Zarius woke up, yawned, and sat up. Lucien was still fast-asleep, ear twitching as his legs moved ever-so-slightly as he chased something in his dreams. The words of the gods floated in the air above him.

  After getting dressed, Zarius leaned down and scratched his head, right between the ears. “Wakey wakey,” he said softly.

  Lucien’s red eyes snapped open and locked onto Zarius, the light-blue rings on his body turning to their default yellow. “We are going out during the day?” he asked with a yawn that showed off his teeth. “That will reduce our combat effectiveness.”

  Zarius shrugged, “The Luxio is active during daytime. We can at least try to find it, track it to its lair with our sniffers, and then can wait until it goes to sleep before we strike.”

  Lucien stretched and stood up, “Well, that’s a better plan, at least.”

  The duo headed upstairs and Zarius saw a few other Trainers. Wilson was there, with his Bayleef, talking to two people he had not met yet. Wilson waved at him as he came up the stairs, “Zarius! Morning. How’d you sleep?”

  “Well,” he replied as he glanced at the two other people. “And who are these folk?”

  Both had the trainer belts on their waists, with one of them having a silver emblem, and the other having a gold one.

  The one with a silver badge was a young man; a bit younger than Zarius, with ragged, brown hair and a loose-fitting outfit. He had a simple knife strapped to his hip, and his shoulders had small shells covering them – white-yellow in hue. He waved timidly, “Hi…I’m Bradley.” Zarius noted he had an odd scent of soap. Like bubbles in a watery trough.

  The one with the gold badge was a mid-twenties woman. She had dark, black hair, piercing yellow eyes, and a pair of black wings folded along her back. “Corina,” she said curtly, but with a slight smile. “Finally, a new Trainer. It’s been what, ten months?” she asked Wilson. Her scent was like that of fresh down feathers – almost soothing and pleasant, but with a tinge of iron scent beneath.

  Wilson nodded, “Yeah. It has been.” He pointed to Bradley, “He’s a Water Trainer”, then pointed to Corina, “and she’s a Flying Trainer.”

  Zarius waved, “Dark Trainer.”

  This caused two distinct reactions. Bradley noticeably shied away, hiding behind Corina, whilst Corina cracked a wide smile. She spoke, “Interesting. Umbreon, to boot. One of the rarer Dark Types out there.” She walked forward and looked Zarius up and down, “Look like your clothes got a bit scorched.”

  “Oh, yeah. I…helped Wilson with the Centiskorch,” Zarius stated, stopping himself from saying he had been the one responsible with Lucien. He gestured to the Pokémon companion, “This is Lucien.”

  She hiked her thumb over her shoulder, “Graven, my Corviknight, is outside. Same with Bradley’s Lapras. She’s named Suddsy.”

  Zarius spotted what he assumed were her weapons at the door. A shield and sword, with the shield having the sheath for the short blade on the backside of where the it would be strapped to the arm. “You fight with a sword?” he asked to confirm.

  “As do you,” she replied as she glanced down. “But that is a fancy sword. Where’d you get it?”

  “A cave,” Zarius replied.

  “Bullshit. You have to have stolen that from someone,” she said with a wry, drawn smile. “Villager, also? I bet you can’t even fight with it.”

  Zarius felt heat in his chest. A sense of indignance that washed over him that this Trainer mocked his fighting capability. “Oh yeah? How about we go outside and spar?”

  She raised an appraising eyebrow, “I’m game. No Moves, though. I want to get a measure of your swordsmanship.”

  “Now hold on-” Wilson began to protest.

  But Corina just glared at him, “Not a word out of you,” she replied. “Your gear had no scorch marks. And if you were going after that Centiskorch, there is no way a Grass Trainer like you would have come out unscathed. I still think it was a foolish decision.” She sounded quite pissed off at him, and Zarius intuited they had some type of relationship that was deeper than them just being two Trainers.

  Zarius headed to the door, “Shall we?” He opened the doorway and was greeted by more people than he had ever seen. People who were dressed in pants and jerkins – not the robes of the cultists, and not the heavy furs from higher up in the mountains. They had other layers, as well – fur jackets and solid, well-crafted boots. But they were people, living their lives, going about their business.

  There were just so many of them. And Zarius was able to smell so many distinct odors that he was, for a moment, just overwhelmed by his heightened senses. His ears were twitching as he heard dozens, no, hundreds of voices overlapping.

  Lucien nudged his leg and almost shouted, “Just tuck your ears back to reduce the range!”

