You may have missed it, but I added in a highly detailed map of where everyone currently is in the war at the end of the last chapter. Please check it out!
PARAGON
Remnants of the Great War Arc [26]
Chapter 35 : Blood of the Slumbering Storm
Land of Rota - West of the Town of Rota
A shrill shriek swept through the valley like a hurricane, burning the ears of everyone within, friend and foe. All at once, everyone participating in the chaotic battle suddenly clapped their hands over their ears and sunk to the ground in pain. Pokémon on both sides shuddered and tipped over, unconscious, but those who could weather the hellish onslaught trembled where they stood, as Dragalge’s demented roar assaulted their bodies from within and without.
Riley was willing to try anything to shield himself from Dragalge, from both its overpowering stench and its incessant scream. Through the horrific vibrations that rumbled up from the shaking ground, Riley forced himself to focus as he conjured up small gouts of Aura, which he forced into his ear canals and up his nostrils.
Lucario grit his teeth beside his master, but upon seeing what he was doing, started to do the same.
Dragalge’s roar continued, but even with his senses dulled, the sound still made Riley feel like his head was being split in two. This wasn’t even an attack. This was simply a warcry to herald its arrival, and all who could not withstand it had no business remaining conscious in its royal presence.
Clearly, AZ had passed on the pride of his regal station to his beloved pokémon.
But that lofty arrogance also afforded Riley an opening, however small. Dragalge sat high in the sky, above the treeline of the forest surrounding them, and Riley was right below it, in its blind spot. Breathing through his mouth, he swallowed, and began creeping past it to attack from behind. Lucario hesitated, uncertain, but followed after his master a moment later.
Dragalge’s shadow rippled on the grass beneath then, a lattice of darkness that seemed to block out far more sunlight than its sinewy body suggested it could.
Just as they reached the edge of said shadow, another shadow passed over them. A Conkeldurr bore down on them, its concrete slab raised high above its head, ready to smash down on top of them.
Riley’s arm ignited with Aura and he reinforced his legs as well. He caught the concrete slab on his arm, and the ground cratered beneath his feet under its weight. He spun and let the slab roll off his arm onto the ground, before summoning an Aura Sphere in his other hand and launching it straight into Conkeldurr’s face. The brute stumbled back with a groan, and before it could recover, Lucario dashed out from behind Riley and shoved it backward with a solid thrust on his iron paws.
Its trainer, a hooded grunt, whistled. “You Guardians are no joke, eh?”
After hearing his voice, Riley realized Dragalge’s scream had stopped. He looked around the battlefield, but what he saw shocked him. Almost all of AZ’s men, and their pokémon, had gotten back up, but nearly half the Guardians remained defeated on the ground. Impossible! That scream was indiscriminate! AZ’s forces weren’t spared, so how?!
“Surprised?” His opponent mocked.
Riley turned back around to face the man, glaring. As much as he hated to admit it, clearly, his arrogance was warranted.
“You should know who you’re dealing with,” the man continued. “Faith in his Grace has gifted us all with purpose once again.”
“What are you saying?” Riley demanded. “Who are you?”
The man laughed, before slowly raising his hands and pulling off his hood. He looked to be in his forties or fifties, with a balding head of dirt-colored hair and lines across his forehead and around his mouth. “Do you recognize me?” he asked.
Riley’s eyes narrowed, and he shook his head.
The man chuckled. “Of course not. We’re the forgotten. The defeated. The ones that fell short.”
Riley glanced over at his Conkeldurr, at its bulging muscles and grim stare that showed no hint of fear. “You’ve been a trainer for a long time. Since you were a child, by the looks of your pokémon.” He glanced back over at the man. “You challenged the League circuit, but failed.”
The man grinned. “Only just. I earned the badges I needed and participated in the conference. It’s the same for all of us.” He raised his arms. “Every single one of us was a semifinalist or finalist of a League conference in the past! Do you know what that means, Guardian?”
Riley scowled, and Lucario shifted beside him, growling.
“It means we’re all Champion-level trainers! Or even greater, since we’ve all continued to hone our skills after meeting Lord Vandrick! He gifted us a new purpose, breathed life back into our defeated husks. And this purpose is far greater than any meaningless competition!”
“I think I’ve heard enough from you,” Riley said sharply.
