“XATU! XATU! XATU!” Xatu’s frantic cuckoo clock-like alarm sounded throughout the camp. The previously quiet and unmoving camp burst into activity.
“What’s going on?” Collin asked no one in particular as he and Mienshao rushed out of his tent and ran over to the center of the camp right below where Xatu was floating in the air.
The twins floated over, Choe was still putting on her jacket as Zoe answered, “We’re about to be under attack.”
“Sigi” Sigipyph said affirmatively as it and Xatu floated down to ground level beside their trainers.
Chloe zipped up her jacket, “There’s gonna be a small army of Pokemon outside right about…”
The air rippled just outside the camp’s front gate and the foundations of sturdy rock wall around the camp shook.
“...now!” Zoe snapped her fingers as she finished her sister’s sentence for her.
The snow and ice around the camp began to melt and sizzle as the temperature suddenly jumped from “flash-freezing water” to “cooking eggs on the sidewalk”. A glowing golden Hisuan Arcanine stepped out into the clearing before the camp’s entrance. The air further shifted like a curtain to reveal a small army of Pokemon standing behind the Lord of Fire.
“It’s so hot! We should’ve brought a water type specialist along.” Zoe complained, fanning herself and taking her coat off. Sandslash waddled over to the twins and breathed a few breaths of frost over them to cool them down, earning a thanks from the twins.
“You’re kidding me. Is that another Noble Pokemon?” Jason complained as he strode over, Manectic and Bolthund at his heels. Manectric growled in agreement, Bolthund barked.
The rest of the camp quickly joined them as a Hisuan Zoroark prowled to the front of the pack and stood right outside the gates.
Listen well intruders! The Lord of Fire and her elites have been ordered to exterminate you. You can either die quickly and painlessly, or you can do this the hard way and suffer an agonizing death. You will have the courtesy of five minutes to answer.
The illusion fox stalked back to the golden Arcanine and whispered something in the Noble Pokemon’s ear before taking its place by her side.
Kenta was the first to speak, “I think we can all agree we’re not going down without a fight, but how in the world are we gonna fight that?” He pointed at the Lord of Fire.
The others nodded and voiced their agreement.
“This new Noble Pokemon seems to be on the same level as the Lord of Ice.” Collin noted as he examined who they’d potentially be up against.
“Hey, I have an idea.” Tim waved his hands for everyone’s attention.
“You’d better.” Jason sighed. Manectric shot Tim a mean look.
Tim nodded, “Open the gates, I’m gonna go out and talk to them.”
“Sure, don’t die on us.” Jason took out a small remote from his pocket and pushed a button, the gates on to their camp smoothly swung open.
Giving an assuring nod to the others, Tim walked out with Diggersby by his side.
A few Sneaseler, Luxray, and Houndoom at the front jeered as they caught sight of Tim and Diggersby.
The golden Arcanine, now lounging on her side like she was royalty watched the researcher and his Pokemon approach, only speaking once he had stopped at a respectful distance.
What is your choice? The Lord of Fire asked as if she was being inconvenienced by the humans.
“We’re fighting.” Tim answered.
The Lord of Fire chuckled, a cruel smile spreading on her face. Good. At least I’ll be getting some entertainment today.
Tim held up a hand. “Just a second, I have a proposal.”
The Lord of Fire tilted her head. A proposal? Hmmm, I’m in a good mood. Go ahead.
Tim nodded. “I’d like to make a bet with you to decide our fate.”
Oh ho? A bet?
“Yes. You said you wanted some entertainment, well you’re not going to get much fun by siccing an army of your elites onto a small group. I propose a fairer and more entertaining fight, a trial by combat on which we can bet on.”
Tim held up three fingers, “Each side will choose three champions who will fight each other over the course of three rounds. My bet is that we can win two of those fights and that when we do, you will let us go.”
HA! The Lord of Fire let out a bark of laughter. Your group couldn’t even win one fight against my elites!
But… The Noble Pokemon fluffed up har tail. I will allow this trial by combat, but it will be one fight, and there will be two fighters per team. When I win, you will all be executed without protest.
This wasn’t the ideal outcome, but Tim was fine with that. “Deal.”
