Soren considered running momentarily but stopped after taking a few steps and ultimately decided against it. He doubted he could outrun whatever was closing in on them especially with all the dense forest and undergrowth around them.
Furthermore, he wasn't a fast runner and tired rather easily, making it incredibly impractical to run. Instead, he wrapped his arms and legs around the trunk of one of the largest trees he could find and used the bark for leverage.
He grunted, inching his way up the massive tree with the pace of a Wurmple, if not slower. The howls of the predators around them grew louder due to them closing in, prompting him to climb faster only for him to lose his grip and plummet back down to the bottom of the tree with a thud.
Soren groaned lying on the ground in a daze from having the wind knocked out of him. Wraith descended from one of the branches he had been sitting in and nudged his trainer. Soren forced himself to sit up despite the fact he was still struggling to catch his breath as a massive wolf Pokemon crept out from the thickets.
A bulky Mightyena lifted his nose to the air to take in the scents of his surroundings before barking out to what was like the rest of the pack behind him if the rustling undergrowth around him was any indication. He scanned his surroundings briefly and hunched down upon noticing Soren sitting at the base of the large oak he tried to climb. The Mightyena snarled and crept towards him, letting out a series of yips and prompting at least nine smaller Mightyena to spring out from the forest.
And judging from the fact that there was still a great deal of rustling branches and leaves around him, these were just the Mightyena he could see.
Soren reached into his backpack for a repel and felt around in the side pocket to count the amount of vials he had.
Three vials of repel.
Just as he thought, good for a standard expedition but not for warding off potential attackers – especially an entire pack of Mightyena. Not that he was afraid, or at least that was what he told himself since only an idiot showed fear in front of a Mightyena.
Besides, he had a plan – if one could actually call the half baked idea he had a plan and clinical insanity.
"Stay back, Wraith, I'll take care of this." he instructed.
The Dreepy tilted his head and gave him a perplexed look, glancing briefly at the circling Mightyena and back at his trainer.
"Go," the redhead repeated. "And whatever happens do not intervene, you're not strong enough to handle something like this yet."
He winced at the forcefulness of his voice and chided himself for scolding his starter for just trying to help him, but unfortunately for his plan to work, Wraith needed to be far away.
Wraith reluctantly flew away, perching up on another tree branch and peeking over the edge to keep an eye on his trainer.
Soren emptied the entire first container of repel, dousing himself and his backpack with the spray. He grimaced. The solution burned like fire but he knew the Mightyena would not like it much either. One whiff and their sensitive noses would burn even worse than his skin and if it came to it…he doubted it would taste very good if he was bitten. He slowly slid his pack from his back and held it in front of him like a shield. He wasn't entirely sure how well it would protect him but it certainly had to be better protection than nothing.
The pack leader let out a demonic howl, prompting the entire pack including those in hiding to follow suit. Soren gritted his teeth.
"That's all you got?" he bellowed, thumping his chest and projecting a bravado that would have made a Machoke proud.
The pack leader rushed forward and lunged at him only for Soren to swing his backpack, hitting Mightyena in the face with the repel soaked bag. The Mightyena recoiled – his mouth and nose burning from the repel. Soren quickly sprayed another dose of repel from a second can of repel in his face for extra measure, the Mightyena snarled from inhaling another whiff of the repel and ran away. Several of the smaller Mightyena surged forward to avenge their pack leader. Soren leapt out of the way and discharged all that remained in the second vial of repel, aiming the spray straight into the faces of every Mightyena that dared attack him.
The smaller Mightyena yowled in agony and took off with their tails tucked between their legs. Seeing some of their peers and their leader unable to deal with the repel, most of the remaining Mightyena retreated into the forest. Judging by the sound of snapping branches and rustling leaves, many of the other Mightyena had followed suit. Soren whipped out one last can of repel and stepped towards the remaining Mightyena still circling him which caused them to think better of attacking.
Despite their desire to avenge their leader, the remaining Mightyena darted off into the night without a fight.
Soren let out a sigh of relief and shook his head upon seeing the holes left in his backpack from Mightyena's teeth. He didn't even want to imagine what their teeth could or would have done to human flesh. He had survived and with a can of repel to spare.
He motioned for Wraith. "You can come down now," he said.
The Dreepy screeched in acknowledgement and sailed down from his spot in trees, landing on the forest floor just in front of his trainer. Wraith looked up at his trainer in admiration.
"See, all taken care of just like I said,'' Soren chuckled. "I'm sorry to have scolded you, but as you can tell, I needed space to be able to use those. Didn't want you to get blinded or hurt by the spray while I was dealing with the Mightyena."
