“So, what’s our game plan?” Ben asked, breaking the silence in the tent. Everyone looked at the team leaders gathered together at one end of our little circle.
Marcus sighed, tilting his head up and rubbing his the sides of his head, “We can’t beat the Mountain Lord. Even that monster of a Baxcalibur fears her…”
“yeah, we got lucky thanks to kaiju eating foot meat.” Winnie snickered. I held back a smile at that thought.
Clapping her hands together to get everyone’s attention on her, Celia spoke, “Our plan is to brainstorm a way to prevent a fight with the Mountain Lord. I’m hoping that she will be reasonable enough to speak with us, but we need a good argument and more.”
“Ooo! Ooo!” The twins raised their hands at the same time, “We could do a peace offering with food considering how much the Lord of Ice liked seasoned Mamoswine meat!.”
Celia snapped her fingers and pointed at the twins, “That’s a good idea. Anything else?”
“Before we do that, I want to know what the escape plan is.” Jason said with a hand raised, “Assuming that teleportation will be completely locked down inside the mountain.”
Tim nodded at that, “We have a way of circumventing the psychic disruption if worst comes to worst.” The researcher gestured to Justine who dug into her pockets and held up a stack of red and black talismans, then he continued, “The main issue will be communication between the entry and camp parties.”
“Entry and camp parties?” Justine asked with a frown, “Are we splitting up? This is my first time hearing about this.”
“Yes, we’re splitting the group into two parties.” Angela answered, shooting her sister a look that said, ‘and you have no choice in that matter.’
There was a moment of silence that was broken by Collin asking, “Who’s going?”
“Marcus, Leo, Ben, Angela, Az, an Alakazam and Gardevoir from the twins, and me.” Celia listed out with a serious tone. “Everyone else will be staying behind.”
“Wait, why–” Justine started but Angela cut her off. “You’re not going Justine. That’s final.”
“I know, I know, jeez you didn’t even let me finish my question.” Justine retorted with a slightly irked expression.
“Why are you letting Azalea go?” Jason asked pointedly, raising his hand and then pointing at me. “It’s pretty obvious how dangerous the inside of the mountain is at this point, there’s no need for deadweight.”
Shooting Jason a disapproving look, Celia answered, “They won’t be deadweight, we still need Winnie’s help breaking through to the center of the illusion dome. Zoroark and Angela’s ghosts can’t unweave the illusion as fast as he can due to the barrier’s type makeup.”
“Then just have Winnie join the entry party without Azalea.” Jason replied, “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t want the expedition to be slandered by the death of a young and inexperienced trainer.”
“hey! i’m not going without az!” Winnie shouted at Jason, “we set out together and we’re going in together!”
Despite not understanding exactly what Winnie was saying, Jason seemed to get the message and rolled his eyes.
Tim didn’t look particularly happy about Winnie and I going in either, but a harsh look from Celia prevented him from saying anything.
“Is there any specific reason why Az gets to go?” Kenta somewhat hesitantly asked.
“They’re going in with us.” Celia said with a tone of finality. I tilted my head in confusion, Why did she avoid answering the question?
“Any more suggestions on how to deal with the Mountain Lord?” Celia asked the group. “Alright then. Keep on thinking about it, we’ll have another meeting the day before the entry party goes into the mountain for any more suggestions.”
With a wave of her hand, Celia dismissed the meeting, “Now go rest up, we’re leaving tomorrow at six thirty on the dot.”
Celia was the first to leave. As everyone began to file out after her, Angela put a hand on my shoulder and gestured for me to stay. Tim was standing behind her, arms crossed and with a worried expression.
We waited until everyone but the three of us were left before Angela spoke. “Hey, we just wanted to make sure you’re okay with being part of the entry party.”
“Yeah, considering what we faced yesterday, we won’t blame you and Winnie if you two back out. You’re both still young and have your whole lives ahead of you.” Tim said, glancing at the tent door as if he was afraid of Celia bursting in and demanding them to stop.
