Chương 40: Misfortune
Cain, Raikou, Morty, and Fantina had all chosen their TMs.
"I've heard about your tactics in the second challenge, and there was indeed an element of luck involved. However, you did manage to accurately grasp the details of the battle. But I'm afraid you may not be so lucky in the third layer. You can try it out this afternoon, and if you fail, take a break and learn the new moves from the TMs before trying again," Yan said.
The four of them nodded.
Judging from Yan's tone, the third layer wasn't going to be easy to deal with.
Cain didn't mind; relying solely on a weak foundation and recklessly advancing would eventually lead to a harsh reality check.
Yan arranged it this way only because he was worried that these young, spirited future stars wouldn't accept the challenge.
The four Pokémon that had been treated and recovered at the Pokémon Center were in great spirits in the afternoon.
They would definitely try the third layer; the beauty of the future lies in its mystery.
No matter how difficult Yan said it would be, they wouldn't give up without trying. In the afternoon, the four arrived at the third layer of the Bell Tower as planned.
One Dusclops and twenty Duskull.
This time, the Duskull army didn't surround the four Pokémon right away. Instead, they formed a wall, five per layer and four layers high, with Dusclops floating on top.
"What kind of strategy is this?" Fantina asked in surprise.
Cain took a glance and said, "This time, we have to rely on our skills."
The formation of the Duskull army was completely different from the encirclement tactics of the previous two layers. The wall formed by the defensively superior Duskull concentrated their power, and the twenty Duskull worked together, unafraid of any tricks their opponents might use. Their defense was unbreakable, and their offense was a combined force of twenty.
"They must be concentrating the power of a single move to maximize its impact. We're facing a massive cannon," Morty said.
"What should we do now?"
Faced with the immovable Duskull army, Raikou was unsure of how to proceed.
"Let's take it one step at a time and see what kind of move they use," Morty suggested.
"Gastly, Shadow Ball," Cain ordered without hesitation, initiating the attack.
"Fantina, let's use double Ominous Wind," Morty said.
"Let's do it, Duskull, use Will-O-Wisp."
Double Ominous WInd propelled the Shadow Ball and Will-O-Wisp with great force, attempting to sweep away the wall.
Dusclops's eyes emitted a blue light, and a blue fireball appeared in front of it. Following that, all the Duskull performed the same action.
"It's Will-O-Wisp!" Fantina exclaimed nervously.
Twenty-one eerie blue fireballs gathered together, forming a huge meteor-like fireball. Under the manipulation of their leader Dusclops and the Duskull army, it bombarded their opponents.
Such a formidable Will-O-Wisp.
Cain and his three friends were all dumbstruck. Under such an attack, everything seemed so insignificant and trivial.
What about Ominous Wind, what about Shadow Ball...
The gigantic Will-O-Wisp meteor instantly crushed them. Gastly, Duskull, Spiritomb, and Drifloon tried their best, but they couldn't stop this "atomic bomb" style move.
The power of Will-O-Wisp, gathered from twenty-one Pokémon, was truly a sight to behold.
In his previous life, Cain spent most of his time in the wild. Although he sometimes encountered groups of dozens of Pokémon, they were disorganized and fought separately. By using flanking tactics, it was easy to defeat them one by one, as most Pokémon's intelligence couldn't compare to humans.
Once, in the United Regions, Meowth invented a "Roggenrola Cannon," which concentrated a large number of Roggenrola and stimulated their inner nuclear energy to launch an attack. It was initially expected to be powerful, but the Roggenrola were agitated and couldn't cooperate, so the power was only mediocre.
So, witnessing twenty-one Pokémon truly focusing their power for the first time was a novelty.
The Will-O-Wisp meteor engulfed the four Pokémon, not only inflicting burns but also tormenting their bodies and souls like a purgatory.
However, to their surprise, the Duskull army did not continue their attack during the burning process, only maintaining their formation.
When the Will-O-Wisp finally extinguished, the four Pokémon were barely alive.
At this point, the Duskull army finally moved. Five Duskull surrounded a single Pokémon, not attacking proactively. They only passively defended when their opponents attacked, seemingly just to restrain their opponents' Pokémon.
Unfortunately, their own Pokémon had lost a significant amount of stamina due to Will-O-Wisp, unable to launch a strong attack. The Duskull clung like sticky candy, impossible to shake off or break free.
Finally, the wandering Dusclops approached the closest Drifloon, swung both palms, and unleashed two dark shadows. The struck Drifloon immediately fell.
Subsequently, Duskull, Gastly, and Spiritomb could not withstand the attack of these two dark shadows.
"Hmph, this tactic is indeed effective," Cain snorted coldly and recalled Gastly before leaving.
"He mentioned tactics, what does he mean?" Fantina asked Morty.
"Wandering Dusclops first used the concentrated power of Will-O-Wisp to inflict burn status on our Pokémon, draining their stamina. Then, Dusclops restrained us, all to serve the final Hex attack. Hex deals more damage to Pokémon under abnormal conditions, so none of our Pokémon could withstand that final Hex," Fantina explained.
"Ah, how can these Pokémon be so smart?" Fantina wondered.
Everyone had already thought about this question, and Cain was the first to leave to ponder on this issue. If they were to rely on strength alone for a head-to-head confrontation, it would be impossible without at least a year or two of hard work. Considering the situation in the first two challenges, there was only one conclusion.
That is, the Pokémon army on each floor had a fixed strategy that had been cultivated since the time of the ancestors of the Ecruteak Gym. Otherwise, these Pokémon wouldn't have been able to organize such a smooth set of tactics with their intelligence.
A set of tactics, used for many years, naturally became second nature.
It was almost certain that they wouldn't know any other tactics. So, as long as they found a way to disrupt their rhythm, they would have a chance to win.
The reason for their victory on the second floor was because they hindered the initial encirclement of the Misdreavus, and there were flaws in the Psychic web. As long as the tactics were disrupted, these Pokémon would also become disorganized.
The challenge of the third floor had failed, and the next task was to study and consolidate their moves. As for the move "Sludge Bomb," Cain was more than familiar with it, and he certainly had his own approach to learning this skill.
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