Age of Elves: I started flashing with my handheld.

This is a dark Pokémon, Dragonite. The number floating above its head tells Nanfeng that its level has reached a terrifying level 89!

Nanfeng has only ever seen a Zapdos in the game, on one of the lightning birds.

"Thump! Thump! Thump..."

The Dark Dragonite had already raised its fists, which were emitting a black mist—that was cold air—as it pounded towards Latios.

It's clear that this is an Ice-type move that has been transformed into a Dark-type move.

Latios was suppressed and unable to retaliate for a time.

"Is this Dark Dragonite that strong? It can actually easily defeat Latios!" Nanfeng exclaimed in surprise.

Even though the Dark Dragonite is 14 levels higher than Latios, the gap between a legendary Pokémon and a pseudo-legendary Pokémon is still huge.

Even a champion, a level 89 Dragonite that has been trained, probably couldn't beat a level 75 Latios like that.

Nanfeng could only attribute the power of Dark Dragonite to the enhancement it brought to "Dark Pokémon".

"Hmm~" Latias, seeing her brother in trouble, quickly transformed into a dark green dragon shadow and rushed over, unleashing a "Dragon God Dive" to attack the Dark Dragonite.

However, the Dark Dragonite seemed to disregard her, casually slapping her and stirring up a dark storm.

Latias tried to dodge, but was swept into the dark storm and carried away into the distance.

It easily defeated a level 75 Latios, so a level 60 Latias was definitely not worth its attention.

“It seems I’ll have to take matters into my own hands,” Nanfeng immediately threw out a Poké Ball.

Greninja, Spiral Golden Wind Demon Shuriken

Greninja enters the fray, its surface bursts with water, and it immediately transforms into "South Wind's Form." With its hands raised to the sky, it launches a Spiral Wave Missile carrying a Golden Water Shuriken at the Dark Dragonite.

The Dark Dragonite, which was continuing to punch Latios, noticed the sneak attack from behind and slapped him again, stirring up a dark storm to send Latios away like he had done to Latios.

It was as if to say: Get lost! I'll come back to you after I've dealt with Latias!

What Dark Dragonite didn't expect was that its "Dark Storm" was not enough to withstand Greninja's "Spiral Golden Wind Demon Shuriken".

The outer Golden Wind Demon Shuriken collided with the Dark Storm, creating a massive explosion, while the inner Spiral Wave Missile, with its extremely strong penetrating power, pierced straight through the Dark Storm and smoke, approaching the Dark Dragonite.

Dark Dragonite showed no intention of dodging, unleashing another "Dark Freeze" punch to destroy Spiral Wave Missile.

"Boom!"

The explosion resounded throughout Odomare, and the violent impact caused the ground within a ten-meter radius to collapse again. The water gushing up from underground almost turned the area into a swimming pool, and billowing black smoke rose into the air.

But soon a gust of wind blew by, revealing the Dark Dragonite inside. It was unharmed, but when it lowered its head to quickly destroy Latios so it could go after Southwind, it discovered that Latios had already disappeared.

372. Zeraora's first match

“This guy is beyond your capabilities, leave him to me,” Nanfeng said to Latios, who had been teleported to his side by Gardevoir.

The wounded Latios was now covered in "life-giving drops" from Gardevoir, and its strength was rapidly recovering. It stared at Southwind with its bright, clear red eyes, as if trying to see through the human before it.

However, it remained noncommittal regarding the "requirements" from the south.

The Dark Dragonite had already turned around, its crimson vertical eyes emitting specks of black mist as it looked towards the South Wind, also searching for Latios's figure.

Found it, launch an attack immediately.

With a flap of its tiny wings, its chubby body instantly transformed into a dark meteor once more, shooting towards the south wind.

Nanfeng reached out and tossed a commemorative ball. "This will be your first battle. Let me see your current fighting power!"

The white commemorative sphere opened, and a large white cat jumped out.

