Raven and Kalahair returned to the others and Simon asked, "What was the cause of the Crystal failure?"
"Nothing," told Raven and Eve shook her head. "I know you lie."
"It doesn't matter. What it does instead is that we have 5 months of sure stability for his arm, and the amazons are already close. We have to talk to their chief," Kalahari said.
"The amazons?" asked Simon and Eve suddenly and she continued, "Don't they have their man hunt now to get a mate for one of their top ranks?"
"They have," groaned Raven. "And I am not fighting their arena matches!"
"For who is the mate?" asked Simon and Eve told. "I think for the queen."
"Then I say no," told the sneasel. "Though I don't know where we get somebody who would be willingly mate with this fire dragon."
"Mmmh... Ha! Maybe I have someone!" Walter exclaimed.
"And who?" asked Eve in curiosity
Walter snickered at the thought of his candidate, "Can you teleport me to the castle Kalahari? Our fool is there."
"Sure."
Eve and Simon looked at each other in confusion and turned to their Brozong follower, "Do you know who he is talking about?"
"Oh yeah, Boris the Ursaring. He always bragged about being able to defeat the amazons and being mate with them," Louis rolled his eyes.
"Everybody is aware that he has to fight dozens of potential other mates?" asked Raven. "And then we talk about the Queen herself. If even only the half of the rumors are true, she can rip a Gyrados in two halves with her bare hands."
"Pff those are only rumors. Anyway, he would be able, he's stupid, but strong," Walter replied.
"Ever have been by the amazon's?" asked Eve. "I was and I have to say... many of the rumors I heard were true."
"Stop talking! We have to get a new alliance and get to the temples," told Raven.
"That's right, we don't have much time to think," Kalahari said as he got ready to teleport.
Simon took Raven and told, "We make sure he rest up before we go to the Fire Temple."
Eve wondered, "Should we wait for you guys or rather start traveling to the next temple?"
She took the map out and mused, "The next ones were are either Water or Dark Temple... both having their elemental clans as backup."
"You can wait for us. We won't take long. Just an hour or so," Kalahari said.
"Good!" told Simon but Raven interrupted, "Ask for any news about this demon mother... we have to try and stop the demon from being born or at least the possibility of being reborn."
"Alright. Let's go Walter," Kalahari ordered.
"Yes. See ya later guys!" Walter exclaimed, and in few seconds they were gone.
And Simon brought Raven to bed. The zangoose did fight a little but due to the aftereffects of the procedure he went through recently he was too tired and was soon sound asleep.
After a short travel, Kalahari and Walter were at the castle, searching for their warrior, and possibly some information about the demon.
Unconfortably the demon wasn't killed yet but some clues about who the 'mother' was might be gotten; though the most complicated part would be to kill her since she was under heavy guard now.
"It feels so bad to kill an innocent woman," Walter complained sadly.
"I know, but if this can spare the world from the end, her sacrifice won't be in vain, that's for sure," the Alakazamn replied.
And then they found their planned champion... they only had to get him into agreeing into the fight and smuggle him into the amazon arena with the other 'champions'.
"Hahaha! You kidding me? I've already defeated them by only thinking about it," Boris said.
"Ok, ok champion, follow us," Walter said, not amused at all.
They teleported to the boarders of the amazon territory so Boris could be 'captured' by them. The two who found and 'got' him were a pair of already nice looking Grovyles with sharp-looking spears.
"Hehehe, come at me ladies! Taste my claws!"
"..." Walter had to close his peck to not laugh.
"He's simply pathetic," one of the Grovyles said.
What Boris didn't expect was... these two grass types got him on the ground in just 3 minutes.
"Should we bring him to the others?" asked one of them and the other told. "The orders are clear! Every male we find are brought to the Rooster!"
The two guards called for a backup to carry the bear away to the other males they captured so far and only an hour later he found himself in a large prison cell with dozens of other male Pokémons.
A Nidoking walked up to Boris and asked, "Did the chicks got you as well?"
The Ursaring spitted at him in anger and looked away.
"I knew it," Walter said facepalming.
"We have to occur the plan B. Raven, will have to talk with the Queen and convince her to talk with the amazon's chief," Kalahari said.
"I hope you can fight well or you might die fast in the tournament."
Boris didn't say anything, shame burned too much.
The Nidoking just left.
Some time later, three amazons came in and the leading one shouted, "Alright! I want your attention since I will only explain this once!"
The Ursaring raised his head up just enough to have eye contact with the females.
"Alright! We are now preparing you all for the tournament! We take one of you at a time preparing and sending you to the waiting room! Once there you will learn the rule of the tournament! Understood?"
All the males nodded or said a muttered, "Yes."
