บท 35: C035 - Finishing the first battle for the meadow
A little more than half of the enemy forces were down for the count after only 10 minutes. Yet less than twenty Ariados had already died and had no possibility of rejoining the fight. The others dragged their bodies away from the battle with broken limbs and deep cuts.
The fighting turned a little less chaotic after that. Pete's and Jasmine's strategy was good, but the spider pokemon weren't dumb. Instead of storming in blindly with numbers, the Ariados began organizing their attacks.
That, however, was the cue for the Vileplume to join the fight. A huge group of them came from behind the tree line and combined the leaves of the trees for a devastating attack.
"I know these spiders are smart and take less damage from grass moves, but I really don't see how they kept surviving against... That," Jasmine mumbled with an astonished gaze.
"It's such a beautiful move, wow," Pete whispered as he saw a group move by the Vileplume that was much, much bigger than Nidoking's and Onix' combined Sandstorm.
With a green hue on their edges, thousands and thousands of leaves gathered in the air above the backline of the battlefield with Spinarak and the wounded Ariados. As if a storm of green knives had arrived, the spider pokemon gained wounds every single moment.
The Petal Blizzard did huge amounts of damage despite the typing disadvantage of a 1/4x damage multiplier for grass to bug/poison pokemon.
The already wounded Spinarak that Rapidash had dropped by lighting the webbing on fire were taken care of in mere moments, and many wounded Ariados followed. Once more, a short moment of panic rang through the ranks of the spider pokemon.
As they pushed closer and grouped up to the frontline where a battered and wounded Nidoking held the first line of defense valiantly, Onix and Gligar caused a huge number of casualties by every move hitting more than 3 or 4 Ariados.
One of the quick sweeps with what Pete thought was the move Aerial Ace, Gligar hit several spiders in a line. Onix used Rock Throw instead of Rock Tomb to pace his stamina better and still hit more than one enemy with every use of the move.
"Rapidash, right flank! Do your best to not hit any allies!"
Pete shouted as he saw an opening when the Ariados tried to break out of the battlefield on a side since they were boxed in from the front and back.
The wounded Ariados stood no chance when a Hyper Beam that looked much more substantial compared to Rapidash's last use of the move hit the crowd of around fifteen pokemon.
The spider pokemon were getting restless now that they saw no way out and began using their all their most powerful moves by aiming at anything that moved so that they could get out. Yet, there were three Ariados that kept calm despite their wounds and the ever rising number of casualties on their side. They started glowing with psychic energies, clearly using the move Agility and increasing their speed to dodge and look for an opening.
One of them used this opening to get away but was immediately caught by the three Farfetch'd that were raring to get in on the action from the backlines. With leeks that were covered in flying type energy, they made quick work of the wounded Ariados and got away unscratched.
The second one used Agility to try and push through to where Pete was with his weaker pokemon, but it was caught off-guard by the two Minccino, who had used the move Tackle to get closer from a surprising angle and use their perfect combo of alternating Helping Hand and Double Slap or Fury Swipes to take down the pokemon.
The third one tried to get away, too, and did so with a surprising move, Dig.
Pete looked to Golett and Gligar to see if they would do something since both of them were the heavy hitters with the best grasp of the battlefield. Gligar was the one that moved first before Pete could decide to speak up by landing next to the hole of dig in a dive bomb surrounded by beige ground typing energy.
When it landed, an earthen spike came out of the hole with fresh spider blood and a mournful screech.
All his pokemon had by now participated in the fight except for Sunkern and Azurill, who were both watching from his shoulder, and he wanted to give the sign for retreat.
But his thoughts were stopped by the Vileplumes, who had by now fully circled the battlefield. They were apparently ready for another combo move that looked like it started with Grassy Terrain immediately followed by Grass Knot and Leech Seeds.
The eery smile of the Vileplume and the vampiric move at the end managed to give Pete goosebumps, but the grass pokemon managed to not hit his pokemon a single time.
