Enter the Federation - Etemenanki
Work In Progress
"Th-the sky is falling! The sky is falling!"
That was the prediction Kris had received early that morning. He'd nearly woken the entire guild up with his frantic raving as he ran outside in a panic, almost tripping over himself as he made a beeline for the hammock that his partner usually slept in.
As the Absol started blabbering about something-or-other at a hundred miles per minute, Kaiji rose groggily from his hammock and rubbed his temple, accepting that he wouldn't be getting any more sleep today. As if he'd been through this many times before, he calmly waited for the fox to run out of breath before even attempting to say anything in response.
"One word at a time, please..." Kaiji shook his head, already more than familiar with his partner's manic episodes. Kris tended to get worked up like this whenever he got one of his absurd premonitions, and there was never any chance of convincing him he was wrong, no matter how insane his ramblings sounded.
"Th-the, i-it's up in, c-crashing down, and-!" The fox panted, still winded from sprinting nonstop straight after waking up.
Kaiji let out a sigh. "Please, from the beginning..." He spoke in a shyer, softer voice than he usually did... It wasn't unusual for him to drastically change his tone of voice and manner of speaking during missions depending on who he was trying to manipulate, or to stick to his phony Brooklyn accent when he was dealing with customers (or just feeling particularly annoyed).
This early in the morning, however, he couldn't even summon the energy to keep up the calm stoicism of his "neutral" voice, which was just as much a sham as any other accent he ever put on - not that anybody needed to know that. He'd much rather leave behind the meeker disposition he had as a human, and his soft-spoken voice was another relic of the old Kaiji he'd prefer to cast away.
After a minute, Kris had finally calmed down enough to form a coherent (the term is used loosely here) sentence. "Th-the sky is falling!" he insisted, his eyes wide with fear as he looked down at his Meowth partner.
Kaiji rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, wanting to be sure he'd heard that correctly. "The... sky is falling?"
Kris nodded frantically "We- We need to warn everyone! We'll have to hide in the basement, and, and-" Kris turned his head, looking up at the sky above them. The first beams of sunlight started to peek over the horizon, and the sight only served to increase Kris' level of distress. "H-how are we supposed to build a new sky, Kaiji?! W-what are we supposed to do..?" the fox cried out, genuine despair audible in his voice.
Kaiji didn't know how to respond - not just to Kris' question, but to anything the fox had said at all. He'd heard all sorts of crazy claims of supposed impending calamities from the Absol, ranging from fearful warnings of monsters made of playing cards to crazed ramblings of the entire world ending - the only thing consistent about his ability to sense oncoming danger seemed to be that he never quite got it right. But a direct quote from a fairy tale written specifically to poke fun at paranoid delusions? This crossed the line from bizarre to surreal.
Kaiji assumed that being woken up by his partner's single most ridiculous prediction yet would be the craziest thing to happen to him all day. If only he'd known what the rest of the day had waiting in store...
Chapter 1: Babylon
Three lost souls wander the desert, seeking the stairway to heaven. [Music - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xn_CjG5eI3g ]
It had happened just after Kaiji had finally managed to calm Kris down from his outburst earlier that morning.
An Alakazam claiming to be from the "Guild Federation" had suddenly burst into the guild hall, threatening to shut down their entire organization and have them evicted unless the guild paid him handsomely for the privilege of doing dangerous physical labor for the Federation under strict time constraints.
Several of the guild's teams were sent out to close mysterious spatial rifts inside of Mystery Dungeons, which caused various drastic, scarcely-researched changes in the dungeons containing them - changes that the teams were left to discover for themselves, and were therefore left largely unequipped to deal with. Kaiji's team was sent to seal one such rift on the southeastern side of Northern Desert, and only managed to get there within the day thanks to Kaiji striking a deal with a customer of his who could teleport them there - he'd have to supply their team's next big dungeon run in exchange, but the financial hit was something he could live with.
And so, the team found themselves making the arduous trudge through the blistering heat of the desert, with little description of the dungeon they were looking for beyond a landmark to find it by, and the remarkably undescriptive name of "GL-07"...
Kaiji wiped the sweat from his brow as he looked up from his map, scanning the desert landscape around him and taking careful note of the rocky hills and stone pillars jutting out from the ocean of sand surrounding them. He glanced back down at the map in his hands... the landmarks matched the details charted around the destination, so they were definitely in the right place.
He looked back up at the stretch of sand in front of him, then again back down at the map he was holding. He'd been stuck in this loop for the past few minutes, constantly comparing the area around them to the map he was given and then double-checking his work every time it seemed to match up. Everything was correct, except for one important detail: the "massive stone monolith that towers into the sky" - the one supposedly housing the dungeon, which had been marked on the map as being right in front of where they stood - was nowhere to be seen.
Kaiji looked back up one last time as he put the map back in his bag, turning his gaze to the barren patch of sand that purportedly contained this giant tower of rock. There was nothing there.
Kaiji groaned. "Alright, they're definitely screwin' with us. We already knew they were screwin' with us from the start, but this is just blatant." He shook his head, once again speaking in his trademark Brooklyn accent. He had a tendency to slip into it whenever he was angry or annoyed, and he'd been feeling plenty of both ever since their visit from Alakazam that morning.
Kris whimpered as he reappeared from behind a large mound of rock, panting heavily and stumbling back over to where Kaiji was standing. "Th-there was no sign of it past that hill, either..." he whined, his thick coat of fur drenched in sweat. It was already bad enough living in a tropical town on the coast when his species was more adapted to snowy mountaintops; assigning him to make the trek through the scorching desert and search fruitlessly under the beating sun for something that not even the map could correctly locate was setting him up for failure.
Kris fought the urge to collapse, his tongue lolled out of his mouth in a futile attempt to lower his body temperature. "I-I don't think it's anywhere, Kaiji... th-they probably just saw a mirage. L-let's just turn back..."
Kaiji shook his head. "If we give up, there's nothin' to go back to. We've gotta put up with this bullshit for now, 'cause otherwise-"
Kris cut him off, staring into the empty space above him as if he was talking to someone taller. "W-Weston, I'm serious... th-the prediction I got this morning might've been hazy, but I've never been more sure that we're in danger! W-we should really turn back..." The Absol squinted, looking around as if searching for something. "W-where did Chansani go off to? We could really use a Rain Dance right now..."
Kaiji stared back at his partner with concern, electing not to ask what any of that was about once it became clear he was delirious from the heat. The Meowth quickly dug through his bag, taking out his half-empty flask of water and pressing it to Kris' lips. "Geez, d-drink up before you pass out!"
He could hear his accent wavering, but it was a bit harder focusing on keeping up the character when he was practically melting under the desert sun himself.
Kris drank the water desperately, and the two of them sat there quietly as they both took turns sharing the last of his supply. Kris stared solemnly down at the ground as he started regaining lucidity, and Kaiji didn't dare broach the subject of whatever his partner had been talking about earlier - he could already tell how uncomfortable the fox was just for having remembered it.
