Black eyes set alight with fury, the man with the cross screamed at the top of his lungs as he threw the man holding him from behind over his shoulders, instantly producing a knife from his sleeve and stabbing it into his liver the second as he slammed to the ground. Two others reached to grab him, Pokeballs in hand, but he dove forward and vaulted over the one he’d just stabbed, putting distance between them.
“Agh, they… they have my Pokeballs!” he roared as he stumbled back toward Sabrina’s side, eyes moving back and forth dizzyingly. Yet when he glanced over his shoulder, he noticed the girl had her eyes closed tight, as though concentrating on something.
What followed was an eerily familiar chill, air thinning, compacting around them.
Come on… Just a little more…
To the man’s great surprise, a faint blue light surrounded their bodies, blurring them, making them fizzle in and out like a broken T.V. image. They were almost gone-
“Swift!”
A wave of golden energy stars slammed against the back of both trainers, pushing them violently against the nearest pillar and almost throwing Sabrina to the ground.
“Shit! I can’t… I can’t do it yet!” She cursed her weakness as she wiped the blood off her cheek, vision swimming, head pounding.
A familiar, chillingly cruel laugh echoed from behind them, almost too far back to hear properly.
“It’s already too late!” Azure bellowed, sounding positively ecstatic, like a child about to open a birthday present. “Do you see now, Sabrina? At the most critical moment, when it truly mattered, you doubted him! You chose to believe me! And now it’s too late, no matter what you do!”
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
“SHUT U-!!”
A massive figure slammed against the wall behind them, shattering it with ease and forming a huge hole beneath the body of the Pokemon that had been tossed. The man’s Arbok lay unconscious over a pile of rubble. And on the opposite side, Azure’s Nidoqueen cracked her knuckles, eyes fixed on the wounded Scyther before her.
Bursting with panic and adrenaline, Sabrina’s eyes went to the hole in the wall. It led to the Gym arena, and thus, the exit.
“Now!” she screamed, grabbing the man by the arm. “Let’s go!”
“Wait-no! Clay!”
Struggling against Sabrina’s pull, the man looked horrified over his shoulder at the Scyther who could barely dodge the barrage of fire from the Houndour as well as Nidoqueen’s punches. He was fast, faster than the eye could follow, but against so many of them…
“Shit!”
In their distraction, a pair of buzzing Beedril appeared in between them and the exit. Sabrina froze in place. She still had another Pokemon, but-
He didn’t think about it for a moment. In an inhuman burst of speed fueled by fear and loyalty alike, the Scyther cut a zig-zagging green path around his opponents and threw himself at the two Beedril, blocking their stingers with each of his scythes. His two new opponents threw themselves at him alongside the four behind, and yet somehow, miraculously, Clay managed to hold them off for a few moments, dancing between their attacks like smoke through one’s fingers.
“Let’s go!” Sabrina repeated, desperately dragging the man toward the exit. “Please!”
Tears forming in his eyes, the man with the cross finally stopped resisting. They took the first step over the rubble.
“Clay… CLAY! Please… Don’t die, partner!”
He took one last, painful look back; he would never see his Pokemon again.
And they started to run.