I'm sorry for being gone for so long. I have had a lot of things happening such as writer's block, other stories I've been working on, and just life and stuff. But now I'm back and I can start working on the unfinished stories I've started. I can't say for sure when each chapter wil be updated, being that I'm busy working on four stories. Yes, you heard me. Four.

The other story is in my other profile Sinful Dragon. I've never realized working on four stories at once could be so hard. I don't know where the inspiration comes from half the time. It really all depends on my mood when I write. All right. Enough rambling. Read the chapter and pleae review. I don't like it when people read and don't review because I don't know what they think of it. Enough said.

Chapter 11: Stealth

My eyes widened in surprise as the Sneasel easily batted my Shadow Ball away with a swat of his arm, the purple ball disappearing into the night sky. The smirk remained upon his face. "Was that the best you had?" he asked. "In all honesty, I was expecting a bit more."

"You want more?" I asked, the thrill of excitement coming to me again. "All right! This should be an interesting battle!" I rushed forward, using Quick Attack. I learned it when I was an Eevee, but for the moment, my focus was completely on battling as I ran at the Sneasel. However, just as I made contact, the Sneasel jumped out of the way and leapt into the forest. I stopped my attack and went to go charge in after him when I heard his voice behind me, laughing.

I turned my head, blinking in surprise. How did he get behind me so fast? I spun around and faced the direction his voice came from, but this time, it came from my left side. I turned left, but then his laughter came from behind me yet again. Where was this guy really at? And how was he able to move so fast? Sneasel couldn't learn Quick Attack, could they?

"Where are you?" I asked, looking around quite confused. The Sneasel only chuckled again, but this time with a hint of a deeper, darker tone.

"I may be here, Umbreon," he said. "Or I could be over here."

I looked around, confused. How was it that this guy was able to get from one spot to another within seconds? I needed a way to be able to tell where he was, which would mean that these lights would have to go. I smiled to myself, imagining the look of surprise on the Sneasel's face as I easily beat him down. I fired off a Psy Beam attack, breaking all the lights until the entire area became dark. Due to the lighting, my night vision was delayed in being activated.

Once my night vision was cleared up, I quickly looked around, hoping to spot the Sneasel from wherever he was, but to my surprise, I did not see him. This wasn't possible. A Sneasel couldn't just disappear like that, especially from one who had the ability to see in the dark. I suddenly groaned in pain as I felt something slash across the right side of my body. I heard an evil chuckle and glanced up into a tree. There, sitting upon the branch, was the Sneasel, only the odd thing was, I could only see his head. The rest of his body wasn't there.

"Why couldn't I see you?" I asked. "How are you everywhere at once? And how come I can only see your head and not the rest of you?"

"Hmm," the Sneasel said, a claw appearing as he looked at it in a bored interest. "Perhaps I should tell you exactly who I am and what it implies. My name is Stealth, Umbreon. And like my name, I blend in with the shadows, becoming one with them, like your types. I have offed millions of people and pokemon since I've learned how to control the ability. When it comes to a shadow battle, I cannot be bested."

"Yeah, well, we'll see about that," I said with a grin.

"Shall we now?" Stealth said, looking quite serious before he completely disappeared once again. I perked my ears up and concentrated hard on listening for his approach. My eyes glanced around every which way, hoping to catch a slight movement that seemed out of place. Suddenly, I felt something quite cold blasting me from my right, agitating the wound inflicted on me. I grimaced in pain as I held my ground. "Strong you are. But even the strongest pokemon like you will fall in due time."

"Do you always talk more than you fight?" I asked. "Because it bores me. And I'm pretty sure it wasn't your attacks that killed all those pokemon half the time."

"Cocky little runt, aren't you?" Stealth said, obviously a nerve struck. "Fine. If you wish your life to end, I'll do you that favor then."

I once again perked my ears up to listen for him in case he came rushing at me, but never heard anything. Not even the soft steps of his feet upon the ground. The next thing I knew, my right ear was grabbed, my head being yanked down to the ground right before I received a series of blows to the head. Then something made contact from beneath me, my head snapping straight up before I felt a kick to my throat. I stumbled back some, coughing.

"You're one to speak," said Stealth. "Listening for me will do you no good. I can shroud out anything when I'm in the shadows, even the sounds of my own footsteps. And yet here you stand, not doing a thing to even attempt to stop me from killing you. But then again, it wouldn't matter if you did. Whether you fired off an attack to stop me or not, you'd still never find me."

I growled slightly, the sound of his voice beginning to grow irritating to my ears. I swung an Iron Tail around in a circle, hoping to catch Stealth. Unfortunately, my tail ended up hitting nothing but air. The glow soon faded as I stopped my spinning, only due to me getting dizzy.

"You just don't learn, do you?" Stealth asked as I felt a kick to my left back leg, causing it to buckle. I quickly turned about, using my front paws for a spin and fired off a Shadow Ball where I thought he'd be. "Nice try." I felt his claw karate chop my back, not breaking it, but bruising rather badly. I grimaced through the pain, holding my ground so as not to fall. "My you're a strong one, but even strong types like you can't last forever."

