The MOUNTAIN Team

The wind was gusty and chilling as it whipped over the rocky ridge of a nameless mountain to the west of Blackthorn City. Above the treeline, there were few obstacles to the raging wind; it blustered easily over the craggy stones and tugged at the sparse bushes and bracken of the bleak terrain.

In the white, even light of an overcast sky, something rather like a yellowish blur came to a halt on the windy ridge. The cool wind tugged at her long, pale fur and nine tails, but did not affect the temperature of the elegant fox pokemon. Ujue the ninetails surveyed the rocky region above the treeline and the forested land in the deep, forested valleys spread around her. Rather disjointedly, she noted that the pads on her small, lithe paws ached, and that she would probably have to eat soon. At a slower pace, she set off down the side of the mountain to find, if nothing else, a shelter in the trees to get out of the wind.

As she walked, Ujue remained alert to any sounds of movement around her, but tried not to think about the source, or her own bodily needs, at all. After that day in Mahagony[sp] Town, that horrible, cursed day when Ujue first witnessed the toll of the undead, she rarely stopped running. After her beloved trainer Shaena’s death, before the outbreak, she took up the habit of running only where her feet took her; now, after the outbreak, she kept running because stopping meant that she had to engage herself, had to observe the world in which she couldn’t scent the wary forest pokemon anymore, only the stench of the undead. She had to observe that her own fur, which should be a gentle and elegant ivory gold, was covered with ash and burnt flesh from the most efficient way she could completely destroy the undead pokemon with her fire-type moves: use Flamethrower until their bodies were brittled and charred on the outside, then quick-attack to break them into burnt, bloody, decaying pieces. . . . The wind stank like decay . . . and she was so, so alone . . . better to run than live in this world

But for now, Ujue tired. She searched for a mountain stream to was of the grime clinging to her fur--since there was probably infected flesh on her, she couldn’t wash herself off properly for fear of becoming infected. Flame worked too, but she had to raise such a blaze that it attracted curious undead pokemon for miles around, an experience that she never wanted to repeat again.

Finally, through the quiet woods, she spotted it: a stream! It smelled clean and cold, like a glacier, and it was the aqua blue of glacial water. Ujue greedily lapped at the water before wading into it. After a time, Ujue splashed back to shore and lay on the soft moss. She was hungry, but for now, a sleep like black velvet curled around her senses. . . .


***A/N: Unlike most fire pokemon, Ninetails can swim.***

Kringle felt slightly sad at the thought of leaving the ice caves, the cold temperature left him nostalgic and wanting to stay. But during these infected times it was never a good idea to stay somewhere too long, especially since he could faintly hear the roars and thrash of an enraged pokemon in the depths of the cavern. He didn’t chance checking it out, even if it wasn’t an infected, if it was loud enough to be heard then it obviously didn’t want company. He did however cut off some of the ice that was covering the floor, he currently had squished a berry from his sack and put the juice over the ice, he like his frozen concoction, he made a mention note to revisit that cavern in the future with more berries.

The mountainous area outside of the cave almost made him walk back into the icy cave, he hated navigating rocky areas, luckily there where trees more towards the bottom. He figured the distance would be better off used flying than walking down those jagged trails. It was a great idea too, because from the air he could see a river coming from the ice cavern area, the water should be cold because of it. He lands next to the stream and tightly ties his sack to himself before flying over the river to cannonball into the water. It was days like this that made him appreciate his wandering lifestyle. He lazily made his way down the river forgetting about life’s problems and the infected for a while. He would have let the current take him all the way if he hadn’t seen a Ninetails next to the stream, it was oddly still. He wondered if it was dead, if it was asleep then it didn’t wake up when he walked up to it, so being a slightly mischievous delibird that he was, he figured he’d poke it and be prepared to run if it woke up.

Kyu sat on a thick branch of one of the trees near the stream as she watched the Ninetails fall asleep. It was odd to see a fire type splashing about in the water like that, who knew if the water carried an infection too? Ah well- she can find that out later by watching the Ninetails, but now her attention was at the Delibird.

