The next day, team 1 and team 3 had zero kills. They could not spot a single group of Hawlucha, and they searched almost everywhere. In the evening, the two teams came and reported their findings.
"How many groups did we kill?", asked Axel.
Since they were in the spirit of competition, they had forgotten that there were only a few members in the Hawlucha tribe.
"So, there are around 70-80 groups in the Hawlucha tribe, and we have already killed around 30? No wonder there are no groups of the Hawlucha tribe. Hmm, this changes things."
One of the reasons why the Hawlucha tribe was stronger than the Primeape tribe was due to having a greater number of king-rank Pokemon with them. Axel didn't know the exact number, but it was more than two.
"Hmm, for two days, there will be no hunting. Tell the leader Gorn, too, that for the next two days, it will be very risky to go on the hunt. If it doesn't take my advice, then it is not our problem."
Axel had a feeling that the Hawlucha tribe would strike back in some other way. They had killed almost 50% of their tribe. This was not a joke.
"Now, we will have to target a different tribe. You can target the Ursaring tribe for four days. All of you. When the Ursaring tribe's count goes down, we will have to set a new target."
Actually, these three tribes were the weakest of the nine tribes. Nobody messed with the Snorlax and Slaking tribe, as they were the strongest. It was rumored that they had pseudo-champion rank Pokemon. It was just a rumor, but the rumors were enough.
Axel didn't expect his team to be so highly efficient in killing and assassinating.
###
Pokemon POV starts,
Staraptor was happy that it was going to win against Magneton, but after hearing Axel's new order, it felt that heaven was not on its side. Just when it had devised a perfect plan, Axel said to change the target.
Now they were going to battle against Ursaring.
'Calm down.. Calm down.', thought Staraptor
The final evolution of Ursaring was Ursaluna. It was a powerful Pokemon with strong attack and health. Team 3 had an advantage against it because Ursaluna was weak to fighting-type moves, and the team had three Primeapes.
'But how do I win against Blastoise and Magneton?', thought Staraptor.
It was happy that Ursaluna was a ground-type Pokemon because this meant that it was immune to electric-type moves. Unlike Annihilape, evolution from Ursaring to Ursaluna was quite simple, and almost everyone went through the process of evolution.
But Magneton was not a heavy hitter. It was Togekiss, Primeape B, and D.
'Let's not think about other teams. Let's think about my team.'.
Lairon had many grass-type moves, but it was only a common rank Pokemon. It could not contend with elemental rank and pseudo-king rank Pokemon.
Staraptor could create a new move specifically for Ursaluna, but it would take a long time, and even though it was able to do it in a limited time, it was only a rare rank Pokemon. A single move that a rare rank had not appropriately mastered Pokemon was not going to make any difference in the overall performance.
'Sigh, it looks like I will have to shake hands with the enemy.'
###
Blastoise was training on a move that it wanted to create. Till now, it had only upgraded its existing moves and created one new move. But Staraptor had already made two new moves of its own. How could it sit here lying down and doing nothing?
So, it was thinking about what the new move must be like. After training and fighting against multiple Pokemon, especially Ursaluna, it had realized that it was more of a defensive and control Pokemon than a physical attacking Pokemon.
The new move that it had recently created was 'Water armor'. Axel had trained Blastoise and helped it create this move. As per Axel, training in this move would not only improve its water manipulation, but it would be a powerful defensive type move in the future.
Since it had already created a new defensive move, it felt that now it should make a move that would control the battlefield to its advantage.
'But how should I do it?'
Its hidden mastery typing was Steel, which was highly versatile, especially for defense, but its mastery over Steel typing was not so good. That was why it created 'Water armor' and not 'Steel armor'.
Water typing was more flexible in control than steel type.
'But how should I do it?'
"You know I could help you in that.", came a voice from behind.
Out of reflex, it turned back and took a defensive stance. It relaxed after knowing that it was Staraptor, its rival.
"What do you want, junior?"
Blastoise could see the change in Staraptor's facial expression after hearing the word, 'Junior'.
Staraptor was older than Blastoise by many years, but since it joined the team later than Blastoise, Blastoise always took pride in calling it 'Junior'.
"To help your sorry ass, of course.", said Staraptor with a smile.
Even Blastoise knew that Staraptor was far talented than itself. Of course, it would not say it out loud.
"And what do you want in return?"
"You will tell me all the experience on how guys are dealing with Ursaluna."
"But won't that help you win in this competition? Why would I ever do that?"
"Because this competition is time-bound. It will be over in just a month. But my help with creating your new move will be with you forever. Isn't that a good deal for you? Besides, if you help me on this, I might be able to win against that Magneton."
