Kuro
Pushing myself off of the ground, I brought my eyes back up to the mawile that had just sent me back swiftly. That last attack hurt, much more so than any small hits I took before. Just that impact alone was enough to give me a bad feeling about the rest of what this battle could turn out to be. I shook it off and got into my stance, and the mawile that had been gunning for me this whole time stared back, still completely blank. With that last hit, and the voice that seemingly came from the heavens a minute ago, I was starting to get nervous. It was clear that this mawile was done playing around. I wish the locals here would leave… It's too likely that they'll be hurt…
I wanted to formulate a plan to maybe get some of the locals away, which was kind of hard because of certain traits I had which they didn't like, but I didn't have much of a chance to think before the mawile shot at me again. Instead of using his jaw like before, he looked as if he was ready to grab me with his arms, based on his position. I took a breath and brought out my tendrils, slamming them into the ground in front of me to send myself into the air and backwards. I wanted to hit off of a tree and back at him, but I couldn't quite make it that far, as the mawile gave rapid chase, jumping up from the ground and grabbing me anyway.
As we slowly descended from the sky, I got a good look at this thing's face as I was struggling to get free. The eyes… discolored from normal, but that wasn't the only thing about them that bothered me. Along with the mostly blank expression, there was a hint of something deep within his eyes… almost like sadness… or regret. I couldn't quite place my paw on what it was, but I could tell that there was something there, just clearly not the first thing on his mind… that would be attacking me.
The two of us descended to the ground, and the grip the mawile had on me tightened to the point where I felt like my ribs were being cracked. I grit my teeth hard, trying not to acknowledge the pain. I was quite good at that after all. I tried as best I could to focus on regaining control of my tendrils rather than focus on the pain, and once I managed to get a hold on them again, I pushed against the force of the mawile's arms with them, making his grip decidedly lighter, although still evident. Personally I didn't care how hard of a grip he had on me as long as I prevented my ribs from shattering. I leaned my head forward and clamped my jaw around his shoulder, hoping that it would help in my endeavor of getting free from the iron grip around my body. After tightening my jaw as much as possible though, I couldn't even break skin, and it seemed as if there was no reaction of pain whatsoever, not even a twitch or a wince. I unlocked my fangs from him, barely leaving a mark of any kind, still pushing against his arms with my tendrils, which was exceedingly more difficult than I expected. It was straining the nerves on them, which was, in turn, creating more pain for me to suppress while trying to get free.
My resistance against his grip began to falter, and I felt his arms closing in on me again, making me wince. I nearly got the point of my tendrils rubbing against one another, and if it came to that and they started to press together, that would just make everything even worse. Luckily Though, I felt the grip of the mawile significantly loosen as his head lurched forward a little, very close to mine. I used the opportunity to ram skulls with metallic monster, which made my ears ring for a second, but gave me the opportunity to break out of his grip and jump back, immediately retracting my tendrils so my inevitable recoil wouldn't get too bad. I caught a glimpse of Vero, who was right behind the mawile, and I concluded that she was the reason I was able to break out of the death grip, which I was very thankful for.
After a few seconds, the mawile flipped its jaw to aim at me, and I knew what was coming, problem being that I felt a rather hard impact on my back just as the mawile was readying his attack. I nearly toppled over, and a hitmontop had slid in front of me, facing towards me with a harsh stare, clearly unaware of the mindless machine of a pokemon behind them aiming an attack in their direction. They stood on their spiked feet threateningly, but I ignored the air that they gave off and rushed at them, tackling them to the ground and then rolling over them. I stood still in the middle on the two, not facing either one directly. The mawile shot off a large, glowing beam forcefully at me, and I gulped, bracing myself.
The attack roughly made contact with me, and I dug my claws into the ground and focused really hard on making sure the attack didn't push me back, even if it hurt like hell. I tensed my entire body until the attack let up, and I took a deep breath, and then the recoil hit.
I lowered closer to the ground, legs shaking a little as a harsh and unrelenting wave of pain surged through my body. I took deep breaths to try and quickly get a hold on myself before the mawile went for another attack of any kind, however, I saw the hitmontop that I had just shielded run close to me after getting up from my light tackle, and they brought one of their almost spherical, spiked feet into my stomach, causing me to lose whatever concentration on recovery I just had. I fell completely to the ground, breathing quickly from the unexpected attack. Instead of letting me recover, the hitmontop then decided to flip over and spin on their head, rapidly spinning around and connecting a much stronger kick with the side of my head, sending me across the ground, tossing and turning as I slid.
