Chapter 24: The Giant Bird Wreaking Havoc in the Sky
Chapter 24: The Giant Bird Wreaking Havoc in the Sky
"Careful!"
Facing the assault of the giant claws, the fur on Rio's body instantly bristled. With extreme speed, he lunged at Takuma, tackling him and rolling to the side.
Machop and Poliwhirl also rolled to opposite sides to evade.
Its attack having missed, this enormous bird Pokémon spread its wings, and a fierce whirlwind howled, tearing the secret base in the large tree to shreds.
"Ouch!"
Due to the destruction of the treetop base, Rio and Takuma were slammed hard onto the ground.
"This is the king of the sky, Pidgeot!" Takuma, ignoring the pain from his fall, couldn't help but exclaim upon seeing this majestic bird Pokémon.
Pidgeot is the evolved form of Pidgeotto, and also the final evolved form of Pidgey. Compared to Pidgeotto, Pidgeot is a size larger. Brown feathers cover its strong, powerful wings. Three feathers—two red on the sides and one yellow in the middle—extend from the top of its head, fluttering in the wind. Its sharp beak and talons are full of power, and its fierce crimson eyes and broad, strong wings all contribute to Pidgeot's kingly demeanor.
And this one before them, clearly a Leader-level Pidgeot, was even larger than an ordinary Pidgeot. It was currently flapping its wings, hovering in the air, looking down upon Rio's group.
"We were probably too loud and attracted Pidgeot."
Rio looked at the clearly formidable Pidgeot and complained silently. He had previously thought he could at least struggle a bit against that Pidgeotto, but facing this Pidgeot, which radiated a terrifying ferocity, he was probably just a sitting duck.
Muttering to himself, Rio still took advantage of the moment before Pidgeot launched an attack to quickly glance at his [Pokédex].
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[Pokédex]
Encounter Progress: 33/50
Battle Progress: 17/25
[Real-time Analysis]
Pokémon: Leader - Pidgeot (Berserk) (Female)
Level: lv36
Type: Normal + Flying
Ability: Keen Eye (Accuracy will not be changed by any stat modifications during battle)
Dominion: Sky Nest (Leads the Flying-type Pokémon of Sky Nest; clan Pokémon have increased movement speed when Pidgeot is present)
Moves: Quick Attack (lv4), Agility (lv4), Twister (lv3), Steel Wing (lv3), Sand Attack (lv2), Feather Dance (lv2), Fly (lv1)
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Lv36, the same level as the Squirtle Boss, and also one of only two Pokémon at the highest level Rio had seen!
And looking at its move list, although it had slightly fewer moves than the Squirtle Boss, their levels were by no means inferior. Moreover, the range of move effects was very broad, including attack moves like [Quick Attack], [Twister], [Steel Wing], and [Fly]; harassing moves like [Sand Attack] and [Feather Dance]; and even [Agility] to boost its own speed. It was estimated that if the Squirtle Boss and Pidgeot fought in their prime, it would be an evenly matched situation.
More importantly, Pidgeot could fly! As long as Pidgeot maintained enough distance in the sky, without moves to counter Flying-type Pokémon, they could only watch helplessly as it soared.
"Careful, this Pidgeot is exactly like the Snorlax Leader before; it's in a 'Berserk' state!" Seeing the suffix after 'Pidgeot Leader' on the light screen, Rio unhesitatingly warned the cautiously alert Machop and Poliwhirl.
Perhaps stimulated by Rio's shout, a fierce glint flashed in the Berserk Pidgeot Leader's eyes. The crimson energy on its body blazed up like hot oil on a fire. The entire bird dived rapidly, attacking with a flash of electrical light. Its speed was so great that the fierce flame in its eyes left afterimages in the air.
"Why is it coming for me?" Rio's face changed drastically as he saw Pidgeot dive towards him. He pushed Takuma away with one paw.
"[Detect]!"
Subconsciously using the [Detect] move, everything before Rio's eyes instantly slowed down. He could clearly see the feathers on Pidgeot's head stretching back against the wind, as well as its incoming flight trajectory. Rio slowly sidestepped, following the impact trajectory of Pidgeot's [Quick Attack] move. His left foot was just about to push off forcefully to leap to the right rear.
Time returned to its normal flow.
"Awooo!"
He had only completed half the motion when he was swept by the powerful aftershock. Air blades cut countless small wounds on Rio's body, making him howl in pain.
After all, time slowing down was just an illusion. The [Detect] move only allowed Rio to clearly see the trajectory of the enemy's attack. Even if he pre-planned how to dodge, whether he could ultimately dodge still depended on Rio's physical reflexes. And the speed of Pidgeot's [Quick Attack] was so fast that Rio's body couldn't react in time at all.
Rio was sent flying backward and crashed to the ground.
He felt his chest roil, and he couldn't stop himself from spitting out a mouthful of blood.
The move's intensity, stemming from a level difference of over 20 levels, made Rio suffer a huge loss.
"Luckily, it wasn't a direct hit, otherwise I'd probably have been instantly killed..." A trace of lingering fear remained in Rio's dizzy head. If he had been directly hit by this [Quick Attack], Rio would probably be going to see the Underworld King Dragon now.
