[attr="class","fonzgift"]

[attr="class","adrianstare"]

[attr="class","icon"]

What more can you possibly throw at us...?[break][break]

Never should've asked.[break][break]

When the TITAN brought its hands together, an auric sphere formed. The energy crackled as it coalesced, before ejecting in multitudes, sending zapping streaks of volatile arc streaming amidst their ranks...[break][break]

"DRAGON TAIL," Adrian barked out.[break][break]

Though many of the loosed sparks were still hurtling toward them, Gyarados' DRAGON TAIL would strike at the Registeel's lumbering arms if able, subsequently causing many of the projectiles to miss their intended mark. His own safety was riding on Furor's success...[break][break]

UQw3pB2L[break]_{Strike Bonus +10, Riddle Bonus +10*}

[break]

[attr="class","adrianstare"]

[attr="class","icon"]

He grew ever more weary of the battle.[break][break]

Despite a seeming vulnerability, Registeel continued to prove nigh impervious. The aches of his bones told him they could not stand to oppose the titan much longer in its current state; if the others were as bad off as they looked to be... they would start dropping soon.[break][break]

These sands would bury those that fell, making the desert their TOMB.[break][break]

Adrian fights against the raging sands, holding an arm ahead of his face protectively. Ahead of him, Gyarados' body undulates as it navigates around the reaching giant's grasp. Stealing a breath of air between desperate gasps, Adrian manages to bark out his next command:[break][break]

"FUROR, TAKE A SWING!" He wanted to gauge the physical prowess of the creature while it dragged itself forward, seemingly encumbered by the very same battle fatigue that would soon bring many of them to their knees.[break][break]

Gyarados lashed its tail around, its body releasing the tension of its coil to bulldoze everything around it, bruising itself against the steely exterior while Registeel clambered towards any hapless trainers within reach...[break][break]

zg2tG95s[break]_{Strike Bonus +10, Riddle Bonus +10*}

[break]

[attr="class","adrianend"]

[attr="class","icon"]

"Mmmm?" Adrian was approached, and though he'd been drinking, he held his flippant tongue back for a moment. Yet his dour expression did not improve for it. In his glass, he sloshed around lingering spirits.[break][break]

"If only," he replied, drowning his gullet.[break][break]

Had it really been so long, after all...?[break][break]

It had taken time to come to grips with the fact he had been discarded. Perhaps he simply cursed the creature for entering his life, forcing him into this decision, just to abandon him to it.[break][break]

Perhaps it left him questioning his qualities as a trainer, or even a person. But if nothing else, it had wounded an ego that had long been nurtured by the adulation of one-time fans.[break][break]

Circumstance had dealt him a poor hand, one he was reluctant to play out. But he couldn't fold.[break][break]

It had required some... adjustment on his part.[break][break]

"...I guess at some point, I had to stand on business." The League was making maneuvers—soon Sootopolis might not be the island sanctuary it had proven to be for the past year.[break][break]

If he didn't want to end up in a cell somewhere, he would have to contribute to the war effort.[break][break]

But the entire thing left a bad taste in his mouth.

[break]

[attr="class","adrianstare"]

[attr="class","icon"]

...Has it stopped?[break][break]

A moment's respite had been permitted. Relieved lungs fill with tepid air.[break][break]

Never should he trust in moments like these; but as he anxiously observes the titan, he's keen to its every movement. Other trainers have begun striking at a common stretch of its plated exterior—whether it was previously vulnerable here matters little—by now it was their best means of attack. If he could strike at this—[break][break]

Its eyes gleam a sinister scarlet, a foreboding BRRRT sounds as it encumbered itself with divine power—Adrian and the others have come so close to it now, that they risk much to stand in such proximity. Gyarados' stretching body coils with a tension Adrian feels, too.[break][break]

This attack was beyond their means to withstand. They were only mortal, not metal...[break][break]

"MOVE FORWARD! INTERCEPT—"[break][break]

Precious little could be said before Hell broke loose, the world around them unmade...[break][break]

A light tinged with crimson overshadowed all else, consuming his sight. In its wake, the air BOOMED where the light burned the sky, drowning out the sounds of the waking world. His skin felt hotter and hotter still, such that he feared catching fire... Yet they endeavored.[break][break]

Like overtaking the underside of a WAILORD, Gyarados was a rush of seawater that swarmed over Registeel in this scene of Gigantomachy.[break][break]

It would have to be enough.[break][break]

...Please be enough.[break][break]

fX0BvF95[break]_{+ Riddle Bonus May Apply}

[break]

[attr="class","adrianstare"]

[attr="class","icon"]

"...Thanks for the save."[break][break]

Lulu Flint had spared him from the scorching heat of Registeel's latest attack, allowing him to press onward. There would be many more opportunities to return the favor moving forward. But for now, he fixates his attention on the raving titan, eager to avoid the next devastating blow aimed at them.[break][break]

Ahead of them all, Registeel brings its palms together before it, coalescing unfathomable power before thrusting it into the ground, arms driven into the earth. From there it rolled across dunescape, leaving only RUIN in its wake.[break][break]

Many are able to avoid all but a grazing blow from the attack, narrowly avoiding the harrowing attack, but there are those who find themselves deep within its swathing attacks—surrounded and unable to escape. As Lulu had done for him, so would Adrian do for others—though he allowed his bias, showing some discretion...[break][break]

"Furor, go." His index finger directed Gyarados towards one such individual in need of aid, cut off from retreat—staring down the monolith.[break][break]

onyx straub would find themselves safely within the tucking coil of Gyarados' scales as it weathered the brunt of the attack in their place, shimmering strangely as though made impervious by some enchantment...[break][break]

