Only three of us survived, the others’ bones buried beneath the rubble,” At this point Slowking fell silent, and Leo keeping quiet out of respect.
Until, that is, his curiosity got the better of him.
…
“So…did you all cause the crater, did the onix, or did the articuno?” Leo asked, observing the destruction laid out before him closely.
“Because this is really impressive,”
“Directly after the battle, this mountain was a pile of rubble.
Thirty five years of battle between Tyrus and whoever dared challenge him has reduced even that to dust.
It has even become an official battleground for a few of the more powerful pokemon in the region.
That, and it is the place where Tyrus challenges the Winter every year they visit,” Slowking explained, making Leo raise his eyebrows.
“Tyrus challenges articuno every year?” he asked.
“Is it articuno or Articuno?
There’s more than one legendary Articuno?”
“Yes, there is more than one Winter Bird.
I know not how many, only that they roost in the Silver Mountains from time to time.
As for Tyrus, well, he seeks ever stronger and greater challenges.
It is in his nature.
It is why he followed Archibald, because he could be given the greatest of challenges and claim to be the strongest as Champion.
So every year when winter falls on the mountains, Tyrus seeks to fight the ones whom he still believes ‘defeated’ Archibald.
And though articuno does not come every year, the results are usually the same.
Tyrus loses,” Slowking explained slowly.
Leo hummed to himself, coming to terms with the knowledge being bestowed upon him.
This world wasn’t like the games at least.
No articuno, with their four times weakness to rock, could defeat a tyranitar without a lot of luck and massive level differences.
Even then Leo wasn’t sure an articuno could win, especially not if Tyrus was as strong as Leo expected.
“However, I did not bring you here to reminisce,” Slowking said with a sigh.
“I brought you here to teach you respect I fear you may lack.”
“Respect?” Leo echoed, furrowing his brows in confusion, and feeling a little worried.
Usually the term “teaching respect” came with some…concerning connotations.
“Indeed.
You respect pokemon as creatures, that I do know.
But a pokemon cares not for your respect.
You must learn to respect, and fear, our power,”
“Fear,” Leo repeated, raising his eyebrows.
He didn’t like the sound of that.
“Perhaps not the wisest choice of words, but it does accurately summarize my point.
We will sit here and wait, until Tyrus fights,” Slowking said with a firm nod.
“Oh-Kay,” Leo drawled, enunciating each syllable of the word as he slid off of his spot and hid just below the ledge, out of the sun.
“And how long will that take?”
“Not for an hour or two yet,” Slowking promised.
Leo glanced at the sun and frowned, running a hand through his increasingly long and greasy hair.
Looks like he wouldn’t get back to the slowpoke herd tonight.
So Leo sat, and waited.
To pass the time he tried to weave a few grass stalks together, but the only grass on this part of the mountain was short and thin, unsuited to weaving.
Giving up on that he lay back and watched the clouds as they passed overhead.
There was nothing wrong with being lazy every once in a while, and he could use a nap.
After close to three hours passed Slowking nudged Leo awake from where he had been napping.
He groaned and rubbed his eyes, blinking away sleep as he focused on Slowking.
The pink creature didn’t say a word, instead jerking his head toward the crater.
Leo squinted and peered over the ledge, squinting and shading his eyes from the setting sun.
There was no tyranitar below, and he couldn’t see anything else, so he turned to Slowking for answers.
“What is it?” Leo asked.
“A challenger.
Most the time Tyrus must seek out foes in the surrounding mountains, but certain species seek him out.
A dragonite used to, as did a skarmory and scizor.
In the past decade, certain fighting types have begun to appear.
I believe they find fighting Tyrus to be a test of skill, or a rite of passage,” Slowking explained softly.
Leo hummed in understanding, not finding it very surprising that fighting types would seek out challenges.
That dumb tyrogue-turned-hitmontop had challenged him for Pete’s sake.
“Where is it?
And where is Tyrus?” Leo asked.
“Tyrus is coming.
This is his nest, after all.
It would not do to allow trespassers.
The challenger is there, at the ridgeline of the crater.
It is sitting down, so I do not expect you to see it,” he said, and fell silent.
