You guys hear that?

We were surrounded by arboks looking for an easy meal….I'm fairly certain the arbok line are solo hunters normally so I can't even imagine why these guys would be here together like this but thems the breaks I suppose, I just gotta deal with this shit and hopefully get out alright.

The bags Slowpoke were floating for me have already dropped at my feet while he's preparing himself for combat, he doesn't need the extra distraction..

From a quick glance around there seems to get 8 of em…but I wouldn't put to much faith in that number with them being ambush predators and all I reckon there would be a few hiding ready to eat my ass the second they get the chance…

In all our months on the grind and training I've always imparted ways to fight to my mons, especially against wild Pokémon, not that I really knew much about training besides basic conditioning, so it was more I just gave what I thought would be helpful advice and try and keep them in an efficiency first mentality while letting them figure out how they liked to fight.

But I did hammer in some basic strats, like Ferroseed for example and her becoming a nigh immovable fortress with some setup and another was pulling machop out of the I hit you and you hit me routine, I was teaching him to look for soft spots and avoid damage where he could instead of just trying to fight head on all the time…

Meowth was fine as he was, always looking an an angle to hit someone hard with a burst of speed before getting out of there and keeping a constant eye on everything going on..

Slowpoke is a bit of an enigma though, he's kind of a mixture between a battle savant and a fucking moron, he'll pull off some pretty solid and frankly amazing combos and just absolutely merc his opponents and other times he'll do something logic defyingly stupid like somehow, someway get his head caught in a bucket in the middle of combat….I don't know where the bucket even came from….he's very competent in combat but somehow dopey as hell it's a frustrating combination, but somehow most of his clumsiness ends up working in his favour…

One of the important things I've taught my mons is to think of their feet and buff up whenever they get a chance, which ferroseed immediately applies as she rolls behind me positioning herself between me and 4 very nasty looking arboks who keep hissing threateningly and add the odd guttural "CHARRR!!" And letting out an oddly silver sheen, lighting up the darkness behind me slightly….clearly stacking an iron defence…

Meowth and machop take my left and right and stare down 2 arbok each looking ready to throw down, and Slowpoke just as I taught him if were ever in this situation is sticking by my side to keep me safe while throwing heal pulses and potshots to help out the crew if he gets a chance…

Normally I would just teleport out of here which would be the smart thing to do but Slowpoke is still "kinda" new at teleporting and need some time to lock everyone in to teleport us together, if it was just me and him he could get us out of here in about 3 seconds, but with the whole crew it would take him about 9-10 seconds to get us all out and he would be a little distracted while he did….which I couldn't afford at the moment… and recalling my mons so we could port faster just wasn't an option….I'd be dead the moment they were back in their ball

If we took down a few and get some breathing room we could port out but for the moment fighting is our only option, there's no way I'm outrunning these things so it's time to hold our ground…

Ferroseed let's out a cry as she hits her 4 enemies with as much gravity as she can which momentarily distracts the other 4 which causes meowth and machop to make a move.

Machop bum rushes the closest one and goes for a jumping fire punch uppercut which launches the big ass purple kobra straight back, but instead of flying away it's body was coiled into the ground so it's head just swung back with force and smashed into the ground..

Machop not willing to give it a second to breath jumped on top of its exposed throat, kneeled down with its knees pinning the arboks "hood" and started rapidly hammer fisting bullet punches as hard as he could into its throat and jaw causing it to thrash about and squeal in pain.

But the second arbok was already coiled and ready to strike before he brought it down fully, but during the brief time of him pummelling his target machop never fully took his eye off his second opponent.

And as the second arbok lunged at machop he already brought his hands up with silver glow still covering them as he caught the open maw of the snake Pokémon, and suddenly inhaled a big heaping of air through his nose and bellow "CHOOOOOOOPPPP!!!" As a torrent of flames spewed from his gullet straight into the waiting and struggling mouth filled with large and very venomous fangs…

He picked up this little trick over the last few months after a few wild Pokémon training trips after we ran into a few arboks and I gave him some suggestions…another suggestion of mine was to use bullet punch when dealing in melee against any poison types as it really brings down the risk of being poisoned… he really liked using this trick on trigger happy arboks and other bitey mons we came across looking to throw down

But the offending arbok seemed to enjoy it far less than machop if it's desperate screaming and thrashing were any indication….but machop wasn't letting up….torrenting flames right down its throat…

But caught up in his task machop seemed to have forgotten about his first opponent, while it wasn't out of the fight, it looked like hell with its jaw hanging loosely and parts of its neck and throat looking very out of shape….but none the less with its eyes filled with hate its tail suddenly started to glow an ominous and sickly purple as it launched at machop who was to late to notice before it was on him..he braces himself for the pain while not relenting on his flamethrower.

