With a heavy crunch, Sefonia touched down into the snow, then stumbled her way to a stop. The force of the impact knocked Sisu off her neck, and Blitzer slid halfway down her side, only managing to stay on her back by wildly clambering.
‘Stay, s-stay!!’
The Charmeleon flailed around, desperate to hold on, yet scared to commit. What if his claws punctured her scales? He’d bogged her down too much already, and Sefonia dropped onto her knees after coming to a stop, her legs sinking into the icy crust. It wasn’t long before he slid off her back again, his feet not spared from tasting snow this time.
Blitzer hissed in the blink of an eye. Cold grabbed onto his feet then seeped through his scales, his fire sparking from shock. Embers simmered in the back of his throat, lapping the back of his teeth. They felt cold.
“Gh, ghh,” came out of his mouth when he tried to speak. His chattering teeth and tongue got in the way. The Charmeleon’s head swung back and forth. Trees as far as the eye saw, with snowdrifts burying the trunks. ‘Where… where are we?’
He took a few steps, cautious as if thousands of Joltik skittered by his feet. Cold had sapped his energy. Hunger gnawed at his stomach. Aches tore at his muscles. Cramping went right up his spine. He stumbled around like a fool, not knowing where he was going. Where was Sisu? She’d fallen off. He couldn’t hear her. Where was Sefonia?
Bumping his nose into her side a second later answered that question.
“O-oh, s-sorry,” Blitzer stuttered, teeth chattering.
“No, my bad,” Sefonia replied, waving at him. Her reserved body language aside, she still carried that purple glow. She still had more than twice his height on him. Blitzer gulped.
‘She’s… way stronger than I am… I-If she can’t handle it, then how can I…?’
Moments later, the snow beside them burst open. Blitzer threw his claws before his chest, while Sefonia prepared to strike back if needed be. A second later, they dropped their defences, as a Marshadow emerged smacking the snowflakes off her body.
“Gods, don’t get aggressive with me now,” Sisu mumbled, spitting snow out of her mouth. “Got ourselves deep enough in the crap as is… Can you fly?”
“No,” Sefonia groaned, her posture slouching. ”Too cold… My wings are tired…”
The Marshadow punched herself in the chest. “Great! Now what?”
Sefonia sighed, her wings and antenna falling flat against her back and head. “That’s what I wanted to ask you, honestly…”
Sisu grumbled something unintelligible, throwing her hands in the air before letting them drop back. “Great. Just great. I dunno how far out we’re from the place… Gotta get far enough north. Northpoint’s what the town’s called.”
“...What?” Sefonia growled. “Slow down. You’re bouncing between five things at once, what are you talking about?”
“About where we’ll flee to,” Sisu said. “Say, the Smaugus rose up against the Crest, right?”
“...That’s true. Drove them from Tirasford, surprisingly easy. And Chronos said he wanted to launch… a…” The Dragonite’s eyes widened. “No… you don’t mean to say we’re going straight to the Crest, right?”
The Marshadow hopped a few steps through the snow. “That’s exactly where we’re goin’. Didn’t I explain this to you at the base?”
“Y-yes, but it didn’t seem real then! S-Sisu, you can’t- I mean, look at me! They’ll kill me!”
“Noooope,” said the Marshadow. “Listen, they’re not happy up north about Smaugus guys, and they ain’t too happy that you’re one of ‘em, but they ain’t stabbin’ first and askin’ questions later. Also, I might be a weirdom but I ain’t a nobody. Lemme do the talking, ‘aight?”
Winds blew through the conversation, spitting snow up on the group. Sisu got a facial so intense, her horns flickered like a broken light. Sefonia’s lower scales got all the colder. Blitzer though? He was about ready to collapse; his eyes dawdled towards the marble hanging from his neck.
‘N-no, don’t.’ He breathed in deep. “C-Can we get moving? Please? I don’t want to die out here. I don’t...”