Kyu jumped out of her post, landing near the Delibird. "Hey- I don't think you should bother her. She needs rest." Kyu eyed the Delibird carefully. "What's your name? You're from the ice caves, yes?" she asked, picking up the frozen scent the ice caves have.

A small form strayed in the bushes near where the Ninetales lay. It's small body every so often gave off a small spark. Arashi the Joltik was shy and secluded every since his trainer died in front of him and he didn't have the courage to go near the sleeping form. So instead the curious little spider lurked among bushes praying he would be safe. He surely was small enough to be looked over by bigger Pokemon.

A sweet scent drifted to Arashi's awaiting scent glands and he looked up to a large tree above him. Oran berries hung at the very top and, since he hadn't eaten in days, his stomach protested his thoughts to not pursue the berries. Quickly he scuttled over to the tree and looked up. He pondered how he would climb up the tree and without much more thought he launched Electroweb on a branch near the berries and proceeded to climb his web to get them. A voice made him look around curiously and he noticed a Furret with a strange looking scarf talking to a Delibird. He couldn't make out what they were saying but another thought occurred to the bashful little spider. Arashi grabbed four Oran berries and, using his Electroweb once more he made a sort of make shift bag to carry them down with.

The berries were heavy and his body was too small to carry such a heavy weight quickly so instead of the usual couple seconds it would take Arashi to trek back to the ground, it took him a couple minutes. Slowly he crept over to the Pokemon and gently tugged on Kyu's leg. He didn't know what compelled him to do so but thought it was obviously the fact that he didn't have the capability to be mean and him eating and not the others seemed rude to little Arashi.

"Excuse me but I saw everyone over here and thought you may like some food. He unwrapped his web and laid three of the Oran berries on the ground. The fourth he kept beside him. "My name is Arashi." Arashi nudged the berries forward and began nibbling on his. This was quite a meal for him considering that the Oran berry was two times his size.

Dirt and rock flew in all directions as Ahriman burrowed through the earth a several feet below the mountains west of Blackthorn city. Digging was always faster than travelling normally and the earth was full of the living ground-types that thought they'd escape his wrath by digging.

The Kabutops didn't utter a sound as his twin scythes flew. Suddenly he stopped, he could hear the echo of beating hearts bounce down to him from the surface. Without a second Ahriman shot towards the surface, blood-red eyes unwavering as his dead muscled worked.
Finally with an almighty heave, the infect burst through the soft top-soil and into the glaring midday sun. He was in the foothills of some mountain overlooking a forest, names had never meant much to him before or after his infection.

Inhaling deeply, he took in the scent of the living nearby. Ahriman let out a loud, demonic hiss as he discovered what had been here. Bug-type! A dying memory at the back of his mind told of the infected Pinsir that had killed him. In his rage Ahriman left scythe glowed black as he used Nightslash to slice through a nearby boulder.

And then with a battle cry that hadn't been heard in millions of years, the infuriated Kabutops dove back underground and began burrowing towards the forest at the speed of a sprinting Rapidash.Trees crashed to the forest floor as he cut through their roots leaving a trail of destruction in the wake of the ancient hunter as he raced towards the source of the heartbeats and the insect-smell. One thought passed through the infected creatures mind, Slaughter...them

Ujue felt like her head was made of lead; she was disoriented and extremely groggy. A headache bogged down her thoughts as she began to wake up after nearly blacking out on the bank of the stream. She slowly became aware of sounds around her . . . were they echoing weirdly? No, that was just her . . . Her ears twitched and she stirred, picking up her head, giving a little shake, and opening her eyes. She blinked at the scene around her and the scents hit her nose.--- Delibird and ice -- huge scarved furret and forest -- little bug creature and oran berries -- ice pokemon in forest----Ujue surged to her feet and jumped back, away from the group, in one motion. She raised her lips slightly, not completely showing her fangs, and kept one ear towards the ice pokemon and an odd rumbling in the distance.

