Rustle, rustle—rustle, rustle—
After escaping the coverage of Gloom's Sweet Fragrance, before Natsuhiko could catch his breath, he heard the rustling of leaves again.
Soon, the sound reached the ground.
The underbrush, grass, and low bushes kept vibrating.
"Buzz!"
Natsuhiko was forced to stop, Beedrill flew with a serious expression beside him, its eyes following the movements.
At this moment, Natsuhiko had a rough idea that in their haste, he and Beedrill had possibly entered the territory of a highly territorial Pokémon, or perhaps a group of them.
The current behavior of the other party seemed more like a warning.
However, it seemed the other side wasn't prepared to give them a chance to withdraw, as sounds also emerged from behind them.
"Looks like a fight is inevitable," Natsuhiko calmly said, without much panic.
Judging by the noise, the opponent should be a very fast Pokémon, but Beedrill is not at a speed disadvantage.
Beedrill seemed to vaguely sense something too, lightly rubbing the tips of its long needles.
There was a strange excitement.
Natsuhiko squinted his eyes.
"Beedrill, since they want to fight, let's go all out, Tailwind."
"Buzz!"
Beedrill nodded heavily, its wings flapped vigorously, and a gentle airflow surrounded it.
Tailwind can increase a Pokémon's speed, and this boost can stack. Since the opponent constantly tries to put psychological pressure on them, they might as well use this time to release more buff techniques for Beedrill.
"Qi Gathering."
The continuous Tailwind made Beedrill's body even lighter. After taking a deep breath, the blood in its body started circulating rapidly, its focus became sharper, and its awareness of the surroundings became keener.
This was not a battle; layering several buffs on oneself before a fight would be relatively safer.
Just at that moment!
The opponent seemed to feel the dangerous aura continuously emanating from Beedrill, and finally couldn't hold back.
The dense underbrush suddenly parted, and a slender, green Pokémon shot out. It had arms like giant scythes and wings on its back that gave it a sudden burst of speed, its sharp gaze hiding an undeniable excitement.
The target was directly Beedrill.
"Scyther?"
Seeing this Pokémon, information about it flashed through Natsuhiko's mind.
Scyther, a mantis-like Pokémon, with Insect-type and Flying Type dual attributes, excels in using its scythe-like arms to capture prey and reap life, making it one of the more dangerous Pokémon in the wild due to its often swift speed.
Although it has wings and possesses the Flying Type attribute, Scyther rarely likes to fly, preferring to run on its feet, while its wings seem more like boosters for speed.
And Scyther is relatively rare and not easy to encounter, holding considerable value.
However, the combination of Insect-type and Flying Type is not a particularly excellent combo. Although it has decent resistance to certain attribute techniques, it has wide vulnerabilities, with a double weakness to Flying, Electric, Ice, and Fire, and a quadruple weakness to Rock, which is its weakness.
If it evolves into Scizor, its attributes will change to Insect-type and Steel Type, achieving a qualitative leap in attributes.
Although this evolution is one of the few where the Species Value does not change, it directly eliminates many of its weaknesses. Besides a quadruple weakness to Fire, Scizor has almost no other weaknesses and even boasts good resistance to many attributes.
But seemingly, Scyther's evolved form hasn't been discovered yet, nor have there been cases of self-evolution in the wild, due to excessively harsh conditions.
Thinking so much actually only took a moment in Natsuhiko's mind.
However, his knowledge of Scyther was largely based on past-life games, without systematically coming into contact with or understanding detailed information about such Pokémon, so he knew very little about this sudden appearance of Scyther.
Besides its name and attributes, he couldn't even make an assessment of its strength.
But from Beedrill's reaction, it wasn't hard to see that this Scyther was not weak.
One might even say it's very strong.
There's no need for Natsuhiko to remind it to be careful.
"Power Grid," Natsuhiko began directing the battle.
A web-like thread sparking with arcs of electricity shot straight toward Scyther.
But Scyther wasn't the least bit flustered. Its triangular eyes flashed as its steps paused, dodging the Power Grid with an Electric Flash at just the right moment, gaining another speed boost.
Beedrill didn't think a single Power Grid would stop this strong, battle-experienced Scyther. Its wings fluttered as it aggressively advanced to meet the attack.
Clang!!
Amidst a harsh scraping sound, the sharp blade of Scyther clashed with Beedrill's stinger, both leveraging the inertia of their movement to scrape against each other as they passed.
A trace of surprise flashed in Scyther's eyes. This Beedrill's strength was a bit beyond its expectations.
Just as it paused and prepared to continue the attack, it saw Beedrill moving swiftly, welcoming the Power Grid it had released with its long needle, which enveloped the long needle in a crackling electric web.
For a moment, the bright white needle appeared as if coated with a layer of golden paint.
The golden patterns on its wings flickered, it made a nimble turn, and charged again.
Not to be outdone, Scyther crossed its scythe-like arms in a cross formation, stepped forward, and executed a Cross Cut.
Beedrill refused to back down, its body trembling slightly as several identical shadows appeared around it, simultaneously facing Scyther's Cross Cut.
Poof—
The Cross Cut struck Beedrill, yet the shadow quietly vanished. Then, on the other side, the real long needle arrived as the shimmering golden needle gently touched Scyther, delivering a powerful blow.
Bang!
Scyther's body shot out like a cannonball, its seemingly effortless acrobatics delivering a heavy strike.
"Shah!"
Without giving Beedrill a chance to seize the opportunity, Scyther bounced up from the ground, gently rubbing the painful spot on its waist, its eyes burning with increased intensity.
An azure, glistening light gradually emanated from its body, making it even more excited.
Natsuhiko stopped directing for a moment; throughout the battle and exploration, he gradually gathered a preliminary understanding of this Scyther.
"Senior Level? Insect Premonition Trait? Mastered the Cross Cut and Electric Flash techniques."
Unconsciously, a keen interest surfaced on his face.
This Scyther seemed pretty good.
The Insect Premonition Trait had been triggered; Beedrill now had to be even more careful.
"If it also knows Sword Dance, that would be truly formidable..."
As soon as he finished speaking,
the rustling sound echoed once more from the surrounding dense forest, and Scyther began to change.