Eventually, the Arbok were reduced to 8, including the leader.
Silas looked at Tropius and noticed her heavy breathing.
"You've done enough. Descend and return for now."
Tropius began lowering toward the ground, but when Silas moved to recall her, she refused.
Her eyes were tired but determined. She wanted to battle.
Silas looked at her for a moment before nodding.
"Fine. Then we finish this."
He released the rest of his pokemon.
Jason did the same with his 2.
At that point, the battle stopped being a challenge.
The remaining Arbok had already sustained damage, while most of Silas' pokemon were fresh. Once the full team entered the field, the pressure immediately shifted.
Tropius was especially ruthless.
Dragon Pulse after Dragon Pulse hammered the battlefield, forcing the snakes to scatter while the others cut off every escape route.
Silas felt no pity.
These pokemon had come to kill and eat them. Since they had chosen the wrong prey, they would bear the consequences.
His team overwhelmed the remaining Arbok and Ekans one by one.
By the end, every surviving snake pokemon had been captured.
The haul was 22 Arbok and 8 Ekans.Their potential was not bad either. The lowest among them was C. If given a few generations and some good luck, they could potentially produce high quality heirs.
Unfortunately for them, they had targeted the wrong prey and were now destined to be separated and sold off.
This was a dog eat dog world. Silas was no saint. He was selectively kind to those he deemed worthy, but these wicked Arbok did not fall into that category.
He had already vowed never to show mercy to his enemies, because mercy to enemies was cruelty to himself.
With this haul alone, he estimated that he could make a decent profit.
Before leaving, Silas released the Arbok he had personally slashed so he could treat it properly.
Unfortunately, it died despite his efforts. That was fine, there were still 21 other Arbok.
After tending to Tropius and the rest of his pokemon, Silas and Jason resumed their journey.
After tending to Tropius and the rest of his pokemon, Silas and Jason resumed their journey.
The battle against the Arbok and Ekans had taken more time and energy than Silas would have preferred, but the results were not bad.
The capture haul alone made the encounter profitable, and more importantly, everyone on his side had survived with manageable injuries.
Still, Silas did not allow himself to feel too pleased.
The ambush had been a reminder.
Trial Island was not a place where strength alone guaranteed safety. Numbers, terrain, poison, and coordination could all create danger even when the individual enemies were weaker than his strongest pokemon.
If he had reacted slower, if Tropius had failed to carry them into the air, or if the Arbok had been slightly stronger, the situation could have become far uglier.
Silas quietly engraved the lesson into his mind.
There was no such thing as a harmless delay in the wilderness.
Jason walked beside him, occasionally glancing back at the direction they had come from.
"That was a lot of snakes."
Silas nodded.
"Too many."
"I thought you were going to be in a good mood after catching so many."
"The profit is good. The risk was unnecessary."
Jason considered that before laughing softly.
"That's fair but enjoy the victory man! I bet most of the trial participants would have died there but we didn't!"
Silas did not deny it.
The two continued moving across the plains.
They did not push as recklessly as before, partly because Jason still needed time for his aura to recover and partly because Tropius had taken damage during the battle.
Although Silas had treated her injuries, recovery items were not magic. A pokemon could return to fighting condition quickly, but fatigue and accumulated strain still needed to be respected.
For that reason, they alternated between walking, short bursts of aura movement, and taking breaks.
By the time the air grew hotter and drier, the terrain around them had already begun to change.
The scattered grass thinned.
The soil became harder, paler, and more cracked beneath their feet. Occasional shrubs replaced the trees, and the faint smell of dry stone carried on the wind. In the distance, the desert waited beneath the sun like a sea of heat and dust.
Silas narrowed his eyes slightly.
They had reached the desert area.
Once they crossed into the harsher terrain, traveling by foot would become more troublesome. Heat, sand, and uneven ground would all slow them down.
More importantly, it would expose them to desert pokemon that could hide beneath the surface.
Silas looked toward Tropius' pokeball.
After a moment of consideration, he released her again.
Tropius appeared with a low cry. She looked much better than she had after the Arbok battle, though Silas still watched her carefully for any sign of lingering strain.
"Can you fly?"
Tropius nodded.
Her answer was firm.
Silas studied her for another second before accepting it. She had pride of her own, and after refusing to withdraw during the previous battle, he understood that treating her too delicately would only irritate her.
Even so, caution remained necessary.
Silas climbed onto Tropius' back, then gestured for Jason to follow.
Jason mounted behind him, adjusting his position carefully so he would not interfere with Silas or Tropius' wings.
Before they took off, Silas released Espeon as well.
She stood gracefully on Tropius' back, her forked tail swaying as she looked toward the desert ahead.
"Espeon, stay ready. Keep using Calm Mind, I need you to keep a +2 boost at all times."
Espeon's ears twitched.
"Flying enemies?"
"Exactly."
"You can count on me! I'll shoot them down with my Stored Power."
Silas had not forgotten the Altaria. That previous ambush was still etched into his mind.
Tropius had nearly died because they had underestimated the danger of the sky, and Silas had no intention of repeating that mistake.
If that same Altaria appeared again, or if any other flying type tried to attack them from above, Espeon would be ready to blast it out of the air before it could gain the initiative.
Espeon closed her eyes and began focusing.
Calm Mind strengthened her mental state bit by bit. Only then did Silas give Tropius the signal. Tropius beat her broad wings and lifted off the ground.
She did not rise too high.
Silas deliberately kept her flying lower than her usual altitude. It was still high enough to avoid most ground based threats, but not so high that they would stand out like an obvious target to every powerful flying pokemon in the region.
