Chapter 10: Rush to the Ravine
"So, they entered here?"
Latias looked at the fog wall covering the swamp ahead of them. A low level dungeon, not something she would usually waste any time on. But if their targets had entered, so would they.
"Hold on." her brother said. "It would be faster to fly around. I can find their aura trail on the other side faster. And if they are still in there, they would be forced to leave sometime."
"We can't just assume they have passed it already. She is completely new to battling, remember? And I don't know about the Totodile either. What if they are poisoned or hurt in there?" Latias asked her brother. "You go ahead and check the other side, but I'm going through. We can't risk Liza getting hurt."
"Fine. You make a good point." Latios conceded. "If I find the trail, I will follow it. I trust you will be able to catch up soon enough."
"No worries." Latias told her brother. "This dungon should be done in no time at all.
Liza and Gates had been running for a few hours. Though the memories of her old one were vague, Liza found herself surprised over her new body's endurance. Traveling like was both slower and more tiring than than swimming, but like before she found herself slowing down to match Gates' pace. The sun was starting to near the horizon, marking the end of their second day on the run. A slight headache served as a grim reminder of the chesto berries, and the consequences of relying on them for too long.
Once they got out of the swamp, stretches of grassland and forests had awaited them. They stuck to the forest as much as they could, taking any cover they could get. Once they found a river, allowing them to follow it down stream for a little bit. This stretch was the closest thing they had gotten to rest after leaving the dungeon. The landscape had gradually become steeper and craggier, making traversal slower, and the duo was starting to feel the fatigue kicking in. This led to Gates deciding to find a small alcove in the rocks they could hide in.
"Stop here. I need to look through the map again." He said, motioning towards the hiding spot he had picked. Liza followed without protesting, as Gates once again fished his map out of the bag. Taking this opportunity, he also found two apples, and handed one to Liza.
"Is there anything special about this one too?" Liza asked, with the seemingly normal fruit in her paws.
"Apples found in dungeons are very filling and don't spoil. Otherwise, it's just food." Gates answered without looking up from the map. He took a large bite of his apple while still studying it. "We should be getting close based on the landscape, but it's hard to find a good landmark on such a large scale map."
"You don't know where to find it?" Liza responded.
"I haven't been there before, no." Gates responded. "I suggest we move up higher to spot the ravine, it should be fairly big. There should also be a few streams running into it, so following one could also be an idea."
Liza was not happy hearing that, but at least he had something of a plan. They both finished their apples and went on their way. True to Gates' words, the apple was surprisingly filling, as well as being the tastiest apple Liza had ever tasted. Unfortunately, the circumstances didn't give her a chance to stop and enjoy it. They started scaling up the hills, trying to find a good lookout spot.
It didn't take them long to find one, as the trees gave way to a full mountain-landscape. Gates started rummaging through his bad again, this time producing what looked like some kind of telescope. It was fairly small, and on the end was some kind of orb, but he did hold it up like one, and it looked like a copy of his eye appeared on the orb. He spent a moment scanning the landscape ahead of them, before lowering his telescope.
"I can see it. It's not far at all." He told his companion, before he turned to take a look at the landscape behind them. He didn't look for long, before he hurriedly collapsed his telescope and stowed it in his bag. "It's Latios! Hurry!"
He didn't give any more details about how far away Latios was, but remembering how fast Latias had been when she passed them in the game, him being within sight could not mean they had much time to spare. They could only hope he was still on the track and not cutting them off by the dungeon. Luckily, the dungeon was a fairly straight shot from their lookout, downhill all the way. This sudden urgency gave the duo a second wind, moving faster than they ever had since they went on land. Liza was still noticeably faster than Gates, and now often found herself running ahead, before stopping and letting Gates catch up again. This happened quite a few times, before she was about to run ahead into a thicket.
"Stop!" Gates shouted at Liza, causing her to stop in her track. Instead of elaborating further, he approached the thicket, and pushed it aside. There, just out of view, the ground opened up into a huge ravine, which she was just about to jump straight into. Multiple mountain streams were running into it like Gates had described, and at the bottom a river was running strong. And at the end of the ravine, where the river was seemingly running, was a cave opening covered by a fog wall.
