Chapter 53: Bound Hand and Foot
Seeing Gliscor's giant pincers glowing brightly, they slashed towards Salamence's throat.
But the moment these giant pincers clamped onto Salamence's throat, Gliscor clearly felt an incredibly powerful surge of energy erupt from Salamence's body, which caused the beheading pincers, originally attacking Salamence, to pause.
In that instant, the beheading pincers, which were meant to be a fatal blow to Salamence's throat, suddenly shifted, only slightly grazing a single Dragon Scale.
However, Salamence retaliated with a Headbutt, followed by a Dragon Pulse, and Gliscor was knocked to the ground, its fate unknown.
The combined attack of Gliscor's entire team only managed to scratch a single scale on Salamence's body.
Sha Xie watched his hopeful Gliscor team go from appearing to being wiped out in less than five minutes, with four minutes and fifty seconds of that primarily being direct collisions with Sandstorm.
At this moment, Sha Xie realized the power of this Salamence. Was this a Pokémon he should be messing with?
“Have Gligar control the Sandstorm to retreat, retreat quickly!”
Sha Xie no longer wanted to display his strength in front of Qing Ze; Salamence had completely dispelled all unrealistic thoughts from his mind. As long as he could survive, he would be very satisfied.
At this point, Salamence, having lost a scale due to Gliscor's series of attacks, would not let go so easily.
If it lost a Dragon Scale, then all these ants present deserved to die!
Salamence roared, making the Twister seem even more powerful.
As one grew, the other diminished. The Sandstorm, having lost its backbone in the Gliscor group, significantly weakened and was truly difficult to contend with.
Even though the Gligar seemed numerous, under Salamence's roar, several Gligar even fled in fear!
The Intimidate ability became exceptionally terrifying after Salamence gained the upper hand; the mere Gligar were instantly scared out of their wits.
At this moment, Sha Xie had only one thought: escape.
Although the ambush site set by Qing Ze was less than a thousand meters away, this thousand-meter distance felt incredibly long.
Even though he thought he had made all preparations, when he truly faced this Tianwang-level Quasi-Heavenly King, he realized that all his preparations were nothing more than ridiculous petty tricks to the Quasi-Heavenly King.
Salamence, relying on its Tianwang-level combat power, swept away Sha Xie's arrangements as if autumn winds were sweeping fallen leaves.
This time, Sha Xie was not feigning defeat to lure Salamence into an ambush; rather, if he didn't reach the ambush site, he would truly be dead.
Sha Xie, genuinely acting, truly hoped that Young Master Qing Ze would succeed in slaying the dragon!
Without hesitation, he sacrificed Small Elves one after another to cover his retreat, finally succeeding in luring Salamence into the pre-arranged ambush.
“Don't play with me, please don't play with me!” Sha Xie prayed softly.
But upon reaching the ambush site, he still saw no signs of action. Sha Xie's face changed, and looking at Salamence chasing him from behind, he fell into deep despair.
To lure this Salamence here, his entire hunter group's Pokémon had been completely annihilated.
Even his core hunter group had lost several members under Salamence's Flamethrower.
But he never expected this damned Young Master of the Yuan Family to be so untrustworthy. Did he want him dead? Why!
At this moment, Salamence had already caught up, and flames were brewing in the air, ready to be spewed out!
Just as Salamence approached, dense energy shards appeared all around its body!
Stealth Rock!
As Salamence launched its attack, these Stealth Rock shards had already attacked Salamence first!
“Hey! What are you staring at?!” Qing Ze said to Sha Xie, who was still in a daze, “Hurry up and get out of the way!”
At this moment, Sha Xie's eyes welled up with tears, and all his previous schemes vanished without a trace.
At this point, what could be more important than saving his own life?
Naturally, he scrambled away, getting out of the combat zone first.
Meanwhile, Qing Ze's gaze fell upon Salamence, observing its attributes.
Salamence: Dragonair, Flying Type, Level 83, Potential Assessment: Blue, Ability: Intimidate
Current Level: Tianwang-level Pokémon, due to postpartum recovery period, all attributes reduced by 10%
HP: 28 (31)
Physical Attack: 27 (31)
Defense: 27 (31)
Special Attack: 21 (31)
Special Defense: 29 (31)
Speed: 31 (31)
Overall Quality: 163
Growth Skills: Fly, Protect, Dragon Tail, Fire Fang, Thunder Fang, Rage, Ember, Glare, Bite, Dragon Breath, Headbutt, Focus Energy, Iron Defense, Crunch, Dragon Claw, Zen Headbutt, Scary Face, Flamethrower, Double-Edge.
