After releasing Vigorwasp and having it heal Anjanath, Zhang Tian decided to return to the bamboo forest from earlier.
Rathalos might be able to fly, but it still had to sleep at some point, right?
If he could take advantage of that opportunity to injure Rathalos’s wings, the King of the Skies would be reduced to a grounded chicken.
Then he could fight it.
Now that he had Anjanath, it would be seven against one.
The advantage was completely on his side.
“Gardevoir, take us back to the bamboo forest.”
After recalling Anjanath and the others into their Luxury Balls, Zhang Tian looked at Gardevoir.
At the moment, only Gardevoir and Pidgeot were beside him.
Anjanath and the other monsters were simply too large, and there were too many of them.
With Gardevoir’s current strength, teleporting all of them back at once would be extremely difficult.
“Garde.”
Gardevoir nodded lightly before using Teleport to take Zhang Tian and Pidgeot back to the bamboo forest.
By now, Rathalos and Rathian were nowhere to be seen.
The only things left in the bamboo forest were the bloodstains and craters on the ground.
“Arcanine, smell this and find where the owner of this blood went.”
Zhang Tian released Arcanine and pointed at the blood on the ground.
“Woof.”
Arcanine nodded before lowering its head and beginning to sniff.
“Woof, woof!”
It quickly locked onto a direction.
“Follow it.”
Zhang Tian waved his hand before following Arcanine north with Pidgeot and Gardevoir.
They walked for a while, stopping occasionally to let Arcanine track the scent.
Eventually, Arcanine led Zhang Tian to the entrance of a cave.
“It went into a cave.”
“Heaven is on my side.”
Inside a cave, Rathalos wouldn’t be able to fly properly.
Even if the cave were large enough for it to fly, it would only be able to fly at low altitude, which would greatly limit its mobility.
Thinking of this, Zhang Tian decided to take a shot at Rathalos.
“Come out, everyone.”
Zhang Tian raised his hand and released Anjanath, Blood Orange Bishaten, Tobi-Kadachi, Great Izuchi, and Arzuros.
“Anjanath, use Dragon Dance six times.”
“Blood Orange Bishaten and Arzuros, use Bulk Up six times.”
“Tobi-Kadachi and Great Izuchi, use Agility three times.”
Zhang Tian gave his commands and had the Pokémon begin stacking their support moves to increase their strength.
“Let’s go!”
Once everyone had finished setting up their buffs, Zhang Tian climbed onto Anjanath and led his group of “hired muscle” into the cave.
Deep inside the cave was an open area roughly the size of a soccer field, with a ceiling thirty meters high.
Rathalos was there, tending to Rathian’s wounds.
Suddenly, Rathalos turned its head.
Boom!
Boom!
Anjanath charged into the chamber with Zhang Tian on its back.
“Brothers, all together!”
Zhang Tian pointed at Rathalos and gave the order to attack.
Rathalos opened its enormous jaws and released an enraged roar.
The bastard who had injured its mate had actually dared to come straight to its nest.
Rathalos was furious.
Extremely furious.
Whoosh!
Rathalos opened its mouth and spat a massive fireball toward Zhang Tian, who was riding on Anjanath’s back.
Boom!
Anjanath leaped to the left, easily dodging the fireball.
After six uses of Dragon Dance, Anjanath’s Speed and Attack had both increased to four times their original values.
So even though Anjanath wasn’t an agile monster by nature, it could still easily dodge Rathalos’s attack.
“Awooo!”
Arcanine let out a long howl and activated Intimidate.
Because the difference in strength between Arcanine and Rathalos was too great, Intimidate wasn’t very effective.
It only reduced Rathalos’s Attack by five percent.
Even so, Zhang Tian was already quite satisfied.
“ROAR!”
Tobi-Kadachi, the fastest among them, leaped over Anjanath.
Electricity crackled beneath its feet as it appeared directly in front of Rathalos.
Swish!
Its claws, surrounded by flashing electricity, slashed toward Rathalos’s right eye.
Facing Tobi-Kadachi’s attack, Rathalos didn’t panic.
Instead, it leaped backward, easily avoiding the incoming claws.
Seeing this, Tobi-Kadachi immediately jumped into the air and pounced toward Rathian, which was sleeping nearby while recovering from its injuries.
