"And that's the map!" I announced.

Kieran finally pulled his stinger away from the floor. We actually had to hand him a berry charcoal piece to impale and write with. Technically, anyone could've drawn this very shoddy diagram that showed the total area of the chamber— the map was filled with many glaring construction lines, by the way— but, uh… tradition, I guess. After a quick lunch break, Kieran transcribed the presentations and big brainstorm sessions. Valérie had tried anyway and surprisingly had a really rough time. Turns out holding a pencil is hard when you go from five fingers to three! I hadn't even noticed that last level.

Either way, the map was a lot less help than we tried to make it seem. Aside from a few distinct landmarks and a rough record of the lava pools' position, we hadn't found much. I couldn't even blame a bout of foggy memory. Our survey exploration was from earlier that same day… I think. I was starting to get indecisive about which speed days flowed at, all because everything around us was too bright all the time. Ironically, the lava was the area Kieran had chosen to colour in with the pitch-black charcoal.

Mr. Henry scratched his head. "There isn't anywhere else left to scout? You've explored all the tunnel branches?"

Valérie nodded swiftly, eyes closed and arms crossed. "Yup. We built little inukshuks at the start of hallways we've been through. There's no turn in the tunnels without one now."

Now the Charizard brought his hand to his chin— or rather his head way down to be reachable by short arms. His eyes scanned the doodle up and down. With new information, Kieran scribbled out the section that portrayed the tunnels. When he was done, we were left with a big circle with lava squiggles and a black hole surrounding the whole.

"All that's left, really, is to find the boss. Usually that means walking into its spawn zone," Kieran said. "But we've been pretty much everywhere, haven't we?"

Gab sat down. "Either we still need to explore the tunnels some more, or we missed something here."

"We have gone through everything above ground," Valérie said. "The big lava lake and the smaller pools in the tunnels weren't inspected."

"What?!" Lola cackled. When no one else laughed, she explained herself in a more serious tone. "I mean, it's possible that the boss is in there, sure, but it'd be a real jerk move to require people to swim in lava to find it! What would we be supposed to do if there wasn't a Fire type in the group? Just wait around and starve?"

"There's always flying over it," Chloe shrugged.

"Same argument. Jerk move to require flying."

"I can't believe I'm saying this," Valérie groaned, "but it is a good point. We can't rule it out, though."

"Mm-hm," Lola nodded. She then laid down and blew away that one white lock of hair that obscured Absol faces. "Ready for another dip, Micheal?"

I sighed. "I can't really say no, can I?"

She shrugged.

Mr. Henry stood up, warily eyeing the lake. "All right, then. Let's go, kid."

There was some awkwardness as I watched everyone else sit down from over my shoulder. I knew it sucked to not be able to do anything of use, just waiting, letting dread build up. I caught Kieran staring off to the side, him glaring at a lava bubble and barely masking his wince as it burst. The fur behind my neck stood on end. I tried to blink the feeling away and turned to the lava lake. A few steps, and I was back in.

The almost overpowering warmth welcomed me once again. I'd accidentally had my head too low while going in, so everything from my nose down was under the surface.

Keep your mouth closed.

I raised my head and shook out what lava I could, knowing that it was much easier to do than when it solidified. I inhaled a fresh gasp of air. The sudden breeze was chilly against my throat. Anything was colder than the pool I'd jumped into.

Another splash from behind me. Mr. Henry had entered no problem, but since the pool was deeper, there was another issue.

"You mind going ahead? I'll figure it out," his left wing splashed against the surface while his right didn't move.

"Sure," I answered. If I could doggy-paddle in water as a Litleo, I could paddle in still lava. Everyday mundane things, you know.

Splash! Slightly more graceful than a belly flop, I waded further into the warm pool. There was an intense feeling of heat that followed soon after, but nothing more bothersome than swimming around into a hot tub. I doggy-paddled for about a minute. The end was almost right in front of me. I looked back to see where Mr. Henry was at. Luckily, he'd managed to get his wings under control for now, but he was still only halfway through. One of my paws met a rocky surface.

The wall, finally! I placed both my front paws on it to steady myself and look upward. There weren't many footholds I could use to climb, but there was ledge I could reach if I was really careful. I leaned back a little to see if I could tell something valuable was up there in the first place. I knew the boss wouldn't show any trace until provoked, but there might be a pile of jewels, or an altar or something. Unusual landmarks tended to be good spawn spots.

I couldn't see well enough from my angle, though. I pushed myself back onto the wall and crawled to the one close foothold. I took a breather there while I could and looked up to see if the top was any more discernible. Something a little closer caught my eye, however.

A slow trail had started to pool down from the top of the wall. It slowly crept down the rock surface and was about halfway down. Red drops were oozing from the ledge.

Square red drops.

As soon as I'd realized what they were, my gaze shot to above the wall. A gooey mess of a monster had spawned above, staring me down with weeping red eyeballs.

It only took that strange sight for me to turn tail and jump back in the lava.

