Chapter 5 Encounter in the Forest

Under Rex's command, Tailow used Quick Attackto approach Arbok swiftly, then executed a Peck attack.

Not far from where Rex had just left Tailow's territory, he encountered an Arbok blocking his path. This Arbok was different from the one he encountered when fetching water earlier.

Not only was it larger in size, but from its gaze, Rex could feel a predatory aura, something the previous Arbok lacked.

Rex estimated that he was now in the territory of this Arbok, which was why it came out to intercept him.

If Rex were to retreat now, there was a high probability of avoiding this battle.

But this road was the only way out. How could he give up?

So, this battle took place.

Tailow followed his command and attacked Arbok directly, swiftly approaching it like a bolt of lightning.

However, the Arbok on the other side was no pushover. It sprayed several Poison Stings from its mouth, flying towards Tailow.

If it were the Tailow before training, it would definitely not be able to dodge these Poison Stings. However, for the current Tailow, dodging them was not difficult.

In the blink of an eye, Tailow flashed behind Arbok, and then its beak glowed as it pecked at Arbok's head.

Obviously, Arbok hadn't expected Tailow to be so agile. At this point, it was too late to dodge, so it could only tilt its head slightly.

Unfortunately, it still couldn't dodge, and was hit directly by Tailow's Peck attack, putting Arbok into a critical state.

Tailow didn't stop attacking and intended to use Peck again to kill Arbok.

"Stop, Tailow!"

Although Rex wasn't clear why he asked it to stop, out of trust in him, Tailow stopped in time.

Of course, there was Rex's consideration in this. Previously, Tailow hunted Pokémon to be their food.

But now food was not scarce, and killing Arbok at this time wouldn't help. Killing Arbok would only attract a large number of predators due to the fresh Pokémon corpse.

Killing Arbok now had no benefit at all, it was just killing for the sake of killing.

He needed to start teaching Tailow not to hunt Pokémon at will.

Otherwise, when they went out and Tailow inadvertently killed the opponent's Pokémon during a battle, it would cause Rex a lot of trouble.

So, Rex took this opportunity to explain to Tailow why he asked it to stop, expressing his position on Pokémon and hoping to gain Tailow's understanding.

After hearing Rex's explanation, Tailow nodded in thought after a moment.

Seeing that Tailow could understand, Rex was also very relieved.

After going out, Tailow would no longer need to rely on hunting Pokémon for food. There were specialized Pokémon food sold in stores.

The vitality of Pokémon was very tenacious. Although Arbok was critically injured, as long as it was given enough time to recover, it could still bounce back.

Of course, the premise was that during this time, they wouldn't encounter any other predators.

Rex certainly wouldn't waste healing opportunities to treat Arbok's injuries. He didn't know what dangers they would encounter on the road and needed to save healing opportunities for emergencies.

Not letting Tailow kill Arbok was already his last kindness. As for whether Arbok would encounter other dangers later, that was beyond his control.

In the subsequent journey, Rex didn't encounter any major troubles. Any Pokémon that tried to cause trouble for him was driven away by Tailow.

It wasn't until nightfall that they finally stopped. Rex was already very tired, so he found a large tree with a hollow underneath and, after tidying up a bit, used it as a temporary shelter.

After eating some jerky with Tailow, they started to rest.

Rex planned to sleep until midnight himself, and then let Tailow sleep for the second half of the night to prevent wild Pokémon from attacking them unnoticed during the night.

The next morning, sunlight streamed through the cracks in the leaves.

Rex had already instructed Tailow to wake him up when it was time, but clearly, Tailow didn't do as instructed.

Although he knew that Tailow wanted him to rest more, Rex still lectured it for a while.

After all, their ability to walk out of this forest relied mainly on Tailow. If Tailow wasn't in good condition during the day, it would be quite dangerous.

After lecturing for a while, Rex didn't know if Tailow had listened, but since the situation had already happened, there was nothing he could do. Besides, the energy of Pokémon was much stronger than that of humans, and not sleeping for a day wouldn't have much impact.

He had already decided that if they hadn't walked out of the forest by tonight, he would let Tailow rest first and he would take the first watch.

With that, after a hasty cleanup, they continued on their journey. 

During the journey, Rex found some fruits. Although the jerky was still quite abundant, he still picked some fruits as food.

"Tailow, something seems off!"

This was already the third day since Rex set out. In the past two days, the biggest danger they encountered was Arbok. Other Pokémon posed no threat to Tailow.

Until noon today, Rex had already walked a long way in the forest, but he hadn't encountered any Pokémon along the way.

The only reason for this phenomenon could be that a powerful Pokémon resided nearby, forcing other Pokémon not to approach this area.

This also meant that their trouble was about to come.

"Roar!"

Suddenly, a roar echoed.

Rex turned his head and immediately felt that the situation was very bad.

What came was a Ursaring. For anyone or Pokémon entering its territory, it would attack. Only by doing so could it ensure its position in this area.

At the sight of Ursaring, Rex knew that a battle between them was inevitable.

"Tailow, use your cry towards Ursaring!"

After hearing Rex's command, Tailow immediately acted.

Seeing the small figure in front of it daring to attack first, Ursaring became furious.

It gathered a large amount of energy in its mouth. This was the move Hyper Beam. Rex hadn't expected Ursaring to have such a powerful skill.

"Tailow, quickly dodge!"

With Tailow's current speed, as long as it didn't underestimate the enemy, it wouldn't be easy for it to be hit by a Hyper Beam.

"Boom!"

Ursaring's Hyper Beam rushed towards Tailow, but unfortunately, it was easily dodged by Tailow.

"Tailow, use Quick Attack and then Peck!"

To simplify the command, Rex named the combination of Quick Attack and Peck as Quick Peck.

After using Hyper Beam, Ursaring would be unable to use its skills for a period of time. So Rex let Tailow seize this opportunity to attack.

Tailow didn't hesitate, flying towards Ursaring like lightning, then pecking at Ursaring's head.

Most Pokémon hit by this attack would lose their combat ability.

Unfortunately, the Pokémon they encountered this time was Ursaring. Although this attack also caused damage, it was only a minor injury for Ursaring and far from incapacitating it.

"Tailow, create some distance and then use Focus Energy!"

After a successful hit, Rex immediately ordered Tailow to create some distance to prevent Ursaring from counteratt

acking after being paralyzed.

This command was undoubtedly correct.

After recovering its movement, Ursaring immediately used its move Headbutt. If Tailow hadn't created some distance, it would have been hit by Ursaring's Headbutt.

Perhaps knowing that it was not easy to hit Tailow with Head Smash while it was flying, Ursaring directly used its move Rock Slide on Tailow using Focus Energy.

Unexpectedly, Tailow, who was still enhancing its power, was hit by Rock Slide. This blow caused considerable damage to Tailow, but it didn't affect its flight.

The rhythm of the battle was then mastered by Tailow. It remembered the enemy strategy Rex had told it before.

When encountering powerful Pokémon like Ursaring, the best way was to accumulate advantages bit by bit with its own super speed and win the victory by accumulating injuries.

In the end, Ursaring, as the overlord of this area, fell under Tailow's attack.

However, Tailow didn't gain any benefits either. After seeing Ursaring fall, it couldn't hold on any longer and fell to the ground.

Rex quickly approached to treat it. At this time, Tailow had suffered more injuries than when he first met it.

(End of this chapter)