Once friction caught up with me and I was stable, I shook my head and pushed myself up, feeling more pain than I would have liked around my stomach, ribs, and now my cranium. At the very least, I was on all fours and stable again, so I was ready to move out of the way from an attack if need be. I looked at the hitmontop, not back on their feet, and glared at them with something between annoyance and anger. I just saved them a lot of pain, and I got repaid with two harsh attacks right after my recoil hit… which only made them that much worse. I didn't have time to vocalize this mix of emotions, as the mawile was quickly approaching me again, not paying any mind to the hitmontop I wasn't very pleased with right now. I sloppily crouched and readied to dodge an attack, but instead of one coming, Vero rushed to the side of the mawile and accurately slammed a hind leg into his stomach, pushing him back a little.
The mawile, instead of resuming his lock onto me, turned to look at her and very quickly swung his jaw with malicious intent. Vero reacted quickly and slipped by it, not taking the attack, and then pressed the center of one of her forepaws to his chest, Shooting off a point blank purple blast that sent him to the air. She followed up on this initial attack, jumping up to the mawile and kicking harshly again into his chest, sending him to the ground, though he showed no real signs of pain from the two rather heavy attacks. This gave me the opportunity to observe something about the mawile though, namely how Vero's attacks may have not caused much pain, but they worked… they pushed him back. He was caught off guard by that kick…
He may have tried to hit Vero there, but he still seemed hyperfocused on me, and perhaps we could use that to our advantage. It's possible that he was only prepared to take attacks from me, and not from the others around him, so that may have been a small weakness in the makeup of whatever this artificial pokemon was. I hope so at least… Without a weakness, I don't like where this is going.
I watched as the mawile slowly stood up, and used that opportunity to dash beside Vero, making sure the two of us were both ready for what was most likely going to be yet another onslaught of attacks from both the locals and whatever this mawile was. It certainly was interesting… the pokemon we were specifically here to make sure nothing bad happened to are subsequently making our job that much harder because I decided that it would be better that I went here instead of Naru. Granted, I'm particularly glad I made that choice if we're dealing with this, I really wouldn't want Naru to be in a dangerous battle, let alone against a mindless mawile. Better me than her…
"We need to draw this guy away from here somehow…" Vero said from my right. I didn't look at her, still locked onto the mawile.
"That might not be too hard if he's stuck trying to attack me, but there could be more of the Void nearby if he's here. His controller needs to be close by too, so leaving might not be the best option." I replied, honestly tempted to take the offer of getting out of this place, but realizing the risk in that option.
"You're right, probably behind that voice earlier too." That voice came from nowhere… "There were some particles in the sky while she was talking, which makes me think that she's a psychic a little ways from here."
"That's plausible, but it also means it doesn't end with this mawile… so try not to overdo it until we know exactly what else we're up against." Hopefully it's not too much more…
"Got it. Same goes for you, especially since this guy seems to have some serious bloodlust for your flesh."
"Right…" I took a deep breath. "He's gunning for me, and it seems like your surprise attack caught him off guard. I don't think his mind is programmed to focus on much else than attacking me, so you might be able to hit him hard when he's not ready." I saw Vero nod out of the corner of my eye. That's better than having no idea what to do at least…
Without any hesitation, the mawile jumped at the two of us, and Vero decided to retreat to the side, preparing to sneak attack the mawile later on I presumed. I ran right at the mawile, wanting to get his attention even more if at all possible. I saw the same hitmontop from before out of the corner of my eye and grew a little worried, but if this mawile and I had a heated battle going on, I doubt he would try and interfere with either side. With that in mind… may as well not hold anything back. Shouldn't be an issue if the locals here don't approach too close.
I took a quick breath in and shot two shadow balls at the mawile as I ran toward him, both of which doing little more than make him ever so slightly flinch. My intention wasn't exclusively harming him with those attacks, the intention was to be a little flashy to keep the locals from coming over and trying anything. Attacking me was bad because it would just make this battle harder, and I couldn't fight back at all. Attacking the mawile was bad for the exact opposite reason, he was very capable of fighting back, and seeing as they looked as if they originated from the Void, I guessed that he wouldn't have a problem crushing any of these locals' skulls under his foot if need be. Just an assumption, but It seemed like a safe one.
