell me what you think of the Path of the Chosen! The Nobles will be quite important storywise...
Until next time, and I hope you're enjoying the story!