A Dimly-Lit Forest
A Pokemon Sword and Shield fanfic
Go back to the beginning of the story here. Or check out the chapter guide here. All rights belong to Gamefreak, Nintendo.
Piers didn’t lie when he said he wasn’t afraid of dark places. He had trekked through areas far darker than this in Spikemuth and other parts of Galar.
The forest was strangely quiet. He touched the glowing mushrooms beside him to light the way as he walked.
Some Impidimp trotted towards him, but oddly scurried away again. Piers frowned. Their behavior, more than anything, concerned him.
The undergrowth was still silent. He couldn’t even hear trainers talking, battling, or going about their business.
In the dim lights of the luminous mushrooms, Raihan looked like a spectre with his glowing teal eyes. But Piers supposed he looked the same.
Raihan shoved his hands into his pockets, his grin a little nervous. “Let’s be careful. We don’t want to rouse up the powerful pokemon before we’re ready.”
Piers shook his head, his long strands of hair swishing. “I’m always ready,” he buffed, but he stepped onward at a more cautious pace. For once, his back was straight rather than slouched.
The two gym leaders strode through the eerie forest for a while more in silence. The lack of sound was suffocating.
Just then, there was a rustle behind them. Piers’ instincts screamed at him to run, but he steeled himself to face the threat instead.
The “threat’ turned out to be a small Ponyta. The psychic pokemon’s eyes were wide and it looked at them with endearing eyes.
“Hey, pretty pony,” Raihan murmured as he reached out to the purple and green-maned equine.
A glint appeared in its eye, and Piers shouted out a warning before the Ponyta lunged to bite Raihan’s hand. Thankfully, the dragon tamer withdrew his hand just in time. He chuckled nervously. “I wouldn’t have survived with my dragons if I didn’t have quick reflexes.”
But it wasn’t over. Piers watched with apprehension as the Ponyta whinnied with a high-pitched scream.
The two gym leaders tensed, and before they knew it, three unusually tall Rapidash marched towards them behind the Ponyta, their eyes glowing with menace.
Without wasting another second, Piers tossed out a Dusk Ball. White light splattered the forest for an instant, and his trusty Skuntank appeared. The dark and poison pokemon hissed at the four wild pokemon.
“I’m right behind you,” Raihan said as he tossed out an ultra ball. In a flash, Duraludon appeared. “Use Metal Sound now!”
The steel dragon released a deafening, scraping roar. A screaming neigh tore from the Ponyta in front of it. Immediately, the psychic pony’s special defense fell by two stages.
Piers called out, “Skuntank, quick, use Toxic!”
A vicious purple liquid shot out of the skunk’s mouth, forming puddles of poison. Toxic fumes oozed out of them. The Rapidash and Ponyta collectively flinched in pain.
It was a good thing this lot of psychic horses didn’t have the Ability Pastel Veil, or else Skuntank’s attempt to poison them all would fail. Lucky gamble.
But now it was their enemies’ turn. With a synchronized neigh, a stream of rainbow-coloured energy surrounded the Ponyta and Rapidash, and they blasted the gym leaders’ pokemon with their beam.
Piers shielded his eyes from the blinding light for a second, but when he opened them again, both Skuntank and Duraludon were unconscious on the ground. Piers cursed and Raihan moaned.
The fairy move normally only did neutral damage to Poison and Dark Skuntank, and Steel and Dragon Duraludon. But with all four horses, including these three strong looking Rapidash, the combined attack was too much for either pokemon to bear.
It wasn’t like Piers had never been one-hit KOed by a fairy move before, being a Dark type gym leader. But it was rare that his Skuntank, with the Poison type resistance, would faint instantly after a fairy move. He gritted his teeth and returned his pokemon, thanking his Skuntank.
With a force like the Ponyta and Rapidash, no wonder even Allister, with his Ghost type advantage over the Psychic types, would be fleeing from the forest earlier.
His only comfort was that all the horses were still badly poisoned.
They just needed to stall them.
