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[attr="class","adriantag"]#tagged

[attr="class","adrianscroll"]Adrian saw little or nothing of the corridor as he meekly peeked in through the archway, save for the rugged earthen interior of Rusturf Tunnel. But still it took many seemingly endless moments before he could bring himself completely over the threshold and into the offshoot path. Even as the last footfall brought him on this new ground however, a sound of crunching earth could be heard from further ahead. The closer it got, the more it sounded like a buzz saw ripping through the dirt and stone as though it were a soft clay. And it only seemed to be getting closer, until he felt the very air seemingly shudder around him...[break][break]

He did the only sensible thing he could think of, and ducked back through the archway from whence he came, as a medium-sized pokemon bulldozed through the hallway, beating and mashing a flatter path into the earthen terrain. Adrian waited there, shaken by the close call, listening between the heartbeat pounding in his ears. Eventually it seemed the sound had disappeared into another direction of the same path...[break][break]

Rather than wait to see how long it'd take before it doubled back, Adrian stumbled once more onto the path, a hand preemptively clutching one of his poke balls. I wonder what that was. He rather hoped not to tarry long enough to find out firsthand despite his curiosity.[break][break]


tl;dr ran away

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[attr="class","adriantag"]#tagged

[attr="class","adrianscroll"]After a few minutes went by in near total darkness, Adrian began to pick up more of the area's details, his eyes acclimating to their fullest. Trudging through the myriad offshoot tunnels and the practical labyrinth that Rusturf Tunnel began to present itself as, Adrian began to wonder if he might've lost his way. It was hardly past midday when he'd stepped beneath the mountain, but it had begun to feel like forever since he'd seen daylight. He took pause only long enough to check his phone, seeing now that it had been nearly an hour. That long, huh?[break][break]

Recklessness didn't suit him, but neither did he long to stay here, where the air hung stale and smelled of mildew and dust. Slinking a hand back into the pocket, he stowed away his phone before taking a step forward, when suddenly something caught his foot and he tripped. Although the pounded dirt was not so unforgiving as a mouth full of granite, he still gritted his teeth from the impact. 'O-ow...'[break][break]

It hadn't even crossed his mind that what had tripped him over might be anything other than presumed (e.g. an upraised rock), yet soon enough a disgruntled excadrill began to emerge from the ground just beyond his feet. In the short moments that followed, Adrian fumbled for a poke ball, but his fingers fell short. And yet all the same, a burst of light filled the room before his regal arcanine took to battle in his stead. In the dark he could not see much, but his ears told him of the scrap between the two:[break][break]

There was a low grumbling and then the sound of a massive body lunging forward, crunching on something before recoiling in shock. It whined a low whimper before it bared its muzzle with a petrifying growl that was followed by a booming bark. The wild pokemon screeched in contest before the two prepared to clash. In the moments that they braced themselves to collide, arcanine burst into flame, and the excadrill was caught fully in its path. With its victory secured, Adrian's arcanine returned to his side, a tongue lapping across his face before nudging at him expectantly as if to say, " Get up. "[break][break]

A hand raised gently stroked the dense fur of its mane. "...Thanks."[break][break]

tl;dr fainted the excadrill

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[attr="class","adriantag"]#tagged

[attr="class","adrianscroll"]Walking along with his arcanine trotting just beside him, Adrian couldn't help but feel much safer, no longer reduced to stumbling meekly around in the dark. And it seemed as though the wild pokemon were unwilling to approach them as well, if only by happenstance. Between his sense of direction and arcanine's keen olfactory senses, they were able to broach the last tunnel with a ray of light pouring from it. The chamber they walked into widened a great deal, and the ceiling couldn't be seen past a darkened recess.[break][break]

As the latter half of their jaunt through Rusturf Tunnel came to a close, it was ironically fitting that a final obstacle should present itself in the form of a daunting automaton pokemon; that was to say that from this darkened void above them, a gargantuan pokemon descended as if floating, only to land upon the ground with a jolt that shook the entire tunnel. Adrian stumbled backwards from the tremor as the monolithic creature primed its fist, with arcanine jumping between them.[break][break]

Her booming bark reverberated throughout the tunnels, causing even Adrian to shudder from the goosebumps running up his spine. The wild golurk seemed to show apprehension, its fist diverting for the canine but falling short, sending a spray of earthen debris into the pokemon's face and knocking Adrian's arcanine back. She rolled over Adrian, lying just past him, but she quickly perked back up and resumed the conflict.[break][break]

As she charged her body became alight with fire, but faced with a more formidable enemy than the last, Adrian began to consider their options. While the golurk prepared another attack, cocking its arm back oppressively, Adrian called out to his pokemon: "Focus on the binding on its torso!" Yet for all his strategy, the arcanine burst into flames once more and pounced, but with little more resolution than the former attempt.
She took a direct blow, careening into the tunnel walls, yelping helplessly and looking disgruntled.[break][break]

He needed to be more clear; "Bite it!" And yet his pokemon only seemed repulsed by the prospect. And who could blame it, for only moments ago it had tried the same thing on a lesser creature, only to cause hurt to her fangs. And this opponent was exponentially larger, made entirely of what seemed to be stone or clay... "Just trust me!" With the golurk priming its finishing blow, Adrian's arcanine had little recourse but to adhere to his plan.[break][break]

In a surge she vaulted the distance between her and the golurk, lunging onto its figure, her forelegs finding foothold on its shoulders while her legs scratching desperately to find purchase in its armor, allowing her to plunge her incisors around and upon the golurk. Wrenching its binding asunder, the golurk seemed to be depleted of some internal force, sending his arcanine onto its back while the automaton's figure clambered to the floor.[break][break]

There was little they gained from this journey, but as Adrian approached his arcanine, he couldn't help but hope to have solidified the trust between them as trainer and pokemon. With solidarity he returned arcanine to its poke ball before emerging from the Rusturf Tunnel into Verdanturf Town, where his lungs filled with the sweet smelling scent of fresh air.[break][break]

Thank goodness, we made it...