Dante was relieved to see that they had finally arrived at the final floor of the dungeon, and that it had a final floor at all. He threw the meagre supplies they had collected over the course of past week of travel to the ground and bent down to catch his breath. After losing his arm, his endurance seemed to take a significant dip and for some reason, his stump was buzzing with pain when the only problem he really had was exhaustion—though blitzing through the dungeon had forced him to use his flame many times, and his throat was beginning to grow raw.
"You OK?" Luca asked, concerned.
"Just... need a second," Dante heaved. "Stay ready."
"You think they're still following?"
"I h-hope so," Dante said, his breath finally starting to return. "Otherwise, they might wait at the exit, and then we're probably dead. Did you see their species?"
"No, I... I don't think I ever saw them. Just felt two distinct pulses of glee at having found us and aggression."
"If it was aggression, it's unlikely they left to go report us. We just have to hope they followed."
"So we're just jumping them as soon as they appear? Any plan beyond that?"
"Unless you can think of anything better, no."
Luca sighed. "OK." Dropping into a low combat stance, she visibly readied herself, both physically and mentally—and once he felt up to it, Dante did the same.
As the exhaustion from the chase fell into the background and the tension of waiting set in, Dante was having difficulty staying ready. Minutes blended together, and Dante accepted that he had to relax at some point; if he stayed tense the entire time, he would be exhausted enough that if they actually appeared, he would be far less effective than if he had been relaxed the entire time.
Luca seemed to have come to the same conclusion and was more relaxed as time went on. Still, the tension in the air never evaporated.
Then, all at once, his adrenaline rushed through in full force and Dante sprung forward, swinging his claws back in preparation for a cleaving strike; suddenly appearing just before them was a pair of Pokémon—a Buizel, and to Dante's momentary surprise, a second Riolu. They were side by side and the Buizel was closer to him, so Dante was quite pleased that he had decided to start with his claws rather than flame.
Then, everything went wrong. Before his claws struck true, the Buizel spiked a small blue hand-held something directly towards the ground. With a shattering pop it exploded at their feet, and at the same instant, Dante was severed from his own body and everything stopped.
It took him a few moments of confusion before Dante could register what was happening. His body was frozen in place around him, but it was more than that. He couldn't feel himself breathing, nor his heart pumping. It was as if he was frozen in time, only able to see and think, but even then he didn't have any of the adrenaline from a moment before. He felt disconnected from both his body and the world around him, reduced to nothing more than a spectator.
Dante could see that Luca was in the same state; directly across from him, she was frozen mid-attack, a snarl of aggression warping her face. The two newcomers were unaffected and shared a glance of relief.
"That was a close one!" the new Riolu laughed. Unlike Luca his voice was harsh, with genuine malice within. "Nice reflexes."
The Buizel was carrying their satchel and, moving through and out of Dante's line of sight, they audibly placed the satchel where Dante had left his supplies. "Thanks," she said, her voice even. "You know, this is your last chance to just kill her cleanly and not be an idiot."
"Shut up, we're doing this," the Riolu snapped with a withering glare to Dante's left. "Here's the situation, you two," he continued, directly addressing Luca and Dante in their frozen states. "You're pretty famous in the White Spine for being the very first organization-wide target. I don't know how you managed to sneak out of Celebi's forest or where the other two went, but in any case, Luca needs to die here."
"But," he continued, visibly enjoying his monologue, "here's the good news. You're going to have a chance to escape this. We could just execute you, but for the past few weeks, I have been sick and tired of hearing about how cool you are. 'She escaped the raid, she's been able to fight off Giratina's marks, she's unbeatable'," he sourly mocked. "Every single member I've talked to has said to my face how much better you are than me, so we're proving them wrong right here, right now."
"With me as the witness," the Buizel said, returning to Dante's field of vision. She stood with her back exposed to him with no concern. "Just so you know, I'll be guarding your friend here," she continued with a wave to Dante. "If you try to free him, you'll be unsuccessful and be suddenly dealing with two instead of one."
