Naru
The trek back to Myriad was moving along smoothly, Kuro and I had merged back onto the path that we walked on right after leaving, meaning we were only a mile or two away. It was dark out, but not to the point of really obscuring our vision. There were definitely less pokemon treading the path since we came here, which was to be expected due to the time of night. Despite it being as late as it was, I wasn't really tired at all. I usually would be around this time, but the events that took place today sort of took my mind off of sleep.
I was really happy that I was able to support Kuro through him visiting where he used to live, and I would willingly do it again anytime I needed to. I will admit, I felt a tad bit uncomfortable while I was waiting for him to scope out the entirety of his old den, but that feeling dissipated when I saw the way he was feeling. Seeing him like that brought out a few actions that I'm glad I took, despite being worried about performing them in the first place. I didn't want to seem too imposing on Kuro, especially when he was on the verge of releasing a buildup of emotions, but I ended up going through with it anyway, and it seemed like that was the right choice. As much as I felt bad for Kuro at that moment, I was glad he stopped holding back, otherwise who knows what he would have done over time? I think Kuro's demeanor was proof that I made the right decision. Even before we arrived at his den, he expressed a lot of anxious movements, and I could tell that he wasn't too keen on where we were headed. But now, he seemed back to normal, back to the way he always acted before this trip. The only thing that stayed remnant of his negative emotions was the small amount of swelling still visible in his eyes, though you could only see it if you were looking out for it.
I took a short glance at Kuro, who was walking beside me, holding a somewhat stoic expression on his face. He would occasionally close his eyes to take in the moonlight while he could, something I really wondered the feeling of. I mean, I love rolling around in snow as much as any other ice type, but the moon wasn't really something that dark types all loved, it was more of an umbreon thing. He looks like he really enjoys moonlight, I wonder why he doesn't spend more time outside at night?
After a little while longer of walking, a large town came into our view. I spotted a few buildings of various colors and a large stone road, signaling the town that I was so familiar with. I'm fairly certain that the rest of our tasks to complete here would go off without a hitch, as most of what we needed to do revolved around asking random pokemon around the town various questions. We just needed to conduct a survey of sorts, gathering information. We also needed to investigate some kind of building not too far away from us, but we didn't know the exact location, so we hadn't really prioritized it. However, assuming we keep working at our normal pace, we should be done with all of our tasks by tomorrow, and then the rest of our time at Myriad could be spent however we pleased. There wasn't anything in particular that either of us wanted to do, but it would be a bit of time off, which was always nice.
"What do you think that weird building we have to investigate will contain?" I asked the umbreon walking next to me, curious to hear his thoughts. He seemed to think for a few seconds before responding.
"I'm not too sure. According to our boss, there were a few Ravens sent there a little while ago, but they never ended up coming back. I think she just wants us to see if they're actually over there or not." Kuro glanced up to the night sky. "Hopefully whoever ended up being sent there is okay."
"I hope so too." I didn't know why there were Ravens sent there in the first place, or if anyone even lived there. For all we knew it could just be someplace used for storage. But if that was the case, what happened to the Ravens that were supposed to come back? For some reason, I've got a bad feeling about it…
"I don't think it's any use worrying about it now." I turned my head to look at Kuro. "If anything urgent happened, then we would have been told to go there before doing anything else here. For now, let's just focus on what we planned to get done." He read me like a book…
"Okay! Sounds good to me!" Kuro smiled at me as we entered Myriad. We began to walk on a few empty roads that led to my old home. Myriad was always a ghost town at night, with the exception of pokemon like Kuro and I, who had specific tasks to do during night time. Even though they existed, they were far from plentiful. This wasn't a bad thing, just an observation I made over the time I've spent here. I almost never ran into anyone here at night, and today would most likely be the same way. Well, if today was a normal day that is.
After turning a few more corners, following the same roads we took when we left to check out the outskirts, I saw a group of pokemon walking around close to us. Sadly, I recognized them. The front of the group had a hitmonchan walking cockily like he owned the city. I would never forget his face, and there was no doubt that the four pokemon behind him were also familiar to me. I felt a shiver go up my spine, remembering everything they said and did to me back when I actually lived here. For a second, I felt the same fear I had back then creep into my mind. I had to remind myself that I was different now. It looked like he caught sight of me, and gave me an evil smirk, recognizing me immediately. Usually, this was the point where he would approach me, try to tease me, or try to hurt me without the possibility of escape. For some reason though, he didn't come close, and his expression changed from intimidating to intimidated really quickly. He looks… scared?
