Ash's Pokédex bleeped and whirred into life. In spite of James' ongoing bloodcurdling screams, this drew attention towards them immediately. Even he went momentarily silent and his eyes went wider in horror as he saw the new victims. In spite of the years' of mutual dislike, he was not willing to watch another bloodbath before his helpless eyes. He shouted for them to get away from there, to run as fast as they could and never look back until he was silenced by a limb of the tree curling around his neck, splinters rupturing the skin mercilessly as the branch cracked with pressure. He barely registered the pain though; there were too many spots of agony on his body for his system to identify a new one. Even though he'd seen Jessie command the thing to attack him, he still regretted hurting her. He felt worse knowing he'd caused her depression to magnify itself to that level, and part of him was glad she was hurting him back. It was probably the only part of him that wasn't already in extreme pain.
Before Dexter could even start saying "pokémon unknown", it smashed into thousands of little pieces as Mihrasta's claws connected with it. Ash stood his ground and faced the monster, wondering if it was still possible to catch it. He then decided it was, twisted his cap back and started to order Pikachu to use thunderbolt attack on it. He stopped when he saw that his faithful friend had passed out and was taking increasingly shallower breaths. Jessie briefly regained control of her senses, and said "no". Grudgingly Mihrasta settled for inflicting a mere surface wound to Ash's chest to sate its urges. The spreading warmth in his jeans (with belt buckle still open at the back) made him realise that this was far more serious than any other situation he'd been able to reign victorious in before.
Misty's body was wracked with violent sobs, shaking uncontrollably as she saw her crush bleeding so much in his spread-eagled position. Was it really less than half an hour ago that she was storming away from the hut jealously? Then again it seemed a lifetime ago since they walked into that clearing, and now she'd willingly give the rest of her life just to stop that image burning in her eyes. She longed to know whether it would have turned out differently if she had stayed and made her presence known, but simultaneously part of her was horrified with the thought of her joining his hell. Togepi was not chirping for once; something about this creature seemed familiar to it, and memories of splattering over the stones flooded its head but it knew it couldn't be possible, the pain riddling its tiny body suggested that they were real all the same. It was too frightened to let out so much as a whimper.
Brock was first to break free of the hypnotising gaze James' body had on all of them, and shook his head to escape the spell, his noticeably greyed skin losing a dash of its lighter pigment as he did so. Without returning his focus to his former adversary, he snatched the back of Ash's collar and pulled him back, ignoring the urine splashing back on his leg. Had he succumbed a little more to fear, he most likely would have done the same as his younger companion, whether he'd been wounded by the monster or not. The fast action was enough to make the boy scoop up his unconscious pokémon and race out of the clearing. Brock had to support Misty all the way as she lacked such a degree of control over her system, and she retched multiple times as they hurtled out of there. Although he was not religious in the slightest, he offered prayers to any gods that chose to listen to save James, or at least show him mercy.
Mihrasta quickly regained control over Jessie once the distraction was gone, but allowed her some actions independent of its wishes. She walked over to her partner, and twisted his chin upwards to look into her eyes. She read intolerable agony, but what stunted control of her momentarily was her shock at seeing his pain. Not physically, but he looked emotionally ruined by the ordeal. His breath came in ragged gasps and had none spare to try to reason with her; he knew for certain that was beyond possible at this stage. But he did detect a certain shade of blankness in her normally glossy eyes, and it gave him the strength to utter what may well be his last few words. If the effort didn't kill him, the reactions caused by it probably would.
"Forgive me"
As if reading his mind, Meowth sprang into action, piecing together the conclusion James must have come to already. Tears welled in the pokémon's eyes as Meowth realised that was probably the last thing he'd hear him speak, but carried on regardless. If it all went to plan, he wouldn't hear anything from him again.
He wailed loudly, letting the heavy drops of tears fall from his eyes to the forest floor, trying to hear that rather than his claws slicing deeply into his close friend's skin, ripping flesh and muscle as though his claws instead glided through water. Ignoring the following screams took more than slight willpower, but his energy was spent and there was nothing he could do but crumple into a miserable heap and let his raw emotions drain out of his weakened system. The only good that came of it was that it worked.