Chapter 5: Chapter 5 – Offense is the worst Defense

Just threw in moves Pokemon probably should’ve known but either didn’t due to early balancing or for whatever other reason. E.g Pidgey not having Peck. Similarly, if a pokemon could learn flamethrower but not ember, I’m throwing ember in there as natural progression. 

–

“So… which way should we go?”

 

I hinted at the three routes not leading to a dead-end. All three routes were around the dimensions of a commercial jet, maybe 15-20 meters in height and width. The tunnel’s length however seemingly went on forever… which to me was maybe 20 meters due to the dark. Unfortunately for us, all paths seemingly inclined downwards which did not bode well.

 

I thought about using the hole above, but not only was it insanely deep but I had a slight feeling that maybe Iris wouldn’t be too happy with using that path upwards.

 

“Not sure, I’ve only ever gone down the left path when I saw a bunch of Paras,” Iris responded defeatedly. Her current predicament had her trapped in the confines of my newly fixed arms and held against my chest.

 

“You know you don’t have to act this way right?”

 

“Hmm?”

 

“Like you’re actually 11.”

 

“Well… technically I am 11 now, and I’ll have you know this behaviour isn’t exclusive to kids. I spent the remainder of my income on many claw machines, getting plushies and doing something similar. I bet lots of adults do things that could be considered childish when they’re by themselves.”

 

“Is that so?”

 

“Probably, but I agree with you, I’m not this… unrestrained when I was by myself. Anyways, let’s go down the right tunnel.”

 

“Why the right one?”

 

“I don’t like starting from the middle and I don’t want to meet any Paras… plus it’s the biggest tunnel by far.”

 

“Okay, Let’s go down the right tunnel. After you let me down.”

 

“Rude, I'm providing an excellent taxi service and this is how you repay me, with this way you won’t slow us down.”

 

“I can move faster than you.”

 

“Maybe…but I have legs.”

 

“Can you at least put me in a different position so I can react quicker?”

 

“I’ll think about it.”

  

And so I walked down towards the right tunnel, excitement and worry steadily building up

 

---

 

“Hyaaa?!” 

 

In my eyes, the object in front of me moved, resulting in a set of leaves flying from my hands shooting towards an unsuspecting rock as it was quickly decimated by my [Leafage]. I gave out a sigh of relief as the boulder turned out to be nothing special. 

 

“Ayla.” A very disappointed and stern Petilil called out. 

 

“I-I got the rock, Iris.”

 

“You sure did. You also got the last 3 rocks that were around the same size.” Raising an imaginary eyebrow at me from her new position on my shoulder.

 

So I have an actual phobia of specifically-sized rocks. I’d like to think I have a justifiable reason for it despite how stupid a ‘fear of rocks’ sounded. 

 

“Well…That last rock moved?” 

 

She sighed in return, “It’s been less than 5 minutes since we headed down this path. You’re gonna deplete your aura if you destroy every rock we come across.” I didn’t say anything as she had a point. Hell, with the first two rocks we saw, I decided Razor Leaf was the better choice and rained down hell on those rocks.

 

“...”

 

“Ok, fine. Since neither of us can accurately sense where Pokemon could be, your paranoia does help. Destroying every single rock we come across, however, does not.”

 

“So…?”

 

“So just shoot one leaf at it and wait for something to happen? Are you an idiot?” 

 

“F-Fear of the unknown is a great motivator…” 

 

“You realize the Geodude was much stronger than it should be, right? Like a lot stronger, it definitely should’ve evolved at some point but probably held back.” 

 

“Then what about ember? And you using water gun?”

 

“I don’t know about him but it took me a month to shoot out a tiny stream of water, and that was only possible with someone teaching me. So no, the next Geodude probably doesn’t have ember or bullet punch.”

 

That was an enormous weight off my shoulders. Here I thought that with every Pokemon we fought, I was probably going to heavily injure myself or die trying. That might still happen, but knowing that the Geodude was an outlier was a nice bit of news. 

 

“Did you not have TMs or anything?”

 

“What’s that?”

 

“Nothing… let’s just continue.”

 

—--

 

“How long has it been since we went down this tunnel?”

 

“Hmm, maybe 10 minutes? The path hasn’t changed… and we haven’t seen any Pokemon yet…”

 

This place was… normal, with the consistent slight downward slope, how the dimensions of the tunnel stayed almost perfectly the same and how the walls had these strange indents that travelled along the tunnel in a spiral, it looked like someone purposely carved a trench and had it extend throughout the whole length of the cavern... how it extended to the ceiling was beyond me. 

 

“M-Maybe we should head back…”

 

“?!”