"Who are you?" said Ujue warily. I felt weird using her voice after a long period of silence. She was still confused. Questions stirred her mind. How long was I asleep? . . . how far did I run? "And who's the one over there?" the tilted her heads toward some bushes, where the hiding pokemon was. "What's that rumbling sound?"

He was slightly irritated that the furret had stopped him from poking the apparently sleeping pokemon. It was friendly though, so that was a good thing, but looks can be deceiving, he would have to let his presents decide for him. But apparently the riverbed had suddenly become a hotspot for wandering pokemon, first the previously sleeping ninetails, then the furret with a scarf, and finally a bite sized bug type named Arashi offering berries he’d found. He sort of expected for a large sign to appear from the ground with “POKEMON GATHERING HERE” written on it based on this many gathering so quick. He wanted to answer them immediately but he lived by the word of his presents, so he reached into his bag, he didn’t need to, but he liked to make it look as though it was full, and pulled out a few glowing orbs based on the number of people there where around. He didn’t know why, but his orbs always seemed to come out the same color as the pokemon they were meant for. Kringle thrusted the brown one into the furret’s hand, the yellow one he placed in front of the bud, and the red one given to the fire one, it was strange though, there were three other pokemon around, but 4 glowing orbs came out. Kringle ended up tossing the last orb, a white one, into a nearby bush, maybe someone can come by later and get it.

Kringle crouched down and covered his head for almost a minute, but it was strange, none of the present exploded, instead the glowing orb had dissipated to reveal a berry in each of their hands. A Sitrus berry in the furret’s hand, a chesto berry for the fox, and a leppa berry for the smallest one, it was odd that not one of theirs had exploded, but he wasn’t complaining, he had found friends. The delibird went on answering all their questions as if nothing had happened. “I’m Kringle. Don’t remember where I came from, been wandering too long, but did just come from there. And nice to meet you little Arashi, never seen one of you before, must have traveled far to get here.” He was going to ask the ninetails what sound he was talking about and to not worry that he had made sure they were good pokemon when the orb that he threw into the bushes exploded.

((OOC: Pointing out that I flip coins to see which explode and which don’t, and Kringle treats you cold if yours does, so nothing personal. And kinda expected to have more explosions.))

"Excuse me but I saw everyone over here and thought you may like some food. My name is Arashi." Kyu saw the little spider thing lay down a web filled with Oran Berries. She smiled. "Oh- um, thank you! My name's Kyu. Nice to meet you Arashi." she bowed, only to have a brown orb shoved into her hands.

She heard a rumbling in the distance, but decided to ignore it. Besides, what if it was infected fighting someone? She could get involved even if she didn't want to if she went there, and besides, it'll be much more amusing to see what the others would do about it. "Who are you? And who's the one over there? What's that rumbling sound?" Kyu smiled. "Like I said, I'm Kyu. And what are you talking about, I don't hear any rumbling." Kyu replied, ignoring the second question because she honestly didn't have an answer for it.

She raised a brow at the Delibird who suddenly crouched and covered his head as if some giant explosion was about to happen. Suddenly, she felt the orb transform into a Sitrus berry. Suddenly she saw the Delibird stand up again and talk as if nothing had happened. “I’m Kringle. Don’t remember where I came from, been wandering too long, but did just come from there. And nice to meet you little Arashi, never seen one of you before, must have traveled far to get here.” Kyu looked at Kringle for a moment, before deciding to trust him. "Nice to meet you Kringle- oh, and thank you for the berry." she smiled, nibbling on it.

Kyu winced at the explosion in the bush. What was that? Maybe it was that orb Kringle had chucked in the bushes. The Ninetails did say something about someone else being around. She wondered who the unfortunate soul was to get chucked an exploding orb but she merely shrugged and continued eating.

A rumbling shook the ground and Arashi exclaimed in fright. Joltik's were great at sensing shifts in the Earth through their legs and he was begging to feel something moving far away under the Earth. He soon realized the feeling was getting stronger so he figured it must be coming towards them and in his fright he only caught the last question that the Ninetales had asked.

"What's that rumbling sound?"

Arashi shook his head not really knowing what to say to the Ninetales and blinked as the Delibird handed him a present.

