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Of course I'm not forcing you to do anything if you don't want to, but seriously, what have you got to lose? Five seconds of your life?
Seth buckled under the Wayfarers' assault even as he prepared to strike every one of them. He fell to one knee – but he didn't fall entirely. Not yet. The mad expression faltered, becoming a grimace of pain and effort, but still he stood.
Intel:
Ridley's Spotter Skill! Seth has the following gear:
Seth favours critical hits in particular, and prefers to Strong Style his Stone Edge at the end of his combos.
Conversely, he almost always opens with Accelerock.
Whenever possible, Seth will inflict Flinching, if he can't secure a KO.
He will go to every effort to secure KOs on anyone trying to sneak past him through Cane Thicket.
Seth's disinterest in avoiding hits and his single-minded focus on always landing his own was now obvious. The Wayfarers wouldn't need such careful aim as usual to hit this opponent...
"I'm way too fucking stubborn to drop from that," he spat, fists shaking with effort. "Why couldn't you just stay the fuck outta my way??"
Spires of rock rippled through the earth like a shark through water, racing after the retreating Wayfarers.
Seth's CRITICAL Stone Edge hit Outskirts Path!
Odette took 11 damage!
Koa took 7 damage through his shield!
Wes took 13 damage!
"You say you 'don't need any god damn help,' huh? Then why aren't you telling your mysterious voice to pound sand? You're clearly useless to Blaguarro. Cuz we heard outside plans to cut it off from everything else. Want to know what I think? You talk yourself up... because it's all you've got. The truth is... without your ego, you're just another lost, lonely soul."
The Lycanroc's eye twitched as Nova's taunt hit a nerve and paralysing energy locked up his nerves, but Seth had a plan he wouldn't stray from. And besides—
“Yeah, yeah. You know, if you were half as badass as you like to claim, you wouldn’t need to insist on it with every breath. Seems to me more like you’re compensating for your own insecurities. Well, you know what they say: A hit dog will holler!”
"You're all in over your fuckin' heads! None of you know what I know! None of you have been through what I have!"
His punishment was swift and effective. No clever tactics, just vicious force.
It worked.
Seth dashed to Cane Thicket!
Seth's Accelerock dealt 14 damage to Archie!
Seth threw a Vile Seed at Archie! -1 Def and Res!
Seth's Accelerock dealth 17 damage to Archie!
Seth's CRITICAL Rock Slide hit Cane Thicket!
Archie took 23 damage! KO!!
Leaf took 23 damage!
Seth focused his Shadows...
Seth became Fevered!
Seth's STRONG CRITICAL SHADOW Stone Edge dealt 99 damage to Leaf! KO!!
Seth took 5 dmg from the recoil!
Seth fainted...!?
The Shadows dispersed...
He forced himself to his feet, blinking, staggering. He took a long, shuddering breath, and let out a low whistle.
"Good going," he called, grabbing first Archie, then Leaf, by their legs and tossing them unceremoniously back where they'd came. "You had me losing my cool for a second, there. I won't make that mistake a second time."
The Lycanroc's eyes narrowed, and his raised a paw above his head, Rock-type energy coalescing into stony projectiles.
"Nothing changes."
Interact: Seth threw Leaf and Archie into Cane Underbrush!
Boss Attack! Seth is preparing Rock Slide in Cane Thicket...
So high and mighty, so cocky, so damn stubborn. Wes circled around Seth, snarling. His body was littered with smarting bruises, but he still had plenty of fire within him. He wasn’t down yet. Far from it. He was just getting started.
“You keep saying you’re capable of doing everything yourself?” Wes spat, his voice rising with every word. “Bullshit. You didn’t beat Cipher on your own. You didn’t do anything on your own—your Pokémon did all the dirty work for you! And where are they now, Seth!?”
He fired several rocks straight for the Lycanroc’s face, determined to wipe that smug, ugly smirk from his muzzle, rage searing so strongly in his chest it hurt. “You just abandoned them, took credit for their efforts, and now what? Gonna claim to fix this world by yourself, too?” He laughed that cold, bitter laugh again, a sound so biting it almost felt like it was coming from someone else. “You didn’t do a single damn thing on your own. You never have. You weren’t capable of it then, and you’re not capable of it now! You’re not a solo act; you’re just a coward.”