Once the initial attacks from me were shot off, I launched a dark pulse into his chest, this time actually making him budge. Not by anything more than a few centimeters, but it was better than him still being practically frozen to the ground. I pushed up, readying another attack, but was instead smacked away by a swift swing of the his jaw, which I barely saw coming. I slid back, but ended up being able to keep my balance, which was good, because another bright silver beam was launched directly at me right after I was launched a bit aways, which I was able to sidestep because I hadn't lost my hold on the ground. I dashed back at the mawile, attempting to stay close, as that was most likely the best way to keep his attention solely on me, subsequently keeping the locals away, assuming they didn't have a total death wish. Not to mention, they were scared of both dark and fairy types, or at hated them at least, so they most likely wouldn't be too fond of approaching us.
I got in really close with the mawile, and dodged another swing from his jaw, predicting it this time, and countering with another dark pulse, once more looking as if it did minimal damage. The combat methods he used began to escalate into throwing occasional kicks towards me, which were just as swift at how he swung his jaw, if not more so. I avoided the first two kicks, and another jaw swing, but I was then hit in the chest, courtesy of the mawile's leg. The impact made me flinch, but I coughed once and shook it off quickly, unable to afford being taken down a notch. I rammed my head into his stomach roughly, pushing against him and slowly sliding him along the ground for a second, but this was canceled out by him slamming his arm into the top of my back, which nearly made me lose balance and fall to the ground, though I managed to stand strong against him. I hopped a little off the ground and slammed my tail into the side of his head with force, which did just as much as the rest of my attacks.
I used the attack I delivered to propel myself a little bit away from the mawile, standing on the ground and facing him from a few feet away. His attacks from earlier hurt, but it wasn't enough to affect me much. Shard, Kai, Grace, they all hit me with much heavier attacks, so I was more or less used to it. That being said, they would certainly add up, and he had to be doing way more damage to me than I was returning. It seemed like I wasn't hurting him five percent of what he was hitting me with, and even if I'm not the best with offense, that was next to nothing. I would have to turn up my attacks a bit if I wanted to do something, but that required recoil, and I would need Vero to cover me if I used one of my more dangerous ones. I would be more than comfortable with that plan if this mawile didn't have some kind of obsession with trying to make my skull shatter. It's not like this is going anywhere though… I need to do something at least.
I focused in on the interior of my body, controlling the flow of my energy as much as I could with as little time as was necessary. I had certainly gotten better at doing all of this on a whim, but it still required focus, and no matter how swiftly I could charge up a very damaging attack, being hit with the recoil afterwards would always be the same, and always have a repeated result of me slumping down in a weaker state for a few seconds. If it was my only way to deal significant damage though… then I had to deal with it regardless.
My body began to emit a very dim purple glow, and I locked eyes with the mawile as he ran towards me again. I sprinted at him as well, wanting to close the gap between as soon as I could. He flipped his jaw over his head, attempting to slam the thing over mine, which was a different maneuver than the swings he was using earlier. I moved my head out of the way, but still got half of my body caught by the slam, which forced me to the ground with intense pressure. This attack felt harder than the others, like it rattled my bones, and made me let out a measly grunt in pain, but I held myself from doing anything more. I leapt off of the ground and headbitted the mawile in the stomach, and released four large streams of purple light from my body, one of them point blank into the mawile's chest. It lifted him off of the ground a little bit, until the second beam connected in what looked like virtually the same area. He flew back more and slid across the ground, while the last two beams locked onto him and both made contact with his midsection at the same time, creating a thick dust cloud from the impact. He quickly slid out of said cloud and contacted a tree with a loud thud.
I took a few slow steps back and dissipated the glow from my body, taking a deep breath. My recoil was going to hit in a few seconds, so I had to be ready to take it and not look like I was an easy target. Once the aftermath of my attack cleared, I saw the mawile on the ground, against the tree that he connected with. It only took a few seconds for him to slowly push himself up, but at the very least, his body was scratched in many places, namely around his midsection, and I would imagine his back too. He was still up and ready, but I certainly did a number on him, which was the most important thing here. Any amount of damage helped, especially since whatever this guy was, he seemed to consist of nothing that could be considered normal in the slightest, both in body and in mind.
