The battle was almost too hectic to follow.

Rakkyo had just collapsed, a victim to a brutal Ice Punch by Kane’s Rhyperior, and the victorious Pokémon was currently looking for its next victim.

Ted was already pulling his last two Poké Balls off of his waist, releasing Switchback and Mayfly as Venus dueled with Blitz and Zetian was stinging the life out of Terror.

Then there were the bystanders, two Hisuian Growlithes who were watching the battle unfold around them. One was cowering on the ground, paws covering its head as weak rivulets of blood matted its fur from where Terror had been holding it down, while the other stood on in obvious indecision.

I didn’t know what their story was or their relationship to Kane, but a part of me had resolved that I would make sure they were safe.

A larger part, however, was increasingly concerned that I wouldn’t be able to help them if I was dead.

One thing at a time.

Zetian was currently looking viciously gleeful as she stung Terror, and I could see Ted directing Mayfly to assist her. Convinced that the two of them should be able to handle the Mightyena, I turned my attention elsewhere.

The two Growlithe could wait for now, but Venus’ fight with Blitz wasn’t looking too great.

On a purely statistical level in the games, an Eevee should be able to handle an Elekid if they were roughly even. I had even played a Little Cup game that had ended up in this exact matchup, but things weren’t purely statistical anymore.

Blitz the Elekid may not have evolved, but it had obviously been in plenty of fights, and it seemed to have a cruel streak.

So far it had been relatively content to make quick, fast attacks that hadn’t actually done Venus much damage. Granted, she had been using her Quick Attack to dodge most of them, but that also meant she hadn’t had a chance to strike back against the Elekid.

Venus had gotten one good hit in at the beginning of the fight, but since then she had only landed glancing blows that hadn’t done much but make the Elekid mad.

So I decided to take a risk.

“Venus!” I called, and thankfully our training was starting to show its benefits.

She used to look back at me when I called out her orders, but now she kept her eyes on the enemy, merely flicking her ear to let me know she had heard me.

“Take him out! Quick Attack!”

Calling out the name of the move wasn’t always the smartest idea, but right now I just wanted this fight to be over.

Venus nodded, getting down into her stance, and Blitz… smiled?

It was definitely an evil looking grin on the other Pokémon’s face, and when Venus dashed forwards in a blur of light, he didn’t try to dodge out of the way.

Instead he opened his arms wide, and sparks of electricity started to play across his thin yellow fur.

“Wait, Venus, stop!” I called out in desperation, but it was too late.

She slammed into the Elekid, and in the moment that she did I could see Blitz’s eyes widen.

Venus was moving faster than he had expected, but it didn’t matter in the end, his attack was already going.

Blitz passed out from the blow, his egg-like body being thrown back from the force of the Quick Attack.

I may have almost failed physics in school, but even I knew that force was equal to mass times velocity. Venus may not have weighed very much, but she had a lot of velocity on her side.

The electricity that had been sparking around Blitz transferred over to Venus, and she let out a stuttering cry as she was badly shocked.

All of her fur was standing on end, and every few seconds she would freeze for a moment, grimacing in pain as fresh shocks of static electricity played across her body.

She was Paralyzed.

“Worthless!” Kane shouted, returning Blitz to his Poké Ball.

One of his arms was hanging limply by his side from where Zetian had stung his shoulder, but it didn’t seem to be slowing him down any.

“Terror! Stop letting them walk all over you! Show some spine!”

He turned back to his Rhyperior, who was currently staring down Switchback.

“Crusher.” He commanded, hatred in his eyes. “Kill.”

/^\

Despite one less combatant on the field, the battle somehow got even more chaotic, not less.

Terror finally started fighting back against Zetian and Mayfly, and while the two Bug-types were doing a fair amount of damage against the Mightyena, Terror was living up to his name.

He turned from a ball of black and gray fur on the ground to a whirling hurricane of teeth and claws, forcing the Combee and Scyther back with the sheer number of attacks coming their way.