Lucario blitzed forward, faster than the eye could follow, and landed a Force Palm in the center of the man’s chest. He didn’t even have time to react before flying backward and tumbling over himself, coming to a stop facedown on the ground, unmoving. Conkeldurr turned, but Lucario’s fist jetted out with a lightning-fast Brick Break to the throat, followed up by a furious Close Combat, then a Low Kick, and finally, an Aura Sphere at point-blank range. Conkeldurr fell back, arms and concrete slabs splayed out, its tongue lolling out of its mouth.
“Champion-level my ass,” Riley murmured. But that certainly did explain these grunts’ unusual fortitude and the disturbingly high average power level of their pokémon. Riley was one of the strongest Guardians in Rota and was confident he was competitive with a Champion, at least. But many were not, and with Dragalge’s scream, their numbers had already been culled in half.
And who was that ‘Lord Vandrick?’ One of AZ’s lieutenants, by the sound of it. Surely he was here now alongside his ancient master. Riley could only hope he wasn’t causing too many problems.
He wrinkled his nose and unclipped Aerodactyl’s pokéball once again. Once deployed, they would need to attack swiftly before Dragalge could respond. “Listen, Lucario. Here’s our plan,” he said.
Kalos Region - Shalour City
Salamence crashed through the front of the administrative building in a shower of plaster and glass, his tail raking across the walls, and he bellowed to herald his arrival. The lights above flickered as their wiring tumbled down from the ceiling, and Salamence spread his wings to declare his supremacy. This was his territory now, and any who approached would taste his fury.
Zinnia ran her fingers through her hair, pulling out stray bits of white plaster, and she clambered off of Salamence. Her eyes quickly took in her surroundings. The lobby of this place was empty, and she swiftly moved across the floor toward the supply cabinet that housed the secret entrance to the underground tunnel. Salamence stomped after her, but he remained wary of his rear. Their assailants would be right behind them in no time.
Zinnia ripped the closet door open. As expected, it looked like an ordinary supply closet, with boxes stacked up on shelves along the walls, and a faint scent of cleaning chemicals lingering in the air. She scanned the whole tiny room, but nothing leapt out to her as unusual. Surely there had to be a switch or some secret door that led down to the tunnel, but she really didn’t have time to be searching for it.
“Fuck it,” she said. “Bust through the floor, Salamence.”
As Zinnia slid out of the way, Salamence bashed through the door frame with a similar disregard for decorum as his trainer. Rearing his head back, he released a stream of smoking fire from his maw, burning straight through the linoleum floor. The fire alarms and sprinklers both started to go off outside, but Salamence didn’t let up.
“Alright, alright, that’s good!” Zinnia coughed, waving her hand in front of her face to dispel the smoke. She withdrew Salamence’s pokéball and recalled him.
Once the smoke had cleared enough, Zinnia stepped forward back into the room. Past the blackened hole, Zinnia could see faint service lights blinking along the walls of what appeared to be an elevator shaft right beneath her. She could also see hydraulic machinery lining the edges of the shaft just beneath the floor. It seemed the floor itself was the elevator. But there was no time, and now, no reason to go looking for a way to activate it.
Taking a breath in, Zinnia leapt down into the hole. The lights along the wall flashed against her face as she fell, and she hurled a pokéball down beneath her. It snapped open and materialized into Altaria’s pillowy form, and she landed safely on her dragon’s back.
“I’m awesome,” she muttered. “Take us down there, Altaria.”
Altaria obliged with a shrill coo that echoed off the walls of the elevator shaft, descending rapidly with gentle flaps of her cloudlike wings. The elevator shaft stretched down deeper than Zinnia expected, but before long, the ground emerged up from the darkness, and Altaria landed upon it softly. Zinnia climbed off, and they slowly stepped up out of the elevator shaft.
A breeze blew Zinnia’s hair across her face and she shivered. The tunnel was huge, and stretched left and right. Save for a line of dim service lights strung along the far wall, the entire tunnel was bathed in darkness. She glanced in both directions.
“I need a fucking compass.”
Altaria trotted over to the left and nodded her head down the tunnel.
“That way? Southwest?”
Altaria nodded, but her head suddenly whipped around.
From the pitch black right side of the tunnel, figures crept toward them. At first it was just a few, more more continued to emerge from the darkness. A second later, Zinnia heard footsteps to her left, and figures began approaching from the left side as well. They were boxed in, with the elevator shaft behind them. Zinnia moved back slowly, keeping her distance as they surrounded them silently.
