After spending nearly an hour lying on the ground, trying to ignore the macabre and nauseating smell of blood surrounding us, we shamelessly consumed an indecent amount of Moomoo Milk to recover from the overwhelming exhaustion we had just experienced.
Turning my gaze away—while deliberately ignoring the fact that Ivy was currently drinking her sixth bottle—I examined the aftermath of our battle.
Dozens of trees lay shattered across the ground.
The earth itself had been torn apart and with a serious quantity of blood and fragments of shattered magic stones which are sparkling faintly under the light.
(Strangely enough, I didn't feel much about it.)
I don't think about much of these results.
(Well the terrain will be devastated for a while but I'm alive with Ivy and her most importantly for the moment.)
I take a moment to notice the indecent amount of intact and broken Magic Stone on the ground.
(I need to collect the magic stones before they attracted unwanted attention—or worse, caused new monsters to suddenly evolve and become another pain in the ass.)
I glanced at Ivy.
"Greedy snake, are you sure you're not full yet? I'm pretty sure you're abusing it now."
"Sni?" (ﾟοﾟ人)
"Seriously, that's your sixth bottle already!!!!"
I crouched beside her, picking up the empty bottles while gathering the scattered magic stones nearby.
"Sni!" ╮(.❛ᴗ❛.)╭
"Yes, yes, you did well. But don't expect to slack off yet."
Turning to look at her, I look into her eyes only to notice that she only looks away.
"SNI!!!!!!" ತ_ತ
"Okay, okay, okay, don't give me that look. I promise that when we reach a town or even a village, I'll spoil you rotten, sweetheart."
"SNI?" (●♡∀♡)乁( •_• )ㄏ
"Don't worry about it, it's guaranteed. Besides, for the damaged magic stones, it's best if you absorb all the energy inside before bringing them back."
"SNI?"(?・・)σ
"Don't worry about it. Anyway, any of the damaged ones will be hard to sell, if I remember correctly."
And just like that, we spent another hour collecting the drops and scattering the magic stones before continuing toward the village we had been searching for.
-Present Time--
Now returning to the two guards who were monitoring our trainer and Pokémon.
After spending a few minutes watching him head toward the river, one of them decided to start a conversation.
"Arrrhhh, this situation is really getting boring quickly. I'd rather lose my money with the old fox than monitor this anomaly."
Roland, wearing a bored expression, started a conversation with his uncle, who happened to be pretty bored too.
"Well, you're not wrong either. I'd like to be able to stay with my wife now, but we have responsibilities, and anyway, in a few hours we can make a trade with other guards." With some hesitation, Paul, one of the senior hunters in Adonis's Village, replied to his nephew.
Slightly intrigued by his uncle's family situation, Roland continued the conversation.
"How's it going at home, Paul?"
"Oh, everything's fine. Jannette is resting after giving birth, and Sarah told me she wasn't feeling any better this morning, but I know that's just an excuse not to join me on the hunt," Paul replied, thinking back to his daughter's pale face when he woke her up this morning to learn it was her initiation day.
"Don't worry about her to much, anyway she just lacks willpower, so it will do her a little good to get out into nature for a bit," Uncle Ron mocked as he continued.
"Going out will do her good instead of staying in bed waiting for the Arles Caravan to buy those romance novels. At least bring the hunted to the surrounding area for the next two weeks to have enough meat for the village and for resale."
"Yes, I hope we'll have enough to hunt, eh? There are fewer animals around," Paul invited.
"Now that you mention it, this situation has been a little strange lately in the forest. First, the animals are starting to disappear, the monsters are becoming much more active in the area. We've even seen the appearance of bugbears in the area. We only used to see one every 2-3 years, and now these humanoid oddities covered in blood are showing up in the area." He said, pointing to the location where the anomalies were present.
"Yeah, but we're really unlucky lately---- wait a second, where have the oddities gone?" In a real emergency, the two hunter arm their bows and look around then roughly.
"SCHSS SCHSS" Hearing the rustle in the foliage, Paul instinctively released the arrow in that direction.
-SLUCH-
"Ron, watch out for the side behind you, RIGHT NOW!!"
"@$#@@$##@@@@$$#-@$$$###$#@##" Then suddenly he heard a noise that seemed intelligible.
Then Ron, in turn, released his arrow, which seemed to hit something before he heard it.
"@##$@@#$$$@@$#¥#₩#£#£##₩¥-£-¥-¥"
"???!!!!" an even more intelligible shout, while preparing to release a second arrow. Ron suddenly saw a flash of pink and gold before falling unconscious.
In Paul's case, he could only glimpse a piercing purple eye before also falling unconscious.
In a second, the two hunters/guards were rendered unconscious by the rapid action of the two " anomalies."
But for those who can understand this language, they could have understood their last words.
"You don't think that you went a little too hard there?" I said to my partner seeing one of the hunters have Foam coming out slightly from his mouth.
"SNI!!!!"(｡◕‿◕｡)➜ She looks at me while fingering the second guard who seems to me to be the younger of the two and who has a serious amount of blood draining from his head.
(Wow, throwing the baseball bat at him probably gave him a cerebral commission, even if I didn't go overboard with the psychic energy that much.)
But not wanting to admit my excess force in the 'neutralization' procedure, I shamelessly continue my totally biased thoughts.
"..... Nahhhhh, you probably exaggerated more than me, but I decide to let it go this time, since you saved my life." Deliberately ignoring the outraged look that came my way, I picked up the baseball bat I should have thought of at the same time and looked at the two men.
"At least we found the "hunters" that were hunting us. And good news there are definitely human." I do this though after checking the two humans.
"But bad news, there are another problem besides the fact that they're bleeding profusely."
"SNI?"
"Ivy, there's a language barrier, and I don't think I'll be able to learn a new language in two or three days."
[☆ TO BE CONTINUED ☆]
Authors Note:
I hope everything is going well for you reader, but otherwise, things are going well for me.
Some might have thought this chapter was short, and that's the case.
I had planned a lot of situations for this chapter, but with so many choices in my mind, I hesitate in what will be better, so I'm asking for advice on the rest of the story right now to you reader.
Regarding the language barrier, if that worries anyone, it only lasted one chapter.
You may have noticed that Ivy is "special," but it will be her only "special" Pokemon, apart from two others, the next one being the fight type that won the votes.
The next vote will also be for another "special" among the types presented.
Oh yes, before I forget, the Pokemon from the next chapters onward, except for Ivy (special), will be tied to the normal level system.
Eg: Level 10 / Adventurer Level 1/2
Level 20 / Adventurer Level 2/3
etc....
And lately, for the missions in other worlds, I've been drawing up a mission statement and thinking about where to put them in my story.