“I’m Kringle. Don’t remember where I came from, been wandering too long, but did just come from there. And nice to meet you little Arashi, never seen one of you before, must have traveled far to get here.”

"It's nice to meet you Kringle." Arashi paused as a sad looked passed over his face like a shadow. "I have." He shook his head and his usual happiness and innocence returned to his features.

Arashi tilted his head at the small box in front of him and pondered how to open it when it began glowing and turned into a Leppa berry. Arashi's eyes grew wide and he smiled to the bird as he began nibbling on the berry.

"Thank you so much." He ate it quickly and nudged the Oran berry into the bushes towards Wind.

"Oh- um, thank you! My name's Kyu. Nice to meet you Arashi."

Arashi turned and nodded politely to the Furret. "Your very welcome and it's nice to meet you too."

Quickly, avoiding the glances of the others, Arashi pulled the berry into the bushes where the concealed Pokemon was and he nudged the Oran berry towards her.

"I'm Arashi. I thought you would be hungry. I nibbled on it a bit so if you want a new one I can get that for you instead." The small spider hopped on her leg and looked at her with sparkling blue eyes looking completely innocent despite the tension in the air from the other Pokemon.

Ahriman paused as an explosion shook the earth,sensing that he was now directly below the beating hearts and the bug-type smell.

Tensing his dead muscles, he released an Ancient Power that sent the few feet of rock and earth above him exploding into the sky. Then with a demonic scream he leaped out and sent the debris bursting in all directions.

Landing amongst a small group of living, Ahriman glared around searching for..there, the insect!Clinging to the leg of another breather. Loosing another battle cry Ahriman charged, both scythes glowing black as he prepared a dual Nightslash. But as he descended like the reaper himself, he missed.

Landing on one knee with scythes planted in the ground where his prey used to be, the furious infected looked for his prey. With a scream Ahriman launched himself at the nearest living, his body glowing as he readied a Giga Impact.

**OoC: Make sure you add the time and place Wind!**

Ujue bounded away form the explosive entrance of the undead pokemon of a type she didn't recognize. She turned fluidly to face it, narrowing her eyes against the dust and debris, and hoped none of the others were hit by the falling stones. All too soon, the thing launched a double Night Slash against the ice pokemon and Arashi.

Ujue began to feel out of body; the explosions and the things horrible screaming noises sounded distant, or muffled. She was reminded of the times she was attacked by a strong undead, only this time, it was much, much worse because there were so many others around, so many bright beings to cry in pain then rise up again, undead. From a distance, she felt her paws leap into action toward the infected, who had missed and it's scythes were dug into the ground, and pick up speed for a Quick Attack.

Abruptly, so, so abruptly, the infected pokemon screamed and lunged angrily, glowing with the beginning of a Giga Impact.

But she had already been hurtling towards it breathtakingly fast, and she and the undead collided, the Giga Impact unfinished. However, even the unfinished Giga Impact was still one hell of an attack. Ujue slammed to the ground hard enough leave a small crater in the ground. She crashed back into her body as her vision blacked out momentarily and she felt the massive bruising of her muscled, body, and bones beneath her fur and fractured or broken ribs. She attempted to stagger back to her feet with her vision swirling in bright streaks and stars. She hoped --hoped with all her heart-- that she had at least deflected or distracted the infected long enough for the others to run away.

Kringle exchanged greetings with his new friends, the presents had chosen well, they were all nice and had even thanked him for the berries that the presents gifted to them, even if he had no control of what came out of his presents, it was still nice to be thanked. But he made a mental note not to bring up where the little bug had been before, it got sad for a moment as he remembered something, he hated to see his friends sad. He bit into his own oran berry that the little one had given him, it was a little sour, but he didn’t have the heart to tell him that. Kringle wanted nothing more than to get to know everything about his new friends, where they came from, why they were here, and what they were like, but before he knew it the group’s numbers had decreased, Arisha had gone to the bush where the orb had exploded, someone must have activated it. Kringle wanted to tell the little bug to stay away, if there was a pokemon in there it was obviously up to no good, the present had judged them and they had caused it to explode, figures since the pokemon was hiding in the bushes, most likely spying on them.

