Naru
My heart pounded as I hid behind a building that had been knocked down some time ago. It looked like it was made up of bricks, and since it was on the ground, it was more of a wall rather than a building. I was on one far end of it, and Kage was on the other. In front of us, there was another building, but this one was colored white and still standing. Vero was on top of said building, most likely waiting near the center of the roof in order to not get spotted. All of us are in the position we need to be, now we just need to wait. So far everything went okay, from the trip here, to setting up in this area, which was a good thing to be sure, but my excitement from earlier slowly transformed into nervousness as soon as soon as Kuro left to try and lure the group we needed to make leave this town over here. I mean, there was four of them, and one of him, so I was inclined to be worried, right? I'm not overthinking things, right?
It hasn't even been that long since we arrived, but I couldn't help but think up every possible thing that could possibly screw this up. Of course, I had no way to prevent any of this now, but on our way here, we pretty much went over what would be difficult, and what would be easy. The latter wasn't a very long list, but we salvaged what we could get. Namely, setting up our positions was fairly simple, all we needed to do was find a good spot and take cover. That was the easy part, the hard part was… well… everything else.
None of us even knew the species of the pokemon we were going to have to go up against. No, actually, Kai knew their species, but didn't want to tell us because that's wasn't a luxury that we're going to have in any mission we go on, or at least, not many of them. Plus, that was just another skill of ours he needed to evaluate; how we react to whatever pokemon decide to come at us.
Right now, Kai was standing on a much taller building than the rest a decent distance from us, but within his eyesight. I'm pretty sure whatever building he was on had to be a skyscraper of some kind before this town was abandoned. It was double the size of any other ones we found. At least, any other ones that were still standing. I looked behind where Kage and I were standing, and there was a broken down wooden structure blocking what used to be a road. More accurately, it was multiple wooden structures, because there was no way that one building had enough debris to cover an entire road and also stretch so far into the air. On the other side of us, there was a decent stretch of the same road, but it had two turns at the end of it, one going left, the other going right. On both sides of the road, there were plenty of barely standing buildings made out of bricks, or some kind of material I didn't know. It felt like stone, but I knew it wasn't. It didn't really matter though, just sparked my curiosity. I needed some kind of distraction…
I took a deep breath, calming myself down. It's fine… everything will go according to plan, and we'll successfully complete this mission. I mean, come on Naru! We're not even at risk of death here, and you're acting like we're sieging the Void, get yourself together! I shook my head and re-focused on peeking around the cover I was behind and looking at the roads that split at the end. That's where Kuro is going to come from, and I'm sure he'll get here perfectly intact. No need to worry… no need to worry…
My body jumped when I saw a figure walk around the corner of the roads that split apart. I was about to be ecstatic, happy that Kuro completed his part of the mission, but that quickly vanished when I saw that the pokemon walking down this road was not an umbreon, they were much larger, and didn't have black fur, but a mineral-type silver body. A golisiopod, nothing like an umbreon. I cast Kage a glance, and he responded with a look of confusion, but the two of us still stared at the large bug walking closer and closer to where we were hiding. They didn't seem to notice us, but they kept walking forward, until they made it to what was almost the exact center of where Kage, Vero and I were planning our ambush. I tried suppress my raising worry of who this could be. I also numbed my mind completely, because if I didn't certain possibilities would pop into my head, which would just make me worry more and more. As the golisiopod stood still in the center of all three of us, they just looked forward, seemingly at nothing. After a couple of seconds of heavy silence, I heard them clear their throat.
"Alright, I know that umbreon wasn't alone, so why don't you show yourselves? You're far from the first pokemon to take refuge in this exact spot, so why don't you just save me the trouble of bringing you all out?" Despite talking loudly, the voice that came off of this golisiopod was calm, like he didn't have a worry in the world. I only thought about this for a second though, because processing what he said effectively reinvigorated my mind. Wait, so he found Kuro? And Kuro isn't here? Does that mean…
"If none of you want to come out, I'll have to introduce myself to you directly." The voice coming from the mouth of the golisopod still sounded calm and collected. Kage and I cast each other a nervous glance, like we were considering whether actually coming out of hiding was a good idea or not. The two of us wordlessly decided to stay back, hoping that Vero made the same decision. We couldn't directly communicate with her, so we just needed to have faith right now. He could be bluffing… right? We haven't made a sound, so everything he's saying is nothing more than a ploy, right? A few moments of absolute silence passed. If I focused hard enough, I could probably hear my own heartbeat in this atmosphere. No wind blew over the area, no steps were taken, just suffocating silence passed. That is, until I heard a light sigh.
"Okay then… I hope you like meeting new pokemon." I heard more footsteps, this time approaching the area we chose to locate our ambush. After about fifteen steps were taken, they stopped, and I tensed up. "Hopefully I can make a good first impression…" He's bluffing… right?
The quiet wasteland we all hid in was interrupted, and replaced by the sound of a loud crash, and the crushing of stone. From the empty space in between Kage and I, the wall had been broken through, and the golisopod that spoke with such a calm demeanor was now standing right in front of me. He reached both of his arms out on either side of him, coming after Kage and I with impressive speed. I barely ducked under his hand, but because of Kage's larger stature, he couldn't do the same, and took a head-on collision from the now attacking pokemon. Kage slide across the ground a decent distance, but had braced himself before the impact, so he took less damage than he could've. The golisopod look back and forth at the two of us, smiling.
