So I revised the first chapter again, and added some stuff. Some worldbuilding and a more natural feeling buildup were what I was going for.


Thunk

An arrow lodged into another tree beside me. I fired once blindly in the vague direction it came from. The rain above had finally started to fall, the cold biting at me as I ran.

[Where are we going?] Scarlet asked in a worried voice.

Pain erupted in my shoulder as something pierced into it. I yelled out in pain, barely being able to continue running. Agony swirled around my mind in a relentless assault with every step. I caught a glance of the arrow now buried in my shoulder; and it didn't look good.

I pushed through the throbbing pain. Coughing out a few words for her to catch onto. "Narkin- Ridge-"

[We will not make it together at this rate.] She tried to pull away. [I will hold them off.]

I desperately gripped her handle tighter in response. "NO, we're almost there… just a minute or two more is all we need."

An arrow lodged itself into the ground in front of us. I gasped and ducked behind a tree as another skimmed past my leg. The rapid thumping of Luson's footsteps caught in my ear before a bitter cold of the shadows surrounded me. Scarlet yanked me out, an annoyed sounding yelp came from the Zoroark as something hit him

Scarlet's voice was flattering. [We can not keep dodging this forever. The Decidueye prevents our escape through the shadows, and the Zoroark is not making things any better. Just run and let me slow them down.]

I wordlessly shook my head, the memories twisted and churned. Of things I've lost, of people I hurt, of the things I wanted to save but couldn't. I refuse to let it happen again. My heavy breaths became lighter, the fire in me burning with one single goal to complete.

Determination and will to continue no matter the odds, all to keep those around you safe. My older brother… he'd have a lot to say on the matter. And I would not let him down.

My scarf began to faintly glow.

Luson and the Decidueye looked on in horror as it intensified. Scarlet's band was glowing with a translucent shield surrounding her. But I thought that runes only worked in mystery dungeons... what was going on?

I pushed the question back, the pain from the arrow in my shoulder begging me to simply run and not look back.

A panged chuckle escaped me as an idea came to mind. "Stay on my back, and pray I don't run out of breath."


"This way," Lloyd whispered carefully. "It's preparing another shot."

Ace nodded to his team. The Zoroark grimaced as it silently moved in, Salem kept a tight lock on her emotions… but even despite that… fear leaked from her mind. Ace followed behind her with a similar expression on him, though he was more firm.

The tension in the air was palpable and mixed with plenty of emotions. Fear being the most prevalent, fear of our unknown enemy… I still felt Mason's doubts even now. Even he wasn't completely sure on what to do.

[Steel yourself, good doctor,] Ronin said in a neutral voice. [Stress isn't a good thing to be dwelling on just before a fight.]

I've dealt with these problems for all my life, yet they never get any easier. [It's hard to… besides, I'm used to it.]

[Well if you aren't going to do it for your sake, it's bleeding into my mind as well and throwing me off.]

A twinge of guilt struck me. [Oh, right, sorry-]

[Just slow down. Worry only about the now, not the past, nor future. Imagine it like old times when we were raiding those old human ruins in Cretia.]

I took a deep breath and tried to smile despite the situation. [I'll try my best.]

Ronin nodded, a reassuring smile planted on his face. He was firm in his emotions like a stone wall. His ruby red eyes softly gazing into my own as our feelings intermingled. The world always seemed to slow when we did this, though I could feel him mentally nudging me to stay alert.

[I could stare into your eyes forever... but we've got a job to do now.] Ronin reminded as he faced Lloyd's back.

Ace's team looked to be in position, the Inteleon flashed Lloyd a hand signal to go further right on our way inwards. He led the way, carefully ducking and weaving through the brush as he went. Thus far, the plan was going smoothly.

I just hoped Mason didn't get hit-

Four loud bangs echoed out in the distance, too far to be from this thing… why was Mason shooting? My confusion turned to worry as another bang rang out. Did Luson somehow track us here?

Ronin grit his teeth. [That can't be good.]

"Lloyd, why isn't Ace starting us off?" I asked with concern starting to flood through me.

