Cherreads

Chapter 3 - Chapter 2: Recovery

Name: Corvin

Origin: Hisui

Affiliations: Galaxy Expedition: Security Corps

Pokemon:

Kishin - Hisuian Aegislash (M)

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"Why would a 1-Star think it was a good idea to enter the Mirelands?" Corvin muttered under his breath, sprinting through the dense, tangled undergrowth.

With an aggressive, reckless swipe of his arm, he brought the sleek edge of the katana down, cleanly severing a thick, low-hanging branch that blocked his path. He didn't check his swing or care about preserving the flora, he just kept his momentum moving forward, rushing in the direction the young scout was last reported being seen.

The Galaxy Expedition Guild was currently in the middle of its recruitment season—a massive, high-stakes event that occurred only once every five years. It was supposed to be a celebratory milestone for Jubilife Village, drawing in hundreds of ambitious applicants from every hidden corner of Hisui, and even a few foreign souls from entirely different regions.

In reality, it was a logistical nightmare.

With over three hundred frantic people lining up to take the specialized exams for the six different guild Corps, every single ranking member, from grizzled veterans to the young elite, had been mobilized to maintain order.

When you threw that many amateurs into the Security Corps' strength trials or the Survey Corps' survival tests, chaos was a certainty.

No matter how much the guild tried to prepare, idiots were bound to slip through the cracks.

As an elite officer, Corvin usually bore the brunt of the babysitting. Over the past week, his assignments had degenerated into a blur of basic instruction: teaching clumsy recruits how to throw an Apricorn Poké Ball without tripping over their own feet, or chasing low-tier, 1-Star threats out of the Obsidian Fieldlands training grounds.

There was even a miserable afternoon where the Medical Corps had asked him to get intentionally stung by a Skorupi just so they could test their new recruits on antivenom application.

At this point, he had thought nothing could possibly surprise him.

But this rogue scout… this was an entirely new tier of stupidity.

"Stealing a master guild map and pulling a high-ranked commission straight off the board without authorization," Corvin scowled, his boots squelching loudly as the dry forest dirt began to give way to the damp, yielding mud of the wetlands. "Did the brat think he was the hero of some epic legend? Expecting a special promotion?"

He remembered the fury on Ress's face back at the heavy main gates. The kid had timed his escape perfectly, using a trained Staravia to launch himself right over the east wall the exact minute the veteran guard stepped away for his brief lunch pause.

"Annoying brat," Corvin groaned, ducking under another cluster of vines.

"Aegis?" The katana on Corvin's hip shook within its dark scabbard, the metal ringing with a clear, resonant tone.

The floating armor plates of the pauldrons hovered closer to his shoulder, shifting defensively, and the ghostly purple eye on the crossguard cracked wide open, its intelligent, singular gaze narrowing into an irritated slit in response to its wielder's constant grumbling.

"It's nothing, Kishin," the young officer said, lowering his tone just enough to appease his fully evolved partner.

He reached down, giving the guard of the katana a reassuring tap with his fingertips. "It's just… this is exactly how people end up dead out here. And I really don't want to be the one delivering a body back to a family."

His grip on the hilt tightened, his knuckles turning white as his irritation boiled over. Ahead of him, massive, ancient towering logs blocked the path, their thick, rot-resistant ironwood that would take an ordinary squad minutes to climb or chop through.

Corvin didn't even break his stride.

"Kishin."

The katana left the sheath with a heavy, metallic shriek.

"Strong Style!" he growled, flexing the muscles of his arms.

An intense, golden-amber aura erupted along the edge, the blade instantly feeling ten times heavier in his grip as the raw, crushing power of the technique took hold. With a brutal, two-handed downward cleave, he brought the energized steel down.

CRACK!

The ironwood shattered. The explosive force of the Strong Style strike blasted the massive logs into a violent shower of splinters and chunks of wood, leaving a smoking crater in the damp earth as Corvin charged straight through the debris, slamming the katana back into its scabbard with a sharp click.

That reckless, destructive force was exactly what the Supply Corps constantly complained about. But out here, efficiency mattered more.

Because the Security Corps existed for a single, uncompromising purpose: to act as the iron wall between Jubilife Village and everything else in Hisui that wanted to see it destroyed.

Where the Survey Corps ventured outward to document, understand, and codify the unknown, the Security Corps remained the shields that allowed that research to happen in one piece.