"Told you I know you were there. You think this area has been ignored by all of our other challengers? You're too predictable." He formed a ball of water in both of his hands and fired one off at Kage and I, who were still on either side of him. I canceled his attack out by shooting off an ice shard, and Kage launched a bolt of electricity through the one aimed at him. The bolt then connected with the golisopod, but even as it engulfed his entire body, he barely flinched. Granted, Kage did have to shoot that off without much of a charge, but it still should have done something, more than what the result was.
He looked as if he was about to turn and rush at Kage, judging by his mannerisms, so I quickly sent a sheet of ice along the ground, which thinly froze the golisopod's foot. Only one of them, but I was able to throw him off balance, as well as stop him from rushing Kage. I decided to keep my distance and started to back up while readying myself to shoot off an ice beam in order to stop him from moving, but he broke out of the ice that was surrounding his foot and then ran at me, rather than Kage. He slammed his left arm into me, which made me fly back into the middle of the road we were hiding out in front of. His diamond-like body slamming into me caused my body to ache, and the impact with the ground intensified that. Ignoring the pain, I flipped my body over and stood back up on all fours, shaking off the impact. The golisopod didn't push after me, nor Kage, he just stood still with the same smile on his face.
"You know, if you battle as predictably as that, you won't get too far with me." Kage and I both stood still, just staring at him as he spoke. Neither of us were prepared for this battle, it heavily deviated from our initial plan, and really caught us off-guard. Because of this, Kage and I didn't know what to do, and we were both trying to think of something on the spot. This is not my area of expertise…
"I'm sorry, did I get you that badly? Just standing there isn't going to do anything. You need to act, otherwise no progress will come out of this." Neither Kage nor I moved, but it wasn't because we weren't thinking straight anymore, that was a moment of weakness and nothing more. Now we had something to wait for. As soon as the opportunity presented itself, we'd be back into a proper state of mind. I regretfully pushed my worrying thoughts about Kuro to the side and waited for our opportunity. Any second now…
"Guess I was wrong to think all of you would provide a challenge. Maybe the umbreon was just a fluke too." I flinched at the mention of Kuro, but didn't lose my focus, because I was about to need it. The golisopod reared back one of his hands, and started to form another ball of water, but he didn't finish it. Before the entirety of the attack could take shape, his arm was dragged down to the ground by a mass of small black streams of matter. Next, his other arm was grabbed, and was subsequently dragged down with the first one. The golisopod was now being held in place, and a zoroark dropped from the sky behind him to do so. He turned his head back, to try and catch a glimpse of what exactly had just happened to him, but he couldn't quite see Vero smirking behind him.
"Still think we're predictable?" I could tell Vero was struggling to hold him in place, so I knew it was time to act, and it looked like Kage did too. I used the opportunity to run up in front of the golisopod, and shot off a shadow ball at point blank range right in his midsection. It looked like his body tensed from the attack, but he didn't let out any sort of pained noise, he just chuckled. He then managed to break Vero's hold, and rose his arms above his head, swinging Vero into the air due to her connection to him with her tendrils. She quickly detached them, flying off into the air, heading straight at one of the larger brick buildings. I worried about her for a split second, but she gracefully put her feet to the wall of the structure, and then pushed off of it towards the ground, flipping forward to land on her hands, and then flipping again to stand normally. She's so acrobatic…
I jumped backwards to create some distance between the golisopod and I, landing a few feet in front of Vero. Our opponent looked as if he was about to charge at us, but instead, he only took one step before widening his eyes and twitching uncontrollably. The sounds of shocks and sparks filled the air, and a light stream of electricity connected the golisopod and Kage. The blast was constant, but it didn't seem to be hurting him at all, just keeping him still again. Kage had his eyes locked on the back of the golisopod, as if thinking that he forgot about the luxray not too far behind him.
"He's stuck there! Go in for more attacks!" Kage yelled, keeping his focus on holding our opposition down. Vero rushed in front of me and drew out two large, translucent claws that engulfed her normal ones. The dark-shaded weapons looked intimidating and dangerous, but I think that's what she was going for when she learned how to do that. She crossed them in front of her and made it to the golsiopod, but his expression didn't look panicked at all. Vero was about to slash her claws across the golsiopod's chest, which wouldn't be lethal, she knew how to hold herself back, but it would hurt. Right as she was about to release her attack, our opponent smirked.
He managed to break free of the electric prison he was stuck in and then forced both of his hands over Vero's claws, blocking her out completely. He tightened his grip on her, to which she flinched. He then brought her body up and threw it in the other direction of me, colliding her and Kage together. The two rolled over each other a little bit before both being on the ground, Vero hanging over Kage's back. He then turned back to me.
"Maybe I passed judgement a little bit too early." He ran towards me, and his hands began to glow. I crouched down and readied myself. He took four swipes at me, and I managed to duck or strafe around all of them. Finally, he tried to slam me into the ground, but I sidestepped the attack, and got behind him. I lept onto his back, which felt harder than metal. Like all other golisopods, the arms connecting his hands and his body were pretty thin, and weren't nearly as dense as the rest of his body. At least, I think so. Using the possibly false information I had, I let out a frigid breath, and bit down on the center of his right arm. Sure enough, my fangs were able to penetrate his biology. I blew out a lot more cold air, beginning to encase his arm in ice. I managed to freeze over about half of his arm, but he forcefully swung his body downward, which threw me off of him. I landed on my paws and then turned around to look at him again, and he had his non-frozen arm out, the palm of his hand, and two massive claws were pointed directly at me. His hand began to glow with a light similar to the armored parts of his body, and I shivered. A long, bright beam of silver shot out from the hand, closing in rapidly. I barely managed to duck under it by dropping to my stomach, but the beam skimmed the top of my crown, right between both of my ears. It left behind a slight burning sensation, and I sighed in relief. That could have been reeeaaallllyyyy bad.