Their silence was soon interrupted by an all-too-familiar squeaky voice. "GUUᵁᵁUUUᵁᵁUUUYS! I FOOOOOᴼᴼᴼᵁᵁUUUUND IIIIIIIIIIIIIIITT!"
Kaiji groaned loudly, turning his head towards the source of the yelling. Some ways away from them, Ronnie stood in front of a totally barren patch of sand, gesturing excitedly at absolutely nothing.
Kaiji stood up, returning the now-empty flask to his bag as he made his way towards Ronnie. "THE HELL DID YOU FIND? YOUR MISSING BRAINCELLS?" he yelled back, feeling the anger return to him as his ears were disgraced with the Numel's grating voice. It was only by obligation that they'd even brought him along on the mission; a certain amount of teams were required to successfully seal a rift in order for the guild to be allowed to exist, and Alakazam insisted that Ronnie counted as an explorer because he'd previously joined them on one of their expeditions. Kaiji was absolutely certain that the rule had been made up on the spot just to cause them extra grief, but he had little choice other than to roll with the punches.
Despite Kaiji's immediate hostility, Ronnie repeated himself. "NO, IT'S REALLY HERE, MᴬN! YOU JUST GOTTA COME CLᴼˢER TO SEE IT!"
Kaiji bared his claws, ready to beat some sense into the Fire-type. "Oh, I'll be coming over there alright..." the Meowth muttered, his patience for Ronnie already past its end. Due to his typing, Ronnie was much better suited to the arid climate they found themselves in, and with the newfound energy from the bright sun and high temperatures, he'd been talking nonstop for the entire journey over... and his voice had long since worn out its welcome.
However, as Kaiji finally got within a few meters of Ronnie, the landscape around him shifted. A massive pillar of stone materialized out of thin air before them, towering into the sky farther than they could see - it was impossible that they could've missed spotting something of its height and size if it hadn't been entirely hidden until now. The desert around them suddenly became engulfed in a swirling whirlwind of sand, stopping only a few meters from the tower - about the same distance from it that Kaiji had to approach before it became visible.
Kaiji's amazement at the stone tower's sudden appearance and shifting scenery was eclipsed by only one other miracle."...Ha! You were actually right about something for once. You should savor it!" he snickered, giving Ronnie a patronizing pat on the head before calling his partner over with a shout. "HEY KRIS! THE DUNGEON'S OVER HERE, YOU JUST CAN'T SEE IT FROM OUTSIDE!"
Kris joined them a minute later, emerging from the illusory sandstorm around them. His sullen mood quickly faded as he began to marvel at the unusual scenery around the dungeon, his eyes sparkling with curiosity. "Wow... I didn't know there were dungeons that could be hidden like this! At least... not something this big." He tilted his head up and stepped back as he tried to see to the top of the tower, only giving up on the endeavor after inadvertently backing out of its range of visibility. "Does... it even have an end?"
Kaiji shrugged. "We're gonna hafta find out the hard way. We don't have any time to waste, and it's clearly gonna take us a while to get to the end of that thing, so let's jus' find the entrance and get in there." Kaiji started walking along the edge of the pillar, motioning for the other two to follow.
It only took a little over a minute of walking before they'd circled about halfway around and came upon an opening in the otherwise solid rock. It was about 7 feet tall and equally wide, rounded at the top, and straddled the line between natural roughness and deliberate design in its shape well enough that it was hard to tell if it was natural or monmade in origin. From where they stood, the inside appeared pitch-black, even where sunlight should be able to seep in near the entrance... making it impossible to judge the contents of the interior.
Kaiji took a moment to think about their situation. They'd been told nothing useful about the dungeon, and even from right outside, they weren't able to glean any more information about it. They'd be heading into unknown territory, both entirely unprepared for and entirely unaware of whatever dangers lied ahead... but waiting out here wasn't going to help anything, and they didn't have time to sit around and twiddle their thumbs. It was clear they had no option but to head inside, and Kaiji was the first to do so, not seeing any point in delaying it.
"C'mon, we're gonna be unprepared whether we go in now or later. Might as well get outta the damn sun..."
Knowing they'd have to go in no matter what if they wanted to save the guild, and that they'd only be getting hotter out here, Kris and Ronnie followed closely behind him, and the three of them crossed the threshold into the dungeon proper.
Chapter 2: Ziggurat
The three sinners braved the den of confusion, clawing their way towards the light of redemption at the end of the tunnel. [Music - https://youtu.be/dy5VbtTUUjU ]
As the three Pokémon crossed the boundary of the dungeon by entering the tower, the darkness in the tunnel around them faded. Despite lacking any windows to the outside besides the entrance behind them, their surroundings were dimly lit by an unseen source, though the effect was far from uncommon among cave dungeons. The room around them was an empty rectangular chamber carved out of the same dark-brown rock that littered the desert outside - its walls were relatively smooth and lacking in any sort of remarkable features, and the rocky ground beneath their feet was sprinkled with sand. Though it was still uncomfortably warm inside of the dungeon, Kaiji and Kris much preferred the shade to the blistering sun they'd spent the past few hours melting under, and any drop in temperature compared to the sweltering heat outside was a welcome one.
Taking a look around, the only opening along any of the walls (besides the hole they just entered through) was a pathway on the opposite end of the room, leading deeper into the dungeon. With no alternative routes to consider, the group took the path ahead of them, walking single-file down the stone tunnel. The corridor maintained a slight curve to the left as they made their way forward, offering no branching paths, nor even any change in direction. As it finally opened up into the next room, Kaiji took a look around, once again spotting only one other path straight across from them, continuing the same way the previous path had brought them.
"Well, if the whole dungeon's gonna be this straightforward, maybe gettin' to the top won't be such a chore after all." Kaiji snickered, taking another quick glance around the room and spotting nothing of interest. With no items or enemy Pokémon to waste their time on, and only one way forward, the group simply kept trotting along, continuing in the direction the path was leading them.
Kris let out a sigh. "And here I was hoping this dungeon would be interesting enough to take our minds off of everything... This is just a dusty hallway!" he whined, unimpressed by their mindless stroll through the featureless halls of stone. His legs were aching, the stress of the guild's possible dissolution left a pit in his stomach, and bad memories of his past adventures raced through his head no matter how hard he tried to push them down. When he'd seen the dungeon appear out of thin air and create an illusory landscape around them, he'd hoped there'd be an amazing adventure lying ahead of them to distract him from the overwhelming feeling of dread looming over him... but with nothing in their way, he was left with nothing but his thoughts to occupy himself, trying his best to keep his worries at bay.
The next room was once again empty - totally devoid of items and Pokémon, and once more having only a single corridor extending from the opposite end. As Kaiji scanned the area ahead of them, his eyes caught some movement down the path across from them. Realizing that they'd have no choice but to engage with whatever was up ahead since there was no other way forward, Kaiji started to reconsider whether the straightforward, linear layout of the dungeon so far was actually a good thing after all...
Kaiji produced a coin out of thin air, flipping it absentmindedly as he concentrated on what their next move should be. "Alright, it hasn't noticed us yet..."
