Chapter 32: Icy Caverns, Part 2
Deep within the confines of the glacier castle in the middle of the ocean somewhere between Ilragorn's mainland and the Isle of Naporia, a girl's shrieking could be heard echoing throughout the many tunnels inside. That girl would be Eliza and she was screaming her lungs out because her longtime partner in battling was in several different places across the chamber, with some of Staraptor's blood having the unfortunate luck to have splattered across Eliza's shirt, making her immediately want to rip her shirt off in disgust, but the arctic temperatures prevented that from being a smart choice. Blood-tipped feathers were scattered across the floor from the Icicle Spears skinning the bird in places. The pokemon responsible for killing Staraptor was a wild red-eyed Cloyster that had previously slaughtered a family of Snorunts that had lived in the chamber, as evidenced by their lifeless corpses scattered across the slippery floor, all of their deteriorating, triangular bodies pierced with holes from Cloyster's attacks.
Besides the terrified girl and the rampaging Cloyster in the large chamber, there were two more figures of importance in the immediate area: one was the injured snake writhing and spitting in a blind rage because all it felt in that moment was the immense pain of being hurled head-first into the sharp walls of the icy chamber by a monkey, the ice slicing through his eyes and corneas while his two front fangs snapped clean off upon slamming into the wall, not including the ravaged mess the hard wall made to his face. The Seviper was at this point more of a danger to himself than to anyone in the chamber, and was in the process of inadvertently wiggling in its spastic, blind rage through one of the tunnels out of the chamber where it would likely get lost somewhere in the massive jungle of the glaciers and die being unable to defend itself from the elements or wild mons. Seviper couldn't see and couldn't bite, but that didn't stop him from spewing venom from the empty sockets in his mouth the teeth had been in moments before, making it an interesting sight as Seviper managed to escape certain death from the furious Cloyster as it slunk out of sight down a tunnel that had gone unnoticed.
The fourth and final party member in the chamber was a Passimian that had once belonged to Eliza, though she had chosen to give him to her friend Adam thinking they were a better fit, but Passimian still bore a fondness for his old trainer and felt gravely responsible for her well being (and not just because he had explicit orders from Adam to guard Eliza). Passimian had just single-handedly beaten a pokemon belonging to a powerful member of Team Anonymous, without even needing Adam to be there for support, so Passimian was feeling pretty confident and energized, especially since being at a type disadvantage against a poison type. Though slightly shaken from witnessing his ally be taken down in a matter of seconds from the assault of Icicle Spears, being a true professional battler, Passimian had taken advantage of the moment to set up a second Bulk Up so he could both eat up Cloyster's physical hits better as well as throw harder punches, hard as it was to concentrate on flexing his muscles to boost his energy while helplessly watching Staraptor be executed.
Eliza's screams had grabbed the attention of Cloyster, who whipped back around after killing the bird to set its sights upon the owner, the spears upon its exterior shell aiming toward Eliza. Passimian rushed to stand in front of Eliza, shielding her from any attacks Cloyster shot out at her. Passimian had a pretty solid idea of Cloyster's movepool at this point and was strategizing in his head the best way to get around his attacks.
Cloyster fired a barrage of Rock Blasts like cannonballs directly toward Passimian who was still a good 30 feet away and had plenty of time to prepare a counterattack. Passimian's fists glowed a bright white with raw energy as Passimian punched at each incoming chunk of rock like a baseball player would strike a ball from a pitcher at home base - each chunk of rock disintegrated upon meeting Passimian's fists, and Passimian stepped forward with each broken rock, closing the gap from 30 feet to 20, then to 10 as the Rock Blasts changed to Icicle Spears and Passimian alternated between Iron Heading some of the rocks and spears of ice, and punching others into oblivion, never repeating a pattern for too long to keep Cloyster from being sure of his next move.
Eliza had calmed from her screams into a dull, defeated sobbing as she mourned for Staraptor, falling to her knees, feeling completely drained of her energy. She threw the useless flute in her hands to the side in frustration, knowing she would only get in Passimian's way if she tried tangling with the Cloyster by hitting it with a small flute. She could only watch and hope that Passimian could power through this deadly wild water pokemon that for some reason was uncatchable.
When Passimian found himself face-to-face with the Cloyster, having successfully closed the gap between them while taking no damage, Passimian reacted by reeling his head back, the coconut perched on his head temporarily gleaming chrome as it turned metal, then Passimian wrenched his head forward, landing his Iron Head directly in Cloyster's face, narrowly avoiding the sharp horn above its head. Cloyster stumbled backwards, eyes clenched in pain reflexively, then Cloyster's entire body seemed to literally become a force of tangible, powerful water as Cloyster used the move Liquidation to lunge forward into Passimian, the force of the move hitting like a truck and knocking Passimian to his side, forcing him to roll away to safety, shivering and shaking his now damp fur.