(*Note: I know golisopod can't normally learn flash cannon, but let's ignore this little detail. I mean, it's body is harder than diamond, I think flash cannon is a reasonable move for it to use.)
I got back up on all fours and crouched down again. The golisopod took his non-frozen arm and battered it against the frozen one, breaking the ice off of it in the process. So much for that… He began to gaze at me curiously.
"The way you move reminds me of the umbreon." I flinched once again at the mention of Kuro. I still had the worrying thought of what happened to him stuck in the back of my head, and him bringing it up multiple times wasn't helping my ability to suppress it.
"Where is he?" I asked, not changing my stance. I admit, now probably wasn't the best time to be asking questions, but I needed some sort of assurance if I was going to focus on the battle at hand. Plus, this would give Kage and Vero all the time they needed to get organized again.
"Oh? Worried?" He smirked and I felt a little embarrassed. "He's dealing with my allies. Going by first impressions, I doubt that they managed to take him down yet, but he's in a three on one situation, so I wouldn't hold my breath." But he's not directly fighting them… He just needs to make it back here. "And by the way, I know that he's going to try and regroup with all of you here, but let it be known that the three he's up against aren't too easy to escape from. They may fall a little bit short in a one on one confrontation, but their most notable skill is pursuit." So Kuro is probably still running away from them…
"You know, he's going to make it back here perfectly fine. After that, everything will be even. Just you wait." I taunted. Honestly, at this point, I wanted to stall for time. Regardless of numbers, we'd have a better chance if Kuro was here with us. Plus, the thought of taking a flash cannon from this guy wasn't really… pleasant.
"You're underestimating my allies. They have entrapped plenty of pokemon here in the past, one more isn't going to be a challenge." I shook my head.
"You're underestimating our friend. We've gotten out of plenty of disadvantageous positions with him in the past, what's one more?" I retorted. I had full confidence in Kuro's ability to make it back here in one piece. Even if he's running from three other pokemon, I know he can figure something out.
"Oh really? Well, why don't we just wait and see how this one-" A loud crash was heard from the other side of one of the buildings. Both the golisopod and I, as well as Vero and Kage directed their attention to the large brick building that was to our left. None of us moved, intrigued by the sound. I let a smile creep onto my face. I know who that has to be.
"There's no way they let him get this far away, they've never let that happen." The golisopod was seemingly talking to himself. After looking off into the distance in in the same spot for a bit, he smiled to himself and chuckled. "Looks like this may get more interesting than I thought." He turned back to me and rose both of his hands up above his head. "Let's continue. Like you said, your friend may be joining us in a little bit." I crouched back down and smiled.
"Told you so." My opponent ran at me again, creating more spheres of water in his hands. He shot one off at me and I jumped over it before freezing the ground under me with an ice beam. I created a stretch of about ten feet of ice on the ground, right below me. I used the momentum from my jump to swiftly slide across the ice, giving me enough speed to completely leap over the golisopod. I shot off another shadow ball at his back as I was flying over him, which connected, but had no real power behind it. It's purpose was mainly to send me further back in the air, creating as much distance between us as possible. Once I landed, he turned around and looked at me, this time with a bit of annoyance in his eyes.
"Constantly running away isn't going to get you anywhere." He began to approach me again, breaking the ice that I made by stepping on it. I smiled as he approached. Forgetting about something?
Before he could get close to me, I watched as he slid on the ground without lifting his feet. It wasn't from excess ice, it was from a dark pulse hitting his back, pushing him forward. As he was sliding across the ground, he turned around to look for the source of the attack, which was Vero, but instead, he found Kage right in front of him. His body was covered in electricity, which was evident by the rampant amount of sparks coming from the luxray.
"This one will hurt a lot more!" Kage rammed into the center of the golisopod's body, knocking him over onto his back as he slid across the light dirt on the ground. Kage and Vero were standing on the other side of the grounded pokemon, and they exchanged a nod with me, all three of us smiling.
The golisopod stood back up, sparks still coming off of his body occasionally. He shook his head and then smiled, although it wasn't the same kind of smirk he had on all of the other times. It was a lot bigger, and he looked excited. This was further confirmed when he began to laugh much more strongly than the chuckles he released earlier.
"I really took you for granted! I can't keep track of all three of you, especially when you were enough to keep me occupied for a decent bit of time!" He rose one of his hands and pointed it at me. "And you, I thought your attacks would do nothing after the first one, but you certainly proved me wrong!" Is he talking about Kage's attacks? "Finally, the slippery zoroark that finds any way possible to disrupt me. Despite failing to do any real damage, you've made sure that I don't have an opening to hit one of your friends twice now! You three are actually challenging me!" The golisopod laughed again. I couldn't tell if it was an excited laugh, or an amused one, but he was laughing all the same. At first, I just thought he was enjoying himself, which he was, but then I came to a realization that worried me. He just took that massive hit from Kage… and he's laughing?