Kaiji squinted. "Looks like a Drilbur from here. We don't know how many'a these ferals we're gonna have to fight on the way up, and we don't have room to go around any of 'em, so we should play it safe and lure it out-"
Ronnie, who hadn't been listening to a single word Kaiji had been saying, ran forward at the Drilbur, screaming out at the top of his lungs in a pathetically-squeaky war cry. "AAAAAAᴬᴬᴬᴬᴬᴬᴬᴬᴬᴬᴬᴳᴳᴴᴴᴴ!"
The Drilbur quickly took notice of the Pokémon loudly charging at him, and with plenty of warning in advance of his well-telegraphed attack, it straightened out its body, starting to spin rapidly like a drill as it dove forward into the wall and out of the way of Ronnie's Tackle.
Kaiji threw the coin he'd been flipping at the back of Ronnie's head.
"YOU IDIOT! IT'S IN THE WALLS NOW!" the Meowth screamed in frustration, scrambling away from the walls of the room and looking around wildly for signs of the Drilbur resurfacing.
Hearing Kaiji's warning, Kris ran towards the center of the room, but he had no idea which way the Drilbur would be coming from. As his gaze shifted around the room frantically, he was caught off guard by rumbling in the ground beneath him instead, and the tremors underneath his feet didn't give him enough time to react before the Drilbur shot out from the floor beneath him, striking the fox right in the stomach with his claws.
Kris cried out in pain as the sudden attack hit him hard without warning, doubling over and falling to the ground.
Kaiji rushed at the Drilbur before it could disappear back into the ground, unsheathing his claws and swinging them wildly at the overgrown mole.
The Drilbur blocked Kaiji's attack with its own claws, before lunging forward at the Meowth, swiping back at him in retaliation. Kaiji barely managed deflect the Drilbur's larger claws with his own, and the two of them continued slashing desperately at each other, their claws colliding again and again in the air as they struggled to find a gap in the other's defenses. Both of them poured all of their energy into their attacks, but Kaiji barely managed to pull through as his opponent mistimed one of its swipes, leaving an opening for the feline to claw at its face.
The feral Drilbur recoiled, letting out a screech of pain as it brought its paw up to the right side of its face, covering the scratch marks the attack left across its cheek.
Ronnie finally charged back into the room, still bellowing out his pathetic battle cry as he charged at the Drilbur, hitting it square in the face with a clump of mud. The Drilbur turned its attention to the screaming camel, once more straightening out its body with its claws clasped together in front of its head, and starting to spin rapidly before shooting off towards Ronnie. Ronnie's scream of rage quickly turned into one of terror as the Ground-type barreled towards him he mud on his face managed to cloud his vision just enough that he narrowly missed the Numel, shooting right past him and drilling into the dungeon wall, disappearing into the
"AAᴬᴬᴬᴬᴬAGGHHH! I'M HIT!" Ronnie cried out in pain, wincing over a small scrape from the Drilbur's attack barely grazing him.
Kaiji rolled his eyes, running over to the screaming camel to smack him in the back of his head. "Knock it off and hurry to the middle'a the room, we're gonna bait it to come out there and ambush it." Kaiji explained, hurrying to the center of the room while Ronnie scrambled to join him. By the time they'd reached the middle of the room, Kris had managed to rise back to his feet, standing beside them.
Kaiji readied another coin in his hand. "Alright, the SECOND any'a you feel anything movin' under your feet, jump outta the way and attack the spot we're standin' in right now. Got it?" Kaiji looked to his two teammates, making sure they understood.
Kris and Ronnie both nodded, assuming battle-ready stances as they focused their attention on the ground beneath them. They didn't even get two seconds of peace before they had to act, leaping out of the way as they felt tremors under their feet.
Ronnie spun around as he landed a few feet away, firing off a Fire-Spin towards the area he'd just been standing in, trapping the Drilbur in the swirling vortex of flame. His spinning inferno still did little in the way of damage, but with the enemy locked in place, his teammates would have an easier time landing their own moves.
Kaiji followed up with Pay Day, the coin in his hand beginning to glow as he fired it at the trapped Drilbur, nailing it between the eyes. Kris' horn began glowing, and a wavy blade of dark energy extended from its tip as he rushed back towards Drilbur. The fox dove into the swirling flame and slashed at the trapped mole with Night Slash, tumbling out of the other side as his blade cleaved right through the feral's body, which vanished into a cloud of smoke.
Kaiji preemptively covered Ronnie's mouth as the Numel let out a victory screech, saving himself and his partner from the assault on their eardrums.
"LHHᴴᴴᴴᴴᴴDS FHHHGHᴴᴴᴴNG GHHᴴᴴH!"
Kaiji let out a sigh of relief as Ronnie's yelling finally subsided, and only then did he take his hand off of the Numel's mouth. The Meowth dug through his bag, pulling out an Oran Berry, and handed it to Kris - he'd taken most of the damage in that fight, and it really looked like he could use one.
The Absol scarfed down the berry, taking a moment to catch his breath as he recovered from the hit he'd taken earlier. After about a minute, he seemed to be doing better, flashing his partner a grateful smile. "Th-thanks, I really needed that. Hopefully the next enemy won't catch us by surprise..." Kris pouted. "...as long as someone doesn't go running off ahead and attracting their attention." The fox glared at Ronnie, sticking his tongue out at him in disapproval.
Ronnie refused to take Kris' comment sitting down. "Hey man, my Fire Spin is the reason your guys' attacks-"
Kaiji didn't bother to let him finish. "Shut up, Ronnie."
The Meowth cleared his throat before continuing.
"Anyways, as I was sayin' before Leeroy Jenkins over here got us into that fight, we've got a limited supply of items, and we don't know if we can count on bein' able to find what we need in the dungeon. We don't even know how many floors we're dealin' with here, so we gotta assume we need to conserve our supplies. That means no startin' unnecessary fights, and no runnin' off like a moron and causin' problems for the rest of us. Got it, Moronnie?"
Ronnie was indignant, more concerned with having yet another mocking nickname he hopes won't catch on than he was with anything Kaiji had actually said regarding the plan going forward. "H-hey man, my name is-"
Kaiji cleared his throat, baring his claws and raising an eyebrow at Ronnie challengingly. The Numel was instantly reminded of the defeat he suffered at the hands of the Meowth the first time they met, and the message he was sending was clear.
Ronnie gulped. "Y-... Y-yes, sir..." he replied meekly, reigned in by the unspoken threat of violence.
Kaiji smirked, retracting his claws. "That's more like it. Now, havin' to take our time to plan out fights in a dungeon that already looks long is definitely gonna eat into our deadline, so we don't have time to waste sittin' around."
Kaiji closed up his bag, starting off down the path ahead of them. Kris followed his lead, trailing close behind him with a renewed vigor. Ronnie let out a sigh, begrudgingly trudging along behind them both.
The next few rooms were uneventful - the paths continued to be unbranching and gradually increased their leftward curve as they walked, and every chamber that one opened up into had only a single other path continuing from the opposite end, heading in the same direction as the one before it. They hadn't come across much in the way of traps or items, finding only a single apple in one of the otherwise empty rooms of the dungeon.
