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Being close to the sea is always like this—an unexpected sea breeze can quickly bring a downpour to the coastal area, and once it starts raining, it won't stop anytime soon.
Naturally, Sato and the others weren't foolish enough to keep trudging through the forest in the heavy rain. That would've been far too dangerous—after all, a human's reaction speed in the rain drops significantly compared to normal.
Since they couldn't immediately find proper shelter, Sato and his team located a massive tree—so large that several people would have to link arms to encircle it. With the help of their Pokémon, they carved out a small hollow about half a meter up the trunk to create a temporary shelter from the rain.
The storm continued relentlessly, and before long, the sky began to darken.
"Looks like we're not getting out of this forest tonight. We'll have to camp here," Sato said helplessly as he watched the rain pour outside and the dimming light of the forest.
Hearing Sato's words, Phil and the others had no objections. They nodded one after another and began releasing their Pokémon to feed them.
Meanwhile, elsewhere, a blonde man was also searching for a place to hide from the rain. His luck wasn't so good—though he found a dry cave, it happened to be the home of a family of Ursaring. The first one he ran into was an adorable Teddiursa.
Unfortunately, this little Teddiursa was quite mischievous. The moment it spotted the blonde stranger, it picked up a small stone smeared with something yellow and hurled it at his stomach.
Already fuming from his earlier loss to Sato, the blonde man completely lost his temper at being toyed with by what looked like a weak bear cub. Without hesitation, he commanded his Level 48 Roselia to attack.
The Teddiursa, struck by the attack, immediately burst into tears. Moments later, two red-eyed Ursaring charged out from the cave entrance.
If the blonde man still had his Flygon, he wouldn't have been afraid—paired with his other two Level 48 Pokémon, he could easily have handled the two Ursaring, who were only in their early forties.
But these two enraged parents had gone berserk. Fighting side by side, their combined strength surged dramatically. The blond man had no choice but to retreat, fleeing with his Roselia.
In his panicked escape, he ran deeper into the forest—and by sheer bad luck, he ended up stumbling right into the bucktoothed man, who was also searching for shelter from the storm.
Sometimes, surviving simply means running faster than someone else.
The blonde man clearly understood that principle. The moment he saw the bucktoothed man, he ordered his Roselia to unleash Stun Spore on him and his Pinsir.
Unfortunately for him, his luck hadn't improved—both Ursaring possessed the Quick Feet Ability. Roselia's Stun Spore had not only failed to paralyze them during the battle, but actually made them move faster instead.
(Quick Feet: A Pokémon with this Ability has its Speed increased by 50% when affected by a status condition, and it ignores the Speed reduction from paralysis.)
With no way out, the blond man chose to throw someone else under the bus.
Seeing this, the bucktoothed man cursed furiously in his heart—but the blond man's attack came too suddenly, and Roselia's Stun Spore too fast. Both he and his Pinsir were caught in it.
Now lagging behind, the bucktoothed man and his Pokémon became the next targets of the enraged Ursaring. Whether or not they had any quarrel with him didn't matter—the furious bears instinctively took both humans as part of the same group.
They immediately shifted their focus and attacked.
"Fatty! That blonde middle-aged guy we saw earlier is headed your way! If you see him, stop him no matter what! That bastard set me up!"
"I'm busy dealing with two crazed Ursaring here! Once you take care of him, come help me out already!"
Helpless, the bucktoothed man commanded his Level 48 Pinsir and released a Level 46 Quagsire to hold off the furious pair, while simultaneously contacting the nearby fat man via his communicator.
The bucktoothed man was clearly an experienced, battle-hardened elite Trainer. Under his skilled command, Pinsir and Quagsire soon managed to withstand the Ursaring's assault.
As Quagsire repeatedly used Mud Shot, which always lowers accuracy, the Ursaring began to miss their attacks, and Pinsir's fierce Fighting-type moves steadily pushed them back.
"Hahaha~ You dumb bucktooth, looks like you finally got what's coming to you! Don't worry, I'll come collect your corpse later," the fat man laughed loudly from his shelter under a natural tree hollow.
But a second later, his grin vanished. His expression hardened as he released a Level 51 Breloom and used his communicator's locator function to rush in the bucktoothed man's direction.
Though they often bickered, the two had fought side by side before—he wasn't about to let the bucktoothed man die.
Before long, he came across the still-fleeing blonde man.
"Breloom, Bullet Seed!"
The fat man immediately recognized the blond man's weathered face and ordered Breloom to launch a surprise attack.
"You're asking for it! Roselia, Magical Leaf!"
The blond man was furious that an unfamiliar Trainer would ambush him out of nowhere. Rolling across the muddy ground, he narrowly dodged Breloom's sudden Bullet Seed, then countered at once.
Responding instantly, Roselia released a flurry of emerald-green leaves, turning them into flying blades that shot toward the fat man and Breloom.
"Hahaha~ Cheap trick! Break them with Mach Punch!"
With a scoff, the fat man laughed as Breloom charged forward, fists flying.
At a speed that rivaled sound, Breloom's Mach Punch shattered every incoming Magical Leaf. By the time the last leaf was destroyed, Breloom was already upon Roselia.
"Force him back with Sludge Bomb!"
Seeing the fighting-type Pokémon bearing down on his petite Roselia, the blond man shouted in alarm.
"As if! Use Iron Tail!"
Before the blond man's command even finished, the fat man's order rang out.
Breloom's tail gleamed with metallic light, and with a sharp, precise swing, it struck both the oncoming Sludge Bomb and Roselia herself, sending her flying through the trees.
A loud THUD-THUD-THUD echoed as several large trunks snapped and crashed to the ground.
Breloom's raw strength as a Fighting-type was immense—his full-powered Iron Tail had launched Roselia through multiple trees before she finally stopped.
The commotion startled the many bird and Flying-type Pokémon sheltering in the branches, and they scattered into the sky in alarm.
"What's wrong, Pikachu?"
Meanwhile, back in the tree hollow, Sato suddenly opened his eyes. Using telepathy, he asked the Pikachu beside him, whose ears were pricked and body tense.
"Pika, pika, pi~"
Pikachu quickly relayed that he could hear Pokémon battling nearby.