"This is a proper duel between Riolu, and we'll be making it as fair as possible. We're going to hurt you a bit to release you from your petrification, so I'll be hurt to the same degree."
"I don't care if you want to do this dumb duel thing," the Buizel said. "But do I really have to do this part?"
"You do."
With an annoyed sigh, the Buizel sprayed a burst of highly pressurized water from her mouth. It collided with the Riolu and he gasped, struggling to stay on his feet. Once the water subsided he was soaked, and in an action befitting a natural-born Riolu, he reflexively shook the water out of his fur.
"OK. We'll let you recover from the spray, so take your time." Turning to his Buizel companion, he continued. "Let her out."
"Yeah, well, I only hope she understands the position she's in."
Dante watched carefully as Luca was sprayed in the same way. The instant it connected, her momentum resumed as her attempted force palm fought against the pressure of the water for a brief moment before being overwhelmed. Unlike her counterpart, Luca was unable to keep her balance and fell backwards.
"Off to a good start," the Riolu sneered.
"Yeah, well, it was sudden," Luca said, sitting up. She wiped the water out of her eyes with her paws but left herself otherwise soaked. "Can I ask questions before we start?"
"What kind of questions do you need? We fight, and that's it."
"What happens if I win?" Luca asked, her eyes lingering on Dante. He wished he could respond. "Do you let us go?"
"You aren't leaving, no," the Buizel answered. "Assuming you're unable to entirely overpower both of us, that is. But honestly, we don't care all that much about him as long as we have you, so how about this: if you win, he gets to leave."
"Not that you're going to win," the Riolu snarled. "Now let's get started."
Finally, Luca stood. There was a determination in her eyes which made it clear that she understood the seriousness of the situation. "OK, let's go," she said, dropping into a combat stance.
The Riolu took a deep breath and let it out slow—then, he entered his own combat stance and began cautiously stalking closer; it seemed, despite his hotheadedness, he wasn't going to rush in and give Luca a chance.
The Riolu mirror-match was an interesting one. Neither Riolu would know the other's capability, meaning they would have no idea if attacking confidently could be met with a counter. Additionally, if the other Riolu was comfortable with using force palm, the fight could be decided with a lucky paralysis. Of course, despite these dynamics, the most important thing that would determine the winner would be a combination of strength, speed, intelligence, and skill. Dante knew that Luca was not necessarily lacking in these respects, but compared to a Pokémon with a full lifespan, there was likely to be a significant disparity in experience.
Dante's thoughts were put aside as the other Riolu made the first move, darting into Luca's personal space. Luca visibly panicked and stepped back, only for him to step away as well. It was a simple ploy to fish for information, and although Dante couldn't see his face, he was sure that the Riolu was satisfied with the results. Luca's reaction established that she was afraid, and in a fight, that would be a difficult dynamic to overcome.
The Riolu darted in again, and this time, Luca was able to think quickly enough to take swift action. Her paw darted out, hoping for a force palm, but the Riolu seemed more than prepared; slipping by the strike, he slammed his paw into her nose.
If Dante could, he felt certain he would have gasped at the sickening crunch of bone that resulted from the hit. Luca yelped with pain as she stumbled backwards, both paws cradling her snout. Dante could already see worrying quantities of blood seeping out as she regained her balance.
The other Riolu patiently waited for Luca to recover, walking back and forth with a confident strut. It was like he was basking in his successful injuring of her and giving her plenty of time to wallow in the pain and fear he was inflicting.
Luca's eyes were focused on her opponent, but even from where he was, Dante could see that they were unfocused as she struggled to deal with the pain. Luca was already in enough pain that she was doing the gasp-crying that always meant that she was about to ask for a lengthy break when he was helping her train to counter. Unfortunately, there was no such out this time.
