Dungeon 3 - 5

Back at the guild's starting point, the group informed to both Erwin and Bruno that Kael and Kira were missing thanks to the dungeon. The flareon was not happy with it, even though he was unaware of the arrangement they had with Lumis that dropped them into another section, and Eunice was a bit worried when she overheard it. From her research, there were some, although not common, instances that groups of pokemon were separated by the actions of the energies of the core, with the reasons not fully understood as each event was completely different.

Regardless, Camila told Bruno she with Cadoc, Archibald and Riley would take command of their group and do things as if they were at full strength. While the flaeron had no issues with it, as the sawsbuck proved herself to be capable of following similar thought patterns of Kael, the xerneas has an extensive medical knowledge to understand what was going on in broad strokes inside the flesh dungeon, and both the stantler and the hondoom were fully integrated into the group, he still had some concerns. Even if Erwin and Ayra would keep an eye on them, he preferred to have someone to keep an eye on them, something Eunice agreed.

For that reason, and because Bruno wanted to keep a watchful eye on Raphael and Midas during the second surprise expedition, Stourch would once again assist them, along Thalia from the side of Eunice, and Jules after a quick deliberation from Hiyam and Haku, getting the hint that he worked well with them and Camila asking them directly if the minum could join them to help her in keeping Selendis and Astro in the game. Those three leaders would also coordinate with Erwin to lead the group effectively and ensure they could get their respective tasks done before breaking the core.

Finally, before their departure, the leaders of the group needed at least one team to fill the gap left by Kael and Kira. And a duo offered to be part of it... more accurately one member wanted to participate and the other just went along. It was a entei and a togepi by the names of Balto and Katie respectively of team Flames of Joy from what Bruno let out, but let the others handle the interactions. 

"Hi there! My name is Katie and he's my dad!" the togepi greeted. "Nice to meet you!"
The entei remained silent for the moment, but gave a nod.
"Hello. My name is Archibald and my partner over there is Rebecca" Archibald pointed at the reshiram. 
"Pardon me for asking, but what kind of task do you want to take?" Riley asked. "I know some teams prefer to stick to a certain branch of the guild"
"Oh! We like to do some fighting!" Katie smiled. "We can defeat the bad guys in the dungeon and let everyone else do the... what the other people do?"
"Collect items and transcribe the runes" the stantler answered, noticing how young the togepi was.
"Oh yeah! That thing you said! My dad will beat those that try to harm you and I'll help him, right dad?"
Balto sighed, but he nodded again. 
The houndoom could see there might be some trouble on that end. "You don't have to worry too much. Our group rotates with the roles, so you'll see us assisting you in battles constantly"
"Wow... then we'll show you how good we are!"

As the preparations were almost completed, there was another pokemon that decided to join and approached to Camila by the suggestions of a friend of hers. It was a shaymin in sky form carrying aand her name was Skye. When the sawsbuck asked who her friend was, she explained it was Aiden, the umbreon of team Eclipse.

"Eclipse... isn't that the one Keldeo is in?" Camila raised an eyebrow.
"You know him?" Skye looked a little surprised.
"Yeah... had of a rough start a long time ago. Met his partner during the canyon incident and that's about it. Come to think of it... I don't see them near the tunnels"
"Well... let's just say Keldeo has a bit of a problem to do anything and Aiden will remain close to him. They'll remain here until the core is gone" the shaymin explained.
"Isn't that a little dangerous?" Lu looked a little worried as she overheard the conversation.
"I can say for certain neither of them are pushovers" Camila assured her. "The umbreon is tough and the initial areas of recent dungeon are mostly easy. If we get to the core fast enough, they won't be overwhelmed with too many enemies"
"Yeah. I'm surprised you know a lot about dungeons" Skye commented.
"Had some runs in some of them. However I was not expecting to have a flesh dungeon spawn on me"
"Me too. So you don't mind if I tag along?"
"The more the merrier" the sawsbuck nodded. "Do you know the ropes of working in the guild?"
"Uh... not much to be frank" the shaymin admitted. "But I'll ask if I don't understand something and I'll do whatever I can to help you, so don't bother to call me"
"Cadoc and I can get you some guidelines, but the basic jobs are fight our way to the core, collect items through the dungeons and write runes down to translate. You can do one of all of them if you want to rotate. We just need to organize ourselves who's going to take the first turn and then we'll switch" Camila told her.
"Alright. Do we need anything else to bring with us?" Skye looked around.
"We're almost set" Lu said. "Just waiting for the order to move out"
"Just remain close to us and we'll get through the dungeon as we always do" the sawsbuck cracked her neck.

