"What happened?" Yuga's heart skipped a beat.
"The frontline is in huge trouble! General Damov and three deputy generals, along with five hundred soldiers, have all gone missing! Our own General Toyama was also seriously wounded—he sent me to ask you for help!" the soldier said in a flustered and anxious tone.
The pioneer army here was composed of one General and four Deputy Generals. General Toyama was one of the four deputy generals, and Damov was the name of the main general.
"What exactly happened?" Yuga pressed further.
The soldier quickly explained everything that had taken place to Yuga without missing a beat.
Not long ago, the Pokémon in the grassland had launched another attack on the pioneer army, but they had soon retreated again. Under a deliberate ploy, General Damov, along with three deputy generals and five hundred soldiers, had pursued the retreating Pokémon deep into the grasslands—and then they never came back out.
Sensing that something was wrong, General Toyama led a portion of troops to support General Damov, but on the way there, they were ambushed by the lord of the grassland, and as a result, he was severely injured.
With five of the pioneer army' strongest people all caught up in the incident, General Toyama feared the worst and could only think of turning to Yuga, who was nearby. At this point, it was far too late to count on reinforcements from the League.
After learning the details of the situation, Yuga immediately went to find Yoshino and the others to inform them that he was heading to the frontline. He didn't explain much else, and Yoshino's group didn't ask many questions either.
After that, Yuga sought out the troops General Toyama had assigned to him, gave them instructions regarding the current situation, and then quickly departed from the base on his Dragonite while taking the soldier with him.
Not long after Yuga and the soldier set off, the sky grew dark. Under the cover of night, Yuga finally reached the frontline around midnight and saw the severely wounded General Toyama.
General Toyama was lying weakly on the bed. When he saw Yuga, a relieved smile appeared on his face—but because of the severity of his injuries, the act of smiling tugged at his wounds, causing him so much pain that his face turned green.
"General Toyama, how are your injuries?" Yuga asked with concern.
"Not dead yet!" General Toyama said, barely curling his lips. The doctor had already treated him with medicine—specifically, half of the pioneer army' only remaining Revive Shard. Otherwise, he probably wouldn't even have regained consciousness.
Due to the recent intensity of the conflict, the number of injured soldiers had surged. The pioneer army hadn't had many Revive Shards to begin with, and by now, nearly all of them had been used up.
Revive Shards were not only extremely expensive but also produced in very low quantities. The pioneer army had only prepared a few in case of emergencies. Half of the last shard had been used not long ago, and now the other half was gone too.
Naturally, half a Revive Shard couldn't immediately restore someone to full vitality, but the fact that it had preserved General Toyama's life was already a remarkable outcome.
"General Toyama, you called me here because…" Yuga asked.
"Damov and the others are definitely in trouble. I'm extremely worried about their situation," General Toyama said while gritting his teeth through the pain. "And now that I'm in this state, I wanted to ask you…"
He didn't finish the sentence, but Yuga already understood his intention.
"You want me to go and find out what happened to them?" Right now, Yuga was the only one capable of venturing deep into the grassland on a rescue mission.
General Toyama nodded and added, "But this is just a personal request. If you don't agree, it's completely fine. After all, this is our pioneer army' issue."
"I can go," Yuga said after thinking for a moment—after all, it concerned the lives of hundreds of people. "But if I leave, what happens here?"
With General Toyama wounded, if the prairie Pokémon launched a sneak attack—especially if the lord of the grassland showed up—there wouldn't be anyone else strong enough to stop him.
General Toyama gave a bitter smile and said, "If it comes to that, I'll just have to hang on."
Yuga sighed, then took out a Max Revive and said, "Fine. I'll take the loss this time—but your pioneer army better repay me later!"
Although he wasn't lacking in Revive Shards, he wasn't about to let himself be taken advantage of. What was owed still had to be paid.
When General Toyama saw the Max Revive, he was overjoyed. "That's wonderful! Once this matter is resolved, we'll definitely repay you with another one." Even if the pioneer army couldn't, the Unova League would have to.
"You absolutely must repay it," Yuga stressed again, then pushed the Max Revive into General Toyama's mouth.
Before long, General Toyama's pale face regained color, and after a little more time, he was able to get up from the bed.
The Max Revive truly lived up to its reputation as a miracle medicine.
"Thank you so much, Mr. Shimizu," General Toyama said emotionally.
Waving his hand, Yuga replied, "I'll grab a quick bite and head out soon. Rescuing people is more urgent."
