Unfavourable Situation

"Electrike, on to the next one," I said in a very good mood.

[Sir, there are two people in the East direction. They are running here, probably due to the commotion from the previous battle that occurred.]

"Ohhh!!!! That's actually great. Gregory, to think your luck is this high?" I said with ecstatic tone.

"What are you even talking about? I don't understand," he said with a confused face.

"Never mind, lets put your acting to test. Gregory, you stay out with your Joltik and act like you are hurt. I and Electrike will hide for a sneak attack, same plan like the last time. Use string shot to get their pokeballs and I threaten them while you throw their pokeballs," I said hurriedly finding my spot to conceal.

"Fine, let's do that."

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Early Morning(around 4:30 am):

Everything went accordingly yesterday and we now have a total of 7 tokens including ours. After that, we couldn't find anyone closer which makes sense as this zone is way bigger than the previous zones. Getting five tokens this early is a miracle in itself, we thought we will take some rest until morning so that we can hunt with a fresh mind.

We did not sleep much yesterday due to all the walking so that we could reach the entrance. We planned to sleep till early morning as Electrike couldn't find anyone close enough, there's no point in wasting our time. Our vision in the dark did not help the cause. So, I thought why not wake up very early and then find for the targets who are still asleep to sneak on.

The sun was still not up but there was a bit of visibility around. At least we could see what's in front of us, Electrike still had no targets around on people in our vicinity to attack. We were now walking in a random direction, there's nothing we could do until we encounter someone, these are times I miss flying type Pokemon. Any flying type would have been great in this situation, thinking about flying types reminds me of Trevor and his Tailow.

That bastard somehow survived the first trial and was avoiding eye contact with me after the trial. I couldn't find his other companions which compels me to speculate that they died. My only wish is that I don't encounter Duke, I am not afraid of him but he is too creepy and gives me bad vibes.

Gregory was having my back like yesterday and I brought Sandile out, Electrike is resting for now. I feel a little hungry but it was manageable, though Gregory is a different story. He slept with an empty tummy yesterday and now he is feeling the weird sensation of gas forming in the stomach. We still have twelve hours to survive and my senses are hinting me of a big battle.

We were currently going deeper into the zone as I could feel the trees around getting denser. The terrain is getting too unpleasant as we walk and it's hurting us more because we have no water to relieve our thirst.

Tree roots here are above the surface which is making it difficult for us to roam comfortably. I returned sandile immediately and summoned Electrike as it was tough for him to dig underground. Electrike had a good six-hour rest by now so it won't be a problem.

After an hour walk, Electrike sniffed up a familiar scent.

[Sir, I have four familiar scents this time. I think all of them are together, but it's a bit faint which makes me guess that they are at least a 5km away.]

"It's fine, let's walk in their direction. I hope we find one or two of them before they escape," I said.

We started walking but as we got closer, the scent was getting stronger as per Electrike's words, which means they are running in our direction. After a decent amount of walk, we heard footsteps.

"Gregory this time you hide, I will act as bait. Try to at least take one Pokeball away with Joltik's help, we can handle the other two with a quick battle," I impatiently told Gregory. He quickly hid by climbing over a tree, it was a good spot to hide because of dense leaves around. Joltik quickly crawled over a branch on the right, it was funny because the way Joltik used her web to hang on the branch reminded me of the spider in the first Spiderman movie.

The footsteps got louder and a Houndour came into my view. It had a scary face with its teeth out like a mad dog.

'So they were not running away but picking targets using scent?'

Three guys came into my view, one looked very timid as he stayed way behind the other two. Houndour's owner was an unusually short guy, he had ear bangs and looked like a street rat. The other guy was standing beside the short one with an excited expression, he had a Krabby with him. Joltik quickly locked her target on the timid guy as he did not summon his pokemon yet.

The guy who had a Krabby said impatiently,

"Who do we have here? A guy daring enough to be in the open? You should have at least ran the moment you heard our footsteps, it would have been fun to chase and then get the token. Now that you are surrounded, just hand over the token."

"Sure, I will give you my token but please promise me that you won't hurt me? I really value my life and won't do anything stupid..." I started ranting to buy time for Joltik.

Joltik stealthily took the Pokeball and swung it towards Gregory. All three got alerted by the noise of Pokeball travelling towards Gregory, I promptly summoned sandile while Gregory threw the Pokeball far away. The timid guy ran to collect his Pokeball while only two remained in front.

'4 vs 2', the tables were turned and it was an easy battle. Electrike and Joltik used thunderbolt on Krabby while Sandile used dig on Houndour. Corphish followed the timid guy using aqua jet to attack and also collect the token. It was a quick battle where the opponents stood no chance, their Pokemon fainted in just five seconds after the attack.

"Ok, now I think you know what to do right? handover the tokens or I will kill one of you and then collect the other tokens on you. I don't know who I will kill but you can take your 50-50 chances," I stated calmly.

The Short guy who seemed to realize the reality quickly took out 4 tokens,

"Shawn what are you doing? he can't kill us or else the tokens will be invalid," shouted the other guy.

