CHAPTER 3 CHALLENGER
THHUMMMMMMM!
The impact of Daruuks strike left a small crater on the dampened ground, breaking up the earth. Kirai is already in the air, performing a midair triple backflip to land firmly on his feet.
Daruuk immediately goes back into the offensive with fast speeds, rearing to claw at his son with a quick barrage of fury swipes. Kirai does well to react accordingly, evading the strikes with relative ease as he stays on his toes. Daruuk changes up the pace by popping off a quick windmill breakdance maneuver, causing Kirai to back off and trip on himself. He catches himself and backflips once more, barely avoiding a sudden slash attack from his father.
*Pant *Pant *Pant
Kirai is starting fatigue a little.
"Growing tired already?!" Daruuk asks at the top of his lungs.
"Hmph, just warming up." Kirai answers as he darts for one of the nearby tree branches in a split second, then lands a quick strike on Daruuk's head, causing him to stumble on his footing.
"Ugh, damn." Daruuk mumbles under his breath. Meanwhile, Kirai takes another jab at his backside, causing Daruuk to fall face-first on the ground. Daruuk grunts as he quickly gets back onto his feet.
"Damn this!" Daruuk yells as he stomps the ground with his right foot at full strength.
THHHOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMM!
The hard impact sends a strong shockwave across the area, breaking up the ground and causing the surrounding trees to collapse almost in unison. Kirai, standing on one of these falling trees, loses his balance and jumps into the air to regain his stature, only to be struck by a hard-hitting brick break to the chest.
"Gaaaawwwww!" Kirai shrieks in pain before he hits the ground harshly, sprouting dust clouds into the air.
*Cough *Cough
Kirai struggles to lift himself out of his mud angel that formed on the ground. He quickly brushes himself off in order to evade an incoming second brick break from Daruuk. Kirai proceeds to dart at the fallen trees, simultaneously readying an iron tail to snap off the branches slightly over his height. In quick time, he grabs hold of two, one in his left arm, and the other in his mouth.
"I wonder what you're planning!" Daruuk yells as he rushes after Kirai at full throttle, rearing up for a slash attack from behind. Kirai bounces up high into the air with an iron tail slam on the ground for an upward thrust. He's has hid himself in the fog somewhat.
"Taking to the skies, huh? Someone's eager to go to heaven!" Daruuk shouts energetically as he jumps after him.
In the fog, and at the peak of his momentous height, Kirai releases the branch initially clamped by his teeth. He, then, lightly plants his feet on the thick branch and pushes off hard from the surface of the wood towards the ground. From that, he's able to catch a faint sighting of Daruuk. As a follow up, he places the second branch in front of himself and immediately starts breaking up the branch into smaller wooden pellets with multiple brick breaks of his own. The pellets were like bullets, coming in fast on Daruuk who couldn't see the attack coming fast enough because of the fog.
"Aahhhh what!?" Daruuk panics as he attempts to shield his body, blocking several pellets that are piercing his skin, revealing slivers blood.
"Aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Daruuk screams in pain as one pellet manages to hit the corner of his right eye. He still tucks in his right arm in the moment as Kirai comes in fast with his own move, focus punch.
"Don't get cocky!" Daruuk warns loudly as he takes this chance to slash at Kirai with his right arm, only missing by a small margin. In that split moment, Kirai also takes this chance to land his focus punch on Daruuk's side torso.
CRRRAAACKKKK!
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" Dauurk screams as he is launched across the air like a shooting star, crashing into a tree and tumbling down into the ground, sprouting a line of dust cloud debris. Kirai lands shakily on all fours, still a bit exhausted from that entire sequence of attacks. He looks over on the destruction he has caused in tiresome worriness.
"Damn . . please be alive . . ." Kirai thinks to himself seriously as he breathes somewhat heavily. A few short moments later, a plethora of Daruuk clones come charging out from the crash site towards Kirai, trapping him in place as they run clockwise in a circular pattern.
"Ah shit…double team" Kirai curses quietly as he gets back up on his hind legs to remain alert. The clones keep up the same act until one of them breaks from the pact to strike Kirai. In response, Kirai dodges the in coming strike by ducking his head; the rest of the clones begin to follow the initial fake's charge. Kiria performs a swift sequence of fluid dodges, ducks, flips and even iron tail windmill breakdance to eliminate the rest of the fakes. Before he could even react, Daruuk comes charging in with a large branch. He slams his son's stomach with the more flattened end of the branch, launching him into a far-off tree to the side.
"Uooooggghhhh!" Kirai yelps as his back hits the tree bark roughly. His vision is blurry for a few seconds, barely catching glimpses of the four new Daruuk clones that were closing in fast. Above all, he sees the same large branch being thrown his direction. Kirai does a backwards jump onto the tree on all fours, barely dodging the wooden projectile. In that instant, he bounces off the tree to dash straight at the Daruuk farthest to the back, whom of which threw the branch.