"Now, before I get serious with you," his laughing calmed down and he looked back to where the noise we heard earlier was. "I think we have some company." I turned my head to where the sound we heard earlier came from, which was the other side of a sturdy building. I didn't hear much out of the ordinary, so I wondered why the golisopod implied that someone was there. Since that loud crash, there hasn't been anything new, so why is he focusing on it? None of us made a move, obviously interested in what the golisopod meant, despite the fact that we might have been able to take him off-guard if we wanted to. After a few silent moments, I heard various sounds coming from the area, but they were still quiet to me. As time slowly progressed, the noises began to get louder and louder, eventually sounding like it was on top of us. Wait…
I turned my body to the opposite side of the road that the structure that had our attention was on, running over to it. I looked up at the roof of the building that the noises were previously coming from the other side of. Near the very top, I saw a crobat flying speedily around the perimeter of the roof, swiping over it every now and then, like they were trying to hit something. I tilted my head at the sight, but then heard the sound of running on the dirt roads that were so common in this place. When I looked for the source, I saw a lurantis sprinting down the split part of the road that the golisopod originally came from. They looked reasonably fast, but stopped on a dime when they laid their eyes on our group. They had a confused gaze present on their face, which was then imitated by a poliwrath that turned the corner a few moments after the lurantis. Both of them frantically looked at each of the pokemon in group in front of them, from me, to the golisopod, to Kage and to Vero. They looked very confused. Are those the pokemon that were chasing Kuro? If they are, then where is-
I snapped my head to a loud sound that came from the building all of us were just intrigued by, and there was a huge cloud of dirt over the ground now. Immediately after the cloud formed, the crobat from earlier shot out of the left side of it. Out of the right side, Kuro jumped out of it. There you are! I let my body revel in a feeling of excitement, but I didn't let it distract me from what was happening. The crobat flew at Kuro with impressive speed, and tried to spit an orb of poison out at him. Kuro ran past it and slid under the crobat, who wasn't too far off of the ground. He shot off a shadow ball, hitting the crobat and sending them back a little bit, but not making them flinch otherwise. I had a better view of Kuro now, and the first thing I noticed was a visible red line down the side of his face, going down most of his cheek. He was also breathing heavily. Slowly, but heavily, which was to be expected. He broke his eye contact with the crobat for a second to glance at me and the others, before giving a small smile and nodding.
He didn't say anything, but he didn't need to. All of us knew what it meant now that we were all together. Kuro turned his eyes back to the crobat, who never seemed to look away in the first place. I turned my body to look at the two pokemon standing where the road split, a poliwrath and lurantis. Kage and Vero looked at the golisopod we had just been battling, and took their stances. Finally, we're on par with our plan. I smiled to myself, and my previous nervousness transformed back into excitement. I crouched down and looked at who my two opponents would be for now. The lurantis pointed their blades at me and the poliwrath rose their fists. I'm… ready.
A few seconds passed, but they felt like hours of silence. Each of us was staring down someone we were about to battle, or in my case, two others I was about to battle. After the thick atmosphere settled, my two opponents rushed at me, the lurantis being decidedly faster than the poliwrath.
Once they got close enough to me, the lurantis tried slashing my body with their left blade, which I barely reacted to due to the speed of the attack. I constructed an ice shard in my maw and slammed it into the side of the lurantis' body, which made them gasp and jump back while holding the spot I hit. Next, the poliwrath came after me, but I jumped back and hit the ground in front of me with a shadow ball, kicking up a bunch of dirt and making it so the poliwrath couldn't get close to me yet. I have absolutely nothing I can hit them hard with, I need to think of a better way to deal with them.
I didn't have too much time before the lurantis recovered and tried to push me again. This time, they slowed down a bit, as if considering a better way to attack me without risking getting hit again. The lurantis smiled after a few seconds and then took a few steps back again, without fully coming after me, which I was confused about due to the gusto they rushed me with the first time. The poliwrath stepped in front of her from behind the dirt cloud I made, and rose his fists, but didn't approach me. He just stood in front of the lurantis, who was still with her eyes closed. What are they doing? How do I approach this?
I didn't try anything risky, because I didn't know what they were up to, so I just stood still, preparing myself for anything that could happen. A long time of sitting still and listening to the sounds of battling behind me passed, and the two in front of me still hadn't moved, but they both looked amused, like they were glad that I hadn't done anything to pressure them yet. I was still in a bit of a stupor, but I was getting close to snapping out of it and trying to attack. Sadly, before I started to do that, I was interrupted, albeit not intentionally.
The poliwrath and lurantis in front of me both put on a surprised expression, and then jumped backwards, further down the road. This confused me, but not for long, as the crobat from earlier flew through the air right in front of me and crashed into the ground in between me and the two pokemon I was battling. I looked down at the crobat, who was groaning on the ground, but picked themselves up by flapping their wings rapidly and then hovering back into the air. The crobat went to their two other allies and tried speaking to them, but none of them took their eyes off of me, so I couldn't catch them off-guard. I stayed crouched, ready for any surprise attack they might pull. Kuro soon walked up and stood next to me, as the one he was battling had just been sent over here. I glanced at Kuro with the corner of my eye, seeing the wound he had on the side of his face once more. It looked minor, but I still worried that it might have been bothering him. He was still breathing heavier than normal, probably because he needed to move around a ton to make his way here with these three on his tail. He's putting in a lot of effort…
"Are you holding up okay, Naru?" Kuro asked me calmly. Despite him obviously taking damage while he was leading these three here, and being winded, he spoke with complete control over his emotions. He wasn't nervous at all, despite everything he just had to do, and the fact that the task wasn't even done yet. Or… at least… he's acting calm.
"I'm doing good, what about you?" We both turned and briefly locked eyes. "Is that injury on your face bad at all? And can you keep going, even though you just did a ton of running around?" I concerningly asked. I guess… I really am worried about him… Kuro smiled at me.
"This is nothing. I can keep it up until the end, count on it." I smiled back at him because of his response. He sounded so… confident. He turned his head back to the three pokemon conversing in front of us, and they locked eyes with us. "The lurantis is really quick on the ground, the crobat will keep trying to circle you in the air, and avoid getting hit by that poliwrath at all costs." I nodded as Kuro spoke, regardless if he could see me or not.
