The next obstacle that was waiting for them up ahead—while it looked clear, fact of the matter was that there was a certain Toucannon at the helm today.

For yes, the entirety of the evolved part of the Toucannon Mafia™ was out and about; flying around under the heat of the blaring sun while firing, on constant repeating cylinders…

Bullet Seed mortar fire.

Thankfully, the other rider would be able to catch up with them—at the cost of being a little disoriented due to one of the Charizard angrily roaring at her before flying off in a huff.

“Yeah… welcome to Bullet Hell, in more ways than one,” he cackled once the other was close enough.

“You know how it goes. Try to get past this entire stretch in one piece; if you get hit, minimize the damage you’ll get!”

And off he flew straight into the thick of it, the angry recoiling noise of hard-shelled seeds literally pinging like bullets in mid-air.

They were small, fast, and damned hard to see! Eye protection would be a necessity this round.

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part 3: mortar rounds, featuring the Toucannon Mafia™: roll higher than the total of Birddad’s rolls to proceed, do you want to know what happens if you roll lower?

Good thing for Miss Elise…

Despite the earlier setback they’d encountered at the previous obstacle, things were starting to look up for them this time around! While most of the ricocheting noises meant that a vast majority of the Bullet Seed mortar ‘shells’ whizzed past by her harmlessly—

Over where he was flying, though, was going to be a bit of a problem.

“Oh, come on, Fen, don’t stall on me now!” he wailed as the Noivern, for all that he was—was still a big-ass baby at heart. The moment some of the ‘mortar rounds’ hit the Noivern’s eyes, though, he’d almost gotten bucked off; which caused him to fall behind and have the other rider take the lead for now!

However, being up ahead wasn’t always a good thing… was it?

The ‘rounds’ continued in intensity as even the heat haze caused by the glaring sun from above caused the shimmering air around them to distort—oh, boy…

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part 3: mortar rounds, featuring the Toucannon Mafia™: roll lower than the total of Birddad’s rolls to continue; do you want to know what happens if you roll higher?

It wouldn’t take long before the final obstacle for this obstacle course would appear—however, it would not come easily.

For our fair-haired challenger, a ricocheting blast of last-minute Bullet Seeds that had been fired would snag on her Noivern’s wings, and cause their flight pattern to list off towards the left before another rebounding ricochet would very nearly strike her close to the face should she not be careful!

After wind, and scorching heat—the final obstacle would be…

Rain.

Lots of it, a centralized thunderstorm brewing across the home stretch—but what made this different from the other variation of his non-trad course was that the rain would be coming down, along with mud to obscure vision!

Hope you brought a change of clothes…

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part 4: Thunder Plains™: roll exactly one of Birddad’s rolls to pass through the first half safely; do you want to know what happens if you miss?

Trouble would come for Miss Elise not even a few moments into the final home stretch.

While the rumbling thunder and lightning flashes would provide illumination through the torrential rain, the fact that not only rain, but mud would be raining down the both of them as well!

A rather powerful splattering of mud would obscure the Galarian royalty’s flight goggles; which would force them to come to a stop in mid-air while the rain and mud continued to pour down.

The longer they delayed, though, the more the mud would obscure their view of the course ahead—along with the ominous rumbling of thunder up ahead, would alert them to get a move on and not stay idle too long!

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part 4: Thunder Plains™: roll exactly both of Birddad’s rolls to pass through the next half to clear the course; do you want to know what happens if you don’t make it?

The last stretch, the long haul, before—

A sudden blob of dirt and muck struck both the Noivern and rider the longer they delayed out there—because the more the wind began picking up, the stronger the rain would become.

And the rumbling would be a cue for them to get the fuck out of there!

He’d already cleared the final obstacle and was waiting for her to catch up when he squinted back towards the torrential downpour—and saw that she’d run into a smidge more of bad luck!

“Come on, Miss Elise! You can do it!” he cheered from his own Noivern, who was now coasting on an updraft while he waited for her to emerge.

When she would finally emerge from the downpour, he would immediately call for blankets and hot chocolate—as well as tea, knowing her—before pointing her downwards towards the very same waiting shed where he’d taken the younger Josh after the other had gotten struck during his challenge.

“I’ll meet you down there!” he called as his Noivern then took a tight turn; several in fact, before finally coming to a landing and letting him slide off, before shaking his wings once he was out of splatter range.

The blankets and the hot drinks were waiting for them in the waiting shed once she would arrive, and he was already holding something small, and cold in his hands.

“One thing’s for sure: you had a better success rate than little Josh did. He literally drew a big, fat zero when he completed his run of the obstacle course! I mean, you’ve seen the replay reel, right?” he cackled.

(Love you, Josh Devlin!)

“Another thing, you didn’t give up, even in the face of the odds stacked against you. For perseverance, keeping calm and not losing your head… hold out your hand.”

Once she would do so, he would drop the special something into it.


“Congratulations! You’ve won the Skyrider Badge.”