The wild Croconaw doesn't show much caution and lunges at Booth straight away. Booth dodges to the left. From the side he hears a clicking sound as Croconaw's jaw snaps shut.
Booth doesn't have much time to be surprised when Croconaw engages him a second time. Croconaw swivels on its right foot and dashes in using Slash.
Because the Slash is formed quickly, Booth isn't given much time to react. Regardless Booth notices the Croconaw's windup from its foot and crosses his arms to take the attack.
After his mistake with the Cufant in the horde battle, Booth pays more attention to the small details before a pokemon attacks. The battles this morning have been good practice for this idea.
Booth takes the Slash and sees the Croconaw start to slow down. Booth takes this time to look at his surroundings and plan for his next encounter.
'The Croconaw doesn't seem very fast at first, but its attacks are smooth and swift when it uses a move. It's likely a Fighter using power to speed up its moves. It made a good call saving its power for defense. However, I won't be attacking the normal way.'
Booth catches up to the Croconaw and uses his Fury Swipes. The claws cut into the Croconaw, draining its stamina in a flash.
Croconaw cries out before making another desperate lunge to retaliate. Booth concentrates hard and prepares a Fluid power. He injects the power into Pansear and uses his Art, Snakebite.
Pansear's body becomes stronger and more flexible for a few seconds. Booth doesn't miss his chance and evades the Croconaw. Booth grabs a hold on the Croconaw and is pulled with it for a few feet.
Booth quickly gains his footing and locks the Croconaw into a chokehold from the front. He begins charging up his power as he decides what to do next.
'I haven't used that many chokeholds yet. It's a little difficult to decide what I should do against an opponent with so much energy.' Booth thinks for a second and realizes a solution.
The Croconaw scratches at Pansear's back as it struggles to get free. Booth's Fluid power up runs out, but it's not enough for the Croconaw to get free on its own. Croconaw spawns the majority of its power and breaks free of Booth's grasp. It stands up in a dizzy state then turns its head to look at its opponent.
Booth has already prepared a Flame Burst to seize such an opportunity. The Flame Burst explodes with a loud bang. Booth's modifications make great use of the generous power filling the move, smaller bursts assault its target even after the main blast.
The flames gradually sink down and Croconaw falls down with them. Because Booth didn't activate his link in time, he didn't get the additional power up. He can still get one after finishing the Croconaw at least.
'Snakebite works better than I thought. The chokehold took some effort to maintain, but it took the opponent's power much faster than mine. I felt like I held the advantage throughout the whole exchange.
The best part is definitely how the opponent loses power to escape. I used a little power to set up and maintain Snakebite, and the reward was amazingly good. Against the right opponent, Snakebite can seal up a battle easily.'
Emmet is keeping watch. He enjoys watching battles, but this part of this valley isn't one to be careless in. Booth works on activating his link to finish the Croconaw. Booth's speed at activating his link has improved a lot since the beginning of the trip. If the battle was just a little longer he would have had his link for sure.
Booth's Integrator turns red as soon as his link is made. Booth kills the Croconaw and receives a power up like he expected.
"Hmm." Booth stops for a second.
"Are you all done!" Emmet asks.
"Yeah, and I think I got the new power up." Booth organizes his thoughts, while Emmet listens. "The power up's strength is wide, but it's also thin. Its not that its flimsy but its not that hard either."
Booth tries to explain the power up to Emmet.
"That should be the Sharp power up. This power up makes your movements more fine, and your attacks incredibly precise. And if the name didn't already give it away, the power up also makes your moves 'sharp'.
Perhaps the greatest strength of this power up is the boost it gives to concentrated attacks. Whether you use this power up for mobility or offense, it is sure to be great."
Booth is quite impressed with the power up. 'It sounds harder to use than the Solid and Fluid power ups, but the versatility that Emmet mentioned makes it seem better.'
Booth shares his thoughts on the Sharp power up, "The power up already seems very strong. I'm curious to see the improvement to mobility that you were talking about, but I'll save it for later.
For now we should continue our hunt."
