Having entered the dungeon, Dante quickly checked his surroundings. The terrain itself was nearly identical to the previous cave dungeons, with unnaturally smooth stone and complete darkness. Only one difference was discernible, and it was glaring: rather than a smooth stone floor, planks of wood were implanted at regular intervals, mimicking structural supports. It gave the dungeon a much more Pokémon-made feeling, despite the fact that it was no less the strange product of dimensions. Luca was just beside him, similarly inspecting the room.
"Kinda interesting with the floor," Luca observed as she took a few steps. "I guess it's probably because the real path has a bit of structure to it. You know, to make sure it doesn't fall apart just because it's slanted and made fo—"
Before Dante's very eyes, Luca disappeared mid-sentence—there one moment, and gone the next.
Dante's mind raced. Inside a dungeon, an instant disappearance could only be either a warp trap or a pitfall trap—the latter being significantly worse. While warp traps simply sent the victim somewhere on the same floor, pitfall traps sent them any number of floors downward. Normally, since the remaining party members can't tell which trap it was, the protocol was for both parties to make their way through the dungeon on their own. More often than not they came across each other, but since there was no real way to know where your team was, one could not rely on it.
Unfortunately, as bad as the teleportation traps may be on their own, it was so much worse in the cave dungeon. Dante's tail-flame represented their only light source, so wherever Luca was, she was entirely helpless in pure darkness. Even worse, she could be literally anywhere; Dante's only choice was to sprint through, be sure to check every room, and pray to Arceus above that Luca was still safe by the time he found her.
Dante slashed a mark on the wall. Then, he gathered his courage and rushed into the dark hallway just ahead, his eyes wide to watch for danger.
Luca was alone. Entirely and completely, in the inky darkness. When she had watched her surroundings melt away in the dimensional transfer, she didn't immediately understand what was happening. It was only when the reds and oranges of Dante's flame were swallowed by black and she was left with only imperceptible movement of darkness surrounding her that she realized she had stepped on some kind of teleportation trap.
Then, all at once, Luca had realized precisely how screwed she was and how little she could do about it. When the dimensional transfer had finished, the only thing that had changed was the reintroduction of sound, however small it was; now, all she could hear was her own panicked breathing, echoing against the cave walls surrounding her.
Calm down, calm down, calm down, Luca thought at herself furiously as she fruitlessly closed her eyes. You don't know what might be nearby. Dante is on the way—all you need to do is wait. Panicking can only make things worse.
Despite her will to calm herself, Luca heard her breathing getting worse. It was ragged and uncontrolled, and it felt strangely foreign to her. If she concentrated she could feel her chest rising and falling, but in the numbing darkness, it was easy to forget that the breathing was hers. She was beginning to get dizzy, and with a soft thud she fell on her backside.
Seemingly in response, the sharp crack of rocks colliding echoed from the darkness. Luca heard herself gasp, and she slapped both paws over her muzzle. There was something near her.
Maybe it can't see any more than I can. Maybe I'm fine. Maybe Dante will be here soon.
The breathing surrounding her was only getting more uncontrolled. It sounded like she had begun to cry, but she still felt a strange disconnect with her own body. Whatever was happening to her was becoming entirely unbearable, so Luca went to the one place she could: her Aura. Deep within her, the small blue flame burned on bravely, ignorant of its surroundings. Luca watched it carefully—Dante might enjoy real flames, but she preferred her own...
…
…
Wait, Luca thought, jolting herself out of meditation. How long has it been? She had been sitting there for a while now, and her breathing was steady, but she hadn't been remotely paying attention. It felt like it had been forever, and a terrible, terrible thought occurred to her. What if Dante had passed her? What if he had tried to reach her but was now unconscious somewhere? If he was never coming, she would either starve to death or have to stumble around in the darkness until she came across something that could sense her, in which case she was dead regardless.
Once again Luca's panicked breathing filled the room, and once again she tried to force herself to calm down. As before, her attempts only made it progressively worse and worse. She had to stop herself, so she resorted once again to her only option. Deep inside herself, staring into that blue flame, she felt herself already beginning to calm down. She only hoped that the next time she opened her eyes, Dante would be there.
Dante breathed out heavy, smoke stinging his lungs. Although he was normally fireproof, he had long passed his limit for breathing fire in the mad rush to find Luca. He took a deep inhale, then sprung forward once again. He had to keep throwing himself through the dungeon until he found her.