Its members are charged with the defense of the village perimeter, the suppression of aggressive and Alpha-class threats, the escort of research parties into hostile territory—

And when everything goes wrong, the recovery of guild members who are lost and fail to return.

At eighteen years old, Corvin had already endured six years of relentless, brutal conditioning under Commander Kamado and Captain Zisu. He had conducted operations as far up as the freezing peaks of the Coronet Highlands and suppressed multiple mid-tier Alpha threats.

He alone had dragged back more fallen scouts than most officers twice his age, earning himself a formidable reputation and his definitive title.

His rank?

Security Corps: 4-Star, Elite Officer.

However, naturally even though Officers had superior combat skills, their tracking and scouting paled in comparison to that of Surveyors.

To hunt a rogue scout through miles of shifting swamps, he needed specialized support.

So to compensate for this…

"Arf! Arf!" A small, sturdy silhouette suddenly burst through the thick ferns ahead of him, splashing mud into the air.

The Hisuian Growlithe was compact, powerfully built, and highly alert. Its deep red-orange fur was marked with bold, dark gray patches of rock-like texture that blended flawlessly with the shadowed forest floor.

Ridges of sharp, volcanic stone jutted lightly along its head and shoulders, and its thick, cream-colored mane was slightly matted with dry sticks and swamp mud from the speed of the chase.

The puppy's sharp, intelligent eyes locked onto Corvin for a brief second before it let out another crisp bark, its fluffy tail wagging high as it spun around, urging its handler to keep up with the scent.

Corvin clicked his tongue.

"I know, I know. I'm coming." His steady pace accelerated into a full sprint. Hearing this, the little dog's ears snapped forward.

In the next instant, her little limbs became a blur of red and black. Powerful hind legs drove into the earth, kicking up sprays of damp soil and scattered leaves as she shot ahead.

The pointy rock horn between her ears caught the filtered light for only a moment before the Growlithe vanished deeper into the trees, her sharp barks already growing more distant as she locked back onto the scent trail.

"Damn! Wait up, Shiba!"

But his voice fell on deaf, fluffy ears as the small canine did what all dogs do, and continued to run.

"Why does she always do this?" Corvin released an exasperated breath. "We're going to lose her. Kishin—Agile Style."

The Hisuian Aegislash reacted instantly. The floating pauldrons behind Corvin's shoulder snapped tightly into position, alignment shifting as a flickering azure light blazed from the dark scabbard.

Shimmering ribbons of blue energy wrapped around Corvin's form, flooding his legs, sharpening every muscle fiber, and heightening his senses. Speed, reaction, and dexterity surged together as the shared effect took hold.

BOOM!

With every powerful, ground-eating stride, his legs drove into the earth, propelling him forward in rapid, unnatural bursts. The world slowed just enough for him to weave between the protruding roots and low branches of the forest with absolute precision, letting him rapidly close the gap on the chaotic blur up ahead.

Hisuian Growlithe were extremely rare, even among the Security Corps' tracking units. Most officers made do with the more common Starly or Shinx.

Only higher-ranked members, such as Corvin himself, were permitted to partner with the scarce species of the noble line—and among the few Growlithe available, Shiba was widely regarded as the absolute best.

Once she locked onto a scent, almost nothing could throw her off.

Shiba's form still streaked in front of him, but the distance between them was no longer growing. Corvin closed the gap just as Shiba's speed began to slow.

Then, the trees suddenly fell away, revealing the bright light of the afternoon sky.

A massive wall of dark, weathered stone rose directly in their path—tall, broad, and covered in thick patches of moss and clinging vines.

Both of them reacted at once.

Shiba's claws tore deep furrows through the dirt as she locked her legs and skidded sideways, spraying mud.

Corvin dropped his center of gravity, his sandals carving long black scars across the moist soil as the blue aura of Agile Style flared one last time, helping him slide to a sharp, controlled stop just short of the cliff face.

Taking in its staggering height, his brows furrowed in slight confusion. He stared up at the sharp plateau, then back down to the panting puppy at his feet.

"Are you sure he's up there?"

"Hrmm," Shiba whined, giving short, aggravated barks in response to the creeping doubt in his voice. She ran straight to the rock face and began to aggressively claw at the boundary, leaving fresh scratch marks in the stone.

"I'm not questioning your skills," the officer murmured as Shiba turned to stare at him with wide, defensive eyes. Corvin tilted his head back to look at the very top of the ridge. "It's just because… that wall leads straight into the Meadows."