Sefonia had twisted her head over her shoulder. She visibly gulped, her wings and tail jolting up and down. “R-Right… right… okay. Do… do we walk? I can’t get in the air for now.”
“Don’t see a better option,” Sisu hummed, looking all around. “Say, did you see any lights on the horizon?”
The Dragonite nodded. “I think so… they were faint, but they were there. Is that where we’ll find the Crest?”
Sisu shrugged. “What’s left of ‘em, anyway.”
It took a silent few seconds for someone to make the next move. Sisu grabbed and ran with it. Or rather, she walked with it. Snowdrifts, running and being small didn’t combine well. Blitzer and Sefonia watched her hop around, the former looking towards the latter afterwards.
“So… what do we do?” he asked, clutching his arm.
“Go with her,” the Dragonite replied, looking him in the eye for a moment before wincing. “I wish I could’ve flown for longer, Blitz. I really do.”
“I believe you,” Blitzer chirped out, his voice weak. ‘What did dad always say… bite your way through it? Yeah, just hold on… I don’t know how long, but I have to hold on. I just have to…’
To little fanfare and with bated breath, the two dragons followed in Sisu’s footsteps, small as they might be. Sefonia promised she’d seen lights, and Blitzer put his faith in her. Anomaly or not, she still had an aura about her. One Blitzer felt comfortable to be in. Maybe having a fellow dragon treat him kindly for once had gotten to him. Who’s to say? All he knew was the dragon behind the vapours. A dragon he trusted deep down. Someone who he didn’t want to give up on.
As their trudging started, his legs certainly were ready to give up. Charmeleon were warriors of the mountain, according to Blitzer’s tormentors. If he believed any of that, said delusions would resemble the ground he walked on: Buried under a foot of snow. His foot slept, his legs cramped, and his back ached from all the beatings. Blitzer took it one foot after another. No giving up now.
Hour one was painful. Hour two a wreck. Hour three? A house fire. As night gave way to dawn, the blood in Blitzer’s legs felt superheated. The exhausting gnawing away at him over the past few hours had made every last bit of pain worse. From the beatings on his back to the cramps erupting across his body, it’s as if his scales were about to rip themselves apart.
‘Gods… I swear…’
The worst of it had yet to come. Existing aches aside, walking through knee-deep snow burnt through energy harder than any fire. Overtime he fell behind Sefonia, the Dragonite stopping on occasion to let him catch up. This cycle repeated for a few minutes, without improvement.
“Halt,” the Dragonite said out loud, her voice carried on the wind. “Sisu, we gotta do something about him.”
“Hm?” The Marshadow hummed, hopping back to her scaled companions. “How bad’s the situation?” she asked, all nonchalant.
Sefonia shook her head, spatters of black falling onto the snow. “Bad. He’s struggling to keep up. I mean, he’s still not fully evolved, I don’t expect him to… but just look at him. He’s having a hard time moving at all.”
Blitzer leaned against a tree with a claw, the pause coming over him like a wave. It relieved for a second, before the pain set in. His legs felt like they were being crushed under a rock. The thought of moving any further alone was rough. He needed time they didn’t have.
‘Can’t do much more…’
“Yikes… this is bad. Sef, you can’t fly, but can you carry him?”
A sigh drifted in over the wind. “I can try. I don’t know how far that’ll get us.”
As Sisu and Sefonia debated on what to do, Blitzer was drawn to the marble once more. He took it between two digits, lifting it in front of his face. Energy. Just raw energy, contained within a little sphere. Touching it resembled sticking his claws into warm water. Placing it on the palm, his arm relaxed a little. Cramps were suppressed, pain became an afterthought. Maybe the time had come to use it.
“No!”
Blitzer jumped, the marble falling and dangling as Sisu called out to him. “Wh-what?”
“Not yet, Blitz! Not yet! You gotta wait for the right time, man!” the little ghost said. Blitzer grimaced for a second, his cheeks souring. Who did she think she was, telling him no? Now of all times, when they were slowly freezing to death in the woods?
