Richter's jaunty bouncing gait brought him over to the tree in question, and he wasn't at all hesitant to peer around the trunk. It was hard not to miss the round body of the Munchlax, though the wild pokemon had its back to him. In fact, the Munchlax gave no indication that it heard him at all. Richter hurried away and ran back towards Irisa. He jumped up and down in front of her and slapped his tail against the ground three times, before he looked back in the direction of the tree. It was his way of telling her there was something there.

Irisa got excited when she realized that Richter had sussed out a wild pokemon. The Palpitoad didn't seem very frightened, so whatever it was probably wasn't very big. Richter would have made a lot more fuss if it was. She knew right then and there exactly what she wanted to do. Irisa turned to look directly at Fyodor with an expectant expression on her face. "Here is your chance to redeem yourself Fyodor. Go fight that Munchlax for me and if you win, I promise you can eat as much pokemon food as you want, until you are just as fat as the Munchlax. Oh, and you won't have to share with Olenka."

Fyodor had been sulking and feeling sorry for himself, but his ears perked up at the mention of food. He had been unaware of the Munchlax that Richter had found, up until that moment. He wasn't familiar with what a Munchlax was, but beating it meant that he would finally get food and that was all the encouragement. The Zigzagoon uncurled his tail and wagged it side to side, eager to prove himself to his trainer in the hope of earning some food. When he spotted the round little Munchlax by the tree, he didn't feel all that afraid. It didn't look half as scary as the Galarian Zigzagoon had been. Fyodor took off at a swift lope and closed the distance between himself and the Munchlax. He slowed down when he caught the scent of food though, and realized that the Munchlax had a fistful of berries. Had being the key word, because the Munchlax opened its mouth and practically inhaled the berries right in front of Fyodor.

Irisa took the Zigzagoon's hesitation for fear, and was immediately disappointed in him. She expected better out of her pokemon. Whoever had owned Fyodor before hadn't trained the Zigzagoon very well. "Did I say stop and stare at it? Did I stutter? You heard me loud and clear Fyodor. I thought you would take the initative, but you disappointed me. Get in there with a Headbutt and show him we mean business," Irisa called out to Fyodor in a commanding tone of voice. She looked over to see that Olenka had taken an interest in the Munchlax and was casually strolling down the hill towards it. It looked like Olenka wanted to steal the fight from Fyodor but Irisa didn't want her to do that. "No Olenka, you have to sit this one out. Fyodor will never get stronger if he doesn't get the chance to fight. The food was yours but this is his fight."

The wild Munchlax had just been about to settle down by the tree to eat the berries he had successfully stolen from a young trainer that had passed by earlier. That's when he had heard the commotion caused by yet another human and her pokemon. He had darted his head out from behind the tree to take a peak, and that's when the Palpitoad had spotted him. Of course, the Munchlax hadn't know that fact. He had just taken the initiative to wolf down the berries, so that nobody could taken them from him. The Munchlax only noticed the presence of the distraught Zigzagoon after he had finished licking the berry juice off of his hands. The poor Zigzagoon looked so forlorn that the Munchlax felt a brief stab of guilt. He shook his head at the Zigzagoon and held up his hands to show that there was nothing left. The wild Munchlax then started to amble away, because he didn't want to stick around with a human in the area. He didn't smell anymore food and he was still hungry. He didn't realize that the scrawny Zigzagoon's intent was to battle him...right up until the Zigzagoon hit him square in the back with a Headbutt attack.

The wild Munchlax belly-flopped down into the snow. Since he hadn't been expecting it, the attack had knocked him completely off balance. His back smarted a bit where the Headbutt had impacted, but he was more indignant than truly hurt. The Munchlax slowly climbed back to his feet and looked at the Zigzagoon with an expression of disbelief. Did the scrawny pokemon really believe he had a chance? To the Munchlax's eyes, it looked like a light breeze could blow the Zigzagoon over. Well, it looked like the masked pokemon was insisting, so what choice did he have? The wild Munchlax narrowed his eyes and looked the Zigzagoon over until he found his target, and then attempted to chomp down on Fyodor's tail with a Bite attack. It wasn't the Munchlax's strongest attack, but he hoped the pain would deter the Zigzagoon from fighting further and get him to back off.

Irisa didn't know that the Munchlax hadn't really wanted to fight, and likely wouldn't have cared if she had. As far as she was concerned, Fyodor was doing well for once and that was what mattered most. "Hmm, you might earn yourself that meal after all. Let's keep up the pressure on that Munchlax," Irisa called out to Fyodor from a distance. She had been about to order his next attack, but suddenly he was not doing as well as she had initially thought. The sight that met her eyes was one that most people would probably have found humorous. The Munchlax had bitten down on Fyodor's tail, and the Zigzagoon had scrabbled wildly at the snow in an attempt to get away. From the looks of it, it seemed as though the Munchlax had a pretty good grip on Fyodor's tail. Irisa cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled, "That's your own fault Fyodor, you shouldn't have let your guard down. You can still turn this around though. Retaliate with Tackle!"

