Seviper

"Counterattack! Astonish!"

Swablu flew forward with a high-pitched, piercing cry, making Lotad rear up and step back slightly, a pained expression on its face.

But Astonish's effect was clearly limited. Lotad was evidently making a strong effort to overcome it, and the fear lasted only an instant. Swablu, meanwhile, would have to stop the move first because its throat couldn't bear the strain.

"Now, Natural Gift!"

With a hum, silver ripples emerged from the piercing sound waves and formed a sharp silver blade that flew toward Lotad. This was a Flying-type Natural Gift, a special effect brought about by the Lum Berry Terrance had processed. Swablu was using its cry as a carrier, releasing the move in the form of sound waves.

The silver wave was fast, and the move that suddenly shot from Swablu's mouth gave Lotad quite a fright. Faced with the threat, Lotad acted without hesitation, drawing on the surrounding power of nature. A shimmering green light instantly gathered into a small green orb that flew toward Swablu.

Nature Power was a move that worked much like Natural Gift, but was even simpler, faster, and required less time and effort. Unfortunately, Swablu couldn't learn it.

The place where Terrance and the others were battling was surrounded by grassland and flourishing trees, with thick patches of grass here and there. In such an environment, Lotad could easily draw on the energy of the plants. Although it was very weak, it could still cause damage.

The little green orb collided with the silver blade, producing a faint bang. The recoil sent both little Pokémon flying.

Swablu failed to steady itself against the oncoming current of air and was blown into the sky, looking thoroughly disheveled.

Lotad wasn't so lucky. It had used its move quite late, and most of the energy released when the moves collided burst out near it. The recoil sent the small Pokémon flying.

Seeing this, Terrance got a Potion ready. The battle had gone far enough, and it was time for his work: helping the Pokémon deal with any lingering problems after the fight.

"Swablu, Lotad, are you all right?" Terrance hurried over to check on the two Pokémon. Fortunately, neither had been badly hurt. Swablu especially had only recently hatched, and its body was still delicate. It couldn't afford to be injured carelessly.

Fortunately, the battle had ended in time, and neither Pokémon was particularly strong, so the aftermath hadn't caused much harm. Aside from excessive exhaustion, the minor scrapes were nothing serious. After Terrance took care of them, the two little Pokémon were full of life again.

"How did that battle feel?" Swablu landed on Terrance's head and listened to his question, chirping without seeming to know how to answer. It appeared very dissatisfied with its performance.

"Haha... just keep trying. Let's thank Lotad first." Terrance smiled and gently stroked Swablu, then joined it in thanking Lotad. He also began fulfilling his promise by taking Lotad to find a water source.

Terrance knew of three lakes nearby, all suitable for Lotad to stay at for the time being. They picked the closest one, which wasn't far away, and soon arrived in its vicinity. Once they crossed the patch of grass ahead, they would be able to see the lake.

But just then, Terrance suddenly caught a flash of red out of the corner of his eye. His heart jolted, and he thought, This is bad.

He quickly called Lotad to a halt and stopped in his tracks. But no sooner had he stopped than he saw a figure slither out of the grass opposite them, staring at them with hostility.

"...Seviper!"

Terrance cried out in surprise, thinking that their luck was bad. Seviper was no gentle creature and was often highly aggressive. This was not a good encounter.

"Run!" Terrance shouted at Swablu and Lotad, who were still standing there in a daze.

The two Pokémon came to their senses. Seeing Seviper flick out its sharp tail and slither toward them with its jaws open, clearly up to no good, they turned and ran.

At the same time, Lotad didn't forget to hinder Seviper, firing a Bubble Beam at it.

Seeing what Lotad had done, Swablu wanted to help too, and tried to scare Seviper away with a piercing cry.

But the two Pokémon's desperate resistance didn't stir Seviper in the slightest...

With a single swing of its Poison Tail, it scattered the Bubble Beam, rendering it completely ineffective.

As for Astonish, Seviper paid it no attention whatsoever.

"Thud!!"

Just as Seviper stared at the two Pokémon as though mocking them, a stone struck it hard on the head, leaving it stunned for a moment.

"Run, quick! Don't provoke it..." Terrance dusted off his hands and shouted, utterly unaware of what he himself had done.

There's probably a huge difference in their levels...

The two Pokémon and Terrance fled in haste. As Terrance scattered snake repellent powder, he couldn't help but smile bitterly.

Seviper's sharp tail, steeped in deadly poison, had made Terrance abandon any thought of joining the two Pokémon in a fight against it using his human intelligence.

Terrance had no desire to come into contact with even a drop of Seviper's venom out in the wilderness, so running was their best choice for now.

"Maybe I should prepare some traps for situations like this?" Terrance considered as he ran.

Although Seviper was certainly much stronger than Swablu, if he dug a big pit and made it fall in, then bombarded it with stones and Swablu's Natural Gift, that should take care of it, right?

As he thought about how to deal with Seviper, Terrance suddenly recalled events from the anime he had watched in his previous life.

To tell the truth, as a transmigrator, Terrance had only watched the Pokémon anime once as a child, as though it were an assembly-line routine. It was a childhood memory, and he hadn't studied it in depth. He remembered only a few of the more important characters; he had either forgotten or overlooked the others. As for the plot, he remembered only a few classic scenes and some particularly distinctive parts.

The anime had its inconsistencies.

After experiencing this real world and becoming part of it, Terrance had ultimately chosen to stop believing the overly illogical things exaggerated in the anime for entertainment. Instead, he treated this world as an unfamiliar place and learned about it bit by bit. Indeed, through his own exploration, Terrance had discovered many things that the anime had never explained.

Only after gaining a deeper understanding did Terrance increasingly realize that this world was more than a little story centered on the original work.

Everyone had their own way of life and their own dreams. For a real world, the story told in the anime was still far too monotonous.

"It didn't follow us, did it?"

Panting, Terrance glanced behind them, and he and the two Pokémon stopped.

As expected, the snake repellent powder he had specially prepared had worked. Presumably, the unpleasant smell had sent Seviper straight back the way it came.

"Chirp~" Swablu cried, unwilling to accept it, and seemed a little down.

"Don't be like that. You'll get stronger too. In less than a month, you'll definitely be able to beat it." Terrance comforted the sensitive little Pokémon with a helpless smile.

Lotad also called out, joining him in comforting Swablu. In Lotad's view, running away wasn't an act of fear, but a way to avoid a pointless fight. Swablu had only just hatched, and unlike Lotad, who lived in the wild, it had no experience surviving in nature.

To avoid running into Seviper again, Terrance rubbed a little snake repellent powder onto his clothes, then took Lotad in a different direction to look for another lake. Once more, the rustling of their passage through the grass echoed through the forest.