It wasn't long before his Arcanine managed to pick up the scent left on their wake and started following it back. Poochy 2 would have been the tracker of choice for most of the part, probably since he had him longer than most of the others, but he supposed their abilities to do tasks such as this shouldn't vary by a lot. He also had not brought him along, so there's that.

The path they had been following was familiar at least, giving Kyle some comfort that they were going the right way. He supposed that he could always follow the places where grass had been trampled on, though the trainer would rather have a second opinion rather than risk it from his mistakes. There could be chances that something else had happened that made retracing his steps on his own unreliable after all.

With all focus on the road, the Fire-type had seemingly forgotten about her surroundings, keeping her trainer at constant watch for her safety. It was then that a Wormadam had dropped from a branch all of a sudden, bringing his Arcanine to a stop and forcing a yelp out of her. "Cute," was Kyle's only comment. For the Arcanine, however, the surprise had gotten her to instinctively produce flames on her maw. Kyle's eyes widened from the scene, suddenly afraid of how his Pokemon would handle the situation after having flashbacks of his Houndoom's previous incidents of almost committing arson.

A sigh of relief escaped him, seeing as the Arcanine had only nearly immolated the Wormadam with his jaws before throwing it farther away than what was needed. With the weaknesses working against it, the wild Pokemon could not even do a single thing to fight back against the Fire-type. Kyle had no qualms about it though, especially after he had seen worse.

"We should get going," he reminded the addled canine.

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And get going did they do.

His Arcanine had been jumpy for a second or so after the unfortunate encounter, but has since then calmed down and went back to her job. Keeping her head close to the ground and her nose almost touching the soil, she kept track of the trail of scent left by the Houndoom and her trainer, following it back to the main path. Following the main path back to the city should be easy enough of a task for Kyle.

It was just unfortunate, however, that the scents were suddenly distorted by a contaminant. His Arcanine stopped her tracks, lifting her head and growling of annoyance at the source of the stench. Kyle wrinkled his nose, covering it with the sleeve of his shirt afterwards, as he glared at the Stunky that had blown their easy way out of the trouble that his Houndoom brought to him.

"Look at that Stunky, looking proud and shit for the things it's done," he provoked the Fire-type.

It wasn't like the Stunky was even innocent or anything, with Kyle noticing it trotting closer to them after it had already seen then trying to trace back their way out through his Arcanine's nose. It was simply mischief if anything, but it still came at them with ill intent and Kyle wouldn't allow any wild Pokemon to bully them.

"Extreme Speed into Fire Fang."

It was his Arcanine's best offensive tools, with the other moves simply being there for type coverage or something. The large canine charged straight towards the Stunky, attempting to run over it only to have it retaliate by nipping on the Arcanine's feet as it came by. The Arcanine's bite, however, was much more powerful. Sinking flame infused fangs onto its skin, the dual-type screeched as it freed itself from the Fire-type's bite with a kick and ran away.

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His Arcanine whipped her head to the direction where the Stunky ran away, opening her mouth for a threat, only to be stopped by Kyle when he placed his hand on her nose and pushed her head back to the direction they were heading. Chasing after it would be a waste of time, and it definitely would keep them out of the course. His Arcanine's nose had already been busted by the Stunky for a while, and Kyle did not want to get lost any further with that.

"We'll just have to trust our gut feeling now, I guess."

Her expression quickly mellowed out with her trainer's words and started to follow Kyle from behind this time. She had no recollection of this place anyways, and Kyle took it upon himself to try to recall any markings he could have memorized on the way here. They were hazy and unrecognizable for the most part, which was to be blamed to his Houndoom's reckless approach on things when he tried to train her in the Ilex Forest.

Kyle's steps were brought to a stop when his Arcanine yanked him from behind, stopping her trainer from stepping on the Spikes clearly laid out by a Pokemon. "Thanks."

The Cacturne showed itself soon spraying another layer of spikes on their path afterwards. Blocking the way out seemed to be a course of action that most wild Pokemon did not take, especially if they were trying to leave in the first place. He wasn't sure of what the Cacturne was planning, but he knew he'd have to get over it soon.

"We're going to have to clear this. Take a running start. Extreme Speed. Stop when I tell you to."

Doing as she was told, the Arcanine ran at high velocities, with the signal coming from Kyle the moment before she hits the layers of Spikes. The tailwind from running blew the Spikes towards the Cacturne's direction, forcing it to put up a Spiky Shield to protect itself from it.

"Oh, it had that," Kyle murmured as he noted of it. These kinds of attacks tend to fail at continuous usage though. "Fire Fang."

Moving in, the Cacturne tried to put up its shield once again to protect itself from the charging Arcanine. When no protection happened, the dual-type eventually found itself with the fangs of the Fire-type on its neck. The area was ignited pretty easily, and as soon as Arcanine let go of the Cacturne, the wild Pokemon ran away at the first chance it got.

"We're running straight ahead," he instructed as he hopped on his Pokemon's back. "We can't get encounters if we just go straight at them." It's not like they did not need training, but rather because Kyle wanted to just go back to the city at the quickest time possible.

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