//------------------------------// // 341. Perilous Psycho-Pom-p. // Story: Baa-Ram-Ewe! // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Pokémon Realm, Ransei Region, Slowly moving over Eastern Illusio, Cerebrum City, Top Tier, approximately twelve hours later, Rising Sun, Dolly- The prison had been fully broken, Espurr had gotten his medical attention and as for Pom, no matter how much anyone tried to talk to her she wouldn’t say a thing. Also all the forces sent to the prison that were defeated or didn’t retreat were carted to the teleporter and passed over to Mental Licks on the ground to hold onto until all this was said and done with. The only thing she told me was this the other night. “Be Ready.” Had some ideas of what was about to happen to Pom, but I had no idea how to be ready for it as the rebel army had gathered. The Sane Sake guy had taken the middle tier teleporter and the gothic KO Kangaroo had gathered Kenshin’s forces up on top of the floating city. Now the both of them were here with Benchin’ who was wielding a sword with the blade on the wrong side of it, if he could make that work more power to him. Shanty seemed fairly interested in Mention’s sword though. The top of the city was like a massive park with dilapidated stone structures, grass, trees and stuff, hard to imagine we were in the sky on a floating island more than a mile up. Terrifying to even think about really, this was all well beyond my little mind and keeping up with everything was a bit much. My family was only approaching animalistic, my instincts were still definitely animal and something had my hackles raised about this upcoming fight. I’m happy to have a new spell to toy around with, Pom watched me use it a few times and even kept me topped off to practice ‘Gravity’ as much as I could before things came to a head today. It’d be exceedingly effective against flying targets or stopping large targets at least. We were facing Gilgamesh’s forces and that was a lot of Sigil things hovering in front of where the entrance to the Castle of Illusion was said to be. There was also those Sleepies, the Hip Toads, the whiffle bats and a number of crazy other monsters in the way, there were hundreds of psychos up here gathering on top of the small floating continent that housed an entire city for one huge battle. Dodo would be carrying Shanty into the fight, Ocellus would be staying at the back to watch the wagon and prepare to help Smolder recuperate… the rebels apparently gathered and gave us a lot of gems and jewels for Smolder to recover after Pom was done with freeing her from Gilgamesh. Again the scale of all this was daunting. I was still a very small teenage dog from Camden Town, sure I thought my world was huge, but this… this was going farther than I ever thought it would. I could only hope we were still on the right side of things. I glanced at Pom and she looked back at me as we started moving forward alone with the rest of the rebel army at our backs forming up to start fighting Blunderbus’s forces. Lit and the other companions were preparing to be backup, but they would watch the wagon or join in on the fight at their own judgements. The wagon was the fallback point and it had fresh supplies in case we got too injured to keep fighting, there were also outposts set up by Kenshin to do similar to the wagon. Gilgamesh’s forces were a bit low on supplies since the pink Money elephants started supplying the rebels from the warehouse we fought those vultures in. Speaking of fighting forces, the Rebels were joined by the Dark guys we liberated from the prison and all those sleeping guys joined in with the rebels too bolstering their forces. A pair of flapping wings caused me to look up as a large shadow passed overhead, the shadow revealed a very large Orange dragon with purple frills and a bone chilling roar that shook me to the core. This was Smolder?! The dragon was hovering above use and looking down on the both of us. “Everyone… I’ll handle this!” Pom shouted solemnly as she got up from where she was knocked onto her butt by the roar and strode forward without question, quite a few Pokémon were staring at her as if she was crazy. That she said she would actually fight something had a number of them worried for her safety. “Dolly… watch my back, make sure no one interferes. Cotton told me something important that you’ll need to keep in mind for this fight.” Oh right that soft black bird, she had a very heated discussion with Pom before we went to sleep some eight or so hours ago, wouldn’t know the exact time because I couldn’t exactly sleep in anymore when I was waking up whenever Pom did. Pom had been fairly angry about something, but really didn’t seem to be taking it out on the crow for all the trouble she’s caused us up to this point. I knew Pom could be very forgiving, but what did Polyester tell her? She hasn’t given me that information yet. Pom stared up at the dragon that landed in front of her, the impact with the ground sent out a massive blast of wind, uprooting some grass and the nearby trees swayed while threatening to fall over. Smolder was now glaring down at us and I certainly felt small compared to her in this instance, hard to believe that this was the little dragon we knew. She was even bigger than the space incident, what had that Gills-a-breathe guy done to her exactly to make her this large? She transmitted me the information Cotton gave her, I tried very hard not to react to it… but my eyes still narrowed in consternation. I looked around and then focused on Pom’s back, so that’s… no seriously… really?! “If you can