Bluegrass remained silent, gritting his teeth as the others continued talking. Then out of the blue, the Ivysaur suddenly ran forwards, startling the others miners and spectres alike. Not minding the shouts of alarm from the others the grass-type ran towards the two former teammates of his, extending his vines and wrapping the twain in a hug. "I missed you..."
Blueroyce's eye seemed to widen in surprise at Bluegrass embraced him. The Icebanshee of Bluesoul hissed in confusion, its horrible mockery of Angharad's father's voice ending abruptly. "Bluegrass..." Bluerock said, almost softly. For a moment, the poisonous blue in his eye seemed to flicker back to Royce's orange. However, a few moments later, it returned, and the Icegrudge's gaze once again hardened. "So you want to join us after all. Bluesoul?" Bluesoul shrieked triumphantly as it shot towards Bluegrass, dissolving into purple mist and exploding in the Ivysaur's face. Bluegrass let out a choking cry as frost began form around his vines, binding him to Blueroyce's body.
Bluegrass cringed as the mist covered his head, inhibiting his breathing. Wincing as the frost began to spread on his vines, the Ivysaur with some difficulty looked to his friend. "You... were my best friends... of course I'd want to..." the grass-type declared as he mustered his strength to a grim smile, fumes emitting from his back. "But... not like this... and not at the expense of the others..!" "What is this..!?" the possessed Rolycoly demanded, his cyan eyes dimming slightly as he stared hatefully at the frosting Ivysaur. "Sleep Powder... and Poison Powder..." Bluegrass replied simply, coughing and shuddering as he began to lose consciousness from lack of oxygen.
Bluesoul hissed as the pollen from Bluegrass' attacks began to intermingle with its misty form. Its hold on the Ivysaur began to wane, and it began to roll over as if stumbling. "No! Stop! STOP!" Bluerock shook his head violently as he tried to shake off the wave off fatigue overcoming. "GRAAAAH" He swiveled violently, cracking the ice around Bluegrass' vines and swinging the Ivysaur away from him, and Bluesoul with it. Bluesoul shrieked in rage and flew erratically back down the tunnel in retreat. The possessed Royce continued to spin, scattering the pollen across the cavern floor, along with a fine cloud of coal dust... Panting, Bluerock faced Bluegrass, who lay on the ground, groaning where he hit the ground in a daze. "You. Will NOT. Leave us this time!" Bluerock said, now sounding quite distressed. "We'll have to speed things up a bit." Turning back to the rest of the crew, he leered at them with his singular eye. "I thank you for the Ice Crystal, by the way. It will make our trip down much faster." From the darkness of the tunnel behind, a howling roar blasted out, along with what sounded like cries of surprise. The sound of crashing rock began to echo. From the ground below Royce, the cave began to tremble. As the party continued to run away from the creature chasing them, Riley shouted in alarm. "Something's coming towards us ahead!" She shouted. "I-I can't tell exactly what it is, but it's fast!" Levi yelled in frustration as he ducked to avoid another spray of rocks carved out from the wall. "More?!" he shouted. "What is it this--" "AMMMYYYYY!" The Kirlia flinched as she heard that horrible shriek again. A purple and blue shadow with glowing yellow eyes streaked towards the group with incredible speed. Douglas stepped in front of Amy, expecting her to be attacked again, but the shadow shot straight past them and flew into the monster's face, seeming to melt into the giant crystals embedded in its head. For a moment, the monster shuddered and stopped moving, and the little ones it was chasing halted, nervously looking at it. Then, the creature's eyes shot open once more, now glowing with toxic shades of yellow and blue. It shrieked with fury and began clawing wildly through the cave with renewed fury, threatening to flatten the crew in its efforts. "GO! Faster! Faster!" Douglas shouted, dropping his plank to carry Amy above his head with both arms.
Angharad noticed the coal dust, seeing her opening. "Demyx, get Bluegrass out of the way and contain what I'm about to do!" She commanded, building up her fire. The Dewott nodded, used his Aqua Jet to grab the Ivysaur and got them both behind Angharad. "Sorry, Royce, but I have to do this. FLAMETHROWER!!!" And she sent her flames to the coal dust, causing an explosion in front of them. When the smoke cleared, the Rolycoly was unconscious, with spirals in his eye. Angharad sighed in relief. "He's a coal cart. Royce always ends up covered in coal dust, and more than once he's come into my little forge covered in the stuff. I had to wait until he scattered some of the dust around here."