He planted his feet and glowered up at him, feeling the anger, the icy yet burning power swell within him.
“If nothing else, that’s at least something we have in common.”
Then, Wes lunged.
Wes (44 STM, 12 TMP, +0 SPD, +0 ACC)
- Walk to Cane Underbrush
- AGILE Rock Throw @ Seth (-6 STM, Sure Hit, +3 TMP)
- Rock Throw @ Seth (-4 STM, Sure Hit, +3 TMP)
- **Bonus Action:** Shadow Focus (+5 TMP)
- CRITICAL SHADOW Stone Edge @ Seth (-20 STM, Sure Hit, -8 TMP, +3 TMP)
Net change: -30 STM, +6 TMP
Net totals: 14 STM (30 after regen), 18 TMP
Steven grunted as he slammed into Seth, but the Wolf hardly budged. He bounced right off the bigger 'mon and spiraled into the nearby brush from the force of his own momentum. Up was down, down was up, and as Steven dug his head out from the sand with a groan, he watched Seth unleash his wicked Stone Edge on the rest of the group with dismay.
But as Steven righted himself, someone darted past him into the thicket, then someone else. And then the Wolf followed, a terrifying blur of nothing but shadows and vengeance. A cry of pain-- Archie-- and another-- the Galarian Ponyta, and then an Oshawott ragdolled out from the thicket, followed by Seth himself, dragging the Ponyta by a leg. Steven watched in wide-eyed horror as the Wolf tossed her next to Archie before leveling his gaze on the rest of the group.
Steven recoiled, bracing himself for another frenzied shadow attack, but Seth never lunged. Instead he hung back at the entrance to the thicket, guarded, lucid, and... surprisingly calm? Far calmer than he'd seen him, even from the first moment they'd encountered him.
But wait, why had the Wolf been so riled up when they stumbled across him? There's no way he could have been expecting them, right? Unless... Steven's eye widened. Seth must have been waiting for someone else. But who, and why?
Steven's gaze darted to the thicket, then to where Archie and the Ponyta lay, (finally stirring thank goodness). Why had Seth tossed them here rather than finish them off where he'd caught up to them? It was almost like more than anything else, he didn't want anyone to get into the thicket; like he was hiding something there, guarding it...
And then a realization dawned. Seth said he'd spent months in Blaguarro getting information. The Wayfarers discovered Terminal Two in less than a few short weeks. Why would Seth leave when he must have known that's where the Shadows were originating from? All this time Steven assumed Seth was hiding information from them, when the truth was-- Well, Steven had a hunch, and he was willing to test it out.
"You took something from Blaguarro," Steven called as he floated out of the brush, turning to face the Wolf. His voice held surprisingly steady considering he was staring down those two blood-red eyes. "You took it and you ran. That's why you're hiding out outside Frontier Town, paranoid, afraid of anyone who gets close."
Steven's eye flicked behind Seth, towards the thicket, maybe even beyond it. "You're guarding something--" (or was it someone?) "--and you're scared whoever you took it from is hunting you down to take it back. Am I getting warm?"
Around him the rest of the team were tearing into the Wolf, and he could see Wes sliding more and more into a frenzy. His body stung from the attacks he'd sustained.
The shadows prickled and crawled under his pelt, calling to him. They're a tool. Use them. Use them. No he couldn't... shouldn't. His thoughts were a blurry haze as he tried to focus on the fight, anything but the icy chill that he longed to call on. Fool. The conversation with Odette and Archie and all his stupid words about using them for good felt far away now.
Gritting his teeth he focused all his energy into channeling that familiar aura into his paws, lunging for Seth, supressing that longing that burned inside him.
