Against the Crawdaunt there was nothing Vance could do but stall them; on the other side, meanwhile, Gyarados and Vigoroth were working together to good effect.
The Poliwrath, wrapped in layer upon layer of ice, had not yet worked itself free when the Vigoroth's Thunder Punch arrived and caught it full in the face, to considerable effect.
The Vigoroth flickered aside, the Gyarados's Water Pulse followed straight after, and the Poliwrath was lifted clean off the ground.
Below, the two of them gathered power, and then a Focus Blast and a Hyper Beam went out together and struck it.
"Boom—"
When the blast had died away the Poliwrath was floating on the surface with its eyes spinning, out of the fight.
Between them, Gyarados and Vigoroth had put down the Advanced-strength Poliwrath in short order.
The two exchanged a look and turned away again. Counting it up, that had been their first time working together, and the result had not been bad.
"Quick, let's get over there and help."
With that the Gyarados rolled into the water and closed fast on the battlefield where Vance was.
The Vigoroth thought about it, then set off after it and joined the fray.
"I was waiting for my teammates. What were the two of you waiting for?"
Vance said it with a smile at the two Crawdaunt. His pair had arrived; now the Crawdaunt could be dealt with.
Vance had run the system over these two. Their aptitude was passable — Elite grade, both of them.
One was the stronger at level 35, the other weaker at only 32.
"Rraargh—"
The Gyarados roared and threw itself into the fight, attacking hard and fast.
"Gyarados, take this."
Seeing the Gyarados in a poor state, showing signs of slipping out of control, Vance threw it a bottle of blue medicine, and the Gyarados opened its mouth on instinct and swallowed it down.
Once it had, the blood-red in its eyes faded a little.
"Hold it down, Gyarados. Outrage cuts both ways. We master it, it doesn't master us. Be the master of your own power!"
Vance called out.
"Roarr—"
The Gyarados nodded hard. This was part of the training plan too — developing Outrage.
Vance moved in and tied up the level-35 Crawdaunt, leaving the other one to Gyarados and Vigoroth, and before long the two of them had finished it off.
Faster than the Poliwrath, and more easily.
With that Crawdaunt down, the Gyarados was in better shape still, its presence swelling again, its momentum unstoppable, and it rejoined the fight.
That change came from its Ability, Moxie.
Each Pokémon it beat gave it another boost, and with several layers of them stacked on it the Gyarados went toe to toe with the remaining Crawdaunt and did not come off worse.
It was faintly gaining the upper hand, and that without the Vigoroth's help.
*What was in that medicine the big oaf took? Look at it go!*
The Vigoroth was startled too, watching the Gyarados drive forward through the churning water. That Crawdaunt had looked genuinely dangerous to it, and here the Gyarados had it pinned.
The Vigoroth had it wrong, though. All Vance's medicine did was stir its will and suppress the negative effects of Outrage, so that it stayed clear-headed and kept a better hold on itself. It did nothing of the sort the Vigoroth imagined.
"Get in there, Vigoroth. Let's finish this quickly."
Vance called, sending the Vigoroth in to help and bring the fight to an end sooner.
At that the Vigoroth set off and joined in.
*Fighting alongside someone isn't bad, actually. More fun than it used to be.*
thought the Vigoroth privately.
With the Vigoroth in it, the Crawdaunt went down faster.
The Crawdaunt, for its part, was past feeling anything by now. It should have checked the almanac before going out today, the way it had run into one freak after another.
First a powerful human, then this wildly overexcited Gyarados, and now this Vigoroth with its underhanded way of fighting had joined in as well?
Numb. Completely numb.
After a hard fight the Crawdaunt could not hold out. The two of them beat it down together, and it closed its eyes unwillingly.
The three great overlords whose power had cowed the waters around the lake had all fallen in a single day.
"Clunk—"
The Poké Ball hanging in the air gave the sound that marked a successful capture, and Vance took it back and put it away in his pack.
Three more to the haul.
Only then did Vance open the system to look at the Battle Points the fight had earned him.
36
32
35
That was what the three Pokémon had come to, one after another, bringing his balance to 530.
530 Battle Points would buy a fair amount of useful material from the system.
That evening Vance cooked a great spread to reward the two of them. Between fighting, feeding and training, he and the Vigoroth were growing closer.
*The trial is nearly up. No telling where they'll post me, but there are a few things that have to be settled.*
Vance thought it, sitting in front of the fire.
Time went quickly. Whatever it was like for anyone else, that was how it had been for Vance.
In that one month the Gyarados had evolved, and its strength had climbed by leaps and bounds; it was a level 25 Pokémon now.
He had also caught a Vigoroth of boundless potential, and today's fight had taken it up a level, to 30 — one step short of being a Pokémon of Advanced strength.
He himself had become an Intermediate Psychic, strong enough to match an Advanced-strength Pokémon. He had real power behind him now, which meant certain matters could be dealt with.
The thugs, for instance, who had beaten him, robbed him and left him for dead. He would not be letting a single one of them go.
Not only to avenge himself, but to avenge the body's original owner as well — that poor orphan, "Vance" — and settle the account.
The days went by quickly, and on one of them wails came out of the depths of the forest, like a trussed-up pig screaming its lungs out for help.
Across a deep litter of dry yellow leaves and branches, two human figures were being dragged toward a black cave mouth in the distance.
Doing the dragging were several Ariados, with a few Spinarak alongside them.
"Help! Somebody save me! I'll pay for it with Emery staying single for the rest of his life, I swear — somebody please come and save me!"
It was a plump figure of a man, bawling.
"Damn it, Ambrose, is there something seriously wrong with you? What the hell are you babbling about at a time like this?"
It was Emery, wrapped in the same layers of spider silk and dragged along beside him, swearing at him.
"Well, what are we supposed to do, Emery? Keep going like this and we're dead for certain. That's their cave right up ahead."
Ambrose said it with a wretched look on his face.
"Bad luck, and not enough strength to make up for it. That's how we ended up here. I doubt there's much hope."
The closer the cave came, the more hopeless Emery felt.
There was nothing he could do about their situation. He had used every method available to him. All that was left was to wait to die.
"Aaah, I don't want to die! My old man isn't even dead yet — I've still got an inheritance to collect!"
"Never mind. Shout away. You won't get another chance."
Emery said nothing more and let him get on with it.
"Somebody save me! I'll sign over all hundred and ten pounds of me to whoever does!"
Ambrose was still shouting. Up ahead the Ariados went on dragging the pair of them, moving forward at a steady, unhurried pace.
Not far off, Vance stood on a tree trunk, watching it all.