Several minutes later, the lush growing foliage was cut down, leaving nearly half of the land bare. While the hunters were harvesting the Mental Herbs, a strong wind suddenly picked up.
They looked up in confusion and were shocked to see a large Charizard descending on their heads.
"Look out!"
They quickly scrambled away, fleeing from the area.
Boom!
The Charizard soon hit the ground, kicking a large cloud of dust. A small crater was made on the ground, destroying some of the surrounding herbs.
When they finally regained their sight, they were soon faced with a ferocious-looking Charizard. Its eyes were boring into them, causing them to shudder in fear.
Then, a man in a black trenchcoat jumped down from its back.
"Nice landing, Charizard!"
Roar!
Tucker smiled as he ignored the hostile gaze from many hunters. He looked around in satisfaction and said, "Well done, guys. Alright. This place is under my control now. You guys can leave. Oh, and by the way, leave the Mental Herbs behind, will ya?"
What!
As soon as he finished saying that, everyone was in an uproar.
A few men raised their hands toward him, saying, "What do you mean? Why should we hand over the herbs to you?"
"Fuck! Let's beat him up!"
"Wait! They are so many Mental Herbs here. Can we share it between us?"
Of course, some of the hunters had already recognized Tucker earlier. Each of them was sweating on their back as they tried to reason with the purple-haired man.
"Stop! Don't do it!"
In the crowd, a man quickly grabbed his partner's hand. The man was about to take his Pokemon out.
"Why did you stop me? Can't you see he is trying to rob us?"
"Shut up!" the man whispered harshly.
"Do you know who he is? That man is Tucker, the Dome Ace Tucker. He is one of the top ten hunters in Kanto and Johto. He is as powerful as an Elite Four. So if you want to die, go ahead. I won't stop you."
Hearing what he said, his anger immediately cooled off. Indeed, Elite Four trainers had a great deterrent effect on ordinary trainers.
Yet, he was still reluctant to give away the herbs he had painstakingly collected just like that.
...
While the conflict was happening, Hisoka was hiding inside the crevice, observing the situation outside secretly.
He recognized the person who had arrived recently. Tucker, a gold-rank hunter, specialized in Fire-type Pokemon and was only 28 years old this year. A true-blue Elite Four powerhouse.
Although there was still some gap with the real Elite Four, it was still quite amazing to be able to achieve this at this age. Elite Four was the ceiling of many trainers. It was extremely hard to pass this hurdle.
Beyond that was the champion, which could be counted on one hand. After all, not everyone had an amazing talent like Lance, Steven, Cynthia, or Wallace. And all of them had a strong background.
Lance was a member of a Dragon Secret Clan in Johto.
Wallace was a student of Sootopolis Gym. As a Top Coordinator, he also had the backing of the Coordinator Association.
Cynthia was born in Celestic Town, the oldest town in the world. They were many famous people who originated from here too. So the public thought that this town was a bit special. Her grandmother was also a renowned professor.
Let's not mention the former champion, Steven. As the future helmsman of a giant conglomerate, having a strong Pokemon was a must. Nobody would accept a weak leader.
In the whole Pokemon world, only the former champion, Professor Oak, and the wandering champion, Alder, truly came from a humble background.
Tucker came from an ordinary family. Luckily, his family could afford the trainer fees and got a Charmander as his starter. Later, he was able to study under the tutelage of Blaine and became a top-rank hunter.
...
"Hehe!"
"Can you stop doing that?"
Hisoka felt someone whispering in his ear again. He turned around and looked at Misdreavus sternly. She was hovering in the air with a mischievous smile on her face.
"Hehe!"
She didn't seem to understand what he said just now. Then, she flew to his shoulders and lifted her dress slightly.
A peculiar stone fell into his hand.
"Huh?"
He turned off his night-vision goggles and took out his flashlight. Under the light, he saw a pitch-black shadow inside the stone.
Dusk Stone!
Dusk Stone was also an evolution stone. It could be used to evolve Dark-type Pokemon, such as Murkrow and Misdreavus.
However, it was quite rare in the Kanto region. Most of the Dusk Stone in the market were imported from the neighboring region. Its price was much higher than the regular evolution stone because of its scarcity.
The Dusk Stone in his hand was clearly a high-quality stone.
Then, he suddenly remembered that Dusk Stone was usually found in old cemeteries.
"Hey, where did you find this stone?" he showed the stone to Misdreavus.
"He?"
She looked at the stone, tilting her head slightly. Then, she nodded and flew out of their hiding place suddenly.
"Wait! Where are you going? Stop! It's dangerous outside!"
Before he could stop her, she had already flown several meters away from the crevice.
He didn't dare to go out of their hiding place. They were so many hunters outside. So he could just stay inside and watch her worriedly. Gradually, her body faded in mid-air and completely disappeared from view.
'At least she knows how to hide,' he was relieved.
...
Meanwhile, Tucker was in a deadlock with the other hunters. He wanted to take all the Mental Herbs for himself. While the other hunters were not willing to give them up.
"Guys, let's team-up. No matter how strong he is, he is just a single person. There's no way he will be able to defeat us all together."
Someone in the crowd shouted.
"Yes, he is just a single person!"
There were murmurs of agreement among the hunters.
One by one, the hunters took out their Pokeballs. All of them had a determined look on their face.
Tucker crossed his arms and looked at them impassively. The Charizard beside him took a step forward, covering his body. The flame on its tail burned brighter as it readied itself for battle.
"Hehe!"
Suddenly, strange laughter rang in everyone's ears.
