Chapter 174: The Power of N

For the Poison Skull Gang.

The worst part wasn't the giant beast falling from the sky and wiping out every squad they sent, but the fact that after their officers and rank-and-file were captured, their Pokémon were brazenly turned against them!

"Damn it, what methods do they have exactly?"

A Poison Skull Gang officer halted before the boundary between territories, staring fixedly ahead.

Past the intersection where a checkpoint had been set up and the enormous, unexplained crater, Pokémon that once belonged to the Poison Skull Gang — Purple Sky Scorpion, Skuntank — and many human children were playing there.

Don't be fooled by how they look now, as if nothing were going on; the moment any Poison Skull Gang member dares approach, these fellows will instantly form a defensive line against them.

Whoever it is, they'll spray poisonous gas and toxic needles without the slightest mercy.

Especially the former — the poisonous gas they emit can actually be turned into a flamethrower with just a spark!

A perfectly aligned row of flames left them frazzled and scorched. They went back and tried to imitate it, but could never manage it, as if some decisive difference existed between the two sides' Pokémon.

Skuntank alone would be one thing.

The Poison Skull Gang knew full well that a terrifying giant Onix was also hidden underground — just the rhythm of its breathing could send them flying, men and vehicles, more than ten meters; when it charged wildly, it was even more terrifying than an engineering vehicle pushed to maximum acceleration.

Trainers like them, who specialized in using Poison-type Pokémon, were simply no match.

"Baimu…"

Recalling that terrifying experience, many Poison Skull Gang grunts no longer wished to go throw their lives away, feeling that even ten more lives wouldn't be enough to spend.

The Poison Skull Gang's higher-ups were also at their wits' end. They'd planned to start by squeezing the soft persimmons, never expecting to bite into a hard nut on the very first try.

But at this moment, they still weren't willing to give up.

Or rather, since they'd already made their move, retreating now would make other factions see them as weak and easy to bully — unable to even finish off the Quicksand Gang whose main force had been routed — and would invite invasion from other factions.

So.

They decided to cooperate with several neighboring factions, launching invasions from multiple directions at the same time.

No matter how strong Baimu is, he's only one person with a few Pokémon — surely he can't run back and forth?

They'd wear him out if nothing else!

Embracing the idea that if they're going to do it, they might as well do it big, the Poison Skull Gang went all in. They gathered nearly all the combat strength within the gang, combined with several surrounding factions, and launched invasions against several territories of the original Houndoom Gang. Clearly, they intended to steamroll through with human-wave tactics.

But they never expected that, without sending out many trainers, wave after wave of Pokémon alone was enough to intercept them.

Even though there were no trainers directing them from behind, those Pokémon displayed strength greater than if they had trainers.

United in purpose, their invasion met an unprecedentedly stubborn resistance.

Even civilians dared to grab whatever was at hand, fashion them into one bizarre weapon after another, and attack them!

One must remember that in the past, when the major factions clashed, civilians could only cover their heads and scurry away, flee in panic, or cower in their homes in endless dread.

Yet now they dared to strike back.

This was something the invading forces led by the Poison Skull Gang had never anticipated.

The civilians and the highly autonomous Pokémon, using the terrain to their advantage, drew those invaders into the chaos of urban warfare. Their tenacious will to resist cost the invaders casualties again and again.

The tug-of-war that even the Quicksand Gang never got to taste, under the guidance of certain interested parties, dealt an unprecedented blow to the rabble of Iron Town — physically and mentally alike.

Of course, Baimu riding atop the giant Onix was every invader's nightmare.

Whenever the ground began to tremble, they knew the giant Onix was approaching. But just as they started judging Baimu's position from the tremors—

—the latter would, in utter silence, send the giant Onix soaring into the sky, attacking them like an airborne battleship.

After an entire day of this, they hadn't gained much advantage, and had instead lost a fair number of personnel.

However.

Just as they were preparing to sound the retreat and fight another day, their home base was raided.

The cause was a group of unidentified individuals who struck at their stationed members, while the previously well-behaved civilians suddenly went mad, shouting "Punish the ringleaders, give us back our homes!" as they occupied numerous key facilities.

The Poison Skull Gang immediately thought to fall back and defend, while Baimu, who had just returned from raiding their base, went to intercept those people. But the Poison Skull Gang's allied forces were blocked by a group that even he found unexpected.

High above.

Baimu stood atop Onix's head, looking down at the firefight on the ground. Beside him was N, his face neither sorrow nor joy, looking every inch the mastermind.

"People from the Battle Arena?" he said, somewhat surprised, looking down.

N: "Battle Arena?"

"The strongest faction in Iron Town I told you about before — they've actually given up infighting and started going after other factions."

Baimu studied carefully. "They shouldn't be other factions impersonating them. I know the one leading them — I used to see him often when I went to the Battle Arena to battle. He's sort of like a manager."

N didn't pick up the thread. He was utterly weary of this kind of human-on-human struggle; it couldn't compare to the daytime scene of civilians and Pokémon united in purpose that set his heart pounding.

That's right.

The reason the Poison Skull Gang's Pokémon defected on the spot, and the reason so many Pokémon performed far beyond the strength of having trainers, was this very Son of Pokémon.

Perhaps some of his unique techniques meant nothing to trainers from the mainstream regions. But here in this "backwater," dealing with a bunch of fellows wielding high-tech yet no different from tribal civilization, it was enough to cause devastating damage.

And the reason these techniques could be brought into effect so quickly was—

"Trust."

N told Baimu that Pokémon are lives capable of creating miracles; each one possesses nearly infinite potential. If you place your trust in them, they will give everything they have to repay that trust.

You may trust no one, but you must trust your own Pokémon.

Baimu wholeheartedly agreed.

Aggron and the others had already given him more than enough proof of that.

Not long after.

The battle below had already ended.

A rabble is a rabble no matter how many gather, let alone the Poison Skull Gang and other factions, who had spent an entire day playing "hide and seek" with a bunch of civilians and Pokémon on someone else's turf.

Before the so-called allied force could even disband, it vanished utterly into the dust.

——

The battle had only just ended.

Baimu and the others received a call from Flobo.

The latter said they had just finalized the specific terms of cooperation with the Silver Ape, and reinforcements would be dispatched to help — they should have already arrived by now.

Not only had they arrived, the fight was already over.

Baimu helplessly relayed this news to him.

Flobo couldn't help feeling a bit awkward, and immediately said this was probably the Silver Ape acting first and reporting later, which meant their side only learned of the operation once the dust had settled.

It was absolutely not a case of their side screwing people over.

"This guy is a bit autocratic."

"People who've held high positions for a long time are like that — the environment changes a person. Let me tell you quietly, Lei Ou only managed to talk the Silver Ape around by beating him up."

"By 'beating up,' you mean… a Pokémon battle?"

"Including but not limited to that."

"Brother Lei Ou is pretty domineering."

"After all, the guy once single-handedly took down the Shadow Team — that kind of ability is real."

One person stirring up the whole storm…

Baimu was filled with admiration for Lei Ou. In the games the Shadow Team was only a handful of people, but in the anime world the Shadow Team was definitely over a thousand strong.

Although in the end he only executed the ringleader, being able to execute the ringleader at all was already remarkable.