Never in my life did I think I would see this pokemon look fearful. I always saw him trying to scare others, never showing any fear of his own. I was beyond confused, and glanced at Kuro to gauge his thoughts on the pokemon in front of us. I wasn't expecting him to be giving the group a death glare. He had malice in his eyes, and the last time I saw Kuro glare at someone like that was when he saved me from that gallade on the day we met. How does he know them?
Regardless of the look on his face, the hitmonchan continued walking forward, before changing his path towards the two of us. His group stayed behind while he kept walking towards us, and I admittedly felt a little bit shaken. Kuro dropped his glare to look at me concernedly, almost as if he knew I would have a negative reaction to this group, even though I never mentioned the species of pokemon who used to single me out. I talked about what they did, but never mentioned anything that would lead to their identity, so why did Kuro look at them so distastefully?
"Naru, are you going to be alright interacting with him?" He's concerned about me..? But that means…
"How do you know about them?" I asked him, genuinely curious how he figured it out. If I never said anything to him, then what clued him in on it?
"Kind of a long story, I'll explain later. But, will you be okay?" I nodded my head in response.
"That was then and this is now." Kuro smiled at me.
"That's what I wanted to hear." He turned his back to the hitmonchan, still glaring, but not quite as hostile as he did initially. He just walked up to us until he was standing a few feet away. He shot me a nasty look, and then looked at Kuro, and his expression changed again, looking as if he was scared out of his mind, even more so than before. Is he… afraid of Kuro?
"Can we help you?" Kuro asked calmly. The hitmonchan just let out a growl, clearly not pleased with either of us. He stared Kuro down for a few long seconds, gritting his teeth in anger. Now there were two things that clearly didn't happen often, this hitmonchan was afraid, and of Kuro no less, and, well, someone was afraid of Kuro in the first place. As much as I liked Kuro, I had to admit that he couldn't seem intimidating very easily. He was too gentle of a pokemon to put on a threatening face, so seeing someone else act afraid of him was rare. After what felt like hours of meaningless eye contact, the hitmonchan quickly drew his fist back, which began to glow brightly, and th swung it forward immediately, connecting directly with Kuro's face.
I was about to worriedly shout, but before I could process what was happening, I focused on Kuro. He hadn't moved an inch, and he just kept staring at the hitmonchan, putting on what looked like a bored glare, and then sighed.
"We've already been over this." Kuro hardened his stare a bit. "Do you need to me give you another example?" The hitmonchan grunted and pulled his arm back.
"I-I refuse to believe that I can't hurt you!" He shouted loudly right in front of us. Did he just stutter? That's new.
"How about, instead of being in denial, you try to improve yourself? Maybe after some actual discipline, you can make me move." Kuro taunted, another rare occurrence. Actually, have I ever seen him act like this? He doesn't even show this distaste to Kai…
"Come on! Try to hit me! The result won't repeat itself!" Repeat itself..? I didn't really know what the hitmonchan meant by that.
"I… Don't think that's a good idea." Kuro responded, almost concerningly.
"Just do it! I'll show you how weak you are!"
"Sorry, but I don't want a lawsuit for breaking your ribcage."
"I swear, I'll end you!"
"We've already been over this…"
I stood to the side, watching the hitmonchan and Kuro went back and forth. I most certainly wasn't expecting something like this to come out of our return trip, and it was…interesting. And amusing to me. Watching someone who tortured me when I was younger just get… taunted amused me. He seemed so threatening to me before, but now he just looked as tame as can be. He punched Kuro at full force and he didn't budge, and I can assume that something similar happened in the recent past if Kuro already knew about this group. Seeing them made out to be total fools just helped to further eliminate any remaining fear I may have had lingering in my mind. I looked away from my former bully to the one taunting him and smiled. I guess we helped each other out today.