 

Sounds echoing in front of us ceased our conversation, as we both stared at the darkness ahead of us waiting for anything to come out. An orange glow soon emerged, unmoving after it first appeared, growing larger and larger as it came closer. And soon enough the rest of the body became clear. The Pokemon that appeared could only be described as a lump of coal with one orange eye that stared directly at us.

 

‘What on earth is this thing…’ 

 

“Do you know what that is?” I whispered, which didn’t work as well as I intended as my voice travelled throughout the space.

 

“No,” Iris whispered back. Who, without me noticing, now stood protectively in front of me. Odd, Is she just overprotective or is every pokemon down here immediately going to fight us? “What do you want?”

 

“...coal…” 

 

‘That…makes sense?’ 

 

“We don’t have any,” Iris stated bluntly.

 

“...”

 

With some god-given talent, the lump of coal expressed a very irritated look given his… facial features. 

 

"FUEL!!"

 

"???"

 

The Lump of coal initiated [Smokescreen] as clouds of smoke covered the entire width of the tunnel. Quickly, I backed up and stood a good 5 meters away from the Petilil. “A-Ayla, stay there.”                                                                           

 

“Yes, Ma’am!” Who was I to argue against someone with actual battle experience.

 

A rock smaller than Iris flew out of the smoke, which would've been an effective surprise attack if we weren't a good 10-15 meters away from us. Iris, not missing a beat, created a root in front of the rock's path as it surprisingly caught the attack mid-flight. 

 

Another object came out of the smoke and happened to be the coal thing, which rapidly sped towards us. 'He has a wheel underneath?!?' A [Rock Polish] covered him as his speed quickly doubled. Already with a counter in mind, Iris threw the coal's previous attack caught in her Grass knot towards the lump of coal.  Apparently, he was either completely blind or completely garbage at turning as he made zero effort to avoid the incoming rock. With the two rock-like structures colliding, coal-mon was thrown off his approach and launched straight into the wall on our left. 

 

"..."

 

Ms Plant, who had a very questionable sense of mercy generated a myriad of rainbow leaves, targeting the still downed coal-thing. His orange eye looked weary and it stared at the [Magical Leaf] before erupting into flames, a spew of fire came out of somewhere as the leaves were met with [Ember]. 

 

‘It’s a piece of coal, I guess fire makes sense…’ I told myself, doubt building up from what Iris had said earlier.

 

Coal-thing recovered itself after the attack and shot another [Ember] towards Iris, and she countered back with a [Water Gun]. The two attacks clashed with the type-advantage winning, the water tearing through the flames as it landed on an unmoving coal-mon who took the attack head-on, again.  

 

This time however there was a strategy to this madness. As steam erupted from its body, it grew a shine and another [Rock Polish] was applied. Iris shot out another wave of [Magical Leaf] and with an insane burst of speed, coal-mon incomparable to his first approach, dashed directly into the oncoming leaves. His body spun clockwise as it blitzed through anything that managed to touch it. The [Rapid Spin] cut through the leaves like nothing and made a bee-line straight to Iris.

 

“I-Iris!!”

 

My heart ached as she scraped against the ground in front of me. Panicking, I crouched next to her as she stood back up, practically brushing off the attack. My brain took a moment to rewire as I thought back to what I just did. What happened to me just then? Of course, a single rapid spin wasn’t going to heavily damage her, did I actually turn into an idiot? 

 

My attention fully on my friend distracted me from the projectile hurling towards me. I looked up to see the rock practically in my face before Iris jumped into it to take the hit for me. 

You are reading story Crescere at novel35.com

 

“Wha–?! I-Iris?!?”

 

Iris fell into my arms, facing towards the coal-mon who took the opportunity to blow out another fire move. My body moved on its own and hopped left avoiding the row of flames while my mind was overwhelmed. Iris who already planned out her own counter was surprised by my positioning and her [Energy Ball] that was meant to clash with the [Ember] flew undeterred.

 

The battered coal-mon was too late in moving away as the ball exploded on contact, smoke covering the aftermath. Two roots stood idly next to us as we waited for the smoke to clear. Letting go of our breaths as the Pokemon was revealed to have fainted. 

 

“...”

 

Iris hopped off my arms and walked over to the coal-mon. The two roots from earlier vanished before reappearing beside her. The [Grass Knot], close to my height, towered over the fallen mon. And the two roots slammed their bodies onto the Pokemon, repeatedly slaming into its body over and over again.

 

“I-Iris?”

 

She didn’t respond until a few moments later as the roots stopped and disappeared. The very frightening Petilil turned to look at me with an almost fanatic atmosphere. 

