On Lifted Wings

The small landmass he had landed on wasn't too big, big enough to potentially hold a few valuables, but not so big that it would take a long time to scour it. There was the wreckage of a small building near the middle, with a cliff face where the ground was jammed upward, collapsing part of the building and revealing the inside of the landmass to the open air. The building itself was partially intact, a two story building of some sort. The entrance was spared the case of "suddenly cliff" but had otherwise seen better days. For now, he would check out the cliff face. More opportunities to find valuables from beneath the ground when they've been thrust into the open.

Sure enough, sitting well in view was a rainbow colored stone wedged in the dirt. Pulling out his portable pickaxe, Rik took care of the rock holding fast to the stone, allowing him to slip the small stone right out. Without warning, part of the wall would begin crumbling down as Rikkan jumped back in alarm. Thankfully the wall didn't collapse entirely, but perhaps it would be best to leave the cliff alone after that. The wall was not the only thing to be disturbed by the near-collapse, however, as an angry shrill cry rang out and a Skarmory leapt from atop the cliff, diving down toward Rik in rage. Pulling a pokeball out of his pocket, Rik sidestepped the metal bird and threw out the ball, releasing a Riolu. "Freyr, help me out here." The Riolu let out a shrill bark in agreement, turning to stare down the Skarmory, who had since turned back around, landing near the two of them.

On Wings Ablaze

Without waiting, the bird pokemon leapt forth, its wings glowing white with a Steel Wing meant for Freyr. Instead of remaining still, though, the Riolu leapt to the side as the Skarmory drew near, evading the attack. "Good! Now, Vacuum Wave." Focusing himself for a moment, Freyr charged up a bit then suddenly spun around like a pirouette, arcing his leg up in the spin, causing a wave of energy to fly forth toward the retreating bird, striking it with a solid blow. One attack would not deter the angry Skarmory, however, and it came back around for another pass. This time it would slow itself down, lashing out with it's claws and taking Freyr by surprise, managing to nab him with a Metal Claw before taking off again. "Shit!" For a moment he considered calling Valfalk, but paused. Freyr should be able to handle this, and if not, there's a lot of air between here and the mountain range below to correct his mistake.

"Break free with Sky Uppercut!" As the Skarmory carried him higher and higher, Freyr began to focus himself once more, focusing his energy into his paw before finally releasing it upward into the Skarmory's chest, surprising it and causing it to let go. The Riolu fell back down to the landmass, Rikkan moving to catch him. red"Nice one. This thing isn't too much for you." But the metal bird wasn't done with them yet. It turned back around, diving down toward them and opening its beak to release a stream of stars while Freyr was still in Rik's arms. The Ranger held up his arm to shield himself and Freyr with the chainmail in his haori, but the Riolu had another idea. He leaped from Rikkan's arms to the ground, causing the Swift to divert away from Rikkan, but as they approached, Freyr leapt into the air, suddenly swirling through the Swift, finding a way through the stars with Detect as the stars collided harmlessly with the ground.

Keeping his momentum going, Freyr spun around once more, throwing another Vacuum Wave at the opponent, then dashing through the air even further with a Bullet Punch. Both strikes would find their mark, throwing the Skarmory off balance and causing it to crash into the ground, Freyr landing nearby. The bird quickly scrambled back into the air to get away. "Wow, that was impressive, Freyr! Keep it up and you'll be winning battles in no time." For a moment, the rainbow stone in Rik's pocket had begun to shine faintly, but just as quickly died down once more...

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Claiming the Keystone

Once the situation was over, Rikkan turned his attention to the small, decrepit building that lay before him. "Let's try our luck in there." Freyr walked along, hopping over rubble to keep up as they approached the ruined building. Opening the front door out of respect to the previous owners of the building, he passed through the doorway and entered into a large lobby of sorts, with a desk that seemed to be covered in rubble. Rikkan glanced over toward the section of the building that had been collapsed by the cliff, and through a few broken walls, he could see part of the cliff wall sure enough. As he moved toward the collision point, something shiny caught his eye, something shiny and dark.

