Frost stepped further into the room, his dark eyes never leaving Lin. The Weavile stepped a few paces backwards, but allowed her gaze to glance about, judging her location relative to the pillars and space in the large chamber. The innumerable eyes of the runic symbols on the walls seemed to follow the two of them as they moved.
From the corner of her eye, Lin could see that Force was lingering in the back of the room, next to the concealed staircase leading to the floor below. The ebony Espeon had chosen a spot in the opposite corner of the room. This was beneficial, for Lin preferred to not have distractions or possible casualties involved in this battle.
Although Frost's demeanor had shifted from angry to smugly confident, the temperature in the chamber did not return to normal. It remained cold, and the temperature seemed to lessen further with time. As a fellow Ice-type, Lin didn't mind. It would benefit them both to battle in low temperatures.
The Weavile adjusted her scarf idly, allowing the ends to trail down to her knee-level, but verifying the loop that kept it in place around her neck. Once satisfied, she made eye contact with Frost and held it for several seconds, reading whether his battle preparations were likewise concluded. Then, she raised her left paw openly in front of her, and snapped her claws loudly, the sound echoing in the otherwise silent room.
Frost acted immediately, firing two spheres of purple energy from his mouth in rapid succession. Lin's reflexes were superb, and without taking a step, she swiped at each projectile with her own claws, purple flames erupting from her paws just before impact. The Shadow Balls were sent spiraling off course, colliding with the chamber walls and exploding.
Frost charged forward during this moment, his tail glowing white before he spun to strike her with it. Lin leapt over the Glaceon's charge, raking her claws across his back and landing behind him. Bright crimson scratches had appeared across the Glaceon's cyan-colored fur, and he stumbled for a moment, disoriented by the mixture of pain and misplaced momentum from his failed Iron Tail.
Lin darted forward and drove her fist into the Glaceon's side, then immediately flipped backwards, dodging the intended retaliation. Frost growled, and Lin felt the temperature of the chamber drop drastically. The Glaceon exhaled forcefully, and a powerful gale of wind billowed forth, sending the tails of her scarf flapping behind her as snow and ice joined with the wind, creating a miniature storm of ice that grew stronger with each passing moment.
The Weavile slashed her claws forward, stepping into the Blizzard. Her claws cut the air with incredible force, creating a blade of opposing air current that split the Glaceon's storm in two, the halves of the storm passing on either side of Lin as she strode forward in the air current's wake.
Frost's eyes widened in shock and disbelief, but the force of his Blizzard had left him momentarily winded, and Lin was too fast to evade. She struck him once, twice, a third time, her blows aimed at his shoulder, foreleg, and side, respectively. The Glaceon lost his footing and fell, but rolled sideways to dodge another punch, returning to his feet in the process. He staggered briefly as his muscles protested this method of recovering, but his eyes burned with a desire to keep fighting.
Lin smiled internally, but an external version of the same was beginning to emerge. Excitement was building within her, fueling her adrenaline and own lust for combat. She no longer cared about Frost's petty reasoning for challenging her. His eyes blazed with a battler's fervor, and she could see in his stance that she had matched or exceeded his expectations. He was finished feeling out his opponent, so it was time for him to get more serious.
Frost flashed the Weavile a smirk, then spat several spheres of shadow energy as rapidly as he could. Each Shadow Ball was smaller than average, charged less than usual to compensate for the firing rate. Lin leapt backwards, the first few spheres exploding at her feet. She pivoted to the left, another Shadow Ball whizzing past her shoulder, and then she dove to the right, smoothly tucking her body into a expert somersault and returning to her feet behind the shelter of one of the room's pillars, a barrage of Shadow Balls exploding harmlessly along the floor in her direction, and she even felt a few of them shake the pillar she was behind.
The Weavile's ears twitched, disliking the moment of silence that followed the barrage. There was no sound of a winded Glaceon, so she doubted that the attack had stopped for this reason, and while the pillars in the room served as acceptable cover, they were neither hiding spots nor vantage points.
What she didn't expect was for a number of star-shaped bolts of light to strike the area, many of them disappearing harmlessly into the stone, but several others changed direction and went around the pillar to strike her in the stomach. Lin doubled over, gritting her teeth in discomfort. She had to admit that this had been a clever follow-up move on Frost's part, to use Swift to flush her out of cover.