"Don't you lose to it!" Eliza called, struggling to get the words out through blinking her tears away, still unable to rise to her feet. "Don't let Staraptor die for nothing! You got this!"
Roaring in rage over its personal space being invaded so effortlessly, Cloyster began to Rapid Spin in place, quickening its pace at a surprising rate, turning itself into a miniscule twister. It would be hard to get a hit off against it while it was spinning so quickly, the horns and spears jutting out of its shell were spinning so fast they were a blur. Passimian realized then that the Cloyster not only using Rapid Spin to protect itself defensively, but it also began rotating around the chamber floors, like a child's spinning top being let loose to dance across the floor, the momentum from spinning kicking up the dead bodies of the Snorunts, their small triangular bodies each flying in a different, random direction at high velocities. One of them almost went whizzing right into Eliza's face and probably would have broken her nose, but it missed her by inches and instead slammed into the walls behind her with a loud crack.
When it came to a point when there were at least 10 Snorunt bodies flying through the air, Passimian finally revealed his trump card against Cloyster. Passimian used some impressive movements and agility in order to leap up into the air, U-turning and ricocheting off of the dead bodies like a ping pong ball, remaining airborne the whole time whilst kicking off from one Snorunt to the next until the Passimian had successfully U-Turned himself directly above Cloyster and descended down on him with both fists glowing white and pummeling Cloyster's top shell with a +2 boosted Close Combat, causing Cloyster to stop spinning as his concentration was shattered from being slammed with fists at such a furious pace. Passimian left himself completely unguarded as he remained perched on top of Cloyster and just slammed fist after fist into the shell until at last the shell cracked, and Passimian's fist took one last swing that sunk straight through Cloyster's shell, the force of the punch conking Cloyster right on its soft, mushy head, knocking it out cold. Passimian had sunk his arm so deep into the Cloyster's shell that it reached his elbow, so it took Passimian several strenuous minutes of tugging before he managed to pull his right arm free.
Eliza had finally managed to gather up enough strength to stand up and make her way over to where her Staraptor had been struck down. She tried recalling his body parts with the pokeball futilely, but the red energy would reach out and grab ahold of the dead birds torso, then reel back into the pokeball, empty. Being unable to recall her old friends body, or even have the strength or resources to properly bury it in this freezing cold area filled her with guilt, and she was ashamed at herself when she finally spoke out loud for leaving her friend like this.
"We should go back," Eliza broke Passimian's thoughts just as the monkey was about to celebrate yet another victory for himself, then thought otherwise. "I can't stay here another minute. Adam might need us. Let's go back." Without waiting to see if Passimian even liked her idea or not, Eliza began limping back down the tunnel she had entered from in order to trek back to the entrance chamber. Passimian instantly was by her side and he stood upright in order to help Eliza walk, letting her lean on him for balance. The two of them then began the long walk back toward Adam and Snake.
"G-Gengar, Thunderbolt, keep it at bay," I said shakily, hating myself for hearing my voice crack, positive that Snake had heard it. The grim smile on his face implied that he did, and I could spot the nuances in that ugly mug even from the good 200 feet distance he had from me. Snake was all the way on the other side of the entrance chamber, on a higher ground than I was in the naturally lopsided room, with the ocean water having seeped into the massive chamber and drowned half of it, forming a pseudo lake inside of this one particular room in the lower regions of the glacier. Gengar was the only thing between me and the Nihilego casually drifting from Snake toward us, and even I could tell from Gengar's face that Gengar was wary of this guy, and Gengar was one of my most cocky yet perceptive pokemon. If his instincts were going off on Nihilego, there was a reason.
"Thunderbolt back," Snake reacted, chillingly calm. Nihilego's mere presence seemed to have soothed him from the screaming maniac he had been into a more calculating enemy.
Gengar fired off a crackling jolt of electricity from his palm that was well-aimed for the Nihilego, but the Nihilego raised one of its tentacles and fired back with an equally sparkling stream of lightning bolts that collided with Gengar's and exploded into fireworks of sparks and loud popping noises, as well as black smoke stirring in the air from the friction being generated by the power of their Thunderbolts clashing into each other. The burst of light from the source of energy radiated around the icy chamber in the cool blue darkness and illuminated every crack in the walls, every stir in the water. And it was all centered around the point of two extremely powerful pokemon holding each other at bay with their electrical attacks, neither Gengar nor Nihilego relenting.
But it clearly wasn't working, and the Nihilego appeared to be exerting far less energy than Gengar was, though not having facial expressions like most pokemon made it hard to be sure. Facial expressions. Even though it didn't have eyes, the stars on its face likely offered it some kind of vision, and thus could be blocked off, right?
"Sludge Bomb over Nihilego's face!" I suggested to Gengar.