Ronnie was quick to snatch up the fruit and eat it before either of his teammates could reach it. Despite the pangs of hunger that Kris and Kaiji felt from skipping breakfast that morning and from only having managed to eat a few berries on the trek to the dungeon, they seemed content to let him devour the only proper food they'd seen in hours right in front of them. After all, he wouldn't be able to annoy them with his dreadful voice if his mouth was too full to talk...
As they ventured deeper into the floor, the corridor's leftward curve grew even sharper, to the point the group was certain they'd just walked in a full circle. Kaiji willed his aching legs to keep walking as he held out hope that they'd reach the stairs soon, switching the shoulder his bag was slung across as his arm began to tire. "Alright, we've gotta be nearin' the end of this floor... I don't think there's any room left for this spiral to continue without it intersectin' with where we've already been, and I sure didn't see any branching paths earlier." The Meowth flipped a coin idly in his hand to distract himself from his sore legs, feeling a wave of relief wash over him as the path in front of him finally opened up into another room. He could see the stairs in the far corner - they'd finally made it.
Kaiji sighed with relief. "Alright, let's hope this room was a one-off and the next floor is-"
He was interrupted by the sound of Ronnie using Fire Spin.
Kaiji turned in the direction of the noise, expecting to see another Drilbur that'd suddenly surfaced from the ground to attack. As he laid his eyes upon Ronnie's actual foe, he couldn't help but let out an involuntary groan.
"Ronnie, what did I tell you about starting fights for no reason?"
Ronnie grunted as he tackled his opponent, sending it flying against the wall of the cave. "I'm not gonna let us get ambushed right before we reach the stairs!"
Kaiji rubbed his temple. "Ronnie, that's a DUNSPARCE! Those things are so damn weak, that my mind went and blanked it out when I saw it! Look, it's even trying to run away!" Kaiji pointed incredulously at the feral Dunsparce, a fearful expression painted on its face as it tried to drill into the wall behind it with its tail.
Ronnie huffed as he readied his next attack. "Well MAYBE it's retreating because of how strong- OW!"
He was interrupted by a coin hitting the back of his head.
Kaiji had already created another coin in his hand as he awaited Ronnie's response. "Knock it off and get to the damn stairs, 'cause the next time I have to do that WON'T be a warning shot."
He'd clearly lost his patience for the reckless Fire-type long ago, and even Kris was starting to feel uncomfortable from all of their fighting.
The Absol, stepped between them, trying to defuse the tension. "C-c'mon guys, we can argue after we're done... let's just focus on saving the guild first!" He gave a nervous smile, hoping they'd be able to put aside their differences for at least long enough to complete the mission.
Kaiji sighed. "Fine... but there's not gonna be an 'after' if he doesn't get his shit together." The feline dropped the coin from his hand, straightening out his bag and disappearing up the stairs.
Ronnie started to say something, but Kris didn't listen, not even waiting for him to finish before speaking. "This guild is all I have... So please, just try and follow directions for one single day, okay? I don't want to lose everyone again..."
Kris didn't wait for a response before disappearing up the stairs.
The two Dark-types arrived on the next floor, Ronnie appearing behind them soon after. Continuing forward along the only path leading out of the room they were in, they found that the initially tight curve of the hallway gradually straightened out as they went on - it seems like the spiraling layout of the previous floor was indeed indicative of the rest of the dungeon, with the only difference this time being that they seemed to be working outward from the center instead of inward from the outer edge.
The first couple of rooms were unremarkable and went without incident, but it was on the path leading out of the fourth room that Ronnie spoke up with an observation (or more accurately, a complaint):
"Maᵃᵃn, my legs hurt! It's like the floors getting even more tiring to walk on!" The Numel let out a long, drawn-out groan of annoyance.
It seems he wasn't the only one who felt annoyed right then, either.
"Ronnieeee..." Kris whined. "Could you please just be quiet for a-"
Kaiji held up his hand, halting them both. "No, no... I think he might actually be onta somethin'." He produced a coin, setting it on its side on the gorund. It began to slowly roll back the way they came...
Kris gasped. "Is... is the ground slanted? No wonder my legs are starting to hurt more..."
Kaiji stood back up, stroking his chin. "It's subtle, but it's definitely sloped upwards... and I'm pretty sure it wasn't like that on the last floor. If the trend keeps up, it might even be gettin' steeper as we go on..." The cat shook his head, sighing as he continued forward. His two teammates grumbled as they followed behind him, disheartened that the dungeon seemed to already be getting more annoying just two floors in.
As they neared the next room, Kaiji stopped ahead of them, holding his arm out to keep them from going any further.
Kris moved up until he was right behind Kaiji. "Eh? I-is there something ahead?" The fox tilted his head inquisitively, before craning his neck over Kaiji's shoulder to get a better look.
The Meowth hesitated, focusing his attention on the room ahead. "There's somethin' moving in there... a floating Pokémon. From its shape, it's gotta be either a Solrock or Baltoy." Kaiji squinted. "...no, too small for a Solrock."
He followed its movement with his eyes, before suddenly tensing up. "SHIT! It's spotted us! Go go go, don't let it corner us in here!"
Kaiji ran forward through the final stretch of the tunnel, with Kris running along right behind him and Ronnie stumbling along as fast as his short, clumsy legs could manage. The three of them burst into the room just as the Baltoy neared the mouth of the tunnel, only barely managing to make it out before it could block them in. Kaiji debated just ignoring the feral and booking it down the next corridor, but realized the Baltoy would probably follow them in, and would be fast enough to catch up to Ronnie - then they'd be forced to fight it anyway, which would be a lot harder in the narrow corridor.
Kaiji produced another coin. "Alright, if we don't fight this thing, it's just gonna cause us problems later, so let's just get it over with." The coin in his hand began to glow as he threw it at the floating Baltoy.
The feral Baltoy dodged the projectile gracefully, spinning and dancing through the air as the three Pokémon swatted at it from below. Kris' horn began to glow as he leapt at it, slashing at it in midair - only to find that it had just barely managed to dodge out of the way, and the fox fell back down to the ground, tumbling a few feet along the floor until he collided with the wall. Ronnie fired off a flurry of weak fire attacks, all of them missing their mark.
Kaiji leapt back as one of Ronnie's fireballs nearly hit him. "Hey, watch it! You're doin' more damage to us than the damn feral is!" Kaiji complained, stifling any further complaints towards Ronnie as he barely managed to dodge a volley of floating rocks launched by the Baltoy right after. "Look, just wait for it to get close and trap it with Fire Spin so we don't hafta chase it 'round the damn room, alright?" The Meowth threw another coin at the Baltoy as it floated within range, groaning as it dodged the projectile with a pirouette. "Damn it! Should've at least grazed his arm..." he cursed under his breath, readying another coin for the Baltoy's next approach.
Ronnie stood his ground, concentrating his energy and watching the Baltoy's movements diligently as he waited for it to approach close enough for him to land a hit with Fire Spin. "C'mon, c'mon... just a little closer..." he mumbled under his breath, starting to charge up the move.
