Ch 5

Leo scrabbled up the mountain after Slowking as said pink pokemon calmly levitated up the hillside. To say Leo was envious of the slowking's psychic prowess was an understatement. He wanted to float over the stony ground – Slowking having chosen the absolute hardest way for Leo to climb up the mountain – but settled for imagining a much buffer and brawnier version of himself striding up the mountain with casual ease. A much different image than that of his current climb; crawling over rocks taller than himself, hand over fist, fighting inch by inch just to climb the rocky, avalanche-destroyed mountainside.

Thankfully though Leo could see the light at the end of the tunnel. Not but a hundred feet in front of him was the top of the climb, marked by a sharp ledge and blue sky beyond it. Pausing for breath, Leo sat down on the boulder he had climbed over and wiped sweat from his brow, looking back out over the river valley. He could see the lake the slowpoke herd congregated around, glittering in the midafternoon sun while the river snaked its way toward him, twisting to and fro as it wove between mountains. The mountain range seemed to stretch on forever from his position, growing taller the further upriver he looked. A few of the furthest peaks still had snow on them even.

Leo pulled a bottle of water from his pack and took a long drink, forcing himself to not drink too much. He wanted to save some for the trip down.

"Come, boy, it is not far to the top now," Slowking said, floating a good thirty feet up the mountain.

"Easy for you to say," Leo snapped, making Slowking chuckle. Leo panted and lay flat on his back, scowling as the sun's intense rays scorched his skin. He'd need a bath after this, otherwise everything would stink of sweat. That, and he really needed to get that hat made.

"Say, why is this mountain so much shorter than all the others?" Leo voiced. Before Slowking had drug him all the way over here, Leo had thought this mountain was connected to the mountain behind it, not a mountain of its own. It was only half as tall as the surrounding mountains after all, and much of its surface was covered in rockslides and dense forest. It hadn't looked fun to climb, which was why Leo hadn't travelled this way to explore yet. Besides, it was a solid half-days walk downstream just to get here and Leo wasn't keen on spending the night away from the slowpoke herd.

"Finish the climb," Slowking said after a moment of silence. Leo grumbled to himself, took a deep breath, and turned back towards the mountain, carefully picking where he placed his feet. The rocks were loose enough in this section of the climb that Leo didn't want to risk kicking any loose, or disturbing a geodude and getting himself punched again. He was still sore from the hitmontop, after all.

It took a good few minutes of climbing for Leo to reach the top, where immediately he had his already short breath stolen from him by the sight laid out before him. The entire other side of the mountain had been blown away. Dead trees lined the crater side, either killed off, snapped in half, or burnt to cinders. Massive round holes dotted the ground and remaining mountainside, leading deep into the earth itself. Deep lines carved themselves into the stone and smaller craters littered the ground, while tall spires of rock reached haphazardly into the sky.

"What in the world happened here?" Leo breathed, eyes wide and still wheezing, hands on his knees. The ledge he stood on was a mere two feet wide and relatively flat, sharply falling off into the crater below. He felt nervous just standing there, as if the ground would give way any moment and send him tumbling into the crater below.

"Tyrus, the old tyranitar you have met and my old ally, fought a war – we all did," Slowking said somberly, setting himself on the ground next to Leo and staring out at the ancient battlefield, eyes growing distant. Leo allowed Slowking his moment of silence, struggling to remain quiet as he panted and sweat like a pig. It wasn't until Leo had caught his breath that Slowking continued.

"This is not where Archibald died, as I am sure you are aware. This is, however, where his team released their vengeance. This mountain used to be a place where onix would come to evolve into steelix, being rich in the metals required for their evolution. It had been a particularly active year, and that is what drew Archibald to the mountain in the first place – though it is not the onix who killed him. No, that year, Winter came early to the mountains," Slowking said.

Leo swallowed heavily, looking out over the crater. If this was the kind of devastation a champion-level team could dish out…that was insane. How many pounds of TNT would it take to blow up an entire mountain?

"When the Living Winter arrived the onix and steelix were above ground, basking in the last rays of the summer sun. The harsh blizzards hit without any warning, driving the onix below ground with such speed and ferocity that it caused tunnels to collapse all across the range. Archibald had the poor luck of becoming trapped beneath the mountain. With the help of Tyrus he managed to get back to the entrance, but…well," Slowking sighed. "The tunnels were too small for a tyranitar, so Archibald recalled him, and released me instead. I heard the shifting rock, but thought nothing of it. Instead, I was focused on the blizzard outside the cave, and in my distraction the cave collapsed, crushing Archibald. With his last breaths he released his team. I blamed myself. The others blamed Articuno, and sought revenge. What could I do but aid them?

