It's a new month, happy April everyone, here's a new chapter, and sorry for being away for so long, I didn't have time to sit down and write.

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With Madriks explanations, Red soon learned the real name of *Sap spiders.* They are called spinarak, and their sizes ranged from housecats all the way up to large dogs.

Tapping his pokeball twice, Bulbasaur appeared in a red flash.

Madrik frowned at the creature's appearance.

Looking around in confusion at the glowing webs, Bulbasaur finds Red's tense face.

To avoid misunderstandings, Red spoke, "I know you are confused, and I will explain things properly to you later, but for now, are you up for a fight?"

"BULBASAUR!"

"Good"

"Grass and poison type..." Madrik turned to address Red, "I know you mean well, but these spinaraks are going to give your bulbasaur a difficult time."

Red nodded, "I know, Bulbasaurs elements are fully countered, but, you said it yourself, they move slow, so we can escape if things go south."

"I have no antidotes."

"Not a problem, I brought two with me, but it's alright if you don't want to be a part of this, Bulbasaur is stronger than you think."

Madrik smiled at Red's words, then playfully remarked after a moment, "I'm not senile enough that I need a youngster like you to solve my problems, what say you Quag, we aren't afraid of these bugs are we?"

Quag thumped his tail with a happy expression, "QUAGSIRE!"

Not willing to have Bulbasaur fight on an empty stomach, Red fed Bulbasaur some of the remaining D-grade poison type pokemon food, while he discussed a strategy with Madrik.

.

Feeling they were ready, Red nodded to Madrik.

Quag crushed large rock, and flung the pieces towards the webs. The shower of sharp shrapnel infused with rock element tore through the once strong webs like a knife through butter.

As if short circuiting, the webs touched by the shrapnel ceased their glow and vanished as if it was made of smoke.

Red's eyes widened when he saw the claws made of rock element on each of Quags hands, (Amazing, so this is what allows a quagsires stubby hands to grasp an object!)

While the super effective move made short work of the nearby webs, a cacophony of angry hisses announces their protests.

Tensing up, Red focuses on the sound, and angry white eyes begin to crawl out from the deepest parts.

Red and Madrik watched on from further up the trail, but they kept close enough to oversee their pokemon.

Seeing the fighting spirit in Bulbasaur's body language, Red echo's a reminder, "Don't fall for their taunts, keep them at bay with your vine whips so Quag can focus on charging more attacks"

Nodding, Bulbasaur took a step back, then stood before Quag defensively, but Red frowned, whatever the spinaraks were saying in the pokemon language, it was still visibly irking his pokemon, and he hoped Bulbasaur wouldn't do anything rash.

Visibility was good thanks to the light from the webs, but now the webs were pulsing brighter and brighter.

Red was using this visibility to check the potential of the approaching spinaraks, but he felt something wrong.

Worried, Red asks Madrik, "Any idea what's happening?"

Madrik had been too focused on Quag, and the spinaraks, so he didn't immediately notice until Red said something, "EH..."

Not hiding his surprise, at the pulsing webs, Madrik turns to red, "I don't know! the last tussle me and Quag had with these spiders this never happened!"

Now, the spinaraks, large and small, were getting closer, but they were taking wary steps with their six legs.

Red could see eight of them already, but from the distant hisses, it could be surmised that more were coming.

With steam rising from his body, it could be seen that Quag was finished charging his makeshift stone edge, and with a large fistful of sharp stones, he winded back and released.

With a sonic boom, a hail of stones tore through what was left of the nearby webs, and when the dust settled, two of the spinaraks were not moving. Small and large holes from the two creatures carapaces were oozing green blood.

Furious, the remaining spinaraks began to screech louder, and as if they lost their minds, they throw caution to the wind and charged.

Red shouted, "Careful, don't get stung!"

With five spinaraks right before him, Bulbasaur steeled himself, and he whipped his two vines out with the intent to knock the creatures back.

He succeeded!

While his element did little damage due to the typing, the spinaraks could not get to Quag within a short time.

With another throw from Quag, yet another spinarak became a pin cushion!

Changing tactics, the four spinaraks, now joined by two more reinforcements, began to fire a sticky goo towards Bulbasaur.

The projectiles were slow, so he was able to dodge, but the impacted areas left a glob of sticky substance.

Seeing this, Red bit his lip when he observed the pathway becoming mucked up by the sticky string shots.

Nodding grimly, Red spoke to Madrik, "It's as you thought, soon Bulbasaur will have nowhere to run to."

"Yes, we should move up."

Aiming their pokeballs, Madrik and Red returned their pokemon to their pokeballs.

Seeing their prey vanishing, the spinarks became confused, then turned their anger to the humans who had been watching the battle.

Releasing their pokemon beside them, and Intending to create distance, Madrik and Red moved further up the path.

Seeing their two hated foes appear once again, the spinaraks changed their targets.

Foolishly, three spinaraks clustered together, and were all taken out with one improvised stone edge.

With the defeat of three more comrades, the remaining spinaraks took pause, then fled back down the trail towards the safety of their webs.

Bulbasaur was about to give chase, but Red asked him to stay.

.

It was not simple to kill a pokemon unless you intended to, so it could be seen that none of the spinaraks were dead despite their battered appearances.

When a spinarak began to twitch and attempt to limp away, Bulbasaur was quick to respond, and intended to attack,

"Wait, Bulbasaur, our goal isn't to wipe them out, our goal is to get the trail back."

Meanwhile, steam was rising from Quag, as the blue pokemon took heaving breaths.

Red then addressed Madrik, "Quag is looking a bit worn out, how about we rest for a bit before we continue?"

.

Later

Feeding the last of the snacks from his bag, Quag was looking a lot better, so they delved back down the trail.

Using his vines, Bulbasaur dragged the unconscious creatures with him at Red's command.

Now back to where they were, Red got a better look at the pulsing webs, "Strange, It's almost like these weren't webs, but electric cables.

Without the trees blocking his view, Red spotted at least ten spinaraks huddled around a much larger spinarak, which Red surmised was their leader. The creatures were dead silent as they tried to skin the intruders alive with their eyes.

Strangely, the web the ariados sat on was glowing the brightest, as if he were the epicenter of the pulsing *cables*.

"An ariados..."

Red shouted into the glowing thicket, "So you're the leader? We've come to negotiate."

At Red's behest, Bulbasaur approached the eleven pokemon confidently, then released the unconscious spinaraks into a bloody heap.

The ten spinaraks began to hiss angrily, but one tap of the ariados' foot shut them up. That one tap sent an electric pulse through the webs.

Bulbasaur began conversing with the ariados, while Red observed the potential of the pokemon present. Surprisingly the ariados' aura was only bronze, which was only less common than grey and copper. He felt a bit disappointed for some reason.

Suddenly the ten pokemon dispersed, while only the ariados remained.

Tensed, Red and Madrik were worried that the negotiations broke down, but relaxed when they noticed the pokemon were not attacking, but rather, they were eating their own webs and tearing it all down!

Madrik and Quag turned to each other and smiled, then Madrik spoke to Red, while periodically moving his eyes to Bulbasaur, "Young man! well done, well done!"

Red nodded happily, he was feeling newfound confidence from his victory, "Young man... huh, you should know I'll be thirty before long."

Madrik slapped his knee and laughed, "When you get as old as me, everyone is a youngster! And that Bulbasaur! He is really something! why, even back in my days, I've never seen one so outstanding, why did you keep him locked away in that ball fer so long!"

Red hid the loss of his smile by turning to observe the spinaraks and their busy work, (Why indeed...)

.

Collecting their things which they had put aside to not slow them down, the four moved down the trail in high spirits.