With the plan and most strategy decided, it was only a matter of waiting until everyone was ready to take off. ...At which point several people, including Whitney, decided that they had enough of standing around and broke off in several directions. "So much for sticking together," the alchemist muttered to himself before turning in the direction Whitney had run off to. "Wait!" Felt called out after the Gym Leader. "Don't run off like that!" [i]What are you thinking, going fter that... that [b]being[/b] just like that?[/i] 

A while later, the group found what can only be described as a small living mountain, complete with small lava-tipped horns running across its carapace.
"...And [i]that[/i] right there is why you shouldn't run off, Whitney," the young swordsman whispered to the girl, trying to do his best to sound both serious yet friendly. "I want to protect you, really, but I can't do that if you go off on your own. You understand that, right?" He really hoped that that was the case; he liked the girl, but if she kept running off like that... 
"I hope the test is not to beat this ridiculously oversized thing. How are we even supposed to hurt it?," he muttered, turning back to the giant beast. At least it seemed to be relatively calm, so maybe it would let them past as long as they didn't bother it? A man can hope, right?
 Of course, the living skeleton took this opportunity to attack the beast, making sneaking past by the creature utterly impossible. "...Idiot," The young alchemist said, sounding very annoyed before turning to Whitney. "Run! Just run!," he told her, gesturing for the exit. He himself of course didn't follow his own advice, instead trying to protect the Pokémon Trainer from harm. Not that he figured he had any real hope from defeating the beast, but he wasn't going to let it attack them all in the back either -- or at least not the people he wanted to protect, a group the fool skeleton was not part of.