"Shut up Jake, he will kill us and take the other tokens on us. It's not worth the risk, think with your head. We picked the wrong target, we wait till the Pokeball heals our Pokemon and try our luck," said the short Shawn.

'He seems sensible and knows what to do in this situation.' I think I can try recruiting him if he survives this round.

"tsk, fine but this was all your idea and look what happened. I don't want to cooperate with you anymore, you and Larry go by yourselves," said Jake handing over the three tokens on him.

"Total of seven tokens!!!! that's too high. Don't tell me you guys were hunting all night without sleeping?" I asked in a bewildered manner.

"Yes, my houndour does better at night. I thought after we steal the token from you, we will hide for the whole day but I guess fate is not on my side," said Shawn with disappointment.

"Well, l can't do anything about that. You may leave now," I said. The guy called Jake already left, the timid guy called Larry came back with his Bonsly asking for help. Corphish was chasing him with his shrimp-like body which looked very funny.

Larry had only two tokens which he gave us, Both he and Shawn left together without saying much. We now had sixteen tokens with us which is very high, I think we can just hide and win this. There are only 18 other tokens out there but most probably Duke had the majority of them.

"Gregory let's take it slow from here, we have sixteen tokens so no matter what we can be in the top 5."

"I guess that's the best way, let's just get some rest before we start again. I feel a bit weak and tired from all the walking we did," he said in an exhausted state.

"Fine then, lets rest for an hour."

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Duke POV:

I currently have twelve tokens, I am not sure if they are enough to be number 1. How much would that Jay have?

I turned towards the guy called Trevor and said,

"Did your Tailow come back? I hope I get some info on Jay in an hour, we don't have much time. You will get a spot on my father's team as promised, but you need to help me as I can't take him on alone."

"Don't worry Boss, I am more than excited to kill Jay for you. My Tailow will come back in thirty minutes, Jay is lucky to be far away from us but he can't escape."

My promise to him was not worth a fart, this guy has no value at all. We now have a total of six people including Trevor, let's see if he can escape my assault. Jay should be killed at all costs, that guy will be a thorn on my path for sure. I had to use my father's reputation to coax people, I hate to use my father's help but it's better to think rationally than live by pride.

I have two pokemon and the other five have a total of eight. Jay has two Pokemon while that Gregory has one, I think there's no way they survive an 8 vs 3 assault even excluding my Pokemon right? even if the quality on our side is a bit low its still a big number difference.

"Taillow lowww" suddenly I heard the expected noise, I got up to find the situation.

"Trevor, how's the situation? how far is he from us?" I asked in a monotonous sound.

"Boss he is far away, I think we were teleported to the opposite sides of the zone. Good thing is that he is moving towards our direction, I think if we walk for six hours or so without taking rest, we might meet them."

"Hmm, that's bad. Six hours of continuous travel will wear us out in our condition. There are nearly nine hours before the trial ends, let's take our time and reach him at least an hour before. I think an hour will be enough to take care of him," I said.

"Yes boss, ok guys you heard the boss. Let's start walking, this is a very important mission and don't forget Jay might have more tokens than us," said Trevor.

At least he is good at maintaining the other idiots, I guess I will keep him as my dirty worker. We started walking under the harsh sunlight....

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Nine hours later:

Jay POV:

It's been nine hours and there's no sign of anyone around. I wonder where everyone is?

There are still fifteen minutes before the sunlight goes off and we couldn't find anyone, I guess sixteen is still enough to clear the trial. Now, we just need to wait for the time to run out and I can officially join the ranks of Team Rocket.

Gregory was already tired to the point where he can't walk, our low-quality footwear was already useless. I was doing fine but not enough to be called 'Perfect Condition', I was familiar with this kind of situations as I went without food a lot of times in the past.

Electrike suddenly called out to me in panic,

[Sir, there are a lot of people coming towards our direction. I think they all are together, they are running towards us. They might reach us in five to ten minutes.]

'Shit', my psychic senses were giving off bad vibes since yesterday and I did not know on what. Gregory is not in a position to run and even if we try to run we are not in a position to outrun Pokemon. Should I face them? I mean my psychic reserves are still there, I can stall for some time maybe?

"Gregory, I am not sure how many are coming but at the least I want your Joltik to steal a Pokeball. So, go climb the tree and try to sneak in at the right moment. Ask Corphish to be ready for an attack."

"Sure, but be careful. I think it might be Duke who is coming. If he can't do things alone, he comes with numbers."

"Ya I too am sure it's duke. So hurry up."

I summoned Sandile out and asked him to go underground for a sneak attack. Electrike went to hide behind a bush, I asked her to take one Pokemon out with a thunderbolt while I stayed as a bait.

Everyone got into position and many footsteps came from the North direction after five minutes. I saw Duke among them, to my surprise even Trevor was there with him. A total of six people and a count of 8 Pokemon, this is going to be tough. All of them were panting from all the running. After a ten-second pause, Duke came forward and spoke in a happy tone,

"I thought we won't be able to make it in time. Who would have thought that you would stop moving and stay in the same spot for an hour? I am sorry Jay, I promised you that we will meet in round three but now it seems I have to break the promise..."

x------- Chapter End --------x