Chapter 97: Hunting Pokemon - Showdown Begin!

Chapter 97: Hunting Pokemon - Showdown Begin! Before Kai could finish all emotions in it, the round eyes of the 2 ft large Pokemon shone blue. "Ugh!" Kai grabbed his head as the Pokemon slipped out of his hand. The pain was unbearable, and all things were becoming blurry. The effect didn’t last long, though. Kai shook his head as if he had woken up with the worst imaginable hangover. That was some kind of SP-based attack, he thought, remembering the blue-colored shine in the Pokemon’s eyes. There are too many moves I know nothing about. I will make Meg tell me everything once this is over. Kai looked down and saw Selene coiled around the Pokemon. -Don’t kill it,- Kai hissed, approaching them. ... [ Skill Dementor’s Kiss Activated Time Limit: 30 seconds ] ... An unseen, pure trail, like liquefied air, left the Pokemon and entered Kai’s mouth. ... [Soul Points: +1.1] ... The husk, that was a Pokemon a while ago, looked vacantly at Kai. When he spoke those abysmal words that could put fear in all living things around him, the soulless Pokemon didn’t even flinch. "Blood... Devour!" Kai didn’t want this Pokemon’s Blood Essence. However, the boost in Strength, Agility, and Stamina were enough for him to devour it anyway. Selene let go of the Pokemon as Kai’s Dementor-form receded and his body became red hot, letting out steam. The tear on his chest appeared, and black tendrils oozed out, lunging at the Pokemon. But the moment they touched the husk, the all-annihilating tendrils returned, the tear on his chest sealing itself as if whatever the Pokemon was now wasn’t worth it to even look at. What?! Kai’s eyes widened. What happened?! "Blood... Devour!" he growled again, gritting his teeth. Right away, the hotness returned, his body steaming along with it. The thing within him ripped his chest apart, tearing it vertically. But this time, it didn’t even come out. Not a single tendril. In the next moment, everything went back to normal as it was before. This?! What’s happening?!! Kai asked himself, stunned. How can the Blood Devour fail? No. Wait! The Blood Devour didn’t fail. It worked. It just... rejected the magical beast. Kai knew what his Glitch failing felt like. So he calmed down and analyzed the queer circumstance. -It’s soul, master,- Selene hissed, repeating Kai’s inner thoughts. -Yes, Selene. But I never thought Blood Essence had anything to do with soul,- Kai hissed. Now there was one more thing he needed to keep in mind before sucking the soul out of a Pokemon. Frustrated, he took out his Fang and plunged it into the Pokemon’s heart. ... [ Your Title Status is updated... Title: Poacher ... ] ... Oh! It was a comparatively strong one, Kai thought, patting Selene’s head. Selene took that as Kai’s permission to have the food for herself and lunged at it. As she swallowed the Pokemon, Kai recalled the theory behind the Blood Essence from his previous life. But no matter how he thought, he couldn’t remember it being mentioned anywhere that the Blood Essence had some connection with Soul. The concept of soul wasn’t some unknown and unpracticed in his previous life, where Beast Essence Cultivators cultivated using the principles of Yin-Yang. This isn’t the time, a voice roared in his mind. Hurry! Kai put the matter back to his mind, and the moment the Ghost Serpent swallowed the Pokemon whole, he called it back into him. -Time to move on.- Only the hiss slithered for some time at the crime scene as Dementor-Kai glided away for another prey. * * "Pineco...! " Boom! Boom! Kai got thrown off by the chain of explosions. In front of him, hanging from a tree, were many pine cone-like Pokemon. The moment he tried to suck the Soul out of the first sleeping one, all these Pokemon dropped and self-destructed. Fuck! Kai cursed, leaving the blasted area. Selene had gone to sleep after having her meal. So he had decided to just hunt by himself. But his lack of knowledge about Pokemon moves was becoming a great hindrance. Let me get a Pokedex, you stupid creatures! Humph! Kai slithered far in search of the Pokemon he could make sense of. The speed of his gliding was fast too, but compared to the flying-type Pokemon, it couldn’t be mentioned in the same breath. Suddenly, a cacophony of tweaking noises reached his ears. Kai glided upwards, his hooded head blending masterfully in the dark shadows. When his head came out of the canopy of the tree, he saw the hundreds of Pokemon flying over a cave, taking sharp turns now and then. Now the nature of these Pokemon was such that even he could tell. Bat-like Pokemon, Kai