Once she realized that the Riolu wasn't intending to press his advantage, Luca reluctantly focused on her wound. As she pulled her wet paws away, Dante felt dizzy at seeing it, even without his body to actually feel sick. Not only was her snout broken, but it was messy enough that Dante was able to see exposed bone. Luca shuddered at her own wound, open-mouth gasping as blood dribbled past her mouth. Then she dropped back into a combat stance, spitting a mix of her own blood and saliva onto the ground.
"Ready?" came the Riolu's voice, oozing cockiness. "Let's continue, then."
The Riolu dashed forward, but this time, Luca did too. He crouched low and extended a palm as a deterrent, but Luca didn't seem to care; even as his paw touched her chest and the impact of a force palm occurred, Luca continued full speed and tackled him to the ground.
All of a sudden she was on top of him, holding him down with a single foot planted firmly on his chest. The Riolu instantly began struggling in some way, although Dante couldn't really see. In any case, Luca didn't waste an instant; placing a paw on the side of his head, she force palmed him and his struggling immediately paused as he was stunned by the force.
Unlike him, however, Luca didn't hesitate to press her advantage. Using her other paw, she force palmed the other side of his head. Then, without pause, she used her original paw to force palm once again. She continued like this, going back and forth without mercy. It took only a handful of them to make the Riolu go limp, but Luca didn't seem to register it; her eyes blurred with fear, pain, and aggression, she didn't seem to be wholly mentally present.
In front of him, the Buizel's body language was noticeably nervous, but not nearly as panicked as it should have been given that she was watching her partner get beaten to death in front of her—and in a moment, Dante understood why.
For only a single instant, the Riolu underneath Luca was bathed in the white light of evolution. It dissipated too soon for Dante to even fear the sudden emergence of a Lucario, but once it was gone, the Riolu was awake and struggling. Not only that, but from what Dante could tell, all damage he had sustained from Luca's onslaught had been erased.
"H-hey!" the Buizel shouted as Luca hit him with yet another force palm, having only paused for a few heartbeats. "You won, so cut it out!"
Dante watched the Buizel waffle as Luca continued hitting. The Riolu, despite the apparent second chance, was still powerless against the barrage.
"Stop!" the Buizel shouted. "You're going to—" she cut herself off, seeming to have come to a decision mid-sentence. She ran forward, spraying water behind her to reach blinding speeds on her way directly towards Luca.
Despite her battle-trance, Luca seemed to have enough wherewithal to acknowledge the Buizel's approach. Temporarily taking her foot off of the Riolu's chest, Luca took a low balanced stance just in time for her arrival.
At the moment the Buizel reached Luca, there were twin cracks of impact; first, the Buizel hitting her target square and second, Luca performing a counter. Just as Lann often did, Luca crushed her opponent to the ground with her forearm—and just like that, the Buizel was on the ground just beside her teammate.
Both Pokémon were still conscious, but quite dazed. Luca resumed force palming them without mercy, switching back and forth between them—though this time, once they were knocked out, she let them be. Dante suddenly realized that it wasn't as if Luca was entirely ruled by her instincts; instead of simple bloodlust, her brutality towards the other Riolu was a calculated baiting of the Buizel, trying to make her do something rash.
Once both of her attackers were squarely unconscious, Luca seemed to slow down. It was as if as soon as she didn't have a desperate goal, all of the adrenaline left her to deal with everything herself. To Dante's horror, as she tried to move towards him, her body finally gave out; with a thud, Luca fell to the ground, unconscious.
Suddenly, Dante was alone in the clearing. Three unconscious Pokémon, and if anyone but Luca woke up first, they were still doomed—and of them, Dante guessed that Luca would be the least likely to wake up first given how much blood she had lost. In any case, Pokémon knocked out via damage typically took upwards of seven hours to wake up on their own, so it seemed Dante was in for quite the wait alone in his mind.
