CH62 (426), Well, That Escalated Quickly (3)

While we managed to take care of both the left and right flanks, it was not as if our side was untouched. Well, Thor/Raichu, Abzu/Milotic, and Tiamat/Milotic did manage to deal with the left side while suffering a scratch or two at most. Optimus/Butterfree's side on the other hand had temporarily lost 4 out of their 20 Butterfree while forcing the Arbok into unconsciousness.

Actually, that sounded a lot worse than it was. The Butterfree did not die but were simply unable to keep fighting. Still, since I made sure to keep an eye on the overall situation, I swapped them with fresh ones in Utopia whenever they reached that point so that they could recover, and our side remained at full combat capacity.

Anyway, after both flanks were dealt with, I kept 5 Butterfree on each side to keep an eye on the Arbok to ensure they remained asleep while we dealt with the rest of the fights. The others returned to overseeing the Ekans' situation and helped with keeping them out of the fight.

Meanwhile, the boss fight was going in full swing. Mothra/Butterfree and Moka/Crobat had no problem with accompanying boss Arbok. Still, they were not pushing too much, hoping for him to burn through his aggression, and notice that none of his tribe members had died yet.

They wanted him to stop fighting once he realized that he could not win and that we were not planning to "take care" of them. Well, that, or they would accompany him until he was exhausted, which I hoped would not happen since that would take quite a long while.

The reason they were not actively trying to knock him out yet, was that doing so would truly be the worst starting point for the negotiations afterward. That would be even worse than knocking out his whole tribe aside from him, since losing to two gold opponents, even if it was 2-on-1, would likely damage his esteem/standing as the tribe leader.

Nonetheless, the boss fight was the most stable one and would take quite some time to conclude. The subleader battles, on the other hand, were moving toward a conclusion. Seb/Nidoking and Gaia/Nidoqueen had their respective opponents on the ropes, and I doubted that it would take more than a few more minutes before both (mid) gold-stage Arbok were knocked out.

The same was true for Gwen/Gardevior, whose psychic moves were doing the (low) gold-stage Arbok no favor. The Aura Sphere she drove at its chin just now, or the Psybeam at the back of its head before that were especially bad for its health. I could see her following after the Arbok, which had been sent flying into the air by that Aura Sphere, and I was pretty sure, Gwen would be the first one to deal with her foe.

There was also Nyx/Umbreon, whose opponent was the best-looking right now, health-wise I mean, but that was more because she was kinda playing with the (low) gold-stage Arbok, rather than seriously trying to knock it out. I thought about reminding her to stop playing, but I decided against it since I did not want to deal with her acting all pouty after I did that.

Yet, I came really close to chiding her when she used her Fake Baby-Doll Tears to distract it, before throwing a Sand Attack in its eyes while it was focused on her own eyes. Then, instead of taking advantage of Arbok's momentary blindness/distraction with an Iron Tail, Shadow Ball, or Psychic, Nyx ran behind it and used Taunt instead.

When it turned to her at the Taunt, she vanished with Dig only to reappear once more at Arbok's back. She proceeded to fire a Dark Pulse at it, before going down under once again. The next moment Arbok actually fell into a hole, before summarily being sent out flying again.

It was only after observing her battle for a bit, that I decided that she was doing good enough, but I still warned her to be more alert in case Arbok tried to take advantage of the fact that she was dragging things out.

Nonetheless, the overall situation was overwhelmingly in our favor even though I was still holding back nearly half of our fighting power. Everything was going well until it suddenly wasn't.

Hera/Pidgeot, who had been keeping an eye on the situation from above, suddenly cried out a warning. "Tide incoming!!!" I was a bit perplexed about where a tide had suddenly come from.

I linked up with Horus/Xatu, who had been vigilant starting at the battlefield due to feeling that something was off. He teleported beside Hera and I saw what he saw, which made me suck in my breath. It seems Horus' premonition had been right.

It seemed like I should not have disregarded those critters while approaching the Arbok nest, since apparently, those guys were spies that reported the situation back to their own tribes. I saw no other reason why a tide made up mainly of members of the Furret and Linoone line would suddenly appear out of nowhere.

Sure, there were a few others species that could be seen as well, such as Rattata, and a few Sandshrew, or Oddish, but around 90% of the mass moving towards us from the northwest consisted of Furret and Linoone line members. There had to be somewhere between 4000 and 5000 Pokemon in there, at the very least, which was a lot more than I felt like confronting.

I briefly considered recalling everyone and getting the heck out of there, but I couldn't do it knowing that the Arbok tribe would definitely be annihilated if I did that. Moreover, it would mostly be my fault since we hurt/exhausted their high-end fighters while putting their low-end ones to sleep.

Those guys were coming here to take advantage of my fight with the Arbok tribe, so if the Arbok tribe died, it would be on me. No, I would have to stop the tide. It was the aura guardian thing to do, so I was going to do it, which meant that it was time to go all out.

