"Well... this is a very awkward path," Sasuke said interested by the layout of the place.

The shortcut we had gotten from Leon was this weird glowing blue area. Like, there was these amazing blue crystals that had melted somehow and glowed at the bottom as these tiny rocks near them were cross-able by jumping over them slowly. It seems that this would lead us right to them as we headed closer. It was kind of hard to jump on these rocks as they were very slippery.

"Of course, every place in this dungeon would have to be difficult," King grumbled as he nearly fell off a rock and waved his arms to get back on.

"Well, hey, no one's complaining here," Zev said, struggling to stay on his rock too.

Jumping across this freaking rocks was hard... wait, I already said that... WELL, I'M SAYING IT AGAIN! Geez, did Gabite purposely know about this shortcut and like rub butter or something onto the rocks!? Man, this was super hard, but at least this would end up getting closer to Elek.

"All right," Sasuke said, as he signaled over to a rock area, "Take a look at this."

We ended up across the rocks and over a huge platform of a boulder that looked huge and suspiciously like it was in front of something. We got the feeling something was there since we heard noises and walking footsteps. Once we all got over there (and I mean it, once we ALL did, since Naruto and I had difficulty), we had gathered together into a group and looked at Sasuke.

"Okay, guys, this is it," the Buizel said to us with a smirk, "We're gonna do this for real. Is everyone ready for this fight?"

"I've trained all this time with you, bro," Naruto said with a happy smile, "I'm ready to win this!"

"We didn't come all this way just to second-guess ourselves. We will finish this," Batsu nodded.

"Heh, this Gabite is gonna go down hard and fast. He might as well give up!" King grinned as he stretched his hands out.

"I'm ready to give it my all!" I cheered as he smiled and threw a punch.

"Well, there's your answer, Sasuke," Zev smirked and said, "But now the question that is brought up is what are we gonna do here?"

"Well, it depends... can anyone see what's below us?" my brother said, quietly.

It was then that there was a bit of a team glare at our Riolu, whose superior aura abilities and eyes could possibly help us. Without even looking at us, but getting the hint, he slowly nodded and looked down and scanned the ground. Quietly and emotionless, he made sure there was anything in plain view at first.

"Hmmm... nothing is there for the naked eye... now it's time for my aura," he said as he closed his eyes and began to focus.

It took him a few minutes as he turned his head to different directions of the opening and once he turned to the right, he stopped. He flinched, as if he saw something that he might've expected. He nodded and took a little sigh.

"Okay, I found Elek," he said slightly.

"Where is he?" Sasuke asked.

"It seems that one of our suspicions on how he would be tied up was correct," he said, "He's tied up, dangling from the ceiling, and he's in a lot of pain... well, according to the exam, he will act that way. He's specifically in the northeast corner of the room, with his arms tied up out straight on his sides, and his ankles together."

"All right, then," our leader said, looking at us, "Batsu came up with a plan for us in this situation while King and I were making that bridge a while back. It's time for us to be brought up on the plan. Batsu, go ahead and recap it for us."

"What will do is keep our ground and protect Zev as he uses his speed and agility himself to wall jump up and cut Elek free," Batsu explained, once again word for word, "Then we'll use a series of Zev and Sasuke's attacks to defeat him by making distractions for him to get off guard."

He then turned to me and King, continuing, "However, I think that the plan will have some modifications to it. Since we have to have the majority of us attacking Gabite and some of us helping Zev, I decided that we'll split it as a two-three formation. Sasuke, Naruto, and King will be fighting Gabite and do as much damage as they can to help further our battle against him. Thomas, you and I are going to be giving Zev cover as he goes to rescue Elek."

"Okay, Zev, I'm gonna give you the bag to hold. Just in case if Elek needs an item... everyone clear with what we gotta do?" Sasuke asked, giving the bag to Zev, "This is your last chance. Know what you need to do?"

With the silence and nods of the team answering him, he said, "All right then, this is it! Let's go!"

With that, he jumped down onto the boulder platform and we continued to follow him. It was again a bit scary to jump from a huge height, but once I landed, I felt so much better... that is, until I realized we jumped right in front of Gabite, who was sitting on a boulder waiting for us. He was wearing a white bandana with his badge on it around his neck as he looked up and was a bit scared or more of taken by surprise.

"Wha-what?" he said, standing up, "How did you kids get past all the obstacles in only over a half-an-hour? It should've taken you two hours at least to get here!"

"Maybe we just got lucky at finding a short-cut," King said, smirking as he obviously hinted at we found the short-cut, but he kept his mouth shut about who exactly told us.

Elek, dangling from the ceiling, opened his eyes and could sense us there. He was literally covered in bruises and cuts. I didn't think when the mission said "injured", it was really serious about him hurt. But he was dangling over this pool of weird red liquid and the ropes were really tight on his body. He grunted as he tries to do his best to get out.

