A Close call
Five more days passed.
The training sessions were solely focused on mastering the Quick Attack along with the mental exercises.
Nia managed to beat Cet in learning the Quick Attack, it was not as damaging as the standard one but it's usable and provides a speed burst.
I spoiled her quite a lot after she had done it. But with Cet able to see what the move looks like; I had a feeling he is going to master it soon too.
As I made my way into the wild, with Cet ahead of me and Nia in my arms, I heard movement behind me making me turn back.
A Farfetch'd was moving towards us, making Nia fly out of my lap to face it.
'Is it the same Farfetch'd,' I thought scrutinising it.
The battle started without any prompt as Nia fired a water gun as a warning as the other Duck Pokemon didn't show signs of slowing down.
But, on seeing the water gun, the Farfetch'd sped up. Nia flew higher into the air and retaliated by firing rings of water at it.
'Water Pulse! Strong Opening! Now I think about it this is Nia's first own battle, I did have her battle some trainers while leaving Celadon' I thought looking at Farfecth'd leek glow and an ominous dark before clashing with Nia's water pulse.
'Oh! The Farfecth'd didn't use that before. It's a Night Slash- An egg move,' I thought shocked.
I memorised every Kanto-claimed Pokemon's egg moves, that was definitely a Night Slash.
Nia fired more water guns seeing the Farfetch'd disperse its move easily.
The Farfetch'd batted away the water guns, further incensing Nia.
The Ducklett used Brine, disappearing from the Farfetch'd view, using the move as cover, and just when the Farfetch'd dispersed the Brine, Nia appeared and crashed into the Duck sending it skipping.
'Aerial Ace, I didn't know Nia learned it,' I thought looking at the Farfetch'd get up looking far more energetic for one that was just sent skipping across the ground.
Nia started her assault again with her water guns. The Farfetch'd used her trusted leek once again to bat those away slowly making its way towards Nia, not deterred, even though some water guns clipped it, leaving bruises.
As it reached Nia it lifted its leek high into the sky, the leek shone darkly, preparing to use Night slashed again, but Nia slammed into it again with a Quick Attack.
But this time instead of allowing the Farfetch'd to get up, Nia started to pulse with a blue colour, making the surroundings feel heavy and just as the Farfetch'd rose again.
A huge wave of pressurised water slammed into the Farfetch'd, smashing it onto the ground again.
The Farfecth'd used Cut to defend against the pressurised water, but the pressure behind the attack was too much, making it lose grip on its leek.
The leek spun off its wings, landing beside it.
'This Farfetch'd is good, it used Cut to disperse some of the Brine power, otherwise with the double power the Brine has when its target has below 50% health it would have been knocked out,' I thought looking at the heaving Duck's in front of me.
'And we can't discount Nia, she is executing our battle strategies flawlessly. I just taught her to use the less powered version of Brine whenever she wants to close the distance, I didn't think she would be able to do that with no prompting from me.'
Both Pokemon looked exhausted but their battle lust wasn't extinguished from the looks they were giving off, the Farfetch'd ended their tired stare off trying to take its leek from the ground, and Nia blasted it with a water pulse, ending the match.
I tossed my Pokeball at the still form of Farfetch'd.
The Pokeball shook quite fiercely before going still with a ding.
'What an anti-climatic end, but Nia earned it,' I thought looking at the Ducklett who was swimming in smugness.
I didn't feel happy about capturing the Farfetch'd as I was not too sure about this catch.
My hesitation was because I knew I wouldn't be able to bring out its full potential, the Farfetch'd battle power is directly tied to its handling of the leek and footwork, both of which I was simply pants at.
I lucked out with Cet who seemed to be natural at Aerial manoeuvres, we are both feeding off each other's knowledge to develop good aerial acrobatics.
I think it will be impossible for me to teach the Farfetch'd anything new, and that's on the premise even when that someone teaches me martial arts for free.
'I want to concentrate on things I know for now,' I decided, thinking of catching some land Pokemon in future, that don't require extensive footwork to display their proper prowess.
Selling the Farfetch'd to some random stranger didn't sit right with me.