He was so focused on tracking where it was moving, that he didn't notice it begin to glow as it twirled closer to him...
Kris noticed the Fire-type staying put out of the corner of his eye, and realized he'd have to take action himself.
"Look out!"
Kris leapt out in front of Ronnie just as the Baltoy fired Psybeam at him, taking the attack in his place.
Ronnie's attack fizzled out in his mouth as he let out a startled cry. "H-hey man, what's the big idea?! You messed up my attack just to block one that didn't do any damage!" he whined, staring at Kris in disbelief.
Kris groaned, throwing his head back in frustration at his ungratefulness. "Of course I didn't take damage from it! I'm a Dark-type, so I'm immune to Psychic moves!" The fox sighed. "You really are hopeless..."
As Kaiji missed yet another shot with Pay Day that he was sure should've been a direct hit, he screamed in anger, baring his claws as a scowl overtook his face. "ALRIGHT, I'VE HAD IT WITH THIS DAMN OVERGROWN DREIDEL! THE GLOVES ARE COMIN' OFF!"
He leapt at the Baltoy, swinging his claws at it in mid-air. Despite the short distance between them when Kaiji attacked, it managed to twirl out of the way effortlessly, and Kaiji crashed back down to the ground unceremoniously.
CLICK!
The feline felt the ground slightly depress under him, and before he could even look down to see what kind of trap he'd triggered, the world around him began to spin uncontrollably. He struggled to rise back to his feet, unsure whether he was even moving or standing still as his view of the room around him swirled and distorted.
He clenched his fist, spitting out another string of curses under his breath. "I hate this damn dungeon... but no amount of cheap tricks will be enough to dodge a sure hit!" The cat smirked, his fist beginning to glow with a shadowy energy as he leapt at the Baltoy's position in the air.
Well, he was pretty sure that's where the Baltoy was, at least - up until he crashed headfirst into the rocky wall, and was forced to reconsider just how much his senses of balance and direction had been thrown off by the Spin Trap. He rubbed his head as he finished listing off every English swear word he knew, starting to break into the expletives he'd learned from his guildmates native to this world as he turned his gaze back to the battle unfolding before him. Even with his vision swimming, he could make out his teammates staggering around erratically and attacking empty spots in the air as the Baltoy continued dancing elegantly through above their heads. Blurry white tiles on the ground provided him his explanation - it seems he wasn't the only one who'd triggered one of the Spin Traps.
...this was going to be a long fight.
The battle only grew more chaotic as it continued. For several more minutes, the three guildmembers stumbled around as they struggled to keep track of the Baltoy - or even each other. When their moves didn't send them crashing into the wall - or didn't just miss altogether - they often landed on each other, and numerous arguments broke out between them as they took the brunt of their teammates' attacks.
The Baltoy, meanwhile, never got hit even once - yet at the same time, the three guildmembers always seemed to just barely manage to dodge its moves. It felt like they were making zero progress as they stumbled about and swatted at the air, and the damage they took from friendly fire along with the recoil from occasionally hitting the wall was really starting to add up.
Finally, as Kaiji managed to shake off the Confusion, he once again leapt at the Baltoy, aiming his Feint Attack right at its center mass. Finally, after all of the hits the Baltoy evaded effortlessly, all of the collateral damage, and all of the time they wasted, Kaiji finally scored a direct hit on the elusive feral.
His fist went right through it as if it wasn't even there.
Kaiji's eyes widened as he crashed back down to the ground, much like every other failed attempt of his to hit the Baltoy. "W-what the hell?! It... it isn't even real!" Kaiji stood up, dusting himself off in disbelief. He pulled out another coin and threw it at the Baltoy, watching as it passed right through its target. This whole time, he actually hadn't been missing at all... because there was never a target to hit.
Kaiji raked his claws down the side of his face. "Are you fuckin' SERIOUS?!"
"KAIJI!" Kris scolded, as he started to shake off the effects of his Confusion.
Kaiji rolled his eyes. "Oh please, just a minute ago you were swearin' like a damn sailor." He flicked a coin at his partner.
Kris blushed. "That never happened! I... I don't swear!"
Ronnie laughed. "Yeah man, maybe you'd be able to fool us if you didn't use a few human swear words, too!"
Kris pouted, turning his head away. "Fuck..." he muttered under his breath, before pausing as he noticed something out of the corner of his eye.
"Hey... it looks like we missed a couple of items!" He made his way over to a spot near the wall where two objects were nestled. Some sort of sphere lied to the left - probably some variety of Wonder Orb - and a bundle of fabric was crumpled up on the right. A thin layer of dust covered each of them - likely kicked up during the chaotic fight against the mirage Baltoy, which still danced harmlessly above them, firing off illusory moves to no effect.
Kris moved closer to the items, the dim lighting of the cave only further compounding the difficulty of identifying what exactly they were under all of the dust. He started wiping off the sphere with his paw, groaning in disappointment as the amber-colored orb underneath was revealed. "Aww, it's just a Rollcall Orb!" The Absol sighed, nudging it to the side. "It's totally useless... it's not like we can even get split up in here when there's only one path!"
Kaiji shook his head in disagreement as he walked over to join his partner. "No such thing as a useless item. We don't have many items to work with in here, and who knows how much harder this damn place is gonna get..."
Kris smirked. "Alright! You can carry it, then~"
Kaiji sighed. He was already tired enough from what he was already carrying, but Kris probably wasn't any better off, and he knew the fox would probably just sneak it out of his bag when nobody was looking if he was forced to carry it. He could just force Ronnie to take it... but on second thought, letting that dimwit look after an item that could teleport them all at a moment's notice might not be the best idea after all. "Fine," Kaiji grumbled, grabbing the orb and dusting it off before sticking it in his bag.
Meanwhile, Kris started dusting off the other item to get a better look. The dirty rag next to the Rollcall Orb started to show its violet color as the Absol shook off the dust, and he could make out the emblem of a Persim Berry emblazoned on the front. It was a Persim Band! Its ability to prevent Confusion would definitely come in handy if they ran into any more of those Spin Traps. On the other hand...
"It... looks pretty tacky..." Kris whined, shuddering as he tried to imagine himself wearing the hideous striped scarf.
Kaiji let out a long, drawn-out sigh as he snatched the dusty scarf off of the ground. "I swear, the heat's scrambled your damn minds today... You're lucky it makes the most sense for the guy in front to be the minesweeper, anyway." The Meowth shook his head, tightening the scarf around his neck. "How's it look?"
Kris cringed. "Awful."
"Good." Kaiji sprinkled a bit more dust on the scarf to cover up the fuchsia stripe running down it center. "I'm tired a'you tryin' to make me wear cutesy garbage... If even you think this one looks like crap, at least it means I ain't lookin' like a damn fairy."
Kris pouted. "Hmph... I'm just saying, you might get more customers if you look presentable!"
