Chapter 33: The Obsidian Caverns

  The day after Auri and Yuki had barely survived traversing the Blackwater Stream, both of them were still a little off-track. Nearly dying wasn't something one could just ignore while pretending it had never happened. And they both didn't really have much time to deal with all that yet.

  Auri sat near a small cliff’s edge, arms wrapped loosely around his knees, watching the slow pulse of orange light deep below. His fur was stiff with soot, his scarf still faintly scorched at the ends.

  Behind him, Yuki worked in silence, turning her satchel. Quite a bit of their supplies had been destroyed in the fight against that mutated Sharpedo. Because of that, they now had to be really careful with what they had left. At least the rope and all the Luminous Stones were still there.

  "Remind me again," Yuki muttered, voice muffled by her wings, "why we thought going through the Blackwater Stream was a good idea."

  Auri glanced back, faintly smiling. "We didn’t. But it was the only landmark we knew of that would lead us to the Obsidian Caverns. So we didn't really have much of a choice."

  "Ugh!" She rolled over to face him. "Still, it was a stupid idea. We should've informed us better what the lay of the land up here was like. Risa gave us some rough informations about the terrain, but seeing how we only asked about how to traverse rougher terrains, we still lack a bunch of information!"

  He didn’t disagree in principle, but Yuki still forgot a few important details. "That's true, but it's not like we could've been more specific with our questions. Risa would've suspected something and if we had told her enough to find out where we went? Well, she would've been here already a few days ago, together with an entire guard patrol. The situation we specifically try to avoid."

  Yuki nodded. "Yeah, that's fair. Still, there was probably something we could've done better. Things to debate about after we're back I suppose."

  "We'll have more than enough time for that after the guards imprison us in the village for the next few months at the least once we're back," Auri agreed.

  Yuki groaned at the reminder of the inevitable punishment the two of them would receive. "Please don't remind me. I understand it, and I even find myself totally in agreement! For sneaking away like that without telling anyone we totally deserve a big punishment and I would've expected the same had any of the other kids done it! Still... I hate that it will be me that has to live through that."

  Auri stretched and stood up. "It's time to keep going. We're wasting daylight. Not that it matters much longer..." In a place called Obsidian Caverns he would be really surprised if it wouldn't be pitchblack around them.

  Yuki stood up as well and threw a dubios look towards the yawning slit in the stone wall just a few hundred meters away from them. It was faintly pulsing with eery red light as well. "Can’t we maybe just go around? Like, this way?" She gestured vaguely toward the horizon, where a jagged silhouette of cliffs cut through the haze.

  "If we had a week or something, sure," Auri said simply. "But meeting Sia is quite urgent with Miu actively wanting to see me dead. So I'd rather reduce the time she has to do so as much as possible."

  Yuki sighed. "Right. Through the glowing death tunnel it is then."

  She looked down at her feathers, many still damaged from the Blackwater Stream. "Hopefully we're lucky enough that we don't have to walk directly through the Core room this time."

  "While that is indeed quite unlikely, luck decidedly isn’t something I want to rely on," Auri said, tone unreadable.

  He glanced toward the dark line where the Obsidian Caverns began, just like Yuki had done moments before. The Dungeon’s border shimmered faintly, visible even from here. That they could already feel the type energy density in the air and see a physical barrier between Dungeon territory and its surroundings was a very bad sign. It meant the Obsidian Caverns were probably at least twice as hard as tje Blackwater Stream, maybe more. Personally, he didn't like their odds in such a Dungeon, but there wasn't much of a choice.

  The Obsidian Caverns eneryg was clearly a mix of fire-type, rock-type and dark-type energy.And he really didn't look forward to have another dark-type Dungeon bother them. They weren't supposed to be common but with how often he ran into them, one could come to believe otherwise.

  Yuki followed his gaze, her expression hardening. "This Dungeon will be significantly harder to scale. Should we even have the slightest impression of the Dungeon pulling us in instead of pushing us away we turn tail and run."

  Auri nodded. "I agree, but I don't think that's going to be a problem. Even from here it feels like the Dungeon is pressing us back. It wants us to just leave, I'm quite sure of that."

  "Well, good thing we’re stubborn then! The Dungeon will definitely not get rid of us with just a little pressure!"