Rikkan would point toward it, and Freyr would go bounding over to it, nimbly jumping through the debris to find the dark stone. The Riolu grabbed it and turned back to return to Rik when suddenly an object slammed through the ceiling, landing just behind the Riolu. A Sawk had apparently busted through the ceiling, though for why he could not tell. Rikkan let out a whistle, startling the Riolu out of his surprise, and Freyr would leap back over to his trainer. The Sawk gave Rikkan a glance and held its hands together, giving him a short bow, suddenly adopting a combat stance, a serious look in its expression. Rikkan quickly figured out what it wanted. "Ahh." The ranger would return the bow and pull out another pokeball. Freyr was still hurt from his previous battle, so someone fresh would have to do this time.

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Claiming the Gengarite

Sparring Grounds

"Very well. Let's go, Pip." With the toss of a pokeball, a Charmander would emerge before Rikkan, eyeing the Sawk curiously. "Dragon Dance." Pip was of a notable breed of Charmander, known for putting out strong children, and Pip was no exception. The small fire type planted his feet and let out a roar, minor in comparison to what his kin could do, but all the same hyping himself up for battle. the Sawk wasted no time, either, lunging forward, its arms up and ready to fight. Pip jumped to the side as it approached, but the Sawk managed to spin to the side at the last moment, clipping the Charmander with a Karate Chop, throwing Pip back a few feet, managing to land on his feet.

"Remember the training. Move in." Gathering his strength, Pip charged up for a moment before leaping forward with a full power headbutt, a menacing draconic aura surrounding him as he struck the Sawk with a powerful Dragon Rush. The Sawk threw up its arms quickly, but the damage was still major, shoving it back quite a ways, throwing up some rubble and a lot of dust. A sizable cloud of dust now obstructed part of the battlefield, and the opponent vanished into it, seemingly masking its footsteps for a surprise attack. "Brace yourself..." Pip gave his trainer a nervous nod, the Charmander was used to training when he could see the opponent, but the tension of waiting for an unseen attack was powerfully unnerving.

At last, a footstep would betray the Sawk's location. " Three o'clock! Counter!" The cloud of dust had begun to thin out and envelope much of the room, spreading around them, allowing the Sawk to get to their flank and lunge forth with a devastating Close Combat. but with his trainer's response, Pip was able to turn to his right and brace himself with a Counter technique. The Sawk was already too close and unable to pull away from its attack, however, and struck hard, dealing a heavy blow to Pip, but that damage would soon come back to it as Pip released its technique, sending a shockwave of power into the Sawk, throwing it through a decrepit wall. Jumping back to his feet quickly, Pip started charging up for another Dragon Rush. "Hold."

Stopping the charge, the Charmander looked up at Rikkan quizzically. He knew to listen to his trainer, though, and sure enough when Pip turned to look at the opponent, the Sawk was glowing with a reddish aura. Pip knew not what this was, but his trainer must know. For a few moments, the two pokemon stared each other down, the Sawk with a calm fury, Pip with an expression of curiosity. Eventually the aura would fade, and the Sawk would stumble forward, regaining its balance a moment later. It would lunge forward once again, slightly annoyed at how its trick was foiled, but Pip was ready. "Air Cutter." A particularly difficult move for Charmander to learn, it could only really learn it from a parent at a young age. Pip would charge up with silverish energy before yelling out, summoning silvery blades of wind to fly forth and strike down the Sawk.

For a moment the fighting type lay on the floor before finally crawling to its feet. Pip readied itself for more battle, but the Sawk straightened up, bowing once more, Rikkan returning the bow. Suddenly, the Sawk would leap over Pip, leaping back to the hoel it came from and jumping back up into it to the second floor. "Well. That was fun." Meanwhile, Freyr was having his own adventure. Still clutching the shadowy orb from before, he had started climbing around the rubble in the area, looking for other knick knacks he could bring back to Rik. Sure enough, another small object turned up, this one an angular crystal emitting a chilling energy. The Riolu would grab the crystal and continue his search.

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Claiming the Icium-Z

Though there seemed to be a bit more wind coming through, the building didn't seem too shaken up by the portion of destroyed wall. Even so, discretion is the better part of valor, and Rik turned to leave the building, returning Pip as he went. Perhaps the cliff was indeed a better area to check out. Before he could get anywhere past the doorway though, a hefty object suddenly slammed into the island a short distance away. The small crater it left upon impact seemed to indicate that it had fallen quite a ways, possibly from space. Was it a meteorite? Rikkan walked closer to the object only for it to suddenly float up, "turning" to face him, or at least it appeared so. Maybe it was a pokemon? He hadn't heard of this one if it was...