Their combo move had taken care of every single remaining Ariados, and Pete finally relaxed when he noticed this group of Ariados was beaten resoundingly with not a single casualty on their side.
"That was... way more intense than anything they showed us in school to prepare us for the wilderness," Jasmine said with a frown on her face.
"Yeah, over a hundred pokemon dying just like that... I don't know how to feel about it, honestly," Pete added with a conflicted expression.
"You said it before. They were pokemon that preyed on others. They should expect to be beaten eventually."
"True, but I don't have to like it," Pete admitted with a wry smile and a shake of his head.
Sure, he really wanted to live here, and they were giant spiders that would have freaked him out in his last life. But Pete began to understand that pokemon were more than simple animals in this world fairly early.
A normal person wouldn't get depressed by the neighbor's dog dying, but surely they would feel sad for a while if the dog was likeable. This was where Pete was at emotionally seeing all these pokemon dying for his wish to live here.
Jasmine, who had big sympathy for pokemon herself, could understand Pete's dilemma, so she patted his shoulder with a small smile.
"Haaa, thanks. Sorry, I'll get over it. This was what I came here to do from the very beginning. I just hope the Ariados tribe would be open to negotiations now before we have to keep doing that," Pete thanked with a warm smile of his own as he placed his hand on Jasmine's.
It was dark, so Pete didn't really notice the bright blush on her face that his actions had caused.
Their short sweet moment was interrupted by a bright white light from where their pokemon were standing.
Pete and Jasmine looked over to see if it was an evolution or something else and were surprised by two of their biggest pokemon being enveloped in the bright light.
The shiny Golett and Jasmine's Onix had apparently met their strength cap and other requirements and would evolve into their final forms, Golurk and Steelix. Instead of hearing bones breaking and shifting, both of these evolutions sounded more like thunder rumbling in the distance and rocks grinding against rocks.
Once they were done evolving, a three meter tall shiny Golurk and an almost ten meter long Steelix were standing near the tree line and their vanquished foes on grassy ground. The researcher in Pete was a little miffed that the late night made it pretty much impossible to film the process properly.
Pete felt his bond to Golurk deepen once more, and he felt his strangely non-robotic pokemon feeling elated at the fact that it evolved. Jasmine herself appeared very tired, but she still ran over to Steelix and placed a hand on its head with a bright smile as she talked to her first pokemon.
They both talked to their pokemon for a short moment and then congratulated each other on the evolution of their partners.
"Soooo, we - uh, we're going back to camp now?"
"Hmm? Oh yes, let me talk to the Vileplume real quick, and then we'll head back. I'm sure everyone is plenty tired," Pete agreed quickly and walked over to the old Vileplume, who had instructed the Geodude's to create the stairs earlier in the day with a stomp of its feet.
It seemed that this pokemon had the biggest voice in the group, maybe because of its age.
Pete talked with it for a short moment and got the confirmation that the Vileplumes would stay on the cliff for the night to fight back a possible retaliatory attack on the same night.
After yet another thanks to his 'hosts' here in the meadow, Pete and Jasmine left the cliff with their pokemon, some of which were already in their pokeballs because they were too tired and reached the camp site a little later.
Pete filled up some buckets with water in case someone needed it for the night and returned to the camp site. Then he walked into the short cave he had created and placed all the eggs and incubators he had carried with him in the bags inside.
When he finally did everything he wanted to do, he was ready to turn in for the night, but he was confused because the camp site still housed only his tent.
"Uhm, I swear this wasn't on purpose. Well, on my end. I think Sophie did this, but... she unpacked the tent and sleeping bag from my backpack. C-could you...?"
"You want to share the tent? No worries, I'm okay with that if you are. I even have a second sleeping bag I'm not really using," Pete asked the hard to ask question for the shy Jasmine without getting embarrassed. He really liked spending time with Jasmine, and he would honestly be an idiot to not get that she liked being with him, too.
So, who would reject sharing a tent with a beautiful young woman in that situation?
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