Chương 34: C034 - The battle for the meadow begins
It took a lot of convincing on Pete's part to postpone Herbert and Isabelle visiting this place right before sundown. Jasmine had called them for a video chat and they were screaming into the phone with excitement for several minutes before Pete got the first word in.
What Pete didn't know was that once they hung up, Herbert rushed to his warehouse to prepare more compensation for the young researcher and almost emptied his current stock of saplings in the process. If nothing changes, he would bring them over the next day with Exeggutor's help.
The Vileplumes and Bellossoms, once done, looked at the tree with fanatic eyes. Pete wondered why that was because it was mostly their grass magic that made it grow into this majestic, colorful treasure of a tree. He'd have to find out why at a later date.
"Okay, the sun's almost gone, so I'll leave the two of you alone. Good luck in the night," Sophie said with a suggestive smirk and a wink towards her sister as she stood up.
Jasmine turned red but decided to play it cool, "Yeah thanks. I guess we'll need some luck for the coming fight with the Ariados."
Sophie only wiggled her brows in response and giggled as she walked over to Exeggutor to get back to the hotel. As protection, the grass/psychic pokemon would stay the night with her because Sophie didn't have a pokemon of her own.
"Okay then, guess we'll get on up to the cliff again?"
"Y-yes!" Jasmine answered with a high-pitched voice and quickly cleared her throat, "yes!"
Pete only smiled warmly and shook his head as he gathered his pokemon once more to get up the cliff. Jasmine and Pete didn't talk this time and only enjoyed this peaceful time with content smiles. If Sophie was here, she might have quipped that this was just a romantic walk on the almost-beach.
"Once we're in position, I want you guys to relax. The Ariados are attacking once they know they have an advantage and will come well rested. Rapidash, I want you to hang back a bit and save up for the ideal situation to hit 'em with a Hyper Beam. So you'll likely start the fight with a bang and then stay back. Nidoking, you're best suited as the vanguard of this battle. Not only is their poison gonna do the least against you, you are much more durable than our other young team members," Pete began to explain his battle strategy once they came close to the stairs at the cliff wall.
"Golett, I know you learned fire type energy only recently, so that's what I want you to focus on this fight. I hope by the end of it you'll be able to use Fire Punch to its full potential. And keep a look out for Nidoking and Onix. I think you three could combine your control over ground type energy into a devastating area of effect attack like Earthquake. Just make sure that if you, you hit only enemies," Pete continued as they started climbing the stairs.
"And finally, this is for everyone. At the slightest suspicion that you are poisoned, I want you to come to me. I invested a whole bunch of money into Antidotes and bought a small mountain of Pecha berries in preparation. Don't let my efforts be in vain," Pete advised with a serious expression once they reached the river that fed the waterfall. Since this fork of the Evergreen River was unnamed, Pete decided to give it the name Everfall River to distinguish it from the fork of the river that was running next to his future home.
"You got anything to add, Jasmine? Or maybe you'd like for your pokemon to fight on their own?"
Pete turned to Jasmine, who kept quiet during his explanation. Seeing as he expected her to give out some form of strategy on her own, her pride kicked in. She was the one who wanted to become a gym leader, while Pete wanted to be a 'simple' farmer. There was no way she could let herself be bested in battle preparations in front of a 'rookie trainer' with no aspiration.
"Okay, Gligar, Onix. You two heard Pete's words, and they all make proper sense. The two of you have the typing advantage over the Ariados through flying and rock, so use that as best you can. Onix, I want you to coordinate with Nidoking as best as possible. While at the front, use Stealth Rock on as many passages that you see the enemies arrive from as you can. They won't come running in a single line, so spread them out," Jasmine started.
"Gligar, Ariados are known to be exceptionally agile and quick. But I think you will have them beat while you stay in the air. We haven't known each other for long, but I would like for you to stay a little out of the fight and focus on baiting the enemies to either group up or run into the stealth rocks," Jasmine suggested with a cunning glint.
"Observe the battlefield and lure groups of enemies to where our heavy hitters are. Onix, please coordinate in that effort by staying under the radar at the start and then take out a bigger number in one go with Gligar's help. Objections?"