"Why don't you just shut up and battle me!?" Kuro sighed in response to the screaming of the hitmonchan in front of him, but didn't say anything back this time. He even took a step back, like he took the challenge seriously. The hitmonchan also stepped back, putting his hands up to signal a fighting stance. Make sure not to break him Kuro…
"Ooooooh! A fight is breaking out? I love these street battles!" I heard an unfamiliar voice shout from a decent distance away. Kuro's head snapped in the direction of the voice and I followed his motion a second later. A lot farther down the road stood a leafeon, smiling largely at Kuro and I. "I have my money on Blacky, that hitmonchan doesn't seem up to the task." She chuckled. Blacky..?
I turned my eyes to Kuro in order to gauge his reaction and he had the most dumbfounded stare covering his features. I couldn't tell if it was because of the strange nickname, or from the pokemon in general. Regardless, his attention was completely drawn to her, ignoring the hitmonchan fuming behind him.
"Hey! Don't ignore me! I was about to prove your weakness!" He shouted out, echoing down the road, certain to wake some sleeping pokemon. Kuro rolled his eyes in response, which didn't help the hitmonchan's mood. I could see why Kuro was distracted with this leafeon though, as she gave off an ominous aura, like she was here to do something, and it wasn't pleasant. I didn't know what it was exactly, but the dreadful feeling I obtained from this girl wasn't natural.
While Kuro and I were busy observing the strange leafeon that had just called out to us, the hitmonchan was absolutely furious. I take it that he didn't like being ignored much, even if it just saved him a lot of pain. Since he was tired of it, he ended up walking up directly behind Kuro and drawing both of his hands back and wrapping them together. He then attempted to bring them down on Kuro, but, without looking back, Kuro leaned to the side and dodged the slam, before taking his hind legs and kicking the hitmonchan in the stomach. The hitmonchan flew back a few feet, and then gripped where Kuro had just kicked him, looking as if he was in a lot of pain. He coughed harshly a few times before shakily standing back up on his two feet. So much for saving him pain…
Kuro was still observing the leafeon curiously, most likely getting the same vibe as me. She might be dangerous. The leafeon started to walk towards us and talk.
"HA! I knew it! That guy seems rather weak, and Blacky over here seems competent, I knew exactly how all of this would turn out!" I couldn't place my paw on what exactly felt so wrong about this pokemon, but there was definitely something. "Now, tell me. How long have you been a Raven?" Why is she asking that..?
"First, do you mind telling me who exactly you are?" Kuro asked with a calm voice, but not quite as calm as he talked previously. He definitely had the same feeling as me.
"But that's no fun! I like being a mystery! That way, other pokemon never, and I mean NEVER, know what you're up to!" The happy tone that she talked with kind of creeped me out. "However, I guess you won't talk unless I do, so ears open! my name is Grace, and my boss has given me an order to exterminate you!" She said in an overdramatic voice. She wants to… exterminate us? Wait, before that…
"Who is your boss and why do they want us exterminated?" I asked her. She cast me an observing stare, as her eyes fell on the Nest symbol on the side of my body, the same spot as Kuro's. He grin widened to a disturbing smile.
"Wait, YOU'RE a Raven too!? Great! Two for one! I am going to have a looot of fuuun~~" She sang out. "Alright, you asked a question, and so I shall answer!" Grace turned her head to the side and shifted one of her leaf-like ears to the side, and I felt a shiver. On the back of her ear was a symbol that I didn't think I'd be seeing here. Kuro lowered his stance, getting into a defensive position before lowly growling, and I did the same. "Hold on! Hold on! I haven't even said anything yet! Then again… it was kind of stupid of me to think you wouldn't know our symbol… Oh well! I do a lot of stupid things!" She shifted her ear back to its normal position and bowed her head. "Well you see, I am an admin at the Void, Luna's trusty servant, Grace! Maybe trusty servant isn't the right word… I mean I don't have the best work ethic, and Luna keeps coming after me for not adhering to the schedule that she gave me… But whatever! I'm me!" She shot her head up and looked at Kuro and I again. "Also, not to scare you or anything… Actually… In order to scare you, let me tell you," her stare shifted from carefree to threatening for a split second, before her gaze went back to that of an energetic child. "I'm known as the fourth strongest in the Void, only behind… um… you know what, that doesn't matter." Grace began to laugh at herself, but I barely heard her after a certain part of her sentence. What does she mean… fourth strongest..?
