The climb was difficult. As of right now, they had Charizard, Arcanine, Magmar, and Rapidash. Charizard could carry 2 people and fly. However, Arcanine and Rapidash could not carry anyone. So, Magmar had to carry the other 2.
This made things difficult for Magmar. They also had 6 people to carry. So, Charizard would carry 2 people and reach a checkpoint, and then it would return to carry another 2 people.
They started to climb slowly. Magmar was taking too much time, but all of them were patient. They found some fire-type Pokémon. Most of them were Darmanitan. Arcanine and Rapidash had to battle them while Charizard and Magmar were carrying the team.
After 3 hours of climbing and battling, they could see the summit.
"What the hell is all this?" shouted Amit.
The scene before them was something that they had not seen in their entire life. There were dead bodies of multiple Charizards and Darmanitan. Axel could not even count the numbers. There were so many. The dead bodies of Charizards were in larger numbers than Darmanitans.
It looked like a bloodbath had taken place here. A vicious battle. Axel started to doubt if they should continue. All of these dead bodies were of pseudo-king rank. If a Pokémon was stronger than these Pokémon, then they had no chance to survive.
"Andrew, should we halt the mission? I think we are taking a huge risk here," said Axel.
He had participated in Pokémon tide before, so he knew that the Pokémon at the summit was not something that they could defeat. His instinct was telling him that.
"I don't think that we have any options now. With my aura, I could feel a powerful Pokémon, and it had already noticed us. If we started to return, our speed is very slow and the Pokémon would catch us. We don't have the luxury to run. We can only face it," said Andrew.
Being a Brigadier general, he had trained a lot in his aura sense, and it was stronger than Axel's. So, he knew that they would not be able to run. If they could use other Pokémon, then it would have been a cakewalk, but unfortunately, this was not the case.
Taking a deep breath, they started to move towards the summit, and after 20 minutes, they finally reached the top of the mountain.
Axel could see that on the top of the mountain, there was a Pokémon. The Pokémon was humongous for its size. It was almost 3 meters tall. The Pokémon was Darmanitan.
ROARRRRRR….
Just next to the large Darmanitan were 2 other Darmanitan and 2 dead bodies of Charizard. All of them were in pseudo-king rank, but the large Darmanitan looked very powerful even for a pseudo-king rank.
The pieces started to come together, and Axel could deduce that this was a war between Darmanitan and Charizard, and Charizard had lost. Axel didn't know why they were fighting for the top of this volcanic mountain, and right now, he didn't care. He just wanted to get out of here.
ROAARRRRRRR
The big Darmanitan, which looked like their leader, gave a huge roar and pointed towards them. Others also looked towards them.
"GET READY!!!" shouted Andrew.
The 2 Darmanitan charged towards them. Charizard, Rapidash, Magmar, and Arcanine also charged for battle.
Axel told Charizard to take it easy and only support others. But was Charizard going to listen?
Of course not. Even if it had not known these dead Charizards, seeing that its species had lost made it mad.
The battle was fast. They didn't even look at the leader who was watching the battle. Charizard and Rapidash fought one, Magmar and Arcanine fought the other. Even though these wild Darmanitans were powerful, they could not fight against 2 pseudo-king rank Pokémon. The battle was over in 5 minutes. Both of these Pokémon were brutally killed.
Just when they were celebrating their minor victory, a tornado of fire came towards them. Axel had already told Charizard to use 'Flame armor'. The wave of fire tornado pushed them, and they started to fall.
The mountain was very steep. So, the Pokémon and the team started to roll backward. That was all Axel could remember, and then everything went dark.
After an unknown period of time, Axel started to open his eyes.
###
"Ahh… AHHHHHHH," he shouted, and his voice echoed.
His head was ringing with pain. Everything was a blur, and he was feeling dizzy. With great difficulty, he opened his eyes, and he could see someone licking his face. It was Charizard. The place was extremely dark except for Charizard's fire in its tail and some fire around it; nothing could be seen.
He took a couple of minutes to calm down, and the head pain started to slow down. Finally, he sat on the ground.
"Charizard, light up the fire around us. I want to see where we are," said Axel.
Charizard did as it was instructed, and finally, he could see where he was.
First, he saw Rome lying next to him with Arcanine. Rome was still unconscious, and Arcanine looked to be seriously injured. He could not find other team members.
He had multiple cuts all over his body, and blood was coming from his head, which seemed to have stopped. His right leg had a big wound, and it was now difficult for him to stand up.
"Where are we?" he asked himself.
Even though he could see a bit due to fire, he could only see 4-5 meters, and the ground was completely black.
"Charizard, do you know where we came from?" asked Axel.
Charizard pointed up, and Axel looked only to be horrified. He could see a small light, and he figured that it was coming from a hole. The roof was so high that Axel could barely figure out the size of the hole. It looked very small.
He started to move towards Rome and Arcanine. Rome didn't seem to have serious injuries, unlike him. He gave Arcanine some potions. It was just first aid. Arcanine would not be able to fully heal with it.