Chương 92: Chapter 74

Our saving graces were few, but they kept me alive in the opening seconds of the battle. Firstly, our opponents had underestimated us. Scythe's Pokémon charged forwards in an unorganized rabble, clearly confident in their ability to sweep aside our resistance like a sharp blade through grass. Instead, they found themselves stymied by a veritable barrage of elemental rage.

Because, secondly, for all of the strength and ferocity of Scythe's band of killers, our side had the most domineering presence on the battlefield. Two hydrants on either side of the street erupted, water flooding the pavement around them as Mana bellowed with rage. The Scyther and Hitmonlee had to dodge desperately out of the way as the terrain around the impromptu fountains became all but impassible for our opponents, lest they be swallowed by a whirlpool or blasted by a gout of pure brine.

And finally, and perhaps most crucially, this wasn't a standard battle. If it were, we'd likely have stood little chance at all. Scythe's Pokémon were too powerful, too ferocious. Too lethal. Even wounded as they were, even exhausted by yesterday's fight, all of his combatants moved with the reassured ease of practiced predators. The Golbat swooped in low, teeth glistening with cruel poison and eyes flashing with malicious intent.

The charging Hitmonchan blurred forwards, fist raised and aglow, his smearing form tearing across the landscape at priority speed. A barrage of Psybeams hurtled towards us from the sickly-yellow Hypno's pendulum, prismatic beams of blistering energy launched at me with pinpoint precision. Each of Scythe's Pokémon were clearly monstrous battlers, able to compete and even threaten Mr. Gima's partners, if not overcome them. I would have hesitated to send any of my Pokémon out to fight them alone, save for maybe Mana.

But this wasn't a one on one battle. Not with dozens of combatants populating the battlefield. It was more like a war. Or… chess. And in chess, you had to be careful about trying to take pieces, lest you find yourself subjected to an unfavorable trade.

"Full Kalosian," I shouted, even as my foot stomped out a specific pattern on the cracked pavement. My knights were already in motion, half the formation moving to intercept the Psybeams, and the other three Falinks interposing themselves in front of the blitzing Hitmonchan.

The glittering streams of psychic power washed off a rotating wall of Protects that easily deflected the attacks, even as Bers tanked the incoming Bullet Punch, giving space for Tristan and Galad to retaliate with a pair of Headbutts that sent the aggressive Pokémon staggering. Klang was a little slower on the draw, unknowing as they were of our coded commands, but I shouted out a quick order for them, " Mark Golbat!"

that had them wheeling to face the speedy combatant, letting loose a quick Charge Beam that forced the flier to abort her swooping assault. The Hitmonlee and the Scyther tried to close in next, but the former had to Detect out of the way of a Hydro Pump, and the latter ate a Brine for his trouble, knocking him up and away from us. Before I could order any retaliation against Scythe's stalled partners, a sharp, ringing noise came from his side of the impromptu battlefield, like a knife being slid along a whetstone.

Immediately, his Pokémon fell back in good order, surrendering their encirclement in favor of reinforcing one another. Maybe the killer realized that if his partners filtered in one at a time, we'd pick him apart. Or maybe he knew that at this point, running was the last thing on our minds. The small break gave me time to rapid-fire some quiet orders for my partners.

"Mana, full defensive duties. If anyone is falling asleep, use Uproar. Knights, mark the Fighting-types. Two groups of three. Stall them. Klang, keep the Golbat and the Scyther back. They're both weak to electricity, and neither can realistically threaten you. I'll keep the Zoroark honest. Wait for the signal, I'll tell you what to do." And then we were out of time.

They were coming again, but this time, instead of blitzing forwards, Scythe's Pokémon prowled, eating the distance between us in movements that looked lazy, but were deceptively fast. They came spread out, trying to pull our defenses thin, picking and probing for weaknesses. But really, their intent was clear. It came through in the eager malice behind their eyes. The way their heads flicked away from their opponents for brief instants. Each of those killers had only one thought on their collective mind.