Moving at phenomenal speed, within a moment, Gengar went from holding the Nihilego back with Thunderbolt to ceasing the attack, darting upwards at a 45 degree angle, reeling his hand back, and throwing a freshly formed sack of poison that flopped through the air toward the Nihilego's bulbous head like a water balloon. Gengar's speed was incredible to me, as not only was he the fastest member on my team by a landslide, but Gengar was just naturally faster than almost anything I'd bumped into in the entirety of Ilragorn, and thankfully that included this Nihilego.
Though Gengar's superb reaction times were some of the best in the land, and Gengar even got off his attack before Snake could react with a countermeasure, the Nihilego had wonderful battling instincts of its own - with a casual flick of a tentacle, Nihilego spouted a tidal wave of poison as Sludge Wave was shot out of multiple tentacles, enveloping the Sludge Bomb attack into its own wave of poison, absorbing it, and then continued on in its rush to meet Gengar, high in the sky and looking down in dismay as the Sludge Wave smashed into him, causing him to spin in mid-air, lose his balance for a few moments, but otherwise shake off the resisted hit.
"Your typical parlor tricks won't work against a pokemon with such natural fighting instinct," Snake said appreciatively toward his newfound weapon.
"Double team," I ignored Snake, my brain rattling with a million ideas on what to do to get an advantage against this Nihilego without letting Snake rattle me. I couldn't let him shake my confidence, because the moment I did that, I lost. Gengar blurred into a foggy substance for a moment, then split himself into two separate Gengars, different yet exactly the same in physical appearance. "Again!" I pushed the original Gengar further, and though the strained look on his face showed me that it wasn't easy, nevertheless he managed to split himself into three separate Gengars within seconds.
"Power Gem," commanded Snake in his serene tone, unfazed by the additional ghosts sprouting up.
Nihilego raised the two shortest of its tentacles where its arms would be, and from them it sprouted three gleaming rocks that resembled massive jewels, and each one fired off like a whizzing bullet at each Gengar.
"All of you, Shadow Ball the water into Nihilego!" I screamed, sweat beading down my forehead as the three soaring gems rushed toward them at an alarming speed.
Each Gengar whipped up a Shadow Ball no sweat and they all attempted to fire off their attack at the still, calm waters along the shore since Nihilego had approached so closely to where the Huntail had originally beached my poor Lapras and was leaving itself slightly vulnerable, being so close to the ocean water as a rock type. So while it made me increasingly anxious to see the Nihilego draw closer and closer toward me as I was getting cornered, at least I still had its natural weakness nearby to aid me.
Two of the gems sailed right through two of the Gengars before they could do a thing, instantly evaporating them the moment the rocks came in contact. The third gem skimmed Gengar along his side before crashing with a terrible crunching noise as it became lodged in the ice ceiling. Gengar had taken a bit of damage, but he successfully dodged the brunt of the attack while still firing off a Shadow Ball that descended at just the right angle into the water that it had a cannonball-like after effect of splashing and completely dousing Nihilego. There was a bizarre screeching sound coming from it that I imagined to be its alien way of screaming from being soaked in freezing water. Unrelenting on the sudden shift in advantage, Gengar had returned to a close proximity toward Nihilego and I, then fired off another Shadow Ball that exploded in a shower of black and purple ghostly energy upon Nihilego's round head.
"Nihilego, will you please Sandstorm and stop playing around?" Snake asked, still surprisingly congenial, so different than his usual raging self I was used to.
Still reeling, probably more in surprise than actual pain from taking Gengar's hit, Nihilego still responded to his trainers order with that same effortless speed and movement, swaying through the air with such grace, like an ice skater dancing around an ice rink. The natural cold air in the room was instantly replaced by a hoarse, thicker quality in the air as an impressively grand Sandstorm was being whipped up that was looking to fill the entire entrance chamber.
Nihilego then proceeded to launch its body toward the nearby levitating Gengar, who was adjusting to the newly added weight of sand whipping in every direction around the room as well as the fact that being a rock type, Nihilego now had a boost in its special defense with so much protective sand in the air to buffer all the hits my Gengar could throw at it.
Nihilego had forgone using its own special attacks and went for brute strength as it swung every tentacle it had in several attempts to bat Gengar across the room with a solid punch. Gengar was back-flipping through the air and side-stepping and even used his ghostly powers to become intangible momentarily to avoid a potentially battle-ending swing of a tentacle that phased right through Gengar. But he could only dodge so much in the middle of a raging sandstorm against a powerful ultra beast, as eventually an unexpected backhanded whip of an arm tentacle ended up slapping Gengar across the face and sending him flying into the icy floor with a painful crunch, face-down on the floor and looking down for the count.
"Power Gem to make sure he doesn't get back up," Snake said, though it was unnecessary because Nihilego had fired off the attack before Snake had even started the command.
