Giovanni, inside the safe zone, watched the Lampent in the sky, a green light flickering in his eyes.
Buzz!
Beedrill's figure transformed into a golden lightning bolt, instantly appearing behind the Lampent. Its twin stingers swung, cutting through the air as they lunged towards the Lampent.
Lampent sensed the movement behind it and frantically dodged.
Only after it had evaded Beedrill's attack and created some distance did it clearly see that the assailant was a Beedrill that hadn't even reached Senior Level.
Its eyes held mockery, wondering how a mere Beedrill dared to do such a thing.
Facing Lampent's mockery, Beedrill showed no anger. It simply raised its stingers slightly, its aura rising as it used Focus Energy.
Lampent, seeing this Beedrill acting so arrogantly, immediately used Smog.
Dense, poisonous mist was released by Lampent, engulfing Beedrill.
Beedrill, facing Lampent's Smog, looked at Lampent as if it were an idiot. Then, it lightly inhaled a bit of the Smog, and after a moment, exhaled it.
It had taken a top-tier lungful.
"Hiss, beep?"
Lampent was utterly bewildered with rage. It shrieked, and Will-O-Wisps began to float around it.
Lampent was burning with fury, and the Will-O-Wisps around it grew even more intense, as if they would incinerate all the surrounding air.
It decided to teach this arrogant Beedrill a lesson, so it suddenly moved, and several Embers, like shooting stars, streaked across the night sky, heading straight for Beedrill.
Beedrill remained unhurried, its compound eyes even showing intense disdain.
Its wings vibrated, using Agility to easily dodge each Ember attack, while also seizing the opportunity to spray a Poison Jab towards Lampent.
The green venom arced through the air, accurately hitting Lampent and causing its body to momentarily falter.
In pain, Lampent's body quickly shrank, thereby avoiding Beedrill's next attack.
After moving away from Beedrill, it seized the chance to unleash the Fire Spin move, attempting to trap Beedrill within it.
Boom!
Under its control, a massive amount of flames transformed into a Fire Spin resembling a Twister, directly engulfing Beedrill.
The scorching flames made Beedrill miserable. Its body was burned red by the intense heat, and every breath it exhaled was scorching hot, burning its heart.
It placed its twin stingers in front of it, using the Protect move, forming a light green barrier around itself, keeping the intense flames of the Fire Spin at bay.
When the Fire Spin ended, Beedrill was only a bit red, but it hadn't been severely injured!
Seeing that Fire Spin was ineffective, Lampent was somewhat enraged and humiliated. It was clearly just a lowly bug; normally, it could burn a large group of them to death!
It condensed the Shadow Ball move, and Shadow Balls instantly formed. Although not as powerful as that Haunter's, they were still formidable.
It intended to deliver a fatal blow to Beedrill.
One by one, the Shadow Balls, carrying an eerie aura, slowly approached Beedrill, but halfway through their flight, they were shattered by Beedrill's precise Pin Missile.
Boom, boom, boom!
A series of explosions erupted between them, and then the Shadow Balls instantly vanished without a trace.
By this point in the battle, Lampent had used multiple moves, but all had been countered by Beedrill. It began to feel uneasy; this Beedrill's strength far exceeded its expectations.
Just then, Beedrill's compound eyes scanned Lampent, and its body suddenly accelerated, activating Assurance, like a golden lightning bolt, charging straight towards Lampent.
Lampent hastily used the Curse move, attempting to lower Beedrill's speed, but Beedrill was too fast. Before Curse could fully take effect, Beedrill had already closed in.
Beedrill's twin stingers whirled wildly, continuously using Fury Cutter and Bug Bite, forming streaks of white light in front of it, repeatedly striking Lampent!
Finally, under a continuous assault of Fury Cutter and Bug Bite, Lampent could no longer hold on and was defeated.
The battle ended, and Beedrill hovered in place. Although its aura was slightly chaotic, its eyes gleamed with the light of victory.
Lampent, meanwhile, fell from the sky to the ground, trampled by a group of Pokémon. Unable to dematerialize in time, it was likely dead after being stomped on.
Beedrill disdainfully flicked its stingers, then flew towards some wild Pokémon again, launching a fierce attack.
This wild Pokémon assault finally ended after three hours.
Basically, seven or eight out of ten Pokémon were captured, with only a few unfortunate ones being accidentally killed or trampled to death.
Matt observed for a while, then instructed his subordinates, "Clean up the aftermath."
Giovanni stepped out lightly, and Beedrill and the others returned.
Then Giovanni looked at the black shadow that was constantly devouring souls, being chased by Persian.
Gastly transformed from its shadowy state back into its original form. Its body swelled several times over, and one could even see some distorted faces within its body, just like that Haunter.
Its internal energy rapidly increased, making up for seventy to eighty percent of the energy it had lost over the years.
Its level was restored, reaching level twenty-five in just this one night. Its body began to distort, emitting a white light.
As it expanded and stretched, when the white light dissipated, a somewhat ethereal Haunter slowly emerged.
It looked at its pair of large claws, excited and happy.
Giovanni coldly called out to it, "Come back, Haunter."
Haunter looked at Giovanni, its eyes flickering, and it didn't return immediately.
Giovanni then said ominously, "Have you forgotten what I said before? Or are you tired of living?"
Whoosh.
Haunter suddenly felt something was wrong. It looked around and found Persian behind it, Beedrill poised in the sky above, and Machoke ready to use Knock Off and Rhyhorn ready to use Knock Down below.
It frantically flew towards Giovanni, even flashing a fawning smile, almost going down to rub against Giovanni's leg.
Giovanni watched it coldly, not giving Haunter a good look despite its attempts to please him.
He merely observed the energy within Haunter's body, and only after seeing that it still had a lot of undigested energy did he recall it.
Giovanni touched the Poké Ball, glanced at the distant forest, and pondered for a moment, "Everyone, come back."
Beedrill and the others returned, and the night passed just like that.
However, in the latter half of the night, several shadows appeared outside the safe zone, constantly searching among the few remaining corpses.
However, the souls had long since been devoured by Haunter, and Haunter's self-proclaimed clever scheme had long been seen through by Matt.
After searching for a while, they could only return dejectedly, having found nothing.
[T/N: Yes, I'm back. However, due to storage and time constraints, the quality of translations might drop a notch— but nevertheless, I'm back.
If you don't mind giving a few donations, you can do it via PayP@l to @margxsch. ([email protected]/margxsch) Thanks for reading!]