Zeraora appeared, floating in mid-air, surrounded by crackling lightning, a lightning shield appearing. Nanfeng could only understand this lightning shield as an electric-type defensive move or technique that Zeraora had learned and developed himself.

"Plasma Lightning Fist!"

"Aura!" Zeraora responded, her eyes flashing with electricity, her battle intent soaring to 140 points like a raging fire!

Facing the charging Dark Dragonite, Zeraora's arms were immediately enveloped in white lightning, and surging plasma burst forth, vaguely forming a pair of white, twisted wings behind it.

In the next instant, white lightning and black meteor collided in mid-air.

"Boom!"

Like a comet hitting the earth, a loud explosion occurred; black and white collided, darkness and light battled, and energy rubbed together wildly.

The battle was decided in two seconds.

The Dark Dragonite was slammed into the ground. Where it fell, the area within a kilometer radius collapsed, and spiderweb-like cracks spread out. Water gushed from the cracks like a fountain, all crackling with white lightning.

"It's quite powerful," Nanfeng commented.

Zeraora has only recently become its own Pokémon and has not yet mastered the techniques of its moves.

However, he himself equipped it with the Divine Treasure Thunder.

Divine Treasure - Thunder: Doubles the power and range of electric-type moves. Every minute, the power and range of the next electric-type move are doubled.

The mere doubling of the power of Electric-type moves is enough to increase Zeraora's combat power several times over. Add to that the power of an Electric-type move every minute.

This "Plasma Lightning Fist" deals four times the damage of its previous punch!

This is why, even though Zeraora is a counter to Dragonite's Ice Punch, Nanfeng still had it use Plasma Lightning Punch.

Latios, standing to the side, was astonished by Zeraora, which was being thoroughly beaten by Dark Dragonite, yet it was able to directly overpower Dragonite.

"Well!!"

A hoarse roar rang out, and the Dark Dragonite burst from the ground.

It didn't attack immediately. Instead, it hunched over, supporting itself with one hand on the ground, panting heavily. To withstand a Plasma Lightning Punch with four times the power of its own without losing its ability to battle, even for a Dark Pokémon, was a tremendous challenge!

"Didn't it kill you instantly?" Nanfeng was slightly surprised.

The Dark Pokémon simply uses Dark-type moves with double the effect; it doesn't truly have type advantage, so there's no resistance. Furthermore, its own type is Dragon/Flying, so there's no resistance either.

Therefore, this plasma lightning punch deals a solid four times the damage.

Since one move wasn't enough to kill him instantly, let's try another.

The south wind, calling for rain, instructed Gardevoir.

As Gardevoir raised its hand, a torrential downpour immediately began in the already dark sky.

The command "Thunder!" was given to Zeraora.

"Awooo!" Zeraora roared.

"Boom!" White lightning rolled through the dark clouds in the sky.

With Zeraora's roar, white lightning fell from the clouds.

It surged forth in a mighty torrent, as if the Milky Way had opened its gates and was releasing a flood.

A white waterfall of lightning immediately appeared in the sky.

Dark Pokémon are turned into fighting machines because their minds are sealed, but their instincts are not sealed. On the contrary, the fighting instincts of Dark Pokémon become stronger as a result.

The Dark Dragonite immediately sensed the threat of the lightning in the sky, and a black storm surged around its body as it immediately dodged away into the distance.

But... I'm sorry.

This is thunder during rainy weather.

It's another move used by Zeraora, but with the added power of Divine Treasure Thunder.

"Rumble...."

The Dark Dragonite that tried to dodge was immediately engulfed by the white lightning waterfall.

"Zizzi"

The sound of crackling electricity echoed throughout the heavens and earth; if anyone were to peek out now, they would surely see nothing but dazzling lightning.

When the white lightning in the dark clouds has been completely exhausted.

All that remained was a scorched, blackened ground pierced through by the attack, and right in the center of this scorched ground, the Dark Dragonite lay sprawled on the ground, already unable to battle, its body still emitting black smoke.

It was certain that it had lost its ability to fight, because a prompt to defeat it appeared in front of Nanfeng.

