Chris was a little surprised to see two of the shadows when he rounded the corner of the giant monster’s bent leg, and even more so when he turned back and the other two still coming up behind him. “Clever clever,” he said, even though he’d known of similar strategies since the moment he first gained the autonomy to cause mischief. He just hadn’t expected these monsters to be smart enough to do that. Maybe the goblins or kobolds from however many floors up they’d encountered them on, but not these. Of course, there was a benefit to this. If the monsters were smart enough to try and flank him, they were smart enough to fall for a feint, and he was good at feints. If Chris had to choose which duo to engage first, he went with the ones coming up behind him. It was easier to gain the speed he needed going that way. He took off, sprinting directly at the pair with his sword by his side. When he got a few paces away, Chris raised his sword above his head and jumped. It was a maneuver he’d done a couple times before at this point -- he wasn’t going to attack on the jump. Instead, he landed comfortably before the pair of monsters and used his downward momentum to get real low to the ground, bringing his sword with him and slicing at the legs of his assailants. Past experience taught him this wouldn’t bring them down entirely, but hopefully it was enough of an inconvenience to keep them from trying flanking moves again. Before Chris could survey his handiwork though and check to see if he was actually right, he sprang back, pushing back off the ground in the direction of the other pair of monsters, still closing in. This time, he did the opposite, starting low, almost dragging his sword along the ground, before planting his feet and rising straight up into the air, putting his entire jump into an upward slash to cut through at least one of his attackers. When he landed, he again took a step back to disengage, even if it meant the monsters on his flank got even closer. It was about then that the giant monster started moving again, slowly, but surely, getting back up to its feet. “Oh, come on,” Chris muttered. But, then again, the thing’s leg no longer blocked his path entirely, and he had slightly more room to get around without running into the forest and dealing with who-knew-what that was in there.

thats pretty on the nose, lmao. 

Jacklyn's eyes beamed at the prospect of a reward for their findings, happily trading over the artifact for such a thing. Picking out a TM the girl said, "thanks for the reward. And if you ever need us to go on another adventure, you can call us anytime." After she waved goodbye to the woman, the girl then pocketed her the TM before looking back to Anneliese who had once more intruded on her personal space. As the girl gripped her hand, Jacklyn once more took a step back before her eyes looked towards the girl's hands. She wasn't sure why but she was fairly certain her grip was tighter now, though tried not to pay it much mind and instead answered the girl's question directly.  "Of course it'd be a new adventure! Besides, one of the best parts of adventuring is being able to tell other people about all the cool stuff you did. So like the good leader I am I'll let them have that." A look of smug satisfaction rested across her face. "As for where we'll go next, hmmm..." The girl pointed in a random direction into the town proper, "how about that way!" As she began her march the girl looked back and asked, "so Anne, what kind of places have you gone swimming in before?" "Well my home is located near the water. But I usually swam with mother's Milotic in its tank at home." "You swam in a fish tank?" "Oh yes, it was quite the distance but I was even able to swim all the way across." "Huh?" Jacklyn couldn't help but imagine the girl struggling to paddle her way through an undersized container, though her description certainly left more to the imagination. "Huh, sounds fun," was the only conclusion she could reach. Keeping herself distracted from the glaring issue the girl continued to speak,  "did your parents have a lot of pokemon, and uh...tanks for them?" "Oh yes quite a few. Many of them lived in our park though." "Oooh, a whole park! That sounds pretty cool. Not many pokemon were around my home's. It was mostly just Pidoves, Rattatas, and Petlils." She thought for a moment longer. "Oh but you could see the occasional eevee too." "Oh, there were eevee at my home too! Father told me not too play with them too much because they kept evolving." “That’s a shame, all eevee are super cute when they evolve you know!” Though she didn't think they'd evolve from just playing around. Jacklyn couldn't help but wonder for a moment if Anneliese had been playing fetch with rocks with the small pokemon, but kept that thought to herself.  "They are! Oh, but not as cute as Leopold of course!" “And no one’s cuter than Cherry!” She spoke with reactive competitiveness. After a moment longer Jacklyn cleared her throat and asked, “so uh, Anne, how long are you going to…” she gestured to Anneliese’s hand clasped over hers. Anneliese glanced down, then back to Jacklyn, "should I not?" “Uh, well it’s just…” the girl trailed off, trying to figure out what bothered her about it so much before she fell on a solution. “Never mind, I got it.” The girl tightened her grip, as if to establish dominance in the hand hold and exclaimed, “let’s go to adventure!” As the leader it was her job to lead, and so she hastily dragged Anneliese forward to parts unknown.