Chapter 109: A Heart of Compassion

Baimu and Otsuka walked through the brightly lit mine shaft, glancing at Golbat from time to time.

To be honest.

At first they had trusted this fellow quite a bit, but as Golbat gave a warning at every little stir, they realized its ultrasonic waves couldn't precisely distinguish what was inanimate and what was alive.

Anything that moved was a suspicious target.

Going back and forth like this, their vigilance inevitably dropped to some degree.

Otsuka's nerves were taut one moment and slack the next, terribly on edge; he really wanted to chat with Baimu to relax, but the latter's stern expression shut him up again and again.

Fine, it really wasn't appropriate to talk casually during an important mission.

But he was genuinely a little panicked.

However, just as he finally couldn't hold it in any longer and tried to say something offhand, Flobo's slightly hurried voice came through the earpiece, "Baimu squad, can you hear me?"

"We hear you!"

"Next I will guide you to the nearest conflict site for support. Another squad has already fallen into a bitter fight and temporarily lost contact due to electromagnetic interference; situation unknown. Do you copy?"

"Copy!"

"Good, please continue forward along the road…"

Flobo began directing the two with extreme composure.

Baimu turned to exchange a glance with Otsuka, then charged forward with their Pokémon, trying to reach the conflict site in the shortest possible time and avoid a delayed response.

Not long after.

As faint tremors and the sound of explosions reached them, the two knew they were very close to their destination.

—

In the darkness.

A panicked crowd of people let out clamorous noise.

Two Team Sand members leaned against the rock wall supporting each other, two Pokémon continuously growling in front of them.

And one of them had blood seeping from the corner of his mouth, clearly injured.

"Stop! All of you, stop! Stay quiet! If you don't stop, we're going to attack!"

The one in better condition shouted at the top of his lungs, but failed to make the miners before them—who were affected by the darkness and moving either deliberately or unintentionally, confusing the pair's line of sight—stop.

Instead, it drew even more panicked shouts from the miners.

The enemy was hidden among the miners; earlier they had taken advantage of the pair's unpreparedness to smash the lamps and launch a sneak attack, and now they intended to keep muddling their perception in order to take them down in one go.

Although communications were temporarily unusable due to the move's effects, they believed word of the fighting here had already gotten out.

They had to stall for as long as possible and wait for reinforcements to arrive.

However.

It seemed the enemy had no intention of giving them the chance.

From a shadowy corner, a bizarre figure suddenly lunged at them from a spot the two found hard to observe; the two Pokémon focused on the crowd in front simply couldn't react in time.

But just as that figure was about to land its attack on the two, light suddenly flared brilliantly!

Immediately followed by a thunderous boom, a blinding silver serpent shot out from somewhere, landing squarely on that sneak-attacking figure, electrocuting it until its "whiskers and hair stood on end," convulsing as it collapsed.

Seeing this, the previously panicked and noisy miners immediately dropped to their knees like wheat blown flat by the wind, covering their ears in terror, trembling all over.

But among them, a few miners stood dumbly in place, seemingly unable to process what had just happened.

By the time they too wanted to drop down, their bodies had already been restrained by blue light from who-knows-where, slowly floating up, followed by wave after wave of gentle singing.

Those people's expressions changed wildly as they tried to struggle free of the restraint, but their physical strength was simply not enough to break through psychic force.

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A short while later.

Nearly everyone had fallen into deep slumber—even the two Team Sand members.

The gloomy mine cavern abruptly fell silent.

Until someone lit a flare, illuminating the surroundings.

"It's dealt with?"

"Looks like it. Has comms recovered? Get in touch with the outside quickly."

"Let me try… it's through!"

Amid Otsuka's delighted voice, Baimu looked at the miners sprawled across the ground before him, then glanced at the two Houndour-team members leaning against the rock wall in slumber, narrowed his eyes, and said, "Conflict resolved. Status of our personnel, casualties unknown."

"Szzz… szzz… Other squads are approaching; medical team entering the field. If necessary, please administer first aid."

The voice in the earpiece gradually became clear.

"Understood."

He replied, then directed Otsuka to tie up those suspicious fellows from earlier and confiscate their Pokémon.

Otsuka went off happily.

Baimu brought Aggron and Chansey over to the two teammates, briefly observing their injuries.

Basically nothing visible from the outside, and after letting Chansey check, no fatal wounds were found either—they should still have ample fighting ability.

So why had they been pinned down?

Were there too many enemies?

He turned to look at the miners not far off and beckoned Otsuka: "Come here a moment."

"What's up?"

Otsuka approached curiously.

Baimu said, "You should know the people of the Sand Group pretty well, right?"

"Pretty well, yeah. After all, I grew up in the Sand Group."

"Do these two ring a bell?"

"Mm… this one I sort of recognize, but it's pretty vague—probably because we don't normally run into them. This one, though, I can't really say; feels a bit unfamiliar. What's up, suddenly asking about this?"

"Nothing."

All Baimu shook his head, sent Otsuka back to work, and drew in a deep breath.

If he wasn't mistaken, the reason these two were on the back foot wasn't that the enemy numbers were too great, but that they couldn't bring themselves to lay a hand on the panicked miners.

In fact, the moment they killed one to warn a hundred—even if the miners had been ordered by the enemy to deliberately stir up chaos—they'd instinctively shrink back in fear.

Yet these two hadn't done that. They hadn't even attacked a single miner.

Was there any need to be that merciful toward a rival faction's "mining machines"?

So much so that they didn't even care about their own safety.

Among the regular members of the Quicksand Team, there were actually still people who would feel compassion for a group of miners they didn't even know…

Bizarre.

All Baimu was growing ever more convinced that Master Liu Ge and Flobo were no simple pair.

"Good work earlier—your efficiency was impressive."

He turned his head and praised Aggron and Chansey.

Real combat is always the best way to spur growth. That precise, lightning-fast bolt from earlier came from Aggron, who had tried to learn 【Magnet Rise】 but failed, and stumbled into learning 【Thunderbolt】 instead.

Chansey, meanwhile, had grown far more delicate and nuanced in her control of 【Telekinesis】, and her singing motions had become incomparably swift.

"Roar…" "Lucky~"

The two Pokémon answered softly. A flash of light rapidly approached from the distance—reinforcements had arrived.

Seeing the people sprawled all over the ground, they couldn't help shooting All Baimu surprised looks.

But that was as far as it went.

The wounded were carried off, the enemies were escorted away, and the miners were roused one by one to be counted and checked on.

All Baimu and Otsuka followed the medical squad up to the surface. The cleanup site in the distance was a storm of dust, shrouding the entire mine in a hazy fog.

"Nice work. I'd meant for you to go down and tag along on a mission, but you went and earned yourself a great merit all on your own."

Flobo came walking over, a smile on his face.

"Hardly a great merit—how does saving a teammate count as a great merit?"

All Baimu shook his head and cast the man a deeply cryptic look. "Your team members really leave me in awe."

"Oh? They're that impressive?"

Flobo assumed All Baimu was joking.

The latter, however, replied with absolute seriousness: "Yes—more impressive than I imagined…"