Leo pulled himself up onto the ledge and peered down into the crater below, searching for the “challenger,” as Slowking called it.
The minutes that passed by stretched like hours to Leo, as he searched for both Tyrus and the challenger.
Five, ten, fifteen minutes passed, then the challenging pokemon moved, standing from where it had been sitting and striding out into the crater.
It was bipedal, and three flashes of metal caught Leo’s eye as it passed through a patch of sunlight.
Leo gasped when he recognized the pokemon, a shiver running down his spine as it leapt through the air and landed right next to one of the onix holes.
“Lucario,” Leo breathed, eyes wide.
He couldn’t make out the features exactly, but there was little else the blue, bipedal blob could be.
Even hitmontop didn’t have the metal spikes Leo thought he could see from here.
“I thought those weren’t native to Kanto?” Leo asked, confused.
Wasn’t he in the Silver Mountains, as in, Mount Silver?
“There is a small pack up north, near Rota.
Terribly powerful pokemon, they are,” Slowking explained.
“This one appears young, younger than the other two who have come to challenge Tyrus.
Either that means it is skilled, or arrogant,”
Any further conversation was cut abruptly short as, with a bone-shaking roar of unfiltered rage, a beam of pure white light lanced out of the mountain side arcing straight towards the lucario.
A sort of fundamental, primal fear jolt Leo’s system as he shielded his eyes from the intense ray, making his hair stand on end and a shiver run down his spine.
That fear only intensified as he searched for the Lucario – had Tyrus just disintegrated a freaking lucario?!
“It seems Tyrus is being kind today.
Look up,” Slowking remarked.
Leo looked skyward, nearly missing the lucario as it fell to the earth, slamming into the stony ground with a burst of blue power cracking the stone beneath its feet.
Spires of rock abruptly shot out of the ground, catching the lucario in the side and sending it stumbling as it spun away, blue light flashing from its paws, spheres of energy blasting out and disappearing down the hole the hyper beam had been shot out of.
Another angry bellow rewarded the lucario and Tyrus came charging out of the darkness, clad in a purple-white light.
Each mighty footfall sent more spires of rock jutting skyward, trapping the lucario for a brief second – long enough for Tyrus to cover the distance with surprising speed and bodily slam into it.
Rock shattered as the lucario was hurled through its prison of stone, dust flying everywhere as waves of pitch-black energy rippled from Tyrus body in a sphere of darkness.
Leo’s breath hitched as the lucario righted itself midair, paws barely touching the ground before it blurred, vanishing from sight and dodging the black energy.
The second the darkness faded Tyrus roared, a sharp crack ringing out and the lucario appearing behind him with more blue light radiating from its form.
Spires of rock burst from the ground, the lucario nimbly dodging out of the way as Tyrus thrashed his tail, dirt and dust swirling around him and blurring his body, covering the crater until Leo could see nothing but flashes of light as the two pokemon duked it out.
Explosions rattled the air, and Leo paid rapt attention as the cloud of dust was blown away by a massive blast.
Tyrus and the Lucario stood on opposite ends of the field, and though Leo couldn’t tell who was worse off, it didn’t look like either were hurting –
Tyrus roared, a massive ball of light appearing in front of his maw.
The Lucario raced forward, smashing a fist into Tyrus’ chest, who wholly ignored the attack and continued to pour power into the ball of light, said attack increasing in size rapidly.
Leo blinked.
Then he stared.
And then terror welled up inside him as the Lucario continued its relentless assault, and Tyrus didn’t care.
He just stood there, holding his attack, the ball of light growing in size until it was half as big as he was.
A shield of shimmering green flashed to life around Leo and Slowking, and not but moments later Tyrus whipped his head around, a truly massive beam of white light bursting forth and annihilating the mountainside.
Leo flinched as the beam passed not but twenty feet below him, and stumbled when the mountain shifted, parts of the mountainside sliding forward and falling to the crater below.
The only thing that saved Leo from falling himself was an unseen force that bound his limbs and held him aloft, floating mid-air until the mountain settled and he could find his footing.
…
A/ N: The Story Needs More Power Stones 😉