Trapped: Strife, Wolf, and Alex

"I didn't design the thing!" Strife protested and ran out the door after him. He slammed it shut again with his tail just in time for the darmanitan to slam into the side of the temple again.

"What is going on here?" Cameron asked. He looked at the old temple and then at the two fire fiends that he could see.

Delphox flinched. The stick it always held had already been lit on fire. That one was one of the tallest there but it was also the weakest to dark.

Simisear climbed up the side of the building and onto the roof. It seemed to be trying to set the building on fire.

"Long story, to cut it short, there are fiend's inside who need protecting." Wolf said, when the delphox flinched he used dark slash against it. He wasn't messing about, he could totally get a fiend out. But he wanted to fight instead.

"Okay!" Hikari said and summoned water bursts from her hands and directed them towards the Simisear climbing the building.

That was all Cameron needed to hear. If someone was inside that needed to be protected, he didn't need to know much more than that. As a Steelheart, he pretty much was a knight. But steel had very little effect against fire. He'd have to rely on his water skills for this battle. They were weaker in contrast to his steel but they would have to do.

He focused on helping Hikari with the Simisear, making the building slippery and hard to climb. The thing almost made it up to the roof but slipped down at the last minute and landed in a puddle. It was so angry that it started flinging fireballs at them.

The delphox was weakened but it wasn't down yet. It started to create a swirling vortex of fire that would utterly destroy them. Combining psychic and fire gave it that ability and it was quite the deadly combination at that.

Strife wanted to take out the darmanitan but he knew what the delphox was doing. He changed into his large dragon form and charged the creature. Unforunately, Delphox can see into the future. It was able to move out of the way but not avoid being smacked by the tail.

Hikari squeaked and threw up a wall of water, that put the fireballs out before they hit her or cam. Well most of them, her arm got singed but not too badly. She made tiny water bullets and sprayed them around.

"Try not to catch me in the crossfire, friendly fire is the highest cause of death, kay??" Wolf nearly barked at Strife as he just barely managed to dodge his huge size and attack. He used dark slash again while the delphox was recovering from the tail whip.

Cameron hadn't reacted as quickly as Hikari because he'd been distracted by the presence of the large dragon. Having grown up with his mother, who had imparted her knowledge of the world to him, he knew of most of the legendary creatures that occupied their world. He also knew that if the dragon was fiercely protecting a fiend inside, there were only so many fiends that could be. He grew quite nervous at the thought of which one was in there.

But the wall of water shocked him out of his thoughts. When her wall of water dropped he sent a shock of water to go along with her bullets. Their combined effort slammed the Simisear against the wall and temporarily stunned it.

The delphox fell but managed to get out a shot of fire from it's stick. The thing acted as a wand that concentrated its psychic power. Strife got in front of it to protect Wolf. Humans were so tender and easily broken. Still, his left front leg was burned as a result. He growled at the Delphox, choosing to ignore Wolf barking at him. For now.

Meanwhile, the Darmanitan slammed one more time into the side of the church. The water seal flickered one last time and then caved to the assault.

Hikari stopped for a moment, just took a moment to catch her breath. While now she was much stronger with her abilities, she hadn't had much of a chance to use them quite as intensively as she was right now. She turned her attention to the other thing. Darmanitan. "Think you can catch the simisear?" She said, he didn't seem to have an owner directing him. It would make it easier to take on the large thing. Player doesn't well remember water moves and so she did something huge in the direction of the Darmanitan, surrounding it with water and using it to attack the thing multiple times.

Wolf had taken worse hits, but he did appreciate Strife protecting him. He used Shadow tag, causing the Delphox to be unable to move for a short amount of time. He also used his own shadow to attack the Delphox.

"I think I can," Cameron said. The Simisear was stunned. If he acted quickly enough then he could catch the thing before it could get away from him. It was a monkey though and they were really difficult to catch with one's hands.

Darmanitan took the hits. When its hp got low enough it would turn to stone and use psychic attacks. But for now it pushed through the pain the water caused and did one more hit to he building.

Stone and debris burst into the air as the large fire fiend broke through the wall and crashed into the pews. Alex screeched and scampered out of the pews and up to the altar, climbing up the decorative wooden background and onto one of the medium statues. He was not very good with using his human body and could easily slip and fall so he didn't want to go too high up.

The impact of the darmantian bursting through the building woke up the Simisear and it flung itself away from Cameron and darted through the hole in the temple wall.

"Damn!" Cameron cursed. He'd almost had it too.

The delphox fell from the double attack. Strife caught then thing in his mouth as it crumpled and bit down hard, spraying the surrounding area with blood. He tossed his head multiple times, breaking the creature's neck with the violence of his movements. And then he tossed the body aside.

"Nope!" Hikari said and her entire body turned into water and crashed into the floor. It rushed up in front of the simisear and she hit it with another burst of water in the hopes of knocking it out entirely. While the dragon thing was happy to maim and kill she was not quite. Princess mentality, yo.

Wolf growled and used the shadow tag on the darminitan as well. "Have at it Cameron, that's the only move I got that will be any good. So...water help, if you can!" He said.

