Ooooh… ooooh…
The eerie calls echoed under the moon.
At that very moment, Petilil, which had been resting with its eyes closed, suddenly snapped them open.
Its gaze immediately lifted toward the sky. It could clearly sense that in the distance, there were vast, surging waves of life energy—Countless living beings, drawing ever closer with unstoppable momentum!
"It seems the enemy has already arrived. Everyone, prepare for battle!" Aven's expression hardened, his face set with solemn resolve.
The knights, seeing their lord's grave demeanor, wasted no time. Each quickly rushed to their assigned position, readying themselves to command their Pokémon troops and unleash the first wave of attacks at a moment's notice.
Ziiyaa—ziiyaa—!
High above, the Golbat flew in a frenzied swarm, their wings beating so furiously that they blotted out the moon completely.
Their greedy eyes glowed as they peered down at the Pokémon below. Their bloodlust surged; in the next instant, they were preparing to dive, eager to revel in a feast of fresh, warm blood.
But before they could descend, they suddenly froze. Their eyes widened as they saw several blazing fireballs burst upward from the ground.
The fireballs streaked past the swarm at tremendous speed, then came to a halt midair, suspended as though held in place by unseen power.
The very next moment, a blinding brilliance erupted from the fireballs, scattering a dazzling radiance across the battlefield. The dark night sky was banished in an instant, transformed into glaring daylight.
The light illuminated the earth below so brightly that every corner shone like noonday sun.
The Golbat were stunned. None of them could comprehend what was happening. How could their beloved night—the darkness in which they thrived—vanish in the blink of an eye, replaced by the merciless brightness of day?
Thud—thud—thud—!
The ground suddenly trembled with a deep, rhythmic quake.
Out of the shadowed horizon, knights clad in blood-red armor appeared, riding upon the backs of their armored Rhyhorns.
But as the crimson-armored knights advanced, they too faltered. Their eyes narrowed in shock as the darkness around them warped into light.
"Daylight? How can that be? Has the night… actually become day?"
"Impossible… is this just some kind of illusion?"
Many knights rubbed their eyes vigorously, half-doubting their own senses.
"Do not panic!" a harsh voice barked across the ranks. "It is nothing but a move that alters the battlefield environment!"
"Form ranks! Prepare for battle! As long as we crush the enemy head-on, no trick of light will save them!"
The commander—Captain Bloodhowl—roared out his orders. Though astonished at first, he was no stranger to such environmental techniques.
The Ironblood Knights, drilled to the bone in discipline, quickly calmed themselves and refocused. Their eyes turned toward their foes.
Their gazes fell upon the looming forces of the Nidoking tribe and the Drapion tribe. A heavy weight settled into their hearts.
"So many Nidorino, Nidorina… and even Skorupi!"
"These magical beasts are incredibly rare. If we could capture just a few alive, they'd fetch a fortune!"
The knights of Ironblood Fortress were not only warriors but beast hunters as well, often tasked with capturing magical beasts from the Aspiration Mountain Range. Now, seeing such valuable prey right before them, excitement glinted in many of their eyes.
"Sound the horns! Sound the charge!"
Bloodhowl raised his massive crimson greatsword high into the air, his bellow rolling like thunder across the battlefield.
Unlike other knight orders, the Ironblood Knights always charged together with their mounts, their blades working in deadly unison with the force of their Rhyhorn steeds to tear through enemies without mercy.
Ziiyaa—ziiyaa—ziiyaa—!
Above, the Golbat regained their composure, their shrieks echoing as they flapped their wings. The horns of war stirred their bloodlust even higher, driving them to swoop downward, eager to drown the battlefield in a storm of blood and screams.
Whoooosh!
Just then, an unexpected wind tore across the plain.
The Golbat looked down—and froze. Rising from below, Countless more Golbat suddenly surged upward into the skies to meet them!
Ziiyaa—ziiyaa—!
Snarling with guttural cries, the two swarms collided headlong.
Instantly, a savage melee erupted in midair. Golbat tore into each other with their fangs, sinking teeth into leathery flesh, their jaws dripping blood. At the same time, bursts of Confuse Ray and beams of chaotic energy flickered across the sky.
The battlefield dissolved into chaos. Everywhere, Golbat clashed violently, thrashing and tearing into their own kind without restraint.
"What is happening?! Why are the Golbat fighting amongst themselves?!"
On the ground, the charging knights gawked upward in disbelief, their intended air support now locked in savage self-destruction.
Without warning, the Golbat had turned on one another, ripping their kin apart. Blood rained down in scarlet drops, staining the battlefield below.
At first, only a handful of Golbat attacked their own comrades. But as they unleashed more and more ultrasonic waves in their frenzy, confusion spread rapidly. One after another, more Golbat succumbed to madness, falling into a state where they could no longer distinguish friend from foe.
"It's an illusion! The enemy has a magical beast capable of conjuring illusions!" The knights' faces blanched, realization dawning at once.
Even as the words left their lips, their vision rippled. The sky above twisted violently.
Out of the distortion emerged a magical beast none of them had ever seen before—its form ghostly, its presence uncanny.
And alongside it floated more than a dozen strange ball like berries, drifting eerily in the air. The scene was bizarre beyond imagination.
A heartbeat later, those balls split open with flashes of white light, revealing the sudden appearance of numerous Pokémon.
"An illusion… this has to be an illusion, right?"
One knight muttered, stunned. But before he could react further, his vision suddenly darkened—his eyes filled with nothing but the sight of a massive fist hurtling straight at him.
