Proving Ground

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Osiris had pre-gamed this particular adventure with ice cream and love.

Well, maybe not love, but hot dang it if he didn't really like this sylveon tagging along with him to Shadowhue this evening. Maybe it was the infatuation with his temporary dungeon buddy, maybe it was the ice cream, or maybe it was the encroaching desire and need to prove himself to someone who just got it, but the dratini was particularly jittery tonight. He felt high-strung and metaphorically coiled, really to lash out and spring at the first chance to show off what he was all about. And they hadn't even gotten to where they were going yet; The coolest dungeon around town (by default, really.)

Shadowhue Forest was always somewhere that Osiris wanted to go. Like everyone else, he'd been to Pecha and played around for a bit, pretending to train like all the other kids, when really he just wanted to feel like he was on a real adventure. Shadowhue kind of was that adventure, at least in terms of atmosphere and...well, he assumed it would be a tougher dungeon to run through. Maybe not tonight though. Tonight, he had himself a killer partner in the form of a fun-loving, adventurous sylveon who was all too happy to take some time out of her day to mess around in some spooky woods with a kid she just met.

"You said you'd been here before, right?" Osiris said over his shoulder. "What kindsa stuff do you usually run into? Ghost-types probably, yeah?"

On one hand, Osiris was very fortunate that he was a much smaller target, and that when the Ariados came lunging over the bushes they spat the bulk of their venom in Geo's face. On the other hand, he was standing right next to the freaking sylveon, so he caught a bunch of sticky purple fluid on his big stupid face anyway. "Pfthlegh! Ewgh, pflegh!" he spat and snarled, his expression twisting up as he attempted to cast off the liquid poison from where it'd struck him. The dratini went rearing back, as uncoordinated and drunkenly as a serpentine pokemon possibly could, and one graceful and smooth predator slunk after him.

The left ariados had veered off to pick off the easier-looking prey out of the two-and-a-half explorers, and the sight of the big pink arachnid monster chasing after him would have left Iris shaking in his boots if he had any. He could hear the scuffling sounds of combat just out of his peripheral vision, followed by a loud clanging noise, but he was suddenly too preoccupied with not getting eaten by a giant spider to think about it. Pointed legs and sharp mandibles jabbed and snapped at him, and it was by a hairs' breadth every time that he avoided the attempts on his life.

The two of them scurried along the forest floor in unison, with the dratini beneath the larger pokemon. Osiris slithered furiously, wriggling desperately every time the Ariados stabbed a leg down into the dirt or lowered its mouth to attempt a bite. Every so often the arachnid would strike a glancing blow, leaving the dratini to stagger in his movement slightly, but there was no better motivator than fear for one's life, so he'd quickly right his course of movement, and onward the dance would go.

It took Osiris way longer than it should have to realize that he was proving to be consistently faster than the big bug chasing him. Realize it though he did, and with a burst of extremespeed, he neatly sprung out from underneath the Ariados' moving legs, creating a healthy distance between the two of them in an instant. "Back off, creepo!!" he barked, voice quivering in his failed attempt at bravado. The dratini's tail crackled with electricity mid-jump, and with a neat twist he lashed out in his adversary's direction, sending the wave of thunder heading right for it.

Geo panted as she waited for the next move of the spider assaulting her. Normally she wouldn't have been so hesitant to take initiative, but she was somehow already exhausted from one swing of her sword buddy, and now she couldn't even lift the blade back off the ground. The ariados skittered forward again, and the sylveon tried in vain to lift her sword for a counterattack, but she simply couldn't. Whatever the insect had sprayed her with, it had weakened her too much. Instead of bothering to keep trying, she instead chose to change her strategy and dropped Sterlie altogether.

"Hey! What are-" the sword began in protest, only to be interrupted by an earsplitting sound.

Rather than keep doing something that clearly wasn't working well, Geo thought to rely on her own abilites. Sure, having a sword was cool and all, but it wasn't as if she couldn't do anything on her own. She took a deep, sharp breath, and loosed a echoing scream at a painfully high pitch and loud volume. The ariados was caught by surprise and threw its claws at its target more clumsily than before, allowing her to avoid the attack with ease. Unfortunately, the attack didn't seem to do much more than shock the foe, and it recovered quickly.

But Geo wasn't alone, and Sterlie wasn't completely useless even without someone to swing her. With the ariados standing directly atop her and seemingly having decided she was an item rather than a target, she was in the perfect position to do something. Her cloth wrapped around one of the spider's claws as it tried to lunge at her wielder, and in her empowered state, she managed to stop it dead and hold it near her. The red glow emanating from her faded as she loosed a scream of her own- more of a screech, actually, with a reverberating metallic sound to it. The flailed in panic as it tried to tug itself free of the cloth wrapped around its leg and get away from the noise, but all it could do was drag the sword along behind it.

Geo was still in range of the noise, prompting her to wrap the feelers on her head around her ears to block some of it out. She then took the opportunity she had been afforded to attack again, screaming in the direction of the arachnid. This time it was louder and seemed to reverberate through the area, giving it a very echoey sound.