As it turned out, however, they were much luckier than that. Only a few moments after she passed out, Luca stirred; it wasn't damage that had rendered her unconscious, it was blood loss—meaning even if she was dizzy and weak, and even if she passed out again, it was unlikely that it would be for long. Or rather, if she didn't wake up soon after passing out, she was likely to die.
Luca was struggling to stand, let alone balance, so she ended up crawling over to Dante. It was a long and arduous process, but soon, she arrived at Dante's feet.
"I'm gonna... uh... release you," Luca mumbled, clearly having difficulty concentrating. "You're going to suddenly have all the momentum and adrenaline you had... before. It might be hard to... deal with, but please... don't claw me."
With that, Luca gave a gentle punch on his shin, and Dante was released. Just as she had warned him, Dante's attack resumed and he was blindsided by the return of his body and everything that came with. Strangely, although the logical part of his brain had followed what had happened, the return of his adrenaline brought the return of his intention to do maximum damage to the Pokémon in front of him. Still, he managed to resist, forcing himself to stop and regain his balance.
"Luca," Dante said breathlessly, coming down from his excitement. "You did so well. I'll be right back, so do your best to not pass out for just a little bit longer."
Luca gave a meandering grunt that Dante took as acknowledgement, so he hurried to his left where the Buizel had discarded the pack. Sure enough, it was there. Dante quickly opened it and tore through it, ignoring the majority of the contents; if the Riolu and Buizel were with the White Spine, and the White Spine had control of the berry dungeon, they must have orans.
At the sight of the tiny blue berries tucked into a side pocket, Dante's heart leapt with relief. Plucking one out with his claws, he left the discarded pack alone and returned to Luca's side.
Despite his request, it seemed Luca hadn't managed to stay conscious while he was gone and was now face down in the grass. Rolling her over to her back, Dante pushed the berry into her mouth and crushed it before leaving it on her tongue.
Dante watched her snout heal itself, once again hiding the bone. Despite the berry's power, however, it was not healed entirely; underneath the blood that remained in her fur, Dante could see that her snout would be crooked for the rest of her life.
"Ah!" Luca gasped, suddenly conscious. Her paw immediately darted to her snout, feeling for damage. "What's—w-where—"
"Hey, hey, calm down," Dante said. "They had orans and I gave you one. You're fine."
"Why am I still so..." Luca trailed off, searching for the word. "Tired?"
"You lost a lot of blood, and you also threw out a lot of force palms. Oran can do a lot, but it can't do everything. Looks like we're both permanently changed by this little adventure," he said, motioning to his own snout with his claws.
"Mmm," Luca hummed, letting her head fall back down onto the grass as she closed her eyes. "Well, we're alive. I'd say that's a miracle on its own."
"True, thanks to you. Why don't you take a well-earned break? They're out cold, so I can take my time investigating while you rest."
"Just what I wanted to hear. Let me know if you find anything interesting."
"Will do," Dante said, standing. Even if he said that they were out cold and there was nothing to worry about, he would start with double-checking the validity of that.
Connecting them to the unconscious White Spine members was a thin trail of Luca's blood, smeared across the grass by her crawling—and once he arrived, he saw that it was worse there. With the majority of damage to the pair being done by force palms there was no skin breakage, but courtesy of Luca's snout, they were both thoroughly speckled with blood regardless.
Dante was far from a medical Pokémon, but from his reading at the Coalition, he felt sure that they would not be waking up for a long time; they weren't faking unconsciousness, and with the type of damage that Luca did, there wasn't anything like blood loss that could interfere. Notably, the Riolu had significantly less blood on him than he should have with how much time Luca spent holding him down. It seemed that whatever had healed him mid-beating had cleared the blood away as well, adding even more questions to Dante's list.
His business at the unconscious pair was concluded, so Dante moved back to the discarded pack. Now that he wasn't fixated on finding a specific item, there were actually quite a few interesting items inside. There were normal supplies like non-meat rations, canteens, and bandages, but what instantly caught Dante's eye was a collection of small blue orbs.
