Outside the cave, a Mismagius suddenly floated out, silently hovering in the air. Upon seeing Sato return, it nodded and vanished again.
Sato hadn't bothered hiding himself, so Phoebe and Joseph, who were already awake, appeared at the cave entrance as well.
"All go smoothly? What'd you find?" Joseph was the first to ask.
"Not bad. Five white flags, two green, and… one blue ," Sato replied with a smile, though his tone still carried a hint of pride.
"Yesterday we got a total of twelve white flags and four green combined. Turns out even all of us didn't find as much as you alone," Joseph said with a wry smile.
"Yesterday we were still in the early zones, so of course there weren't any blue flags. Let's see what today brings."
Joseph and Phoebe nodded, Sato had a point.
After a quick breakfast, the group resumed the unfinished trial. Since Sato had already explored a wide area overnight, they headed directly into deeper zones.
After nearly an hour, Sato finally stopped at a fork in the path.
"From here on, it should be all uncharted. Mark, you're up."
"Leave it to me, boss! Uh… this way!" Mark promised confidently, then casually pointed in a random direction.
No one doubted him and quickly followed the path he indicated.
Because Mark was leading the way, Sato didn't have Ralts continue using the virtual map. After all, the map could only identify suspicious spots -already-formed cave areas- but couldn't confirm everything with certainty.
Like now, when a rare Serperior suddenly appeared like a random wild Pokémon, blocking their path. Behind the Serperior stood a Green Flag, boldly planted right in the center of the path.
Talk about arrogant!
"Chandelure, use Inferno."
Phoebe, acting as the vanguard, wasted no time commanding Chandelure to charge in.
Then, Serperior chose to meet the attack head-on, whipping its tail and slamming a powerful Aqua Tail straight into the Inferno.
Scalding flames clashed with the surging torrent, instantly creating a thick cloud of steam that filled the passage in moments.
"Ralts, use Psychic."
Sato immediately guessed that this Serperior would try to slip past Phoebe under cover of the steam and attack the backline.
Ralts unleashed its Psychic power, blowing the steam away. Serperior was now lying motionless at their feet, looking completely dumbfounded.
"Jeez, it's all the way out here!" Mark yelped and stepped back in panic, while Arbok stepped forward on its own, narrowing its triangular eyes at Serperior.
Szz~ Szz~
Without mercy, Arbok used Glare, instantly paralyzing the Serperior.
Serperior glared back too, but its Glare had no effect. Furious, it trembled helplessly, unable to move.
"Mismagius, Hypnosis!"
---
In its dream, Serperior learned Glare. Then it encountered Arbok, who paralyzed it with a Glare.
Serperior charged forward and used Glare.
But Arbok used Glare too.
A green snake and a purple one locked eyes, wide-eyed, unmoving. And so, they just kept staring… and staring…
---
The group walked around the peacefully sleeping Serperior, plucked the Green Flag, and continued on their way.
Even though it was a rare starter Pokémon, none of them had any interest in catching it. That Serperior was already old, and its potential and talent were exhausted. There was no real value in training it.
The group moved on, and whether it was just incredible luck or not, they soon encountered both Emboar and Samurott -two more of the starter trio- and obtained a Green Flag from each of them.
"At this point, green flags are like the new baseline. A blue flag should be close too," Phoebe said, watching Sato pick up the Green Flag, then added.
"Yeah, that's all on Mark now~" Ryoko said with a wink in Mark's direction.
"Almost there… almost there… I can feel it!" Mark responded, a little anxious, but still trying to sound confident.
"Let's go. Hopefully the next one's a blue flag," Joseph said once Sato was done, waving for everyone to move out.
Maybe Mark's luck really had come through. After only ten minutes of walking deeper, a massive cavern suddenly opened up before them.
"Look! That looks like… a red flag!" Phoebe, who was in front, froze for a moment. Her voice unconsciously rose.
"A red flag?!" The others were stunned too and quickly rushed forward.
There was a narrow crack above the cavern, and sunlight poured through, making the entire space unusually bright.
In the center of the cavern sat a huge anthill, with countless Durant moving busily in and out. Just on the surface alone, there were at least a hundred.
And at the very top of the anthill, a Red Flag fluttered in the wind. Next to it lay a massive Durant -far larger than any ordinary one- casually napping.
They were too far to tell the exact strength of the giant Durant, but it was definitely no weaker than Low Pseudo-Elite Four.
The guardian of this Red Flag… was an entire Durant colony!
What baffled Sato more was: how did the organizers of the trial even get that flag up there?
And judging by how the giant Durant didn't move an inch, it clearly saw the flag as something precious.
Those 100 points were not going to come easy.
"Look, there are several other entrances too," Ryoko suddenly pointed out. The group looked around and realized that the massive cavern had multiple accessible entrances.
"A full assault won't work. If all those Durant attacked together, even a High Pseudo-Elite Four would be taken down instantly. And there's no way other participants wouldn't notice this," Joseph said first.
The others immediately realized it too, and their excitement over finding the Red Flag quickly faded.
"Durant: Bug and Steel-type. Specializes in physical offense and defense. Weak in special stats. Excellent at coordinated teamwork. Its natural predator is a Pokémon called Heatmor. It has a 4x weakness to Fire. We could take advantage of that," Ryoko recited Durant's basic data "casually".
"Specializes in teamwork, huh? Then I've got an idea," Joseph said suddenly, drawing everyone's attention.
"If Durant are that coordinated, then in an unexpected situation, they won't all charge at once. Most likely, they'll send a small group to handle it.
So we can stage simultaneous fake attacks at these entrances to split them up. Lure the Tyranitar away from the mountain. Once their numbers are down, Sato, you sneak in and grab the red flag."
Joseph laid out the entire plan in one breath, then waited silently for the others to process it.
"Ralts can help pinpoint the surrounding tunnel locations. But that means we'll all be fighting alone, and we won't be able to support each other for quite a while," Sato was the first to voice the risks.
"Not only that. We still don't know how many Durant there are in total, which means we can't predict how long the standoff will last. Also, with all that noise, can we really be sure no one else will show up?" Phoebe added right after.
"But… it's a red flag. How could we possibly pass it up?" Ryoko murmured softly.