The Droning Meadow was a protected sanctuary. Deep within its quiet, sun-dappled clearings lived the rare Turtwig line: Turtwig, Grotle, and the occasional full-grown Torterra. Because of their immense strength, scarcity, and vital importance to the region's ecosystem, the Galaxy Team had officially sealed the area off.

Only higher-ranked members of the Survey and Security Corps were authorized to enter, and even then, only under strict conditions. It was a primary sanctuary for an upcoming program led by Professor Laventon.

The First Partner Program, he called it, where three rare species of Pokémon would be selected and given to talented recruits with high potential.

And the Turtwig species was a prime candidate.

A 1-Star scout had absolutely no business being inside.

Corvin's jaw tightened, a dangerous mixture of anger and worry flooding his chest.

A poacher?

"Alright, we're going up. Shiba, return."

"Yip!" With one last excited bark, the Growlithe transformed into a sudden beam of white light before surging cleanly into the wooden Poké Ball tied to the red charm at his waist.

"Kishin, I need a boost," Corvin ordered. The katana's ghostly purple eye flared with a brief, intelligent spark in response to his voice.

The sheathed blade at his hip gave a soft, resonant metallic hum in answer. One of the heavy, floating pauldrons that normally hovered at Corvin's shoulder drifted forward, cutting through the air to settle perfectly a few meters above his head.

"Agile Style." His voice was slightly above a whisper.

The purple iris on the crossguard narrowed to a razor-thin slit as, once again, a restless azure light flared along the length of the scabbard, racing down Corvin's legs in flickering ribbons of power. His speed and reaction sharpened to a razor's edge.

He crouched, then exploded upward, his sandals slamming against the weathered stone wall as he ran vertically up the cliff face for several meters.

When his momentum began to fail and the height became too great, he kicked off the rock, twisted gracefully in mid-air, and planted one foot squarely on top of the floating pauldron.

The armor held perfectly firm.

Using the floating steel plate as a solid mid-air platform, Corvin launched himself the rest of the way. His free hand caught the jagged rim of the plateau.

With a final surge of Agile Style, he easily hauled himself over the edge and rolled smoothly onto the high grass above.

Corvin came up in a low crouch, his right hand still resting tightly on Kishin's hilt. The azure aura of Agile Style faded away, leaving only a faint, pulsing warmth in his legs.

The Droning Meadow stretched out before him.

Rolling golden grass swayed gently under a clear blue sky. Scattered trees dotted the plateau, some ordinary green, others already turning autumn yellow and brilliant red. In the middle distance stood a single, striking Sitrus Berry tree with deep blue leaves and heavy clusters of orange fruit hanging from its branches.

Beyond it, the land dipped into gentle hollows and rose again toward distant, rocky ridges.

Everything was quiet.

Too quiet.

Corvin's eyes narrowed as he scanned the open ground. There was no sign of the missing scout, nor any movement except the low whisper of the wind weaving through the high grass.

He tapped the Poké Ball at his waist.

"Shiba."

White light flared, and the Hisuian Growlithe appeared at his side. She landed silently, her nose already aggressively working the air. After a few sharp sniffs, her ears pinned back flat against her head. A low, uneasy growl rumbled deep in her throat as she stared toward the far side of the meadow.

Corvin followed her gaze.

Someone had been here recently.

And they were still close.

Corvin and Shiba moved at once. The Growlithe shot forward through the tall grass, and Corvin followed hard on her heels. The meadow blurred past them in frantic streaks of gold and green.

Then, the wind shifted. The thick, copper stench of blood hit him full in the face.

Corvin's expression hardened into granite. He poured more raw energy into his legs and accelerated, pulling ahead of Shiba as they crested a low rise and burst into a second, smaller clearing. He locked his feet and slid to a heavy stop, his sandals carving twin black furrows through the dirt.

A monstrously giant, dark brown Ursaring stood in the center of the clearing, the pale yellow fur of its abdominal ring heavily stained with fresh crimson.The massive bear loomed over a broken figure on the ground.

Rylen.

The 1-Star scout was still alive. Barely.

The kid dragged himself backward through the mud with his arms, leaving a long, horrific smear of red across the high grass. His right leg was completely gone below the knee, the ragged stump pumping dark blood into the dirt. Tears and snot streaked his dirt-caked face as he sobbed, screaming in raw, agonizing terror.