Archie groaned, suddenly finding himself face down in the dirt. Clearly, Seth hadn’t taken his taunting particularly well. How had he ended up back here, though? He’d almost certainly dashed into the reeds for cover. Had he been tossed back out? Jeez…
The Oshawott got his paws underneath him, and pushed himself back to his feet. All his muscles screamed in protest, but he managed it, and dug into his coat pocket for one of his Oran Berries. Time to take stock. What had Seth been screaming about? Oh yeah, no one understanding what he’d been through, or something along those lines.
“Everyone’s been through shit,” he said, feeling his strength returning as he ate. At this point, he was too tired, physically and mentally, too emotionally drained from the Shadow Corruption freezing his veins, to sympathize with Seth especially. He wondered if he would’ve turned out like this, had he entered the new universe he’d wound up in with all his memories of his first one intact. Archie would like to think that he wouldn’t, but, who knew, really. Maybe the fact he could only recall bits and pieces was a blessing. “I’m tired of this coy shit. You know things we don’t? Then use your big boy words and tell us.”
He picked up his scalchop again, and called back his Razor Shell. Blade at the ready once again, the Oshawott leveled it at the Lycanroc, and charged.
“Otherwise we’ll just have to beat it out of you!”
Nova saw Seth take off after Archie and Leaf. And the devastating flurry of strikes that followed. Too slow to lumber after them. Couldn't shield them when it really mattered.
... No, he couldn't let it get to him. Even Seth's scoffs that followed. Nova had to focus. To do what little he could. Archie was in bad straights and drawing Seth's ire. And if Odette took another huge blow like that...
I'm sorry, Betel. Please stay calm. Focus. He followed after his teammates. I'm not sure how you got hold of my spirit... when it was so closed off. Maybe some tinge came with it. Dooming these shadows to spread from the start.
Deep breaths. Not anger or sadness of any that crap. There was something he could latch onto. A certain crippling dread. The specter of fate.
In. Out. In. Out.
"Maybe I don't know what you've been through, exactly." Nova tensed. He crouched. Blue filaments extended toward Archie and Odette. And yet, as they did, dark wisps coalesced around the null. They swirled around his legs. Faint outlines that, even against the nighttime backdrop, vaguely resembled chains.
"But what I do know... is that I've been a shadow pokémon... since long before you were born."
Shadow defender aux --> +1 Protect to Odette and Archie
Odette watched wide-eyed as Seth quite literally launched that ponyta and Archie clear across the clearing and back into the underbrush. The ragdoll-like movements of their bodies had her briefly concerned he'd killed them, but they got up. They got up.
And still, he wasn't done. His shadows only seemed to get bigger, as did his fucking ego.
None of you have been through what I have.
The comment gave her sudden pause. It left her thinking before she felt her body relax with a sense of knowing. Then a sense of acceptance.
It wasn't long before the shadows started to stream out between Jawile's dripping teeth.
"That's probably true," Odette said, far more calmly than it had sounded against the thoughts thrumming against her brain. "But I'd bet all the coins in my fucking nightstand that some, if not all of us, have beenthrough the wringer. I assure you, the universe has chewed me up and spit me out."Metaphorically and literally. She figured that would be obvious.
"However, I don't use that as an excuse. I have every reason in the world to be a hateful cunt, and yet? Here I am. Fighting the hateful cunt instead."
Her shadows enveloped Jawile's form now, matching well with the ghostly energy she'd learned to channel for a solid Astonish. Just in time to watch Seth stumble in his own winded stupor. Now was the perfect opportunity.
"̵S̶o̶u̴n̵d̶s̵ ̷l̶i̵k̷e̷ ̴y̸o̶u̶ ̸j̶u̴s̷t̶ ̸h̵a̴v̴e̸ ̴t̸o̸ ̸G̶E̵T̶ ̵F̵U̴C̶K̸I̷N̶G̵ ̶G̸O̸O̸D̴,̵ ̸M̷A̴T̷E̸,"̷ Jawile seethed, her voice crackling amongst the Shadowy energy.
There were piercing red eyes, there was something huge and gray hurtling out of the earth too fast to dodge or even register, and then there was darkness.
After the darkness there was... the scraggly underbrush. For some reason. That wasn't where she'd been standing. Also, she wasn't standing. She ought to be, though. They were fighting. They needed to be fighting together. Lying down wasn't helping.
