Pokémon Chronicles 零 (ZERO)

Episode 46: Revelation of duty

"What's going on? There's no way you could resist something like that!" Lucca shouted, grinding his teeth as he stared up at a laughing Alver. The Ribombee held back a Pollen Puff attack, laughing snidely behind a cocky pose.

"Isn't there? Or are you so convinced that you're the superior Pokémon to the world that it shouldn't be possible?" Alver replied with yet another smile I had grown tired of. "Surely even the shining warriors remember their peasantry origins?"

"Well yeah, but I shot you directly with an arrow!" I argued dismissively, readying another one.

"Oh... and it seems the rest of you have gotten rid of my beast... my poor Kartana," he teased, calming down. He released the Pollen Puff, having it split up into several orbs of light that curled through the sky towards us. I guarded my face and braced for the impact, not having to do so as Megan burnt it all away before it reached us. I used that moment to fire another arrow at him, not hitting thanks to his nimble nature.

"Crystal, calm down. The situation is changing," Lucca muttered, giving me a tap.

"Whaddya mean 'calm down'? He's right here, and I can't so much as hit him! Then the one time one of us did, it's like he's invincible?" Megan cried.

"There must be a reason for that," Mimia tried to explain. Brine ignored us to create some orbs of water and threw them at him, getting the same result of easy misses and mocking laughter. "He's spending almost all his time dodging our attacks. If we waste our energy, it'll only backfire on us."

"Then I'll just waste his energy first!" Megan cried, stomping the ground.

"Oh, you never learn, do you?" Alver sighed, watching her. She roared hoarsely to release yet another Flamethrower at him, still no different from before in that it was easily avoided. He had a Pollen Puff attack ready in retaliation this time though, and tossed them down at her immediately after dodging. The puffs homed in on her before she had even let up her attack.

"Ah-ahh, no!" she screamed, throwing herself backwards in panic. Shelly sprang into action, practically throwing himself onto her right before they exploded, and the two disappeared into a blast of smoke.

"Tch, if we all attack at once, it probably won't work, either..." Lucca growled, flinching when another Flamethrower burst from the smoke. Alver coughed as well, having the attack graze him even as he shifted to the left. The blue barrier from before protected him from any real damage, although Alver himself had clearly been taken by surprise and expected to be in pain.

"Megan?" I said in just as much surprise. Shelly was right up close behind her, and threw his hands aside.

"I just saw that ancient artes still work, so I used Light Screen to protect her..." he revealed. "But every time we hit him, he's protected by a shield..."

"So I'm not the only one seeing that," I muttered, keeping my eyes on Alver. He slowly went back to sitting on his staff. "This would all be so much easier if we could actually reach him and hit with a physical attack."

"Oh? I would have thought that that lucky hit would give you hope. Have you finally realised that it's useless to attack? Anything you do won't even leave a scratch on me, anyway," he mocked.

"Wait a minute... the blue barrier... not a scratch?" Lucca whispered. He practically did a backflip upon quickly coming to a conclusion, and sheathed his old swords. "Crystal, quick! Give me the time sword!"

"Wait a sec, how will that help-"

"There's no time to explain! Please!" he urged, leaning towards me desperately. I exchanged glances with him and Alver, just about spotting Alver's face twitch with slight concern. "Please Crystal, you have to trust me!"