Fight and Breakthrough

The nameless forest in Scarlet Flame Sect territory.

A shadow was rapidly running forward like it was being chased by something. On closer look, the shadow was a wolf with black fur and yellow eyes.

It agilely avoided branches, rocks and other obstacles. It looked back to see if it had outrun its pursuers, and the sight gave it a fright.

A white flash of light was closing in at an incredible speed. The flash of light easily surpassed the wolf, and stopped right in front of it. The wolf also stopped.

In front of the wolf was a blue dog with black parts here and there, with blood-red eyes. It was covered in white light that soon faded away. The dog emitted some sort of invisible pressure.

The wolf was completely paralyzed from fear, it's animal instincts were screaming to run away. The dog was intensely staring at it, like he would attack the moment the wolf moved.

The two were simply staring at each other, like time had stopped. The situation stayed like this for twenty seconds until sounds of someone running there were heard.

The wolf showed signs of wanting to flee, but as soon it took the first step, an air(?) projectile hit the ground in front of it, leaving a fist-sized hole. It immediately stopped and fearfully gazed at the dog, who had his arm extended like he just punched the air.

The time that this took to happen was enough for the ones running there to arrive. The new visitors were a red-haired girl with red eyes, and a floating sword with a gem-like eye holding its sheath.

They surrounded the wolf within a triangle formation. The floating sword and the dog walked a distance away, like they wanted the girl to fight the wolf.

In a situation like this where it could not run, the wolf gladly took the chance to fight who it considered the weakest of the enemies, the human in front of it.

Blake got into a sword stance as the wolf aggressively growled at her. Her shield can't properly block attacks from a beast like a wolf, so she kept it in her back.

Blake and the wolf were intensely staring at each other, both were waiting for their opponent to make a move. Blake's hands were slightly shaking. This is her first fight without anyone's help.

The wolf in front of her was a common beast of this forest, it had strength equivalent of a cultivator in the first stage of the Body Refinement realm.

After ten seconds, the wolf finally lost its patience and attacked first. The fear of Riolu was probably messing with its concentration.

It ran at Blake full of killing intent, a cornered beast is the most dangerous kind of beast. The wolf jumped at Blake's neck, Blake dodged it by sidestepping and tried to counter-attack, but she only managed to make a slight cut on its skin.

The wolf turned directions after landing and immediately jumped at her again while she was still regaining her balance, ignoring the pain of the slash wound.

"F*ck!" Blake was not able to completely avoid the attack, she got scratched by the wolf claws at her arm. Her face slightly contorted from the pain. While it was not the first time she was harmed like this, pain is still pain. She wasn't trained to the point of easily ignoring it.

The human and the wolf were now staring at each other again, the wolf had had a not so deep cut on its abdomen and Blake had three bloody scratch marks on her arm. Blake was even more nervous, their next exchange of blows could be the last.

Blake's eyes suddenly widened.

The wolf jumped at her two times faster than he was earlier! The sudden change of speed caught Blake off guard and she had to time to react.

As she stared at the wolf mouth full of sharp fangs coming right at her neck, she couldn't move. The fear of death paralyzed her for half a second, and that lost her the chance to dodge.

There was no time to swing her sword or get out of the way, staring at the wolf who was coming closer and closer, she immediately released her sword and put her arm in front of her neck.

*BITE*

Two pained screams were heard. The wolf bit Blake's arm, and even though she was feeling immense pain, she punched the wolf with her free hand, which was covered in flames. The wolf was knocked away with a pained groan, it's face on fire as it rolled on the ground.

A white flash of light suddenly ran at the wolf. It was Riolu, who had a white ball of light in his palm. Unlike his usual calm or happy expression, he had a rage-filled face.

*BOOM*

The wolf turned into bloody pieces that flew everywhere as Riolu hit a Force Palm on it. As soon as Riolu heard Blake groan in pain, his rage was gone in an instant, replaced by worry and panic.

"RIOLU! RIOLU!"

"Honedge!" He rushed over to Blake, and so did Honedge.

"F*cking hell.." Blake was going crazy from the pain. A wolf strongest weapon was its bite, and the one earlier left deep holes on Blake's arm, a lot of blood of coming out of them, Blake could die from blood loss if it stayed like this for long.

The immense amount of pain, and feeling her own hot blood running through her arm, this was enough to traumatize some people.

As Riolu worriedly shook her clothes, she came to her senses and took a potion out of her bag, drinking it. The wound was gone almost immediately, and she felt a lot better now, but she was still traumatized by what happened earlier.

"Riolu..." Riolu sighed in relief seeing Blake well, looking downwards and clenching his fists after that.

Honedge showed some relief as well, but he acted more composed than Riolu. He rarely changed his expression.

As Blake looked at the two, she felt the trauma reducing significantly as she smiled slightly. She could also somehow feel what Riolu was thinking, and she showed an "angry" expression.

"Riolu, look at me." Riolu slowly lifted his head.

"This incident wasn't your fault, this whole idea was mine in the first place." Blake wanted to fight an enemy by herself, to earn battle experience. While she trusted her Pokemon, she also wanted to become strong.

They happened to run into a small pack of three wolves, Riolu and Honedge easily killed two of them, and one of them started to flee. Blake had an idea seeing that, and stopped Riolu from firing an Aura Sphere at it. She told to the two of them to do what they did earlier and this was the start of things.

Riolu didn't seem to be completely convinced, and Blake sighed before sitting down and patting him.

"Look, I know what you feel, but please don't blame yourself for me getting harmed. Seeing you sad also hurts me."

"Riolu!" Riolu completely lifted his head up, and was smiling brightly at Blake like usual. Blake laughed. Even Honedge had a smile on his face.

"Okay guys, time to go home...Huh?" As Blake stood up, she felt like something was different. She felt a little... faster?

"Did I..." Blake thought about something and started punching the air. The more she punched, the happier she became.

"I really did breakthrough!!" She had read a lot on cultivation novels in her old world about how people could have sudden increases of strength on a fight to the death, and this actually happened to her. She was now in the second stage of the Body Refinement Realm!

Riolu, Honedge, and a now very happy Blake headed back to the Scarlet Flame Sect, to rest after a day full of happenings.