Chapter 29. Arrest of Lord Aran
The next day, Ryū returned to the campus. During a class break, he led a Ponyta happily prancing in the grassland to the small lake. While the Ponyta was completely bewildered, Ryū dove into the lake and unleashed a Twister on the Ponyta from inside. The Twister, mixed with a lot of lake water, hit the Ponyta's face, instantly injuring it.
Similarly, the Ponyta also entered an angry state. [Ember] The Ponyta opened its mouth and spewed out scattered Embers towards the surface of the lake. The Embers hitting the water surface made a subtle steaming sound, and Ryū, hiding in the lake, didn't receive any damage at all. At most, he just felt the water get a bit warmer.
Ryū then relied on the advantage of the terrain to continuously evade the Ponyta's attacks. Yet, this Ponyta was also a hothead. Even after being beaten black and blue, it didn't run and kept staring at the lake. Finally, the Ponyta got angry and recklessly used [Tackle] on Ryū under the lake, only to fall into the water itself. It struggled frantically and then turned into a circle-eyed state in less than 3 seconds.
Seeing this, Ryū's face turned pale with fright. He quickly rushed over and rolled the Ponyta onto the shore. "You have a reckless nature, don't you?" After complaining, Ryū quickly took the Ponyta and rushed out of the forest to the plain. He knew that someone was secretly watching this plain. Therefore, a Pokémon scholar would inevitably rush out immediately to check on the unconscious Ponyta's condition.
As expected, less than a minute after he and the Ponyta appeared on the plain, a Pokémon scholar in a white coat came galloping on a Tauros. Ryū couldn't help but shake his head, looking at the Tauros that was over 3 meters tall. A Tauros of this size was like a monster. If it appeared in the future Alliance Era, it would definitely be the most eye-catching one, and perhaps only the appearance of legendary Pokémon could steal its spotlight.
'Strong... definitely above Lv. 40.' Ryū could only make a rough judgment based on his eyesight as a Beedrill in his previous life. "What's going on? Water? Did he fall into the water?" The Pokémon scholar squatted down and stroked the Ponyta's wet fur, immediately understanding what had happened. He quickly took out an unknown root from his pocket, crushed it with his fingers, and stuffed it into the Ponyta's mouth.
"Did Lord Aran save him? Lord Aran is really good. What those 2 scholars said before was completely wrong." After simple treatment, the Pokémon scholar turned to Ryū and praised him with a smile. He even took out a rare berry and handed it to Ryū. Generally, this kind of berry is used to reward Pokémon that perform well.
"That's right, it's all my credit." Ryū nodded, quickly bit the fruit, and turned to leave. Since the Ponyta was temporarily fine, he had to find the next target. For the next 3 consecutive days, Ryū spent his time like this. After 3 days, all the adolescent Fire-type Pokémon in the Pokémon Academy had been beaten by him. If he continued to beat them repeatedly, the experience gained would likely decrease.
On the fourth day, upon arriving at the academy, Ryū first shrank to the bottom of the lake to check his status panel.
[Dratini]
[Potential]: Blue
[Level]: Lv. 10
[Type]: Dragon
[Ability]: Shed Skin
[Height]: 2.6 m
[Weight]: 4.5 kg
[Skills]: Hone Claws (Inherited), Wrap, Glare, Twister, Thunder Wave
"Not bad, the level has increased by 3, and I've learned Thunder Wave. Next, I'll fight Water-type Pokémon." Ryū had already made up his mind. In fact, the remaining Water, Grass-type, and Electric-type Pokémon were all similar. When facing Grass and Electric-types, the effect of Thunder Wave would be much worse, but he could use the advantage of the lake environment. His movement speed on land was pathetically slow, and he had to use the lake to fight with other higher-level Pokémon. When facing Water-types, the environmental advantage was gone, but the paralysis effect of Thunder Wave would be much stronger.
Gulp. Gulp. "?" Ryū suddenly heard the sound of drinking water above his head. He knew a Pokémon had come here, so he surfaced to take a look. A dazed Psyduck. "Prey delivered to my doorstep." Ryū grinned. He made a decisive move and quickly struck. The white spot on his head flashed, and a subtle yellow lightning shot out, hitting the Psyduck who was still drinking water.
"Quack~" The Psyduck trembled a few times, its head dropping into the water. Ryū pursued the victory and continued to attack. Little did he know, all of this was a setup. "It's Lord Aran after all. I knew there was a reason why Pokémon kept falling into the water and getting injured these past few days, and they were all brought back by Lord Aran."
The Pokémon scholar, hiding by the forest edge behind a large tree, muttered this to himself. He had thought that Ryū was acting heroically and saving those Fire-type Pokémon these past few days. To reward Aran, he had even specially given him several rare and nutritious berries. But the truth turned out to be like this!
If they hadn't deliberately lured a Psyduck here to drink water and test him, they would probably still be kept in the dark. They had initially considered whether Lord Aran simply disliked those Pokémon that could breathe fire, but now it seemed that was not the case at all. Lord Aran was clearly attacking other Pokémon indiscriminately!
"We can't let Lord Aran continue to be so unreasonable. Although he won't kill these Pokémon, they often need to rest for a few days and use a lot of herbs after waking up, which not only delays the growth of the Pokémon but also consumes a lot of our inventory." Beside him, another Pokémon scholar was watching all this, feeling a bit anxious. They were extremely careful about the degree of confrontation when organizing Pokémon to fight each other. It was not about beating the opponent into a circle-eyed state and losing consciousness to end the match. Often, when 1 side could already determine victory, they would call a halt.
This was to reduce injuries to the Pokémon and the consumption of stocked herbs. The Pokémon Era was not the Alliance Era, which had such advanced medical equipment and methods. Things like putting a Poké Ball on a machine and having it recover with a few beeps and boops didn't exist in the Pokémon world. At the very least, they needed to be carefully looked after by Nurse Joy and Chansey for a day or 2 to fully recover. The current inventory of herbs in the Pokémon Academy was all precious, having been gathered by Pokémon masters risking their lives in the forest. Therefore, the Pokémon scholars did not want to waste them on cleaning up after Ryū's actions.
"What should we do?"
"What else can we do? Naturally, we will capture Lord Aran and let Queen Liz discipline him. Are we going to discipline him ourselves?" The 2 of them discussed and determined their goal: arrest Lord Aran!
"After Lord Aran defeats the yellow duck Pokémon, we will strike while he is weak."
"Okay!"