A figure came crashing down to the ground; it took a moment for him to figure out that it was an infected. It was aiming for the hidden pokemon, a froslass, which came running out evading the infected’s attack, he figured the pokemon had lead the infected straight to them, it made him dislike her more. His little bug friend was clutching on for dear life to the icey ghost, Kringle immediately thought that she possibly held him hostage for their cooperation in whatever plot she had, but her apology to it erased that theory. Luckily the ninetails, he never caught its name, was quick to defend them, courageously taking on the infected singlehandedly. He didn’t want to lose a friend so fast, and if it was up to him he’d make it so all his friends were always safe, so he had to do something.

Kringle reached into his bag for a present, his always came out striped red and white, and he threw it into the ground in front of him praying to his presents to help him. Luckily it did, the present exploded turning up dirt and smoke momentarily hiding his body, that is when he acted. He recalled the familiar yet foreign feeling of his energy being drained, and even though he couldn’t see, he knew there was a double right next to him. His substitute, it could do all his attacks, and touch things, but one hit and it disappeared instantly. The real delibird grabbed the furret in the smoke and lead him to the trees where the little bug and ice ghost where. He motioned for them all to get out of there

The substitute Kringle lept out of the smoke and threw 8 presents around the infected’s feet while winking at the ninetails hoping it would get the meaning and run also, only 3 exploded and the rest turned into berries, but hopefully it would be enough to buy the real one time to run.

As soon as the ground burst open and whatever hellish nightmare it had brought upon them appeared, Kyurialle had got into a stance, ready to run. Right on que as the Delibird was about to grab her, she bolted towards the trees. There was not even a speck of thought in her mind that told her to attack, only her conscious telling her, 'Run away! Run away! Live to fight another day!'. She reached the trees, but suddenly felt her stamina run out, as she started hacking and coughing.

Soon she felt unable to breathe due to the coughs as her head ached. She started to slump to the ground, but immediately got up again, knowing she had to run, but her feet refused to carry her anywhere. So instead, she grabbed onto the bark of a nearby tree and climbed right to the highest branch. She gave a huff as she spat down Toxic around the tree. She had no idea if Toxic would still work like that, even against the infected, especially a Kabutops, who had resistance against Poison. But it was her only hope in that moment. She had to rest or she'll pass out, and get into even deeper trouble.

"Forgive me for grabbing you suddenly."

Arashi looked up at the Froslass and nodded to her gently. His fear evaporated and turned to anger as the Kabutops tried to attack his new friends. Despite his size, Arashi jumped free of the Froslass and into one of the trees where a limb hung above the Kabutops. Thinking quickly he aimed a Slash at the limb and held on tight as it flew down towards the monstrous creature.

In a fluid leap Arashi jumped towards the infected and began spinning Electroweb around the infected to bind him where he stood. He knew the move wouldn't cause much damage but it was enough to bide them so more time to escape. The Delibird's substitute stood close by and Arashi aimed Electroweb at the tree again and quickly scuttled up into the awaiting branches and leaped down onto the closest Pokemon which was the true Delibird.

"We need to run quickly." Arashi stated to the others.

Mountains West of Blackthorn City | Midday

Knocked off course, Ahriman landed heavily on the ground. A many-tailed living had deflected him but had paid dearly. The Kabutops grunted with satisfaction as he saw 'many-tail' try to rise and fail. As he trembled with the side-effects of his attack, the limb of a nearby tree came crashing down across his back driving him to his knees.

Ahriman screamed in rage as he rose, now free of the fatigue of Giga Impact, but before he could attack again the accursed insect leaped at him, entangling him in some kind of web that jolted and tingled, before springing back to another breather (some kind of flier).

With another unholy scream, the Shellfish Pokemon threw his arms outward, his scythes slicing through the web like butter. The breathers looked like they were going to flee, all except Many-tail, who appeared to be holding on to it's consciousness by a thread. With a low hiss Ahriman advanced on the fallen Pokemon, serrated teeth bared in some dark parody of a grin, it would pay for daring to rob him of his prey.

