章 23: The Birth of the 'Undefeatable' Ghost Race!
Jared's gaze strained to penetrate the dense foliage above, but to no avail. What's it doing?" he asked.
"It's just sitting there, doing... spider things. I don't know?"
"Okay, Well whatever, turn solid, then cast hypnosis to knock it out," Jared ordered, his eyes narrowing with battle intent.
As he scanned the area for anything that might interrupt their fight, an ominous snapping sound from above caught his attention. With a quick glance, Jared spotted a massive, four-legged insect, at least 70-80 pounds in weight, crashing to the ground. The sight sent him running, fear gnawing at his insides. Screeching noises emanated from the large tree the creature had fallen from, only spurring him on faster. "That's a fucking Ariados," he muttered under his breath.
After sprinting for two minutes, Jared was found leaning against a tree, while Gastly reformed back in front of him. "Why did we run away? Was that spider special somehow?" Gastly inquired, puzzled.
Jared wringed his fingers with exasperation. "Did you not hear the pissed off screeching? That's clearly a nest of Spinarak, and you just knocked out their mother! Are you trying to get me killed?!"
"Well, how do you know it's not their father?" Gastly retorted, a hint of doubt in his voice.
"Smartass, all Ariados are female," Jared snapped back, his patience wearing thin.
During the initial phase of their lives, Weedles were herbivores and only ate leaves. But as they grew older, their digestive system transformed gradually into obligate carnivores. Their prey consisted mostly of small grubs that they could catch.
After eluding the nefarious human and the malevolent ghost, Weedle took refuge in the bushes for two hours, unwilling to venture out. When it seemed safe and hunger struck, Weedle emerged to scour the forest floor for juicy grubs, only to chance upon the two sinister intruders. He froze, realizing that he had been spotted.
"Alright, another Weedle. Let's take it down this time."
Alarmed, Weedle ran for the nearest bush, a tactic that had saved him in it's last encounter.
"Gastly, use Hypnosis,"
With focus, Gastly released a beam of shadow energy, hitting Weedle square in the head.
Not happy about his success, Gastly regarded the limp Weedle with mixed emotions. "Okay, I think we won, let's go home now?" he said to Jared.
But his trainer shook his head. "No, it's just asleep."
"How do you know it's not knocked out?"
"Because it's not actually asleep," Jared explained patiently. "Unlike you pokemon, we humans don't have elemental energy, so to us it really does put us asleep, but this Weedle is still conscious, just temporarily unable to move."
As if on cue, the expelling stopped, and Weedles eyes flickered open. With a sudden burst of energy, it began fleeing towards the bushes once more.
"See?" Jared said, splaying his fingers. "Go for hypnosis again, then lick."
But this time, Weedle was wise to their tactics. As the slow-moving blast of shadow energy approached, it used its many little legs to barely hop out of the way, avoiding Gastly's attack.
"I missed," Gastly grumbled.
Jared was feeling a headache coming along, "It's nearly back in the bushes. Skip the hypnosis and go straight for lick. Keep going even if it resists," he sighed.
Gastly drifted over to Weedle, its mouth agape to reveal a long, glowing tongue imbued with ghostly energy.
In a bid to defend itself, and knowing it worked in the past, Weedle stung Gastly's tongue. However, despite the pain, Gastly persevered, encircling the small insect with its pink appendage while Weedle screeched in agony from the corrosive shadow energy sizzling it's body.
Weedle wriggled in Gastly's grip, attempting to sting in self-defence, but the tongue held fast. It was like a hotdog in a bun now, with no escape.
The two remained locked in a stalemate at first, with Weedles entire body glowing a pale green as its own energy fought against the invading ghostly energy. However, it was only a matter of time. Eventually, Weedle ceased struggling and went limp, a clear indication that its elemental energy had dangerously depleted.
As Jared examined the fainted Weedle, a sudden warmth flowed through his body, but it faded just as quickly. "So that's what it feels like," he mumbled, before turning to Gastly and cautioning, "That's enough, any more and it'll die."
Commenting on the warm feeling, Jared asked Gastly, "Did you feel anything different when the Weedle fainted, like a brief surge of warmth?"
Gastly considered for a moment before responding, "I think... a little?"