I looked at Kuro and his eyes were wide, but I couldn't tell if he was scared or surprised, perhaps a little bit of both. It's not like I didn't feel scared. If anything, I was now terrified of the leafeon standing a little distance away from us, it was just hard to accept my fear because of her personality. She acted almost… childish. Maybe childish wasn't the right word, but she didn't act like a standard Void member, that's for sure. She immediately gave us her position at the Void, told us why she was here, and made a bunch of sarcastic comments while doing so, definitely not what you'd expect from a Void admin, one of the strongest at that. However, even with her strange personality, I still felt fear creep up on me while looking at her. Grace was just standing still now, chuckling at our silence.
"What's wrong? I wasn't scary before, was I? Was it something I said~~?" She sang out, before walking towards us again. Kuro was still crouched down a little bit in front of me, so I moved up next to him and took a similar stance. It made us look harder to take down when we were together… But I also just wanted to be near him to help quell my fear a bit.
"K-Kuro? Have a plan?" I shakily asked him, not doing so well at hiding my fear.
"We need to find a way to get away from her, but we can't just leave the idiots behind us." As much as I disliked them, I agreed with Kuro. Despite all the things they did to me, leaving anyone to die was not an option. "I say we-"
"Hey! I don't know who you are, but don't interfere with my battle!" A Hitmonchan walked in front of us and stood close to Grace. "I know that whatever you just said is all talk, how about you put some actions behind it!?" What is he doing!?
Grace looked at him with a stoic expression before smirking. "I thought the peanut gallery was supposed to stay quiet." She walked right in front of him before crouching down. "I might have to force you to shut up." Grace spun her body around and slammed her leaf-like tail into the Hitmonchan's stomach, and I heard a loud crack, followed by a scream. The hitmonchan flew high into the air while screaming his lungs out. "You did this to yourself!" Grace launched a green ball of energy from the leaf on her forehead which rapidly flew towards the hitmonchan.
"Idiot…" I heard Kuro mutter from beside me before he extended two large tendrils from his back. He slammed one of them to the ground, propelling him into the air in between the attack and the hitmonchan. He grabbed the hitmonchan with one tendril, prompting him to scream even louder. He used the other tendril to deflect the energy ball, which seemed to be putting up quite a bit of resistance. Kuro's tendril was pushing harshly against it, and he looked like the attack had frozen him in mid-air. With enough effort, Kuro managed to slam the attack out of the way, which plummeted quickly to the ground behind Grace, shaking the earth and creating a crater in the road. The impact almost made me fall over. Kuro also had gravity pull him to the ground, but he used his free tendril as a landing mechanism, covering him from a decent drop onto a stone ground. He quickly ran over to the rest of the group and set the hitmonchan down in front of them before saying something that I couldn't make out. I took a guess and assumed that he was telling them to get the hitmonchan, and themselves out of here. The rampardos of the group lifted the hitmonchan into their arms before bolting around a corner, but not fully leaving the area. I didn't know if it was because they were interested in the situation or what, but they didn't seem to have any intentions of leaving. As much as this bothered me, neither Kuro nor I had the time to do anything about it. Kuro retracted his tendrils back into his body and ran back to join me. The two of us turned to Grace, going back into a battle stance.
"It looks like we'll need to…" Kuro paused for a few seconds, letting out a small grunt. "Hold her off to the best of our ability." I nodded in response, assuming that Kuro's pause had to do with his recoil.
"How much do you to think you can do to me?" Grace took a few more steps towards us. I tried my best to not start shaking, knowing all too well that Kuro and I were about to have to fight for our lives. "Come on… The two of you are both Ravens, I'm sure you have quite a bit of potential. The question is, how much of it have you tapped into?" Grace crouched down, giving us a knowing smile. Both Kuro and I tensed our muscles.
"Get ready Naru!"
"Right!"
