The battle on the beach began to clear up. Officer Jenny's two Pokémon could now subdue Gyarados, but because Gyarados was in a frenzy, its attack power had increased considerably.
Additionally, Jenny didn't want the shockwaves from the battle to affect others, which made her fight cautiously.
However, after some time, the Gyarados she was facing started coming out of its frenzy, covered in wounds, and could no longer withstand the increasingly powerful attacks from Jenny's Pokémon. If it didn't flee soon, it might not survive.
Cain was also paying attention to Jenny's battle. If the Gyarados she was fighting attempted to escape, the other Gyarados would surely follow. Then, Cain's plan to evolve Gastly by defeating Gyarados might fail.
Cain sped up his attacks alongside Slowpoke and Gastly.
When Gastly defeated another Gyarados, other teams also started seeing cases of Gyarados being defeated.
After all, Cain had freed many people, and with so much help joining other teams, the pressure lessened. With a group of trainers attacking a single Gyarados, it was not surprising that they eventually defeated it.
However, as they were League trainers and held an overwhelming advantage, they didn't kill Gyarados. Also, because there were so many people, no one had the right to capture it. After defeating it, they simply left it lying in the water.
Cain couldn't help but scoff at this. A bunch of fools, wasting a golden opportunity to make money. They should have captured it, hidden it, and then sold it to make a good sum, or simply kept it. Whether to sell it or use it, it was an excellent choice.
That's why people say League trainers are quite naive in the early or intermediate stages. If they were from Team Rocket, they would have already started fighting over that Gyarados. Such a powerful Pokémon would significantly boost the strength of anyone who captured it.
Shaking his head, no longer paying attention to the others, Cain ordered Slowpoke and Gastly to unleash their full power to defeat more Gyarados.
The fourth! The fifth!
When Cain was preparing to attack the sixth, the Gyarados fighting Officer Jenny let out a cry of pain and began slowly retreating toward the sea, dragging its severely wounded body.
Jenny ordered her Blastoise to pursue it closely. Now that Gyarados had stopped resisting, Blastoise could attack without restrictions.
However, since Blastoise is a Water-type Pokémon and Gyarados has double resistance to Water-type moves, and having returned to the sea, Arcanine could no longer continue the chase, and Blastoise alone didn't have enough attack power.
With the Gyarados leader retreating, the other Gyarados also cried out in pain and began retreating.
Gastly was enveloped in a black glow that grew stronger and stronger, but it still lacked a bit to be completely covered. If it managed to defeat one more Gyarados, that would likely be enough.
"Gastly, just one more! Hold on a bit longer! Use Mean Look on that Gyarados! Slowpoke, assist Gastly with all your power!" Cain ordered, gritting his teeth.
They saw how Gastly's small body suddenly projected a huge ghostly face, and from the dark eyes of that face, two rays of light shot out, stopping a Gyarados attempting to escape.
Slowpoke increased its power in the Confusion move once again, with small veins appearing on its forehead. It knew this was the crucial moment for Gastly; until the black glow completely enveloped it, it couldn't stop accumulating experience.
"Roar!"
Gyarados, upon realizing it was blocked by Mean Look, found it couldn't escape, and though it had come out of its frenzy, it re-entered a state of fury.
From a distance, Officer Jenny and the other League trainers who were watching the Gyarados retreat were about to breathe a sigh of relief when they saw Cain stopping one of them.
"Won't this... cause all the Gyarados to go into a frenzy again?" asked one of the League officers quietly next to Jenny.
"It shouldn't. And he probably doesn't have any other choice; look at his Gastly, it's clearly on the verge of evolving. If he doesn't take this chance to evolve, he won't get many other opportunities like this." Jenny responded, with a sharper insight than the others.
"Evolve? His Gastly was already so strong before evolving; after evolution, won't it become even more powerful? He's an incredibly strong trainer," commented another trainer nearby.
"Yes, he looks younger than me. I wonder what family he comes from."
"He must come from a very powerful family. Otherwise, at such a young age, to have so much strength and courage... Look at how he faces Gyarados, without a hint of fear."
Hearing these comments, Officer Jenny frowned before saying, "He's a civilian trainer."
She then ignored the others' exclamations. Truth be told, she was also surprised. A civilian trainer of that age with such a level of power and determination was very rare.
Although there's no shortage of geniuses in this world, she had met many who were even more talented than Cain, but few were like him—a civilian genius.
Trainers require a large number of resources to raise their Pokémon, and a civilian trainer can hardly afford it without exceptional luck.
With Jenny's words, the others pondered. Why was there such a big difference between civilian trainers?
While they discussed, Cain and his Pokémon were already in the final phase of their battle against that Gyarados.
"Gastly, use Shadow Ball and end this battle," Cain gave the final attack order.
After using the Shadow Ball move so consistently, Gastly had improved significantly with it. Not to mention other things, its speed in using it had become much faster.
Gastly launched Shadow Ball one last time at Gyarados, completely knocking it down onto the sand.
With the Gyarados retreating, the water that had covered the beach also receded, leaving the sand exposed once again.
Cain threw a Poké Ball, no longer paying attention, keeping his gaze fixed on Gastly.
He saw how the black glow that was already enveloping Gastly began closing the final gap, fully covering it in a sphere of black light.
With Cain's system, he could see how all of Gastly's stats fluctuated wildly, going up and down without stopping.
Cain knew he had finally completed the last gap of experience, and Gastly was about to evolve.
But this wasn't the right place for an evolution. Cain took the Poké Ball that Slowpoke passed to him with its psychic powers, in which he had captured the Gyarados, and prepared to leave.
(End of chapter)