Individually each attack was probably pretty weak, and unable to hurt our Pokémon, but all of them together was a potent threat.

“Zetian! Hang in there! Focus on staying safe for now!”

I couldn’t tell if Zetian had heard me, she was too busy trying to stay ahead of Terror’s claws to give me a response.

“Venus, help Switchback!”

It killed a small part of me to send Venus back into battle while she was still Paralyzed, and especially against such a tough opponent like Crusher the Rhyperior.

Switchback was unable to do much besides frantically try and dodge the earth-shaking blows of Crusher, and I was sure that it was only a matter of time before one would connect.

Besides, Crusher was already hurt from his battle with Rakkyo. Long gashes had sliced through the thick scales of the Rhyperior’s skin, and dark red blood was starting to coat the orange armor.

Was he slowing down?

The fight had only been going on for maybe a minute, but I was pretty sure that Crusher was moving a bit more slowly than he had at the beginning of the battle.

It might have just been my imagination, but it definitely gave me hope.

Venus’ and Switchback’s coordination had improved over the past week since the battle with the Dusclops, and the two were dodging back and forth between Crusher’s blows.

This time it was Switchback who was trying to take the larger Pokémon’s attention, as every so often Venus would stagger from her Paralysis.

When she would freeze like that, Crusher would immediately turn to try and live up to his name, only to be interrupted by Switchback. The little Sneasel was a fury of slashing claws, except when the Rhyperior would turn his attention back to the smaller Pokémon.

Then Switchback was back to desperately trying to stay ahead of the fists that were nearly as large as he was.

“Mayfly!” I heard Ted call. “Double Team and Bug Bite your way through that Mightyena!”

“Terror, don’t let it! Fire Fang!”

Ted’s exclamation of dismay was lost in the clamor of combat as the Terror lunged forwards, teeth alight with flames.

Mayfly started to dash from side to side, moving so quickly it almost created after-images of the Scyther, but it wasn’t fast enough. The normally stoic Bug-type chittered a cry of pain as flaming fangs cracked her green exoskeleton, then tried slashing down at the Mightyena.

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Unfortunately for her, Terror was inside of her guard, and Mayfly couldn’t get her scythe-like arms in a good enough position to do any real harm.

“Help her out Zetian!”

The Combee was already on the job before I had even finished talking, darting down at the Mightyena with her stinger at the ready.

Terror was ready for that however, and jumped aside at the last second, letting Mayfly to avoid getting hurt.

Then a roar echoed throughout the clearing, and I looked back over at Crusher the Rhyperior to see what he was up to.

He was looking around in confusion, as were Ted and Kane.

If it wasn’t Crusher…

The ground almost seemed to shake as another massive form burst out of the treeline, roaring in anger.

“Arceus!”

“What the hell?”

“Jesus Christ!”

Ted, Kane, and I all swore as an incredibly large and angry Ursaring shook off twigs and leaves from its thick brown coat, glaring at all of us.

A flash of movement deeper in the forest caught my eye, and my heart sank as I saw a couple of tiny Teddiursa huddled behind some trees.

This wasn’t just an angry Ursaring, it was an angry Ursaring mother.

We must have disturbed the small pack of Pokémon with our battle, and the mother had decided to take a more active role in ensuring her childrens’ safety.

For the first time in this battle, I was happy that Crusher was so much larger than my Pokémon.

I could actually see the Ursaring pass right over Venus, Zetian, Switchback, and even Mayfly and Terror, focusing instead right on Crusher.

If this was an anime, there would have been sparks flying as the two massive Pokémon eyed each other. Crusher was taller than the Ursaring by over a foot, but the bear-like Pokémon didn’t seem to be intimidated as a thick mane of fur slowly rose up around the Urasring’s neck.

A deep, reverberating growl built up in the chest of the Ursaring, which was matched by Crusher.

