met free Chapter 226 Triple Slaughter
Chapter 226 Triple Slaughter
As a detective who frequently needs to hear testimonies, Hugo disliked ambiguous language.
If it were just two enemies blocking their way from the front and back, it would at most be considered a pincer attack. But he said that he and Alice were "surrounded" by the enemy, which means that in his opinion, there were opponents from at least three directions.
Even before the van suddenly came into view, the detective had sensed something amiss in his surroundings. After a quick mental analysis, he swiftly shared his deduction with Alice—
"The enemy is a trio of ninjas from Team Plasma, whose individual strength is at least enough to overpower the main force of the gym leader. We are surrounded by such a group."
Hugo subtly glanced at his companions, signaling the location of the three ninjas.
"At five o'clock behind us, there's a person hiding near a pile of fallen leaves behind the tree by the roadside. Although he's wearing a raincoat the same color as the leaves, a naturally formed pile of leaves couldn't possibly be that high. At nine o'clock on our left, there's another person hiding in the driveway ditch, their clothing unknown, but behind them, in the dense forest, there's a continuous path through the leaves. And there's more..."
Before he could finish speaking, Hugo stopped, his gaze fixed on the gray van that had been thrown back to the ground by the dragon-headed gopher.
Because at that very moment, a third enemy appeared before them in an incredibly bizarre way.
The large vehicle, intended as a ramming weapon, failed in its mission and is now completely destroyed. In the driver's seat, the ninja driver, who had been grinning maniacally, is gradually being distorted into a strange shape by the airbags.
Its body swelled up, its face lost all color, and in its place were black mist constantly emanating from it, scarlet eyes, and a non-human metallic shell that shone with a golden luster.
As the last wisp of mist dissipated, a Ghost-type Pokémon resembling a magnificent coffin suddenly appeared.
A dark, ghostly mist swirled around its pure gold body, a golden mask, neither crying nor laughing, hovering high above its forehead. This Pokémon floated leisurely through the airbag and emerged from between the shattered windshield.
Coffin Pokémon, Coffin.
“It’s an illusion created by the move ‘Nightmare.’ This ghostly sprite was probably controlling the truck before,” Hugo quickly concluded.
hissing sound —
As if refuting the detective's judgment, the strange phenomenon was not over.
With a mournful, lingering creak, the lid of the Coffin of Death was opened from the inside out.
Inside the golden coffin was even more ethereal black mist, and emerging from this boundless darkness was a white-haired ninja who was identical to the previous phantom, though it was unclear which member of the Iron Triangle he was.
By using illusion to disguise reality, it seems this trio has indeed learned a lot from the museum incident.
The ninja spoke hoarsely, unsurprisingly uttering a trio of words—
"We are the illusion of the Trinity, the triangular spearhead of the Order of Ideals, and the dark weapon wielded by the Supreme King."
As if they had been rehearsed long ago, the voices rang out simultaneously from three directions: front, back, and left, with identical content and tone.
"I'm sorry, but your existence is completely at odds with the mission we have been given. Anyone who stands in our way can be killed. Please, you two, head to the Underworld Kingdom first."
"Stop being so mysterious! Dragon Head Mole, 'Iron Head'!"
The purple-haired girl impatiently interrupted the person in front of her as he rambled on.
While the illusions created by Ghost-type Pokémon are terrifying, Iris is a wild child who has been hanging out outside the city since she was a child. For her, mischievous Ghost-type Pokémon are nothing new.
Before receiving the order, Excadrill was already eager to try. As soon as it heard the trainer speak, this giant mole with a sharp drill on its head immediately charged towards the Coffin of Death with a light step that was disproportionate to its size.
"Death's Coffin, intercept the attack, and simultaneously use 'Will-o'-the-Wisp'."
For some reason, even the detailed commands given to the Pokémon were issued by all three ninjas at once. Aren't they worried that their voices would reveal their location?
Before them, the Coffin of Death opened its four ghostly gray hands, trying to embrace the attacking opponent, while behind it emerged a ghostly blue phosphorescent flame devoid of any warmth.
"Use 'High-Speed Spin' to deflect the 'Will-o'-the-Wisp'! Go, Dragon Head Mole!"