Wraith gave him a friendly shriek, seemingly voicing his appreciation. Or at least that's how Soren chose to interpret it given how exuberant his starter was. Granted, he didn't have the longest attention span. The Dreepy had quickly returned to his favorite method of entertaining himself with acrobatic loops and twirls through the air.
"Don't get too excited. Not sure we should linger, Wraith, Mightyena can be proud Pokemon. We wounded their pride a bit not only by beating them but by how we beat them." Soren remarked.
Wraith glowered at him and hissed in disapproval.
"I don't like it either but we should probably get moving. Can you see in the dark?"
Wraith nodded.
Soren looked around warily. As much as he hated to admit it, the Mightyena incident jarred him and left him somewhat unsure of how to proceed. On one hand, he didn't want to stick around his campsite due to the chance that the Mightyena would return to avenge their defeat. Furthermore, he wanted nothing more than to find somewhere to wash the repel off of him. It still stung badly and likely would until it either wore off or he washed the chemicals off. On the other hand, he wasn't fond of traveling at night since there was always the potential of running into the Mightyena pack again or something else that could prove to be trouble.
He weighed the pros and cons in his head.
Ultimately, he decided it was less of a risk to press onward to his destination – mostly because he had a secret weapon. Wraith could be his eyes and sail above the forest floor, searching for threats ahead of them. And judging by the way he weaved through the forest canopy, his night vision was superb.
Combined with one more bottle of repel, he liked their chances with putting some distance between them and their campsite. Besides, making some additional progress towards their destination was always a good thing.
A faint chime jolted Soren awake from his slumber. The redhead groaned and stretched his arms and legs. He sat up and leaned against the trunk of the tree behind him.
Wraith nudged him in the ribs and shrieked at him.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm getting up," he grumbled, rubbing his eyes and finally standing up. "Gotta keep moving, right?"
Wraith hissed in agreement before nudging Soren's ribs again. The redhead rolled his eyes but reluctantly scooped him up and hurled him up into the air. He technically didn't need the help to glide or take off but he seemingly enjoyed the extra push. Wraith screeched appreciatively and caught the first air current he could find to help propel him even further into the sky.
Three days and they were finally reaching the home stretch and in his honest opinion they could not reach Rustboro soon enough. The heat and humidity over the past two days had been unbearable and he had gotten little sleep over the past three days, opting to take several short hour long naps during the day instead of setting up camp like he had before. It was safer that way even if it was more taxing on his body and his mind.
Judging by how Wraith was doing less of his aerial acrobatics over the past few days and his lethargy, the lack of sleep was getting to him as well. Although putting Wraith's hyperactivity to good use instead of just letting him fly around and pester him was probably a factor in that.
When he wasn't scouting out the path ahead, Soren had him lifting tree branches to try to build up his physical strength since it was something Wraith's species lacked without proper nutrition for growth and exercise. He would have even had him lift his backpack but he doubted the dragon type had the strength to do that quite yet.
However, he had also given Wraith another important task. The Dreepy was on the hunt.
"How's it look up there?" Soren called out.
Wraith shrieked loudly from somewhere in the forest canopy above. Soren squinted, attempting to find him but to no avail. The light from the sun peeking through the treetops cast large swaths of shadow that Wraith blended in extremely well with.
"Let me know if you spot anything!" Soren exclaimed, prompting an exuberant shriek in reply.
They didn't have far to go until they reached Rustboro – a day's journey at worst and that was if they stopped to rest again. If they didn't stop, he imagined they could make it by late afternoon. As much as he wanted to get to Rustboro, rest, and clean himself up, he realized that he was being given an opportunity that he would have been foolish not to capitalize on.
He needed to add to his team before challenging Roxanne and fortunately for him the forest was teeming with life. They had seen the occasional Wurmple peek out from stumps to watch them pass by, Wraith had chased off more than a few Taillow while gliding around the forest canopy, and a few Zigzagoon darted off into the forest upon seeing them.
Unfortunately, those weren't exactly what Soren had in mind. He needed something that would give him an edge against the gym and something to add a bit more versatility to his team. As it was, Wraith didn't have much in terms of ranged techniques.
However, he did have a plan – skimming through the Pokedex he decided upon what to try to add to the team and with any luck, he would find himself a Shroomish. The forest was the perfect place to catch a Shroomish and the mushroom Pokemon checked off quite a few of the boxes he was looking for. Not only would a Shroomish have type advantage against Roxanne's rock type Pokemon but they could generate spores that were generally effective at incapacitating opponents which with the proper training could be used to fight from a distance. It also helped that they were generally easier to raise, which considering how hyper Wraith could be was probably a good thing.
A sharp screech above snapped him out of his thoughts and Wraith dipped below the canopy and into view once more. He shrieked again, taking wide and looping circles to draw attention to something on the forest floor.
