Because Dugtrio had changed the environment, Duanmu had no choice but to command his Crobat to move the battle to the sky above Viridian Gym, avoiding the impact of the sandstorm weather on Crobat’s stamina.

To prevent this ruthless guy Duanmu from launching sneak attacks, Lance also had to order Dragonite to quickly ascend and defeat Crobat as soon as possible.

With its speed doubled, Sandslash instantly appeared in front of Pikachu. Under Pikachu’s shocked gaze, it viciously slashed Pikachu’s body with its own hard sharp claws.

“Pika!”

Having been hit by Sandslash’s Slash attack, Pikachu suffered the negative effect of decreased defense, and much of its shiny fur fell off as a result.

Seeing Pikachu panting heavily, Sandslash launched another offensive. Just as its hard sharp claws were about to hit Pikachu’s body, they were blocked by a pair of black and red giant pincers.

“CLANG!”

Scizor repelled the approaching Sandslash, then turned its head displeasedly toward the fallen Pikachu.

‘Compared to that guy, you really are too pathetic!’

After hearing Scizor’s scolding, Pikachu struggled with all its might to stand up, unwilling to be looked down upon by Scizor like this.

Seeing Pikachu’s hesitant gaze that seemed to want to explain, Scizor’s expression gradually softened, telling Pikachu it could just stand safely behind it.

‘Hey, no matter what, this guy was trained under my guidance. I absolutely won’t allow you to hurt it like this!’

As soon as the words fell, Scizor’s figure suddenly blurred, instantly appearing in front of Sandslash and using Bullet Punch on it.

‘So fast!’

Sandslash only felt something heavy scraping against its cheek, then its body involuntarily stepped backward.

Fortunately, Sandslash managed to insert its claws into the ground in time, avoiding a secondary impact from the wall.

“Big brother, I…”

Ash hung his head dejectedly. He had originally wanted Red to see him in a new light, but unexpectedly still needed Red to help him.

“It’s natural for a big brother to help his little brother. Besides, if you were stronger than me, that wouldn’t be like your style at all,” Red joked, then instructed Scizor to battle autonomously.

Crobat vs. Dragonite, Dugtrio vs. Blastoise, and Sandslash vs. Scizor.

Sharp stone blades floated around Sandslash, then under Sandslash’s control, immediately fired toward Scizor.

Seeing this, Scizor crossed its pincers and spun its body, using Swords Dance to block part of the damage from the stone blades while raising its Attack power.

Scizor’s figure blurred again. Realizing it had used Bullet Punch, Sandslash immediately curled up its body, using Defense Curl to block the Bullet Punch damage.

“CLANG!”

The curled-up Sandslash was violently knocked away, but fortunately the nearby Dugtrio manipulated the sand flow to catch the falling Sandslash.

“Tch, I didn’t expect a mere Dugtrio to be so troublesome!” Gary said with a frown, displeased.

Although Gary’s Blastoise had a type advantage over Dugtrio, none of its attacks managed to hit Dugtrio’s body. Instead, it was continuously worn down by Dugtrio’s Stone Edge attacks.

Since Dugtrio wasn’t receiving commands from a trainer, it was completely one-sidedly dominating Blastoise, which made the proud Gary feel quite frustrated.

The most difficult situation was Crobat’s. Even with its perfect synchronization with Duanmu’s killing intent, Crobat could only barely resist Dragonite’s offensive, not daring to let its guard down for a moment.

“Crobat, use Brave Bird!” Duanmu commanded.

Blue flames covered Crobat’s entire body, and the flame-wreathed Crobat swiftly approached Dragonite.

“Dragonite, use Dragon Claw!”

Its thick claws were covered in emerald light. Dragonite easily blocked Crobat’s attack with one hand, then smoothly used its left claw to knock Crobat to the ground, nearly getting its body controlled by Dugtrio’s Sand Trap. Fortunately, Dugtrio pushed Crobat back up into the sky in time.

“Worthy of being the Dragon-type Elite Four member, your strength is truly unfathomable,” Duanmu said warily, looking worriedly at the severely injured Crobat.

“Gary, leave Dugtrio to me.”

Red came to Gary’s side, placing his hand on Gary’s shoulder to indicate he could safely leave Dugtrio to him.

After Gary reluctantly took out his Poké Ball to recall his exhausted Blastoise, Red threw the Poké Ball in his hand. The white light faded, revealing the massive Steelix with its enormous body.

The appearance of the massive Steelix simultaneously shocked everyone present, unable to imagine that such a gigantic Steelix could exist.

‘I didn’t expect this kid’s Onix to become so powerful too…’

Duanmu looked up in disbelief at the towering massive Steelix. Even though Duanmu was on the second floor, he could only look up at the massive Steelix’s imposing presence.

As a fellow Ground-type Pokémon, the massive Steelix naturally wouldn’t be affected by the Sand Trap ability or sandstorm environment. It decisively used Dig, disappearing before Dugtrio.

Dugtrio also used Dig in response, planning to have an underground showdown with the massive Steelix.

With the participation of the massive Steelix and Scizor, Duanmu’s side was clearly at a disadvantage. None of his Pokémon were suppressing their opponents, and furthermore, Crobat’s stamina was gradually being worn down by Dragonite, with defeat possible at any moment.

Right now, Duanmu was just carrying out the final mission Giovanni had given him: to delay the League personnel’s intrusion with all his might, because Team Rocket didn’t want the research data from Viridian Gym’s underground base to fall into the Pokémon League’s hands.

Greedy Team Rocket wanted to transfer away the real data while deliberately leaving behind some ‘mismatched’ incomplete data to make the Pokémon League’s scientists give up researching Mewtwo’s data.

“BANG!”

A violent sound echoed underground. In moments, Dugtrio’s figure emerged from below ground, having been knocked up by Steelix’s Iron Tail.

Dugtrio hadn’t expected the massive Steelix’s attack to be so terrifying, nearly knocking it unconscious underground. Fortunately, Dugtrio’s speed was agile, and it managed to toy with the massive Steelix for a while.

To turn the situation in its favor, Dugtrio decided to use a devastating move.

Dugtrio’s body trembled continuously, and with Dugtrio as the center, the earth shook constantly. The impact force from the earthquake affected Sandslash, who was still battling Scizor.

Fortunately, Crobat and Sandslash worked together. Sandslash used Stone Edge to distract Dragonite’s attention, and Crobat immediately carried Sandslash into the air, avoiding the earthquake damage.

Unable to effectively avoid the damage, the massive Steelix and Scizor had to take the earthquake attack head-on.

The massive Steelix couldn’t help but show a strained expression, because Earthquake, a Ground-type move, could deal double super-effective damage to the massive Steelix.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep