Pokémon: The Path of Ascension

Chapter 10: Chapter 10:The Near Champion Appears



"Toshi, let's go! Otherwise, the staff will come over and force us to stop slacking!"

Shoji seemed a bit anxious, but it was clear he was just particularly enthusiastic about the battle.

Toshi said, "Alright then, let's go."

He shifted his gaze away from those people. Although he thought it was a bit strange to encounter so many wild Pokémon blocking their path, he reasoned that, as the saying goes, there are exceptions; maybe this really was just a coincidence.

Calling for Butterfree to join him, Toshi slowly moved forward behind the crowd.

As they got closer, they noticed that the ground was inexplicably covered with many berries, which appeared to be the kind that Zubat and Murkrow liked to eat.

Otherwise, it shouldn't only have been them here.

What? You say there are Taillow too?

That was just because Taillow liked to steal food. Seeing so many tasty berries on the ground, they wouldn't possibly pass up the opportunity.

"Toshi, look! These Pokémon gathered here because of these berries," Shoji said, pulling Toshi forward. "Do you think a truck carrying berries overturned here, attracting these Pokémon?"

Toshi rolled his eyes.

Come on, think before you speak. Otherwise, people might really think you're an idiot.

It was pretty clear that someone had intentionally placed a bunch of berries here.

As for the purpose, Toshi couldn't quite figure it out yet.

It couldn't just be to obstruct the train's progress, could it?

Who would do something so pointless?

However, while Toshi was concerned, most of the surrounding Trainers didn't seem to care.

They were even wondering if, after driving away these wild Pokémon, they could divide the remaining berries among themselves.

And not only were people thinking this way, but some were actually doing it.

Toshi noticed that when a young man in his twenties tried to snatch a berry from a Murkrow's grasp, he was immediately surrounded by about a dozen Murkrow.

If it hadn't been for the crowd helping him in time, he might have really been overwhelmed by the Murkrow. After all, relying solely on the intermediate-strength Masquerain and Linoone he had just summoned wouldn't have been enough to fend off so many Pokémon.

"Toshi, should we join in too?" Shoji said eagerly.

"Alright."

Toshi quietly said to the Butterfree on his shoulder, "Butterfree, later you will use Gust and Confusion to assist Shoji's Taillow, understood?"

Butterfree nodded.

In this kind of chaotic occasion, powder-type moves and area attacks cannot be used, otherwise it is easy to accidentally harm teammates.

"Taillow, Wing Attack."

Shoji commanded Taillow to launch an attack on a Novice Strength Murkrow.

Toshi's Butterfree also timely followed up with Silver Wind.

However, for some reason, the Novice Strength Murkrow did not lose the ability to fight; instead, after landing, it stood up again and counterattacked!

"Strange, why is this Murkrow fighting so hard?"

Toshi shifted his gaze to another area and noticed that while the strengths of these Wild Pokémon were not strong, mostly at the Novice and Basic levels, there were occasionally one or two Intermediate and High-level Pokémon mixed in.

Yet, this group of Pokémon, with strengths surpassing theirs and under the command of Trainers, was able to fight back effectively against everyone's Pokémon.

This was indeed somewhat strange.

Previously, Toshi had roughly counted that there were at least over 300 Trainers participating in this event, but faced with a large group of Wild Pokémon estimated to exceed 1,000, they had no choice but to disperse and act in order to quickly drive them away.

Toshi looked around and found that not only had the Elite Trainer he had been watching not shown up again since the beginning, but even the Near Champion Trainer had not reappeared.

Moreover, these Wild Pokémon had initially been busy eating those Berries, completely indifferent to the approaching humans.

But once someone attacked them, they would immediately retaliate furiously.

This also differed from what Toshi had learned.

Gradually, he began to feel a sense of fear.

"This is a deliberately designed conspiracy!"

Then Toshi fell into thought: "But why go to such great lengths at such a cost?"

At that moment, Shoji, who was commanding Taillow to attack fiercely, noticed that Toshi had actually become distracted during the battle!

This was a grave mistake in battle! So he immediately shouted a reminder: "Toshi, we're still in battle, why are you getting distracted?!"

Hearing Shoji's words, Toshi snapped back to reality.

He realized he had indeed been careless, thinking that with so many people around, he could let his guard down.

But when he saw Butterfree always protecting him by his side, he couldn't help but smile with relief.

"Sorry, Shoji."

"Honestly, you're the top student in the Academy, how can you not pay attention to this? As expected, I am the true genius of battle, haha!"

Toshi couldn't help but sweat.

He knew Shoji liked battles but didn't expect him to be so full of himself.

With such excellence, why not soar to the heavens?

...

Half an hour quickly passed, and Toshi and Shoji followed behind the two high-level Trainers, picking up quite a bit.

Of course, this little movement was noticed by the two, but they only smiled at Toshi and Shoji and let them continue to follow.

So after a round of battles, Toshi's Butterfree also gained a lot of experience.

"Butterfree, take a break." Toshi suddenly said to Butterfree.

"Butterfree." Upon hearing this, Butterfree landed on Toshi's shoulder.

"Haha, Toshi, your Butterfree still needs training; look, even my Novice Strength Taillow can last longer than your Butterfree." Shoji said with a touch of teasing.

At the same time, Taillow responded to Shoji's praise with a chirp.

"Zii!"

Just as Toshi was about to confirm the situation around them again, someone suddenly shouted, "Near Champion level Honchkrow!"

Instantly, everyone's hearts were lifted.

"How is that possible? How could there be a Wild Near Champion here?"

Many people showed expressions of disbelief.

But when they actually saw a majestic Honchkrow rising from the center of that group of Wild Pokémon, they had to believe it.

"Quick, run away!"

"Don't we have a Near Champion Trainer here too? Where are they? Why can't we see them?"

"Ah, don't worry about that, just run for your life!"

At this time, Shoji was also a bit flustered. Although he loved to battle, he knew that a Near Champion's Pokémon was not something he could challenge now, so he immediately said, "Toshi, we need to hurry!"

"Let's go." Toshi didn't waste any time; once a Near Champion appeared, their job was done, and the following battles were beyond their reach.

As Toshi was about to run towards the train, a green figure suddenly flashed in front of his eyes.

At the same time, a loud voice rang out above his head:

"Sceptile, Razor Leaf!"


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