Rampant Fallacy

Suddenly it began spinning and rushed straight for him, causing Rik to sidestep as it passed. Pokemon it is. Quickly pulling out a pokeball, he opened the ball for a Honedge to appear. "I don't like the looks of this thing. Iron Head, Brisingr." The Honedge rushed forward without hesitation, attempting to slam into the floating rock with its blade edge, landing a strike with ease. The rock would be thrown a fair distance away, spinning out of control for a moment before it finally righted itself. It rushed toward the Honedge, but as it would have struck the ghost pokemon, it merely phased right through, spinning straight through the other side, taking a moment before turning back around. "A Normal type attack..."

This time it would lower itself to the ground, suddenly spinning and throwing up dirt behind it before flying forward, slamming into Brisingr like a billiards ball. The Honedge didn't seem to take the hit badly, merely shrugging it off. ""Hit it from behind." Brisingr would remain still, seemingly in defiance of his orders, however instead his shadow would begin extending toward the floating rock, the foe unawares of what was happening. Before the foe could realize, Brisingr would fade out of existence and appear behind the foe, slamming it into the ground with dark energy. As Rikkan was entertaining this uninvited guest, Freyr was once again exercising dilligence and doing the treasure hunting on his own.

Harmless Fun

Having placed down his current items in a safe place outside, he started to check along the cliff wall for any more goodies, having to leap up and down across the cliff to scour it completely. As he leaped from one part of the cliff face to another, he would find a small gold bump sitting within the wall. Holding onto the wall with his feet and one paw, Freyr would get to work digging out the object with the other paw, finding it to be a rather enormous golden nugget. Judging by how Rikkan reacted when finding smaller versions of this kind of thing, he should be really happy to find such a massive one! He continued to pull at the dirt around it as the battle raged on below, finally pulling it loose, causing the large gold nugget to roll out of the socket and fall rather quickly, landing with a heavy thud.

Suddenly, the portion of dirt he was clinging to would come loose, causing Freyr to fall down to the ground as well, falling onto his back. sitting up and rubbing his head, the Riolu got back up and turned to look at the nugget, leting out a shrill bark in triumph. Now if only it was so easy to move... Out of nowhere, a small bird pokemon would land near him, startling the Riolu. For a moment he thought he would have to fight, but the Delibird would wave its wing, shaking its head. "Uh?" The bird reached into its sack and pulled out some sort of stone that glittered like a rainbow. Surprisingly, the bird held it out toward Freyr. "Merry Christmas! Sorry I'm late! I'd take it straight to your trainer, but he seems to be busy." The Riolu nodded with a smile. "Okay, thanks!" The bird pokemon wasted no time in jumping back into the air, probably to deliver its next gift as Freyr ran to place the rainbow stone with the rest of the items he had collected.

As Freyr returned to the golden nugget and proceded to roll it over to Rikkan, Brisingr would gaze down at the stone pokemon, now embedded in the ground from his Shadow Sneak."Is that it?" As if on cue, the stone would begin to crack down the middle. The cracks spread around the stone before finally shattering apart, a small blue shape rising out of the remains of the stone. This Pokemon was full of surprises, it seemed. It bobbed back and forth at a far faster pace than before, likely much faster now that it's unhindered by its rocky armor. Brisingr's aim was perfect, however, and this thing wouldn't be able to outspeed the Honedge's aim. "It's armor is gone, finish it off with Iron Head." Taking aim, Brisingr would rush toward the rock pokemon once more, anticipating its juking to slam it with a direct hit, throwing it with such immense force that it becamse even more deeply embedded into the cliff wall.

"Heh, little too much there, bud." With a smile, he would pull out a pokeball to return the Honedge. Suddenly, Rikkan would feel something pulling at his hakama. Turning down he would find a grinning Riolu with a rather large chunk of gold beside it, almost half Freyr's size. "Whoa... You hit the jackpot there, kiddo! But where is that dark stone you picked up?" Freyr would nod and run off to retrieve the stones and crystal he had set down as Rikkan picked up the gold nugget, pocketing it. That's when he heard it. The sound was all too familiar to him, several opponents had used it way back in the war. A high pitched squealing noise, and beams of light shooting out of the hole the opponent had become embedded in. Embedded..... Within an instant, a cold chill ran clear up Rikkan's spine. The Explosion was going to crack this island open like a nut.