“I can barely move!” Blitzer groaned out, his voice hoarse. His throat had been getting sore throughout the past hour. “Why not?”
“Hear me out. You’ll get the perfect chance sometime. That’s when you should go for it, yeah?”
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
“What do you meaaaa-aaah!!” Blitzer was scooped up by two huge claws, then slung over Sefonia’s shoulder. The black essence on her body simmered for a moment, before settling down.
“You’ll know it when you’re livin’ it!” Sisu shouted to him from the ground. Blitzer clenched a fist behind Sefonia’s back. The Marshadow looked even more like a gremlin from above. How she had convinced Sefonia in the first place, Arceus only knows.
‘Gods, I can’t believe this… why is right now not the time? Are you kidding me?’
As they got back to walking, it didn’t take long before Sefonia groaned over the sound of her crunching feet.
“Honestly, Sisu… I don’t get why you’re being so secretive about this. Doesn’t he have a right to know what you gave him? Or what’ll happen to him if he draws from that mineral? He’ll be using it someday, you admitted as much yourself.”
“Uh-huh,” Sisu hummed. “‘S true. But we gotta take this slow and steady. If he breaks it too early, we might not get outta trouble. I wanna save it. Plus… look, I know what it does, but I don’t know what effect it’ll have on him. Say he goes crazy, and he starts to see either of us as baddies…”
The Dragonite licked her chops, her antennae curling down the back of her head. “That’s true… I think I can handle him if he goes out of control…” She clicked her tongue. “Where did you find this, anyway?”
“Chronos’ treasure room. ‘T was kinda hidden in there, and he sure booby trapped the crap outta it. Don’t know how many of ‘em he has, but I made off with it.”
Blitzer’s tail swished back and forth, his fire flickering in the night. ‘They’re saying it’s dangerous? Wh-why give it to me then if I go crazy…?’
* * *
Danger lurked closer than Blitzer had imagined. Even the marble Sisu gave him wasn’t safe. She didn’t even know how dangerous it was, yet gave it to him anyway. He felt just a tad offended; nothing to lose precious energy over. At this point, the snow itself was a threat. He could feel every flake caress his scales, like little Snoms crawling and biting all over him.
How many hours had they walked, without any light on the horizon? Where had Sefonia’s hope gone? Had it been a mirage? A lie? Each minute counted; they were getting colder, hungrier, and all the more desperate to not get picked off by a feral, or caught up with.
Blitzer had all the time to dream on Sefonia’s shoulder, but that made them no less fantasy.
Lightning thundered from above, striking a tree overhead. Snow fell from the branches; Sefonia jumped ahead, Blitzer’s head catching flakes. The Charmeleon held on for dear life as a second strike hit the ground beside them. His eyes went skywards. Multiple shadows descended upon them.
“A-A-Ambush!!” he shouted. Bird talons swooped down at him. He ducked and covered his head. Sefonia spun around and blasted back at their assailant. Shadows screeched from the sky, descending all around. Before them, a Honchkrow and a pale Ninetales appeared. Behind them, a Decidueye and an Ampharos with a piercing gaze. Each bore the dark glow of the dungeons. Anomalies, through and through.
‘H-Him!’
“Well, well, well. That’s quite enough,” the Ampharos said. “Chronos gave you a chance to right wrongs, and what do you do? Flee. And look who you got on your side! One of our best turned traitor, and one of the worst Pokemon to ever live.”
“Pfft!” Sisu audibly cracked up, then cracked her knuckles. “You talk a lotta crap for Chronos’ lil’ lapdog. Ever had an original thought in your life?”
Ampharos spat into the snow. “I could say the same of you. You’re the Swords’ little pet, doing their dirty work. And Sefonia… why? Why are you doing this? Why are you selling your people out like this?”