The fastest way to secure a checkmate in this battle. Getting to me. Mana, the Nidoqueen to my king in this twisted game, stuck close. My most stalwart protector, she threatened to take any piece that wandered into her range. The swooping Golbat dove in for another attack as Scyther defended against a barrage from Klang, only to be repelled by a chunk of the school that sallied out, pushing the flier back with whapping tails.

Scythe's Hitmonchan broke free from the center scrum, charging forward like an artillery shot with a Bullet Punch chambered and ready, only to be knocked away by a veritable wall of water that carried him right back to Lance and co's tender mercies. And when Mana wasn't covering for any assailants that slipped our formation, she sent Hydro Pumps screaming across the battlefield like missiles.

Devastating streams of pressurized water erupted from the school's maw, beams that tore the surrounding pavement to ebony shreds when they missed their mark, and threatened to do similar damage to any of Scythe's band of killers should they misstep. My knights were the Nidorina, agile pieces that covered one another from tricksy angles. Lance and his company were dogged in their pursuit of the Hitmonchan, trading blows with the taller Fighting-type that sent shockwaves out around them.

Hitmonlee and Tristan's team were more reserved. Both sides probed one another relentlessly, but neither was willing to truly commit. It made sense, Hitmonlee's kicks were brutal whipsnaps that could crush concrete, but they didn't come out nearly as fast as his partner's punches, and missing one would put him critically off-balance.

Scythe's pair had a definite edge, but my knights were well-capable of fighting a defensive battle, and any time one team was getting overwhelmed, they'd coordinate a quick break or swap, juggling the two Fighting-type's attention, and forcing them to split their focus, lest they be caught unawares. The Poké Balls, those important corner pieces, were represented by two spinning gears, firing bolts of electricity that threatened to take either or both of Scythe's Flying-types out of the battle.

The Steel-types were alight with lightning and rage, sparks skittering off their form as they fired barrage after barrage with reckless abandon. They couldn't keep up this sort of assault for long, they'd run out of power if they kept spending it freely like this, but while their maelstrom lasted, Golbat and Scyther struggled to get close. And my Nidorino? Those lurked just out of sight, waiting for the perfect opportunity to appear past enemy lines and land a critical strike. But what of the Nidoran?

Those all important central pieces that kept everyone covered and protected? In this battle, those were represented by psychic screens and sheets of water and diving bodies and levitated stone. Sonic screams and scything arms and gales of wind and illusory doubles. Anything and everything that could be interposed between the most critical pieces and whatever danger was aimed their way. Scythe and I stood a dozen meters and a world apart, glaring at one another between blistering barrages and tumbling bodies.

The ground between us became a warzone, a no-man's land of stray attacks and vicious combatants. And the two of us contributed to the carnage in the only way we effectively could. Our four hands were crimson blurs, barely visible smears of red light that painted the battlefield around us the color of blood. Recall and release beams fired constantly as we repositioned our partners in a frenetic dance, gifting our partners with a supernatural power. The ability to freely dodge anything.

A Hydro Pump about to slam into an unaware Hypno? Avoided as the Psychic-type vanished in a flash of red light. A Mega Punch that would have sent Lance's crew sprawling? Sent into the empty air as they disappeared into my ball, just to emerge again moments later, ablaze with the energy of a First Impression. The constant recall and release made it impossible to build up any sort of status change, except for in the combatants who never needed a return.

Which was why a segment of my mind was keeping a very careful watch on the Zoroark prowling behind Scythe's shoulder. The Dark-type kept snickering to herself, and breaking out into bouts of uneasy, manic laughter. I could easily recognize the Nasty Plot, and Scythe's plan was as transparent as it was likely to be effective. Charge up a stealthy attacker to the max, and then send them out to threaten mate. It was a good plan. One that I thought had a very strong chance of working.

Too bad for Scythe, I'd gotten a headstart on it. The part of my brain keeping a steady countdown pinged me again. Two boosts. I ducked away from an Air Slash from one of the two Flying-types, and they ate a Charge Beam for their trouble. Scythe whipped out an arm and cut through a stray Rock Throw of opportunity from Lance's group, keeping it from hitting the Hypno next to him.