help, then do so however and whenever you can Dolly, I don’t plan on dying today and I plan to at least get one scratch on Gilgamesh even if it’s a fleeting victory. Just don’t get hit by anything Smolder okay? Pay attention to our surroundings for me.” Even if the city was soon going to fall out of the sky, and it was probably for the best at this point, hundreds of monsters were gathering for this fight and I could already tell Pom was waiting for something. “I’m very well aware that I won’t be able to actually do much more than that to Gilgamesh if I don’t pace myself today.” Gilgamesh appeared, he grinned at Pom, Kenshin, the Chrysalis team, our hamster friends, just about anyone else involved in this huge fight and even glanced at this own army. “Oh look at that, it’s almost time for me to ascend and break the seal on my form… it’s rather unfortunate that it’s been delayed for so long due to some ‘unforseen’ elements. I can see you’re not happy with what I’ve done to your little friend, well it’s too bad that heroes sometimes have to do things they don’t want to.” When Gilgamesh said this, I couldn’t help but feel a large twitch coming from Pom. Still, Pom continued to look indifferent even with that huge grin on Gilgamesh’s face and stared at Smolder. “You intend to fight a dragon all by yourself. I’m somewhat surprised, didn’t think you’d have the guts. Well I hope you, Kenshin and the rest will put on quite a marvelous show for me before I truly show you how pathetic you’re all being when I ascend by breaking out of this bound form. See you at the castle if you survive all of this, ciao!” With that the grinning guy disappeared and Pom started to walk forward and told me to wait behind her a distance, her hooves clopped as they stuck the stone pathway as she walked up to the massive Smolder. Again, Smolder was far larger than she had been when we did that whole space base thing and Pom thought she could take that on?! Pom wasn’t wearing her bell or anything else, it was notable when she rubbed at the place the bell would usually be that her wool would usually protect. She only had a spear she got from when Gilgamesh attacked us in the three canyon state area place. She planted the spears butt in the ground with her left hoof and waited, I could feel her wool rippling somewhat in anticipation for the start of the battle. The spear looked sturdy enough, I wouldn’t know anything about weapons, but apparently Pom does even if she’s not an expert in using them. Smolder inhaled and let loose a powerful blast of flames and quite a few people watched as Pom calmly held up her right leg, a shining gold glow deflected the fire creating the illusion of a barrier as the fire was repelled from her form as she held her right leg aloft and over her head without moving. I’ve heard several times that Pom was practically immune to magical attacks. The dragons from the world she came from was basically breathed magic, so Pom was probably safe since she could reflect it with her wool without harm. I was a little less worried that Pom was about to be fried mutton and more worried that she couldn’t even actually scratch Smolder’s body, given how tough dragons were said to be and Smolder was quite tough before she grew to this size. I felt the shift in Pom in immediately as she stalked forward towards Smolder, she stopped and then swept her spear along the ground and the burning leaves floated away from her as she stared up at Smolder. A gold glow traveled up her right leg and it started to spread and cover her shoulder, it didn’t go any further from there as Pom gritted her teeth and the golden glow fluctuated around the spot. I could see the point her right hoof started splitting into four wolf like claws, her mouth gained fangs and her tail extended and fluffed out from her spine as her wool started to make her look more canine in appearance. Feeling the shift and how far Pom was going, without using the Shock-Ram thing, I started backing up and away a little further while glancing around again as the two armies started to move and prepare their Psycho attacks to start attacking from range. I had Pom’s back and knew who to look out for, especially since the blanket bird told her a real interesting bit of information and I needed to be on top of my game with preventing anyone from attacking Pom while she was busy with Smolder. One could see a foggy mist, like what I’d see in Camden Town quite a few times when I started living there, start to rise up in the air around Pom. It was like that mist Pom created back in the forest. Only instead of white it came out in a blood red color and was adding quite a horror aspect to it. Mostly because it smelled like it was actual blood and it was Pom’s blood that was being used to make that fog, as several vague wolf shapes in the fog stalked forward all looking at Smolder as they encompassed Pom, but didn’t make her disappear quite yet. Build-a-mess’s forces were going to be fighting the rebels while Pom dealt with this one major problem and Wrenching’s guys were going to try and keep everyone away from Pom’s fight to the best of their ability. “I’ve got you’re back Pom.” I said quietly. Suddenly feeling a mental head pat and an affectionate lick on my cheek, one of the bloody wolves in the fog surrounding Pom had three tails and it looked at me as its tails wagged before rejoining the rest of the pack. I also saw one of the wolves had floppy ears and a familiar feeling given it was a white wolf covered in black spots in very familiar places… it almost felt like I was in two places at the moment as I looked at