Gastly floated beside Eric. He had been suppressing the instincts within him that were pushing him to evolve. But no longer.
He finally let those repressed instincts loose and was covered by the bright light of evolution.
"Now!"
Eric drove the device into Gastly's body and released everything. Every drop of condensed essence energy he'd stored poured in at once.
The light became brighter.
Ghost-type energy surged, warping the air around them. The system in Eric's vision lit up with fluctuating stats, numbers shifting so fast they blurred.
Suddenly, Eric felt a chill as the whole cave turned bright red. The strange symbol carved into the far wall began to glow. Faintly at first. Then brighter. Then so intensely that Eric had to raise his arm just to look at it.
'What is that-'
The ground shook, as the entire cave, no, the entire middle region of Lavender Woods spanning thousands of miles, trembled.
The red light was so intense it pierced through solid rock and stone, blazing out of the cave like a beacon.
"What the hell is this?"
Eric didn't have time to think as the wall with the weird symbol crumbled.
And from the darkness behind it, something shot forward. A red shard, jagged and dense, moved faster than Eric could track and slammed directly into Gastly's evolution light, merging with it.
"What the- Gastly!"
Eric shouted in panic, but there wasn't anything he could do. He used his system to scan and see if anything was wrong with Gastly. The system showed huge fluctuations in his stats, but aside from that, everything was normal.
At the very least, the shard wasn't harming Gastly.
Eric calmed down a little as he continued watching over Gastly.
Eventually, the red light subsided, and the cave returned to normal. The battle with the Arboks resumed. Now all Eric had to do was stall these 2 Arbok till Gastly evolved...
---
The cloaked man suddenly shot up from his sitting posture.
His face twisted in shock and anger.
'What the hell happened? Why did that fragment suddenly activate? Unless-'
His thoughts drifted towards the kid. It was too much of a coincidence that he was here. That's it! The kid must've known about the fragment somehow and came here for it.
'Aagh! This pisses me off. Well, no matter. This is the only entrance or exit to the cave. Once he gets out, I'll just take the shard from him. I won't let him off easy. First, let's prepare the stage of our meeting.'
Haruko was equally confused about what the bright light was. She was equally worried about the man in front of her, who was emitting a dangerous aura. Besides her were her wounded Pokémon, exhausted from the long fight, but still standing. They had taken down 3 more of the man's Pokémon.
Despite this, Haruko couldn't shake off the bad feeling she was getting.
And rightfully so.
The man grinned and looked maliciously towards her.
"I planned on dragging this a bit more, savouring it, but things have changed. Let's move on to the next stage of our game, shall we?"
He licked his lips as he stared at her like a maniac.
Chills ran down Haruko's back as all her Pokémon took a protective stance around her.
The man then held out an Ultra Ball and threw it into the air...
---
Inside the cave.
The battle was getting ugly.
Both Arbok had taken heavy hits, but they were Intermediate-level Pokémon. The difference in tiers was showing itself now. Eric's previous victory over intermediate pokemon was only because Arcanine had already severely wounded them.
Fearow screamed as one of the Arbok locked around her with a full-body wrap and drove its fangs in deep; Poison Fang. The venom hit fast. In the end Eric had to recall her before she took a mortal wound.
Only Poliwag, Eevee and Misdreavus remained now. Gastly was still wrapped in the white light, his evolution taking an abnormal amount of time.
Poliwag was running on fumes. He was managing through his sheer will and stubbornness alone.
If nothing changed, things could get very bad for them.
---
Inside the bright light of evolution.
Gastly was going through an unusual change.
The energy inside that fragment was nothing like the Ghost Pearls. Nothing like anything Gastly had ever touched. It was dense in a way that felt almost hostile, crashing against his forming body like a flood.
He couldn't control it.
For the first time in a long time, Gastly felt genuinely overwhelmed.
The energy tore through him in all directions. His consciousness flickered. His form destabilised. Mid-evolution, on the edge of completion, he felt himself beginning to slip-
"Gaas!"