The blow struck with crushing force. He heard only the pained scream of his Rhyhorn beneath him before the world flipped upside down.
With a terrible lurch, both knight and mount were flung high into the air.
BOOOOM!
The Rhyhorn crashed to the ground with a thunderous impact. The knight rolled from its back, tumbling across the earth. Dizzy and disoriented, he blinked in horror at the carnage unfolding all around him.
"This… this is not an illusion! Knights, charge! Follow me!" Bloodhowl's roar split the chaos, his fury boiling over.
But even as his command rang out, a Luxray materialized before him, unleashing a blinding bolt of electricity.
The strike lanced straight at him—yet the Golbat on his shoulder reacted with astonishing speed, sending a razor-thin Air Slash slicing through the bolt, dispersing it midair.
Bloodhowl wasted no time. He spurred his Rhyhorn forward, breaking into a full charge straight toward Aven's forces.
Behind him, the rest of the knights quickly followed, urging their mounts onward. In moments, the Ironblood Knights had formed into a blood-red torrent, thundering forward in a wave of destruction.
But their charge did not go unchallenged.
At the center of their formation, the way was blocked. Nidokings and Drapions stood waiting, their monstrous forms bristling with power.
Each time one of them swung its massive claws or tails, a Rhyhorn was smashed aside, sent flying through the air like a toy.
The knights, though clad in thick armor, were powerless before such overwhelming strength. Against these near-king-tier Pokémon, their protection was as fragile as paper.
"Damn it! What are those Nidoking and Drapion doing inside our formation?!"
Bloodhowl turned his head and his eyes widened in disbelief. His knights were being torn apart by magical beasts that moved like living engines of war, each strike scattering their ranks into chaos.
Without the momentum of a unified charge, against these massive armored magical beast the knights were nothing but lambs before slaughter.
"It feels like… like a nightmare," Kale murmured quietly from afar, his eyes watching the surreal spectacle.
From the maddened swarm in the skies to the sudden appearance of the Nidokings and Drapions tearing through the knights, everything felt like a dream. Unreal. Unnatural.
And yet, he knew full well this was no dream. It was Aven's power—Pokémon sealed within strange artifacts, unleashed onto the battlefield, and the suffocating illusions that warped even the sky itself.
Against such a foe, despair seemed inevitable. It was as though the enemy commanded not an army, but a nightmare made flesh.
"You've done well, Mismagius," Aven said at last, his voice calm, his gaze shifting to the ghostly figure hovering at his side. A faint smile tugged at his lips.
"Maa~, maaa~!"
Mismagius gave a high, delighted cry, clearly exhilarated.
Under Aven's tutelage, its mastery over illusions had grown tremendously.
The greatest change was in its understanding of Pokémon themselves. It remembered clearly the words Aven had told it countless times:
"To strengthen your illusions, you must first broaden your knowledge."
Only with deep knowledge could illusions become truly convincing—so convincing that even the victim, trapped within them, would never realize.
Just like now with the Golbat. Before the battle, Aven had carefully explained their traits—their basic abilities, their flight patterns, their combat instincts.
Mismagius had even gone so far as to include Zubat illusions among them, to make the scenario more believable.
It had studied the ultrasonic waves of Crobat, learning to mimic the move exactly, weaving it seamlessly into its illusions to trick the Golbat into unleashing Supersonic attacks against each other.
Once the air was flooded with those ultrasonic cries, the illusion no longer even mattered.
The confused Golbat, lost in their own frenzy, could no longer tell enemy from ally.
BOOOM, BOOOM—!
The sounds of battle still shook the air. The Golbat's shrieks continued raining down from above as blood and feathers scattered.
And when their frenzy burned itself out, Aven's Yanmas and Mothims would sweep the skies clean, taking the advantage without suffering a single loss.
"This battle isn't over. As long as the Ironblood Knights continue their charge, the fight goes on!"
Bloodhowl's eyes gleamed with vicious determination.
Leaning low, pressing himself tightly against the broad back of his Rhyhorn, he urged his steed faster.
The Rhyhorn beneath him gleamed with a white light, as did the rest of the mounts. Together, they surged forward, the glowing aura binding them into one, enclosing their riders in the same radiance.
From a distance, the Ironblood Knights looked like a single blade forged of light and steel, cleaving straight ahead. Anything in their path was to be mercilessly torn apart.
Thud—thud—thud—thud!
The thunder of hooves shook the land as the Rhyhorn charged.
Yet suddenly, Bloodhowl felt his mount stumble ever so slightly beneath him.
Though only for a moment, its speed faltered.
Frowning, he cast a glance downward—and froze.
The battlefield was sprouting with countless tendrils of grass, writhing across the earth like living ropes.
They lashed upward, twining around the Rhyhorns' legs, trying to halt their charge.
One after another, the vines were ripped apart by the sheer force of momentum…
But more and more sprouted, stretching endlessly forward.
Shhh—shhh—shhh—!
At that very moment, countless roots suddenly erupted in front of the knight order.
These roots twisted and entwined together, lashing out like enormous whips and striking down viciously toward the knights!
Yet in the instant a flash of white light cut through, all of the roots were swiftly severed. The blinding radiance, sharp as a blade, cleaved apart the obstruction, and a shadow charged straight through the broken roots without pause!
Thud, thud, thud, thud—
The unified footsteps of the Rhyhorn thundered across the ground, all running forward in perfect formation.
"Hmph, nothing in this world can obstruct the charge of the Ironblood Knights!"
(End of Chapter)