Pokémon Detective: Cynthia Forces Me to Adopt a Pokémon

Chapter 258 Ashes - The Horn of Truth's Return

Inside, the dry air had become unbearably damp, and the floor tiles, originally charred black by the flames, were now covered with a layer of condensed water droplets...

There were faint signs that it was about to rain.

As the instigator, Bogarman has accumulated boundless aquatic energy within its enormous blue fins.

Although the preparation phase was disrupted by Volcarona's "screech," the Dynamax move did not fail thanks to the willpower boosted by the "Torrent" ability.

With a sudden thrust forward, the massive body unleashed a torrent of water that formed an overwhelming barrier, surging and crashing toward its opponent.

The water wall quickly met its first obstacle—

The "piercing sound" that is merely a disturbance is certainly not enough to satisfy Volcarona and its trainer. As a star in the long night, it must actively radiate its light.

The incredibly powerful enemy swayed slightly, then immediately released golden roots of "Ultimate Absorption" from between its red insect wings. The attack, accompanied by the sound of wind being torn apart, pierced upwards in two directions simultaneously with overwhelming force.

They were trying to find out where Garchomp's attack had landed on the ground, and another target was Piplup.

However, as the two attacks clashed, a burst of steam rose, and the flame roots that had been trying to pierce the water wall and stir the curtain vanished without a trace in an instant.

This move, which should have been effective against Grass-type Water-type moves, only left ripples on the blue wall of the Dynamax move.

It seems that the "Ultimate Drain" transformed from flames ultimately failed to break through the thickness of "Max Water Flow" and disappeared under the surging "Torrent".

Bogarman's water-based attack continued to surge forward like a raging torrent.

Following the Red-Faced Dragon's "Rain Prayer" attack, a light drizzle began to fall once again inside the stone tower that had stood for over a hundred years.

.

On the other side, behind the Ardek Champion, Garchomp raised its claws and unleashed scales brimming with the savage energy of the Dragon type.

The target wasn't the invincible Vulcan Moth, but rather the Ardek Champion himself, who was standing behind it and directing the battle with words.

While Garchomp cannot predict the course of a battle through reasoning like Hugo, it still possesses its own judgment.

It was naturally aware that its attack could not possibly escape the fire moth's perception.

Therefore, changing the target to an unsuspecting trainer becomes the optimal solution at this moment.

Attacking where the enemy must defend is a battle strategy that Sinnoh Champion Cynthia is known for. No matter how experienced a trainer is, or how powerful and elite a Pokémon is, when concern cloudes judgment, it's easy to make less-than-rational decisions.

If Volcarona leaves an opening due to its hasty retreat, it might be able to coordinate with Piplup to severely damage the opponent in this offensive...

To avoid its moves being detected too early, Garchomp even reduced the speed of its "Scale Shot." This is also an experience accumulated over many years of battles—when the speed of the projectile is reduced to just below the speed of sound, the noise it produces becomes soft and gentle, allowing it to silently bring down its opponent like a ghost.

however--

"Vulcan Moth, 'Angry Powder'."

Despite having his back to Garchomp, Alder spoke abruptly, as if he had foreseen it.

Meanwhile, the fire moth in front of them was now covered with a striking layer of golden dust.

There was no need for Garchomp to reposition itself; under its furious gaze, the blue scale it had launched itself changed its trajectory mid-air. It narrowly bypassed the motionless Red-Haired Champion, heading straight for the Volcarona, which was already prepared to defend.

The subsonic wind blew across Adek's linen shawl, the gently swaying hem of the garment appearing particularly ironic.

"In the public's perception, Bug-type Pokémon's moves are either unremarkable or so annoyingly cumbersome."

The red-haired, elderly champion turned around and immediately looked at the location of Garchomp, then spoke leisurely.

"However, it is precisely this kind of unpredictable ambush and relentless persistence that makes up the Bug-type Pokémon we love, isn't it?"

As he spoke, blue dragon scales shot out, following an arc-shaped trajectory, and finally hit the overlapping red wings of the fire moth, splashing up a few sparks.

"You were slightly injured by 'Scale Shot'? Well, that's fine then."

A smile spread across Alder's weathered face. He turned around, ignoring the deep blue Garchomp, and together with his partner, raised their faces to meet Piplup's "Max Water Stream" and the raindrops falling from the sky.

The giant penguin remained behind the water curtain, continuing to inject water-attribute energy into its attacks.

If this wall of water were to lose control and be allowed to simply fall as liquid from the sky, the resulting massive volume of water would be enough to submerge everyone on the third floor.

The red-haired champion stretched out his arm in the face of such a massive attack, and Volcarona also raised half of its wing.

The flames billowed, evaporating the rainwater covering them and turning it into white smoke.

Aldak gave the order—

"Use 'Ultimate Drain' again. Volcarona, it's time to close the net."

