Chapter 34: The Extremely Vicious Overlord
Passing through the forest, Rio and Takuma finally saw the stream that flowed into the valley.
Sunrise Valley was just ahead.
Just as Rio was eager to rush out, Takuma, with quick eyes and nimble hands, grabbed him.
"Wait, don't go out yet."
Takuma pulled Rio, and they tiptoed to hide behind a patch of grass. Peeking through the grass, Rio saw a dark, restless mass of Pokémon of various forms surrounding the valley entrance. At the very front of the Pokémon was the back of a tall and ferocious Pokémon—this Pokémon stood over 3 meters tall on its hind legs. Seen from behind, it had a large, sharp horn on its head, and its purple outer carapace was covered in chilling spikes. Below the spikes, a thick, powerful tail swayed. Even this unconscious, subtle movement could create shallow pits in the ground beneath its feet, not to mention that the land trodden by its sturdy lower limbs was already slightly cracked, as if under immense pressure.
"Nidoking!"
Takuma exclaimed in a low voice, his eyes filled with astonishment.
Although Nidoran, Nidoking's initial form, was a commonly seen Pokémon in the forest, its final evolved form, Nidoking, required a relatively rare evolutionary stone—the Moon Stone—to evolve successfully. And Moon Stones needed to be irradiated by the energy of moonlight over a long period to form even one rare piece. Therefore, the appearance of a Pokémon like Nidoking in Newmoon Forest was relatively uncommon, let alone the fact that this Nidoking before them was considerably taller than an ordinary Nidoking recorded in data.
The light screen appearing before Rio's eyes further revealed the extraordinariness of this Nidoking.
————————————
[Real-time Analysis]
Pokémon: Hegemon - Nidoking (Berserk) (Mind-Controlled) (Male)
Level: lv40
Type: Poison + Ground
Ability: Poison Point (When hit by an opponent's direct attack, may sometimes poison the opponent)
??: ??
Moves: Earthquake (lv5), Poison Jab (lv4), Iron Tail (lv4), Horn Attack (lv2), Leer (lv2)
————————————
"Hiss—"
Rio sucked in a sharp breath of cold air.
Leaving aside Nidoking's brand-new title "Hegemon," and not to mention the highest level Rio had encountered so far, lv40, just the conspicuous lv5 [Earthquake] in its move list was enough to indicate how strong Nidoking's destructive power was.
Speaking of these move levels, since it was a standard quantified by the light screen for Rio, only Rio could see it. Therefore, no other Pokémon could explain the principle behind this level classification to Rio.
However, after much observation, Rio discovered that these move levels actually represented the proficiency and power of the moves. The more proficiently trained and the more skillfully used, the stronger the effect of support/interference moves or the power of attack moves would be. Moreover, this move level could at most be one tier higher than the Pokémon's level. For example, the lv16 Rio could only have moves up to lv2 at most, and the lv36 Squirtle Boss's highest move level was only lv4. As for why this restriction existed, Rio guessed it was probably because the energy within a Pokémon's body limited the upper ceiling of the level; only by raising one's own level and becoming stronger could one master even more powerful moves.
Also, what was that unknown "Mind-Controlled" status?
And, a Hegemon-level Pokémon had no special attributes?
Unlike the games or anime of his previous life, in the real Pokémon world, apart from ordinary Pokémon, Pokémon of other life tiers all possessed special attributes.
Thinking back to the Elite-level Pokémon he had scanned before, they all had a "Special" attribute category, which provided various enhancements for Elite Pokémon. As for Leader-level Pokémon, this was replaced by the "Dominion" attribute, indicating leadership over a Pokémon clan and the buffs the clan provided to the Leader-level Pokémon.
And this even more imposing and domineering Hegemon-level Pokémon actually had no special attributes at all?
Except for that attribute that was all question marks?
Rio felt as if he had missed something.
Facing this unfamiliar data, Rio frowned in thought, the black lappets on the sides of his head moving unconsciously.