The mawile stared at me, clearly not down for the count, and began to dash at me once more, right as I felt my recoil kick in. I dug my claws into the ground and grit my teeth, staring at the mawile as he approached, not feeling comfortable to move with the mass amounts of pain flowing through my veins. He was starting to get rather close, and I started to worry that I wouldn't recover fast enough to dodge, but right as the thought crossed my mind, I saw a very small purple streak in the air very swiftly come from out of my sight, and slash across the Mawile as he was sprinting towards me. The light stopped him from sprinting altogether, and his eyes changed, as if he felt something for once. At the end of the streak of light that I saw, was Vero, her claw held back as if she just slashed someone with it, also covered in some kind of orange substance. I had no idea of the source, until I glanced back at the mawile, and noticed that he was now missing an arm. And yet, the fact that he was down a limb wasn't what had me so intrigued, it was the thick, orange substance leaking from his body instead of blood. It coated the leaves and grass under him, and had a rather sickeningly strong smell of rubber.
Vero had just as much of a confused stare as I did, also put more for a loop by the liquid rather than the fact that she just cut the arm off of a pokemon. I didn't let my guard down though, missing limb or not, this guy still had to be dangerous either way. After a second though, I realized that my thoughts weren't exactly correct. Yes, he was certainly still dangerous, but I didn't think that his lack of a limb would last such a short amount of time.
Just as soon as Vero sliced it off, the orange fluids that were draining from the mawile's body started to slowly solidify around where his missing limb was, and slowly formed into a brand new arm, with the same coloring as before it got sliced off. There were no marks, no signs of injury, no nothing. There was just a new arm now, as if nothing had ever cut it off in the first place. If this mawile confused me before, then I was going borderline insane right now. I began to feel lightheaded for a second but I shook it off and crouched again. I hope I'm not losing it… but is this real..? Did I just watch someone regenerate a torn off limb..? That can't be possible… but there's no way this isn't real… What is going on?
As if nothing happened, the mawile went back to his empty stare, and approached me again, although decidedly slower this time. He was walking, as opposed to the all out rushes performed before. Vero quickly came over and stood beside me, also staring at the mawile with a rather intrigued gaze. She didn't seem nearly as baffled as I was though, just by her face I could tell.
"Do you have a plan by any chance?" She asked calmly, hardly sounding surprised from what we just witnessed at all.
"Not at all… I wasn't expecting regenerative limbs…" I focused my mind on the fact that we needed to find a way to win this battle, and away from the fact that I may as well have just watched a pokemon grow an arm. Beyond that even, what's with the blood he had? Or lack there of? Instead of blood, there was this… thick orange liquid that seemed to help him regenerate. I'm not too sure whether said liquid creeped me out more, or the lack of blood, or you know, growing back an arm. Needless to say, I was suitably not comfortable with the current situation by any means. It wasn't like I had much of a choice but to face the oncoming mawile though, so I stared forwards as he took heavy steps towards Vero and I.
I crouched and readied myself to fight however much I needed to, and Vero got into her stance from my left. What can we do to him..? His body is tough enough to withstand whatever we can hit him with, and even if we disconnect his limbs, he can just regenerate. He's resistant to scratches and rarely reacts to pain, he's quick for a pokemon as sturdy as he is, and his attacks aren't exactly light. Not to mention, we can't have any of the locals get caught in the crossfire, and they'll be trying to attack us alongside the mawile. This situation isn't good…
I gulped and took a step forward, planning a rush, but I was pretty quickly interrupted by a powerful force in the air, feeling almost like a gust of wind, but not quite. I couldn't physically feel a breeze of any kind, but I felt as if something was trying to push my body away. I slid across the ground a bit, but managed to stay on my paws, and it looked like Vero was having similar difficulties. I picked my head up and looked at the mawile, who had seemingly stopped approaching us He was now standing idly, staring forward blankly. What in the…
"I thought you were supposed to be a useful puppet, not take years to accomplish one task." I heard the same voice from earlier, this time not sounding as if it came from the sky, but right in front of us. Once I directed my eyes towards the noise, I looked upon a tall delphox, holding one forearm out against the mawile. "I guess you didn't do bad, but you don't know how to be aware of your surroundings. Why can't mind control just be a perfected art?" The delphox said with a long sigh.
Is this the one controlling him? I stared at the delphox, slowly beginning to glare. She must be part of the Void then…
After some a second of lecturing passed, she turned her head and looked at me, and then at Vero. "One of you is barely above the size of a child and the other didn't react to an arm being replaced, what an interesting pair." She put one of her forepaws to her cheek, holding an observant gaze. "Say, if I wasn't here to take one of you away, I might be able to do some research, maybe I can be a little late…" She mumbled to herself.