“Creepy as shit,” she muttered, pulling out another pokéball. “But this is more like it.”
There had to be at least a hundred enemies gathered now, barring her from going down either side of the tunnel.
Zinnia released Tyrantrum beside her, and both he and Altaria narrowed their eyes at their enemies, sizing them up. Slowly, the figures began to deploy their own pokémon, and the cavern seemed to breathe with all the gathered power. Zinnia spared a glance at the elevator shaft behind her. If those grunts from before were anywhere close to as competent as her, then they should be arriving down here any minute now too.
“Stone Edge, Tyrantrum,” she commanded. “Seal up that hole.”
Tyrantrum snorted and stomped his clawed foot onto the ground. Three pillars of rock materialized behind him, smashing together and completely blocking out the elevator shaft.
None of the hundred grunts moved to stop them, and Zinnia smirked. Think I just cut off my own escape path? Well, I don’t expect that to hold anyway when the others finally catch up. Good thing this won’t take us long.
She sucked in a breath, and a frenetic grin split across her face. She slumped forward, arms hanging limp before her. “Yo! How about we make this a contest? Something like, ‘last woman standing is the winner?’”
None of the grunts moved, but their pokémon growled and gnashed their teeth, barely containing their adrenaline. The sight of them only aroused Zinnia’s battlelust even more.
“Well, I’m sure you guys had something like that in mind already anyways,” Zinnia continued. “A hundred versus one is a bit unfair… When you’re up against the Almighty Zinnia, even a thousand wouldn’t be enough! The time starts now! Perish Song, Altaria! HAHAHAHAHA!”
Altaria’s eyes turned blood red, and she screamed, scarlet lightning cracking against the stony walls and floor of the tunnel. Everyone, including Zinnia and her pokémon, shuddered upon hearing Altaria’s song. In three minutes, all who heard it would pass out. All Zinnia had to do was survive until then.
But merely surviving wasn’t her style.
“Kill her!” one of the grunts roared, and a moment later, the tunnel devolved into pandemonium.
Tyrantrum roared, and a fling of its tail sent a horde of hooded grunts flying back into the rocky wall of the tunnel. Azure Dragon Claws extended from his hands, and he swiped at a Rillaboom and an Arcanine. Meanwhile, Altaria plumed up to three times her normal size with a Cotton Guard, burying a throng of grunts and their pokémon beneath her, before unleashing a crackling Dragon Breath that swept a line of them off their feet.
Zinnia herself bounded forward, her eyes wild as she chose her target. A hooded acolyte close to her recoiled on instinct as she neared him, and he ordered his Sirfetch’d forward. But Zinnia didn’t slow in the slightest, pulling back her foot and punting the bird square in the face, launching it over the crowd. “Bye bye!” she squealed. Its trainer didn’t even have time to turn back around after following its trajectory before Zinnia grasped the back of his head and, using her full body weight and momentum, slammed it down onto the ground.
She landed in the center of a crowd of them, hunched over the fallen acolyte. They hesitated for a moment, perturbed at their target’s decision to charge straight into them when she was so grossly outnumbered. But a second later, fierce glares erupted across their hooded faces.
“Get her, Parasect!”
“Mach Punch, Infernape!”
“Break her neck!”
“Ambipom, grab her legs!”
Zinnia cackled as they closed in on her. As Infernape raced toward her, she slid between his legs, then vaulted over Parasect’s shell, narrowly avoiding its snapping pincers. Ambipom’s hand-tails swept over her head just as she ducked down into a crouch, and she laughed uncontrollably. So much adrenaline was coursing through her that her body didn’t even feel solid anymore. She was like a fire that coiled and stretched between her enemies, unable to be touched. But though she couldn’t be touched, she could burn.
“How is she so fast?!”
“Just get her!”
The throng of grunts screamed as Tyrantrum burst through their lines, tossing them into the air with his mottled head, and shielding Zinnia from any further assault. He stood over her protectively, eyeing down each and every one of the remaining pokémon who dared to keep their sights on his master.
Zinnia clenched her fist and grit her teeth, turning up at him. “These guys were mine! Go back over there, this is my area!”
