Chapter 17: The Raging Behemoth
"Roar—"
Outside the valley entrance, a behemoth roared, its voice as deafening as thunder.
This colossal creature was covered in dark blue fur, its body as round as a ball. Its white belly heaved continuously with each furious roar. The face that usually wore a simple, honest smile now bore a ferocious expression, its round eyes filled with a crazed red light, emanating an aura of savagery.
"Snorlax!"
Gazing up at this behemoth nearly 3 meters tall, Rio's heart trembled violently, and a familiar Pokémon name blurted out.
In various games and anime, Snorlax was always a gentle-tempered Pokémon. Although massive in size, it was naturally fond of eating and sleeping, thus affectionately nicknamed "lazy fatty" by many. However, the rampaging behemoth before him was vastly different from the Snorlax he knew. Its gentle appearance was now completely gone, replaced by a ferocious and cruel expression accompanied by earth-shattering roars. Its entire body glowed with a harsh red light. Its wide palms struck left and right, fanning out powerful gusts of wind, and its thick feet stomped the ground from time to time, causing tremors.
Sunrise Valley's original natural scenery, with its abundant trees and meandering streams, had now been destroyed. Broken trees lay strewn across the ground, their branches and leaves scattered everywhere. The ground had collapsed, revealing numerous fissures, and rubble and dust flew about.
The Pokémon who had rushed to the valley entrance were oppressed by Snorlax's crazed aura, not daring to approach.
"Hmm, what's that?"
Rio dodged the flying debris while narrowing his eyes, peering through the dust at Snorlax, which was stomping and flailing its arms in place.
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[Pokédex]
Encounter Progress: 23/25
Battle Progress: 8/25
[Real-time Analysis]
Pokémon: Leader - Snorlax (Berserk) (Male)
Level: lv35
Type: Normal
Ability: Immunity (Will not become poisoned during battle)
Dominion: Sunrise Valley (Ineffective)
Moves: Rest (lv4), Snore (lv4), Mega Punch (lv2), Sleep Talk (lv2), Body Slam (lv2), Harden (lv2), Thrash (lv1), Fling (lv1)
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Another Leader-level Pokémon!
This was the second Leader-level Pokémon Rio had seen, aside from the Squirtle Leader. Not to mention its level being even higher than the Squirtle Boss, and the two prominent lv4 skills in its move list, along with other rich skills, it wasn't hard to imagine why the Snorlax before them could cause such massive destruction.
"Dominion: Sunrise Valley?" Rio recalled the story Vileplume had told earlier.
But then, his gaze was drawn to another piece of information.
"This 'Berserk' suffix again..."
The flock of Pidgeotto and Pidgey he had encountered not long ago also had this same suffix!
Rio was greatly alarmed.
Looking closely, a verdant green figure was continuously flashing around Snorlax. The large scythes on its arms glinted coldly, slashing at Snorlax's body repeatedly. However, Snorlax was enveloped in blood-red energy, and the sharp slashes could only strike that energy, like hitting steel and sending out sparks.
As if annoyed by Scyther's harassment, Snorlax suddenly leaped up, its entire body crashing heavily onto the earth.
"Boom—"
The ground heaved violently. This intense shockwave spread out directly, sweeping towards the Pokémon standing dumbfounded at the valley entrance.
"Damn it, it's [Body Slam]!" The Elite Machop, feeling the earth-shattering power, exclaimed in horror.
Just as the Pokémon were unable to dodge in time, a deep voice that instantly reassured them rang out.
"[Protect]!"
A broad, reassuring back blocked their path. The familiar greenish, grid-patterned hemispherical barrier expanded, causing the shockwave of [Body Slam] to dissipate harmlessly.
"Boss!"
The Pokémon shouted excitedly.
The one blocking their way was indeed the Squirtle Boss. However, the sunglasses he usually never took off were not on his face at this moment. Moreover, it was clear to the naked eye that the Squirtle Boss was not in good condition. His entire body was covered in dust, and there were even some cracks on his hard shell. The wound on his left arm was so deep that flesh was visible, and his right hand, held out to perform the [Protect] move, was trembling slightly.
"Front line, assault formation, spread out!"
Hearing the Squirtle Boss's calm command, the Pokémon subconsciously entered battle mode.
The Elite Machop at the front led the Machop, Mankey, Geodude, and other Pokémon with strong assault capabilities to scatter immediately. With their agile movements, they navigated the broken terrain, surrounding Snorlax in a very short time.
At the same time, the Beedrill, with their two long lances, also aimed their sharp tips at Snorlax from the air.
"Rear line, apply status conditions."
Oddish, Gloom, Paras, Weedle, Caterpie, and other Grass and Bug-type Pokémon all gathered greenish energy. [Stun Spore] and [Sleep Powder] moves scattered clouds of mixed yellow and purple powder, while [String Shot] formed tough, sticky insect webs.
Butterfree, flying in the sky, flapped its light insectoid wings. The strong wind stirred up by its [Gust] move blew the insect webs under Snorlax, entangling its lower limbs, while the status-inducing powder mist, carrying paralyzing currents and a soporific aura, enveloped Snorlax along with the wind.
"Roaaar—"
Suddenly inhaling the mist containing Stun Spore and Sleep Powder, Snorlax felt its whole body go numb and stiff, and its head became groggy. It couldn't help but roar loudly, its obese body desperately trying to move out of the range of the powder mist. However, because its feet were entangled by the extremely sticky insect webs, it lost its footing and crashed to the ground with a thud.
"Assault!"
With a brief command, the Pokémon that had surrounded Snorlax, already poised for action, all unleashed their most powerful moves on Snorlax's fallen body.
The Machop, their feet imbued with brownish-red Fighting energy, kicked at Snorlax with [Low Kick]; the Geodude picked up various sharp or hard stones from the scattered rubble around them, coating the stones with coffee-colored Rock energy, and pelted Snorlax with them like a [Rock Throw]; the Mankey's claws danced, vigorously attacking Snorlax with [Fury Swipes].
The Beedrill in the air, after a moment of charging up, dived at high speed, fiercely stabbing Snorlax with their sharp twin lances, then disengaged, pulling up to a certain height in the air again to repeat the diving stab.
"Awooo, awooo, awooo—"
Its massive and heavy body made Snorlax unable to dodge the Pokémon's attacks. It could only lie on the ground, passively enduring. The continuous pain, however, only made it more frenzied.
Seeing Snorlax suppressed and struggling helplessly on the ground, the Squirtle Boss let out a slight sigh of relief and directly dispelled the [Protect] barrier.
After a relentless barrage of attacks, most Pokémon were panting, recovering their energy. Just then, a fierce glint flashed in the eyes of Snorlax, which was lying on the ground with its head covered. With an agility unfitting its obese body, it grabbed a thick tree trunk lying on the ground beside it and, with immense strength, threw several tree trunks like boomerangs towards the group of Pokémon.
It happened so suddenly that the Squirtle Boss couldn't quickly gather energy to deploy the [Protect] barrier again. However, he showed no signs of panic and calmly shouted to the verdant green figure resting nearby, "Scyther, cut them down."
"Swish—" Scyther unhesitatingly charged towards the several rotating tree trunks, its large arm-scythes glinting coldly, cutting rapidly and directly slicing the trunks into dozens of smaller pieces of debris.
"Shield group, block!"
The Squirtle, who had been guarding the Grass and Bug-type Pokémon in the rear line, stepped forward, withdrew their heads and limbs into their shells, planted their legs firmly on the ground, and stood in a line.
The [Withdraw] move greatly increased their defense.
"Thump, thump, thump," the debris from the tree trunks successively crashed against the defensive line formed by the Squirtle. Apart from making them retreat slightly, it caused no injuries at all.
At this moment, a dazzling light shone. The giant flower on Vileplume's head, standing in the rear rank, gathered a large amount of Grass-type energy.
"[Grassy Terrain]," Vileplume called out softly. The energy spread out in a ring, sweeping over all the Pokémon standing on the ground. It invigorated the Pokémon, and their fatigued bodies, from overexerting their energy, recovered. The wounds on the Squirtle Boss's body also began to gradually heal after being swept by this green light.
The move [Grassy Terrain] could restore all Pokémon standing on the ground, truly a great asset for recovery.
"Is this what group battles are like in the Pokémon world?"
Rio, hiding on the side, was greatly shaken watching the Pokémon's smooth, flowing coordination of moves.
In the original games or anime, at most, it would be 3-on-3 battles. Although there would be some coordination between moves, it couldn't compare to the thrilling scene before him, where dozens of Pokémon took turns using moves in concert.
Returning to the battle, Snorlax was no weak Pokémon. Its Special Defense was naturally high for its species, and it had a high tolerance for status conditions. In addition, it was thick-skinned with astonishing HP. Although the Pokémon's storm-like fierce attacks temporarily suppressed Snorlax, gradually, Snorlax began to adapt. The two sides remained deadlocked for quite some time. Perhaps the little bit of reason Snorlax had left knew it couldn't defeat this group of Pokémon, so it staggered and fled into the forest.
Seeing Snorlax flee, the tensed-up Pokémon finally relaxed.
"Oh my god, that scared me to death." The Squirtle sat limply on the ground, scratching their heads with their claws.
"So tired, I just want to go back to sleep." The Oddishs' normally upright head leaves also drooped.
"Yeah, yeah." The other Pokémon nodded in agreement.
Seeing the crisis was resolved, the few elite Pokémon relaxed. Paying no mind to the chattering Pokémon gathered nearby, they moved to one side and communicated in low voices.
Rio pretended to casually drift closer to listen.
Only, no one noticed that in the nearby stream, a blue figure flashed past.