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Guiding the increasingly belligerent Hakamo-o from the lack of battles and Freth planning on the fly, Freth found herself through the forest, through more brush, and then into a clearing. She had to admit this also wasn’t helping her cause in trying to get this Hakamo-o trained. As much as Freth didn’t want to admit it, perhaps the Hunter was right. There should have been an alternate method to going about this. She at the very least needed to use something that would listen to her a bit better. The Cufant, perhaps, would have probably been best after all. So far, there hadn’t been much in here that could have taken on a Steel type, she figured. At least not in this forest so far. As she started to lament and try to figure her way out of the mess she dug herself into, she perked up and looked back, seeing something come out of a brush. A Farfetch’d, it looked. But it was odd. The plumage was much darker than she imagined it. Its leek was also nothing shy of absurd. It was bigger than it was. “What…in the world? How the hell is a Farfetch’d supposed to fly with that thing?”

“It doesn’t. Its Galarian.” The Hunter spoke. “It’s a fighting type.”

“A variant?” Freth asked, staring in confusion. “Huh…” The Hakamo-o made its way forward without command, roaring out and challenging the Farfetch’d. “Woah woah woah, hey, wait, don’t-“

“I suppose it figures it’s been long enough without a proper fight.”

“Fine…” Freth muttered. It was too late anyways; the Farfetch’d accepted the challenge, brandishing its massive leek and getting ready for battle. “Hopefully you’ll still listen. If it’s a fighting type, then maybe…Hakamo-o, if you got it, use it! Drain Punch!” It was the moment of truth…this was going to determine Hakamo-o’s longevity in this safari. Short of starting to use constant shadow attacks, that is. If it starts going into hyper mode, then it won’t even matter. And she’d wouldn’t be able to use the Revive should he eventually go down. She’d effectively be out of this contest. The Hakamo-o started to run after the Farfetch’d, and as the Farfetch’d tried to swing about its massive leek to counterattack, the Hakamo-o would power through, smashing its claw right into the grounded duck. The injuries on the Hakamo-o just then started to subside it seemed, if only a little bit. “Oh thank God.”

“That wasn’t a whole lot, Freth. Attacks of that nature isn’t tenable unless you struck something super effective, and even then…”

“Its better than nothing!” she snapped back. “Stop back seat battling!”

The Farfetch’d hopped back up then swung its massive leek, planting and pivoting hard. A Brutal Swing. The Hakamo-o braced itself, and despite such an attack was normally not very effective, it was enough to jostle the dragon a bit as it took the blow. It skidded back a short ways from the sheer impact of the attack, albeit still standing upright.

“Hakamo-o, use Dragon Claw!” she then commanded. The Hakamo-o relentlessly rushed in and slashed furiously with its attack. Attack, attack, attack…that’s all this Hakamo-o wants. It wants to battle, none of this other strategic stuff. The attack dug in deep upon the Farfetch’d, driving the Farfetch’d into the ground. “There! Drain punch!” then Freth called for a follow-up attack. The Hakamo-o then rushed in to smash its claw once again into the Farfetch’d. The Farfetch’d managed to look up at its oncoming assailant, and managed to flutter out of the way, leaving the Hakamo-o to punch nothing but grass and earth.

The Farfetch’d then retaliated, driving the leek into the dragon, end first, which in a change of pace, actually knocked the wind out of the dragon. “The hell was that?”

“Its Brick Break for these things.”

“A hell of a way to do it!” Freth then noticed that the Hakamo-o was starting to get agitated with this persistent Galarian Farfetch’d. She needed to see about getting this dragon to end this fight quicker before it decides to use Shadow attacks of its own volition. “Hakamo-o, use Outrage!” she then shouted. While not a shadow attack, it was still a risky maneuver. It was the lesser of evils to make this battle go by quicker. At least try to, at any rate. The Hakamo-o lit up with draconian fervor and rushed for the noble duck, slashing and pummeling all it could upon the Farfetch’d. The Farfetch’d quickly backed away from the onslaught of attacks, trying to reposition itself. Once it did so, it spun its leek around above it then went to unleash a mighty Slam attack with its massive leek. The Hakamo-o failed to care. Despite such a furious attack, and the damage that it caused for that matter, the Outrage would fail to cease, the rampaging Dragon continued to thrash about, overpowering the Farfetch’d and finally brought it down.

“Finally…uh-oh.” Freth noticed that while the Farfetch’d stopped, the Hakamo-o, still alight with draconian fury, wasn’t. She wasn’t sure if that was the effects of outrage still going, or if he was about to go off into Hyper Mode despite not using any Shadow Attacks. Whatever the case, the Hakamo-o looked intent to kill. “Oh no, none of that!” she took out a Pokeball and recalled the Hakamo-o for the time being.

“…why couldn’t you do that instead every time instead of trying to coax the dragon around?” the hunter said.

“Because one, I’m…honestly not sure if that is against the rules either…” she confessed. “…secondly, again, trying to treat Shadow Pokémon.”

“They care not for your TLC.” The hunter retorted.

“Have you actually tried to bring a shadow Pokémon to recovery? I doubt it considering you didn’t seem to have any Pokémon on you to begin with when you came to pay us a visit.”

“Why do I bother wasting my breath with you?”

“I don’t know. Why?”

As the Hoothoot continued to stare down Freth, Freth would then tried to contemplate where to go next. There was still plenty of forest to explore, though at this rate, it may just be all the same. She started to question the diversity in this forest, especially after coming across a fair number of Venomoth so far. As she started to try to plot out her next path in this forest, she then noticed a Pokémon start making its way through, though it was carefully approaching, hissing. It looked as if it was ready to defend itself, or maybe attack? Freth wasn’t sure. “A Yungoos?” A realization then started to happen… “…I really am a bad person.” Freth then said. “Hakamo-o.” she said, pointing towards the Yungoos.