Leaving the pack where it was, Dante took a small detour to where they had entered. Sure enough, in the grass where the agents had appeared, there was a collection of fine glass-dust as well as larger blue shards; just as he thought, the thing thrown to the ground was one of the orbs—and with the timing, it was safe to assume that the orb was what had frozen them in place.
Returning to the pack, Dante picked out an orb. It was a Rainy Orb—not the one he was looking for, so he put it aside.
Then, he paused. The information had slipped into his mind so seamlessly that he hadn't even realized; it seemed the orbs were quite the sophisticated objects, with only a single touch transferring information about it to the holder. Touching it once again, Dante made the strange attempt to recall information about an object he hadn't known about a moment before.
As he seemed to recall, the orb was called a 'Rainy Orb'. Used in precisely the same way of cracking it open, instead of the strange freezing effect, it would manipulate the dungeon itself. Living up to its name, it would force the dungeon to simulate rainfall.
"Hey, you still awake?" Dante called.
"Unfortunately," came Luca's drowsy voice. "Find something?"
"You wouldn't believe the stuff they had in their bag," Dante said, running his hand over the collection of orbs and marveling at the information. "Did you see what the Buizel threw to freeze us?"
"No. It sounded like something exploded, though."
"It was an orb, and there's a bunch more in here. They do a bunch of different things too."
"Like what?"
"Here," Dante said, choosing one of the orbs and plucking it out of the bag. Then, he moved to stand over Luca and held it up for her to inspect. "See this? You know anything about it?"
"...No?" Luca said, confused. "How could I?"
Dante held it out, offering it. "Here, hold it. Just be careful."
Once she was cradling it carefully between her paws, Dante continued: "What's it called?"
"An Escape Orb, but—" Luca blinked. "What?"
"Yeah. Feels weird, doesn't it?"
"So it just like. implants knowledge about itself?" Luca asked, returning the orb. "How is that possible?"
"I have no idea, but it's clear the White Spine was so much more equipped than they let on. I'll let you know what else I find."
Dante returned to the pack, placing the Escape Orb back where it came from. He then proceeded to conduct a thorough search of the bag, intending to find everything that he hadn't yet addressed.
Only two groups of objects remained, it seemed: a group of large seed pods, and what looked to be two small pocket mirrors. Dante started with the seeds, but he was unable to learn anything; no information suddenly appeared in his mind, and they all seemed to be nearly identical—with a single exception. Dante noticed that one of the seeds was much less weighty than its cousins and sat lightly in his palm. Still, this revelation seemed to change nothing, so Dante turned his attention to the pocket mirrors.
Compared to the seemingly mundane seeds, the mirrors were clearly strange. Dante had thought of them as mirrors, but the smooth surface was opaque and cloudy. Surrounding it was a frame of rose-gold metal-like substance that gave it a simple winged shape, though it was strangely warm to the touch for metal. It seemed perfectly useless, but since it was in the agents' pack, it must have had some purpose he wasn't seeing.
The instant that Dante's thumb touched the surface of the mirror, the cloudy surface focused into something instantly recognizable; in clear, blue-colored footprint runes, it read: 'This badge belongs to Fervor the Riolu, and represents his courage to explore the unknown.' Quickly checking the other mirror, Dante found that it contained a predictably similar message: 'This badge belongs to Poppy the Buizel, and represents her courage to explore the unknown.'
Other than the message, there was a small square at the bottom of both of the 'badges.' Inside was a simple word: options. Dante gave it a tap with his claw.
The mirror changed; now, a box reading 'Reset' was accompanied by a box reading 'Cancel'. It was time for him to seek outside help.
"Still awake?" he called, raising his voice.
"Yeah."
Tapping the cancel button, Dante reset the badge to its original state. "OK, take a look at these, then."
Upon seeing the floating text within the badges, Luca's tired eyes lit up with recognition. With a quick tap on the options button, she navigated the badge as if she had seen it before. "This feels like human technology."