it. After I shook my head, I realized that that wolf and me were two separate things, though the fact four of the smaller wolves following Pom reminded me of her four adorable god puppies… there was something to the connection of those wolves and Pom, like one wolf for every connection Pom has had with canines. The two armies started charging as Smolder roared and raised a left claw to attack Pom. -Pom vs. Servile Smolder- Kenshin’s forces were in the south and east, Gilgamesh’s forces in the north and west, the final objective was the connection to the Castle of Illusion in the north. As Pom was considering the battlefield silently and how she sadly was at the center of it, Smolder swept her left claw forward. The second it struck her Pom, evaporated into a swirling red mass of fog. Smolder looked to the right and left, even right under her raised claw looking for Pom, she didn’t retract her swung claw immediately and looked to the left again. Pom suddenly appeared out of nowhere, apparently her movements couldn’t be disguised forward. Having planted the spear she wielded in the crook of Smolder’s enlarged left thumb claw and pointer claw, Pom was rapidly spinning horizontally around the shaft of the weapon. Using Dolly’s flow motion to support her movements, a green triangle popped up in Pom’s sight and she did what Dolly said to do. Trust her instincts. With a yank, the spear pull free of the crook and Pom launched a powerful flying buck into Smolder’s nose as she turned her head to the right. The blow to the nostril didn’t do much damage aside from a few scratches from Pom’s rear paws, but it did bruise it and aggravate Smolder into breathing harmlessly deflected flames at Pom. As the battle started to rage on around them, Psychic Type attacks proved fairly useless against Smolder’s scales even if her mind was vulnerable to them leading to this very situation. The Fairy Type attacks caused some barely noticeable flinching in Smolder’s form. Pom had to make a few dodges before Dolly started to interfere by blocking and deflecting smaller attacks with her board, while trying not to get too close or too far from the fight. Thanks to her ability to leap and glide, Dolly could effectively stay within a decent range to handle things even if she couldn’t stop all the incoming attacks. For every attack aimed at Pom, Kenshin and his forces made Gilgamesh’s pay for it with their own artillery based volleys. Notably the four Araquanids were hitting things at a far larger range than any other being on the battlefield. Smolder hadn’t been idly and charged forward to try and slam down her claw on Pom and she only evaporated again into a bloody mist, making Smolder lifter her right claw and look to where Pom had been. Pom appeared on Smolder’s left with the spear and the back of her left hoof pressed against the ground. “Spear Ground Upper!” As Pom shouted this, the various wolves in the fog gathered at the tip of the spear when she jammed it straight up into Smolder’s chin, the friction flames on the spear did nothing to Smolder’s scales nor did the spear itself do any damage. The wolves that launched off the spear caused hundreds of scratches and scuffed up Smolder’s scales moderately while adding a lot of impact force to the blow making Smolder stumble back slightly. It was quite obvious that Pom couldn’t do much damage to Smolder even if she wanted to and as long as Pom was wary, Smolder couldn’t even touch her with her speed. Many watching this, who had yet to take to the battlefield, wondered how Pom was going to win a fight with such a nigh invulnerable goliath, especially if she was still pacing herself and would tire herself out eventually against an opponent she couldn’t defeat that needed to be defeated to be saved. Going onto her reared hooves as she leapt over a rightward swipe and taking up the spear with her front legs, Pom hopped to the left of the left claw slammed down where she was and charged forward while using the spear to polevault her way onto Smolder’s nose. She smacked the blunt end of the spear into Smolder’s right eye and Smolder reared up and roared in pain launching Pom up into the air. Smolder looked around didn’t see Pom on the ground or her nose, feeling something near her tail Smolder turned and saw the spear had been thrown at her tail and did no damage. What it did do was attract her attention from Pom dodging a number of attacks being launched at her in the air shifting her wool to create air breaks and evade as she fell back towards Smolder’s head. “Trample Flurry!” Pom started to rapidly stomp all four of her legs into Smolder’s skull and managed to force it into the ground under the raw fury of a constant four legged assault from above. Smolder reached up and grappled her right claw around Pom and brought her to her face, however what her claw was holding was a pair of glowing eyes and a smiling wolf shaped of fog that soon disappeared in her claws. As soon as it had faded away the claws had finally closed fully around nothing, having been holding something a second ago that just wasn’t there now. Growling Smolder looked about for Pom, until Gilgamesh directed her head to Pom with some psychic energy. Said Lambkin with the golden glowing right leg was in the middle of doing a flying somersault through several Psychic Type attacks to grab the spear in the ground at Smolder’s back. Pom even deflected one of the attacks with the bladed tip as she came out of the roll, much to Pom’s surprise as the Psychic Types that had been aiming for her. Turning her gaze to Smolder, Pom suddenly let the glow on her right leg