Cameron hesitated for a moment. But then he used Surf. Water burst from him in a massive wave that took both fire fiends and washed them right into the wall of the temple. The pews and other decorations fell with the crash of the wave and the temple became a mess of chairs, pews, and decoration.

Both fire fiends were stunned by the multiple attacks and severely weakened by the massive damage done by the wave.

Alex hung onto the statue but wasn't able to keep hold of it. He fell off and splashed into the water below, gasping at the sudden shock of the cold and wet.

"Are we all good?" Wolf asked then, because he wasn't sure. But the fiends didn't appear to be moving or attacking. "Except the temple, which was shit anyway so who cares??"

Hikari giggled. "So this was fun." She said, pointing to the absolute wrecking ball of a job they'd managed to do. "maybe this is why hunters are so frowned upon..."

"This is part of why," Strife said, now a small dragon again so he could fit in the temple. "You're all so destructive." He snickered and ran over to Alex, nudging him to get up. The boy was thoroughly soaked and too weak to handle the stress from the attack.

The simisear did not get up but the darmanitan switched to zen mode. It changed to a rock and started attacking psychically, lifting the pews up and flinging them at the hunters. A chair was flung at Alex. Strife jumped in the way and they both tumbled back into the altar.

"Get him out of here," Wolf said to Strife then, meaning full on take Alex somewhere else. Then he used shadow tag again and pinned the thing in place.

Hikari used surf directly on the darminitan, but it was a rock, so... Really. They'd be here all day. "Man...this sucks."

Strife pushed Alex back up onto his feet. He was nervous to go to far from the Hunters though. What if another fiend was lying in wait for them to flee? He hesitated. But then he nudged Alex out.

Alex didn't do well though. He kept slipping because of all the water and tripping on the debris. He tried but it took longer than Strife was comfortable with to get him away. At least when they were out he could change back to his large form and pick Alex up and toss him onto his back.

Cameron was weary by the time they finally wore down the zen darmanitan. The shadow tag didn't work on it. The thing wasn't moving. It couldn't move in zen form. It could only attack psychically. That wouldn't hurt Wolf as much as it did Hikari and Cameron.

Cameron started blocking the attacks and protecting the other two to leave them free to attack without having to worry about the debris being used against them

When finally the huge stone beast let out a ragged cry and fell to the ground, making it shake under its weight, Hikari fell the fuck over onto her butt. Her chest heaved and then she leaned back and looked at the sky.

"Thanks guys," Wolf said. He was equally as tired, while he could only use dark moves and he had against the darminitan to no avail, he had worked just as hard beside them to get it to fall.

He realised that Alex and Strife had not gotten very far at all. "Don't worry, I think it's dead."

"It better be!!!" Hikari yelled, a warning to the fiend to stay its ass down.

Strife reverted back to human form and carried Alex back into the temple to check that the fiends were actually dead. He set Alex down on an upturned pew and walked over to the darmanitan. It was very much dead. The simisear was not, just unconscious. He picked it up and broke its neck with his bare hands. Then he tossed the body on top of the darmanitan's.

"Thank you," he said, to the three that had helped.

Cameron was surprised how easily the dragon had killed the unconscious monkey. But he said nothing. He only nodded and looked at the boy they'd been protecting, curious about who and what he was.

Hikari looked utterly shocked as well. "We could have taught him to be better!" she protested. Well, she thought they could.

"Maybe," Wolf said he wasn't so bothered. He avoided that if he could, but he had killed a lot in his life time. "Thanks again, I owe you both dinner. Hungry?" he said and looked at Alex too.

Hikari only nodded.

Strife wasn't upset that Hikari had protested. "Not this one," he said. "This thing serves the one..."

"Strife," Alex interrupted him. He shook his head.

Strife frowned but didn't continue. "Food sounds good." He walked over to Alex and flung him over his shoulder. He didn't want to stay in the broken temple.

"Who? Serves who?" Hikari asked then, it was obviously something as Alex had cut him off. Pfft.

"Let's get some food in our bellies, but I want answers after that." Wolf said, because he did.

Alex nodded. "I will give you answers." But not all. He would not tell them what they were not ready to know.

Strife left the temple with Alex then. Cameron helpfully got the water off their clothes so when they returned to eat somewhere quiet they didn't look such a mess.

"Let's head on over to the manticore..." Wolf said, it wasn't fancy food. But it was good. At least, he liked it.

"I can move us all," Hikari said, as she had the orb. She'd had gotten it a lot earlier this time. "Huddle up, boys."

Strife brought Alex over to her. He looked at the orb with interest. "You okay for this?" He asked.

Alex nodded.

So with that permission, Hikari took them all directly inside the manticore. She went over to her normal booth and took Cam with her.

Wolf pointed in their direction, "I'll get us all drinks and then Ellen or Jo will be over to take our food order. Anything you want in particular?"

"Meat," Strife said. He looked down at Alex.

"I don't know..." Alex replied in a small voice.

"Um...whatever is easy to eat for him," Strife said.

"I meant drinks..." Wolf chuckled, but he was honestly glad that he wasn't the only one who was one track minded for food right now.

"Whatever," Strife said and laugh. Someone else would be embarrassed. But he wasn't. He just was to tired. "You should have caught that," he said to Alex but the boy only shrugged.