Trying not to ruin the Ruins

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After a little time spent searching in the meadow like area held within the dark Shadowhue Forest, Brian and Ares had finally found the ruins that they were looking for. As he did with all other new areas, Brian began to look around and analyze his surrounding. He could see strange inscriptions of the walls of the ruins, written in some weird language that he couldn't make out, though they still looked cool and added some flare to the fairly normal looking walls of the ruins. While there wasn't really much else to look at, Brian was still becoming very interested in these ruins. They seemed to give off a mysterious vibe about them for some reason. Maybe it was the inscriptions on the walls of the seeming emptiness of the ruins, who knows.

"Hmm, this place definitely looks mysterious. Wonder what else is inside here." Brian said, interested to see what lied with the ruins.

Though Ares had originally maintained his distance, he felt compelled to touch the ancient relief that had been hand-carved into the smooth wall. The palm of his right hand would touch the chilled, smooth stone with gingerness before applying full contact on its features; his left hand would clutch his tail so that he might maintain light exposure. His approach with his lit tail cast grand shadows upon the wall, and gave the assumably legendary creatures an aura of destruction and ruin. The Charmander's fingers would trace the outline of each individual ripple, each chisel thrust that had crafted this magnificent scene. How much care had been put into these intricate and unique designs? The rigidness must have been intended, for it gave these creatures a prehistoric, colossal feeling.

"I think you're right," he would say, his voice level and cool as he analyzed the artwork, "and I think I see the gems that we're looking for."

His hand had paused at two sphere-shaped orbs that were between the two combating titans, his clawed finger tapping upon the space between the carvings so that it might resonate throughout the hallway. Their prize did exist, after all. That was excellent news.

"Huh, what are you talking about?" Brian said before he looked up and saw two gigantic orbs between the large creature on the scene that he had stared at before. The sight of the large orbs caused Brian to back up in shock for a second before he startrd leaping in the air out of excitement.

"Wow, this is awesome! Those things are soooooooooooo huge! Man, we're gonna be rich if we can find gems like those." Brian said, overexcited about the huge gems on the walls. The smile on his face became as wide as ever while the flame on his tail flickered faster, responding to Brian's positive energy. He had never thought about money or riches too much before, but Brian couldn't ignore the alluring possibilities of potential wealth.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go complete Operation Gem Chaser!" Brian said before he ran off, going deeper into the ruins in search of the real gems.

As Brian's flame grew large from excitement, the wall in which the art was carved into seemed to grow larger from the shadows cast. Like long tendrils, they snaked about the corners and connections that held the passageway together, slinking along the coarse edges with the gingerness of a feline predator. The flare exposed more details of the scene, but they were promptly swallowed by the consuming, shortening darkness once more and concealed in the abyssal, conquering shadow as the Chimchar dashed off towards the hall's end. Ares would have so liked to have understood the secrets that had momentarily come to light, but his apprentice had already dashed ahead.

"Brian!"

The Charmander would pursue him, his feet carrying him swiftly across the echoing passageway. The sound of his footfalls seemed to echo, and the darkness before him continued to expand until another room lay before him. It was quite similar to the other one, except there was an occupied pedestal in the center; clawed, stone feet lacking a body. Ares would step gingerly into the room and observe more passageways. They had progressed, perhaps?

Brian kept running ahead while looking in all directions, not wanting to miss any potential items or signs that could lead to the illusive gems that were held withing the mysterious ruins. He could hear Ares behind him, so he didn't feel worried about anything that was behind him. His mind was racing as he thought of all the possibilities of what awaited them in the ruins. What would the jewels look like? Would they look as big as the ones on the wall? How shiny would they be? What other riches could the ruins contain? These questions and many more entered Brian's mind as he kept running. Eventually, the duo would enter another room that seemed to be very similar to the previous one. There was even another pedestal in the room with a button, just like the one Ares had found.

"Oh, another button. Wonder what this one will cause to appear." Brian said as he walked up to the pedestal and pushed the button. After doing so, he saw something in the corner of the room, though he couldn't make out what it was.

pokepikoo carried out 1 launched of one Monochrome Ruins :

Ares, having been wandering about the room in search of hints or secrets as to which path they should take next, heard the familiar click and felt something plop lightly down upon the top of his skull. He flinched, and heard the small object click upon the ground as its hardened husk made contact. His eyes would travel downwards and identify a familiar looking item: a Reviver Seed. Clutching it in the palm of his hand and lifting it up from the ground, he would take on a dour countenance as he tossed the object towards Brian, followed by an obligatory, "Lucky you." One was enough for him, anyways.

