Standing before them all was Ern, who carried an evil look on his face. Kel and Feya readied themselves to attack while Ash and Serena got to their paws. Ern stomped forward a step and Serena flinched. Ern smirked at seeing her fear before speaking.

"Why, it seems like the two little Ratatas went off and squeaked, didn't they? Oh, and the little brat's mommy is here to save her."

Serena turned and saw a look of pure rage coming from Feya. Ern turned his attention towards Kel.

"Pardon me Guild-master, I didn't know you were so desperate for members. You brought children with you." Ern snickered.

"Quiet Ern, give up Irene and we won't hurt you," Kel said in a cold tone.

"I'd like to see you try," Ern scoffed.

"Fine, you're on!" Kel roared as he lunged towards Ern.

Serena watched as Kel jumped through the air and extended a pair of claws that were as sharp as steel and glistened in the sun. Landing in front of Ern, Kel slashed at him. Ern, in defense, raised a piece of rock that was cut into pieces by Kel. Though the rock fell swiftly, it served its purpose of giving Ern some breathing room. With some distance between the two, Ern readied a blast of fire from his mouth. Kel saw this and when Ern spewed forth a torrent of flames, Kel quickly dodged it. However, Ern snapped his head in Kel's direction and the fire whipped over to that direction, managing to singe a little bit of Kel.

"Flamethrower," Ash muttered under his breath.

Why don't we help him out? Serena thought to herself.

"Because I'll just get in the way and you two would get yourselves killed," Feya answered.

Shocked, Serena was about to ask how she knew what she was thinking.

"Sorry to intrude on your mind like that. I noticed the tense look on your face."

Right, she's a psychic type. Serena recalled.

Serena returned her gaze to the fight before them. In the short moment that she had looked away, Kel was in the air above Ern. In response, several pieces of rock rose from the ground in the air. They all hovered there for a moment before they shot up at Kel. Weaving in the air Kel managed to dodge all of the rocks as they were launched at him. However, as he was about to slash at Ern with his claws, Serena noticed the last rock hovered in the air.

"Look out!" Feya yelled as Serena felt herself being moved.

Looking around Serena saw that she had been moved about ten feet to the left. Turning to face where she had once stood, Serena saw that there was a small trench where they had been standing. It went into the treeline where a tree had fallen, Serena didn't know what would've happened if they hadn't dodged. This hadn't interrupted the battle as Kel swiped at Ern who let out a roar in pain. Before giving him time to recover, Kel followed up, releasing a purple ball of energy at Ern.

Ern dug his hooves into the ground as he took the attack dead on. The attack had enough force behind it he was pushed back to the edge of the clearing. With Kel rushing at him, Ern was quick to think and slammed his hooves, and a wall of rock rose before him. Digging his claws into the ground to avoid a collision. Kel released a blast of dark energy at the rock wall and pieces of it began to break apart, but for the most part, it remained firm. Kel's claws were unleashed as he began to cut at the wall, determined to cut it down and continue the fight.

However, as he cut an opening into the fortress around Ern, a deep rumbling began to emerge. Everyone had expected another wall to be constructed in haste. Instead, Kel bounced into the air as the earth began tearing up below him. It went straight past him and continued on. When Kel turned back, he saw Ern was gone, and instead a hole had been dug out for him to slip through. A look of realization and fear came over as he saw the earth was being uprooted and was snaking its way to the others. They had realized this as well, but Ern was blisteringly quick and burst out of the ground, his face a wicked grin.

Serena had tried to run, but the tremors from Ern had tossed her to the ground. Instantly he had slammed down onto the ground, which threw Serena into the air. Returning to the ground with a thud, Serena yelped in pain. She felt a weight pressing on her back and gasped in horror to see that Ern had her under his hoof. Closing her eyes in fear, Serena was scared. She was going to be crushed.

"Alright now, nobody move or else the little girl gets it," Ern threatened.

All three had an expression of shock and horror on their faces, but that soon turned into a look of pure rage for Kel and Feya. Ash meanwhile, was frozen with terror as he watched her friend be held hostage like this. None of them knew what to do as Ern had quickly seized the upperhand in one swift move.

"Let her go Ern," Kel lashed out.

"Sorry, but I don't think I have to listen to your commands," Ern chuckled before continuing. "Now then why don't you three disappear and I promise I'll treat the little one nicely."

The three of them knew they couldn't do that and so Kel felt anguished as he looked over at Feya.

"We have to go," he spoke in a low voice.

"What, you can't be serious!" Feya yelled. If they backed off now, they would not only her child but Serena as well.

"I think you better listen to the smart option, Feya. That way, no one gets hurt," Ern said as his face held a smug grin.

Feya was starting to cry as she refused to accept the reality of the situation. However, Ash had disappeared with the Riolu nowhere to be seen. Ern hadn't noticed that however, probably considering that he refused to see how a tiny Riolu could do much harm. That had been Ern's downfall.

Out of Ern's field of vision stood Ash to his right. However, something was wrong. His eyes were glowing blue and his body was emitting a burning blue aura. He was silent as he held a paw out in front of him. Though Ern had not noticed Ash, Feya, and Kel could only drop their jaws as they witnessed what came next.

A blast of aura erupted from Ash's paw and only then had Ern caught a glimpse of the Riolu. Unfortunately for Ern, he had no time to react as he felt the blast make contact with his body. In an instant, there was a shock wave as even Ern's heavy body was launched into a tree with great force. Ern was out cold when he made contact with the tree and collapsed to the ground.

Maybe it was because of what she had endured or the fact she hadn't been completely unscathed from Ash's ruthless attack, but Serena was feeling extremely tired and was soon asleep. Ash, meanwhile, stood still for a minute as Kel and Feya looked on with utter shock. He said nothing, however, as he fell to his knees and then followed suit in passing out as well. That left Kel and Feya as the only two Pokemon still standing.

"What was that?" Feya's voice was exasperated.

"Something unusual. Today's been crazy. Let's talk about it tomorrow." Kel only shook his head. He was just grateful everyone had come out of this unharmed, well, except for Ern.

The two didn't say much else as they found that Feya's baby was still safe in Ern's cart. Kel pulled out his bag and within it a few orbs, one red that he chucked at Ern. In a moment he disappeared into light, teleported away. The other orb was blue and this one Ern used on himself as a light enveloped him before striking all the other Pokemon in the forest's clearing. With that, the mission was complete as they returned to town. At this point, the sun had nearly set, and the moon loomed above. Tonight it was a full moon.

Hey guys, it has been a bit, I bet a lot of you thought this story would never see another update, but here it is. Pretty much on the two-year birthday of this story. Sorry for such a short chapter, but oh well. I will be honest here and talk about why I have not posted at all in the last two years and to be honest, things change. I started this story in a pre-covid world and just I think that speaks for itself how things have changed.

In the past two years, I've grown and found the person I love. I still write but at this point in time, I write stories that people commission and not fanfics, which are mainly just passion projects. And I hate to say it, but if someone pays me to write a story I'm gonna do that first. If you want to see more of my work, I'd be happy to link my FurAffinity but I'm not gonna do that here cause I don't want to be overtly advertising or anything.

Will I write more of this story? I might but it would probably be a while if I do. This chapter had been half written for a few years and a lot of other things, some that I would love to write, but right now life is busy and if I'm writing I'm doing commissions on Discord of FurAffinity. There are some cool ideas I want to try but the future is uncertain.