Gastly could tell what was happening outside. How Fearow was knocked down, Poliwag's condition, Eric's concern, everything. He hated that he was taking so long and couldn't go to assist them.
No. He won't let this stupid red shard beat him. He stopped resisting the shard's energy. Instead, he reached for it, absorbing it with full intent.
HIs body burned with pain, but slowly, it settled.
The chaotic flood aligned. The shard's energy stopped fighting and began building, tearing through his every limit on the way down, restructuring everything it touched.
Even through the agony, Gastly could feel what it was doing to him.
"Gaaaas!"
Gastly shouted as the light of evolution turned red.
---
Poliwag couldn't hold on anymore and was recalled by Eric.
Now only Eevee and Misdreavus remained.
They weren't enough to hold back the 2 Arbok, as one of them got free and lunged towards Eric!
Eric barely dodged to the side, but the Arbok wouldn't leave him be easily. It turned its head and attacked him again. This time, Eric had no way to dodge. Misako shouted from the side in desperation, but both Eevee and MIsdreavus were too far.
Arbok's jaw widened.
Then- *Crash*
The bite Eric was waiting for never came, as Arbok was sent flying, crashing into a wall on the other side of the cave.
Eric looked up in confusion.
Floating above him was a Pokémon that looked different and familiar at the same time. He was large, his body spikier, 2 big hands around him.
"Haunt!"
"You took your sweet time evolving, Gas- No, Haunter!"
"Kekeke"
Haunter just laughed as Eric took this chance to see his stats.
Pokémon: Haunter
Gender: Male
Level: 28
Type: Ghost/Poison
Ability: Levitate
Held Item: ???'s Fragment (40% absorbed)
Potential: Purple
Energy Grade:
Ghost type - Grade 4 (initial)
Poison type - Grade 2 (initial)
Fire type - Grade 0 (mid)
Moves: Lick(B++), Hypnosis(B+++), Confuse Ray(B+++), Astonish(B++), Disable(B+++), Clear smog(B+++), Toxic(B+++), Ghost Ball(I), Hex(B+++), Protect(B+++), Will-O-Wisp(B++)
Eric was stunned to see his stats.
His potential jumped 2 stages, his Ghost-type energy skipped a Grade and went all the way up to Grade 4, and even his level increased thrice, reaching lvl 28!
And what the hell is ???'s fragment? What did we just get our hands on?
He'll worry about that later.
"Alright, Haunter! Show me what you can do. Quick Ghost Ball on that Arbok!"
Eric pointed at the Arbok still fighting Eevee and Misdreavus.
"Haunt"
Haunter turned. His expression shifted, focus replacing amusement.
He began to charge.
The moment the Ghost Ball started forming, Eric felt it. Everyone in the cave felt it. The Ghost-type energy didn't just rise, it surged, flooding the space like pressure building before an explosion. The air grew heavy. The Arbok froze mid-movement, something ancient in their instincts screaming at them to run.
The Ghost Ball was the same size as before.
But the pressure coming off it was on a completely different level.
It also had more shades of purple than before. The energy in it looked as if it was alive.
The moment Haunter fired it, the Arbok scrambled to dodge it, letting its survival instincts take over.
The Ghost Ball passed where it had been standing and hit the wall.
The wall disintigrated.
Rubble rained across the cave floor. A cloud of dust billowed outward. When it settled, there was a hole in the wall so big, you could walk through it.
Everyone stared at it.
The Arbok. Misako. Eevee. Misdreavus.
Even Haunter stared at it, expression unreadable for a long moment.
'...Did I do that?'
Haunter then turned his gaze on the 2 Arbok, who visibly gulped.
Eric cleared his throat.
"Sloppy. You lost control of the trajectory." He crossed his arms and looked away. "We're training that the moment we get out of here."
Nobody in the cave believed in his nonchalance.
Haunter even rolled his eyes.
Then he looked at the 2 Arbok.
The Arbok stared back, then they looked at each other.
Both of them backed up a little.
--------------------
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