So Leaf stood up, which was the worst idea she'd ever had because it hurt. It hurt. Why. Worse than Kyoko casually cutting her to ribbons, worse than the mayor blasting her with that freezing water, worse than the time she'd crashed her bike and cracked her arm. Worse. Why. Why.
Everyone else was throwing themselves at... him. At the guy. The Wolf. (What did he do.) She should also be throwing herself at him. But she couldn't, not yet, because standing hurt and because sometimes when she breathed it was hard and came out almost like sobbing. She... she had to catch her breath. Just a minute. Catch her breath and clear her head and then come back because leaving wasn't an option.
...maybe, though. Maybe he didn't know that. She could pretend. Pretend to cry (but just pretending). Pretend to stumble past and lash out and keep stumbling, especially that one, easier than walking. Pretend all the way over to the road, pretend to stumble back toward town, because it just so happened that was the same direction she could cut through toward whatever the beldum thought he was hiding.
[Tell them... be careful,] she thought at Beetle, even though concentrating was hard and she had to pretend to cry a little more. [Tell them... I'm gonna try... and circle around behind him.]
Leaf (59 STM, 25 TMP, +0 SPD, +0 ACC)
- Activate feat (Spotter T0) @ Seth's AI
- CRITICAL Trailblaze @ Seth (-15 STM, -20 TMP, +2 TMP)
- Protect (-18 STM, +2 TMP)
- **Bonus Action:** Item (Oran Berry)
- Walk to Outskirts Path
Net change: -33 STM, -16 TMP
Net totals: 26 STM (44 after regen), 9 TMP
Yeah, that sounded right. Ridley had fallen into fight after fight since entering this world, and somehow he still didn't know what he was doing. But...
But honestly, fuck Seth. "You can't refuse to talk to us and then get mad at us because we don't know shit," Ridley snapped. "None of us came here to fight! You started this for absolutely no reason!"
The spark of anger inside him felt good, a little power after too long spent feeling entirely powerless. Ridley was sick of the taste of his own weakness. It was easy to lean into his anger, easy to allow himself to be carried away by the headrush of it.
In that moment, he didn't even care about attacking Seth. He just wanted to break shit.
Ridley's attack exploded out of him, unfocused and undirected. The fire caught, crackling its way greedily through the underbrush, all-consuming as Ridley's anger had been a moment earlier.
The dark of the night, the bright orange of the fire. Panic and pain pulsing through every inch of his body.
The onslaught brought Seth to his knees, but still didn't knock him out. When Wes' Shadow-empowered Stone Edge thumped up out out the earth, he actually howled in pain. That one had hit hard. With the entire squad yelling at him, not all of their words made it through – he shot a mid-parry glance of disbelief at Nova, not registering his words as plausible. He narrowed his eyes at Steven, trying to work out his agenda, too tough and floaty to pummel into the ground.
But what Wes said earned a vicious, murderous stare.
Lips held back in a quivering snarl, eyes twitching as they reflected the growing flames, Seth brought the rocks down on the Wayfarers.
Seth's Boss Attack! Rock Slide hit the squad!
Archie: 9 dmg!
Koa: 22 dmg! Flinching!
Wes: 18 dmg! Flinching!
Odette: 8 dmg!
"All you had to do was mind your fucking business!" growled Seth, bitterly. "I don't want you to know shit! I warned you to stay the hell away! Scorching sands, can't you idiots take a fucking hint??"
As the fighters scrambled to fend off rocks and staggered to their feet, Seth strode towards Wes with violent intent.
"You ignorant piece of shit. You're right about one thing – I didn't beat Cipher on my own. I didn't beat Cipher at all."
He seized Wes by his muzzle and pressed it, hard, into the dirt. He bent down to get closer. Put his face right up against the Rockruff's. Shadow energy billowed up around the claws pricking Wes' skin, bled into him, melded with his own.
"Who do you think is making the goddamn Shadow pokémon? Who do you think did this to me??"
Interaction:
Seth shared his corruption with Wes.
