He was next.


    He would be if he didn’t get the hell out of there, so he sprang up, heart still doing backflips in his chest, and dashed out of the charged scene of carnage and lightning.


    Back in the dark, grassy forest, he ran for his life, not looking back even once. Are you nuts? Why would anyone look back after that?


    That was a lie. Lucas glanced back once, shocked to see a thick veil of yellow lightning engulfing the area of the forest he’d just fled.


    To think that a single Luxray had electrified the terrain after being sliced by a Kricketune’s scythes.


    The wild was truly no place for an amateur. With his sneakers—now stained with droplets of brownish-red—crunching the gravel of the original route, Lucas pondered.


    If this was how horrifying a mere forest got at night… what other nightmares awaited during his journey? What if he had to face feral things like these to carry out Professor Rowan’s mission?


    Was this the beginning of madness? Or was this barely the beginning of catastrophe?


    Imagine a cave! All those ravenous, ruthless rock types—he’d probably get crushed by a legion of Geodudes!Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    Or maybe something far more overwhelming and terrifying, something that could shake the Earth and crumble mountains!


    But those were just crazy thoughts fuelled by nightmare.


    Thoughts that were immediately eclipsed by glimmering hope as Lucas’s eyes widened in relief and awe.


    Lights like stars on the ground glowed prosperously in the night, delightful and inviting.


    Like a galaxy on the ground it was.


    Jubilife City.


    “I… actually made it! I made it, Azure—there’s the city right there!” Lucas cheerfully cried.


    He could finally slow down, catch his breath as he marched down a slope of gravel, the unholy forest stalking him from behind.


    He’d escaped the wild with his Pokémon intact. This time. His body still stung from all the slits and cuts that stupid wild Shinx he caught had given him. Not to mention his jacket was torn, and there was an open wound on his cheek.


    He’d barely made it out alive, and that was the first ever route he’d been on.


    Still...


    There was hope. If he’d made it out of Route 203 at night, there was hope.


    “Whatever Professor Rowan saw in me must’ve just been some delusional old man BS… but there’s no time to waste. I’ve gotta get Azure healed up. I’ve got a long way to go…”


    Yes. He was right.


    But he had no idea just how right he was. For Lucas Gray, this marked the end of his first time in the wild. The end of his naivety. The end of the beginning.