Alice was passionately directing the battle when Hugo suddenly grabbed her arm, causing her to fall to the ground.
"Hey!" The girl and the tooth in her hair looked up at the detective with a shared sense of righteous indignation, but what happened next left them speechless.
Near the wreckage of the car, the Dragon Head Groundhog spun like a drill as it charged forward, successfully deflecting the "ghost fire" released by its opponent. Its imposing "Iron Head" struck the metal shell of the Death Coffin without hesitation, producing a resounding clang.
The latter, which was attacked, was thrown several meters away by black mist. The unstoppable aura that the Dragon Head Ground Rat had originally possessed also disappeared. This was a manifestation of its "out-of-the-box" characteristic being infected by the "mummy" characteristic of the Death Coffin - Alice had long anticipated this development.
What truly caught her off guard was that, at the same time the "ghost fire" released by the Death Coffin was neutralized by the Dragon Head Ground Rat, two nearly transparent balls of ghost fire silently drifted in from behind and to the left of the girl.
The two "will-o'-the-wisps" that missed their target continued to float forward in a straight line, attacking the Salamence guarding its master. The Salamence instinctively dodged the flame that was closest to the detective and Alice, but the second "will-o'-the-wisp" still managed to hit its broad wing on the back.
The "ghost fire" bursts forth the moment it hits its target, writhing like a living ghost, leaving scorched earth in its wake.
Salamence roared angrily, its face contorted in pain, already engulfed in flames. Whether it uses physical attacks or attempts to escape the battlefield using Fly, Salamence's strength will be severely hampered.
Alice swallowed hard, her heart pounding.
Even if she and the detective had previously stood in the middle of the road, misleading their opponents into ignoring the attack coming from underground, the enemy was similarly using one of them as a decoy to make their side lower their guard against attacks from other directions.
If Hugo hadn't pulled her back in time, those two insidious flames would have struck the trainer who was focused on giving commands. It wouldn't have been impossible for her to die on the spot.
Clearly, the enemy's statement that "all can be killed" was no exaggeration.
A triangle of shadows, a triple massacre.
Any obstacle that hinders the ninjas from carrying out their missions will be mercilessly eliminated by the Dark Trio.
Looking towards the distance from which the "ghost fire" had drifted, two more Coffins of Death emerged from the darkness. It was they who had launched the deadly sneak attack on Alice from the shadows. Their trainers, true to their namesakes, remained hidden in the shadows, silently waiting for the next opportunity to deliver a fatal blow.
No wonder the command was issued by all three of them together—these three dark beings with the same name were controlling three Pokémon of the same type.
"This can't go on."
With his back to Alice, who was sitting on the ground, Hugo took out three Poké Balls and slowly released the Pokémon inside.
Turtwig, Piplup, Chimchar.
The girl was puzzled. Although the three Pokémon were full of energy and seemed well-trained, they were not Pokémon that had been trained to their evolutionary peak. What role could they play in such a battle?
"We are outnumbered and as long as they maintain their three-man encirclement, we will remain on the defensive. We must do something to break them up."
"What should we do? Send out all the spirits on our bodies?"
Alice jumped up from the ground again and continued to command Excadrill to fight the enemy. At the same time, she took out two more Poké Balls from her body, preparing to throw them at the Coffin behind her and to her left.
"No, that alone won't be enough to escape. The enemy probably has even more Pokémon, and I'm not confident I can dodge so many ambushes."
Hugo pointed to the wreckage of the car—
"We must target the enemy's mission itself. If we release all the Pokémon stolen by Team Plasma here, those ninjas who prioritize the mission will lose their purpose in continuing to harass us, and the three-way encirclement will naturally be resolved."
"Then let me do it..."
“No way.” Hugo rejected the idea again. “Those three hundred Poké Balls might not be in the wreckage of the vehicle right now. The ninja trio has most likely moved them somewhere else already. We have to find them first.”
As soon as Hugo finished explaining the situation, the Turtwig, Piplup, and Chimchar all acted at the same time, jumping into the dense forest on the right side of the road—the weakest point in the Dark Triangle's encirclement.
The young man in black followed his partners away, leaving behind a lingering remark—
"Finding hidden lost items is a detective's daily job."