"Sploosh—"
A huge force broke the Whirlpool open, and the Vigoroth flew out of the middle of it and hung there in midair.
Yes — the Vigoroth was hanging in midair. Looked at closely, a layer of psychic power showed over its body, and that was the reason it was hanging there.
"Roar—"
Gyarados attacked again, and the Vigoroth in the air dodged everything he sent.
That was not hovering any more. Call it flight.
In a Flying-type there would be nothing surprising about it, but in a Normal-type Vigoroth — was that reasonable?
Flight, after all, is not something every Pokémon can do; there is no shortage of mighty legendary beasts that cannot manage it.
But today this Vigoroth could fly.
"Ooh-ooh-ooh—"
Having got clear of Gyarados's attack, the Vigoroth looked thoroughly delighted with itself, and even raised a hand and beckoned at him, provocation in every line of it.
"Roar—"
Gyarados, whose temper was short to begin with, went red in the eyes at once, and a fierce presence rose off him.
Gyarados had used Outrage, and the force around him climbed fast.
Noticing the change in Gyarados, the Vigoroth put away its careless expression, and a rare seriousness came over its face.
It could actually feel a threat coming off this big lug — but everything the fight had taught it so far said the big lug could not possibly beat it.
"Rooaar—"
A bellow that carried through the whole area sent the Pokémon nearby fleeing in every direction, and Gyarados threw himself at the Vigoroth again.
By the look of the fight, though, even with the boost from Outrage, Gyarados was still the one on the wrong end of it.
"Interesting."
Vance, watching from the side, said it with a light laugh.
He was very interested in this strange Vigoroth that had turned up out of nowhere and could hold Gyarados down.
Going by the energy coming off it, it was a Pokémon close to Advanced but not yet through — an Intermediate Pokémon at bottom. He had not expected it to fight Gyarados to a standstill like this.
He had raised Gyarados with his own hands, and naturally had a clear idea of what he was worth.
An ordinary Intermediate could not beat him even a few levels up, and even against an Advanced Pokémon in its thirties Gyarados could fight above his level and hold a hard fight for dozens of exchanges.
Running into this Vigoroth today had landed Gyarados in a hard fight, and that had caught Vance's attention.
A thought, and the system scanned the Vigoroth; its data came up on the system's display at once.
> **Pokémon:** Vigoroth (male) (mutated)
> **Type:** Normal
> **Ability:** Vital Spirit, Inner Focus (incomplete)
> **Aptitude:** Elite-Four-class
> **Level:** 29
> **Moves:** Focus Energy, Scratch, Thrash, Fury Swipes, Endure, Slash, Thunder Punch, Fire Punch, Dig, Rest, Rock Slide, Focus Blast, Confusion, Psybeam, Calm Mind
"Good grief. That absurd? Can a thing like that even exist in the Pokémon world?"
Vance, having read it through, could hardly credit it.
But the system does not lie. What it shows is what is there.
"Elite-Four-class aptitude, no worse than Gyarados as he stands. And its Ability's changed as well, and it's picked up a few Psychic-type moves. What Psychic Pokémon put on a Vigoroth's skin and came out here to swagger about?"
Shaken as he was, Vance also began to want it. What Trainer would turn down a Pokémon as fine as this?
Vance did not believe he could.
"Hold on." Something struck him. "This Vigoroth has the Inner Focus Ability. So if it evolves into Slaking and still has that Ability, doesn't that mean......"
Vance's eyes lit up, and the wish to catch it grew stronger still.
"There's something in this."
Vance had decided. He was going to catch this Vigoroth. It was worth catching.
"Bang—"
A Focus Blast landed in front of Gyarados and knocked him back. The Vigoroth still had the upper hand in the fight.
The Vigoroth moved again, raising a fist crackling with arcs of electricity and driving it into Gyarados's belly.
Gyarados felt a numbing pain run through his belly and swung his tail across at it, only for the blow to be turned aside by a raised arm; it forced the Vigoroth back but achieved little else, and when he struck again in return a Focus Blast burst in front of him, energy blooming out of it, driving him back once more.
With fresh wounds on him, Gyarados was past holding in his fury. He threw up a great wave and drove in behind it, using the advantage of his own element to crush the Vigoroth inside the water.
But the Vigoroth had no small strength of its own, and moved easily enough inside that crush; a few struggling moves and it had broken Gyarados's best trick open again.
A shake of its arm knocked the ice off it.
"How does this big lug take so much beating?"
The Vigoroth was at a loss. It had thought that going all out would put him down quickly, but dozens of exchanges had gone by, and though it had had much the better of them, it still could not finish him.
"Roar, roar—"
While it was thinking, Gyarados came at it again, and it had to pull itself together to meet him. With the boost from Outrage, Gyarados's fighting strength had risen a good deal, and the Vigoroth was finding it heavy going.
"I have it. To catch the bandits, first catch their king. What am I doing tangling with this big lug? Take the two-legged beast first and the fight's over, isn't it?"
"With a body as weak as a human's, won't he come away in my hand at the first grab? Ha ha, I really am too clever. Heh heh."
With its plan settled, a smug smile spread over the Vigoroth's face. Going by past experience, the manoeuvre was about a hundred per cent certain to work.
"Boom—"
The Vigoroth went to work. It let out the whole of its strength at once, and for the moment actually beat Gyarados down; then its shape blurred, and with the Psychic-type energy over it lending speed, it closed on Vance extremely fast.
"Heh heh heh. Here I come, two-legged beast."
It saw the roast meat beside Vance, and the thought of eating it shortly made it very happy indeed.
"Oh — the Vigoroth has telepathy as well. Though that follows."
The Vigoroth's voice had sounded at his ear; thinking of how unusual the creature was, Vance let it pass.
"Roar, roar—"
Gyarados's roars in the distance pleased the Vigoroth enormously. It liked the feeling.
"He's rattled. He's rattled."
"Heh heh. Didn't see this coming, did you, big lug? With that brain of yours you'd never work out Lord Vigoroth's deep and subtle plan. I'll deal with your Trainer first, and with nobody left to give you orders it'll be your turn. This two-legged beast cooks such good-smelling things, so I won't kill him after all — knock him out first and see. Once the big lug's been dealt with I'll have him cook plenty more. Heh heh. Then it's as much as I want, whenever I want. Ha ha."
There was nothing on Gyarados's face but the anger of being played with, and no alarm at all at his Trainer being attacked, because he remembered perfectly well that his Trainer was a great deal stronger than he was.
If it came to a fight, he would not be able to beat his own Trainer.
Which was about as absurd as this Vigoroth appearing out of nowhere, and yet it made sense when you thought about it.
Vance was watching the Vigoroth racing at him with perfect calm on his face, the smug smile on its own in plain sight.
The next moment he moved. A far stronger presence appeared and settled over the whole area.
"That's wrong. That's not how this story goes."
The Vigoroth's face changed completely in mid-charge, the smug smile turning to shock.