Travelling as a group of four was weirdly different, yet similar to travelling as a pair. Given that we, after the first morning of wandering around Eterna Lake, had to travel up steep and difficult slopes, there was very little talking. We just didn’t have the breath for it. Thus, the overall noise was quite similar to travelling in a pair, the sounds of the wind, alongside the soft crunch of gravel, leaves and a few small twigs the soundtrack to our travel.

And yet, despite how little extra noise the two extra people made, the sensation was different. Not quite security, but the sensation of solitude was lessened. It was weird.

On the other hand, the amount of battle training each of our partners got sharply declined. With four of us, some Pokémon even avoided us, not even trying to attack and those that attacked had to be split between all of us.

It was so bad, that I had Su walk with us, his feline legs easily carrying him across the difficult path, occasionally tossing pebbles for him to shock from the sky. I was pretty sure he preferred to use his physical abilities to increase the impact of his electric attacks, but there were times when such physical attacks were impossible. No matter what, he was unable to fly so making sure that he had some longer-ranged backup abilities sounded like the prudent thing to do. And it wasn’t as if I had anything better to do.

In the evening, when we made camp in a somewhat secluded spot between the cliffs that Sylva had suggested, I focused my training on Vio, still trying to help her narrow down the spread of her psychic abilities into a single beam, in an attempt to increase the power while keeping the drain on her strength at the same level.

“Would you be okay if we train together?” Cliff asked, walking over to the spot where I had been working with Vio. Looking at him, I shrugged, not really caring one way or another. During the last week, I had gotten to know him better and realised that he was far less annoying than I had thought initially. He was talking a little too much, especially when Claire was nearby, but otherwise, he was a pleasant fellow to be around.

We still disagreed on the merits of pre-prepared food compared to carrying an assortment of ingredients and preparing something on the spot but from what Lucas had told me, that came mostly from Cliff’s impressively bad skill at cooking. Lucas had shared an anecdote of one attempt of Cliff to make tea, only to end up needing a change of pants.

“Certainly,” I agreed, petting Vio’s head, trying to encourage her to step forward again. She had decided to hide behind my leg again, as she always did when not fighting.

“What do you have in mind?” I asked, as paired training was something Claire and I had never really done, not willing to exhaust two of our Pokémon in case of emergency.

“I’ve been trying to help Lumi increase her speed and psychic control, similar to what you’re trying with your Vio. Why not have them compete in hitting pebbles?” he suggested, the idea sounding reasonable. It wouldn’t exhaust either Pokémon overmuch and it was most certainly safe. Nodding, I gave Vio another gentle pad on the back, the two of us watching as Cliff called out his Lumi.

It was my first time seeing an Abra and compared to the Alakazam I had seen in the League, it was a lot less impressive. Without that comparison though, it somewhat reminded me of Vio, only that Vio had a certain elfin grace while the Abra gave me an impression similar to a curious, but cowardly, animal, poking its nose wherever only to run if anything ever poked back.

“Let’s show them what we got,” I quietly cheered for Vio, lobbing another pebble that she blasted in the air, knocking it into the wall. Looking at Lumi, I noticed that she had focused on the rock, too, only that Vio had been faster with her psychic power, blocking her action.

Cliff noticed, too, and stepped over to me, before lobbing a pebble of his own. This time, both Pokémon managed to strike and it became a contest of power, which Vio won.

“Vio, try narrowing the beam, or this won’t be real training,” I gently chided her, “Let Lumi get a grip on the pebble and you try to knock it out of her psychic hold,” I instructed, getting a nod of confirmation from Cliff.

With the changed rules, the training became quite a bit more useful, Vio realised that it wasn’t about overpowering Lumi but her own improvement and Lumi seemed to be incredibly happy to have someone to train with.

Sadly, our training didn’t go on for too long, as a sudden shout of surprise caught us off-guard, making all four of us whirl around and look back towards camp.

Even from the distance, the red flash with which Gem appeared was easily visible, not that the massive stone-serpent was anything approaching stealthy on its own. Cliff and I only exchanged a brief look, before we started dashing towards the commotion, Vio and Lumi in tow. From afar, it looked like Gem was just thrashing around wildly but as we got closer, a far smaller figure became visible, agilely dodging around the Onyx in the air. It wasn’t large, certainly not compared to Gem’s massive serpentine body, but from the flashes of light, I had a feeling Gem was taking as much damage as she was dishing out.

Finally, Cliff and I reached the field of battle and my first instinct, after seeing that Lucas and Claire were fine, was to check Gem’s enemy.

My first impression was that it looked somewhat similar to a Zubat and there was a faint noise, just outside of my auditory range, that echoed in the valley, reminding me of their cries. But it wasn’t a Zubat, the bat fighting Gem looked less fragile, the purple body a lighter colour, far less blue, with two large pincers at the front of its wings and a massive tail that repeatedly gave off a deep, purple light as the Gligar tried to use some sort of poison-attack on Gem. Luckily, trying to poison a rock was quite difficult, Gem wasn’t outright immune, but her nature made her incredibly resistant to both, physical force and Poison-type energy.

“Everything alright?” I asked Claire, after watching yet another exchange between the two tails, Gem trying to smash the dodging Gligar with her rocky body, while the Gligar tried to pierce into her, to administer poison.

“Yeah, everything’s fine, we were only surprised.” she replied, “Stupid bat came gliding in, we only noticed when it was almost on us. I think Lucas wants to try catching it.” she added, the statement-making me flip open my Pokédex to scan.

It took a few moments to get the right angle so that the battle didn’t disturb the reading, but quite quickly, I got the estimated data on the Gligor and could only nod in appreciation. While it wasn’t terribly high-level from what I could see, the readings gave me the impression that it had some potential, if it was caught and trained.

As we were watching, Lucas kept cheering his Onyx on and after a few more tries, as both Pokémon dealt more and more damage to each other with glancing hits, Gem managed to connect squarely, the Smackdown hitting the Gligar right out of the air, smashing it into the unforgiving mountainside. Not letting the grounded foe escape, Gem slithered after it, wrapping around its body and keeping it contained, as the Gligar got weaker.

Right before I thought Lucas had forgotten that he wanted to catch the Gligar, not just defeat it, Lucas called out, telling Gem to back off. A moment later, Gem moved with surprising speed, uncoiling and leaving the Gligar reeling from the beating it had taken in the unforgiving coils of stone. Before it had a chance to do anything but stumble around, Cliff had lobbed a Pokéball over, the red glow surrounding the Gligar and drawing it in.

The ball landed with a soft noise and for a moment, the energy of the Gligar caused it to tremble and shake before it stilled and a soft ping told us that the Gligar had successfully been caught.

“Well done,” I congratulated him alongside Cliff and Claire, “Nice to know that there’s not just Geodudes living in this area,” Claire added, a grin on her face. Those had been our primary foes and an excellent source of training for her two grass-types, letting her get started with the tips Sylva had given her.

“Thanks,” Lucas replied, before calling out to his Onyx, “You did really well, Gem.”

“Back to training?” Cliff asked me, now that the commotion was over. Looking down at Vio and Lumi, both looking quite pumped from watching the battle, I nodded, “Sure, maybe we managed to scare up another wild Pokémon,” I grinned, a small part of me craving that sensation of victory.

“We shall see,” he returned my grin before we moved back onto the small plateau we had been training on.