CHAPTER 48

It had been three days since the group almost fractured. Three days of tiresome traveling through this dense forest. Three days of relentless attacks by wild Pokemon, which grew more and more frequent as we reached the deepest parts of the forest. Every hour or two now, we were getting attacked by wild Pokemon. They were all relatively easy to deal with, but they were incredibly draining. Still, we held strong. Apart from a minor scratch Denzel suffered to his leg, tearing up his pants and breaking the skin, nothing had happened. Emilia’s leg wasn’t getting better, but it wasn’t getting worse either. I hoped we had made the right decision not to turn back, but it was too late now.

We could only march forward.

In the end, everyone in the group decided to work with each other again to get out of the forest. Louis and Pauline still didn’t talk, and a few arguments had almost started between them, but they always managed to control themselves. Louis had taken my advice to heart, and he was now helping during every battle, although he still hesitated sometimes. Denzel and I completely made up, and Emi… well, Emi was tired and in pain all the time. The bite on my back had gotten better, and I could run now, even though it still hurt like hell.

Every one of us was exhausted, mentally and physically. Being constantly on edge did that to a person, and none of us were able to sleep more than an hour at night because, again, we just kept getting attacked. I shook my head and rubbed my eyes, trying to keep myself awake. Even while walking, I was barely holding onto consciousness.

“Hold,” Louis hissed, pointing at a tree to his left. “The wood here is marked.”

I’m being forced to marry Louis against my will by our fathers, Cecilia had said.

The words echoed in my mind over and over, distracting me. Cece had explained that it wasn’t Louis’ fault. That even though he was in love with her, he had been forced to do this just as she had. Still, I was only human, and my innate jealousy of the man had turned into a deep dislike. I just couldn’t help it. He could have done the right thing and worked with Cecilia to torpedo the deal, but—

He was in love with her, and she wasn’t.

Denzel approached the tree and squinted. He had peacefully caught Buneary the day before. It had grown extremely attached to him and joined his team without a fuss. “Arceus, how old is this? Can anyone read this?” He asked, peering at the markings.

“The first part says… look out, I think,” I said, carefully reading the writings.

“S… Scy… Scyther?” Denzel continued.

We all froze, and our Pokemon grew uneasy. The marking was saying ‘Look out, Scyther territory ahead.’ We all knew what that entailed.

“Can we go around?” Emilia asked with a shaky voice.

“Around how?” Louis asked. “We don’t know how large this ‘territory’ is. For all we know, we could be walking ‘around’ it for days and getting lost.”

Pauline crossed her arms. “We should at least consider it.”

“Agreed,” Justin nodded.

“I’m sorry, but I recall saying I would catch one of these,” Cecilia smiled, softly touching the carving.

“Cece…” I slowly said. “I don’t know about this. This is reckless.”

The girl broke into a wicked grin. “It shall be a great battle, shall it not? If I can’t do this, I won’t be able to fulfill my promise.”

Again, like when Cecilia had asked me to join her group, she brought up some kind of promise. I bit my lip. Thinking back on our situation, Cecilia had never really been affected by any of the attacks on a psychological level, even though she was as tired as everyone else. The attacks had started to get even on Pauline’s nerves. And again, unlike everyone else, her problems in the forest had always been related to her family or her… engagement. In fact, from the way she looked now, it seemed that Cecilia was thriving. I wouldn’t go as far to say that she was enjoying it, but she sure as hell was stronger than all of us, and without a doubt the bright light that had kept us going.

And I admired her so much for that. It was just a step too far this time.

“I will follow you wherever you go, Cece,” Louis said firmly.

“I mean, I think this is a bad idea,” Denzel added. “I don’t know.”

“Fine,” She sighed. I relaxed for a second before she uttered the next part of her sentence. “Then I shall go on my own. Wait for me here.”

