I stored the cloth from my pants in my bag and we continued into the forest in a direction we hadn't before. From the sun I guess it was northwest-ish but don't quote me on that as I could be totally wrong. There were a few other types of trees as we walked but most of them were pine trees. I honestly couldn't recognize most of the plants we passed so I had no clue if they were useful or not and thus left them alone. I did notice that the levels of the pokemon started to go up as we traveled with the highest we saw so far being level thirty five.-

It was a Sentret with a scared over and closed left eye and otherwise grizzled appearance. It eyed us cautiously but seemed to recognize me or rather what I was and then relaxed. I immediately knew that this was a pokemon familiar with humans as only such a thing wouldn't feel threatened by me. For any of the others born out here they likely only had stories or a vague knowledge and thus were cautious of me at first glance.-

I had learned from the past few days experiences that most wild pokemon at least in this area behaved this way. The fact this one didn't meant that it had likely interacted with humans before and knew that only Gaia was a possible threat to it. 'I doubt it knows about aura or else it would likely have a very different reaction.' I thought with a chuckle. "You seem to know what I am unlike the rest of the others around this area." I said and the Sentret didn't react much but nodded. "Did you live near a city or road?" I asked and it slowly nodded.-

"Do you know where the nearest one is?" I asked to get a hint as to which direction to head when I feel ready to find civilization again. The Sentret stared at me for a moment before literally drawing and arrow on the ground pointing where I assume is south. I memorized that information before thanking the helpful pokemon and leaving it in peace. I don't know much about pokemon anatomy but I am pretty sure that the dull fur and greying face of that Sentret meant it was old and likely close to death.-

In this place were the law of the jungle seems to reign that was impressive by several standards. It meant that it was either very powerful or very lucky and those scars hinted heavily at the former. A few miles from where we found the old Sentret Gaia an I were ambushed by a pack of five Poochyena that was led by a level twenty six Mightyena. "Sandstorm , Double Iron defense!" I called out after Gaia batted the leader away just barely. She roared and set up a sandstorm that was stronger than normal which I had a sneaking suspicion was because she hit journeyman with the move but I couldn't check at the moment.-

The Mightyena growled and barked out something that I couldn't translate but that made the five Poochyena charge Gaia with three white glowing tackles and two dark grey bites. Gaia decided to ignore my previous order however and used rock slide to drop stones in front of the charging Poochyena to delay them. It worked as the three using tackle stopped glowing as they dodged to the side of the falling rocks while the biting two slowed down even though their move didn't dissipate.-

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'Does tackle need forward movement to be maintained or is it because they haven't trained the move enough to hold it while dodging?' I wondered as I noticed this difference from the game. Gaia avoided the first of the biting Poochyena but the second one got her with the move causing a crack to show up on her carapace. It didn't get the chance to retreat however as she used her much faster than normal speed to catch and dispatch it. The Mightyena roared angrily at this as it had clearly not expected a member of it's hunting party to be killed in what looked like an easy fight.-

It assumed that like usual their number advantage would give them an easy win against the single pokemon and human. In reality after the first attack barely injured the pokemon it's pack mate had been killed. The Mightyena roared and rallied it's remaining pack to attack all together this time. "Double Iron defense! You can't take any direct hits from the Mightyena!" I called out and Gaia rumbled in agreement while a metallic silver energy shone from her. The moment it faded however it reappeared showing that her defense had been raised by the move twice.-

The pack all chose to collectively use bite now that they knew that tackle would be disrupted and Gaia had a stern expression. "Rock slide right next to you! Crush them if they get close!" I ordered and Gaia's eye lit up as she recognized that this was a good idea. The Mightyena snorted angrily when it heard this plan since it meant they would be trading injuries even if they all managed to hit Gaia. It was far too late to back out though so it pressed forward with it's pack while brown energy gathered above Gaia waiting to form the stones to be dropped.-

Once the pack got within range Gaia unleashed her held attack surprisingly causing way more stones to fall than normal. 'Can you make new moves if you manipulate the originals like she did?' I wondered seriously. If it was true then it changed everything about battle in this world as it meant I didn't need to see it as inflexibly as in the games. I had seen the hints of this being the case but this was the first time I saw a large piece of evidence to support it.-

The pack clearly hadn't expected the shower of heavy stones that rained down on them as more than a few cries of pain came through the crashing sound of the stones hitting the ground. None of their bites went through as they all instinctively fled from the onslaught of stones but Gaia was no so merciful as to not opportunistically capture the Mightyena by the left leg with her jaws. "RAAAAAAAWWWWGH!" The large canine screamed as she crushed the bones in it's leg but it still freed itself and leapt away with it's remaining three legs when Gaia went for the kill.-

I didn't react at all to the grizzly scene as the Mightyena dragged it's mangled leg next to it uselessly. If looks could kill Gaia would be dead many times over as the pack leader glared at her hatefully. The sandstorm also wasn't helping as it stung at the packs eyes , ears and noses causing them to grow ever so slightly weaker. "Triple up on the sandstorm don't let them rest!" I called out and another two brown pulses of energy came from Gaia causing the sandstorm to turn into a flesh tearing death trap.