Gently setting Murkrow on the ground, Aoki pulled out the emergency healing spray and applied it to every one of Murkrow’s wounds.
A cool sensation immediately washed over the wounds, easing the sharp pain.
A few moments later, as feeling returned, a throbbing ache set in—the disinfectant doing its job.
Accompanied by Murkrow’s huffing and hissing—a sound somewhere between relief and sting—Aoki emptied the entire bottle of healing spray.
After consuming a few Energy Blocks, Murkrow gradually regained control of his body and slowly stood up.
Aoki stopped Murkrow as he prepared to take off, scooping him up into his arms instead.
At Murkrow’s current weight, lifting him was somewhat of an effort for Aoki.
Meanwhile, at the border between the territories of the Butterfree and the Beedrill, a gruesome stench hung thick in the air.
The ground, trees, bushes, and fallen leaves were littered everywhere with the corpses of Beedrill and Butterfree alike.
The Beedrill swarm, which had held the upper hand at first, had long lost their numerical advantage as an endless stream of Butterfree returned from different areas to join the battle.
And because the leader of the Butterfree remained on the battlefield, while their own leader had vanished into the depths of the forest, the Beedrill suffered far more tragically than the Butterfree.
Furthermore, as more and more kin fell, the naturally gentle Butterfree were driven to Rage.
They stopped holding back, leaving the Beedrill with even heavier casualties.
The moment Murkrow defeated the Beedrill leader, every Beedrill seemed to sense something—the buffing state that had previously empowered them suddenly vanished.
In an instant, all the Beedrill froze in place, completely forgetting they were in the middle of a battlefield.
After taking several hits from the Butterfree, a few more forever lost the ability to battle.
Yet even in the face of this, the Beedrill paid no heed, screeching helplessly.
“Bzzz!
Bzzz!” They had already sensed what they had lost—their leader.
Their leader’s presence was fading away.
The leader was like their king; if the king dies, the subjects are disgraced.
Several Beedrill lost their minds, ignoring the Butterfree’s attacks as they tried to break through the defensive line, only to collapse halfway before getting close.
Gradually, more and more Beedrill went mad.
Suddenly, a visibly sturdier Beedrill stopped screeching and barked several commands at the rest of the swarm.
Every Beedrill jerked, as if a bucket of cold water had been dumped over their heads in the sweltering heat of summer.
Their eyes, which had been gray with despair, gradually regained their spark.
Guided by this new leader, they slowly withdrew.
Of the aggressive swarm that had arrived, fewer than a hundred survived to return.
If anyone had looked closely, they would have noticed a strange, inexplicable aura gradually enveloping this leading Beedrill.
This mysterious aura was the prototype of the Leader’s Aura.
When all members of a group are sufficiently united and possess strong enough cohesion, this aura emerges.
Once condensed to a certain point, it fully transforms into a Leader’s Aura.
As the swarm retreated, the Butterfree carried the bodies of their fallen comrades back into the forest.
The tragic war between the two species came to an end.
Nearly three hours passed before Murkrow recovered from the backlash of using Roost, even with the aid of Energy Blocks accelerating his recovery.
Thus, although Roost was a great move, it could not be used frequently or treated as a routine skill.
Rarely for today, under Aoki’s insistence, Murkrow did not train.
Instead, under Aoki’s careful massage, he continued to recover from his physical injuries.
When dawn broke once more, Murkrow had completely recovered.
Aoki was preparing breakfast beneath a tree, while an energetic Murkrow had two logs as thick as arm spans strapped to his wings, soaring through the sky and making loop after loop around the tall tree.
In yesterday’s final close-quarters brawl with the Beedrill leader, both Aoki and Murkrow had realized the weakness in his physical strength.
Furthermore, after learning Wing Attack, Murkrow needed to build up his wing power even more.
After leveling up once, Murkrow’s physical condition had subtly improved.
Where he used to be exhausted after flying a hundred laps, he now had energy to spare after completing them.
After a brief rest and eating some of the Energy Blocks Aoki had prepared, Murkrow resumed his training.
Unstrapping the logs from his wings, he stood on the ground and began thumping against the tree trunk, producing rhythmic bang-bang-bang sounds.
Once Aoki finished his breakfast, he joined the training session as well.
He started with shuttle runs up and down the slope, followed by sit-ups and push-ups…
The body absorbed physical gains best in the morning.
After a morning of hard training, the exhausted trainer and Pokémon lay flat on their backs on the grass, gazing at the azure sky and feeling their minds and bodies completely relax.
After finishing lunch, Aoki set off on the return journey with Murkrow.
Today was already the sixth day; tomorrow was the time for Team Rocket to assemble again.
Passing by the border between the Butterfree and Beedrill territories, Aoki looked at the ruined forest, remaining silent for a long time.