I shrugged, “Hey, we’ve come so far already and overcome a ton of stuff, I’m not backing out now.”
Angela and Tim exchanged looks, the latter sighed in defeat before he spoke, “Fine, we’ll respect your wishes. Just know that you can reconsider at any time.”
The two ushered me out of the tent, telling Winnie and I to get some rest, we’d need it.
Once we’d gotten out of earshot from the two of them I asked Winnie, “Are you sure you’re okay with going into the mountain with me Winnie?”
“of course!” Winnie replied, “this is what we set out to do isn’t it?”
“Yeah.” I sighed.
I was still committed to entering with the team but I kinda doubted how much I could help out compared to the others. I mean, I’d be borrowing Lucario and Infernape, and I had Sahara, but that was half of a full team. I just didn’t want to be a deadweight.
I didn’t like how Jason framed the situation but he had a point about me being the weakest link in the chain aside from Justine, who had her sister’s elite level ghosts at her command. I hadn’t even thought about how killable I was until today when the Lord of Ice tried to squish me like an ant.
Not to mention how weirdly apathetic I was about the whole issue of almost dying, I mean, wouldn’t most people be a bit more shaken up or something? Honestly I was more scared when Kaiju was sent flying than when the Lord of Ice was about to squish me to death. It wasn’t very noticeable until I started thinking about it.
Actually, that might’ve been the first time I’d felt that scared since my rollercoaster ride in Ultra Space. The chase with mama Hydreigon clearly trying to kill Winnie and I probably was just as scary if not more than the fight with the Lord of Ice, but I kinda just rolled with both experiences and went on my merry way.
It’s like my sense of self preservation died with my original body, my danger sensors were kinda fucked.
I don’t know whether that’s more of a blessing or a curse. I might not care much about dying but I’d rather someone else not get hurt or die because of my dumbass.
----------------------------------------
The weather was pretty nice when we set out, no snow and semi-cloudy skies, we had a much better time traveling compared to the previous few days. After a few hours of silent and uneventful traveling, everyone relaxed a bit and began quietly talking amongst ourselves again.
Winnie was up with the ghost gang all night doing…I dunno I didn’t ask. The little fox looked like he was thinking hard about something and spent most of the hike in his hoodie nook and I didn’t bother him about it.
He and Zoroark didn’t have to do much today because there weren’t any illusions in our way like before.
The Cryogonal were still floating above us and singing like the annoying frosty assholes they were, but they didn’t make any moves until we got to our destination, a clearing leading up to a tiny cave crack in the side of the mountain.
There was a whistling rush of frosty wind, followed by the sounds of countless crystals clanging against each other as thousands upon of thousands of Cryogonal floated out of the clouds and swarmed together like a massive school of fish.
The entire team tensed up, hands over our Pokeballs as we waited to see what the snowflake Pokemon were scheming this time around.
Jason scowled, “Please don’t start singing again.”
The swarm shifted into a ball before a line of them began streaming out and circling up towards to the top of the mountain before disappearing amongst the clouds.
For the first time in days, there were no Cryogonal, and there was no nonstop singing. There was a collective sigh of relief from the party before Celia began directing everyone to set up a more permanent camp.
We had the usual set up, but with the addition of an extra tough stone, dirt, and ice walls equipped with an electric fence powered by Jason’s team and Justine using some talismans that looked different from before.
After everything was set up, Celia gathered the team for a final meeting.
“Tim will be the de facto leader until the party returns. If we don’t return or make contact with you guys in three days, you are to leave immediately.” Celia said, the group’s mood turned sour at her words. I could see a few people grimacing at the thought of failure.
Celia turned to Abigail, “Abigail, you will be in charge of navigation if I am unable to do the job for any reason.”
The ice-steel specialist’s eyes widened slightly at the sudden responsibility and she quietly nodded.