"Oh, someone's getting smart." Daruuk compliments as he prepares his brick break. Kirai does the same, resulting in a clash between the two. They cancel out each others blows, but they continue their brawl by letting their double-handed brick breaks do the talking. Kirai simeotaneously performs several spinning iron tails in midair for added pressure. Daruuk, however, manages to block out the hits, and even grabs Kirai's tail with a quick clap of his hands.
"Ha! I gotcha!" Daruuk blurts excitedly as he begins to slam Kirai's body onto the ground, face-first, while holding onto his tail with one hand. Kirai grunts in pain.
"Aaahhhhh!" Daruuk yells as he performs the same attack motion in the other direction, successfully pulling off the maneuver the second time.
"Uhh Ugghh Damn this..." Kirai mumbles angrily to himself as he shocks his dad with a thunderbolt attack, causing him to scream in pain. After the electrocution, Daruuk is shaken up quite a bit, giving Kirai an opportunity to escape his tail grasp and land a quick iron tail to the left hip.
"Ahh!" Daruuk shrieks as he places his paws over the injured area. Kirai breathes heavily again, standing on all-fours as he studies his dad's motions, wondering what he'll do next. Even Daruuk pants quite a bit from the action as he, too, looks at his son's body language. The two stare off at one another for what seems like forever.
Out of nowhere, Daruuk decides to rapidly dig up the uneven soil with sharp claws, causing dust and debri to form into the air. Some of the dust particles get into Kirai's left eye, leaving him to wipe it off in frustration. Suddenly, another swarm consisting of four Daruuks come jumping out from the same smokescreen-like display. This time, the clones waste no time to strike Kirai with aerial attacks from the front and behind. Kirai, this time around, has a harder time dodging the attacks, even resorting to punching the last fake into oblivion.
"Shit! Then that means . . ." Kirai thinks to himself instantly as he turns around to a strong slash attack to the left cheek. The laceration spills out two lines of blood as Kirai rolls and tumbles uncontrollably across the ground, finally halting on his backside after the impact. He's beat now; his breathing patterns are becoming rapid and faint. Daruuk eventually maintains his breathing after a full minute, still stuck in the same pose that finished off his son.
After a few moments of passed, he slowly walks over to look down on his son with his right eye still half closed. Kirai still retains some of his consciousness to see the silhouette of his father tower over him, and as such, his breathing becomes well enough to produce speech. The two, once again, stare off at each other without uttering a single word for a few more moments.
"Well . . . looks like . . I lost." Kirai admits in a raspy voice. He takes his eyes off of his dad to look at the foggy grayish sky; the blood from the slash wounds descends around the circumference of his his, eventually touching the soil. Daruuk kneels down to stop the bleeding by placing a paw on the open wounds.
"It would seem that way, Kirai." Daruuk rubs in as he walks over to Kirai's brown bag to unzip and locate an oran berry. He walks back over to his son, kneeling down again to raise to sit Kirai up with right paw, and feeding Kirai the berry with the other. Kirai motions that he can feed himself by taking and eating the oran berry, only in a slower manner than usual. As Daruuk waits for his son to finish the fruit, he continues to pad down Kirai's wounds with his open paw.
"So what?" Daruuk asks blatantly. Kirai pauses in his meal.
"What do you mean . . 'so what?' If this were a fight to the death . . I would be dead by now." Kirai says in a disappointed tone as he finishes his meal.
"Yeah, but so would I." Daruuk admits, leaving Kirai's face in astonishment.
"That's right. Don't start doubting your strength now, son. If you could put up with me like the way you did, I would say you're a winner in that regard." Daruuk praises solemnly as he leans his son into his chest to embrace him in his arms. Kirai takes a deep breath.
"But I'm not worthy of moving on . . if I couldn't pass the test. You have to be lying." Kirai assumes in a defeated tone of voice.
"No . . I'm not." Daruuk says truthfully as his voice starts to sounds shaky and griefful. Kirai looks a little more concerned for his dad, now.
"I'm just glad to see (sniff) that I haven't killed you . . ." Daruuk states wholeheartedly as he starts to shed tears from his eyes. Kirai is taken aback by his father's change in emotional state.
" . . . Dad . . ." Kirai murmurs as he closes his eye and accepts his father's warm embrace. The two remain in that position for several minutes; Daruuk eventually calms himself and remains silent. The fog still resides in its mistful cloudiness.
At this time, the two have separated themselves from each other. Kirai, with a sufficient amount of restored strength, goes back to his bag slowly. Daruuk stands on his feet with his arms crossed.
"Well, I reckon you're about to head off now right?" Daruuk asks to break the silence. Kirai keeps on moving.
"Yes sirree, I gotta keep moving right? Otherwise, I'll only be a sitting ducklett." Kirai comments back. Daruuk snickers as he shrugs his shoulders.