"It was…folly to fight a blizzard. The winter birds were powerful in their element, diving in and out of the storm, vanishing from even my psychic senses. Legendaries are called such for a reason, and yet even against two of the powerful ice-types we managed to hold our ground. We even managed to ground one, which led to our downfall. Tyrus unleased a powerful earthquake upon the downed bird, which disturbed the onix below and crumbled the mountain. 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.

Only when his feet touched ground did Leo allow himself to breathe. His heart hammered in his chest and adrenaline spiked through his veins as he stared wide-eyed at the destruction the hyper beam had caused. Nearly the entire top of the mountain had been sheared off, chunks of stone and dirt falling to the crater below and leaving a large, awkward-looking gouge where the attack had struck.

Leo swallowed thickly, tearing his eyes away from the destruction to look at the fight once more – though it was already over. The lucario – whose once blue fur now looked black all over – leapt weakly at Tyrus, who bared his teeth and smashed his forehead into the lucario's chest, sending it crashing to the ground. Tyrus roared, planting one foot on the lucario's chest in victory, and scowled down at the defeated pokemon.

"What happens now?" Leo asked, voice nothing but a whisper and shaking more than he would've like to admit.

"Depends on how Tyrus is feeling today," Slowking answered. "That lucario may not survive, or it may be allowed to run free. It did intrude into Tyrus' territory," Leo clenched his jaw and watched Tyrus as he stood there silently. Slowly, the tyranitar turned its head to look up at Leo and Slowking, and his breath hitched. Slowking stiffened slightly, and Leo stared right back at Tyrus. A few tense moments passed, then Tyrus shook himself and stomped back into one of the onix holes, disappearing into the inky blackness and leaving the lucario laying below. Slowking relaxed only when Tyrus disappeared, turning to Leo somberly.

"Come, it is time to descend. It would not do to test Tyrus' patience and remain so close to his nest," Slowking said, turning and floating down the mountain. Leo remained where he was however, perched on a broken slab of stone that had been thrust upward when the mountaintop shifted. He fixated his eyes on the lucario, or where he thought the lucario to be, as the light continued to fade.

"What about the lucario?" Leo asked.

"It will live. In a few hours it will have enough strength to move again, and it will be safe enough in Tyrus' nest. Only the foolish or the powerful come here, after all," Slowking explained. Leo sighed and nodded, reluctant to just leave like that, but also knowing Slowking was probably right. He didn't understand pokémon the way Slowking probably did. Plus he didn't want to irritate Tyrus, especially after that display of strength.

Leo turned around and started to follow Slowking when realization struck him and he cursed. They'd spent too much time here, and now he'd have to climb down in the dark. Already the sunlight was fading fast, and with any luck Leo could get halfway down this particular rocky area before it got really dark. Hopefully Slowking would help him out, but if the way the pink creature was simply floating down the mountainside without sparing Leo a glance it wasn't likely.

Leo cursed again and started his careful climb down, praying to the gods that the rocks wouldn't fall and that he wouldn't slip. Or that he wouldn't run into any geodudes. Or…well, a lot of things.

Carefully making his way down the rocky area alone took Leo a good hour and a half in the dark, and even though he managed to get over to the edge of the exceedingly rocky spot and get into some trees, the steep terrain and deadfall littering the ground prevented any form of quick movement. Rushing down the mountain in the dark was a sure way to break an ankle or something, and all the dead trees lying across the mountain – though plenty more were still standing, the deadfall was plenty old for forest to have grown back up around it – only made things more dangerous.

At one point Leo even found himself calf-deep in wet, muddy grass, the clearing he though was a meadow actually turning out to be swampy wetlands. Seriously, how in the world was a swamp like this on the side of a freaking mountain?! Not to mention that he accidentally angered a trio of psyduck who clutched their heads and angrily spat water at him. The fact that the water guns had sheared bark off of the tree trunk next to him had everything to do with the fact that Leo moved as fast as he could away from the yellow ducks, cursing his luck all the while.

