Chapter 351: The First Victory
With the black-robed man's command, all of his Pokémon attacked at once.
Claydol and Skarmory swooped down from the sky, one from the left and one from the right, their movements coordinated to confuse the defenders.
Stoutland, seemingly possessing the Sand Rush Ability, moved at an extreme speed in the sandstorm, striking like a ghost but with terrifying force.
Excadrill transformed into a drill and dove straight into the ground, vanishing without a trace.
The enemies were attacking from the sky, the ground, and the underground.
And their target was clear—Basalt!
If Basalt died, everything would be over.
The pace of a group battle was incredibly fast. Giving detailed commands for everything was normally unrealistic.
Especially with over a dozen Pokémon moving around, it was enough to make any trainer dizzy and overwhelmed.
Fortunately, Basalt was a veteran Pokémon MMO player from Earth. He was no stranger to group battles.
And to prepare for such situations, Basalt had trained for this specifically.
That was to use Bronzong as the battlefield command center, issuing orders via telepathy. It was an incredibly efficient way to command.
After all, telepathic communication was just the transmission of thoughts and mental waves. There was no need to speak every word, making it much faster.
The downside was that the central Pokémon needed extremely high psychic power and mastery of telepathy to communicate with multiple targets simultaneously.
Luckily, Bronzong, having undergone a second psychic enhancement, met all these requirements perfectly.
"Pupitar, Quicksand Domain!"
"Excadrill, Dig and intercept!"
"Cradily, Ancient Power!"
"Numel, Smog!"
...
Basalt issued a series of commands. It seemed long, but in reality, it was completed in an instant, less than a second.
This efficient command style completely crushed the black-robed man's conventional method of shouting orders only at critical moments.
Because the control over details was far superior.
RUMBLE!
The group battle began. Various moves appeared from different directions, flashing with different lights. From a distance, it looked like a colorful fireworks show, quite beautiful.
But Basalt, in the middle of it, knew that every move was deadly.
One slip-up, and his life could be forfeit.
Vmmm!
Pupitar began to exert its power. The soil beneath everyone's feet was pulverized into grains, then began to spin and flow rapidly, attempting to swallow everyone and every Pokémon, including the black-robed man.
"Giga!"
With a roar, Gigalith used its pure elemental power to resist the Quicksand Domain, preserving a final patch of stable ground to protect the black-robed man.
"Pu-pi~"
Seeing this, Pupitar's face darkened, and it glared at Gigalith.
Scary Face, activate!
This guy had sneak-attacked it earlier and rubbed its face in the dirt. It was a fight to the death now.
Kill them! Kill them all!!!
Pupitar shrieked, controlling the sand in the sky to form a "rainstorm," falling rapidly.
"Giga~"
Watching the sand rain descend, Gigalith was shocked.
This sandstorm was clearly kicked up by it, and it had been under its control.
But now, this Pupitar had seized a portion of that control!
In terms of power, the sand rain wasn't much of a threat to Gigalith.
But since the black-robed man was right next to it, Gigalith had to block it. Otherwise, if the trainer died, their team would fall apart.
That was the nature of wild battles; protecting the trainer was the top priority!
In mid-air, Bronzong and Claydol clashed continuously with their psychic powers, eventually resorting to brute force collisions.
Because their movesets were highly similar, and both knew Imprison, their shared moves were sealed, leaving them with only primal combat.
In terms of psychic power, the two were evenly matched. But because Bronzong had to manage communications and unified command, it couldn't fight at full strength and slowly fell to a disadvantage.
"Skarm~"
As for Skarmory, it was being completely chased down and beaten.
Cradily was just too fierce. After three rounds of Ancient Power, it followed up with Rock Slide, then swept with Bullet Seed. Its internal energy seemed endless.
Skarmory, apart from using its speed to dodge, had no energy left to counter-attack.
On the other hand, Cradily still had energy to spare, using its root domain to hinder the rapidly advancing Stoutland, slowing it down.
But Stoutland was too fast, so fast that even the Quicksand Domain and the root domain couldn't stop it. Wherever it went, it left behind afterimages, like a ghost.