"Good! We start by taking this guy!" told the amazon and pointed Boris at random
The bear scoffed and got up.
The two other guards grabbed him and pulled him out of the prison into a room with some Chanseys and Floatzels. First they took his clothes off before putting on a loin cloth and drawing with different colors made of berries symbols on his body.
Then they handed him a spear and gestured to exit on the other door to the waiting room.
"Why the hell all of this is happening?" he cursed inside.
It took a few hours until every male who was in the prison were brought to the trainings room. They all wore the same clothings and a Blaziken moved in, "Alright guys! Listen up! Once the doors open, you move out to the field and wait until the queen finishes her speech! Once you have the start signal you fight each other until the last one is standing!"
Then she looked around, "For the battle: every move is allowed to force your opponents on the ground! We don't care if you knock each other out or kill each other! The winner of you bunch will be the mate of our queen!"
Suddenly Boris's mood changed, "No matter if we kill each other? That's great," he said his mind with an evil smirk. "My dears... don't disappoint me," he thought again looking at his claws.
She moved to him and held a blade to his throat with narrowed eyes, "You are not fighting us! You are fighting each other!"
"Hey what's gotten you?" he asked pushing the blade away. "I'm not deaf, I heard every single word."
"It just sounded like a challange from you!" she chuckled and began to leave while the doors opened.
Boris scoffed as he followed the mass of males out of the door, ready for anything.
They found themselves inside a large arena with thousands of amazons watching them, roaring in the sight of the future fallen.
Then a roar was heard and everything went silent while in the sky something came flying down. It was a black Charizard landing on the tribune reserved for the ruler of the amazons, it roared into the arena and shoot fire into the air.
"Welcome! Welcome to the battles of choosing!" shouted the Charizard, who wore shoulder amor of metal and leather armor while having ritual tattoos over the whole body.
"I am not a woman of many words! I want to see action! Now you dick wearers, fight! Fight and prove one of you is worthy to be my mate! The father of my offspring! And none of you should disappoint me! Or the mateship will not last long!"
The males roared their own battle cry and raised their weapons, no one wanted to disappoint her, mostly 'cause they surely didn't want to die. As she gave the signal, chaos blew. Boris on his side, already striked a couple of males, "Hehe, too easy."
But then a spear passed his head and an Aggron stomped towards him, having taking weapons of other mons and his body covered in blood.
Unfortunately, Walter and Kalahari watched everything.
"Oh no... we lost him..."
"No wait! He's getting up!" the bear was going back on his feet as he faced the steel type and hit the only vulnerable part, inside his mouth.
The Aggron gagged and stumbled back revealing a hole in his steel armor, leaving an opportunity to attack the heart.
"FOR MY HONOR!" the Ursaring roared as he stabbed his claws inside his non-shielded body.
The steel type stared at Boris while life faded out of his eyes and his heart stopping slowy.
The Ursaring grinned as he kicked his stomach to push him down, as a Sceptile attacked but readily he stabbed him too.
A look around the field revealed that many have been defeated already and only a handful of really powerful mons were left standing... and surprisingly also a Pichu was under the surviving fighters.
Boris couldn't hold back a laugh, he was both surprised and amused.
But then he saw the Pichu jumping at a Tyranitar and breaking its neck without effort.
Boris gulped now in pure horror, "How can a so tiny insect be so strong?!"
The Pichu looked around to see who was his next victim.
"I must be quick," Boris said as he prepared a new attack, waiting for the Pichu to tag him.
The little electric-type grabbed two spears and stormed towards Boris, intending to turning him into swiss cheese.
Boris snarled as he lowered his body and waited for the right moment, when the little insect would be close enough to be stomped on.
But as the electric mouse came close, its cheeks sparked with electricity and it jumped, sending a thunderbolt at him.
The Ursaring didn't expect it, he tried his best to fight it back and crash the enemy with a powerful Dynamic Punch.
Due the fact the Pichu couldn't move in mid air, the punch connected and he flew at a wall, leaving a visible dent on it.
The electric-type gasped before falling on the ground, not moving at all.
Boris smirked as he looked around to avoid any bad surprised.
Only two more opponents were left, ready to draw Borins into the brawl.
They were fighting each other, Boris studied them as they ignored him, he waited for one of them to stand and fight him, and if he was lucky, the opponent would be drained enough to be killed with a single strike.
But suddenly he heard the queen roar, and a fire ball impacted in front of his feet, an indication from the queen that he has to fight! No waiting games.
The Ursaring roared back as he shot an Hyper Beam at the Queen.
And her Flamethrower stopped it while dozens of archers were aiming arrows at him.
The Ursaring glared at all the aiming archers, he didn't fear them at all.
