shape [c/w]

[attr="class","smdbody"]not long after he started on the route his nose picked up a weird scent. it almost smelled like garbage but it was still toleterable. it got stronger as they walked which means they were walking closer to the source. drilbur scrunched up its nose as well, using its hands to cover it.

eventually they reached the source of the smell and in a bush was a funny looking (and smelling) pokemon. it was all by itself but then again most encounters were. he thought nothing of it for now and let drilbur fall out of his arms.

"try slashing it," he ordered. without even thinking twice the drilbur charged forward and slashed once at the trubbish. but the trubbish did not retaliate, which made both liam and drilbur confused. drilbur returned to liam's side and waited.

"wait here," he said to the drilbur. scrunching up his nose too he walked forward and approached the trubbish, who just looked more sad than anything. he approached it carefully, lowering himself to one knee once he was close enough.

"hey there, are you okay?" he asked the trubbish, who didn't respond. that was as expected. he did not have a snack on him so instead he just took out a great ball and offered it to the trubbish. the great ball caught its attention and liam could swear that he saw it smile just a little bit.

so he pushed it gently against the trubbish, both glad that the smell was gone and glad that he might have saved it.

[attr="class","smdbody"]he was still confused at their last encounter. he had no idea why the trubbish didn't fight back or at least retaliate in some way. it looked sad and a bit lost. catching it would at least make liam feel a bit better about attacking it in the first place. thoguh he had no idea if it would even make it on onto the team.

trying to move past the first encounter he quickly picked up the drilbur and proceeded on with the route. it wasn't long after until a drifloon showed up. 

"ready?" he asked the drilbur who hopped out of liam's arms. he took that as confirmation. "hone claws then go in for a metal claw," he said. the drilbur sharpened its claws quickly before jumping forward. one slash was delivered. the drifloon charged itself with focus energy then delivered a strong gust attack which sent the drilbur flying back.

"just metal claw this time," he ordered. zu got back onto his feet and delivered two metal claw attacks, which fainted the floating balloon.

[attr="class","smdbody"]after that ghost balloon fainted the two were on their way again, this time the drilbur walking on its own. it didn't take long until another pokemon showed up, but this one appeared literally out of nowhere, showing up in front of them. it didn't attack just yet, which gave liam time to pull out a pokedex to scan the thing.

a psychic type? surely it would be useful against the next gym. "quick, use x-scissor," he whispered to the drilbur. they needed to act quick so the kadabra wouldn't just teleport away. the drilbur leaped forward and delivered a quick attack to the kadabra. even though it did a lot of damage it wasn't enough to knock it out. 

the kadabra disabled the drilbur's x-scissor, realizing that another one of those would most likely faint it. it used a psybeam attack which caused the drilbur to clutch its head in pain. "use slash!" he yelled out. the drilbur managed to move in for two slash attacks.

liam took out his last great ball and threw it at the kadabra before moving on.

[attr="class","smdbody"]they were getting close to the end of the route and finally to veilstone. it must have taken them a few days just to get from eterna to veilstone. he wondered why they would make the second and third gym locations so far apart.

this encounter appeared to be the last one as he could just about see the outline of buildings in the distance. he took out a pokedex and scanned the hariyama.

"last one," he told the drilbur, "use hone claws then rock slide," he ordered. the drilbur sharped his claws then slashed at the ground, sending chunks of rocks flying to the hariyama. it caused it to flinch, which was what liam was hoping for. this way the drilbur might actually win the battle and not faint.

"slash!" he ordered. the drilbur sped up and delivered two attacks to the hariyama, knocking it out. 

[attr="class","smdbody"]just when liam thought they were in the clear another pokemon appeared out of the blue, basically charging past them and blocking their way. he shrugged his shoulders, gesturing for the drilbur to move forward for one last battle.

"rock slide," he ordered. the drilbur did what it did before and slashed at the ground, sending rocks at the zebra. the two attacks was not enough to make it flinch this time, and it retaliated quickly with a flame charge attack. the drilbur was knocked back and was close to fainting, but it could still get off one more attack.

"use dig!" he yelled. the drilbur dug into the ground and popped out underneath the zebra, delivering a powerful dig attack to knock it out.

and then veilstone. finally.