go out, the controlled Smolder took that as a sign to start breathing fire. Instead of blocking the magical flames spewing forth in a large mass, Pom leapt up and inflated her wool and used the heat to rise high into the air. The long reaching, sweeping, flames that flowed beneath Pom tore into Gilgamesh’s army, setting a large number of them on fire and caused a massive panic that Kenshin’s forces immediately capitalized on. Quite a number of Gilgamesh’s forces were now wary of actually targeting Pom, trying to put out the fires that ignited the grass to save their ground forces or were too busy to target Pom as the Dark Types assisting the rebels really started to lay into the Psychic Types with Dark Pulse attacks to take advantage of the situation. The explosions of dark energy bombs ripped into the hordes of panicking enemies, as Pom landed and started to charge for Smolder with narrowed eyes. Smolder lashed out her tail and Pom dissipated into a pair of glowing blue fireflies when the tail collided with her. Pom reappeared and smacked Smolder’s belly with the flat of spear in what was a full blown golf swing, it still did nothing to Smolder aside from attract her attention to below her chest. Planted the spear deep into the ground, Pom pulled it to flex it and then used the force the spear straightening out to launch upwards and perform a buck straight up into Smolder’s chin that jarred her head upwards. Landing on her front hooves, Pom rolled forward as Smolder slammed her left claw down and struck the spear bending, the spear straightened out and launched the back of Smolder’s claw into her own face causing her nose to bleed somewhat from the impact. The quality of the spear was ridiculously good, yet Gilgamesh still used it as ammunition against Pom’s group and it had proved to be somewhat useful. Smolder wasn’t showing any of the intelligence she had and Pom wasn’t even trying to talk to her to try and reach her. Angry, the controlled dragon slapped the side of the spear and it ripped out of the ground as it was sent flying away into Gilgamesh’s side of the battlefield and then turned to glare at Pom. Given that Pom wasn’t much of a spear fighter, her time of using it as a tool was up as she watched it get flung away and hit a Sigilyph out of the air. It had been a pretty good spear otherwise, but Pom wasn’t willing to pursue it into enemy lines that were currently on fire, being bombarded and were in chaos. Spreading her paw hooves out, Pom entered a Fleet Cunning Doe stance and was prepared to continue the fight as a gliding Dolly shot by and deflected another psychic attack that was coming at her. Smolder stomped forward on her hind legs and slashed out with her left claw and then slammed her right down on her left when Pom hopped onto it. Pom sprung up to Smolder’s right inner elbow and then the wool around her front and back legs shift, she sprung using the wool on her rear legs and concentrated the wool on her front legs that were held together into a solid mass as she slammed into Smolder’s neck choking her bit and causing her to reflexively clutch at it while Pom landed on the ground in front of her. Smolder took to the air flapping her wings, it was in this moment that Dolly saw her chance and finally called out her spell for maximum effect when Smolder was going to attack Pom from the air. “Gravity!” Spherical a miasma of purple and black sparking energy hit Smolder and Dolly clenched her right paw, the resulting force immediately and seemingly broke both of Smolder’s wings and slammed her into the ground with a thunderous impact that knocked Pom and many other beings nearby over. At best Smolder’s wings were sprained to the point of being unusable, because Pom seriously doubted that that had actually broken them. It had prevented Smolder from flying around and causing carnage at the very least. The entirety of Cerebrum City tilted ever so slightly so that western side of the floating island was one or two degree higher than the east and the floating landmass shook quite a bit as it became unbalanced. “This can’t go on, I won’t be able to take her down in the time needed to save her… time to really do it… I’ll have to temporarily sacrifice my sanity.” Pom closed her eyes as she stood on bits of stone path and the air changed around her as the red fog around Smolder gathered and coalesced around Pom’s body. “Dolly… Haste on me, unless you want me to use Shock-Ram!” Dolly felt aghast and slightly hurt that Pom was basically blackmailing her into it, she still would have used ‘Haste’ on Pom anyway, but still it was upsetting. “Haste!” Dolly called out while she stylishly rolled backwards to avoid an attack, Pom now had five minute to tear Smolder down and she wondered if it was even possible. -Castle of Illusion, Gilgamesh- I frowned. What was she doing? That is not how a hero acts! She’s purely taking on the feeling of a beast. This might cause my plans to go quite sideways… let’s see where it leads. -Psycho Pom (One-Quarter Chrysomallus and Unleashed Fighting Spirit) vs. Servile Smolder- The haste took effect and the red fog the infused into the lambkin, it became a visible aura around Pom outlining her body from all angles. “I’ve felt the rage rise up in me… kneel down to clear my path of leaves… I wandered out where you can see… inside this shell I’ll break and bleed…~” Pom started using Dancing Flame with every breathe as she stalked forward and the leaves started swirling away from her as she gently swept her right hoof before her, her wool shifted over her canine features and into boosting her physical