After this, he would return to his position of analyzing the statue from afar and noticed that the object's body must have been severed: the ankles of the clawed feet possessed jagged and spiky ridges. It was obvious that these feet must have belonged to some sort of tribute, and thus he could not help but investigate the curious statue. It must have something to do with the ruins's puzzle.

"Hey, are there two scratches on that pedestal?" That would confirm it.

"Lucky me indeed. Can't believe we found two Reviver seeds here. One for each of us." Brian said as he ran over to the corner of the room and picked up the Reviver seed that he had saw. Now that both himself and Ares had one, battling would be much less serious due to the fact that the seeds could bring back their energy if they faint. This would allow them to explore much deeper than most pokemon would normally be able to, which could eventually end in them finding the gems in the deepest parts of the ruins. Then Brian ran over to where Ares was and heard his words.

"Hmm, seems like it. Don't know why though. Maybe someone else was here." Brian said, wondering why the scratches were there on the pedestal.

Energy: 6(-15 from entering Monochrome Ruins, -1 from Item)

Apparently Ares had aimed quite poorly, for the seed had soared off into some other direction than he had intended. As he observed Brian chase after it and happily exclaim how lucky he, indeed, was, the Charmander could not help but feel that this sentiment was well deserved. In knowing that this seed had the capability to resurrect a downed ally, many new avenues of training had been opened up; he could push Brian to his utmost extreme and not have to worry too much about the recovery time intended. This seed, though quite petite, had once more conjured up a use. Spelunking and extreme training regimens could now be successfully completed with the aid of this wondrous object.

"Just as I suspected," he would muse aloud as Brian confirmed his suspicions, "I'd say that someone has been here before, or the original architects were undoubtedly attempting to leave behind hints to their people as to how to get to the heart of these ruins." He would then attempt to direct the Chimchar's attention towards the statue and gracefully spoke, "I bet by the time we get to the end room, there'll be a full statue there with the objects we're looking for. With this in mind, I guess we need to determine which path to go down. Your turn to choose."

"Oh, my turn huh? Well, lets see. Which way should we go? Hmm." Brian said as he put his hand on his chin as he thought of which path to walk down next. All of them looked exactly the same to Brian. Same color, same size, same structure, same everything. It seemed impossible to be able to tell which path would lead him and Ares towards the gems or anything else of value. However, as Brian looked at the multiple paths, he felt a warm feeling in his chest as he turned towards the right most path. It must have been his heart telling him what path to go on. Brian has never ignored his heart's feelings up till now and he wasn't going to stop any time soon.

"Hmm, I have a good feeling about this one. Come on Ares." Brian said as he started running towards the right most path, feeling confident about his heart's decision.

Knowing Brian and how his gut seemed to always be right, Ares had no reason to openly doubt the Chimchar's decision of going down this particular path. Although he personally might have humored going through the northernmost passage, he figured that going right had to be ... right. Once more it appeared that the youth was opt to running, and he and his tail's light were quickly consumed by the well of darkness that lay within the elongated hallway. The Charmander found it particularly curious that they had not yet wandered across any ruin dwellers: sentient Pokemon trapped by the twisting, coiling labyrinth that were driven mad attempting to escape. Perhaps this location was fresh and not yet fully explored, which might mean that they might have a peaceful encounter after all; or so he hoped.

"Wait up!" he would call, darting down the hallway in an attempt to catch up to his apprentice.

"Hehe, catch me if you can!" Brian said, taunting Ares as he kept running down the path that he had chosen a moment ago. Though Ares was stronger, wiser, more experience, and over more skilled, Brian had an edge on him when it came to speed. While it hadn't helped him in the battle that the two previously had, it still made Brian feel good that he had something over Ares, making him feel a bit cocky inside. As he kept running ahead, Brian could begin to see strange writtings on the walls, seeming to depict some sort of story though he couldn't understand the language used. He assumed that is must have been some sort of ancient language used by pokemon of the past or something along those lines.

"Man, this place sure has a bunch of weird stuff on the walls." Brian said, still running while looking at the writings.

That was certainly a detriment of Ares's species: their short, stubby legs were not entirely good at propelling them at great speeds for long distances. They were more accustomed to and had been developed for short bursts of speed in maneuvering around hazards and long-distance running at a medium pace. As a reptile, it was natural to expect such a predicament, but how nice it would be to have the ability to shoot forward faster than an adder might strike!

