A loud roaring noise drew his attention—but it wasn’t the one he was looking for. Instead, he blinked as a larger-than-life ursine Pokémon burst through the trees and began beating its claws against his chest. “Way to show your machismo, huh,” he muttered, quickly plucking a Pokéball from his pocket and tossing it forward.

He wasn’t expecting to see that he’d summoned his Trapinch forward—was this going to be a good idea in terms of match-ups? Either way, the Ursaring then bellowed before releasing a sickly-sweet smell that permeated the immediate area. “Oh, crap,” was all he could say before the cloying Sweet Scent hit his nose. At the same time, the Trapinch cringed a few moments, before stamping tis stubby little feet on the ground—almost knocking Lars off his feet.

“Wh—whoa! A bit of warning next time?” he yelped as he’d almost lost his balance due to the Bulldoze attack that his little ant lion had used, knocking the Normal-type off its feet as well. While Lars didn’t know what other effect this move had, it only served to anger the Ursaring even further, who then came close and attempted to take a big, ol’ Lick on the Trapinch’s face.

“What the fuck? Get away from there and try a Feint Attack!” he called out, recoiling inside as the Normal-type’s tongue hung out and ended up Licking thin air—at the very last second, the Trapinch had seemingly vanished out of the Ursaring’s line of sight before suddenly smacking it in the lower regions as hard as it could manage. Once the Feint Attack had gone through, the Trapinch then scuttled backwards as fast as its big head would allow, before Lars got an idea.

“Oh, let’s try that one… use your Rock Slide attack!” he called a few moments later, and the little Ground-type then snapped its jaws before stomping both its front feet on the ground—and subsequently summoning an avalanche of boulders that began to rain down around the Normal-type. While it did have size on its side, the Rock Slide attack rained down hard and fast around the Ursaring, causing it to stop its rampage and begin using Hammer Arm to swat some of the rocks away.

“Do it again! Rock Slide one more time!” Lars added, seeing what the Ursaring was up to. Another teeny little foot-stomp later, a second cascade of boulders came raining down around the Normal-type. “Keep it on its toes! Use your Bulldoze to knock it off its feet!” followed a few moments later, and this time, he braced himself as the ground shook underneath his feet.

The deluge of large boulders and shaking ground threw the Normal-type off, eventually driving it backwards and away from where the teeny-tiny little Trapinch stood, snapping its jaws at the retreating figure.

The moment the wild Mawile stuck its head out from underneath some of the fallen rocks, the Trapinch fell back a few paces, snapping its overlarge jaws angrily at the intruder. Right then and there the Mawile then faked a crying fit, having used Fake Tears to lure the Ground-type into a false sense of security—

And that happened to be the moment Lars noticed what the Mawile was up to.

Close, but not quite. Maybe I’ll come back after you some other time… he thought to himself as the Trapinch continued to snap its large jaws. “Tough customer… okay, let’s try practicing your aim with that Sand Tomb attack of yours,” he began, watching as the Trapinch then raised its stubby little legs up high enough before slamming one of them down on the ground.

While the Mawile was cackling at its ‘grand scheme’ for seemingly working, it then let out a roar of surprise the moment a swirling vortex of sand encircled it, trapping her where she stood. Annoyed, the Mawile then tried to use Growl in an attempt to lower the Ground-type’s defenses even further—but due to the Trapinch concentrating so hard on maintaining the small ‘sandstorm’ swirling around the other, the Mawile’s attempt to catch the Trapinch’s attention had literally gone over the Ground-type’s large head.

It didn’t take too long before the Mawile felt its energy being drained away slowly but surely due to the grit and dust keeping it in one position. After the third turn it spent stuck in the vortex, it finally managed to break free before attempting a Crunch attack by whipping its large head around and taking a large bite out of the Ground-type! “Whoa. Bulldoze that and stop it in its tracks!” Lars called out, having spotted the incoming attack.

Once the Ground-type had raised both its short little limbs, it then proceeded to slam them down on the ground, causing a tremor to shake the area—and thankfully he had the foresight to brace himself as the place began to tremble and shake. “Catch it with another Bulldoze!” he followed up a few moments later, holding his ground. Over where the Mawile had unceremoniously taken a spill to the ground, she lifted herself up angrily from where she’d tripped—only to find herself kissing the dirt a few seconds later as the Ground-type attack shook the area.

“That should distract her enough… let’s keep practicing your Sand Tomb accuracy!” he called out, and another swirling vortex of dust and grit surrounded the Mawile. Now that she was trapped again, she was, for the most part, stuck. Several turns passed before the miniature vortex petered out, and the Mawile tried coming close again—this time choosing to Play Rough since the kid gloves had come off a few moments ago…

Only for the Mawile to suddenly get knocked off her feet yet again with another Bulldoze attack from the Trapinch! “Heh, nice job,” he said with a bit of a grin on his face, as the Mawile grumbled even more before trying to pick herself up—only to have another Bulldoze attack literally sweep her off her feet (and not in the good way it seemed). Eventually, the Mawile gave up and retreated back where it had come out from.

But he knew that the danger wasn’t over yet…

Unfortunately, the next thing that made its presence known wasn’t the one he was searching for…although in terms of typing, it did come pretty close.

The moment Lars saw it—and after checking his Pokédex—he knew that his Trapinch was going to have one hell of a time with it. “Okay, you did great…but you won’t be able to smack this one out of the air. You need rest,” and quickly withdrew the Ground-type back into his Pokéball before tossing another one forward—he knew he owed this one a training session or two… or even more, to be quite honest.

“Hey, Ara,” he began in the Fire-type’s direction, “…sorry it’s been a while. You want to take that out?” he asked, gesturing at the weird thing that looked like a bell…and had a face that really unsettled him. Once his Quilava nodded, he then continued, “Be careful not to set anything on fire!”

Right then and there the Bronzong used Iron Defense while still levitating, before getting hit by a sudden burst of Flamethrower from the Fire-type right on the ground! As it floated along, it then used Future Sight to prepare itself for things to come—and then continued with a Confuse Ray status change.

“Ara! Look away!” he hollered a few moments later—but the sinister flash of light had already popped and gone off in the Fire-type’s face. As the Quilava was left reeling, the Bronzong then continued with a Hypnosis, and just like that the Fire-type had fallen asleep right where it stood. “Oh, shit,” was all he could say as his companion had gotten smacked with not just one, but two status condition changes. One of which he didn’t know how long would last, the other would be a little harder to throw off.

All too soon, the Future Sight then crashed atop the Quilava, which slept on. “C’mon, Ara… get up…” he muttered under his breath as the Bronzong set up another Future Sight, before boosting its Defense once more with Iron Defense. The second Future Sight ended up waking up the Fire-type, but he looked a little punch-drunk and wasn’t walking straight, which had Lars mentally crossing his fingers… would he be able to fight off the confusion?

Unfortunately, the Flamethrower he’d decided to toss ended up hitting him instead, and the Fire-type winced as the flames backfired and exploded in his face. “Ara! You got this!” he called out a few moments later as the dual-type then set up another Future Sight attack before boosting again with Iron Defense. Another explosion of flames engulfed the Fire-type’s face, before a third attempt finally fired off straight into the dual-type’s face.

“Alright… Ara, let’s try that again! Flamethrower it before it does anything else! But be careful!” he added a few moments later; and this time the Fire-type attack flew straight and true, catching the Bronzong again in the face before the next Future Sight could drop. “One more time! Drive it back!” he continued, and one final blast of Flamethrower drove the Bronzong back where it had come from.