All of this led to Leo camping at the base of the mountain, wringing his tattered socks out over the small fire he made and letting his shoes dry in the heat of the flames. He hadn't brought much with him on this little adventure, a mistake in hindsight, but he had brought tools to make a fire. Namely, his knife and the flint-like stone. Leo was rash sometimes, but he wasn't stupid. He needed ways to stay warm, and wasn't keen on repeating last night's misery in the cold.

Slowking had originally wanted to push on into the night and reach the slowpoke herd, but Leo had put his foot down. Accompanied by a powerful psychic or no, Leo wasn't going to traipse any further into the night. The dark didn't scare him, but he was tired, exhausted, wet, and still had a lot to digest from what he had witnessed today. In the end he managed to convince Slowking, and now the bulky pokemon sat across the fire from him, eyes closed and meditating.

"Why did you want to show me that?" Leo asked aloud, fighting off sleep as he waited for his socks to dry, hanging over the fire as they were. It wouldn't do to let his socks burn up, but they needed to dry out so his feet wouldn't get super cold while he slept. Stupid swamp.

"You mean the fight?" Slowking asked. Leo nodded, forgetting Slowking had his eyes closed, but apparently sight wasn't necessary for the psychic type because he continued anyway. "I wanted see how you'd react,"

"How did I react?" Leo muttered, rubbing his face. He was too tired to play mind games with Slowking. Was this some sort of test? Leo would hedge his bets on it being a test. Why did Slowking feel the need to test him? Because he had Archibald's journal?

"How did you react?" Slowking asked back, and Leo shrugged. He was still figuring that out. The sheer power both Tyrus and the lucario displayed was mind-boggling, quite literally something out of an anime. How was he supposed to react to that? He did know one thing though; Slowking was right. Leo hadn't really understood the power pokemon wielded until now. He wasn't sure he understood it even now.

"Dunno," Leo said after a minute, and Slowking nodded, showing no other outward emotion.

"To be expected, I suppose. We will return to that topic to that later, once you have had some time. I forget how fragile humans are," Slowking said. Leo bit back a retort, his mind wandering to the lucario. He was doubtful he could have survived a hyper beam, period. Yet the lucario had not only taken the attack, but had still had enough energy to continue fighting, albeit barely. "Though to be fair, you are quite young,"

Leo hummed in response, flipping his socks over on the tall stick he had them hanging on. It wasn't the most effective method, but it was working. The two sat in silence for a while until Slowking stood and stretched, looking off into the darkness.

"I will leave you for a time now. Nothing will threaten you this close to Tyrus' mountain, as there is very little dumb enough to pick a fight with a tyranitar, but I do suggest you return to the slowpoke herd tomorrow," Slowking said.

"That was the plan," Leo murmured, patting his empty stomach. He'd munched on some bugs and other edibles – namely pine nuts and the one potato look-alike he'd found – on the way up the mountain, but nothing really satisfying.

"Good. Though one more piece of advice – I would not stay with the herd for much longer. Although their path does lead toward human civilization I doubt their pace will suffice this year. I fear winter will arrive early once more. Slowpoke can survive the cold, you cannot," Slowking said ominously, and Leo suddenly felt much more awake as he watched Slowking leave. That wasn't good news, now was it? It meant he had a few months until winter, sure, but that might mean fall would be cut short.

Leo let out a long, slow breath and shook his head. He was just…done with today. With life in general right now. Why couldn't anything be simple and easy?

"Everything is simple," Leo hissed to himself, slamming an open palm into the tree trunk and biting back a wince at the pain. He danced backwards, feet sliding into a firm, solid stance as he continued to circle the tree. His hands were held out towards the trunk, palms facing his chest as he slowly moved around it. "If winter is coming, then I just need to leave before it gets here," Leo said, sliding in and striking the tree with his elbow, followed by a knee and a singular punch before he backed off.

"If I can't hunt, then I'll just smoke some fish and make due with veggies and bugs," Leo told himself, anger flashing through his chest. He snarled and punched the tree multiple times, tearing the skin on his knuckles and causing them to bleed – though he didn't care. "If I can't find a pokemon to travel with me then I'll make due and figure things out myself,"

Another flash of irritation welled up inside Leo, though he stamped this one down and settled back, correcting his stance so his legs weren't too close together and he was less off-balance. As he moved he was beginning to remember what it felt like to be "in stance" and how it felt to move about in the style of martial art his father had taught him, though it would take a bit more time for him to really get back into the groove. He was too small now, too weak, and it'd been at least a year and a half since his last lesson in the art.