"Oh? How so?"
"Well for starters, I think this casing is plastic. Do Pokémon even have plastic?"
"I don't know what that is, so I'd guess not."
"Then, this looks like a small computer. Like a phone. There's no way there's anything this advanced in this world."
Dante turned the unfamiliar words over and over in his mind. Plastic, computer, and phone—he would make sure to remember them. Inspecting the other badge, Dante could only think one thing: "These feel more like magic than technology."
"...They might actually be," Luca admitted, squinting at the surface of the mirror. "I don't see any pixels, so maybe they just resemble human tech."
"Do you think the reset button will let us reassign them? If this is White Spine identification, they could be invaluable."
"Let's see. I'll try it with the Buizel's, because worst case, we'll still have one for a Riolu."
Dante knelt behind Luca as she tapped the reset square. The screen went blank and stayed blank, and although Dante was concerned it was now worthless, Luca seemed comfortable so he didn't say anything—and sure enough, when Luca tapped the surface, the blue text returned.
This time, two squares appeared: one with some type of character that Dante didn't recognize, and one with a single footprint rune—the one reading 'Pokémon'.
"A language selector?" Luca guessed. "This is a letter from the human language on the left."
"Confirmation that this has something to do with humans."
Luca shrugged. "Maybe. Either way, if we're going to show this badge to others, it should probably use footprint runes."
Selecting the option, Luca advanced through the menu. The badge then read: 'This badge was previously used by a member of team TrueBlue.' Then, below, there were four selection boxes that read: 'Join team TrueBlue (1 current member)', 'Join another nearby team', 'Found a new team', and 'Cancel'.
"So TrueBlue was their team name?" Dante said. "I guess it's not the worst name for a team consisting of a water-type and a Riolu with blue fur."
"Let's try making a new team," Luca said, pressing the proper button. Dante was entirely overwhelmed by the complexity of the screen that resulted, but Luca seemed comfortable as her stubby paws flew quickly over the mess of blue. Only a handful of seconds later, a new team name was at the top of screen inside a long, thin rectangle.
"Team Starlight?" Dante asked, reading the footprint runes. "Where'd that come from?"
"We can't use anything that would give us away, so I just thought of something that feels like it would have meaning but doesn't actually. I can still change it, if you'd rather have something else."
"No, that's perfect."
Luca tapped, and the screen changed. Now, it read: 'Is a summary of this badge's functions needed?', with a yes/no selector just below. Luca practically jumped at the opportunity and hit yes.
'This badge acts as a lifeline within mystery dungeons. When all members of a team have been killed or knocked unconscious, the badges will activate and teleport all members out of the dungeon. Please be advised that injuries will not be healed, meaning it is possible for members to succumb to their injuries after being removed.'
"The amount of Coalition lives this would have saved," Dante breathed. "Did the White Spine make these themselves, or did they come from the dungeons?"
"They might not even work, right? Those two didn't get teleported out of the dungeon."
"Maybe this room doesn't count? Otherwise, not being able to sleep in such a safe place seems like a major oversight in the design."
"Mmm, maybe." Luca tapped ahead, and the text was replaced by more: 'Upon using a Wonder Orb meant to target multiple opponents or allies, this badge will link the members of the team to each other. In other words, a harmful orb will only target those not on the team while a beneficial orb will now target the user's teammates as well as the user.'
"So this is why we were frozen and they weren't," Luca said breathlessly. "This technology is incredible."
'This concludes the summary of functions. As this badge is a restricted unit, advanced options and features are not available.'
"I can't imagine what advanced options and features would look like," Luca said, tapping forward. The screen now read: 'Please allow only the new badge-holder to touch the badge. Only continue when ready.' Luca tapped again.
'This badge has registered the holder as a female Riolu by name of Luca. Would you like to change any part of this?'
"...That's spooky," Luca admitted. "I guess it reads minds?"