I was too stunned at the moment to say anything, filled with too many different thoughts to think of a proper sentence. This was the one who had current control over this mawile, who apparently has multiple masters, seeing as Rage seemed to have complete control over him last time, and now it's this delphox. This also implied that she was a part of the Void, it was hard to come to any other conclusion. Now for the last concerning bit: She was here to take one of us away. The why isn't important… but our task here just got ten times harder…
"More than ten times actually, it very way may be incalculable." It took me a second to process what she said next, and I had to roll over it in my mind a few times. Did she just respond to my mind..?
"Yes, I did. Did you think I was just going to let you have privacy in your mind? I have a job to do, and knowing exactly what you're thinking makes that job quite a bit easier." She yawned. "And to answer you, zoroark, the two of you both being dark types is irrelevant. It took me a while, but I learned how to bypass that crappy wall years ago. It was kinda painful though, breaking through the mind of a dark type involved shattering the psyche of thousands before I got it right." She sighed.
I gulped at that sentence, and Vero looked as if she had a similar reaction. "What do you mean you shattered their psyche?" She questioned nervously.
"Exactly what I said, they went crazy, started doing unorthodox things, refused to eat or sleep, all until they shrivel up and die. It's interesting to see a pokemon on the literal brink of insanity, and watch it totally mutilate them in the end, I have a lot of notes on the stages of someone breaking down." She looked up and closed her eyes for a second. "First they think nothing is wrong, just feel a little funny, maybe have some mood swings, nothing big. Then they start to rest less, thinking that said mood swings are a serious issue, even though they don't know the half of it. After that, their paranoia affects their appetite, preventing them from properly eating, and by that point, they will most likely have driven everyone who gives a damn about them away. After that, they very slowly deteriorate into an empty husk, until they take their final breath. Quite the process to observe, that's for sure." A shudder ran through my body as she finished speaking.
"What's wrong? It was interesting, so I observed. I'm not Luna, I don't get this sick arousal from watching pokemon get tortured and die, I just like to research them as the process goes on." She continued, as if it wasn't strange at all to observe a slowly dying pokemon. "How else will we be able to fix our problems if we don't make mistakes first? It's my job to fix said mistakes, and improve on the process. Slow and steady, a few thousand deaths, and now I've mastered it. Surely you know that mistakes are a part of life?" She tilted her head, looking at us as if we were suddenly a foreign species.
It weirded me out how much she was just… talking right now. She had a job to do, so why didn't she just try it? Instead, she was talking with us, similarly to how Grace did, but with less mental insanity. There's a bit there, but Grace was just… something else. I'm not surprised at this point, everyone in the Void seems to have many, many screws loose.
"What do you mean? I'm perfectly sane you know. For the most part. Every now and then, I want to burn down a village for no apparent reason, but urges like that don't come often. That often." Definitely insane…
This idle talking wasn't going to last very long, I knew what it was leading up to. I wasn't going to tell myself that we're getting out of this without fighting anyone, whether it was the delphox herself or the mawile again, there's only so much words can do with a group like the Void, especially when you work for their rival organization. I just didn't know when she was going to strike, or the mawile, but I knew one of them was going to without a doubt. I needed to be ready fro when that happened, nothing would take my guard down at this point.
"Hey, you know who you are, stop thinking about it. It's not going to work, and if you don't get that out of your head in the next ten seconds, it's not going to be pretty." She looked to the sky and closed her eyes. Time slowly passed, ten seconds where I had no idea what to do, other than curiously think about who's thoughts she just read, along with hope that what she just said didn't imply she was killing anyone, which she very well could have, so I was on guard. I was ready to protect someone if I needed to, I just didn't want it to come to that.
Five seconds passed, but each of the ticks felt as if they were stretched to high degrees, with nothing but my nervous breathing accompanying the silence that everyone held. A large group who was just having a free for all battle among themselves was struck silent, by one sentence from this delphox. The air she held was suffocating, as if she had all of us held down, trembling and waiting for her to make a move. That's what she wanted, and that's exactly what she did, until she slowly pointed a forepaw, aimed in my direction, but off by a few inches to the left. Eight seconds had passed, and she had a fiery look in her eyes, one of disappointment in a way, one of contempt. Nine seconds, and the air stayed completely identical as it did previously. Dense, suffocating air, a lifted paw, and a pause.
