Chapter 16: Death
"Silph?"
Ryū hadn't expected these people to be so deranged. To put it bluntly, not only Pokémon but even humans cannot lose the forest. But these guys actually set fire without hesitation. Either they were truly insane, or they were confident they could stop the fire from spreading or even extinguish it entirely.
"They must have discovered Liz is here! It's okay, as long as they see Liz running elsewhere, they won't harm Kikō or the rest of you. Run quickly!"
After Liz finished speaking, she turned and intended to run towards the people of the Silph Tribe. This child planned to run elsewhere in front of the people of the Silph Tribe, naively believing she could actually escape.
"Kikō, Suzume, take everyone to the central area of the forest and wait for me to return."
Ryū glanced at the forest ahead, then picked up Liz, who was wiggling her legs, preparing to bolt. The people sent out by the other side were far more numerous than they could see; no matter which direction Liz ran, she wouldn't be able to escape.
'It seems they were well-prepared. Were we discovered in the past few days?'
Ryū roughly understood what was going on. The Silph Tribe's thorough preparation was definitely not a coincidence.
"Kikō? Why are you holding me? Why aren't you leaving?"
Liz watched the figures of the Silph Tribe getting closer and struggled harder. Especially when she saw that Kikō and Suzume had already listened to Ryū and were heading deeper into the forest, and it seemed like Ryū was being left behind, she panicked even more.
Could it be...
'Could it be that Kikō broke ties with his family and companions for my sake?!'
Liz's heart was incredibly touched, and large tears streamed down her face.
...What is this guy imagining?
Ryū felt that the smoke at this time shouldn't be thick enough to sting his eyes. But the current situation didn't allow him to think too much; holding Liz, he soared into the sky, flying outwards from above the forest. He wanted to fly Liz out of Mt. Silver and send her back near the Royal Dragon Tribe.
"No! Kikō, don't fly so high! They will shoot arrows!"
Liz's face changed dramatically when she saw Ryū suddenly fly into the air holding her.
"Huh? How far can humans shoot arrows? It's impossible to hit us from this height."
Ryū shook his head, thinking Liz was worrying too much. Admittedly, Beedrill's Speed base stat wasn't particularly high, but he could at least fly in the air, and besides, he wasn't just any ordinary Beedrill. During the tribal period of the Monster Era, human weapons were probably limited to bows, crossbows, spears, and guns at most, right? That shouldn't pose a threat to him.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh! xN
Just as Ryū was thinking this, countless sharp sounds of air being cut came from below. He instinctively looked down. More than a dozen iron-tipped arrows shot straight towards him.
"?!"
Ryū was greatly alarmed, holding Liz and suddenly accelerating to quickly dodge those arrows.
'How are they so fast?! Even crossbows shouldn't have this effect, right?'
Ryū frowned and looked down. However, just that one look filled his eyes with astonishment. Through the gaps in the tree canopy below, he discovered that these primitives weren't using crossbows, but the much older version of the bow!
'Humans can shoot arrows like that with a bow?'
This question filled Ryū's entire mind. He didn't have time to think further and flew out of the forest at full speed. He realized he seemed to have underestimated the humans of the Pokémon world too much. More accurately, he had underestimated the humans of the Monster Era too much.
'Damn it, how could I forget, humans were able to suppress and drive Pokémon by force during the Kingdom period; it must be because they were strong enough, not to mention the existence of special ability users like those with Wave Power and Psychic abilities.'
Ryū suddenly regretted telling Kikō and Suzume to leave. He had thought he could handle it completely by himself, and having more numbers would only make them a bigger target and easier to attack. But now, it seemed he had made a wrong decision! But turning back was impossible. The people of the Silph Tribe had already targeted them; if they ran back, the fire would only burn deeper into the forest, and who knows how many weak Pokémon would die then.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
Countless arrows shot towards them again. Ryū dodged left and right in the air with Liz; fortunately, Liz was just a child and didn't weigh much, so it didn't affect his flying speed too much. Moreover, Liz didn't panic, scream, or struggle to affect Ryū's flying; instead, she calmly reminded him where the people below had chased to and when they launched their attacks. The entire way out of the forest was fraught with peril but ultimately without serious incident.
Even after Ryū flew out of the forest with Liz, he wasn't injured, but his expression couldn't be described as good. Because he had fallen into a situation of 'a wolf in front and a tiger behind'!
"Screech!!"
In front, a Pidgeot with a body length of 3m quickly swooped in. Clearly, he intended to feast on Ryū, this large fat worm! At first, when the Pidgeot saw Ryū, he was also startled, as he usually lived on the grassland and had never seen such a huge insect. However, after regaining his composure, he became eager to try, and his eyes revealed a fierce gaze. How could he let go of a large fat worm that came knocking on his door!
"Kikō! What should we do!"
Liz also clearly noticed this desperate situation. A large Pidgeot blocked the way in the air ahead, and behind and below them, 40 to 50 burly humans were following closely.
'Is fate trying to kill me?'
Ryū wasn't quite sure what he should do now either.
"Screech!!"
The Pidgeot in front attacked first, hitting Ryū from above with Agility followed by Wing Attack. Flying-type moves caused immense damage to him, who had the Bug type. Struck, Ryū immediately felt dizzy and nauseous, and he plummeted towards the grassland below, holding Liz.
Whoosh whoosh whoosh!
As if things weren't bad enough, more than a dozen arrows shot up from below. The Pidgeot flew back and narrowly dodged them, looked at Ryū and the dozens of humans, then let out an unwilling cry and flew away.
"Kikō! Hurry and dodge!"
Liz's anxious voice came. But Ryū's entire body hurt as if it were falling apart.
'That Pidgeot's level is at least 40 or higher...'
Ryū cursed his bad luck. After all, even if he was weak to the type, he shouldn't have been injured this badly by one hit. If that Pidgeot attacked again, Ryū would probably be in a near-death state. Although, he was pretty much there already.
He exerted all his strength to dodge left and right in mid-air, but his movements were no longer as agile as before, and now he had lost the tree canopy to obstruct the vision of that group of people... In an instant, three more arrows consecutively pierced through Ryū's body. One pierced through one of his wings. One shot one of his slender, brittle legs into two pieces. And another shot straight into his abdomen, the arrow embedded within it.
"I'm going to die..."
Ryū's eyes went black, and he could no longer hold on, plummeting towards the ground. But during his semiconscious state, he still instinctively flapped his wings a couple of times to cushion the fall. Finally, he and Liz rolled together on the grass.
'Is it here... This child is probably going to die here too.'
Ryū heard the sound of many footsteps approaching and no longer had the strength to struggle. It was just a pity for Liz, a little girl of 8 or 9 years old, who would die here at such a young age.
As for him...
"Kikō, why did you do this... Their target was me, couldn't you have just left me?"
Liz's choked sobs were incessant. She pushed Ryū with her hand. Even though she was just a child, she understood that Ryū's injuries were beyond saving; their tribe didn't have such skilled healers who could cure such wounds.
'How could I do something like abandon a child? Back in my high school, if I did something like that, my buddies would look down on me...'
As his consciousness gradually faded, Ryū's mind began to think of all sorts of random things. Thinking and thinking, he suddenly remembered at the end. He wasn't a Beedrill at all, just an ordinary teenager who had just come of age.
'Being a Beedrill isn't fun at all.'
'If only I had been reborn in the Alliance Era, at least I wouldn't have to work so hard.'
'...Or maybe, I just wanted to find a reason to die...'