Sojaveña Wilds Rail Bridge Over the Silver

[Shiny Phantump]

Gladion felt himself burning up from both sides. It hurt, but not so much he couldn’t handle it… Though given how much less pain he usually felt here, that was already a bad sign in and of itself. Rin had knocked him out and he’d still just walked out of the hall after.

“Pyrrin…” he uttered in a pained tone. “Missed me?”

He had to channel a Life Dew just to stay on his feet. Need a hand now or I’m going down!

His attention was too focused on staying up to commit to a full attack, but he at least tried to grab at one of Sol’s legs.

 

[Namohysip]

Mhynt could see Ria's strength fading. The same could be said for Gladion. Her instincts told her a Life Dew was coming and the chill of Ice Beam still tingled against her scales. The warmth would be nice.

Glad for how quickly she could use her resources, Mhynt grasped at a distant shard of ice as a makeshift spike and kicked off of Ria's enfeebled form. She hurled it at her thigh, aiming to put a deciding blow on her ability to fight, before giving a little salute with her free hand. She disappeared in a flash of light.

When she reappeared, it was above Sol as Gladion went for his legs. Mid-fall, she jammed a Leppa in her mouth and hoped that would make up for the strain that would come, aiming for a flurry of Acrobatic strikes that would lead into a finishing Assurance to give Gladion some backup.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Mhynt's timing could hardly have been more adept. Ria, using the last of her strength, lunged at Felin to knock her down and fire an Ice Beam point blank – but this would be the last strike this battle from the Vaporeon. Sol, with his Roost interrupted, lay exposed to the follow-up strikes that landed critical blows to his vulnerable points. With both down, that left only Pyrrin, facing an uncertain number of foes. Was the Meowth down? Was the Sprigatito? Even if both were, he was now outnumbered by foes with recovery moves in their sets.

Halcón rested his head on one paw and purred with interest. "I think my clanmates underestimated you Wayfarers," he admitted, sounding unbothered. "So goes the warrior too prideful to insist on equal numbers in a fight."

Even with only three on the Wayfarer field, Laura thought to herself that victory might still have been possible, albeit with luck and much tighter margins. The Escarpa clearly hadn't expected anything like the level of coordination Betel's heroic spirits could bring to a battle.

"Will you really stand down the rest of the warriors at the bridge, if we win?"

Halcón chuckled, and gave Laura a sly look. "I honestly expected you to lose. But I would have stood them down all the same. This isn't about whether you're capable of winning one arbitrary battle, Meowth. It's about whether we think you're worth taking seriously. I can see now that at least some of you are."

 

[Namohysip]

Mhynt landed with a stumble atop Gladion's back. She had fading burns and frostbite on different parts of her body. Despite this, she kept her breath steady and verified that Sol and Ria were both down. She turned her attention to Pyrrin and stared him down.

"Honor is important, but so is reason," she said. "We've proven ourselves. Stand down and waste no further time. Innocents are at risk."

 

[Inkedust]

Pyrrin growled but as he stared down Mhynt, his gaze slowly shifted to his felled clanmates, then to Halcón. "Fine," he said, taking a step back. "The Chieftain would have considered this an acceptable display."

 

[Shiny Phantump]

Gladion visibly relaxed and quickly pulled out a Lum berry and using more healing, including their Escarpa opponents this time.

“Good fight.”

Resisting the urge to roll his eyes at Pyrrin, he amending his comment. Even as he took on a less serious tone, he made sure to drop any lilt of teasing or taunting he had on the fight. “Or, at least an acceptable fight, I suppose…”

 

[AdamArtDraws]

"You fought well, Ria," Felin said to her while sheathing her rapier to its narrow scabbard. She applied pressure on her numbing right paw and scraped off shards of ice that climbed up her forearm.

With only one good arm she managed a shadow claw in the nick of time, otherwise their positions would've been switched. Suffice to say, things would've gotten quite problematic had the fight gone on longer.

 

[Jackie Cat]

Halcón sauntered down to the scene of the battle, and passed a few Wayfarers with a self-satisfied sort of expression on his face.

"At ease, Treecko," he purred. "You think we didn't put up warnings further up the track? We aren't barbarians. We know the stopping distance of a Frontier Freight steam train."

He gave the knocked-out Escarpa fighters a nudge, and seemed unconcerned when they shifted and groaned in reply.

"Not bad. I've been looking for good opponents from outside the clan for our cadets – it's not enough to spar with your fellow troops. You'll never learn to deal with the unexpected that way. This was a useful exercise."

Laura narrowed her eyes, trying to read him. That Luxio's smug grin... To him, this whole fight had just been a way to toughen up trainee warriors! At least it had gone well...

"Alright, I'll have the pride disable the charges. It shouldn't take long. They're stable in all weather, so I'd just as soon leave them up, but... Well. Call it a token of good faith."

That, and the Escarpa surely wouldn't want anyone stealing their blast powder.

Halcón loped off towards the bridge truss, concluding the incident without any further discussion.

Can you hear me, heroic spirits?

Discussions in the Escarpa camp have concluded. We have bought time and opportunity for other outcomes.

Take a moment to recuperate; I believe the Wayfarers may reconvene soon, in a manner of speaking.
​

The sun dipped still lower, the bridge supports a black web over a bloody sky. But there was little blood shed this day – and perhaps as a result, there would be less shed in the future. Time would tell how well the Wayfarers' efforts would pay off.

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