Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Hands of Creation

Chapter 156 - First Generation

"One," Leo said, "two... three!"

They dashed through.

And immediately put up Protect barriers to block incoming Hyper Beams from all sides.

The deafening blasts drowned out Spice's curse. She couldn't hear, but that was what nonverbal gestures were for. Phol tapped her shoulder and dashed ahead; the others followed suit while Hecto and Nate took the leads. They were, as they considered themselves, disposable—there were multiples of them, after all, or in the wraith's case, he would just return to the main body. Spice wasn't even sure if that was truly Nate, or a spirit acting as his extension.

This was supposed to be a small Dungeon, but it certainly felt a lot larger on the inside. It was just one large chamber with a smaller room in the back, but traps covered every square inch of the place.

But Spice noticed something peculiar about the way it was coming down. It was all regular. Each Hyper Beam exploded from a square, like a grid. It matched how they'd seen the apparent internal Dungeon's format, but would that be useful?

Another volley came as they were only a fifth of the way across the room. Spice had no time to think about how useful the format of the Hyper Beams was.

"They aren't firing again behind us," Phol said. "They may need time to recharge."

"This guy wasn't as strong out in Kilo Village!" Leo said, looking winded.

"This is his domain. He's a lot stronger inside."

Spice brought up another Protect, as did Phol, and they both blocked the next volley to protect the team. Angelo conjured a much wider barrier to do the same but squealed as his knees buckled from the resonant pressure.

"Well, they could get to protecting us at any time, now!" Angelo cried as Phol picked him up under his arm.

They were going to make it if they could endure the barrage. The beams were fixed. If they took a moment to gather their breath where they'd already fired... perhaps they had a shot.

It was like a dance. A lethal, potentially soul-smashing dance.

"I'm gonna feel this in the morning," Angelo wheezed.

But despite everything, Spice was proud that Angelo was here at all... even if they had to carry him along for it.

"They're charged! Advance!" Phol called.

And so the dance began.

<><><>

According to Star, the path ahead of them would lead to the Ethereal Forest's exit into the Normal Realm.

Her directions hadn't been necessary, as it turned out. Marshadow Manny crossed his arms and nodded to himself.

"Yep. Those're Shadows, alright," Manny said.

"Mhm... Um, just so you know, my Shadows aren't super strong anymore," Anam said. "So, um, I hope I can still help..."

The poor Goodra was still getting used to being weak. Marshadow made it a point to be more expressive around the fella. "Yer doin' jus' fine, Anam. Keep it up, eh? How about Radiance?"

"Oh! I'm better with that!" Anam said, the green patches along his neck lighting up to demonstrate.

"Perfect. We'll need Radiance fer offense and Shadow fer defense."

"Do you have either!"

"Hah!" Manny faced the dark path with his hands on his hips. "Nope!"

"Oh." Anam's horns drooped.