Seeing Vance again, the Zorua felt solid ground under her; that familiar sense of safety was back.
Seeing the state she was in, Vance laid a hand on her, the Viridian Power in him surged, and in an instant the poison was cleared out of her.
An Arbok's poison was lethal to a Zorua, and not easily got rid of in a hurry — but to Vance, with Advanced Viridian Power, it was a simple matter.
The rush of the Viridian Power set the Zorua right again, and she was strengthened by it into the bargain, gaining several levels.
"Ksss—"
"Who are you, to come and spoil this for me? Hssss—"
Vance's sudden appearance struck the Arbok as dangerous, and still it could not give up the meat it had all but swallowed.
So it reared its body up and made all the show of menace it could, trying to frighten him off.
"Arbok — there's something wrong about you."
Vance looked surprised. A careful touch of his senses was enough to show him what was wrong with this Arbok.
Its speaking in human words would have something to do with it as well.
"Ha ha ha. Your senses are good. I am in fact a man, but I have been fused with this Arbok and become a higher form of life. This is the Sacred Order's most advanced technology! I am of the Sacred Order — do you still dare set yourself against us?"
The Arbok said it to frighten him, hauling out the Sacred Order as a mountain to stand behind.
Its body looked four or five metres long, far beyond an ordinary Arbok.
"Advanced technology? And what it produces is a thing like you, neither man nor monster??"
Vance answered it. With his deep command of the power of life, how could he fail to see the flaw in it?
Go on like this and the man in it would be gone, and the Pokémon's own intelligence would scatter with it. Then it would not be a Pokémon at all, but a beast — a mindless beast that knew nothing but killing.
"You don't understand!! I tell you, this is a matter of everlasting life!! Ksss—"
Hisses kept breaking out of it as it spoke, and made a grotesque thing of the speech.
"Ksss— it was an accident that I came to be this Arbok. But what if the body I took were a Legendary Pokémon's? Then, with a Legendary's span and a Legendary's power, and a man's wits besides, everlasting life is within reach."
Greed and fanaticism came over the Arbok's face as though it were a man's, and it laid out its mad conjecture.
At first hearing there seemed to be something in it; think it through, and the absurdity showed.
Where was anything ever that good? Every advantage falling together at once.
And there was no telling how many people or Pokémon would die for that mad guess.
Whether it could be done at all was an open question, and even if it could, it would have its own defects.
"The man's a lunatic!"
Vance said it in disgust. The whole conjecture was a madman's.
Ordinary Legendary Pokémon merely lived a long time. The ones that truly never died were a handful, and they showed themselves about as often as a dragon shows its tail.
Even ordinary Legendary Pokémon were not to be provoked. Sooner or later they would pay for what they were doing.
Ordinary Pokémon populations had their strong ones; how much more so among the Legendaries?
"A lunatic? I suppose so. Who wouldn't go mad, for everlasting life?"
"Now then, Trainer, stand aside. This is no business of yours. Cooperate and the Sacred Order will owe you a favour; when I have recovered I shall put in a word for you. I can see you are a Psychic, too — join the Sacred Order and there's no limit to how far you could go."
The Arbok argued it patiently, and invited him to join as well.
Vance struck it as very dangerous — certainly someone who could stand against Gym-class, about its own level, perhaps a shade above. And since it was not willing to give up a fat prize like the Zorua, this was the only way to play it. Had he been some weakling it would have gone for him long ago; why waste words?
The Zorua was watching him too. Would he trade her away?
"That's a blessing I couldn't stomach. And besides — you can put the Zorua out of your mind."
"Ksss!"
With that there was nothing left to discuss. The Arbok burst forward and went at him hard.
Both of them were at Gym-class; it might be the lesser, but that did not mean it could not fight.
And it had a Pokémon's body. In a fight to the death it might not lose at all!
"Bang, bang, bang—"
Everywhere he looked there were Poison Stings, and a psychic barrier held them off and let none of them through.
Then a powerful surge of energy came slamming in, and still it did not break the defence.
"Ksss—"
Out of the smoke came the Arbok's vicious head; it shifted its body and brought its tail straight down.
"Thud—"
The huge tail, hard as iron, struck the barrier full on, and the barrier only rocked slightly a few times before it was as it had been.
After a few probes the Arbok's eyes flew wide. This man was far stronger than it had guessed!
Not to be provoked!
Blow after blow with everything it had, and it could not even break his guard. What was it to do?
Once it saw that, the Arbok began to think of retreat, and used the force of its own attack to fall back.
It cast one greedy look at the Zorua, and then meant to run.
With Vance here it could not eat that meat, and fighting on would do it no good. Attacking had made the rejection inside it worse, too, and it was suffering for it.
All in all, running was the only thing left.
"Ksss—"
Firing volley after volley of Poison Sting to cover the view, the Arbok drew back and slipped into the shadows.
It knew when it was beaten. No more fighting.
"Leaving??"
It wanted to go, and Vance was not having it. He gave a cold snort and went after it.
Blast away at him and then take to your heels? It was not going to be as easy as that.
It had had its attack; now it was his turn.
He flickered and appeared in the Arbok's path of retreat, and several masses of force came down, blew it off its course and slammed it aside.
"This is bad — he's stronger than that!"
The pain through its body revised the Arbok's estimate of Vance's strength again.
"Hssss—"
It shook its head and was about to strike back when Vance's next attack arrived, an enormous force that swatted it through the air.
Then its body was dragged down and whipped into the earth, and a huge fist appeared and came down on it like a hammer.
"Boooom—"
The great fist struck the ground with a roar, and the earth would not stop shaking.
Behind Vance six spheres of force gathered again and went forward one after another, another bombardment on the Arbok in the crater.
Against a storm of blows like that the Arbok could put up nothing at all. It could not even strike back; it could only take it.
One more giant palm came down and drove it into the ground, its skin split and its flesh torn, filthy with blood, its breath failing. It looked as though it were finished.
Vance only gave a cold laugh and gathered the power in his hand again. The life was still in it. Who was it playing dead for?
"Ksss."
The Arbok stopped pretending. It knew it could not fool Vance, and through the pain it made one last throw of the dice.
Its eyes went red, a blood-red mist came off its body, and its presence rose a level. It had burst past its limit.
"Bang—"
It made no difference. Vance held it down as steadily as before.
"I'll take you with me! Roar—"
It seemed to be delivering the strongest blow it had; fine threads of lines appeared over its skin.
It was no use.
A dim blue palm came down, and it went still. This time it really had passed out.