We left last time on the road which leads to Brawly, the fighting type specialist gym leader. Sadly, unlike last time, there was much more grief in this section than I would have liked.
The gym leader and his cronies did not actually present too much in the way of an issue; Zubat’s wing attack/ brave bird combo was enough to see off the gym with no casualties to report. Sadly, this was the last action that Zubat would see due to an unlucky critical hit inflicted by some two-bit trainer on the following route.
The journey to Mauville was similarly not incident free but did allow for two new encounters:
Route 109 Magikarp (sent) Bagon (received)
Route 110 Electrike (sent) Zigzagoon (received)
The Bagon from route 109 turned out to be an excellent replacement for the recently deceased Zubat. Its moveset included dragon dance, and its dragon typing provides a nice resistance to grass, fire, water, electricity etc.
A trainer battle with a trainer on route 117 saw the untimely death of my recently evolved Mightyena. In truth, this was entirely my own fault for risking the chance of not attacking through paralysis, and this is exactly what happened.
Route 117 Zigzagoon (sent) Honedge (received)
I was mightily please to receive Honedge, the eventual Aegislash would be an excellent addition to my team. Sadly, this was not to be. I immediately set about grinding to get it up to the same level as my other Pokemon, only for it to be wiped out to a pursuit from a Doduo. A DODUO for pity’s sake. Devil bird more like. I was switching out to Bagon to take the hit and it used literally the only move that could screw me. Frustrated just doesn’t quite cover it.
Current team:
Combusken
Quilava
Bagon
Shellos
Deceased:
Zubat
Mightyena
Honedge