Shedding

Selene was a monster.

She was. There was no denying it. Like Contestants, even Magical Beasts had to lose HP, MP, or SP (or a combination of these) to use the Skills. In Selene's case, these Skills were Soul Neurotoxin, a disgusting venom that could break down the soul itself, and Earth Vibration Sense.

But what had attracted Kai to her were her Abilities. She could kill 3rd-floor Contestants using them alone. Combine those Abilities with her Skills, and you got a grade E- magical beast that could annihilate most of the low-level Contestants from the 4th floor too.

Ridiculous! That was the word.

'Maybe that's why it is so hard to upgrade her,' Kai thought, hissing out his command.

-Use Intangibility-

Kai's hiss reached her, cutting its path through all the noise like a hot knife through the butter.

Just when Wailmer was about to hit her, Selene exploded into a swirling mass of silver mist. This was no mere mist that wind or water could affect. No. This was a phantasm that could pass through anything. A ghostly apparition, this silver mist was which one could only perceive but not see without untrained eyes.

Wailmer ran into the mist, and the mist entered it.

-Use Soul Chill at 40% output- Kai gave out his last command.

Only Kai in this world knew what Selene's Soul Chill could do at its maximum potential. He had used it to freeze his own soul against Dementor's soul-sucking ability. Selene couldn't control this Ability before this thoroughly, but Kai making her use this Ability for the last seven days against his Glitch's effects had benefited her too.

A burst of chill spread outward from within Wailmer's body. The Pokemon lost its momentum and fell into the canal, motionless. In just a moment, a thin layer of icy frost spread over its body, making the blue at its top look bluer.

Ross gasped. "Wow!" he said. "It's a Ghost, Ice, and Poison-type Pokemon! But… ice-type moves don't work well against Wailmer."

Following Ross' comment, the Pokemon's entire body thrummed. A silver mist escaped its body and materialized into Selene's snaky figure. She was tired, Kai noticed.

"Wail… MER!" the Pokemon cried, and the ice layer over it broke down into many shards. The water current carried those shards away, and seemingly all chances of Kai's victory along with them.

Or so Ross must have thought.

For, in the next moment, the Pokemon shook its head as if it was drunk, drowsy, and under the effect of strong sedation. Its body looked stiff as if an ethereal layer of ice was still over it, freezing its metabolism with every passing second.

This was the terror of Soul Chill. Its prey wasn't the physical body, but the soul. That layer of icy frost over the physical body was just a consequence of the soul freezing within.

"Wailmer!" Ross cried, seeing the oddness about the Pokemon. "Wailmer - come back!"

But the Pokemon might as well have not heard it. It dolled like a lifeless object, its eyes going vacant like a candle flame about to go out.

"Wailmer can't fight anymore." Cersei stepped towards the canal and declared with a noble authority.

Ross tried a few more times. But when he saw Selene still slithering around Wailmer, he finally shook his head and smiled. "Haha!" he laughed, approaching his gondola. "That was fun! Yes. We admit defeat."

[

Congratulations Contestant Kai Stormborn…

You have achieved a Milestone

…

]

Kai grinned…

… And Selene shuddered.

Ross climbed over his gondola and rushed for Wailmer as Kai approached the Ghost Serpent, slithering towards him. She was trembling, he could tell even from afar. Water was bubbling off her in a low, continuous rhythm.

-Hurts- she hissed, shaking her head.

-Hurts, master. It hurts so much- she hissed again.

Kai had never felt such emotions from her. He frowned as he crouched to pick her up. And dropped her back into the water.

She was hot. Seeing her white dragonish scales thrumming like a beetle's shell, no one could have told the temperature of those beautiful things. Kai looked at his palm and saw the burned marks in the shape of those scales.

His frown deepened.

-Hurts… Master- she cried.

'I thought it would be like the Pokemon evolution,' Kai wondered. 'What's happening?'

"Hey! Is everything alright?" Ross shouted a question, rowing the boat towards him.

Kai bent down and picked her up again, but this time he didn't drop her. He smiled at Ross and nodded. The plan would come first, pain later.

'Come,' Kai muttered within him, looking at Ross. 'Come, my delicious meal.'

Embracing Selene in his left hand, trying to hide her murderous hisses and trembles, Kai helped Ross's gondola with his right hand. Behind the boat, Wailmer seemed to have come out of the effects of Soul Chill but still looked lethargic. The Pokemon kept bumping into the boat's stern, pushing it over the canal.

'You come too,' Kai grinned at them both.

"It was such a good battle," Cersei said, smiling, stepping out from Kai's shadow. "Let me help you."

Cersei glanced at Kai from the corner of her eyes playfully. Kai understood that look.

'Oh, Cersei! Really?!' Kai shook his head. 'Not even a proper woman and you are already using such tactics. That too, using my food?'

-Hurts-

-Shut up!- Kai snapped, his hiss burying into Selene's mind. -Bear the pain-

-…- Selene didn't hiss anymore, but her coils were becoming tighter around his arm, and the heat had truly become unbearable, almost burning Kai's white full sleeve t-shirt.

'I must be quick about this,' Kai thought, gritting his teeth. So, he reached out for Cersei's t-shirt and pulled her back. There was such a smile of triumph over her face that even made Kai tremble. She had taken his pulling her away from Ross as a sign of some affection and jealousy, he could tell. But he didn't have the time to deal with her nonsense.

Not when he had just felt a moistness coming out of Selene's mouth.