The Hisuan Zoroark who had delivered the first message tapped the golden Arcanine on her shoulder, whispering to her. “My Lord, I do not advise going through with this decision. Do not take chances on something you can succeed at without taking unnecessary risks. Humans are-”
The Lord of Fire rolled her eyes and lightly batted her advisor away with a paw, “You worry too much Rosivda. These insects couldn’t even properly fight the Lord of Ice.”
“Yet they were almost able to force the Lord of the Forest into retreat.” Rosivda argued, trying to keep her cool at her Lord’s stupidity for throwing away an easy win.
“Bah! He is a disgrace to us Nobles. I do not know what our liege sees in him.” The Lord of Fire snarled, “Stop nagging at me Rosivda! I’m not in the mood for a drawn out fight anyhow, we will win this one fight, kill them intruders, and be home before sunset.”
The illusion fox still wasn’t happy about the Lord of Fire’s choice, so the Noble Pokemon sighed.
One more thing human. The Lord of Fire pointed at the researcher with a golden claw.
Tim, who had been waiting for the Noble Pokemon and her Advisor to finish arguing, straightened up.
I get to choose the fighter from your team.
Alarmed, Tim replied, “But–! Okay, well I will get to choose who isn’t allowed to fight.”
The Lord of Fire snorted, glancing at the younger members of the expedition team. Do not fret, I am not cowardly enough to make pups fight, nor will I be participating. Like I would stoop that low. No, I want the human with the two mutts to fight.
There was a shout of opposition from Jason that was quickly cut off as Justine elbowed the electric type specialist.
Tim began to protect, but the Lord of Fire cut him off, You either agree or you are killed now for your insolence at my offer. I will be generous and let your fighter choose whichever Pokemon he wants from his toolkit.
There was a pause before Tim sighed and agreed, “Fine.”
Lazily waving a paw at Tim, the Lord of Fire ordered, Go on, send out your champion. Mine are already prepared.
Tim and Diggersby jogged back to the others. “Sorry Jason, I–”
Jason cut Tim off, “Thanks for throwing me under the bus.” The team tech guy angrily threw his jacket to the ground cause the Lord of Fire’s continued presence had made the heat unbearable with their winter jackets on.
“Let’s just get this over with.” Jason growled, angrily stalking over to what would be his side of the battlefield with Bolthund and Manectric flanking him, the two loyal hounds shooting death glares at the opposing side.
An Ursaluna lumbered out of the crowd of Pokemon flanking the Lord of Fire and stopped at its side of the field. The ground next to the massive bear crumbled and an Excadrill leaped out.
Eyeing his prospective opponents, Jason rolled his eyes as he heard the others worriedly whisper to each other about the bad type matchup. Like a few ground types would stop him. He then grabbed two Pokeballs from his belt and threw them.
There were two pops and flashes of light. Kilowattrel squawked and shot out of its Pokeball like a bullet. Toxtricity landed and screamed like a rock star greeting a frenetic crowd of fans and strumming an imaginary guitar. The yellow electricity on the Punk Pokemon’s head flared and sparked as it eyed its opponents.
Begin. The Lord of Fire commanded.
With a roar, Ursaluna immediately beat its paws against its chest and a Sandstorm began to pick up as Excadrill waved its claws towards the sky.
“Negate the sandstorm and set up.” Jason ordered.
With a powerful flap of its wings, Kilowattrel kicked up a Hurricane. Strong winds fought for control of the weather with Excadrill’s Sandstorm for a second before the drill Pokemon gave up and dove into the ground.
Once that was done, Kilowattrel quickly set up an Electric Terrain with an explosion of electricity on the ground.
Ursaluna, who had tried to use Rest to recover from Belly Drum’s negative effects jumped as its paws were zapped by electric terrain, keeping it awake.
Toxtricity strummed its imaginary guitar and screeched out a sound similar to multiple pieces of metal violently grinding against each other next to an amplifier. Ursaluna winced at the unpleasant sound and roared before charging Toxtricity.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Spike it, keep Ursaluna occupied. Kilowattrel, keep an eye out for Excadrill.”
Right before Ursaluna could slam into Toxtricity, the punk rock Pokemon jumped, scattering a handful of Toxic Spikes below it. Then the punk Pokemon screamed at the ground with Boomburst, using the force from the move to propel itself upwards while hitting Ursaluna with a powerful sound attack at the same time.