Wes gained +20 Shd. Wes became Fevered!
I'm sorry, Betel. Please stay calm. Focus.I'm not sure how you got hold of my spirit... when it was so closed off. Maybe some tinge came with it. Dooming these shadows to spread from the start.
I am quite alright, Nova... Thank you for thinking of me.
However, I fear you are wrong, heroic spirit.
I do not know how you were sent to me, only that your world sent you in reply to my call. I made no selection. I did not choose any of you. I only had faith.
As for Shadows...
I am growing certain that they have been a part of this world for a long, long time.
"I'm no fucking coward. I never abandoned my pokémon. If you think that's what you'd do if you were me, and you are me, then you're a cheap fucking imitation."
As Wes's eyes turned red with Shadow corruption and he struggled and growled in Seth's grip, the sandstorm around the Lycanroc began to whip up once again, dousing the flames and battering half the 'mon there. Seth slammed Wes's face into the ground again, stood, and kicked him away, reeling from his injuries, from corruption, from revelation.
Seth turned to the other Wayfarers and identified the strongest among them, the one channeling the most energy...
He launched himself at Odette with a savage grin, fists swinging wildly and pulsing with Shadow.
"I've been fighting outnumbered and outgunned for years," he spat, his Shadows sapping power from his target as she collapsed. "This shit's no different! You need to outnumber me fucking ten to one to have a chance at beating me! You think you can take on Cipher? You probably are Cipher, you're probably working for them, know it or not, you're gonna give away everything I've worked for, and I won't fucking let you—!!"
Seth's Umbral Overthrow dealt 70 damage to Odette! It's super-effective! KO!!
Seth stole +1 Atk!
The KO raised his Atk by +2!
Seth focused his Shadows...
Seth's STRONG SHADOW Rock Slide hit Archie and Koa!
Archie took 29 damage! It's not very effective...
Koa took 59 damage! It's super-effective! KO!!
Seth is flinching! He can't perform more normal actions this turn!
The Lycanroc was flagging, despite taking down several Wayfarers, despite giving his all to claw some strength back. Panting. Eyes unnaturally blood-red, darting in all directions, looking for targets – there had been a fucking pony here a minute ago...
"Gods fucking damn it," he swore to himself, grunting with effort as he reached for the power to finish off the Wayfarers surrounding him. "There's always another fucking problem, isn't there."
Boss Attack! Seth is preparing SHADOW Stone Edge targeting Cane Underbrush...
Dammit. Damn it all. He was throwing everything he had here, he’d put all he had to give and more into every swing. So why? Why was Seth still standing, still hitting them just as hard, still knocking them down left and right? Was the Oshawott really so weak? He fumbled for another Oran Berry, no way he could take another hit like he’d been taking. They needed to regroup, gather their strength again for one final push… And where had this damn fire come from!?
And then Seth grabbed Wes, and Archie’s priorities shifted. The Lycanroc was smashing the Rockruff’s face into the ground, literally grinding his muzzle into the dirt. He couldn’t hear what was said over the roar of the flames. The Oshawott didn’t need to. He saw plenty. Saw Seth slam Wes’s head into the ground again. Saw the Lycanroc kick his friend aside. His stomach injury, still only mostly healed, throbbed. And Archie saw red.
“Wes!” He yelled over the billowing sandstorm. Then his eyes focused on the Lycanroc again. “Bastard!”
Throwing caution to the wind, any idea of falling back well and truly forgotten, the berry Archie pulled this time wasn’t an Oran, but a Leppa. He swallowed it down, barely even taking time to chew, and, with what boost it gave his flagging strength, charged one last time at Seth, a whirlwind of scalchop swings and punches.
Fire ate at the brush around them. He didn't know where it had come from and he abrely cared. All he cared about was hitting this Wolf in the face as many times as he could as hard as he could. He could feel sparks singe his fur. Hear the blaze, and the sound of his teammates taunts and cries.
Wes's rage, shadowy filled voice. Just hearing it made him bristle, put him on edge. You idiot! Keep it together!
Andwhose fault is it the team is infected? Who did this?
