Shard by the River (4Relics/16 Shards)

[gantzgun74]

"Wish it, and you shall recieve, demon king."

"KUPO!!!!!"

Marco ran on scene, his guns pointing downstream, though he knew that whatever was chasing him was easily able to deflect his bullets. "Help me kupo!! There's some crazy guy in armor behind me!!!"

"Marco!!" Came Issac off scene, Luna merely looked on in concern.

Leona looked rather confused at the entrance of the odd little creature, "What... What is he?"

Enn was just as confused about the current going on's as Leona.

"You didn't think I was going to let you get away now did you?"

Marco stopped dead when a ring of light appeared in front of him... With a boom and plume of smoke, Exdeath appeared, holding his sword in his right hand. "FEEL THE VOID..." With a powerful swing, Marco was sent rocketing backwards, however something flew out of his pocket... The River Shard...

Exdeath caught it deftly, before looking to the others. "Well this concludes my business in this insignificant locale. So if you'll excuse me, I mus-"

"RAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!"

Exdeath was blasted aside by Enn's magic, causing the river shard to go flying out of his hand and into the air. It landed on the ground, with an almost silent 'clink'.

...................

It was like detonating a bomb full of chaos energy.

[DanteMGalileo]

Nishara and Volcano looked up from their fight, the chicken still in slo-mo, finishing his rotation much slower than the Godzilla rip-off. What... what had just exploded? "..."

Nishara, though momentarily stunned by the explosion, quickly used the Blaziken's paralysis to her advantage, sending a white glowing fist, a Mega Punch, straight to his gut. The attack collided with Volcano, causing his eyes to widen in surprise, striking his weak defense. With a loud cry, he doubled over at a fast speed, which would have left him open for another attack from the Tyranitar.

... At least, it would have, had a another fist, a blue one covered in scales, not impacted with Nishara's jaw. With wide eyes, the Tyranitar spit out blood as it was knocked to the side, clearly damaged by the powerful Fighting-type attack. Rubbings her injured jaw, Nishara growled at a rather smug-looking Miles. "You'll pay for that, sneak."

"Bring it, then."

Volcano growled, realizing his paralysis had pretty much rendered him useless, as he tried to sneak back to try and recover over time, cursing the paralysis every chance he got. Damn you, Mheetu, for not being able to aim! he mentally cursed at the male Luxio.

"Hey, sis, you you sense that?" Mheetu asked Tua, all the while trying to remain aware for any attacks, keeping his tail glowing white and stiff, ears perked up and nose at the ready.

Tua shrugged at her little (yet older-looking) brother, then blinked, taking just a little bit more time to sense it out. "Oh! You mean the energy that's probably given off by the shard that was most likely found here? Or are you referring to the shard we have in our possession?"

Mheetu gave what was presumably the four-legged version of a double facepalm at what his sister had just said that in broad daylight and in clear earshot of anyone who might be wanting the shards as well!

Fomortiis raised a light purple eyebrow at what he had just heard, for once interested in something that he had heard that mortals also were looking for. His face twisted into a malicious grin, both hands covered in his dark magic. "So... these objects are relics of power.... How... interesting..." He scanned the area, looking for a weak target...

And he found one that matched his definition of a "weak target". Or in this case, "weaker target".

Even if one was not a mage, one could just feel the buildup of darkness in the air around Fomortiis, shaping into a vortex of power, aiming at Leona... the "weakest target".

"OH MY GOD, HELP ME I DON'T WANNA BE FISH FOOD!!!!!!!!!!!"

As Ri continued to flow downstream, he happened to pass by a green mantis Pokemon, a Scyther who was just content with taking a nap until she heard the screaming, her head lazily going up, revealing slightly spiked head "fur".

One might also take note of her somewhat lazy expression and what appeared to be paint stains. Yawning, she slowly picked herself up and walked in the direction of the other noises.

What she saw was what appeared to be a battle between a Blaziken, a Feraligatr, two Luxio, several humans, and two armored creatures. With a yawn, she made a lazy comment.

"Well, I ain't seen any other Pokemon since I woke up here! And looky there, a bunch of humans and armored things are also gettin' involved in that tussle!"

Carol leaned against a tree, relaxing and enjoying the fight scene. Hey, she had to get her excitement in somehow, right?

[gantzgun74]

Leona jumped in surprise at the energy oncoming. "AAAAAAH!!!!!!!!" She was quickly pushed aside by Enn, making her land with a thud on the ground. "Ow!!"

SLAAAM!!!!!

Thanks to this motion, Enn wa instead. Thanks to his increased endurance, he took the hit rather well, skidding to a halt once he regained his footing. He grunted lightly before shaking the hit off... Not all that easy, seeing as how that blow was pretty damn tough. Growling, Enn got back to his feet...

