Saber decided to try to make her way up the next small waterfall, although she couldn't see above the lip of it. Actually, it was hard to see much of anything between the spray of the waterfall and the resulting fog as well. Hearing wasn't much better, because the rushing water and the falls were so very loud. She could barely even hear Marsha's voice in the distance. Regardless, she used her
Waterfall attack to make her way up the next waterfall, and used her horn once again to split the water on her way up. Her tail fins waved wildly as she put on one last burst of speed and powered her way to the top. She managed to make her way over the lip of the waterfall, but her horn met some resistance and she found herself trapped against a large boulder. The only thing is that it didn't feel like a boulder, and Saber couldn't figure out what it was at first. She prodded at it experimentally with her horn and the boulder moved. The next thing she knew, she was knocked clear of the waterfall and out into open air, where she then plummeted all the way back down to small lake below. Thankfully she had only made her way up two of the smaller falls and not the main one, but she sunk quite a bit deeper below the surface when she landed. She was more confused and disoriented than anything, and it took her a full two minutes before she found her way back to the surface of the lake. What had just happened? She swam back further away from the waterfalls, but couldn't get a clear view of the area she had fallen from.
The wild Walrein had been sleeping half-in and half-out of the shallow frothy pool at the top of the second small waterfall. He had felt relatively safe there and the cold was no bother to him. He had thought it was a safe place where he would not be disturbed, but apparently he had been wrong about that. At first he had been too deeply asleep to be bothered by the Seaking that had bumped against his side...until his side had been prodded with the point of a sharp horn. The painful poke had caused him to spasmodically jerk to the side, and he had inadvertently knocked the Seaking right out of the pool with one of his flippers. He was wide awake now but didn't know what it was that had poked him. He looked down the waterfall just in time to see a flash of orange that stood out against the fog, but it disappeared from sight before he could identify it. There was only one way to find out what it had been, so he decided to make his way down to the lake below. He dragged himself over the edge and dropped down, flopped into the pool from the other small waterfall, and then repeated the procees before he dropped into the water of the lake below. He landed with a huge splash that displaced a lot of water, which in turn washed the surprised Seaking away from him with a series of small waves that had been generated by the impact.
Cytozin had been watching, the the visibility had gotten worse with the vapour from the waterfall. The bright orange of the Seaking did stand out enough though, that he could just barely see the progress she had been making. At first it had looked like she was going to make it up the falls towards them, but then the flash of orange had plummeted down and out of sight. At first he had assumed that the current of the waterfall had been too strong, but then he saw the shape of something large on the move. It almost looked as though part of the froth of one of the smaller waterfalls had detached itself, and had followed the Seaking down. The Toxtricity wasn't able to get a clear look at it, but the shape of the creature was reminiscent of a large boulder. He lost sight of it too, and knew something was definitely up by that point. He immediately went to get Marsha and left Sollum at the top of the hill, since there hadn't been anything up there that he had seen, and alerting Marsha was more important than babysitting. When he got to his Trainer, he forcibly took the phone out of her hand, tapped her on the shoulder, and tugged on her arm in an attempt to get her to follow. Whatever silly human thing she was doing could wait until later.
Marsha was grateful when Sollum moved out of the way. She didn't even have to worry about the Hippopotas either, because Cytozin had already moved to shadow him without her saying a word. It was great to have such a responsible pokemon, and she knew she could rely on him to keep an eye on the small Hippopotas for her. She swiped the screen on her phone to clear Sollum's picture off the screen. She didn't delete it though, since it would make for a good laugh if she ever had to explain it. She was so busy staring at the screen of her phone, that she was oblivious to the commotion going on below. With both Cytozin and Sollum up the hill, she was able to line up her phone for a better shot. Unfortunately, the fog had thickened and her chance for a good shot of the waterfall from the side was ruined. She took three or four pictures, but not a single one of them looked clear. Even using the wide-angle shot mode on her phone didn't work either. She was in the middle of scrolling through the settings to see if there was another mode she could use, when the phone was grabbed out of her hand by Cytozin.
"Hey Cytozin, what are you doing? I wasn't done with that you know...." she trailed off when he grabbed her by the arm and tried to pull her along. Something was wrong, or he wouldn't have gone to such an extreme.
"Alright, alright, I don't know what's up but I'm coming. But give me my phone back first," Marsha insisted before she snatched it back from the Toxtricity. Thankfully, he let her have it back without a struggle. He was leading the way down the hill towards the lake, so Marsha followed quickly in his footsteps.
Marsha saw the problem once she reached the bottom of the hill. When she looked out at the lake, she saw her Seaking being washed away from something large in a cascade of small waves. The water frothed and bubbled, and that's when she saw the Walrein's head break the surface, followed by its upper body. The Walrein began to eye Saber, and Marsha was having none of it. The small waves had washed Saber closer towards shore, and Marsha acted quickly by recalling the Seaking to her pokeball. The Walrein was way too big of a pokemon for her new Seaking to handle.