Once everything was ready, the guild leaders gave the order to advance and each main group proceeded to the next rooms. Like any previous dungeon, the group was mostly clear in what to do and organized accordingly, with Selendis, Erwin, Rebecca, Archibald and Astro taking the front to deal with any enemies that might be coming at their way, most of the group at the middle, and Stourch, Camila, Eli, Skye, Areia and Pallas taking the rear.

During holdouts inside rooms, one that had some bones acting as frames, those that would take the writing and collection role started immediately and did what they could to do their jobs fast and precise while those fighting would block the entrances until they cleared the area. With so much experience in the group and good firepower coming from the grass and electric types, the dungeon exploration became more of a routine. Even without Kael, each member knew what to do and how, so they could keep working at top efficiency.

However, there some caveats. First of them was to limit their attacks to precise hits to reduce collateral damage, given that the dungeon was still the insides of Lumis, so any miss could result in harm to the kyogre, if she could feel any in the current state. The second was that both Selendis and Astro became a little silent, whether through the telepathic link or with their voices, and focused primarily in getting the writing and collection done to handle it to their companions and keep blasting the increasing amount of golems the dungeon was throwing at them.

It was during a stop near the path towards the next section with the guild regrouping that Riley decided to talk about it with Cadoc. Seeing that most of the items were collected in the room and most of the runes were already copied, with a shinx of team Breakage looking at a portion of them to help his partner, she believed she had the chance. There was also Areia standing at the other side of the xerneas, but his presence wasn't bothering herm.

"Hey Cadoc, can I talk to you for a moment?" the houndoom asked.
"Hmm? Sure. I can translate the runes and talk to you at the same time" the xerneas nodded as he was seeing what message he could decipher. 
"Um... do you think Sely and Astro are a little... aggressive?"
"You mean a lot more than usual?" Areia also noticed their new behavior.
"Yeah..."
"I think you've already seen the relation they have with their partners" Cadoc explained. "Kael is not only Selendis' brother. He's her very half. They do things together most of the time and they barely remain separated for too long. If anything happens to him, she'll raze whatever obstacle that stands in her way to the ground to get to him"
"Astro doesn't seem to be the sibling of Kira in that sense" the wynaut commented. 
"That's right, but I've also noticed he cares for her deeply. And I can understand him"
"With your bond with Camila, you mean?" Riley titled her head.
The xerneas nodded. "If she gets into any trouble, I would not care how difficult it might be. I'll rush to save her no matter what"
"You wouldn't be the only one. I'd also do something if Pallas is in danger" Areia agreed. 
"I think I'd do so with any of you, guys" the houndoom admitted. "I guess... this is what make us a family, right? Sticking to each other and not giving up on anyone"
"You got that right" the wynaut nodded.
"And even if Selendis and Astro don't see it yet, we'll help them get to Kael and Kira" Cadoc stated as he finalized his translation. "Alright, I'm done here. Can one of you call Miss Thalia? I want to check the notes she got and organize them"
"I'll do it" Riley went to get the pidgeotto.

Sometime later, they could see how the dungeon was copying portions of Lumis while throwing mostly water golems at them past some point. Some tunnels had spines protruding from the top while a couple of rooms had teeth acting as stalagmites and stalactites, limiting their movement, as well as ponds of saliva in others. There were also indications of portions of organs sticking from the walls, making the combat far more difficult to execute, something Cadoc kept the group and leaders informed and helped by using Protect between the misfires and the section the dungeon they needed to avoid. 

Even so, there was a lot of golem destruction, with Pallas, Rebecca, Selendis and Astro already claiming a good portion of them. It was thanks to them the guild group had some quiet moments to deal with the other tasks, but it was something Stourch, Jules, Ayra and Erwin kept an eye on. They could agree through their own telepathic link that Kael had to be found immediately, along with Kira to return them to their group and stabilize the situation, as Camila and Cadoc could do so much on their own before losing control of the situation.

'Is there a way we can contact Kael and Kira in the dungeon?' the lycanroc asked.
'I've tried to use telepathy whenever I could, but no answer so far' the silvally shocked his head.
'We need to keep trying' the minus frowned. 'Hopefully Stein and the others can get to them on their end'
'We would've received news by now' the vanillluxe was not so optimistic. 'They're probably deeper'
'You don't think they're making their way towards the core, don't you?' Ayra eyed the old veteran.
'I don't know, but I'm sure Kael is trying to link to any mind he can reach. If any of us gets close enough, he'll be able to talk to us through telepathy'
'Let's hope so' Jules nodded. 'This place is already tricky to travel alone'

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Things are getting a little tense here. Even while getting things done in automatic, reaching Kael and Kira is in most of my characters' heads.

Cameos:

- Skye from Team Eclipse belongs to
- Chipo from Team Breakage belongs to
- Team Flames of Joy belongs to

Story / Bruno, Stourch and Jules belong to 
Pokemon belongs to Nintendo
Art and personal characters belong to me