 

“Are you okay Ayla?!”

 

“Mmm… I-I’m good…”

 

She stopped in front of me and gave me a critical look, finding my poorly-hidden fear suspicious. I stood there in silence as I slowly broke under her small beady-eyed gaze. What exactly am I meant to say? 

 

“Well… “

 

Looking overhead at the unrecognizable pokemon, I involuntarily shivered and tried sugarcoating things.  

 

“D-Did you have to… kill the… coal-thing?” 

 

“Hmm? Of course, I did, he tried hurting you, so I killed it.” Is this what a yandere is? This was well going past the realm of just being overprotective and breaching the realm of insanity. What scared me the most was how nonchalant she was about it.

 

“Besides, didn’t you kill that Geodude beforehand?” ‘I can’t argue against that,' I solemnly thought. Killing Pokemon felt… odd, but… we’ve already done it once as much as I wanted to justify my actions, it was a fact that I willingly killed it.

 

“What about the next battles? What if they don’t try and hurt me?”

 

She stopped for a moment, genuinely thinking about that situation. “If we weren’t down here I probably wouldn’t do that… but if we did leave them here, something else will just come along and finish it anyways. What's the problem? Did you want that thing to come along with us? Maybe do the binding thing? I’ll remind you that it’s both permanent and limited.”

 

While that… whatever that coal thing was, was a hard pass for me. I was personally looking to find ANY pokemon with dig so we could make our way out of the underground in record time, even if she just revealed that it did cost me a ‘slot’. However, none of this would work if she kept killing off every single prospect.

 

“Umm, no, not really. But promise me, that unless I get attacked you do not kill it. Okay?” Already sure her conviction wouldn’t waver if something did try to go after me, I settled on a compromise.

 

“Alright.” She agreed, oddly compliant. 

 

“Okay, then let’s continue.”

 

Not 5 minutes later we encountered another Pokemon and I realized why she so readily agreed to my suggestion.

 

---

 

“AYLA!!!”

 

“You’ve gotta be kidding me…” I mumbled to myself. Dodging the set of thin needles that narrowly missed me. The little vermin from above who was my assailant tried flapping its wings sporadically as it got caught up in Iris’s [Grass Knot], bringing down the Zubat before doing a recreation of what happened in the last battle. I turned away from the carnage and looked at the positives. At least Iris is getting stronger. 

 

Another thing I noted was for the past two battles I did not feel that burst of energy I did when the Geodude first fainted and then killed off. Should I participate in these fights? Though, I’m not entirely sure the plant would enjoy that idea, with the last two already targeted me without my added attacks. 

 

I shrugged off those thoughts, It’s not like the 3rd Pokemon we encounter today is gonna attack me.

 

---

 

“AYLA!!!”

 

“Not again…” The yellow mouse that wasn’t the worldwide mascot of Pokemon barreled towards me with…decent speed before coming across the same mistake the last two pokemon had made. His [Rollout] was completely stopped as it slammed into two roots, failing to destroy them and sealing its fate as the [Grass Knot] it just hit, grabbed the unsuspecting Sandshrew. 

 

I was… less against what came next and was only slightly bothered by the fact that Iris was going to kill another Pokemon. Getting targeted a third time might push the agenda of killing further, but what could I do to help? Shout out to Iris what moves to use mid-battle? What kind of idiot would purposely tell their opponent the exact attack they’ll use next, I mean they’d have to be an absolute idiot to do that. It’s not like she’s an idiot herself and doesn’t know how to fight, she’s got a year more experience than I do, so my input might even mess her up. Maybe I should bring up the idea of me fighting...

 

Now finished with her… duties, Iris walked back towards me and a root appeared below her, raising her to the height of my shoulders and jumping onto it.

 

“Iris.” A concerning issue came up.

 

“Yes?”

 

“Why are all the Pokemon so… eager to fight us.” 

 

“Food probably, anything that doesn’t eat rocks and stuff would need to find something else .”

 

"Huh..." I didn't need to know that, though that was completely my fault.

 

With the image of a Sandshrew eating a Paras now burned into my mind we pressed onwards into the tunnel. 

 

---

 

“AYLA!!!”

 

“You’re absolutely joking now…” A very desperate crab mushroom was attempting to hit me with its claws as it leapt towards me. Unlike the Coal-mon however, this thing was pitifully slow; Iris used her bread-and-butter technique to grab it mid-jump before pinning it to the ground. This time I didn’t look away but instead looked down at the Paras and shook my head in disappointment.