"Gengar, incoming!" I called out in desperation, though all the signs pointed to the fact that Gengar would not be coming out on top in this fight.
The three rocks reminiscent of gems catapulted toward the and I wanted to close my eyes to brace myself for the impact of the rocks that might break Gengar's back at the velocity they were moving. I entertained the notion that Gengar was actually unconscious as he remained outstretched and unmoving on the floor while the Power Gem raced toward him.
Gengar pulled through and managed to sink his whole body into the floor in the nick of time, just barely evading the surefire knock-out of the Power Gem slamming into his back, the three rocks landing with a crash into the ice, cracking it and sending splinters and shards of ice in every direction, and Gengar remained hidden under the ground to avoid taking more hits from Nihilego.
Nihilego was swaying through the air, turning back and forth, all of its tentacles prodding at the air in a different direction, as if attempting to sniff out where exactly under the ground Gengar was hiding and biding his time before he would pop out with another attack. I didn't even want to give Gengar a command, preferring to let Gengar trust his own instincts and attack when he thought he should. Snake and Nihilego would be quick to react to any of my commands anyway and in a pinnacle moment like this, my battling instincts were assuring me to let Gengar follow through with whatever plan he might have at this juncture.
Ten seconds went by. Twenty. A minute. Getting nervous, I had to consider the option that maybe Gengar had actually been so worn down from battling that he had just fallen unconscious and was now lying trapped underneath the ground, unable to be freed by the fishing rod like mannerisms of his pokeball. Nihilego appeared to grow bored of waiting for Gengar, and it refocused its attention on me, as it stopped circling around the room with its large head looking down at the ground and instead began drifting back in my direction, back near the shoreline where I had remained the whole time.
My heart nearly exploded as the Nihilego approached me within arms-reach, and just as I began to accept that fate was closing in on me as its slimy white tentacles reached out to grab me, a loud boom and crack as the floor in front of me split in two as a singular crack of lightning erupted from the floor like an active volcano spewing its lava. The Thunderbolt Gengar fired through the ground struck Nihilego directly underneath its body, zapping its tentacles and the underside of its bell-shaped head. For a few moments I smiled at the beautiful sight of Gengar using me as bait in order to get off his electric attack on his guarded opponent, but the boost to his defenses from the Sandstorm certainly helped the Nihilego shrug off the damage without too much stress. My smile faded as Nihilego summoned up a Thunderbolt in return, shooting it out from its many tentacles straight down into the large crevice in the floor created by Gengar's attack. Though Nihilego's Thunderbolt seemed to spark and fizz with more energy than Gengar's, and by the screams of Gengar coming from below as the streams of lighting heading down overpowered the bolt of electricity shooting up, it became apparent that no matter how much Gengar could dodge and throw at this bastard, there came a point where you could tell when you were just outmatched. And fuck, I hate to say it, but my Gengar that had as good a reputation for winning as my Drapion just did not have the capability to take down a pokemon that belonged to Sir.
After witnessing the Nihilego Thunderbolt my Gengar into submission, I watched in horror as the jellyfish dropped down into the crevice in the ground, scooped up Gengar who was charred black and scorched from the electrical attacks thrust on him. Several layers of his purple body, such as his left ear, had somehow become completely severed in the scuffle and would need to be repaired at a pokemon center if he ever wanted that ear back. Gengar looked not just knocked out - he looked near death, and the Nihilego did not let up. Holding Gengar up with one arm, it then started to bash the unconscious Gengar with several of its heavy tentacles, drawing more blood coming out of Gengar's mouth and eyes, though Gengar remained out cold, his body shut down from the beating.
"Yes, well done. Kill it." Snake cooed.
"No! He's done you piece of shit! Return!" I said in frustration, grabbing Gengar's pokeball from my belt and pressing the recall button in order to save Gengar from being beaten to death.
Nihilego once again surprised me with doing what I thought was the impossible - any other time, the read beam of energy shoots out from the pokeball, snags the mon, then reels them back in. But Nihilego's reflexes were so unnatural and sharp that with a flick of a tentacle, without even turning its head while pummeling Gengar, Nihilego shot a Thunderbolt at the beam of energy from the pokeball, which caught and soaked up the electrical surge, ending with Gengar's ball short circuiting and me reflexively tossing it away as it burned and electrocuted, stinging my hand. The fried pokeball ended up landing a few meters out into the pseudo lake in the chamber, where it floated at the surface, still smoking from being tampered with.
Gengar was being beaten to death and now I couldn't even recall him into his pokeball. It was clear what the only option left was as I reached for the last available mon on my belt.
"Fuck! Drapion! It's up to you!" I was quick to release Drapion from his ball, slightly worried about Nihilego pulling off another rare feat of messing with the ball, but Drapion emerged from it just as he normally did, though the look on his face told me that Drapion was well aware of the dire predicament we had all landed ourselves in. Drapion's eyes were locked on Nihilego, who at last turned its head to pay notice to the new challenger.