  Moments later they reached the crack that was the entry to the Obsidian Caverns. It was incredibly narrow, sloping into the earth at a cruel angle, as if the world itself had been torn open. The obsidian walls bled faint red veins, pulsing just below their glassy surface.

  Auri crouched at the edge, fur bristling from the static hum of the incredibly dense type energy that filled the air. Already the heat of the fire-type energy pressed down on him like a heavy hand, thick and sharp, making every breath sting in his throat. Beside him, Yuki stretched her wings and hummed as the tips brushed the obsidian.

  "Hotter than a Magcargo’s nest down there," she muttered, feathers ruffling. However, she meant that as a compliment. Yuki, as a fire-type, of course felt perfectly comfortable in these temperatures.

  Auri didn’t answer right away. He pulled one of their Luminous Stones from his scarf and held it up to Yuki. A quick injection of fire-type energy later the stone stirred to life, glowing with pale silver light that caught the obsidian walls and scattered in hundreds of fragments, each one a trembling reflection.

  "This time we'll at least see further than two meters!" Yuki announced, injecting fire-type energy into her own stone until it came alive too. The glow danced between them, soft but steady, and she tucked it beneath her feathers. "And we don't have to continuously waste type-energy on lighting up the surroundings either!"

  "Let's hope they are truly as Dungeon-capable as the miners claim," Auri murmured, adjusting his grip on the wall. "Stay close to the left. The obsidian to the right is jagged and incredibly sharp."

  Like that they began their descent. The slope was slick beneath their paws and claws, but still hot enough to sting through the pads of Auri’s feet. The air shimmered with heat distortion, turning straight tunnels into twisting shapes. The Luminous Stones didn’t help much, their reflections bounced unpredictably, making distances hard to judge. Auri reached out once, thinking he saw a wall, only to touch empty air and nearly lose his footing.

  "Careful!" Yuki snapped, flaring a wing to steady him. Her feathers caught a glint of red light, gleaming like molten metal.

  "I’m fine," he said through clenched teeth, though sweat already slicked the fur below his scarf. It was way to hot in here to wear anything, but it was still the better alternative to leaving it behind. It had been less than 20 minutes since they entered the Obsidian Caverns and Auri was already quite sure that he hated fire-type Dungeons the most of all the types he'd seen yet. While they all tried to kill you or drive you off, this fire-type Dungeon felt like he was suffocating on the dry and hot air just by being there.

  They kept going. Yuki moved ahead, wings half-spread for balance. Her talons clinked against the glassy surface, leaving faint white scratches that shimmered like spiderwebs. The Luminous Stone’s glow caught in them and made them look like trails of frost, an odd contrast against the burning air. He might've not been the most fair to the Luminous Stones. Seeing something was still far better than seeing nothing at all or to purely rely on the Dungeon's own faintly gloing red lines for sight.

  Suddenly, Yuki stopped and Auri froze behind her. "What-?"

  She simply held up a paw and tuned back to him. "Listen. Quietly."

  Yuki was right. Their footsteps had been following a pattern,step, step, scrape. But now the sound didn’t match. There were extra steps, steps that were clearly not coming from them!

  Auri's fur bristled. "That’s-"

  "Not us," she finished for him. He glanced back up the slope, but the light of the Luminous Stones didn’t reach far enough for him to spot anything. All he saw was the shimmer of distorted air and his own reflection trembling across the walls.

  "Keep your breathing steady and for now, as wrong as it sounds, ignore it while remaining watchful," he said at last. "This Dungeon has the dark-typing as well, if to a far lesser degree than the Blackwater Stream. We have to expect some mindplays here."

  Yuki exhaled slowly through her beak. "Right. By now I should know how weird dark-type Dungeons are. It may be only the fourth one I ever went into, but no matter."

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  Auri gave a faint smile despite himself. "Almost convincing, but it would've been more calming if you did not admit to a lack of experience with dark-type Dungeons," he teased.

  "Still more experience with them than you have," Yuki shot back quietly.

  Auri simply shook his head. "As if that makes it any better. It only makes me doubt both of our sanity for going into this Dungeon even more."