"Cytozin, are you up for this?" she asked, but the Toxtricity brushed past her without so much of a backwards look. Marsha chuckled softly under her breath and shook her head.
"Of course, I shouldn't have bothered to ask. Thanks for coming to get me, otherwise Saber would have been in serious trouble."The Walrein narrowed his amber-colored eyes at the Toxtricity on the shore. The Toxtricity's purple-and-yellow coloring stood out against the background of the crisp white snow. He judged it to be a much better challenge for him than the little Seaking he had knocked off the waterfall. He was used to having to fight other pokemon, both for territory and for food. The Toxtricity clearly wanted to fight, and the Walrein had no issues with it. He was confident in his own abilities, and he was on his own turf, which naturally gave him the advantage. The Walrein shifted his head so that his tusks were pointed right at the Toxtricity, and effectively used his own tusks to line up his attack. The Walrein opened his mouth and sent a cascade of water at his opponent. The attack was similar to water gun, but much stronger because it was a
Brine attack. He watched in satisfaction as the Toxtricity was literally washed off his feet, and a good swath of snow was washed away with it. From the looks of it, his opponent was left on his back in a shallow pool of water mixed with slush.
The Toxtricity climbed back onto his feet, feeling both cold and numb. He was not as adapted to the cold as an ice-type, but he was still better at dealing with it than a human was. He was disappointed in himself for not being more on guard; he should have known that the wild pokemon might take the opportunity to attack. At least Saber wasn't in the water anymore, which was good because he was fully aware of his own advantage against water-types. He looked over towards Marsha to get her feedback, since he figured she would have orders for him. He was not disappointed, and she even called for the exact attack he had been hoping she would let him use. He casually walked over the the water and put the palm of his right hand on the surface of it. The beauty of using electric-type attacks was that he didn't even need to get near his opponent, and in the case of the Walrein, Cytozin was about to light him up. Maybe the Walrein clued in to what he was about to do, because it immediately started to swim to shore. It was too late, because Cytozin's hand glowed bright yellow and crackled with the sound of electricity, just seconds before he plunged his hand into the water. The icy cold water conducted the electricity pretty well, and there was no escape from Cytozin's
Discharge attack.
The Walrein immediately stopped moving once the electricity reached him. Every muscle in his body spasmed from the electricity, and he had no control over any of them. He couldn't use his muscles to swim, and there was literally nothing else he could do but wait until the pain and the electricity dissipated. When the attack subsided, he was left adrift on his side in the water. Only his naturally buoyancy kept him afloat, and he was feeling off-kilter in more ways than one. He floated into the froth and pounding water from one of the waterfalls above, and it helped him to clear his head a little. He used one of his front flippers to right himself, and then swam towards shore, though he aimed for a stretch of shore to the right of the Toxtricity, rather than heading for him directly. The moment his flippers touched shore, he became cloaked in a thick fog. The fog spread from around the Walrein, and the air immediately around the lake became thick with it. The air dropped a few degrees in temperature, with a keen chill to it. Something splashed into the water behind the Walrein, but he knew exactly what it was. He heard a cries of pain come from both the human and her two pokemon on shore, before he too began getting pelted by the hail. However, the
Hail just bounced off his rubbery body harmlessly.
Marsha had not been expecting the wild Walrein to use that sort of attack, and it was not something to be taken lightly. Every time she got hit by a hardened chunk of ice, it left a bruise on her skin and it smarted quite a bit. None of the pokemon she had with her were ice-types, so they to were affected by the hail. Sollum was bumping his snout up against her legs and crying in pain, and Cytozin was trying to shield his head with his hands. Marsha debated on whether they should try and seek shelter under the trees, but there were better ways to deal with the hail. She had no intention of sending Sollum out to fight the Walrein, and there was no point in him being out to be hurt by the hail.
"Sorry Sollum, but it'll be safer in your pokeball for now," she told him in an apologetic tone before she recalled him in a flash of red light. Several more pieces of hail pelted against her, and she nearly dropped Sollum's pokeball. Marsha quickly shrugged off her backpack and placed Sollum's pokeball into one of the inner pockets. A few pieces of hail fell inside the open backpack, but it wouldn't harm Sollum or Saber while they were in their pokeballs. Marsha zipped the backpack back up and retreated to one of the nearest pine trees, which at least provided a bit of relief from the hail, although not completely.
"Cytozin, do you think you can withstand it a bit longer? If we can beat that Walrein the hail should stop. If you can, try to use Shock Wave," Marsha requested, hoping she hadn't asked too much of him.
