Coming back to the situation at hand, even after multiple hits of Zeraora's Plasma Fists and Electric Punch combined with Close Combat, the metallic bars, although a little bit dented, seemed like they still had a lot in them.
On the other hand, Zeraora looked tired.
There had to be another way.
"Come on, there has to be another way."
My gaze turned towards the opening in the tent, where up until a moment ago, we released all of the Pokémon. Although most of the Pokémon left as soon as they got the chance.
A couple of Pokémon remained.
A cute, little Fennekin was staring back at me. It had soft, red, and furry ears. It was around one foot tall and definitely one of the most beautiful Pokémon I had ever seen.
Another was a Binacle. It is known for its quirky and unusual appearance, resembling two small, white, hand-like creatures that live together on a single gray rock. Each "hand" has a single eye and can stretch and contract to move the rock around.
But what was more amusing was that the two Pokémon were fire and water types. I had to break a metallic rod.
Applying fire and water to a metallic rod makes it brittle and easier to break. This is a part of metallurgy's heat treatment process, which I studied back in college.
Who knew memorizing all that stuff for the exams would be used in this scenario?
"Hey, Fennekin and Hello Binacle, can you help me out here? Please.. I will treat you with berries if you do??"
Fennekin was down to help either way, but Binacle, who looked doubtful at first, after hearing the end of my deal, immediately agreed without a second thought.
I turned my attention towards Fennekin,
"Fennekin, do you know flamethrower or ember?"
"Fe!!!"
And, a huge burst of flame came forward towards my face.
I just barely dodged it.
While dodging, I lost my balance and fell right on my butt.
While Fennekin looked embarrassed, the others didn't.
They took this little incident as their free ticket to laugh.
Fennekin, looking embarrassed for her mistake, quickly came up to me and started licking my face in apology.
"That was quite some ember, next time just don't throw it in my face, please."
"Fen Fennekin"
Fennekin said apologetically.
"That was a powerful ember."
This small mishappening again made me realize the current situation I am in. This is not an anime, where the main character has an indestructible body, or a game. I could have suffered second-degree burns right now if I hadn't developed my reflexes over the course of the past few months.
"Binacle, can you use a water-type move?"
I asked, turning my gaze away from the Fennekin to the still laughing Binacle.
"Binacle!!!"
It said, and both of its hands started accumulating water, which turned into a bright blue sword-type weapon.
It was the powerful water-type move 'Liquidation', I thought in my mind.
"Okay, good, now come here."
I then brought them to the cage,
"Fennekin, use Ember on that metallic rod."
"Fennekin!"
And, it started puffing out a very concentrated amount of very hot flames on the metallic rod.
I had already asked the Pokémon inside to move away from the surface of the cage.
After heating the rod for about four minutes, Fennekin's stamina ran out, it stopped its ember and fell on the ground, but I had no time to take care of that, so I asked Zeraora to check up on Fennekin.
"Now, Binacle use Liquidation on the heated rod."
As Binacle's liquidation made first contact with the metallic rod.
A huge,
"Chishhh"
The sound of steam forming very rapidly became evident.
Most of the Pokémon had no idea about this, so they naturally became very curious; some of them were also scared.
Now, soon, after a minute of hitting the metallic rod continuously, finally the metallic rod broke into two with a loud,
"Clangggg!!!"
Simultaneously, two of the adjacent force fields managed by the metallic rod vanished completely.
Even if that may be, except Zorua, no other Pokémon could fit in that small area.
Soon, seeing its Zorua came out.
"Zorua Zorua."
With its regained freedom, Zorua started stretching and then snatched some berries from the Binacle and Fennekin that I had given them, in order to regain its strength.
"Bina BInacle"
"Fin"
Binacle complained while Finnekin looked happy to share.
"Zoru Zorua."
As, I was contemplating that even this procedure takes a lot of time.
Zorua stood up, on its four legs, with a smug smile, came towards me, with a gesture of placing its right hand over its heart, as if saying, I will take care of the rest.
"ZORUA!!!'
It shouted, and it was then as if the world had changed. I couldn't see my body anymore, not my arms, nor my legs. I could feel that they still existed, but I couldn't see them.
That's when I realized,
"Illusion."
"Zorua and Zeraora's Special Ability - Illusion."
It was amazing and powerful.
Soon, a man came from the entrance, and he had a couple of Pokémon with him in small portable cages.
In one of the cages was Zorua.
Then, the man came, touched the metallic rod at a specific place, and typed in the code,
879767 898977.
"Wow, those hunters really liked the seven, eight, and nine, huh?!"
As soon as the hunter typed in the number sequence, the cage opened, and the hunter put Zorua inside the cage. And then locked it back by just pulling the cage down.
And, I went on to try the passcode the same way the hunter had done in the illusion.
And it worked, soon the bars came down one by one, freeing the Totem Bulbasaur, the shiny Gasly, and the couple of Beldum.
After freeing them, I soon went to try the same code on the different cages.
And, by luck, it did. Those lazy hunters didn't even have different passcodes for different cages. But, in the end, it worked in my favour, so it didn't matter.
After freeing the Pokémon, I had to check the other two tents, which were probably meant for resting.
The moment I started walking towards the outside gate, the captured and recently freed Pokemon, jumped on me, hugging me and licking me.
I was too happy to stop them. It was a moment of pure joy and I wasn't going to stop them.