"That fucking thing," Snake spoke, breaking his long silence as well as breaking the sure, confident tone he had been using since Nihilego had entered the battlefield. Snake was probably having a bit of a post traumatic stress moment at seeing the Drapion that had long ago been a small bug known as Skorupi that had chomped his ear off in self defense in the Gord Woods. I recalled yelling at Skorupi in the aftermath of that fight, feeling guilty and cursing him to go ahead and leave my team like the Emolga that had justifiably abandoned me after barely surviving that first tussle with Snake, but Skorupi had just put himself back into his pokeball, even then when I was a much bigger dick that I saw myself as now. Drapion had always been loyal, from the very beginning, and it was only fitting that whether this long night ends with my blood on the floor or Snake's, it felt right that it was ending with Drapion by my side.
"Drapion, it's killing Gengar! Hurry, Knock Off until that fucking thing until it lets go!" I spat the words out in an urgent rush to get them out, and Drapion rushed at surprising speed for his usual pace, especially considering he was pushing past the racing winds of sand slapping at his face, slowly chipping away at his health and endurance.
"Nihilego, prioritize the pokemon that can actually damage you!" Snake ordered, the pleasant demeanor in his voice now completely gone, back to the rampaging, yelling, reckless trainer I remembered and hated.
Nihilego hesitated for the briefest of a second, then tossed Gengar aside with a lazy flick of a tentacle, Gengar slamming and bouncing off a rather large chunk of ice off to the side of the chamber, then sliding to the floor, looking more like a bag of coal than a Gengar with the amount of scorch marks, bruises, and dried blood coating his entire body. Nihilego floated angelically upwards toward the ceiling in order to get the high ground over Drapion since even an ultra beast can recognize by the size of those claws on his hands and the stingers on his tail that my Drapion could throw down when it came to physically fighting. I got the impression that Nihilego may have some incredible special defense not even including the Sandstorm, but it looked kind of fragile in the way its body moved so freely, and I wondered if its weakness could be in its physical spectrum. And even if it wasn't, Drapion hit so damn hard that this Nihilego was about to have a weakness to physical attacks as long as Drapion was out on the field. I needed to have that kind of confidence and keep it up if I wanted to secure this and not be brought down by this scumbag ever again.
Nihilego conjured up a second tidal wave of poison, but this one was twice the size of the first Sludge Wave that had simply given my Gengar a good shove. This one looked like it would cause serious damage upon slamming into Drapion, even if he did naturally resist it as a poison type.
"Why the fuck's it even stronger!?" I couldn't help asking out loud, baffled. Gengar and I had been giving it everything we had just to keep up against this monster, and we'd even gotten off a few good hits, but it made zero sense that after Gengar had worn it down so heavily, it was throwing off attacks with more power than it had at the very start of the battle when it was fresh.
"It's an ultra beast, you fucking moron kid," insulted Snake. "They all have the same ability, how hard is it to remember one ability amongst 11 pokemon?"
I gathered by his response this Nihilego's ability boosted its attack power upon beating a pokemon. I would look up the exact name later, as well as what these other 10 pokemon could be because I had never heard of ultra beasts in my readings and web browsing in my bedroom back in Lunaris. Evan had never mentioned them either in his self-absorbed dinner table rants about his 'epic' journey around Ilragorn that I always found to be overblown or exaggerated in his version of things. But Evan always had been narcissistic.
Nihilego rushed the Sludge Wave into Drapion who tackled it head on, unafraid, his claws tearing through the incredibly thick, wet cement-like material of Nihilego's boosted attack to press forward at the floating threat, leaping off from the cold floor using his four stubby legs, and his right arm raised high, reading to Knock Off something hard.
"Power Ge-" Snake tried, but shifted his tune to a roar of anger when Drapion landed his fist atop Nihilego's head, delivering a solid Knock Off that propelled the beast downward and into the large pool of water with a loud splash. Drapion landed with grace back down on the icy floors along the center of the chamber, but dashed over to join me by the waters edge so he could be close by when Nihilego emerged.
"As soon as it gets out, Knock Off it right back in, hard as you can," I told a nodding Drapion who kept his gaze locked on the water. Right on cue, Nihilego splashed out from not too far away from us, once again screeching that awful metallic, alien cry that reverberated and echoed around the vast entrance chamber. Drapion leaped from his spot, arm once again raised and ready to slam dunk the ultra beast right back into the water with no fear, but Nihilego's reflexes kicked into overdrive as the jellyfish did some impressive dodging as it leaned its vulnerable head away from Drapion's fast approaching clawed fist and Drapion did a clean miss, his arm swishing through thin air as the Nihilego started to drift away, but Drapion's tail was ready to step up where the arm failed, and the two stingers at the tip of his tail stabbed themselves into one of the longest tentacles, the one trailing behind it the farthest as it flew through the air.