He soon came across the next room and, as he barreled through the door, he checked the corners. A lone Wynaut turned to look at him from the right, and he pivoted in place. Darting towards them with a furious roar, Dante managed to sink his fangs in before they could make a move. Squinting his eyes to withstand the pain of his abused throat, Dante summoned fire to heat his fangs. A few long moments later the psychic-type was unconscious, and he tore his teeth free. When he had seen the blue, his heart had leapt with joy, thinking he had finally found Luca. He was angry—angry with himself for being mistaken, angry with the Wynaut for being blue, and angry that he hadn't found Luca yet.
Still, there was no time to get upset. Dante slashed the wall to mark his progress and once again forged ahead, forcing himself past the pain.
In the next room, he didn't even need to check the corners. Front and center, he saw two Pokémon. Most importantly, Luca knelt in the center of the room. She looked towards him, and Dante saw at once how hard it had been on her. She gazed at him with dull eyes, red from crying. The fur on her tear-stained cheeks was ruffled and clumping, and although her mouth moved as if she was trying to speak, Dante heard nothing.
More concerning was the living rock rising up a mere few meters from her. A total of four arms split off from the main body, and Dante realized he was face to face with an especially angry Graveler. Each of their strong arms held a large boulder up, and before Dante could react, they launched all four of them at Luca, one after another. Despite the bareness of the room, they produced a fifth which joined the barrage—as if the dungeon itself was warping to abide the Graveler's desire.
Luca continued to stare at Dante, seemingly dazed from the ordeal and struggling to comprehend that he was truly there. As a result, she was entirely blindsided by the Graveler's attack—when the first boulder hit, it carried her all the way across the room and slammed her against the dungeon wall before exploding into dust. The four remaining boulders followed close, cracking on impact and sending a series of echoing crashes throughout the dungeon.
Dante roared with rage as he sprung forward. He bit down hard on the Graveler's inner right arm as they brought it in close to defend against him, and again he felt searing pain as he forced flame into his fangs. After only a moment, Dante was clubbed over the head by hard rock—one of the other three arms—and he felt his bite being torn away. Before he could react, another blow to his head pushed him back.
Dante clenched his teeth and continued backstepping—it was time to change strategies. With a deep breath, he doused the rock/ground-type with hot flames. The Graveler used their inner arms to block the fire, but Dante didn't stop—after only a brief pause for breath, he launched another stream of flame. The Graveler produced a large rock and pitched it in retaliation, but fortunately Dante was a much more evasive target than Luca had been, and he managed to duck it.
Dante forced out yet more flames, but he was cut short as he reflexively grabbed at his throat. He was approaching a new stage of pain, and the inside of his throat was beginning to feel wet as well as raw and painful. The worry that he may be seriously damaging his insides popped into his mind, and it further occurred to him the wetness might be blood. Worse case, he still had oran berries in his pack—Dante revitalized his determination and continued the painful onslaught of flames.
Thankfully, Dante's efforts seemed to be starting to have an effect. Frustration and fear was beginning to cloud the feral Graveler's expression and they had stopped trying to attack, instead choosing to focus entirely on defense. It was to be a test of Dante's stamina, and whether he could outlast the defensive rock/ground-type.
Begrudgingly, Dante accepted the challenge and breathed in once again. The flames poured fourth, as did the searing pain—but it was surprisingly tolerable. Again he breathed in, and again he breathed out. This time, however, his fire was cut short by a coughing fit. He coughed into his fist, and bringing it away, he could see that there was blood splattered across it. There was no way he could continue—he would have to finish the fight without his flame.
Fortunately, he didn't need to. Although his flames were not nearly hot enough to melt the Graveler's stone-like outer shell, they had apparently caused enough internal damage for them to faint. Freshly out of combat, Dante's balance wavered as his adrenaline left him. A brief stumble later, he turned to check on where he has last seen Luca.
Luca hadn't moved an inch since he last saw her. She was covered in a thin coating of rock dust and sat leaning against the wall, but she was very obviously unconscious. Dante approached her and knelt down to her side.
Looking closer, a large blood stain was hidden behind Luca's head where it had impacted the wall. Pressing the flesh of his hand against her neck, Dante was relieved to feel both a pulse and steady, unimpeded breathing. Initially reaching down with his right hand, Dante abruptly remembered that there was still wet blood from his cough. Instead, he performed the slightly more inconvenient maneuver of reaching into the satchel with his left hand and produced a small, blue oran berry held between two claws. He pushed aside Luca's lips with the same two claws and held the berry above her tongue, crushing it before leaving the remains in her mouth. She regained consciousness almost immediately, her half-closed eyes dull with confusion.