A deluge of rocks crashed across him but he forced himself to stand, gather himself. His vision blurred in and out but he was standing, and if he was standing he could fight.
He just needed to stop seeing doubles - Dread filled him as the Wolf advanced on Wes with murderous intent. Shadows oozed from him, into Wes - do something do something -
"Hey knockoff!" He tried to sound confident and tough, but his voice came out closer to a hoarse whine than a real taunt.
And then a storm of shadowy stones buried him. Black overtook Koa's vision. His body jerked as the seed he always carried activated and he cried out, dragging himself free and staggered forward. Every breath brought an awful crackling sensation surging through his bones, and he quickly downed a berry. It helped enough. Through hazy vision he spotted Steven and Nova trying to distract the Wolf.
Shadows were pouring off Wes, flaring from his pelt. Archie was assaulting the Wolf in a frenzy. Fire burned everywhere, and he felt his legs trembling. Leaf was gone (oh saints he hoped she'd run to safety). Odette was up still at least. He wasn't sure if she was okaybut she was alive.
"Get to cover!" he shrieked to the rest of the team.
Mustering every scrap of strength he could find, he charged the Wolf again. Let his anger give him strength. Ignored the shadows begging to be used. And threw everything he had into a last strike before limping for cover.
More rocks rained down, forcing Steven to duck back into cover. What was that look Seth had given him? But he had no time to ponder as a snarl and yelp sounded through the growing fire. Peering back out, a chill gripped Steven and held him to the spot. Wes was pinned in Seth's claws, tendrils of shadow twining with smoke as he sneered down at the smaller pokemon.
There was something truly evil about the way the flames cracked and licked at Seth's blood-red fur, Wes squirming in his grasp. Cold fear gripped Steven, tightening around his neck like Seth's paw was circling Wes's.
But Seth was saying something. Cipher? Who was Cipher? They made Seth? And what? Wes was Seth? None of this made any sense, but there was no time to think. Snarling, Seth discarded his latest chew toy and rounded on the rest of them. Howls and sand and crunching attacks filled the air.
Seth was too frenzied. Throwing accusations as wild as his blows, yet somehow they always landed. Odette was down. Now Koa. He was hunting for a new target. This wasn't good. He had to be slowed down. He had to be stopped. But what could he do? Last time he bounced straight off the guy.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Nova edging towards the fray as Archie charged in, blade drawn. Steven moved to call out to them, only to feel a slight tug. His cloak snagged on some burnt branches, and an idea struck. A stupid idea, but an idea nonetheless.
Steven was already unclipping his cloak when he popped out of a half-burned shrub with a shout. "Hey! Not sure what kind of cowardly trainer gets off on kicking a man when he's down!"
As soon as Seth's snout whipped in his direction, Steven flung the cloak as hard as he could straight into the Wolf's face.
That would hopefully buy them a second. Maybe two. Steven wasn't going to waste it. He darted straight for the thicket with one thing in mind. If Seth thought they were stealing his hard work, they might as well see what it was they were supposedly taking...
Nova had made his way to his downed teammates. His mind was racing, which took the slight edge off that dread that was building before. This was certainly a grueling fight... and even the shared shielding power he trained up was only offering a bandage to help with a saw blade.
They were throwing everything they had at Seth. So, Nova had to, too. The moment he saw Steven toss his cloak to try and blind Seth, he bounded for the lycanroc. Then the null threw himself at Seth, trying to force him to the ground with his larger size and weight. He was almost twice Seth's height. And far more than that in the weight department. If anything was going to give the others an opening or a chance to avoid the worst of any retaliation, it was this.
"Don't worry about me!" Nova cried. "Hit us both if you have to!"
Rogue aux -> -1 defense to Seth
Interact: Nova throws himself onto Seth and tries to pin him with his superior size and weight
As Seth launched himself at her, she braced. Jawile jutted out in front of her to take the brunt end of the attack, but it was no use. He'd channeled so much Shadow into his punches that she practically felt the life seep out of her as he made contact. She did what she could to stay upright, but as she felt Seth suck her energy clean out, her legs turned to grimer residue, and she crumpled. Focusing on her ragged breath was the only thing that kept her awake as the corners of her vision blurred with threatening unconsciousness. Her head pounded, her joints screamed, and her stomach churned with an exhaustion-laced nausea, leaving her salivating as if she were going to vomit. Reviver seed, she had a reviver seed...
