David watched as Dragapult wiped out the living bombs one after another. Seeing them fall, he finally let out a breath of relief. With Dragapult by his side, he felt his safety was secured, at least for now.
Hidden in the shadows, Yade frowned. Dragapult's arrival had just made his assassination mission much harder to complete.
"Yade, hurry! Magic City has already begun its operation. The cover we set up here won't hold for much longer. You have two minutes left. Succeed or fail, you must pull out immediately."
At that same moment, An's voice came through his earpiece again, warning him that time was almost up.
"I know!"
Yade cut the call and clenched his teeth. It seemed he had no choice but to pay a heavy price. Several Poké Balls appeared in his hand once more. These were the strongest weapons he had prepared for this mission, and the moment to use them had finally come.
"Beheeyem, use Teleport. Bring these Pokémon over and release them."
"Inteleon, wait for the right moment and take your shot at the target. No matter what happens, we retreat in exactly one minute and fifty seconds."
As soon as Yade finished speaking, a brown, large-headed Pokémon that looked almost like an alien appeared beside him.
Name: Beheeyem
Type: Psychic
Energy Level: 59 (Gym Level)
Ability: Telepathy
Potential: Light Purple
Beheeyem was a fairly uncommon Psychic-type Pokémon. Its greatest strengths were its skill in manipulating minds and its ability to use Teleport to move itself and other Pokémon across distances.
Beheeyem gave a nod, and an instant later, several Poké Balls appeared near the site of the explosion.
The moment they appeared, Dragapult, having just finished clearing out the last of the living bombs, narrowed its eyes. It had sensed Beheeyem right away.
A Gym-level Psychic-type Pokémon suddenly showing up here was more than enough to draw its attention. To keep David safe, Dragapult wasted no time. It raised its head and unleashed Dragon Arrow, the attack streaking out like a bolt of lightning.
But Beheeyem had no plan to fight. It simply dropped a Poké Ball and used Teleport to vanish at once, letting Dragapult's Dragon Arrow miss its mark completely.
The attack, packed with tremendous force, slammed into the ground instead, tearing out a crater more than ten meters deep.
Before anyone could make sense of what had happened, the remaining Poké Balls burst open, and several strange-looking Pokémon appeared in front of them.
"Nidoking... Tauros... Rhyperior..."
David managed to identify each Pokémon only by piecing together their remaining features, since their true forms had been twisted almost beyond recognition.
The Nidoking's body was warped and swollen, like some kind of monster risen from the grave. The Tauros was encased head to hoof in metal plating, resembling a steel battle tank. The Rhyperior had countless glowing crystals embedded in its hide, giving off strange energy and making its skin look almost crystalline. Despite their differences, all three shared one thing in common: their eyes burned with a crimson glow, empty of any reason or thought.
From what David had learned reading about strength-boosting potions, it was clear these Pokémon had been dosed with something like a berserker serum, a substance that granted raw power at the cost of burning away the user's life force.
That meant even if left alone, none of these Pokémon would likely survive much longer.
David let out a quiet, heavy sigh inside his heart.
"Dragapult, put them out of their misery. Send them off."
The instant he spoke, Dragapult was already surging forward. These corrupted Pokémon would attack anything living without hesitation, and the nearest living things happened to be David and his companions.
Each of these modified Pokémon had once been true Gym-level fighters. After the modification, they felt no pain and burned their own life force for strength, making them far more dangerous than before.
Still, Dragapult had to split its focus between fighting and shielding David, so even with a clear advantage, finishing them off quickly proved difficult.
"Now that's some fine work!" Yade muttered to himself as he watched from hiding. These twisted Pokémon were the secret weapons he had gathered for this job, and acquiring them had cost him nearly everything he owned.
He'd only managed to get his hands on them because the seller, learning that his target was David, had cut him a special discount for the assassination attempt.
Though these Gym-level Pokémon, after modification, could only just barely brush against Elite-level strength, and that power lasted less than half an hour, their value remained enormous.
Having paid such a steep price, Yade was determined to see it through and claim his reward, no matter the cost.
Still, Dragapult's true strength could not be underestimated. As one of the three Pokémon belonging to David's father, its power was on another level entirely. Even while protecting David, it was managing to overwhelm its opponents.
It was becoming clear that these modified Pokémon alone would never be enough to bring David down.
"Thirty... twenty-nine... twenty-eight... twenty-seven..."
The countdown continued, with less than thirty seconds remaining before the forced retreat.
But just as the deadline drew near, Inteleon, which had stayed hidden and silent since the mission began, finally made its move.
Having spent all this time charging in secret, Inteleon seized its opening. A jet of water, compressed down again and again, burst from the tip of its finger and shot straight toward David.
Snipe Shot + Compressed Hydro Pump
This Hydro Pump, condensed to be even thinner and sharper than a simple Water Gun, carried destructive force greater than any sniper rifle, and it streaked directly toward its target.
The moment the shot was fired, Inteleon's presence dimmed sharply, its strength visibly drained, as though it had poured every last drop of its energy into that single attack. There was no mistaking it, though: the power behind this one shot had truly reached Elite-level, far beyond what a Pokémon of its kind should have been able to produce.
The true killing blow of this assassination attempt had finally arrived, closing in on David before anyone could react...