Chapter 164: Slaughter
Giovanni's gaze hardened. The "wild men" were puppets, their eyes bloodshot, drool dripping from their slack jaws. There was no longer any need to guess what—or who—they had been eating. The only people who had died on this island recently were the members of Matt's reconnaissance squad. Team Rocket's own.
They would not die unavenged.
He dropped silently from the tree, walking slowly toward them.
As he drew closer, the puppets noticed him. At first, they showed no alarm, as if he were one of their own. One of them held up a piece of the grotesque, roasted meat. "Eat... eat meat..."
Giovanni's face was a mask of stone. As he walked, he unclipped the Poké Balls from his belt, one by one.
Snap. Snap. Snap.
Beedrill, Machoke, and the others materialized in flashes of white light.
"I do not eat such meat," Giovanni squeezed the words through gritted teeth. He waved a hand. "And so, unfortunately, you must die. Kill them all."
Buzz!
Beedrill was the first to strike. It became a blur, its twin stingers a whirlwind of death.
Puff, puff, puff!
With impossible speed, it impaled a Pokémon that couldn't even react, turning it into a bloody hornet's nest in an instant. Nidorino reared up, and a shower of toxic needles rained down.
Rhyhorn charged, a living battering ram, while Machoke tore a massive boulder from the ground and hurled it at the enemy. Persian, tasked with guarding the Gastly, remained at Giovanni's side. It was unnecessary anyway. These puppets were no match for his Pokémon.
"Outsider! Die!" one of the puppets roared, its vacant eyes finally registering Giovanni as a threat. The lean, stringy muscles on its seemingly scrawny frame tensed, and it moved with unnatural strength, swatting the massive boulder aside with its bare, filthy hands.
Giovanni was not afraid. He was excited.
As Beedrill and the others engaged the enslaved Pokémon, Giovanni's own slender form blurred into motion, his legs carrying him directly toward the charging puppets. He had absolute confidence in his own fighting skills. He would not shy away from this challenge.
He moved like a nimble leopard, closing the distance to the first puppet and delivering a sharp side kick to its waist. The creature stumbled, and Giovanni seized the opening, his hands forming fists as he thrust them into its chest, sending it flying.
The remaining puppets roared, lunging at him like machines, impervious to pain. A cold smile played on Giovanni's lips as he weaved between them, a phantom leaving afterimages in his wake.
He dodged a wild swing, his own form flashing behind his attacker. He drove his knee into the puppet's spine. With a sickening crack, it collapsed.
His attacks became increasingly ruthless, each strike aimed at a vital point. He dodged a pincer-like grab, countering with an elbow to the temple that sent his attacker staggering— but the puppets were relentless, attacking on pure, horrifying instinct.
Giovanni's own strikes grew harder, more brutal. He met a charge with a downward, axe-like kick that sent the puppet sprawling, then followed with another kick to its temple.
Bang!
The blow sent the creature flying. One side of its head was caved in, its eyesocket a bloody ruin, its eyeball hanging by a thread. There was no pity in Giovanni's eyes. For these things, controlled by the Haunter, their humanity lost— death by his hand was a mercy.
He dodged another fist, delivering a heavy punch to his attacker's abdomen that sent it flying backward like a broken kite, its body snapping a tree trunk in two.
Another puppet lunged, its hands like claws. Giovanni's form blurred, and he struck with an elbow to its throat. The puppet let out a gurgling wail as it clutched at its neck, unable to stop the gushing blood.
He dodged a wild swing from a wooden club, snatching the weapon from his attacker's hand. He held it like a spear, then thrust it forward, impaling the puppet through the chest.
Soon, they were all on the ground, the clearing a charnel house of blood and corpses. Giovanni stood amidst the carnage, breathing heavily, a few new wounds on his body, but none of them serious.
One of the puppets, whimpering, struggled at his feet. Giovanni glanced at it coldly, then slowly lifted his foot and stomped down.
Bang.
Like a squeezed watermelon, its head burst, splattering Giovanni's clothes with gore.
On the other side of the clearing, Beedrill and the others had been equally ruthless, eliminating the enslaved Pokémon, including a ghost-like Misdreavus. Only corpses remained— but just as the last enemy fell, the Gastly, who had been watching from a safe distance, let out a horrified shriek.
"Ga-hi!"
Even without its warning, Giovanni had noticed something was wrong. A powerful energy was condensing in the shadows pooling around the dead. It quickly reached a level comparable to a Gym-Leader-level Pokémon.
The shadows enveloped the dissipating form of the Misdreavus and all the other corpses on the ground, then began to rapidly expand. The Misdreavus had been nothing more than a vessel.
The black shadows grew larger and larger, coalescing in the deep jungle.
Soon, a gigantic Haunter formed, its blood-red eyes staring at Giovanni, radiating a chilling intent.