  Zarius tried doing so, and found that the sounds quieted to the more localized area. He took a few steps out and heard a tremendous. “Cor,” cry from his right. Glancing over, he saw a massive metal-covered bird.

  Corina squeezed past him, “This is Graven,” she said as she walked over to the bird and gave him some scratches on the chin, under the beak. “He’s a bit too big for inside the Guild Hall.” She had her shield strapped to her left arm, and she began walking towards the west. “Come on, Dark Trainer. Let’s see what you’ve got.” The bird took off with a massive whump of its wings, accelerating into the skies.

  Zarius followed the woman, still taking in the sight of all these people. Still taking in the scents. Freshly baked bread, spices that he’d never smelled before that were sweet, salty, spicy, and bitter causing his nose to wrinkle.

  He must have been making some sniffing noises, as Corina turned back to him. “You sick or something?”

  He pointed to his noise, then to Lucien’s. “I grew up in the mountains, and I got his sniffer and ears.” He wiggled the ears atop his head. “Still getting used to the new sounds and smells.”

  “You have four ears?” she asked.

  Zarius reached up to the side of his head, and to his slight shock, found his ears were missing. “Uhm. No. Just the two on top now…”

  Corina let out a light giggle that then turned into a full-throated laugh as she stopped and bent over – drawing looks of confusion from the surrounding townsfolk. “You…oh! Sorry, you must be a really new Trainer.”

  Zarius smirked, “Yeah. Well, I am. What of it?”

  She calmed down and kept walking towards the walls marking the edge of the town. A large gate house stood over a massive, wooden palisade-style gateway that was held open. A few guards were there, leaning on their pikes, and waved at her as she left – but glared at Zarius with suspicion.

  While they walked along the packed, dirt road toward the fields outside of town, she spoke further. “The changes vary from Trainer to Trainer.” She gestured to the wings on her back that she shuffled back and forth, and he could hear the loud rasping noise of metal on metal. “My wings aren’t big enough to let me fly, but I have a Move called Fly that lets me do so for a short burst. Otherwise, it’s just armor.”

  She groaned, and seemed to open up more as her personality showed through the hard front she put up. “I’ve had to sleep on my stomach for years now!” she turned to him and gestured to her quite prominent chest. “Do you know how much of a pain that is with these?!”

  Zarius shook his head, “No clue.” He had been around women before, but this one was wholly different than the deference he received from the female cultists who would occasionally visit and help him with his duties. She had a sense of…desperation, about her. As if she was distant, but waiting for someone to approach and talk. A victim of self-isolation, Zarius reasoned.

  Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

  She let out an exasperated groan and then covered her face with her hands. “No clue why I’m telling you all of this.” She turned back and waved dismissively, “Come on! The training field is over here.”

  Zarius could smell the grass, the rank scent of refuse from the Miltanks in the fields, grazing on the long, green grasses in their pastures. There were small clumps of snow and sleet scattered about, and a handful of larger, more robust log-cabin style buildings were built outside of the city walls – along with huge barns that he presumed the Pokémon slept and wintered in.

  They went to a dirt field. Well, mud more than dirt. A handful of men and women dressed in light clothes were practicing fighting each other with wooden, cloth-wrapped weapons. They eyed the Trainers and their Pokémon with varying gazes – toward Corina, suspicion. To Zarius, they were wary.

  She pointed to the weapon rack, “Grab what you want,” she said as the loud whump whump of wings caused Zarius to look up, and he saw the Flying Type Pokémon from before land before letting out a cry of “Cor, corvi!” She reached up and scratched under its chin, “Aww, you want to go inside? Okay.” She reached into her hip pouch and produced a glittering, shimmering, crystalline acorn the size of her palm. Tapping it to the Pokémon’s forehead, the creature turned to sparkles and shimmers before being sucked into the suddenly-gleaming object.

  “Intriguing. I have never seen one used. It truly is a complete, new world. I presume Palkia and Dialga had a hand in making them,” Yveltal commented.

  Zarius had heard of those two gods before. Palkia, the god of space, and Dialga, the god of time. Both along with Giratina were the first creations of the almighty Arceus who formed all of reality.

  Corina cleared her throat, snapping Zarius out of his moment of reflection. “Well, what are you waiting for?” she asked. She had her shield on her forearm, with the sword still sheathed behind it. In her left hand, she had a wooden, cloth-wrapped practice blade.

  Lucien padded over to the weapon rack – causing the few guards who had been training to back away. He snagged one of the swords about the length of the Claw of Yveltal, and brought it over to Lucien. “Here you go.”

