The Druddigon certainly recognized Yanma. They didn't expect that this little fellow they had chased away had not only come back but even brought a human with him.
The Druddigon didn't have a good impression of humans—they had just suffered a heavy blow from the Pioneering Army not long ago. Now, seeing a human again made them extremely displeased.
However, they didn't take Yuga and Yanma seriously at all. One tall Druddigon slowly walked out from among the group, looking provocatively at Yuga and Yanma, muttering a bunch of gibberish in its mouth.
Yanma was greatly angered because that Druddigon had just humiliated him with its words.
Yuga also understood what the Druddigon meant, so he comforted Yanma and said, "Don't get angry. Just watch. They'll have a taste of their own medicine soon!"
As soon as Yanma heard that, he immediately felt it made sense: Right, I've got backup!
After insulting Yanma, that Druddigon swaggered and charged toward Yuga—but the very next second, Dragonite descended from the sky.
"Roar!!"
With a thunderous roar, Dragonite's powerful aura unique to Dragon-type Pokémon spread outwards. Some of the weaker Druddigon immediately collapsed to the ground involuntarily, trembling all over—it was a ridiculous sight.
Yanma, seeing this scene, couldn't help but burst out laughing, his wings vibrating rapidly behind him.
Of course, not all Druddigon were so pathetic—some of them still stood firm. However, their eyes no longer carried that earlier dismissive look when gazing at Yuga.
"Rooar~"
With a loud roar, a Druddigon clearly larger than the others slowly stepped forward. This Druddigon still hadn't realized the gap between itself and Dragonite—it actually issued a challenge to Dragonite.
This was the leader of the Druddigon.
The Druddigon leader took Dragonite's presence as a provocation, so it had to step out and uphold its dignity. Dragon-type Pokémon always cared about their pride.
The Druddigon leader had a decent level—it was an Elite level Pokémon with blue potential. But compared to Dragonite, who was already close to Master level, it was absolutely no match.
At Yuga's subtle signal, Dragonite readily accepted the Druddigon's challenge.
"Roar!"
The Druddigon roared and used Dragon Claw, lunging toward Dragonite. But before it could even touch Dragonite, it was smacked away by Dragonite's own Dragon Claw.
Dragonite hadn't intended to defeat it in a single blow, so he held back his strength. The Druddigon leader landed clumsily in a nearby pond, not seriously injured but certainly humiliated.
Seeing their leader taken down so easily, the other Druddigon tried to rush forward under Dragonite's pressure to defend their leader. But as the leader climbed out of the pond, it shook its head and roared again, scaring its kin back into place.
Dragon-type Pokémon loved to compete and fight, but they also valued pride. Right now, the Druddigon felt utterly humiliated. Even though it knew it wasn't a match, it couldn't just back down.
Splashing through the water, the Druddigon leader once again charged toward Dragonite, this time using the all-or-nothing move Giga Impact.
Dragonite didn't flinch in the slightest. He took one step back with his right leg, then remembered not to knock the opponent out immediately, so he restrained his strength again before using Dragon Rush to crash head-on.
Boom!!!
A thunderous explosion followed. Dragonite stood still on the spot, snorting unhappily, while the Druddigon was sent flying once more, landing back into the pond.
Its head buried in the water, the Druddigon felt utterly hopeless. It was the one who issued the challenge, but it couldn't even scratch its opponent. It was beyond humiliating... At that moment, it almost felt like hiding underwater forever.
But thinking of its kin still watching, it had no choice but to leap out of the water again.
Meanwhile, the Yanma perched on Yuga's shoulder had long since burst out laughing. Its long tail twitched with joy, showing how delighted it was.
Emerging once more, the Druddigon leader decided to go all in. It activated the high-risk move Outrage, its eyes turning red as it charged fiercely toward Dragonite.
But reality was merciless. Dragonite didn't even allow it to get close. Opening his mouth, he released a wave of Dragon Pulse, instantly engulfing the Druddigon leader.
However, what was surprising was that the Druddigon leader was actually very tenacious—it broke through Dragonite's Dragon Pulse and charged forward, roaring.