Sefonia shirked away, her wings folding tight behind her back. “I… I know. This isn’t what you expected. This isn’t what I expected, either…”
“You’re right this isn’t what we expected,” Ampharos said, stomping a foot into a mound of snow. His voice was made from pure venom. “But alas, so goes the code. The weak reveal themselves eventually. So do the backstabbers.”
The Dragonite’s eyes narrowed into a scowl as the whole gang closed in. “...You’re not even interested in why I’m doing this?”
The Ampharos grinned. “Come on, now. Did you or anyone else care about the folks who abandoned us in the past? I’m sure they had their reasons, too. It’s no matter. They don’t matter. You? Even less so. You don’t even have a reason.”
Blitzer flinched as a foot crushed the snow beside him, a black shadow becoming cast over him moments later. “Don’t you dare! I put my soul on the line! For myself, and now for him!” Sefonia shouted, as she shielded him from the other Smaugus. He gulped. With friends like these, it’s a wonder the Smaugus ever had enemies to begin with.
“So it’s Chronos’ whelp, then?” the Ampharos said, cheeks sparking as he eyed Blitzer… or rather, the marble dangling from his neck. “And wouldn’t you look at that? Committed petty theft on the way out, too. I’m sure the boss is going to appreciate that one. He always said a Dragonite’s head would look pretty on his walls. What a shame it has to be yours.”
As the gang closed in all around them further, without any blows being exchanged yet, Blitzer felt a pit in the depths of his stomach. “S-she’s fifteen!” he shouted at the top of his lungs. Why, he didn’t know. They’d followed them all the way out into the forest, supposedly close to an active warzone. Why would a number stop them from spilling blood now?
“And?”
One last scoff from the Ampharos later, knuckles cracked behind the two dragons. “And nothin’,” said Sisu. Snow stirred, and a yelp echoed through the woods seconds later. Wings flapped, winds full of ice crystals stirred, and it didn’t take long before an all out brawl erupted.
“GET HIM! Get the boy! To hell with the others!”
Blitzer hardly knew what happened before a wing smashed into his face. A jaw full of feathers, he spun around, collapsed into the snow, talons digging into his back. Decidueye screeched as she moved onto Sefonia, a double team ensuing. “Agghh…” the Charmeleon groaned out, his snout feeling like it had been ripped open. ‘I… not like this… S-Sef?!’
Owl screeches haunted the night, yet they resembled death rattles more than battle cries. Sefonia dodged talons, Ampharos pelting her with lightning. She hissed as bolt after bolt hit her scales… all while striking back at Decidueye. She clawed with a dragon’s might, then struck her in the gut with a fist colder than the snow.
Feathers fell before Blitzer’s face as he rolled. He tried to get a grip on his surroundings. Cold to the touch, yet blazing hot to the eyes. The battle resembled a blur. A shadow passed over his head. Was it Sisu? No, she was dodging fairy lights and nine tails, while a Honchkrow swiped at her shadow. Was it the Decidueye instead? Or Ampharos? What was Sefonia doing?
A glimpse of orange passed overhead, then another shadow. Decidueye’s talons crashed against a tree, as Sefonia dodged even more lightning bolts. Ampharos jumped behind cover, the trunks of the trees his cloak. Sefonia couldn’t assault him head on, and the static electricity she’d been loaded up with had made her too sluggish at range. Each beam of fire, ice or energy she countered was easily dodged, Ampharos striking back without hassle.
And what of Sisu? Neither side got an edge over the other. The Marshadow tried keeping her cool, but trained warriors were no slouch. She hardly got a hit in. Heck, Ampharos got more hits in. His lighting struck friend and foe alike, Sisu spitting out as her horns resembled lightning rods. A gap opened. Ninetales smacked her with a tail, Honchkrow kicked her further away.
‘I have to… do something!’