"You've got an oran berry in your mouth," Dante informed her. "Chew and swallow, and you'll heal fully."
As Luca complied Dante sat down next to her, his back to the same wall. Every breath was a struggle for him and was accompanied by sharp pain. He was so tired, but so relieved to have found a living Luca.
Once she was fully recovered, Luca felt blindly at the back of her head. "I was really hurt just now, wasn't I?" she asked, observing the dense coating of her own blood that her hand had retrieved.
"Yeah. You wouldn't have died, but you probably wouldn't have woken up for a few days. Are you feeling OK? Mentally, I mean?"
"Oh, uh..." she began. Luca shuddered, a subtle shaking of her core. "I think so," she very clearly lied, her voice hoarse. "It felt like you took forever to find me."
"I did. You fell five floors."
"What?" Luca turned, her eyes wide with surprise. "You blitzed five floors alone? We're on six?"
"Yeah. I had to use one of our orans, though, as well as our only pecha. You just used the second oran, so there's only one left."
Dante felt Luca's eyes scan his body, inspecting his injuries. "You should eat it now," she said.
"No, I shouldn't," Dante asserted. "We should save it for when we really need it. I can still fight."
"You're only saying that because you can't see how awful you look. You look half-dead, Dante—and if you coughed up that blood on your hand like it looks like you did, I can't believe you'd try to tell me that you're fine to go on."
"I only coughed up the blood because I was forced to overuse my flames. Now that we're together I won't need to rely on them, so it's fine. Besides, my blaze isn't even active. You can't argue that I'm on death's door."
"...That can happen? Using your flames too much can make you cough up blood?"
"Mhm. It's the same as how if I overheat it can damage my insides. Everything has a limit."
"And you're sure you're fine to continue?"
"I am. Just don't expect me to use any more fire attacks for the time being."
"Fine," Luca sighed, finally pushing herself to her feet. Dante could see that the back of her head was still bloodied—they would have to remember to find some water once they were out. "Could you lead?" she asked.
"...I'm sorry, but no," Dante said, standing as well. "Now that we know this dungeon has pitfall traps, you need to go first. It was bad when you got sent ahead of me, but if I get sent ahead I won't be able to come back for you."
She stared at the empty hallway ahead. Dante couldn't see her expression, but her posture felt fearful. "...You're right. Let's go."
Dante followed his Riolu companion through the dark stone hallway, making sure to keep his tail to the side so she could see straight ahead. As much as he stood by his decision to keep the final oran until they were forced to use it, a large part of him—mainly the part feeling the pain—regretted it. He wasn't entirely sure if he'd actually be able to fight when breathing was such a struggle, but ideally adrenaline would be doing most of the work for him.
As bad as Dante was doing, Luca wasn't doing too well herself. Although she was doing well physically—the oran berry having healed even her old cuts from days ago—her mental health was suffering. Somehow, the pervasive darkness surrounding her was at the forefront of her mind, always. She couldn't forget that the reality surrounding her was one of darkness, and that the light provided by Dante was no more than a minor exception to that rule—an exception that was one mishap away from being erased. She was almost relieved every time a feral jumped out of the darkness and she had to fight; for just a moment, she could lose herself in combat and forget her fear.
Even if she could forget her fear of the darkness while fighting, her worry for Dante replaced it. It would have been bad enough to see the struggle in his eyes and watch how sluggish his movements were, but as a Riolu, Luca could feel his anguish directly. Still, he was managing to hold his own in combat and his blaze had yet to activate, so she wasn't going to bring it up again.
It was three more floors of creeping through the darkness and skirmishes with ferals before Dante's steadily decreasing health came to its natural conclusion. They had come across two Geodude and were each fighting their own. Luca had just dispatched hers and turned to check on Dante's progress, just in time to see him fail to dodge a thrown rock.
He had managed to block his body with an elbow, but it was far from a glancing blow. Upon impact the rock cracked, producing thick dust. Dante turned his head and squinted his eyes, but the damage was done; within only a moment he had collapsed in a violent coughing fit.
Luca sprang into action, intercepting the offending Geodude with a solid punch as it rolled towards Dante. It took the blow poorly, and a single follow-up was all that was needed to finish it off.
Dante was still on the ground when Luca turned back to him, and although it was slowing down, he was still coughing too much to speak. The hand he was coughing into was slick with crimson, and when Luca felt a pulse of fear from Dante—fear that the damage inside him may be permanent—she decided.