Onix shook his head, and while Gligar took a while to think it through, it eventually agreed, too.
Solosis was in charge of relaying their tactics to the tribe once they were done hashing it out, and the grass pokemon all agreed to not let their efforts be in vain. They would stay back at the start of the fight and only jump in once Pete and Jasmine's pokemon were done with their initial tactics. Some of them would even circle behind and cut off the path of retreat for their enemies.
It took several hours before they noticed the first movements in the trees. Around midnight, when most of Pete's younger pokemon were sleeping already, branches were shaking, leaves were rustling.
Under Pete's astonished gaze, a red bodied spider with yellow and purple legs and feelers the size of a go-kart jumped out of the tree and landed on its roots. The Ariados' eyes roamed over Pete's and Jasmine's team before it excitedly clicked its fangs.
When it was done doing that, around eighty more spiders jumped down, followed by a good forty or more Spinarak hanging back midway down the tree trunks. The forest line now housed over a hundred spiders greedily looking at Pete's group like they hit the jackpot, over twenty pokemon that could serve as food just waiting for them.
Raiding the meadow at night when the Vileplume were at their weakest made the spider pokemon cocky, so they started to attack the group right away as an uncoordinated mob.
A few fangs lit up in bug-green energies, a few in purple energies, some started firing the move Pin Missile at the nearest pokemon, Nidoking. But the most uncoordinated attack was all the Spinarak using the move String shot from the trees.
When they webs were all in the air, Pete turned to Jasmine with a smirk, and she just rolled her eyes.
"Fine, you win the bet," Jasmine said with a tired sigh.
"Hehe, show them how out of their element they are, Rapidash," Pete ordered, and the flaming unicorn pokemon swiftly released a Flash Fire empowered Flamethrower into the air, catching the String Shots descending on them on fire.
The flames quickly followed along the webs toward their origin, the Spinarak and forty something pre-evolution spider pokemon dropped from the trees in droves while screeching in pain.
"I get they rarely fight pokemon that can fight back, but they must have seen the flaming giant of a horse at the back... what were they thinking," Jasmine muttered with a shake of her head.
Pete wanted to answer with a good-natured taunting remark, but the Ariados heard the cries of pain from the back and sped up their attack.
Just as planned, Nidoking went to the front and started the fight off with the move Sandstorm. The super effective rock type energy immediately peppered the Ariados at the front line, but they barely slowed down. Once the first spider pokemon attacked him with a Bug Bite, Nidoking retaliated with the move Fire Punch.
As Nidorino, Pete had given him the chance to learn both the TMs Sandstorm and Fire Blast and together with his spars against Golett, who was given the same opportunities, they had both figured out the move Fire Punch.
Just as Onix started leaving Stealth Rocks everywhere, Growlithe and Ponyta suddenly joined the fight as ranged attackers and started shooting the move Fire Spin that they had both learend from Rapidash over the last week.
Their attacks left a lot of room for improvement as the Ariados they targeted could quickly leave the move, but they still left big marks on the enemies' bodies.
Not wanting to be outdone, Blitzle released a Charge Beam at an Ariados that Golett had just punched away, leaving the pokemon dizzy. Gligar capitalized on it and used Wing Attack to take out the first Ariados of the battle. Seeing the decapitated ally, the Ariados at the back started screeching at the Gligar and charge in its direction. Even some Venom Drenches were immediately spit in its direction, but none hit.
Taking her roll as bait seriously, Gligar flew a wide circle around the enemies, getting them to get closer to one another in their efforts to chase, but that was their first big mistake in this fight.
Onix saw a group of eight Ariados practically running with no space between them and unleashed an attack it had prepared beforehand. It was hard for Pete to know which one it was, but it had to be either Rock Slide sent out with an astonishing control over rock type energy, or Rock Tomb, because that was what Onix devastating blow resulted in. An early grave as a giant boulder squashed five of the eight spider pokemon he had targeted.
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
Nuclide
Nuclide Wow almost didn't have time for a chapter today. Work was terrible the last two-three days. Hoping I'm back to the usual 2 chapters a day starting tomorrow!
Chương 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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