On the sidelines, psychic barriers went up to shield the onlookers from having their eardrums blown out.
Ursaluna roared in pain as it was assaulted by the huge burst of sound, then it roared again as it stepped on Toxtricity’s Toxic Spikes.
The peat Pokemon felt its opponent land on its back and bucked. Toxtricity jumped again and laughed mockingly at the bear Pokemon before boosting itself up with Boomburst once again. Ursaluna wasn’t going to be hit again and screamed back with Hyper Voice, partially negating its opponent’s sound attack with one of its own.
Toxtricity neatly landed on the ground and the electricity in its mohawk sparked with excitement as the punk Pokemon prepared for another clash of sounds. Unfortunately, it wasn’t able to because the ground suddenly caved under Toxtricity’s feet.
Excadrill drilled up from the ground and hit Toxtricity, throwing it into the air. Seeing an opening, Ursaluna charged Toxtricity with Headlong Rush.
Kilowattrel darted in with Aerial Ace and knocked its ally out of the way of Ursaluna’s attack. The peat Pokemon dug its feet into the ground and slid to a halt, a ball of searing normal type energy gathering in its maw before it shot a Hyper Beam at the two electric types.
Toxtricity landed and ducked low while Kilowattrel darted back up into the sky. Exadrill slammed both its claws into the ground and a massive crack in the ground rapidly spiderwebbed towards Toxtricity.
“Protect.”
The Punk Pokemon braced itself and used Protect just in time to shield itself from the one-hit KO move. Ursaluna shot another Hyper Beam at Toxtricity, forcing it to jump to the side to dodge.
“Get Excadrill back underground.”
Kilowattrel squawked and flapped its wings, sending a salvo of Air Slashes at Excadrill, preventing the drill Pokemon from using Fissure again as it dug back into the ground to avoid the super effective attacks.
“Swagger, then flood strat into web trap.”
Straightening its posture, Toxtricity puffed out its chest and made a “come at me” motion towards Ursaluna while saying something insulting. The move took effect and Ursaluna roared, its anger building up to the point that it began to hinder the bear’s reasoning.
Kilowattrel began spamming Electrowebs from above, covering all of Exadrill’s tunnel holes and hindering Ursaluna. The ground types may not have been affected by the electricity of the moves, but the webbing still stuck to them and made their movements slower.
Toxtricity put its hands on the ground and did a spin, generating a wave of poisonous sludge that rolled over the battlefield and quickly flooded into Excadrill’s tunnel system.
It didn’t matter whether Excadrill was a steel type or not, it can’t breath poison.
Even if Ursaluna wasn’t such a cumbersome Pokemon, being trapped in sticky webs made it basically impossible for it to escape the incoming wave of sludge. So the bear Pokemon quickly used Rock Tomb to create a wall of stone to block the incoming wave of poison.
Exadrill burst out of the ground through a newly created tunnel exit, gasping for air only to be caught by one of Kilowattrel’s Electrowebs. The mole squealed and began to slash at the webs with its metal claws. In reply, Kilowattrel just covered the drill Pokemon with even more webs to stop it from being able to move.
As the flood of poison died down, Ursaluna annihilated its rock wall with a Hyper Beam the Toxtricity blocked with a Protect before the peat Pokemon charged.
The punk Pokemon grinned and scattered a bunch of Toxic Spikes in Ursaluna’s pathway again, making sure that the spikes were placed in a way that would force the bear to swerve and run into some of Kilowattrel’s Electroweb traps.
“Drop them.”
The frigatebird Pokemon then used Electroweb once more to grab the trapped Excadrill and throw it into the air. At the same time, Toxtricity used Sludge Wave to propel Ursaluna into the sky and boost it up ever further with Boomburst, though Kilowattrel didn’t appreciate being in the blast area, having to use a mix of Protect and the roaring winds from Hurricane to block out the sound.
The two web-bound Pokemon collided with each other and stuck to each other midair.
Trapped, no longer on the ground, and confused, Ursaluna panicked and began to Thrash around, hitting its teammate in the process. The boosted attack from its ability Guts being activated from Toxtricity’s Toxic Spikes poisoning it combined with Swagger made Ursaluna’s attack powerful enough to knock out its own teammate in only a few hits.
