"Umbreon, use Attract."
With Sato's command, dozens of Umbreon copies acted in unison. It was already cute to begin with, and now it simply blinked gently; pink bubbles instantly filled the entire area.
Half of the Ambipom clones froze on the spot, and then pop~ pop~ pop~, they all burst into nothing.
Among the remaining clones, one Ambipom with heart-shaped eyes stood out awkwardly.
"Umbre~"
Umbreon found the real one and let out a sweet little cry toward it.
"A-Ambi~"
The male Ambipom dropped its battle stance, drooling idiotically, and began following Umbreon step by step.
"POOOOOOM!"
A furious cry suddenly rang out.
…It was the female Ambipom, who was now staring daggers at her drooling partner.
Without a word, she swung her massive dual tails and smashed the male Ambipom straight into the dirt.
Apparently still not satisfied, the female Ambipom lifted her partner with one tail and started wildly slapping his face with the other.
Smack…
Smack smack…
Smack smack smack smack…
Smacksmacksmacksmacksmacksmacksmack!
As the crisp slaps echoed and the male Ambipom's miserable expression twisted, Umbreon quietly gulped and took two steps back.
'Crazy female monkey… so scary.'
"Ambipom!"
Suddenly, the female Ambipom whipped her head around to glare at the unmoving Umbreon.
A breeze passed by…
Both sides stared at each other in complete stillness…
Perhaps shocked by the female Ambipom's ferocity, even Sato behind Umbreon didn't give another command for a while.
After a long moment, the female Ambipom seemed to regain her senses. She snarled threateningly at Umbreon once more, then dragged her partner up the tree. With a few leaps, both vanished from view.
Umbreon watched with wide eyes as the male Ambipom was dragged behind, repeatedly slamming into tree trunks with loud thuds.
…Yet showed no sign of waking up.
'That poor bullied male monkey… so pitiful.'
---
Sato and the others watched the Ambipom duo disappear without interfering; after all, they were the ones who had taken the berries.
Still, the fact that Umbreon had used Attract to effortlessly break the opponent's flawless coordination -and even win without fight- made Sato find the whole thing a bit amusing.
Judging by how skilled the female Ambipom was at slapping… that male Ambipom probably had a history of pulling stunts like this.
"Umbreee~"
Umbreon rubbed against Sato's leg, snapping him out of his thoughts.
"Let's keep going. But make sure to let two Pokémon out at a time. Skorupi needs some battle exp," Sato said gently, patting the affectionate Umbreon.
"Umbre!"
Umbreon nodded obediently, then vanished into the bushes in a flash.
The three of them continued their journey. Until lunchtime, nothing major occurred.
During that time, Skorupi got into a few small-time newbie scuffles; not much, but better than nothing.
Whenever they stopped, Sato would send out Ariados to keep interacting with Skorupi.
After all, spiders and scorpions had their similarities. Many moves and tactics could be shared. But these were also Skorupi's most nerve-wracking moments…
In front of boss lady Ariados, it acted incredibly cautious every time.
Skorupi was terrified that if Ariados got playful or too excited, she might jump on it just to see if it got poisoned and how badly.
"Ariados, stop poking Skorupi. It's almost time to eat!"
Sato's warning came just in time, forcefully suppressing whatever Ariados had been scheming.
Skorupi could only pray silently, 'Hurry up and eat, hurry up and eat. I'm not being greedy, I just don't want to get judged.'
They were camping by the riverside. The gentle flow of water carried away the surrounding heat, so even dining outdoors, the three of them didn't feel hot at all.
"…Shello~"
Suddenly, a soft and unfamiliar cry caught Mark's attention. He looked down and saw a Pokémon he'd never seen before, lying at his feet and staring up at him.
Pink, squishy, gooey… it was a Shellos!
"Huh? Where did this little cutie come from~?" Mark asked curiously, then picked it up, but rather roughly, grabbing it by the ears.
"Sh… SHELLOOS!"
The sluggish Shellos didn't react at first. It simply kept staring at Sato's bowl of food. But soon after, it felt the pain in its ears and began to wail loudly.
Startled by the scream, Mark reflexively tried to toss the Shellos away; only to find it was now stuck to his hand like glue.
Its ears were being tugged and pulled, and Shellos cried out in pain again and again. Despite its small body, its voice was shockingly loud.
"Are you trying to scam me?! Let go already!" Mark panicked from the screaming and tried to use his other hand to shake it off.
And then… both hands ended up stuck to the Shellos.
"What the heck is this? It's stickier than glue!" Mark kept complaining, but oddly, no one responded.
"Shellos!" "Gastro!" "Shellos!" "Shelloooos!"
Mark looked up and suddenly saw that he was now surrounded by a crowd of Shellos and their evolved forms: Gastrodon!
Sato and Joseph had already stood up, and even the Pokémon who were eating had stopped and formed a defensive line together.
With Mark's voice fading, the only sound left was Shellos's pitiful, continuous crying, which now became even more noticeable.
Sato and Joseph stared speechlessly at Mark, who had brought this on himself. Did he really think he could just grab wild Pokémon with his bare hands?
Shellos were just sticky. But if it had been a Stunky or Croagunk, Mark would already be poisoned and passed out.
Still, these Gastrodon crawling out of the river clearly weren't here for a peaceful talk.
Maybe at first they came to rescue the Shellos.
…But now Sato could see most of them had shifted their attention to the food on the table.
"GAAAAAAAAS!"
Suddenly, a deep cry came from within the Gastrodon horde, and every single Shellos and Gastrodon charged forward, completely ignoring Zoroark and the others' Ace level aura!
"Full-force defense. Hold them back."
They were surrounded on all sides. Sato couldn't give detailed commands to every Pokémon; he could only let them fight independently.
Led by Zoroark, all the Pokémon -including Skorupi- sprang into action.
Joseph and Mark also sent out their own Pokémon to join the battle. Though they were confused by the situation, there was no time to question it, they had to repel the Gastrodon first.
Night Daze, Rock Slide, Water Pulse, Razor Leaf… any move that could hit a wide area was unleashed without reservation.
Although the Gastrodon were numerous, the power difference between both sides was overwhelming. In no time, the three of them had cleared the field.
"How can such a small river hold this many Gastrodon?"