abilities. Her right leg lit up entirely with a golden glow as she let her Chrysomallus heritage show, everything short of actually using Shock-Ram was on the table here. She shifted straight into a Cow Kempo stance. “I’ve got the rage inside of me, tear down the mind of will that flees~. I’ll show everyone what I could be, inside the shell that breaks and bleeds~.” Smolder was back up already and swinging her left claw at Pom. Pom held up her right glowing leg, the impact of the claw against her leg shattered and destroyed a mass of ground to the left of the ewe. Pom hadn’t moved a single inch from the blow, her right legs started dripping red onto the ground, her body was vibrated as she pushed Smolder’s claw back with a back hoof. Despite using the force of the blow to knock back the claw, the vibration Pom’s body didn’t go away in fact Pom’s entire body was vibrating with the wobble counter energy and she was holding onto it even after having just used it. Smolder actually looked confused at her claw being shoved back, not only that this pushed her entirely off balance. “COME ON~!” Pom pushed off the ground to slam her hoof into Smolder’s chest, Smolder actually slid back several feet when struck with a glowing hoof that caused a powerful blast of golden energy upon impact. Smolder barely managed to stay standing from the impact to her chest and numerous scales actually showed signs of cracking. “I’ll break from rank and file, my sacrifice is greater this time~!” As she started screaming this, Pom’s eyes began glowing gold and the blue of her eyes turned red, her resemblance to a wild canine became even more prominent. She launched at Smolder, disappearing from sight in one instant and in the next delivering a hook with her bleeding, golden glowing, right leg to Smolder’s left cheek. “Everything is to the last for me~!” Smolder’s cheek caved in and a visible claws marks appear shredding through her scales, she toppled over onto her right side from the blow. Anyone who was near the fight paused and stared at Pom as she now gave of a roaring growl to meet a slightly frightened Smolder getting up. “My eyes are Red and Gold~!” Pom kept screaming as she sang out and Lunged forward and her right leg became a blur of magical claws strikes that tore into Smolder, who was trying to protect herself with her front limbs. “My wool is sticking straight out~!” Smolder actually showed fear and a slight bit of intelligence for once as the wool on Pom’s body started becoming spikier, more bestial the further she continued to attack. This simply didn’t look like Pom anymore as the several golden threads on her right leg tore through scales leaving them crackes, broken or simple bloody claw marks on the dragon as if the scales were not an impediment to the damage Pom was causing in the first place. It also became quite notable to anyone that was watching that Pom was not using any other part of her body to attack aside from her glowing right leg to land blow after blow at an insane speed as she pressed forward and maneuvered using the rest of her body to avoid Smolder trying to strike back with her tail. “This is not the way I wished to be~!” Pom roared, it was then that some noticed that the blood flowing from Pom’s right leg was creating the claw marks with every swipe she was landing on Smolder’s belly and chest. Smolder tried to breathe fire… only for a leaping Pom to uppercut her jaw shut and break a number of scales on her chin with raw blunt force. “I can control the breaks~!” Pom’s right leg didn’t looked to be bending quite right before several cracking noises were heard and her right straightened out. she howled, as she swung her right leg forward and multiple bloody wolves slammed into and started bite and claw at Smolder ferociously on their own actually causing notable damage in claw marks and bite wounds. “How did I create this swell of fear~?!” Quite a number of Gilgamesh’s forces were terrified by the bloody gold limbed beast fighting a much larger and tougher opponent. Smolder tried to breathe fire on Pom and she just held her right leg aloft as her wool glowed and repelled the magical flames. She tried to rush forward while Pom was blocking her flames and turned her head to snap her jaws on the small morsel. “Something about me, is very wrong~!” Pom stated as her right hoof slammed into Smolder’s tongue and the force dislocated her lower jaw so that the dragon couldn’t bite down in that moment. Pom’s left hoof did something as she followed the dislocated jaw and struck with her hoof claws in a spot underneath Smolder’s soft, and highly vulnerable, tongue. This made Smolder rear back and roar in pain spitting out a small amount of blood as she did so. Now Smolder was actually instinctively afraid of Pom despite trying to quite bravely eat her a second ago. “I have to feel quite proud~!” As Pom screamed she charged on three legs her body shaking with the ‘wobble-counter’ force she had been using the entire time, she was still using it and had been the entire time from the moment Smolder’s left claw connected with her right leg. She was using the recoil of her own blows to build up the strength of the ‘wobble-counter’ and it was damaging her own body by quite a lot. “I wish it wasn’t like this~!” Smolder swung her right claw and Pom met it with her right hoof, Smolder was the one that topple over again as a powerful shockwave erupted from Pom’s right leg. “Was Pom’s life just a dream or the memory~?!” Blasting forward Pom unleashed quite a number of claw swipes and continued the rabid assault with her glowing front right leg to continue