The Psychic-type tried to send out wide waves of Hypnosis to slow and exhaust my team, but the howling tempest that was Mana's Uproar kept anyone on the field from being affected. Three boosts. Globules of poison threatened my knights and Mana, but screens of water and two steel gears intercepted the sizzling projectiles, preventing the lethal status from afflicting my partners.

Bers' Protect shattered under an Axe Kick, but he kept his footing by shunting some of the damage onto the rest of the formation, and his return Reversal was nearly as devastating. The opposing Fighting-type staggered, and Tristan and Galad piled on, adding their attacks to their brother's to good effect. Four boosts. Scyther had gotten caught in Klang's Vise Grip, and his Slash's were almost completely ineffectual against their steel body.

A timely beam recalled them before a Discharge took them out of the fight entirely, but that gifted my newest partners the space to commit to a Lock On. Their Charge Beam shot out like a laser, tracking the Golbat across the sky with cold, exacting precision. Instead of trying to dodge, the Flying type faced the attack head-on, blasting it apart with buffeting winds from their massive wings. Five boosts. And then the part of my psyche I'd directed to watch the Zoroark noted her disappearance.

We were out of time but we just needed a few seconds longer for that critical, maximum power." Truth!" the word burned even worse the second time, scorching my throat like fire, and emerging from my mouth as if it were a gout of invisible flame. The sound ripped apart the air in front of me, shattering Zoroark's illusion again, but just because I could see the incoming Dark Pulse, didn't mean I could dodge it.

The attack slammed into a wall of water from Mana, and then pierced through it, ramming into my crossed arms and sending me flying backwards. I landed in a heap, water splashing against my back and soaking my jacket. My arms were tingling and bruised, and if I hadn't had my partners nearby, if I hadn't had the glowing stone on a bracelet beneath my jacket, that might have been the end of me right there.

Sensing the moment of weakness, Scythe's Pokémon all broke off from their battles, closing in as fast as they could. Too bad for them, we'd bought enough time. Six boosts. I slammed a fist into the ground twice, even as I forced a burning-hot command through my throat, words flying faster than thought, " Mana, Knights, Helping Hand down! Klang, hit the Hypno!"

My older partners glowed with light, ignoring their opponents as they broke off, instead focusing on sending a crucial powerup down, down into the earth below us. I kept eye contact with Scythe as I lay on the ground, ignoring his charging Pokémon, mere meters away. The killer looked back at me, as his face twisted up first in confusion, and then comprehension. He broke his gaze, following the flows of energy from my partners to the road below.

He turned to his Hypno, just in-time to watch the Psychic-type get blasted by a bolt of electricity, courtesy of two hovering gears. His face twisted up as he screamed something that was lost to a rumbling crash that tore through the street, a veritable earthquake that threatened to send everyone still standing tumbling to the earth. Flashes of brilliant light erupted from cracks spreading in the pavement, and a keening whine of barely-restrained energy crashed through the air.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. I laid back, letting my screaming back settle into the few inches of water coating the ground. My hands snapped out, recalling my knights and Klang in twin flashes of light. The Hitmonchan was just two steps away now, fist aglow with power and aimed to crush me into a smear on the pavement.

Scythe's Hitmonlee was right on his heels, standing atop one leg while the other was extending up before my eyes in a brutal downwards arc. A green blur dove towards me, two gleaming blades angled straight for my chest. And closest of all, a blistering stream of pure void, screaming through the air and hurtling towards my supine form. All of them were too late, as the water around me erupted, dragging me fully into its embrace. And then, there was light.

Even in the watery space between worlds, even in the state of quasi-reality my body existed in, the brilliance was cataclysmic. The water shook and rumbled, jostling me as if I were caught in a whirlpool, and I had to fight the urge to struggle, to try and thrash and swim my way free. Mana had me, and she wouldn't let anything happen to me. A second passed, and then two, and then wavering, azure forms caught me from below, pushing me out of the pool, set atop Mana's ragged, half-formed school.