Since no one knew what had happened to General Damov and the others, the sooner Yuga departed, the better. However, after rushing over in such a hurry, it was now past midnight, and he hadn't had a single bite to eat.
He didn't trouble General Toyama to prepare anything. Instead, he took out some bread and other simple food from his spatial backpack and made do, which made General Toyama feel a bit guilty.
But urgent situations left no room for niceties.
"Mr. Shimizu, the pioneer army will never forget your help in this time of need," General Toyama said with heartfelt gratitude.
"Good. Then I'll be waiting for your payback," Yuga mumbled through a mouthful of food.
After getting whatever information General Toyama could give him about the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of General Damov and his team, Yuga set off without delay.
The deep grassland environment was complex, and General Toyama didn't have much intel, so it would mostly depend on Yuga's improvisation.
Yuga also received General Damov's contact information, but it was currently unreachable. He could only hope that once he ventured deeper into the grassland, he might be able to get a response.
In the dead of night, the grassland was eerily silent. Flying through the sky on Lunala, Yuga felt a strange sense of dread, goosebumps rising on his skin.
Surrounded by pitch blackness, he could barely see anything. He had to rely on Lunala to report everything she observed along the way. To the Moon Pokémon known as the "Lunar Deity," night was no different from daytime.
He didn't know how long he had been flying when a faint light finally appeared on the horizon—it looked like dawn was breaking. Yet Yuga still hadn't found anything.
On the way, he had encountered a few herds of Bouffalant and Zebstrika, but they were just ordinary wild Pokémon, all fast asleep, so Yuga didn't disturb them.
Once the sun fully rose, Yuga saw a long river stretching across the land like a white ribbon flowing from the distant horizon. He guided Lunala toward the river.
But before he could reach the river, a flock of Pidove and Unfezant surrounded him. The fierce hostility in their eyes told Yuga that they were one of the Pokémon groups currently at war with the pioneer army.
This group wasn't very strong—it was a scout group under the lord of the grassland. So Yuga quickly defeated them with ease.
He wanted to ask them about the whereabouts of General Damov and his group, but he didn't expect them to be so tight-lipped. No matter how much Yuga threatened or tempted them, they refused to speak. Left with no choice, Yuga had Gengar use Hypnosis.
Unfortunately, the Pidove and Unfezant only knew that the lord of the grassland had set a trap for the pioneer army, but they had no idea where those people had gone.
However, Yuga didn't walk away empty-handed—he managed to learn the location of one of the lord of the grassland's most capable subordinate groups. They were stationed upstream along the river.
Yuga didn't let the Pidove and Unfezant off the hook either. He captured all of them with Poké Balls, planning to hand them over to General Toyama upon his return.
Before setting out, he had taken plenty of Poké Balls from the pioneer army.
Following the river upstream, Yuga encountered several more scout groups similar to the Pidove and Unfezant—he dealt with them one by one.
At this point, the lord of the grassland's subordinate groups were appearing more and more frequently. Although they were all just small fry, their numbers were especially large, which explained why the pioneer army hadn't been able to take them down.
Because flying through the air was too conspicuous, Yuga landed after a short flight and switched to riding Absol. As expected, the number of attacks he faced decreased significantly.
He was here to find people, not to fight, so he tried not to provoke too many of the lord of the grassland's forces. Otherwise, it could alert the enemy and put the missing General Damov and the others in even greater danger.
He didn't know how long he had been traveling when he finally saw something different across the endless grassland. At the edge of a stretch of river lay a scattering of yellow-brown rocks of various sizes.
But Yuga knew those weren't real rocks—they were Dwebble and Crustle.
Yuga didn't disturb the crab group. Instead, he quietly released Vivillon, and had Gengar take it along while using Invisibility. As for himself, he had Mismagius hide him with its own concealment ability.
Silently and unnoticed, Vivillon flew above the crab group. Facing the morning sun, it scattered Sleep Powder from above. The powder sparkled as it drifted down in the sunlight.
But the sleeping Dwebble and Crustle didn't notice anything unusual.
To help the Sleep Powder work more effectively, Vivillon quietly summoned a gentle breeze.
Soon, a portion of the Dwebble and Crustle fell into a deep sleep under the effects of the powder.
However, since this group was considered one of the lord of the grassland's most capable subordinates, they naturally couldn't be underestimated.
Before long, the Crustle leader sensed something was wrong. It poked its head out from its rocky shell, looked left and right, then began furiously clapping its claws together, making loud thump-thump sounds. The Crustle that hadn't been affected by the Sleep Powder immediately crawled out of their shells.
