"A VICTREEBEL!" I gasp. Looking up at it, I feel goosebumps all over my body. It has a huge yellow bulbous head with dark green spots. It also sports two eyes close to its large mouth, which has a pink tip that resembles lips.
It has two green leaves at the sides of its body. Inside its mouth are two fangs. A brown vine is also connected to the back of its body which sports a smaller yellow bulb on one end and a large leaf covering its mouth on the other.
I meet with the man-eating plant pokemon face to face. It's eyes boring into me. But I can't feel a thing in my legs. Oh shit they're getting gripped by its vines.
"GO PINSIR!" Samurai calls out his pinsir for the second time today. Not sure if it'll fare any better against this behemoth.
"Use Rock Smash!" I thought pinsir would pick up some big rock and hurl it at the victreebel but instead, Pinsir proceeds to punch this vine, extending from victreebel's head, which it waves and flicks to lure its opponents closer.
The move probably means to throw a punch that can break rocks I guess. If I was any nearer it, the Victreebel could've swallowed me, its target ,whole. Yikes.
"Its main goal is to deceive and capture prey rather than engage in direct combat." Misty informs while she brings out her Gyarados which is four times the size of the Victreebel. I don't know why she said that she could lose.
"Vreee!" Its cry sounds like wind flowing through a hollow trunk.
'The sound is so shrill, what is it doing now?' It's mouth's lid has opened.
It went still and is seemingly scattering a big cloud of dust in the area. I can clearly see some glitter in the air.
"Icarus use whirlwind!" This must be poison powder. The last thing I want is being poisoned right here. Is there any antidotes to this to this posion? I need to buy items for my protection next time.
"PIJ-OHH!" Icarus charges an attack quickly and a huge gale of wind removes most of the dust flying our way.
"Red, It could either be sleep powder or poison powder! Tell Icarus to blow it all away from us." Thanks for the clarification Misty. What could her gyarados do against a grass type in this situation?
"Icarus blast this zone with the largest wind you can spawn!"
"PIJ-OHHH!" He flaps his wings longer than he usually does, creating a humongous blast of wind aimed at the Victreebel.
"Vreee–BELLL!" It performs a gesture with it's leaves like swatting a fly.
A storm of sharp leaves is whipped up around it. All coming for us. A large AOE attack, it was a sure hit on us even if we somehow manage to run away from this clearing.
"It used the wind the pidgeotto made to control the leaves!" Samurai looks astonished.
"Gyarados use FIre Blast!"
"The what now?" I didn't know Gyarados can learn that while being a water type.
Gyarados expels out a massive fire that burns all the leaves at once which were coming at a rapid speed towards us.
"It took a while for me to teach him how to convert his energy into heat. It was worth it." Misty laughs cockily.
'I remember her telling me that pokemon need some surprise type coverage moves to implement them into battle strategies.. So this is how she does things.'
"Gyarados! Use Fire Blast again!"
Gyarados roars loudly sending a fire blast aimed at Victreebel.
"Vreee–BELLL!!!!" Victreebel hurls it's sharp edged leaves towards the fire to nullify the attack.
"You don't get to do that! Icarus use whirlwind!"
"PIJ-OHH!" Icarus successfully reverses the direction the leaf blades which were fired toward the fire blast.
"Assist Gyarados!" I should let Icarus use whirlwind to fan the fire of Gyarados' fIre blast move making it even larger and deadly.
"RAHHHH!"
"PIJOHH!"
They both perfectly synchronize so that their attacks are in sync and do not diminish each other's fire power.
"VREE–BELLL!" The Victreebel lacks the mobility to dodge the incoming assault.
Within the next couple of seconds of it resisting the fire, I find it lying down across the ground, knocked out.
"What now?" I ask Samurai.
"Well I didn't realise it'd be that easy to take it down. Now we can just leave this place freely." He looks amazed at the fact that we beat it easily, we're not your average pokemon trainers after all.
"We can go ahead and leave this darn forest once and for all." Misty is more than happy to announce it, calling her gyarados back to his pokeball.
"Misty is the gym leader of Cerulean City's Gym." I finally get to introduce her to Samurai.
"Woah! It's an honor to have shared the battlefield with you. Thanks for your help Misty." he doesn't seem that surprised by the fact that she's a gym leader. Well gym leaders aren't celebrities here unlike the Galar region.
Samurai leads us towards the end of the clearing, further up I notice that there's a huge white building just like at the entrance of the forest. Samurai came in clutch otherwise I'd fall behind of Blue too much if I had to stay another night here.