Emmet nods, satisfied with Booth's enthusiasm. They quickly feed the Croconaw to their pokemon before moving on.
The two travel around the area for around twenty minutes, but aren't able to find anything.
"That's strange… we've traveled pretty far into the valley. I figured we would have found something by now."
The distance they traveled is hindered a little by their slow pace, but they have traveled far enough into the valley to find some kind of activity. Booth and Emmet continue searching for a while longer without finding anything.
While Booth isn't too worried about the lack of creatures, he does find the situation to be somewhat strange.
"Guooo!" A wild Swalot suddenly shows up in front of Booth and Emmet. The two quickly get ready for a fight. Even if the Swalot isn't good at fighting, its size and weight are enough to keep Booth cautious.
Booth is ready, but the Swalot just stands in front of them. A second later Booth realizes it has gone completely still.
"Hey, Emmet?" Booth sees the heavy wounds on the Swalot.
"Yeah, it's dead." Emmet replies.
They get closer and inspect the fallen Swalot. The body of the pokemon looks like it had been struck repeatedly by some kind of strong impact. They leave the body alone and continue forward.
Up ahead, the sound of a fighting can be heard. Booth stays vigilant as he moves towards the fight. In the distance Booth can see a group of pokemon are fighting.
"Tiered trainers!" Emmet calls out in surprise.
A small group of trainers are fending off a horde of around 15 pokemon. Unlike the hordes Booth and Emmet have fought, this one has multiple gifted pokemon in the group.
The scene is quite thrilling for Booth. The team of trainers utterly dominates the battle even with their disadvantage in numbers. One of the trainers uses an Excadrill. Under his control the Excadrill ruthlessly tears through the pokemon.
His claw pierces a Rockruff on the left, and slashes through an Ariados on the right. The other trainers are good, but none of them compare to the skills of the Excadrill trainer.
The trainers battle for a couple more minutes before finally dispatching the horde. Since the group is finished battling, Emmet steps forward to greet the group.
"Hello. We came from another part of the valley." Emmet says a simple greeting to the group.
The group of trainers is still on guard, but they ease up a little after a second of seeing them.
"I didn't know there was anyone else in the valley at this time." The Excadrill trainer says back.
"Yes, well we were just looking to improve our skills in the valley, when we suddenly couldn't find any pokemon in the area." Emmet replies honestly.
The Excadrill trainer nods and introduces himself, "I see. My name's Cole. We will be staying here for a few more days to hunt, so I hope we can get along."
The two groups approach each other to introduce themselves briefly. Cole's group of five still has some work to do, so Booth and Emmet help them out.
After their work is done the group comes back to discuss their hunting. Cole's group have been in the area for a few days longer than Booth and Emmet have. During this time they have explored pretty much everything except for the innermost region of the valley.
Cole's group tells Booth and Emmet where they will be hunting and even gives them some advice about the valley as thanks for the help. The groups talk for a while longer. After about half an hour, Emmet and Booth leave to get back to hunting.
The information they received helps reduce the time searching for pokemon. And lets them know which areas they should be careful of.
"They were pretty helpful. I didn't expect to see any trainers here. Are there that many tiered trainers who come here to train?" Booth asks.
"I'm not sure, but those trainers are probably just visiting from another town." Emmet slows down as they hike down a hill. "It's common for tier 2 trainer's to travel, they most likely came here because the area has more pokemon to hunt.
There isn't as much competition here, that doesn't mean the area is a bad place to hunt. Redwater Valley is just too far out for people to visit ordinarily."
Booth nods in understanding. They walk under the hot sun and search for some new prey. Thanks to Cole's team they finally find something. The horde they found has 10 pokemon total and likely has a few gifted pokemon as well.
"After seeing Cole's team, I'm feeling pretty bold. Are you up for a challenge?" Emmet says confidently.
Booth smiles, "Let's go for it!"
The two trainers attack fearlessly and clear yet another pokemon horde from Redwater Valley.
With a successful trip, the two tired trainers celebrate their victory and make plans to go back the next day.