 

Seriously, what’s wrong with these Pokemon, they attack us with no warning and when they’re pressured, immediately blitz straight towards me. Look I get it, I’m small and look weak but they completely disregarded the real threat in front of them. I sighed, resigning my fate to never getting a Pokemon while we’re down here, as apparently all of them have a death wish.

 

Unfortunately for it, the crab appeared to be much bulkier than the last three Pokemon. And while the Zubat also had a x4 resistance, I’m fairly certain the crab was more defensive and would very quickly find that to be a curse rather than a blessing.

 

“Iris.”

 

“Hmm? Are you stopping me from killing this vermin again?” She turned to look at me, the [Grass Knot] stopped slamming into the crab but still had it pinned down. I pointedly ignored the look it gave me before turning to respond to its demon. My previous thoughts from the last battles came back to mind.

 

“Umm…well no… but, Can I… fight as well?” The ending came out in a whisper as I pleaded to my small guardian. 

 

She looked at me in a mix of desperation and worry and practically exploded. “Y-You can’t! W-What if you get hurt again and I’m not there?! Why do you want to anyway, with me here I’ll protect you even…”

 

“Even if it costs your life?” I finished. Not at all liking the lengths she’d go to try and protect me. I get she’s making sure I don’t die again and I probably should’ve seen this coming but this is too far.

 

“Look… I get it how you feel, not truly but I understand the gist of it. But we’ve fought four pokemon and all of them were relatively weak and all four of them managed to get past you with one almost actually hitting me.” She looked down in disappointment remembering her near-failures in keeping me safe.

 

“And If I get strong enough you won’t need to spend so much of your attention in battle, look around you. We’re in the middle of nowhere, stuck in an area with aggressive wild Pokemon, you can’t protect me forever.” She thought about it, which was nice but was definitely not on board with the idea. 

 

“And It’s not like I’m gonna immediately jump into a battle by myself against another Pokemon. I’d like to learn more moves first and begin by spamming ranged attacks from the back while you fight them. This way I can at least get stronger and defend myself better. Of course later on I do want to fight one myself. Trust me on this.” 

 

And it worked, somewhat. For a one-year with trauma, she was way more logical than someone like me, though she wasn’t a fan of my last idea. 

 

“Also don’t even think about sacrificing yourself to save me as you did in that first fight, I get that you want to protect me but prioritize yourself first, okay? I'd be very sad if I lost you.” She looked impassive which to me was a fat nope. Well, that didn’t work, with sympathy out the window I turned to the only thing I could think of. The internet’s good friend, gaslighting.

 

“Alright, think of it this way, if you die, I die. Who’s going to protect me from the next pokemon that shows up? Even if I live and don’t encounter any Pokemon, I don’t have any food or water, so I’d have to actively hunt Pokemon and potentially get hurt, and if you haven’t noticed, I don't have a way to quickly heal myself. So don’t even think about doing it again, okay?”

 

She nodded mutely. 

 

“I said okay?”

 

“Okay…”

“Can you say that again? I couldn’t hear you.”

 

“OKAY!! I won’t do it again…”

 

“That’s good enough for me. Now back to the Paras…”

 

We both turned to look at where the Paras and Grass Knot should’ve been, keynote ‘should’ve’. Either Paras somehow managed to escape its prison despite how injured it was already or Iris was distracted because she was being lectured by an 11-year-old and accidentally let go of her move. Ignoring the obvious answer, we slowly walked further into the never-ending tunnel to look for our escapee. 

 

Unfortunately for the crab, we didn’t have to look far, as it very slowly tried crawling away… in this completely straight tunnel with no obstructions. I’d be a bit more sympathetic had this not been the 4th time I’ve been targeted, and if the Paras line was cuter, sadly I wasn’t really into a brainwashed/parasite mega mushroom.  

 

A familiar and envied root rose from below and grabbed the crab, sealing his fate. I sighed, realizing how quickly I was being desensitized to the cold embrace of death as Iris finished off yet another Pokemon. She plucked the mushrooms off the Paras and handed them to me, as I grimly began to eat them. 

 

“Should we take a break? It should’ve been at least an hour by now.” 

 

I nodded in agreement and we made our way over to the wall, surprised with my stamina as old me would’ve died trying to walk this much. Looking at the wall, I quickly faced my palm towards a terrifying object before unleashing [Leafage] down onto it. 

 

“Ayla.”

 

“Can never be too careful with those things.” I nodded sagely. The rock was only slightly chipped and was found to be a regular old rock. I embarrassingly tried moving it away, a mix of my fear and weaker strength made it difficult to accomplish before Iris blasted it to dust seeing that I was getting nowhere in trying to shove it elsewhere.

 

“...”

 

We sat down for a break now that all threats were removed.