Kaiji just rolled his eyes as he started making for the tunnel out of the room. "Agree to disagree." He flicked a coin at Ronnie's forehead - the squeaky-voiced teen had actually been talking about something-or-another this entire time, but by this point Kaiji had learned to tune out the sound of the Numel's voice for the sake of his own sanity. "C'mon Ronnie, we're back on the road."
The trio made their way down the next path, and as they entered the next room, Kaiji's eyes landed on a familiar sight - another Baltoy dancing about the room as it floated through the air.
"Nope. Not fallin' for this shit again." started walking through the room, entirely disregarding the airborne enemy. "C'mon guys, just ignore it. We're not goin' through that crap a second time..."
The three of them proceeded through the room, making their way towards the next corridor without paying any mind to the Baltoy moving gracefully through the air above them. Ronnie smirked as he passed it. "Ha! You can't fool me this time, you stupid-"
Ronnie paused as the ground beneath him began to rumble.
The ground underneath Ronnie began to crack as an explosion of light erupted from beneath him, knocking him over from the force of the blast and nearly knocking him out altogether.
"AAᴬᴬᴬᴬGH! THIS ONE'S REAL! THIS ONE'S REᴱᴱᴬL!" he screamed out, flailing his legs wildly as he struggled to get back up.
"Shit!" Kaiji exclaimed, as he and Kris turned back to rush at the Baltoy.
Kris' broken horn began to glow, and a wavy, unstable blade of energy as dark as the night sky erupted from the jagged upper edge where the horn terminated. He ran forward, leaping at the Baltoy, and swinging his head sharply to the left as he collided with the Pokémon midair. Unfortunately, even after all these months, the fox still hadn't gotten used to the way his now-lighter horn and its blade of weightless energy travelled through the air. Slight inaccuracies in his technique, compounded by the erratic, unpredictable movement of his smaller target, caused his attack to miss its mark, barely grazing the Baltoy's arm as they toppled to the ground.
Kaiji quickly ran in to support his partner, hitting the Baltoy in its center mass with his clenched fist just as the earthen Pokémon rose back up from the ground. The Baltoy retaliated with Sand Tomb, launching a swirling blast of sand at the Meowth. The attack hit Kaiji in the chest, and he found himself trapped in place as the vortex of sand continued whirling violently around him.
Ronnie, who'd managed to get back up and recompose himself, fired a swirling inferno at the Baltoy, hitting it from behind and managing to trap it with Fire Spin much the same way it had done to Kaiji. Despite being trapped a few feet away from his target, Kaiji fired another coin through the vortex of sand surrounding him, nailing his stationary target in the head. Finally, Kris once again finished off the enemy with Night Slash, leaping into the fiery whirlwind to bisect the Baltoy with a blade of darkness extending from his horn - though this time, he at least managed to stick the landing on the other side.
After a few seconds, the vortex of sand enveloping Kaiji started to fade, now that it no longer had the energy of the Baltoy to sustain it. Ronnie's Fire Spin dissipated all at once as he stopped maintaining the move, and the three Pokémon breathed a collective sigh of relief as they finally found another moment of peace. Kaiji dug through their supplies, pulling out a much-needed Oran Berry for each of them. All three of them had taken considerable damage across the last two fights, and they were all exhausted from walking nonstop after having arrived in the desert that morning. The three Pokémon sat there in silence for a few minutes, just catching their breaths and resting their aching legs after scarfing down their berries and waiting for the effects to kick in.
Finally, Kaiji broke the silence. "Alright... this dungeon sucks. Let's just hurry up and get the hell outta here, 'cause after this bullshit I'm already startin' to miss the trek through the damn desert outside." Kaiji looked to his two teammates, and although they were just as exhausted as him, they both gave reluctant nods of agreement. Kaiji stood up, stretching his arms and readjusting his bag, as the three tired Pokémon rose back to their feet and pressed on.
The rest of the floor was uneventful. In the next room, they found a single apple, and Kaiji split it with Kris, leaving none for Ronnie on account of his earlier greed. Although the taste was nothing special, the moist flesh of the fruit felt like a slice of heaven to the two parched Pokémon - they had already run out of water earlier, so juice from the berries and fruit they ate was the best they could manage. As they continued making their way through the slowly-spiraling halls of the floor, they were fortunate to encounter no further resistance - the rooms ahead were often dotted with Spin Traps, but with Kaiji in the lead, his Persim Band let him trigger them without suffering their effects, and once the traps were revealed, his teammates could simply go around them. Finally, they reached the room at the end of the floor, and after quickly determining that the already-quite-unthreatening Dunsparce guarding the stairs was, in fact, a mirage, they proceeded onwards to the next floor.
The team once again found themselves in a nondescript, dimly-lit chamber carved into the dull brown stone that comprised the dungeon. And once again, it offered only a single corridor leading further into the floor.
Kaiji took a look around the room - there were no items, no enemy Pokémon, and no alternate paths to choose between. He sighed, taking the only choice he was given and leading the group through the single tunnel ahead of them. Up until now, he was holding out hope that the linear, unbranching paths of the previous two floors had just been a temporary gimmick or a freak coincidence, but as they came out into the next room without passing any intersecting paths, and once again found only a single path leading out of the room on the other end.
The disadvantages of the linear dungeon structure began to make themselves apparent as they pressed on - as long as the stairs continued to generate at the opposite end of the spiral than the one they spawned on, they'd be forced to walk through the entire floor every single time. With no more than a single way forward in any given room, they had no hope of being lucky and managing to find the staircase early by picking a shortcut - they were always forced into the longest path possible with no other options.
As they continued their silent trek through the featureless stone halls, Kaiji began to envy the floating Baltoy they'd fought earlier. The incline on this floor's paths was a bit steeper than the one on the previous floor, and the feline felt like his legs were going to fall off from all of this walking. He could only assume the other two felt the same, though they no longer voiced their complaints. It felt like a miracle that the halls no longer echoed with the sound of Ronnie complaining loudly about their situation, though Kaiji was pretty sure it was only because he'd run out of breath sometime on the last floor.
Kaiji entered the next room ahead of his teammates, immediately spotting three items lying on the ground in the center of the room. Taking a step closer and squinting, he could make them out a bit more clearly. Sandwiched between two blue seeds was some sort of pink berry - not unlike the one emblazoned on the scarf he was wearing.
As his teammates filed into the room behind him, Kaiji muttered his thoughts to himself under his breath. "Alright, looks like we got ourselves a Persim Berry, and two..."
He approached the items to get a better look, still unsure about the identities of the seeds. As he put his foot down just a couple feet from the cluster of items, he felt the ground underneath him sink down...
CLICK!
"G- gaaaaaaah!
With all of his attention on the items in front of him, Kaiji was caught off guard by the Spin Trap appearing beneath him. His eyes widened and his tail stood on end as he let out a high-pitched, startled cry, jumping back onto the tile beside him.
CLICK!
Kaiji jumped back in surprise a second time as the tile he landed on revealed an identical trap, this time landing on solid ground. "Damn... D-damn jumpscare traps..." he panted, a hint of anxiety audible in his voice as his phony accent wavered momentarily.