She was bleeding.

Ross, beaming because of the battle, reached out to shake Kai's hands. The moment their palms touch each other, Kai snatched away that happiness. His eyes became dark, and when his mouth parted and sucked, a rattling noise reverberated. Ross' knees buckled, and he fell with Kai still sucking out all happiness and hope that the Pokemon Trainer had ever known.

The black hood of a tattered cloak covered his head as his feet levitated out of the water. Now he was a foul lord of despair, looming over Ross' face, making him remember all that was wrong with him and this world.

"Wailmerrr…" the Pokemon sensed Kai's presence and roared, but Kai was prepared for it. His hooded head snapped towards it and an unseen burst of energy left his body, hitting the Pokemon. The beast trembled like a leaf amid a storm. This was a Skill Kai had yet to use on anyone.

Intimidation!

[

Skill Intimidation Activated

Time Limit: 30 seconds

Skill: Intimidation

Grade: E+

Specification: Intimidate the target by shaking their soul

Requirement:

1. SP 30 Points

2. Reach 5 meters

Attributes: Consume SP points to fire a soul-shockwave

Effect:

1. SP Regeneration rate: -5% to -15%

2. The soul shockwave breaks the natural rhythm of a target's soul, making them feel vulnerable, helpless, and defenseless

Warning: The closer the target, the better the results

]

This was the reason for Kai to weaken Wailmer's soul using Soul Chill. His Intimidation wouldn't have worked on such a powerful magical creature effectively, otherwise.

-Ahhhh- Selene hissed so loud that it made even Kai stop.

Her grip had become so tight that any moment his bones would break, Kai could tell. In this transformation, Kai didn't feel the burning sensation, but that didn't mean it wasn't there. His gaze landed on her body, and only then did he realize what was happening.

Her white body looked murky, the color of rotten milk. A distinctive layer of skin was peeling off her, starting from her mouth. She kept thrashing her head, here and there, her fangs reaching for anything to just bite, just rip something off.

She was shedding.

'First their souls,' Kai thought, ignoring the maddening hisses.

Bang!

Suddenly, the water at the far end of the laneway exploded. Kai raised his head, and saw something rushing towards their position. Something powerful and fast. Incredibly fast. Like a jet.

'No!' Kai trembled, realizing the incomer's identity. 'Latias!'

It looked like an invisible jet plane was flying low, just over the canal.

-Ma…- Selene buried a hiss and plunged her fangs into Kai's shoulder. No venom came out, but they went deep, ripping his blood vessels and nerves.

That would have been painful, but it broke the trance-like state Kai had gone to. He looked at Selene and then at Ross and the Pokemon. Behind him, Cersei vanished. A furious rattling scream came out of his mouth and he threw away the almost lifeless body.

Run! The word echoed in his mind. He wasn't prepared to face a legendary Pokemon. Not when two other young Eon Pokemon could have been with the older Latias. He wasn't fast enough, either. But the abnormal condition of Ross and the Pokemon would keep Latias busy, he knew.

Still, he dashed off with all the speed he could muster. Gliding low over the water layer like a mass of the filthiest black mist, Kai took several turns in succession to throw Latias off if she was chasing him. When the pain from Selene's bite became unbearable, even for Kai, he stopped, canceling his transformation into a dark corner.

He grabbed the back of the serpent's mouth and pulled out her fangs, almost ripping out his muscles along with them. The boiling hot skin crackled under his grip, but Kai didn't let go. He didn't know if water would have some adverse effect on her shedding or not. He couldn't take any risk. Snake's shed was a precious material, he knew. Especially when that snake was a magical beast.

'Soul Points,' Kai thought, his eyes bloodshot. 'My Soul Points.'

In his embrace, Selene wriggled like a twisted rope under tension. Now she was pulsating, now she was hissing, and now she was puffing. Her scales rattled like the buzz of a hundred insects.

And then it broke.

Starting with her nose, her old skin came off, and Kai saw the sweetest and most beautiful thing under it. Such a white color even he had never seen before. Selene's tail grabbed Kai's forearm and she pushed herself more. The Skin gave away from her mouth, eyes, and then from the gash in between her blind eyes.

Time after time she kept pushing, hissing low moans, and her forked tongue flicking out, kissing Kai's burned arm. Like the peel of an orange, the skin left her almost effortlessly once the shedding started.

One last push and she was out.

The beauty.

Now almost 3 ft long, she hung around Kai like a scarf, panting for air. Kai couldn't take his murderous eyes off her. His hand reached for the head, patting it softly.

-Sleep- he hissed, controlling the hunger in his chest. -Sleep and become stronger.-

-Yessss- Selene hissed back and then dozed off without even entering Kai in her mist form, not knowing what fate she had survived just now.

Kai choked a moan as the wound on his back wriggled, healing by itself. The burns on his arms and his chest were so severe that even the flesh smelled charred. But what pained Kai the most was the loss of Soul Points. And the food supply.

The notification couldn't have more bad timing.

[

Party Member Morning Mist has shared her location with you

She is requesting an audio call…

Do you accept it?

]

Kai stored the old murky white skin in his MRB and stood up. With a hideous, raging scowl on his face, he brought out the Dementor.

'Let's see how many Soul Points these puny things will give me,' he thought, his breath rattling thunderously.

His feet left the water, leaving behind a dark layer of ice, pulsing with foul emotions.

*******

AN: Tomorrow we will reach Azalea Town. Do refer the map, if you haven't.