Ten seconds.
A gust of wind went by my ear, something very hot skimming the side of it, giving my ear a bit of singed fur. Without turning my head, I heard what sounded like a small explosion, and an extreme wave of heat pour over me from behind. It was enough to make me sweat a little bit instantly. I took a second to realize what was happening, which I still wasn't too sure of at that very moment. Not until a piercing scream knocked on my eardrums. The scream came from directly behind me, to which I slowly turned my head, only to see two of the trees spread around this area catch fire, and to see a vigoroth, missing an arm and a leg, white fur charred to an unrecognizable point. There were large puddles of blood around him, also spreading to some of the other civils around them. Currently, there wasn't any blood leaking from the vigoroth though, just a sprawled pokemon, missing two limbs, going completely quiet after being burned alive in a second.
The silence that flooded the area was unchanging, all of us too shocked to do anything. I could hardly accept what I was looking at right now, a dead pokemon who was alive just seconds ago, now unrecognizable. The heated, burning smell of melted flesh coated the area, which gained a gag from everyone around, with the exception of me. Some gags were followed by sickness, especially from the younger looking pokemon here. Most of the adults got sick too, the only one who was mostly unaffected was me. I was already beyond tolerant to this, thanks to my excursions in Myriad. I stared at the lifeless, charred body for a few more seconds, and then the panic set in, the panic of all of the locals, one by one letting out loud, piercing screams, puddles of tears, nothing but sadness, and pain.
Eventually, my mind recognized what happened, and I slowly turned my body, looking right at the delphox, who looked exactly the same as before. She held an unimpressed, but at the same time, curious stare. "Why would you think attacking me is a good idea? All it would do is make my job harder, and cause you to lose your life. Some of you confuse me to the highest degree… and yet fascinate me at the same time." She lowered her paw and brought her eyes to the burning vegetation, beginning to spread everywhere. The heat in the area began to pick up more and more, but my body took it, not being able to focus on the intense heat, only on the psychic fox in front of me, whom I was now glaring at. I felt my rings slowly but surely flare up in anger. She killed him… for a thought…
"A thought that would make my life harder. With the death of that pokemon, I now got to see all of your reactions, and now know who I'm dealing with. You for example, seem to not care about looking at a body missing limbs, burned alive, and now deceased. I find that very interesting, it makes me wonder what you've seen in the past to warrant that." She took a step closer. "Tell me… Why do you think the Void wants you? Usually we just kill our targets, but you're a special case to Luna, why is that?" She questioned me. Hell if I know…
"I'm not-"
"So you don't even know? How curious… I might look into this when I get the chance. Then again, that chance will come pretty soon anyway, seeing as you're coming back to the Void with me." She started to casually walk towards me. I crouched down and glared at her angrily, my rings glowing more and more as she approached. I wasn't too pleased with what she just did, it really tipped me to the point where I didn't mind seriously injuring her if I got the chance. I suppose I felt that way about most of the Void at this point though. They were a group of monsters, and I would treat them as such, with no real reason for any alternative.
I was about to dash at her, but I felt my legs lock to the ground, unable to move. I thought I was losing it for a second when I tried to move and I couldn't, but my body was glowing a light purple, overlapping the glow from my rings and outlining my being with the dim shine. I struggled against the invisible force, unable to even twitch a digit on one of my paws. I couldn't even open my mouth to speak, I was suitibly locked down to the ground, locked from all movement, locked with the same fierce glare on my face. Is she freezing me in place?
"Yes, I am." She continued her slow walk over to me. "Though, I want to test something before you-" I saw Vero zip by me quickly, and attempt to jam her claw into the delphox intensely. She looked aggressive with the gesture, which quite possibly had killing intent, based on the scene of growing fire and the still-evident smell of a burning corpse. I didn't blame Vero if she did mean to impale her heart with a claw, but I couldn't get ot the point of certainty when it came to her intentions. Before Vero's claw made contact with the delphox, she casually stuck her paw out, and swiped Vero's attack away, before bringing her other paw to Vero's head, and clamping her mouth shut, looking as if the rest of her body froze right on contact, similar to mine.