The Ursaring paid him little attention. It held the scout's severed leg in both massive paws, chewing methodically, shredded flesh and bits of blue guild cloth hanging from its jaws. After a moment, it dropped the gruesome remains, raised one enormous, gore-slicked claw, and prepared to finish the job.

"Kishin—Agile Style!"

A grand flare of light burst from the sword, as a sharp, flash of azure sparks flashed around his heels. The style hit his system like a jolt of pure lightning, stripping the weight from his bones.

In the same breath, he launched forward, his vision tunneling into a hyper-focused blur as the distance between him and the bear utterly collapsed.

He crossed the clearing like a phantom, hooked a frantic arm around the scout's torso, and yanked him clear just as the Ursaring's claw smashed into the earth where the boy's head had been a fraction of a second earlier.

The Ursaring took a moment to register that its prey had vanished. Then, it swung around with a deep, bone-rattling growl, its eyes locking onto Corvin. Without warning, it lunged, massive claws flashing in a vicious, sweeping Slash.

"Kishin! Cover us!" Corvin ripped the katana free and hurled it skyward in one smooth motion. The blade spun end over end as the two floating pauldrons detached from his shoulders. They shot upward, orbiting Kishin in a tight, accelerating spiral of steel and spectral energy.

One pauldron met the Ursaring's Slash head-on with a sharp, heavy impact. Sparks flew, but the armor held perfectly firm—the Ghost-type energy radiating from Kishin's pauldron completely nullified the Normal-type strike upon contact, draining the blow of all kinetic force and rendering the brute strength meaningless.

The bear roared in pure frustration and swiped again. Kishin darted and weaved through the air, the second pauldron slamming hard into the creature's forearm with a loud, ringing clang.

Heavy growls and the rhythmic thud of claws against levitating steel echoed across the clearing as the sword and its armor kept the Ursaring occupied.

Corvin dropped to one knee beside the scout. The boy was completely hysterical, clutching at Corvin's sleeve with blood-slicked hands."Please—please save me—it hurts—don't leave me—!"

"Quiet."

Corvin's eyes swept over the injuries with cold, calculated precision. The missing leg was the worst, but a deep set of jagged claw marks had also torn open the right side of the scout's lower stomach, the wound gaping and bleeding freely.

He yanked his pack open, pulling free a roll of linen bandages, a Hyper Potion, and a pouch of Superb Remedy. He got to work.

A thin stream from his water pouch cleaned the worst of the dirt from the stomach gash. Rylen screamed, thrashing violently against the dirt.

Corvin ignored the hysterics entirely, holding him down and dumping the heavy powder of the Superb Remedy directly into the stomach wound and the severed leg. The medicine hissed violently as it touched the open flesh, aggressively burning and clotting the blood.

Another raw, breathless scream tore from the boy's throat.

"I said shut up," Corvin muttered flatly, pressing his hands down on the powder to force it into the flesh before swathing the knob of the scout's leg tight with thick layers of linen. "You'll be fine."

He glanced over his shoulder, back at the battle. Behind the thrashing Ursaring, half-hidden in the golden grass, lay the crushed, ruined body of a Staravia. One wing had been ripped clean off the torso. The other was a chewed, bloody mess.

So that's how he got up here. Corvin's jaw tightened, a sharp prick of pity hitting his chest for the loyal, sacrificed Pokémon.

His gaze snapped back to the bear, and his expression darkened.

The creature wasn't just fighting defensively anymore. Even as Kishin's floating pauldrons slammed into its chest, the Alpha's bloodthirsty eyes kept darting back toward the scent of the screaming, mutilated rookie on the ground. It methodically licked the fresh blood from its lips, a low, ravenous growl vibrating in its throat.

A definitive line had been crossed.

Like most predatory animals, the moment a Pokémon tasted human flesh, its entire perception of the world fundamentally shifted. This was no longer a simple territorial creature defending its plateau—it saw them as nothing more than prey right now, and its focus was entirely locked on finishing the meal.

If it were allowed to walk away from this clearing, it wouldn't just be a threat to Surveyors.

It would remember the taste and hunt humans again, eventually bringing that ravenous hunger straight down to the village gates.

For the safety of Jubilife, it couldn't leave this meadow alive.

He released his grip on the bandages and turned back to the rookie.

"Drink this." Corvin shoved the glass bottle of the Hyper Potion directly into the scout's mouth, forcing the glowing liquid down his throat. "It'll counter the blood loss. Now clamp the stomach wound and apply constant pressure. Don't let go."