Instead of Drapion diving empty-handed into the water, his tail was now latched onto Nihilego, and both pokemon were quick to react to this sudden pairing. Drapion didn't have the leverage or the angle to really raise his fists and bring them down in a solid Knock Off the way he normally could since Nihilego was flying around in circles above the pseudo lake trying to shake him off, so Drapion had settled for stabbing with his claws at the many tentacles that were beating at him. Drapion's Poison Jabs didn't do nearly as much damage as a Knock Off, but both pokemon were acting ravenous and wild, their movements so quick but losing their fluidity. Drapion attacked in jagged, wild patterns and it was forcing the Nihilego to remain on guard, be defensive rather than offensive, and finally lose some of that effortless swaying and sweeping through the air to dodge everything it had been doing this whole battle that was starting to piss me off.
"Leer!" I suggested to Drapion. There was no way he could perform a Swords Dance while dangling for dear life with his tail onto the spinning Nihilego, so I settled for Drapion using his eyes to flash a bright white light like the flash of a camera, effectively weakening Nihilego's defenses. Not as good as a Swords Dance, but it had its uses in some situations like this.
"Power Gem Drapion off! Send it into the lake!" Snake said, his voice showing worry after seeing the flash of light of Leer.
Nihilego at last mustered enough space between the Drapion and its tentacles in order to fire a powerful Power Gem directly out from underneath its head, meaning it hit Drapion right at full momentum, full force, since Drapion was dangling about three feet under the Nihilego's head. The propulsion of the three pretty rocks did indeed send Drapion whizzing down through the air into the lake - however, the stingers in his tail had apparently gotten in that tentacle really deep, because Nihilego ended up being dragged right along behind Drapion, like a balloon being held by a child racing after an ice cream truck. Both pokemon crashed in the lake, splattering the dark water in every direction. It was at this point I noticed the water was no longer blue, but black, as it had become so late in the day that there was so little light left to give the water some color as at last the Sandstorm settled away and the midnight chill returned to the air.
There was some fumbling and tussling no doubt going on under the water, as there was a bevy of bubbles and venom bubbling up to the surface of the water as the two poison types clashed claw to tentacle under the water, attempting to disengage each other and be rid of the other.
"Thunderbolt with everything you got, Nihilego! Do not lose to this fucking piece of shit pokemon! I will not lose to that fucking thing! KILL IT!" screamed Snake, saliva spewing from his lips.
"Drapion!" I shouted, but my mind was blank. I didn't know what to do in the moment as I experienced what professional trainers call 'choking' as I was watched helplessly as Drapion had to endure such a terrible hit underwater, alone, with no guidance from his useless partner.
The entirety of the lake within the half-submerged entrance chamber lit up with yellow sparks as thousands and thousands of volts of electricity surged through the water, lighting the entire chamber for a moment and showing just how big a room it was, yet so empty and uninviting and barren. Drapion ended up shooting out of the water, being expelled by the force of an incredibly powerful Thunderbolt that sent Drapion crashing into the high ceiling, sending several large chunks of ice falling down onto the floor and reminding me of a chandelier shattering as shards of ice shattered in every direction. Drapion fell a long way down with a sharp crack on the floor on top of the sharp pieces of ice, leaving both a huge dent in the floor where he landed and leaving the side of his body where he landed heavily bruised from the fall, as well as bleeding profusely from the chipped ice shards that had stabbed into him when he crash landed. The sight of Drapion's fall sent my confidence declining to join Snake's frozen Eelektross at the bottom of the ocean, while it sent Snake into a laughing fit.
The ocean water wasn't sparking and glowing yellow with electricity anymore, but several dozen water pokemon floated up to the surface where the dead bodies of Luvdiscs, Duckletts, and Finneons would remain, all of them smelling like burned rubber from being overwhelmed past the point of unconsciousness. Nihilego popped out of the water once more, shaking off the water as it ascended in a frenzied rage, slapping at its rocky head frantically in an effort to scrape off the excess water and once again screeching that robotic wail.
"Drapion, oh Arceus, I'm sorry!" I apologized to my mon who was attempting to lift himself up into a standing position, though his arms were shaking uncontrollably from the effort. He had taken a ton of damage from the tussle underwater as well as the boosted Thunderbolt, but he wasn't giving up. I was under the impression both pokemon were down to their last breaths - whatever this next play with Drapion was, it was probably the last one. Same applied to the Nihilego, whose metallic voice was breathing heavy with effort and who itself didn't look like it could one more hit.