'I am going to make sure that the Farfetch'd gets a proper trainer, even if I don't get any benefits,' I thought mulling over my new catch.
With that decided, I took Nia in my hands. After spraying some potion on her, I fed her a treat, just as I was about to feed her one more, Cet swallowed the treat along with my whole wrist.
Nia screeched in horror before slamming into Cet with Aerial Ace, Cet got tossed far back and Nia followed him not quite done teaching him a lesson.
Cet shook off the damage and started flying away from Nia as I laughed.
'If Cet continues to steal other's treats I have to become serious with him,' I thought shaking my head at him.
I turned around to collect my Pokeball, just in time to see a Mankey land a couple of meters away from me.
It looked at me making me go still as a lake.
'What a timing?' I thought looking at the rage Pokemon.
I slowly tried to back away from it not wanting to experience why it was named the rage Pokemon.
The Mankey started sniffing the air, before zeroing on the treat in my hand, making me curse.
My mind went into overdrive and adrenaline blasted through my veins as the time slowed down.
'It's crouching and tightening its leg muscles,' I observed and started to jump back expecting it to leap.
Midway in my back jump, I tossed the treat in my hand at it, but it was futile. The Mankey was faster than me- too fast.
It crashed onto my previous spot barely missing me by hair's breadth while I was still in the air from my back jump.
"Cet! Nia!" I screamed my lungs out, despairing at our speed difference.
I landed and looked at the Mankey to see it eating the treat with its back turned to me, ignoring me.
Thanking the flying cat and white goat, I slowly moved back. But it seemed my bad luck didn't end as I stepped on a branch, making the Mankey turn to look at me.
The Mankey looked like I just asked it why it didn't receive the homosapien update.
I mean it was frothing mad that I interrupted its meal.
Just as it was beginning to crouch, a water ball crashed in front of it, making both man(me) and monkey turn towards the source.
Cet blurred and crashed into the Mankey sending it crashing into the tree.
'Was that Quick Attack?' I thought looking at the wannabe bat MC of some anime.
Nia smashed the Mankey with a Water Pulse before it could reorient itself.
Cet used Gust sending the Mankey into unconsciousness, making it slump onto a tree.
"Mr. Monkey," I called out, making sure it was out cold.
Cet and Nia both crashed into me, tossing me onto the ground.
I petted them thinking about what just happened.
'Their teamwork is awesome,' I thought as Cet licked my face.
It seems I made a good decision deciding to let Cet and Nia go through mental exercises. Otherwise, I don't know whether Nia would have considered the Mankey a threat and fired a water gun, distracting it from crushing my bones before Cet reached me.
Standing up I looked at the Mankey, its height was just above my waist.
'It was too fast, how do humans survive if a wildling Pokemon can bat away an adult like a fly,' I thought morbidly.
One thing that is special to this world humans is Aura or being a psychic.
Seeing I didn't develop any psychic abilities, I vested my hopes in the elusive Aura.
'This Aura better be good,' I thought making my way to collect the Farfetch'd Pokeball.
I fed Cet and Nia some more treats, further reinforcing their decision to dash to me when I shouted, just in case.
I jogged as I made Cet drop some berries near the Mankey, hoping to create some distance.
After I covered some distance and stopped and decided to check on Cet's Quick Attack.
I ordered him to use the move.
Cet glowed and blurred appearing 2 feet away, the glow around him sputtered.
'Hmm! That was a good time for a fluke to happen, couldn't have asked for a better timing,' I thought looking at the puppy bat lollygagging around, not able to be still for a second.
'Well! The Quick Attack is better than his last attempt, just some more practice to nail it down,' I thought deciding to set camp as the sun disappeared.
I used the nightly repel and lied down on my bed, lost in thought.
Coming close to what can range from a series of cracked bones to death didn't unsettle me, but the thought that even a wildling could end me was depressing making me stay awake.
I expected and accepted that facing any elite is a death sentence, like the encounter with Swanna.
But dying at the hand of the weakest Pokemon just didn't sit right with me.
Hoping that Aura would provide a solution to this conundrum, I slept, dreaming of wrestling with Onixes and Tyranitors.