"Roar!"
A Dragon's cry rang out, and Charizard immediately drew the attention of these people toward itself.
Charizard used Fire Blast, and a blazing inferno rushed out, condensing into the shape of a large character as it descended. Charizard already possessed near quasi-Ace Rank strength, and now, being amplified by Sylveon's Helping Hand, the power of its Fire Blast was raised to an astonishing degree.
The opponents did not dare to be careless and immediately commanded their Pokémon to counterattack. Meanwhile, Annihilape also vanished from its spot.
"Watch out for that Annihilape's Rage Fist!"
Among the few opponents, one of the Senior Rank trainers had a Primeape and naturally understood its evolution, Annihilape, though he himself had failed to train his Primeape to that stage. While he did not know how Gu Yuan achieved it, Annihilape's strength was beyond doubt.
Sylveon used Misty Terrain, ensuring its team's Pokémon would not suffer negative status conditions and that the damage from Dragon-type moves would be halved. Although Ditto possessed Intermediate Rank strength, facing so many Senior Rank opponents, it was clearly not suitable for a frontal assault. Gu Yuan simply had Ditto use Transform into a Sylveon, using Helping Hand to amplify Charizard and the others' power while also protecting Gu Yuan. Sylveon did the same, but with its Senior Rank strength, it would also participate in the fighting.
Alakazam used Teleport again, vanishing from its location. The moment Alakazam appeared, Ally Switch was immediately released, swapping one of the Primeape into the air. Annihilape seized the opportunity to burst out of the different dimension, unleashing a Rage Fist boosted to maximum power, instantly knocking out the Primeape.
It seemed as if a long time had passed, but in reality, only a few breaths of time had elapsed since Gu Yuan began his counterattack. On the front line, with continuous Helping Hand boosts, Charizard managed to withstand the combined attacks of the Senior Rank Pokémon.
Alakazam and Annihilape's coordinated attack was not over. Seizing another chance, Alakazam used the Teleport and Ally Switch combination again, moving a Persian into the air. Learning from Primeape's defeat, Persian immediately used Swift to counterattack, but it was completely ineffective against the Ghost-type Annihilape. Rage Fist was delivered, taking out another opponent, and Annihilape immediately used Phantom Force again to vanish.
The trainers who tried to gang up on Alakazam were held in check by Charizard and Sylveon, only watching as Alakazam used Teleport to leave and prepare for its next move.
"Launch the signal flare, then let's retreat! This is not someone we can deal with!"
After losing two Senior Rank fighters in an extremely short time, the leader immediately decided to give up, but the situation was no longer under his control. Before the signal flare could ascend, Alakazam used Confusion to intercept it. Then, Ally Switch was used, and another Senior Rank Pokémon fell to Annihilape's Rage Fist.
With three fewer Senior Rank Pokémon, the remaining two Senior Rank Pokémon could barely avoid being completely overwhelmed, let alone defeating Charizard. Seeing this, Gu Yuan immediately gave a new instruction via Telepathy, ordering Alakazam to target the five men and capture them alive first. Then, he let Annihilape start the slaughter.
Against these Pokémon, which only had Intermediate Rank strength, Annihilape did not need to use the full power of Rage Fist to defeat them. Seeing Ditto looking eager, Gu Yuan let it transform into a Charizard and rush forward, coordinating with Annihilape to rampage through the crowd.
In the blink of an eye, the five men and all their Pokémon were captured alive by Gu Yuan. At this moment, Gu Yuan truly felt how powerful he could be if he had no restrictions.
After briefly clearing up the scene and to avoid the arrival of these men's companions, Gu Yuan did not linger, immediately having Alakazam use Teleport to take him away. Finding a secluded spot, Gu Yuan began his interrogation. As before, Gu Yuan directly took out a dagger and began the slow slicing.
However, the final interrogation phase was handled by someone new. "Gastly, this is your test. Use Hypnosis on these men!"
Hearing this, Gastly smiled and floated out of Gu Yuan's shadow. After the "baptism" of the slow slicing, these men's psychological defenses had already been shattered. Gastly used Hypnosis, and Gu Yuan quickly obtained the information he wanted.
All five men were, without exception, Pokémon Hunters, and they belonged to a small squad of a Poaching Group. Their leader, named Gul, possessed Ace Rank strength. Under Gul, there were five small squads, whose leaders all possessed quasi-Ace Rank strength, and the elite members of these squads all had Senior Rank strength, with the weakest being Intermediate Rank. Furthermore, they had a reserve squad composed of Junior Rank and Intermediate Rank trainers, intended to replenish team losses once they matured.
This Poaching Group had extremely complex operations. As long as they were paid, they would do anything, whether it was capturing Pokémon, assassinating someone, or even acting as guards. Thus, the reason these five men attacked was simply to commit robbery and murder, but they had chosen the wrong target.
The Poaching Group was in this area to target the forest's Tyrant. Before this, the surrounding Senior Rank Pokémon were their targets, intended to weaken the Tyrant's affiliated forces so they could concentrate the Poaching Group's power to take down the Ace Rank Pokémon.
Gul's motive for the attack was simple: first, an Ace Rank Pokémon could be sold for a very high price, and second, this Tyrant Pokémon was a Nidoking. It had a quasi-Ace Rank Nidoqueen and several Nidoran♂ and Nidoran♀ nearby, and their nest contained a significant amount of Moon Stone that Nidoking had collected! All these factors combined were enough to tempt Gul.
Similarly, after getting the intelligence, Gu Yuan also had an idea. He had already gathered a large amount of Moon Stone at Mt. Moon, and he still had some high-quality Moon Stone left over for backup. Now, with another opportunity to gain more, Gu Yuan would not give up easily.
Of course, Gu Yuan's current strength was not enough to deal with the Poaching Group, so he would need to leverage some external help. Thinking of this, Gu Yuan took out his Pokédex. Flipping through his contacts, Gu Yuan found the name Tom, the Ranger he had met before, who also had a Charizard. Although Gu Yuan did not know how much Tom's current strength had improved, all Gu Yuan needed was for him to help relay a message, allowing other Rangers to come and tie up Gul.
At that point, how much Gu Yuan could profit would depend on his own ability. Even if nothing else worked, reporting them and cooperating with the Rangers would still earn Gu Yuan a lot of League contribution points.