To give Kris credit, he managed to hold back his giggling for an entire two seconds before breaking out into laughter at his partner's startled outburst. "Pfft... th-that was- heheh that was adorable!" Kris wheezed, struggling to get his words out through the laughter. "Do it again, Kaiji!"
Ronnie did a better job at holding in his laughter, if only out of genuine fear of what Kaiji's response would be if he heard the Numel mocking him.
One look at Ronnie's face, with his eyes bulging and his cheeks puffed out and his mouth contorted into a strained smile, was all it took to send Kris into a second fit of laughter. The fox doubled over as he laughed at the Fire-type's terrible poker face, clutching his stomach with his forepaws as he genuinely struggled to breathe. This behavior only made it harder for Ronnie to contain his own laughter, smoke starting to emit from the opening in the hump on his back.
Kaiji sighed, electing to hold his tongue and let the other two enjoy their momentary amusement while it lasted. This dungeon had been sucking the life out of them at an astonishing rate, and anything that brought them a bit of laughter was a welcome change of pace - even if the laughter was at his expense, he was willing to put up with it.
...Unless Ronnie started laughing. Then he'd kill him.
The Meowth approached the items once again, walking over the Spin Traps he'd already triggered - the Persim Scarf left him immune to the effects of the Confusion-inducing traps, but they still remained armed even after he stepped on them. He reached down to pick up one of the seeds, taking the chance to get a proper look at it now that there was nothing to distract him. It was a deep, vibrant blue, pointed in shape, and encircled by a light-green vine around its middle. Kaiji was never too familiar with the actual physical appearances of any of the various Seeds and Wonder Orbs found in dungeons... When he was still a human, he'd spent most of his time with the Mystery Dungeon series back when they were all just represented with the same couple of generic sprites. However, from his experience in the handful of dungeons he'd been through since waking up in this world, he was able to recognize it - it was a Warp Seed.
Kaiji started to put it in his bag, but he paused suddenly as a thought occurred to him. It was a Warp Seed... He looked down at the trap beneath his feet, and the identical trap beside it, and then finally at the items that had been lying in front of it, and he started to piece together a picture in his mind... The cat stood up straight, starting to walk in a circle around the items.
CLICK!
CLICK!
CLICK!
CLICK!
CLICK!
CLICK!
Six more Spin Traps revealed themselves, for a total of eight - one on every tile surrounding the cluster of items.
Kaiji's intuition had been correct - these weren't just basic Traps that had generated randomly in the dungeon with no rhyme or reason; together with the items, the Spin Traps actually comprised a larger trap meant to totally disorient whoever fell for it.
It went like this:
The explorer would spot the items in the middle of the room, and would naturally start heading towards them to pick them up. With a Spin Trap on every tile surrounding the items, they'd inevitably trigger one no matter which direction they approached from, and would become Confused. Conveniently, they'd have a Persim Berry within arm's reach to cure the status condition - but with their vision spinning, there was a 2/3 chance that they'd grab one of the two Warp Seeds instead and not even notice. Once they bit down on the seed, it'd be too late, and they'd end up in another part of the floor. They'd be totally lost, and with every room being identical, they'd have to pick a direction at random and hope it led them to the stairs. With every room being arranged linearly along a single path, they wouldn't have any way of finding out whether they made the right choice until they reached one of the two dead ends - and if they ended up going the wrong way at first, they might end up mistakenly running through the whole set of rooms twice before getting to the stairs.
Kaiji picked up the items, placing all three of them inside of his bag. He stretched his arms and took another moment to recompose himself before heading for the path forward again. He motioned for Kris and Ronnie - who'd both been busy goofing off - to follow. "Stay alert. This dungeon might not be so borin' after all... and I don't mean that in a good way."
The group started walking again, and as the next couple of rooms proceeded without incident, Kaiji got to thinking...
They'd been briefed earlier that morning that the Mystery Dungeons they were being sent to would be all kinds of chaotic due to the rifts' effects, and warned of the incredible danger that said dungeons would hold as a result. At the time, Kaiji had imagined massive labyrinth-like layouts, hordes of feral Pokémon, devastating traps, and all sorts of dimensional weirdness that normal Mystery Dungeons usually kept to a minimum. Even now, he wondered if any of the other teams were currently facing a gauntlet like that on their missions...
This dungeon, however, was anything but a gauntlet. No single challenge, whether it was a trap or a feral dungeonmon, posed much threat to them on its own... Everything so far had been the opposite of what he'd expected. The long, tedious layout of each floor... The smooth, featureless walls that made every room look the same, turning your mind to mush as it starts to feel like you haven't been moving at all... The incline of the halls getting gradually steeper with each floor, slowly tiring out their legs... The weak ferals sprinkled sporadically throughout, which aren't enough to defeat you on their own, but whose damage adds up over time because you have no option to go around them, and barely any items lying around to heal up... This dungeon wasn't a gauntlet at all. No... it was a war of attrition, designed to wear you down little by little, slowly whittling you down with a thousand little unavoidable cuts.
Kaiji was snapped out of his thoughts as his eyes scanned the next room, his attention immediately grabbed by one detail in particular. He halted his movements, putting his hand behind him and gesturing for his teammates to stop as well. "Shhh.... There's an Excadrill ahead," he whispered. "It hasn't seen us yet, so we'll-"
Ronnie didn't seem to get the memo.
"UHH, WHICH ONE WAS EXCADRILL AGAIN?"
His grating voice echoed through the otherwise-silent cave, and the Excadrill's head instantly snapped in the group's direction.
Kaiji's eyed widened as the Excadrill launched himself forward with an incredible burst of energy, barreling towards the group at breakneck speed. "Shitshitshitshitshitshitshit!"
The Meowth's initial plan was to run ahead and get into the wide open room before the Excadrill could close the distance and get them pinned in the tunnel, but he hadn't anticipated the incredible speed of its attack, and the three of them were left with no time to do anything but brace for impact. Kaiji closed his eyes, preparing to be knocked out...
...
...
Kaiji opened his eyes. The Excadrill charging at them had disappeared.
No, scratch that... it had passed right through them.
"Another... Another damn illusion... haha..." Kaiji sighed with relief, his heart racing at a mile per minute. The three adventurers needed a minute to regain their composure after the feral had nearly given them all heart attacks, sharing a bout of nervous laughter before continuing forward.
The remaining rooms in the floor went by smoothly; besides the occasional Spin Trap revealing itself under Kaiji's feet, the only other presence in any of the chambers ahead of them was a single stack of 49 Poké... and since Kaiji could produce that much with a single attack, nobody in the group even bothered to pick up the paltry sum of coins.
After many more minutes of uninterrupted walking, the team finally arrived in the room housing the staircase. Unfortunately, however, they weren't the only ones there... The stairs were guarded by a feral Sandaconda, and if it wasn't a mirage like the Excadrill from earlier, it'd be the first fully-evolved dungeon Pokémon they'd have to fight. With nowhere else to go but towards it, Kaiji pulled out another coin, cautiously stepping forward into the room. He was careful not to make a sound as he inched closer to the glossy-eyed feral, before silently throwing the coin at its head as he got within range.