"Alrighty then, well before you run off, I wanted to spare you some poké for the trip, it could go a long way." Daruuk proposes as he reaches into the pocket of his scarf to pull out the small golden coins. Kirai looks back and looks quite grateful.
"Thank you for the offer, but my pride and generosity is telling me to decline it. Not to mention, I couldn't even beat you, again. Perhaps, when I come back, I'll be a stronger pokemon, worthy of your humbleness dad." Kirai brings up, causing Daruuk to stomp his foot in slight rage, even surprising Kirai. Daruuk takes a deep breath to calm himself down.
"Despite being an electric type, you're not very bright, are you son?" Daruuk asks rhetorically; one of Kirai's pointed ears slant downwards in a curious gesture.
"What do you mean?" Kirai asks in slight confusion.
"Hmm . . never mind, you'll figure out Kirai, for if I had to give you any feedback for this fight, it's that you judge yourself too hard after all is said and done instead of looking back at the subtle causes that may have lead to your defeat." Daruuk informs as he starts to walk in the direction the family burrow is at. Kirai remains silent, still curious to hear any additional information.
Once Daruuk walks a bit past his son, he stops and turns his neck to catch sight of Kirai from the corner of his eye. "Believe me, it doesn't matter who you fight or what the situation might be. It's very important that you're able to learn that skill, because for someone such as yourself, self-doubt is the last thing you need." Daruuk says firmly, Kirai nods his head accordingly.
"Yes sir." Kirai responds with genuine respect for the message.
Daruuk sighs in exhaustion as he tries to crack his neck and stretch his arms. "Well Kirai, it seems you'll be alright for the rest of your journey, and to that, I bid you farewell. The Square has a dojo area that you can rest up at whenever you feel the need to do so. And overall, stay alive my son; starting up a rescue team can be quite challenging, but boy is it awarding when it's fully realized. Just as a heads-up, a starter such as yourself well probably do simple errands before moving up in the ranks. And just be sure to stop by at home every once and awhile." Daruuk suggests as he grins back at his son who simply looks back with a slightly saddened look in his eyes.
"But wait a minute, does Riley and-" Kirai goes on before being cut off.
"Don't worry about that, they'll be alright. I know I told them that you weren't moving out, so now I feel bad, but at least that gives them the impression that you should come back, eventually." Daruuk reassures Kirai. The latter felt somewhat relieved to hear that, although it does bother him a bit that he couldn't give a proper farewell to his siblings.
"Not to mention, your strong ol papa will keep them in good shape, no doubt. They'll be too busy getting their bratty little asses kicked to worry about your whereabouts." Daruuk claims as he grabs onto his right shoulder, rotating his entire right arm clockwise as a means to show off his readiness and strength. Kirai chuckles at the display.
"Whatever you say dad. Just make sure not to go crazy on them, especially with them being pichus and all." Kirai suggests.
"I promise they'll be fine." Daruuk confirms with a frank smile.
"Alright, and tell them and momma that I love them, and that I will try to be as safe as I can be." Kirai relays his father. Daruuk nods.
"Indeed I will. The oran berry you ate should be taking full effect by now . . you should be able to move around more easily than before, and your blood wounds should be patched up now." Daruuk says as Kirai checks his own flesh only to see that his once open wounds are sealed with newly formed skin cells. He also runs around in a circle as though he we a dog trying to catch its own tail. Kirai stops and feels pumped.
"Alright, nice! I swear, the oran berries should just be called the holy berries instead." Kirai says, Daruuk nods in agreement.
"Yes they should, perhaps I'll have a talk with our Lord Arceus about the classifications of our foods one day. Hopefully he doesn't pass judgment on me when I do." Daruuk laughs and Kirai laughs along consequently for a few moments.
"Well, I should be heading back to the burrow now. I sure hope they're still asleep as it would probably be very awkward if they found out what took place this morning between us." Daruuk states, Kirai smirks in response.
"I agree 100%." Kirai says as he waves off to his now running-away father. Afterwards, Kirai collapses on his bottom to reflect back on the events that just took place. At that moment, he looks up to see the sun's faint, but visible glare in the sky; hiding just beyond the fog.
"At least the sun is still out, which means no rain for the remainder of the journey and the fog should clear up even-" Kirai suddenly has a second thought as his eyes widen.
"Wait a minute! The fog itself!" Kirai blurts out in realization of the negative consequences it has on electric type attacks. Kirai is stunned on how slow he was to see that such a detrimental weather condition was visually plain in sight. He gives himself a well-deserved face palm and chuckles at himself for it.
"What the hell Kirai? Get your brain together." Kirai encourages to himself he stands on his feet to grab an apple to replenish the rest of his energy and fill his stomach with better sustenance. As he unzips his bag further, he notices something strange.
"Hmm . . I should have nine oran berries, not eight . . ." He calculates with a raised brow. A few moments later, he places his left paw on his forehead, chuckling out loud.
"Sneaky bastard." Kirai mutters to himself.
CHAPTER 3 END