We emerged not onto a street, but into a warzone. Population Bomb truly was a devastating move, and that was especially true when it was boosted by a half-dozen uses of Tidy up, and two separate Helping Hands. The entire stretch of asphalt we'd been battling on was gone, replaced by a crumbling fissure of shattered pavement. Every window I could see had been destroyed by the pressure wave, and several parked cars on either side of the road had massive dents blown in their side panels.

Water from shattered pipes and the broken hydrants was flooding the entire area, and I could see Scythe's two Fighting-types lying face-down in the grimy muck, unmoving except for the rise and fall of their chests. Sirens howled off in the distance, and to my relief they were growing closer with each passing second. And yet for all of that, I didn't think that this was over for even a moment.

A suspicion validated as I released Klang just in time to intercept a falling shadow, their steel frames lodging themselves into the swooping Golbat's gaping maw. They immediately erupted in yellow light, the Discharge electrocuting both Pokémon, but I didn't have time to watch, as two glittering blades tried to cut through Mana's school from below.

She bellowed, lashing out with her immense tail, forcing the Scyther to dodge away, but the frantic movement, coupled with my own desperate dodge, sent me tumbling down. I landed hard on the unforgiving ground, and didn't wait a moment before hurling myself into the shattered fissure in front of me, a scream on my lips." Truth!" I howled, though the word tasted less of fire this time, and more of blood and bile.

And yet still the demand tore itself free from my throat like a bomb from a cannon, an explosion that blasted away the Zoroark's illusion, moments before she could reach out and disembowel me. I caught only a brief glimpse of a scowling, crimson maw as I threw myself around her strike, and then I was falling, descending a meter and change into the shattered road.

My knights erupted around me, wheeling to confront the prowling Zoroark right on my heels. They tore into her with a roar, the Dark-type sending a quick Snarl that blew some of them away, but failed to stop all of them. Ahead of me, Maushold also were embroiled in the battle still, fighting against Scythe's Hypno and also the man himself. The pair fought back to back, the latter covered in bruises and burns visible through his torn clothing, and the former looking hurt, but far less so than I'd been expecting.

Had Scythe covered for his Pokémon? I wouldn't have thought the man capable of it, but it did make a pragmatic sort of sense. Even if he killed me, he'd need his teleporter conscious to escape my enraged partners, let alone the incoming security personnel. Which explained why it looked like he'd tanked the majority of the blast, though I had to assume the Psychic-type had assembled some sort of screen to cover them both, or neither would still be standing.

If Maushold had anything to say about it, they wouldn't be standing much longer. Mauses circled the duo like Sharpedo, an entire herd of glowing constructs churning with frenetic energy. Scythe warded them off with his arms, lashing out in sweeping motions that looked like they should have been ineffective, but which made a ringing sound cut through the air and construct alike.

The Hypno, for their part, focused their efforts on projecting Psychic-screens, knocking back any maus before their exploding forms could devastate the pair. Boosted as they were, I thought Maushold would make quick work of the two, but the Hypno was clearly a defensive specialist of some sort, judging by the constant stream of barriers they were erecting, and Scythe easily sliced apart any maus that slipped the Psychic-type's cordon, defusing the imminent explosion.

The real Mauses let loose a chorus of Uproars that staggered the pair, an unearthly wail that was taken up by their entire herd of constructs. The waves pressed in, and a pair of gnashing incisors finally slipped past the killer's guard. The Hypno quickly blasted the loose maus off her trainer before it could explode, but with the dissolving body came a bloody chunk of Scythe's shoulder, his Syn pierced and exhausted. And that was all I could watch, before chaos descended into the pit with us.

Scythe's Golbat arrived first, tearing downwards on still-sparking wings. She spat a globule of poison at me, which I barely avoided, but that took me right into the way of the Scyther just behind her. He lashed out with one arm, a glimmering Slash aimed straight at my neck, and I raised an arm in desperation. The blade dug deep into my forearm, but my syn was just barely strong enough to keep the attack from shearing through the bone.

I staggered as my syn dropped precipitously low, but the Bug-type swiftly paid for his assault, a Rock Throw slamming him into the ground. He stirred weakly, for a moment, before a Hydro Pump crashed into him as well, cracking his carapace with the force of it. After that, he lay unmoving, leaking green fluids into the muddy earth.