Staraptor and Magneton were both rivals of Blastoise, but it hated Magneton more than Staraptor. The reason was simple. Magneton won the Blaze Family Pokemon Competition, and it was still leading in this competition. So, it wanted Magneton to lose more than it wished for Staraptor to win.
After thinking for some time, Blastoise agreed, but at first, it wanted Staraptor to solve its problem.
Staraptor had no problem with this. It knew how prideful and arrogant Blastoise was. Both of them worked out the concept of the new move, and after discussing it for about an hour, Blastoise finally had a concrete idea of how to create its latest move. It happily told how they were dealing with Ursaluna.
###
'How am I going to win now?'
Blastoise shared its plan for dealing with Ursaluna. Ursaluna ground/ normal type Pokemon. It was mostly known for peat manipulation. Now, the Pokemon was not so hard to notice due to their smell. Since a lot of mud and peat are all over their body, it smells awful.
Usually, more than 50% of the time was spent on locating the enemy. It was because the forest was very vast, and the Pokemon here had mastered the arts of hiding and sneaking.
So, it was very easy to locate them. This would save time to hunt them. But why did Team 2 struggle to hunt multiple groups in a day? Their average was 2-3 groups a day.
This was because of Ursaluna itself. It not only had high health and attack stats, but it also had high defense due to having a lot of peat covering its whole body. But this was not what made it dangerous.
The thing that made it dangerous was peat manipulation. Ursaluna, above elemental rank, could use peat manipulation. 'Peat manipulation' was not an existing move that Ursaluna typically learns. This was a move that the tribe seemed to have created themselves and had been passed down to generations.
While using 'Peat manipulation', Ursaluna could not only heal itself but also increase its defense by hardening the peat. However, if its body came into contact with water, it would be unable to perform those actions because the peat would not be dry. In contrast, with water contact, Ursaluna could utilize the peat to create a swamp and manipulate it to its advantage. Still, it was better than healing and having higher defense.
Fighting against 5-6 of them in a group was a nightmare, which is why it took longer to defeat them. Also, team 2 was powerful with four pseudo-king rank Pokemon, and all of them were known for physical attacks, which meant that they also had higher stamina.
But Staraptor could not use that strategy because it didn't have a water-type specialist in the team. Of course, Ursaluna's special defense was far weaker than its physical defense, but they didn't have a special attacker specialist either.
All the Primeapes were physical attackers. Staraptor itself focused on speed and physical attack. Aerodactyl had some special attack moves, but it was known for its deadly bite force.
So, how was it going to win this battle?
Staraptor felt that sometimes it was bad to have so many brain cells. Because its team was not even thinking about this issue. They had already believed that Staraptor would come up with something. So, they had nothing to worry about.
'Sigh, why am I so talented?'
After thinking for a while, it came up with a solution. The solution was not groundbreaking, but it would do the job.
Pokemon POV end.
###
They took a break for a day, as said by Axel. This time, the tribe also followed Axel's advice and didn't go out. The next day, all three teams went for the hunt. They had targeted the same tribe this time.
Axel was hoping to see who would perform better this time. He knew about the rivalry of Magneton, Staraptor, and Blastoise. That was why he had divided them into three groups.
The result was something that he had not expected. Team 2 was able to deal with three groups. Team 3 was able to deal with two groups, but Team 1 could only deal with 1 group.
Team 1 was finally losing. Togekiss didn't care about this stupid competition, but Magneton did. So, it was discussing with Togekiss on how to deal with the situation. The information from Blastoise had helped Team 3 in coping with Ursaluna.
A week had passed, and they had killed so many Ursaluna that now they had changed the target. The winner of this round was clearly team 2, while team 3 came second.
It was now time to choose a different target. This time, Axel gave them the right to choose their opponent. Except for the Snorlax, Slaking, and Nidoking tribe, they could select any tribe.
Team 1 chose the Donphan tribe.
Team 2 also chose the Donphan tribe
But Team 3 chose the Swellow tribe
The result of the first hunt?
Team 1 was able to deal with two groups of Donphan. Team 2 was also able to deal with two groups of Donphan, but Team 3 had dealt with four groups of Swellow.
Even Axel was surprised by the result. How were they suddenly so successful?
Actually, this was Staraptor's plan all along. It knew that it could not win against Team 2 while dealing with Ursaluna. Its team didn't have the advantage. But Staraptor knew that they would have to find the new target in a few days because all of them were focusing on the same tribe.
That was when it started to make its new plan.
---
A/N: There are more than 60+ advanced chapters in pa-treon along with two new side stories of the novel. If you are interested in reading more and getting ahead in the story, subscribe to my pa-treon channel.
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