"Yes!" screamed Snake in angry ecstasy, pumping his fists with adrenaline surging through him. "Finally! I want to see you slit Drapion's throat, Nihilego! But cut off his fucking ears first! (Does it even have ears?) JUST CUT EVERYTHING OFF! POWER GEM THIS FUCKING THING AND KILL IT ALREADY SO IT CAN STOP FUCKING FOLLOWING ME IN MY NIGHTMARES!"
"Drapion, Knock Off the gems and get close! You have to get close!" I countered, terror in my gut but my voice was confident and it prompted Drapion to at last manage to stand up straight, and he had picked up something from the floor while doing it, though it was clutched in his clawed right hand.
Three small meteors shot out of Nihilego's tentacles at their usual insane speed, aimed straight at Drapion's head. Though slightly sluggish from the fight, Drapion raised both his arms at lightning speed, and - boom, boom - he brought one arm down to smack away the first rock, the second arm swung down narrowly missed but connected and that gem went flying into the ground right at Drapion's feet. With both arms at his sides, Drapion was vulnerable to the third gem as it bopped Drapion right in his chin, ricocheting Drapion's head back from the momentum, forcing his mouth to slam shut, biting his tongue and drawing blood in his mouth.
Laughing hysterically, Snake turned his attention away for just a moment, probably thinking Drapion would fall to the floor again in exhaustion. But Drapion recovered seamlessly, spitting blood along with a tooth out of his mouth as it it was an everyday thing, no big deal, and then Drapion charged toward the Nihilego who, unlike Snake, did not let down its guard.
Nihilego had already begun ascending higher than just its usual few feet above ground as it noticed Drapion advancing, and was a good 10 feet in the air by the time Drapion got close.
"Drapion, keep it close and Aqua Tail it!" I ordered as Drapion bounded an impressive 8, 9, 10 feet into the air, finally revealing what he had in his hand - a rather long, sharp icicle that had fallen from the ceiling when he'd crashed into it. Reeling his arm back as Drapion reached the peak of how high he could jump, Drapion managed to just barely stab the icicle into one of Nihilego's soft, gelatinous tentacles. With the icicle pierced deep into Nihilego's tentacle, as Drapion was pushed back down by the forces of gravity, with both his fists clamped tight around the base of the icicle, Drapion dragged Nihilego back down to the floor, Nihilego screeching in pain and bashing its tentacles into Drapion the whole way down in protest. I noticed that Drapion had stabbed Nihilego in a sensitive area rather than into its head where the icicle would have likely broke. Smart Drapion. Very smart.
With both pokemon tumbling back down to earth with a crash, Drapion never letting go of the icicle so that Nihilego couldn't just levitate upwards and escape, Drapion raised his large purple tail, which had never looked so good than right there. Drapion's entire tail became coated in a thick layer of water, which Drapion bashed right into Nihilego's head with full force, splashing water all over both pokemon upon impact. Nihilego was knocked back into the ocean from the blowback of being hit with the Aqua Tail, but it was clear that the Aqua Tail had done him in long before he splashed back into the water and didn't come back up.
Drapion fell to his knees, eyes clenched in pain, blood pouring of his mouth and along his sides, and he seemed to be having trouble breathing.
"You did it," I whispered to Drapion while rubbing his shoulder the way I knew he liked after a hard fight (where was rare for Drapion), aware that Snake was still nearby, and wanting this moment to be somewhat personal and private, however impossible with that piece of shit still so close. "You fucking did it. You beat an ultra beast that belonged to the leader of Team Anonymous. You're officially, like, the strongest pokemon on the island. Take it easy, buddy. I got it from here. Well fucking done."
Snake roared and and screamed out things that weren't words. They were just animalistic nonsense and perfectly said all the things he was incapable of forming into coherent sentences at that moment. After a few seconds, it was mildly disturbing. But when he kept on doing it, literally two minutes later, I began to consider that Snake was undergoing some kind of temporary insanity from the shock of losing.
"You piece of shit," I said in response to his babble. "I oughta kill you right now for all the bullshit you've done. And I'm sure I'm not the only person whose life you've fucked with. I bet I'd be doing the world a favor."
"Arkhkdffffuckk you!" Snake managed to utter.
"He speaks!" I was mildly enjoying tormenting him. If that made me a bad guy, I don't care.
"Gyyyaarrrdrtt you fucking stupid idiot dumb kid! You think it's over just because you beat me! You think you're safe and sound and you can go on getting your badges and joining your little league and doing whatever you want - after tussling with Team Anonymous!? You're dead! You're dead no matter what you do! YOU'RE DEAD!"
