The chase across the flower field was still ongoing. Haruki threw away a third can of Repel and grabbed another one.
Behind them, only a few Combee were still managing to keep up, but other wild Pokémon had now joined the pursuit.
Beautifly, Yanmega, and even several Ninjask had appeared.
These Pokémon were no slouches in speed; Metang was having a hard time shaking them off completely.
Worse still, more and more Bug-types kept joining the hunt.
Fsssshh~
Seeing a Ninjask getting too close, Haruki didn't hold back. He sprayed the Repel in a wide arc without hesitation.
Caught full-on, the Ninjask was overwhelmed by the strong repellent and instantly lost its ability to keep up. And scenes like this had already played out many, many times over the past hour.
Yes, Haruki and the others had now been fleeing for a full hour.
While Haruki was mentally drained, he was still holding up physically.
The one truly on the verge of collapse was Metang, who hadn't stopped flying the entire time.
Its blood-red eyes were now an even deeper crimson, and its silver body had started heating up. In particular, its thruster-arms were faintly glowing red from the heat.
Taking advantage of the lull after fending off the Ninjask, Haruki quickly looked down at the Skiploom in his arms.
The once-intense greenish-blue glow had dimmed significantly, and Skiploom's brow was no longer furrowed. It looked like it had reached the final stage of energy absorption.
Haruki let out a silent sigh of relief, then pulled out a Pokéblock and fed it to Metang.
Metang munched on it with a loud crunch. Some strength immediately returned to its exhausted body.
But the high heat in its arms made it extremely uncomfortable, as if it might melt down and drip molten metal at any moment.
Worse still was the mental fatigue. Using too much psychic power had left its head foggy and unfocused.
If Haruki hadn't been constantly giving directions, Metang would've already veered off course; flying in a straight line was becoming difficult.
Under these conditions, another thirty minutes dragged by slowly.
Haruki was starting to feel dizzy just from looking at the flower field. It was clearly motion sickness.
There were still many wild Pokémon behind them, and even the giant Mothim had caught up. Its massive body scared off many of the other pursuers.
Thankfully, Vespiquen were generally even slower than Combee, and that giant Vespiquen was no exception.
So most of the original Combee swarm had dropped out of the chase. Instead, it was now a mishmash of other Bug-type Pokémon coming after them.
At this point, Metang was in terrible shape. Its metal arms were completely red-hot, occasionally even sparking.
Haruki could no longer hesitate. He patted the Skiploom in his arms.
"Skiploom, if you haven't finished absorbing it, forget it. Just throw the crystal away!"
"M-Meta!"
Metang protested. After holding out this long, how could they give up now?
"There will be more crystals in the future, but we're not going to last much longer… do you want to lose your arms?"
Metang fell silent, but forcefully pushed its speed even higher.
"Skiploom..."
"Skip~"
At last, Skiploom opened its eyes. Its originally orange pupils had turned green: a sign of massive energy absorption.
Without a moment's hesitation, Skiploom jumped out of Haruki's arms and turned to face the swarm of Pokémon chasing them.
It gave a slight shake of its flower crown, and a nearly transparent crystal -retaining just a hint of green energy- fell from within.
Then, Skiploom "gently" tossed the Energy Crystal into the air…
The next second, a sudden gust of wind surged forth, instantly blowing the crystal deep into the pursuing horde of wild Pokémon.
Chaos erupted as the wild Pokémon scrambled to seize it.
The Beautifly who caught the crystal first was blown apart before it could even react.
But the blast's aftermath seemed to have damaged the crystal even more.
In an instant, a dense wave of Flying-type energy radiated out, throwing the already tense mob into total disarray.
And the one who started it all… Skiploom, was now waving its little hand, summoning a powerful gust to support Metang.
Metang no longer needed to exert itself. As long as it maintained Magnet Rise, Skiploom could now carry it forward at high speed, even faster than Metang could fly on its own!
"Is this... Tailwind?"
"Skip~"
Skiploom nodded and then continued casting Aromatherapy to heal Metang's injuries.
…As if learning Tailwind was no big deal at all.
But Haruki was stunned, because theoretically, the Skiploom line shouldn't be able to learn Tailwind at all.
Even the Flying-type moves they could learn were mostly melee-focused, like Aerial Ace or Acrobatics; completely useless for a ranged support Pokémon.
Why would a long-range supporter need close combat moves?
But now, Skiploom had learned Tailwind, a move that could double the speed of the entire team with just a wave of its hand.
And combined with its existing crowd control abilities...
Haruki suddenly realized: the Energy Crystal had been… worth it!
Having shaken off the mob, Haruki quickly brought Metang and Skiploom to a nearby pond.
Metang's arms had returned to their usual silver sheen.
But maybe it was just his imagination, Haruki felt that after going through that intense heat, the arms seemed to shine even more brightly, as if they'd grown tougher.
"Metang, let's do a quick test after dinner."
Metang sprawled lazily on the ground and blinked to show it understood.
The group quickly finished dinner. Marowak hugged its newly-maintained bone club and began training.
Skiploom had already told it everything that happened during the day.
Marowak felt frustrated that it couldn't help back then, but it was also true… it wasn't likely to ever learn how to fly.
So the only path was to get stronger. Strong enough to become the strongest on land; if it could hold the line from the ground, then Metang wouldn't have to burn itself out trying to protect them all.
Meanwhile, Haruki brought Metang over to the edge of the pond.
He set up the portable training target and motioned to Metang.
"Bullet Punch."
Whoosh~
BOOM!
The Bullet Punch hit the target dead-on, leaving a deep dent in the surface.
Haruki raised an eyebrow. The power had clearly increased.
"You felt that?"
"Metang!"
Metang nodded with unusual seriousness. The improvement was so dramatic it even surprised itself.
'I'm strong!' Metang thought. But as it focused on the residual heat in its arms, it sensed that some new energy was slowly forming.
In the next moment, Metang punched the target again with full force.
Sparks crackled as the strike left a scorched black mark on the target, far stronger than the Bullet Punch from before.
Haruki's jaw dropped.
"Thunder Punch?"
Metang looked at its hardened arms, then gave a cautious nod.
'Probably... yeah.'
"Try it again!" Haruki said excitedly.
"Meta!"
Metang was more than ready. It didn't hesitate.
Another punch!
Crackle...
BOOOM!
It really was Thunder Punch…