I clutched at my forearm, blood erupting from between my fingers as I tried to staunch the massive laceration, but before I could get my bearings, something rammed into me from behind and I was sent sprawling. It was my turn to land in the muddy swamp of shattered asphalt, and my back howled in unearthly pain. Perhaps worse than that though, was that I couldn't feel the arm that the Scyther had sliced up. Continuing to lie there in the silt and grime was tempting, oh so tempting.

Even facedown, covered in melted pavement, the ground was more comfortable to my aching body than the most luxurious bed. I could just lay here, and let come what may, until I didn't hurt anymore. Instead, I rolled onto my back, in spite of the blinding pain it inflicted on me. Because staying still was death, and I couldn't die here. If not because I had to protect my partners, if not so I could see my parents again, if not to keep Alyssa safe, then just because I wasn't willing to allow Scythe the satisfaction.

I squinted through eyes that could barely see through the agony, just in time to watch a crimson-furred blur honing in on me, my knights right behind her. The Zoroak's mouth was still leaking the same Dark-type energy she'd just struck me with, and her claws were splayed wide, digging into the shattered earth and creating an unearthly shriek as they trailed behind her. But the sound had nothing on the scream of sheer pain and rage that tore out of my throat.

The sonic eruption made the muddy earth around me erupt like a stone had been dropped into it, and the charging Zoroark slowed under the assault. She hitched one step, almost staggered on the next, but then found her footing, her clawed feet digging into the silt and grime. She came onwards, the sharpened talons at the ends of her arms just inches away from me. And then she went flying back, struck by something I couldn't make out.

The Dark-type tried to whirl midair to land on her feet, but my knights were there to catch her, hitting the Dark-type with a full-force Close Combat before she could regain control of her flight. I wanted to watch, but a body slammed to the ground next to me, demanding my attention. I whipped my head to the side, and found my gaze captured by a massive, gaping maw. Luckily, said distended jaw was currently being ground into the earth by a whirling mini gear.

The twitching Golbat tried to lurch towards me, only for the larger part of the Klang's twin bodies to crush them into the ground. They electrocuted the downed flier for good measure, and the squirming Poison-type finally fell still. A cry from the other side of the pit caught my attention next, and I looked up just in time to watch two of the mauses go flying, knocked away by twin strikes from the somehow-conscious Hitmonchan and Hitmonlee.

The pair of Fighting-types looked beat to hell, and I'd be surprised if either of them actually had any syn left to buffer their wounds with, but they were clearly willing to fight past the point of injury. The final maus standing fell back, moving protectively in front of the downed bodies as the Population Bombs around them fizzled out, and I recalled the trio with my good arm, wincing as I slumped myself into something resembling an upright position.

Scythe raised both hands, staunchly ignoring the blood pouring from a variety of wounds on his body. He sent a trio of recall beams in a moment, returning his Golbat, Zoroark, and Scyther back to his belt. The Hypno behind him nursed one arm, from which large chunks of fur had been torn, but looked otherwise unharmed. Mana floated down behind me, her school reduced to a few floating piscine forms that orbited her main body. She must have taken more damage protecting me from the earlier explosion than I'd realized.

My knights dragged themselves to my side, all six of them flagging and wheezing, but still clearly willing to battle, and Klang hovered unevenly in front of me, small bits of static sparking off of them. A certain stutter in their constant wheeling told me they were almost out of energy, but they interposed their steel bodies between Scythe and I all the same. Three Pokémon on each side, we stared at one another in a tense standoff. The moment should have been silent.

Were this a movie, this final, dramatic confrontation would have been as quiet as a grave. Instead, the incoming sirens shattered the stillborn silence with their oblivious rage, as did the screams of terror and confusion from the bystanders and onlookers.

"How does a region like this create a creature like you?" Scythe mused as his eyes tracked over the ruined battlefield, his eerily calm voice barely audible over the background noise.

"Ferrum isn't your playground Scythe," I spat blood on the ground as cooling water surrounded my shredded forearm, lightening the agony enough that I could speak.