Raihan could see the tight expression on Piers’ face, and his heart clenched. He did desire his friend’s help, and also used this as an excuse to spend more time with Piers. But Raihan would never forgive himself if Piers got hurt by this incident, or worse. He called back his Duraludon, murmuring, “Good job, Dura!”
With a deep breath, the dragon gym leader sent out Torkoal. The fire tortoise landed with a heavy thump. Its Drought ability activated, and suddenly, the dimly-lit Glimwood Tangle was pierced with harsh sunlight, as if they were out in the open.
The Ponyta and Rapidash looked even angrier as they squinted against the sun.
“Now, use Lava Plume!” A huge torrent of flame flooded the area towards the psychic and fairy horses, but of course, the trees around them caught fire, too.
Piers groaned loudly. “How can you be so stupid? Do you want to burn down the entire Glimwood Tangle?”
The impulsive Raihan was stunned for a moment too, but then that confident smile came back to his lips. He tossed out another Ultra Ball. “Go, Sanaconda!”
A desert cobra pokemon landed on the ground with a hiss. The fire was storming towards the horses and around the area. The horses whinnied in fright and had already run away.
“Use Sandstorm!” In an instant, a torrent of sand fell from the sky. The maelstrom of sand covered up and extinguished the fire.
The sand still stung Piers’ eyes. “Son of a bitch,” the Dark type gym leader muttered.
Raihan grinned.
But one silver lining was that the Rapidash and Ponyta had gone. Perhaps they had the ability Run Away. The woods here were dim to begin with, but with the sandstorm, it was even worse. Piers said, “Can you call off the Sandstorm so we can actually see where we’re going?”
The Dragon gym leader whistled beside him. “For a Dark type gym leader, you sure are impatient with obscurity. Haven’t you ever trekked through a sandstorm before?”
Piers ground his teeth. “I wouldn’t ever want to. And it’s just practical. If I can’t see my opponent, how am I supposed to fight them?” And why on earth did Piers team up with this ridiculous man?
Raihan chortled. “Well, I don’t have any pokemon with Cloud Nine or other weather clearing moves. So do you want rain or harsh sunlight?”
Why was this his life? Piers thought. “I don’t love harsh sunlight, but we could at least see more clearly. The rain would cloud up our vision too. So let’s have the sun.”
“All right. Torkoal, Sunny Day!”
“Koal!” The fire turtle pokemon lifted its head. The sandstorm subsided and bright, relentless sunlight once again burst through the leaves.
Piers shielded his eyes from the artificial sun, but it was still miles better than the sandstorm. Raihan had also returned Sanaconda into its pokeball. “So, do you want to continue onward, or should we heal up at the pokemon centre and restrategize?”
Piers crushed the thick leaves under his boots. “We can’t give up that soon! Let’s just use our healing items for now. If you don’t have enough revives and potions, you can use mine.”
“Naw, I’ve got it,” the dragon tamer said.
In what felt like a sullen silence, the two of them revived and healed their fainted pokemon.
Nevertheless, Piers heaved a sigh of relief. Without waiting for his companion, he trudged deeper into Glimwood Tangle, feeling bolder or maybe just more stubborn. Raihan easily matched his pace with his long legs. Damn him. Piers asked, “Aside from Rapidash, what other pokemon did Allister report?”
“Um…” Raihan was strangely evasive again. He counted on his fingers. “Sinistea, Hattrem, Phantump, Indeedee, and Oranguru.”
Piers blinked. That was a long list, but they were all pokemon that his Dark types could handle. Sinistea was a pure Ghost type, Phantump was Ghost and Grass, Hattrem was pure Psychic, while Indeedee and Oranguru were both Psychic and Normal type. Dark was super effective against ghost and psychic.
Yet, something about the way Raihan glanced around them, made Piers’ spine tingle.
As if in response, a weird, purple aura fell upon them. Then one by one, they saw the forms of Indeedee, Oranguru, Hattrem, Sinistea, and Phantump surrounding them. The Indeedee must have the Psychic Surge ability. And now the battle field became a Psychic Terrain!