Turning back to the rest of the group, Celia continued, “While we’re gone, the camp group will work on re-establishing contact with the ranger base. Hopefully we can get someone to fly over and pick us up instead of having to teleport or hike our way back once we’ve established some sort of treaty with the Mountain Lord.”
The team discussed preparation for any attacks while the entry party were away and something about why we had lost contact with the ranger base halfway through despite previous expeditions having no such problems.
I wasn’t paying attention. The twins were weirdly chipper and relaxed compared to the rest of the group. They has been that way ever since we got to the camp, kinda like a burden was lifted off their shoulders, though I couldn’t tell why.
The moment the meeting ended everyone began to prepare for an early dinner, after which Celia ordered everyone on the entry team to go to bed early and get as much rest as possible, we’d need it tomorrow.
I was fine with that. Despite nothing big happening today, I was still more than ready to go to sleepyland. I was still tired from yesterday’s battle, and today’s hike certainly didn’t help.
Plus, most of the party wasn’t really up to talking at the moment. Everyone was tense about what could happen tomorrow.
“az, celia and jason were talking about something after the meeting yesterday.” Winnie said as soon as we entered our tent. He’d been uncharacteristically quiet the entire day, like something was on his mind.
“Yeah? What was it?” I asked, pulling a Pokedoll out for Kaiju.
Shrugging, Winnie answered, “manectric noticed me before i heard everything, but they said something about an oe-lim-pee-a prophecy? it had to do with the twins. and you.”
There was a flash as Kaiju let himself out of his Pokeball and yoinked the Pokedoll out of my hands, growling as he began violently shaking it around. He was pretty energetic after being stuck in his dusk ball all day
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“The twins? And o…Olympia? Yeah, they’re Olympia’s students–” I stopped in my tracks as I remembered Olymia’s psychic ability. She could see the future.
“Oh. Olympia had a prophecy? About this expedition?” I scratched my head and I thought aloud, “I get why she’d do prophecy shenanigans to make sure her students are safe but what the hell did she say about me?”
I pulled a blanket out of my bag and threw it over Kaiju before getting into the sleeping bag.
Winnie jumped over and crawled into the sleeping bag with me. “i dunno. celia was insistent that no one else knew about this though.”
I sighed, “Yeah, knowing the future can be a huge burden. That’s why I hate prophecies.”
“Deino!”
----------------------------------------
“How are we going to get in? That’s too small for even a Rattata to fit through!” Ben rapped his knuckles on the stone around the entrance as he examined the crack in the cliff that was the entrance to the mountain.
“I-it’s actually big enough for all of us to enter. It’s an illusion.” Marcus replied, putting a hand on his hip as if it what he had just stated was obvious.
“Of course it’s another illusion.” The red-headed trainer sighed, stepping back from the crack in the wall.
“There’s a labyrinth of illusions on the inside, also note that the only Pokemon who can possibly attack us are ghost types.” We looked back towards the camp as Celia joined us with Leo and Angela. Tim and Justine were trailing behind them.
As if on cue, there was an outburst of hyena-like laughter that echoed throughout the cave.
“You two will be taking care of that.” Celia said to Angela and Leo. Our resident ghost and dark-type specialists looked at each other and nodded.
“What in the world was that?” Collin and Mienshao had come to watch just in time to hear the outburst from the ghosts. The fighting-type specialist leaned over to Tim and whispered something to the researcher who said something back.
Yamask floated out of Justine's shadow and floated over to rest on her shoulder. Golett and Litwick joined them. The purple haired trainer nodded at me, I reflexively put put my hand in my pocket and felt the Cleanse Tag Talisman in my pocket. We had all been given one, it wouldn’t help with stronger ghosts, but it was good for weaker ones.
Winnie jumped down from his usual place on my shoulder and ran over to the crack in the wall to poke his nose in. Zoroark and Typhlosion joined the Zorua, the ghost flame Pokemon pulled Winnie away before Zoroark slashed at the entrance with a precise Night Slash.