  They pressed onward, slower now while keeping their eyes open for any other irregularities. The deeper they went, the thicker the air grew. It carried a faint metallic tang, like heated iron. The walls began to drip, not water, but molten residue sliding down in thin glowing streaks before cooling into black crust.

  Auri wiped his brow. The heat was only going to get worse, wasn't it? Yuki, by contrast, seemed more energetic than ever.

  "You holding up?" she asked without looking back.

  "Define "holding up' a bit more detailed," he muttered.

  She laughed softly. "If you pass out, I’m carrying you back to the exit. Just saying. Though it would be a fun story! Auri, the human, probably future savior of the world, passing out in a Dungeon before even finding a single trap or Dungeon Pokemon!"

  "That's not going to happen."

  "Well, if you say so. Now prove it."

  Their banter faded as the tunnel split ahead, one narrow and jagged, another wide and unnaturally smooth. The Luminous Stones threw warped reflections between them, confusing distance and shape. It looked almost like both paths bent toward each other, then apart again, like living things breathing in rhythm.

  Yuki tilted her head. "Left looks tighter. Right looks like it wants to eat us."

  Auri crouched, sensing for they type energy around them in more detail. It gave him little more than some intuitive ideas, but that was enough in this case.

  "That way," he said, nodding toward the right.

  Yuki frowned. "Isn't open and welcoming pretty much always the trap in the Dungeon?"

  "That's the way that leads deeper in. And with us not havin seen a single Dungeon Pokemon yet, it's safe to say we're not nearly deep enough in the Dungeon yet to actually try finding the right exit again."

  "Great logic," Yuki said with a roll of her eyes, but followed along anyway.

  As they continued deeper, the air got even hotter again. The light from their stones warped, folding around invisible corners. Auri’s reflection flickered along the wall, but it didn’t move quite right. More Dungeon shenanigans.

  The ground trembled faintly beneath their paws. Auri glanced back once, eyes glinting faintly silver in the dim light. "Our grace period is over," he said. "We’re probably almost through the entry layer."

  Yuki nodded, the flicker of her Luminous Stone catching in her eyes like a captured flame. "Then let’s see if we're ready for what the Dungeon is going to throw at us!"

  The Dungeon seemingly took that as a challange because the moment she said that, a glint of violet shimmered from the wall, eyes opening where nothing but obsidian walls should've been.

  Auri barely had time to react before the Dungeon Sableye lunged with a [Knock Off], claws glinting black in the red light. His body moved on instinct. A [Thunder Shock] instantly cracked from his tail, bright and clean, slamming into the thing’s chest and throwing it backward into the wall it had crawled from. A [Thunderbolt] just a second later finished it off, the Dungeon Pokemon melting back into the obsidian walls.

  "We've got contact, Dungeon Pokemon hiding in the walls and probably more than one!" he snapped, stepping in front of Yuki.

  "Got it!" she replied, setting her body on fire with [Flame Charge] for additional light that the Luminous Stones just couldn't offer. And it worked.

  More and more eyes of Dungeon Sableye appeared in the darkness, their bodies now iluminated by Yuki's flame.

  Yuki flared her wings and unleashed multiple [Ember] bursts down the tunnel. Fire spilled like a living stream, reflected a hundredfold on the mirrored obsidian. The nearest shadows shrieked and pulled away, clawed shapes melting into black glass that steamed under the sudden heat.

  But for every one that vanished, two more emerged.

  "That's a Monster Room!" Auri realized, instantly becoming even more alarmed. "We have to get out of here now!"

  "Then we have to break through now!" Yuki called back and switched into a [Fire Spin]. "I'll create us a way through, keep pace!"

  Yuki rushed ahead, kicking apart and burning through every Sableye that dared to attack. Their momentum allowed them to carry through before the Dungeon Pokemon could properly react. The tunnel they followed forked, split, and twisted, veins of red light pulsing through the walls like heartbeat trails. The Luminous Stones threw long silver arcs ahead of them.

  Another Sableye burst out of the wall besides Auri. He ducked under the [Scratch], pivoted, and sent a quick [Thunder Shock] through the wall. Electricity spiderwebbed through the obsidian, lighting cracks that briefly outlined dozens of hidden shapes still waiting in the dark.