  “Thanks,” Zarius replied as he gripped the hilt. It felt…wrong, compared to the Claw. But, this was just practice. He looked up at Corina, who was in a ready stance, and he walked forward, holding the sword in front of him.

  She grinned, and seemed to come more alive at the thought of an impending fight. Pushed on by some primal instinct. Zarius felt it, too. A pulsating in his temples. A desire to defeat, to conquer…to dominate.

  “You feel the Urge upon you?” Corina asked with a broad, wide smile as the metal wings behind her unfolded to protect her from rear attacks.

  Zarius nodded and his ears instinctively popped up to their fully upright position, and he could hear every creak of Corina’s armor. Every slight inhalation she made. His senses fully heightened. “What is the cause?” he asked as he took another step forward.

  She clacked the sword against her shield, “When one Trainer challenges another, they feel this. Do you feel the pulse through your body? Fueling you to act?”

  Zarius grinned as the same feeling of reveling in bloodshed washed over him, and he felt that pulsating in his torso quickening, his heart hammering as that desire to conquer built up more and more. “Yes,” he whispered. He moved forward and lashed out with the sword. A large, overhand chop.

  Corina blocked with ease, raising her shield to intercept, and then rushed forward to deliver a slash to Zarius’ side. It slammed into his torso, and he felt a dull pain spread all around. “You are untrained,” she stated bluntly.

  Zarius felt that heat explode into an inferno in his chest, and he pinned her sword to his side, chopping down at her wrist viciously. But she anticipated the move, letting the blade go as she slammed the shield into his chin, knocking him up and off-balance, before she followed up with a leg sweep that caused him to crash to the ground.

  As he lay there, flat on his back, he tried to roll over to get back up – but was stopped. She jumped on top of him, straddling him, heaving in breaths from the brief exertion as she pinned his legs by pushing her feet against his inner thighs, stretching him out and keeping him from using his legs at all. One arm she lay across his throat, and he could hear her fast breathing as she leaned in. “I take the first round,” she growled. The voice a mix of triumphant glee and some subdued longing.

  She got off him and extended a hand to help him up. Zarius took it and felt a flush over him. Embarrassment. He was beaten so easily. “Again,” he growled.

  She smirked as she backed off and grabbed her training sword, taking up a stance again. “What again? Me on top of you or me kicking your ass?”

  That’s when it clicked for Zarius. Oh…she sees me in that way.

  Yveltal laughed in his mind. “I must say, that is an unexpected development. I know a decent bit about weapon use thanks to former vessels who are now a part of me. Would you like me to give you that knowledge and muscle memory?”

  Yes, Zarius thought. I need to beat her. To defeat her. To dominate her and take her wholly! He felt that surging heat in his chest spread out, and Yveltal’s laugh encouraged him on. The sword felt more sure in his hands, the practice blade for comfortable, and he twirled it as he approached.

  Corina seemed to sense the difference in his posture, the surety of his grip, and she shrank back behind her shield as those metal wings covered her more wholly. Anger dripped into her voice, “Did you let me win the first round?”

  Zarius glowered at her, “No,” he uttered as he closed the distance and let this new muscle memory guide him. He moved his front foot forward and got the tip of his blade under her shield, flicking it up ever-so-slightly. She, in response, slammed her shield down to divert the stab into the mud.

  But Zarius’ body expected this, and he pulled the tip of the blade back before grabbing onto the top of the shield with his free hand and shoving it down. Corina’s wings moved forward and covered her upper half, preventing him from getting a slash in – but that was not his intention. Jumping up, he pushed down on the shield with all of his weight, causing her to stumble forward into the mud.

  Her metal wings reflexively covered her body, and he spun in the air as he landed on her back, taking an advantageous position as he reached back with his sword and smacked the back of her thighs, eliciting grunts of pain from the now-pinned woman. “That’s a kill,” he growled as he kept smacking with the wooden practice blade. “Artery.” Another slap. “Vein.” Slap. “Severed leg. Slap.

  She growled and bucked up, and Zarius slid off to her left side as she rolled out of his pin. Her wings tucked in tight around her as she was fully protected – except her legs. He dashed forward and pinned her knee with his, shoving his sword up and under the wing’s protective guard. “Stab to the chest,” he muttered as the pulsating blood coursed through his body. That feeling of triumph, of conquest.

