So The Ninetales Lied

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This wasn't Grassveil or Blackspear. This wasn't anywhere near the two. The tyrantrum's steps shook the very cavern around them. Dirst and pebbles fell from the roof as she grumbled and griped to herself. They were given faulty directions and now they were stuck in this cave for safety while the blistering sandstorm and heat outside raged on. It would have been fine for a pokemon such as herself, but Osiris was a different story. On top of that, it wasn't like her species was immune to overheating.

"I am never taking directions from the word of locals again," she grumbled to aloud. She puffed a harsh exhale through her nostrils, a pocket of sand flying out. She could still feel the grains between her toes and scales. It was irritating, coarse, and everywhere. Normally she wouldn't mind, but this was just a cherry on top of the horrific day she had. Night was going to fall soon at the very least, so the two could get moving again eventually...hopefully.


(52 - 35 = 17)

”The password to what?” Osiris hissed back, voice hushed but heated. He couldn’t ignore the battle raging behind him; Victoria was probably paying a high price for the time she was buying. In response, the nosepass shook its head nervously but reluctantly turned its body so its arms were pointing its side, facing one of the cave walls.

Curious and desperate for any kind of useful information, Iris took the risk and channeled another thunder-wave, lighting up his immediate surroundings. On the surface of the cavern wall was a huge, almost camouflaged, natural-looking double-door. A jagged marking ran down the middle of it, separating them both, and there were strange imprints in the center of them that Osiris assumed to be some kind of opening mechanism. There were also a number of curious carvings along its surface, but he had no time to study them beyond a glance.

If not for his tail-light, he never would have noticed it. It was a pretty clever hiding spot for a secret entrance to… something.

Another heavy crash behind them reminded him of his time-limit. ”So what, someone gives you the password and you let them through? Open it for us! The cave ceiling caved in behind us; the only way to stop the fighting is for us to get out of your hair.” Osiris explained, almost pleading with the rock-type now that he had a solution in front of him. He didn’t want this fight, honestly. Everybody was way out of his weight class and no pokemon was pulling punches; he just wanted him and Victoria to get to safety again.

The nosepass couldn’t help, however. “N-no, I really can’t—it takes both me and him to open the door,” and here, he gestured to the probopass who had yet to pick itself up. “And we’re not allowed to bring in anyone who doesn’t know the password!”

The dratini whirled around, unwilling to listen to the rock-type now that he had nothing more useful to contribute. He spotted Victoria backing away from her three opponents, not out of the fight yet. ”This way!!” he shouted at her, ignoring and riding right over the nosepass’ startled protest. ”We have to break through, but there’s a way out over here!!”

She could hear the dratini's voice call out from ahead-past the golurk she'd knocked over with the Probopass. The dratini's light cast the shadow of the giant between her and the wyrm down onto her. Her eyes had only just adjusted to the dark, so the light didn't exactly help her much beyond let her know just how close the golurk got. She was getting farther away from the dratini in order to keep a healthy distance from the giants. This wasn't good, not for her.

The tyrantrum looked back up to the silhouette of the giant. The middle was the closest, she could see the shape of the one she brought down getting back up while the one she blocked was just finishing the obstacle she'd set up. She needed to get on the other side of the one she faced, but the other two had every opportunity to grab her if she bolted around the middle. The tyrantrum's heavy breaths carried frost with them. She wasn't given much time to think. The middle one's fist was curled up with a faint light of orange of its own.

Without warning, she lifted her head up higher, "All of you...Get. Out. Of. My. WAY!" her voice thundered. The tyrantrum charged forward as her roar boomed throughout the cavern. Forceful winds powered forward from her lungs with strength far greater than any average shout. The golurk ahead of her powered its fist forward to strike the charging Tyrantrum, but now found itself on the front end her attack. The golurk was unprepared, the orange energy faded out as the impact of the winds knocked it off of its feet. Instead of falling onto its rear again, it was blasted backwards, straight in the direction of the gate Osiris pointed out...and currently stood in.