He shook his head as a water shuriken appeared in his right hand. "I'm going in for an attempt to disarm it. Get ready to make a shield with psyshock in front of me after I strike… in case I need someone to, uh, bail me out."

"Ready whenever you are then," I said as my crystal began to glow.

Out hidden in the forest was a shape just out of place, black as the midnight sky and deathly silent as a predator hunting its prey. The only discernible color on its body was that of its golden mask. What it depicted was too far out for me to take a good guess…

I could make out the form of its weapon in the distance. It was definitely bigger than any of the weapons Mason had, no wonder he wanted it.

It's mind was… unfeelable… like it was a blank space. It couldn't be a dark type, or else it'd repulse even the slightest touch of my psychic powers and cause me grave problems. Where dark types disrupt mind and emotion… this thing seemed to be a void for it. Just what were these monsters?

A shiver ran up my spine from a cold droplet of water running down my shoulder. I caught a glance of Lloyd bringing some of the storm down upon us, probably for cover on his approach.

Lloyd took a deep breath as he briefly twirled the shuriken in his hand. "Welp… here goes nothing."

He burst across the forest canopy with finesse, his target none the wiser as the rain masked his rapid approach. It's weapon was still trained in the opposite direction from us, its golden mask indicating that it was looking in the same direction as well.

Lloyd should have an easy time here. He's done this hundreds of times before, why should now be any different? I silently stepped out a little with my crystal still glowing with anticipation.

The fleeting seconds seemed to stretch out as he descended upon it. His shuriken flew from his hand, colliding with its head. A spray of black mist hissed into the air as a blood-curdling scream ripped through the forest.

It's golden mask began to glow a bright light-


The arrows had stopped coming for a solid two minutes. Guess the Decidueye realized they wouldn't work against whatever this shield band was.

Instead, he was constantly trying to get an angle in front of me. He kept shifting around through the forest at great speeds using shadow sneak. Getting the occasional shot off that I had hide behind a tree to avoid, only for Luson to strike just as it happens.

Each time left me more and more tired… my wounds and muscles were throbbing horribly with every step… the arrow buried in my shoulder was starting to feel like it burned… my legs and lungs felt like they were about to fail.

Some level of relief flowed through me as the entrance to Narkin Roost came into view. An itch at the back of my mind brought me here- calling to me. I didn't even understand what it was...

I simply ran, I had nothing to rely on other than what I thought would be right.

Something fizzled in my vision as I approached the entrance-

What little air in my lungs was knocked out of them as I was slammed onto the ground. Claws gouged into my shoulders with the form of a Zoroark slowly reappearing on me. "Gotcha~"

Scarlet had ended up a few meters away, the Decidueye was already on her. Pinned to the ground by its powers. It nocked an arrow, putting the edge inside the tiny shield. My struggling only earned the agony in my shoulders to multiply.

I couldn't reload in time, I couldn't throw a blast seed, I couldn't put Luson in a position advantageous to me. There was nothing I could do to stop it physically.

"You're here for me, not her." I spat.

The Decidueye sighed as it pulled the arrow back. "No loose ends. I'm sure you understand."

"You really think it makes a difference? Do you have any idea how many people where I'm from have done exactly those things and still get caught in the end?" I chuckled in a state of almost delirium with my situation. "I haven't been here long, two days, as a matter of fact. But that's enough time for me to know something you ain't taking into consideration…"

Luson growled. "And what may that be?"

"Wouldn't killing her simply make you a bigger target even if you decide to just run for the hills? I'm sure rumor would spread fast about a Zoroark kidnapping a human, but imagine what'd happen when they realize you also killed a royal family member for the Etyth mountain fortress-"

I flinched as an arrow embedded itself in the ground beside me. Fear briefly flashed across his face. "She. is. WHAT?"

"You heard me the first time."

He contemplated what I said, staring at Scarlet as she glared at me. Hopefully what I said doesn't backfire. My mind was quickly drawn away, my breaths were still ragged and everything felt like it was on fire. And I still had no way out.