  "That's a dead end!" Yuki instantly shouted. "There's a ridge above, follow me!"

  She launched herself upward, talons scraping obsidian, wings snapping open despite the heat. Her flame burst into the ridge like a flare, searing light that cut through the space. Auri leapt after her, instantly, unleashing a last [Electro Ball] down into the tunnel before running after her. He heard the explosion and the sound of multiple bodies being thrown back.

  For a moment Auri thought they managed to get away from the Monster Room and the Dungeon Pokemon, but that hope was dashed only moments later.

  Below them, the ground split, a burst of red magma, glowing briefly before cooling again. From the opening, fragments of something larger clawed upward. A head of stone came out, then another. Two Dungeon Onix stared at them with lifeless eyes, blocking their path forward.

  "Oh, c'mon now! That’s just blatant cheating!" Yuki hissed, but didn't let that stop her for long.

  She dove past one fragment of the Dungeon Onix's segmented body as it swung its tail, her scarf barely clearing the impact. Auri landed beside her, unleashing a [Brick Break] at the head of the Dungeon Onix. It crumbled apart under the impact. Most Dungeon Pokemon weren't the most tanky when it came to super effective moves landing a critical hit- Not that most normal Pokemon would fare much better.

  Auri and Yuki continued to run, barely needing to communicate with each other.

  A Dungeon Sableye dropped from the ceiling. Yuki instantly rolled to the side and Auri caught it mid-fall with a [Tail Whip] that knocked it into the wall.

  Another Onix lunged, mouth open, teeth of sharpened obsidian. Auri once more struck it with a [Brick Break], sending obsidian shards of its body upward like glass rain. Surprisingly it still stood after that hit. Yuki however, finished it with a [Quick Attack], scattering the already wekaned body of the Dungeon Pokemon in all directions.

  However the Dungeon itself had watched idly long enough. Heat flared, the walls pulsing brighter, and suddenly the tunnels around them started to shift. The tunnel they followed suddenly started to loop upward, folding into itself.

  "It's a loop!" he called out. "If we follow that way we’ll just end up back where we started!"

  "Then we make a new exit!" called back and dove low. "Hit me with a [Tail Whip] at full force now!"

  Auri only hesitated for a moment before doing as she asked. The move hit Yuki squarely, however she used the power of the move to spin around and unleash a powerful [Counter] at the wall. The obsidian surface exploded outward, molten shards scattering into the air and behind it, another tunnel revealed itself.

  "First try was an instant success, great! Now let's continue!" she called out without any regard for the damage his [Tail Whip] must've left on her. [Counter] was a self-punishing move like that. It took the force that you got hit with and multiplied it. There was no using it without taking damage from someone first though.

  For a brief few seconds, Auri and Yuki ran in relative quiet. The red veins pulsed slower here, the air heavy with dust and burnt stone. The Dungeon Pokemon had seemingly given up on hunting them down as well for now, a clear sign that they had successfully left the Monster Room behind.

  Auri slowed just long enough to catch his breath. His fur was plastered with sweat, his paws throbbing from the heat. "You okay? That must've hurt! I thought you were going to use [Detect] or something, not [Counter]!"

  Yuki’s answer came between pained gasps. "I'm fine. It was necessary and you wouldn't have done it had I told you beforehand. Seems like we're-"

  The ground rumbled omniously beneath them.

  "-moving again. Quickly!"

  The obsidian wall next to them suddenly cracked open and from the fissure, an [Incinerate] erupted. A Houndoom lunged through the fire, eyes burning the same red as the Dungeon veins.

  Auri braced, sparks charging through his body, but Yuki was already there. "That one's mine!"

  She spun into the move, using her mostly fire-resistant wing to divert the initial burst, then countered with a [Fire Spin] that folded the attack back onto the Houndour. It yelped, vanished into shadow, and the wall sealed behind it.

  Auri exhaled through his teeth. "You really do pick fights with fire in fire-type Dungeons."

  "Someone’s got to set the standard!" she replied proudly.

  "Is it just my impression or are you somehow more energetic and visibly faster than normal?" he asked curiously.