The Electroweb began to break apart under Ursaluna’s assault as the pair plummeted towards the ground. There was a BOOM and an explosion of dust as the two ground types hit the ground.
After a moment of silence, there was no movement from Ursaluna and Excadrill. Kilowattrel cleared the dust with a gust of wind, revealing their unconscious opponents.
Toxtricity screeched in victory, doing a wild solo on its imaginary guitar. Kilowattrel flew down a cuffed Toxtricity two wings with its wings to shut its teammate up, giving the punk Pokemon an annoyed squawk.
Bolthund ran over to its teammates, its tail wagging as it barked excitedly and licked Kilowattrel and shoulder bumped Toxtricity. Manectric let out a “Manectric” of approval for its teammate’s victory.
“Good job guys.” Jason said as he returned the two before walking back to the rest of the team, picking up his jacket, and then marching back inside the camp with Manectric and Boltund at his heels to where Chansey was waiting.
“Woo!” Justine shouted, grabbing Kenta’s arm and jumping up and down, “That was awesome! Increasing Ursaluna’s attack to use it against its teammate? That was smart~”
“Yamask yamask ya-mask.” Yamask crossed its arms and huffed.
The rest of the team simply looked relieved that the worst of their ordeal was over. Kenta was still tense though.
He detached Justine from his arm and worriedly looked at the enemy camp. “Ummm, I think something’s wrong.”
Everyone fell silent and watched the other side. The Lord of Fire’s face was expressionless, but her eyes were glowing like hot magma. The elites were anxiously looking at their leader like they were waiting for a volcano to explode.
Tim tugged at his collar as he felt the heat rise to an almost unbearable temperature.
The Hisuan Zoroark from earlier walked to the front and spoke, Your team won, so we will abide by what has been agreed upon. You may leave in peace, but do not overstay your welcome.
Tim nodded, “Yes, thank you for your cooperation, we will pack up and leave as soon as we can.”
The Lord of Fire growled, raising her lips to show a set of massive, razor sharp teeth. NO.
The expedition team flinched.
The Advisor sighed resignedly as if she had expected this. My Lord, we have to honor the agreement you made–
Fuck the agreement. I don’t lose. I. NEVER. LOSE. The Lord of Fire stood up, and as if the temperature couldn’t get higher, it rose again. The air wavered from the heat and the plants around them were beginning to steam.
There was a pop from Abigail’s Pokeballs as she let out Cetitan. Sandslash and the ice whale then made a combined Blizzard to try to keep the team from boiling alive.
The elites backed away from their lord, creating barriers to mitigate the heat as if they had done this before.
There was an ear rending roar as the Lord of Fire opened her maw and let loose a nuclear Overheat.
“Go!” The twins both shouted in sync. There were two pops and flashes from Pokeballs as the twins let out Mr Mime and Gallade. Mr Mime took point, creating a barrier that Sigilyph, Xatu, Gallade, and both Meowstics added their psychic energy in to support. The loud hum of the psychic type energy a maximum output filled the air in contrast to the roar of fire.
The erected barrier instantly cracked and barely held as Overheat impacted. Even more cracks slowly began to spiderweb out from the larger cracks.
Mienshao darted over to join the psychic types and there was another flash as Collin let out Machamp and shouted, “Wide Guard!”
“Machamp!” “Shao!” The two fighting types shouted, adding a wide barrier behind the psychic barrier that was only slightly able to alleviate the strain, but also protected anyone behind the barrier better from excess heat.
The ground around the impact zone was beginning to melt into magma. The shriveled skeletons of nearby plants burst into flames before disintegrating.
Justine groaned and put a hand to her head as she felt herself begin to get lightheaded, but she pushed through and shouted, “Dragapult! Astonish!”
The dart dragon was already on it. In an almost unseeable blur, Dragapult jumped out from underneath the Noble Pokemon’s shadow and slammed into her head, transferring all the ghost type energy from Astonish into her opponent before frantically flying back to avoid getting badly burnt.
The beam of energy from Overheat swept up into the sky in an arc before dissipating as the golden Arcanine closed her mouth and flinched from the sudden freezing chill that shot through her spine and into her veins.