“Wait, are you about to-“

“Drain Punch!” she then commanded. The Hakamo-o then rushed forward after the Yungoos. Unfortunately, once the Yungoos realized it was on the defensive in the worst ways, it started to run, albeit stumbling and its feet trying to gain traction on the grass in its panic. The Hakamo-o tried to chase the Pokémon, unfortunately the Yungoos was faster than the lumbering dragon. It rushed into the bushes and escaped. “…so much for that idea.” Freth said.

“I doubt it was going to be that easy.” The hunter chided in.

Aria was already sizing up the Grasslands, tossing the Pokeball she had Billy contained within up and down as she started walking in. 'Welp. Time for another video showing off the fun things I and Team Snagem get up to on days when we aren't trying to stop the world blowing up." Aria muttered to herself, glancing over to the camera drone that she had just finished setting up as it set itself to work initializing for the first shot.

Clare watched the Diglett flee until it was fully gone and turned around to walk off and explore in a different direction for now. The Bergmite resting on a stone shelf nearby went unnoticed, masquerading quite well as an icy stalagmite. Probably best not to disturb it with Visage being weak to Ice-types and all anyway.

Freth went over to the Hakamo-o as it still flailed about trying to get off the remaining String Shot on it. “Hey! Hey! Hold still! I’ll get it! Stop!” she shouted. The Hakamo-o roared at Freth in response, not caring for any of her concerns. “HEY! Shadow or not, you are not going to do that. You want to fight, at least let me help you fight better. That’s what you want, right? RIGHT!?” The Hakamo-o once again roared in response. “Then shut up and let me help you. While we’re at it, you’re not going to run off without my say so!” Once again, the Hakamo-o growled out in disapproval.

“Freth. Hyper Mode.” The hunter spoke up.

“I know! Time bomb here.” She said, making her way over to the Hakamo-o. The Hakamo-o would swipe at Freth as she reached over towards the sticky silk. “HEY! CALM DOWN!” she snapped back. Hakamo-o was starting to become more belligerent as time goes on, this was starting to become worrisome. As she started to take the silk off, she noticed yet another Sewaddle start to crawl its way over towards the two, but as soon as Hakamo-o locked eyes on it, the Sewaddle made the about face. Hakamo-o started to make its fast march towards the bug, until Freth jerked the Hakamo-o by its arm back to her. “WHEN WE’RE DONE!” Another roar of protest.

It took a bit of time between the Hakamo-o’s protests and flailing before she managed to help the dragon get enough of the String Shot off of the dragon. “There. All better. You’re good. You can fight to your hearts content now. The Hakamo-o just glared at Freth, no reply given. “Now let’s go.” She said, making her way off back into the forest.

“You should probably quit right about now. Its getting worse, you realize.” The hunter said.

“Look, I’ve already been through this once with Absol.”

“Within the confines of the headquarters.” The hunter added.

“And? Just shut up.”

“You really don’t know what you’re doing, do you?” The hunter asked.

“Its complicated in dealing with Shadow Pokémon. Shut up. Viral or no, its still a Pokémon that needs to know you care, with or without its shadow status. Tch, why the hell am I talking to you about this. Blasted cold blooded killer…”

“You really think of me as someone without empathy?” the hunter asked.

“You give me no reason to think otherwise. Everything that you have said and done short of all that happened in Hisui makes me think otherwise, and even then, that was only your own interests in play, no one elses.” She said. “Either that or you were completely dejected for a spell.”

“It was more the latter, if you have to know, but its not to suggest that I’m what you think of me.”

“Right.” She said, unbelieving in it. The argument would continue on, leaving Freth in a position of accidentally ignoring the Gligar that soared overhead.

The last thing Freth needed was to be arguing once again with the Hunter, let alone out in the middle of a forest in what felt like at times the middle of nowhere. Let alone while trying to keep a Shadow Pokémon well under wraps. She would then perk up, staring in confusion. “Is that…the same Yungoos that bailed on us earlier?”

She wouldn’t get any response, other than the sudden rush, a yellow and gray blur of the Hakamo-o rushing away from Freth and smashing its fist into the Yungoos, doing what was originally told to it the last time this Pokémon paid the two a visit. “…yea, okay.” The Yungoos didn’t stand a chance, being caught off guard this time by the sudden assault, Drain Punched for everything it was worth. Feeling better, the Hakamo-o went on to make sure the Yungoos was out. At least, he would have if not for Freth recalling the dragon.

“That wasn’t even a battle. Come on…” Freth said, sighing.

Rolycoly wasn’t done yet and used it’s Rock Polish to rapidly pick up speed and rush right back to the fight, screeching to a halt right in front of Visage and sending a huge stone spike jutting up at her from where it stopped. “Double Team!” Clare called out, trying to provide their Pokémon with the needed support. Visage was quick to duplicate herself but Rolycoly was a hair too fast and it managed to strike her with the Stone Edge before she could split her clones apart. “Disable! Don’t let it do that again!”

Visage nodded and her eyes flashed as she unleashed a ghostly curse upon Rolycoly, binding it’s will to use Stone Edge along with attempting to hold it’s body in place.

Rolycoly managed to break the psychic hold but the curse wasn’t easily broken and as hard as it tried, it couldn’t manage to muster the needed energy or will to use it’s Rock-type attack so it hurled itself into the air and came crashing down once more, hoping to crush Visage and burn her to ash with the heat and flames it was producing. “Get back! Use Quick Attack to get away and hit it with Dragon Tail again!” Clare directed. Visage followed those orders without question, dashing a short distance away from where she’d begun and lashed out at a Rolycoly as she’d done in their first round, whipping it with Dragon energy that sent it flying into the distance once more