"Got it." I responded. "How are we going to attack them? They seem like they're up to something." Kuro stayed silent for a second or two.
"I say we wait and see what they do first, then find a way to counteract it. I think going after them now is a lot more risky than waiting and reacting." I nodded my head, although I was unsure if Kuro could see it or not. I continued staring down the three pokemon still conversing in front of us, listening to the sounds of battle from behind. I hope Vero and Kage are doing okay.
Finally, after a minute or two of no conflict, the group in front of us separated , the poliwrath standing beside the lurantis, and the crobat hovering above them. I crouched down as I did before, this time with Kuro next to me, doing the same. Instead of attacking at us though, the lurantis started to chuckle.
"I appreciate you waiting on us. It wouldn't be as fun otherwise." The lurantis rose both of her blades into the air, and they enveloped in a bright yellow light, just as the sun looks when you gaze upon it from the planet. It looked as if the weapons at the end of her arms grew in length, and she giddily smiled. "Too bad it's not sunny today, otherwise I would have been able to do this on the fly, but better late than never!" She excitedly ran in front of the poliwrath, who was taken off-guard by the change in position. "Like I said before, I'm eager to beat someone up, so come on!" She's an interesting character…
"Always so violent, Dice." The poliwrath said with a sigh. He stepped up and stood beside her, and the crobat took to the sky, almost like they were observing. I kept what Kuro just told me in the back of my mind and didn't break my stare from our opponents. The crobat likes to circle and strike from above… The lurantis is going to be all over the place on the ground… And avoid the poliwrath whenever possible.
The lurantis shot off a green orb that rocketed towards Kuro and I, hitting the ground in between us, leaving almost no time to react. Both of us were sent a little ways away from our original position, and the poliwrath was quickly coming after me. So much for avoiding him… He launched a stream of water at me, which I sidestepped and shot back an ice beam. He took the attack head on, but just pushed through it and came closer to me, but with an obvious change in his expression. He swung at me a few times, faster than I was anticipating. I didn't get directly hit by any of them, but a few attacks skimmed me, making me uncomfortable with the situation. I jumped back, creating some distance between us, and then filled my paws with a frigid sensation much colder than the air around us. I then closed the range I just contrived, dodging another projectile shot off towards me. I jumped up, placing one of my forepaws on the poliwrath's shoulder, partially freezing it in the process. Before I could disable him any more, he slammed his other arm into me, which promptly knocked me off. It also hurt quite a bit, especially considering that he only hit me with his arm. I slid across the ground and regained my balance, taking in a breath and re-focusing.
I noticed Kuro going back and forth with the lurantis out of the corner of my eye, but I tried to not let it distract me, despite the glowing blades she had now looking very painful. I held an ice shard in my mouth, and then ran towards the poliwrath. It's pretty clear that I'm not going to be able to avoid him, so may as well go head on! I dodged another orb of water that was shot off at me, but I didn't notice a second one coming from the same direction, which promptly collided with me, spinning my body around. I heard the poliwrath following up, so I quickly spun back around and launched the ice shard from my jaw, hitting him in the stomach. I followed up by hitting him with a shadow ball, which sent him back a few feet, but didn't knock him over. I took the opportunity to stay back and make sure I didn't rush in irrationally.
"I have to admit, you hurt a lot more than the umbreon." The poliwrath got back into his intial fighting stance. "But you'll still need to do better!" I wish I had something that could really damage him… I still didn't rush at the poliwrath, I wasn't sure what I was going to do if I did. I didn't have a plan, and I couldn't think of one at the moment. What can I do to-
My body ended up being launched in the direction of the poliwrath without my consent. I felt a heavy impact from behind me, launching me at my opponent. It didn't take too much thought to know what the cause was. I was helpless while flying through the air, not having the mental state to conjure up an attack to stop what was about to happen. The poliwrath slammed his fist into my midsection, and I was instantly out of breath. I felt like I had been slammed with metal wall, not a pokemon's hand. My collision with the hard, dirt ground didn't help either. I slid down the road, which changed the color of a bunch of my fur from white to dark orange really quickly. I laid down on the ground for a few seconds, breathing in short, heavy gulps of air. That punch rivaled what I felt from Grace's first attack. I coughed, irritating my lungs for a little bit, before pushing myself off of the ground. Oww… Kuro wasn't kidding… I took my last huge breath before I managed to recover from the blow. The crobat… he's a problem.
I glanced upward and saw the crobat still very high in the sky, observing both Kuro and I. It looked like he just waited up there for an opportunity, and then created one for the other pokemon down here. He didn't do much actual fighting, but he still played a vital role between the three of them. I looked back to my main opponent, who was in a fighting stance, but hadn't come after me yet. Behind him, I saw Kuro and the lurantis dancing circles around the road. They were both moving quick, either being on the defensive from the other's attack, or viciously going after them. Even further behind them, Kage and Vero seemed to be holding the golisopod at bay. The two of them had an evident amount of scratches all over them, while the golisopod's armored body looked as slick as ever. In all honesty, this wasn't looking good. Kuro and I need to clean up here and then go help them… But I can barely do anything to this poliwrath… so how can I disable him?
"Alright, how about we keep on keepin' on?" The poliwrath took a step back and revved up his fists, like he was going to charge at me again. I took one more deep breath. I'm not going to let him hit me again, I might not be able to take another attack like that. As soon as we were about to charge each other, my battle was interrupted again, albeit, unintentionally again.