All I was doing was making sure she got out alive at the very least.

A high pitched almost human-sounding scream echoed out in the distance, abruptly being cut off as my scarf's glowing intensified. My skin around where my skin met the scarf tingled as something flowed through me. I looked back to Scarlet, her band's shield glowed brighter.

This scarf was supposed to allow me to teleport, right? I grabbed the arrow with my left hand as vague sense flowed through me as to where I could go.

I breathed out-

Luson's eyes went wide as I disappeared from his grasp. There was no blinding light, merely the realization where I was ending up. I plunged the arrow left as I reappeared, blood spurting out from the Decidueye's chest as it tore into him.

I grabbed Scarlet with my right hand as I pulled away and swung downwards. Clipping the top of head with the edge. Her ribbon wrapped around my arm and pulled me into a nearby shadow, it's cold embrace all too familiar at this point.

Light quickly returned to my vision, finding ourselves at the mouth of the cave. The arrow in my shoulder still burned and throbbed in agony, my breaths were bated, and even my mind was starting to slip. We carefully made our way in, me limping behind her as we continued our escape.

"I think that was the first time in my life where me being royalty did something arguably good." Scarlet nervously chuckled.

I laughed with her. "Tell you what, after this is over you can tell me what the deal is with you."

"Maybe I will, human… maybe I will…"

The darkness of the cave swallowed us, the pitter patter of the rain starting to become muffled. The call in the back of my mind only grew stronger with every step...


Lloyd took a deep breath as he briefly twirled the shuriken in his hand. "Welp… here goes nothing-"

Ronin pushed him away as something shattered his glowing crystal into thousands of flickering pieces. Time seemed to slow to a crawl as each of them twinkled in the light as they fell, mixed with his crimson blood that flowed from a hole in his chest.

I stood frozen in place, my mind clouding as he screamed in pain. The light from what little of the crystal that was left on his chest fizzled out. Our psychic connection snapped, the emotions were already overloading me. Tears were already at my eyes as I dropped to him.

An explosion rocked the area, knocking my bag off my shoulder as Lloyd yelled in rage. I dared not look anywhere other than at him.

"I- I can't heal this properly-" I sputtered out as Ronin coughed up blood. The hole in his chest was profusely bleeding, my quaking hands were outstretched, the glow of my own crystal dulling every time I tried to heal it.

My powers were repulsed from the wound like it was dealt by a dark or metal type. I grit my teeth, rapidly digging through my bag for bandages. Tears were blurring my vision, the shakiness of my hands only amplifying my ineptitude.

Hastily I pulled them out the second I found them. Practically throwing myself over to Ronin's still form, his green and white body tainted by red. He was still breathing, barely…

No matter what I tried, I couldn't seal the wound on his chest with my powers. I wrapped it tightly as I could with bandages. Ronin grabbed my arm, desperately looking up to meet my eyes. "That… thing… shot something…" He pointed to the wound. "It's… stuck…"

My eyes widened in shock as I tore the bandages off as the realization crashed through me. In his wound was a small object. I grimaced worriedly and met his wordless gaze. "This is going to… hurt."

He weakly nodded while gritting his teeth. I plunged my fingers in after whatever it was, feeling a small hard object that definitely shouldn't be there. Ronin groaned in pain as my fingers wrapped around it and pulled whatever it was out.

It was a small… metallic object…

I tossed it away as I realized the bleeding had become worse. My crystal glowed, finally my powers were able to flow into the wound. A small bit of relief came over me as the wound nearly completely closed up, but it quickly left as I realized I couldn't fix it all the way.

The wound was too deep, too destructive for my powers alone in a single session. I wrapped it back up in bandages hoping to stop it from bleeding further. Ronin shakily pointed off to the intense fight happening in the clearing. "Go help… them…"

"Y- you still n- need help-"

Ronin feasibly grabbed my hand. "There isn't… anything else… that… you… can… fix…"

I slowly rose, now able to see the true extent of his state. The tears finally fell from my eyes as everything overwhelmed me. The remnants of his crystal were scattered about as tiny twinkles in the grass and dirt, like candles, they were slowly losing their light.