There was a slight delay before the crack in the wall crumbled away like glass and shattered into nothingness, revealing a low cave entrance we could walk through.
There was a low murmur of excitement from the others and I heard Celia begin to give orders to the entry group.
I went up to the cave entrance and cautiously peered in, making sure to stay behind Zoroark and Typhlosion. Winnie kept sniffing the entrance. Shuppet came out of my shadow and joined Winnie, Zoroark, and Typhlosian at the cave entrance as they spoke to each other in hushed voices, as if they were afraid of disturbing something deep inside the cave.
“Find anything interesting?” I asked.
Winnie turned to me and excitedly hopped a few times before jumping onto my shoulder, “this is the work of an illusion master alright. the energy coming from inside is oppressive.”
Shuppet floated up to eye level with me as she added, “Not to mention outright murderous.”
“This is a multi-barrier illusion!” Typhlosion exclaimed, “I’ve never seen one with so many layers, this will be much more difficult to decipher than I thought.”
I cocked my head, “Why’s that?”
“Single layer illusions, like the ones we’ve been dealing with before required little effort to unweave. Multi-barrier ones are essentially more fortified, can contain traps, and require more effort to create and destroy.”
“That sounds reassuring.” I sighed.
Typhlosion’s eyes glinted with anticipation as it grinned, “Don’t worry, you will not encounter any trouble from the illusions as I will be participating in unweaving the illusion this time.”
I looked back as Ben tapped my shoulder to get my attention, the others were already gathered in formation behind us and ready to go.
Typhlosion led the way, followed by the two illusion foxes. Winnie hopped into Zoroark’s mane and poked his head out resting his chin on the bigger fox’s head, which I found hilariously cute.
Behind the trio assigned to getting rid of illusions, were Celia and I, followed by Marcus, Angela with a Mimikyu on her shoulder, Ben with Armarouge, and Leo with Houndoom, Weavile, and Absol as the rearguard to deter any ghost types from attacking from behind.
I saw Celia brush a hand over Gardevoir and Alakazam’s Pokeballs on her belt before she gave a thumbs up to everyone and gestured for the Typhlosion to proceed.
“Everyone keep a firm hand on the bag of the person in front of you.” The team leader ordered, gesturing for me to grab the handle on the back of her bag.
I did so the shadows of the cave slowly overtook the sunlight from outside. The cave looked relatively normal, and was more reminiscent of a man-mined cave than a natural one due to how unnaturally level and smooth it was.
The darkness quickly became suffocating, but Typhlosian, and Armarouge both flared up the fires on their body to make it easier for us to see. Houndoom created a mini ball of fire-type energy, a modified Sunny Day to use as a light source in the back.
Even with all three fire types lighting the area up, we could only see a small circle around us, it was as if the darkness was absorbing the light from the fires.
The oppressing aura in the cave slowly became more tolerable as Winnie, Zoroark, and Typhlosian got to work. It was hard to make out what exactly they were doing cause they seemed to be able to see something I couldn’t.
First, Typhlosian would wave its claws around similarly to how someone would gather up a bunch of spider webs. Then Winnie’s eyes would glow as he did something none of us could see, followed by Zoroark coating his claws in dark-type energy and slashing at something invisible.
Wash rinse repeat while the group waited behind the trio until the literal air in front of us shattered like glass, and the darkness receded just a bit. Then we’d move forward for a minute or two until we stopped again at another wall of darkness and the whole process would repeat.
After a few rounds of this, I looked back to where we came from and saw the shattered holes in the illusions slowly weaving themselves back together. The process was slower the closer Leo’s crew was to them, and Absol or Weavile would occasionally slash at the still-broken parts to prevent them from repairing itself as fast so that the rear guard wouldn’t get caught in the illusion again.
No sign of any aggressive ghosts yet.
“Why’s this so slow compared to before?” I heard Ben behind us say in a slightly nervous tone.
“Well it’s because–” Angela began before she was cut off by Marcus.