Shaky hands patted into her bag for the very thing that would keep her from going under, and she scarfed it down. Her ears were ringing so loudly that she couldn't hear the rest of the commotion happening around her. All the quips and screams sounded like distant spectral whispers against her psyche. She had to focus on getting the seed down her throat without her protesting stomach forcing it back up. But once it hit, it hit. She suddenly had just enough energy to stand back up and return Seth's favor...
Until she smelled smoke. Flickers of orange waved into her clouded vision, and the onset fear snapped her back into focus.
Fire. Fire everywhere. She didn't know how, she didn't know when, but the brush was on fire now. And suddenly, she was frozen in her spot. She barely noticed Nova's protection on her, because all she could see was flame.
Bile rose in her throat, and a deep, carnal terror pulsed through her throbbing nerves, leaving her feeling sapped of her energy all over again. But somehow, this felt worse than the sensation of Seth wailing on her. This hit deeper. Far deeper than Seth's fists or fangs ever could.
The desert wind blew the scent of rising smoke and the heat of crackling flames right into her face, causing her flight to overpower her fight. Her breath hitched in her throat, and she wasn't sure if it was because she'd inhaled smoke and needed to cough, or because her entire being had caught itself on the urge to break into sobs. As tears prickled in the corners of her eyes, she had to blink hard to force them back, but they slipped anyway. There, she got her answer.
The flames, the fire fangs, she was back to that night all over again. Back to the forest, on fire, back to the houndoom latched to her forearm.
You have to fight. You have to fucking do something. Now.
I...I can't. I can't. There's...there's too much...I...can't...do it...
Then buckle the fuck up bitch, I'm moving for you.
Odette's mind shut off for the first time since she arrived in Forlas. Her intrusive thoughts settled in the forefront easily, and as her teary eyes glazed over, Jawile puffed out another wicked cackle as they moved forward to cover Odette's face.
"̸W̸a̷h̸,̷ ̵w̸a̵h̶,̸ ̷f̵u̸c̵k̷i̵n̸g̸ ̶w̷a̶h̵.̵ ̴C̶r̸y̸ ̶m̷e̶ ̵a̷ ̸f̴u̶c̶k̸i̵n̴g̴ ̴r̶i̸v̸e̵r̵,̷ ̵b̷u̷i̴l̸d̵ ̷a̴ ̵b̷r̷i̶d̸g̵e̶,̵ ̴a̶n̴d̴ ̶G̶E̴T̷ ̶T̸H̸E̸ ̶F̵U̵C̶K̸ ̶O̶V̶E̷R̸ ̵I̶T̴,"̵ they hollered as Odette's body ran forward, another round of canon fire at the ready.
The sandstorm was back, but at least the fire was out.
Ridley had just enough time to be grateful for that before the rock slide hit. The pain was a full-body blow, knocking the air out of him so thoroughly that he couldn't even cry out as he was sent tumbling. For a moment the world stopped making sense and up and down lost all meaning as he was battered by the cascade of rocks, and then just as suddenly he was lying on his back staring up at the sandstorm-obscured sky. He must have blacked out for a moment.
It didn't hurt until he tried to move, and then everything hurt at once. Ridley snarled to himself and reached again for that anger he'd felt, fanning the spark of it until it burned bright enough to blot out fear and pain and exhaustion.
"Maybe," he wheezed out, "maybe you wouldn't always be fighting outnumbered if you stopped acting like this with the people who want to help you, you asshole!"
Ridley called up the fire fang again, not even caring if he singed himself in the process.
He finally, finally understood. This was how people fought. All of that talk about "the thrill of battle" and "overcoming obstacles" was meaningless bullshit. If you wanted to fight, all you had to do was want to make your opponent hurt.
Intel:
