Fletchling flew higher into the air and began charging Razor Wind.
Blade after blade of wind scattered down like a storm of rain, spraying across the Beedrill and the other wild Pokémon that kept swarming in afterward.
The shiny Ralts raised its arm slightly.
A transparent magical barrier, rippling like the surface of water, appeared in front of it at once. Two fireballs chased each other in circles along the edge of the barrier, then shot forward and struck a Beedrill.
Beedrill's Special Defense was 80, twice its mere 40 Defense, so it barely managed to withstand that Mystical Fire.
But only barely.
A second Mystical Fire arrived almost immediately and finished off the Beedrill, which had already been hanging by a thread.
Serena's Ralts was a little lower in level, but it could still just barely manage the same thing, taking out one Beedrill with two hits.
Cute little Fennekin opened its mouth and spat out a stream of burning Embers.
Ember wasn't as strong as Mystical Fire, but Fennekin was still a Fire-type Pokémon, so handling flames came naturally to it. With that natural type advantage, it could also take down a Beedrill in two hits.
All three little Pokémon were using fire, and Beedrill's instincts made it strongly resist getting anywhere near them.
As a result, even more Beedrill simply flew around the three little attackers and headed straight for Clemont instead.
Their silver stingers flashed with terrifying cold light.
Locked onto by a huge swarm of Beedrill, Clemont jumped in fright, instinctively threw the machine in his hands, and hurriedly reached for a Poké Ball at his waist to save himself.
It was worth noting that reality differed from the anime in a few ways.
For example, Gym battles would decide how strong a Gym Leader's Pokémon lineup should be based on the number of Badges a challenger had, and multiple challengers would show up every day.
Because of those two things, every Gym Trainer needed a deep reserve of Pokémon in multiple tiers.
Each Gym Trainer needed to catch around ten Pokémon of the same type. Once all the species were added together, that came out to nearly a hundred Pokémon.
Because of that large reserve, Clemont really had brought along a level 50 Heliolisk for protection on this trip.
Now that he was facing an actual threat to his life, Clemont immediately sent out the much stronger Heliolisk.
"Heliolisk! Parabolic Charge!"
A red beam of recall light shot out.
A moment later, a yellow electric lizard about three feet tall appeared before the group, with black skin draped around its head like a cloak.
Latias, who had been fully prepared to sit back and watch the Beedrill fail miserably against the barrier she had put up with psychic power, immediately froze.
?
You'd rather trust Beedrill's stingers than trust the psychic barrier of a Legendary Pokémon like me?!
The dragon girl puffed out her cheeks in annoyance and gave the jet-like wings on her back an indignant little shake.
Latias: I got mad, and then I stayed mad for a second.
But Latias had forgotten something.
She had been so focused on informing Ash earlier that she had never actually told Clemont.
Meanwhile, the frill around Heliolisk's neck had already spread up from where it lay flat against its skin. From the front, it looked almost like a sunflower.
Golden electricity gathered along the outer edge of the frill and converged in the air in front of its forehead.
Then it fired forward as a powerful electric current!
Bzzzt!
The golden current struck the barrier Latias had set up. It failed to break through and instead spread across the inside surface of the shield.
Fortunately, Latias quickly added another thin layer of psychic power to block it off, preventing everyone from getting zapped.
Outside the barrier, the Beedrill finally rammed into the psychic shield Latias had set up.
But even Clemont's ace, Heliolisk, hadn't been able to shake that barrier in the slightest.
So a mere Beedrill swarm obviously had no chance at all.
Only when he saw that did Clemont, who had already ended up leaning back on one leg with both hands over his head in full panic mode, finally remember that Latias was right there protecting them.
"Uh... what?"
Slowly lowering his hands and putting his lifted left foot back down, Clemont scratched his head awkwardly under Ash's scrutinizing gaze.
He pointed at the Beedrill still stubbornly trying to break through the barrier.
"I... I couldn't see the barrier just now, and there were too many Beedrill, so I... I got nervous. In other words, scared."