The speed was slower than it could have been, but safety mattered more than convenience.
At first, the flight remained tense.
Silas kept his psychic senses spread as far as he reasonably could, while Espeon continued stacking Calm Mind.
Jason stayed quiet behind him, one hand resting near his sword as his eyes scanned the surroundings.
Below them, the desert stretched outward in uneven waves.
Sand, stone, and dry earth blended together beneath the heat. Several rocky ridges cut across the landscape, and shallow depressions hinted at hidden burrows or underground tunnels. It was the kind of terrain where wild pokemon could appear without warning.
Fortunately, things went smoothly from there.
Tropius soon found her rhythm.
Tailwind flowed around her wings, supporting her movements and reducing the burden of flight. Whenever her stamina began dipping too much, Synthesis helped restore some of her strength under the harsh sunlight.
Dragon Dance pushed her body further, sharpening her movements and increasing her speed until she could cover distance far faster than walking ever could.
Silas monitored her closely throughout the process.
Tropius was working hard, but she was not pushing herself beyond what she could handle.
In fact, she seemed to enjoy the opportunity to show what she could do. After her performance against the Arbok, her confidence had clearly risen.
That was good.
A pokemon that understood its own value would grow faster than one that merely followed orders.
Along the way, Silas also took advantage of several opportunities to capture desert pokemon.
The first was another Trapinch with C potential.
It had been hiding beneath the sand, waiting for prey to pass overhead. Unfortunately for it, Tropius noticed the slight disturbance in the ground before it could launch a proper ambush.
A sharp Razor Leaf forced it out of hiding, and once it surfaced, Silas captured it without much difficulty.
After that, they encountered two Cacnea with C+ potential.
The pair tried to take advantage of the terrain by blending into the dry vegetation and attacking from different angles.
Their coordination was decent, but against Tropius from the air, it was not enough. Razor Leaf swept across both targets at once, striking them before they could properly adjust.
Silas captured them as well.
Later, they found a Hippopotas with B- potential.
That one caught Silas' attention more than the others.
Hippopotas was still young, but its potential was respectable. With proper cultivation, it could become valuable either as a future battle pokemon or as breeding stock.
Silas had no immediate need to add it to his main team, but value did not disappear simply because it was not useful right away.
He captured it after Tropius weakened it carefully.
The most difficult capture came afterward.
A level 42 Hippowdon with C+ potential emerged from beneath the sand after sensing their presence.
Its size alone made it more threatening than the previous pokemon, and the moment it appeared, the surrounding sand shifted violently.
Silas did not underestimate it.
If they had been on the ground, the battle would have been far more troublesome. Hippowdon's ability to control the terrain would have forced them into a slower and more dangerous fight.
Unfortunately for the Hippowdon, Tropius held the aerial advantage.
Dragon Dance had pushed her speed to the point where the wild pokemon struggled to track her properly.
Razor Leaf became a devastating attack from above, cutting through the air and striking from angles the Hippowdon could not comfortably answer.
Whenever it tried to endure and counterattack, automatic Solar Beam threatened it immediately, forcing it to either defend or take severe damage.
The battle didn't last long.
Silas captured the Hippowdon once it was weakened enough.
Jason watched the pokeball vanish into Silas' storage and shook his head.
"You know, most trainers would call this an excellent trip already."
Silas glanced at him.
"Most trainers are not walking into a desert mission involving the Luminary Court."
"Fair point."
Silas looked forward again.
The captures were useful, but they were not the main objective. Trapinch, Cacnea, Hippopotas, and Hippowdon all had value, yet none of them mattered if he failed to reach Victor's team in time.
The deeper they traveled, the more careful Silas became.
The Luminary Court had built a position somewhere in this desert area. Viper had said the mission team had already set out and that Victor was leading the operation, but Silas did not know exactly what the situation looked like on the ground.
There could be scouts, traps or hidden pokemon.
The Court had already shown that it was far more dangerous than an ordinary enemy organization. Their connection to Kalos, their strange experiments, and the possible use of Mega Evolution all meant that Silas could not afford to treat them casually.
Eventually, the terrain shifted again.
Large caves began appearing throughout the area.
Some were carved into rocky hills, while others opened along the base of stone ridges.
From above, the entrances looked like dark mouths scattered across the desert, each one large enough to hide people, pokemon, or entire passageways leading underground.
Silas had Tropius slow down. His eyes moved from one cave entrance to the next.
There were too many.
Some looked natural. Others appeared suspiciously smooth around the edges, as if they had been widened or reinforced.
A few were surrounded by old tracks that the wind had partially buried, while others showed no obvious signs of recent activity.
The problem was simple.
Silas had reached the general location, but he did not know which cave led to the hidden Rocket base or where Victor's team had gathered.
The token from Viper proved he had permission to involve himself in the operation.
It did not point him in the right direction.
Jason leaned forward slightly, studying the caves below.
"So... which one?"
Silas did not answer immediately.
He expanded his psychic senses as far as he could, searching for movement, minds, or anything unusual that might reveal the correct path.
For the first time since reaching the desert, he was unsure what to do next.
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Thanks for the continued support on my first fanfic!!
Moving forward, every 50 Power Stones, I will release a bonus chapter.
I will also be releasing bonus chapters for milestones. The next ones are 200k views and chapter 200.
Finally, I will be releasing 3 extra chapters once we reach 10 reviews. 5 star reviews are appreciated but not required, I want honest feedback so I can improve.
Once again, thanks for all the support and feedback!