"Okay, good. Now, I need you to keep watch for a moment because I want to check something," Jared instructed before settling against a mossy rocky outcrop and closing his eyes. Jared began focusing on the elemental core within his body and found that it was still churning with shadow energy. However, this wasn't what he was looking for. Soon, he found it: at the bottom of his elemental core, he discerned a tiny, pale green droplet.
"This must be what they meant by gathering battle energy," Jared thought. Next, he turned his attention to his connection with Gastly and saw that the ghost Pokemon had around 75-80% of his shadow energy remaining in it's core. Although the mass of energy obstructed his observations, he did indeed find a tiny droplet of pale green energy at the bottom of Gastlys core as well.
"The tiny droplet is nothing compared to our cores," Jared let out a heavy sigh, his expression pensive. "It will take years to accumulate enough energy to fill our cores if we keep fighting Weedles. I'll be an old man at this rate," he lamented, now addressing Gastly, "It may not be such a big deal for me, given my limited ability to boost you, but you on the other hand..."
Wavering in the air, Gastly was unsure of what to do, "Then what's the plan?"
"I knew this would be tough, but I didn't realize it would be this bad," Jared muttered. "It seems our only option is to fight in the arena after all."
Gastly tilted his ghostly head in confusion. "And how will that help?"
Jared recalled before speaking, "Every living creature produces battle energy naturally. The stronger the creature, the more energy they produce. But we can't use it for ourselves. When we defeated this Weedle, we absorbed its stored battle energy, but it was a mere pittance. However, there's a more efficient way to gain energy," he explained, recalling the crowds of people in the free arena. "We just need to win battles with an audience watching and have them give us some of their energy."
"Why would they do that?"
"They wouldn't, not intentionally anyway," Jared shook his head. "Battle Energy can't be controlled, but when people observe a battle, they naturally release some of their excess Battle Energy in a phenomenon known as Battle Will. Instead of dissipating, this Battle Will enters the bodies of the Pokemon doing battle. This battle will is as good as battle energy, but it takes time to turn one into the other.
As Jared continued to reflect, he now realized the reason why Botan had been so quick to switch Pidgeotto. Botan clearly didn't want to lose all the accumulated Battle Will that Pidgeotto had gained from their nonstop wins.
"Alright lets keep moving, daylights burning, Jared said picking up the unconscious Weedle and tossed it into a nearby bush to prevent it from getting eaten by any wandering Pokemon.
With Gastly keeping a lookout from above, Jared continued retracting his steps, while Gastly kept look out from high above.
.
Out of nowhere, a pale white figure, resembling a humanoid cockroach, appeared before Jared. The creature was at least six feet tall, and had two massive antennae that were as long as its body. Its feelers began to twist and turn around him, as if searching for something, while Jared stood motionless, his voice barely audible as he asked, "What are you?"
"Where is it?" The mechanical voice of the creature startled Jared.
"Where is what?" Jared asked, confusion evident on his face.
"Don't bother lying, I can smell it on you. I can't be mistaken!" the creature demanded.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Jared said, trying to back away, but before he could even take a step, one of the antennae disappeared.
Suddenly, Jared felt a sharp, stinging pain on his left hand, and when he looked down, he saw that his pinkie finger was gone.
There was not even a drop of blood on the pristine white antennae that now appeared in front of Jared's neck, twitching menacingly.
"You take me for a fool," the creature growled, its voice mechanical and menacing. "I know you have accessed it. Play with me again, and your worthless neck will be next."
Meanwhile Jared scolded Gastly in his mind. "No, stop! You idiot, stay hidden," he thought urgently. "This creature can materialize out of nowhere and slice me apart in the blink of an eye. It can even talk, and hide your thoughts, you are distracting me!"
Concentrating on the creature before him, Jared applied pressure to his injured hand in an attempt to stem the flow of blood, all the while his thoughts were racing, thinking back to everything the creature had done and said.
The only thing Jared could think of that set him apart from people was the fact that he had come to this world from another. Could the creature somehow know this?
After making up a reckless plan, Jared let out a long sigh before standing up straight with a confident smile. "After infiltrating this planet to prepare for our future invasion, I had thought that our race had kept ourselves well hidden," He laughed, "But it seems you were smart enough to see through my facade. Well played, my 'friends' from another world."