THWACK!
FSSSSHHHHHHHH!
As Kaiji's coin made contact with the coiled-up snake Pokémon, its ability came into effect, and sand began to spray forcefully out of its large nostrils, filling the air and whipping up a Sandstorm.
Looks like this one was the real deal... Maybe that hadn't been such a good idea after all.
"Oh well, guess my plans can't all be winners." Kaiji shrugged, unsheathing his claws as the team prepared for battle.
"Look, we don't hafta beat this guy... right now he's between us and the stairs, but if we can lure him away, we'll just make a run for it since he can't follow us to the next floor. Got it?" The Meowth glanced back at his teammates, who both nodded.
Kaiji was the first to rush towards the Sandaconda, dashing forward against the whirling sandstorm and producing another coin in his hand, nailing the snake right in the forehead.
Ronnie charged forward behind him, building up a blast of fire in his mouth before launching it forward at the beast!
...Of course, he didn't have very good aim from this distance, but he tried his best..?
The Sandaconda stood its ground, refusing to move even as Kaiji pelted it with another coin. It looks like the plan to lure it away wasn't going to work after all, and they'd be forced to take it out... Kaiji prepared to slash at the feral serpent with his claws, but just as he got close enough to strike, the coiled-up snake lurched forward, ramming its head into the Meowth's chest and launching him back several meters. Kaiji felt the wind knocked out of him as he tumbled back halfway across the room, his head spinning and knees shaking as he staggered back up to his feet. He felt dazed for several moments, unable to summon the energy to use another move - it must've been an effect of the attack he'd been hit with.
"Damn it," he muttered under his breath, before advancing back towards the feral with his claws drawn.
Meanwhile, both Kris and Ronnie had managed to reach the Sandaconda. Kris slashed at it with his horn and Ronnie blasted it with fire, but the serpent proved sturdier than their previous foes - it'd take a lot more than that to defeat it. As the sand streaming through the air began to batter Kris and Kaiji, the Sandaconda began to concentrate, and the ground beneath it began to tremor. The tremors quickly grew into violent quaking that engulfed the entire room, damaging all three of the guildmons and knocking them off their feet. Kaiji struggled to regain his footing as the ground beneath him shook, having to resort to running on all fours as he scrambled back towards his opponent. He readied another coin as the shaking started to die down, rising back up to his feet and preparing to attack. As he ran forwards, however, he quickly realized he was moving significantly slower than he was before. He looked down, expecting to find that he was stuck on something, or that there was something wrong with the floor, but if anything, the ground seemed even smoother than before... His reduced speed must've been an effect of the Sandaconda's attack.
Kaiji thought aloud as he looked back up towards his target. "Was that Bulldoze? I coulda sworn it was a full-on Earthqua-"
The Meowth dropped his coin. Through the streaming sand, he could make out Kris and Kaiji backing away from the Sandaconda up ahead as it began to spin rapidly, charging up some sort of move. It was pointed right at him.
"Shitshitshitshit..." Kaiji scrambled to open up his bag and dug through it desperately as the Sandaconda started spinning faster and faster.]
"C'mon, c'mon..."
Kaiji dug past the rolled-up map that had gotten them to the dungeon, feeling his way around the orb he'd picked up on the last floor, and snaking his hand under his empty water canteen as his fingers finally found what they'd been looking for - one of the Warp Seeds he'd found earlier. Kaiji quickly pulled it out, throwing it forward just as the Sandaconda shot towards him, and flinching reflexively at the sight of the feral's Drill Run zooming towards his face, bracing for impact.
...
When Kaiji opened his eyes again, the Sandaconda had vanished, and the sandstorm had started to dissipate. He wasn't sure how far the snake had been warped, but a quick look around told him that it wasn't anywhere in the room anymore, and that was good enough for him. The Meowth breathed a sigh of relief, his heart still pounding.
"Aww, where'd it go?" Kris whined, looking around for any signs of his missing opponent. "I totally could've taken it! ...err, once it stopped spinning..."
Ronnie spat out the fireball he'd built up in his mouth, blasting it at the wall in frustration. "C'mon, maᵃᵃn! I was tᵒtally gonna turn him into, like, a flaᵃme tornᵃdo!"
Kaiji shook his head. "Easy to say when you guys are standin' on the other end of his attacks. Maybe we could take a Pokémon like that by itself, but this ain't the first or last battle like this we're gonna face in here, and we don't know how long we gotta keep this up for." The Meowth started trudging his way back to the far end of the room to join the other two, his movements still slowed as he waited for the effects of the Sandaconda's attack to wear off.
Kris sighed. "I guess you're right... but it's so boring in here! The walls and the halls and the floor are the exact same color, and the dim light hurts my eyes, and we keep seeing the same empty rooms over and over again..." The Absol pouted. "I just want something to do!" he whined.
Kaiji finally caught up to his two teammates. "That's the point. The windin' floor layout, the repeatin' empty rooms, the mirage Pokémon trickin' us, the smallfry they only throw at us one at a time... this dungeon ain't tryin' to hit us all at once with everything it's got. It's wearin' us down, little by little, tirin' us out and messin' with our heads... until eventually, even somethin' like that Sandaconda will be able ta take us out easy."
Kaiji glanced at his two teammates, taking a quick look at the damage they'd taken. They were all a little scuffed up, but the Sandaconda had only gotten one or two hits on each of them, and they were all fit to continue. He started moving towards the stairs, waving for them to follow.
"I say, if this dungeon's gonna be cheap with us?" Kaiji put one foot on the staircase, looking back at his partner. "Then there ain't any shame in cheating at whatever it throws our way."
The next few floors gradually became easier than the first three, but not because the dungeon was throwing them a bone - the halls only became steeper with every floor they advanced, and the enemies became more frequent, with even fewer rooms passing between each encounter as they made their way further into the dungeon. On the other hand, the dungeon wasn't the only thing getting stronger...
As the three explorers faced the same few kinds of Pokémon over and over, they started to get better each time, refining their strategies more and more until they fighting each species down to a science. They figured out which Pokémon they could fight reliably without taking damage, the quickest ways to identify mirage Pokémon, what rooms were most likely to have traps... Even as the dungeon ramped up in difficulty, they exerted themselves less and less with each encounter, and with the occasional dungeon apple restoring a bit of their energy, they weren't going to be worn down any time soon. Even the ways in which the dungeon changed, like the spiral-shaped layout flipping every other floor, or the incline gradually getting steeper, became predictable. If this dungeon really was meant to be a war of attrition... it was a war they were starting to win.
They thought they'd figured out everything this dungeon had to throw at them...
But nothing lasts forever.
Kaiji's ears twitched as he came out on the next floor - he could hear the wind howling around him. He was forced to squint as he was hit by the late-afternoon sun shining in his eyes... was he finally outside?
As his eyes adjusted to the sudden increase in light, he trudged over to the side of the path he was standing on, peering over the edge.
"That's a long way down..."
Chapter 3: Firmament
Coming Soon