The moment the pressure lifted off of the barrier, Mr Mime, Mienshao, and Machamp all collapsed, having expended most of their energy to keep the barriers up for so long. The others weren’t much better off.
There were multiple flashes as Kenta and Collin threw a series of Pokeballs.
“Stand by for battle, this is a strong one.” Kenta ordered. He tried to keep a calm and collected facade but was betrayed by a slight waver in his voice. Kommo-o, Dragonite, Flygon, Haxorus, and Tyrantrum stomped to the front and roared a challenge to the Noble Pokemon.
“Ready for battle!” Collin shouted as Blaze Tauros appeared and snorted, its intertwined tails whipping as it pawed the ground, ready to charge. Tauros was the only other Pokemon he could use, letting his Breloom or Crabominable would be a death sentence for them.
At Jason’s command, Bolthund and Manectric darted to the front, barking furiously, their fangs flashing and electricity sparking off of their pelts.
The Lord of Fire was completely unfazed by the show of aggression and simply prowled forward with a confidence that edged into the territory of pure arrogance.
I do not lose. I am a Noble chosen by the Lord of Creation! You are just lowly pests unworthy of breathing the same air as my esteemed self.
The Advisor shouted something over the roar of fire in an attempt to reason with the Noble, but her words were met with deaf ears.
The Lord of Fire tilted her head up and howled, her coat glowed brighter and brighter until looking at her was like looking at the sun.
Tim shielded his eyes from the bright light being emitted by the Lord of Fire, “Chloe, Zoe! We need a teleport!” Meanwhile, Diggersby was frantically working on digging a tunnel they could hopefully take shelter in.
“Most of our team is exhausted from blocking that Overheat!” “We don’t have time to prepare!” The twins frantically replied at the same time.
“Shit.” Jason growled. “We’re dead meat.”
“More like cremated meat.” Collin joked with a grim smile.
“Fuck you.”
A vortex of pure blue-ish flame swirled in the golden Arcanine’s maws. The expedition team tensed, hopefully they could dodge this attack because blocking was impossible.
A massive shadow flitted over the scene and dived. The Lord of Fire roared as she let loose another Overheat even more powerful than the last.
A powerful gust of wind blew some of the heat away and a golden Hisuan Braviary landed in the path of the Lord of Fire’s attack and swept its wing up, tilting its wing at an angle. The beam of heat hit the Lord of Wind’s wing with an explosive BOOM!
There was an explosion of smoke that was quickly blown away as the Lord of Wind dispersed it with one flap of its now slightly seared wing.
“What are you doing here Haast?!” The Lord of Fire roared, letting a mini shockwave of fire burst out from her and sweep through the area.
The Lord of Wind blew away the ring of fire with a flap of his unburnt wing and gave his colleague a respectful nod. “Hello Kogane. I am here on new orders pertaining to the humans, they are not to be killed, our liege wants me to escort them inside.”
The golden eagle was highly doubtful that his colleague would be reasonable enough to just stop in the middle of one of her tantrums. A magenta mist of psychic type energy covertly spread out from the Lord of Wind and began to cover the battlefield.
“LIES!” Kogane roared, spewing fire from her mouth and nose. Her eyes and the inside of her mouth were a gold-white like molten gold.
“I am not lying, I have no reason to.” Haast calmly replied.
Diggersby had finished digging its trench tunnel and Tim was ushering the others inside while Sandslash and Empoleon were lining the tunnel with ice and water. There were a few flashes as a majority of the Pokemon out before were returned.
“No, I’ve seen this before.” The Lord of Fire growled, “The same happened to that deer bastard and that stupid bear! You are betraying us!”
The Lord of Fire slammed a paw onto the ground and sent an enormous blue Fire Blast at the Lord of Wind.
Drawing power from Psychic Terrain, the Lord of Wind’s eyes widened. Psychic type energy exploded outwards from him, Expanding Force and Fire Blast met and there was a moment as the two energies fought with each other. Then there was a massive explosion that shrouded the entire area in smoke and dust.
“ARGH! FUCK YOU!” Kogane screamed, charging at Haast as blistering bright plasma blue flames enveloped her body.
