A Nest of Flareon

After encountering Houndoom and Houndour, Yuga and his group gradually encountered more Fire-type Pokémon. However, most of them were still Slugma and Magcargo.

These two species of Pokémon usually ignored Yuga and his group, so they didn't bother them either. They didn't seem like they would interfere with the mining team, so they preferred not to stir any trouble.

"Look what I found!" Flannery exclaimed happily, holding up a fiery-red spar for Yuga and Beidou to see.

Yuga and Beidou focused their gaze and saw that it was a high-quality Fire Stone.

In the Pokémon world, evolution stones were categorized into high, medium, and low quality, but there was no concept of "supreme" stones, at least as far as Yuga knew.

Yuga suspected that this information might be known to only a few, as supreme evolution stones were extremely rare and had tremendous effects.

Other quality of evolution stones didn't seem to have a significant impact on a Pokémon's evolution. At least, there was no evidence to suggest that the quality of an evolution stone affected a Pokémon's evolution results. When a Pokémon evolved, it absorbed the energy inside the stone, excluding impurities. The only difference was that low-quality stones required larger volumes to facilitate evolution.

Perhaps supreme evolution stones had some unique properties that other quality lacked, possibly altering a Pokémon's potential. However, this was purely Yuga's speculation.

Beidou commented, "It seems the reserves of Fire Stones here are indeed quite large. We can pick them up so casually as we walk."

"Yes, indeed," Flannery agreed, putting the Fire Stone she found away, thinking it might come in handy someday.

As Yuga's group ascended the mountain, vegetation became scarcer. When they reached halfway up the mountain, they could hardly see any plants. The landscape was dominated by bare rocks and mud.

Flannery wiped her forehead with her sleeve and remarked, "It's getting hotter!"

Yuga smiled and replied, "There's no helping it. The place we're in is a dormant volcano, not an entirely dead one. There's still some magma activity, so it's normal for it to be hotter."

Just then, Beidou's Crobat, sent ahead to scout, flew back and chirped incessantly, as if it had discovered something.

Beidou said: "The Crobat asked us to follow it."

Yuga and Flannery nodded, and followed Beidou behind the Crobat and ran forward.

Not long after running, the Crobat stopped in front of a cave.

Beidou asked, "Did you find any Pokémon inside?"

The Crobat nodded.

Yuga suggested, "Let's go inside and take a look."

The other two agreed with nods.

Before entering, Yuga and Beidou recalled their Crobat and Vivillon into their Poké Balls because the cave ahead appeared narrow, making it challenging for Flying-type Pokémon to maneuver.

After recalling Vivillon, Yuga released his Absol to provide protection.

Indeed, once they entered the cave, it was extremely narrow. Both humans and Pokémon couldn't walk side by side, so they had no choice but to have Absol, Delcatty, and Houndoom lead the way, while Yuga and the others followed.

Fortunately, the further they ventured into the cave, the wider it became, and they eventually had more space to move around.

Following the cave's path to the end, Yuga's group arrived at a circular stone chamber. At the top of the chamber was a round hole through which sunlight streamed down, illuminating the entire chamber.

As soon as Yuga and his three Pokémon stepped into the chamber, a group of Flareon with fiery-red fur opened their eyes and stared at them warily.

A group of Flareon!

Yuga and his group hadn't expected to find such a rare group of Flareon here.

In addition to the Flareon, Yuga also noticed a few scattered Eevee mixed among the group of Flareon, and they all seemed young.

"Get ready for battle," Yuga whispered.

"Sure thing!" Flannery's voice was filled with excitement as she finally encountered a Pokémon that interested her.

The Flareon stared at the intruders for a moment and couldn't hold back any longer. They began to use Flame Charges, enveloping themselves in flames, and rushed toward Yuga's group.

Yuga's Absol quickly dealt with the approaching Flareon, striking them down with its Sucker Punchs. However, these Flareon were relentless and continued to charge towards Absol, seemingly unaffected. As they got closer to Absol, they began to feel weakened, as if they were being suppressed. No matter how hard they tried, Absol seemed to effortlessly evade their attacks.

On the other side, Flannery's Houndoom used Dark Pulse, and Beidou's Delcatty used Thunderbolt to battle several Flareon, and the fights were evenly matched.

Clearly, the Flareon were no match for Absol. After a few rounds of clashes, the attacking Flareon fell one by one, like fish out of water.

After the battle, Yuga's group counted the defeated Pokémon. Apart from a few trembling Eevee huddled in a corner, there were a total of 15 Flareon. Yuga took down 7 of them, Beidou defeated 5, and the remaining ones were taken care of by Flannery.

Flannery was particularly interested in the Flareon and wanted to raise one. With Yuga's guidance, she selected a green potential Eevee, which coincidentally matched the Fire Stone she had.

Flannery obediently followed Yuga's advice, knowing that he was more knowledgeable about Pokémon than she was.

Among the other Flareon and Eevee, only the leader and another Flareon had green potential, and Yuga claimed them. Beidou chose one for his mission, and the others were intended for trading for merit.

With two Flareon captured, Yuga realized that he was close to collecting all the evolved forms of Eevee, as long as the remaining three Eevee in his Day Care successfully evolved.

They explored the cave again, finding several Fire Stones that were probably intended for the Eevee's evolution. However, they decided to keep them.

Once they had thoroughly explored the cave, the three of them left.

However, as soon as they exited the cave, they heard a loud explosion from the direction of the mountaintop. Two Charizards, one following the other, flew into the sky. They both unleashed massive streams of fire that intertwined and collided violently. They grasped each other's claws and quickly descended from the sky.

"That's Grandpa's Charizard!" Flannery suddenly pointed at one of the Charizards.

Yuga also recognized them. Both Charizards were an Elite Pokémon, and their strengths were nearly equal.

The two Charizards simultaneously used Seismic Toss, causing a violent explosion upon impact with the ground. Countless rocks rolled down from the mountaintop, creating a spectacular scene.