C045 - A legendary blessing

The Ariados didn't come that night. They didn't come the next night either. It was only the third night that Pete and Jasmine found themselves on the cliff after sundown that something finally changed.

Pete was sitting there on his camping chair like always, surrounded by his pokemon and with a new addition in his lap. Snivy had finally hatched the day before and immediately bonded with Pete after a short talk with Solosis.

He unlocked his third affinity that day, one he very much wanted as he was almost a perfect farmer archetype by now with affinities for psychic, ground, and grass energies.

Technically, only water affinity was missing by now, but Pete realized a problem that day. Three affinities was a great boon to him, but having to train three affinities was very time consuming the more his capacities grew. He hadn't yet figured out how to control more than one affinity at a time. And, using too much of it at once to speed up the process resulted in massive headaches.

Though there was one thing for certain. Pete did not have an affinity for fire or electric type energy. Rapidash had finally formed a bond with him and urged Ponyta and Blitzle to do the same, but he did not gain control over another typing energy that day. Zorua's bond snapped in place too during that time, and he did not gain a dark affinity either.

To Pete's knowledge, that left Bug, Dragon, Fairy, Fighting, Flying, Ice, Poison, Rock and Water as possible affinities he could still unlock. The rest, like Ghost, he was already sure he either didn't have or couldn't have.

The house was almost completed structure wise. He had built two beds for his room and a guest room so he would later spend his first night in his new home. Pete was kind of excited about that.

"Hey Pete, come back to us. We got company."

Jasmine's voice broke Pete out of his musing.

Pete looked up ahead as his pokemon got into battle positions. He couldn't see past the first tree line in the darkness. But already, he had to take a deep breath.

Clearly, there were even more Ariados coming, but there were already well over a hundred Ariados and hundreds of Spinarak in the trees. At the front of the group were two Ariados, the same small car size as the one Nidoking fought three nights ago, but then there was a third one that was bigger still.

"Wow... I mean, I knew that the tribe was likely gigantic, but I did not expect this," Pete mumbled as fifty Wheezing and Koffing floated from the trees. He knew the Beedrill hives of Ilex Forest were allied to the Ariados, too, but so far, there were no Beedrill following along.

The old leading Vileplume was in a loud discussion with the gigantic Ariados, but it quickly ended as almost two hundred Ariados, the biggest and one of the other two big ones joining the fight. More than three quarter of the Spinarak followed along.

Pete and Jasmine broke out into a cold sweat, but both Nidoking and Rapidash suddenly unleashed Hyper Beams and swept them through the enemy lines.

There was a reason the move was highly regulated as a TM, and the fact that rarely any pokemon knowing the move joined a trainer, Pete thought at this moment.

The three big Ariados barely took any damage from this sweep, but they weren't the target. Well, over half of the attacking group went into this fight severely wounded. But that wasn't all, just like the last fights, Steelix, Golurk, and Nidoking started Sandstorm from the very front.

Nidoking was panting and fell back a little but still used his move in conjunction with the others. Rapidash had received a Flash Fire powerup from her son but took a few more deep breaths before unleashing Inferno on the others.

"Is... this how you beat them last time?" Jasmine asked with stars in her eyes.

"Uh, yeah, I guess. Hyper Beam is really overpowered, isn't it?"

"I suppose, but look at the Sandstorm overlapping! It's like the Ariados are stepping into a tornado of knives," Jasmine responded in observation.

"That won't keep those big tribe leaders from attacking, though. And look, there's two groups already flanking us," Pete pointed out.

Just like the last fights, one flank was taken care of by Rapidash's Inferno while the other one ran into a gigantic Petal Blizzard. Once more, those Ariados that used Dig were either smashed into mush by Golurk's Stomping Tantrum or immediately ganged up by the backline of Pete's and Jasmine's team.

Eventually, Steelix and Gligar teamed up on the smaller of the two tribe leaders that joined the fight while Nidoking, with some ranged support, fought the biggest Ariados on the battlefield.

It was crazy to think that in a fight of less than 40 trainer pokemon and over 100 Vileplume versus an almost 500 strong enemy force, the numbers were barely counting for anything. To be fair, a little more than half of those enemy pokemon were Spinarak that died at the very start to two Hyper Beams and the subsequent big attacks.

Pete wondered why they were even sent forward at the very start, but that question would have to wait until after the fight. Same with the question why one of the smaller tribe leaders had stayed back with a group of 30 Ariados and a handful of Spinarak.

Since the big group fight was once more very anticlimatic, Pete focused on the big fight. Steelix and Gligar showed amazing teamwork and looked to be almost toying with it as Steelix used Sand Tomb from time to time so that Gligar could land devastating blows. Mere moments into the fight, they had already broken one of the front limbs, which reduced its maneuverability.