"This is it. Let's not waste time getting down." Gates said. Though the sight was impressive, they wasted no time walking around the edge looking for a path down. Eventually they encountered a sign placed by the edge, giving a simple warning about the dungeon at the bottom.
Riptide Ravine
Danger level: B
Riptide ravine is mostly inhabited by Rock, Ground and Water-types, which reach moderate strength. The currents at the bottom can send you out anywhere in a large are, though the strong current are dangerous for those not adept at swimming.
"B? What is that compared to the swamp?" Liza asked Gates.
"Shallow Wetlands is rated D, so this is two ranks higher." Gates answered. "That is considered a challenge for intermediate explorers. For us, we will have have to avoid battle if possible, and use our items wisely. But enough of that. The path is right here."
"Point of no return then." Liza muttered as they started to descend. Calling it a path proved to be pretty generous. There was a somewhat walk-able surface along the walls, but it was steep and narrow, making a potential misstep fatal. The duo had to climb alongside the cliff-side for multiple sections where it became to narrow to walk on, even having the use a crack to cross a straight drop down. Liza had not thought much about her claws until now, but they proved quite useful while climbing. All things considered, adapting to this new body proved easier than expected.
The ravine was quite the sight from the bottom as well, seeing the sunshine reflecting trough the numerous stream flowing into it. However, as Latios were at their heels, the duo could barely afford to spare it a passing glance as they passed through the fog wall.
The inside of the dungeon took the sights from the outside, and twisted them in weird ways. Pathways and rooms went up and down, sometimes covered by walls on all ends, other times forming bridges and plateaus surrounded by drops down into the flowing river below. The constants though, were always being able to see the sky above, and hearing flowing water from below. Looking along the oddly twisting ravine, the were no end in sight of the strange rock-formations.
Liza and Gates traversed this dungeon a lot more carefully than the previous one. Gates was determined to avoid any unnecessary confrontation in this dungeon. The first husk they saw was a chunky, blue salamander-like creature. It small beady eyes scanned it's surrounding as it walked past, but the duo managed to evade detection by quickly scrambling back behind the corner they came from. Though not the most imposing creature by any means, it was way bigger than anything they had encountered in the swamp.
"A quagsire." Gates whispered to her as they dared to emerge into the room where they spotted it. "Not the most dangerous, but we don't have time to fight those blobs."
"Is that what's normal for this dungeon?" Liza asked him, still in a hushed tone.
"If I know my dungeon ratings, that looked like a threat found in high C or low B ranks. As we are not anywhere near the bottom, we should assume we will find stronger. Now, let's go over where it came from. I don't want to follow that thing."
Liza nodded in agreement, as the pair continued along in silence. They made sure to check the corners, as well as watch behind them for anything approaching. This worked fairly well, but they soon realized how huge each zone was in this dungeon. The previous one had them pass through fog-gates to mark their progress, but after what felt like over an hour they still hadn't seen sign of a single one.
After another half hour later, she finally caught sight of one. It was next to large stone platform suspended above the canyon.
"There!" She whispered in Gates' ear, or at least where she assumed they were. He simply nodded as a response, and the pair quietly made their way over. The last stretch over the stone platform was completely out in the open, so they took their time to look it over before booking it. It looked empty, so they jogged out onto the platform, trying to reach the fog-gate. Suddenly, Gates tackled her, pulling her onto the ground. At just the right moment, as she felt the air shift above when she hit the ground. She turned to see a purple flying creature with scorpion-like features having landed next to them.
Gates reacted first, getting back up and firing a Water Gun at the creature, which it swiftly dodged. Lisa also got up to fire a Water Gun of her own, just for the husk to suddenly speed up and tackle her in the gut. It proved itself way faster and stronger than anything they had faced in the swamp. The hit knocked the air out of her lungs, and knocked her onto her back. She saw she had landed fairly close to the edge of the platform. Not close enough to be in any real immediate danger, but still too close for comfort.
She looked up to see the creature brandishing it's claws, getting ready to follow up on its attack. But in the nick of time, something hit the back of it's head, causing it's body to freeze in place completely. Gates took this opportunity to bite down on the creature, causing it to thrash in pain and scream as frost started to cover it's body. Through intense effort, it managed to shake Gates of itself, but by then Liza had gotten up, following up with a Water Gun. This finally caused it to fall on the ground, and fade away.