"GET INTO THE FIGHT OR DIE HERE!" she shouted to him.
"Tsk you don't scare me woman!"
The watchers mumbled to each other, wondering if the Ursaring was crazy to challenge their queen like that.
As he looked at them, he heard a battle cry approaching, and turning he watched the last standing warrior running to him, so he took back his weapon and stabbed his uncovered leg.
The warrior roared in pain but proceeded in attacking him.
He got hit at his face and dropped on his back, but his legs were free to attack back.
His opponent tried stabbing his stomach with the spear.
"Oh don't even think about it!" as he says it, Boris kicked his hand and the spear away, jumping up he grabbed a sword and swung at the warrior, who gasped as the blade cut his stomach and he held the wound, getting on the ground.
The Ursaring grinned as he jumped holding the sword so to stab his oponent as soon as he landed on his feet.
He gasped and held the blade before his strenght left him.
The Ursaring looked down at his last victim, before looking up at the Charizard amazon and roared in victory.
She took off and landed in front of him, showing she has a very impressive size for her kind.
The Ursaring didn't look impressed very much, even if honestly he was terrified. He just stared at her, "Well? Have I shown to be worthy of you?"
"It was impressive that you defeated my nephew..." was her reply, glancing at the Pichu that was waking up. "Still... the just waiting out as the other two were fighting wasn't something I agree on!"
"Mhf! So I guess I lost anyway?"
"I give you a chance," she smirked. "Survive fighting me for 10 minutes and you win."
"Challenge accepted. But it'll be a real pokémon fight, no weapons, just our strength and moves."
"Fine!" she told before turning around. "CLEAR THIS ARENA!"
And in this instant the amazons began to remove the bodies. The pichu glared at Boris, "Next time we fight, I kill you!"
"You lost!" told the queen to the pichu. "So I am out of your possible wins! Don't push your luck just because you are the only male offspring of us amazons that managed to be a strong warrior!"
Boris looked at the Pichu holding back a laugh. He may be lethal, but he was always a tiny furball.
"I wouldn't laugh," told the Queen. "His mother might atempt to kill you. He is a pride of our people! The only male born in our rows who deserved to be in the ranks of our amazons."
"I apologize."
The Pichu glared but listened to his queen and left.
She looked around, "I wonder how many survived this time..."
"No idea, but the few ones surely rushed away from this hell."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Just an idea."
"Some always stay for the next round," she replied and once the field was clear, she got into battle position.
"Fools," he replies taking battle position as well.
She roared and shot a flamethrower at him.
Boris dodged and replied with Hyper Beam.
The two attacks collided and the resulting explostion caused smoke.
Boris had troubles to move, due to Hyper Beam draining his energies.
She came storming out with a roar, ready to attack him with her claws.
He shook his head and gained back his focus, glaring back at her.
She Slashed at him, showing she was deep serious in testing him.
The bear roared in pain as he fell on his back.
She put a foot on his body, ready to use her flames on his head if he didn't do something fast.
Boris replied with another Hyper Beam right on her face.
She shouted in pain and stepped back, being angered now.
He slowly got on his feet and attacked with Drain Punch.
She roared and grabbed his hand, throwing him across the arena and the amazons cheered while one who got in hearing range told, "The queen is playing around again!"
He groaned, glaring at the queen as he threw a Shadow Ball at her.
She flew at the Shadow Ball head on, got hit but didn't slow down her charge against him, getting Dragon Claws ready.
Boris prepared another Shadow Ball to use as shield.
She slashed at the Shadow Ball to break through before attempting to throw him into the air. If he learnt one thing about her in this fight than this: she is no joke!
Too late, he's already out.
She roared and shot her fire fiercely at him, causing destruction on the battle field which made hard to move on.
Boris dropped on the ground as a dead body, after only 6 minutes of fighting the amazon queen.
She moved over to see if he was really dead or just pretending to be so.
She didn't need to check, he was dead for real.
She roared in victory but also in slight disappointment. A good challenge for her but in the end unworthy of hers. Spreading her wings she began to fly up.
At this point, only a talk between queens could solve the things and gain the amazon's trust.
After some hours the queen returned to her quarters.
"Our fool is dead," Walter said as he and Kalahari went back to their friends.
They were already waiting for them and Raven asked, "How did it go?"
"Good, until his guard went off and the queen roasted him."
"I should have warned you that underestimating the queen is deadly," sighed Eve. "What now?"
"Now Palette has to negotiate with her," told Raven. "Which might be dangerous... after all I don't know how much respect the queen might show to her and also she won't be in a good mood since her attempt to gain a mate failed."
"The queen is good with diplomacy. She'll convince that witch like nothing."
