Welcome to Gaia! ::

The Rhyperior shows a smile on its earthen face and spins its horn as to signal the battle is on. It starts out with putting an arm in the air, pointing to Eddie. A rock flies out of an opening in the end of the arm.

"Oh crap!" Eddie exclaims, then drops down to the ground to dodge it. He gets back up on his feet and grasps his Zweihander, then watches as the arm goes up again. "Oh crap." he says, then watches the rock fly out, then slashes with his sword, splitting the rock in half and it falls harmlessly on the ground behind him. "Did I just...?"

His awe is interrupted with a bunch of rocks coming from the ground and heading straight to Eddie. "Hey!" he yells, then lifts the Zweihander in front of his body and grabs it with his other hand as well, using the large blade as a shield from the rocks. The rocks made many clanging sounds off the metal. "Okay, it's my turn." he says, then drops the tip to the ground and runs to Rhyperior and raises his sword in the air and fakes bringing it down so the Rhyperior will raise its guard. Bingo. Eddie takes this chance and stabs the point in the stomach of the Rhyperior, actually piercing the rock that forms its body.

The Rhyperior makes a large roar and picks up a foot and slams it down, then does the same with the other, and keeps doing so in a rhythmic way, making the ground shake violently. The ground below Eddie starts to fracture and crack, and the ground is separating a bit.

In response to this, Eddie lets go of the Zweihander, the blade staying inside of the body, and he jumps on the sword. He jumps one more time, extending his legs and kicking the Rhyperior with both legs, knocking it off balance and onto its back. The tremors stop and Eddie stands on the stomach of the Rhyperior, his hands on the Zweihander. "I win." he says.

The tunnel that looked so dark from the outside isn't as dark as Eddie thought. There are torches along the walls, and, even though it's cramped, Gandalfr didn't have much problem making it through. Eddie didn't say anything, though, he was thinking about how this tunnel was too long and boring. The two just kept walking in silence, the end seeming to be nowhere in sight, until a bright light flashes through the darkness.

"We're outside?" Eddie asks. He then looks around at the surroundings. There's mountain ranges, a forest below, and rocks and boulders abound. There were even rock and fighting type pokemon taking up residence on this mountain. "This is where the basic course takes place?" he asks.

"Yes, and yes." Gandalfr says. "Now listen, the basic course is difficult, harsh, and lengthy. Do you still want to go through with it right now? Because there's no backing out once you start." he warns.

Eddie nods in response to Gandalfr and says. "I've already come this far, and I don't want to go back yet, it's too far away from where I live. So let's do it."

Gandalfr smiles. "Good, because I would've stopped training you if you said no anyways. Now, we have to get a meal. I feel like some good berries, some Ursaring meat, and maybe some Kingler. So get one of each and come back up here." he says. "Now remember, you have a limited amount of time, and if you die. Well, that's self explanitory."

Eddie gulps, then grabs the hilt of his Zweihander. "Okay, see you soon." he says, then jumps down the side of the mountain and slides towards the forest.

Eddie walks through the forest, ducking under the occasional branch, and keeping an eye out for any pokemon trying to ambush him. He then gets an idea and yells. "HEY, GET OVER HERE!" The exclamation could be heard throughout the whole forest, and even Gandalfr could hear it. He just facepalmed.

Although it was rash, the plan works, and an Ursaring comes raging out of a cave, roaring and breaking branches as it ran into them. "Okay, stay calm...calm..." he says, then grabs his Zweihander, then holds it in front of him, the blade resting in a diagonal position. "Get ready for the attack." he says to himself, then watches as the bear raises a claw and throws it down on him. "Agh!" he says, raising the sword and letting the sharp edge of the blade cut through the paw of the bear. "I got blood on myself."

The Ursaring is enraged. It takes the other paw and it suddenly turns ablaze and strikes the sword, instead of Eddie's face. Again the paw is cut through, and now it is incapable of attacking well. Or so Eddie thought. He's knocked back by a gunk shot to the gut and lands on the ground, seemingly becoming prey to the Ursaring. That is, until Eddie raised the sword with both hands as the Ursaring pounced on Eddie. A nice bear shish-kabob.

Eddie stares at the lake and slowly approaches it, then sticks his Zweihander into the shallow part of the water, then he gets down on hands and knees and sticks his face into the water and he gazes deep into the farthest part of the water, then lifts his body up. "Okay, this is going to be difficult, but I'm gonna need a few rocks." he says, then looks around and sees the mountain side again. He walks over to it and sees some loose rocks, of a size about his face. "These will work perfectly.