The boy, still sobbing with a glass bottle halfway down his throat, swallowed the burning medicine as a flush of life forced its way back into his deathly pale cheeks. He pressed a shaking, blood-stained hand firmly against the packed wound.

Corvin gave a short whistle, instantly alerting Shiba.

"Drag him back by the scarf. Keep him low and clear."

"Arf!" With an affirmative bark, Shiba clamped her jaws carefully around the red fabric, much to the young scout's surprise, and began hauling him away through the tall grass, the boy's remaining leg kicking weakly as he was pulled.

Throughout it all, the sounds of battle never stopped. Kishin's steel rang against massive claws, the Ursaring's enraged roars shook the air, and the heavy crash of its bulk slammed into the ground whenever a floating pauldron forced it back.

He released his grip on the straps of his satchel, letting it fall to the ground and stood up, drawing himself to his full height.

"Kishin, return," Corvin growled, his voice dropping into a pitying, but uncompromising voice. "Stop playing with it. We're putting it down."

The katana flipped once in the air and slid cleanly back into the scabbard at Corvin's hip. The twin pauldrons shot into place above his shoulders once more, hovering smoothly in their usual defensive positions.

Corvin's right hand settled firmly back on the hilt.

The Ursaring rose onto its hind legs, blotting out the sun as it cast its massive shadow over him, towering over his form. Blood still dripped from its jaws and claws.

It threw its head back and unleashed a powerful, deafening roar that shook the ground and rattled the remaining trees left untouched by its rampage, sending a rain of leaves showering down around them.

When it lowered its head again, a spark of deep crimson ignited around its eyes before blazing into miniature flames of pure, unnatural wrath.

Corvin's expression flicked with surprise before turning dead serious.

An Alpha. Well, that explains its abnormal size.

The Alpha Ursaring dropped back onto all fours and charged, the crimson aura flaring wildly around its eyes. The ground trembled under each heavy stride as clods of dirt and golden grass flew from its tearing claws.

Corvin drew Kishin in one clean motion. The katana left the scabbard with a resonant, metallic ring. He set his stance and stepped forward to meet the rush head-on.

The bear's first slash came in wide and brutal. Corvin angled the blade, shifting his body and letting the left pauldron on his shoulder shoot forward to intercept.

"Block it."

Steel met claw with a sharp, ringing crack.

Once again, the ghostly aura of the pauldron completely nullified the kinetic energy of the Normal-type attack, but the sheer, brute mass of the massive beast still pushed him back half a step, his sandals digging deep into the dirt.

Corvin instantly used the momentum to pivot, twisting inside the Ursaring's guard before driving the sword forward.

"Iron Head!" Kishin's edge hardened with a dull, metallic gray sheen and slammed heavily into the Alpha's ribs. The impact landed solid and deep, tearing a hole in its flesh.

The massive Pokémon choked and staggered sideways with a pained roar, fresh blood rushing through the hidden injury and mixing with the drying viscera already matting the fur along its side.

But it recovered faster than expected. The Ursaring spun and lashed out again, claws whistling viciously through the air. Corvin dropped low, the force of the near-miss ruffling his dark hair.

"Shadow Sneak!" he screamed.

The katana dissolved into a shadowy mist for a heartbeat, and Corvin's body followed, phasing just far enough to slip seamlessly past the sweeping claws before the blade reformed solidly in his grip.

"Kishin!" He came up on the bear's blind side and adjusted his grip.

"Strong Style: Sacred Sword!"

At his call, the steel of the katana erupted into a blinding, crystalline broadsword of radiant white energy and amber aura. A sharp, high-frequency hum vibrated through the air as a spinning vortex of bright hues enveloped Kishin.

With a definitive slash, Corvin drove the massive energy blade in an upward arc. A brilliant trail of light followed the weapon's trace, erupting into a sharp, cross-shaped flash of sparks the moment it sliced cleanly into the beast.

The sharp silver rupture opened a deep line across the Ursaring's shoulder and down its chest. Blood bloomed and sprayed in a hot shower.

The crimson aura around its eyes flared even brighter in pure, unadulterated rage, but beneath the fury, a dangerous spark of predatory intelligence flickered.

The Pokémon looked down at its own bloodstained claws, then back to the hovering steel plates of the pauldrons, realizing its slashing strikes were doing nothing—the force was completely dissolving against the sword's defenses.

It needed to change tactics. If it couldn't touch the sword, then it would crush its master instead.