It was a speed comparable to Excadrill's.
"Woof~"
Getting close to the root cocoon, Stoutland's body suddenly glowed with a white light. Energy enveloped its entire body as it charged straight for Basalt.
As an extreme speedster, Stoutland's role was to lock onto the enemy trainer's position, use its speed to break through all barriers, and execute a decapitation strike.
This was a tactic the black-robed man had used successfully many times.
Because speed, pushed to the extreme, was just that broken!
Basalt, on the other hand, had actually sent his Excadrill away. What a rookie move.
But in reality, this was intentional on the black-robed man's part. He had purposely sent his own Excadrill to provoke and challenge Basalt's Excadrill, drawing its attention.
"Speedsters are far more useful in wild battles than in tournament matches. Basalt, you're still too green!"
A cruel smile appeared on the black-robed man's face.
He was going to teach Basalt a lesson today.
And the price of that lesson would be his life.
"Stoutland, Giga Impact!"
The black-robed man's eyes bulged as he roared.
Giga Impact, a Normal-type ultimate move. In the games, it had a base power of 150.
With Stoutland's attack power, combined with a STAB ultimate move, breaking through the root cocoon and killing Basalt would be a piece of cake.
Crucially, at this moment, it was too late for Cradily to use Protect again.
This game ends here!
BOOM!
But just then, the sound of a volcanic eruption suddenly rang out.
Numel's hump vents suddenly spewed a massive amount of flames, meeting Stoutland head-on.
Stoutland was fast and agile, but this time the distance was too close, and there was too much fire. It finally had nowhere to dodge.
But Stoutland didn't take Numel's fire seriously. In the "Giga Impact" state, what was there to fear?
It was just going to brute force its way through!
But in the next second, it realized something was wrong.
Numel's flames indeed couldn't penetrate the energy envelope of Giga Impact; even the scorching heat couldn't pass through the protective layer.
But... the sand on the ground had been heated by the flames to a "scalding" temperature.
Stoutland had just taken a few difficult steps forward against the flames when its paws were directly cooked by the heat radiating from the sand. It sizzled like meat on a grill, even producing a rich aroma.
"Awoo~ Woo woo~"
With its paws injured, Stoutland's speed plummeted. It retreated whimpering, tail between its legs, like a beaten dog.
Any further, and its legs would be useless!
However, Cradily's root domain was obviously not a place Stoutland could come and go as it pleased.
Especially now that its speed had been drastically reduced.
Thwip! Thwip! Thwip!
Countless roots shot out from the ground, binding Stoutland tightly.
"Dily-da~"
Cradily began to exert force. The massive roots tightened rapidly, squeezing Stoutland's belly until it was visibly compressed.
Wrap! A move whose power increases the more HP the opponent has.
"Awoo~ Awoo~"
Stoutland screamed in agony.
"Dily-da~"
Having succeeded in one strike, Cradily was relentless. It formed three Ancient Power energy orbs at its tentacles and fired them rapidly.
Skarmory wasn't much of a fighter, but it had flown high into the sky. The distance was too great, giving it enough time to react, so Cradily's moves were hard to land.
Now that Stoutland was trapped, Cradily had to seize the opportunity to land Ancient Power and hopefully get another boost.
Beside the black-robed man, Gigalith tried to intervene and save Stoutland, but it only managed to fire two waves of Power Gem, blocking two of the Ancient Power orbs. The last one was beyond its help.
After all, the efficiency of firing projectiles varied between artillery cannons.
With the unbeatable combo of Ingrain + Giga Drain + Photosynthesis + Recover, Cradily had almost infinite stamina. Gigalith couldn't even hope to catch up.
BOOM!
Ancient Power hit its mark. Stoutland's HP dropped again, entering the critical zone.
Cradily, on the other hand, flashed with light, its aura instantly rising.
Before long, Cradily's roots exerted force again. Points of light flowed from Stoutland's body into the roots, and soon, Stoutland's eyes were spinning as it fainted.
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