Kuro and I prepared to dash in opposite directions, wanting to separate ourselves and make it harder for our opponent to keep track of us, but we didn't get the chance. Within a second, Grace was between both of us. We both attempted to react, but the side of my body was kicked hard, and it looked like the same happened to Kuro. I felt a strong pain in my side as I slid across the ground, trying to stop myself from toppling over. I shook off the pain and looked for Grace. I found her rushing towards Kuro, who still hadn't fully recovered from the surprise first attack. I quickly shot off a ball of ice, aimed directly at her. She knew it was coming though, and turned her head around to step out of the way of the attack. Once she did, an energy ball was shot in my direction at steadily increasing speed, before it was flying at me almost faster than I could track. I ducked under it, feeling it graze my fur. I looked back and saw it barely miss two buildings that were right behind me, before crashing into an alleyway, cracking the stone of the two buildings it had barely missed and shaking the ground with pressure. I looked back at Grace to see her smirking at me.
"Not bad at al-" Grace's sentence was cut off by Kuro slamming his tail into her head, which made her slide back a few feet. I noticed that Kuro had a small line of blood dripping from his mouth. She must have hit him in the face rather than his body. Grace quickly recovered from Kuro's strike and rushed back at him, slamming her head into his chest, and launching him into the air. Kuro let out a grunt and flipped his body around to land on his paws. After landing, he tried his best to shake off the impact of the attack. I used the opportunity to run over to them, as it was clear that being separated in this battle wasn't a good idea. I ended up right next to Grace while she was still looking in Kuro's direction. She noticed me approaching and attempted to slice me with the leaf on her forehead. I barely ducked under it, but it nicked one of the appendages hanging from the crown on my forehead, which drew a bit of blood. I unsheathed a claw and swiped it at Grace, but she spun her body just enough to have the attack miss her, and then kicked me in the side of the head with one of her back legs. I ended up spinning to face the other direction from the force, and my head began to ache in pain. I turned my head around to see Grace getting ready to slash me again. Before I could try and counter, she was hit by a shadow ball from out of my vision. It didn't send her back at all, but it distracted her from me, so I lowered my body temperature and shot off a point-blank ice beam at her. I managed to connect with one of her forepaws as she attempted to jump away from the attack, freezing it on contact. She then uneasily landed on the ground and Kuro ran at her and swung his body around with his tail emanating a silver-like glow. Grace reacted fast enough to counter with her own tail, which she collided with Kuro's, bringing them to a small clash where they were both frozen in place. Thank Arceus that Kuro encased his tail in an iron glow and didn't use it regularly, otherwise, he would have gotten his tail sliced clean off. Kuro ended the clash by shooting off a dark pulse at Grace, hitting her in the in the center of her back and pushing Kuro away in the other direction. The two landed across from each other and locked eyes. I ran over to stand next to Kuro in case she tried a fast assault again. Instead of rushing us, she just curiously gazed towards us, sending a shiver down my spine.
"You know, you two are doing better than I thought, I was expecting this to be a one-sided slaughter, but it looks like I was wrong." She unsheathed one of her claws through the ice covering it and held it up in front of her face. "Hell, I might even have to try a little bit to take down the two of you." Grace put her forepaw back to the ground, and lifted the other one so we were looking at the center of the paw pad. Soon after, I saw a small sparkle in her paw, and before I could question what it was, I saw a thin needle shoot out from her, coming straight at me. I tilted my head to the side just enough to dodge it, but felt it graze me just like Grace's leaf blade earlier. However, this time, it left behind a numbing feeling on the surface of my skin, which I thought was a bit odd, but I soon made a connection. Before I could vocalize it, Grace shot out many more of the same needles, aimed at both Kuro and I. The two of us managed to barely dodge all of them, but we ended up farther apart then we would have liked. Grace saw this and then tried to rush in on us again, but before she could make contact with either of us, I had to give a warning out.
"Kuro! Stay clear of those needles, I think they're poisoned!" Kuro snapped his head to me for a second and nodded, making sure that I saw it.
"Awwwww… Why did you have to ruin the surprise?" Both of us looked back at Grace. "Luna helped me develop a way to attack with poison, and it's usually best used when my opponents don't know about it, but you went and ruined that." Grace hardened her eyes into a glare. "Not that it matters in the first place, It's pretty obvious that today will be your last day on this planet. I haven't been putting any effort into any of these attacks, and yet the two of you seem to have trouble keeping up." She's… She's not even trying..?