  Yuki just shrugged. "I mean, probably yeah? My ability is Speed Boost. I naturally get faster and more energetic the longer I am in a Dungeon. But if it's a Dungeon teeming with fire-type energy like this one, that effect is of course far more noticeable and happens way faster than normally."

  He couldn’t help but grin, short, tired, but real. "That's an impressive ability to have."

  Yuki waved her wing in a 'maybe' motion. "I think your ability is far better. You don't just take no damage from electric-type energy, you can even reabsorb it to fill your energy reserve and even protect allies. Something like that just for fire-type energy would've been great for me! The effects of Speed Boost rarely matter because outside of fire-type Dungeons they take way too long to become noticeable. But in here, give me an hour at most and I'll be faster than you by quite a bit."

  After that short conversation they pressed forward again, slower now. Every few meters, more Dungeon Pokemon showed up, but these they dispatched efficiently. A quick [Thunderbolt], a flash of [Flamecharge], and the threat was gone. They didn’t linger to finish anything that didn’t matter, but if something tried to trail them, they made sure it didn’t get a second chance. The narrow tunnels, while amking fighting far harder, were also a boon for them. Outside of a Monster Room it massively limited the Dungeon in how many Dungeon Pokemon it could send after them at once. And only one or two? Such small numbers were easy to dispatch.

  The real challange was to conserve energy. While the Dungeon could only send small groups of Dungeon Pokemon at once, he could still send them in many waves. And so it became a game of endurence. At least, until the Dungeon seemingly gave up once again and the tunnel returned to silence.

  Later, as they reached another junction, Yuki stopped. We're somewhat lost, aren't we? The Dungeon stopped bothering us because we're moving away from the Core again."

  "Probably, yes. But we don't need to get to the Core this time anyway. Just pass by it somewhat close. At least that's my understanding of the layout. Hard to say much more with how ever-shifting Dungeons are."

  "Right." Her feathers puffed slightly. "Still, it's also somewhat fun!"

  Auri glanced sideways and gave her a dry look. "Only you could call getting lost in a labyrinth of obsidian while being hunted down by a bunch of Dungeon Pokemon fun."

  Yuki huffed a laugh. "But it's true! We have action, we have exploration, we learn and see new stuff, and most of all we're up to the challenge, the Dungeon outside of its Monster Rooms not all that dangerous! That's exactly what I want to get out of an adventure like this one!"

  Auri just shook his head in amusement. Still, if she had fun with the Dungeon, good for her. Personally, he still felt like he was being roasted alive by the heat that stubbornly refused to get any better.

  Still, if that was all he had to deal with this Dungeon, that was more welcome. The Dungeons in the unclaimed territory were supposed to be far more dangerous than the ones like the Blackwater Stream. The energy density of the Obsidian Caverns implied the same. But right now? It didn't feel like that at all.

  He really hoped it stayed that way. Nearly loosing his life to a Dungeon once had been enough for him.

  Important characters in the chapter:

  Pikachu (Auri) – Level 16

  Ability: Lightning Rod

  Battle Nature: Lonely

  Stats:

  TE Pool (Health/AP): 75

  Attack: 49

  Ranged Attack: 44

  Defense: 52

  Speed: 58

  Total: 278 (Strength Level: Teenager)

  Moves:

  Close Combat Moves: [Nuzzle], [Tail Whip], [Quick Attack], [Brick Break], [Thunder Wave], [Feint]

  Ranged Combat Moves: [Thunder Shock], [Electro Ball], [Swift], [Thunderbolt], [Discharge]

  Utility Moves: [Nasty Plot], [Charm], [Double Team], [Growl], [Agility], [Dig]

  Torchic (Yuki) – Level 17 (Evolution Requirements Not Met, Stat Boost Applied)

  Ability: Speed Boost

  Battle Nature: Hasty

  Stats:

  TE Pool (Health/AP): 84

  Attack: 49

  Ranged Attack: 49

  Defense: 57

  Speed: 42

  Total: 281 (Strength Level: Teenager)

  Moves:

  Close Combat Moves: [Scratch], [Quick Attack], [Feint], [Fire Spin], [Flame Charge], [Aerial Ace], [Counter], [Slash]

  Ranged Combat Moves: [Ember], [Sand Attack], [Overheat]

  Utility Moves: [Growl], [Detect], [Dig]