concluded. They had purple-blue bodies with two long tails. With fangs in their open mouths, Kai guessed like any bat-based organic form, they were using echolocation too. The creepiest smile crept on his rotten face. Kai knew the sheer amount of despair he could spread among these Pokemon amass. His heartbeat sped up as he thought of the number of Soul Points he could collect. Not even trying to hide anymore, Kai left the trees and flew towards them. He looked like a bloodthirsty wraith as the wind hit him, picking up the tattered strips of his cloak. But before he could enter the thick of this Pokemon Colony, a notification popped up. ... [ Party Member Morning Mist has shared her location with you She is requesting an audio call... Do you accept it? ] ... Kai stopped immediately. He accepted the request, and a map appeared in front of him, as Meg’s voice entered his ears. "Master, hurry! I found them. The 3rd Contestant is indeed a Pokemon Trainer, and he has an evolved Pokemon. This is the best Pokemon you can get in this region. I am challenging him so that when you arrive here, it is already out of the Pokeball. I have a plan. If we follow it, you can raise your Snake Instinct’s Proficiency and devour the Pokemon in the same battle..." - Meg shouted out her message. Then, as she kept mentioning the plan, Kai’s creepy smile vanished. When she was done, Morning Mist canceled the call, readying herself to attack the targets. Don’t die... Kai thought, licking his dry lips, knowing well that she wasn’t a match for three 4th-floor Contestants. He had an idea how she would challenge the Pokemon Trainer when she didn’t have a Pokemon. Kai turned around and flew to the highest mountain in the distance. That was the location shared by his servant. Kai’s heart thumped wildly as he imagined the powers he would gain after devouring an evolved Pokemon. Then, with a prime sense of urgency, he flew over the forest, ignoring all the Pokemon. 15 minutes to Glitch’s Hibernation... * * Kai flew down to the foot of the mountain where there was an enormous mouth of a cave. Low muffled noises like beasts grunting and snapping at each other were coming from the deep. The cave kept becoming narrower as he went deeper. When he reached some 400 meters in, it had become so narrow that a grown man would have to walk on hands and legs to go further. Kai easily glided through this passage too. The moment he passed a tunnel where one would have to go crawling, lying on their belly, everything suddenly expanded. The noises grew louder, comprehensible, and even the laugh of a boy and a girl was quite distinguishable. For 200 meters, Kai kept flying, keeping himself almost glued to the roof. Then came the grand opening. It had been so dark that Kai had felt like he was going down to the depths of the very hell. But what awaited him at the end of this cave wasn’t a quagmire, but a vista of uncanny beauty. Kai found himself looking at a hollow under the mountain. It was mysteriously glowing blue everywhere. The hollow was like a sphere, with a dome-like rocky roof. Hundreds of long protrusions of rock were hanging from the roof, pointing murderously at the ground underneath, and all were glowing blue too. The ground was as big as a football field, and on the leftmost side, there was a waterfall. The water was falling into a small puddle. It was shining blue too. This blue glow was coming from everywhere. From the heavy boulders spread throughout over the ground, from the high walls enclosing the ground, and from the vegetation on his rightmost side. It made it look like it was day within this mountain’s womb. Kai stopped at the mouth of this grand wonder. He looked down and saw the scene then. Meg was bloody beyond anyone could get bloodier. She had changed her robe to her usual black greatcoat and black jeans, but even they had been torn apart from everywhere. Just by her side was a Pokemon. It had the body of a canine, with an orange pelt marked by jagged black stripes. Its head, muzzle, and chest were covered in shaggy fur, and its tail was long, furry, and bent from the middle. A paper-Pokemon? Kai guessed. From time to time, this Pokemon kept growling under its throat at the beings in front of it. Some 100 meters away from the Pokemon was a boy who looked slightly older than Kai. He had black hair and black eyes and was only wearing blue-colored shorts. Behind him, sitting over a boulder, were a boy and a girl. Kai’s eyes narrowed at them. He had already seen them, using the sacrifice. They were the Spinning Duo, the Bladers! 10 minutes to Glitch’s Hibernation...