Oz knew all about delegation, and he knew he made the right choice letting the other two men take the lead. Both of them seemed used to being in the trenches. The one with an eyepatch, especially so. While in most situations he would have told somebody off for crushing a kid’s dreams, the advice seemed pretty sound in this situation. Throwing a few worried glances behind him as the spirits neared, the man would notice something off with his shadow.

It seemed to be moving in weird patterns. As he raced after Vanessa, he could have sworn he saw it pout. Its dark hands settled on its hips. The head cocked irritably to one side. Shaking off the hallucination—chalking it up to stress—Ozni rolled under the shield. Surprisingly graceful about it, he thought he was in the clear. That was, until, a dark shadowy hand wrapped around his ankle and pulled him backward. Surprisingly strong for reverse protection, it managed to pull him off his feet. “Nnngh!” He crashed to the ground.

An attack from his Comfey managed to free him, just as the club came crashing back to the ground. Right between his legs. With a shout of alarm—and a word that was definitely not PG-13—he scrambled back to his feet. The shadowy hand of his doppelganger grasped angrily at his ankle as he moved to catch up with the other three. He threw a few worried glances behind him as he drew close. His shadow was still there, waving with the mechanical grace of a jointed scarecrow. Ozni shuddered. But he did get the Porygon-Z to focus on it for a few minutes.

The spirit-on-spirit duel was pretty cool. Especially when the spirit hunter seemed to be getting overwhelmed by sheer numbers. Those spikes only held so many squirming denizens of death, after all. Before long, the points were nothing more than capped nubs.

As he drew even with the other three, he was huffing and puffing. A slight tremor was visible in his hands, which he quickly stuck in his pockets. “I’m glad we made it out okay." Oz grinned. Shakily. "Ghouliator almost cooked my Ducklett.” Then, he turned his eyes to his surroundings.

This place was huge. Physicists must be having a field day.

Shadow Prompt Completed

☉

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[attr="class","setting"]

With the others having finally passed them Salem finally drops the spikey shield, the meowstic feelingly slightly worn down from it but the group was safe and that was what mattered. The recoil damage from the shield enough to half the large golem faulter but it was clear it wasn't going to stop as another hand was raised. [break][break]

"Theeeere!"

[break]

Razz hears from the caves as it seems the ghost warriors from before have finally caught up to their tail. Inwardly Razz curses but knows its now time to run. There is a slight pause as one seems to claim to recognize him. Claiming to be one of them, as they were running out of the cave toward them and now the golem. Razz just watching in some horror as one of the ghost warriors was grabbed by the Golurk and skewered into the stakes on it's back. [break][break]

And from there a new battle came out. As the men now had to defend themselves against the ghost pokemon. Thats when he recalls that he still has the smokebomb, "You all better run!" is his only warning to both the living and the dead as he throws the SMOKE BOMB down as an easy get away for the living, and hopefully the ghost should they get the chance. [break][break]

With the smoke up Razz runs in the same direction as the others, catching his breath once they're a good distance away. "Everyone all right?" [break][break]

ly_hhYH3

[break][break]

[attr="class","oocnotes"]

[break] Thomas Benoit + vanessa rosiello + Ozni Adebayo
[break]+ the SMOKE BOMB must be used in a pivotal way.

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It’s only when Razz tells them to run that Oz notices he’d stopped doing that. Probably because the dead-on-dead duel was a regular fireworks show. The gore was minimal, even if the noises were gross. Every skewering is met with a sympathetic wince. Undead or not, that still looked like it stung. That or he was waiting for his shadow to make its grand resurgence. He turned baby blues on the one-eyed man, immediately identifying the smoke bomb.


Covering his eyes with the hood of his top, the CEO bounded away from the impending mob. His Porygon hung back slightly to catch a few extra pictures before zooming after the group. Once the undead are nothing but pinpricks in the distance, Oz comes to a stop. Though fit, running for his life really took it out of him. With a few gulps of air, he managed to rein in the pounding of his heart. “I’m just dandy No existential crisis or anything.” He glanced down at his now still shadow, occasionally tossing it a suspicious glance. “Definitely going to be a great video.”


Vanessa’s rant was met with a tight smile. For a moment, his mask fell. The chipper CEO was replaced with a much more somber persona. “I’m pretty sure you’d never get that Pokeball clean.” But this cloud vanished at the nicknames. At least his was nice. But he couldn’t just lean into that. “That’s Mister Pretty Guy to you, young lady.” Then, the Gengar routine took the attention away from him. With a sigh, Oz turned back towards their flight path. The place had gone from a crowded graveyard to a not-so-literal ghost town.


At the talk of an exit point, Oz offered a mocking curtsy. “Well, lead the way, my dear poltergeist.” He closed his eyes, sighing wistfully. “Daddy needs his hot tub.”

pSwNfEKN

☉