“Ares, handle the leader. Avoid its attacks as much as possible with Quick Attack and look for opportunities to use Counter and Rock Smash,” Spike instructed.

“Ri!” Ares barked, barely dodging a Slash attack from the Vigoroth leader by bolting under the ruthless swing by using Quick Attack. One of the smaller Vigoroths on the right jumped at Ares with a white aura surrounding its claws. It wildly swung its arms, preventing Ares from countering the Slash attack. Instead, he sidestepped with Quick Attack again and narrowly evaded the swipes.

“Flannery, can you handle the left one?” Spike asked.

“I think so. What about the third one?”

“Just take the left one.”

“I’ll try. Mag, Cam, use Embers to split that left one off from the others!” Flannery ordered.

The Slugma and Numel nodded, puckered their cheeks, and spit out small balls of flame. The embers pummeled the leftmost Vigoroth before it could bother Ares. It screeched angrily and glared at the two Pokemon with bulging red eyes and leaped at them with slightly glowing claws.

“Ares, I’ll distract the third one while you handle the leader, okay?”

“Ri!” Ares acknowledged with a small nod without turning away from his foe.

Surmising that his partner could handle the leader of the Vigoroth trio, Spike focused on and narrowed his eyes at the smaller Vigoroth bothering his partner. All of his training with Medicham and Riolu had been done exactly for situations like these. Since he didn’t feel comfortable going out of his way to directly punch the creature, he planned to take a relatively passive approach of grappling.

Body shaking with anticipation, he briefly closed his eyes like Medicham had taught him. At the same time, energy spurred to life within his gut like a revved engine and burst forth throughout his body. His eyes flashed open. A bluish glow shimmered around the whites of his eyes, and an almost unnoticeable reddish-purple aura circled his body. Leaning forward, his muscles flexed and shuddered. He planted a foot into the dirt and launched himself forward. Clumps of dirt and grass exploded underfoot.

The smaller Vigoroth registered a flash of movement out of the corner of its eye and whipped its head around. It halted its Fury Swipes attack mid-swing and widened its eyes and mouth out of disbelief. Thanks to its lapse in judgment, the figure of similar stature to itself slammed into its abdominal area. Arms wrapped around its thighs. Its feet left the ground. A moment later, it was staring at the sky in baffled silence. Then, it hit the dirt and yelped. The dull throbbing in its back alerted the Vigoroth and pulled its attention back to the battle.

After tackling the Vigoroth, Spike released a breath of steam from between clenched teeth. Unbearable heat spread through his muscles. His skin reddened, and his muscles spasmed. His right eye twitched uncontrollably.

‘My body wasn’t ready for that much Aura,’ Spike realized.

Feeling the Vigoroth squirming underneath him, he forced himself to focus on keeping the feral Pokemon occupied until Ares knocked out the leader. A moment later, his eyes dilated. He immediately released his grip on the Pokemon and rolled away. Claws slashed through the air and pierced the dirt. Sweat trickled from his brows due to how narrowly he avoided the slash. Luckily, it was just a basic slash, and not an actual Pokemon move powered by the magical energy Pokemon could wield. He didn’t know if he could dodge a Pokemon move at such close range yet and didn’t feel like putting his limits to the test.

Not giving Spike time to adjust and balance the Aura surging through his body, the Vigoroth sprung to its feet and charged at him. A dull white glow coated its claws, and it slashed at him with a Scratch attack. Following the swing with his Aura-enhanced vision, Spike leaned out of the way, wrapped his arms around the Vigoroth’s shoulder, and planted his foot behind its ankle. Throwing the Vigoroth off balance, he pushed forward and slammed the Pokemon back into the dirt.

Taking the opportunity while the wild Pokemon was pinned underneath him, Spike glanced at Ares’ and Flannery’s battles. Both seemed to be going well, though Flannery’s Slugma and Numel received a few scratches and bruises in exchange for burning the third Vigoroth with more fire type attacks. The ground was also torn up in places, indicating the usage of Bulldoze. In contrast, Ares’ situation looked much better. Spike let loose a sigh of relief upon seeing his partner running circles around his opponent. The Vigoroth leader couldn’t even land a single hit on him.

Feeling his skin prickling, Spike refocused on the Vigoroth thrashing underneath him and jumped back. This time, he avoided the basic slash with a little more leeway. Again, the Vigoroth leapt to its feet. It growled angrily at Spike and then beat its chest. Its mouth opened wide, and it bellowed out visible sound waves wrapped in gray energy. Waves spread over the clearing and slammed into everyone, including its allies. Neither of the other Vigoroths appreciated the move and yelled at it, but it bellowed two more times.

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As the closest one to the source, Spike felt his bones and organs rattle as though a ram had headbutted him in the chest. He stumbled back a few steps, barely remaining on his feet.

‘That probably alerted Mara and Carrie,’ Spike thought while flexing all of his muscles to brace against the impact of the Uproar waves.