Inherited Skills: Dragon Pulse, Dragon Rage, Twister
Learned Skills: Ultimate Impact, Facade, Dragon Tail, Aerial Ace, Frustration
“For a Tianwang-level Pokémon, the number of learned skills isn't many. It looks like it has always been a wild Pokémon!” Qing Ze pondered as he looked at Salamence's data.
Having always been a wild Pokémon, this Pokémon did not master many skills.
However, Pokémon that reach the Tianwang level in this way are often full of wildness, fighting simply and efficiently, and are very ferocious.
Qing Ze glanced at Salamence's data, and at this moment, the attack set up by Stealth Rock had already reached Salamence.
The energy shards from Stealth Rock indeed caught Salamence a bit off guard, but Salamence was certainly not without any countermeasures.
At this moment, Salamence's body turned metallic, as it unleashed Iron Defense.
The energy rocks formed by Stealth Rock landed on Salamence's body, but Salamence, relying on its metallic-like body, forcefully resisted these energy shards.
After all, Salamence was too familiar with the Iron Defense skill.
When it was still a Shelgon, it relied on this skill to withstand various attacks in dangerous situations, having already ingrained this skill into its instincts.
Therefore, the energy shards brought by the Stealth Rock skill caused almost no noticeable effect.
The Stealth Rock skill not having an effect was, to be honest, a bit surprising to Qing Ze.
It wasn't that Stealth Rock would be resisted by the opponent, but rather he didn't expect the opponent to use Iron Defense to block it.
This posture, as if its entire body had metalized, indicated that Salamence had researched the Iron Defense skill to an extremely deep level.
And this is a typical characteristic of wild Pokémon: they don't master many skills, but the stronger they are, the more you'll find they've deepened their skills to an astonishing degree.
This differs from the combat style of human Trainers who build combat systems.
Perhaps, to some extent, for wild Pokémon, such a refined and powerful combat style is the best means of survival in the wild, while the combat systems created by human Trainers based on Pokémon characteristics are somewhat flashy and impractical.
Of course, any Pokémon's combat style is only about suitability; there is no hierarchy.
Salamence withstood the Stealth Rock attack by relying on Iron Defense.
But the next second, numerous thick Vine Whip immediately wrapped around Salamence's body, tying it up tightly.
Salamence clearly didn't anticipate that as soon as the Stealth Rock offensive passed, the opponent's next attack would already be upon it.
At this moment, Salamence struggled with all its might. As a Tianwang-level Quasi-Heavenly King of the Dragonair, it believed in its physique and strength, flapping its wings, wanting to break free from all these vines!
But at this moment, even with all its strength, it couldn't break free from the binding of these vines.
Because it was not facing one Pokémon, or two Pokémon, but the entire Grass Type MT system deployed by the Yuan Family.
One after another, Grass Type Pokémon used Ingrain to connect themselves to the entire earth. Even a Tianwang-level Pokémon, they couldn't overpower the combined strength of dozens of Tangrowth and Venusaur in a direct contest of power.
Trying to break free from this method with brute force was wrong from the start.
“Ice Group! Attack!” Qing Ze's voice was directly transmitted to the Trainers who were already prepared, via Starmie's Confusion.
At his command, the Trainers assigned to the Ice Group immediately ordered their Pokémon to attack!
Ice Beam, Powder Snow, Aurora Beam, Frost Breath… a barrage of Ice Type skills surged towards Salamence, covering the sky and earth.
Under the effect of a quadruple damage type advantage, even if these Ice Type attacks were shot by Pokémon of official Trainer level, Salamence dared not underestimate them, not to mention that several of them were Elite Class Ice Type Pokémon.
Bound hand and foot, Salamence had nowhere to escape.
Facing this continuous barrage of attacks, a pure white and brilliant barrier suddenly appeared around Salamence's body. Both the Vine Whip that had bound it and the seemingly vast Ice Type skills were forcefully blocked by this barrier.