The group erupted into protests. We must have spent at least twenty minutes debating fiercely in an attempt to convince Cecilia and Louis to take the long way around, even though it would probably extend our trek by multiple days. In the end, however, we just weren’t willing to split the group up. That was bound to result in catastrophe, and at least together, maybe we’d be able to fight off a Scyther if it attacked. I wasn’t about to let Cecilia die, nor Louis, no matter how much I disliked him.

“This is fucked,” Pauline raged. “She’s holding all of us hostage.”

And I agreed with her. Cecilia seemed to have completely been consumed by this promise to whatever individual had talked to her. If I knew who it was, I’d let them know a thing or two about what her reckless promise had done to Cece, who seemed to put it above valuing her own life.

For hours, we advanced at a brisk pace— the fastest Emilia’s leg allowed since we wanted to spend the least amount of time possible in Scyther’s territory. Elekid followed by my side. He had grown extremely protective of me since I had been wounded by that Paras, and it pained me to see his playful side erode slightly. I hoped he didn’t blame himself, and that he’d at least return to normal once we got out of Eterna forest.

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If we ever got out.

I heard something snap to my right and jumped. The entire group immediately got into position, hiding behind each of their Pokemon as we grabbed our axes. Days of constant fighting had made the process automatic now. Freezing up meant injury, or worse.

Snap.

We heard the sound again, closer this time. And then over and over. The snapping of branches and crunching of leaves. A bead of sweat dripped down to my chin as I stood still. I adjusted the sweaty grip on my axe, clenching the handle as hard as I could to stop myself from shaking. We were waiting for whatever was coming. But the truth was that we all knew. A huge group had trespassed onto its territory, so it was bound to investigate. It was coming.

Scyther slowly emerged from the shadows. Its two blades looked deadly, like they could cut me in half like a knife slicing through butter. Its armor was hardened and scarred by years of living in Eterna forest. For a brief moment, it stared at us.

And then it attacked with a deafening screech.

The bug type fanned its wings and blurred forward, going straight for Deino, who roared a Dragon Breath at it. Scyther just flew above, using the trees as cover as it slowly and methodically made its way toward us.

“Elekid, you’re up!” I quickly yelled.

He whirled his arms and began shooting out Thundershocks, each narrowly avoided as well. It was getting closer.

Emilia cried out and ordered her Beldum to use confusion, and Pauline quickly did the same with Gothita. The psychic energy restrained Scyther in the air, and I breathed out a sigh of relief as a Dragon Breath, a Thundershock, and an Ice Beam all hit our assailant.

Scyther simply brushed it off and broke out of the psychic restraint with a defiant screech. I swore as its sickle glowed and slashed across Deino’s head. The dragon type roared and bit back, but Scyther was already gone, having moved on to attacking Prinplup. Our psychic types restrained him again, giving Louis and his Pokemon time to reposition themselves behind our most sturdy members, but Scyther quickly broke out and chased him. It seemed like Louis was his target.

“Grace, with me,” Denzel screamed. “Swift!”

Eevee summoned a series of shining stars, which flew at high speeds toward Scyther. He was right. Scyther was too fast for normal attacks to hit. We needed to use Swift.

“E-Swift,” I yelled out.

Elekid grunted, and electric stars barrelled toward Scyther. Justin tackled Louis just in time for him to avoid getting cut in half by the wild Pokemon, but Prinplup wasn’t so lucky, and Scyther raked its blades across his back in the shape of an X. He retaliated quickly, sending out a stream of bubbles that hit the Scyther thanks to their close proximity, but shortly afterward, the bug type took to the air again, narrowly avoiding both of our Swifts before the stars turned abruptly and just kept going, but it was just too fast.

“Keep restraining it with the psychics so Swift can hit!” I yelled.

“What do you think we’re trying to do, dumbass!” Pauline responded as Scyther froze in the air again.