But the pain never came…..the tail was stopped about a foot from his head with a faint glimmer of pink shimmering within the poisonous purple….Slowpoke had his back….and with that he kept pouring on the heat until the arbok who was squealing and flailing suddenly fell limp, finally falling to the inferno that was building with its own body…and with that machop turned back to his soon to be dead first opponent with vigour and started wailing on him wanting to end it as fast as he could..

That fight took less than a minute and I was so enraptured in it I forgot about everything around me, I took a look in meowths direction to see one arbok down clearly with its throat gouged out and an eye they seemed to have been removed rather violently with its head a little caved in…

But meowth wasn't looking to great, blood running down its right front leg pooling toward the ground with two distinct puncture marks with what looked like minor electric arcs flowing from the wound, he was unable to move properly with one leg almost out of commission….nothing a few heal pulses couldn't fix up with a bit of rest but now wasn't the time….he still has one arbok to face…

Meowth was still standing tall though, giving no quarter and ready to respond to the next attack, and just as the snake coiled ready to strike it suddenly shimmered with pinkish energy before being thrown into a nearby tree and meowths wound started closing and the bleeding stopped with similar energy surrounding his body….Slowpoke on support again….and with that brief moment of rest meowth renewed its assault as the serpent was recovering, jumping high and coming down with a spin and a silver metallic glow to its tail as it brains it right on the dome before lashing out with a nasty looking shadow claw going straight for the eye..

"HSSSSSSSSS!"

Blood poured out of the eye as it was torn to shreds, missing eyes can actually be regrown in Pokémon centres from what I heard….something to do with ditto cells…not missing arms or legs, although they can be reattached if you bring the limb with you....but eyes can be regrown for some reason….anyway…meowth lands on the ground again, as the snake was turning and writhing this way and that, and meowth sprung back up again with black energy emanating from its jaws as it latched down into its throat and started thrashing his head around trying to pull its throat out…

And seeing meowth winning his bout I turn to my last mon in the most dangerous encounter , facing twice as many as everyone else expecting Ferroseed to be in rough shape only to find...she's dominating them….

All of the arbok look like they've been put through the ringer with body's sagging due to gravity and covered in leafy vines and bleeding from little holes all over their body's, while Ferroseed barely has a few scuffs as little motes of green energy keep flowing out of the snakes into her, body glowing a minor metallic sheen looking like she's ready to go the distance….

The snakes are oddly persistent tonight though….usually ekans and arbok bail if they see they were going to lose….but these guys seem strangely intent on seeing this through….well what's left of them anyways…

And just as the unnaturally possessive arbok that were sagging in the gravity were about to try and strike again, from both side of me come a rather large yellow bolt of lightning and a pretty big gout of flame which inpacted the persistent reptiles….the two hit by meowths thunderbolt and machops flame thrower go down while Ferroseed makes a body gesture like she's putting out her metal and spikey ball of a chest like she's sucking in something and all of a sudden two larger motes of green come flying straight out of the arboks body's and they drop to the ground….to tired to continue, but with hate filling their gazes…

Not being one to waste a chance I turn my head slightly to let the mons behind me hear better "finish em all off, make sure their dead by crushing their heads and take a few minutes to rest but remain on alert, we are still in unknown territory and could be ambushed at any second, Slowpoke keep an eye out but throw some head pulses onto get everyone back on their feet"

It looked like meowth and machop were pretty exhausted after having to fight two evolved mons each….the fight was only a few minutes but they had to put every ounce of their power in their hits to makes sure they got the kills and it clearly took a toll on their energy reserves….my mons are strong…I think so anyway, but they are still just first evolutions so they were at a pretty big disadvantage especially fighting multiple evolved aggressors at once..

When Pokémon evolve they really step into another bracket of power, not like that friendship bullshit the anime taught and how ashes pikachu could be such a monster fighting legendary Pokémon….that's not how it works, yes pre evolved Pokémon can be strong and even beat their evolved counterparts, but that's more depending on the individual….like I'm fairly sure my machop could beat down an average machoke…but that's probably me just having to much faith in my own Pokémon….

But anyways, from I've learned is that if a Pokémon is a "monster" before they evolve, it will snowball big time from there practically skipping whole brackets of strength….but I'm basing most of this off rumours of old drunks…I'll have to see about it when they actually evolve….

Machop and meowth walk around crushing the heads of our fallen attackers while Slowpoke and Ferroseed stick close incase something happens…Slowpoke is throwing out a few heal pulses to give everyone a bit more pep in their step….

And as they were finishing them off I heard a weak call coming from just beyond the scrub about 50 feet away…

"Bahhhh"

It was faint but I heard it, it sounded pained and desperate….and as much as I just wanted to turn around and leave….it could be an opportunity to get a new mon….and even if my teams a little tired we should be able to check it out at least….but if there's even a hint of something threatening we bail…

"You guys hear that?"

I get nods from everyone….so I indicated with a head nod to check it out and I followed behind machop and meowth who took the lead, Slowpoke by my side never 2 feet away from me with ferroseed being floated by psychic energy just behind us.

Eventually we made it through the scrub and saw…