It didn’t take too long before the stench hit Lars (and the Quilava) like a train. Long before they spotted the Gloom, they could pick up on the…aroma it was emitting.

“Oh, man, what the hell?” he said, quickly raising his arm to cover his nose. He looked around and saw the nearby foliage was also wilting due to the powerful stench that the Gloom was exuding—it even caused the Fire-type to recoil a few moments. The Trainer caught sight of a cloud of purple pollen being scattered, and he quickly whistled sharply in the Quilava’s direction.

“Back off, Ara. That’s a Poison Powder cloud. Take it down from a safe distance!” he said in the Fire-type’s direction, before the Gloom made its presence known by scattering an orange cloud of spores this time—it was a Stun Spore attack! Phew, what the hell, this is going to be too dangerous to get rid of up-close and personal… he thought to himself as the Quilava took a deep breath before releasing a steady stream of flames.

“Be careful how you breathe fire around here,” he warned the Quilava, who nodded and concentrated on keeping the stream of Flamethrower as controlled as possible—both of them didn’t want to set the entire Ilex Forest on fire. The Gloom then began to concentrate, and for some reason Lars thought the thing had stopped attacking—but it wasn’t until a few seconds later did he realize what the dual-type was planning.

“Put it out, quickly! Blast it with another stronger Flamethrower, but mind the rest of the area!” he added, backing up so that the Quilava had more room. Before the Gloom could unleash the Solar Beam in the Quilava’s face, another strong yet controlled stream of flames collided with its face—setting it on fire.

“Oops,” was all he could say, before the Fire-type then breathed out more fire; in an attempt to keep the Gloom from launching the attack it was planning on letting loose in the Fire-type’s face. One more stream of Flamethrower then forced it backwards and back the same way it came—causing all of the undergrowth it had passed by to wilt in the process.

At the same time, though, a sudden burst of light poured out of the Quilava, before Lars blinked—were his assumptions correct? A few moments later, the Quilava was quadruped no more—now it was standing up on its two hind legs and had shot up in height.

“Oh, god. Ara. You did it. You seriously did it!” he added a few moments later, looking at the now-Typhlosion who turned around to look back at him with some confusion, before slowly comprehending what had happened to him.

The celebration was short-lived, however. Just as Arashi realized what was going on, another more powerful stench hit its nose; which caused the Fire-type to turn around.

The ‘smell’ then hit Lars like a wall; which forced him to raise his arm again to his nose. “Oh, man! Did we walk into a part of the forest where all the Gloom are?!” he grumbled to himself as the foliage near the Typhlosion began to wilt due to the corrosive stench coming from the incoming dual-type. “Man, this stinks… in more ways than one!” he added a few moments later.

The Fire-type could only growl, before looking at the Gloom—which had begun scattering a purple cloud of Poison Powder around it. “Oh, Ara, you know what to do, don’t approach it,” he warned the Typhlosion, who nodded before watching the dual-type carefully. A sudden blast of Acid from the Gloom came pelting towards the Fire-type a few moments later; before a sudden blast of flames came from the Typhlosion, blocking it and incinerating the incoming attack with a Flamethrower attack.

“Be careful, as always,” he said in the Fire-type’s direction; before the Typhlosion launched a beam of star-shaped projectiles at the Gloom. Hoping to bait it out with a Swift attack, the dual-type then retaliated with a Giga Drain attack—which flew over the Fire-type’s head. “Be careful around the Poison spores!” he called out, as the Typhlosion was itching to charge forward and attack it—but the Poison Powder attack the dual-type launched around it once again made this tactic impossible.

“Take it down from here!” he added a few moments later, watching as a second steady stream of flames burst out from the Fire-type’s mouth; scorching the Gloom in the face with a Flamethrower attack. The dual-type grumbled due to the heat, but another Flamethrower attack forced it backwards. As it attempted to heal with a Moonlight attack; another Swift attack interrupted it before it could complete the move.

“Drive it back,” he said a few moments later; as another Flamethrower repelled the Gloom backwards and away from where they stood. “Let’s move to another part of the forest… we might find something else…”