It broke out in just a few seconds, keeping its focus on Prinplup. The water type was panting heavily and bleeding profusely from its back, but it was still standing. I considered telling everyone to just release our entire teams, but that was probably a bad idea. Unlike with the Paras, we’d need to keep track of every Pokemon to ensure they wouldn’t get killed by the Scyther—

Prinplup took another hit to the chest, but not before delivering another crucial Ice Beam, freezing one of Scyther’s wings. The bug type screamed in frustration as it desperately tried to free its wing, and that was enough time for our Swifts to hit.

“Another,” I told Denzel.

He nodded, and both of our Pokemon sent out another set of homing stars. Louis recalled his collapsed Prinplup and released his Gible, whose eyes glinted as soon as he saw what we were facing. Scyther was unable to fly now, but that didn’t mean it was slow. The wild Pokemon stared at Emilia’s leg for a split second, and sensing weakness, it blurred forward. Pauline, Beldum, and Gothita stood in between them, and Scyther again was stopped by Confusion.

“Growlithe, now!”

The fire type barked, jumping out of the ground and hitting the Scyther with a combined Dig and Fire Fang. He shook his head violently, melting off some of Scyther’s armored plating, and it screeched in agony as it violently kicked Growlithe against a tree. Its eyes turned bloodshot, and it sprinted toward Growlithe, who still hadn’t gotten up. Justin recalled him just as it sliced across the tree in that same X shape that I now recognized as X-Scissor. The tree collapsed shortly after, just as our Swifts hit its back.

“It just got way stronger,” Denzel yelled. “Watch out—”

Scyther was faster than before. Way faster, and it was almost impossible to track with the naked eye. Justin jumped behind another tree, which went down after one X-Scissor, and another set of Confusion restrained the bug type long enough for him to rerelease his fire type.

“Keep using Swift!” I told Elekid and Denzel as I grabbed a Pokeball. Now wasn’t the time to freeze up.

A Dragon Rage clipped the Scyther’s leg as it tore through trees like paper, and Dragon Breath followed closely behind. I released Togetic and immediately warned her.

“W—we’re fighting a Scyther. Use Ancient Power to protect Justin!” I stammered.

She nodded, and her eyes shone as she tore huge pieces of the forest floor up with her psychic energy. Scyther’s sharp blades met a chunk of earth instead of Justin’s flesh, and it desperately tried to go around. Princess kept raising more stones and earth until they completely surrounded Justin and Growlithe like a protective shell. The bug type raged and kept hitting the barrier in frustration as more attacks hit it. It kept hitting, again and again, until it slowed, and then stopped completely. We paused our attacks and stared at it confusedly until we realized what had happened.

It had fallen unconscious while standing.

“Fuck,” Pauline whispered. “Is everyone alright?!”

“What’s going on?!” Justin yelled, his voice muffled by his shell. I ordered Togetic to pull down the barrier.

Cecilia sighed, grabbing an empty Pokeball and throwing it at the Scyther. A part of me almost expected it to wake up and break out of the ball, but after three shakes, nothing happened.

She had caught the damn thing, and we had all gotten out of it alive.

Emilia collapsed on the ground, breathing hard and erratically. Denzel’s fists were clenched around his pants. I leaned against a tree, feeling the adrenaline drain from my body, and my legs began to turn weak. Pauline kept swearing and pacing around, and Justin just stared at the ground. The terrain around us was in complete disarray. Trees torn down and fallen to the ground, Plants soaked with Prinplup’s blood, chunks of the ground missing and turned over.

Cecilia crouched and grabbed her Pokeball with a slight smile.

Personally, I wouldn’t be smiling if I were her. How was she ever going to control this thing? It had taken all of us to take it down! She wasn’t going to be able to even bring it out of its ball.

But at least we had survived. The fact that some trainers attempted to go through this forest with a small group, or even alone was complete madness to me. I shuddered to think what would have happened to Denzel and me if we had gone through Eterna forest on our own. We took a few minutes to gather our spirits before leaving again, but before that, I grabbed a small knife I carried and started carving a message against one of the few trees still standing around us.

‘Scyther defeated and caught, October 23rd, 20XX.’