The creature appeared taken aback for a moment before swiftly closing in, its long antennae pressing harder against Jared's neck. However, the human's apparent confidence seemed to unsettle the creature.
"Speak, have you knowledge of our world?" the creature demanded.
What world? Jared had no clue what the creature was referring to, but he pretended to suppress a laugh, talking more nonsense, "How cute, you're stranded here and looking for help from disgusting humans of all things?"
The creature wanted nothing more than to tear off this human's head for it's arrogance, but the last words felt wrong. Instead, the creature controlled itself and adopted a gentler tone even retracting its antennae. "If you have information about a wormhole that can transport us back to my world, I will be indebted to you."
"What else can you and your kind offer besides a vague 'debt'?" Jared scoffed.
Enraged, the creature once more firmly pressed it's antennae against Jared's neck, while it threatened, "Your life"
But the sudden outburst of laughter from the strange human confused and surprised it. The creature's astonishment only grew as smoke began to seep out of the human's mouth, coalescing into a fanged ball of vapor larger than several Snorlax put together.
Stumbling back in fear, the creature asked, "What is this?"
"This is my true form. My species has evolved beyond the limitations of physical bodies," Jared explained calmly.
Hearing this, the creature leapt back fearfully, almost tripping in the process.
"Go ahead, attack my true self. I want to test your worth," Jared challenged.
Sceptical, the creature flicked its glowing antennae through the ball of gas rapidly, but Gastly's form was so massive and dispersed that any particles destroyed by the antennae's elemental glow were a mere drop in the bucket.
Jared chuckled, "Observe, we are impervious to harm. Resistance against us is futile. We can inhabit the bodies of weaker beings and control their minds. But this pitiful human form is frail." He paused for effect, his eyes fixed on the trembling creature. "However, even in your weakness, you have proven to be a suitable... and I've already divulged too much. I cannot allow you to leave!"
"You...you tricked me, you merely wanted to see if I was a worthy host," the creature stammered.
Jared and Gastly grinned, their amusement at the creature's predicament seemed palpable. "Remain still," Jared ordered. "It will be over soon."
Gastly drifted closer, his maw agape, as if poised to swallow the creature whole.
Picturing its own demise, the creature emitted a screeching howl, and in a burst of lightning-fast speed, bolted away at a breakneck pace, with Gastly in hot pursuit.
.
As Jared clutched his bleeding stump where his pinkie used to be, he resisted the urge to run away. He didn't know for certain, but if the creature could somehow locate him, and realize his deception, the jig would be up.
He prayed that the creature would assume they had underestimated its speed, rather than believing it was let go or chased away. With Gastly now too far away for telepathic communication, Jared could only trust that his companion would stick to the plan.
After ten minutes of chasing, Gastly had lost track of the creature and found himself lost. However, a vague sensation in his mind betrayed the direction of his trainer.
Obediently adhering to his trainer's instruction to return at a leisurely pace, Gastly returned not less than fifteen minutes later, relaying every detail of the recent events.
Jared had by now improvised a makeshift bandage from a strip of his shirt to bind the stump where his pinkie finger had been. His skin had lost its natural hue, and his breathing had become shallow, but the flow on blood from the wound wasn't as severe.
While walking, Jared began to experience dizziness and felt his energy depleting rapidly. With at least an hour's journey left to escape the danger zone and reach the clearing, he opted to conserve energy and had Gastly carry him within its incorporeal form. He could see that it was beginning to drain Gastlys elemental reserves, but he had no choice.
As they retraced their steps, Jared was sweating profusely and his eyes darted around nervously, scanning the canopy above for fatal dangers. Even if he was 'protected' inside Gastly, he didn't feel safe at all, even muttering bad jokes under his breath to help stay calm, "Maybe the Weepinbells have taken the day off... still, I can't take any more surprises... unless they come bearing chocolate or a winning lottery ticket. Actually, they can keep the lottery ticket and the chocolate. What use will I have for them while I am dissolving in acid?" He shook his head, and said "But don't casino's always say that luck changes with time. My luck can't possibly get worse, right??"
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