Unfortunately, if one shot didn't work, there was always a second. When it was submerged by the Dragon Pulse a second time, it finally couldn't get back up again.
Yuga casually tossed a Poké Ball over and captured the Druddigon leader.
Dragon-type Pokémon were rare, and this one had both a good level and decent potential—he had no reason to let it go.
But this action of his directly angered the Druddigon group, and they all began roaring, preparing to attack Yuga.
At this moment, Florges appeared. A wave of pink mist spread outward from her as the center, and all the Druddigon that came into contact with the pink mist immediately began to feel extremely uncomfortable.
This was the Misty Terrain. It could greatly suppress the abilities of Dragon-type Pokémon.
While activating Misty Terrain, Florges also used Fairy Aura. Under the boost of the Fairy Aura, the Misty Terrain underwent a subtle transformation—Dragon-type Pokémon within the area felt weak all over, and the lower their level, the more obvious the effect.
Fairy Wind!
Florges controlled the Fairy Wind and shaped it into one whip after another, lashing them onto the Druddigon' bodies. The Druddigon fell one after another.
Just as Yuga was planning to select a few Druddigon with decent potential, Yanma (the Bug King) shyly approached Yuga with a hesitant look, clearly wanting to say something but holding back.
Yuga looked at it in confusion: "I've already helped you teach the Druddigon a lesson. You're not thinking of going back on your word, are you?"
Yanma quickly shook its head, but it hesitantly asked Yuga whether it could follow Yuga by itself, and let the rest of its kin go free.
Yuga snorted coldly: "Dream on!"
However, what Yanma said reminded Yuga of something—he didn't need to bring back all the Yanma and Yanmega. Those with low potential could just stay here!
After all, this place had already been cleared once. The high-level Pokémon had all been taken away, and the remaining low-level ones wouldn't pose a threat to the Yanma and Yanmega. After all, their tribe was numerous here.
Even if some Pokémon held hostility toward them, they could handle it themselves.
Otherwise, bringing so many Pokémon back would be a huge burden.
So Yuga released all the Yanma and Yanmega with red and orange potential.
"The Druddigon that took over your home have already been dealt with. Now I'll give you all a choice—if you want to stay, I'll release you."
Yanma didn't understand why Yuga had suddenly changed his mind. It looked at Yuga with confusion, but figured this was a good thing, so it stayed silent.
As expected, almost all the Yanma and Yanmega chose to stay.
If they were still displaced wanderers, perhaps some of the Yanma or Yanmega would have been willing to follow Yuga. But now that their home was restored, of course they didn't want to follow a human anymore.
Freedom was more important to them.
Wild Pokémon in the wilderness areas and wild Pokémon in the human world had very different mindsets. Wild Pokémon in the human world, to some extent, were influenced by human culture and had a strong sense of identity toward humans, whereas wilderness Pokémon did not.
This was also why Pokémon disasters were more likely to occur in the wilderness.
Red- and orange-potential Pokémon made up the vast majority of the swarm. When Yuga released them, he let go of most of them—only just over a hundred remained in his possession. But that number was already quite large. At least, Yuga was satisfied.
Bug-type Pokémon reproduced quickly, and there was still a year left before this system mission's deadline. If he worked hard, there was still a good chance of reaching the target.
It was just that he had spent quite a bit on Poké Balls earlier—now it all felt wasted. Poké Balls that had already been used couldn't be reused.
Of course, he could still bring back the used Poké Balls and sell them as scrap to recoup a bit of the loss.
At this moment, the Bug King Yanma also noticed that all the ones Yuga released were the weaker members of its group—none of the stronger ones had been released—so it questioned Yuga for the reason.
Without the protection of higher-level members, wouldn't their griup be wiped out by other Pokémon? After all, conflicts between Pokémon in the wilderness happened all the time.
Yuga explained, "You think this place is still your group's original territory? Haven't you heard about how you Pokémon attacked our human base?"
"They lost, so now this place belongs to us humans. High-level Pokémon won't continue to stay here, so you can be absolutely at ease."
Only then did Yanma realize: oh, right—its kin would now have to survive in the human world!