Brian's taunt had successfully affected the Charmander, for he would promptly lengthen his stocky stride in a good effort to at least be effective in keeping an even distance between them. All the while, of course, he would begin to doubt the maturity of his selected acolyte; this sort of behavior was common to a four year old! The walls seemed to whiz past him, and their ancient language and secrets were but blurs to be ignored as tunnel-vision focused upon the fleeing Chimchar. His breath was heavy in his mouth and nares as his legs complained from the strain, and soon he was calling out, "Slow down! You don't know what lays ahead!"

Suddenly, something clicked beneath his feet as his foot compressed an elevated tile. Ahead of them, something creaked.

ares carried out 1 launched of one Monochrome Ruins :

"Huh, what do you mean?" Brian said before he saw something moving towards him and stopped running. He looked at the creature and saw some sort of metallic creature crawling on the ground. As it moved closer to him, Brian began to analyze the creature further, seeing that it looked like an ant of some sort. Like some kind of living ant robot created from some kind of mad professor. Despite the weird design at first, Brian really liked how the ant like creature looked. The patterns on it's body, the dark red eyes, the large clamp like things in front of it's mouth, it all looked relatively cool to him.

"Wow, this thing looks cool." Brian said as he kept staring at the metallic creature. That was until the ant creature lunged toward Brian, attempting to attack him. Brian saw this and reacted quickly, jumping up to dodge the attack.

"Well, looks like this thing wants a fight. Better not disappoint him." Brian said, getting into a fighting stance as he prepared for battle, an even wider grin on his face than before.

A metallic based growl seemed to warble in the insect's throat as it clicked its iron-based mandibles together. Its pincers, when clanked together, produced a soft clicking noise akin to that of metal falling upon metal; it was muted, yet still apparent. Though its initial lunge had failed, it was prompt to smashing its feet upon the ground and coiling inwards. The ant's legs would fold outwards as its body collapsed towards the ground, and its carapace would suddenly glisten and shimmer as it performed Iron Defense. Quite quickly afterwards, it would spring up and turn towards the Chimchar, allowing its individual feet to patter against the ground as it sized up its larger opponent. Red eyes gleamed in the eerie darkness as it weighed its options, and suddenly it darted forward with the tenacity of a great white. Its toes' brief contact with the ground was all that was audible, and it promptly lunged straight towards Brian.

It would be interrupted and swatted away by Ares, who had managed to catch up with his acolyte. He would use his hip to make contact with and spin in towards the Durant's hardened body and swing out while following through with his beefy, stocky tail. Though it certainly did little damage due to it being simply a regular offensive movement, it was enough to cause the insect to be rejected its prize. The sole thing that would separate the enraged beast from Brian was him, for the Charmander stood ready and able to duel.

"Thanks for the save. Now back to businesses." Brian said, thanking Ares for his maneuver before turning back towards the metallic ant like creature and it's dark red eyes. After seeing the creature raise it's defensive power with some kind of defensive move, Brian figured that it would be the perfect chance to use his own new move.

"Well, since physical attacks probably won't do much to this guy, then it's the perfect chance to test out my Ember attack. Here we go!" Brian said before he took a deep breath and focused his power. Then he let out a flurry of small Embers out of his mouth that began flying towards the ant creature. The ant made no effort to dodge the flames as it had attempted to lunge forward to attack again, but ended up getting a face full of Embers. The creature got set on fire after getting hit by the Embers and started crawling around again, attempting to find some way to get rid of the flames.

"Yes, it worked! Now I have an awesome projectile move! This is awesome!" Brian said, jumping up and down gleefully as he saw his new Ember attack was effective against the ant creature.

There was nothing quite as shrill and strident as the cry the insect species made as its carapace was set ablaze and sloughing right off of its body. Steel's worst enemy had come into contact with it, and already the heat was causing it to liquify and become molten; the bug was no chance for such a super-effective attack. The creature's head smashed into the floor as its thorax and abdomen were erected high into the air, its legs twitching and flailing wildly about as it attempted to right itself. Its pincers moved sporadically, closing and opening rapidly as it snapped at the air with lethal intent. Its forelegs seemed to balance, and soon its hindlegs would follow; however, powerful, consuming flames streaked towards the downed enemy and pushed it back.

Ares, triumphant and dour, had unleashed his own Ember attack in an attempt to ward off the Durant, and another was smoldering within his throat in case the bug should attempt to stand or rally. He was not merciful, he was not compassionate: such elements had been abolished from his mental processes when he was but a hatchling. He would not consider the battle won or fruitful until the enemy retreated or lie defeated before him. The Charmander would slide a single foot forward as he surveyed the situation, and noticed the creature - still on fire - once more attempting to right itself. More fireballs were thrown its way, and hopefully these would knock it further away.