“Aerial Tail Slam!”
Tobi-Kadachi’s enormous tail came crashing down.
Boom!
Rathian’s head was smashed even flatter, with red and white fluids flowing from its various openings.
The wounds Rathian had finally managed to recover from were severely damaged once again.
Rathian collapsed to the ground and became completely unconscious.
“ROAR!”
Seeing its mate attacked again, Rathalos became enraged.
Rathalos stretched its neck forward, folded its wings against its body, and charged toward Tobi-Kadachi like a heavily armored knight launching a cavalry charge.
“ROAR!”
Tobi-Kadachi jumped backward and landed on the ceiling.
It then clung upside down to the cave ceiling like a gecko.
Boom!
Boom!
Rathalos thundered underneath Tobi-Kadachi with heavy footsteps.
Rathalos wanted to stop and look up so it could blast Tobi-Kadachi with a couple of fireballs.
But after launching itself into a full-speed charge, stopping wasn’t that easy.
Even for an ordinary human being, once you started running at full speed, you couldn’t simply come to an instant stop.
Crackle!
Crackle!
Blue-white light suddenly erupted from Tobi-Kadachi’s body.
Terrifying electricity surged around it.
“Discharge!”
Tobi-Kadachi unleashed the Pokémon move it had gained after being converted into a Pokémon.
Crackle!
Crackle!
Rathalos was weak to both Electric and Dragon-type attacks, so the damage from Discharge was even greater than Tobi-Kadachi had expected.
Under the bombardment of electricity, Rathalos’s scales turned black, while some of the flesh beneath its outer skin was actually cooked.
If Rathalos hadn’t been one level stronger than Tobi-Kadachi, that single Discharge would probably have inflicted serious injuries.
“Hurricane!”
Rathalos finally managed to slow itself down.
The moment it turned around, however, a Hurricane from Pidgeot blasted directly into its face.
Sharp blades of wind sliced across Rathalos’s scales, producing an unpleasant grinding sound.
It sounded almost like someone sawing through metal with a steel saw.
Crack!
Crack!
One shallow wound after another appeared across Rathalos’s body.
It was the work of Hurricane.
“ROAR!”
Almost simultaneously, the heat-dissipating membranes on Anjanath’s head and back spread open.
Anjanath opened its enormous jaws and unleashed a massive pillar of flame.
Rathalos only had time to raise its head.
BOOM!
The three-to-four-meter-wide pillar of flame slammed directly into Rathalos’s chest.
A large portion of Rathalos’s flesh was instantly charred, with some areas even catching fire.
Rathalos had excellent resistance to fire.
Even so, the attack had still inflicted significant damage.
Anjanath’s Attack was simply too high.
With Heat Vent Membrane active, Anjanath’s Special Attack had risen to the same level as its Attack.
And just how high was Anjanath’s Attack?
Its original Attack had been multiplied by six.
Dragon Dance provided a fourfold increase, while its Ability provided another 1.5× boost.
Dragon Dance plus its Ability alone amounted to a sixfold increase.
In other words, Anjanath’s current attack power was already infinitely close to Quasi-Champion Class.
That was the value of Dragon Dance.
It increased both Attack and Speed.
The pseudo-legendary Garchomp was a powerful Pokémon, but its inability to learn Dragon Dance had left many Pokémon players disappointed for a long time.
If Garchomp could learn Dragon Dance, its competitive strength would undoubtedly rise by an entire tier.
Back in the era of Pokémon games before the introduction of the Fairy type, there was even a saying among players:
There are only two kinds of Pokémon in this world—those that can use Dragon Dance and those that can’t.
That was how highly players regarded the power of Dragon Dance.
“ROAR!”
The pain finally pushed Rathalos completely over the edge.
Whoosh!
Rathalos spread its wings and leaped into the air.
It opened its mouth and swept a huge wave of flames toward Anjanath.
“Garde!”
Gardevoir raised both hands.
Using Teleport, it instantly moved Rathalos directly in front of Anjanath.
Before Rathalos could even understand what had happened, it was swallowed by its own flames.
That was the terrifying part about Teleport.
Aside from Dark-type Pokémon, which could ignore Psychic-type attacks, Pokémon capable of using Teleport were practically impossible for most enemies to deal with.