I shuddered at the thought of what Grace could really do if she was serious, but it looked like she kicked it up into second gear. I figured this out by how quickly she ended up in front of me. It seemed like I blinked, and then Grace was on top of me. She swung her head at me, aiming to slit my throat with a leaf blade. I managed to avoid getting my throat slit by moving my head down, but she landed a deep slash on the top of my head, prompting me to let out a small shriek. She then turned her body and kicked me in the side of the head, sending me flying a lot further than her previous hits did. The head pain I had earlier greatly worsened, and blood from the wound on my head clouded my vision. I fell on my side, making harsh contact with the stone road below me. Grace came over to me and looked down into my eyes.
"You should have realized you were supremely outclassed." She put a forepaw on my head. "Time for you to-" I felt the weight of Grace's body shift, and looked at the source. Kuro had latched his jaw onto the back of Grace's neck, attempting to drag her away, but barely piercing through her skin. Grace seemed to be trying to shake Kuro off, but was failing to do so. I saw a faint glow around Kuro's head, and he shut his eyes, and then managed to dig his teeth deeper into the back of her neck, drawing blood this time. Grace grunted in pain for the first time in this battle.
"Well aren't you a feisty one, Blacky?" Kuro had managed to drag Grace a small distance away from me, and I barely managed to stand back up on all fours. I took in heavy breaths, trying to steady myself. I watched as Grace continued to shake Kuro off of her. "I've had enough of you!" Grace shouted at Kuro, and then conducted a green dome around herself, expanding and launching Kuro off of her, sending him into a building close to us. The stones on the building cracked, and Kuro fell to the ground, but still stood on all four of his paws, although panting heavily. He glared at Grace, and she just smiled in return.
"Look at yourself, you can barely stand, are you still going to fight back? Or will you just submit and accept your death, along with hers." She pointed a forepaw towards me, also barely standing. Kuro just grit his teeth, and growled at Grace. He looked beyond angry, more than I've ever seen him.
"You… You've hurt so many pokemon as an admin of the Void, and you serve the evilest pokemon I know." Kuro strengthened his stance, and his body started to glow more intensely than earlier. His golden rings lit up along with the black aura surrounding his body. "You can threaten me and hurt me all you want…" Kuro put on an intense glare and crouched his body down. "But… STAY AWAY FROM NARU!" Kuro yelled, and a stream of black arrows came from the center of his body and rose to the air. They circled the air above Kuro's body, and then rapidly shot off towards Grace. Each arrow made contact with her, exploding and shaking the earth on impact. Grace let out a shriek, and flew backwards into another building, shattering whatever windows it had and nearly knocking it down. She fell to the ground and landed on her stomach, before looking back at the umbreon that stood fifty feet away from her. He was panting even more heavily than before, and he suddenly fell down onto his stomach, gritting his teeth and grunting in pain. His recoil did not go unnoticed by Grace, who stood back up on all fours, and shook off whatever pain she was feeling. She gave an anticipating grin.
Grace sped towards Kuro at lightning speed, reaching him faster than I could follow. She rose a paw above his head, and I saw Kuro's eyes widen. "I have you now!" A small needle shot out of Grace's paw, and pierced into the glowing ring on Kuro's forehead. As soon as the needle sunk into Kuro, he loudly gasped, and his eyelids lowered slightly. He began to hyperventilate, and he grunted in pain as his stamina was drained. Grace stood over him, and began to laugh hysterically.
"HA! I actually hit you with it! That poison won't kill you, but good luck getting back up anytime soon!" Grace taunted, while Kuro just layed on the ground, unable to do anything. I observed the scene from a distance, still barely able to move. I was standing, albeit unsteadily, but I wasn't too confident in my abilities to walk at this point. Regardless of that though, I kept on taking steps towards the laughing leafeon standing over my partner. I had a brief flashback of what Kuro had yelled a few moments ago, while releasing that large-scale attack that seemed to do some actual damage to Grace. He… put himself through a lot of pain to make sure that Grace got away from me. He pushed himself past what he should have been capable of, just because he wanted me to be safe. He did all of this… And I just sat there, barely able to move. How pathetic was that, letting your best friend get hurt beyond belief, just because you took a few hits? I want… to protect him… as much as he wants to protect me!