Blood still stained him and was dripping out of gashes all over him. Sharpened pieces from the shattered crystal were embedded in him… I could still feel his pain despite it all.

"GO-" he broke into a coughing fit. Barely giving himself time to recover, he hardly was able to speak. "I'll be damned if… it… kills someone… because… you're… here and… not… there…"

I stared into his pleading eyes. Despite everything, his will was steadfast and unmoving. I wearily nodded, ripping myself away from the scene as I ran to the sounds of battle.

Please be there when I come back.


"What are you doing, human?" Scarlet asked as I put a hand to my head. The call had gotten stronger as we stared out over the plateau overlooking the ocean. I felt… a pull to somewhere specifically.

I pointed out to the furthest end. "It's… calling to me…"

"You have got a Arceus-damned arrow stuck in your shoulder, we are getting chased by mercenaries, and you are trying to find where the VOICES IN YOUR HEAD ARE? ARE YOU MAD?"

The sense from before had returned, the scarf must be signalling that I'm able to teleport again. Except this time… I could go much further out. "I'm investigating this, then we use our badges regroup. You can go back now but I'm staying until I figure out what it is." I stomped off.

"Well now I have to help you," Scarlet retorted. "I can not have one of the only humans in this world killing themselves over something insane."

I grabbed her handle as I figured out where we would land, the landscape popped into view again as the noises of the crashing ocean could be heard. I heard her make some metallic clicks that I assumed were out of shock.

The pull drew me to look out into the ocean. Off in the distance, far from here… I saw a bright green glow. "Do you see that?"

"I do... looks like you are not completely mad after all."

I squinted, still unable to see what exactly it was. "What is it? I can't get a good look."

"It is… oh- OH IT IS COMING RIGHT TOWARDS US-" Scarlet grabbed my arm and dragged me into the shadows as an explosion shook the area. The short lived cold sending a shiver up my spine as we reappeared in a smoke cloud. The green glow was laying on the ground in a heap. We both stayed frozen, not wanting to disturb whatever this thing was.

[I'm… sorry…]

Scarlet and I glanced to one another as confusion overtook the both of us. She was hearing this voice as well.

"What are you?" I stammered out.

It shifted slightly, the smoke gone revealed its tiny green body. [An echo… of a long fallen guardian…] Scarlet bowed immediately, but I did not know why.

[Your kind was never supposed to come here… human…]

I nodded my head as annoyance crept into my tone. "Well obviously that's the case. An entire cult is chasing me because they want me dead-"

[No… they don't want to kill you…]

"Then spit it out," I retorted. "What do they want?"

[There were others before you… brought here because our collected minds were desperate… they figured out why humans were chosen… and we were foolish to think the secret would remain hidden...] The green form rose from the ground and slowly turned around. A name echoed around in my head; Celebi. [You've seen the reason why twice already...]

I thought about what happened against Luson and the Decidueye, I knew what would happen. I thought about how the Reflection killed me, it never showed up like… I rolled differently with a bunch of dice. "Those resets… what are they?"

[The souls of humans… can change fate… you have seen it first hand thanks to the volatile nature of time here… but you are not invincible… and there are many who have their minds… stolen from them… yet their souls remain… still turning the flow of fate...]

"W- what?"

Celebi bowed its head. [I'm sorry… human… I am out of time…-]

Something flew into the echo of Celebi, severing it away like a hologram in a sci-fi film. Leaving me with more questions than answers. At least I found out that I wasn't quite going insane just yet…

"Scarlet, are you okay?" I noticed she was flat on the ground, like she was knocked unconscious.

She slowly rose back up, if I had to guess, a little confused with what happened. "Did something happen?"

"Freaky mystery dungeon shit," I said. Paranoia had come back for round three, and I didn't really know who I could trust with this information an apparent echo of Celebi gave me. I gestured to our badges. "Lets get the fuck out of here, get Merek, and go back for the rest of them."