Just as the champion spoke, Piplup, who had been continuously channeling power into his moves, finally realized something was wrong—his "Max Water Stream" was inexplicably no longer obeying his commands.

"As we all know, an incompetent trainer cannot command a powerful Pokémon, and the same principle applies to Pokémon. If a Pokémon is too weak, it is impossible for it to fully master moves that exceed its own limits."

Having witnessed an undeniable victory, the champion, Adek, became more talkative.

As if in response to the champion's statement, the "giant water flow" in front of the giant penguin suddenly collapsed like a building block without any mortise and tenon joints.

The city wall collapsed, turning into countless bricks and stones.

Within each broken brick of the water wall, fluorescent yellow light shimmered.

The points of light floated in the blue-green water energy, flickering on and off, and against the backdrop of the white walls of the Tower of Heaven, they resembled a real-life Milky Way!

"That's truly a powerful 'Giga Drain' move. No wonder he's a Bug-type expert specializing in 'herbivorous' attacks!"

Hugo, who had rushed into the heart of the battlefield alongside the elves, witnessed firsthand the miracle created by the Volcano Moth—

At this moment, he understood that the sparks of light blooming in the sky were actually fragments of grass-attribute energy buried in the first round of "Ultimate Absorption".

At that time, it wasn't Piplup's "Max Aqua" that extinguished the flame-formed roots, but rather Volcarona that took advantage of its opponent's lack of familiarity with the power of the move and deliberately disintegrated its own move during the collision of moves.

The reason for doing this is to allow the grass-type energy that is compatible with Volcano to spread freely throughout the water-type city wall and erupt again at this moment.

Before Bogarman's wide-open eyes, countless fiery roots reappeared once more.

This time, however, they didn't originate from Volcarona's wings. Instead, guided by the opponent's "Giga Drain" move, they grew from the floating fragments of "Max Aqua" and connected back to Volcarona, which was engulfed in flames.

These roots grew by absorbing the enormous energy injected by Piplup, and then reconnected with their original owner, continuing to feed the remaining power back to Volcano.

This process sounds complicated, but it happens in just a few seconds.

To the spectators, it looked as if Volcano had suddenly released a golden spiderweb into the sky. As the golden light swirled, the massive amount of water suspended above their heads began to evaporate and dissipate at a visible speed, until not a single drop of water remained.

Piplup's "Max Aqua," which it had been building up for so long, vanished in the blink of an eye, without even a proper attack being launched.

Only the dwindling rain in the sky signaled the failure of the challenger's offensive.

However, the Volcano Moth had recovered to its peak condition, even surpassing its former strength when they confronted each other on the fifth floor.

"You've run out of options. It's time to end this game."

Adek stepped forward and spoke to Hugo.

The two were now very close. The detective in black had run all the way and was now standing right in front of the burning fire moth. If his opponent used any move he wanted, Hugo was destined to faint on the spot.

"That's right, it's time to end this."

The detective actually nodded.

With a flick of his left hand, which was equipped with a Dynamax simulation device, a red and white Poké Ball appeared in his palm.

"Little flame monkey?"

Alder was no careless detective; he immediately recognized the Pokémon inside the Poké Ball through its translucent red shell.

He was not surprised by this.

Since the detective was present when the chaotic battle took place on the fourth floor, it was impossible for Chimchar to be left near death during the melee. Moreover, Chimchar possesses the "Slacking Off" move, so given enough time, it can certainly recover enough stamina to fight again.

However, the elderly champion did not understand why Hugo would place the Poké Ball at this moment when the battle situation was already so clear.

Do you still want to struggle with brute force?

despair.

A crisp snap of fingers rang out.

The sound resounded in all directions, echoing through the smoke-filled stone tower.

And then the echo followed—

The long-suppressed roar erupted once more, stirring up scorching sand and dust on the ground—Garuda's "Hot Sands"!

The sound of rocks colliding echoed from high above. Piplup once again used Max Energy, gathering rubble and bricks in his palm to form a rugged rock ball. Learning from his previous experience, he accumulated enough energy to reach his limit and then decisively threw it—the "Max Rock," evolved from "Rock Totem"!

Alderk then realized that the Poké Ball on the detective's left was nothing more than a blatant illusion.

Its true purpose was to use a coded signal to issue an attack order to Piplup and Garchomp on the outer edge of the battlefield.

Now that things have come to this, he has nothing more to say.

"Vulcan Moth, "Big Character Explosive Flame"! "

Faced with an enemy so close at hand, the Volcano hardly needs to aim or charge up; a huge letter of flame is instantly unleashed, its target the detective.

However, how could it be that only the two Pokémon far away heard that snap?

Before the scorching flames, Hugo suddenly opened the Poké Ball in his left hand, and Chimchar sprang out, arms crossed, resolutely heading straight for the flames!

They used the "Hold on" move again!

Hmm, that's about enough.

At the heart of the chaotic vortex, the detective thought to himself.

The world should be getting back on track soon.