“Protect… used it, huh.” Seeing this, Qing Ze looked calmly at the barrier in the sky that seemed to block all damage.
To force out Protect so early in the battle was already a win.
Having escaped a dangerous situation by using the Protect skill, Salamence no longer dared to underestimate its opponent.
At this moment, it opened its mouth, and a concentrated stream of scorching flames erupted from it!
Forget competing in strength; now it just wanted to burn all these Grass Type Pokémon below to ashes with these raging flames!
And just as Salamence spewed out flames from its mouth, rain began to fall from the sky. The rain grew heavier and heavier, further weakening the power of the flames Salamence spewed.
Ludicolo's Rain Dance skill began to take effect.
For Grass Type Pokémon, using Rain Dance was a way to compensate for their inherent type disadvantages.
Under normal circumstances, facing a Tianwang-level Flying Type Pokémon, Qing Ze would not dare to let Ludicolo use Rain Dance.
Typically, Salamence doesn't master Hurricane, but this natural skill limitation is mostly broken once a Pokémon reaches the Tianwang level.
Because once a Pokémon reaches the Tianwang level, with the help of Natural Force, it can theoretically learn all skills of its own type.
Of course, it can't just master them out of nowhere; a Trainer needs to teach it the skill.
However, after Qing Ze checked Salamence's data and confirmed that Salamence didn't have this ability, Qing Ze naturally dared to change the weather to rain.
Otherwise, if Salamence were to unleash a Hurricane at this moment, the entire Yuan Family Elite would essentially be wiped out.
Watching Salamence, in the rainy conditions, not unleash a Hurricane to sweep the battlefield, Qing Ze couldn't help but wipe away cold sweat.
To be honest, Qing Ze was quite against using the Rain Dance skill, but now, Qing Ze had to admit that this rain was well-timed.
Because at this moment, even though Flamethrower burned some of the Grass Type Pokémon, the Yuan Family's Grass Type Pokémon shared HP and had astonishing recovery. Even if they were injured by Flamethrower, they recovered at an unparalleled speed.
Salamence looked annoyed as Flamethrower had almost no effect.
But it wanted to get close, yet after the tug-of-war with the Grass Type Pokémon earlier, it dared not approach.
After all, if it were caught again, it wouldn't be able to forcefully break free with the Protect skill.
However, while Salamence was still hesitating, it saw the attack from this large group of Grass Type Pokémon already arriving.
Pellets of Seed Machine Gun shot out from the mouths of the Grass Type Pokémon. Due to the astonishing number of Grass Type Pokémon, the bullets from these Seed Machine Gun filled the entire sky.
Looking at the dense Seed Machine Gun coming at it, a hint of disdain appeared in Salamence's eyes.
With its extraordinary resistance to Grass Type and the super boost from Iron Defense, the bullets from Seed Machine Gun couldn't harm it at all.
The only problem was that with such a dense offensive, it couldn't dodge.
But it could just endure it; how much damage could it really do?
At this moment, what Salamence was thinking was about counterattacking, defeating these Trainers who didn't know their place.
Salamence roared to the sky, and a Twister rose from the ground.
Although it couldn't use Hurricane, Salamence was quite skilled at summoning a Twister to sweep the entire battlefield.
Furthermore, with the blessing of Natural Force from its Flying Type and Dragonair, the power of this Twister almost enveloped Qing Ze's entire position.
Then, the next second, the triumphant Salamence fell from the sky, and the summoned Twister also vanished.
At this moment, seven or eight tiny seeds grew out of Salamence's body, some on its chest, some on its neck, some on its wings…
These seeds continuously sprouted vines, then continuously siphoned power from Salamence's body.
This was Leech Seed. The previous attack wasn't just Seed Machine Gun; under the cover of Seed Machine Gun, seven or eight Leech Seed were fired by Quasi-Heavenly King-level Pokémon!
At the same time, the Grass Type Pokémon, already prepared, once again used Vine Whip to completely bind Salamence hand and foot.
Several forces simultaneously constrained Salamence in mid-air in an X-shape. No matter how Salamence hissed and roared, the well-trained Yuan Family Elites remained unmoving.
In an instant, four Golduck swiftly leaped out, then stepped on the Vine Whip and pounced towards Salamence in mid-air!