Fyodor finally tore free of the Munchlax's Bite attack, though it cost him a rather large clump of tail fur. He panted for a moment, wide-eyed and a little frightened of the Munchlax. He realized the other pokemon was much stronger than it had looked, especially after it felt like his tail had nearly been ripped off. He looked back at his unkempt tail and noticed the big hunk of fur missing. His ears drooped momentarily, though he perked them up again at the sound of Irisa's voice. He was afraid of the Munchlax, but he needed the food that Irisa had promised him, and he was upset over what the Munchlax had done to his tail. He flung himself heedlessly at Munchlux and tried to knock him back down into the snow with his Tackle attack his trainer had ordered him to do.

The Munchlax shuffled forward in an attempt to get out of the way of Fyodor's next attack, but he wasn't very fast and his rotund body made for a wide target. The Tackle hit the Munchlax just hard enough to knock him off his feet again, but not as badly as the first time. This time, the wild Munchlax landed on his rump in the snow with a loud grunt. The Munchlax's eyes narrowed considerably, and his mouth thinned into a distinct frown. He was getting hungry, was cranky as a result, and didn't feel like dealing with the Zigzagoon anymore. He began pounding repeatedly on his belly with his tiny fists. At first it probably seemed like he was throwing a fit, which he sort of was. However, the sound of him slapping his belly soon began to take on a consistent rhythm, like the beating of a drum. Not only that, but the sound steadily grew louder as well. A white glow began to form around his belly, and it quickly expanded to cover his entire body. He had just used Belly Drum and injured himself in the process, but had also increased his strength exponentially.

Fyodor bounced off of the Munchlax after his last attack, and landed in the snow on all four paws. The more active he was, the more acutely aware he became of his hunger. His stomach loudly complained, as it isssued an assortment of gurgles and rumbling noises. Fyodor panted some more and his tongue lolled out the side of his mouth, and for a moment he almost looked like a Galarian Zigzagoon. He wanted a little longer to catch his breath, but then a strange sound reached his ears that was not coming from his stomach. He looked over at the Munchlax and was surprised to see the white glow coming from it, as well as the narrowed eyes and the angry expression. There was a strange energy to the air too that made his fur stand on end even more than usual. A gut instinct warned him that he should probably get away from the Munchlax but unfortunately for him, his Trainer had other ideas. "He's slow and you can use that against him Fyodor. Go for another Headbutt," he heard Irisa order from a distance. Fyodor hesitated for a split second and then complied by launching himself at the Munchlax's belly with another Headbutt.

The wild Munchlax was a little surprised that the Zigzagoon's attack hurt more than the first time, but he hadn't bothered to get up. So the attack didn't knock him off his feet. He was still on his rump in the snow and Fyodor's attack only managed to slide him over a couple of feet. The Munchlax tentatively poked the spot on his belly where the attack had hit and winced in pain. He got up and leveled an angry look towards the scrawny Zigzagoon, who had landed on his feet nearby once more. That was fine by the Munchlax, because he saw it as an opportunity to defeat the weak pokemon. It's true that he wasn't one of the fastest pokemon out there, but the human had made a mistake by underestimating his reaction time. The wild Munchlax charged down the Zigzagoon and closed the short distance between them in a matter of seconds. The moment that he loomed over the Zigzagoon was the moment that he jumped a short distance, and practically belly-flopped on top of Fyodor with a powerful Body Slam. The force of the impact was enough to send snow flying up into the air around him. By the time the wild Munchlax climbed to his feet, the snow had drifted back down to the ground to reveal one very flattened-looking Zigzagoon unconscious in the midst of a Muchlax-shaped crater in the snow.

Irisa was disappointed to see that Fyodor had lost to the wild Munchlax. She didn't think it was at all her fault for underestimating the Munchlax. No, she simply thought that the Zigzagoon was a weak and useless pokemon. "I expected as much, but I had hoped you would put up more of a fight. Well if nothing else, you at least softened him up for Olenka," she mumbled to the unconscious Zigzagoon before she recalled him to his pokeball. She was much more pleased with Olenka, who had obeyed her ordered and hung back as she had requested earlier. Of course, the Ursaring was the favored pokemon on her team and Irisa had a lot more respect for her than Fyodor. "Well Olenka, it looks like you can have the fight you wanted after all. Clean up Fyodor's mess will you? Go and use Slash on it Olenka," Irisa ordered with a tone of finality.

The wild Muchlax thought he was free to go after defeating the Zigzagoon. He casually ambled away from the fainted pokemon and sniffed at the air. There was a new scent carried on the breeze, and it smelled like a common type of berry that he liked. Perhaps it was in the possession of another wild pokemon, or maybe a human. The Munchlax didn't much care about the source, as long as he could get his hands on it. He shuffled his way through the snow faster than he normally did, motivated as he was by the smell of food. He got about six feet away before a dark bulky form blocked his path. He looked up, and up, and blanched at the frightening expression on the Ursaring's face. He scrambled to try and get away, but the Ursaring's paw was already in motion by that point. The Slash attack hit him squarely across his belly and sent him careening into the side of a craggy snow-covered boulder. He could faintly hear the heavy footsteps of the Ursaring as it closed in on him, but it hurt too much to move at first. He weakly tried to push himself back onto his feet, when all of a sudden something round impacted against his left shoulder. In a flash of red light, the Munchlax was drawn into the pokeball that Irisa had thrown at him. The pokeball fell in the snow right up against the boulder, though whether it would stop shaking remained to be seen.