Returning to the main point.
Besides scanning Nidoking, Rio also examined the remaining Pokémon one by one. In addition to checking their data, he noticed that these Pokémon, without exception, all possessed the "Mind-Controlled" tag.
"Elite-level Nidoqueen, Arbok, and Sandslash, plus a large number of Nidoran♂, Nidoran♀, and their evolved forms Nidorino and Nidorina, Ekans, Koffing, Sandshrew, Rhyhorn, and Diglett, even if they are normal-level... the combat situation is very unfavorable."
Rio silently compared the combat strength disparity between this group of Pokémon from the Toxic Swamp and the Pokémon of Sunrise Valley.
King against king, general against general, soldier against soldier.
The Squirtle Boss, a single Leader-level Pokémon, against the Hegemon Nidoking, whose level and title were both higher than his. Even if the Squirtle Boss had more moves than the Hegemon Nidoking, the difference in strength was undeniably real.
As for Elite-level Pokémon battles, Sunrise Valley only had three Elite Pokémon: Machop, Flower (Vileplume), and Scyther. The Toxic Swamp side also had three. It was 3 vs 3, but there were certain type matchups to consider. For example, Poison counters Fighting, but Grass counters Ground. The outcome was truly unpredictable.
Not to mention, among the normal-level Pokémon, many in Sunrise Valley were at a lower level and didn't participate in battles often. Facing this group of frenzied Pokémon who looked murderous, they would probably lose half their courage before even fighting.
"Damn it, if only I had trained harder before and reached lv20, I could at least help fight against the Elite-level Pokémon."
Thinking about his somewhat lax attitude towards training before, which caused him to miss the opportunity for rapid early-level advancement, leading to his current situation of having the will but lacking the strength, Rio was filled with regret.
His left paw, propped on the ground, clenched into a tight fist.
Takuma gently parted the grass, peeking out through the various gaps he created. After a moment, he whispered with some surprise, "How strange. Why are they just staying there? I don't see any other Pokémon appearing either."
These words reminded Rio.
"Indeed, such a large group of Pokémon gathered at the valley entrance... if we consider Scyther's vigilance, it's impossible not to have noticed. And the commotion from this group of Pokémon is so loud, the Squirtle Boss and the others couldn't possibly have not heard it."
"Let's wait a bit longer."
Feeling that something was fishy, Rio tugged at Takuma's clothes, signaling to observe for a while longer.
Time passed by, bit by bit.
The Pokémon from the Toxic Swamp perhaps grew impatient from waiting, and a restless mood began to spread among them.
"Hmph!"
Sensing the irritable and impatient mood of its clan, the Hegemon Nidoking snorted angrily. An inexplicable pressure swept over them, instantly intimidating the slightly noisy Pokémon into silence.
At this moment, a Pokémon resembling a giant purple cobra, leading several Ekans and a few Sandshrew, emerged from Sunrise Valley.
"Great King, your subordinate has inspected and found no Pokémon in the valley. All possible hiding places have been destroyed by us. We just don't know where the Pokémon from this valley have hidden themselves, hisss."
Arbok flicked its forked tongue and reported to the Hegemon Nidoking with a sinister expression.
"Thump!" The Hegemon Nidoking's tail slammed heavily on the ground, venting its master's displeasure.
"Destroy everything here. Let's see where they can hide then!" The Hegemon Nidoking's cruel and cold voice sounded.
"Roar—" "Awooo—" "Hisss—"
The Pokémon around it could no longer hold back. Hearing the Hegemon Nidoking's command, various cries rose and fell. In an instant, almost all the Pokémon's eyes lit up with a baleful red glow, and they all began to stir restlessly.
For a moment, various moves flew wildly through the air, and the Pokémon rampaged, destroying everything in their path.
Trees collapsed, rubble flew, and Sunrise Valley was instantly thrown into a devastating mess!