pushing Smolder back. Smolder, who had been pushed up onto her hind legs, managed to kick Pom with her left hind leg and her inner toe claw pierced right through Pom’s body in a brutal display of pure agony on the pain bestial Pom’s face. The force of the blow not only severely hurt Pom, it had launched her back towards Kenshin’s side of the battlefield. Before she hit the ground she stopped and flipped in the air, a faint glow of gold bursting from her withers being the only sign of how she managed her recovery. “I feel the rage swell up in me~…” With a thrust of her right hoof, Pom shot back across the battlefield and her hoof tore into Smolder’s throat before Smolder could even start assaulting Kenshin’s forces or come to her. Pom was slammed into the ground by Smolder’s random fearful flailing, she deflty landed on her hooves coming from the blow. “Kneel down to clear my path of leaves… I wonder how well you can all see…” Smolder stomped down her right foot on top of Pom and she burst into a red fog that surrounded Smolder and soon nobody could see Smolder at all in the massive thick red fog that built up and took up the entire center of the battlefield. Kenshin’s forces avoided it, but any of Gilgamesh’s forces that went near it were suddenly taken down swiftly and end up covered in claw marks. Only Dolly knew where Pom was now in that mess and was trying to draw pain from Pom while helping her in other ways. The pains he was drawing from Pom quickly became too much, so she had to draw as much pain as she could take from her now clearly berserk partner who could still sing while in this state. Heart Songs were ridiculous, but Dolly knew they were a thing. “Inside the shell, I’ll break and bleed~…” Despite being in broad daylight, the appearance of two glowing orbs coalescing into a blood covered Pom suddenly appearing the air above the fog before diving into where Smolder was with a raised right glowing claw became quite a sight, one that will etch itself into many minds to eventually become nightmares and night terrors. -Castle of Illusion, Gilgamesh- “Wha…?!” Did she just! His mind was forcefully dragged into the battlefield. -Top of Cerebrum City, mental battlefield, Psycho Pom vs. Gilgamesh’s Connection- “Get out of her head, cause she doesn’t need this~!” Screamed Pom as she attack Smolder, however the claws no long scratched, tore or even hurt Smolder. “Why don’t I see risk~?!” Gilgamesh however, notice a drop of blood spilling from his body and his eyes widened slightly in surprise as he recalled the pain front three tailed fish dog. Suddenly, Gilgamesh found himself unexpectedly pulled into the battlefield against his will and he found himself in the fog under attack as Pom actually started targeting him through his controlling connection to Smolder directly. “She’s a victim, you Machiavellian somnambulate~!” Pom was showing her fury quite well as Gilgamesh tried to teleport around her attacks and was managing to nick him a few times here or there, nothing for Gilgamesh to really worry about, but that she had even managed to draw him into a direct mental fight was mind boggling. Gilgamesh tried to get Smolder to move and attack Pom, however she was no longer responded to his control even if she was still connected to him. He tried to break the connection only to find a different, problem, he simply couldn’t. “I now grin, by taking on your mind and tearing your threat away~!” Pom’s ferocity was fairly surprising, but to Gilgamesh he now thought of Pom as a wild mutt, one that needed to be put down considering her actions was likely to ruin things before they could get to his grand finale. Gilgamesh was not effortlessly dodging the numerous claw swipes of the half canine half sheep like entity, since Pom was actually make him show some effort. He tried launching attacks back at her, but none of them connected as Pom was almost like the shifting fog that currently surrounded Smolder in reality… he wondered if that was how he was drawn into fighting Pom’s rabid form. Behind Pom in a space that was seemingly separate from them, much to Gilgamesh’s bewilderment, was a crying orange furred puppy wearing a shock collar. Surrounding that puppy was numerous wolf shaped shadows daring him to make a move towards that puppy with their narrowed eyes all set on Gilgamesh. “I felt the rage rise up in me, kneel down and hear the crown of beasts~. I wander out to where you can see… inside my shell I’ll break and bleed~.” Pom stated as the various wolves started stalking forward and each one started turning into a copy of Pom as she currently was. A bleeding berserk wreck of a monster. “I feel the rage rise up in me…~” Pom still being under the effects of haste was beginning to get faster and the mental representation of Gilgamesh was starting to have problems being elusive as claw strikes started getting him even when he teleported, it almost seemed like the claw strikes were teleporting with him as he did so. “Kneel down and face the Canine Queen~.” Trying to get out of the attacks, Gilgamesh could feel his mind was under an intense pressure of several copies of Pom attacking him with claws, fangs and blasts of soundless barks. “I wonder if you can see…~” After hearing this line the Pom walking normally towards him as all the other copies attacked was locked on to by Gilgamesh, he launched several powerful psychic attacks and was trying not to waste the energy he needed for his unbinding. “That Inside this shell… you’ll break and cede~!” Pom ‘mentally’ went into Shock-Ram state without doing any of the necessary actions to actually activate