Pidgeot's overwhelming power

"Snea~~~" Sneasel let out a faintly pained cry within the light. The fundamental changes to its body during evolution brought pain, and its silhouette in the Bai light kept stretching and shifting. Its height gradually grew from less than a meter to around 1.2 meters, already slightly taller than an ordinary adult Weavile.

"Dus~~~" Seeing that Sneasel's evolution was nearly complete, the nearby Dusclops suddenly decided it had waited long enough and charged toward them with a roar.

Dusclops was not known for its speed, but it was still an Elite Class Pokémon. Even its slowest pace was beyond what Xiao Ran and the others could imagine.

When it truly ran at full speed, it appeared before Sneasel in an instant. Its white hand rose high, ready to slam down. If that blow landed, never mind evolving—whether Sneasel would even survive was another question.

"Onix, stop it!" Jiang Cheng suddenly shouted from the side. A red summoning light flashed, and a nine-meter-long Onix appeared in the room, whipping its long, rocky tail straight at Dusclops.

"Dus~~~" Faced with that thick tail, Dusclops was unwilling to take the blow head-on. It might be stronger than Onix, and the hit might not do much damage, but Onix had enough strength to knock it aside. Size still offered a tremendous advantage in many situations.

"Better to make a scene than die trapped in here! If the place collapses, so be it! Grab onto something, everyone! Onix, Dragon Breath!" Jiang Cheng shouted decisively. Onix weighed over 250 kilograms, more than the floor here could support.

But using a powerful energy move like Dragon Breath would change things. Once the floor of one level collapsed, the immensely heavy Onix would fall to the level below, easily crushing that floor as well.

"That should do it. Recall Charmander into its Poké Ball!" Seeing the energy gathering in Onix's mouth, Xiao Ran stopped continuously releasing the Power of the Moon and looked up to shout at Shen Yue.

"Roar!!" A searing Bai Dragon Breath blasted from Onix's mouth. Although its low Base Stats limited the move's power, its presence was no less imposing, and punching through the floor beneath them was effortless.

Boom!! A thunderous crash rang out. The seventh-floor flooring clearly could not withstand such a direct blast. Cracks spread in every direction, and the floor began collapsing around the spot struck by Dragon Breath.

"Ah!!!" Screams rose from below, coming from the customers who happened to be on the next floor down. Some unlucky people were even injured by falling rubble, but Xiao Ran and the others could do nothing for them. If they did not do this, they would die.

"Dus~~~" The light appearing beneath its feet enraged Dusclops. It had never expected a simple hunt to cause such a commotion. Remembering its Trainer's repeated warnings before it came out, fear filled its heart, and its gaze turned even more furious as it looked at Xiao Ran and the others.

Dusclops suddenly fell silent. Its red eye stared quietly at them, strands of deep black light flickering within it, drawing in their minds.

"Is this... Mean Look?" Just as Xiao Ran was about to succumb, he abruptly regained his senses. A faint coolness flowed through his mind, helping him break free of its control, but Jiang Cheng and the others remained caught in that gaze, unable to escape.

Mean Look put its target into a state where it could not escape. Pokémon in that state could not be switched out.

That was how it worked in the game. In the games of his previous life, it was at most a move used to catch Pokémon. In reality, however, many moves that had been useless in his previous life often had effects that bordered on absurdly powerful.

Dusclops's Mean Look was like Medusa's eyes, trapping anyone who looked at it in endless, terrifying hallucinations from which they could never escape. It might not inflict physical injury, but in reality, psychological trauma was the hardest kind to heal.

"Snea~~~" Just then, Sneasel finally completed its evolution. Wearing what looked like a red cape, Weavile let out a roar. All the Pokémon trapped by Mean Look immediately woke up and followed Weavile as it lunged at Dusclops.

"It's Beat Up!" Xiao Ran stared at the scene in confusion, then quickly understood. This was a move Weavile could learn naturally: the Dark-type move Beat Up, which rallied every Pokémon on its side to attack the enemy. It was precisely this move that had broken Mean Look's control and freed all the Pokémon.

"Mm~~~" Beside him, Ye Ling suddenly let out a soft groan. Sneasel's cry, filled with Dark-type energy, combined with the dark power within her own body, had finally helped her break free as well.

"Lingling!" Xiao Ran quickly caught her. Having suddenly regained consciousness, she was clearly still a little muddled, but she soon grasped the situation.

Although a whole group of Pokémon was attacking, only Weavile and Onix could actually hurt Dusclops. The rest, whether Popplio, Froakie, or the others, had not reached Entry Class and could not use powerful energy moves. They could not leave so much as a scratch on the Elite Class Dusclops. Even Onix, at the peak of Entry Class, could only push it away by relying on its enormous size.