“Ooh! Okay, let me explain!” The researcher cleared his throat as he turned on lecture mode.
“Due to the unique makeup of the mixed ghost and normal type energy that makes up the illusion dome, most ghost types, even non-pure ghost types would find it hard to manipulate the strands of illusion. Zoroark’s dark typing makes it even harder for him to find and manipulate this illusion because he doesn't share a type with the maker of this illusion.”
Marcus took a deep breath as he adjusted his glasses, “Not to mention that the labyrinth’s makeup is more complicated than what we’ve encountered before. So, we have an experienced illusionist like Typhlosian find the strings needed, Winnie manipulates them into the optimal position for cutting, then Zoroark destroys those strings.”
I glanced back at the others as I asked a question, “Why not just destroy the entire thing?”
“Umm, think about it like you’re trying to tear down a large building.” Marcus said, “You certainly can have a Rhyperior go tear through it to bring the whole thing down, but that takes a lot more energy than needed. Instead, we can use less energy by damaging or completely removing the foundations and supporting structure of the building and let it collapse on its own weight.”
“Oh, I guess that makes a lot of sense–Wooaah!” Ben shouted as Angela grabbed him by the front of his shirt and pulled him forward. A massive Shadow Ball flew through right where he just was.
The red head looked wide eyed at where the Shadow Ball disappeared to and rubbed the back of his neck, “Thanks man.”
“It’s fine.” Angela said, glancing down at her shadow, “Someone go handle that.” There was a rustle, then a Banette flew out of her shadow with a cackle and vanished into the darkness.
The team was on high alert after that. The ghosts continued to test our defenses with the occasional Shadow Ball or scary image jumpscare, but they didn’t come near, only lurking in the shadows and waiting for an opening that never came.
What felt like hours passed as the trio at the front worked hard to continue unweaving this particularly dense part of the illusion dome. It felt like we’d never get out.
Finally, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. I heard a few murmurs of joy from the rest of the party as our pace quickened until we all emerged into the sanctuary.
I squinted and raised a hand to block the sudden sunlight out of my eyes, only looking around once my eyes had adjusted.
“Well, will you look at that.” Leo said with a wide grin, shielding his eyes from the light.
“Zor!” Zoroark added as Winnie hopped onto his head. The bigger fox ruffled the smaller fox’s head fur.
“Lord Giratina, I didn’t think it would be this big on the inside.” Typhlosion said to Zoroark and Winnie, the other two voiced their agreement.
Laid out in front of us was a temperate forest paradise. The gentle sounds of wildlife greeted us as we walked out into a small clearing and stopped.
Squinting his eyes, Ben pointed into the distance, yelling in a disbelieving voice, “Is that a mountain inside a mountain?”
“Looks like it.” Someone else replied.
There was a legit mini mountain inside this mountain in the distance. There were little gray dots moving along the cliffs, perhaps Hisuan Sneasel or Sneaseler?
“Don’t let your guards down yet everyone, lets switch gears.” Celia shouted to us as she sent out Bewear and Alakazam.
Marcus sent out a Mr Mime. Leo returned Houndoom and Weavile before sending out Mandibuzz, ordering the vulture to keep watch from the sky.
Ben sent out his usual duo of Ceruledge and Armarouge while Winnie hopped out of Zoroark’s mane and back onto my shoulder.
After briefly making sure that everyone was prepared, Celia led the way into the forest, none of us really knew where to go so our best bet was to just get to the center of the sanctuary where we could hopefully find the Mountain Lord.
As we went deeper in, our path came parallel with a gurgling river with Basculin swimming inside and leaping out of the water, scales glinting in the sunlight.
I sharply glanced up at the sky at…the sun? There was a sun inside the mountain…
One of the Basculin bubbled aggressively and shot a weak spray of water at us.
“By Arceus! Those are White Striped Basculin!” Marcus suddenly shouted, startling the group of fish Pokemon, making them scatter while the researcher scrambled to take photos of them before they disappeared.