Back with Nidoking, his enemy was clearly built to deal damage and tank it, but it was considerably slower than the other tribe leader Pete's pokemon had faced.

In a surprising bout of speed, Golurk joined the fight as the frontline kept up the Sandstorm.

When the big Ariados chose to tank another hit from Nidoking, the Rock Smash he had used pushed the spider pokemon toward Golurk, who had revved up a devastating Fire Punch. Not only was the move super effective. It was also powered by Golurk's ability Iron Fist that raised the damage of all punch-moves.

Pete had thought the battle versus this particular pokemon would take much more out of his team, but apparently, he had sent out a very advantageous match up on top of it being a two-on-one.

Well, they still had to keep up Sandstorm, so technically, a two-vs-many. But Pete didn't really count it at this point because it looked like his pokemon kept up the move almost subconsciously.

After getting those hits in, the outcome of the fight was no longer surprising. Once more, like before, his pokemon were going to win the fight without any casualties. Solosis' use of Heal Pulse played a big factor in that because his vanguard pokemon could continuously stay in battle without caring for small cuts that would otherwise accumulate quickly.

It also helped that the front runners of his pokemon were very hard to poison. Nidoking as a poison type pokemon even had a double resistance because ground type pokemon also shared the characteristic that they were much harder to poison usually.

Nidoking had learned to manipulate dark type energy in the last days since he finished the mushroom cave before nightfall two days ago. In a surprising Bite to the Ariados' head after Golurk used ghost energy for the first time from what Pete knew as it shouted suddenly. The move Astonish made the Ariados flinch, which resulted in Nidoking's Bite landing on such a vital spot.

A Fire Punch from each of his pokemon was enough to end that particular fight, which was a little later than Steelix' and Gligar's battle. Steelix had landed two Rock Slides in a row on the Ariados with the broken leg, and that had spelled its doom.

A few more moves were dished out like another Inferno from Rapidash and another Stealth Rock from Steelix, and the fight quickly died down.

However, what happened next was outside of Pete's expectations. He had thought either the last remaining tribe leader would try to negotiate or maybe even try to attack him in a ruse once more. Maybe they had a thousand Ariados as backup hiding in the treeline, but the Ariados that hadn't fought simply retreated back into the forest like nothing happened.

'Just like that, the over 500 strong enemy lineup was reduced to about a tenth of their original numbers, and they leave?' Pete furrowed his brows deep in thought, but it did not last long.

A glowing green pokemon with shining antenna, roughly the height of a toddler, gently fluttered out of the forest to look at the result of the fight and floated over to the trainers.

'They were made to watch. I have long grown tired of the Ariados chokehold over my forest. For too long, they had hunted smaller tribes of pokemon to extinction, but I could not break my vow to not interfere in nature's will,' a soothing voice explained from inside Pete's mind.

Pete's eyes widened, and he hurriedly bowed, not daring to meet Celebi's line of sight.

'Their numbers were too large, their tribe leaders too powerful for even the Vileplume who received many Leaf Stones from my forest. The Ariados were simply too cunning and stayed in my forest to their advantage. It should have taken the eruption of a volcano in the north, followed by a mass migration of thousands of pokemon to tip the balance. I had not seen you appear... No matter, I approve of your methods. The Ariados and several other inhabitants will start rearing this moss you brought to my forest and stop bothering you for a while. I wish you good luck in enriching the meadow with life, human friend.'

Celebi left just as quickly as it arrived, but Pete stayed still regardless. A pokemon like Celebi, while known as an eternal pacifist, could erase him with a thought. That was the level legendary pokemon held in this world, especially those with psychic typing.

"Let's go back. This was a little too much for me," Pete said almost two minutes later as he straightened his back.

Yet, when he looked back, Pete noticed Jasmine asleep in her camping chair while most of the pokemon on his team looked a little drowsy, even Golurk.

Only the two Turtwig, Sunkern, Snivy, Girafarig, and Solosis looked at the others with shining eyes. They looked more energized than ever.

'Were they blessed by Celebi in some form? Was it even his doing?'

Pete sighed deeply. He did say that if he could or had to meet any legendary, it should be Celebi. But he also hadn't planned for it to happen so soon.

'Haaa, like it said, 'no matter.' I'll take it as the boon it so clearly is and stop worrying about the threat of the Ariados for a while. And eventually, I'll have a group of pokemon powerful enough that they can't touch us even if they attack us in full force,' Pete thought as he began to recall all his pokemon.

He did the same with Jasmine's pokemon because he knew where her pokeballs were and asked Solosis to teleport him back to the house as he held Jasmine in his arms.

'You trained quite hard the last days and I know you got the move down. Care to use Teleport to get us back home?' Pete asked in his mind as he looked to Solosis with a warm smile.