As she did so, the other two golurk closed in on her. Her bellow was both cut short and drowned out by the crash and booms of something big hitting something...well, big. Victoria was knocked off of her feet as something slammed into her side. She collapsed onto the ground, her rib cage feeling as if it were still being crushed despite the lack of force on it. She coughed as she struggled to right herself up once more, but was stopped as a massive arm wrapped around her neck tightly.

She struggled, snarled, and bellowed, but it quickly became difficult to find air as the arm crushed down on her windpipe. Her tiny arms scratched feebly at the stone skin of the Golurk, while the other one took its dear sweet time in making its approach.

Osiris had been hoping that when he called out to her, Victoria would growl and roar and blow back all three of the golurks before smashing through the door blocking their way with contemptuous ease. Instead, she came through about a third of the way, blasting one of her opponents back—towards him, oh crap—before another one descended on her and locked the tyrantrum down. He could spot the third one making its way to her slowly… and the one disturbingly close to him was shifting around on the ground again, very much not defeated.

It might have been a good chance to finish it off, but he wasn’t sure if he had the firepower to do so. Conversely, Victoria did, and she needed help now. So while the ghost-type goliath was still picking itself up, Osiris blasted off in the fastest extremespeed of his life, soaring right over the golurk before landing harshly on the rocky cave floor, heart sinking to his stomach as he witnessed Victoria being strangled.

”Leave her alone!” he barked, fury surging up in his chest at the sight. He didn’t fight it, instead guiding it into draconic energy and letting it surge out of him in a blast of dragon rage, aimed at the very large and generous target that was the stupid golurk choking his friend.

That was where his little highlight reel ended, though. In his haste, he’d elected to ignore the golurk that’d been sent his way, and as soon as it climbed to its feet, the giant had raised one solemn foot and driven it down onto the whole of the dratini beneath it. Osiris’ world erupted in an explosion of concussive force, darkness, and pain as his entire body was crushed to the ground in a vicious stomp. The golurk raised its foot a moment later, looking about as satisfied as an emotionless automaton could with its work.

The sudden constriction around her neck was released. She gasped for air and broke away from the Golurk's grip just as the oncoming Golurk swept in for the attack. Their fist phased right through the one that was struck with the Dragon Rage. She coughed and gasped for breath, her body low as she staggered away from the duo. She was plunged into darkness once more, the dratini's light nowhere to be seen.

"Osiris?" her hoarse voice called out into the darkness. She could hear the clamber and clamor of the giants, but nothing from the wyrm. She waited...and waited...and waited. Nothing. "Osiris!" She called out again, her voice more demanding than before. All three of the golurk drew near. She could hear them. Her growl started up again, rough and gravely, its intensity only increased the longer Osiris went without answering.

Someone did something to the dratini.

Without a second thought, the tyrantrum charged. The golurk hadn't expected her to run straight towards them, so when she crashed right into the middle titan, it fell right over. She whipped around to her left and latched onto the arm of a Golurk. Fueled by anger, her jaws pressed together down onto the golurk's arm with far more force than before. Black energy obscured by the darkness crackled and wove its way around her teeth. The tyrantrum whirled around with the arm in maw. She tugged the golurk straight into the other one just as it tried to lay a hand on her.

A loud crack echoed through the cavern as their heads were butted against each other. A loud creak split the air before it was followed with a satisfying thud. She didn't stop there. She released the arm of the golurk she clung to since it fell to the ground again. Before she could even think about reveling in her victory, she felt hands wrap around her again. This time, instead of a choke hold, she was picked straight up off the ground. The tyrantrum flailed and kicked, her jaws snapping at every finger she felt latch onto her. She just barely managed to grab onto the arm of the Golurk just as it attempted to throw her across the room, which kept her right where she wanted to be.