The lurantis had slid in between the two of us, with Kuro chasing her right after. She swung one of her glowing blades at Kuro, but he slid under it, and then slid one of his tendrils along the ground to trip her. As she was falling to the ground, Kuro kicked her back by extending his hind legs, making her faceplant on the ground in front of him. Now, I had a clear view of the poliwrath again, but his eyes had an unimpressed stare, and it looked like he sighed.
"Hey, Dice! Watch where you fight!" He shouted out. The lurantis stood up off of the ground and looked at him with a glare.
"Not my fault you still haven't won." She pointed a blade at him. "If you don't want me to distract you, then finish your fight already!"
"You haven't finished your opponent off either! Don't get at me for being slow!"
"Well I'm not complaining about it! So you shouldn't either!"
The poliwrath and lurantis began to bicker among themselves, with them walking towards each other until they were a few inches apart, still shouting insults and taunts at one another. I just stood back and stared at them, unsure what I should do. Is now the time to attack, or… I looked at Kuro, who was doing the same thing as me, just standing still and staring. He turned his head to me, and it was evident that neither of us really knew what to do. He walked over to me and we stood next to one another, just staring at who our opponents should be.
"Umm… What now? I asked Kuro, and he sighed.
"I don't know. They did this at least three other times while they were chasing me, and I just kept running. They may be a team, but they have a lot of discord." Kuro and I just kept staring at the argument in front of us. I glanced upwards to see how the crobat was reacting to all of this, and he was just frantically flying around above them, looking as if he didn't have the confidence to try and break them up.
"How long did they stay like this when they were trying to catch you?" I wondered how long we should just let this happen.
"I… don't know. They always found a way to catch back up to me, but I didn't stick around to see them argue." I decided to look behind the two bickering pokemon and saw Kage and Vero, still holding out against the golisopod. It looked like he was getting pushed back, which was a good sign. Maybe they have it handled over there…
When I looked back at Kuro and I's original opponents, they had stopped shouting, and just glared at each other. Both of them made a 'hmph' sound and turned back to us. They rose their fists and blades at us respectively, and looked like they were ready to continue. I wanted to give Kuro a heads-up, but the lurantis had already rushed forward and was closing in fast. Kuro went in front of me and started to clash his tendrils with her glowing blades. I flinched at the contact at first, because I thought that she was going to slice his tendrils clean off, but the two weapons clashed, creating a struggle of power, but not a cut. They must be blunt…
While the two were in that struggle, the poliwrath had run around and came towards me once more. He got close to me, about ten feet away, and I crouched down, ready for his attack. I made my paws freeze the ground under me, and he was next. However, right as he was getting within attacking range of me, he stopped moving, and reared back his hand. The gesture confused me, but only for a second. As soon as I realized what was happening, I turned around completely, and slammed the crobat rushing me down to the ground, holding my paw over him. He groaned on the ground, and I froze his wings over so he couldn't fly, or even get up. After that, I shoved him away with a headbutt, and went to turn back around to face the poliwrath. However, when I did, he was about a foot away from me, in the process of swinging his fist. I just barely managed to avoid his strike, but I lost my balance and stumbled on the ground. He brought his other fist around to hit me, and I closed my eyes and braced myself, but the attack never came. Instead, the poliwrath yelped, and was sent over me, and past the crobat on the ground.
I opened my eyes, turning to see both the crobat and the poliwrath on the ground now. What happened? I turned to look at Kuro, who was still in a struggle with the lurantis, but this time, his body had a very dim, ominous glow. It wasn't the first time I saw his body glow like that, it happened when we were up against Grace too. Specifically, when he shouted, and then launched a barrage of dark streams, looking like arrows. Did he just do the same thing again..? I observed Kuro's position closely, and he was struggling against the blades of the lurantis more than he was initially, like she was gaining progress over him, suggesting that he was distracted. My eyes widened while looking at the struggle between the two. So he was paying attention to my fight while he was in his own… and he helped me, even though it's making everything harder for him. My body began to heat up, but the sensation was ripped away from me when Kuro's tendrils got knocked away, and the lurantis swung one of her blades, slamming it right onto the wound Kuro had on his face.
"K-Kuro!" I shouted out on instinct, and began to run over to where he landed after getting blown away by the attack. However, I stopped when I was halfway there, as Kuro got up, still standing strongly, despite the hit he just sustained. His breathing was still weighty, like before, but other than that, he didn't seem affected. The wound on his face began to leak blood though, obviously irritated by the impact of the lurantis' attack. He crouched back down into his stance, and waited for her to rush him, just as she did so many times already. However, she never did, instead, her shining blades dulled out, turning back into the normal scythes at the end of her arms. Her body was shuddering, which confused me. She looked at Kuro as if she was suddenly terrified of him.
"Y-You! Why are you b-bleeding like that!?" She stuttered. Kuro tilted his head, looking confused. I was also not getting the memo.
"What? You're the one who made me bleed, why are you asking me?" Kuro responded, sounding just as confused as he looked.
"T-Then I can't battle anymore. Soar is o-out of commission too, r-right? I saw him get frozen. I-I'm a spectator now, s-so don't come near me!" The lurantis ran past me, and towards her two allies. It looked like the poliwrath was still recovering, but the crobat was just laying on the ground, unable to do anything with frozen wings. She ran to her downed ally and picked him up in between her blades, before running back, going towards Kage and Vero's fight, rather than this one. Is she… Hemophobic..?
