Prompt: Earth

"You do realize that we've been here before, right?" a female Vaporeon said as she and her companion, a Heatmor, followed their leader, a Gabite.

The trio were on the western side of the region. They were walking on a low path which was surrounded by tall and craggy cliff walls. Rocks and boulders of different sizes littered the area, and there were a few green grasses that grew on random spots.

"What are we even doing here, anyway?" the Vaporeon asked again, her annoyance fuelled by the harsh rays of the noon sun.

The Gabite stopped walking, turning his head left and right as he examined the area they were in. "Well, remember the last time we were here?"

"How could I not?" the Vaporeon sighed, her fin-like ears drooping as she tried to ignore the harsh sun's rays irritating her. "There were other teams with us that time." She then bore a small smile. "I miss flirting with that Jolteon..."

The Heatmor rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything. She instead looked around, studying the area.

"Right," the bipedal dragon said with a nod, still looking around. "I felt something weird around here, but before I could investigate, the town nearby was attacked by those Phantoms."

The aquatic vixen blinked at him. "Oh? Weird how?"

The Gabite fully turned to face a craggy rock wall. He approached it and began touching it in different spots.

The Vaporeon and the Heatmor looked at each other for a few seconds before they looked back at their leader.

"Um..." the water-type said, "what are you doing?"

"I used to live underground and inside mountains before I met you guys," their leader said.

The fire-type smiled, recalling the memory.

"Ah, I remember that." The water-type chuckled. "How could we forget? You were so wild back then and wanted to eat me...literally."

The bipedal dragon rolled his eyes as he frowned. "Yes, yes. That wasn't a fond memory of mine."

"And then I froze you solid and brought you back to the guild," the vixen grinned. "And then you became my frozen trophy for a week. It was funny when the ice thawed around your head. You had such colorful words."

The two females laughed, drowning their leader's groan.

The Gabite crouched down and tapped the rock wall near the ground. He blinked when he sensed a strange vibration on his sensitive feet. "Odd."

"Huh?" The water-type stopped her merry recollection with the Heatmor and turned to him. "You found something?"

He tapped the spot again, and he felt the strange vibration once more. He slowly nodded his head as his brows furrowed. "I...may have found something."

The Vaporeon approached him, the fire-type following close behind. She poked her head over his shoulder, blinking at the dragon-type's finger tapping the rock wall. She frowned. "I don't see anything on there."

"Well, there—" he said as he turned his head, but stopped when his snout bumped on the Vaporeon's cheeks. "Gah!" he scurried away with burning cheeks.

The vixen threw him a sly grin. "Oh my. Never knew you had a thing for—"

"Could you stop your annoying flirting for just one minute!" the dragon hissed. He shook his head and took a breath.

"He likes me," the Vaporeon said as she turned to their other companion.

The Heatmor rolled her eyes.

"Look, this is serious," the dragon said after he collected himself. He turned at the spot on the foot of the rock wall. "Something's down there."

"More gems, I suppose?" the vixen asked with a sweet smile. "I love shiny things."

"Of course you do," the dragon said, rolling his eyes. "There's a hollow space underneath," he said as he slowly trailed his eyes up, eyeing the craggy wall's massive height.

"...I can help with the digging," the Heatmor suddenly said, opening and closing her claws as she eyed the suspected spot.

"Sheesh," the vixen turned her head and glared at her. "You need to warn us next time when you're about to talk, girl. You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

The fire-type rolled her eyes.

The Gabite shook his head. "We can't." He turned and looked at his team mates. "Not yet, at least. Trust me when I say that whatever hollow space's down there isn't natural."

The Vaporeon blinked, and slowly her eyes grew wide. "You don't mean..."

The Gabite nodded with a serious look on his face. "Possibly." He turned to the Heatmor. "If what I think is true, then we can't risk checking it out on our lonesome."

"Quiiiiiiiiite riiiiiiiiight..."

The trio gasped and quickly turned towards the source of the voice. On top of a giant boulder stood a cloaked figure, shuddering as it eyed the trio preparing to battle.

"Oooohhh... Baaaaaaaattlllllllllllle...?"

"We're dead..." the water-type whispered quietly as she and her team fixed the Phantom with glaring eyes.

"I'll distract it," the Gabite whispered back, taking a bold step forward. "You two, retreat. Whatever happens, we need to inform the others about this discovery."

Suddenly, the Phantom began to shiver violently as it let out a strange cry that echoed around the walls, disrupting the trio's focus. Then, in a blink, it disappeared and instantly reappeared in front of the bipedal dragon. A thin and silvery blade emerged from its cloaked body.

The Gabite, living in the wilds since he was born, barely managed to parry the attack with his reflexes. He deflected the Phantom's blade to the side with his claw while he went in for a jab with his other claw, stabbing through the cloak...and nothing else.

'What?'

Another sharp blade emerged from the Phantom's cloak, stabbing the dragon on the chest.

"No!" the Vaporeon shouted before blasting the cloaked figure with a beam of ice, but her attack only went through the cloak.

The Phantom turned its 'head' towards the startled vixen and pulled—

"Grr—!" the Gabite growled through his bloody fanged jaws as he held the stabbed blade with both claws. Catching the Phantom's attention, he then quickly threw his murderous look at his companions. "Run! Arceusdamnit, ru—!"

The other blade stabbed him on his stomach.

More blood oozed from his mouth as he gave the Phantom a side-glare.

The Heatmor snapped back. She threw an apologetic glance at her dying leader as she grabbed the stunned Vaporeon's tail. "Sorry," she whispered as she quickly turned around and kicked her feet on the ground, eliciting a surprised yelp from the water-type.

"No! Stop!" the water-type cried as she was dragged, her teary eyes locked on the Gabite. "We can't leave him! He's gonna die!"

But the Heatmor kept on running as she fought her tears from falling down her face.

The Gabite eyed his retreating friends with a mixture of emotions. He was glad that they were running away from harm and were to report their discovery, but at the same time, he was sad that he won't be able to see them again. He began losing his strength on his claws and seconds later they were now hanging limply on his sides, yet the Phantom didn't pull his blades back and chase after them.

The retreating females turned around a corner, no longer in plain sight. However, the Phantom was still staring at where the two had just run off, shuddering less and less.

"..."

"T-too bad," the Gabite wheezed with a small smirk as he weakly eyed the Phantom before him. He wanted to ask why he didn't call its 'buddies,' but quickly decided against it. "They...soon bring back o-others..." He coughed weakly, his breaths becoming shallow and slow as he started feeling cold.

"..." Slowly, the Phantom turned its head and stared at its kill. "...Riiiiiisssssk liiiiiiife...t-to saaaaaaaave theeeem...whyyyyyyyyyyyy...?"

But the Phantom could no longer get an answer from him for he has already taken his last breath. Slowly, he pulled his blades off of him, dropping the Gabite on the ground. It stared at the dead dragon for a few seconds before it slowly lifted both its blades to eye level, eyeing the thick red blood slowly being absorbed by its blades.

"...I dooooooooon't uuuuunderstaaaaaaannnnnd..."

Just then, another Phantom appeared on top of the boulder, looking down at it. "...Deeeeeaaaaad...?"

"...Yeeeeeessssss..."

The newcomer nodded its head. "...Ooooootheeeers...?"

The Phantom below slowly dropped its blades on its side as it stared at the dragon. "...Oooonly thiiiiiis ooooone..."

The newcomer nodded its head once more before it, as well as the dead Gabite, disappeared in thin air, leaving behind the other Phantom staring at the pool of blood on the ground.

"..."