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In the swirling blizzard, within the gloomy snow-covered forest, fresh blood had splattered violently across the frozen ground, staining the pure white snow with a vivid crimson hue that seemed to glow against the pristine landscape.

Roger had successfully escaped by riding his wounded Charizard to safety, but this victory meant absolute doom for the poachers who had lost their Pokémon. With their trusted partners confiscated and no means of defense or escape available, they had all become vengeful spirits beneath Chien-Pao’s legendary broken blade, perishing in absolute terror without a single exception.

Scattered throughout the battlefield were severed limbs and various organs, along with several perfectly preserved ice sculptures. The people trapped within these frozen monuments had eyes filled with pure, undiluted terror, clearly having suffered immense fear and panic before being eternally frozen in their final moments.

After Chien-Pao had methodically eliminated all the human intruders who had dared to disturb its territory, the legendary creature’s imposing figure also vanished completely into the swirling snow, returning silently to the depths of Sky Mountain to continue its ancient vigil.

About ten minutes later, a new figure appeared unexpectedly in the blood-stained, snowy forest. The newcomer was short and stocky in build, standing approximately 1.65 meters tall, and wore a thick black cloak that almost perfectly blended with the dim, shadowy surroundings, making him extremely difficult to spot at first glance.

However, compared to his unremarkable stature, the distinctive mask he wore on his face was far more striking and memorable.

He wore a unique Yamask mask, but this particular mask was slightly different from the one that had been worn by God’s Coffin-12 in the Dream Secret Realm incident. His Yamask mask possessed a light silver coloration, and it had the number 10 carefully engraved upon its surface.

This distinctive marking also represented his specific identity within the organization: God’s Coffin Reserve Member 10.

The God’s Coffin organization’s masks were divided into two distinct categories: golden Yamask masks and silver Yamask masks, each representing different levels of membership and authority.

Official members of the organization wore the prestigious golden Yamask masks, while reserve members wore the silver Yamask masks to indicate their probationary status.

Any official member of God’s Coffin possessed the authority to introduce and sponsor a reserve member into the organization, just like the current God’s Coffin-10 reserve member, who had been personally introduced and vouched for by the official God’s Coffin-10 member.

Therefore, the entire God’s Coffin Organization currently consisted of exactly twenty-four active members: twelve official members who held full authority and twelve reserve members who were working toward full membership.

The person standing before the carnage was named Huxley, who served as the vice president of the Dawn Society criminal organization, and was also the only son of the Dawn Society’s current president. He was thirty-five years old, in the prime of his adult life and criminal career.

Although Huxley held only reserve member status within God’s Coffin, his personal strength was quite impressive for someone his age. Even at only thirty-five years old, through the accumulation of vast resources and intensive training, he had already developed strength that was comparable to that of an Elite Four member.

It was important to understand that the members of the God’s Coffin organization represented a very complex hierarchy. Official members and reserve members were not divided based purely on individual strength or battle prowess, but rather by whether or not they possessed a Legendary Pokémon under their command.

This unique organizational structure also led to the interesting situation where the personal strength of some individual reserve members could actually exceed that of certain official members who happened to possess weaker Legendary Pokémon.

Of course, Huxley’s strength was not considered particularly impressive within the organization’s standards. He ranked near the bottom among all God’s Coffin reserve members in terms of pure battle capability. He had been able to join the prestigious God’s Coffin Organization entirely because his father was an official God’s Coffin-10 member, who operated under the codename “Phoenix.” Without this family connection, he truly wouldn’t have been able to gain entry into such an exclusive criminal organization.

Huxley surveyed the scattered corpses and ice sculptures with a critical eye, his brows tightly furrowed in concentration. He suppressed the rising nausea in his stomach and began examining each of the bodies on the ground methodically, one by one. His first glance naturally fell upon the frozen form of Tomas, but after only a quick assessment, he continued his systematic search.

Huxley desperately wanted to find Roger’s body somewhere among the carnage. He needed to confirm definitively whether Roger was truly dead, because only Roger’s confirmed death could ensure that Chien-Pao’s secret location would not be exposed to the authorities for the time being.

However, after conducting a thorough and comprehensive search of the entire area, the result was naturally a source of great disappointment to him. Among all the scattered corpses, besides those belonging to the Dawn Society poachers, Roger’s body was nowhere to be found. It was absolutely clear that Roger had somehow survived the legendary Pokémon’s assault and successfully escaped.

Useless! Tomas, that complete and utter good-for-nothing!

Huxley couldn’t help but curse bitterly in his mind. Tomas had proven himself to be utterly useless in this critical mission. He couldn’t even properly deal with a single patrol captain like Roger. After serving as the vice president of the Dawn Society for so many years, Tomas’s personal strength and tactical abilities hadn’t improved at all.