"If tyrogue want to pick fights with me, then I just have to get stronger. If I can't make a stupid hat because the grass sucks and I don't actually know how to weave, then fine! I'll just get a tan," Leo ground out, taking a deep breath and practicing a few kicks against the tree. The first few were hesitant, his bare shins – for he was naked save for his underpants at the moment – tapping the bark gently a few times until Leo got annoyed with his own hesitance and slammed his leg against the tree.

"The answer is simple, don't complicate things, Leo," he told himself, breathing heavily and relaxing his stance, glaring up at the midday sun.

"Slooow," one of the slowbro called from off to his right, where it stood watching him curiously.

"Don't mind me. Just working myself out of a funk. That Tyrus thing really messed with me for some reason," Leo assured it, running a hand down his face. For the past two days he'd been mulling over everything he'd heard and witnessed until he came to the conclusion that he needed to stop thinking about it. Despite his initial reaction, solutions to big problems usually were simple. Winter was coming? Leave. Don't want to die? Don't piss off a tyranitar. Simple as that.

"Brooo," the slowbro answered, turning and walking back to the lake. The herd was almost to the end by now, looking like they were ready to start heading further downriver.

Leo sighed and glanced around the big valley he had apparently spent months in. He was familiar with this land – he knew where to find food, where to find whetstones for his knife and skarmory feathers, and even where a pile of the flint-like rocks he needed to spark against his knife was. But that comfort was also holding him back, holding him here, and Leo needed to move on.

Letting out a breath, Leo closed his eyes and folded his hands beneath his navel. He breathed slowly, in and out, imagining for a moment that all of the irritation and anger that had built up ever since Slowking left him alone near Tyrus' mountain was flowing out of his feet and into the ground on every exhale. His body relaxed slowly, muscles untensing and thoughts becoming less cluttered as he did this small meditative exercise. Things were going to be ok, he just had to survive.

How does that poem go? Leo asked himself, trying to remember the words.

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the horrors of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.

"Sloooow," a slowpoke called, and Leo jumped in surprise.

"Did you have to do that?! I was trying to psyche myself up!" Leo snapped, whirling on the slowpoke angrily. It ignored his outburst and stared past him, fixated on something behind him. Leo glanced over his shoulder and sighed in irritation. "If its not one thing it's another. What do you want?" Leo asked sharply, turning to glare at the hitmontop that was walking in his direction. It looked a little scuffed up, but Leo thought he recognized it as the same one he had fought before. Back when it was a tyrogue anyway.

The blue-furred pokemon seemed to just grin at him, weaving its way around a thicket of brush that reached up to mid-thigh on it, and stopping about ten feet away from the edge of the trees Leo was standing in, out in the middle of a small meadow.

"It has come here to challenge you again," Slowking said from behind Leo, making him jump and whirl again.

"Would you all stop doing that?!" Leo yelped, then scowled when he realized how whiney he had just sounded. "Stop sneaking up on me, and why is it challenging me?" Leo hissed. Slowking smirked, clearly enjoying the situation.

"You are the one who has been declaring your challenge to the world for the past hour. Hitmontop here lost a fight to the lucario a few hours ago – it's returning to fight you because you helped it evolve. Since you've been so vocal in your intent to fight, it decided to pay you a visit," Slowking said.

"I've just been punching a tree for a little bit!" Leo exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air and stalking toward the hitmontop. He was pissed off as it was, and wanted to start a fight anyway. "But if it's a fight it wants, then it's a fight it will get!"

"Odd choice," Slowking said, and Leo scowled, exiting the trees and raising his hands into a fighting stance. "Don't die,"

"Shut up!" Leo barked, and the hitmontop charged. It only took two moves for the hitmontop to land a kick to Leo's chest and send him flying, his back slamming into a tree. The pain only served to flare his temper more as he fell to his knees, swiftly rising and fixating a glare at the hitmontop. Leo snarled and raised his fists again, uncaring that he was going to take an absolute beating here. He needed to hit something.

The hitmontop grinned at him and charged, thankfully not doing the unfair spinning-like-a-top move, tossing a light punch that Leo met with his face, bulldozing his way through the strike to return it in kind, punching the hitmontop in the face as hard as he could.

Blood trickled from Leo's nose but he ignored it, pressing his advantage as he smashed an elbow into the hitmontop's chest, immediately transitioning the blow into an open palm strike to its jaw, followed by a knee to its leg and another punch with his other hand – the latter of which was caught by the hitmontop. With a cry it spun Leo around, tossing him away and chasing after him, smashing a foot into his ribs while he struggled to remain standing, effectifely sending him to the ground. Leo hissed and rolled away, the hitmontop kneeing and kicking him every time he tried to stand.