“Basculin?” Ben asked skeptically, “You mean those annoying fish that bite you for no reason?”
“These aren’t just any Basucalin! White Striped Basculin!” Marcus repeated, emphasizing the words ‘White Striped’. “They’re the only Basculin subspecies known to evolve! That means there must be a–”
Celia slapped a hand over Marcus’s mouth as a few shadows flitted over us. Everyone sharply glanced up in time to see a mixed flock of Hisuan and Unovan Braviary gliding over us. The flock did a U-turn, and flew back to where they came from, calling out to each other with voices similar to what a squeaky shopping cart wheel would sound like.
I chuckled to myself at such fierce-looking Pokemon making such silly noises.
Nice to know that eagles in Pokemon sound just like eagles from back home.
“those are some big birds.” Winnie whispered to me.
“Bzzt!” For the first time in a while, Rotom zipped out of my pocket in a red blur. It had stayed in my jacket during most of the trip due to how cold it was.
The possessed phone stretched its little arms as it snapped a few photos of the Braviary flock flying away.
“Braviary, the valiant Pokemon. They fight for their friends without any thought about danger to themselves and are capable of carrying a car while flying. The more scars a Braviary has on its front, the more heroic it’s considered to be. Those with many scars on their back are mocked by the flock.”
“Nice to see you out and about again Rotom.” I said to the plasma ghost as it zipped around, snapping pictures of the group.
“Hey! Look!” Ben shouted with excitement, pointing at a Hisuan Growlithe spying on us from behind a tree. Rotom buzzed and zoomed over right up to the Growlithe’s face while snapping pictures of it. With a yelp, the Growlithe jumped, tumbling over itself, and immediately ran back into the brush.
“Rotom, mind your manners.” I chastised the ghost, grabbing it to prevent it from zooming over to a bunch of rustling bushes.
“OOO! A Hisuan Growlithe! Make sure to send those photos to me Azalea!” Marcus exclaimed, “They are fire-rock types with igneous rock components in their–” The researcher was cut off yet again as everyone momentarily lost their sense of balance.
Reality shifted and the forest itself seemed to move around as. Suddenly there was a well-kept stone path where the Growlithe had just disappeared, as if it had always been there. The path we had previously been on was gone, replaced by a small clearing surrounded by a barrier of tall thorn bushes and thickly woven trees.
Looks like someone wants us to go somewhere. Everyone looked at each other and shrugged.
Leo scratched his head and glanced at Absol, “You think it’s a trap?”
Absol tilted its horn towards the stone path and shook its head when it didn’t receive any danger signals.
The wall of thorns around us rattled belligerently as if they were shooing us towards the path. “Hopefully not. Doesn’t look like we have a choice anyhow.” Celia said glancing warily at the wall of thorns creeping closer to us.
“Only one way to find out.” Leo shrugged, gesturing towards the path, he slightly bowed towards Celia and held out a hand toward the path, “Ladies first.”
“Pearl before swine.” The team leader scoffed as she walked past Leo and took the first step onto the stone path.
We continued onwards, winding through the trees for several minutes before coming to a large clearing with a large Japanese styled shrine at the center and statues of fire and Hisuan Growlithe and Arcanine.
The structure looked aged, but was in good condition and well taken care of. The gold layers on the upper areas of the shrine glinted in the sunlight.
“look!” Winnie shouted, pointing a paw at the shrine where a few Hisuan Zorua had popped their heads out of hiding places to look at us.
With an excited gasp, Winnie did a few excited hops, “they look like me!”
One of the Hisuan Zorua tilted its head, looking Winnie up and down and giggled mischievously. The Zorua jumped up and poofed into a Hisuan Growlithe before running away. The other Zorua followed suit, turning into Growlithe and scampering away into the woods, giggling to each other about the newcomers and that they had to tell Meemaw about us.
Our attention was drawn back to the shrine as the structure began to radiate heat, turning the temperature in the clearing up a few notches.
