“Dominique, Donald, Chatham.”
Sophia stared coldly at the six people blocking their path.
The first three were trainers from Gallia, and the latter three were from Celestria.
Strangely, one person was missing from the Celestrian team—the seer Kate was nowhere to be seen. This change caused a subtle shift in the expressions of Sophia’s group.
Their change in expression was naturally caught by the six people opposite them, who couldn’t help but smirk coldly, thinking they'd gained the upper hand.
But they had misunderstood.
Sophia and her team weren’t alarmed because they’d been caught—they were alarmed because one of their enemies was unaccounted for.
“How did you catch up to us?” Anton asked. His Pyroar stood in front, alertly guarding against the six opponents ahead.
“Kate’s divination abilities made a breakthrough,” Phil said with a smile. “Otherwise, how could we have known which direction you were heading?”
“Because we’ve been tracking your movements the whole time, Kate’s divination made progress.”
Sophia’s team had been constantly on the move. Under normal circumstances, even if Kate had divined their position, by the time the others got there, they’d already be gone.
But now Kate’s ability had improved to the point where she could predict their next resting spot in advance—though that kind of divination came with heavy energy costs.
Having exhausted herself, Kate couldn’t move for now. But if they didn’t act fast, they wouldn’t have made it in time to reach Volkaria’s next rest point before them—especially since the distance was significant.
So Phil, the Celestrian captain, decided to advance with the others first, leaving Kate to recover. Her strength was second only to his.
With six of them, pinning down Volkaria’s five shouldn’t be an issue. And with Kate soon to catch up, their advantage would be overwhelming.
They just hadn’t expected the Volkarians to move so fast. They had barely arrived ahead and didn’t even have time to set up traps before Sophia’s team showed up.
If they’d had even a little more time to prepare an ambush at the predicted rest spot, they might’ve taken out one or two opponents by surprise.
Unfortunately, the Volkarians arrived too quickly.
Phil took a slow step forward toward Sophia’s group and said, “If you hand over your Pokémon willingly, I’ll spare your lives.”
The hot-tempered Valery snapped, “Do you think we’re idiots?”
Their Pokémon were their partners—and their only hope of survival. If they handed them over, they’d be dead before they even knew what happened.
Sophia’s lips curled in disdain. “Phil, how did someone with your "brilliant" intellect even become captain?”
"Don't worry about how I became the captain. I gave you a chance to live, but you didn’t take it—so don’t blame us for what happens next," Phil smirked.
The next second, the Poké Balls at the waists of all six pursuers—and the five Volkarian trainers—popped open simultaneously.
In an instant, over thirty Pokémon appeared on the field. Every one of them was Elite-level, with one even reaching the peak of Elite tier.
Phil sent out four Ghost-type Pokémon—three were late-stage Elite, and one was a peak Elite-tier Chandelure.
The other two trainers from the Celestrian team each sent out three mid-to-late stage Elite Pokémon.
The three trainers from Gallia also sent out three Elite-level Pokémon each.
Together, the six of them had deployed nineteen Elite-level Pokémon.
On Sophia’s side, the five of them had deployed a total of fifteen mid-to-late stage Elites.
Of course, whether it was the Celestrians, Gallians, or Volkarians, they all likely had more Elite-tier Pokémon with them, though they were probably only early-stage Elite.
And in a chaotic free-for-all , weaker Pokémon would be more liability than asset.
Also, numbers alone didn’t guarantee victory; quality and coordination did.
Once a brawl broke out, trainers had to split their focus. Not only did they have to protect themselves from stray attacks, but they also had to simultaneously command their Pokémon.
In this situation, controlling three Pokémon was already the limit. Even then, they wouldn’t be able to command all of them precisely—most would need to fight on their own.
If they did want to issue commands, they could only fully focus on one Pokémon. Trying to control two would already split their attention too much.
And while issuing commands, they also had to pay attention to the overall battle.
A single mistake—whether from the trainer or a Pokémon—could mean instant death, especially in a chaotic skirmish where concentrated fire was a constant threat.
This was why chaotic wild battles were the ultimate test of a Pokémon’s raw strength and a trainer’s tactical instincts.
After all, in these situations, for both trainer and Pokémon, losing meant death.
They had the numbers, they had more Pokémon, and they had the advantage in strength.
The odds were in their favor.
But despite all this, Phil and his team showed no signs of arrogance.
Volkaria’s team might be weaker overall, but they were still dangerous opponents. In a desperate last stand, someone on Phil’s side was inevitably going to get hurt—or worse.
This was a certainty, not a possibility.
The only question was: Who’d be the unlucky ones?
Sophia subtly motioned behind her back, flashing a hand signal.
Ten kilometers from their position—
Gengar materialized before Julian, whispering something to him.
Julian’s expression instantly changed. He turned to Pierce and said, “Sophia’s group got caught by the Celestrians.”
After emerging from the underground cavern, Julian’s team had been traveling with Sophia’s group. But later, to ambush the Celestrians, they had deliberately split into two separate groups.
Now, the trap was about to be sprung—just not as planned.
The original plan was for Sophia’s group of five to pretend they had been caught by the Celestrian team, triggering a battle. With Sophia’s team outnumbered, they would naturally be at a disadvantage.
Julian and the others had already accounted for this.
That’s why each of them had lent one of their ace Pokémon to Sophia’s team:
— Rowan’s peak Elite-tier Abomasnow
— Asher’s late Elite-tier Salamence
— Ember’s late Elite-tier Blaziken
— Pierce’s late Elite-tier Regirock
— And Julian’s pseudo-Champion-level Moltres.
At a crucial moment, Sophia’s team would release these Pokémon to catch the Celestrian team completely off guard. At the same time, Julian’s group would also rush in and encircle the Celestrian and Gallian teams from behind, crushing them in a pincer attack.
The plan had been solid.
But the battle broke out far too soon—they had only just split up with Sophia’s team less than half a day ago.
The plan wasn't supposed to go into effect until tomorrow.
Fortunately, Julian had left his Gengar to hide in Sophia’s shadow, which was how they found out that the battle had started early.
Though the timeline had shifted, the variables weren’t disastrous—in fact, this might even work in their favor.
“The Celestrian team is missing Kate. But she’s probably on her way over right now,” Julian relayed from Gengar’s intel, his eyes narrowing. “I’ll go intercept her. You guys wait for the right moment to join the battle.”
Upto 30 chapters ahead on :-