Chapter 303: Successful Provocation, Cats vs. Scorpions
After coming down the mountain.
Will waved his hand.
Ten Mightyena immediately scattered, splitting up to find any large Pokémon clans nearby.
By his side...
Were Buizel and Croagunk.
Buizel was purely a mascot, only Lv. 12, practically useless.
Croagunk, on the other hand, had been underestimated by Will.
This old guy was Lv. 30.
Not far from evolving.
But also not far from being expelled (from the mountain/territory?).
If Croagunk hadn't followed Will out for a stroll today and gotten familiar with the Mightyena clan, he probably would have been driven out of their territory within two days.
The three little ones sat under a tree.
"Bui?"
"Just wait. It's not safe down the mountain right now."
Will shook his head.
He remembered what Croagunk said earlier.
No one could guarantee if that migrating clan was hunting surrounding Pokémon indiscriminately.
He wasn't afraid.
After all, he could fly if he encountered danger.
But the two little ones beside him were different.
"Gunk gunk."
Croagunk squatted beside Will, wearing a comical grin.
Roughly meaning: Something interesting is coming.
"Many Pokémon will die."
"Gunk gunk."
Croagunk pursed his lips disdainfully, not caring much.
In his opinion.
Fun was more important.
Will glanced at him.
He now roughly understood Croagunk's personality.
A hedonist who didn't value life much.
Only fun could excite him.
Will didn't wait long.
Soon, a Mightyena ran back, reporting the discovery of a suspected target clan.
Will had him lead the way, taking the two little ones to check.
After traveling about half a kilometer.
Will found them on an open plain.
It was a Drapion clan.
"Oh~ Drapion. That's not surprising then."
Will lifted his chin.
Drapion were notoriously fierce and cruel, known as the "Sand Demon."
Drapion living in deserts often attacked passing humans and Pokémon, sometimes for no reason at all.
If it was this clan.
They would indeed slaughter innocent weak Pokémon around them.
Maybe not even for food.
Just to vent their emotions.
"Gunk."
Croagunk puffed his poison sacs.
The clan he mentioned was this Drapion clan.
As for Buizel.
It was already scared by the Drapion's appearance and buried its head under Will's tail.
"Looks like they suffered heavy losses. The clan that defeated them must have intended to wipe them out."
Will grinned.
According to his observation.
The number of members in this Drapion clan was about forty to fifty.
Among them, there were about 15 Drapion.
This number wasn't low.
For a defeated clan, it was quite high.
The Mightyena clan had many Mightyena because Poochyena evolved early (Lv. 18).
But Skorupi needed to reach Lv. 40 to evolve into Drapion.
This meant there were about 15 members in this clan with levels higher than Lv. 40.
Logically speaking.
Some time should have passed since the great battle.
These Drapion and Skorupi should have mostly recovered.
However.
Many Drapion and Skorupi had permanently lost some parts of their bodies.
This showed how fierce that clan war was.
And how much the Drapion clan's opponent wanted to exterminate them.
"Gunk?"
"No need to be soft-hearted with this clan. Just as well, they are Poison-type..."
Will turned to the purple frog beside him. "Croagunk, I'll need your help with this."
"Gunk."
Croagunk grinned.
Will pursed his lips slightly, looking at the ignorant Drapion clan not far away, revealing a "benevolent" smile.
Recently.
The Persian leader was annoyed.
Because his subordinates often got poisoned while outside.
Although this poison wasn't fatal, it would paralyze them for a whole day, unable to move.
And this.
Led to a lack of manpower for patrolling, gathering food, and collecting shiny objects, drastically lowering the Persian leader's quality of life!
Not just the subordinates outside.
Even he himself often drank poisonous water from the river.
But his constitution was strong.
These poisons at most gave him diarrhea every two days, not causing major problems.
The Persian leader had thought about it.
Should he go check the vicinity personally?
But he was too lazy.
Just didn't want to go out.
So he kept lying in his den.
However.
Recently, the Persian leader was losing patience.
He hadn't eaten anything good for five or six days straight.
Moreover.
The stupid cats under him hadn't found anything useful.
This made him increasingly irritable.
"Meow!!"
Suddenly.
A Meowth ran over in panic.
Its four legs were moving so frantically it looked like they didn't know each other, completely running on their own.
"Meow?"
The Persian leader stood up, frowning.
He hated being disturbed during his afternoon nap the most.
"Meow meow~"
The Meowth explained hurriedly.
It said a bunch of scorpions appeared at the foot of the mountain and were heading toward their territory.
