Chapter 148: Even Providing Cover Has a Threshold
"Enemy attack!! Ah—"
The Stitched Shadow Army soldier who discovered the abnormality only had time to shout out one word of warning before he turned into dust...
Specter appeared. Several "Shadow Balls" shot out from the shadows, sealing off all his escape routes—up, down, left, and right.
Before dying, the man even slapped his Poké Ball, summoning a Liepard with an extremely strong will to live, attempting to use the Dark-type Pokémon's resistance to Ghost-type moves to help him withstand this wave of sneak attacks.
Unfortunately, he had no idea what he was facing!
Specter, striking out filled with hatred, unleashed his energy fully. His Elite Four-level strength crushed all opposition; a single "Shadow Ball," despite the type disadvantage, directly and heavily injured the just-appeared Liepard.
The pitch-black energy balls that followed subsequently bombarded both the man and his Pokémon together.
After the smoke and dust dispersed, only a dying Liepard remained on the spot, along with its master who had already turned to dust.
This terrifying display of power startled all the comrades surrounding that man.
However, immediately after, someone still managed to send out this news via radio.
"Gengar has appeared!"
In an instant, this piece of intelligence once again ignited this battlefield that had just quieted down somewhat!
Gunfire and grenades began to roar once more.
Arthur very calmly gave a command: "Specter, come back!"
All along, regardless of how the times changed, the battlefield lethality of powerful Pokémon had always remained.
Specter's strength, even separated by two hundred years, was still like an old sword that hadn't dulled.
However, what truly restricted their effectiveness on the modern battlefield was still that same old cliché problem—
Pokémon cannot continuously use skills.
Any Pokémon, after using a move, needs to go through a short recovery period.
In the past, during the era when human weaponry still consisted only of flintlock rifles and smoothbore cannons, even when caught in a recovery period, those peak-combat-power Pokémon, by utilizing stylish movements or their thick hides, were still sufficiently able to withstand the enemy's brief counterattacks.
When skills were available, it was a slaughter; when skills were on cooldown, they would first kite and pull.
Added to that, the Elite Four members of that time possessed at least five or more main Pokémon that coordinated with each other, mutually covering their respective recovery periods, thus enabling them to be invincible on the battlefield, coming and going freely!
Two hundred years ago, an Elite Four member being an army of one was no exaggerated boast, but the most real form of deterrence!
However, as the era progressed, while the killing power of peak Pokémon admittedly remained, the threat posed to them by human weapons was also rapidly soaring!
Nowadays, Specter's strength in a 1v1 could admittedly still crush any Pokémon present, but once caught in an encirclement of heavy firepower, his situation would also become equally dangerous.
Sure enough, after a series of "Shadow Balls" finished off one outpost soldier, enemy rocket bombs and machine gun barrages instantly enveloped the area!
The trajectories traced by the tracer rounds shone brightly in the night sky, drawing one fatal fire line after another!
It was lucky that Arthur's command was given timely, pulling back the slightly overexcited Specter.
Otherwise, even Specter in his peak period wouldn't dare say he could retreat unharmed from such firepower.
Times had changed; they now had to become even more cautious.
"This way! First, take out the sniper on the high ground!"
Arthur, while soothing the killing-intent-overflowing Specter who clearly still didn't want to stop, simultaneously moved quickly along the wall corners under the cover of night, his speed as fast as a ghost.
This left Kevin, who was following behind, watching dumbfounded.
All along, Kevin's inner heart had actually been quite proud.
He considered his own Honchkrow's strength to be far from weak. In the past, in the slums, regardless of whether it was peers or adults, anyone who wanted to win against him more or less had to resort to some tricks and break some rules.
In a fair and square duel, before encountering Arthur, he had almost never lost.
He originally thought his own Honchkrow could at least be a main force. Unexpectedly, just as the action began, he witnessed the terrifying power of Specter's "Shadow Ball"...
Being a main force... seems a bit difficult...
Afterward, he again thought that even if a Pokémon was extremely strong, it couldn't single-handedly face an army. He himself still had a chance. If he couldn't be a main force, at least he could still provide some cover.
However, the next moment, he saw Arthur, as if like a robot that had automatically shielded itself from receiving all dangerous signals, completely unaffected by any explosions or machine gun fire from the front, remaining calm as a block of solid ice from start to finish.
So much so that in another blink of an eye, Kevin's line of sight almost lost track of Arthur.
He was too fast!
Flashing past in the dark night, like a ghostly shadow.
It wasn't until this moment that Kevin finally, somewhat, realized: So even providing cover has a threshold...
Fortunately, up until this moment, he could barely still keep up.
The sound of gunfire exploded for a while before gradually quieting down again.
In the Stitched Shadow Army's radio communications, Gengar's position had just appeared and then was lost again.
This left the local battlefield commander here feeling exceptionally puzzled.
"The Leader's Gengar wasn't this cunning before, was he? When did he become so tactically minded?"
Temporarily having lost the target, he could only first request all units on the communication channel to be on alert and maintain vigilance.
On the rooftop of a low building by the roadside, a Stitched Shadow Army sniper, half-crouched on the ground, had just replied "Roger" into his earpiece when immediately, the Golbat circling above his head issued a piercing cry.
Someone sneaked up?!
The sniper reacted very quickly. He immediately slapped the Poké Ball at his waist, releasing his second Pokémon behind him: a Persian!
Simultaneously, without even turning his head, he immediately lunged his whole body to the side, abandoning his heavy sniper rifle. After rolling on the spot once, he stood up and directly drew the tactical pistol from his waist!
The entire set of actions was smooth as flowing water, clean and neat, displaying outstanding military quality!
His response was very correct.
In this kind of situation, hastily turning around is just a waste of time; seeing the enemy's appearance provides no help to one's own survival and escape.
Releasing a Pokémon, diving to the side to dodge, standing up, drawing a gun—this was the optimal self-rescue strategy!
All of this was completed very reasonably, decisively, and rapidly!
After standing up, he immediately adopted a crouching posture, holding the gun with both hands, aiming steadily.
Then, without hesitation, he opened fire!
This shot, he had full confidence it could at least force back the invading enemy. If he was lucky, perhaps he could even directly counter-kill!
Until a sword light abruptly appeared in his field of vision.
A sword?
In that moment, his mind even went blank for a bit.
This feeling was like—discovering the opponent's style was somehow a bit different from his own?
But immediately following, his feeling quickly turned from surprise to horror.
Because he only heard a "Ding!" sound.
The sword rushing towards him from the front seemed to have knocked against something, flashing a wisp of fine sparks.
Then, the attacking enemy's footsteps didn't pause in the slightest; the sword light still approached him rapidly like rushing thunder.
What the opponent just knocked away... could it be the bullet I fired?
WTF?!
Does it need to be this ridiculous?!
In that moment, the sniper's inner heart only had time to complete this one final complaint of his life.
Then, darkness fell before his eyes, and the world spun.
He completely lost consciousness...
On the other side, the Persian the sniper had summoned at the last moment before dying was pounced upon by Frogadier with its whole body, directly hugged and crashed to the side, not allowing it to disturb its master's attack.
And the Golbat in the sky above was insta-killed with clean neatness by Specter's "Shadow Claw"!
By the time Kevin, panting heavily, finally made it up to the rooftop along the corridor, the battle had unexpectedly already ended with devastating quickness.
"You came just in time! Throw down a patch of Haze! Cover our immediate transfer!"
"..."
Kevin's mood at this moment was incomparably complex.
So, it turns out, he wasn't even providing cover...
He was just responsible for throwing smoke...
(End of Chapter)
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