Chapter 161: Gastly
A symphony of snores from Nidorino, Rhyhorn, and Machoke echoed through the cave. At the very back, Giovanni lay quietly in his sleeping bag, his breathing steady, seemingly lost in a deep slumber.
A dark figure crept stealthily inside. Seeing that its targets were all asleep, it grew bolder. It moved silently through the gloom, its eyes glinting with a greedy light, as if it could pierce the night and gaze directly upon Giovanni's tempting, delicious soul.
Its form was blurry, a wandering haze carrying an eerie and terrifying aura as it slowly approached. It was preparing to feast.
The snores of the Pokémon were like low drumbeats, adding a touch of mundane life to the silent cave, making the scene all the more plausible— a faint, predatory smile touched Giovanni's lips. He was feigning sleep, luring this creature into his trap.
Beedrill, standing guard not far from Giovanni, trembled with restrained fury, its compound eyes icy cold. It wanted to kill this thing that did not know its place. Not just Beedrill; Machoke and Nidorino, who had been snoring so loudly, were now also silently staring at the dark figure, their eyes wide open in the darkness.
The dark figure, however, was oblivious. Yet, the closer it got to Giovanni, the more a sense of panic began to set in, a premonition that something was about to go horribly wrong. It felt as if it were being watched.
It suddenly spun around, but Beedrill and the others had already closed their eyes, their snores resuming their steady rhythm. The creature blinked its malevolent eyes, utterly perplexed.
It turned back, its focus once again on Giovanni, and descended toward his head.
Giovanni suddenly twisted in his sleep, causing it to miss. It tried again. He turned once more. Frustrated, it was about to use a wisp of Haze to immobilize its prey when it caught sight of the leftover roasted meat nearby.
Greed instantly overcame its caution. It transformed into a wisp of smoke, silently coiling around the skewers, and began to devour them greedily. The meat instantly rotted and gave off a foul stench as the ghostly energy consumed it.
It was so engrossed in its meal that it didn't notice that Giovanni was no longer there. He had silently risen, and along with Beedrill and Nidorino, had blocked its only escape route. Their eyes were filled with a cold amusement.
"Is it delicious?" Giovanni asked softly.
The dark figure startled, whirling around to see Giovanni and his Pokémon surrounding it. It had been tricked. In a fit of rage, it manipulated the bone pile in the corner.
The skeletons' eyes suddenly glowed with a faint, eerie light. They floated up from the ground, emitting a chorus of ghostly laughter as clusters of green Will-O-Wisp ignited around them.
The very air began to distort as the creature activated Hypnosis, attempting to create chaos and escape.
It was a refined illusion, almost indistinguishable from reality. This creature had clearly lived for a very long time, though its own power seemed oddly weak— but it had chosen the wrong group.
Even if the skeletons had truly revived, Giovanni and his Pokémon would have simply killed them again. They had killed so many that the malevolent aura clinging to them could scare away even true ghosts.
The murderous energy that suddenly flared from Beedrill was enough to startle the creature out of its attack. Beedrill flapped its wings, a golden blur as it lunged. The dark figure shrieked and flew frantically toward the cave entrance.
But a low growl echoed from the mouth of the cave. Persian had appeared, its eyes like torches in the darkness, ready to pounce and tear it to shreds. The creature was trapped.
"Trying to run?" Giovanni sneered, waving a hand. "Persian, Assurance."
Persian leaped, its claws extended, and struck the dark figure with a fierce blow, knocking it to the ground. The black mist churned, revealing its true form: a gas-like lifeform, a black spherical core enveloped in a thin, ethereal haze, with a pair of fangs and malevolent, white eyes.
It was a Gastly.
"A Ghost-type," Giovanni murmured. He had suspected as much, but this was his first encounter with one. Ghost-types were creatures of legend and terror. They did not appear casually, and when they did, they came to devour the souls and bodies of the living.
This was why most trainers avoided them. Unless one was born with a natural affinity for them, one was more likely to become their plaything, their soul devoured, finding no peace even in death. Just as this Gastly had intended to do to him.
Ordinarily, they resided in places heavy with negative energy, like the Pokémon Tower in Lavender Town, a place said to be close to the entrance of the underworld. They were, in their own way, as rare as starter Pokémon.
Question— is Giovanni an ordinary trainer? Of course not. Besides his preferred Ground-types, he needed utility Pokémon, specialists in other fields.
This Gastly would not escape.
Under the creature's fearful gaze, Giovanni leaned forward, the shadows accentuating the cruel, domineering lines of his face. His mouth moved, speaking words that sent a shiver of pure terror through the Gastly's ethereal form.
"You ate my food," he said, his voice a cold whisper. "You must pay. I see you have no money.
So how about you sign a contract of indenture?
Say, for a few hundred... or perhaps a thousand years?"