As soon as the third Uproar ended, the Vigoroth charged at him again with flailing arms. Spike shook his head, gathered his wits, and lowered his stance. The Vigoroth’s arms whipped at him. To prevent the Pokemon from adjusting to his movements, Spike juked left before slipping under its arm to the right. The Pokemon slashed directly in the path he had feinted towards. Before it could react, he wrapped his arms around its waist from behind and lifted. Blood vessels bulged on his forehead due to the Pokemon’s weight. As Spike forced more power into every fiber of his being, a dull light brown aura circled around his body without him noticing. Bending back, he hoisted the Vigoroth overhead and suplexed it head first into dirt.

Releasing the Vigoroth from his grasp, Spike rolled away and stood up again. The wild Pokemon slumped for a few moments, but then twitched and crawled onto its feet again. Eyes spinning, it teetered back and forth with a hand on its head. Spike took the opportunity to catch his breath and rebalance the Aura energy pulsing through his body.

While calming the rampaging energy to a stable amount that his small body could handle, Spike checked on Ares and Flannery again. He registered that Ares’ fur was scratched in a few places, but his opponent panted tiredly and was covered in matted fur and bruises. On the other hand, Flannery’s Numel and Slugma struggled to keep up with the third Vigoroth after the Uproar, but they held their ground with Tackles, Bulldozes, and Smogs. That battle would have been a lot easier for her if Yawn was effective. Satisfied with the overall situation, he refocused on the Vigoroth in front of him and saw it shaking its head to gather its bearings.

Frowning, Spike prepared to lay the opponent flat again. However, he never got the chance. A screech echoed from behind him. The next moment, a bright blur hurtled into the Vigoroth and sent it flying into a nearby tree. The tree toppled over from the impact, and the Vigoroth plopped onto the ground. If not for the slight movement of its chest, Spike would have worried that it had died right then and there.

The moment the Vigoroth fainted, something clicked within Spike’s brain and body as though he had surpassed his body’s limits after hitting the metaphorical wall. He lifted his arms and stared at them. Then, he clenched his fists a few times. For some reason, he felt like his body was stronger than before.

‘Is it just adrenaline?’ Spike wondered. He decided to test his strength later. For now, he turned his head and looked up at the cause of the wild Vigoroth’s current predicament. The familiar Swellow fluttering above him like a guardian angel glanced back at him and cooed gently as though trying to reassure him.

‘Was that Brave Bird? All I saw was a bluish flash of light, so it could be. If so, that’s totally overkill, Kiwi.’

In contrast to his musings, Spike said, “Thanks, Kiwi.”

“Swellow.”

With his situation taken care of, he glanced over at Flannery and Ares just in time to see something blur into existence directly behind the Vigoroth Flannery was battling. Carrie’s Arcanine popped out of nowhere as though it had teleported. It then slapped the Vigoroth’s head with a paw, instantly planting it into the dirt and knocking it out. Flannery wiped her brow, thanked Arky, and ran over to apply potions to Mag and Cam. While she applied the potions, Arky stomped out some small fires burning in the surrounding underbrush.

Meanwhile, both Kiwi and Arky looked at Ares’ battle but refrained from interfering with it. Since they seemed content to let that battle continue, Spike walked closer and said, “Ares, duck and counter with a Rock Smash to its chin.”

“Ri!”

Ares followed through spectacularly by receiving a small scrape on his arm in exchange for planting a glowing fist into the Vigoroth’s jaw. Its head snapped back, its eyes rolled, and it fell to the ground.

“Riolu!” Ares confidently asserted with his snout raised in a humble victory pose.

Before Spike could congratulate his partner, Ares’ body lit up with a bright white glow. Spike’s mouth gaped. He couldn’t believe his eyes. At that time, two voices yelled out from behind, briefly distracting him.

“Dilon!”

“Flannery!”

The two mothers called out worriedly from the direction of the camping site. They quickly arrived at the small clearing. Spike felt warm arms wrap around him. Two large breasts suffocated him in their embrace, distracting him from the exciting evolution of his partner.

“Are you alright, Dilon? Are you hurt anywhere?”

“I’m fine,” Spike answered a muffled reply. He looked up and saw tears streaming from Mara’s dark eyes. Heart shattering at the sight, he hugged the woman back and added, “You don’t need to worry about me, mom. I’m strong.”

“Stupid. Never do that again! Your Pokemon are there to protect you! You don’t need to fight!”

‘I disagree a bit, but whatever. Now’s not the time,’ Spike thought. Rather than nitpick the words of the upset woman, he turned his gaze to his partner just in time to see the evolution energy dissipate and reveal a Lucario with lush fur and a strong stature.

“Congrats, buddy. You’re stronger than me again,” Spike said, smiling happily.

Ares smirked and replied, [Do your best to catch up again, partner.]