With a deafening bellow, the Alpha reared fully back onto its hind legs, towering over his form. A heavy, pulsing hum rippled through the clearing as a thick, light brown energy began to surge from the earth, bleeding upward through the bear's hind legs and infusing its massive forepaws with a dense, mud-colored aura.

It's still attacking despite its wounds?

Corvin's eyes tracked the rising elemental energy. High Horsepower? No—not enough type energy.

It's Bulldoze, he realized, the vibrating earth making his pulse hammer against his ribs. It's going to try to ignore Kishin entirely and rupture the ground beneath my feet.

The Alpha threw its massive weight forward, its fangs morphing into a malicious grin as it prepared to detonate the soil with a seismic shockwave that would fracture his footing and shatter his movement speed, leaving him vulnerable.

But Corvin didn't wait for the claws to fall. Using the remaining momentum of his stance, he aggressively closed the distance, lunging directly into the path of the dropping beast. He stepped inside the bear's guard just as the massive, brown-cloaked paws were mere inches from breaking the earth.

His boots skidded into position, both hands tightening securely on Kishin's hilt.

He drew a sharp, deep breath of the damp forest air, his chest expanding as he locked in his focus.

"Now—" He exhaled, a thin, focused plume of white mist cutting through the air as his lungs emptied, settling his center of gravity.

"Agile Style:"

A pure cerulean flickered along the blade first, thin and restless, like oil catching the first flaming spark. Then it ignited fully, bright ribbons of light racing up the pristine steel and flooding Corvin's limbs with weightless acceleration.

"Shadow Claw!"

In the same breath, the Ghost-type energy of the move surged forward—a deep, purplish-black that twisted from the depths and bled into the azure until the two colors coiled tightly, woven together around the sharp edge.

His body blurred.

Three spectral claws, edged in that mixed azure-and-black light, ripped through the Alpha's throat in one clean, accelerated slash before the giant bear could ever trigger its shockwave.

The Ursaring's roar choked into a wet, suffocating gurgle as the shadows tore through its flesh. The furious crimson aura in its eyes fractured, the intense glow flickered, dimming until the embers slowly died away as life drained from its pupils, leaving its gaze blank and glassy.

For a fraction of a second, the towering beast froze.

The massive body swayed unsteadily, its immense weight shifting as its knees buckled. Then, the towering beast toppled forward, collapsing heavily into the tall grass with a deafening, thunderous thud.

The sheer force of the impact violently kicked up a massive cloud of dusty soil and loose grass clippings, choking the air in a heavy ring around the corpse. At the exact same second, the dark blood pooling from its split chest and torn throat splattered outward across the dirt in a wide splatter, staining the surrounding golden stalks a deep crimson.

Corvin stood over the fallen Alpha, Kishin still held low. For a few seconds, he simply breathed and stared at the corpse, then let out a heavier breath than usual, the faint edge of physical exertion showing in the way his shoulders rose and fell.

He glanced down at the sword. "Hah… we might need more training," he sighed.

Kishin's purple eye opened halfway. A soft, almost dismissive metallic snort answered him from the blade, as if the sword were mildly offended by the suggestion.

Then, one of the long purple tassels drifted up and lightly prodded Corvin square in the chest, poking him once, twice, as if clearly saying, "You're the one who needs training."

Corvin looked down at the tassel, then at the sword's eye, a single eyebrow arched. "You're blaming me?"

The tassel gave another small, pointed tap against his uniform.

"Fine," Corvin exhaled through his nose, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly. "I suppose, I need more training."

"But we're both training later!" he added on quickly.

Kishin hummed, apparently satisfied, and the tassel withdrew. He sheathed the katana home into its obsidian scabbard with a soft, definitive click.

As Corvin wiped a smear of blood from his cheek with the back of his glove, his expression grew grave.

Lately, there had been too many of these Pokémon turning unusually aggressive and showing up far stronger than they should be.

He frowned, deep in thought, as he stared at the body of the dead Alpha.

Alphas are appearing far more often than previously recorded, too. Way past normal numbers.

Entire patrols were running into two or three in a single week, whereas before, a month might pass without a single sighting.

Something in Hisui was changing, and Jubilife Village was feeling it first.

"Tsk."

Corvin gave the fallen Ursaring one last glance before turning away, walking toward where Shiba waited with the injured scout.

"Come on," he sighed. "We're heading back. This is something I need to report."

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