Amy was slightly shaken even more after hearing whatever that thing was shout her name again. She was starting to recover from hitting her head, and felt herself get picked up by Douglas. She saw his plank getting left behind, and attempted to pick it up with Psychic use it for defense. Her mind at this point was still a bit frazzled but back together enough to pick it up and swing it at any rocks that got a little too close for comfort. It was only now that Amy got a good look at the thing chasing them. It was huge. So big that it could barely fit in the tunnel. It's now yellow and blue eyes were unsettling by themselves, with the beast's apparent strength and temper make it effectively terrifying. Amy moved the plank closer to it, trying to poke it in the eye to maybe stall it for a few seconds. It proved a bit hard due to the movement.
Though the plank hovered wobbly in the air, Amy was still too dazed to launch it with effective force. The beast's hand swung in a wide arc and swatted it, shattering the plank into splinters. Amy cursed to herself silently, hoping Douglas would forgive her for that. As they reached a corner in the cave, a blinding flash of fire suddenly illuminated the darkness. "Whoa!" Levi and Riley flinched as they shielded their eyes from the light. "...wait until he scattered some of the dust around here." Rounding the bend, the group quickly took in the sight in front of them. Royce was now on the ground, apparently unconscious and surrounded by a ring of smoldering ash. A Charmeleon, Dewott, and Corvisquire stared back, while a Beartic was lying on the floor, also apparently passed out. The Covisquire squawked. "Who...?" "HiI'mLevithat'sRileyAmyandDoug," Levi said rapidly, still running towards the other group. "Sorry, can't talk, we got company!" The Scraggy, Timburr, Kirlia, and Riolu joined the camp crew's ranks as the the monster chasing them rounded the corner. Angharad and Ciara's eyes widened in surprise at the sight. Still on the ground, Royce groaned, his eye flickering back to orange. As he rolled upwards, he too saw the monster in front of him. "How come is thare a giant Dar--" Royce managed to slur out, before the monster roared in rage and punched the Rolycoly back into unconsciousness. He went flying straight towards Levi, who grunted as he caught the flying cart head on and tumbling backwards.
Angharad watched as Royce, while back to his old self, got punched and sent flying towards the Scraggy, sending both flying. She face palmed with her left hand, her right still gripping her sword. "Those were the Frosthunters Royce was helping." Angharad sighed, "I understand that you all are still new Frosthunters, so I get that you all are struggling with a Darmanitan that's almost a Galarian. Does he use ice attacks?" To the general group of Frosthunters. She shifted her stance back to the defensive one, ready to help with her fire attacks.
Douglas put Amy back down and got ready for a fight "It's mainly just been throwing rocks." he replied to Angharad. Amy was steady enough now that she could walk on her own. She looked at the group and noticed the large wound on the Dewott's chest. "I can heal that for you." she said, motioning to the scar. She focused for a second as her right hand started glowing a light blue. It formed into a large drop of water, which she then fired at the Dewott. Upon touching him, it was absorbed into his body. The scar started glowing the same blue, then healed itself. "There, you should be ready to fight now." She then noticed him only holding one of his... shell... things. "Aren't you supposed to have two of those... shells?"
Riley walked up to Amy as well, holding up her injured wrist. "Hey... um... could that work on this too?" she asked. Amy gasped apologetically. "Oh, I'm so sorry, Riley, I couldn't do that earlier," she said. The Kirlia formed another Life Dew sphere that gelled around the Riolu's paw. "It... doesn't work as well on internal injuries, but it'll help with the pain." Riley flexed her wrist experimentally, before nodding. "Thank you, Amy, that's definitely a lot better" she said. "You should heal your head up a bit too." Levi groaned as he pushed the still unconscious Royce off him. "Darmanitan?" he asked Angharad. "That can't be righ, it's huge, and it's not red!" Angharad grunted in annoyance as she kept her eyes on the giant ice creature in front of them. "They look a bit different in Galar, Scraggy. Altho', I don't think this one is quite like ours. Bigger teeth, more hairy. And uglier." The strange giant Darmanitan growled in anger at the last comment, though it did not advance, glaring warily at the now much larger band of opponents before it. The cavern continued to tremble; both sides seemed to be anxiously awaiting to see who would strike first. Douglas ran to the Charmeleon's side, now ready to fight again now that everyone was healed. "Was that explosion earlier you?" he asked. "Hope you didn't blow up Royce too bad, but it looks like he needed it." He reached back for his plank in preparation to fight, then remembered that it had been broken in the earlier chase. "Damn," he said to himself. "Forgot about that."
