[attr="class","body"]

absinthe watches as the skarmory grows to an ungodly size. it is like watching the harbinger of the apocalypse erupt from the sky. this will destroy her, and this will be how it ends.[break][break]

but then it doesn't, of course. the energy barrier rips towards the flames, scattering them like a knife through butter. hopelessness. absinthe knows she has lost, even with this chance.[break][break]

absinthe's body is wracked with a primal sort of terror, the very same core emotion of humanity as when something of the land becomes aware that it is now prey. the trees around them shatter like matchsticks, turned into splinters and powder in seconds. in the blink of an eye, a pokemon has turned massive, become that very avatar of wrath, and though wrathful, has become in control.[break][break]

she reaches a hand up to her face, to touch upon the blistering, burnt skin. the pain explodes behind her eyes. absinthe blacks out. everything in her vision goes white with spots as the pain overwhelms her.[break][break]

this is when it occurs to absinthe that she will die here. it seems nigh impossible for her to retreat now, and if she makes another foolish move, it will be her pokemon that will be caught in the path of whatever new power is launched to scatter the world beneath its magnitude. now it comes time for absinthe to do something far out of her realm of comfort, and the last gambit of a coward. she will run.[break][break]

as the shield around the skarmory appears, she gets back onto her feet. a howl of panic at the fact that she still can't breathe easily nearly wracks her form. it might have been better if the stone sealed her in, too. fine stone dust is already billowing in plumes, primed to choke her.[break][break]

salazzle is instantly back in her ball, and she shoulders her bag.[break][break]

the sole indication that she is alive - really alive - is that she is praying with every fiber of her soul that she gets to leave this forest without her world turning to agony as her body spontaneously collapses in on itself or is crushed under the weight of a hundred pounds of superheated rock. the reward of this nightmare is that perhaps she will survive to curse her mistakes later. she needs to come to terms with the reality that were she capable of capturing the devil with a butterfly net, that her bloodlust would be causing her to try for that.[break][break]

if she wants to live she must find it in herself to hate life less than she hates herself. if only for this moment.[break][break]

absinthe runs, desperate to escape, and she never looks back.

[attr="class","credit"]