Sleep Powder wasn't all-powerful—a significant number of high-level Crustle were unaffected.
Yuga activated his Insight skill to scan the Crustle leader.
...
[ Crustle ]
Type: Bug, Rock
Ability: Sturdy Shell Armor
Gender: Male
Potential: Blue
Level: 78
Moves: Fury Cutter, Rock Blast, Smack Down, Withdraw, Stealth Rock, Rock Slide, Slash, Shell Smash, X-Scissor, Rock Cannon, Earthquake, Stone Edge, Wide Guard, Iron Defense
...
An Elite level Pokémon.
From the Unfezant earlier, Yuga had learned that this group of Dwebble and Crustle was a newly recruited force under the lord of the grassland after he moved deeper into the grassland. They were incredibly fierce in battle and often served as the vanguard in assaults against the pioneer army.
The unaffected Crustle quickly all awakened. They clacked their claws repeatedly, producing a cacophony of noise. This wasn't just to issue a warning or intimidate their foes—it was also a special signal used to transmit information.
Suddenly, Yuga heard a strange noise.
"Screee screee screee…"
He looked up and saw that a group of Swoobat had somehow appeared in the sky. The Swoobat were twitching their heart-shaped noses, sending out waves of supersonic sound.
They were using echolocation to scan their surroundings.
Clearly, these Swoobat had been summoned by the Crustle.
As subordinates of the lord of the grassland, how could the Crustle possibly be stationed alone in one place? They always worked together with other subordinate groups of the lord of the grassland, helping and watching over one another.
This was something Yuga hadn't considered and hadn't managed to learn from the Unfezant either.
The moment he saw the Swoobat, he knew their hiding had been exposed. Supersonic waves were the natural nemesis of Gengar and Mismagius's invisibility abilities.
As expected, the Swoobat quickly detected Yuga and Vivillon. Their noses twitched even faster, sending out an even more peculiar set of ultrasonic pulses, and soon, Yuga and Vivillon were forcibly revealed from their invisible state.
Yuga opened his mouth wide in surprise—he hadn't expected the Swoobat to have such a skill.
The strength of this group of Swoobat was about the same as the Crustle group. Their leader was also an Elite level Pokémon, although its level was noticeably lower than the Crustle leader—it was just at the lower stage of Elite level.
But things didn't stop there. After forcing Yuga and Vivillon out of hiding, the Swoobat began to quickly retreat, flying directly to the rear of the Crustle group.
The Crustle once again began to clap their pincers together, the rhythm growing more and more rapid.
A few seconds later, Yuga noticed the ground beginning to shake and saw mounds rising from the surface.
Crash!
As the mounds split open, Gigalith began crawling out from beneath the earth, one after another.
The "cast" had finally arrived. Hundreds of Crustle and Gigalith launched an attack on Yuga simultaneously. If it had been anyone else standing there, they probably would have died of fright already.
Rock Slide, Stone Edge, Rock Blast, Rock Cannon… countless attacks flew through the air.
Stones—stones filled the entire sky as they rained down toward Yuga.
But Yuga didn't panic. The next second, Dusknoir emerged from the shadow space and stood in front of him. The yellow pattern on Dusknoir's belly suddenly split open, revealing a deep, bottomless maw.
Aaaooooh~
That pitch-black mouth turned into a black hole, and a powerful suction force burst forth from within, instantly sucking in all the stones.
By the time the black hole disappeared, the once-overwhelming shower of stones had completely vanished.
The scene was so shocking that the previously noisy groups of Crustle, Gigalith, and Swoobat fell silent for a moment—only to become even more chaotic shortly after.
They had finally realized how terrifying the human in front of them was. Even their lord couldn't pull off something like that—perhaps only the lord's friend could do something of this scale…
At that moment, thick clouds had unknowingly gathered across the sky.
BOOM!!!
A clap of thunder echoed across the land. Golden lightning lit up the faces of the three Pokémon groups, and then a torrential rain poured down from the sky.
Being Rock-type Pokémon, Gigalith and Crustle hated water. They shifted uncomfortably under the heavy rain.
Crack! Crack!
In the next moment, golden lightning split the sky and struck directly onto the leaders of the three Pokémon groups.
At the same time, at the entrance of a cave deep within the grassland, a tall, muscular Emboar was standing silently, gazing into the depths of the cavern.
When the sound of thunder burst across the sky, it turned its head toward the horizon—and furrowed its brow.