Angharad smirked at the Timburr. "Yer going to be a Gurdurr, so see that hammer over there?" she said, gesturing to her dropped forging hammer lying against the wall, next to Boreas. "See if you can swing that around. Might be good training for ya when you grow into a Gurdurr anyway?" She kept her eyes on the weird Galarian Darmanitan, waiting for the first strike.
In a matter of seconds, his wound disappeared. It felt very relieving to not feel the burning sensation across his chest. "Thank you... that hurt like you wouldn't believe, heh heh." He lightly chucked. Before turning his attention to the monster, the Kirlia asked him something another question. "Aren't you supposed to have two of those... shells?" She asked, though something was a bit off with the way she spoke. He didn't pay it any mind, though. "It's..." His voice cracked for a moment, thinking of what happened with Hartman. He cleared his throat and spoke again. "...it's a long story. I'll tell ya later. For right now we have something else to deal with..." He shook his head and looked at the Darmanitan, who was very wary of the group. Not the kind of Darmanitan he sees in Unova, and it was... abnormally large. "Heh... he's got a certain charm to him." he admitted as he slowly walked up to the monster. "You're heavily outnumbered. If you still want to fight though..." he stops moving, a watery blade forms around the scalchop again. "...I'd be VERY happy to oblige." He grins, his feet tapping almost impatiently as he waits for the monster to make a move.
Doug quickly retrieved Angahrad's forge hammer and swung it a few times. "Bit shorter than I'm used to but... it's got some weight," the Timburr said, grinning. "All right..." he said, walking back towards the front lines. "Bring it on, hairball!" he said said, shouting at the monster in challenge. The giant Darmanitan roared, and its eyes began to literally glow with anger. Its brow ignited into pillars of flame while its body started to steam. Pounding its fists on the floor, it charged.
Amy took Riley's advice and used Life See to help her head get better faster. However, it would still take a little time, so she hung back against the wall. She saw the Beartic lying unconscious and went over to him. She knelt down next to him and looked him over. He seemed to be exhausted, and she prepared another Life Dew. Even though it did help with fatigue, she doubted it would be able to revive him anytime soon.
(Did the thing Chicken did and decided to roll a die to see how Demyx's life ends up and got a 14) The Darmanitan suddenly flared to life with a familiar fire, and charged straight for Demyx, the speed at which nearly caught him off guard. He and the Timburr next to him is barely able to sidestep the attack as he gets a sudden rush.in his head. "Ha! I see you're eager, too!" He shouts to the Timburr, who still grins and nods back. As the Darmanitan slows down, Demyx charges behind him and attempts to slash at him with Razor Shell. The Timburr follows suit and tries to deliver a swing to the back of the darmanitan's head with his hammer at the same time "Catch this, ya big lummox!"
Demyx's Razor Shell hit first, slashing the Darmanitan across its left cheek and taking a good chunk out of the melting ice crystals on its brow as well. The giant Blazing Pokémon reared back and howled in pain, flailing it arms wildly. Douglas' hammer hit it solidly from behind as well, though he was forced to roll in midair to avoid getting swatted. The Darmanitan fell to the ground, though before the dust even settled, a shadow erupted from its forehead and shrieked. Bluesoul's yellow eyes glared at the Dewott with loathing as it began firing off a volley of Shadow Balls in all directions. Douglas grunted as one hit him in the side, though it wasn't a serious blow. Both he and Demyx regrouped and prepared for another strike.
(Rolled a 16 this time.) As Bluesoul was bombarding the area with Shadow Balls, Demyx is able put his deep focus on the shadow balling spirit, dodging any that come his way. He could just Aqua Jet over to it, but he'd be using a lot of energy up at once for what he wanted to do, which would put him in a really bad spot. Moments later he thought of something he could do involving the Timburr. "Hey, uh... Doug right?" "Yup, you got that right" Douglas replied proudly. "Nice." Demyx nodded. "Can you do me a favor?" The Timburr tilted his head in confusion, not sure of what he's about to be asked of. "Do you think you could toss me towards... that thing?" He asked, pointing to Bluesoul who looked as if they were giving them an icy stare. "Oh. Going in head first. I like it!" He agrees. He procedes to pick up the Dewott and readies himself up. "Ready, you crazy Dewott?" Demyx's blade started to glow with dark energy as he chuckles. "I seem to get that a lot around here." He says jokingly as he fully readies up. "All right, let's do it!" he shouts. On command, Doug throws him as hard as he could at the monster, his Night Slash fully ready as he attempts to strike at Bluesoul with it.