"Damn gligar striking from above." Gates grunted as he got up. "Luckily they aren't the most powerful creatures in here."
"Not that powerful huh? It almost knocked me over the edge. What would've even happened to me then?" Liza blurted out, high on adrenaline from the moment.
"Knowing this place right, you would've been carried somewhere else in this same sector." Gates answered. "Probably not a part of it we want to visit either, so let's avoid that."
Liza gulped thinking of how much time they would waste searching through the sector again, not to mention the danger of being attacked while alone.
"Let's go." Gated then said, not wanting to waste any more time. Liza nodded in agreement as they both crossed through the fog-gate.
The Shallow Wetlands presented no danger to Latias, just as expected. She had taken her time to ensure her targets hadn't tried to hide inside hoping for them to pass along, but there was no sign of them on the inside. It seemed like going through had been a waste of time, but not doing it would be too big of a risk to take. Hoping her brother had better news, she fished up an orb from her bag, focusing her psychic energy into it. Soon, she heard the response from her brother, or rather, felt it.
"There you finally are. They have entered into another dungeon." Came immediately from the telepathic link.
"Which one?" She asked back.
"Riptide Ravine. They must be planning to use the currents to lose us. I'm going after them, get over here immediately!" Latios commanded.
Latias was about to respond, before she felt the link abruptly break, most likely from him entering the dungeon.
'Oh legends, please don't overdo it Latios. We are supposed to bring them unharmed.' She thought as she set off full speed towards the dungeon.
Riptide Ravine
A medium-difficulty dungeon, where items are rare, though you can find some of high rarity if lucky. Though ten sectors sounds modest, the length of each causes a trip down to be a time consuming endeavor. Jumping into the currents at the bottom, can cause you to emerge just about anywhere in a large radius around the dungeon. Even expert trackers see this as their cue to abandon the pursuit, at least temporarily.
The second sector had proven itself much the same as the first, taking a long while with them walking and hiding to get through undetected. On the third, they seemed get lucky, finding the next sector after just a few minutes. The pain from the gligar's attack had faded gradually as they walked, without having to spend any healing berries for help.
"Hey, Gates. How did you stop that gligar from attacking me back then?" Liza asked her partner, keeping her voice fairly low to avoid anything overhearing them.
"Oh, that. I threw a Stun Seed at it. Locks up every joint in your body for a moment." Gates said, also keeping his voice low. "I don't have that many, but we need to be prepared to use our resources if we battle in this dungeon."
"About that, how come we didn't need to use any of those healing fruits? The pain felt surreal when it attacked, and now I feel fine." She kept inquiring.
"You didn't look that hurt. Besides, it's one of the reactions our bodies have to the distortions. Your body will heal itself faster than normal, but you will also become hungry much faster than usual, so keep that in mind." Gates answered, before stopping at a corner to check around it. After giving Liza a thumbs up to signal the coast was clear, the pair continued on.
"Did you put anything useful like that in my bag as well?" Liza asked, hoping he would've given her anything useful.
"I'm afraid you have little beyond the bare minimum. Didn't keep much dungeoneering supplies in my hideout outside my own emergency bag. You have a couple of apples for provisions, some basic healing berries, and a couple of Blast Seeds. Those explode shortly after you bite of the tip." Gates answered.
Liza gulped, looking into her bag seeing three red-colored seeds, ending in a small sprout on the tip. Luckily the were securely placed, but the knowledge of having carried explosives around all this time was not comforting at all.
"Calm down. They won't go off on accident." Gates told her when he saw her reaction.
Sector two went by without many problems. The second gate was found a lot sooner than on the first floor, though they still had to trek a bit through the seemingly endless ravine. The third would eventually prove their suspicion that even with the large size of the dungeons interior, spending that much time in the first sector truly was a stroke of rotten luck. The pair had to fight off a palpitoad on this floor though. It walked right up on them at a poor time, though they were able to catch it off guard. Even then, Gates had to bring out another seed, which seemed to blind it, in order to take it down safely. Even in a two on one battle, fighting proved costly in both time and resources. The latter of which would still be needed even if the were to shake off their pursuers. Even so, they trekked on ahead, with the hope of getting away waiting at the bottom.
"No use. I can't reach him inside."