When I suddenly called out the rest of the Slythering Six, it gained the attention of everyone present, or at least those that were conscious, and the Arbok warily stopped fighting, despite having previously ignored Hera's outcry.

When I called out another 14 Pokemon after that, which was everyone at or above the bronze stage, I could see their wariness turn to outright worry. Which in turn became something akin to fear when I called out the rest of the Butterfree Squad, raising their number to 43, along with the Beedrill Squad which increased our numbers by another 44.

The Butterfree orderly moved toward Optimus and took position behind him, while the Beedrill gathered behind Prime/Beedril, and Parvati/Beedrill. I knew that my action this time around was a blatant admittance that I had some form of spatial access to a space/special island, but I honestly did not care about that since only my supervisor/protector saw it, and he would only share it with the higher-ups, who already knew, or at least heavily suspected that.

Not only that, I was openly showing that I had gone past the alliance-set limit for Pokemon with the number of Pokemon I had just sent out to the field, but needs must and all that. I was sure they would close an eye for this one, especially due to the private mystic island/space theory.

Still, while I had brought out the Butterfree and Beedrill squads, I was a bit reluctant to bring out the Gyarados Squad as well. The Sinister Six already made a fearful impression, so what the addition of another 50-plus Gyarados would do was left to everyone's imagination. I ultimately decided to leave them inside Utopia for now, at least until I felt like I would really need them.

"Human, are playing with me," the boss Arbok yelled out after composing himself a bit. "Is this a game to you?" He shouted indignantly while throwing me a venomous glare. Still, I could see the apprehension buried deep in his eyes.

"Not at all," I replied with a shrug. "As I've tried to tell you at the beginning, I've been sent by the Aura Guardian Order to investigate the unrest that has started in this region since it has affected a few of our villages. During my investigations, I learned that your tribe was one of the main proponents, so I came over to discuss the situation with you," I expounded causing him to throw me an incredulous look.

"Who starts a discussion like you," he accused me, and I just started back seriously. "I wanted to avoid being surrounded in what could be seen as a most likely hostile area in case the discussion went awry," I finally returned receiving an angry hiss in return.

"If I was not coming in peace, and if I did not know that my preemptive move was the most likely trigger for your attack, my partners would not have knocked out your tribe members but taken them out permanently instead. Now, they are just taking a nap, or a bit hurt for those that resisted," I told Arbok in a flat tone that brooked no argument.

I was just stating facts, and Arbok could no doubt see that I absolutely meant what I said. The veritable army around me was proof enough of my claims, seeing how I already had the upper hand during our confrontation without pulling out everyone.

"As for why I suddenly called out the rest of my Pokemon? Well, my scouts have noticed a tide heading this way from the northwest consisting mostly of Furret and Linoone line members. They are no doubt coming for you, trying to take advantage of our conflict.

Being the upstanding person that I am, I decided to stay and help you repel them instead of doing the smart thing, which would be to retreat," I explained, and if the last part sounded a bit sarcastic, I was sure I could be forgiven considering that I was about to face a tide.

"Those sh*t eaters," boss Arbok hissed hatefully and his subleaders, who had moved to his side, joined him in insulting the Furret and Linoone. I did not wait for them to finish their tirade since there was not much time before the tide arrived.

"Anyway," I said a bit forcefully to regain Arbok's attention. "We have less than 5 minutes, probably closer to 3, until the tide is here, so I'd rather start focusing on them than keep talking to you," I admitted before releasing my aura and psychic energy.

"So, can I trust your side to not try anything stupid while we deal with the approaching tide, in which case I'll help you wake up and heal everyone, or should I just leave," I asked while offering him something that he could not really refuse unless he was suicidal.

Boss Arbok stared at me for a few moments before begrudgingly nodding his head, and practically whispering "please do". I nodded my head before I pulled out a ton of para-healing liquid. I first asked Shino/Yanmega to move to the center and release an Uproar to wake everyone up, before I tasked Tasumaki, Gwen, Ali/Kirlia, and Luna with healing those that were hurt as well as during the paralysis of the ones without Shed Skin.

While they were doing that I assigned the others to their position. I positioned Optimus and his squad to the left side, and Parvati and her squad to the right side. Ali, Gwen, Ignis/Gyarados, Jade/Gyarados, and Medusa/Gyarados were assigned to Optimus' side once they were done, while Tatsumaki, Luna, Stan/Gyarados, Ryujin/Gyarados, and Abyss/Gyarados were sent to Parvati's side.

The other silver-stage Pokemon were placed between them, along with most of the gold-stage ones. Only Hera and Moka were asked to keep an eye out from above so that they could help out wherever needed. There was also Horus who stood by my side for the same reason and to be by my side in case of an ambush.

I also had Manami, Hashirama, Saphira/Altaria, and Osiris stay back to safeguard our back since I did not want to leave it exposed to the Arbok. Just because we were forced to face a tide together did not mean that I trusted them not to try something during the chaos that will no doubt occur.

Anyway, I was happy that everyone took their positions, even the Ekans and Arbok, just before Hera cried out that the tide was here.

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