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This was just in case any aggressive wild Pokemon suddenly attacked at close range. The stick would help him react faster and protect himself.
After walking for a while, Roy began to realize something was wrong.
"Shouldn't we turn at this corner here?"
Roy and Lucario both pointed toward another path beside where Wingull was leading them.
Wingull's swaying body froze, and it landed to think hard for a moment.
Ah... it does seem like we should go this way...
This kind of situation had already occurred two or three times now.
Roy suspected that this Wingull might be directionally challenged.
However, looking at the tense expression on its face and how it glanced around uncertainly every time they encountered a fork in the road, Roy couldn't bear to point this out directly.
Lucario also walked slowly beside Roy, surveying their surroundings carefully.
Just when they were about to approach their previous position, both of them suddenly felt an overwhelming sense of pressure.
"Enemy!"
The attack came fierce and urgent, seeming to give Roy no chance to catch his breath.
Lucario didn't have time to wait for Roy's instructions.
Lucario's figure rapidly vanished from beside Roy, and in the next second appeared beside a massive black shadow amid a cloud of dust.
Lucario's palms transformed into claws, reaching toward the shadow's chest.
Quick Attack combined with Metal Claw.
The black shadow didn't seem to expect that Lucario would react so swiftly and suddenly appear right in front of it.
The shadow's movement clearly paused, but it immediately swung its heavy fist without any hesitation.
Lucario's Fighting-type nature meant he was destined to engage enemies at close range.
His exceptional speed also ensured Lucario's ability to maintain continuous combat.
Lucario's attack reached the shadow's body first, and the marks from three sharp claws struck the shadow's form solidly.
The black shadow let out a muffled grunt. Clearly, its bulky body meant it had no time to dodge the attack.
More than that, the shadow obviously understood that if it dodged now, it would be extremely difficult to get close to Lucario again and deal any damage, except during this initial exchange.
So in that split second, the shadow decided it would endure this strike.
Correspondingly, the moment Lucario's Metal Claw pierced the shadow's body, a heavy punch infused with light blue Ice-type energy also struck toward Lucario's head.
Ice Punch!
Lucario's eyes widened suddenly, alarm bells ringing in his mind.
His body reacted even before his brain could fully process the threat.
Lucario attempted to backflip quickly, trying to escape Ice Punch's attack range.
However, the attacker had clearly anticipated Lucario's desire to retreat and had no intention of allowing free movement.
When Lucario began to feel something was strange, he discovered that his body had become quite stiff at some point.
Even that simple backflip couldn't be executed smoothly.
Roy, watching from a safe distance away from the battlefield, could see clearly what was happening.
Ice-type terrain!
At this moment, Lucario's feet were covered by a large expanse of ice and snow, and the purpose was naturally to restrict Lucario's greatest advantage—his speed.
However, for Lucario, this obstacle wasn't truly a major problem. It had just come so suddenly that there had been little time to prepare any defense.
That was what caused Lucario to take the full force of this Ice Punch.
The remaining power of Ice Punch grazed Lucario's shoulder before striking his abdomen hard.
Lucario's trajectory was abruptly interrupted, and he was slammed into the ground along with the force of the Ice Punch.
The small crater in the ground revealed the tremendous power behind that Ice Punch.
However, Lucario possessed a natural resistance to Ice-type moves due to his Fighting typing. While this attack looked frightening, it actually didn't inflict substantial damage on Lucario.
"Come back."
Seeing that Lucario seemed intent on rising from the crater to counterattack, Roy quickly spoke up.
In fact, Lucario did have exactly such thoughts, but he was called back by Roy at the very last moment before launching his next move.
The loyal Lucario naturally obeyed Roy's instructions, leaping up lightly and returning to Roy's side.
At this time, Wingull was also trembling against Roy's neck, indicating that it had never witnessed such a brutal scene before.
"Since you're here, Arman must not be far away."
Roy smiled, seeming to be in quite a good mood.
The Pokemon that had appeared was Arman's ace Pokemon—Abomasnow.
Roy should have guessed this when the icy terrain was summoned in the blink of an eye.
However, Roy had rarely seen Abomasnow use such a close-combat attack skill as Ice Punch in recorded battle footage.
Most of the time, Abomasnow relied on long-range attacks or served as a special attacker for the team.
So Roy had preconceived notions that Abomasnow's physical attack power wasn't particularly formidable.
The performance that Abomasnow had demonstrated during this encounter was beyond Roy's expectations. When Ice Punch had first appeared, due to the obstruction of many trees, Roy hadn't immediately realized it was Abomasnow.
Abomasnow's current condition didn't look very good. His thick white fur was stained with blood, and Abomasnow's expression appeared rather grim.
He was staring intently at Roy... or more specifically, at Lucario beside him.
Roy's words received no response from Abomasnow. Roy touched his nose awkwardly.
"Lucario, he's staring at you pretty intensely. It couldn't possibly be..."
Lucario's ears perked up alertly.
"Please don't make such jokes!"
"Alright, alright, I won't."
Roy patted the dog's head twice, his mood improving further.
He wasn't in any hurry to locate Arman's position, because the Aura power he was radiating would give him the answer as long as he searched the area around Abomasnow.
Abomasnow's strategy was also quite straightforward: as long as he protected against Lucario, Roy was just an ordinary human and shouldn't pose any significant threat.
As for the other Pokemon...
Abomasnow had no information about them for now.
The intelligence they had received before coming here had focused primarily on Roy's Lucario.
Abomasnow glanced down at the wound on his chest, thinking silently to himself.
It seemed that their information was already quite outdated.
A Metal Claw of this caliber had nearly reached master level, and even showed faint signs of breaking through to the next tier.
This Lucario was not to be trifled with.
However, after searching the area thoroughly, Roy couldn't detect any aura belonging to Arman.
"Could it be..."
Roy's eyes shifted back and forth between himself and Abomasnow, while Abomasnow refused to look directly at Roy.
This made Roy even more confident in his suspicion.
Roy nudged Lucario, who seemed a bit on edge.