"Didn't think any of you Ravens were the type to recklessly attack like that. You have no idea of my standing, so why risk a fast assault when anyone somewhat competent is trained to counter such actions?" She lifted her other paw to Vero's stomach. "Interesting Ravens… You all are." Without a second of hesitation, Vero flew from the grip of the delphox, launching into one of the many burning trees around, her back making an audible crack on impact, and her face contorted in pain. She couldn't make any noises, being that she was in the same frozen state as me, but I imagined that she would have had she been able to. That looked bad… Please be okay…
"I didn't kill her or anything, I don't have a reason to. I've already studied her species to the limit, being one of the more intriguing ones." She sighed. "Kind of a shame I don't have the chance to study you, I've never looked extensively into the DNA makeup of an umbreon, but I'm obligated to follow orders, so death isn't an option for you. Not yet at least." She kept walking towards me until she was about ten feet away. I wished I could at least warn the rest of the locals to run, but I couldn't speak at all, plus, they very well could have been in the same paralyzed state as Vero and I. Not like I was able to turn my head and check. I don't want anyone else to die… I need to break out and do something…
"Oh, you'll get your chance." The delphox rose one of her arms, and I felt my entire body slump to the ground harshly. I very quickly pounced up and locked my eyes onto the delphox.
"W-Why did you do that?" I asked, feeling fear seep into my mind, which I tried to push down. The fact that I was released scared me even more than before, as it meant she had a plan to do something, and I had no idea as to what. My legs began to shake a little bit, but I settled them down before it was visible.
"Simple testing, that's all. I'm curious." She let a smile creep onto her face, an evil one. "I want you to turn your head and look behind you." As off-putting as it was, I did as commanded and craned my neck slowly, seeing the hitmontop from before right behind me, also frozen in place, staring at me. I slowly turned back and looked at the delphox again, who had her paw raised towards me once more. What… are you planning?
"Simple, a test for my umbreon subject." She cleared her throat. "See that guy behind you? Well he attacked you earlier, thinking you were the threat here, not really taking the mawile without a properly functioning brain into account. Made your life a lot harder, and according to his thoughts, he was about to try and attack you again, not trusting you in the slightest. Not sure why when you actually saved him from severe injury, but I can't tell why these things go through the heads of others sometimes, it's a mixed bag for everyone." She shrugged. "I've given you your mobility back, but not his. With all of that in mind, consider your options here." Her paw began to heat up, moving at a hyper rate, as I could feel it from my position. I see where this is going… What kind of experiments do you run..? I let my thoughts flow, wanting her to respond to them, without me having to speak up and stutter from fear.
"Simple ones really, ones that let me determine who I'm talking to, and give me a baseline for what kind of pokemon they are. For example, your current situation." She paused and smirked. "I'm about to launch an attack similar to the one I used to kill that other pokemon, but with more intensity than before. I'm not changing the course of the attack from where I have it aimed right now, right at you, and the wonderful pokemon following. I'm letting you know that the attack is coming, so you have plenty of time to react and dodge it, but I can't guarantee the safety of that civil behind you if you do. I see three current options for you: You can move out of the way, letting the one who tried to screw you over get hit with this, and most likely end up the same way as the first one. You can take the attack for him, and be the one to go into that condition, not knowing if you can take the attack or not, and making it much easier to take you away. Finally, you can try and find a way to stop me from launching this attack in the first place, bearing in mind that I can ready every single one of your thoughts, and that you can't overpower it."
"The question is… which one will you choose?"
I stood completely still, despite my limbs being freed, staring forward at the steadily growing flare in the paw of the delphox. A huge swarm of thoughts flooded my mind, and I had no idea which one to focus on. There was no way I was just going to let him die, I couldn't do that to anyone. Taking the attack… was extremely risky. I had no idea if I could survive the first one she shot off, let alone a stronger version, despite whatever stamina reserves I had, or however strong my defense was. A way to stop her attack… where would I even start? Could I cancel it with my own? Most likely not, maybe Naru could, but that was a definite no for me. Could I distract her somehow? I doubted it. Did she have some sort of weakness that caused her to not shoot off the attack? None that I could possibly know. That third option was seeming just as unlikely to pull through as the second one.
The heat heavily intensified in the air around me, even through the slowly spreading fire, I could feel the focused warmth within her paw. I didn't exactly have time, or at least, not much of it by any means, no longer to consider my options and choose the best one given the situation, no longer to consider new options and go through with those, not even the time to shout out and tell everyone who could move to run. All of our time was limited at this point, even without the prospect of this delphox, because the forest we were located it was slowly burning to a crisp, and I doubted that they could fit everyone in one of their rocky structures for safety. Then again, maybe they could, this place didn't have too many pokemon after all.