Kuro looked at me with his head slanted to the side, and I just shook my head, as if telling him not to question it. I looked back at the poliwrath, who was back on his feet. He sighed loudly, before returning to his fighting stance. I crouched down as well, but was still at a loss as to how exactly I was going to beat him. I didn't have any way to do any real damage, and I didn't think Kuro did either, barring the attack he just used, which I didn't want him to do anymore. I took note that he'd had his tendrils out this whole time, and he just used the attack he used on Grace. His recoil was going to be something fierce once he finally put away his tendrils, and I didn't want to make it any worse.
"Naru! Run towards me and freeze your crown!" I turned my head back to Kuro, who had just shouted. Before questioning him, I turned around and sprinted towards Kuro, and not at the poliwrath. I heard him begin to run behind me, obviously wanting to stop whatever Kuro had in mind, which I was also ignorant to. I froze the crown atop my forehead, and was getting really close to Kuro. RIght as I was about to slow down and stop, he lunged towards me, almost directly aligning us and recreating the day we met. As we were side by side, I felt one of Kuro's tendrils wrap around me gently, but with a grip.
"Sorry I didn't warn you about this." Kuro quickly said, before spinning his body around and me along with it. He let go of me with his tendril, and I flew at the poliwrath fast enough for the wind to make my eyes water. I slammed my frozen crown into the upper body of the poliwrath, who had a surprised expression, which contorted into one of pain. He flew back faster than I did, almost making it all the way to the split at the end of the road. I hit the ground with the side of my body and rolled up onto my paws. I took a moment to process what exactly just happened. Did Kuro just… use me as a projectile?
I walked up to the poliwrath that I had just smashed my frozen forehead into, and once I reached him, he was unconscious on the ground. I stared at the passed-out pokemon in awe, just thinking about how I couldn't do much for damage… unless I was flung at the enemy. I'm… surprised that worked. Kuro walked up next to me a moment later and inferred that the poliwrath was indeed, unconscious. After this thought settled in his mind, he turned to me and bowed his head down.
"S-Sorry for that! For some reason, I just had a feeling that something like that would work, I didn't mean to catch you off-guard or surprise you in any way!" Kuro spoke really quickly with his head down, looking worried about what I thought of the situation. It was clear that he didn't want me to get hurt from that in any way, and that he didn't want to make such a move without letting me know first. But most of that kind of flew past my mind, I was more focused on the way Kuro was apologizing like it was the end of the world. To me, the way he was rapidly spewing his apology was entrapping. I couldn't think straight while he was doing that. That was really… cute.
I giggled to myself and pat Kuro's head, in between his ears. He slowly looked up at me, while I still couldn't help my mannerisms. "You don't need to apologize. I mean, it knocked him out cold!" [Oh my arceus, that pun. Did you do that on purpose Glacey?] I managed to calm my laughter down a little bit. "Besides, it's not like I had a better idea, and I'm usually the creative one!" Kuro just looked at me, still having the same apologetic expression.
"You didn't get hurt, right?" He asked with a caring tone.
"Not at all." I tapped the frozen crown on my forehead with my paw. "I became a lethal weapon for a few seconds! That wasn't something I thought I'd ever experience." My remark got a smile out of Kuro, but it was a shy one. He was still concerned about his actions having a negative effect on me, it was easily visible. At least to me, who could read him like a book. But, like before, my thoughts sort of went astray while looking at Kuro in this state. ...C...Cute….
"Well, than I guess it all worked out okay." I snapped out of my small trance. "I'll make sure not to surprise you like that anymore in the future, it'd be better for the both of us if stuff like that is planned."
"Y-Yeah, that would probably be better." I stuttered out. Kuro walked over to the poliwrath and picked him up in both of his tendrils, probably wanting to escort his unconscious body to his allies. Luckily, despite Kuro's tendrils essentially being an expansion to his body, they had a lot of strength behind them, so heavy lifting was a lot easier. I hope he does okay with his recoil later…
The two of us rushed over to Kage and Vero, who have been fighting it out with the golisopod this whole time. They seemed to be doing really well, much better that when I initially looked at them. They were actually working together really well, and using much more… conventional teamwork than Kuro and I. The had the golisopod on his back legs, so to speak. I couldn't see the battle lasting much longer. Good job you guys. I smiled while looking at them.
Kuro began to approach the lurantis and and crobat, who she was still carrying. As soon as Kuro got close to her, she backed up really quickly and dropped the crobat on the ground, who groaned.
"S-Stay away! Just drop him over there or something!" She pointed one of her blades to a spot a little bit off to the side and Kuro dropped him over there with a sigh. She really is hemophobic…
Kuro walked back over to me and we stood next to each other, looking at the battle between our friends and the golisopod. Vero was circling him at very close range, dodging any swings brought on by the golisopod, and avoiding any projectiles he fired. She also swiped at him with her elongated claws every now and then, but the armor that surrounded his body kept her from doing any real damage. It did look like she hit his midsection a few times, evident from the scratches I caught glimpses of every time the golisopod ended up facing me. That, and Kage took whatever opportunity Vero gave him to hit the golisopod with an electric attack, which I'm sure didn't feel too pleasant. They had a rough start, but it looked like Kage and Vero had the golisopod on the ropes.
Sure enough, the golisopod connected his arm with Vero's body, but she latched onto it before it was able to knock her away. Vero extended a flurry of tendrils from her claws, wrapping around the golisopod's hand, and a decent portion of his arm. Her version of the tendrils Kuro used seemed to be a lot better in a fast paced battle like this, as opposed to how Kuro used his as more of a utility most of the time. It was strange how those two had such variations on what was essentially the same skill.