[Zeraora gained 10247 experience points after defeating Dragonite (Dark Pokémon) LV89]

"As expected of a level 89 Pokémon, 10,000 experience points per Pokémon, this is great," Nanfeng said, as the Totem Salamence had already delivered it to the Dark Dragonite.

He took out the commemorative ball and threw it up.

Although it's a Dark Pokémon, and a true Dark Pokémon unlike Dark Aerodactyl, it might still be a heartless fighting machine even after being captured.

But... this is a level 89 Dragonite.

Even if I can't cultivate a bond with it to make it my own Pokémon, I can still use it as a "tool." Its combat power, capable of easily defeating a level 75 Latios, would be a huge asset to me.

However, to Nanfeng's surprise, the Memorial Ball landed on Dragonite and emitted a red light but failed to capture it. Similarly, a red light appeared on the Dark Dragonite, which resisted the Memorial Ball's capture.

This indicates that the Dark Dragonite is a Pokémon that has already been captured.

Nanfeng's gaze sharpened immediately. "The Dark Dragonite has been captured?"

"So, it seems that these Dark Pokémon were deliberately manipulated by someone?"

(I was a groomsman all day yesterday, and today I'm hosting a dinner party. It's a busy holiday season, so I'll try to update twice a day... This book will be finished eventually. After that, I'll finish the previous one too, and then I'll start another Pokémon book.)

(Wishing you a Happy New Year in advance!)

373. Invitation

The fall of Dark Dragonite signifies the imminent end of the Dark Pokémon invasion.

Although Latios couldn't defeat the Dark Dragonite, the other Dark Pokémon weren't that strong. With the help of Blaziken and Garchomp, it swept through the enemy ranks.

The horde of dark Pokémon that were wreaking havoc in Odormare was quickly repelled.

When the main force of Dark Pokémon suffered heavy losses, a small number of Dark Pokémon, seeing that the situation was hopeless, began to retreat voluntarily.

Dark Pokémon, whose minds are sealed by darkness, cannot possibly retreat on their own initiative. In their world, it's either destroy the opponent or be destroyed by the opponent.

It seems that the trainer of the Dark Dragonite, who was also the one who commanded the Dark Pokémon to attack Aldor Mare, was also watching the entire battlefield.

Nanfeng stood on the shore and looked out, watching the Dark Pokémon drift away like a dark cloud.

"Has it been marked with a psychic mark?" Nanfeng asked Mega Gardevoir.

He had Gardevoir place a mental imprint on the escaped Dark Pokémon, so that he could follow the clues and find the Dark Dragonite's trainer.

Therefore, Nanfeng released the Dark Dragonite. As a Dark Pokémon with its mind sealed, since it couldn't be caught, it remained a mad dog after waking up.

It also allowed Gardevoir to undergo Mega Evolution. The resulting psychic imprint is more subtle and profound, and can be maintained for a long time.

When the dark clouds on the horizon dispersed and disappeared from sight.

Nanfeng then turned over and stood on the salamander's back to begin tracking.

However, after flying for only about two minutes, Gardevoir told Nanfeng that the group of dark Pokémon had disappeared from its psychic control range.

It doesn't detach itself, but disappears, vanishes into thin air.

"Let's go and see where they disappeared!" Nanfeng patted the salamander's back.

The salamander immediately began moving at high speed.

A few minutes later, Nanfeng arrived at the place where the Dark Pokémon had disappeared.

Then he sat down on his bed.

“I’ve been sent out…” Nanfeng murmured, looking at the handheld console in his hand.

Inside the handheld console, the character is riding a salamander, flying through the air. Not far away is Odomare.

Take another step towards Odomare.

Nanfeng has entered the game's story mode again.

"It seems the interface changed because I left the waters off Odomare."

"Troublesome," Nanfeng frowned. If that were the case, he wouldn't be able to follow the mental imprint to find the departing Dark Pokémon.

After all, if he returns to reality, Gardevoir will also return to reality with him.

The only clue left for me now is the direction the dark Pokémon left in.