With almost reckless BRAVERY and courage, courage his Manectric steed shared, Josh advanced as close to the nettles as what felt safe without he or Saber being exposed to them. When the femme stepped into the light, revealing the slender woman and the silhouette of an unrecognizable Pokémon, Josh looked around the east half of the Romping Grounds one more time. The destruction was complete. What was once a lush field was now a no-man's-land. Only dual-typed grass-and-poison Pokémon stood a chance in that field; it was as though the vegetation could even reach into the sky and pull flying Pokémon to a prickly grave.

Josh was going to defend his friend's sanctuary... even if it put him at great risk to do so. "This is the sanctuary of one of my best friends. Does the name Shalin Nariya sound familiar?" He paused to wait for a response, then pointed toward the river that fed the lake near where his friend's sick Pokémon were at. "Was this your doing?"

First off, the femme knew Shalin. That instantly made the attack seem less haphazard and more targeted. Wait, Littleroot? She was conscripted into that mess? Why would the League conscript such a fresh-faced recruit onto such a dangerous mission? Meteno had nearly gotten Josh killed several times over, and he had far more combat experience than Shalin did. What was the League thinking? Yes, she was self-sufficient in the wild, but these were people she was told to kill!

At Wo-Chien's hiss, the foliage advanced toward Josh, causing Saber to rear and startle his rider. Tugging back on the reins with both hands, the electric-type backed up. When threatened by the Scorned, Josh responded with just as large of a threat of his own. "I will 'scatter' as soon as you restore her home to the way it was. This plateau is her home, for the Great One's sake! Her home!"

The snail's RUINATION took the form of a physical manifestation of Josh's GRUDGE against MATIAS SILPH . As blacks and reds coalesced and converged on the Gym Leader and his Manectric, the man's mind thumped inside his head, his emotion shifting to a single desire: see to it that the Volatile pays for ruining his life in kind. Murderous intent filled his face as his eyes shifted from blue to red, the light of ruination filling them.

It took a loud bark from Saber to snap Josh out of it, the venomous plants encroaching toward the brave rider and his Manectric. A SPECIAL SHIELD clashed with the RUINATION, the fields of dense INFINITY ENERGY colliding with one another. There was one big difference, though; even the might of a Sygna Pokémon in perfect tune with the suit's wearer was no match for a god. His rider shunted away from the saddle, Saber let out a squeal-like howl as nettles and venomous plants sprouted all around him, ensnaring him.

Saber's SPECIAL SHIELD shattered. Even the thirteen-year-old bond between them was no match for the wrath of a god. The squeezing flora claimed the Manectric's will to battle, the electric-type falling limp within seconds. The entire plateau turned dark as night, as though the sun itself had been blot out by a storm cloud. So much of this was a mirror of his fateful encounter with Cillian Quinn . He was unsure how to explain to his friend that she would need to pack up and move. At the rate this resentful woman was going, she and Wo-Chien would claim all of Petalburg Woods as her domain!

The only way Josh would be able to fight Elisabeth was in the air. "Ares!" the Master of Faster cried, hurling a Poké Ball above him. A Charizard zoomed toward him, the agile man leaping aboard and reining the dragon toward the Scorned. Embers rained from the orange lizard's mouth, ready to deploy a gout of FLAMETHROWER toward them both at the first opening they got. The fight was no longer about winning. It was about freeing Saber and getting away with his life intact!

Wildfires were a terrible thing, especially in drier regions more susecptible to them. They were a part of nature, though; often, all it took was a single lightning strike to set acres of forest ablaze. Provided he made it out of this battle alive, he would need to give a report to wren rourke , and perhaps even aid in fighting the fire himself. After all, he had a myriad of water Pokémon quite adept for the task. Not now, though.

The pressure and resentment built inside of him as Elisabeth's scathing words flew from her lips. The past Josh absolutely would have burned the world down to get to the bottom of who was resposible for Raikou's death. The present Josh, no way. His past self would have screamed obscenities directed at the one he resented. His present self normally would keep his resentment to himself. The presence of the very god of resentment, though, would change all of that. Josh took his hands off his Charizard's reins long enough to shake his fists and utter only the man's name.

"MATIAS SILPH ."

The continued taunting was not met without silence, either. "And this is my answer." The two at first dove toward Elisabeth Fiorelli and Wo-Chien head on. With a sharp tug on Ares' reins, the duo swooped in front of her instead, utilizing a line of FLAMETHROWER separating Saber from the malevolent actors within the venomous weeds. He hoped this would give his dragon the time to SLASH at the Manectric's binds so Josh could withdraw him and get the Petalburg Rangers to the plateau as backup. That, and grab some of Shalin's important keepsakes out of her home before they were destroyed, either by venomous or fiery means.

As much as Josh wanted to hide his resentment of the man who ruined his life, Wo-Chien's very presence drew out that very hatred. "There are days I wonder if he is a mole. One of your people, not one of ours. With the number of people's lives he's ruined, he does not deserve his spot in the Elite Four. It would make my day to see him pay for all the horrible things he has done to his own." Those were words he would never say in front of any League official, or even any of his friends. They were dangerous thoughts buried in his mind, and now they were a weapon Rocket could use against not only Josh, but the League.

Such was the power of a god.

The TERA BLAST covered an enormous area that not even the Charizard's altitude advantage offered him protection from. Ares, likewise, was felled in a single blow. He instinctively hurled Verte's Poké Ball beneath him, allowing the Flygon to catch him. Ares' FLAMETHROWER had one nice side effect, though; it had burned away enough of the poisonous foliage that there was now a clear line he could aim his Poké Ball's withdrawal beam toward to recall the fallen Manectric. Ares soon joined Saber on the Gym Leader's belt.

After securing himself within the cocoon on the dragon's back, the rider took his hands off the dragon's reins and covered his ears: a tell that, if Elisabeth remembered her battle at Littleroot, may have prompted her to cover her own. Verte's wings roared louder and louder as the duo dive-bombed toward the legendary and Avatar, attempting to convince the Scorned to back down with a BUG BUZZ that rattled the rider's bones. The roar turned into a shriek as Josh screamed for the Flygon to vibrate his wings faster. His goal was not to continue the battle, but to leave the two stunned long enough to swerve south and get away from the woods with his life intact.