And aimed himself at the River Shard, same as Exdeath since he had regained his wits after the zombie's previous attack. Exdeath grimaced at the zombie as Enn picked up the shard before he could even come close. The evil tree never was a fast runner. "Delta Beam!!!" Enn was slammed aside when a Magic circle appeared in front of Exdeath, and fired out a big beam, that slammed the Zombie aside. He may not have been a fast runner, but he was still a strong fighter. When Enn dropped the River Shard, Exdeath jumped off the ground, figuring he had a better chance at flying to the shard then running. He was merely a few inches away from the shard...

SHINK!!!! "GAH!!"

Before a sword met the armored man's shoulder, launching him backward several feet. What was UP with this picture?!? He was tougher then this!!

As he quickly regained his balance and healed the wound, he looked up to find Issac glaring at him, one of his two swords drawn, and the River Shard in his other hand. "If you want this, you'll have to take it from ME."

Meanwhile, Enn had quickly got back up, and glared around for the River Shard, before finally spotting it in Issac's hand. Who was this guy? Was he friend or foe?

[DanteMGalileo]

The demon king, while he was surprised to see that someone was able to protect his intended target from harm and even survive the dark magic burst, was able to keep his usual expression of indifference on his face- you could even see the starts of a malicious grin. "So you can fight a little... no matter, you are but an insect at my foot."

The possessed prince of Grado readied another attack, the dark energies hitting a peak form, slightly distorting the air around Fomortiis. He was experiencing what was known in his world as a "critical hit", and who shall feel the wrath of a triple-strength Naglfar?

The poor victim in that attack would be none other than Volcano the Blaziken, still suffering from the crippling effects of paralysis. He was trying to get back to fighting Nishara when the vortex opened up near him, the mass of pure dark energy slamming into him, making the chicken feel like his soul was being torn into. He did something that he would never had done otherwise. He screamed.

And when the chaos all settled, Volcano was flat on his back, looking 'burned' from the darkness-based attack, clearly down for the count, what little stamina he had left taken away by the critical hit Naglfar.

Miles gasped at the sight of the fainted Volcano, who was known as the toughest guy on their Pokemon Rescue Team. The Blaziken just didn't up and fold in the face of an attack- he pushed himself to his limits. So if Volcano was down, then it meant that he and the Luxio siblings would have to keep their guard up.

And speaking of keeping his guard up, the gator caught Nishara's fist in his hand. The Tyranitar gulped, and the Feraligatr gave a strange grin back. He had her right where he wanted.

"Please tell me you are going to throw me into a tree with your hands and not throw me into the river with your jaw."

"I was going to throw you into a tree with Aqua Tail, but that works even better!"

One could hear the Tyranitar's deafening shrieks, even when they were muffled in Miles' powerful jaw.

Tua, upon realizing what she had just said, placed both her front paws over her mouth. "Did I just say that out loud?"

Mheetu had to resist the urge to smack himself or his sister with his tail, a smart move, as he readied Iron Tail. "You did... sometimes I wonder why I wasn't born first, seeing how you and Rubis can behave!" On the inside, he wondered why Tua wasn't freaking out at the sight of more humans.

Of course, Murphy's Law has to apply.

[gantzgun74]

Exdeath glared at the offending Issac, whom quickly pocketed the River Shard. "I will only say this once, you maggot... Give me that stone, else I send on a one way trip to the Void." Issac defiantly shook his head 'no'. "Fine... Have it your way then." With a flick of his wrist, Exdeath's sword flew at Issac, thus beginning a fierce sword duel, where Issac's two swords tried to keep back Exdeath's.

Enn meanwhile, heard the Volcano's pained scream of pain. Turning to Fomortiis, he roared in anger, before charging at the demon king. In his hand he was charging powerful fire magic, ready to use the magic to drastically increase the power of his punches.

Getting up from the ground, Marco shook his head to rid himself of a dizzy spell, before pushing himself off the ground and jumping to his feet. "Owww..." He looked around a moment. "What happened kupo?"

"Marco!" With Issac busy with the swords, Luna ran up to the moogle, smiling widely. "I'm so glad your okay! You're not hurt are you?"

The Moogle waved off the concern. "Nah, I'm fine kupo, no need to worry about me Luna." He looked around the scene, before seeing the long distance duel between Issac and Exdeath. His eyes widened. "Issac!!!" With that said, he pulled out what appeared to be a cannon shaped gun that was almost as big as himself. "Hang on man! We're coming, kupo!!"

With Leona, she pushed herself off the ground, grabbing her head and assessing the damage. Enn had managed to save her she remembered... ...

Wait... Enn!!!

Leona looked to the scene before her, to find Enn in a heated battle against Fomortiis, Enn launched a powerful fire punch, looking completely ticked. "Enn!!"