And just like that, my time was up.
The heat sourcing from the delphox quickly intensified, releasing a burst in my direction. Right after said burst came a ball made of flame, flying at me with a very high speed. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as I watched the attack blasted through the air, burning away any vegetation it may have skimmed. I continued standing still, staring as the ball of supreme heat got closer and closer. My mind was blank, I didn't know what to do, there was too much to consider. The span of time it would take for it to reach me is probably around a second, a second to make a final decision on what to do. I used that second to brace myself, and my position didn't change from the moment it the attack left the delphox. I dug my claws into the ground, closing my eyes.
The part of my body that felt the initial impact was my chest, which was strong, and pushed me back a few feet, but I refused to get blown any further, not wanting to hand any part of this attack to the hitmontop behind me. The impact only lasted for a second, it wasn't too bad in terms of pain, and in a for about a tenth of the next second, I thought that was it, and she was bluffing. A tenth of a second isn't very long to think so positively.
My entire body ignited, engulfing in powerful flames that made me feel as if my skin was getting torn off. The torridity of the attack made me want to scream, but nothing came from my mouth, nothing but a hoarse, indecipherable noise. My fur singed, as did my skin, it was easy to feel the attack slowly eat away at my cells. My scarf was no longer around my neck, now in burnt tatters around me, some parts of it disintegrating completely. The feverish attack took ages to cool down, and through the whole time, I couldn't breath, I couldn't make a noise, I couldn't do anything but let myself suffer as it continued on. I stopped feeling the burning pain after a little bit though, replacing it was an uncomfortable numbness, followed by a soreness that disallowed me from moving as the attack fizzled out very slowly. My body was releasing a cloud of smoke, as the smell from before was replaced by the one I gave off. The flames surrounding my body gave out at a disgustingly slow pace, until all of them were gone.
I stood still, not wanting to look down at myself, I was most likely a mess of burns and patches of missing fur, as if I was being cooked alive. I stood completely still, on very shaky legs, taking in extremely heavy breaths, trying to make up for all of the air I lost in that attack. I was only able to get three gulps of air before I let out one, huge cough, another cloud of smoke exiting my body, along with my throat burning just as the rest of my being. I tried to talk, but nothing came out, only the same noise as earlier, followed by my body collapsing to the ground. The contact I made with the earth below me sent the worse of the burning back into me, like a shock wave traveling through my veins. I would have given some kind of verbal indication of pain if it was possible at the moment. Alternatively, I just laid on the ground, panting slowly, each bit of air burning me just as before.
"Hey, you're alive, how about that." The delphox who put me through this awful pain walked up to me, and lowered to her knees in front of my collapsed self. "I wasn't expecting that choice, I was ready for you to abandon the one who very well could have gotten you killed, but you didn't. Tell me, what motive did you have for preventing his demise in the first place?" She held a curious tone that I could barely focus on. I can't… just let someone die…
She paused before responding to my thoughts. "So interesting… I really wish I could study you, umbreon. I don't understand your thought patterns at all, and I would like to. Maybe someday I'll get the opportunity to better read you." She pet my head as I layed near lifeless on the ground. "For now though, my boss needs you, so I can't try to understand what you're on about. I'm sure I will someday though, assuming you're not dead."
I felt a new sensation wash over me in waves, an almost peaceful one compared to the burning earlier, which was still very evident. My body became sluggish on the ground and I felt my mind begin to go blank, unlike my rushing thoughts from before.
"Now sleep."
Hello Readers!
Finally, a new chapter after… a while. I apologize once more for the lack of updates, but I have a good reason, one that I'm not the most comfortable saying right here, but for those who are curious, I will let anyone know if they send a PM asking for it, so if you do want to know, I'll speak up!
Anywho though, I hope you guys like this one! This is actually the very first section of the story I finalized from my original draft, so in a way, it's like this is the only part I wanted to write from the very beginning, and I'm glad I got the chance to! Even if it took… 35 chapters, which I wasn't expecting, but you know, poor planning and such. :p
Giving my usual thanks to everyone who sends me lovely PMs with criticism or their opinions on the story, it means a ton to me! Really! Same with everyone who sends in a review with the same purpose! I love every little bit of it for sure! And thank you to my beta reader for not only cleaning my chapters up, but also listening to me ramble on and on about this and that, blah, blah, he knows what I'm talking about. :p (8-BitUmbreon)
See You Next Chapter!