Flit's and Tsaarena's elegant dance continued, neither one of the supremely agile Pokémon able to land a blow on the other. Shalin was starting to tire, too, mostly responsible for directing her mount out of the way of the red-eyed Grass-type's ACROBATICS. Luckily, they were not alone! Jelly, Ashley's Stufful, was helping, the Yanmega able to lure it right into the Normal-type's twin HAMMER ARMs!

This was the perfect opportunity for the bug and rider to strike! With the grass-type stunned from Jelly's HAMMER ARM, Flit landed atop it and violently churned his wings up and down. Shalin squinted and eventually let out a distorted, painful-sounding shout. Though she was well outside the clashing fields of shearing air, the insect's vibration was so intense that it even hurt her.

Just as she was about to command the predator to stop buzzing so harshly, the Tsaarena's aura flared to life, its eyes glowing a brighter red. A wave of pure hatred dislodged Flit, followed by a devastating, ACROBATIC leaping kick that sent mount and rider flying across the room. Groaning, Shalin recalled her Yanmega. The rest of her Pokémon would have a very hard time fighting the enraged foe.

It was now or never.

"Go, Queen Zing!" Shalin weakly cried, getting on her giant insect not to attack, but for her own safety. The Alpha could cross the room in a split second. With her newfound power, however, so could she. She raised her right hand, pinching her index and middle finger against her MEGA CIRCLET. Both her Circlet and the BEEDRILLITE in the hollows at the end of Queen Zing's saddle began glowing with the lavender light of MEGA EVOLUTION.

The enraged grass-type made an unnatural-sounding snarl toward Bongo, dancing in a figure eight pattern before pounding the Thwackey with the most impressive display of ACROBATICS yet. As cruel as the blow was, the TAUNT was exactly what gave Shalin and her Mega Evolved Pokémon the opening.

"Queen Zing, use your FELL STINGER!"

The bug's rider let out a scream not of bliss, but of surprise and fear, as Queen Zing zipped toward the grass-type far faster than anything she had ridden in her life. She felt her stomach sink as her mount raised its deadly rear stinger, thrusting it into their large foe from behind with enough force that she thought the friendly Beedrill was trying to playfully buck her off.

There was nothing playful about this. Queen Zing ignored Shalin's pulling on her reins requesting a go-around for another sting. Her primal instinct felt a far more lethal approach was needed. She pivoted forward, raising all four of her foreleg stings and spearing the grass-type with all of them. What followed was scarier than any bucking motion she could imagine.

Five tiny needles fully pierced the Tsaarena's skin, the grass-type sounding an unnatural squeal. As the giant grass-type fell over, Shalin breathed a sigh of relief from not having tremendous pressure put on her lower back due to her mount being almost completely vertical. Pinning her foe to the ground like a pouncing feline would, she started buzzing at full speed and power. The Tsaarena trapped underneath them squealed and screeched, toxic and corrosive Queen Beedrill venom ravaging its insides. Even after it gave up the ghost, the Pokémon's merciless buzzing and mutilating of Tsaarena flesh continued.

Shalin's legs were throbbing in pain from the Mega Beedrill's violent shaking. She normally loved the disorientation and her senses being overloaded from Queen Zing's vibration in flight, but this was beyond intense. It was downright painful. Even trying to undo her cocoon hurt. With one more cry to make sure the Tsaarena had given up the ghost, the Beedrill's wings shrieked, Shalin also letting out a scream from the intense stress the Mega Evolved Pokémon's vibration put her body through.

The buzzing had also whipped up a sandstorm from the small layer of quicksand. It didn't last long, though; as the foe gave up the ghost, the top of the pyramid-shaped room receded into the floor, revealing the light of the sun and sending the sand screaming out of the ruins. On the far side, newly revealed by the receding walls, was a staircase that appeared to take them to a giant dais at the very top of the ruins, a chrome-colored light bathing the staircase and presumably what was at its top.

With the foe slain, Shalin's Beedrill reverted, and the girl fell limp in her cocoon.

A lot of stress on Queen Zing? Try Shalin, too! While "sensory overload" described the types of ride Pokémon the girl enjoyed being atop the most, she liked being overloaded without being pushed to the point of deprivation. Though her earplugs kept her ears from exploding, the buzzing at full power was still loud even through them. The shaking was so intense that she couldn't feel anything, all four of her limbs feeling like jelly. She was so dazed that her vision was a blur of sand-yellow and sky-blue.

It took her quite a while to come to, slumped forward in her sleeping Beedrill's cocoon saddle. She could feel her heart and her head pounding. "Ugghhhhhh..." the explorer groaned. While she wanted to dismount, in her current state, she knew she would just wing up collapsing to the flood and possibly inhaling some stray grains of sand not blown about by the fierce windstorm her Beedrill's wings had whipped up in the intense battle. "Sawyer...thanks."

Once she felt her sense of touch starting to return, she stumbled toward one of the room's corners, awkwardly switching ride Pokémon to her Wyrdeer, Peance. "...That's it! That's what I'm after!" she excitedly pointed toward the chrome light, through her delirium from the physical abuse the Mega Evolved Queen Zing put her through. Withdrawing the sleeping Pokémon, she had her mount strap her on with a PSYSHIELD before ascending the shallow staircase to the top level of the Epoch Ruins.

There wasn't much to the top level of the ruins. All that was on top was a dais with an image of the legendary Pokémon Regigigas mysteriously wavering under its surface. Fighting through her dizziness, she mentally guided her mount toward its center and the source of the chrome light. The two were covered in the same light as Shalin reached for the similarly-colored medallion roughly the size of her open hand.

You got the CHROME MEDALLION, one of the Medallions of Eight! A relic of the Worldshaper's divine strength, the unparalleled raw might it bestows defies the passage of eons.

"And that makes four," she said with a hefty sigh and a growling stomach that was loud enough even Ashley may have been able to hear it. "I don't know about you, but I'm starving. How about we head for Lavaridge Town and get ourselves a nice dinner?"