And.
It remembered hearing Pokémon conversations nearby yesterday.
Saying a clan from the neighboring mountain had a hobby of abusing cats. They planned to wipe out the Persian clan and take their territory these days. The poisoned Meowth recently were all their secret doings.
Hearing this.
The fur on the other Persians and Meowth stood up.
The Persian clan wasn't benevolent; they were famously "proud and ferocious" among Pokémon.
Making eye contact with them might get you scratched.
And they would raise their claws immediately if they saw something they didn't like.
So.
This Meowth's words successfully enraged the other clan members.
"Meow meow?"
The Persian leader's whiskers stood up, eyes glaring.
Outrageous.
Even those dogs next door didn't dare disrespect them like this!
But thinking of those dogs.
The Persian leader calmed down again.
He wouldn't think it was Will leading the Mightyena clan to sow discord.
Most Pokémon were relatively "simple."
Without contact with humans, without their minds being developed...
They basically couldn't guess these things.
Even the Alolan Persian known for its intelligence might not think of it, let alone this Persian.
He was just simply worried.
Worried that while he led his troops to deal with those scorpions, the Mightyena clan would take the opportunity to sneak attack them.
For wild Pokémon.
Just being able to consider this step was rare.
"Meow!!"
Just then.
A sharper cat scream came.
The cats looked up.
A Persian subordinate returned with a Meowth's corpse in its mouth.
"Meow?"
"Meow!"
The Persian subordinate spoke indignantly.
It found this Meowth's corpse near that scorpion clan; they had already entered the Persian clan's territory.
The Persian leader approached, sniffing.
He judged immediately.
This Meowth died of poisoning!
Bullying them too much!
Invading his territory and killing his minion.
Did they think they were those dogs next door?
"Meow."
The Persian subordinate said another sentence.
This sentence was explosive.
It made all the Persians and Meowth present stand up with burning eyes.
Meaning: I saw lots of shiny things in that scorpion clan!
"Meow?!"
The Persian leader asked.
The Persian subordinate nodded repeatedly.
"Meow!!"
The Persian leader roared to the sky.
Instantly.
The cats mobilized, leaping quickly through the forest toward the mountainside.
On a tree not far away.
"Phew, finally moved. Didn't expect them to be so enduring. Was this Persian a turtle in his past life?"
Will, observing in secret, sighed in relief.
Originally, he just had Croagunk poison some Meowth.
He thought that would be enough.
This move should more or less trigger the Persian leader's anger, making him go out to investigate and teach the Drapion clan a lesson.
Given the Drapion clan's violent nature, they would definitely retaliate after suffering a loss.
Once the grudge was formed.
Will wouldn't need to do anything later; the two clans would fight.
Unexpectedly.
This Persian leader could really sit still.
His Meowth minions were poisoned and paralyzed batch after batch, yet he refused to leave his house, completely disregarding their lives.
Helplessly.
Will had to fight on two fronts.
Here, Croagunk continued poisoning to provoke the Persian clan secretly.
There, he had the Mightyena collect shiny objects and throw them into the Drapion clan to stimulate the Persian and Meowth's desire to attack.
Will saw it now.
He chose wrong at the start.
Anger wasn't the best fuse.
"Shiny objects" were.
When the two clans met.
The Persians and Meowth might suppress their anger and not fight the Drapion clan.
But.
If the Drapion clan had a large amount of shiny objects.
Then even if the Drapion clan had no enmity with them.
The Persians and Meowth might not be able to resist attacking.
Now.
The Persian clan moved out in full force.
And the Drapion clan had also been lured into the Persian clan's territory by two or three Mightyena under Will's orders.
This great battle was unavoidable.
"Mm, One-Eye and the others should be lying in ambush. Now waiting for my signal."
Will pursed his lips.
He leaped leisurely through the forest, quietly following the cats.
As Will moved, the tree canopy above him swayed along.
Soon.
Cats and scorpions met.
Compared to the baffled and wary looks of the Drapion and Skorupi.
The eyes of the Persians and Meowth were very pure.
99% greed and 1% anger.
They saw it!
Those Drapion and Skorupi had lots of shiny things hanging on their bodies and tails.
Bottle caps, coins, screws, metal pieces...
Those little things shone brightly in the sun, looking beautiful.
"Meow meow!!"
The Persian leader couldn't hold back, roaring.
The other cats instantly pounced like hungry Mightyena.
The Drapion were startled first.
Then, overwhelmed by anger, they launched a powerful counterattack.
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