Eric and Misako moved through the forest carefully. The trees pressed close, their black branches and grey leaves blocking most of the daylight.
Misako walked ahead, still brimming with energy. The place where she separated from Arcanine was about 500 meters away.
They moved trying to avoid any attention or Pokemon, but that wasn't so easy with Ghost Pokemon.
They must've walked about 150 meters when a group of Shuppet attacked them.
"Gastly, Ghost Ball! Finish them without making much noise."
"Misdreavus, you too. Shadow Ball."
Shadow Ball! This was Eric's first time seeing the move. The move Ghost Ball was accidentally created when Eric was trying to teach Gastly Shadow Ball.
Earlier, he had thought that Shadow Ball was just a projectile with condensed Ghost Energy, but seeing it now, Eric could see 2 layers of energy in the move. The outer Layer was solid and firm, but inside of it, ghost type energy was rapidly spinning in a spiral.
It reminded him of a popular technique from a certain anime.
"Gastly, observe Misdreavus when she uses Shadow Ball. See if you can learn something."
Misako heard that from the side and asked,
"Oh? Can Gastly not use Shadow Ball? Then what was the move he was using just now. I think you called it Ghost Ball?"
Eric nodded and explained,
"It's a move we accidentally created while trying to learn Shadow Ball. I was thinking of buying a TM later, but if we can learn it now, then that's for the best."
Misako nodded as they continued to defeat the Shuppet one after the other.
Gastly was getting close to leveling up, but there was no choice. He was the best at quietly taking out Pokemon.
They pressed on after defeating the Shuppet horde. Eventually, they reached the area where Misako split with Arcanine.
Eric sent Gastly to scout the area as quietly as possible. Even then he was worried Gastly would be spotted. He didn't know how good senses of Advanced level Pokemon were. Especially a Crobat.
Gastly came back as soon as he left, and told them it was safe.
Once there, they found Arcanine lying on the ground severely wounded and unconscious.
Besides him were the bodies of Crobat, Zangoose and Seviper, badly injured and unconscious as well. Seviper looked to be mortally wounded even. If not treated, it would probably die.
"Archie!"
Misako hurried towards the Arcanine and brought out a Revive and Max Potion.
Revive was used to bring a Pokemon back to consciousness.
In the meantime Eric checked Arcanine's status:
Pokémon: Arcanine
Gender: Male
Level: 48
Type: Fire
Ability: Intimidate
Held Item: None
Potential: Light Purple
This Arcanine was incredibly powerful. This only made Eric more worried about the Cloaked figure.
Arcanine woke up and felt better. Misako then brought out Pokeblocks for him to eat.
Before doing so, he stared at Eric and growled quietly.
"It's ok, Archie. He's a friend. He saved me."
Only then did he calm down and began eating.
"Archie! I know Big sis asked you to take me home. But we can't abandon her here! And she needs you! I promise to run away as soon as things get dangerous, so please let's go and find big sis!"
Arcanine looked to be in a dilemma. He wanted to go to Haruko more than anyone, but he also had to carry her last command as well.
Eventually, seeing the fire in Misako's eyes, he agreed. Fire Pokemon in general do not like to run away, and he cared for Haruko too much to abandon her.
"Arc!"
Arcanine bent down and asked Misako to climb on top of him. After Misako sat on top of him, he still remained in that bent position.
"…"
"What are you doing Eric! Climb on top of him."
"Oh. Is he fine with that?"
"Hm? Normally he doesn't let strangers ride on top of him, but since you helped me, it's fine. The Ayame always repay their debts. Even the Pokemon in the family."
'Is that their Slogan?' Eric thought as he shrugged and climbed on top of him. It was quite comfortable and his fur was soft.
Eric was now looking forward to his Growlithe evolving into a majestic Arcanine.
Eric's thoughts were interrupted when Arcanine started running at an incredible speed. Eric who didn't expect that was a out to fall off but managed to hold on.
In just a few moments, they reached the entrance of the Dusclops territory.
"Stop! I have to get off here!"
"Arc!"
Arcanine stopped and turned his head around, looking at Eric confusedly. As if asking, "Weren't you coming with us?"
"Don't look at me like that. I have business on that side."
Eric pointed towards the left.
"It's true, Archie! He was just tagging along till our paths were the same."
Misako patted Arcanine as she turned to Eric, "once again, thank you for your help. Do visit us when you go to Celadon City!"
"Ok. See you later then. Good luck with finding your sister!"
Eric parted ways with Misako and Arcanine here. Now he just had to go and collect the Ghost Pearls and leave before any trouble finds him.
-----
Duskell Territory
"Tch. That bitch took advantage of the fact I can't leave here and escaped. Well, whatever..."
The cloaked individual was talking to himself as he seemed to be drawing something on the ground, around the pile of Duskell and Duscnoir cores.
"I can't afford to play with toys anyways or 'that guy' will get pissed off."
The shape the cloaked individual was drawing looked to be an equilateral triangle, with a circle inside it. The pile of cores was placed in the center of the circle.
They then brought out 3 wooden sticks and stuck them at the corners of the triangle.
Then, they scrubbled some patterns inside each corner of the triangle, and lit the sticks.
The fire was a normal organge-red colour. But then the symbols the person drew started to glow purple, and as they did, the colour of the flames also became a deep purple.
"I hope all this works… or else I'll kill that damn Psychic myself!"
The cloaked individual said to himself as they stepped back.
Purple energy started to release from the pile of cores, giving off a very ominous feeling…
---------------------
Hope you're enjoying till now!
If you want early access (10 chapters) to the upcoming chapters or just want to support me, you can do that at:
www.patreon.com/GhostQuill407