"Well this is it Red. We've reached the place I told you about. Go further in that direction and you'll find the gates from where you can exit this forest from. You were a wonderful opponent. I learnt a lot from our battle!" he smiles warmly. He was a good opponent, I wonder if I could trade for his pinsir.. Nah, I'll catch one later.
"Do you want to continue our unfinished match or..?"
"No, I'd lose for sure. Next time I'll be waiting here to battle you again! Promise!"
"Promise. Maybe next time I'll get to see some new pokemon in your party."
"Haha its hard enough for me, raising a party of three pokemon equally. I don't think I can handle a party of six like you." Samurai shakes my hand.
"What will you do now?" I ask, if we're leaving it makes sense for him to leave with us right?
"I'll wait to meet up with a friend around here. Now that the clearing is not dangerous for some time. Don't worry about me." He is very good at assuring people for sure.
"Here's my contact info. If you come by here anytime let me know. We can hang around together."
"Sure." I note it down in my pokedex. Yes it can do that too. I don't need to modify it but I'd like if it became a phone in itself. I miss the convenience of my mobile phone. At least a basic message system would be great.
After crossing the clearing I glance behind and notice Samurai waving me a good bye.
"Bye bye!" I return the gesture. I'm glad I made another friend in this world.
"Hey now that everything's fine. Let's check up on Bob" I ask Misty.
"Are you gonna risk him getting an infection by bringing him out in his injured state right here? He doesn't need any immediate treatment. Let's bring him to the Poke-Center in Pewter City just North from here."
"Alright. As you say so." I can't help but be worried for Bob. Will his shell recover back to it's prime state at all?
"Don't fret. I've seen a lot of trainers beat me in a battle with their disfigured pokemon. For a strong pokemon like Bob, this won't be a major setback." Misty tells me after noticing my mood.
"Yeah I just wish I could reverse time now." I can't afford to slack off in battles like this. What else could I had done back then to ensure Bob had won? Once the beedrill closed the distance it was over for Bob.
"You can't simply win every match-up Red. Unless water gun landed successfully not even I could win with Bob in that battle."
"There had to be a way Misty. What if I made Bob use bubble to make the beedrill dodge to one side and immediately fire water gun to that position by predicting where it'd go?" I came up with this strategy after brainstorming for a while now.
"That's just not feasible. Nobody can directly control their pokemon like that in the spur of the moment. Not unless they're a Champion level trainer, those who are aiming high always have pre-made tactics to execute in battle. Not just brute forcing their way through like you."
"Yep, you're right." I hear a male voice speaking beside me. I turn towards him.
"Who're you?" I ask.
"Me? I'm just someone who likes to battle. Care to entertain me?" he flashes an arrogant look at me.
The guy was no older than twenty, wearing a tank top and short cargo pants. His blonde hair was unkempt and he looks to be out of place here.
"Sure. I don't turn back to a challenge bro."
"Alrighty then, I'll set the rules. It's gonna be a 1v1 battle with two pokemon only. No substitution or items allowed by the way." he says, with a pokeball in his hand that I didn't pay attention to until now.
"Red, this is a trap. He's most likely scheming some under-handed shit."
"Relax y'all noobs, here I'll give you 10,000 pokedollars if you win and 1000 if you lose, deal?" he brings out his wad of cash, doing a big money spread.
"That's even more the reason not to get tied up into this. Red let's go." Misty tugs at me to exit the forest.
"Hold up Misty. This guy thinks he's tough to be looking down on us. I accept your challenge. You ready?" This guy is getting on my nerves.
"All day baby! Go Oddish!" he throws the pokeball at the ground.
"Ughhh you're so difficult." I ignore Misty. I don't want her to be looked down on. Not after I owe her so much.
A small creature pops out of the pokeball, looks similar to a smurf if you know what I mean. If I saw it in the wild it would be mistaken for a clump of weeds. Its body is blue, with two small feet and red eyes. On top of its head grows a large clump of five long green leaves.
"ODDISH!" Another pokemon which says it's own name. So cute.
"Go Tyson!" I promised the purple guy a strong opponent I hope this satisfies him.
"RATTATA!"
He looks at the Oddish curiously like he has not seen any thing like it before.
"USE HYPERFANG!" Hyper fang is great against smaller pokemon. It's a guaranteed KO.
Tyson charges toward the oddish in a straight line, only to collide with a cloud of scattered dust just in front of the oddish. It was instantaneous as I couldn't see the Oddish's movements at all.
"He set us up Red! I told you! He must've done it before-hand with a mechanism of some sort."
"RAAA-!" Tyson coughs, unfortunately inhaling the powder.