“Crusher!” Kane called. “Use Rock Tomb on the Sneasel, then you can focus on the Ursaring!”

The Rhyperior didn’t seem to be listening, his entire focus narrowed down onto the Ursaring. At some unseen signal, the two Pokémon dashed forwards, crashing together with bone shattering force.

“No! Don’t-”

Kane gave up, swearing as he turned back to us.

“You just had to make this difficult, didn’t you?” He snarled. “Everything was going fine until you showed up! Terror, kill the girl!”

The Mightyena whirled in place with a speed and agility that would have been beautiful under other circumstances, then launched himself at me.

I yelped and threw myself backwards, holding my arms out in a futile gesture of protection.

There had been two main points that had sold me on the boots that I was wearing. Well, really there had been three. The tall, calf-high boots looked good on me, they had been made for hiking with tough Tauros leather, and the soles of the boots were apparently modeled with the same basic shapes of a Hariyama’s soles.

The big Fighting-type Pokémon was notorious for being able to dig its feet into the ground and not be pushed back during its sumo-like fights, and the sales pitches had told me that it would prevent me from slipping while hiking.

The boots only managed to get two out of three, and while they looked good and the leather was proving remarkably waterproof yet breathable, when I threw myself backwards to get out of the way of Terror, I slipped on the wet grass and fell.

That slip probably saved my life.

All I saw of Terror was a black and gray blur as he soared overhead, snarling as his claws slashed only at air.

I couldn’t see him land or turn back around from my spot on the ground, but I could hear him move, howling with rage and frustration.

That was twice that he had been commanded to kill me, and twice he had failed.

And twice that my savior stepped up in the form of a tiny Eevee.

Venus jumped through the legs of the dueling giants to come to my side, teeth bared as she snarled back at Terror.

It would have been cute if not for the look of sheer determination and grit in her eyes as she stared down the much larger Pokémon.

“Giratina take you all!” Kane howled, awkwardly pulling out a Poké Ball with one hand.

In a flash of light, Terror was recalled.

“Crusher! Listen to me for once in your miserable life!”

From my spot on the ground I actually had a decent view of the fight between the Rhyperior and the wild Ursaring, and the larger Pokémon twitched as his Trainer finally got his attention.

“We’re leaving! You know what to do!”

I wasn’t sure if the grimace on the Rhyperior’s face was natural, or a response to the situation, but it grunted in affirmation.

Crusher swung a hideous fist at the Ursaring, catching her off guard and knocking her back a couple of steps. Then with a stomp, the Rhyperior shaped the ground beneath the Ursaring’s feet.

Large stones jutted out from the earth, trapping the bear-like Pokémon’s legs in a Rock Tomb.

Then Crusher turned and dashed for his Trainer, picking him up with arms that were nearly as large as Kane was.

“It’s your choice!” Kane called to the Growlithe who was looking around in indecision. “You can stay with that weakling, or come with us!”

I didn’t know the conversations that Kane had been having before we arrived, but whatever they had been, it obviously had affected the Growlithe deeply.

It looked at the other Growlithe, still cowering on the ground and whimpering in pain, then snorted, and dashed after Kane.

Crusher moved Kane carefully in his arms, and raised a giant hand as the Growlithe reached his feet.

Sand streamed out of the barrel-like hole in the Rhyperior’s hand, whipping up a Sandstrom that completely obscured the larger Pokémon and his Trainer.

The Sandstorm only lasted for a few seconds without Crusher to maintain it, and when it ended they were gone. It was obvious which way they had gone, with smaller trees and plants crushed completely, but we had bigger problems at the moment.

The Ursaring roared as stone cracked, and she managed to free one of her feet.

“Alina!” Ted called as he hurriedly recalled all his Pokemon. “Honey!”

I stared in confusion at him.

“The honey from Takeo! Hurry!”

The neurons in my brain finally connected with what he was saying, and I shoved a hand into the side pocket on my backpack.

