The Terrifying Human Trainer and Caterpie Partner (Part 2) (Please Keep Reading)

In the Caterpie Leader's sight, that Caterpie was gulping down breaths, its lower body trembling continuously as if it were suffering from spasms.

Clearly, using Tackle Five-Shot Barrage three times in a row had drained it tremendously. That Caterpie was already utterly exhausted.

Yet compared to its weary body, that Caterpie's eyes shone brightly, filled with fighting spirit.

In fact, it had seen that determined look in Caterpie's eyes many times before.

But never once had it been so shaken.

Why could human Trainers and their Pokémon partners go this far?

"Si, si."

Suppressing its discomfort and the slight trembling in its body, the Caterpie Leader took a deep breath and invited that Caterpie to a real battle.

At its command, several Leader's Guards slowly spread outward and began gathering the surrounding Caterpie Group, preparing to encircle and suppress that Caterpie.

Meanwhile, it led the Caterpie slowly through the forest.

At some point, the human Trainer had climbed back up into the treetops. It seemed he had no intention of interfering with the coming battle.

The Caterpie Leader kept breathing in and out, relaxing its body as much as possible.

This Caterpie was powerful, but it was already extremely fatigued, and it had not noticed the Caterpie Leader's intentions.

—The battle had actually already begun.

The exact same trap activated when Caterpie's Feet lightly touched a thread on the ground. A chain of threads reacted, instantly rising from the ground and tightening.

In less than the blink of an eye, Caterpie had been wrapped in threads and turned into a white cocoon.

Tackle (Adamant Penetrating Strike)!

Every thread wrapped around Caterpie snapped apart, scattering in all directions.

But unlike last time, the moment Caterpie broke free from the threads, it heard two whistling sounds tearing straight toward it.

Thanks to Mark sharing his combat experience with the Caterpie Leader, the Caterpie Leader had upgraded the slingshot wooden-spike traps it made.

More precisely, it had upgraded the wooden-spike traps into chained traps.

Whoosh—

Tackle (Instant Strike)!

At the critical moment, Caterpie used Instant Strike to evade awkwardly, only to discover another whistling sound immediately following it—aimed precisely at the spot where it had reappeared after using Instant Strike!

Tackle (Instant Strike)!

Caterpie squeezed out what little stamina it had left and barely used Instant Strike again. However, it was just a little too slow, and the sharp wooden spike grazed the area near its tail.

Just then, a voice came from above. It was its owner, Mark.

"Looks like the Caterpie Leader is pretty capable. It made all these preparations in just one day. I thought I'd need to help it set everything up in a couple of days to reach this level. I really underestimated it.

Your Instant Strike has a weakness. I corrected you on it back in the Dream World, but there hasn't been any obvious improvement. My guess is that it's because you haven't faced a truly dangerous situation.

So, the stat-boost training in the Dream World has its limitations too.

All right, enough nonsense. Let me explain the weakness in your Tackle (Instant Strike) in detail.

When your body is tired, or when you aren't fully focused, you always instinctively dodge toward the two o'clock direction. Usually, you dodge between seven and nine meters.

I hope you can truly overcome this weakness in the upcoming Combat Training.

Also, I gave the Caterpie Leader a small suggestion: I told it to smear Bauhinia Vine sap onto the slingshot wooden spikes. I wonder if it did it..."

"Si?"

Caterpie turned to look at the wound near its tail and saw that it was slightly red and swollen. A numbing, aching sensation spread from it at the same time.

"Looks like the Caterpie Leader did it. Don't worry too much. Bauhinia Vine sap isn't very toxic and is usually used as an anesthetic ingredient. It will only make your body feel a little numb and achy, slightly affecting your ability to move.

However, your second weakness is a more serious problem."

"Si?"

Caterpie was full of confusion, having no idea what weakness it had exposed this time.

"It's your grasp of the battle situation. Remember: on the battlefield, don't let the enemy's sweet talk influence you, and don't follow all of my commands either. You're the protagonist of the battle, and sometimes your judgment of the situation is actually better than mine.

Hmm, what I'm saying is, while you were listening to me talk, the Caterpie Leader already ran away. It probably only set up those traps, and you missed an opportunity to defeat it."

Caterpie froze for a moment, then looked up at Mark, who was smiling down at it.

Over the past few days, it had greatly admired Mark for being so intelligent and knowledgeable.

Although it usually could not understand Mark's explanations of all that knowledge, it thought Mark was incredibly, incredibly, incredibly cool!

But at this very moment, it only felt that its owner was far too cunning!

Truly too cunning!

He clearly knew it was not very smart, yet he still toyed with its intelligence. It was absolutely awful!

It hated Mark right now!

Caterpie lowered its head and refused to look at Mark above. Before it realized it, it suddenly felt terribly wronged.

It was obvious that it listened to Mark because it trusted him unconditionally, yet Mark actually said it should not listen to him completely—and that what it had done was wrong...

Then, just as Caterpie tried hard to keep the tears from welling up in its eyes, Mark's voice rang out once more.

"Your third weakness is that you are too easily ruled by your emotions. Your fighting spirit is easily affected by them.

"At first, influenced by fear and cowardice, you did not dare face the wild Caterpie Group here. Even when you were attacked, you did not dare fight back.

"Later, when you saw me injured and bleeding, anger took over your mind. You forgot everything we had practiced and merely attacked wildly under the influence of rage.

"You are the same now. Because of my sweet talk, you have become aggrieved and unwilling again.

"Let me guess. If I had not pointed out this third weakness of yours, your next battle would definitely have gone terribly wrong, so..."

As Mark spoke, Caterpie stood frozen in place as if petrified.

—Its mentality had completely collapsed.

Rustling sounds came from all directions. While Caterpie stood there in a daze, the Caterpie Group within the territory had already completed their encirclement.

Clap!

Mark clapped his hands sharply. Caterpie jolted awake from its stupor and looked around in panic at the Caterpie Group closing in from all sides.

The second round of Combat Training had begun...

Night deepened, and the stars shone brilliantly.

Deep within Caterpie Territory, Mark had lit a campfire and was roasting a rabbit over it.

Unlike the Pokémon anime world, where ordinary animals did not exist, Pokémon in this world were an invasive species that had appeared ten thousand years ago.

As a result, some small mammals and insects lived in the forest.

The rabbit Mark was roasting was one he had caught not long ago.

Seeing that the rabbit meat was nearly done, Mark handed a piece to the Caterpie Leader, but it shook its head.

Like his Caterpie, the Caterpie Leader was not interested in meat.

Mark smiled and handed the Caterpie Leader a piece of taro that had been buried in the fire. His Caterpie loved this food, so the Caterpie Leader would probably like it too.

As for why Mark had not given any to his own Caterpie, it was because his Caterpie had already fallen fast asleep.

Tonight's actual battle could be said to have been Caterpie's most brutal one in recent days. It was especially exhausted, and there were more wounds on its body as well...

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