it as she came to a stop in front of her target, her mind stopped being limited in this instance and the unfortunate side effect would be that her Chrysomallus heritage take another one of her legs. She paid that price and far more without a second thought knowing that she wouldn’t have the ability to actually do much to Gilgamesh in reality later. Gilgamesh became froze in place unable to move and was surrounded by the various copies of Pom. “GOODBYE~!” The several Pom’s screeched as they all prepared to lunge on a frozen Gilgamesh. “You will learn something~!” One Pom stated in a distorted as she flashed by him claws tearing a path through Gilgamesh’s astral form as he tried to block with psychic energy and he lost a massive amount. “I will give up everything~!” A second Pom flashed by more claw marks littered Gilgamesh’s mental form. The more damage done to Gilgamesh’s mental representation the further and further the color around the orange puppy’s neck crumpled. Gilgamesh could actually feel his spirit being directly attacked and the end result was actually starting to damage the Gates of Babylon themselves, much to his consternation that Pom could even damage a noble phantasm with her pack of wolves that represented fighting spirit. “My rest is with the bones~!” There was something about Pom’s attack that was actually reaching into Gilgamesh’s spirit in an attempt to breach the gates and she was close to succeeding in getting back what she wanted. “This pain was always me~!” In that instant one Pom made Gilgamesh feel her agony as his body was crisscrossed with claw marks of an ongoing ‘Full Feral Flurry’ backed by the raw golden power of the Chrysomallus. Pom reached for the gates within his spirit and threatened to breach them out of pure rage. “Have you learned something~?!” The gates started buckling as the various Pom’s attacks threatened to destroy Gilgamesh’s phantasm much to his bewilderment that Pom could even attack it directly with a mindless ferocity. That she was still singing even if she didn’t know the words she was saying was making it much more eerie and had Gilgamesh considering the fact that Pom might be possessed and it couldn’t just be the raw power of her completely snapping allowing her to do all this. “I’m not changing a thing, your flesh is torn to bones, yet my pain is surpassing thee~!” Pom was sacrificing the pain she was in for more strength and Gilgamesh realized that he had to back out now or someone might actually do something that none else had done before. The little orange puppy’s collard crinkled, ruptured and exploded. The puppy was fine, but the collar no longer existed and could never exist again due to the backlash that suddenly struck Gilgamesh back. It to the point Gilgamesh had to start shielding his mind with the mental representation of the Gates of Babylon themselves so he could no long lose Psychic Energy from Pom’s attacks. It was either be set back on unbinding his Hoopa or allow his gates to take the brunt of Pom’s wrath. “I feel the rage rise up in me… kneel down to clear my path of leaves…~” The distortion in Pom’s voice were getting worse and more demonic sounding as one Pom calmly walked towards the gate and the rest were ravaging it with attacks. “I wonder if you can now see… inside this shell, I’ll break bleed~.” Gilgamesh was witnessing something no one else could see. He had heard of how powerful Fou or as it is more commonly known Primate Murder was as a planet’s answer to the life it gave birth to, this was likely on a similar level when it was just Pom’s spirit that was doing this and not her mind or body. Pom was actually much more of a threat to ‘Moon Cell’ than he could have ever predicted, behind her veneer was a beast of incredible power and one that Gilgamesh had to admit he might have found some attraction to for the raw power mindless power she was giving off in this moment. There was no way she could fully break through the gates that would repair themselves, even if she could lightly damage them. “I’ve feel the rage rise up in… I kneel down to clear my path of leaves, I wonder if you can see…~” The one Pom sang calmly as the various copies of her violently attack the gate that started to buckle under the force of several anti-magic wool covered claws hitting it with impressive. “Outside my shell, I’ll make you cede~!” With a roar the one Pom that walked towards the gates suddenly twisted around to put her back to him. She then turned charged forward, bring her right glowing leg forth, her eyes concentrating entirely on Gilgamesh beyond the gates. The words ‘Are you okay’ resounded within Gilgamesh’s head for some reason, followed by the idea of ‘you won’t be soon enough’. With the force of a Golden Buster Wolf, Pom’s glowing right leg rammed forward. “AND I’LL COME FOR YOU, ARROOOOOUGGHH~!” Pom’s right leg punctured a small hole in the Gates of Babylon, beyond the gates Gilgamesh felt a single claw march stretching across the left side of his face as she roared at him with a feral look in her eyes. -Castle of Illusion, Gilgagesh- “AGGHH!” Clutching at my face, my left hovering hand came away with what was dripping from my suddenly tarnished face, she… she actually did it… she metaphorically breached the gates and struck me directly and she was still on the battlefield below! “Again? No… it’s worse this time.” It wasn’t the three tailed dog that got me this time, it was the sheep herself that did this and it was even worse for the limited area it covered in comparison to the larger wound dealt previously. That was because this wound felt like it was infected