Thank Arceus for the engineers at Silph Co.!

I don’t know what wizardry they used, but all I had to do was think of the large jar of Vespiquen Honey that Takeo had sold me for a discount, and it was in my hand.

With a careful throw, I lobbed the jar over to Ted, who turned back to the Ursaring just in time for her to free her other foot.

“Woah there!” Ted said, holding up his hands. “We’re not your enemy! This is your part of the woods, we recognize that. We’re not like those other intruders.”

He was speaking with a calm tone that was remarkable considering the fact that we had just been in a fight for our lives less than a minute ago.

I could see that his hands were shaking as he held out the jar, and sweat was pouring down the side of his face, but his expression was placid.

The large man bowed his head with his hands outstretched, making himself seem smaller.

“We’re sorry.” He said. “Please, forgive us. We wanted to protect the woods from that poacher.”

The Ursaring snorted angrily, and took a few steps forwards.

“Here, to show that we’re not a threat, and that we’re sorry for our intrusion; a gift.”

Slowly, carefully, Ted opened the jar of honey and put it down on the ground.

The Ursaring huffed again and started to take a step forwards over the jar to continue advancing on us, but a small yelp interrupted her.

Two tiny teddy bears came scurrying out of the treeline, the scent of the honey too much for them to resist.

The Ursaring looked around in increasing confusion and alarm as its Teddiursa children clambered around the broken ground, before digging their tiny paws into the jar of honey and eagerly stuffing the golden treat into their mouths.

“We’re going.” Ted said, to both the Ursaring and myself. “We’re leaving. We’re sorry that this happened at all.”

The mother Ursaring looked torn between wanting to destroy the invaders in her territory and protecting her cubs.

The instinct to protect her cubs won out, as she growled at us, gesturing with one massive paw towards the way we came.

“Alina, recall Venus and Zetian. We’re going.”

“What about Kane?” I hissed.

“What about him?” He whispered back, and I swore.

He was right.

I pulled the Poké Balls off of my belt and recalled my two Pokémon, before standing up on shaky legs.

It galled me that Kane had escaped again, but none of our Pokémon were in a fit state to deal with an angry Ursaring. We had barely been able to keep up with Crusher, and the Ursaring had fought him to a standstill.

My eyes flitted over to the whimpering Growlithe, and I took a few staggering steps to it.

The Ursaring growled, but Ted was there to reassure it that everything was fine.

“Hey there.” I said gently, and the Growlithe flinched away from me. “Listen, I’m not like that bad man, okay?”

I had to do my very best to keep the venom out of my voice as I spoke about Kane.

“We need to go, okay? That big Ursaring is really angry with all of us, and that might include you.”

The Growlithe looked up at me, the dense white fur on its head obscuring most of its eyes.

What little I could see of its expression was one of terror.

Slowly I brought out Venus’ Poké Ball, and released her.

The Ursaring growled upon seeing the Eevee, and Ted hissed “What are you doing?”

Venus was in a rough shape, her fur standing on end and electricity causing her muscles to twitch every few seconds, but she nuzzled into the Growlithe, and they seemed to “talk” to each other.

A few seconds passed, and the dog-like Pokémon staggered to its feet.

“We’re going.” I said to both Ted and the Ursaring. “I just had to help this one.”

There was pain and suspicion in the Ursaring’s eyes, but she didn’t do anything else as Ted slowly backed away.

We carefully made our way out of the clearing, back the way we came, everyone looking the worse for wear.

The Ursaring roared in victory, causing flights of Starly to burst out of the trees and go flying in every direction.

“Let's get back to the road.” Ted said, exhaustion clear in his voice.

“Yeah.”

What had all of this been for? All of our Pokémon had been hurt, and for nothing. Kane had still escaped, still taken another Pokémon with him.

The taste of defeat was bitter as we trudged through the forest, and my eyes stung as I tried and failed to hold back tears.