"It'll take a lot more than a karate chop to the back to bring me down," I said with a grunt. All Stealth could do was chuckle, probably at my endurability.

"We'll see," he said, his voice a whisper. O.K. I probably only had a few minutes before he struck again. So my mind began running fast on any possible way I could catch this Sneasel off guard. The problem was, however, that I couldn't tell where he was coming from, let alone when he would strike. There had to be a weak spot, everyone had one, no matter how powerful they thought they were. Even I had weak spots, though I never went around telling them to anyone.

"I hope you have some famous last words you wish to get off your chest, Umbreon," Stealth said from all around. "Because this is the end for you."

"Only that you stop talking," I said. Really. What was with this guy and always talking? He more like nagged his enemies to death rather than physically do any real damage to them. That's when it clicked. Of course. I had been so busy trying to figure out where the Sneasel was that he's been showing off his weak point all along, or more like talking it. Ah! Doesn't matter. Time to act.

"If that is what you want," the Sneasel said, his voice coming from every which way direction.

"Better than being nagged to death," I said with a grin.

"Heh," Stealth said, a nerve obviously struck once again. I perked my ears up straight and concentrated real hard on his voice this time, trying to pinpoint his location. "You'll certainly die for that comment, Umbreon. And are you really still trying to listen for me? Pathetic. If I've told you once I'll tell you again. I can silence everything about me. You wouldn't even hear me coming as I finish you off. No one I've ever faced has." There. I glanced over in the direction I heard his voice coming from, readying up an attack. "And you won't make much of a difference either."

I suddenly turned towards the direction his voice was coming from, smiling victoriously as I did. "What?!" he said in surprise as I quickly spun around, an Iron Tail ready. This time, I felt it hit home. I must have sent him flying good, for the tree his leader was standing in front of was the tree he hit hard against. I looked over towards the tree, seeing the Stealth's unconscious body lying there. The hit must have knocked him out of his stealth form.

I let out a sigh of relief, staggering over to a tree to rest for a while. The wounds he caused weren't that bad, save for my back. But I'm sure that would heal over time. I slumped up against the tree, now realizing how exhausted I really was. It's funny how one doesn't notice something until after it's all over. Of course, what I thought was going to be a chance to recover my strength only turned out to shortened as I watched Stealth quickly come to and began getting up.

"Never in my whole life had I thought I'd get hit like that," Stealth said. I could clearly see the mark I left on his face. A rather nasty bruise it was. I was surprised that I was that strong, or was that just a lucky shot? Either way, it didn't help the fact that the Sneasel was getting back up. And he looked quite out of it. He smiled and giggled strangely. "My perfect record of being undefeated, broken. Now I'm really going to kill you."

Yeah. I was pretty much in big trouble. Some of his words were hard to hear. It was probably due to the exhaustion, for my vision was trying to black out. All I could see next was the Sneasel charging at me, claws sharpened, ready for the kill. I'm not sure what happened right then and there. It could have been dumb luck or it could have been the exhaustion finally hitting me all at once. I wasn't sure. All I knew was that I suddenly slumped sideways, the sharp claws missing my neck completely. All I heard was a weird crunching sound, like somehting got broken.

My senses suddenly returned and I blinked a few times, wondering how I ended up lying on the ground. I took a look up to where I was standing just moments ago to see Stealth standing in my place, his claw puncturing right through the tree I was leaning against. I could see wide alarm and panic on his face. Obviously he wasn't expecting me to dodge like that. I would call it dumb luck that got me out of that situation. Stealth's attention ws no longer on me, but rather the tree which appeared to be swaying about his way. Or more like it was starting to lean towards him.

I got up, attempting to help the Sneasel even if he did try and kill me. Stealth must have noticed me getting up, for he held out his free claw and threw up a yellow barrier, preventing me from helping him. "What are you doing?" I asked as the tree began to gain momentum.

"I lost," Stealth said. "To lose now and return to the clan would be a disgrace to them."

"So you're going to die just because you lost?" I asked, worriedly looking up at the tree as it was coming down. "That's stupid."

"Heh," Stealth said. "You don't have a clue as to what you're about to deal with. You'll soon meet your downfall at the hands of d-" The rest of his sentence was cut off as the tree broke through his Light Screen and crushed him. I looked away, not wanting to see Stealth crushed. The idiot. I could have helped him. He didn't have to die just because he lost. But would I be dead if I tried to help him? And who was the name of the person he was about to mention? Could it have been the leader of this "Element Clan" I stumbled across? It seemed to be so. And all I had of his name was the letter D, possibly. And there were a lot of names beginning with D. But I'm sure I had plenty of time to ponder over it. As of right now, I was really tired and wanted to do nothing more than return to the group, even though I was hungry right around now. Without a backward glance, I used my back feet to throw dirt behind me, as to pay my respects to the now late Stealth before I walked off back to my group.