[DanteMGalileo]

Fomortiis merely gave the undead man a look that suggested boredom, simply moving a bit to the side. The feared Demon King's hands were covered with dark energy, though this was different form of dark energy than the Naglfar spell.

It was Demon Light, one of the spells that he had managed to hold onto before his spirit had been sucked into that abominable Sacred Stone.

Fomortiis pointed his darkness-covered hands at Enn, reciting the ancient spell.

"Prepare for a one-day trip to hell!"

As the information finally caught up to Tua's tiny insignificant brain, she then took on a look of horror, and then did something that made Mheetu lower his opinion of general intelligence even lower than it already was.

She screamed at the top of her lungs and ran away, her tail between her legs. The yellow one did a double facepalm- or in his case, a double facepaw. He was most likely cursing heavily in his mind.

Forget that, he was swearing out loud while charging at Exdeath with Iron Tail, even though he was aware that he was clearly weaker than the evil tree.

"FUCK, WHY CAN'T WE EVER HAVE A FUCKING NORMAL DAY?!?!"

Miles, in all honestly, was wondering what he did to anger the gods so that they would give him these -incredibly- stupid teammates. He used Dragon Dance, a compromise between Agility and Swords Dance- he needed to be quick and powerful at the moment.

"Honestly, sometimes I wonder why I'm always needed to help end fights here."

That was said while readying his Waterfall attack.

[gantzgun74]

Enn looked wide-eyed at this proclamation, quickly looking around for a quick escape. Upon seeing none, he did the only thing that came to mind...

He suddenly morphed into his undead skeleton form, and started charging his energy. For Mheetu and Leona, they'd recognize the attack instantly.

Leona screamed in panic typically and quickly jumped behind a rock, "Everyone get down!!!!"

Marco and Luna, whom were about to help Issac, heard this declaration and instantly turned to where Leona was... They saw Enn charging his energy, and instantly knew they were in trouble. "WHOA!!!" With new vigor Luna and Marco ran over to where Issac was dueling with Exdeath's sword, grabbed him, and jumped for cover behind another boulder not too far off.

Exdeath growled when he felt the oncoming energy. "Delta Sheild!!!" Once his sword had returned, he quickly cast a magic circle shield between himself and Enn.

[DanteMGalileo]

And boy, Mheetu did recognize just what attack Enn was going to preform. It was something that made Volcano's Blaze-boosted Blast Burn look like a mere spark.

Okay, maybe he was exaggerating, but it was still one hell of a fire attack. And being the second smartest of his team, he knew when to back off. The shiny Luxio quickly canceled out his Iron Tail, and jumped to the side. He had no desire to be turned to ash at the moment.

Fomortiis' hands glew with a dark light, his ancient spell building in power, even causing the ground around him to rip and tear itself apart. He was experiencing another critical hit.

At last, his energy peaked, and the prince's eyes seemed to flash yellow. A powerful dark blast was fired from his hands, aimed directly at Enn, all the while accompanied with a yell from the possessed Lyon.

"DIE!!!!"

Miles, possessing what was easily in the running for the most brainpower in the group, knew it wasn't wise to attack right away. It would best best to wait until the dust settled, and attack in the confusion of the aftermath.

Factoring in the terrain they were fighting in, and taking into account the river, the gator Pokemon formed an idea that was pure genius, even for him.

The Feraligatr dived into the river, fighting the current with his species' innate strength and typing. He clawed at the mud of the banks, intending to go underground. It was a combination of two hide-then-strike attacks, Dive and Dig.

[gantzgun74]

[Since I have no clue what's going to happen, I'll just keep this post short.]

Enn growled at the oncoming attack, his empty eye sockets flaring with energy. Growling angrily, he allowed more energy to come into him...

Before...

"RAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

A familiar barrier of fire exploded out of Enn, quickly encompassing the area around him, before long, the sphere of fire energy collided with the beam of dark energy that the demon king had fired...

[DanteMGalileo]

Fomortiis' eyes seemed to be glowing yellow, his face in an expression of deep focus, his Demon Light colliding against Enn's fire sphere. He hated to admit it, but the undead warrior was a strong opponent.

... Not that he could ever compare to the one and only demon king himself! "Come, you miserable fool! Face your death!"

Miles claws his way through the soft banks the the river, eventually digging underground, under the very land itself. He positioned himself near Fomortiis, hidden by the earth above him. If his calculations were correct, the attacks should create and explosion pretty soon, a perfect opening for a Dig-Focus Punch combo on the possessed prince.

[gantzgun74]

Enn felt a wince come along when he felt the sudden increase of energy in the energy beam. Growling dangerously, he tried to increase his own energy output to try and match it. However, the attack had already been cast. If the Demon King's attack grew any stronger, he'd be in trouble. It was time to end this struggle while he still had the chance.