Snake then turned around and darted into one of the tunnels on the far side of the entrance chamber, still screaming that I was dead the whole time, his voice echoing throughout the chamber. He had no pokemon left to take him out of here, and the cold temperatures hopefully would do him in. Or some Anonymous agents knew where he's at or can track him somehow and they could potentially be here soon. Either way, I was too tired to chase after him, and Drapion didn't even have the energy to stand. I recalled Drapion to his pokeball and used the opportunity to grab the only Revival Herb I had purchased from Goldenleaf''s Herbal Store as it had a funky smell to it much more so than the regularly distributed Revives and didn't want my bag smelling bad. I used the Revival Herb which had to be poured into a small hole on the side of Lapras' pokeball manually rather than inserted quick-and-easy like the Revives. I also picked up Gengar's pokeball, examining it to see if it could still recall his fainted body. It ended up still working, but when I walked up to Gengar to scope the damage done to him, and I didn't think it could happen, but he looked even worse than Drapion. Gengar looked shriveled and deflated, void of life completely, and my heart nearly stopped to join him in panic as I fell to my knees and pressed my ears against his chest to listen for a heartbeat. There it was, faint but there. I had never seen a pokemon look so beaten and near death, and I recalled Gengar with a pang of anxiety over what Nurse Joy would say. Surely she could patch even this up.
Just as I was pulling my bag around my shoulders and getting ready to head down the tunnel Eliza and Passimian had raced down, they were coming around a corner of the tunnel, Passimian on his hind legs and helping Eliza walk. Passimian himself looked like he has been fighting hard himself, and I silently thanked him for guarding Eliza so well.
"Oh, Adam!" Eliza broke into a slobbery mess of tears as she approached me in a hug, and I assumed she had a near-death experience of some sorts.
"It's okay, I know, I was scared, too. We made it, though. We're all alright." I told her to comfort her, but she pulled away from me harshly.
"No, we're all not! Staraptor!" Eliza broke down into sobs again, and I filled in the blanks.
I did my best to comfort Eliza as I released Lapras from her pokeball and told Lapras to get us the fuck out of here and to the Isle of Naporia as fast as possible, because it was now the middle of the night and the race against the clock had never been so close. It wasn't hard navigating us out of the entrance chamber, as we just had to follow the stream of water down a few long, glistening ice tunnels until we emerged back out into the open ocean after finding the crack in the glacier. It was supremely dark out, even more than inside the caverns. Lapras continued southbound through the waters in the night as fast as she could go while Eliza clung to my back and I allowed her to cry into it for the entirety of the remaining journey.
It was maybe an hour when even in the darkness of night, we spotted the large mass of land in the distance where the fourth and final gym remained - the Isle of Naporia.
The sounds of crazed shouting and heavy, uneven footsteps echoed throughout the many tunnels back in the icy caverns, even long after the teenagers and their pokemon partners had fled. Snake had retreated to a place in his mind of denial. Unwilling to cope with the fact that the battle was over and that he had lost against Adam, even with so many advantages, or rather especially with so many advantages, Snake was now running around screaming "you're dead!" to nobody. His erratic behavior and brazen attitude of charging headfirst through the tunnels was warding off wild ice pokemon in his path, and they were quick to move out of his way or hide in the nooks and crannies of the walls.
There was one particular pokemon that did not bother moving out of Snake's way on his laps through the caverns. This pokemon had been lying in a somewhat stupor in the middle of one of the tunnels, and a dark pool of red was seeping underneath it. Deep in its slumber, the pokemon paid no heed to the random calls of a stranger nearby. However, when Snake came sprinting down the corridor and ended up slamming the full weight of his foot right down on the tail of his blinded Seviper, the snake only reacted in instinct when it lashed out in anger, hissing and spitting as it bit down in blind retaliation at the intruder who had attacked it in its sleep. Though its fangs had been knocked out, the teeth in the back of its throat still had plenty of poison leftover just waiting to be used.
Snake's screams of pain and horror carried out throughout the chambers as his own Seviper sank its venom into him, lashing and biting and spitting until - as all the wild ice pokemon in the caverns breathed a sigh of relief - the screams finally faded.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
This one took nearly a month to finish but it was worth it and I'm very pleased with the final product and am happy to close the door on Snake with much love put into his final battle. I originally was going to have the ultra beast be Xurkitree as it was slightly more snakelike out of the two, but with including Eelektross onto Snake's team and the two being so similar, plus Nihilego's just more cinematic and visual appeal in general IMO, more interesting movepool, plus his acces to Tbolt allowing me to play with electricity just the same as I would have with Xurkitree - very glad I used Nihilego in the end. But our heroes are finally reaching the Isle of Naporia, and here is where 32 chapters of building up a solid team, getting all these gym badges, fighting off annoying trainers, establishing a relationship and trust between Adam + Eliza, showing the extent that Sir and Evan are willing to go with their plans, and connecting Anonymous to Adam through Snake's botched robbery will all come crashing down on everyones heads and I'm so, so excited to deliver my readers a truly epic finale and climax to say goodbye to Ilragorn, the place that's been haunting the back of my mind for 3 years and I'm just so glad for any reader out there that gets to discover it with me.