They were suddenly interrupted as they looked around in confusion.
"Hehe!"
The laughter became louder.
Then, the ground beneath them shook slightly. A few moments later, a human skeleton wearing armor slowly rose up from the ground. Two blue fires lit up in its hollow eye sockets.
Another skeleton rose up from the ground. This time it was holding a rusty sword in its hand.
"What the hell is that?" Someone shouted in disbelief.
Everyone became frightened. A skeleton rose from the dead? No. They had not seen such a thing in their whole life.
As the skeleton slowly rose one after another, the herbs on the ground gradually withered. Less than a minute later, an army of skeletons stood in from of them. The herbs had completely withered into dust.
They were also many Pokemon skeletons among them.
Nidoking, Rapidash, Rhydon...
"What is going on!"
He looked at the scene in shock. Although there were many unexplained events in the Pokemon world, this was over the top, wasn't it?
'Undead skeletons? Am I still in the Pokemon world?' he thought. Half feared, half nervous.
The undead army was led by a giant skeleton. It was riding a flaming skeleton horse as it raised its giant sword.
Roar!
It swung its sword forward. After that, the other undead quickly charged toward the hunters.
The hunters suppressed their fear and quickly released their Pokemon.
"Use Flamethrower!" Tucker shouted.
The Charizard reared its head back and sprayed a stream of fire at the undead.
The flame swept across the undead. The high temperature even melted some of their weapons and the armors. Some of the undead were also broken into pieces of bones.
Then, the other undead slammed into a defensive circle of the hunters.
Crash!
A Tauros charged into five undead, breaking them apart.
The skeletons weren't strong enough to compete with a single Pokemon. But as the hunter defeated the undead one after another, they were shocked to find that several more skeletons rose from the ground. It was endless.
A few minutes later, the hunters were huddled together. Their Pokemon were panting heavily. There was another wave of attack coming toward them.
A Machoke was fighting sluggishly. After kicking a skeleton away, its body was caught by another skeleton. It tried to break out but was unable to due to its dwindling strength.
Quickly, a swarm of undead rushed toward the caught Machoke and began to press on him.
Luckily, its trainer managed to retrieve it back. The hunter, realizing their helpless situation, decided to run away from this place. He released his Fearow and grabbed onto its leg.
"Let's leave!" he told it to take him away.
The rest of the hunters also followed suit.
"Tch! Useless!"
Tucker, who was under heavy siege, cursed in anger. Unlike the others, he had been paid a lot of money to solve this mission. If he ran away at this time, his reputation would be hurt.
...
A Charizard was flying in the air, spraying a massive fireball at the undead. An Arcanine was charging through the undead. A Magmar was releasing a large wall of fire from its hands, blocking the advance of the undead.
"Damn! They are so many of them!"
After fighting for a long time, the undead never stopped attacking him. He looked ahead and saw another wave of undead rising from the ground.
Seeing that, he decided to retreat first. He called the Charizard and hopped onto its back.
Then, he retrieved his Pokemon and flew toward the mine tunnel a few meters above him.
After Tucker ran away, the undead slowly ceased their movement. The fire in their eyes slowly disappeared.
Hisoka was secretly watching them. His right hand was holding Kirlia's arm. Once the undead found him, he would immediately ask her to teleport them away.
Even Tucker failed to beat them. There was nothing he could do. Anyway, he already got a lot of Mental Herbs. So it was not a loss.
"Hehe!"
Misdreavus laughter rang in the cavern again. Then, a giant skeleton slowly walked toward them.
'Did it find me?' he frowned.
He patted Weavile's shoulder and said, "Try to take it out as quickly as you can."
Nod!
She took a few steps forward, her claws at ready.
It wasn't that hard to beat the skeleton. The only thing he was afraid of was their numbers.
When Weavile was about to attack it, the skeleton suddenly fell apart.
"Hehe!"
Then, Misdreavus flew out of the skeleton and beckoned her head to Hisoka. It looked like she was calling him to come out.
He took a deep breath and decided to believe her.
When he walked out, she flew around him in happiness. Then, she went to the fallen skeleton and picked a stone from inside its frame. She flew to Hisoka and dropped it on his hand.
"Hehe!"
Dusk Stone?
When he was looking at the stone, the undead in the large cavern fell one by one.
Crash!
He swallowed hard and looked at Misdreavus on his shoulder.
"Were you the one who did that just now?" he asked her.
"Hmmm!"
She closed her eyes in reply.
He knew that she understood what he said just now but didn't know why she refused to communicate with him.
He had even asked Kirlia to connect them together with her telepathic link. Unfortunately, it failed. Apparently, something was blocking her power.
...
In the large cavern, Hisoka was sitting on the ground, searching through the many piles of bones.
Soon, a pitch-black stone with an irregular edge appeared in his sight. He picked it up and put it in his bag.
He finally knew how Misdreavus obtained the Dusk Stone. Although not every skeleton contained one, he still got a lot after searching nearly half of them.
Then, he looked at his watch and decided to speed up his search. He knew Tucker would definitely not give up that easily. He would probably be back soon. This time with backup.
An hour later, the space inside his bag was almost full of Dusk Stone. Besides that, there was also a large pile of Mental Herbs.
"Let's leave this place!"
He tightened the bag on his shoulder and took his Pokemon back to the tunnel where he came out.
"Do you want to follow us?" he looked at Misdreavus.
"Hehe!"
She nodded happily.
"Okay, stay with me."
He held Kirlia's hand. Then, their figure began to blur before disappearing.
...