Cytozin rolled his shoulders back and tilted his head from side to side, as if loosening up his muscles. The icy hail splattered against his skin and it was painful, but Cytozin acted as if it didn't both him. Through the hail, he steadily advanced towards the section of shore that he had last seen the Walrein. He glanced over at his right shoulder at Marsha and was relieved to see she had found some shelter. He hadn't seen her recall Sollum, and just assumed the Hippopotas was behind her on the other side of the tree. When he looked forward again, he heard the shuffling sound of the Walrein as it awkwardly heaved its body further up onto shore. It was hard to tell through the fog, but he thought he could make out the Walrein's silhouette not too far away. Cytozin cupped the palms of his hands against one another, and aimed them towards what he thought was the Walrein. Immediately a ball of yellow electricity formed between them and crackled loudly. Any pieces of hail that struck the ball were immediately melted, but that didn't stop the rest of the hail from pelting against him relentless. It made it hard to focus on forming his attack, but the Toxtricity gritted his teeth and did his best to concentrate. The glowing ball grew larger, and then a bolt of electricity arced out from the center of it. The
Shock Wave hit home and he heard the Walrein cry out in pain, which was followed by the sound of a heavy thud.
The Walrein hadn't fainted, but the attack had done some heavy damage to him. He felt like it was even more difficult to move than before, and his muscles didn't want to respond at first. He hadn't seen the Toxtricity approach due to the hail and water vapour from the waterfalls. However, the attack from the Toxtricity had cleared some of the water vapour and hail. Just enough that the prone Walrein could see a hint of purple-and-yellow in the distance. It was the Toxtricity's yellow spiky crest the stood out the most, and that's what kept the Walrein's focus. He didn't want to accept the fact the he might lose, but the Toxtricity had proven to have the advantage after all. However, the wild Walrein had no intention of surrendering if he could help it. He struggled until he was able to lift his head above his flippers, and then began to scoot as quickly as he could across the mixture of snow and slush. There was a layer of hail across it all, which made it even easier for him to slide. The Walrein used his back flippers to propel himself forward and tried to rake his ice-coating tusks across the Toxtricity's side with an
Ice Fang attack.
Cytozin had thought that the Walrein had fainted just from the sound of it, so he kept walking forward so that he could find out for sure. After the air cleared a little in the direction of his attack, he was able to see that the Walrein was still conscious, and moving. Cytozin was low key impressed by the Walrein's strength, to be able to move so soon after suffering an attack it was weak against was no small thing. He saw the Walrein's gaze focus on him, but he wasn't worried. He figured that the Walrein was probably cumbersome and slow on land. He looked back towards Marsha to find out what she wanted him to do next. He winced when a chunk of hail hit him hard across the left side of his head, but did his best not to show that it bothered him. Suddenly, the Walrein scooted across the wet snow and hail towards him with surprising speed. Cytozin attempted to dodge the attack, but the slippery hail below his feet was his undoing. He slipped on the hail and stumbled, just as the Walrein's tusks slashed painfully across his right side. He was in extreme pain as he scrambled back away from the Walrein. He was able to stand but he was slouched and leaning to the right, with one hand cradling his injured side. At last he got his orders from Marsha, who hadn't seemed he get injured from where she was, since she was closer to the waterfalls. "If it's still wanting to fight, use Shock Wave one more time," Marsha ordered him. Cytozin turned his left side towards the Walrein, not wanting to expose his injured right side. It hurt to lift his hand away, but he needed both hands for his attack. Just like before, he cupped his hands together, formed a yellow ball of electricity. This time, he was at a much closer range and he had his target in full sight. The electricity lanced from the
Shock Wave attack lanced out towards the Walrein, and when the glow faded it didn't look as if the Walrein was going to get back up.
Marsha realized she was going to have to venture back out into the hail to find out what was going on with the battle. It was dangerous and risky, but judging by the flashes of light and cries of pain, the battle was still ongoing. Marsha hefted her backpack over her head to shield herself from the hail, and then headed towards the shore of the lake. She found Cytozin leaning up against a snow-covered boulder and clutching his side, and only a few feet away was a very rough-looking Walrein in a pool of melted water. The Walrein kept twitching but didn't seem like it was going to get up, and its eyes were squeezed shut. Marsha was tempted to rush forward and get Cytozin to lean on her for support, but that would hurt her pokemon's pride more than anything.
"Thank you so much Cytozin, that was a really tough fight and you defended us all. All of the others are okay because of you, and the fact you acted so quickly. Take a well-deserved rest now," she told him and gave him the same treatment as the rest of her pokemon by recalling him to his pokeball. She gave the prone Walrein a measured look, and then readied one of her empty pokeballs. She definitely wanted to add the strong pokemon to her team, even though it had given them all so much trouble. Marsha tossed the pokeball at the Walrein, and waited to hopefully hear the telltale ding.