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Wind roared past Kael's body, sharp and heavy as liquid steel.
The world blurred backward grass, trees, and sky streaking into indistinct motion.
Within moments, the human settlement he'd seen on the horizon now stood right before him.
And the scent hit him thick, metallic, unmistakable.
"Yeah… something's definitely wrong."
Kael slowed his pace, stepping into the outskirts of the small town.
The scene that greeted him made his muscles tense.
Blood splattered across the cobblestones.
Bodies of men, women, and children lay where they had fallen, faces twisted in frozen terror.
He crouched, his expression grim, fingertips brushing a torn wound.
The flesh had been ripped apart not by a blade, but by fangs.
"Bite marks… claw traces…"
His Byakugan-like perception, sharpened through battle, picked up traces of dark-type energy lingering in the wounds.
Dark, corrosive, chaotic.
Kael frowned. "Dark-type energy… so these were Pokémon attacks?"
He analyzed quickly, narrowing down possibilities.
"Houndooms? Maybe Mightyena packs?"
It didn't make sense.
Even in the wildest regions, Pokémon rarely attacked settlements outright and certainly not to this degree.
A few strong trainers working together could have handled a dozen attackers easily.
Yet this town had been wiped out.
Kael's jaw tightened. "Something's off about this world…"
Before the thought could deepen—
A human scream tore through the silence.
"Ahhh!"
Kael's eyes snapped open. "Someone's still alive!"
Without hesitation, he pushed off the ground.
Boom!
He blurred into motion, racing toward the sound.
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Elsewhere in the town.
Earl trembled, pale lips quivering, his small hands clutching a kitchen knife in front of him.
Tears streamed down his cheeks, but he didn't stop crawling backward.
Three Mightyena, their fur black as smoke, eyes glowing crimson, closed in around him.
Their heavy breaths filled the alleyway with the stench of death and blood.
Saliva dripped from their jaws, sizzling as it hit the cobblestones.
They were playing with him.
Their movements slow, deliberate relishing his fear.
Earl's back hit a wall. He was cornered.
His tiny body shook, heart hammering like a drum.
Memories flashed through his mind in broken fragments his father's warm hand ruffling his hair, his mother's gentle scolding, the village elder's kind smile,
and the deep laughter of the Captain, who'd once taught him about Pokémon battles.
All of it warmth, life, home now shattered into red and silence.
"AAAAHHHH!"
The scream ripped from his throat not in fear, but defiance.
Earl charged forward, eyes blazing, gripping the knife with trembling determination.
If he was going to die, he'd die fighting.
The nearest Mightyena tilted its head, almost amused.
It let out a low growl that sounded disturbingly like laughter.
Then it lunged.
Its fangs gleamed with murderous intent—
BOOM!
A sonic crack split the air.
Something black and heavy streaked past Earl's vision like a meteor.
The next second impact.
CRACK!
Blood and bone exploded outward.
Kael stood where the Mightyena had been, arm still extended from the punch.
His eyes were calm, cold, even as fragments of skull and brain matter hit the dirt.
The beast's decapitated body slid across the ground, twitching once before falling still.
One strike. One kill.
The other two Mightyena froze, instincts screaming danger.
Kael lowered his arm slowly, the air around him pulsing with residual Fighting-type energy tinged with faint, eerie Ghost energy.
He turned his head slightly toward them, eyes glinting like a predator's in the dark.
"Come on, then."
His tone was quiet. Deadly.
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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