“Gastly, use Protect!”
“Gastly!
(╬￣皿￣)”
Seeing Dhelmise charge toward Blake, Gastly angrily flew in front of him.
A pale blue barrier appeared around Gastly’s body, directly blocking Dhelmise’s attack.
Dhelmise was indeed much slower than Gastly, which meant Gyro Ball received quite a significant boost.
Combined with Dhelmise’s Steelworker Ability, the move’s power was nothing to scoff at.
Even so, compared to the Protect that Gastly had trained so hard to master, it still fell short and failed to break through his defense.
“Negotiations have broken down!
Prepare to force our way through!
Gastly, use Toxic!”
Although Blake knew Dhelmise had misunderstood him, this was no longer the time to explain.
If it refused to listen, then he would beat it first and talk afterward!
“Gastly!
Ptui!”
Looking at Dhelmise right in front of him, Gastly spat a glob of poisonous sludge straight at it.
Dhelmise immediately tried to retreat, but with its slow speed, there was no way it could dodge the move.
The attack struck its true body head-on, and the dark green seaweed instantly turned a sickly purple-black.
“Dheeeelmise!”
The pain brought by Toxic made Dhelmise furious.
In the games, poison damage only took effect at the end of each turn, but this was reality.
Toxic was constantly at work every single moment.
“Dhelmise!
Ugh—”
A trace of Dark-type energy gathered in front of Dhelmise, forming a claw that struck toward Gastly.
Thief.
“Dodge it, Gastly!
Will-O-Wisp!”
As Blake gave the command, he also rolled to the side to avoid the attack.
The captain’s cabin was not exactly small, but with Dhelmise standing at over three meters tall, nearly four, the available space was practically filled.
“Gastly!
(〝▼皿▼)”
Gastly instantly dispersed into a thin mist, avoiding the attack.
Then three purple ghostly flames flew toward Dhelmise.
Blake’s Gastly was a prodigy born from many years of careful breeding within his family.
Aside from his exceptionally high intelligence and a long list of inherited moves, he had also mastered the ability to turn his own body into gas.
In theory, Gastly, as a Gas Pokémon, should naturally be able to do this, but in reality, very few Gastly could fully vaporize themselves.
Most could only partially turn into gas, and some could not control the process at all.
Blake’s Gastly, however, had been able to vaporize completely from birth.
That was also why Haze was so powerful in his hands.
Dark-type moves were indeed super effective against Ghost-type Gastly, but Gastly’s vaporization gave him an extremely strong advantage when dodging physical moves.
Combined with Dhelmise’s pitiful speed, the attack missed completely.
This time, scorched black burn marks appeared across the seaweed that had already turned purple-black.
For game balance, a Pokémon could usually only suffer from one major status condition at a time, with confusion being an exception.
But reality did not work that way.
After discovering this, Blake had designed a whole strategy around it for Gastly.
“Dheeeelmise—!”
The pain of being poisoned and burned at the same time made Dhelmise let out a miserable cry.
Unfortunately for it, this was not over yet.
“Gastly, Confuse Ray!”
“Gastly!
(゚▽゚*)”
Gastly appeared excitedly in front of Dhelmise.
Before Dhelmise could even react, Gastly spat out a constantly shifting ball of light, its colors changing so dizzyingly that merely looking at it made one’s head spin.
Dhelmise immediately felt awful, as if everything around it had started drifting and swaying.
And Blake was not done.
While Dhelmise was still disoriented, Gastly took the opportunity to lick it.
Fortunately for Dhelmise, that Lick did not paralyze it.
“Final blow!
Hex!”
Knowing his strategy had succeeded, Blake excitedly pumped his fist and called out the finishing move.
Hex: a Ghost-type special attack with a base power of sixty-five, doubling in strength when the target was affected by a status condition.
Right now, Dhelmise was suffering from two negative conditions and was too confused to dodge.
After two rounds of doubled power, plus type advantage, even ten lives would not have been enough for Dhelmise to take it.
A thick purple-black mist enveloped Dhelmise.
In the next instant—
“Dhe—aaaaaah!”
A scream rang out, one that did not sound like something Dhelmise should be able to make.
When the thick mist dispersed, Dhelmise crashed to the floor with a heavy boom, lying there as if dead.
“Whew…
Looks like this strategy really does work!
Now let’s see whether this next part works too.”
Blake wiped at the nonexistent sweat on his face, pulled a Dusk Ball from his waist, and threw it at the fallen Dhelmise.
Ding—whoosh!
The massive Dhelmise turned into a beam of red light and was drawn into the Dusk Ball.
He had to admit, the technology level of the Pokémon world was truly astonishing.
Long before smartphones appeared, space-compressing items like Poké Balls had already been invented.
Then again, that might also have something to do with Pokémon themselves being almost miraculous existences.
The Dusk Ball containing Dhelmise began to shake.
That was a sign that Dhelmise was still resisting.
Although it had already lost consciousness, its subconscious had not fully submitted.
But the fact that it had not fully resisted also meant that some part of it had already yielded.
Combined with its current condition, after the Dusk Ball shook several times, it finally settled with a click.
“Whew…
Success.”
“Gastly?
Gastly!
Σ(゚д゚lll)”
After Dhelmise was caught, something suddenly happened to Gastly!
Blake quickly turned around and saw white light blooming from Gastly’s body.
“This is…
evolution?”
Blake looked at Gastly.
“Well, that makes sense.
He’s been holding it back for a long time, so evolving now is pretty normal.”
Blake watched as Gastly’s body began to restructure itself.
Because keeping a Pokémon in its first stage for a longer period could benefit its growth, and because Blake and Gastly had not had many serious battles, Gastly had remained in his first stage for quite some time.
After today’s proper battle, along with his excitement, evolving now was completely reasonable.
“Haunter!
(ノ゚▽゚)ノ”
With a cry full of obvious excitement, Gastly—no, Haunter—officially completed his evolution.
Now that he had grown a pair of hands, Haunter kept staring at them.
He poked here, tapped there, and was clearly thrilled by the existence of his new hands.
“Congratulations, Gastly…
no, Haunter.”
Blake picked up the Dusk Ball containing Dhelmise and reached out to Haunter.
“Haunter~~”
Haunter floated over, stretched out his new hand, and shook Blake’s.
Ah—having hands felt wonderful.
“Let’s check on Dhelmise first.
We need to treat the burn and poison.”
A Poké Ball had the ability to cure confusion, but it could not detoxify a Pokémon or heal a burn.
Although Blake was excited, he had not forgotten what mattered.
He also intended to ask Dhelmise properly whether it was willing to follow him.
If Dhelmise was unwilling, Blake would hand it over to the League and have them find a suitable place to release it.
After all, this was not a game.
Pokémon were not data that automatically became obedient after being caught.
“Haunter.
(o´ω`o)و”
Haunter gave him a thumbs-up.
Although he wanted another companion, if the other party was unwilling, he would not force it either.
“Come out, Dhelmise.”
Blake released Dhelmise again.
The basic healing effect of the Poké Ball had restored a little of Dhelmise’s stamina, but it was still in no condition to move around.
Blake quickly took out the Antidote, Burn Heal, and Potion he had prepared in advance, then busied himself with Haunter.
As for Dhelmise, aside from letting out a low cry, it remained completely still.
“Dheeeelmise…”