Leo cursed and reversed directions, rolling into the hitmontop and knocking it off balance as he threw his entire body weight into its legs. It didn't go down however and promptly punched Leo in the back of the head, sending him sprawling onto the ground. And he just…lay there, vision swimming and head pounding until the words from that poem echoed in his head. My head is bloody, but unbowed.

With a groan Leo pushed himself up, wiping the blood off his face with one hand and fixing the hitmontop with a cool glare as it stood a few feet away, watching him curiously. He needed to calm down. Settle down, and then fight. He was lucky enough as it was that this was still a young hitmontop, not a really experienced one.

"Unless you knock me out, I will keep getting up," Leo warned, hissing in discomfort as his body began to ache. The hitmontop made a weird chuffing sound, and Leo heard Slowking sigh. White light glowed on the hitmontop's feet and it flipped over onto its hands, momentarily startling Leo when it performed a front flip, performing a swinging kick at him that went wide.

Leo's body reacted before his brain did, dropping to the ground and sticking his feet up in the air, the hitmontop's own momentum carrying it into his mule kick. Unfortunately it was heavier than he expected and his knees collapsed, allowing the hitmontop to crash into him with his full weight. Next thing Leo knew his arms were pinned to the ground and the hitmontop was headbutting him until his vision blurred and mind turned foggy. He felt it get up off of him, he heard it walk off after saying something to Slowking, and yet he only was able to react until after Slowking had walked over to stand over him.

"You are the only human I have seen who is dumb enough to look at a fighting-type pokemon and think 'Oh, I can fight that.'" Slowking said bluntly as Leo rolled over, groaning and spitting a glob of blood onto the ground. The hitmontop was even taking it easy on him. "Though the hitmontop did praise your tenacity, if not your skill," Slowking said, almost disdainfully.

"'S your fault," Leo mumbled, working his jaw absently as he propped himself up on his elbows. He could almost feel his lips swelling up, and skin start to bruise.

"Excuse me?" Slowking asked.

"You said you wanted to scare me," Leo said, leaning his head down to his hands and pinching his nose, attempting to stop the bleeding. "I don't wanna be scared,"

"I said I want you to respect the power of a pokemon, not physically attack them," Slowking reprimanded. Leo shook his head slowly, not wanting to argue. Yes, it had been stupid to fight the hitmontop again, and yes he was willing to admit that. But he had been feeling ornery and would most likely do so again, if given the chance. He just…had some aggression to work out.

"I want to go home," Leo whispered to himself, anger momentarily turning to sadness.

"Hmm?" Slowking asked.

"Nothing," Leo grumbled, pushing himself into a sitting position and dusting dead grass and pine needles off of his bare skin. "Do you need anything else, or are you just here to tell me I'm an idiot?" Slowking watched him carefully for a second, folding his hands behind his back and peering down his muzzle at Leo.

"No, I am simply here to tell you that I will be dropping by every few days to check on you until you leave the slowpoke. From here, if you follow the river, it is approximately a month's journey to the nearest human settlement. I suggest you start sooner than later," Slowking said.

"Great. Any advice on that? What I should expect once I reach human civilization again?" Leo asked.

"It has been a long time since I last visited the human world, though I will say it is far different from the wilds," Slowking said, rather slowly. Leo rolled his eyes. As if I didn't know that already, he thought. "Though I will ask you this favor – if you can, seek out Archibald's son. Give him the journal. I feel Archibald would wish that,"

"Yeah," Leo said, nodding. "I can do that," It had been his plan to do so anyway, regardless of whether or not Slowking asked him to do it. It was the last testament of a Champion, the least he could do was provide some closure to the man's legacy.

"Thank you," Slowking said, his shoulders sagging ever so slightly.

"One last thing before you go. How would I go about befriending or taming a wild pokemon, without a pokeball?" Leo asked. "I figure having a companion would up my chances of survival,"

"Just do what you have been doing. When you find a pokemon that is willing to travel with you, you will know," Slowking said, bowing slightly to Leo. "Then I will take my leave for now,"

"Yeah, bye," Leo said glumly, waving off Slowking and slumping forward, resting his chin in his hands and his elbows on his knees. He still had a funk to work himself out of.