Latias hovered down as she approached Riptide Ravine. It was a large on, making the search time consuming even for her and her brother. She made a B-line for the entrance, hoping she would be able to catch up with her brother inside.
While she of course cared deeply for him, she dared not assume he wouldn't escalate too far if they tried fighting back.
The dungeon had proven itself formidable, but through cunning and wisely choosing their battles, Gates and Liza had been able to navigate through it. Though the battles they did have to take had certainly taken their toll. They had been forced to use up quite a few of their healing berries, and even a pecha berry after another gligar had managed to poison Gates. Not like poison was too common in this dungeon, but they only had one left if they were extra unlucky. Their supply of oran berries and seeds were not looking too great either, with Gates only having one stun, as well as one blast Liza had returned to him. Liza still had the other two, as she was hesitant to use the explosives. They also had about five orans left between them. Probably enough to finish the dungeon without too many complications, but they wouldn't have a lot left for trouble afterwards.
'Afterwards, huh?' Liza thought 'To think we would get far enough to worry about that.'
This was, according to Gates at least, the last sector of the dungeon. Each one was very big, but there were only a modest nine before reaching the bottom on the tenth. From there, they could swim through the underground currents, and nobody would be able to predict where they would emerge. Sure, that was a double edged sword, but when two deities are on ones tail, they are willing to consider drastic options.
"Stay focused." Gates told her in a hushed tone. "We've come to far to make a slip now."
Liza nodded and followed in silence. Soon, the dungeon narrowed down to a single path along cliff wall. It wasn't too narrow, but it was a fairly long stretch without any cover, and few retreat options.
"Quick, let's cross before something shows up." Gates commanded, having opted for crossing the exposed stretch before anything showed up. Both Water-types started running along the path, without a threat in sight. Though when they were finally about to turn the final corner back into the caves, a large bug-like creature rounded the corner ahead of them. The pair skidded to a halt, as the creatures empty eyes went from surprise to anger immediately.
"ARMALDO! RUN!" Gates yelled, as he fired a Water Gun at the so-called armaldo. Liza immediately turned, not being to keen on fighting in such a cramped space either. She briefly looked back to see the armaldo initially flinching away when hit by Gates attack, just to immediately charge again with renewed fury. Gates managed to dodge it's vicious claw swipes, which left dents in the rock it hit instead. Though Liza looked back just in the nick of time to her own problems.
In their rush to get through, they had neglected to look above. Now a plant-like creature with a long neck, had slithered it's way down the wall to trap them in from behind. Liza barely had time to duck as the cradily shot out some green tendrils which soared straight over her head. Being on the ground, she quickly rolled around and fired a water gun, hoping to earn just a moment to get back up. But unlike the armaldo, this one didn't even flinch upon getting hit. It immediately grabbed Liza with the tendrils around it's head, and lifted her up. She tried wriggling loose, even launching a desperate aqua jet, but the cradily's grip was too strong.
"Gates! Help!" She screamed to her teammate, who was still busy dodging fury cutters from the armaldo.
The pathway was plenty wide enough to walk on, but for dodging he had no options to give up space while firing the occasional water gun to chip it down. A brief look behind him informed him of his partners peril, as well as the fact he didn't have much more room to retreat before he ended up in the same situation.
As the cradily's grip held tight, a liquid started to ooze from it's tendrils. Liza felt a burning pain as soon as it touched her skin, realizing that it was an acid, and she didn't want to find out how effective it was. She desperately tried to think of a way out the situation, as she heard Gates still fighting the armaldo behind her. Water moves were useless, and she couldn't get the momentum in her body to fire a sonicboom. Her arm were pinned against her body, but she did manage to slip her paw into her bag. After some rummaging about, she managed to get a hold of one of her remaining blast seeds. Through sheer desperation, she managed to wriggle her arm loose enough for her to shove the seed into the cadily's mouth and flick off the sprout.
Good news, it worked. A violent blast erupted, forcing the hostile plant to let go of it's prey. It reeled back, making noises one could only assume was a mix of anger and pain.
Bad news. Liza was also caught in the blast, and she hadn't paid attention to her surroundings when she set it off. As she was struggling to stay conscious, she had been launched away from solid ground, and into the rapid currents of the ravine. It was as time was slowing down, when she felt a scaly body wrapping itself around her as both plummeted into the water.