Two Pokèmon, a Vulpix and a Shinx, carefully walked through the ruins of the temple, breathing in the old and stagnant air. The billowing sands from outside hadn’t managed to reach this part of the interior – many other areas couldn’t make the same claim – and the heat Team Keystone had faced on their trek to the ancient temple had been replaced by the surprisingly cool interior.
No sunlight shone through, and the hallway they walked through was illuminated by various fires. How they managed to remain lit after all this time, Nick and Amelia had no clue as to why.
They had entered the dungeon looking for an artifact and a fight; after careful searching, thankfully only the former had appeared, leaving the lit torches a mystery.
This is odd, thought Nick as he walked beside his partner through the hallway, the easily-acquired artifact stowed away in his right saddlebag. The artifact has recovered without a hitch and there’s no Pokémon around.
He broke from his thoughts and spoke to Amelia, who was looking around them with caution, in a bit of disbelief that their mission had gone so easily. “Amelia, there’s been no Pokémon you’ve seen, right?”
“Yeah, and I can’t understand why. Wouldn’t this place be just perfect for Pokémon to take shelter from the heat outside?”
“That is precisely what I am thinking. Yet, it’s empty.”
Amelia flashed a smile at her partner, her striped scarf tossing a bit as she let out a grin. “Well, then it just meant another fun exploration for us!”
A thought appeared in Nick’s mind. “Unless…”
Amelia’s smile almost immediately shifted into a concerned frown. “Unless what, Nick?”
“Well, unless a bigger ‘mon scared them all away. But there’s no reason as to why any guardian of the artifact wouldn’t be at the room itself.”
Amelia looked at the lit flames and wondered again how these fires remained lit.
She got her answer as Team Keystone turned the corner.
Standing before them, with a fist enveloped in flame reigniting an extinguished torch on the wall, was a towering Golurk.
The two froze.
“L-lets just back out quietly,” whispered Nick. Amelia quietly nodded, and the two began to backpedal slowly, refusing to take their eyes off of the Golurk that was more focused on maintaining the torches than its surroundings.
CLICK!
The entrance they had come from was almost instantly sealed as a massive stone fell with an earth-shattering crash, enough to bring some loose sand down around them.
Nick and Amelia looked down at what made the noise; Amelia had stepped onto a pressure plate. She smiled at Nick sheepishly.
“Whoops~!”
They together then looked at the Golurk, hoping that its lack of ears made it deaf.
Unfortunately, the trap was so loud it could wake the dead, and they found the Golurk staring right at them. It let out a ghastly, whirring metallic sound.
”WWHhoooo?”
“Oh, well maybe it’s just looking at us,” said Amelia.
It took a slow step, sending bits of sand falling from the ceiling.
”RRAaii-DDEerrss?”
“Amelia…” started Nick.
“Maybe it’s going to help us remove the rock!”
Another step, sending bits of sand falling from the ceiling. The fire on its right hand remained ignited.
”RRAaii-DDEerrss.”
“Amelia!” Nick exclaimed.
“Don’t assume bad things all the time, Nick!”
Another lumbering step. A ghastly aura enveloped its left fist and the screech turned into a howl.
”RRAaii-DDEerrss!”
Nick just let out a glance at Amelia upon seeing and hearing this.
“Okay, okay, it’s definitely going to attack us,” Amelia said, a charge of static electricity beginning to emanate from her. “Nick, get behind me; let’s go to battle!”
The Golurk, seeing Amelia and Nick get into a battle stance, turned its slow steps into a surprisingly fast dash.
As Amelia, feeling electric and full of boundless energy, started to concentrate that onto her fangs, loose sparks illuminating the passageway, Nick focused on himself.
He concentrated on the fire within him, the roaring flame he had felt strongly since he first arrived. He modeled it, shaped it, and the roaring flame within him quieted for just a moment. Then the very same energy appeared beside him: a ball of fire – a will-o-wisp – coalesced out of thin air. Nick narrowed his eyes at the charging Golurk and focused on sending the will-o-wisp there.
The will-o-wisp obeyed, and it flew down the hallway, passing over Amelia and striking the Golurk. It didn’t burst into a massive fireball, but instead wrapped itself around the Golurk, the thin layer of fire dancing on it slowly chipping away at its health and throwing it just slightly off balance.
For Amelia, this was enough. She changed her dash into a gallant leap and – as the Golurk slammed its right first down right where Amelia had been, the intense fires turning the sand into glass – she chomped down on the Golurk, the bite accompanied by the sound of a thunderclap.
The Golurk was unphased, and Amelia and Nick both remembered their types, and that of the Golurk.
This… is going to be a very tough battle, Nick thought, stowing away the fires he had been building up and rapidly shifting them into a jumbled assortment of energy. Confuse ray should do the trick.
Focusing again on the Golurk, he shot a beam of chaotic energy at the Golurk, who was too busy trying to hit Amelia and falling as she danced around his punches.
The beam struck the Golurk and the white lights that emanated from it began to glow a wild assortment of colors.
“Amelia, now’s your chance!” shouted Nick, taking a moment to regather his energy after two taxing attacks.
Amelia nodded and returned focus on the Golurk, who seemed to be having difficulty focusing on her. Changing tactics, she focused on the shadows around her, and they seemed to gather in her fangs as she dodged yet another attack, the ghastly force emanating from it barely missing.
She lunged at the arm pressed against the floor and bit with immense force, the surrounding shadows seemingly being soaked into the bite.
The Golurk let out a strange, uninterpretable noise and punched where Amelia had been right before she moved out of the way, the fiery fist hitting the ghastly one still pressed against the ground.