Ahriman planted his foot on the breather's throat, pinning it. Then with one last hunter's scream, his twin scythes came slicing down towards the helpless creature.

The fatigue in Ujue's body was knocking everything on an angle; the world was disjointed and slow. Her vision was going fuzzy odd. She gave her head a shake to get back into her game, and watched the little bug, Arashi, spin a net on the undead, only to be shed in a moment.

Fuck. Fuck. It's coming towards me. . . . Ujue thought, gritting her teeth in pain as she tried to rise again, and failed. Fuck! Ujue tried to manage something to counterattack, and used Nasty Plot twice. The undead pushed her back and pinned her to the ground with his foot. It compressed her chest and throat, and her vision was on and off again for the asphyxiation. Was that . . . did something strike the Kabutops? A small item rolled toward Ujue . . . maybe. . . . The world was more shaky and unclear than ever.

Dimly, she could see the monster hulking above her as it pulled its arms back and opened its mouth wide in a scream.

The world faded as Ujue drew into herself.

Somewhere inside her, the barrier that formed when everything was lost, when the infection started, snapped. Emotions that she hadn't felt for years trickled through her grief: Anger. Hate. Revenge. Revenge. . . . Her kitsune heart cried out against her subjection to this creature, this thing. 49 years of dignity for THIS??!!! the voice screamed. The energy in her tails stirred, wanting to curse something, to hate and hurt the things that insulted her so. . . .

Her eyes glinted vengefully at the thing above her. While she was unconscious, the thing might've been disrupted by something, and was roaring again. . . . or maybe no time at all had passed, and its ungainly maw was still screaming the same scream. Out of the corner of her eyes, Ujue saw that the ice pokemon was also attacking, or had recently attacked, the undead from a distance, and she hated the infected even more for fighting these other, innocent living that had gathered around her sleeping self when she laid by the stream and managed to dispel some of her loneliness so quickly.

Ujue bared her teeth at the undead monster, and used her hind legs to shove at the foot holding her in place. She hoped to dislodge or at least unbalance the infected. She wriggled and rolled, and with the twice sharply-increased Sp. Attack from her Nasty Plots, spat a Flamethrower at the undead's face, right at its open, angry mouth.

**OoC: On a whole, Ninetails are extremely vengeful. For the week I'm gone, Ujue either 1) escaped and is laying low for a while, hiding from undead, or 2) is off running somewhere. Just running.**

Kringle sighed as just about everyone ignored the running away idea, and even if one of them decided against it, he too would stay behind with them. The his little bug friend had landed on his head so Kringle could not physically enter the battlefield without putting him in danger, and he feared that if he set him down he would accidently get stepped on in the commotion. So he decided to make use of the substitute he made that only seemed to have been ignored. But before that could happen, he would need to get his attention. It wasn’t hard to get its attention, it kept looking looking around at everyone like it either didn’t know what to do, or it didn’t know who to protect first. He waved him over and the substitute went around the ninetails going berserk on the infected. Kringle use to find it strange to talk to himself as a substitute, but when alone for weeks on end it was better than nothing. Even if the substitute did not talk back, it was still nice to be heard and acknowledged. The one good thing about it though was since it was himself he didn’t have to be too specific when talking, cause the substitute would nod vigorously and know where he was going with the idea.

“I’ll go in from one side, and be all pachow pachow, while you go and be all badda-bing!” He knew to an outsider this was just a bunch of gibberish, but he knew himself better than anyone, and besides, if everyone could understand it, then others could counteract it. Kringle waited till his substitute got on the opposite side, behind where the infected was busy being shot at by the flamethrower. It unloaded a bunch of orbs from its own bag, enough to barely keep in his arms and ran at the infected attempting to blow them both up. While the substitute did that, the real Kringle shot his ice beam at the infected’s lower half, hoping to keep it still long enough for his double to do his part.

Kyu watched from her tree branch, still tired. She saw as the Ninetails spat a scorching flamethrower right at the Undead's face. She couldn't help but smirk and and giggle. Complete headshot.