Now that the initial pain of the attack had faded, Lin's smile manifested unquestionably for the first time. The excitement that had been building since they began had intensified into a giddy enthusiasm. Her red eyes glinted, and she flicked her wrist, bringing two jagged shards of ice into her paw, clenched between her claws. She darted out from behind the pillar and hurled the shards in the Glaceon's direction. Frost seemed to have expected such a move, because he dodged with ease and retaliated with a barrage of icy needles from his fur.
Lin pitched herself forward, tucking her body into a grounded somersault as she landed, her momentum bringing her several body lengths nearer to the Glaceon by the time she completed the roll, but she stumbled on the landing. The floor of the chamber was hard and slightly uneven, making it a less than ideal surface for such maneuvering.
Unwilling to leave herself completely open, Lin slashed her claws towards Frost, but he ducked under the strike and slammed his weight against her unbalanced leg. The resulting blow sent her tumbling to the ground, yet she tucked her body tightly, the momentum of her fall serving a similar purpose to a deliberate somersault, and she was back on her feet much quicker than otherwise possible.
Her red eyes glinted with excitement, and she was breathing harder, icy mist clouding the air with each exhale. The chamber was freezing cold by this point, but the Weavile didn't notice or care. Her blood was pumping now. She could see Force from the corner of her eye, watching her with awed disbelief, his mouth hanging open slightly from the latest display of her acrobatic recovering techniques. Such maneuevers had been the pride and joy of the Sneasel pack she was raised in. Everyone had learned such tricks, but it was so difficult to master and utilize without injuring oneself that few were ever able to go past aerial flips and such for evasion and offense.
Yet Lin had seen more potential in those techniques, and went further than the others in pursuit of mastering them. Speed and aggression were vital components of a Sneasel's tactics, and if a member of the pack was knocked down in battle, it was likely they'd lose if the opponent was quick in pressing their attack. The faster that one could rise to their feet, the faster they could swing momentum back in their favor.
Frost seemed a bit taken aback by the speed of her recovery, but the fire had not vanished from his eyes. That suited her perfectly fine. He had gotten more serious earlier. Now it was her turn to do the same.
The Weavile adjusted her scarf slightly, and noticed that Frost's eyes flicked towards it. She could practically see the wheels turning in his head. She flexed her claws and darted forward.
An intense gale of ice and snow roared around Lin, and she braced herself, shielding her eyes with one paw like a traveler would shield their eyes from the glare of the sun, and despite the wind tugging at her scarf and whipping the ends around her face, she stepped forward one pace. And then another.
The blizzard howled around her, the snow sticking to the stone walls and floor of the chamber. With each step Lin took against the storm, her excitement intensified. Frost had not been idly boasting. He had gotten stronger since she had seen him last, although this amounted to little. It never had been a question of his strength, it was a question of his attitude.
This storm was nothing to her, even if the Glaceon was weaponizing it. She alone had been able to wander the raging winds and storms that plagued Sinnoh that past winter. The human weather reports according to Cecilia had been accurate, and not even the bravest and most reckless of human trainers had dared to set foot outside in that blizzard, no matter how many layers of clothing they had cloaked themselves with.
Lin grunted, the force of the wind pushing her half a pace backwards, but her grin returned soon after. Frost was not a force of nature or an Ice-Type Legendary Pokemon. He could not keep up this storm for long. He would tire, his energy would wane, but she would endure it.
Snow coated and clung to her black fur, the flakes ingraining themselves in the fibers of her scarf. A thin blanket of white was coating the chamber floor, but she remained steely focused. The wind was growing louder in her ears, and the barrage of snow and ice was intensifying, confirming that she was approaching the source. The cold stung her eyes, but she continued regardless, shielding her eyes from incoming projectiles and focusing her hearing ahead to judge her proximity to the Glaceon.
As expected, the storm eventually died down, and she could hear the sound of the Glaceon panting. The air around them had gotten so cold that a white fog had encompassed the entire room, making it difficult to see anything further than an arm's distance away. Her years of training during Mt. Coronet blizzards had paid off, for even without a visual lock on Frost, her senses could pinpoint him with ease. Wasting no further time, she flexed her claws and darted forward.
