And so a few more days went by.
On this day Vance appeared in the dense forest outside Celadon City with Vigoroth beside him. Gyarados had stayed behind to train in his room, which was what the two of them had asked for; neither wanted the other to learn his finishing move.
As for safety, that worried them still less. Being Vance's Pokémon, they knew what he could do in a fight. It could fairly be said that the two of them together might not be his match.
If it ever came to real trouble it would be Vance stepping in to protect them, and when it came to getting away alive he was the best of the three, so on that score neither of them worried.
"Grroo, grroo—"
Out in the wild Vigoroth was full of life, climbing the trees, picking fruit and tossing it into his mouth, and offering some up to Vance as well.
Vance did not refuse. He took one and bit into it: sweet and sour, plenty of juice, good for thirst.
"Boss, I want honey."
Man and Pokémon had come to a halt at a Beedrill colony, and Vigoroth pointed at the nest in the middle of the swarm as he said it.
Beedrill were extremely numerous; you could find them in very nearly every forest.
For Trainers they were an important source of income too, precisely because there were so many of them, and what this kind of Pokémon produced was valuable.
But on every year's list of Trainers who had died in the field, no small number had died at Beedrill's hands.
"I can feel it. Out of that lot there's only one Beedrill with the ability to threaten me."
Vigoroth closed his eyes, psychic power spreading out of him, and then spoke.
"Good. Bring me that Pokémon Egg, then. No trouble?"
Vance pointed at the Pokémon Egg sitting in the middle of the swarm. The system panel showed it as an Egg of Elite aptitude.
He had no use for it himself, but it could go to Ambrose and Emery to make the two of them stronger, which would help later on.
Vance had looked over the Pokémon those two had. Far too ordinary, all of them; without some special factor they would not get far. Since he was out in the field anyway, he might as well take a few decent Pokémon back with him and make the pair of them stronger.
"Right."
Vigoroth dropped low, drew his presence in and closed on the nest without a sound, moving very fast, and the patrolling Beedrill never noticed him.
It was the same trick Vigoroth had used when he ambushed Vance in the beginning. Vance had not spotted it at first, and even now, if he was not paying attention, he would not.
That was another of Vigoroth's peculiarities, and out in country like this it was enormously useful.
A moment later a roar of noise came from the Beedrill colony. Vigoroth had engaged them.
From where Vance stood, Vigoroth was ringed by six strongly built Beedrill with his line of retreat closed off.
There was another presence hidden in the swarm, veiled: the strongest Beedrill, which had reached Advanced strength. For now it stayed among the others and did not move. Whether it was preparing an ambush or something else, it simply did not move, and six Beedrill of Intermediate strength went on surrounding Vigoroth — perhaps it thought that would be enough.
Enough to leave this outrageously bold Vigoroth dead on the spot.
Vigoroth was entirely unruffled. He lifted the honey in his hand and took a bite of it, and looked down his nose at the Beedrill around him with open arrogance.
He might be all docility in front of Vance, but he had been a tyrant of the wild in his time.
Intermediate strength was Intermediate strength, and dealing with that big oaf Gyarados might be a great deal of trouble, but dealing with these few stinking spuds and rotten eggs was easy work.
Even among Intermediate Pokémon there were gaps.
Then the six Beedrill moved, and in that same moment so did Vigoroth.
*The flavour isn't quite there. Once I've taken a whole comb, that should taste better. I can let the boss try some.*
That was what Vigoroth's mind wandered to in the middle of a fight. His shape blurred, and he was behind one of the Beedrill, fist raised, flame coming off it.
"Bang—"
One Beedrill went down, unable to fight.
"Hi-yah—"
Another Beedrill was just about to use a move when a Fire Punch came straight into its face, and it went down with the first.
Vigoroth struck a stylish fighting stance at the four Beedrill that were left.
"Zzree—"
The four Beedrill raised their twin lances together and sent Pin Missile out in volley after volley, blotting out the sky, covering every inch of ground where Vigoroth stood.
Vigoroth grinned, flickered, and wove through the mass of needles, nimble and good to watch.
"Zzree—"
A Beedrill raised its twin lances, a faint light on them, and stabbed hard at Vigoroth as he broke through — only for Vigoroth to chop it aside nimbly, and the next moment a fist crackling with lightning came down on it.
A muffled grunt, and another one went down.
Vigoroth stopped where he was, gathered a little power, and lightning burst out of him: Thunderbolt, the move he had trained so hard at lately, fired at the other three Beedrill.
In that instant a dark shape shot out. The strongest Beedrill had moved, and its target was Vigoroth, who had just finished using Thunderbolt.
Its twin lances came with the force of a thunderclap, far stronger than anything the other Beedrill had shown, straight at Vigoroth's head.
The look that came over Vigoroth's face said *there you are at last*, as though he had been waiting a long time for it.
Seeing it, the Beedrill poured every bit of its power into the two lances.
Vigoroth bent both legs and sprang, an astonishing leap, and the blow went past him into the ground where he had been standing and found nothing.
Vigoroth brought a Thunder Punch down on it, the Beedrill dodged, doubled back in mid-air and came at him again.
Agility, and Aerial Ace.
Lances and flame locked together and held in mid-air. Vigoroth smiled slightly, put more power out and pushed it slowly back.
The Beedrill slipped a body's width clear, and came away lightly wounded.
Seeing how it was going, the Beedrill drew back, the wings on its back beating and buzzing, filling the air with noise.
"Running, are you."
Vigoroth used Thunderbolt again, far more lightning than before bursting out of him and running the Beedrill down.
"Bang—"
The lightning struck the Beedrill and there was an explosion, and then a blackened, scorched Beedrill fell to the ground and did not move again.
"Beedrill defeated. 32 Battle Points awarded."
Away at a distance, Vance's system panel showed the Battle Points going up.
He threw out a few Poké Balls without much ceremony and gathered up the fallen Beedrill. Vigoroth came over with a Pokémon Egg cradled in his hands and, carried along by his psychic power, the honey and a few other good things he had scraped together.
"Boss, here."
He handed the things over, then took a piece of honeycomb and began eating. It tasted good, so he picked up another piece and passed it to him.
Vance put everything away, took the honey as it came, and tasted it. Not bad at all.
So man and Pokémon went on eating as they pushed deeper into the forest, heading off in one direction and leaving the churned-up ground of the Beedrill colony behind them.
The only ones hurt were the Beedrill.
Or to put it another way: this was a world in which only the weak got hurt.