The creaking sound drowned out all other noise again. She clamped down onto the golurk's arm, where she began to hear the sound of stone crack. A fist slammed into the side of her head, but she latched on. Repeatedly, the fist smashed into her again and again, but she clung to the idea of latching on tighter...until there wasn't anything to latch onto.

It wasn't that her jaw phased through the creature, but the stone that made up the ghost's body shattered. Rocks filled her mouth as that annoyingly pitched cry assaulted her ears, but it was followed by a thud as the creature fell over. She spat out the rocks, almost certain that a bit of her blood went with them. She wasn't done though. The third golurk made that clear to her with slam straight into her side that knocked her down yet again. Her roar shook the cavern before the golurk began to punch down against the tyrantrum repeatedly.

Unfortunately, it had the mistake of being close to her. Instead of a hand, she latched onto the foot. She yanked the golem's foot out from under it, but all it did was imbalance it. The leg attempted to kick itself free once or twice before the hands grew near her face and attempted to pry her mouth open. She kicked her hind legs against the Golurk's other foot, pushing herself a small distance away and yanking the creature forward. From where she once lay, sharp spires spiked out of the ground and pierced into the golurk's arms. Surprised, the creature released her. She released the Golurk's foot and struggled back to her feet.

Another screech ripped through the air as lunged forward. Her jaws clamped down onto the tiny head she'd lured down. The stone spires that held the golurk's arms in place snapped and shattered, allowing it to steadily beat against her body. The beating only enticed her crunch down even further, until finally, the stone crumbled. The body of the golurk collapsed before her as it gave the cavern another final shake, before everything fell into silence.

Her breath was labored, it pained her to stand. The tyrantrum waited in the silence. A moment passed before a spark of light suddenly ignited in the dark. As the small weak little light flooded the room, her eyes snapped towards the source, wide and wild. It was the nosepass. It held up the little thunder-wave light feebly, it instantly regretted its decision at the sight of the bloodied and battered Tyrantrum that stood triumphantly over the shattered bodies of the golurk. The small rock type was too frightened to move, very obvious in making itself as nonthreatening as possible as it hid behind the light it conjured.

Victoria's eyes gaze wandered away from the nosepass and scanned the floor of the cavern-until finally, she saw him. Osiris was limp on the ground, with a small crater surrounding him in the shape of a golurk's foot. Slow and steady, her breath became deep and controlled. The wide-eyed look on her face remained as she looked back to the golurk. One of them wasn't ever going to stand back up, but she didn't know for certain if it was the one that did this.

So, she moved to the next golurk that lay on the ground. The nosepass quivered in the spot, too fearful to cut off the light or to even leave. It watched as she carefully latched her jaws onto head of the second Golurk and began to crunch down. Much easier than before, now that it didn't fight back, the stone crumbled. She could see the dark energy that her attacked provoked now. It was satisfying, in a way. Slow and steady, she took her time in approaching the third golurk-but made quick work of it as well.

She struggled to keep her breath controlled. She felt strange about all of this. Her head felt light. Her movements were slow and sluggish again. She wasn't sure if it was due to the fading effect of the quick orb or if something else was wrong. She didn't have the capacity to think on it nor care. The tyrantrum approached the little worm. It almost looked like there were two of them laying before her. She didn't stop to study the odd phenomenon that occurred before her. She picked the dratini up, carefully, in her jaws, seeing as her hands were far too small.

A noodle hanging from her mouth, she looked back into the direction of the doorway Osiris pointed out earlier. The golurk she roared into it had crushed the door and blasted it open. She could see a hallway on the other side. Without thinking, she started towards it.

"H-Hey you can't-" the nosepass found the courage to speak up, but the courage vanished as soon as the scarlet rex cast a challenging glare in its direction. The rock type squeaked fearfully before it silenced itself. Without a single word, she proceeded into the cavern, where she'd continue walking until she finally collapsed.