"This place is dangerous for your sort of monster."

"You mean our sort of monster," the man drawled with a smirk.

"You blew up an entire city street."

"And it'll have been worth it, when you're behind bars," I growled hoarsely.

"Behind bars!" Scythe's incredulous shout was punctuated by a sharp, short laugh.

"Girlie, you exploded the road out from under me! Most people don't walk that sort of thing off, you know." My reflexive retort was cut off by a shout from the edges of the pit.

"Recall all of your Pokémon and get on the ground!" Neither he nor I turned away from one another, but both of our gazes flicked up, to the ring of armored figures that'd surrounded our shattered battlefield.

"I said recall your partners!" a man wielding a megaphone shouted at a volume that reached maybe half of what I was capable of unassisted.

"Do it now!"

"Well well, girl. Looks like you've been saved by the bell," Scythe said as his arms flashed, recall beams flooding out of him and absorbing his remaining Pokémon.

"I was looking forward to dealing with you myself," I ground out as I glared at the man, "but this works too. End of the line, Scythe."

"Oh, I'm not so sure about that," the killer responded with a sickening grin, just before the man with the megaphone shouted again: "This is your final warning. Recall your partners, or we'll be forced to resort to force." I whipped my head back at the man, so shocked that I took my eyes off Scythe for a moment.

"What the hell?!" I shouted at the officer, as a cruel laugh erupted behind me.

"Our kind girlie, like I said. Now, keep the coppers busy for me. I've got a rat to exterminate." I wheeled around, just in time to see Scythe disappear in a flash, three forms vanishing in a burst of light. He'd never recalled the Hypno at all! At some point, Scythe's Zoroark had woken up, and I hadn't seen through her illusions.

"Fuck!" I stamped my foot in the muddy ground, "After him!"

"Take her down!" a voice shouted above me, but I was already falling, sinking into the muddy pool beneath my feet. My partners sans Mana vanished in flashes of light, and long before the first attack reached us, we'd already vanished into the deep. - I climbed, sputtering, on one aching arm, out of a fountain in a courtyard two blocks away from the battlefield. The synergy stone on the end of my uninjured forearm flickered and sputtered, as my energy, and that of my team, sagged underneath our exhaustion.

And in spite of that, I staggered to the edge of the abandoned square, peering down the street with blurry eyes. Of Scythe and his Pokémon, I could see no signs.

"Another place, Mana," I spoke, even though my voice felt like glass losing itself in my throat.

"He can't have gotten far."

"Washi, wash!" my piscine partner refuted, concern and desperation colouring her plea.

"We can't let him get away!" I argued, staggering back towards the pool of water.

"Not after what he's done. What he's going to do!"

"Washi!" the impassioned cry brought me up short. I turned to look at Mana, finally actually seeing my exhausted partner. She was barely able to keep herself afloat in the air, and her school was down to a few measly constructs, stuttering around her like scratched records. My thoughts went to my other partners. My knights, almost or totally out of syn, Maushold two-thirds downed, Klang critically low on power. Could I really ask them to keep fighting?

The moment it took for me to stop and ask that question was long enough for the adrenaline to drain from my system, and to reveal that what I'd thought was the worst pain I could imagine was merely a pleasant diversion. My arm burned with agony, and my back was only slightly better off. I looked down at my forearm, at the gauze of water and will that Mana was just barely holding in place there. I was probably imagining it, but was that bone visible from between the lacerated flesh?

The sight was mesmerizing, and I might have stood there staring at it until I collapsed like a puppet with string cut, had the rest of my partners not emerged from their balls in a clamor of concern and unease.

"Okay," I croaked at my concerned partners.

"But we need to go to a Pokémon Center, not a hospital. I'm not sure if city-security identified us, but we can't take any chances. The Joys… they'll help us." My knights swept me up and Maushold, hauling me off my feet as the sole conscious maus perched atop my chest and chittered concerned admonishments at me. We took off down the road, a concerned Mana and Klang floating behind us, and I focused on keeping my arm elevated, and on the extremely difficult task of not passing out.

I wasn't successful on either count.