"Paralyze the opponent using stun spore and now it's a free meal for my Oddish! Just as planned!" the guy laughs hysterically.
"Tyson try moving!" this is the worst possible outcome for us.
"GRRRR!" Tyson tries his best but he's already stuck with paralysis. He cannot attack for an indefinite amount of time.
"HAHAH! ARE YOU STUPID? SENDING A MEASLY RATTATA WHEN YOU COULD"VE USED A FLYING TYPE TO NEGATE THE STUN SPORES!" He mocks me. This fucker. I would've cursed him but I don't want to lose my cool.
"Tyson, please try moving bit by bit. I'm right here buddy!" No substitution or items allowed. So this was a fucked up game from the start. I can't even use my paralyze heal.
"Rattata..." I can observe his continuous attempts to move result in failure.
"Goddammit." Misty looks to be observing the match silently. Its high noon now, the sun is at it's highest position. Right above me and I was sweating balls. Not due to the heat but for the doomed fate of my pokemon.
Like in the games where you just know you're screwed for one moment so you either decide to sacrifice your pokemon or switch it. ONLY IF I COULD SWITCH.
"It's over noob, now you can only watch as your rattata suffers!"
"Oddish use acid!"
"Oddiiish" I notice the Oddish move for the first time. Jumping towards Tyson with it's root like feet.
Tyson is sprayed with a yellow liquid from the Oddish's mouth.
"RATTATA!!" Tyson looks to be in severe pain, his muscles twitching to move but unable to due to his paralysis condition.
'Fucking hell. So this is why he made the no substitution rule. This guy is a sadist through and through. Even Team Rocket were better than this.'
'I can't just stand idle. Let's try the power of friendship.'
"TYSON YOU CAN DO IT! KEEP TRYING BRO!"
"Your words of encouragement are meaningless! Oddish use Acid again!"
Tyson is sprayed with the yellow acid again. This mother fucker really enjoys tormenting.
'Only once, he needs to move only once and execute the hyper fang. It'll knock out the oddish in one move.' I grit my teeth. I keep saying words to Tyson. Anything so he could focus on my words and not the pain. I could forfeit the battle but Tyson won't be happy with that decision.
He knows he's the weakest of the party. After losing to Chungus the Pikachu, he's trying even harder to be better. I can't let his ambitions go to waste. Winning this battle will prove that he's strong and I'm not just some trainer who doesn't believe in his pokemon.
'Oddish needs some focus to accurately spit on Tyson. For that it either needs to close the distance between them or take it's own sweet time to aim. Now that Tyson is paralyzed its basically having an easy time with the second approach.'
"Come on Tyson! All you need is one movement!" Misty joins in to help me.
'Damn it. I need to move him somehow...Wait.'
I know what to do now. Right in the next moment the Oddish uses acid on Tyson I kick a rock at his legs moving him successfully.
"Hey that's cheating!" Oh you don't get to say that.
"RATTATA!" All Tyson needed was an external stimuli to break through the paralysis. Still paralyzed he only gets one explosive dash in during the movement I bought for him.
He bites hard on the Oddish knocking it out in one hit. Thanks to his ability Guts He's so gutsy that having a status condition boosts his attack stat.
"YES! WE WON!"
"rattata.." He looks cheerful, I rush to him to apply paralyze heal. Picking him up and petting him. He was dirty and stank due to the acid on him. But he's my partner.
"Let's go!" Misty congratulates me.
"This isn't over yet! I'll forgive that you cheated but I won't forget! Go Ekans!" What else does he have up his sleeve?
A six feet long snake pokemon pops out of the pokeball. Not my first time witnessing it, now that I've seen larger threats this doesn't even faze me.
"Oh I don't want you to forget that pal. I want you to remember this loss, GO CHUNGUS!"
"A pikachu against an ekans? You are as stupid as a slowbro!"
"You'll see. USE DOUBLE TEAM!"
"Ekans use poison sting!"
Ekans aims its stinger at the fake copy of Chungus the pikachu.
"PIKA PI!!!"
Chungus unleashes a wide jolt of electricity paralyzing the Ekans.
"NOO!"
"It's the thunder wave attack! Red this is your victory!" Misty exclaims.
"Not yet Misty, time to knock this ekans out! USE THUNDER SHOCK!"
"PIKAAA!CHUUU!"
A yellow arc of electricity strikes the stationary ekans.
"ekanssssss" It blanks out after resisting for a while. It's size does help it in a way by having a better defense than smaller pokemon than itself.
"It's my victory you cheater." I look toward him. Only to see him running away.
"HEY! HOLD UP YOU CHEATER!"