  But then, panic, as she pinned his sword and forearm against her chest and stomach, and kept rolling with him, wrenching his arm almost out of its socket as he let out a yelp of pain. She ended up with his arm, pinned up between her wings, her legs wrapped around his shoulder and neck, and he felt her thighs squeeze down. He could feel the pressure mounting, blood rushing into his head, and knew he had to get out or he’d go unconscious.

  He turned his head sideways and bit her.

  “Fuck!” she shouted as she let him loose, and he wiggled out of her grasp, through the mud, and took up a low-ready stance. She sat up and stared daggers at him. “That’s a fucking dirty play!” she shouted.

  Zarius just grinned, but then he saw the blood on her thigh and paused. He had inflicted real injury due to his elongated teeth from his Bond with Lucien. He dropped the practice sword and fumbled in his hip pouch, grabbed a potion, and went over to her. The glistening, blue fluid inside had a faint sparkle to it. Corina unfurled her wings, snatched it from his hand, and gulped it down.

  It was then that Zarius saw how close he was to accidentally killing her. He had bit into her artery, and could see the large amount of blood under where her leg was. “I’m sorry,” he said sincerely.

  She grunted as she crushed the vial in her hands and pushed herself to her feet. “We’ll call that a draw,” she said, exhausted.

  Zarius reached down and grabbed her practice blade from where it had fallen. “I was going on instinct, and felt myself on the edge of blacking out-”

  “It’s fine,” she said with a slight smile gracing her lips. “You got…quite skilled out of nowhere.”

  “Muscle memory took a while to kick in,” he replied.

  Lucien shouted out over the training ground, “Oh my gods, just mate already!”

  Zarius blushed mightily, and to Corina who only heard the Umbreon’s barks, glanced back at the Pokémon. “What did he say?” she asked.

  “Something about…stuff,” Zarius sheepishly replied. “So…how’d I do?” he asked, trying to change the topic.

  She wiped mud from her face and crossed her arms, “You did well for some random village hick from up in the mountains.” She flashed a smile, “I’d be happy to spar again – but no teeth or biting.” Her voice lowered ever-so-slightly and became huskier, “Unless we are both biting each other.”

  “Ah, that is what mortals call a proposal to share quarters, I believe,” Yveltal stated. “It has been a while since I’ve experienced it. Take her up on the offer.”

  Zarius was unsure, but who was he to question a god? “Come to my room sometime, and I’ll show you how a Dark Trainer bites,” he said. Then, he thought, How come that line was so good?

  “That was my doing. We are each other. It’s why I’m not always talking in your mind. Sometimes I’m just here, with you, part of you.”

  Corina’s eyes fluttered slightly, and Zarius could have sworn he saw a blush cross her countenance, but she cleared her throat. “I may take you up on that,” she said nonchalantly. She turned on her heel and waved as she left, shouting, “Good luck on your Quest!”

  Zarius waved back despite her not being able to see it, “Thanks! You too!”

  Lucien padded over and nudged him, “Good job beating her.”

  Zarius walked over to the practice weapon racks and put back her and his padded weapons. “It was a draw,” he said with a soft smile.

  It was then that he picked up the words of the few guards that had been watching;

  “Mountain savage.”

  “Fucking weird Trainers.”

  “I thought they were going to plow each other here in the mud. Disgusting animals.” That remark was followed by a spit into the dirt.

  Zarius turned to them and felt anger surge up in him. He bared his teeth and let out a low, intimidating growl that resonated through the entire area. The guards all paled and cast their gaze downwards as they felt the eyes of a predator on them.

  “That would be the aura a Dark Type carries with them,” Yveltal explained. “When I’m not suppressing it for us, we are quite intimidating.”

  Zarius turned to look out at the field of grass, filled with Miltanks who were grazing. Now, he thought as he reached a hand down and scratched Lucien’s head between the ears, eliciting a slight purr from the Pokémon. Now we find that Luxio.

  If you are liking this story, here's the full list of what I've written! Go check them out!

  Ruinous Return is a Dark Fantasy, OPMC, Isekai Empire Builder! [Amazon Link]

  Dark Matter Ascension is a Fantasy/Sci-Fi LitRPG Adventure! [Amazon Link]

  Last Lord of the Fey is a Progression Fantasy! [Royal Road Link]

  Shards of a Shattered Throne is an Epic Fantasy about gods! [Royal Road Link]

  Echo's Evolution is a Grimdark, Isekai, LitRPG! [Amazon Link]

  Imbued is a Modern Superhero story! [Royal Road Link]

  Dark Type Ascension is a Pokémon FanFic, doing a Dark Fantasy take! [Royal Road Link]