“Such foul language from a delinquent fool.” Haast muttered in reply. The battle cry Pokemon spread his wings, the golden tint in his feather becoming glowing and becoming more prominent as he gathered his power.
Before Kogane could reach Haast, an icicle that could qualify as a mini-glacier dropped out of the sky and landed right in Kogane’s pathway with a loud glass-like crunch. The ground shook and the two Nobles paused as the reality moved aside like a curtain.
The Lord of Fire’s Advisor stepped out from behind the curtain, having slipped away earlier, and she brought some company.
“Starting fights with the other Nobles again Kogane? I’m sure our liege will be disappointed.” The Lord of Ice rumbled. Then he activated his ability Thermal Exchange and began absorbing the scorching heat, quickly lowering the temperature from instant heatstroke into a reasonable mid-fall chill.
“When will you begin acting like a real Lord instead of a selfish entitled brat?” The Lord of Ice asked, giving Kogane a disapproving dad glare.
The temperature rose again as Kogane retorted, “Says the one who let the humans bribe him.”
“I agreed with their reasonings.” The Lord of Ice calmly replied, “The food was a silver lining.”
“Listen to me Kogane,” Haast said, “our liege has new orders. These humans are no longer to be killed, she has changed her mind and has new orders for you.”
“Might I remind you, my Lord,” the Advisor chipped in, “the Lord of the Mountain does not like to see infighting.”
Kogane growled, the air around her wavered from the heat coming off of her pelt. The Lord of Fire huffed, letting the golden energy contained in her body dissipate before she huffed again, sharply turning and strutting back to the mountain entrance.
“This was a fucking waste of time.” The Lord of Fire growled before looking at her elites as she prowled away. “Come on guys, we’ve got better things to do.”
The elites all sighed with relief, some of them nodding or muttering a thanks to the Advisor and the two other Nobles as they followed their leader away. A few straggled behind as they helped carry Ursaluna and Excadrill back into the mountain.
Haast slightly bowed his head toward the Lord of Ice, “Thank you for your help Glacius. It would’ve been a problem if my new charges were burnt to nothing but ashes.”
The ice dragon waved a clawed hand, “No problem Haast.” Then he sighed. “Though we really need to do something about that one before she gets more out of control. This is the fourth fight I’ve had to break up within a few months.”
Haast shrugged, “I do not think Lord Sloth would care if she used him as a punching bag.”
The Advisor made a loud “tch!” before chipping in, “Yes, but she nearly dried up Ladon’s lake, and set fire to Ceryn’s forest in three months. It’s been a headache having to clean up her messes.”
----------------------------------------
Collin poked his head out of the trench and then looked back down and gave the others a thumbs up. “It’s all clear.”
The expedition team slowly climbed out of their shelter.
“What are they talking about?” Justine wondered aloud as she saw the two Nobles and the Advisor talking.
The conversation between the Pokemon seemed to finish and the Lord of Ice turned his head to look at the humans, giving them a respectful nod before the curtain of reality shifted to conceal him and the Advisor as they left.
The Lord of Wind then turned his attention back to the expedition team. Greetings, I am the Lord of Wind. I do apologize for the actions of my colleague. She should not have gone back on her agreement with you. She is…spoiled, to say the least.
“Uhh, hey.” Justine raised a hand, “Will those elites be okay? I mean, considering, uh, the Lord of Fire’s temper.”
The Lord of Wind nodded, They will be fine, I see your worry but Kogane would never turn her rage on one of her own. Well, besides other Nobles as unlike normal Pokemon, we can take the heat. Literally.
“So what are you here about?” Tim asked.
Your friends were able to convince my liege to join your cause and she is now willing to work out a deal. I am here to escort you into the mountain to reunite with your friends.
“How do we know it’s not a trap?” Jason asked, arms crossed, “You guys have been trying to kill us nonstop ever since we stepped foot in the illusion dome.”
Ahh, as I said before, we were under orders from our liege. That was all strictly professional, please do not take our actions personally. I would not have come to your defense if we were still under orders to kill you all.
“Okay, we’ll go with you, but we still need to uh, pack up.” Tim said, gesturing to the semi-melted remains of their camp. Someone in the group grumbled about all the ruined equipment.
No worries, please take the time to pack up. I will wait for you. Though it would be nice if you could spare me a rawst berry…