She knelt next to the tormented Charmeleon and took a moment to pick out the final oran berry from his satchel. "Enough of this," she said, holding the berry in front of his mouth. "You've made a valiant effort, but you can't go on like this. Eat."
Dante struggled against his coughs for a moment more, but once it had finally settled, he relented without much fuss. With a sharp nip, he plucked the berry out of Luca's fingers and bit down.
Luca watched with wonder as Dante's weak, battered body repaired itself. His scales were still coated with dirt and grime, but every bit of damage was erased out from underneath it. Within seconds, he went from nearly unable to hold up his own weight to standing tall and proud.
"Ohh-kay," Dante sighed contentedly, stretching tall as his tail-flame flared. "These berries really are incredible."
"I wish we had more of them," Luca agreed. "But we should be almost through, right?"
"What floor are we on now? Eight?"
"Nine, I think."
"Can't be more than a few more. Now that neither of us are hurt, a few more floors should be easy."
"Almost there," Luca smiled. "Can't wait to never see another cave as long as I live."
"Careful with your choice of words," Dante said, gesturing to the hallway ahead. "Shall we?"
Luca nodded, once again taking the lead. She certainly felt more secure with Dante back to full strength, but the ever-present fear of the surrounding dark was worse than ever. She had resorted to keeping her eyes on the ground in front of her to avoid looking into the darkness, and it occurred to her that she may have picked up a lifelong trauma-induced fear of the dark. Then again, perhaps it was simply the temporary side-effects of what she went through and the ever-present danger of it happening again.
Despite her non-vigilance, now that Dante was able to use his flames again, the consequences of fighting ferals were typically limited to minor cuts and bruises. The two of them were able to forge their way through the dungeon without further incident, right up until the end of the twelfth floor.
Luca found herself approaching a dead-end room. It was large, to the point that Dante's light left the far side draped in darkness. Despite this, the two most important features of the room were visible. First, there was a dark opening in the opposite wall that could only be the staircase. Second, a hulking shape laid off to the right. Although Luca couldn't see enough to identify it, she could see intimidating golden armor that glistened even in the dim light.
Luca felt a pulse of fear from behind her. When she turned, she was greeted with wide eyes and a terrified Dante. He motioned for Luca to follow him back into the hallway, and he led her a few meters away before turning back.
"That was a Haxorus," he whispered hurriedly. "They're on a completely different level from any other Pokémon we've faced. I have no idea why they're here, but they could easily kill one of us quickly enough that an oran berry wouldn't be able to help, even if we still had one. They might be asleep so we can maybe sneak by, but we have to get past somehow."
Luca was taken aback by Dante's panic—he was terrified. "We can't fight it at all? We don't have a chance?"
"No. If they see us, we have to run."
"So... we try to sneak by and make a break for the stairs if it spots us?"
"Yeah... Yeah, I guess that's the best we can do."
"The final hurdle..."
"Maybe, yeah. The dungeon could end any floor now. Are you ready? I'll call when it's time to run, but you should still lead."
"OK. Let's do this."
Once again leading the way, Luca crept back to the room. When she saw that nothing had changed within the room she entered, staying far to the left to give the sleeping Haxorus a wide berth. She kept her eyes locked on the dangerous feral. With more light gradually filling the room, she could see the dragon-type in all its glory; it was curled up tight, and although Luca couldn't quite see its eyes, the massive red battle-axe shaped tusks poking up out of its silhouette represented a constant menacing threat.
Despite never taking her eyes off the Haxorus, Luca noticed that Dante was holding his tail behind his body in an attempt to keep direct light off of its eyes. It was an impressive thing to think of, but Luca figured that when one's entire existence involves lugging around an always-lit flame, one would need to prioritize that kind of thinking.
Luca froze as the Haxorus shifted with a deep, unsettling groan. It wasn't awake, but it certainly wasn't deeply unconscious. The gentle but insistent pressure of a palm on her back told her that Dante wanted her to keep moving, so keep moving she did. That is, until the Haxorus moved as well.
There was no dramatic, slow wake up—one instant the Haxorus was curled up and perfectly still, and another it was scrambling towards them in a hurricane of clumsy limbs. It was disordered, but Luca could see real power behind each motion. She felt herself seize up like a deer in headlights at the veritable natural disaster inbound.
Then she was pushed from behind, and her instincts returned. She broke her eye contact with the Haxorus and ran for the stairs, completely deaf to anything but the throbbing of her own heartbeat in her ears.