Suddenly, she saw from the corner of her eye Kringle making a substitute. She heard what he said. “I’ll go in from one side, and be all pachow pachow, while you go and be all badda-bing!” Kyu raised a brow at this. What was he even talking about? Whatever he said didn't make sense, but she won't bother asking him about what it meant right now. They were in a battle after all.

Arashi watched as Kringle's substitute attacked the infected. He felt odd not being able to do much and he shot an Electro Ball followed by a Thunderbolt at the decaying Pokemon. He knew it wouldn't do much but he wanted to help the best he could. He had begun trembling where he was and hadn't even realized it.

(OOC: I have been at choir retreat and I'm extremely tired. That's why this is so short. I don't have much energy to write more.)

Mountains West of Blackthorn City | Afternoon

Ahriman hissed as some kind of black ball glanced off his back, causing him to stumble and miss his intended prey. With a scream he ripped his scythes from the earth and raised them for another strike, but before he could bring them down he was hit by a burst of flame from the prone figure at his feet, causing him to stagger back shaking his head to extinguish the flames. Head smoking, eyes glowing with hatred, Ahriman hissed as the flier shot a beam that encased his entire lower half in ice. Shaking with anger, the Kabutops tensed his dead muscles in preparation of freeing himself as two powerful jolts lanced through his back, hurting but prevented from doing any serious damage by his Rock-type status.

With an almighty heave, the ice encasing Ahriman shattered sending shards of ice flying in all directions. Spinning back to his prey, his death-fogged eyes widened. Many-tail was gone, it's scent lead off somewhere towards the river, making it untraceable. Ahriman whirled back around to face those who had robbed him of his prey; the 'floating-dead-one', the hated insect and, curiously a pair of fliers, although one didn't seem to have a heartbeat.

Bearing his serrated teeth Ahriman dove underground once more, only to burst upwards again behind flier-without-beat. With an unholy scream, Ahriman brought his blades slicing down through the seemingly helpless pokemon, only to pass straight through as it disappeared in a shimmer of air.

Screaming in frustration, Ahriman leaped and drove his scythe through a nearby tree that housed a small brown breather that thought it had escaped his attention, causing the mighty oak to come crashing down. With another scream, the Kabutops brought his now glowing blades across the fallen tree in a Night slash that tore away a massive hunk of the fallen tree's foliage, revealing the tiny creature that cowered within.

No honour in hiding from battle the ancient pokemons mind whispered, as the little creature cowered before him. Live like a coward, die like a coward thought the undead as he sent his heavily clawed foot blurring down towards the helpless creature.

(Ooc: figured I wouldn't be breaking any rules in killing the substitute, since it's not an actual character.)

Kringle inwardly sighed; there was only one thing he did not like about new friends, the conflicting ideas and plans. It was supposed to be simple, they were all going to run away from the infected and hide till it went away, but things quickly progressed to an all-out fight. Though he had to admit, the party did have semi-good battle sense, even the little electric bug on his head knew good attacks, even if he was not best suited for the Kabutops they were facing. Even his ice beam only served to slow it down, it managed to cut through it with its sharp blades with ease. And his substitute went down before it could finish its kamikaze attack.

There was always something off about seeing yourself die in the form of a substitute, even if no pain was felt, the mere idea left Kringle rattled. It was like a brief glimpse of what could happen to him if he were ever to mess up, or take things too far, like it was saying ‘This could be you.’ Which was why he usually kept to running away, but even so, the loss of his substitute was almost like losing a friend right before his eyes, which was really gonna happen to his Furret friend if Kringle did not work fast.

The infected had switched targets to the Furret hiding on the tree, Kringle had hoped that at least he had the sense to run, but he chose to go to higher ground instead. The infected made quick work of the tree and was standing over its prey, ice shards where shot from the one that hid in the bushes before but that most likely would not do much. Kringle shot an ice beam in between the infected and the Furret making an ice wall, knowing it would easily be destroyed like his last attempt, but hoping it would buy the pokemon enough time to get away from there.