This continued; Amelia would gather shadows in her jaw and bite, remaining attached as long as possible to let the shadows sink into the automaton. The Golurk would then strike, and Amelia would deftly dodge out of the way, making the behemoth use its own attacks against itself.
This happened once more, then again, the attacks slowly sapping the Golurk’s strength as the dancing lights dimmed.
Suddenly, Nick noticed the confused lights of the Golurk returned to a pale white, and seemed to burn brighter than ever before.
“Amelia! Watch out!” he exclaimed, but it was too late.
Amelia, shadow now pouring out of her mouth went to take a bite that could be the felling blow, but missed. Amelia opened her eyes to see how she had missed and where the Golurk would attack next.
She saw nothing.
Amelia looked back to her partner who seemed equally confused and shouted, “It just disappeared!”
Disappeared? Did it escape? she wondered.
Her answer was met by the Golurk reappearing beside Nick in a shimmer of ghastly energy that rapidly dissipated from everywhere but its left fist. “Nick-!”
Nick moved enough to soften the blow, but not enough to dodge it outright.
The lone guardian of the artifact, powerful enough to drive away all other Pokémon in the scorched desert above from seeking shelter, hit like a battering ram.
The attack, embroiled in an energy of dread, flung Nick against the wall of the dungeon, the torches nearby being extinguished in a puff of smoke.
The Golurk took a step towards Nick, who struggled to pick himself up but managed to get on all four paws.
“You… you get away from him!” Amelia said with a growl, electric energy shooting from her, the scent of the air turning into that of scorched ozone. She wildly charged at the Golurk seeking to protect her companion.
The Golurk shifted its attention away from Nick and towards Amelia, its head moving almost robotically.
The flame and otherworldly energy dissipated from both its hands, and it raised them above itself towards the sky.
”RRRRAAAIIiii-DDDEEERrrss!” the Golurk howled.
It slammed both fists into the ground, and a bright orange energy began to pour through the cracks around it.
Amelia lept into the air, electric energy practically pouring out of her body.
Exactly as the Golurk had anticipated.
With a burst of an overwhelming orange light, the ground erupted not where she was, but right between her and the Golurk.
It slammed into her throwing her against the roof of the temple before another burst threw her to the ground, her body making a harrowing thud cushioned only by the loose sand that had fallen from the fight.
She was on the floor, too exhausted to even grab an Oran berry. The Golurk took a step towards its defeated foe.
She only managed to open her eyes to Nick, who himself was barely standing. “You can do it, Nick,” her eyes seemed to say.
The fire within the injured Vulpix Nick was no more. No longer was it a raging flame.
It had become an inferno of pure fury.
The energy was almost overwhelming, bubbling up out of him.
He concentrated on the ire he felt, the anger, the pain, and once again narrowed his eyes at the Golurk approaching Amelia.
Draw its attention.
Another will-o-wisp, almost instantly and of its own accord, appeared and flung itself at the Golurk. It struck, the fire that the Golurk was wreathed in intensifying and drawing its attention.
It looked at Nick, paused for a fraction of a second, then vanished.
Nick knew what was coming. He closed his eyes and let the overwhelming inferno guide him, speak to him. The roaring firestorm didn’t coalesce into a will-o-wisp, or a pillar of fire; both would be ineffective. A confuse ray wouldn’t halt the imminent attack.
The inferno burning within crept into Nick’s mind, transforming into a psychic energy of extreme potency. Extrasensory. Nick held onto the feeling, waiting for what felt like an eternity as the the energy within him raged to be let out.
NOW he thought.
He opened his eyes and looked straight into the fist that had reappeared from thin air and was an instant away from contact, letting loose the wave of energy, letting it crash against the fist head-on.
The Golurk, despite the momentum propelling it forward to land the killing blow against Nick, froze as the psychic energy – an intense admixture of purple and pink that lit up the underground passageway, shining brighter than the white light of Golurk and the torches still alight – met the fist and enveloped it before spreading across the Golurk, wreathing it in psionic light before seemingly tearing away at it as its mind was overwhelmed by a cacophony of senses.
It withdrew its fist and staggered back, holding both hands to its head as it tried to recover from the damage inflicted on it.
Nick, taking a single step towards the Golurk, doubled his attack, and the Golurk let out another screech as the energy seemed to tear away at its very inner mind, then fell backwards and collapsed against the wall.
Nick, exhausted, watched as the Golurk’s lights faded away and its titanic body faded away into a shimmer of light and smoke alike.
He then turned his attention to Amelia, still on the floor, and rushed to her.
“Amelia, are you alright?!” Nick shouted, his voice unmistakably marred with worry.
“I- I could use an Oran berry, you know?” she managed to respond with a slight grin.
Nick let out a sigh and stuck his paw into his left saddlebag, pulling out two. He gave both to Amelia and watched her eat the first, happy to see the wounds she had rapidly fade away.
“Don’t forget yourself, Nick” Amelia managed to mutter as she chomped into the second berry ravenously. Nick obliged and pulled out another berry for himself, chewing on it and feeling a renewed sense of vigor.
They remained there for a moment, letting the cool air wash over them after the heat of battle.
After they had both sufficiently recovered, Amelia said, “Nick, you did really well; thanks for getting my back.”
Nick tired to speak stoically, but a hint of bashfulness crept in. “O-of course, Amelia, that’s what partners are for; we’ve got each other’s back, always.”
Amelia stood up and looked down the passage, the exit sure to be just beyond it. “Well partner,” she said with a smile and a light “punch” to his shoulder, both of which Nick was grateful to see were indicative that Amelia was all right. “Let’s get this artifact back to the Guild, huh?”
“And ourselves,” Nick said, picking himself up from the ground and walking beside Amelia down the hallway, happy that the both of them were now safe and sound. “Let’s get ourselves back to Clover.”