The ariados cried out with chittering spider noises before collapsing from the experience of the worst duet in the world. It flailed and squirmed in a helpless state, trying to cover its head with its front legs.

As he landed from his leap, tail crackling with remnants of electricity, Osiris realized his little gamble had paid off. The ariados chasing him had locked up immediately when blasted with the thunder wave, its body and limbs locking up tightly, no longer moving. He'd paralyzed it! Now all he had to do was keep his distance and pepper it with some shots, and maybe check on Geo to see how she was doing if he had a moment to spare.

He could hear her going at it with her own opponent—man, could he hear it—but didn't feel comfortable taking his eyes off his own spider before it was down or fleeing. Chilling, empty black eyes rimmed with violet stared at him as the bug-type struggled against the electricity holding it in place, and Osiris took his opportunity. The dratini centered himself, inhaling softly while he thought very angry thoughts (why did this thing get so many legs when he had none?) Then he threw his head forward with a muted shout and a shockwave colored a myriad of viridian and virescent hues exploded forth. The dragon rage blasted the seizing spider head-on, its pained chittering being drowned out by the sound of the hit.

It didn't fall down, though. One more, Osiris thought, sucking in another breath to repeat the move. Before he could muster his anger, however, the arachnid had other plans. It abruptly lunged toward him, springing up and pinning him to the ground before he could do anything. The impact shook him, his vision blurring briefly as his head smacked into the ground roughly. Staring up at its unnatural, alien face and mandibles dripping with venom, it wasn't hard to find the rage. Once more, he spat out a burst of draconic power, causing the spider's head to rock back roughly before it finally went limp.

Unfortunately, the spider had fallen limp right on top of him, its weight collapsing onto him. A pained wheeze escaped Iris as the air was pushed out of him, and he struggled in vain to crawl out from underneath his defeated opponent. "Spiders suck," Osiris grumbled with a huff, bucking uselessly against the unconscious bug. "Way worse than mushrooms." At least his head was unbound - he leaned it backward, trying to catch a glimpse of Geo's fight, even if it was an upside-down view. Hopefully, she wouldn't end up needing his help, because he thought he might need hers.

Between the two piercing voices assaulting it, the spider seemed all but dealt with. Despite its struggle, it was helpless, overwhelmed by sheer noise. With the help of the debilitating sound, Sterlie's cloth was more than enough to keep it in place. Geo was eventually forced to stop for a breath; upon noticing that the ariados had stopped moving, Sterlie ceased as well. They both stared momentarily, waiting to see if it would get back up. When it didn't, Geo turned to check up on Osiris, who seemed to be stuck under his own spider and also talking to it. Or about it. And mushrooms? "I'll help-" she began, but her eyes flickered back to the other ariados as she noticed movement.

A bit later than expected, but sure enough, it was getting back up for round two. It seemed weakened though, so maybe they could deal with it quickly, the sylveon thought. She took a deep breath and loosed another painful scream, expecting it to drop the foe easily just as it had before, but this time it seemed to have more fight in it. The spider hesitated at first before slowly finding its footing and standing, and it was then that Geo began to worry round two wouldn't be so easy.

The ariados stood tall, as much as it could in such a weakened state; it set its eyes on the sylveon and lunged... or tried.

Just as it attempted to make its move, something dropped down from the trees above, landing right on top of the ariados with explosive force. The spider's legs buckled; the force of the attack cratered the ground and sent a violent shock wave tearing through the area; the very ground trembled as if in fear. Geo was thrown off her paws and into a tree a few feet behind her, suddenly silenced by the unexpected development. She felt pain in her back and side as she collided with the tree, and a lesser pain upon falling to the ground.

Fainting was starting to sound nice, but the sound of wood snapping behind the sylveon prompted further action. She rolled out of the way just as the tree toppled over her, narrowly avoiding being crushed by it, then pulled her pained body off the ground in a fearful hurry as she realized how close she had just come to being killed by a plant. It didn't take long for her to collect herself and spot the source of the damage through the cloud of dirt and debris its earthquake had created. Standing atop the now thoroughly unconscious ariados was a very upset-looking pinsir, presumably having been disturbed by all the aggressive screeching.

Sterlie managed to hold onto the leg of the ariados through the shock wave, fortunately letting her avoid being tossed by the force like Geo. However, being so close to the impact was far from pleasant, leaving her weakened and dazed. Still she was coherent enough to notice the pinsir taking a step toward Geo, and immediately she reached for its arm with her cloth.

The pinsir was not so easily stopped as the bug before it. The sword's cloth wrapped around its wrist, but instead of being stopped, it simply grabbed hold of the cloth before flinging the weapon violently away. Sterlie's blade speared right into a tree, and the cloth on her hilt fell limp.

The pinsir's eyes flashed back to Geo. She gulped. "Uh... Iris... buddy..." she spoke nervously, her voice growing quieter with every word.

"Might need some help with this one..."