A thick, black smoke billowed from behind her on its way to obscure the entire room, and Luca felt a new height of panic before the more rational part of her offered an explanation; Dante must have created a smokescreen for them to run through. It was a sound decision—their destination was stationary, so low visibility could only help them. Now holding her breath, Luca continued running forward through the smoke.
A bit sooner than she was expecting, Luca's foot fell into empty air when it was prepared to press against the ground, and she knew she was safe. The staircase was the only drop in elevation in the dungeon, so she was currently falling into it. All she had to do was wait a few merciful seconds and it was over, but... a thought occurred to her. She had entirely lost Dante during her mad dash. It had been her assumption that he was right behind her, but she had been so panicked that she hadn't been able to hear if it was so.
And then everything was silent as Luca shifted through dimensions. She opened her eyes and watched the dizzying colors swirl, waiting with bated breath to see any hint of what awaited her. She felt a tinge of excitement when various greens were included in the swirls, and when reality solidified around her she was met with not the artificial flat dungeon stone, but real stone—with beautiful imperfections, natural sunlight for lighting, and even plant growth.
Luca almost cried with relief when she looked up to see a dense forest canopy with sunlight peeking through, but it wasn't yet time to celebrate. Luca turned, hoping with all her heart that Dante would be there.
Dante was standing behind her at the cave opening. He was hurriedly looking through his satchel with his left hand, but something was very, very wrong. His right arm was missing, cut cleanly just above his elbow. It freely spurted blood around the exposed and jagged bone, and there was no sign whatsoever of his missing forearm.
"Your... your arm," Luca forced out. "Dante..."
"I know." His voice was neutral, as if losing his arm was as routine as the sun rising. He pulled the unused bandages out, holding them towards her. "Help me dress it."
"But your arm—your whole arm... it's—"
"Gone," Dante interrupted. "I know. I'm only calm because I'm in blaze, but blood loss can still kill me. Help me dress it," he repeated.
"O-OK." Luca took the bandages and carefully prepared them. "What happened? It got you?"
"Yes. Caught me with their horns as I fell into the staircase. I think they may have caught sight of my tail-flame."
"I'm sorry."
"Not your fault. You remember where my family is?"
Luca pressed the bandage against the wound, hoping to stem the bleeding. Dante took over, using his remaining hand to keep pressure on it. "Yes, but you're going to take me there yourself," she asserted.
"We'll see. Are you ready to go? We're going to run, see if we can't make it to town before I pass out."
Looking into Dante's eyes, Luca could see that they were unfocused and wild. Even if he wasn't outright panicking because of blaze, he was very clearly in some kind of shock. "Let's go," she nodded.
Dante took off running with an unbalanced gait as he held the bandage firmly against his stump. He ran a little bit too fast for Luca and she was beginning to fall behind, but that was perfectly fine—he was the priority, and they had to get him treatment as soon as possible. Her heart was beating out of her chest as she pushed her way through dense underbrush. The brilliant light of Dante's tail-flame was getting further and further away, but in the dimming evening forest she never lost sight of it. That is, until it abruptly vanished.
Luca blinked. No, she had definitely seen that right—what had happened? They weren't in a dungeon so it couldn't have been a trap. She kept moving towards where she had last seen the light.
Dante was lying face down in the grass where she had seen the light disappear. His tail-flame was still there, but it was many magnitudes smaller. While it had been large and spitting sparks as it always did when his blaze was active, now it was tiny—much smaller than Luca had ever seen it. Luca placed the flat of her paw onto Dante's throat. He was breathing, but entirely unconscious. The blood loss had finally gotten the better of him.
Luca looked around, keeping her paw on his scales. She could see nothing but the darkening forest, and Luca felt a chill run up her spine; again she was surrounded by dark, with only a single point of refuge. A much smaller one, even—but she couldn't waver. Even if Dante had a much larger body, Riolu were strong. Luca slung his entire body over her and began dragging him forwards as quickly as she could.
It was a difficult few minutes of labor before Luca saw any indication of progress. Dante's head was draped over her own, but beyond his lower jaw she could see the faintest trace of warm light in the distance.
Turning in place, Luca searched her surroundings from under Dante's chin. Unlike the Great Forest, the terrain was rough and messy. In the uneven ground nearby, a small hollow tucked underneath the tree roots was exactly what she needed. Luca knelt and pushed the injured Charmeleon underneath the tree, taking his satchel as she did. She took an extra moment to arrange him in a position that seemed comfortable—then she left, running towards what she prayed was the town in the distance.