Eddie walks back to the lake and drops all of the rocks except for one. He takes the rock, holding it above his head, and chucks it into the water, making a big splash as it does. "Need to do more." he says, then does the same with the other rocks. He says "Now it's just a matter of time befo-" before he is interrupted by a large geyser of water created by an angry Kingler. "Cool, I guess it's go time, then." He grabs his zweihander and holds it in front of him, getting used to the weight that it exuded since he got it.

Eddie lays on the ground in immense pain. Darkness is approaching quickly through the forest. He looks to his left; an Ursaring corpse, to his right; a Kingler corpse. "I think...I did pretty well." he says, still trying to catch his breath between each burst of wincing pain. He rolls over to his front side and gets on his hands and knees, then crawls over to the Kingler and looks at his SNAG. "Kinglers are supposed to be 4 feet tall. This one has to be at least 5 feet." he says, then puts his hands underneath the Kingler and painstakingly lifts it onto its side, then draws his sword from the pokemon's body. "I'll be taking this back now." he says, then falls onto his back.

Eddie could hear the faint sound of brush rustling, and he turns his head to a patch of brush that is slightly moving, and out comes a large figure. "Hey lord Gandalfr." he says.

Gandalfr looks at Eddie, then at the two corpses beside him. "You did this, and they did this to you?" he asks.

"Yeah. I'd hate to be them. I'm lucky to only have what I think is internal bleeding, and maybe some broken bones." Eddie says.

The large man sighs, then takes the rope from beside Ursaring and ties it and the Kingler together. He walks over to Eddie and lifts him over his shoulder, then grabs the rope tying the two pokemon. "I guess I'm going to have to take you up, right?" he asks.

No answer, Eddie is already passed out, the sword still tightly clenched by him, though.

Finished with their meals, both of the men look at each other, then at the Kingler, which hasn't been touched yet. "You still hungry?" Gandalfr asks.

"Nope." Eddie replies.

"What should we do with this, then?" Gandalfr asks.

Eddie thinks for a second about all of the possibilities, then comes up with something. "We could cut it, gut it, and feed it to the pokemon of the forest, you know, by throwing some pieces randomly into the woods. It's better than letting it go to waste, right?" he asks.

Gandalfr stands up, takes out a smaller sword than the giant Zweihander, like a claymore, then cracks the shell open and takes the hard outer layer off of the pokemon, then starts cutting up the meat from the claw, and then the body, all into fairly large chunks. He looks at Eddie and smiles, then grabs all of the meat and starts throwing it into random parts of the forest. "Now the animals have something to eat, without having to work hard for it." he says.

"Yeah. And maybe a starving pokemon can finally get food. I think that was for good use." Eddie says.

"You're too soft, you know that, boy?" Gandalfr asks.

Eddie nods.

Eddie watches as the Machamp approaches, his death visible in his mind. "I'm gonna die here, right?" he asks, then keeps his sword in both hands, in a defensive position. The Machamp rushes at Eddie and slashes horizontally with all 4 swords. With all four coming, it would have the same impact as a semi hitting him. Eddie is able to block the attack, but is thrown into the side of the mountain, blood now running down his back from the jagged rocks. "I don't enjoy this!" he yells, then falls down from the rocks, face down on the mountain.

On his hands and knees, he slowly gets to his feet, his conviction to survive wavering. "I can't fail this, I need to do this to get stronger...but what chance do I have?" he asks to no one in particular. The Machamp comes again, the swords ready to slice Eddie up. Eddie staggers up to the Machamp and pokes his stomach. "You know, I'm going to kill you." he says. It's the last thing he says, because his face is smacked by a zweihander, and he falls to the ground, his teeth clenched together.

Utilizing what could be the last of his strength, Eddie gets back up and in a smooth motion, slices at the Machamp, knocking a zweihander out of his hand and into the forest below. While the Machamp is looking in amazement, another sword is knocked out of his hand, and is flung into the side of the mountain. The third sword is flung behind the giant pokemon. With his next slash, he uses the blunt side of his sword to smash the Machamp down the side of the mountain and into the forest.

After this is done, Eddie closes his eyes and falls to the ground, his arms resting at his sides, and his Zweihander out of his grip. He went from a rough night before to having a rough afternoon. His front side was cut up, his back was pierced, and he may have a concussion. He fights to stay awake, his eyes opening slightly. A large man can be seen coming towards Eddie. Lord Gandalfr.

"Jeeze, we got ourselves a bloodbath here." Lord Gandalfr says, then picks up Eddie and takes him into the mountain again, taking Eddie to get fixed up. Somewhat.