Soren cocked his head. Had he finally found what they were looking for?
Wraith screeched even louder, prompting Soren to pick up his pace. Twenty, maybe thirty yards, and he quickly came across yet another patch of decaying leaves scattered about on the forest floor. The trainer slowed and lifted the collar of his shirt over his nose and mouth, using it as a makeshift mask. He didn't see any signs of life but felt it was better to err on the side of caution just in case they were successful this time.
"Wraith, remember what I told you?"
He screeched enthusiastically.
"Keep your distance if we find one and do not let Shroomish shake because then it releases spores, if necessary stop it with Disable. I don't want it releasing any spores." Soren instructed as he reached for a few long branches lying on the ground.
Soren snapped the curled end of the branch off, leaving him with a relatively straight stick. He rolled it around in his hand to get a feel for its weight before hurling the branch like a spear straight into the middle of the pile of leaves.
Leaves flew up into the air before fluttering harmlessly to the ground. Soren snapped the gnarled end off another long branch and whipped it into another spot in the leaf pile hoping the makeshift javelin would cause something to surface this time, but to no avail.
The redhead sighed. They were having rotten luck. Surely at least one leaf pile would have a Shroomish hiding in it.
Soren grabbed one more stick and snapped off the crooked end for one last toss. A muffled gurgle came from the leaf pile. Apparently, the third time was the charm.
A perplexed Shroomish popped up from the leaf pile and looked around frantically before locking eyes with Wraith. Shroomish let out a frustrated gurgle and a tangled mess of vines sprung up from seeds dropped on the ground and stretched all the way up to the canopy to snag onto Wraith's tail. Wraith screeched indignantly, both caught off guard and angered that he had been challenged in the air by Shroomish unleashing vines. He made a looping turn and dipped low, strafing the mushroom Pokemon and prompting it to try to hide in the few remaining leaves on the ground.
Wraith shrieked again and darted towards Shroomish again, this time clipping it and knocking it off balance as he flew by.
Soren gritted his teeth. What happened to using Disable and keeping his distance? "Wraith, no!" he exclaimed.
Wraith circled his foe to ram the grass type again but Shroomish had enough and shook violently.
Soren scrambled backwards, hoping to avoid getting doused with whatever spores Shroomish released into the air. Unfortunately, Wraith clearly hadn't been so lucky if the fact he was writhing on the ground served as any indication.
Soren rolled his eyes and unclipped a Poke Ball from his belt, whipping it at Shroomish and catching it by surprise from behind. The Poke Ball pulled Shroomish into the confines of stasis and dropped down on the ground where the grass type had once been.
One. Two. Three.
A little shaking but the device chimed to indicate the capture was successful. At least the capture part of the plan went smoothly. Soren aimed Wraith's Poke Ball at him, letting the device pull him into stasis before releasing his starter on the ground in front of him.
He wasn't taking any chances with the spores.
Soren reached into his backpack and pulled out several different medicines, pouring a couple drops of each into Wraith's mouth. While it clearly didn't negate the toxins completely, Wraith certainly stopped shaking and opened his eyes.
"Have we learned a lesson today?" Soren chuckled. "More specifically why it is a very bad idea to get up close to a Shroomish."
Wraith's eyes narrowed but ultimately nodded even if done begrudgingly. Soren poured a few more drops of medicine in the Dreepy's mouth for good measure to help kick the toxins out of his body.
"There's a reason we approach things with a strategy and stick to that plan. When you go off-script, you frequently encounter surprises and surprises like Shroomish spores kinda suck as you now know. So now you know – don't go off-script!"
The redhead laughed even more as his own advice started to sink in. If only he had told himself that a few days ago. How much trouble they could have saved by not going off-script, but he supposed what was done was done and he got a Shroomish out of it. More importantly, Wraith had some valuable experience in trusting Soren's advice. Maybe going off-script wasn't so bad at times, after all, even when it did inevitably cause one to make mistakes. If nothing else, you could learn from it and they were definitely learning.
Soren had never been so relieved to be in a city. Beds, air conditioning, and hot food were also going to be a refreshing change of pace from leaning against trees, humid Hoenn wilderness, and flavorless prepackaged meals. It was amazing how much one took the simple things for granted until they were gone.
He smiled at the sight of a few staples he had come to know from his past trips to Rustboro. The Rustboro Suites loomed large over the smaller buildings – the luxurious apartment complex serving as a reminder that despite its simplicity Rustboro had some affluent figures. He passed Obsidian Cafe, one of his favorite places to eat when visiting Rustboro, and saw Rustboro Academy in the distance.
But none of that was important for the time being, he promised to stop by Skylar's house when he arrived and he wasn't one for going back on his word. Even if he wasn't terribly fond of the idea of meeting up with his sister again.