Of course, Yanma had heard about how the lord of the grassland led other groups to attack the human base. It was just that its own group wasn't worth much, so the big shots didn't take notice of them. They weren't close to any of the high-ranking Pokémon and couldn't get a word in, so they had only heard about it after the fact.
At this moment, Yanma began to feel a bit resentful toward the lord of the grassland—everything had been fine when they were living peacefully with humans. No one bothered anyone, and things had been harmonious. Why stir up trouble, especially when they ended up losing?
After explaining things to Yanma, Yuga began to deal with the Druddigon.
There weren't many Druddigon—only about thirty to forty—because most of them had died in that previous assault. The remaining ones were all elites. Yuga decided to capture them all and didn't plan on handing them over to the League. After all, he only had one Druddigon in his Ecopark. Bringing these back would give it some companions.
Once the Druddigon were taken care of, Yuga decided to return to the base. Yanma reluctantly said farewell to the kin who were staying behind.
On the way back, he ran into the same people who had previously been chased by the Druddigon. They had managed to reunite with their teammates, though several members of their group were injured.
While traveling together back to the base, Yuga gave the injured some basic treatment along the way so that their conditions didn't worsen.
When they returned to the base and Yoshino and the others saw that Yuga had returned safely, they finally let out a sigh of relief. They quickly gathered around him, asking how he was and expressing concern.
Even though Yuga had already sent a message to report his safety, the three of them had still been worried until they saw him with their own eyes.
But Yuga was soon called over to the Pokémon medical tent, because the number of injured had increased again today, and the Pokémon doctors were overwhelmed.
In the blink of an eye, more than ten days passed. During those days, Yuga went out with Yoshino and the others on missions every day as scheduled. Their harvests were all very fruitful—they found many Pokémon, herbs, ores, and other resources.
It was easy to foresee that after the mission ended, not only would they have plenty of merit points, but their assets would also see a significant increase.
Allard, who came from a wealthy family, probably didn't care much about this, but Yoshino and Raizo were different. These resources were crucial to their futures.
Later on, Yuga also came across several other groups of Yanma and Yanmega, but none were as large as the first one he had encountered. He selectively captured a few from them.
On this grassland, other kinds of Bug-type Pokémon were not very common, but Yanma and Yanmega were seen quite frequently.
Besides Yuga and his group, the other teams also had very fruitful results.
However, compared to Yuga's team, they always fell a bit short. After all, when they ran into Pokémon that were harder to deal with, they still had to send messages asking for help. Yuga had already rescued members of other teams multiple times.
But although everyone's gains were great, the number of injured also increased in wave after wave. As soon as one wave was treated, another came in. There was even one fatal case.
One team had come across a lone Zebstrika and wanted to capture it, but they hadn't expected that Zebstrika to be an Elite level Pokémon. In the end, the team was completely crushed, and it was only thanks to General Toyama rushing over in time that they were saved.
However, the team captain was too severely injured. Before he could even be transported back to the base for treatment, he passed away.
Because of this casualty, the entire base felt as if a dark cloud had descended over it. The heavy atmosphere lingered for several days, and everyone walked around with anxious expressions.
But someone dying was something that should've been expected from the start. Why were the mission rewards so generous this time? It was because the mission was extremely dangerous—this had been clearly communicated by the League before deployment.
Since you were willing to come, you had to be mentally prepared to face danger to your life at any moment!
Still, being mentally prepared was one thing; actually facing the situation was another. The mission period was only halfway through—who could guarantee there wouldn't be a second fatality?
However, it was precisely because of this incident that harmony suddenly increased between the various teams. Previously, due to different conflicts, many disputes had broken out between teams—even Yuga had been troubled by it.
Aside from that, General Toyama had been getting busier and busier in the past few days. Yuga heard him mention in passing that things weren't going well for the frontline pioneering troops.
After the lord of the grassland led the remnants of his forces deeper into the plains, he contacted other lords hidden deep within the region to launch a counterattack on the pioneers.
Previously, the battle situation had been in a stalemate—neither side had the upper hand—but recently, things seemed to be changing, and the pioneering army had begun to show signs of decline.
Because of this, General Toyama not only had to handle logistics on this side but also had to communicate back and forth with both the pioneering army and the League. It was enough to keep anyone insanely busy!