Huxley released a frustrated sigh. If Roger managed to return alive and successfully brought back news about Chien-Pao’s presence in the area, as long as the Pokémon Association decided to take official action, he would no longer have any realistic chance to capture the legendary Pokémon for himself. Therefore, he absolutely had to catch up to Roger and eliminate him before he could report back.

“Come out, Slurpuff,” Huxley commanded.

Slurpuff was a Fairy-type Pokémon, and in direct battle situations, it wasn’t particularly powerful or intimidating. With its pure Fairy typing, its combat abilities were quite mediocre overall, possessing no obvious weaknesses but also lacking any distinct strengths, which meant it was rarely selected by trainers as a main battle Pokémon.

However, Slurpuff did possess one truly unique and valuable ability: an extraordinarily developed sense of smell that surpassed most other Pokémon species.

Slurpuff’s sense of smell was over one hundred million times more sensitive and accurate than that of an average human being. It could understand and interpret its surroundings completely by detecting even the most subtle scents floating invisibly in the air.

Therefore, Slurpuff was usually employed as an invaluable helper for professional pastry chefs, and it could also accurately detect and analyze people’s physical and mental states simply from their natural scent, making its practical application in the medical field highly anticipated by researchers.

In addition to these applications, Slurpuff was also widely recognized as one of the most suitable Pokémon species for tracking and pursuit missions. In situations like this current one, it could easily follow even the faintest blood scent that had been diluted countless times in the cold mountain air.

“Slurpuff, I need you to help me detect the scent of blood in this area. Try to determine if anyone who was injured has left this location,” Huxley said while gently stroking his Pokémon. “Or alternatively, try to pick up the scent trail of a Charizard if you can, Slurpuff.”

“Slurrr~” Slurpuff nodded in understanding, then immediately began twitching its sensitive pink nostrils, carefully sniffing and analyzing the complex mixture of blood scents that lingered in the frigid air.

Slurpuff continued sniffing the various blood scents while slowly moving its feet, gradually pursuing the trail in the direction that Roger had taken during his escape.

Roger’s injured Charizard had left a steady trail of blood droplets all along its flight path, and these crimson bloodstains served as perfect guiding beacons, leading Slurpuff directly toward their target.

“You found something?” Huxley asked hopefully.

“Slurrr~” Slurpuff nodded confidently.

“Excellent. Come out, Salamence,” Huxley smiled with satisfaction, then released his powerful Dragon-type Pokémon from its Poké Ball. He climbed skillfully onto Salamence’s broad back and began following the blood trail left by Charizard in order to track down and eliminate Roger.

However, just five minutes after Huxley had departed from the gruesome scene, yet another mysterious figure appeared silently in the bloodstained forest.

A menacing Houndoom followed loyally beside this new arrival, keeping its dark head lowered while sniffing the air with intense concentration.

“He really came, just as I expected,” Dante observed. His face was slightly flushed from exertion; the high-speed travel through the mountain terrain had consumed a considerable amount of his physical stamina. Looking at the scattered corpses and ice sculptures, a knowing glint flashed dangerously in Dante’s calculating eyes. Everything was proceeding exactly according to his carefully laid plan.

The only unexpected variable in this entire situation had been Roger’s personal involvement. Dante hadn’t anticipated that Roger himself would be personally leading the patrol today and would subsequently become caught up in this deadly incident. Thinking of Roger now, Dante couldn’t help but recall his own days serving in the Patrol Team many years ago.

Roger was undoubtedly one of the most selfless captains Dante had ever encountered. With Roger’s exceptional strength and proven abilities, he easily could have applied to be transferred away from this difficult and dangerous posting to a more comfortable assignment, but he had deliberately chosen not to pursue such opportunities. Instead, he had remained here faithfully for over a decade.

For many long years, Roger had silently and dutifully guarded the Wilderness Area without complaint. Roger had never married or started a family, never had children of his own. He had dedicated absolutely everything in his life to protecting the Wilderness Area and serving the people of Green Mountain Town.

Dante himself had once resembled Roger in many ways, taking it upon himself to protect the Wilderness Area and its inhabitants, until that terrible incident had occurred and changed everything.

Dante shook his head slowly, trying to clear his thoughts. Today, he seemed unusually nostalgic and reflective. Why was he spending so much time thinking about the distant past?

Looking in the direction that Huxley had taken, Dante climbed onto his Mandibuzz’s strong back and began pursuing him through the snowy landscape.

He could only hope that he would be able to catch up in time to see how this dangerous game would end.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep