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Description
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Defenders of Warmth
Excerpt from Chapter Nine: Max
Full Chapter: [link]
Previous Chapter's Art: [link]
Location: Redstone Canyon

He opened his beak a breathed outward, releasing a small stream of something purplish that was not quite fire, but not quite anything else either. It went maybe ten feet into the cave and lasted only a few moments.

Yet the briefness of the technique wasn't due to any lack of ability on his part; the stream could've been maintained as long as he had breath. Rather, the moment his dragonbreath lit up the cave, he saw something shift from within the depths, just barely within the range of his dragonbreath's light. As soon as the violet light fell upon it, it dashed forward, a murderous expression lighting its eyes.

It was all Max could do to let out an alarmed squawk before the assailant was upon him.

Max dodged, staying just within the entrance of the cave as he instinctually swung out with a wing as a counter-attack. He wanted to run, but he reasoned that he didn't know whether or not the pokémon attacking him was a real threat to him or not. Max was by no means weak, and he was quite capable of holding his own against strong pokémon so long as he didn't have to fear for his life; there was a decent chance that Max would be able to deal with this pokémon, fast though it seemed to be.

By some miracle, Max's wildly-aimed wing attack hit the speedy attacker, who immediately jumped back into the shadows where Max couldn't see him.

But Max had caught a glimpse of his assailant in that moment his attack had hit. And that one glimpse was enough to make his will to fight disappear. That green body that towered over him, the sheer speed of the assault, those twin scythes – there could be no doubt about it.

This pokémon was Edge the scyther, infamous among the guilds for his ruthless battle style and his tendency to leave as many of his victims dead as he left alive.

"Max! MAX! Are you all right? What's happening?" Zeke shouted, his voice echoing within the cave walls.

Max didn't have a chance to respond. The scyther leapt out of the shadows and attacked again. The scyther was closer than he had been before, and Max didn't have time to properly dodge the incoming edge of the scythe. Panicking, he did the only thing he could think to do. He lowered his beak to meet the scythe, shielding his more vulnerable body.

There was a clang as the hard steel met the solid beak, jarring both the attacker and defender with the force of the impact. Tears of pain streamed from the archen's eyes as he took a couple steps back out of the cave. He couldn't see the top of his beak, but it definitely felt as if even the tough beak had been no match for the blade; the pain was intense enough that it felt almost as if it must've cracked.

"Max!" Zeke shouted again; Max caught sight of him trying to scramble up the cliff side to help. "Max! Get down here so I can help!"

The archen didn't have the time to get back down, at least not in a safe way. Even with the help of his wings, Max didn't trust himself to drop down without misjudging his momentum and hurtling into the river far below.

And – more importantly – Edge was already coming back for another attack.

Max sidestepped away from the cave mouth, blinking back the water in his eyes as he turned and ran, digging his claws into the rock as he tried to keep himself moving quickly without falling.

He heard a buzz, and glanced behind him to see the scyther quickly gaining, his wings beating the air as they both lent speed to the bug's feet and helped him to keep his balance.

************************************************

So... I spend literally 30 minutes trying to teach myself cat anatomy and, more specifically, how to draw a cat running (although, sadly, the black fur makes it difficult to see the outlines of the back legs, which took the most figuring out... 'cuz cats are weird). Then I spend roughly thirty seconds on the background, without even looking up a canyon reference image. And I don't realize how bad of an idea this is until the end... Though in all, I think I'm finding that I just hate such uniform backgrounds in general. And backgrounds in general. And the perspective ended up a bit weird, too, but at least it's not as bad as last chapter. ^_^

Anyway, sorry that this is so late. And I'm even more sorry that I didn't get a chapter out this past Thursday; college is busy. Hopefully, this week will be better. I'm a bit into it already, and it's going well so far.

In other news, how about that Kyurem/Black 2/White 2 announcement?

Description
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Defenders of Warmth
Excerpt from Chapter Nine: Max
Full Chapter: [link]
Previous Chapter's Art: [link]
Location: Redstone Canyon

He opened his beak a breathed outward, releasing a small stream of something purplish that was not quite fire, but not quite anything else either. It went maybe ten feet into the cave and lasted only a few moments.

Yet the briefness of the technique wasn't due to any lack of ability on his part; the stream could've been maintained as long as he had breath. Rather, the moment his dragonbreath lit up the cave, he saw something shift from within the depths, just barely within the range of his dragonbreath's light. As soon as the violet light fell upon it, it dashed forward, a murderous expression lighting its eyes.

It was all Max could do to let out an alarmed squawk before the assailant was upon him.

Max dodged, staying just within the entrance of the cave as he instinctually swung out with a wing as a counter-attack. He wanted to run, but he reasoned that he didn't know whether or not the pokémon attacking him was a real threat to him or not. Max was by no means weak, and he was quite capable of holding his own against strong pokémon so long as he didn't have to fear for his life; there was a decent chance that Max would be able to deal with this pokémon, fast though it seemed to be.

By some miracle, Max's wildly-aimed wing attack hit the speedy attacker, who immediately jumped back into the shadows where Max couldn't see him.

But Max had caught a glimpse of his assailant in that moment his attack had hit. And that one glimpse was enough to make his will to fight disappear. That green body that towered over him, the sheer speed of the assault, those twin scythes – there could be no doubt about it.

This pokémon was Edge the scyther, infamous among the guilds for his ruthless battle style and his tendency to leave as many of his victims dead as he left alive.

"Max! MAX! Are you all right? What's happening?" Zeke shouted, his voice echoing within the cave walls.

Max didn't have a chance to respond. The scyther leapt out of the shadows and attacked again. The scyther was closer than he had been before, and Max didn't have time to properly dodge the incoming edge of the scythe. Panicking, he did the only thing he could think to do. He lowered his beak to meet the scythe, shielding his more vulnerable body.

There was a clang as the hard steel met the solid beak, jarring both the attacker and defender with the force of the impact. Tears of pain streamed from the archen's eyes as he took a couple steps back out of the cave. He couldn't see the top of his beak, but it definitely felt as if even the tough beak had been no match for the blade; the pain was intense enough that it felt almost as if it must've cracked.

"Max!" Zeke shouted again; Max caught sight of him trying to scramble up the cliff side to help. "Max! Get down here so I can help!"

The archen didn't have the time to get back down, at least not in a safe way. Even with the help of his wings, Max didn't trust himself to drop down without misjudging his momentum and hurtling into the river far below.

And – more importantly – Edge was already coming back for another attack.

Max sidestepped away from the cave mouth, blinking back the water in his eyes as he turned and ran, digging his claws into the rock as he tried to keep himself moving quickly without falling.

He heard a buzz, and glanced behind him to see the scyther quickly gaining, his wings beating the air as they both lent speed to the bug's feet and helped him to keep his balance.

************************************************

So... I spend literally 30 minutes trying to teach myself cat anatomy and, more specifically, how to draw a cat running (although, sadly, the black fur makes it difficult to see the outlines of the back legs, which took the most figuring out... 'cuz cats are weird). Then I spend roughly thirty seconds on the background, without even looking up a canyon reference image. And I don't realize how bad of an idea this is until the end... Though in all, I think I'm finding that I just hate such uniform backgrounds in general. And backgrounds in general. And the perspective ended up a bit weird, too, but at least it's not as bad as last chapter. ^_^

Anyway, sorry that this is so late. And I'm even more sorry that I didn't get a chapter out this past Thursday; college is busy. Hopefully, this week will be better. I'm a bit into it already, and it's going well so far.

In other news, how about that Kyurem/Black 2/White 2 announcement?