crater [c/wild]

[attr="class","smdbody"]a bubble-like pokemon hovered in front of them which left liam curious. he took out a pokedex to scan it, wondering if it was of any use to them; and it was. it was a psychic type which would be extremely helpful against the veilstone gym. but it still looked rather weak and he wasn't so sure if he could train it in time.

but still, a battle was a battle. the milotic took its place in front of liam, staring intensely at the opponent. "scald should be fine," he spoke. mira nodded and sent out a stream of hot water at the little blob. it looked fine and returned an attack of its own, using psywave on the milotic.

mira was not affected much by it however and sent back another hot stream of water. it was like she was toying with her opponent. the solosis used light screen then went in for a rollout attack. but that only made it easier for mira to hit her final scald attack.

a pokeball was thrown at the fallen creature.

[attr="class","smdbody"]yet another bug pokemon appeared. it seemed like he had a knack of attracting unappealing pokemon. the beedrill was no new pokemon to liam so he didn't bother scanning it with the pokedex. instead he let mira slither in front of them to prepare for a battle.

"again?" he asked. the milotic nodded and immediately shot out a hot stream of water, not even waiting for an order. this didn't surprise liam since the milotic was always ready for a battle. in fact, she seeked it out more than he did, which was a good thing.

the beedrill easily dodged the stream of water though and came in for a fury attack. mira fired two streams of water in an attempt to push it away. one hit and one missed. the beedrill flew back in for a twineedle attack which hurt the milotic qutie a bit.

"ice beam!" he yelled out. instead of the usual stream of water the milotic shot out solid ice instead, aimed directly at the beedrill. it hit and went down. 

[attr="class","smdbody"]once the beedrill went down he walked over to the milotic and gave her a pat, smiling at the progress they've made together. "good job," he said. mira waved her tail in delight. liam decided that she deserved a break and recalled her back into her pokeball. it wasn't long until he was off again on the route.

the end wasn't too far away now but he was still ready for a battle. his prayers were answered as another pokemon showed up unexpectedly. a mightyena leaped out of a bush and at him. his reactions made him sidestep off to the side, narrowly avoiding the pouncing mightyena. 

he quickly reached for a pokeball and grabbed the first one he could find. out came his drilbur, who wasn't the best choice for such a tense situation. 

"quick, x-scissor," he said. zu, still a little confused, immediately charged at the dog and gave it a quick but powerful slash. the mightyena who was obviously hurt by the attack, roared which prompted drilbur to flee. 

liam chased after the drilbur, constantly looking back to make sure the dog wasn't chasing them.

[attr="class","smdbody"]eventually liam would catch up to the drilbur, who looked pretty terrified after that roar. he lowered himself onto one knee and stretched out his arms, waving for the drilbur to come over. "come here," he said softly. 

the drilbur found liam's arms, which wrapped around the mole pokemon in an attempt to comfort it. "calm down," he said. hugging the mole pokemon was the only thing he could think of that would comfort it. eventually zu calmed down enough and they continued onto the route.

next up was a wobbuffet, which was a strange looking pokemon, but it looked interesting nonetheless. "are you up for a battle?" he asked the drilbur, who nodded and waved its arms around to prepare.

"use x-scissor," he said. drilbur hopped along and charged forward, slashing twice at the wobbuffet who basically tanked the attacks. liam had expected it to faint, but it was still standing, so he gave it props for that.

the blue pokemon used mirror coat and then an encore, locking the drilbur to only using one move. liam didn't mind that at all. the drilbur went in for two more x-scissors and that was enough to faint it.

[attr="class","smdbody"]next up was a surskit. they were so close to the end of the route that liam was just tempted to sidestep it and run. he was about ready to do that before he was stopped by the drilbur. he glanced down at it and raised an eyebrow.

"you want to battle?" he asked. zu nodded and looked at the enemy. this brought a smile to liam's face. it was nice to see the drilbur develop and get stronger, and to actually see it want to battle was something else.

"use hone claws then go in for a slash," he said. drilbur rubbed his claws against each other but before he could charge at the surskit he was hit by a quick attack that caught him off guard. but that only meant that the drilbur was close enough to deliver an easy slash attack.

the surskit shot off bubbles which hurt quite a bit. the mole pokemon quickly dug into the ground before appearing in front of the bug, slashing it twice once more to deliver the final blows.

and that was that. they have reached the end of the route. one more until he reached town.