Hierarchy

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A moment ago, Goro had stepped onto a patch of soft soil atop Pricklemist Hill. It sank under his weight, and when he stepped onto it with his other foot, it dropped further. And instead of moving in an attempt to find sturdier footing, the croagunk elected to stay right where he was, sinking with alarming speed before the ground gave way beneath him, blowing out as he dropped into the earth.

The air around him had been misty but relatively clear, but when the frog dropped through, it was suddenly dark and rank. Goro cursed as he dropped through what felt like wooden planks and ceilings, collapsing right through the top of whatever underground structure he'd stumbled upon before slamming down harshly on a manufactured floor. Once again, his bindle flew out of his hand, and he gasped in both shock and pain as his severe burns were horribly aggravated. Just like that, he was reliving the pain of his burning.

Goro grit his teeth and crawled to the side, escaping what little light shined down from the hole that he fell through. "I h-hate my life sometimes," he grunted, rolling over onto his stomach before he even tried to push himself up. He simply lay there, arms pooled in front of his head while he pushed his face into the ground. He'd prepared a few things in case he was hurt on this little trip of his, but the pain demanded to be dealt with now, and he had nothing on hand. So he just... suffered.

And present itself something did, however, it wasn't exactly anything hostile. Just around the corner of what appeared to be the end of a hall leading into two completely different directions, was a mawile. The maws of the creature pointed back towards the duo as she toiled away around a large gate that led into sheer darkness. A soft hum echos throughout the cavern as they worked on something that wrapped around the sides of the walls.

Zera's eyes locked onto the mawile...before he looked over to the croagunk expectantly. There was the target...would the croagunk need encouraging?

The mawile had certainly notice the two, but it certainly didn't appear so. The only evidence of her awareness being the salivating jaws of the deceptive mouth on the back of her head. In her hands was a small little kettle, ceramic and fine, it poured water into small potted plants of what appeared to be rather large looking mushrooms that decorated the gate's edges...

The croagunk did not need encouragement. His eyes roved across the room, eyes lighting up at how menacing and eager the jaws of the strange pokemon was. That meant it was fierce, and it looked like it wanted to fight! He could humiliate this pokemon and not feel conflicted one bit. It was eager for the conflict.

Goro flicked the reviver seed into the air once more and raised his head upward. He opened his mouth and let it fall in, chewing it methodically before swallowing it decidedly and loudly. The gulp echoed throughout the room, throaty and obnoxious, and he punctured it with a satisfied croak, already feeling the regenerative effects of the miracle medicine. The loss of strength that accompanied his burns faded, the power in his limbs returning at last, and the pain began to fade slowly... though not all the way. Curious, but these things needed time, he supposed.

"Mighty big teeth you got there, little fella," The poisonous frog announced his presence, his arm extending to lean his bindle against a wall now that he no longer needed it. "Do you know how to use 'em?" he asked conversationally, his fingers spreading outward and curling inward over and over as he tested his returning strength.

Yes, this was good. He could work with this. "Please tell me ya do. 'Cos you're gonna have to." Goro said with a smile. At the very least, he would give his opponent the courtesy of letting it know it was about to be in a fight for its life. Unlike some people, he had manners.

-1 energy (Burn): 0 energy

+55 (reviver seed)

The mawile paused in their fungal care briefly to look back at the croagunk. She didn't bother to turn all the way around, as the natural fighting stance of these creatures were with the back jaw facing the enemy. Her expression remained calm in the face of the croagunk and the houndoom. The jaws parted in response to the croagunk's declaration of combat, almost grinning in enthusiasm while the main expression remained cold.

"I would turn around and find someone else if I were you," the woman's voice echoed throughout the cavern with an intentionally high volume. "Folks around these parts look out for their neighbors."

Despite what she said, a purple crackle of energy and aura began to surround the massive jaws. Their teeth seemed to grow larger as psychic fangs propped themselves on top of each tooth.

Zera watched with interest, staying back closer to the bundle. His haunches planted firmly on the ground, he only intended to intervene if it looked dangerous for the croagunk.

Goro knew a few things in this life. He'd experienced a few things in this life. Psychic fangs were not one of them, but other psychic moves were, and those were the single most excruciating and debilitating attacks he had ever experienced. Seriously. Even when considering the physical ordeal he had just been through, or his self-maiming on the demon umbreon made of steel and bad intentions. So Goro decided he was not going to get very close to the big scary jaw that was thrumming with what could very well be psychic power. Instead, he wavered, suddenly unsure of his chances in this bout. There were only a few ways he could fight at a distance... and thinking about it... one of them sounded somewhat appealing.

"Then how about we let everyone know that we're here?" Goro asked rhetorically, grabbing his bindle once more so that it was not lost in the ensuing demolition. "Maybe yer neighbors'll come pick up what's left of you." And with that said, Goro squared his stance, spread his legs, raised one foot high up in the air... and then slammed it back down with everything he had, his heel digging into the stone floors with enough force to cause an earthquake.

Well. Not a natural earthquake, but a powerful ground-type move that caused focused earthquakes in the area, sure. The floor beneath them immediately began to rock, quake, shake, and tremble powerfully, strong vibrations reverberating up the legs of every pokemon unfortunate enough to be standing except for Goro, as he was the catalyst of the technique. The stone flooring splintered, cracked, and deformed jagged chasms opened up in the ground. Chunks of rock were uprooted, forming blockages and obstacles, turning the room from what was probably a very well cared for garden into a totally destroyed wreck.