Adrian hopes he will not need it himself...[break][break]

bC8F|pvS + 10[break]_{Riddle Bonus}

[break]

[attr="class","adrianstare"]

[attr="class","icon"]

The storm of dynergy overwhelms the sandscape. Monsoon winds and streaks of magenta dynergy crash over the desert, laying waste to the shifted terrain. Adrian, Howard, Hitoshi and Roze are forced to shield themselves from the howling sands as the rising gales pass through them. He might've already known, but Howard manages to stay resolute, giving the command: Forward.[break][break]

...Yet ahead of them, Registeel loomed.[break][break]

But there was a safety in numbers: Alongside howard slayte, Hitoshi Inoue & Roze Falkner—and the many trainers surrounding Registeel—Adrian was able to take that first step, building their momentum.[break][break]

With a grating shriek of metal, its body clamors with homicidal intent: A massive dynamax laser glasses the field, making cannon fodder of those caught in its strafing assault...[break][break]

But they had their orders, didn't they?[break][break]

In the growing pitch of the sandstorm, Registeel appears not unlike a massive CLAYDOL. Yet steel obelisks support the titan's structure, allowing it to tower over its unruly supplicants. It is there Adrian chooses to strike, until they were able to reach the Registeel's flank.[break][break]

"EARTHQUAKE, FUROR!" He must yell to be heard over the tumult; Gyarados is able to carry out the attack, granted they are lucky enough not to be caught in the burst of dynergy striking the landscape in their immediate vicinity...[break][break]

4du8AmGg + 10 + 10[break]_{Riddle & Strike Bonus}

[break]

[attr="class","adrianend"]

[attr="class","icon"]

Dissatisfied might've been the word for it.[break][break]

It is with head hung low and tail tucked that Adrian finds himself on the observation deck, bitter with the outcome. But of course, that was always the expectation—that he'd get outnumbered and outgunned as an eventuality.[break][break]

Could have went a lot worse, I guess...[break][break]

When Oscar had taken to the skies, he'd made something of a target out of himself, and hadn't staked his advantage—it reminded him of the times he'd ride around on his own Magnezone.[break][break]

It was something to take away from the fight.[break][break]

...I won't be doing that anymore, then...[break][break]

Commiserating over drinks, Adrian found himself interested in the event's conclusion—focusing from a mostly inconspicuous corner, largely keeping to himself except as the compulsion arose. His teeth gnashed at the inside of his cheek, anxiously watching...

[break]

[attr="class","pilots rocketchar"]

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[attr="class","adriansimple"]

[attr="class","icon"]

"'Course."[break][break]

Tempest had the right of it. They couldn't well pilfer much while these squatters harried them from the shadows.[break][break]

Their gleaming eyes finally broke through the gloom, allowing Adrian to see them—recoiling at their multitudes. Greninja lags behind Milotic, but manages to keep pace as Adrian comes to his wits, barking out instruction.[break][break]

"Give 'em a few licks," he encouraged.[break][break]

Whirling its tongue as its body lurched forward, Greninja's tongue darted out, lashing the ephemeral forms surrounding them. In the grimly lit dark, he cannot be sure Greninja reached its mark, but there is a resounding assurance in the violent scuffling as Milotic and Greninja attack. Are we... winning?[break][break]

He still couldn't glean much in the pitch.

[attr="class","adrianstare"]

[attr="class","icon"]

None are so eager to see Registeel's emergence as Howard, this much Adrian knows. He had made a promise, once. And for what it was worth, by his own reckoning, he'd never broken one that mattered...[break][break]

Perhaps this time, he'd wish he had.[break][break]

By its machinations Registeel razed the earth—heaving the rubble across the roiling dunescape. The attack was devastating if not wholly precise. Approaching the burning flats of the desert required a mettle that not even Adrian could claim—but arrive he would.[break][break]

"Howard," he might've began, throat dry.[break][break]

The Gyarados trailing after him would appear ill-suited to the environment, but as they pushed forward, he would prove its might beyond measure—Furor would ever be his strength...[break][break]

"FUROR," Adrian calls out, and the creature understands—STEELY SCALES form a bulwak against the incoming carnage. Just as Howard has put his trust in Adrian, so does he put trust in FUROR. It is all one can do under such duress.[break][break]

wj6ZOofe

[break]

[attr="class","adrianstare"]

[attr="class","icon"]

None seem too eager to approach him. When the official start is given, Adrian can hear the muffled outbreak of violence—skirmishes breaking out across the platform—and feels his pulse quicken. Thankfully, nothing seems to direct their aggression at him and Grimmsnarl yet...[break][break]

Though as far as battle royales go, that meant he was scoring rather poorly.[break][break]

I guess I should have been more proactive.[break][break]

*THUNDERCLAP*

[break]

The air around him trembles with a resounding boom that cascades across the platform, and Adrian is able to observe the crash landing of some hot rod-esque object. There was nothing else here for him—and so he paid mind to the source of the disruption, perhaps out of habit.[break][break]

What the Hell was all that about...?[break][break]

Adrian approaches them through the mist, closing in on their silhouettes until he can see what was Kepler and Oscar duking it out. Without any obvious identifiers, they're just bodies in the throng; he has no bias. And he seemed to have the drop on them...[break][break]

"Fake them out." His voice is hushed. Using the mist as a cover, Grimmsnarl is able to snake dense tendrils of hair along the ground, hoping to trip up Oscar's Genesect before it attacks. Bolting out of the peripheral, these would do very little to harm, but impeded the battle.[break][break]

"Sucker Punch, now." Another strike sent from out of the veil enshrouding them.[break][break]

b8gaXoYN + 10

[break]