Tyrantrum grunted and took a step back apologetically. As a Medicham tore toward them, he quickly whipped his head around and caught it in his jaws. His teeth blazed black with a Crunch, and he crushed it. Before he could finish it, however, its trainer recalled it. Tyrantrum turned back toward Zinnia and fixed her with a look that said, you sure you’re okay?
“Don’t insult me,” Zinnia growled.
Tyrantrum nodded, then tramped off toward the trainer with the Medicham.
A Fire Blast from Altaria on the other side of the tunnel lit up the side of Zinnia’s face as she stood up. The pokémon that’d been prowling around her but kept their distance because of Tyrantrum now started moving toward her again, their trainers already defeated. The Infernape and Ambipom circled her sides, and the Parasect slowly crept up from behind. The Sirfetch’d waddled forward with a ruined spot on its head where Zinnia had kicked it, glaring her down and gripping its sword with obvious hatred.
Zinnia reached into her cloak and withdrew a thin black rod, amethyst grains twinkling on its smooth surface. She squeezed the rod, and it suddenly extended down to the floor and above her head. She inhaled and crouched low, twirling it to her side.
“Aghhh!” she wailed as she was once again batted to the ground. Zinnia, aged eight, clutched her bruised forehead as a tear began to well in the corner of her eye.
The cool grass and coarse wind of the Draconid Village should’ve, and would’ve been a comfort for young Zinnia. But today was training day. Which meant she had absolutely no time to enjoy even that.
“Don’t cry, Zinnia. Get up. Let’s go again.” Her instructor walked toward her, the wooden staff that had bruised her countless times still gripped in his practiced hand.
She hated him. She hated that sleeveless uniform that he forced her to wear too. He hated his stupid monkish hairstyle that made him look like a Dipplin. And she hated those thin eyes of his that seemed to judge and disparage her every action. And even more infuriatingly, he’d just told her not to cry, but she hadn’t been planning on crying in front of him anyway!
She stood back up, smoothly wiping her tear away with her arm as she snatched her own staff back up from the ground. As she shifted back into ready position, as she had done so many times now, she glared at him, determined to knock him down this time. For once. Not that it was likely, though, since he was ten years her senior.
He smiled and readied himself as well. “You know, this wouldn’t last so long if only you arrived on time. You could be out playing with Aster by now.”
Zinnia didn’t respond. She was busy looking for a weakness, and his drivel wasn’t helping her find one. Her eyes narrowed as she found his knee. It was pointed outward at her. It would probably hurt a lot if she smacked it really hard.
“AHHHHH!” she hollered, charging at him.
He spun his staff and his smile vanished instantly, back in battle mode. As Zinnia raised the staff over her head, ready to slam its haft into his kneecap with both hands, he jabbed her in the shoulder at lightning speed, then swept her off her feet. She crashed to the ground on her side, and her staff clattered on top of her.
He sighed and sat down on the grass, placing his staff in his lap. “I don’t think I ever taught you to do that.” The wind whistled through the bamboo forest around them as they both remained unmoving where they were. “I know you’re impatient, Zinnia, but you must learn the basics. Without them, how do you ever hope to forge, much less wield a true Draconid staff of your own? You want to become a Dragon Master, right?
Zinnia didn’t respond. Instead, her hand found the end of her staff, and, still lying on her back, she jammed it toward her instructor. Its other end found its way between his legs, and his scream summoned nearly the entire village to the hillside where they’d been training.
She was banned from entering Meteor Falls for a month.
In the end, Zinnia hadn’t even remembered her instructor’s name. But, the lessons he’d imparted had stuck around. Some longer than others, but eventually, all the bruises across her body had faded.
The Draconids followed the old ways, from before the Great War. From the age when men and pokémon fought against each other for scarce resources and land. Nowadays, it was a taboo for people to attack pokémon. But the Draconids held no such belief. Pokémon were beasts with power, and it was out of respect for that wild power that they met them with force. That meant learning to spar with them personally. For when the Draconids did battle, they battled beside their pokémon, not behind them.
As the enemy Infernape, Ambipom, Parasect, and Sirfetch’d circled Zinnia, several nearby grunts who’d been focusing on her rampaging pokémon turned toward her, deathly curious of how the girl planned to get herself out of this one. She didn’t look scared in the slightest. If anything, her stillness, the way she held her staff as if it were an extension of her own body, and the analytical gaze she swept over her attackers suggested the exact opposite. She was determined to defeat them all. By herself.