"We got one!" I shouted, swimming toward Mr. Henry as fast as I could while not splashing lava in my face. He picked me up and practically bowled me back to the floor. A quick flick of the tail and a twist in my torso, and I was right side up to land on all fours. Nice.

However, I couldn't see the mystery Pokémon anymore! Even when Mr. Henry got back out, no trace.

I looked around the group. "W-what?"

"It's a Slugma," Gab explained. "Fire type."

"More like magma type," Chloe specified. "Do not touch it. It might be hotter than the lake."

"But where—"

"It went in there," Kieran hissed.

With barely a ripple from the lake, the Slugma sprang forth onto the ground. What could only be described as a lava slug crawled its way over to the group. It slithered over the hot, rocky floor, leaving a smouldering trail.

Now, I knew type effectiveness played a part in everything here. But even though most of us didn't have a weakness to it, fire was still fire. The human side of me screamed to get away from the lava. I stood my ground. The Litleo had help from a Charizard. Lava couldn't hurt a dragon with a tail that was constantly on fire, or the ones on its side.

Against my intuition, I shot out a few Embers the Slugma's way. Damage was good, even the smallest bit. However, none of them hit, and it wasn't because of my kind of lousy aim! The Slugma was dodging all of them. I didn't know how that damn slug could move so fast when it wanted to! Like its life depended on it, it never made itself a target by staying still.

"Let's keep it on land!" Chloe advised. "It might cool off!"

I nodded. If it could slow down or even solidify in parts, it'd be much less dangerous. Come to think of it, if Chloe were to use Sing, it might've done the trick. We didn't have any Chesto berries, though, and risking falling asleep near lava while fighting lava was a complete no-go.

A glob of water shot right over my head and collided with the floor, but it was still far from where the Slugma was. Even then, it did send the Slugma squealing off, pealing further away from the lake. We all spread out, hopefully blocking any path back to the lake.

There were only so many attacks the Slugma could take without retaliating, and only so many Valérie could throw at it in quick succession. As soon as the onslaught lessened, it turned and chose a victim. The Slugma charged a monstrous fireball and sent it hurtling forward, a steady stream of flames coming right at me.

Flamethrower?!

I was directly in the line of fire, with it coming at me too fast to dodge. I may have been a Fire type, but I knew it would hurt. The best thing to do was just wait for it and hope I'd be fine. I braced for impact, but it never came. I looked back in front of me.

Mr. Henry had blocked the attack! His wings were downright massive when spread out to their full extent, working as a wide shield protecting us from the blaze. He even beat those wings once or twice, very strongly, and sent a rush of air powerful enough to extinguish the remaining flames in front of him.

He looked back at me. "You good, kid?"

I nodded, and hopped to his side, looking toward the Slugma.

Without warning, it made a break for the lake!

I ran after it, and… felt something. Something like when I managed to do Ember for the first time. An itch in my brain I hadn't noticed until now had finally been scratched as I let my body obey its ingrained power. A new move!

Sudden heat danced over my sharp teeth. I tried to breathe it out, only to see small wisps of orange light escape my mouth. Fire. Flames coated my Litleo fangs. Unlike Ember, there was no fuel source. Fire Fang set ablaze whether or not something was in its path.

I bit down, a chunk of magma tearing off from the Slugma. It hissed in pain, and I spat the thing out on the floor. It tasted like liquid hot rock. I mean, I guess that's kind of what it was in the first place. Although definitely undamaged, all of my mouth felt burnt. When I turned my sights back on the Slugma, I couldn't even tell where I'd clamped down. The lava on its body rippled without interruption. That would be one way to deal with maiming.

I only just caught it seconds before it slithered back into the lava pool. Other than the crackle of the river, only silence. There was no new portal, none of those chimes or creepy choirs. In the lava, the Slugma was indiscernible, melting away into the waves. Any ripple or movement on the surface could be the enemy, or it could be nature feeling malicious and giving me paranoia.

I guessed we were dealing with another Tentacool situation: a waiting game. I sat down, eyes still on the lake. Gab walked around with the backpack open and passed a few berries to the group.

"Thanks, Mr. Henry," I said, accepting the Oran berry he'd handed me.

"Everyone, I think we can skip the "mister." You can call me Henry. We're there," the Charizard sighed.

No sooner was that said that the enemy was on the offence again.

With a hiss and a rush of wind, scalding rocks were hurled at us. I narrowly avoided being hit thanks to Fire type instinct. Thankfully no one else looked hurt, although Gab hadn't moved from her spot and was staring ahead, fists clenched over the backpack's top flap. As I observed the impact on the ground, heavy plumes of smoke followed the path of the rocks. The Oran berry that was in front of me was nothing but smithereens now. Something about the speed of it all unsettled me. I got chills when I noticed the marks the assault left on the ground. Not just marks: grooves. All those meteors were strong enough on their own to carve the earth.

With the foul smell of carbon in the air, all I and the others could do was ready ourselves for the next attack.