He noticed his Houndoom's steps halt, and with it, prompting Kyle to stop on his tracks as well to turn to his Pokemon. The hound was still, eyes staring at a spot intensely. Had this been a different setting, he would start thinking of the supernatural, but given it was a forest, the most possible conclusion was simply a wild Pokemon blending in with the surroundings.

His Houndoom opened his mouth, inhaling a healthy amount of oxygen to feed the fire that formed on his mouth. The indication alerted Kyle, interrupting his Pokemon with a loud "Oi!". He did promise himself that there shouldn't be no forest fires that would be started this day. Though he had a Water-type to help extinguish them, prevention was still better than a cure, or something like that.

"You're using Smog to lure it out instead."

Flames on his mouth turned to black smoke, as the Houndoom glared back at her trainer in protest. No barking or the like happened though as she complied. A purple mist came out of her mouth instead though. The cloud of poison crept on the ground, reaching the bush that the Houndoom was staring at since earlier. A Tangela hopped out, anger visible in its limited expressions as it inhaled a fair amount of poison from the move.

"This is where you use Inferno."

It was out in the open clearing, nowhere near the shrubbery or anything else that might catch on fire. A sigh of relief came from Kyle at the same time as his Pokemon released the intense flames from her mouth, immolating the Tangela as it ran around and rolled on the forest ground. The flames were indeed extinguished, though with the damage sustained, Kyle wasn't much surprised when the Tangela collapsed on the ground soon afterwards.

Hey, at least it's alive.

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"Not bad, not bad," Kyle would judge, nodding his head sagely. "Could be better, but it's still a passing grade."

His Houndoom simply scoffed, walking away from the Tangela and moving deeper to the forest and going off the trail. "Pathways are made for a reason, dear Houndy," he'd protest, but follow his Pokemon nonetheless. Ilex Forest was one of the places he was less familiar with compared to the other routes, but he had two other backup dogs to track the way back to the city if need be anyways, and so he wasn't really all that worried about getting lost.

As they walked further, mist had started to form in the atmosphere. His Houndoom was still trudging along, though Kyle started to get wary of the unnatural state of the air. "Stop." The firm command got his Pokemon to halt his steps, whipping her head back to her trainer. "We're dealing with this before we continue."

The Fire-type opened his mouth, fire forming on his throat, which Kyle promptly shut it close with his hand rather forcefully and holding onto it. "No, we're not doing that haphazardly."

Eyes scanned the thick Haze that formed, though nothing worthy of being noticed showed up. His Houndoom's head turned to a random direction though, a flap of wings disturbing the Haze and revealing it shortly right after. Kyle released his hold from the Houndoom, and without a moment to spare, shot his Inferno straight at the Pokemon.

The cry of pain from the bird was all that resulted from it, but a few moments later soon got the layer of fog to dissipate. Burn scars covered its body, leaving a few feathers singed and bringing the bird down to the ground. Even without a word from Kyle, the canine charged in, biting the bird on the throat and then releasing his hold when Kyle whistled for his attention.

"No. No unnecessary killing, you shit."

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His Houndoom had been on the defensive, albeit heavy breathing has replaced the usual cold, calm and calculating stare. Toxic Spikes had been spread throughout sparingly on the forest without them noticing, perhaps from the Haze from earlier managing to hide them from plain sight. Regardless, his Houndoom seemed to be hell bent on hunting the cause, which Kyle, for once, was not exactly against to.

This wouldn't have happened if they went straight back to the main path though. After they had beaten the Murkrow, his Houndoom went deeper, running ahead of her trainer like what he'd expect from a puppy. Grown ass dog was as childish as she was serious, in his opinion. Getting poisoned by spikes from wild Pokemon was what she deserved for trespassing their territories carelessly.

As much as the Houndoom got to him, he supposed the poor pup doesn't need to suffer from the effects of poison for too long. Noticing the Roselia before his aggravated Houndoom, whose senses were clouded by the pain from the status effect, he picked up a pebble and threw it at it, leaving it to release a cry as it hit.

While the Grass-type flinched from the pebble hitting it straight on the head, the Fire-type quickly turned her head towards the wild Pokemon and released an Inferno once again. The flames seemed weaker than normal, though Kyle wasn't sure if it had been a conscious effort to appease her trainer or simply was from the poison weakening her system from doing things at full capacity.

Regardless, the fire burned in an appropriate manner, scorching the Roselia nicely while leaving the shrubbery almost untouched by the raging flames. The jet of flames went off continuously, until the Roselia collapsed on the ground, unable to handle the heat of the fire that his Houndoom had let out.

"That looks bad," he mentioned, returning his Pokemon back to her ball. "We're getting that checked immediately."

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