The Infernape started the brawl, seemingly unable to contain its rage for a moment longer. It beat its fists against the ground, before lunging forward with an enraged screech.
Zinnia’s eyes flicked over in an instant, and her staff shot toward the ape. As Infernape roared, the staff caught it in the throat, and before it could even choke out a cough, Zinnia had swung the staff around and bashed it across the face, sending it flying back into a throng of grunts.
A storm of bright yellow spores sputtered toward Zinnia, but she rolled, and dived into the crowd. AZ’s acolytes shrieked as she ran through their lines, using them as a barrier wall between herself and Parasect. The Stun Spore settled on the ground harmlessly in front of them, but Zinnia shoved herself into them, knocking them straight into the substance. A few twitched and screamed, but did not get back up.
Parasect tried to scuttle back as Zinnia closed in on it, but she loosened her grip on her staff and let it sail between her fingertips, before tightly locking her fingers back around the staff just before it left her hand. With her extended grip, she slammed it down on Parasect from a distance, and the crab collapsed down on its own fragile legs, a deep crack in its shell where the staff had landed.
Since Zinnia now only gripped the staff at its end, leaving her control over it inhibited, Ambipom found its moment to strike, hurling a volley of five-pointed stars down at Zinnia. Zinnia sensed the Swift from behind and reacted immediately, diving behind Parasect’s defeated body, leaving her staff on the ground. The Swift impacted against the crab’s body, releasing flashes of light, and Zinnia whipped her head away so she wouldn’t be blinded.
Your staff is a symbol, her instructor had told her once. Think of it as a part of you just as much as your pokémon are. It is the sole distinction between a Draconid, and any other ordinary trainer. Is that what you are, Zinnia? An ordinary trainer?
She glanced out from behind Parasect at her staff on the ground. Ambipom wasted no time scurrying over, and a second later, it seized the staff in one of its tail-hands.
You fucking monkey! Zinnia cursed. She leaped out from behind Parasect.
Ambipom scampered back, deftly twirling the staff in its hands to keep it as far from Zinnia as possible. With it secured, Ambipom slung its other tail forward, its fist hardened for a Double Hit.
Zinnia blitzed forward, closing the distance between them in a matter of moments, but even she wasn’t faster than the tenacious monkey. The attack caught her in her side when she was mere inches from it. Agony blossomed on her side like ink in water, and she immediately felt a couple of her ribs break beneath the pressure.
Ambipom smirked, waving Zinnia’s staff behind itself mockingly.
Zinnia grit her teeth and lunged forward, over Ambipom’s shoulder. Her fingers grazed her staff, then both her hands closed around it. With all her might, she hurled the staff over her head, taking Ambipom with it. The accumulated momentum was just enough to fling it off, and it released its grip, rolling in the air and landing several meters away. Zinnia planted her staff into the ground and spun around it, landing into a crouch beside it, holding it like it was her child. Her breathing was heavy, and she glared at Ambipom as it turned back toward her.
She slowly rose, then ripped her staff out of the ground and leveled it at the monkey. The glittering twinkles on the surface of the staff, that looked like stars in a pitch black ocean, began to glow brighter.
“Dragon Pulse!” Zinnia roared.
Azure light burst from the tip of the staff, crackling and roaring through the air and hitting Ambipom square in that chest. It squealed as it flew back, and it landed unconscious, a scorch mark smoking on its chest.
The grunts who had stopped to watch glanced between themselves nervously. What was going on? What should they do? This woman was completely beyond their expectation. They did not even want to release anymore of their pokémon. Should they charge her themselves?
Fools, Zinnia thought. You guys obviously don’t know the first damn thing about each other or each other’s pokémon. How the hell did you think you’d be able to beat me with a gank as disjointed as this?
The final pokémon, the Sirfetch’d stepped forward stoically. Out of some sense of misplaced honor, it seemed to dislike the idea of ganging up on her, and it raised its sword in challenge, requesting something like a duel instead.
Zinnia scoffed. Did this stupid bird even see what was going on around it? Nonetheless, a grin stretched across her face as she lowered herself for another charge. “Fine.”
