A dark meeting

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(Energy: 19-10=9)

After meeting with Russel and exploring Pecha Forest with him, Pokkoji decided it would be a good idea to come explore Shadowhue. The Metapod had come here a few times before before he evolved. Not a lot of light managed to get through the dense vegetation. At least the area he was in wasn't that dark. Of course, the Metapod hadn't gone deep into the forest yet.

Pokkoji hoped he would be able to get some training done. He wanted to evolve pretty fast. Pokkoji had heard there was a guild located in a village on one of the floating islands. He was hoping to be able to join that guild. That was not the only reason he wanted to evolve fast. His current body was not that easy to move in and he couldn't wait for the day he would be able to fly. After what had happened in Pecha, he had been really looking forward to the idea of flying.

Roughly half of Zed was free by now, but the Ariados would be upon them before he had the chance to fully be free. Pokkoji had made a good move hindering its progress with another string shot, which gave Zed an idea... However, he'd still need to be free to follow through with it, so for now he took careful aim with his tail. When he was sure his stinger was lined up with the Ariados, the barb began to glow a sickly violet before launching a luminescent needle of the same color. (Poison Sting)

The needle whizzed past Pokkoji and struck the Ariados, delaying its progress even further. With that done, Zed began cutting away the remaining threads restricting him until he shakily rose to a stand on the silky net beneath them.

"Hey, I've got a plan, but I'm gonna have to carry you and fly. You cool with that?" Zed relayed to Pokkoji, his eyes scanning the airspace around them and plotting a path around all the web threads in his head.

Pokkoji was struggling with the Ariados. It was too strong. He hoped Zed would be able to free himself soon. He had the pincers to do it. "Hey, if you don't get out of the web soon, I will let the spider go!" He yelled at the Gligar. Just when he said that, a poisonous needle hit the Ariados he was trying to prevent from reaching Zed. In itself, that did not do a lot of damage but the bug was caught by surprise.

Pokkoji saw how Zed finally managed to free himself. He still didn't let go of the Ariados yet. It seemed rather angry that its prey had escaped from the net and started tugging harder. It was even more difficult to keep the Ariados away from Zed. Pokkoji didn't know how much longer he was able to hold on to the thread either.

Pokkoji glanced at Zed when he spoke up. "Fly? With all these webs? You will just get stuck again." Pokkoji said. The Gligar had gotten stuck before after all, why wouldn't he get stuck again? That seemed like some reasonable logic.

Reasonable or not, it was the closest thing to a plan Zed had at the moment. He just hoped it worked how he was thinking it would. With little time before the arachnid broke free, the Gligar would have to act swiftly.

"I can do it, trust me," Zed winks, scanning his projected route one last time. "Just keep a hold of that string until I say to 'cut'. "

His arms were connected to his wings, which would make things tricky, but thankfully they were on the edge of this particular patch of webbing. In a quick series of motions, Zed dives off the web, grabbing Pokkoji with his legs as he does. The Ariados would find their combined weight much harder to struggle against, and was dragged down with them.

The next step was crucial. Zed kept his arms close to his body, keeping his form scarce as possible to allow them to slip through the gap in the webbing. Zed closed his instinctively as they were about to go though, and was elated to discover they hadn't got caught. The Ariados, however, was a little too bulky, and the strength of its threads would end up working against it as the gravity would cause it to get tangled in its own web.

"C-cut!"

Zed opened up his arms and spread his wings wide to slow their fall into a gentle glide, trying his best to keep the Metapod in tow. Hopefully the Metapod had followed their signal so they weren't hanging by a thread.  By now they had reached a low enough altitude where Zed could drop him without any harm and he let Pokkoji go onto the soft grass, landing himself and taking a deep breath, chuckling in spite of himself.

"S-see? A-all according to plan!" Zed's voice didn't sound too confident in that, as if he'd been surprised things had played out so well. Acting out the plan had been a little scarier than he imagined it.

(Pfff....You don't know me well enough. I probably would have Pokkoji gotten stuck just for giggles xD)

Before Pokkoji could protest, he was already picked up by Zed. For some reason, he had a strange sense of deja vu. Pokkoji remembered how he once soared through the sky while he was stuck to a bird. It had been rather fun, although the landing had not been that nice. This felt a bit similar, although this time he was not stuck to Zed through his string shot attack.

Pokkoji barely noticed he had to let go of the thread he had been holding on to. He managed to let it go just in time. If he hadn't done that, he would ended up stuck. Pokkoji was a bit worried about the landing but was relieved once he was put down softly in the grass. The Gligar seemed a bit weird. Had it been because of fear? The plan seemed to have worked. That was a bit of a surprise to Pokkoji.

(Heh, duly noted. And sorry this reply is so late. Been trying to keep up with the easter thread since it'll only be open for this month.)

By now, the two Ariados had sustained enough damage to deem this prey as more trouble than it was worth. The arachnid that had been cut by Zed earlier was now climbing the web to help its mate out of their own web. If the conflict was now dissolved, that was as good as a win in Zed's book.

"Well, looks like we're off to a good start," Zed commented on the status of their training session, regaining his composure. Much as he got himself into trouble, any actual danger or the thrill involved with it was unfamiliar to him. Still it wasn't a wholly unwelcome feeling either.

He was about to lead the way to their next venture except... he didn't really know his way around the forest. That much was probably already clear, but after his last bit of tracking, he was ready to see what a different approach would yield.

"How about it, Pokkoiji: which direction is calling you?" Zed asked the Metapod, patting the flat of his claw on his... shoulder, maybe? Or would it just be the side of his face? It was hard to say. In any case, he awaited their new heading.

(Is fine, event threads over other threads ^_^)

Pokkoji looked at the two Ariados. They didn't seem like they were going to attack them again. He was rather relieved. Pokkoji knew he would stand no chance against them, but he would hate to admit that. After all, he didn't want to seem weak. His species were already regarded as weak, let him not be a stereotype of that.

Pokkoji looked at the Gligar next to him. He didn't like that Zed tapped him on the side but it was nothing bad. The Metapod looked around him. He wasn't exactly sure what way to go, but it was probably better to avoid finding these webs again. "Lets go this way." Pokkoji said after thinking it over. He started hopping away from the web in a random direction.