"It must. You should change your name, in any case."
"OK." Deftly navigating the system, Luca changed her registered name to Cobalt—one of the names on the list Dante had given her back at the Coalition. Once she had confirmed, the badge displayed a familiar string of text: 'This badge belongs to Cobalt the Riolu, and represents her courage to explore the unknown.'
"Your turn, I guess," Luca said, gesturing to the second badge.
Dante mimicked the process that Luca had displayed, the only differences being that he joined the existing team Starlight, went much more slowly, and entered his name as Fervor—taking the Riolu's name, as it was traditionally used by fire-types, anyways.
Once he was finished, Luca spoke: "So... here we are, with two White Spine agents at our mercy."
Dante glanced at the unconscious duo. "Agreeing to kill was a lot easier when they were just faceless theoreticals."
"I feel especially bad for the Buizel. Poppy, the badge said her name was? She seemed nice."
"She was also the one that advocated for just killing you without giving you a chance."
"Sure, but she's in a cult, Dante. Maybe she's the same as Isle, and all we need is to tell her the truth."
"Would you be able to tell from her Aura?"
Luca was clearly still exhausted from her injuries, but she struggled to her feet regardless. She limped over to the agents and stood over them.
After staring down at their unconscious forms for what felt like a full minute, Luca spoke: "...It would give me a better idea of whether it's worth trying, but it'll be so much harder for me to handle them dying if I've seen their Aura."
"Well, it's your decision," Dante said, joining her. "But if you want me to decide for the both of us, I will."
Luca fell silent, staring at the unconscious Pokémon at her feet. Her eyes were troubled with indecision, but they were also full of pity. In any case, regardless of how emotional she felt at the moment, Dante trusted that Luca would make a decision that she would stand by in the future. Dante sat, intending to signal that Luca could take as long as she needed to decide.
To his surprise, however, Luca didn't think for much longer; after only a few moments, she placed a paw on both of them and opened herself to Aura. The teardrop-growths levelled out, and Dante waited patiently for her verdict.
"Well, if either of them were aware of the White Spine's true purpose they wouldn't be helping it," Luca droned with the monotone voice she used while looking at Aura. "Not in a million years. The only question is if we can get them to believe us."
"Do you want to try? With the badges assigned to us, an orb will make it pretty safe."
Luca disconnected and stood up. "Yeah, let's try it. We'll set up back by the stairs, and if they try to get past us, we'll freeze them."
"I think we'll have to settle for a Slumber Orb, but yeah, OK. It'll be a long wait, so why don't you go ahead and get some sleep?"
"I don't know if I'll be able to after that fight," Luca said. "But I'll try. Thanks. Wake me up if you need me to watch."
As Luca made her way to the stairs and found a place to bunker down, Dante collected the supplies and moved to join her. When he arrived, she was already comfortable, her head leaning against the hard stone of the staircase. He sat beside her, placed the supplies close on his flank, and prepared himself for a long wait.
Luca wasn't asleep yet—not nearly—but it was entirely apparent with how eagerly she pressed her body against the soft ground that she was very happy to finally be resting. Dante couldn't help but be proud of her; not long ago, she had been worryingly careless with her life—seemingly happy to throw it away for any old cause. Now, she fought for her own life with a ferocious desperation that could only have been born from a genuine desire to live. She had come far and was able to defeat two stronger opponents alone while at a significant disadvantage, with only her own power and cunning. For the first time, Dante realized that Luca was no longer the lost little Riolu he had found in the dungeon. In fact, if she was allowed to grow, he felt certain that Luca had the potential to threaten the White Spine not only in the timeline sense, but directly.
As it was, however, Luca was harmless. Coated in blood and now disfigured, granted, but with her relaxed features as she tried to sleep Dante found it difficult to see anything else.
Dante searched the bag for the Slumber Orb he had found earlier and placed it in the grass. Now he was properly ready—and all there was left to do was wait.