Sirfetch’d shield cracked and its sword snapped in two with a single swing of Zinnia’s staff, and she once again threw herself into the frenzy of battle. The grunts shook themselves from their stupor and they deployed more of their pokémon. A Kommo-o, a Charizard, a Dragonite. They had lots of dragon-types. Or maybe those were the only ones Zinnia bothered to take note of as she flit through their ranks. Her Dragon Pulses cleaved rays of ice and columns of fire in twain, and those unfortunate enough to be introduced to her staff physically were all taken out in a single hit.
The dance of a Draconid was as graceful to the dancer as it was ruthless to the audience. Zinnia felt no pain as she weaved and rolled and slid between her attackers. Contrary to the chaos boiling around her, her mind seemed to turn off as she let herself be puppeted by her years of training, her body moving off of nothing more than pure instinct.
She couldn’t say exactly how much time went by…okay, no actually, she pretty much could. It was nearly three minutes later when Zinnia realized there were no more enemies standing around her. And since she was still conscious, it meant Altaria’s Perish Song hadn’t yet descended. The silence and darkness of the tunnel once again closed around her, and she slowly turned to face Altaria and Tyrantrum, who both stood triumphant atop the defeated horde. With her sweat-soaked hair matted to her face and neck, she smiled at them.
Just before the Perish Song took her, she released one more pokémon.
Zinnia’s eyes flickered open. Luckily, there was no need for them to adjust, since the tunnel was already so dark. Before she saw him, she heard Tyrantrum’s breathing as he stood watch over her.
She was laying down, and upon realizing so, sat up.
Pain burned her side, and she cried out involuntarily. Now that the battle had ended and her adrenaline had calmed, her broken ribs were all too apparent. Altaria’s soft wing cushioned her from behind, and she leaned forward to alleviate the pressure on her damaged ribs. She closed her eyes and took several deep breaths. Guess that Johto trip isn’t happening any time soon, she thought glumly.
She looked to her side and saw her staff lying on the ground parallel to her, and breathed a sigh of relief. She collapsed it and put it back in her cloak. Next, she looked right in front of her, and saw Aster, standing motionlessly on the cold, rock floor, her gaze aimless. Zinnia smiled and brushed the top of her head with her knuckle. “Thanks as always, Aster.” Although Aster never partook in the violent ceremony, her role’s importance in the dance was paramount. When Altaria initiated her Perish Song, it was up to little Aster to wake them all when the clock struck zero. And she always handled her duty perfectly.
Zinnia stood and recalled Aster once more. Across the dimly lit ground were scores of fallen acolytes and their pokémon alike. Now that she had calmed, Zinnia was honestly a little unnerved at the sight of it. It looked like the scene of a massacre. Zinnia had encountered severe numbers disadvantages before, but this had to have been the largest by far. There were at least a hundred acolytes on the ground, and even more pokémon, leaving the ground riddled with hundreds of fallen foes. They weren’t dead, of course, but their current condition couldn’t exactly be described as ‘asleep.’
Once again, Aster’s role, her power, was of paramount importance. Only she could reverse the perishing.
But, despite the gruesome scene, Zinnia didn’t regret it in the slightest. Each grunt and their pokémon had been strong. Zinnia hadn’t pulled any punches, and she’d still ended up injured. They were no pushovers.
Zinnia glanced over at the elevator shaft and saw that the Stone Edge barrier had been breached, but the bodies of a Manectric and Weavile were slumped atop the broken rock.
Tyrantrum rumbled beside Zinnia, and the girl smiled. Their pursuers must have arrived while she was down, but her pokémon had handled them easily as they came through the bottleneck. With that, they were free to advance without needing to look over their shoulders.
“Thanks, guys, get some rest now, ‘kay?” she said as she pulled out their pokéballs. After returning them, she once again deployed Salamence.
The dragon tried his best to avoid stomping on anyone, and nudged the body of a grunt aside with his foot to gain some solid footing. He swiveled his head around to face his master, and Zinnia saw his sharpened eyes narrow when he saw her clutching her side. But he made no further acknowledgement of it, facing forward again and lowering himself so she could mount.
Carefully, Zinnia pulled herself onto his back and turned around so she could lean back against his neck. She exhaled and patted his warm hide. “Southwest, Salamence. Toward Geosenge.”
Salamence snorted and turned, rising into the air with a few flaps of his wings. For a formerly subterranean species, this place was just like his home in the depths of Meteor Falls. Without delay, he shot down the tunnel, into the oppressive gloom.
Next — Chapter 36 : King and Servant
Not sure if I got the pacing right for this chapter but we move.
