It was a relatively calm day for the Beedrill colony until a certain Ghost and an annoying bird showed up.
"Target the Weedle and Kakuna first," Eric said calmly.
"Reduce their numbers before the Beedrill arrive."
There was a lot of information about different species of Pokemon in the beginner's guide. Beedrill were generally considered nasty Pokémon. If you met them in the wild, they would generally attack you, even if you were just minding your own business. They even populate very fast, so the League has to regularly send trainers to thin the swarm.
Thus, Eric had no qualms about using them as training dummies for his Pokémon.
Gastly used Clear smog, releasing a Poisonous smog that was much bigger and potent than before, instantly taking out a bunch of Weedle and a few Kakuna that were in range despite their resistance to poison energy.
Spearow, who had removed her weights after a long time, was very excited with how light and fast she felt. She coated herself in flying type energy and used peck, not stopping and taking out multiple pokemon that were in her path.
A few weaker Weedle were even gravely wounded, but Eric paid it no attention.
He won't actively try to kill them since they didn't attack him first, but he was not going to care about accidents.
It didn't take long until Eric heard a loud screech and a swarm of Beedrill appeared. There were 20 in total. This was the start of the real battle.
Eric observed the Beedrill in the center of the swarm.
Pokemon: Beedrill
Gender: Female
Level: 16
Ability: Swarm
Potential: Yellow
This was the strongest Beedrill and seemed to command the swarm. The rest were around level 11-14.
The Beedrills launched themselves at the duo in mad fury. The leader stayed behind, however, not taking the duo seriously.
A big mistake.
"Gastly, Clear Smog!"
Gastly released a thick smog, catching 5 Beedrill with it. Despite their poison resistance, the smog was so powerful that it still seriously wounded them.
Even though the Beedrill had a higher level, they were clearly outclassed by the current Gastly.
Spearow caught 2 Beedrill in her attack as she dove into them while using peck, tearing parts of their flesh. She has not yet broken through the level 10 bottleneck, but her flying moves were super effective and she was trained by Eric, bridging that gap.
The leader Beedrill realised her mistake and screeched to get the swarm organised. She then joined the battle herself, using Twin Needle on Spearow.
Eric commanded Spearow to dodge but this Beedrill was faster. She managed to partially hit Spearow, causing her to fall back.
Gastly didn't waste this opportunity however, as he hit her with Ghost Ball, which he had started preparing when the Beedrill moved to attack Spearow.
It was a clean hit pushing her back. He then quickly used disable on her, disabling Twin Needle successfully.
3 other Beedrill tried to attack Gastly while he was occupied, but he was much faster than them and dodged nimbly.
Spearow on the other hand was now furious and wanted to attack the leader Beedrill, but Eric stopped her and told her to finish off the rest of the swarm first.
She then dove at one Beedrill furiously while using peck, and hit it's head. It was a critical hit! She defeated Beedrill in one hit.
A white glow surrounded Spearow as she did so. She had broken through to level 10!
And she didn't stop, as she dove towards another Beedrill
Flying type energy surged around her, forming white streaks. her body sped up, and she became a blur.
Aerial ace!
Spearow learned that move on her own.
She hit Beedrill, almost defeating it in one blow. She then finished it off with a peck.
One the other side, Gastly was taking down the wounded Beedrills one by one.
Battles are truly the fastest way for Pokémon to grow, as Gastly's Ghost Balls were getting more and more stable and reached the Basic level.
The leader Beedrill was furious, and attacked Gastly with Pursuit!
Gastly, who was in mid combat, tried to dodge but was partially hit by it, taking quite some damage. He then countered with clear smog before moving away and gaining distance.
Gastly and Spearow had taken down 9 Beedrill by this point, and the others were also quite wounded. The leader Beedrill, even though furious, knew that they can't win like this.
It then made a loud screech
Eric had a bad premonition.
"Gastly! Finish it off immediately!"
He shouted. Gastly charged and hit the leader with a Ghost Ball, and Spearow, who was diving at one of the Beedrills with peck teared through him and sped up, moving towards the leader Beedrill.
'Aerial Ace!'
The leader couldn't withstand these 2 attacks and was knocked down, but still alive. Eric then asked Gastly to use Clear smog on the remaining Beedrill, and threw a Pokeball at the leader. By this time he could already see a large swarm of 30 Beedrills coming theirway.
After successfully capturing the Beedrill, he asked Gastly to quickly recover the Pokeball and flee. He had already started running away when he gave that order.
Gastly and Spearow both had taken damage and weren't at full strength. They can't handle a stronger, bigger swarm!
As they were running away, he would often make Gastly use Clear smog to slow down the swarm, and also take down some Beedrills. They had already escaped the Beedrill territory, but these were very persistent Pokémon. Eric now understood why in the anime these were so annoying.
It took a long time to lose them, and both he and his pokemon were exhausted.
Gastly had kept using clear smog till he couldn't anymore, taking out around 9 of the 30 Beedrill. He was now completely spent. The leading Beedrill of this swarm was of higher quality and level than the last one, a deep yellow Lvl 18 Pokemon. They can't beat it when already tired and surrounded by 20 other Beedrills.
"That colony is bigger than i thought " Eric said out loud as he headed back towards Redwood Town. He took Beedrill's pokeball from Gastly and kept it.
He had no plans about training a Beedrill, he was going to sell it!
While selling Pokémon wasn't allowed legally, he could sell them in the black market. Redwood's black market was decent due to the large presence of gangs in the town.
He wasn't going to go to the black market just yet, however. There were no laws there and he was too weak.
While the black market shows some level of security, to not scare away trainers and lose business, its not like the league's protection. People can still die if they meet the wrong person. As long as the crime didn't happen publicly, the black market security would not care.
Eric will only go there when he has atleast some strength.
In any case, this was quite a fruitful fight for Eric. Gastly had gotten Ghost Ball to basic mastery, and had leveled up 11. Spearow had also reached level 10, and learned Aerial Ace to boot.
Eric returned to the town feeling satisfied.