Blitzer’s blurry vision made the bad look worse. If anything, ignorance might be bliss. He heard a crowish scream, then saw a pale shape dart through the trees. Sefonia moved back to lend Sisu a hand. Which meant…
An ear splitting screech struck the Charmeleon square in the ears. Two talons grabbed onto his chest, then his shoulders. He felt the necklace tighten around his neck, the air forced out of his lungs. A faint ‘help’ came out of his mouth. He couldn’t move. Pain everywhere. His back, tail, legs, and head. Just his arms remained free. He thrashed them around, like the snow was the deep end of the pool.
‘H-help… I…’
Just opening his mouth was a bridge too far. The Decidueye yanked on the necklace, trying to pry it loose. Blitzer gasped for air, what little of it he could get. Was this what dying felt like? Sinking into a world of pain and freezing cold as he was robbed of his last breaths? If the intent wasn’t to kill Blitzer, they were failing. If it was, mission accomplished.
An orange foot appeared in front of him. Something snapped loose under his neck. He was laying flat on his stomach. Another owl’s screech rang through the air. Decidueye might be going with him. A yellow flash thundered ahead, heat hitting Blitzer’s face. Wouldn’t it be nice if his own fire burned that hot. In the corner of his eyes, shadows. Another yellow flash. Sefonia cried out . Blitzer winced.
‘S-Sef… no…’
He tried to crawl, but each motion burned him from the inside. It was as if his muscles were falling apart, the cramping having thoroughly destroyed them. Something rolled away from his neck.
“The essence! Get it!” Ampharos shouted.
Blitzer managed to pull his head up enough to look. His mouth hung open. There it was, the marble, still glowing with all that energy. Sisu told him to wait for the right moment. If knocking on death’s door didn’t pass as that, then what did? He dropped his snout towards the essence, hoping to touch it.
A talon pressed on the back of his head. He was forced down. The marble went right into his open mouth. Another screech. A Dragonite’s roar. The sheer chaos made him swallow.
“Get away from him!!”
A growl filled the air “That little whelp just…”
The voices grew quiet. Blitzer didn’t hear them anymore.Did Yveltal open the door?
Then the cramps calmed down, as did the pain in his snout. Energy from the marble kicked in. It helped a little. Made breathing easier, at least.
His body felt warm. Warmer than usual, as if winter had vanished.
Sounds of battle reached him again. It sounded desperate. A Dragonite and Marshadow suffered… The former he wanted to befriend, and looked up to. The latter saved his skin. Twice! And now killers were after her. Losing heroes? Friends? Hadn’t he lost enough already? His parents, George… and now Sefonia and Sisu too?
For a brief moment, his whole body locked up in pain. A bestial roar. Adrenaline pumped through all his veins.
‘No… no….! I’ll…I’ll…!!!’
Words left his thoughts. They couldn’t describe the sheer rage burning through him. Who did these beasts think they were? To try and take his friends away, again?! To kill them all without mercy? Pain spread into his muscles, into his bones… he felt his body grow. His muscles, his bones, his teeth and claws… and the fire. Every bit of rage, transformed into a blue inferno…
If they wanted him to be a monster, then a monster they would get.
“H-He…!”
“STOP! Everyone! Focus on him! FOCUS ON HIM!!”
Two black wings unfurled into the night skies, a bestial roar shattering the winds and shaking the trees. Blitzer rose from his snowy grave, blue fire pouring out of his jaws, his scales as dark as the Anomalies standing against him. His claws were sharper, his horns glowing, the marble’s energy pumping through his veins… There was no pain. Just an energy that burned bright as the fire in his heart. And power he could only have dreamed of.
All around, friend and foe looked dazed. Whether Sisu climbing up a tree, fleeing from the Ninetales, or Sefonia dry heaving, her scales battered… Blitzer was pissed. Did the mongrels responsible think they’d get away? The Decidueye from earlier shook off its injuries, and upon seeing him, panicked. You could see a little life in his dilating purple eyes. Life that Blitzer wanted to snuff out.