Vero touched her feet to the ground, and and pulled down with her tendrils as hard as she could. She managed to pull the golisopod's arm down to the ground, where she held him in place. Without needing to say anything, Kage ran up close to the two and unleashed a huge blast of electricity from right next to the golisopod. It lit him up completely, shining off of his diamond-like hide. He didn't shout out at all though, just stayed in place, taking the massive attack. Good thing those tendrils don't conduct electricity…
After Kage's attack was fully released, the two of them jumped back and regrouped, preparing for the golisopod to get up and countinue his assault. However, while the golisopod did stand up, he didn't rush them, he just smiled and stood still. "I yield." He simply said, before beginning to walk over to his three comrades. Kage and Vero looked bewildered by the sudden declaration, and I wasn't much different.
"Wait! Are you serious? You're finished?" Kage frantically asked. He sounded like he really wanted answers. He still had his guard up though, which was understandable.
"Yes, I am." The golisopod said calmly, not sounding angry in the slightest. "I don't know if I can beat you two like this, and even then, your friends can jump in at any time, which would certainly be enough to finish this battle." He sighed, but still smiled. "It's a shame that we'll have to give this place up. We had a lot of fantastic fights here, but we were beaten, and we'll live up to our agreement." He walked over to his passed-out poliwrath ally, and then slung him over his back.
"Dice, carry Soar for me, we'll melt the ice off of his wings when we get back." He began to walk off in the opposite direction of the inner city, heading down the road that had a split at the end. He walked passed Kuro and I, and flashed us a grin, before continuing down the road. They must have had somewhere they came from, and I assumed that they were going to head back to wherever that is. I wasn't certain, but it wasn't really my place to question.
The lurantis came close to us, while carrying her grounded crobat companion, but when she was about to pass us, she doubled in speed until she was about ten feet away. That must be hard to deal with…Once the group of pokemon nearly made it to the end of the split road, the golisopod looked back without fully turning around.
"Don't think this is the last time we'll go against you. I'll make sure it isn't." With those parting words, they all turned the corner, leaving the four of us alone in the town. I immediately sighed heavily and almost dropped to the ground when my adrenaline wore off completely. I didn't really know why I was so tired, as I hadn't really take any damage besides that one sickening punch, but even that was wearing off at this point. I think the stress of being evaluated was finally taking its tole on me. The relief that all of it was finally over really loosened up all of my tensed muscles.
Kage and Vero came over to join Kuro and I, both having ecstatic faces. I looked at Kuro to see if he had a similar expression, but he instead looked worried about something. I wondered what that could be, and my mind came up with a possibility.
"Naru, I'll… be right back. Can you please tell Kage and Vero that?" Without really waiting for me to confirm, Kuro walked off to one of the buildings and went behind it. Right, his recoil… He wasn't going to scream, he wouldn't let himself do that in front of the rest of us, but there was no doubt that he was about to be in a ton of pain for a little bit. There was no telling how he would look while that was going on. I'm sure he doesn't want us to see it either…
"Hey, where's Kuro off to?" Kage asked once he and Vero got close to me.
"Umm… he said he'd be right back, so we should just wait here for a few minutes." I told them. Kage put on a confused expression for a second but then nodded.
"Well, that was a workout… That guy's body was tougher than I thought it'd be." Vero said while stretching her arms back. Hopefully she didn't hurt herself trying to attack him… "But Naru, I have a bit of a question about the guys you and Kuro were against." I tilted my head, signaling for Vero to explain. "Well… did Kuro, like, launch you at that poliwrath at one point..?" I took a second to react to the question I was just asked, but in the end, I just chuckled.
"Yeah… I'll explain that." I then told Kage and Vero about our escapades, hoping that Kuro wasn't in too much pain.
Hello Readers!
Alright, this is going to be a long author's note, so prepare yourselves. First off, I want to ask a question. Do you want to see Kage and Vero battle against Gyro from their perspective at the beginning of the next chapter? It was something I was going to originally do, but there has been a lot of time spent in this ruined town the past two chapters, and I wanted to see if you guys are sick of it yet or not. If you want me to, I'll write that battle again from Kage and Vero's perspective, if you don't, then I'll continue on to what I have planned next. It's up to you, so make sure to let me know!
Also, I do realize that, in the chapter before this one, I spelt golisopod wrong pretty much every time I typed it. [I didn't catch that because I didn't know it was spelled wrong. My bad Glacey.] I didn't do that this time, but now, I am so tired of typing out that pokemon name. I mean, even when I know how to spell it, I screw it up at least once every time. I just can't handle a keyboard cleanly, so you know, typos are very prevalent. (If I didn't have a beta-reader, than these would be much more evident :p)
Okay, now, I made a discovery recently. I never had the fanfiction app because I just didn't think it was necessary when I could do everything I needed to on the site. I just downloaded this app, and subsequently came to the realization that any PMs that are sent on the app… Stay on the app. I don't receive them on the site, so I am so, so sorry to any of you who have sent me messages on the app that I couldn't respond to because I was unaware of this. I made myself out to be so adamant about responding to every review and message that I get, yet I had multiple on the app that I didn't even know existed. I want to apologize to every one of you who I couldn't get back to because I didn't have the app, especially FaoTheUmbreon, because you have been sending me messages from the very beginning, none of which I saw because I didn't have the app, and yet, you still stayed and supported the story. I need to thank you sincerely, and also say I'm sorry. Now that I do have said app though, I can say with confidence that I will respond to every single one of the messages sent to me, I promise this time!
Now that all of the important stuff is out of the way, I want to give my usual thanks yous to everyone who has reviewed, PM'd, or sent me other forms of communication. I appreciate every bit of it and I will until the ends of time! Finally, thank you to my beta-reader, making my chapters much more readable! (8-BitUmbreon)
See You Next Chapter!