Growling angrily, he strained his energy sources as he prepared for this one last blast. This would hopefully end this clash before something bad happened. "Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr...!!!!!!"

The Demon King was probably quite surprised to find the skeleton seemingly charging yet ANOTHER explosion inside the one he had already launched; which would be quite the achievement considering that this attack had always seemed to drain him greatly whenever he used it. His growling suddenly reached a tempest, before he lunged both arms out in the direction of the Demon King. "RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

What happened next could be described in one simple word...

BOOM.

Fomortiis' beam attack had been canceled out, an area over 50 feet all around Enn had been scorched, and the skeleton was on his knees, and it looked like the undead creature was trying to catch his breath, even though such a thing was impossible. In truth, that last stunt put quite a dent in Enn's magic reserves, and had weakened him quite a bit.

From where she hid, Leona looked rather surprised. "E-Enn..."

[DanteMGalileo]

In what appeared to be the edge of the scorched area stood a lone figure, still hidden by the smoke. Whoever it was, even though it was clearly damaged by the attack, it was still standing strong. As the smoke cleared, it revealed...

A somewhat charred, and even slightly surprised, but still standing Fomortiis. The possessed prince was panting heavily, clearly regaining his strength from the massive attack. He took a moment to throw a sneer at the skeleton.

"Ha ha.... ha ha ha ha... You were a fool... to think you could challenge I... the Demon Ki-"

WHAM!!!

Fomortiis was quickly cut off by a large, blue scaled fist colliding with the back of his skull. Eyes widening in shock, one could see that there was no demon behind them.

Lyon collapsed to the ground, landing with a thud on the charred earth, face-first. The eighteen-year-old was clearly out cold, exhausted from the spells Fomortiis had made him cast, the strain he put their shared body under, and the punch was the fainting trigger.

Miles stood in plain view, his body slightly covered in earth, for he had just delivered a Dig attack on the dark magic user. Turning to Enn and Leona, he asked a simple question.

"... Are you two okay?"

[gantzgun74]

Enn looked up to see Miles take down Lyon (And to that extent Fomortiis), and would've let out a sigh of relief if he could breath. After a moment to regain his energy, he nodded to the crocodile creature. "Y-yes, we're fine." Leona quickly ran up, pulling what appeared to be a bottle out of her backpack.

With Marco, Issac, and Luna, they peeked their heads out from over the boulder they hid behind to see the result of that clash for themselves. "... Whoa..." Marco was clearly at a loss for words. "Holy kupo..."

Issac was in the same boat, "You got that right... That was almost as powerful as the summon spirit Ifrit's Hellfire spell..."

As for Luna, she gulped lightly, looking almost frightened. "That's a scary thought..."

BOOOOM!!!!!!

All three of the clan members were sent flying upward at that, as the River Shard fell out of Issac's pocket...

And right into the hands of the evil Tree, Exdeath, himself. "Hmph. That was almost more trouble then it was worth."

The three touched down with a tough thud; but Issac was back on his feet in an instant. Marco was as well, growling as he pulled out his hand cannon, while Luna prepared a summon spell. "Your... NOT... LEAVING HERE... WITH THAT GEM..." Issac's scathing comment barely caused Exdeath to flinch, but it still looked like he was ready to back up that claim.

[DanteMGalileo]

Noting that he seemed to be the only Pokemon still standing, Miles made an annoyed growl, wondering to Arceus himself why he had to deal with such incompetent teammates...

Okay, so Mheetu was probably still around, but considering the lion Pokemon's much lower stats, and likely his lower level, he wouldn't be surprised if the Luxio didn't have much fight left in him. (Or in video game terms, no more than a third of his health left)

With another growl, Miles pointed a single clawed hand at Exdeath, looking rather angry by this point.

"Hand it over, otherwise this might end up a little messy for you"

[Mheetu just went to go find Tua, who ran off a little earlier in this fight. In terms of health, he's around the 2/3-1/2 mark]

[gantzgun74]

With a grin, Exdeath looked between the once been defenders of the River shard, taking them in. "Heheheheh... Now why should I do that?" He put away the shard on his person having said that. "Do any of you here even believe you can defeat me?"

"We've been doing a pretty good job so far." Issac snarled as he prepared his two swords for battle. "What makes you think your so high and mighty?"

After a moment, another chuckle escaped Exdeath's form. "Because, unlike the 'so-called Demon-King'," He pointed to Lyon on the ground. "I have REAL power." A dark purple aura surrounded the man as he continued. "How do you think you can defeat a being that is merged with the souls of thousands upon thousands of evil spirits? All of the spirits power in me, ready to be used at a moments notice?" He let out another deep chuckle. "If you ask me, you are, as you mortals say, 'Up the creek without a paddle'."

Exdeath was quick to prove this as he charged and fired out a Thundaga spell. "Begone to the Void!"