Clemont stammered.
"But luckily, the machine's okay."
The moment the subject shifted to the machine, which Latias had caught with psychic power, all of Clemont's shame vanished, replaced by relief and pride.
Ash nodded, apparently accepting the change of subject.
"So... what's with this Heliolisk?"
Bonnie covered her face.
It's over. Their secret is about to come out...
Clemont, however, remained blissfully unaware and answered on instinct.
"This? Well, I'm a Trainer. Having an Electric- and Normal-type Pokémon is perfectly normal, right?" (Bulbapedia)
Just as Bonnie thought their hidden identity as siblings from a Gym Leader family was about to be exposed, Ash nodded.
"A Trainer having Pokémon is totally normal."
"Y, you believed that?"
Bonnie could hardly believe her ears.
Serena nodded in sudden understanding.
"So that's how it is. Besides Bunnelby, you also have a Heliolisk. Why didn't you say so sooner?"
The speaker may not have meant anything by it, but the listener certainly did.
Thanks to Serena's reminder, the slow-to-react Clemont finally realized that this wasn't one of those times when only he and Bonnie were around.
He sucked in a sharp breath.
A Trainer who had only just started out absolutely should not have had such a strong Heliolisk.
The good news was that Heliolisk hadn't actually managed to make a move. Before it could do anything impressive, it had already been completely neutralized by Latias.
And besides, Helioptile evolves into Heliolisk with a Sun Stone rather than at a specific level, so even a level 1 Helioptile could technically evolve. Ash had probably accepted it because of that. (Bulbapedia)
In any case, now that the crisis had passed, Clemont didn't dare leave Heliolisk out any longer and quickly recalled it.
The battle outside continued.
By now, quite a few Pokémon were already lying on the ground in defeated heaps.
Even while fighting, Ash had no intention of taking the lives of these wild Pokémon.
So he had Latias use Heal Pulse to treat their injuries.
Once they woke up, some of the wild Pokémon fled, while others stayed behind and charged right back into battle.
Whenever Froakie and the others started to run low on stamina, they were pulled back at once.
They restored their strength by eating Pokéblocks, drinking Moomoo Milk, and receiving more Heal Pulse support from Latias. (Bulbapedia)
They repeated this cycle again and again.
Finally, once the little team's muscles ached so badly they truly couldn't keep going, Ash decisively chose a strategic retreat.
...
Back at camp, Ash used the experience Brock had taught him before to massage and loosen up the Pokémon's bodies.
Serena stayed by his side and copied what he did.
She was not only learning something new, she also got to spend time alone with Ash, which made her very happy.
Meanwhile, Clemont used the break to improve the machine.
It started with a suggestion from Ash to add a new wave band.
Roughly speaking, one high-frequency signal would lure Pokémon over, while a second low-frequency signal would reduce the attraction as much as possible without letting the drawn-in Pokémon leave.
After half an hour of rest, the battle-loving Froakie eagerly asked to keep fighting, and the shiny Ralts agreed.
But the other Pokémon, especially Fletchling, who had to keep flapping its wings throughout battle, strongly objected.
Froakie's suggestion was voted down.
An hour later, Froakie proposed it again, and this time the vote passed unanimously.
The fighting resumed.
This time, Ash had Latias move them to a different area, because they couldn't just keep terrorizing the same patch of wild Pokémon over and over.
And so the cycle continued.
It lasted all the way until dusk, when the sky began to darken and Ash's group finally stopped battling.
...
Back at camp, with evening closing in, Clemont brought out some lighting equipment he had invented earlier and used it to illuminate the area.
The riverside grass shone as brightly as day.
After finding an open area, Clemont started maintaining the equipment.
Serena, carrying herself with the air of someone who would make an excellent wife, took the initiative to handle dinner by the river, carefully preparing the ingredients.
Ash, Bonnie, and all the Pokémon helped out nearby where they could.
At the same time, they took the chance to tally up exactly what they had gained that day.