Blitzer roared before lunging straight at Decidueye. He’d gotten stronger, faster. The snow was nothing as he leapt forwards, claws outstretched. Blitzer seized Decidueye by the joints of her wings, tackling her to the floor before clamping down on her neck. Blue fire sank into her body. His blood boiled, anger taking over as he shook his jaws. Something snapped; he barely noticed.
He tasted iron on his tongue as he rose, then rampaged across the battlefield. A bolt of lightning struck his back; it tickled. He roared like only a Charizard could after making eye contact with the Honchkrow, rearing his head back, breathing in deep, then unleashed a wave of blue flames from his maw. The snow on the ground melted in an instant. Honchkrow escaped with light burns. Sisu took her chance leaping from the trees, rushing towards the Ninetales that engaged Blitzer head on, her vixen teeth bared…
She was so weak. Blitzer laughed in her face. The ice melted on his scales, the fairy light he endured, her tails he swatted away… all the while, he bit and clawed back, tearing out clumps of fur. It felt like he was hunting prey. The fire poured off his jaws as he bit her face, her cries of pain like music to the ears.
Yet he wasn’t finished. Blitzer swung around with a wild lash of his tail, leaving Sisu to finish Ninetales off. Sefonia had collapsed against a tree, holding onto the bark to support herself. So had Ampharos.
Both now stared at Blitzer, shaking and dry heaving at the sight of the ravenous glint in his eyes. What were they thinking? Blitzer set his sights on Ampharos. All that laughing and tormenting wasn’t so funny anymore, was it?
Honchkrow swooped down again, clawing and slashing at Blitzer’s head. He ducked, then returned the favour with a taste of his own wings. He hit Honchkrow head on, then doused him with blue fire. By the time he was finished, Honchkrow had fallen to the ground, and several trees were ablaze, coating the surroundings in a blue glow.
For a brief moment upon seeing the inferno, he looked down at his claws, and the rest of his body.
‘I’m… so strong!’
A line of electricity crackled past him as he contemplated. His head whipped around in an instant. Ampharos was attacking as much as he could, hands, tail and mouth all engaged. Yet it didn’t stop Blitzer. It only fueled him. He knew from instinct just how much that Ampharos loved to see him suffer. And he knew just how much he wanted to see him suffer. That beast. That monster.
He bit his way through the electricity, teeth bared with each footstep. He kept his wings open to help catch the electricity. He barely felt it. Why? Did it matter? Ampharos was a sheep without wool. Nothing without his whip.
Ampharos tried to run, screaming as Blitzer got close. But it was too late. Blitzer seized him by the neck, raised him above his head, fires blazing from his mouth and tail. He hyperventilated for a moment, his blood boiling harder than it ever had. Then, he unleashed a torrent of flames into the Anomaly’s face, finally clamping on his neck right after, throwing himself with full body weight onto the floor.
After a minute of holding still, Blitzer stood back up, panting. The rage was sated. For now.
He looked around. Sefonia and Sisu were gathered by the tree, looking at him. He stepped over to them, wings furled behind his back. A whiff of the air revealed no other threats lurking nearby, aside from the ones pacified already.
“...Can you both walk?”
Blitzer’s heart skipped a beat. His voice had gotten far growlier.
“...Y-Yes?” Sefonia replied, her voice shaky much like the Ampharos’ was. “Blitzer, you…”
“I think he swallowed the marble,” Sisu said. “Not good… But more on that later. Gotta get outta here.”
Blitzer licked his chops. He didn’t like the sound of that. But more pressing things were at hand. “Sef. Are you okay?”
“I don’t know,” she replied. “That Ampharos got me good.”
“Same thing with those other two,” Sisu said, pointing at a few tears on her horns.
“Right,” Blitzer growled, then lowered himself onto a knee. He offered a claw to Sefonia. “I’ll carry you, if you need help.”
Sefonia hesitated for a moment, before accepting the claw. Her antennae and wings pressed right against her scales. She was cold, heavy. Blitzer let her wrap an arm around his neck, then lifted her up.
He wasn’t leaving her behind.