"Well, I wasn't expecting you to be here so soon, but I might as well start. I am Gabite of Gold-rank Team Diggers, and I will be the boss of this dungeon," Gabite said, dropping into stance, "See that liquid? I know it's not the best substance we find to look like it, but I want you to envision that is lava. If Elek is dropped into that pit, it's an automatic fail for you on rescuing him. Will I go after Elek and try to 'finish him'? Will I try to defeat all of you? Maybe a combination of both? Who knows except me, but I hope you all are ready to be put to your last test."

"Heh, don't worry," King said, confidently, "We're going to rescue him and beat you. A little combination of ours that only we know."

"King, don't get carried away," Sasuke tried to warn.

"Oho, so you're King... C's little brother, huh?" Gabite said, reading to move, "I can't wait to see what you can do specifically."

"I wouldn't count on that," King said, grinning as he pointed to him, "because you won't be able to touch me after I'm done with you."

Without a chance to pause or hesitate, Gabite was instantly right up in King's face, having used his jets to get up close. Man, he was freaking fast! I mean, by the time King had reacted and slowly looked surprised, Gabite had taken his right arm blade and started to swing at him. But luckily for our loudmouth, Sasuke had taken the opportunity to quickly start an Aqua Jet attack and Zev had already started for Elek. Gabite suddenly caught wind of this and dodged Sasuke's water attack barely, and was given no time to pursue our quickest member.

"Thomas, Zev's moving. Let's hurry," Batsu said, already charging right after the Grovyle.

Briefly stunned and accidently slipping, I fell on a knee and scrambled to him, "Oh! Right!"

Gabite took a giant back jump to gain some distance as King remembered to shut his mouth again.

"! Impressive...! Attacking me right as I moved!" the boss praised Sasuke as he dropped back into his stance, "Great timing and knowledge of my actions. It's what I would expect of his son..."

Sasuke slowly jerked his head up at him seriously and Naruto slowly tilted his head, confused. I was barely able to catch that, but I was for the most of it curious. Who's son? You mean this Gabite knew of Sasuke and Naruto's dad? I wondered who it could be; did this mean he was dead or something? But these question died out as I realized I was side to side with Batsu. Stopping in my tracks instantly, we guarded as Zev was surprisingly able to get to Elek faster than we thought, despite the bag on him.

"Hold on there, big guy," Zev said, jumping from cliff to cliff and readying his Leaf Blade attack, "I'll get you down in no time."

As a battle with King and my brothers raged on versus Gabite, soon Zev was able to cut the ropes that bound Elek. As the Blaziken plummeted towards the 'lava pit', Batsu soon jumped and meeting Zev going the same way, grabbed him and landed far away from it safely. I ran over as they cut and untied him. Elek grunted as he rubbed some of the places on his arms that were sore and hurt. I looked over at the battle to see how it was going and it looked like that despite Naruto had taken a huge hit, things were going okay as Elek was eating an Oran berry he was given.

"Okay, we need to get Elek out of Gabite's vision fast," Batsu told us as he motioned to Zev.

"All right, He- aaguh!" he said, trying to jump with Elek, but ended up falling to his knees.

"Hm? Is everything all right? Are you hurt?" Elek asked, worried about us even though he was hurt.

"N-No... it's just. I can't carrying you and use my speed; Elek, I don't mean to be rude, but you're way too heavy..." Zev said, a bit feeling rude for saying that.

A slight blush came across the Blaziken's face as he closed his eyes, "Oh, I'm sorry..."

"Hey! We can't give up!" I said loudly, "We'll just have to help him walk."

"Right. Zev, you and I will do it," he said as he and the Grovyle grabbed him, "Thomas, do your best to cover us."

I nodded as we began slowly as a snail making our way to the exit. Since I had to watch for Gabite coming this way, I got to see how the fight was going so far. It seemed that Naruto had been kicked away and was recovering on the ground. It was left to King and Sasuke fighting fist to claw to blade against the boss. In an instant, King tried for a kick and swing his left foot at him. Ducking and quickly sweeping at his standing foot, the boss had no trouble knocking our tough guy off his feet. Landing with a grunt and trying to get up, it left Gabite opened to trade blows with the Buizel... that is, until he saw the rest of us getting Elek away from here.

"You think I'm going to let the hostage escape that easily?" he yelled to us, as he ducked an attempt of Ice Punch from Sasuke and charged at us.

With a gasp, Sasuke started to run over and yell to us, "Guys! Watch out! He's coming right at you!"

Once again, that feeling in my body just snapped. The feeling of moving in front of them without question in a blur, I found myself right in front of Gabite's path. He saw me and readied his blade as he swung at me. Nobody had time to think or see what really happened next, but I can assure you... someone was cut open badly...

SHIIINK!

"...huurnnngh..."

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