Goro, meanwhile, hunkered down behind one of the upturned formations of stone, taking cover as he peered around it to gauge the effectiveness of his first blow.

the sunset hero carried out 10 launched of one Forsaken Complex :

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It was extremely effective. The mawile was genuinely shocked by the force of the earthquake...and so was Zera. The hound's eyes widened as he too was caught up int he shockwave of the attack, facing just as much damage as the steel type. He was knocked off and sprawled onto the rocky floor, but quick to force himself back up and throw a glare at the Croagunk's direction, ignoring the pain and damage caused to him.

"Watch it!" a disgustingly hostile shout sounded from the hellhound.

Rocks fell from the ceiling of the small cavern. They collided into the ground and caused dust to fly and swirl around, coming between the mawile and the croagunk. Curiously enough, it seemed to stand in the spot. As the dust began to clear out, an eerie red glow illuminated the face. Steadily, pieces and bits of the rock broke off, still connected by odd tendrils that kept it all linked together.

"No need to make a ruckus..." a masculine voice breathed into the air, "We already know..."

The runerigus blocked vision to the mawile, as it took the stage in the mawile's place. With a movement of its odd hands, a gust of sand rushed forward from the aftermath of its landing. Crawling and snaking about on the ground, the tendrils of dust and ground moved to entomb the croagunk and lock him into the spot. (Sand Tomb)

At the sound of Zera's upset yelling, Goro's already satisfied grin widened further. Yeah, that was one of the reasons he chose to Earthquake. It was obvious Zera was a fire-type, but he could claim ignorance somehow and save himself from any unfair punishment... especially if he reasoned that Zera just seemed strong enough to tank the blow.

Said smirk faded immediately from his face when a fourth pokemon introduced itself slowly and cleverly, dropping in with ominous words and a super-effective blow. Sandy, threadlike appendages deftly whirled about Goro's ankles and legs before they tightened, the sand hardened into what felt like stone, locking down his movement hard and causing him to stumble and wince from the pain. He knew a ground-type move when he took one.

"Good," Goro groaned from within his sandy prison, equal parts irritated and in pain. Which is to say, very much of both. "You can form a line." The confidence with which he bantered back was definitely fake. It may have been shameful to admit, but Goro was hoping that the friends the mawile spoke about would take time to show up and help her. Enough time that he would already be done beating her face in, anyway.

That said, he was entirely too stupid of a creature to back down just because he was faced with another competent-looking and dangerous pokemon. With a revolting sound that was entirely too similar to someone hocking a mean loogie, Goro hunched in on himself before raising his head. The poison sacs on each of his cheeks expanded and contracted repeatedly, the croagunk working to build up venom... and then a bulge rose up in this throat, traveling from his stomach all the way up to his mouth, where his cheeks themselves puffed out like a pachirisu with a mouthful of nuts.

Except this was not nearly as adorable, or innocent. With a deep, resounding thwook! Goro spat the poison he'd built up at the interfering runerigus, the Gunk Shot taking the form of a mass of thick, steaming, toxic-looking glob of muck screaming through the air at it.

(18 energy)

The purple sludge was slathered all over the bits and pieces of the rune pokemon. Weighted down by the poisonous substance, they seemed to droop in reaction to the attack, but not much damage was truly done. A quick shake did away with the gunk, but not without leaving a poisonous aftereffect to the ground pokemon.

"Awfully cocky for a little frog now are you?" the ghost's raspy echoes chimed. The creature lifted themselves up from the ground and flung themselves forward. The rocks and boulders that made the creature up were thrown in a small collection at the croagunk, but this was not the true attack. Whether it hit the goon or not, they would collapse around him and become still.

After a brief second of stillness, the little ribbon the croagunk held began to tighten. (Poltergeist)

Zera, meanwhile, was quick to recognize that perhaps this might not have been the best place to let his minion test themselves. Even though he just got decked by an Earthquake, courtesy of an ally, he saw it fit to attempt to contribute with a well-aimed Flamethrower...despite the fact that the ghost type was currently extremely close to the ally. Good going Zera. If Goro was quick, he could twist just right to avoid it.

Goro half-avoided it.

And even then, it was not by any credit of his own. When the runerigus flung its segmented body at Goro—who could not avoid it, immobilized by the Sand Tomb as he was—he shifted his posture sideways to face the oncoming attack. The rocks crashed into his makeshift shoulder block, and the croagunk grunted at the impact, but he was still hanging in there. He turned to look down at the now lifeless looking rocks that used to be his opponent, curious at what it was doing now. It couldn't be playing dead, could it?

That train of thought was viciously cut off when Goro's joy ribbon, stained red long ago with his leader's blood and tied around his right bicep, began to tighten horrifically around him. The pressure around his bicep was maddening, feeling like it would twist his entire arm right off at the bicep, and the pain and shock forced him down onto one knee. His mind went thunderously blank, even when Zera's fire came out of nowhere to lash out entirely too close to him, the edges of the flames licking out at him, aggravating his healed, but still curiously painful burns.

Now it was Goro's turn to snap at Zera to watch it, but he couldn't form the words. His right arm felt like it was being pulverized, his ankles were entombed by hardened sand, and the burns that were supposed to have healed seared at the near-contact of Zera's fire. He was in too much pain to banter. Instead, his ill-equipped brain working furiously to decide on what to do next, he simply shouted.

"Zera... jump!!" he bit out, his teeth grinding together, trying to distract himself from the pain he was in. He and Krikka had done this before, as a way to mitigate Earthquake's damage on his allies, and he only hoped the houdoom would similarly catch onto what he wanted. Goro raised his only free limb up into the air - his left arm - and brought it down hard onto the ground. It was close to where the rocks that formed the runerigus' body lay, and he hoped that this would drop the strange pokemon... because between all the sudden punishment, he was about to drop very quickly.