Before even coming in range of Frost, she swiped her claws forcefully, directing power into her claws until they glowed with eerie black energy, which then expanded, becoming an extension of the claws themselves. Frost saw her coming and his eyes widened in shock. She slashed at the Glaceon viciously, alternating her paws with each strike, moving so quickly that the Glaceon could only focus on dodging and retreating, lest a moment's distraction leave him in tatters.
The Glaceon's eyes were becoming panicked as Lin pressed her relentless Night Slash assault, at times scoring enough of a nick that it left a crimson mark in the Glaceon's body, but she was not aiming to strike anywhere vital, so even if Frost failed to dodge, he would not be in life-threatening danger. They were rapidly approaching the back wall of the chamber, so Frost was running out of room to dodge. Then she could play around with him a little more, make her prey curl into a ball by the end of it and just huddle in anticipation of her next strike, which would never come.
Lin's grin faltered and she ceased her assault at once, the black energy dissipating from her claws. Her lust for battle was still as intense as ever, but she needed a moment to mentally regather herself. Weavile were hunters, and she had recognized the warning signs of her hunter instincts becoming active. Her mind had started to label Frost as 'prey', mingling with a desire to toy with him and savor his panic and humiliation before crushing him underfoot. That mindset was unacceptable to her.
It was one thing for her to get excited and enthusiastic in battle, but she would not allow herself to give in to her species' primal desires to torment and humiliate weaker opponents. To hold back her fighting skill at this point would be an insult to her former protege, but to go all out would just utterly humiliate him. This was no longer a battle worth fighting - the outcome was absolute.
"Yield," she ordered the Glaceon, who was looking bewildered at her sudden pause, despite having his back pressed against the chamber wall.
"What?" the Glaceon forced a laugh, as if he wasn't sure if she was jesting, but his eyes betrayed his true thoughts. Disbelief and frustration shone from his dark eyes, and his jaw was clenched, struggling to keep his thoughts from boiling over into his facial expression and reveal how much he was struggling to keep his composure.
"There is no reason left to continue this fight," Lin stated seriously. "You know as well as I do that you're outclassed. I will not indulge your stubborn pride just to rip your dignity to shreds."
Frost glared at her, and the temperature of the room dropped further. His eyes seemed to become icier as well, but none of these could match the coldness in his tone. "So you're taking pity on me, hm? Calling off the match because you think I can't take a loss? That my fragile, fragile ego would shatter if I lost to the one who trained me originally? How little do you think of me?"
"I think very little of anyone who insists on fighting for no reason," Lin replied curtly. "This battle has nothing of value at stake. Accept the outcome as it stands."
Frost opened his mouth to argue, but then sighed, exhaling a cloud of mist into the air, his body practically deflating. "Whatever. You win. Big shock, I know."
"I will accept your inevitable future challenge when you're ready," the Weavile said, brushing snow from her scarf idly.
"...how the hell did you get so strong?" Frost demanded, his fur bristling, but the fight had taken its toll on him. He seemed years older now, consumed by weariness and disappointment.
Lin considered him for a moment. "You lack purpose. You need a reason to grow stronger. Something that will drive you to keep going in the face of adversity. As it is, you fight only for your ego and pride, and you are satisfied with your strength so long as you keep winning. That is why you'll never beat me."
Frost scoffed. "And what drives you? Last I checked, you trained for the privilege of mate selectivity, so none of the pack males could court you until you made up your mind which to pursue. That hardly seems like it has any right to grant you an instant win over me."
Lin chuckled. "A lot has changed since I was a Sneasel, Frost. I'll share the details another time, though. Hm...now where did Force go?"
"Who?" Frost wondered blankly, looking around the chamber. The icy haze formed by his prolonged and intense Blizzard had gradually dissipated, allowing clearer vision of the room. "Hmm...no idea where Shadow went, either. He couldn't have gone back upstairs, but where else could he have gone? There's no other way in and out of this room."
The Weavile tensed, then turned her gaze to the Glaceon again. "Wait, 'Shadow'? That's...the black Espeon's name?"
"Yeah," Frost confirmed, then looked at her with slight concern, noting her tension and anxious glances towards the trapdoor she and Force had found earlier. "What's wrong?"
This was a chapter I had been looking forward to writing for a while. Also, I'd appreciate any feedback you may have on the story, characters, battle scenes, etc. thus far. I'm thankfully past the stage of my life where my motivation relies on reviews, but I figured that I can ask for something every once in a blue moon.