Scarlet nodded. "Though I would recommend you stay behind-"

"Nah, I'm not risking that shit again… we're staying together from now on."


A loud bang tore through the forest as a hole appeared in the tree bark beside me. Scattering bits and pieces of it everywhere.

My grief had since turned to anger, with every strike I tried to land this thing merely dodged it perfectly. Ace could hardly keep up with it, shooting water faster than the eye can blink but still being at a stalemate with its speed.

The monster's projectiles bounced off of Lance's armor as he kept applying pressure. Our opponent jumped into the air before taking another shot off at someone else. I was stretched to my limit with every shield I threw up, barely being able to predict its movements.

Noivern grabbed it from out of the sky, ripping its weapon away with his mouth and throwing it towards me. I caught it and held onto it desperately, how would Mason use this thing? How does this thing even work?

I put it off to my side as Noivern threw it into the ground, blood dripping from its talons and face. The monster threw something onto the ground before a cloud of smoke exploded across the area. It leapt out towards Lloyd with a short sharp blade.

I reached out with psychic, freezing it's weapon in place. "NOW, LLOYD."

Lloyd sliced with a blade of water, severing the hand with the weapon. A pitch black mist flowing from its wound. He cut relentlessly as it tried to back away, he grabbed its arm and pulled downwards before thrusting it through the back of its head.

Water flowed from around him onto it, it wrapped around the monster before it was thrown into the air. Ace called out before three water-based projectiles ripped into it's golden mask. Noivern came back around in the sky, a loud thump echoed out as it sent the golden masked monster back down to earth. Salem jumped out of a tree and stabbed it with her claws, ripping into it as a horrific screech sounded out.

A blast of mist sent Salem back, she disappeared back into the trees, waiting for another moment.

The golden mask had shed its body, and was beginning to glow a bright light-

It shattered to pieces in an explosion of gold as a deafening crack echoed out. I looked to my left, seeing Ronin had taken its weapon and used it. He had used a tree to lean on, blood still covered him and stained his bandages. His red eyes looked as willed as ever… but with a little more emptiness in them.

I put a hand under his shoulder as we limped

I felt the pull of a familiar psychic teleporting in nearby. Merek appeared in the treeline of the clearing with Mason and Scarlet. The human had an arrow in the back of his left shoulder along with various cuts and bruises, while Scarlet was barely able to continue levitating on her own without him for support.

"Glad to see everyone is mostly fi-" Mason shut his mouth as his gaze met Ronin, he looked away as guilt brewed up in him. "So what happened?"

Ronin spoke, calmly and without spite. "I noticed it seemed to know we were coming. I pushed Lloyd out of the way of a shot meant for him… and now I don't know what's next for me."

"It… knew you were coming?" Something stirred in the back of the human's mind.

"It seemed that way." Ronin tossed the weapon to Mason. "Though I don't quite know how, everything up until then was going perfectly according to your plan."

Lloyd sighed, a dejected look coming over him. "So, uh, everyone needs some kind of medical attention, let's not waste any time here."


Of course it escaped despite our best efforts not to fail. But this time, it wasn't either mine or Luson's fault. No, this time it was just fated that way it would seem.

Arwin refused to elaborate on what happened, but apparently they know what exactly happened out there. Luson was mad, very mad even, so he stomped off to go kill some ferals to blow off some steam while I nursed my wounds.

The arrow in my chest wasn't the worst thing to get out, it just hurt a lot. No, the thing that really hurt was the gash on the top of my head. I crushed up numerous Oran berries and poured it on the cut, and it barely did anything other than stop the bleeding.

I could not tell what went wrong, it was like the human knew we were coming and despite that we almost had it. But… of course… there had to be the complication of its scarf working outside a mystery dungeon to add on.

What did we do wrong? Why did we fail? Everything was perfectly executed…

However not all we learned today was a lesson in learning from defeat. This Chosen Honedge being royalty made sense… and might allow for further avenues of securing mine and Luson's passage out of this damned frontier.

Until then, we'll just have to wait.