by her spirit and it wouldn’t stop bleeding for quite a while since I couldn’t seal it off with my Psychic Powers… she had hit and damaged my soul directly with that last attack to just get a single leg through the gates. She failed to fully breach, but breach the gates she did, she didn’t get what she wanted and would still come for Gilgamesh as promised. Too bad she was a mutt, because that raw power was kind of hot. Here I thought Artoria thoroughly sticking to her principles was the only thing that gets my blood pumping, I don’t even know if she was in this world. The gates would repair with time and my injury would be a footnote when I soon became unbound around noon, my forces just needed to hold for a few hours. The soul damage that sheep did… it felt like it wouldn’t heal though and that was a terrifying thought. -Top of Cerebrum City, Shanty- The red fog disappeared and I be seeing Pom motionless, with her right four clawed leg raised to the sky towards the castle above. Smolder had shrunk back to normal and looked horrible lacerated… at least until the reviver seed Pom rammed into her tongue activated to be healing her broken body. Pom didn’t be having the luxury of being able to use a reviver seed given she be saving it for Smolder. Dolly acted immediately and shielded Pom with a barrier of wind and moved to protect her motionless body. “Dodo!” At my behest Dodo raced forward towards Pom as both sides of the battle started heating up, we avoided blasts of varying types of energy that be going all over the place as we be reaching Pom’s side. The golden glow along Pom’s right leg died out and her leg continued to drip drops of blood and the wool along that leg started to turn an ugly and quite concerning dark gray color. The four claws on Pom’s right hoof combined back into her natural cloven hoof and slowly the transformation started to revert along the rest of her body as Dodo rapidly came up to her. The glow from Dolly boosting Pom’s speed also be dying out. The fangs disappeared the wool returned to looking normal and the rest of the claws on all of her limbs disappeared from Pom’s form returning her to normal, aside from her bleeding right leg. The red sparks in her Pom’s eyes be gone and those eyes be looking quite lost and lifeless. One the gold rings around the outer edged of Pom’s eyes be disappearing she be crumpling over lifelessly, we be sweeping by to pick up her, Dolly and Smolder. Whatever Pom be doing, she be hitting her limits without Shock-Ram and she be hurting herself badly again. At least she isn’t being in a near constant state of death this time. Dodo be carrying Pom, Dolly and Smolder in his knew wings as he be charging back towards the wagon at the backline of Kenshin’s rebels under assault from all the Psychic Pokémon behind us trying to target an unconscious Pom. -A distance away from the floating city that has stopped over a massive lake in eastern Illusio, Canard- I’m quite certain everyone was worried about us and where we went, we had so little time to prepare for what we were going to do and Sami has been flying this airship for the last nine hours almost nonstop. “So when do we make our move Canard?” Sami asked while looking at me. It would take us some time to get back to the fighting going on in Cerebrum. The good thing I can say about this airship was that it was at least fast. “Soon enough, the battle on Cerebrum is going to be a terrible one and the main gathering point of the Psychic Types in Illusio will soon be destroyed while giving rise to a unbound Hoopa.” Xatu was staring off into space, but he was directing us meticulously towards some end goal and purpose. “Yeah, when Xatu here thinks it’s a good idea.” From what we’ve learned, Xatu can look into the past and see the future. We were timing our actions accordingly, he couldn’t see much of the future aside from a massive shadow and the fall of Cerebrum, but we were planning to be a wrench in all of this. “Again, Skitty Squad thanks you for helping us with directions Mr. Thunderbeak!” Captain Skeeball called from the top of her flying whale of a husband next to the airship, still did not need to know how that works or how they even had children in the first place when her husband was more than ten times her size. The logistics on trying to figure that out went into horrifying territories and I blocked the thought of actually trying to comprehend it out of my mind. “Yikes, we’re definitely needed here, Cerebum looks like it needs a shot justice and heroes!” We could see from here that Cerebrum City was burning. -Top of Cerebrum City, rebel backline, Team Harmony Wagon, Ocellus- The battle was heated and here I was with Smolder, thankfully healed up by the reviver seed and still in need of gem and jewels to nourish her body when she wakes up. I’m surprised Pom even managed to do all of that. Checking Pom’s health brought back mixed signals for me, torn muscles throughout most of her body and a small hole in her chest… nothing new when she was going all out with her Sheep’s Clothing form. Her front right leg looked like she shoved it into a blender full of knives underneath her wool, speaking of which her wool was the only thing holding most of her right leg together. We needed to get Pom back up in the next few hours, I started by pouring Sitrus Berry Juice into her throat and rubbing it so she swallowed the healing juice. I’m quite happy that she managed to get Smolder back, but what did it cost her? That grey dark wool was giving off strangely disturbing signs of magical blowout like a unicorn’s horn from my magical diagnostics.