We Won?

As you were getting closer to the Salamence; staring at how large the dragon is compared to you, you then recalled your parents words of advice. You see that while the dragon is clearly showing signs of feeling pain, it's still looking pretty strong and you're starting to grow doubts that your attack, while still being quite strong despite not being a true Volt Tackle, won't be enough to beat him and would be overpowered. As you thought this, you noticed his mouth moving a bit, giving you an idea that he may open it. Seeing this, you cancel your Volt Tackle and when you got close, you saw him opening his mouth, purple draconic energy radiating from within. Seeing this, you brace your paws on the ground and suddenly leap up high, over his mouth just as the breath was exhaled, barely missing you.

'That... was too close!' You thought to yourself as your paws landed on top of the Salamence's head as you started to run downward along his body, reaching his tail before leaping off of him. You turn to face him attempting to slow his speed. Thinking fast, you gathered a lot of electricity through your body before you cast Thunderbolt and struck the Salamence, making the dragon roar out in pain before he crashed into the cave wall. When you finished your attack, you landed on all of your hind paws as you checked on all the others.

They were battered and bruised a bit, but they were still conscious as they slowly got back up. "Rai!" Rachael cried out seeing you looking at them.

"I'm alright. We need to attack all at once!" You stated seeing the infected dragon recovering from the daze. "We should be able to beat him!"

Everyone pushed themselves up when they heard that before getting ready alongside you.

The Salamence managed to shake the daze off of him before he turned and the formerly sadistic look in his eyes was replaced with fear as he saw the small group was standing there, powering up their attacks.

"Now!" You cried out as you and everyone else unleashed their range attacks all at once towards the infected, which collided on the dragon's side, making him roar our loudly, making the area shake a bit from the loudness. Everyone kept up at it for as long as they could before they stopped, panting a bit from the exertion of the prolonged attack.

The scene was quiet for a moment as you stared at the area with intent. 'Did that do it?' You thought in worry before you felt a light quake as a large paw stepped forward, showing the Salamence stumbling a bit towards them. 'It's still standing...?' You thought worriedly feeling a bit drained from the duration of the battle.

The group were rather worried as well as they saw the dragon panting from the strain as well. He takes one look at you and the others, his purple eyes filled with malice and lets out a loud, ear-splitting roar before he finally collapsed to the ground, having exhausted all of his strength.

You stare at the motionless dragon, noticing the spiral look on his face as you had the expression of disbelief. "We... Did we... did we actually won?"

"We're still standing and he's knocked out, so it looks like it." Rachael stated, walking over to you.

"It doesn't look like we won, we did won!" Vargus stated happily, quickly moving over to you and getting you in a **** hold, but giving you a noogie. "You're such a badass! Riding that dragon while hanging on, then when it charged, you leapt on top of his back and ran over him before the thunderbolt, then the united blast at the end?! I knew you were something special Rai-Rai!"

"H-Hey!" you grumbled, blushing a bit from embarrassment from the Croconaw's praise and hold. "Ease up on the squeezing, you're hurting my neck!" You stated before finally getting out of his hold. "Besides, we all took him down together, it was a group effort."

"He's right, and please control yourself Vargus, you're acting like a kid in a sweets store, and we already have a kid in our group." Felix stated.

When he mentioned that, you looked and saw that Kate was peeking at the corner before she runs off towards you. As she does, she has a look of relief and awe that you are safe and you all beat the Salamence together. You took a look towards the dragon as you start to ponder how are you suppose to deal with the dragon. He's far too dangerous to be left alone, and he's far too big to... deal with him that way. You are aware that if a knocked out Pokémon gets attacked further, it'll stop their heart. Would you... have to do that?

You wouldn't have to debate that for long before the infected Salamence started to glow. You and the others were confused before the glow turned into a blinding light that flashed them, forcing everyone to cover their eyes. Thankfully it only lasted for a moment before vanishing. When you moved your eyes away, you saw that the dragon suddenly vanished with it.

Before you can even question what's going on, Felix's voice spoke out. "I thought this would be the case."

"What are you talking about?" Neku stated, looking towards the Grovyle. "The Salamance just disappeared in thin air!"

"Take a look around the area." Felix stated and everyone does so. You grown confused at what he's supposed to be looking at.

"What do you mean? There's nothing here." Rachael stated.

"Exactly, there's nothing here. No captives, no recent signs of struggle until just now, not even potential corpses around." Felix added. "Isn't that rather suspicious for an infected to not only kidnapped non-infected, but leave no traces of their victims. Not to say it doesn't clean up, but..."

That got you to worry. She did mentioned there was hostages there, and if they were gone, there should've been evidence of discarded bags and other things, but this place is quite barren. 'Could this have been a set up? Was everything she told us a complete lie?'

'Not everything.'

You jolted from a thought, not belonging to you responded in your head before a bright light enveloped every one of you and the next second, you all were no longer in the cave.