Grace seemed to be to occupied laughing at her own victory to notice me approaching, so I broke into a slow run after my body began to get used moving, despite the pain coursing through my body.
"Better yet, I didn't even kill you, so now I get to take not only you, but that glaceon too, and I get two new toys to play wi-" I formed a ball of ice in my mouth, and ended up about two feet away from Grace, while she was still completely unaware of my approach. I swung my neck back, and slammed the ball of ice directly into Grace's head, sending her flying into the air. I looked up and saw her look back at me with a glare. Before she could recover, I shot off an ice beam, connecting directly with her chest. The super-effective attack made her moan in pain, before falling to the ground, but managing to land on all fours. There was now a large chunk of ice on her chest, going along with the ice wrapped around her paw. Grace glared at me harshly.
"What's the point of this struggle? You're still dead, no matter what." I spat out a small amount of blood from my mouth, coming from Grace's kicks earlier.
"Kuro… He protected me no matter what… So I'm doing the same for him!" I yelled out to her. My body felt exhausted, but that didn't matter, I was ready to do whatever was necessary to stand my ground.
"You were going to get out of here alive, but now, I don't have the patience!" Grace looked as if she was about to lunge at me, but right as she took her first step, her eyes widened, and she dropped all of the weight in one of her forepaws. She took in a few heavy breaths, and I was clueless as to the reason why. Something pulled my attention away from Grace though. It was a soft feeling brushing up against the side of my body, a feeling that I've felt before. I turned my head to the side, and saw Kuro shakily standing on his four paws, but he was leaning up against me for extra support. It helped me stay standing as well, but I wasn't exactly concerned about that right now. I was much more concerned with what exactly was happening to Grace right now.
"Y...You…" Grace looked up into Kuro's eyes and smirked. "Blacky… You crafty little umbreon…" Kuro just kept on taking heavy breaths, and it looked like he was struggling to stay conscious. "I suppose this is what the Assassin meant when he told me to be careful… Not of your strength, but of your will." Grace coughed a few times, and the tips of the leaves located all over her body began to change color. They changed from the normal green color into a deep purple. Is she… poisoned..?
The realization hit me like a truck. I forgot about Kuro's ability, one that lets him transfer certain injuries or attacks he sustained back to his enemy, including a debilitating poison. Grace was still standing in front of us, down a forepaw, smirking at herself for being careless.
"But still… How exactly can you stand..? My poison… it should have knocked you out at least." I could tell that Grace's own poison was beginning to affect her severely. It wasn't only affecting her ability to stand, but her speech as well.
"You… don't know… how I lived my life until recently." Kuro responded, also having a hard time forming words. "I spent a lot of time surviving… on my own… including figuring out what plants and berries… were poisonous or not… through trial and error." Kuro began breathing heavily again, his consciousness seeming to fade out more and more by the second. "I… would bet a lot… on my body being more… resistant to poison… than yours…" Kuro coughed.
Grace just kept her smirk, almost as if she didn't know what to do now. Her muscles seemed to tense up, and she jumped onto one of the broken windows of one of the multi-colored buildings that our battle took place around. She then swiftly hopped from that building to the blue one across from it, and back to the first one again, until she reached the roof. She peered over the roof, smiling at the two of us, barely able to stand, before turning away and walking further onto the roof, out of our sight.
As soon as Grace was out of sight, Kuro collapsed to the ground again, still breathing heavily, but with his eyes closed. I was about to call out to him, I wanted to make sure he was okay, but I felt my weight drop to the ground as well, the upper half of my body falling right beside Kuro's. A few moments later, my vision went black.
Hello Readers!
Another chapter done at the brink of midnight… I need to improve my sleeping schedule so I don't waste every bit of my money on coffee in the morning. However, I think it's worth it to keep on typing this story!
I also want to mention, I now have an actual beta to look over my work, so I won't be using my faulty proofreading skills to check these chapters before they go up, which will be a great improvement to the story in the future! (Thanks to 8-BitUmbreon for reading over what I write before it goes to the site!) [You're welcome!]
Finally, thank all of you who actively send me reviews, kind PMs, criticism, etc. I love every bit of it and I haven't missed reading one yet!
See You Next Chapter!