Fortunately, under the combined assault of so many Pokémon, Dusclops could no longer calmly maintain Mean Look. It had to release Jiang Cheng and Shen Yue for the moment and start driving off the pests Weavile had awakened.

"Dus~~" Dusclops roared loudly. The terrifying sound echoed throughout the Haunted House, making everyone's hearts tremble. It had unleashed yet another move.

Astonish was a Ghost-type move that startled opponents with sudden screams and similar sounds. Its effect resembled Growl, except Growl merely drew attention, while Astonish carried a degree of mental shock.

Dusclops's voice did frighten quite a few Pokémon. At the very least, the Ghost-type Pokémon that had originally been in the Haunted House no longer dared approach. But Popplio and the others still fought through their fear and lunged at Dusclops to protect their Trainers.

"Snea-Snea, use Metal Claw on the floor! Onix, keep breaking the floor!" Having regained her senses, Ye Ling shouted to Weavile and Onix. Snea-Snea was the name she had given Sneasel back then. Even after evolving, Weavile was still named Snea-Snea.

"Snea!" Hearing Ye Ling's command, Weavile stopped attacking Dusclops. Instead, it extended both claws, already gleaming with a metallic sheen, and slashed viciously at the floor.

Onix's Dragon Breath had only punched a hole through the floor. Its Base Stats were too low, and the move was too weak. Although it had indeed drawn the staff's attention, anyone coming to help would need time. They had to keep breaking the floor until it truly collapsed. They might be injured in the fall, but it would also genuinely hinder Dusclops's movements and buy precious time for the rescuers.

So far, all the moves Dusclops had used were wide-area control moves. It wanted to deal with everyone at once, but that also gave Xiao Ran and the others a chance to survive. Once it realized this approach was ineffective and switched to high-damage attacks, it would be slaughtering them one by one. Even the newly evolved Weavile, now at Entry Class, could not withstand a single blow.

"Dus~~~" Sure enough, as the floor suffered more and more damage, Dusclops finally lost patience with its ineffective group attacks. It threw a punch at Onix, which was still beside it.

The fist, brimming with dark energy, struck Onix's body. Its rocky form proved as fragile as tofu. Stone fragments scattered everywhere, and the nearly ten-meter-long Onix was sent flying, smashing straight through a nearby wall. A section near the bottom of its tail was almost severed, held together by only a few bits of stone.

Shadow Punch was a Ghost-type attacking move. Fortunately, it was a physical attack, and Onix possessed naturally, outrageously high physical defense. Had any other Pokémon taken that blow, the only outcome would have been blood splattered on the spot.

"Roar~~" Onix lay on the ground, letting out faint cries of defiance. Its breaths were already coming out more than they were going in.

Faced with this, Xiao Ran felt helpless too. His Power of the Moon could indeed heal any living creature, but how was he supposed to heal Onix's body, which was made entirely of rock? No matter how capable he was, he could not create stone out of thin air. In its current state, Onix could only heal itself by consuming large quantities of special ores. This was also the greatest difficulty in treating Rock-type Pokémon.

"Dus~~~" Without giving anyone more time to grieve, Dusclops launched its next attack. It seemed particularly fond of using its fists, choosing Shadow Punch again. This time, its target was Weavile, which was still breaking the floor.

"Snea!" Sensing the threat to its life, Weavile quickly retreated, trying to evade the fatal blow. But Dusclops was not slow either, pursuing it closely.

Bang! Just as Dusclops was about to catch Weavile, someone finally kicked open the Haunted House's entrance with a crash.

"Pidgeot, Air Slash!" A blade of air, barely visible to the naked eye, shot in from outside the door and struck Dusclops with flawless accuracy. Its paperlike body tore open, exposing the pitch-black hollow inside.

"Dus~~~~" Dusclops howled in pain. Abandoning its pursuit of Weavile, it turned and tried to escape to the floor below through the hole Onix had just made. It had already sensed the immense pressure coming from beyond the doorway. This was a Pokémon it could not fight.

"Hmph! A Wraith like you thinks it can escape? Pidgeot, use Gust to blow it back, then finish it with Brave Bird!" An icy voice came from outside the door.

A bird's cry rang out, and a terrifyingly powerful gale swept through the Haunted House. Xiao Ran and the others had to grab onto something just to barely stay on their feet.

As the primary target, Dusclops was caught by an enormous gust blasting upward through the hole in the floor. It tumbled several times in the air before barely managing to steady itself.

But before it could make another move, a streak of Bai light flashed past. Dusclops's paperlike body was instantly sliced in two and scattered on the wind like scraps of paper, without even enough time to let out a cry of pain.