Wardens Eternal

Chapter Nine: Drenched Bluff

"Hold up, We're here," Martian announced as the duo approached the dark entrance to the labyrinth of a Mystery Dungeon hidden away upon the narrow rocky path that was subject to frequent sprays of salt water as the unruly waves crashed into the cliff below.

"Whoever set up shop here knew what they were doing, it wouldn't take much to defend this place from multiple attackers." Martian thought out loud, before shielding his face as another wave of mist bombarded him. He was starting to remember why he hated the ocean, way too much salt.

"I'll take the lead," The former human instructed, "Follow me and provide support but don't go off picking fights. Support, watch, and learn for now."

Scarlett quickly, but silently nodded. All of the sudden she didn't feel so good like she ate something that didn't agree with her, something that was twisting and pulling in her gut. But at the same time, she began to feel her paws and tails shaking and twitching, no longer able to stay still any longer. Whatever they were, she couldn't address them she just had to focus on Martian. . .

Wardens Eternal

The Mystery Dungeon's interior wasn't the nicest, mostly hard uneven gray stone and shallow pools of water. Occasionally the Wardens would run into a large stalagmite pillar they had to walk around, all while listening to the faint dripping of water from the ceiling. So far the only Pokemon the duo ran into yet were two Shelos who quickly fled rather than stay and fight.

The local Anorith however, were far more willing to attack the outsiders, usually by lying in wait in one of the many shallow pools and ambushing their targets with their two powerful pincers.

Another one of the Shrimp Pokemon shot out of the water on Martian's left with a charged X-scissor attack intent on cutting the electric type's side wide open. Martian never gave him the chance.

In one fluid motion Martian rolled onto his right side while grabbing the attacker by the face and flipped him over as he rolled back onto his feet slamming the Anorith's bony shell into the ground hard leaving him belly up, exposed and unable to retaliate.

A swift follow up Thunder Punch, and the shrimp stopped flailing and snapping his pincers, knocked out by the Luxio's attack. Yet another fight that Martian won in almost no time at all, and Scarlett was starting to see why:

It was all about controlling momentum and using it to your favor, striking at the right angles, using the environment to your advantage and turning your enemy's actions against them.

Another Anorith cut the Wardens off a little while later, but once he saw how large his opponent was he started having second thoughts. The rock/bug type-pokemon started to nervously walk backwards until a Shelos and a Chingling showed up and reinforced him. Now outnumbering the outsiders, the three hostile pokemon regained their courage and advanced, trying to force the Wardens back into a narrow corridor.

Martian didn't give them any ground, instead, he extended his claws to anchor himself to the floor as he inhaled deeply and closed his eyes for a moment. . .

The Luxio's roar was almost as loud as it was confident and courageous, echoing across the damp caves and throughout the dungeon. Asserting his dominance over the three hostiles, making it clear he was more than capable of taking them on.

It backfired.

It backfired allot.

Hostile Pokemon began to pile into the room behind the first three or took to the pools of water nearby. Now instead of having to fight three at once, the Wardens had to defeat three dozen hostile Pokemon all at once.

Martian didn't even flinch, if he was afraid of the horrible turn of events that now faced him, he wasn't going to let them see it.

But more surprisingly, Scarlett didn't flinch either. A fact that deep down terrified her, here she was about to get overrun by a horde of wild Pokemon and there was no way out. By all means, she should be terrified by now, running away as fast as she could or hide curled up under Protect. So why was she actually looking forward to this?

Because she was no longer a coward,

Not anymore.

Everyone stood silent for a few long moments, waiting for their opponents to make the first move or run away. It was almost like everyone was frozen in place unable to move. At least that was until Martian turned his head to check on his partner. The vulpix silently nodded as her chest began generating heat. Scarlett wasn't going to run, not this time.

Martian briefly grinned as he nodded back to his partner before turning to face the small army in front of him.

He charged right into the thick of the mob, teeth, and claws bared and charged.

The result was chaos. Clearly the defenders never actually thought that the luxio would be crazy enough to try and fight them all head on, and panicked as the continued to back up into each other, constricting themselves of any room to maneuver.

One Lileep tried to stand its ground and tried to catch the electric-type with its tentacles but only managed to pull Martian's Metal Claw right into its own face effectively knocking himself out and giving Martian the extra momentum to turn mid-air and hit another Shelos with an Iron Tail as he landed

Iron tail was quickly becoming his favorite move.

A Chingling managed to get free and turned to face the Luxio, eyes turning blue as it prepared a Confusion attack. . .

But Scarlett's Ember broke the little Physic type's focus, stopping the attack and buying time for the Fire Type to get in close and finish knocking it out with a tackle.

Martian spared a moment to acknowledge her save with a quick nod before discharging arcs of electricity at the remaining opponents who were starting to spread out.

The arcs jumped between them as they cried out in pain before they each kissed one of Martian's claws or tail while Scarlett hanged back, firing volleys of Ember attacks.

The fight was over as fast as it began with over twenty wild pokemon lying defeated around the chamber. Scarlett took a deep breath as she looked at her team's handiwork amazed at how they emerged relatively unharmed but stronger, faster, and more experienced. That felt so good.

The fire type jumped when Martian surprised her by placing his paw on her shoulder to see if she was okay. Her grin and that alive look in her eyes gave him his answer.

"You did good Scarlett, really good." The luxio complemented as he patted her on the shoulder before turning towards the final parts of the dungeon, "We still got a job to do. If there's a stash here, it will be just up ahead."

You did good Scarlett, really good.

Those six words meant everything to the vulpix, how long had she secretly dreamed of hearing those exact words from an explorer? Who cared! It just happened! The fire type stood frozen in disbelief for a second replaying the same words over and over in her mind before squealing giddily with joy as she ran to catch up to her partner.

Martian could only chuckle, that was the kind of treasure he was hoping to find throughout his career. . .

. . . Then again, lots of gold coin and valuable items was a nice find too.

A small chest sat against the back wall, some coin and various seeds spilling out of it. While the coin and the seeds were a nice find, the single pink pearl subtly vibrating with radiant physic energy was definitely the real prize.

"We can just take the chest back with us," Scarlett suggested, looking at all the gold coin with fascination.

"Looks like you got to go find treasure after all," Martian chuckled as he collected the pink sphere, "We can come back later to get the rest of it, grab what you can carry and let's go."

Scarlett nodded before scooping up a handful of coin and dumping it into a small coin purse held in a pocket in her scarf before taking off after her partner before she stopped in realization.

She and Martian had cleared a Mystery Dungeon, something she had dreamed of doing for years. She was finally able to work up the courage, skill, and strength to do something she had previously cowardly ran from.

Scarlett was changing into someone else entirely,

and enjoying every moment of it.