There was a golden-red glow from inside the shrine and a red-gold Hisuan Arcanine prowled out from behind one of the walls. It yawned, giving us a show of its massive sharp teeth, and did a cat stretch, obviously having just woken up.
Despite it being the same size as an average Arcanine, this one radiated energy like it was a living sun, kinda like how the Lord of Ice radiated the cold as if it was an avatar of winter.
Lemme guess, this one is called the Lord of Fire.
The Noble Hisuan Arcanine lazily strolled over to the center stage of the shrine and sat down, looking at us with a haughty and expectant expression. The temperature rose another few notches. The heat from before was nice and toasty, I felt like a chicken getting slowly roasted in an oven.
“Bow down! Don’t make direct eye contact!” Marcus whisper-shouted to the rest of the group. “Celia, where’s the food offerings?”
The group all knelt and bowed our heads towards the Noble Pokemon as Celia took off her bag and hurriedly took out a few large tupperware boxes of different seasoned meats.
I glanced over as I heard Ben elbow Ceruledge and order the fire type to not make eye contact, we weren’t here for a fight. Armarouge hit his partner on the back of the head, forcing her to look away from Arcanine.
I heard a few frenetic photo-snapping sounds from Rotom. “Not a good time Rotom.” I muttered, reaching a hand up to grab the ghost. Before I could, Winnie grabbed the phone ghost by one of its arms and pulled it down, shoving it into my hoodie where he sat on it.
Alakazam used Psychic to place the food offerings in front of Noble Arcanine and we all waited for a reaction. I could cut the tension in the area with a butter knife.
The golden fire type leaned down to sniff our offerings before taking a few bites. It wasn’t long before all the tupperware boxes were empty.
Licking its chops, the Noble Pokemon pushed the boxes away. Alakazam returned the boxes to Celia’s bag.
Then Arcanine finally spoke. I am pleased with your offerings peasants. Speak. What are you here for?
After the loud rumbling voices of the previous two lords, I was caught a bit off guard by the Lord of Fire’s cold and slightly echoing voice. It was more befitting of an ice type like Froslass than a fire type that was the literal embodiment of the sun.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Celia shift as she spoke. “This humble human greets the mighty Lord of Fire.”
Ahh, going the flattery route are we? Looks like Celia made the right call though, the Lord of Fire slightly straightened its back in satisfaction as its ego inflated.
“We are here to warn you and the other esteemed lords of a human organization called Galactic Corporations that wishes to take the mountain from you all.”
The Lord of Fire let out a scornful bark of laughter. Really? Humans trying to take the mountain from us? Noble Arcanine’s mirth instantly turned into a vicious snarl. I would like to see them try.
The temperature rose once more.
“That’s not all,” Celia added, keeping a cool tone. “We also would like to create friendly relations with your sanctuary to protect it from any other bad humans. There are good organizations like the Ranger corps and the Pokemon League who can help with that.”
Marcus nervously tugged at the collar of his coat as he spoke up, “Uh, umm. We’re also here to meet the Mountain Lord. We understand that she’s the boss around here. As a researcher of Hisuan Pokemon it is–”
The Lord of Fire cut Marcus off with a flippant wave of its paw. Our sanctuary does not need to be protected by mere humans.
Then the Noble Pokemon shot Marcus a glare, making him flinch. And we are not objects to be studied, human. The Lord of fire spat out the word human as if it was a slur.
But don’t fret. Your wasteful effort will have a reward. The Lord of Fire got to its feet. You will get to die at the claws of my esteemed guard as my entertainment~
The Noble Arcanine grinned sadistically. You should feel honored.
Celia shot to her feet, the rest of the group following suit, preparing for a fight. “Wait just a sec–” Our team leader shouted but she was cut off.
Reality shifted. The entire world went sideways and then upside down while gravity seemed to stop working for a second.
I flailed around as I felt myself floating up into the sky and spinning around like clothes in a washing machine before slamming back into the ground as gravity turned back on again.