"If I knew it would affect anything, I would go with her to make sure nothing happens to her," admited Raven.
"Mmmh, I don't know if she'll appreciate a male's presence.
"I doubt it."
"Oh well, we shall call the queen."
"Take me with you," told Raven. " It'll better when I explain it myself... then we go directly to the Fire Temple."
"Alright," Kalahari nodded
"Let me get our equipment," told Simon. "Then we can go."
"Ok Raven, but hurry up."
They nodded and packed everything in short time and were ready.
After focusing for a minute, Kalahari teleported them to the castle of Queen Amanda.
Raven moved towards the front gate and looked for the reaction of the guards.
"Who's there!?" a Floatzel guard exclaimed.
"My name is Raven and I request to speak with Queen Palette."
"This is the queen decision. Mark, call the queen and tell her there's a Zangoose who's asking for her guest."
"Of course!" told Mark and moves in, looking for his queen.
Queen Amanda was enjoying a chat with her sister in the garden, walking through flowers of any kind.
The guard came close but didn't dare to interupt them.
Amanda noticed the guard and gingerly interrupted her sister, "Excuse me sister, but a guard has a news. What's up Mark?"
"In the front gate there is a Zangoose, requesting a talk with your guest."
"Palette?" Amanda turned her look.
"A Zangoose? Raven!" the Pyroar gasped as she rushed at the entrance.
Raven was waiting there.
"Raven!" Palette called hi rushing at the gate.
"Hello Your Majesty," replied Raven and bowed.
Palette smiled at him, "What's the reason of your visit?"
Raven looked around and explained, "Not here out on the gate. Can we talk somewhere private?"
"Of course. Can you open the gate, Clark?"
"Of course your Majesty," the Floatzel obeyed and opened a smaller portion of the gate, revealing a hidden door. As reaction Raven whistled in surprise and went with her.
Palette smiled at him as they walked in the woods nearby, "So, what do you have to tell me? Do you have information about the Crown of Arceus?"
"We have," told Raven. "We have to go to the type temples to prevent that Amadeus gets entry to the hidden temple of Arceus."
"But every temple is protected by strong warriors!"
"I know," told Raven. "That's why we are going to talk with each of them in hope they understand the situation..."
"Mhf, that will be dangerous. You need a strong ally by your side," countered Palette and Raven explained, "I have my two friends, two guardians and a messanger."
"That's not enough Raven. You need a whole army," argued the fire type.
"I am not planning attacking them," told Raven. "But good that you mentioned army... we are thinking of winning the amazons as ally but... the first attempt failed with the death of the send guy. And now we... want to ask you to talk with their queen. As woman you have a tons of better chances than any of us guys," spoke Raven, causing Palette to be surprised. "What!?... Heh, I guess you're right. Their chief is a black Charizard from Kalos, am I right?"
Nodding, told Raven, "That's correct... and the one we tried to send was killed as he fought against her to prove he was a worthy mate."
"Mhf... alright, I'll try and talk with her," sighed Palette.
"Thank you," was Ravens reply. " Though I feel uneasy to let you go alone... but what can I do?"
"Mh, you may ask your friend Eve to stay by my side for any case. Amazons will trust more of a female guardian," argued the Pyroar
"I know... she is waiting with the others," told Raven and then he changed the topic. "How are you feeling?"
"I am fine. Thanks for asking," Palette replied.
"And the child?" wondered Raven, gazing at her.
"... It's going good it seems," smiled Palette.
"I am glad to hear that," smiled Raven, wanting to hug her but didn't know if he could.
"Listen up Raven. When all this madness is over... I wish you to become my king."
Raven looked in surprise and took a step back. Then he told, "It is honorful for this offer but... I have no clue about how to rule a kingdom."
"I will guide you in your first steps," Palette smiled. "But I'm sure you'll be able to rule, surely better than Amadeus."
"Thank you... for your trust into me," told Raven. "I will give my best to be a good ruler... but also a good mate for you and a good father for our two children," indicating he accepted Soraya already as his daughter in his heart.
"I'm sure you'll be," replied Palette.
He smiled to her and asked, "Is it... safe here to hold you?"
Palette giggled, "I guess it is."
He pulled her close and whispered, "I love you..."
As reply, she wrapped her arms around him, not saying a word. He just held her for a while before slowly telling, "I think we should go back..."
Agreeing she told, "Right."
And they returned to the others.
"Is all okay Your Majesty?" Louis asked.
"Yes, is all okay. We can go."
"I wish you luck," told Raven and turned to Eve. "Have an eye out for her."
"Of course Raven," told the magican.
Settling few more details, Kalahari teleported them back… planning what to do when Palette returns from the amazons.