He hadn’t expected that a simple, subconscious action would trigger a full-scale war between the two species.
Looking at the battered forest and the corpses strewn everywhere, one could easily imagine how massive the Beedrill swarm’s losses were.
Not just the Beedrill—even when passing through the Butterfree territory, the Metapod that had once been everywhere were gone, virtually wiped out, and even the occasionally seen Butterfree were nowhere to be found.
For both species, the losses could only be described as devastating.
Sighing briefly with emotion, Aoki continued walking toward the Beedrill territory.
Having endured a lifetime of hardship in his past life, Aoki had long grown accustomed to such scenes.
This was a dog-eat-dog world to begin with; if one lacked strength, death was nobody’s fault but their own.
Aoki had abandoned senseless mercy long ago.
Aside from those closest to him and his own Pokémon, he would trust no one and extend mercy to none.
Mercy was something that belonged to the weak.
The strong were already used to facing death.
Having been a Pokémon Hunter in his previous life, Aoki had seen slaughters far more horrific than this, let alone what lay before him now.
Weakness was the ultimate sin.
Entering the Beedrill forest once again, a sense of familiarity returned, but the once lively forest now felt empty.
Kakuna could no longer be found on the trees.
“I hope you’re smart enough not to look for trouble with me,” Aoki muttered quietly.
Given the current state of the Beedrill swarm, Aoki wasn’t afraid of them at all.
Without a leader, the Beedrill were just scattered sand, easily picked off one by one by Murkrow.
The forest that had once required cautious navigation was now traversed boldly by Aoki and Murkrow without facing any resistance.
What had taken nearly two hours on the way here took only an hour on the way back.
Throughout the entire journey, they did not encounter a single Beedrill, as if the entire swarm had curled up and hidden away.
Aoki was quite satisfied with the Beedrill’s sensible behavior.
The Beedrill could no longer provide much help to Murkrow anyway.
For just that tiny bit of EXP, unless they took the initiative to provoke him, neither Aoki nor Murkrow cared to bother with them.
Crossing the Beedrill territory smoothly, traces of Pokémon gradually began to reappear.
The return route was almost identical to the way he came.
Passing the site where he had fought the trio, almost no traces of battle remained, save for a few bloodstains left on the ground.
When passing the Zubat cave, Aoki stowed all the supplies he had previously stored in the cave into his storage belt.
He had originally intended to briefly explore the surrounding area, but unexpectedly ended up away for several days—though the rewards had been bountiful.
Besides, this area was still at the boundary between the outer region and the center of the forest.
The Pokémon levels here were not very high and could no longer satisfy Murkrow’s battle needs.
Even if it weren’t for treasure hunting, Aoki believed he would have moved on in a day or two anyway.
There were no signs of Pokémon activity inside the cave, but on the ground outside, footprints from about three or four groups of Pokémon could be seen lingering.
Perhaps the lingering terror of the original Zubat colony was too strong, so even after lingering for a long time, none had dared enter; otherwise, the berries in the cave wouldn’t have been preserved.
Although these berries weren’t of much use to Aoki anymore—almost redundant, in fact—having them was better than nothing, wasn’t it?
However, Aoki believed that in a few more days, those hesitant Pokémon would build up the courage to explore the cave.
It wouldn’t be long before this place became another Pokémon’s territory, and other Pokémon would move into the cave.
Packing his belongings, he left the Zubat cave without looking back.
This was merely a brief stop in the lives of Aoki and Murkrow, leaving no deep mark on their journey, so there was nothing to linger over.
Just like Trial Island, it was merely a stop along Aoki’s and Murkrow’s journey—a potentially important one, but certainly not the most important.
That Team Rocket could bring so many children to the island under everyone’s noses and conduct this so-called trial meant this island was definitely no ordinary place.
Although the Pokémon levels on the island weren’t very high, the general aptitude of the Pokémon here was noticeably higher than those outside.
Outside, one might need to encounter ten thousand Pokémon before finding a single one with green aptitude.
But on this island, in a single Beedrill swarm, Aoki had already encountered two with green aptitude, and those with yellow and orange aptitudes appeared quite frequently as well.
This was likely just one of the secret islands controlled by Team Rocket.
As for what secrets it held, even in his past life when Aoki reached the Quasi-Elite Four level, he hadn’t possessed the qualifications to know.
Thoughts always drifted far when allowed to wander.
Before the sun set completely, Aoki, accompanied by Murkrow, finally made it back to Team Rocket’s base.
Looking at the base’s entrance ahead felt like gazing into the gaping maw of a man-eating beast, swallowing whole everyone who entered.
Without hesitation, Aoki tightened his grip on the Weedle Egg strapped to his back and slowly merged his figure into the darkness.