(Giratina: Although I'm called the Underworld King Dragon, I'm not really the king of the underworld...)
"Little brother!" Seeing Rio spit blood, Machop's face showed worry and tension. But he couldn't attend to the injured Rio because Pidgeot, its momentum unabated, once again charged towards Machop, enveloped in powerful energy.
"Ha! [Brick Break]!"
Clenching his left fist at his waist, his right hand held high like a knife-hand, Machop lowered his center of gravity into a horse stance, held his breath, and stared intently at Pidgeot's lightning-fast figure. The moment Pidgeot was about to strike, his right palm gathered surging brownish-red Fighting energy and, like a sharp greatsword, chopped down heavily at Pidgeot!
The palm-blade cut through the air, creating explosive sounds.
"Boom—" The extremely fast Pidgeot and the well-prepared Machop collided violently. The clash of energies exploded directly in mid-air, sending surrounding leaves and dust flying everywhere.
The two sides were evenly matched in a stalemate. The crimson, fierce flame energy and the brownish-red Fighting energy intertwined, tearing at each other, emitting waves of oppressive power.
"Crack, crack," the enormous recoil force even tore open fissures in the ground beneath Machop's feet.
"[Water Gun]!"
"Sploosh!" A fierce jet of water suddenly shot out from the side, hitting Pidgeot and causing its figure to sway, momentarily losing balance.
"Chance! Ha!"
Seeing his opponent lose balance during the stalemate, Machop's momentum surged. He seized the opportunity, stepped forward, mobilized all his Fighting energy, and brought his right palm-blade down with force!
"Bang!"
Unfortunately, this fierce blow hit nothing but air. Pidgeot nimbly executed a mid-air flip, dodging Machop's powerful [Brick Break], and flew back into the sky. A fierce glint in its eyes, its wings whipped up two howling, spinning tornadoes that rushed towards Machop.
Machop, having just used his move, couldn't dodge in time. Caught off guard, he was unable to evade. Pidgeot's [Twister] move formed powerful tornadoes that swept up various debris from the ground. Machop, caught within, was battered by sharp rocks and thick broken branches, then thrown down hard from a height. For a moment, like Rio, he was severely injured and unable to fight.
Two out of three Pokémon were down in an instant!
Pidgeot shifted its fierce gaze to Poliwhirl, the only one left standing on the field. Even though its sanity was almost gone, it still remembered the pain of being hit by that [Water Gun] earlier.
Poliwhirl stared back at Pidgeot with a composed expression.
Rio was heavily injured, his mind in chaos. His remaining consciousness desperately tried to figure out how to resolve this crisis: "If Poliwhirl can't beat Pidgeot, how can we escape?... Pidgeot can fly and is extremely fast; we definitely can't outrun it on the ground... Maybe run underground? Right, I still have that move... If I want to use that move to escape, I first need to restore my HP to have the strength to use a move... Eating Berries is too slow, so..."
His consciousness accessed his system's light screen, selected [Backpack], scanned through various items, and chose two of them.
"Pop!" Two purple spray cans appeared out of thin air in Rio's hand. He used all his strength to hand the two spray cans to the nervous Takuma nearby. "Takuma, spray these two things on me and Machop... quickly..."
Takuma looked astonished. "Ah, these are Potions sold in shops! Riolu, how do you have such things? And how can you suddenly make Potions appear? Is this some kind of high technology? Or your psychic power?"
"…" Rio wanted to smack this brat who couldn't tell the urgency of the situation. Didn't he see this was an ultra-emergency? What time was it to be asking a million questions here?
Fortunately, Takuma still understood the priorities. He put away his curiosity and skillfully gripped the triggers of the Potions, spraying them towards Rio and Machop.
A cool mist of Potion sprayed from the bottles, scattering onto Rio and Machop, shimmering with a crystalline light.
In his consciousness, Rio watched his HP rise from a near-fainting "5/45" to "25/45." He finally felt his body regain its vitality, and his mind gradually cleared as his HP recovered.
"These Potions are really good stuff!" Looking at the remaining 3 Potions in his [Backpack], Rio felt a wave of relief.
As for how he got these Potions, it all started when Rio discovered the two Water Stones that had appeared in his [Backpack] last time.
Those two inexplicably appearing Water Stones were rewards obtained after the "Encounter Progress" in the system's [Pokédex] reached its target. Realizing that completing various progresses in the [Pokédex] would yield additional rewards, Rio became quite enthusiastic about encountering all sorts of Pokémon and, when conditions allowed, even actively initiated sparring requests.
Due to his shameless persistence in sparring with the Pokémon of Sunrise Valley, both the "Encounter Progress" and "Battle Progress" in his [Pokédex] reached certain tiers. These 5 Potions were the reward for completing the first tier of "Battle Progress."
The "Encounter Progress" had advanced even further, completing its second tier, and he had also received a very useful item for Fighting-type Pokémon—the Black Belt (when a Pokémon holds this item, the power of its Fighting-type moves is increased). Rio usually wore the Black Belt around his waist, using it as a belt. Since no one expected the power of Rio's Fighting-type moves to be stronger than that of ordinary Pokémon, the Pokémon of Sunrise Valley had suffered greatly because of it.