The other Pokémon leapt past Kirlia and came up in front of the Onix and its companion, and the first thing they saw was an enormous, horrifying ghost face.
The ones at the head of the charge felt heaven and earth go dark, and there was a ghost face hanging in it, weird and frightful.
"Hss-kek, hss-kek—"
The Gastly hurried the Onix into action. This was bluff, enough to frighten these water-dwelling Pokémon, who had seen nothing of the world, for a moment.
The first time would be the most effective, it reckoned. Once they had braced themselves for it, the next time would not work half so well.
"Rraah, rraah—"
The Onix followed at once with a Dragon Breath, sweeping it across them, badly hurting several of the Pokémon in the charge and dropping them into the water.
"Rraah, rraah."
The Onix gave the Gastly a look of approval, and then, as before, went on attacking without a pause, pressing forward.
They were dealt with out there, before they could even get near the two of them.
Vance, watching from not far off, decided this would not do. At this rate they would clear the stage far too easily. The difficulty would have to go up.
"Gyarados."
"Rooaar, rooaar."
Word given, the Gyarados drove all the remaining Pokémon forward, another dozen-odd of them, all at Advanced and Elite level.
All at once the difficulty went up.
The Sandslash and Kirlia, who had been cutting their way about the mass of them, no longer had the advantage they had held before, once this new strength was added in.
And there were too many of them for the Gastly's Hypnosis to hold that number down, so it had to be met with hard strength.
"Boom, boom, boom—"
That stretch of water was all confusion, one crash of noise after another. A group battle had begun there.
Kirlia used that speed of hers, there one moment and gone the next, and took the Sandslash along with her to work round the enemy.
They picked off the weaker Pokémon, while the Gastly kept behind the Onix and did its part in support with frightening them and with Hypnosis.
After a long fight the Sandslash came unsteadily back to land, the Onix lay down at one side, worn out, and Kirlia sat herself down cross-legged on the ground, tired. The Gastly was in rather better shape, floating in the air and looking as though it had something left.
Out on the water, Pokémon floated one after another — the very ones who had fought the Onix and the rest so hard.
"Ssh. That's my limit, boss. Any more and I won't hold up."
The Sandslash got it out quickly as Vance came over, not wanting to move an inch.
That it could lie there conscious at all was the result of its own care in facing the enemy. The pace was too much.
It lay there now without stirring, worn to nothing.
The Onix was the same. The training it had been through was about as hard as the Sandslash's, and on top of that it fought in great sweeping movements, so it had spent even more stamina than the Sandslash had.
"No more. That's the fighting done for today."
"Ssh. That's a relief."
Lying flat on the ground, the Sandslash found the air of that one second uncommonly sweet. Since it had come along with Vance it had fought more in this one week than it used to fight in a year.
But the progress was plain enough, and the Sandslash could feel its own strength coming on by leaps and bounds.
Vance went out over the water and healed the Pokémon floating there, twenty-odd of them in all, which took some doing.
Once they came round, Vance brought out a batch of energy cubes and shared them out as payment for the sparring.
They had taken a real beating for it, after all.
"Until we meet again. Anyone who feels like it, come back tomorrow."
Vance said it to the Pokémon. He would be here for days yet, and so many sparring partners were not to be wasted.
Once he had seen them off, Vance healed the Sandslash and the others as well.
If he could not get enough of them together tomorrow, he could send Slaking to invite a few more along. No great difficulty.
Their training had to be done properly.
"Ssh-ssh—"
The Sandslash bolted its food. A meal after working yourself half to death really did taste good.
"No hurry. There'll be plenty more days like this."
"Eh? There's more?"
The Sandslash stopped where it was.
"Of course. Plenty of fighting is the only way to build up experience against an enemy. Don't worry, though — tomorrow's will be pitched about right too. Nothing beyond what you can do."
"Ssh-ssh. I'm so tired."
The Sandslash said it in bitter indignation, turned the bitter indignation into appetite, and fell on the food in front of it.
"No hurry. There's plenty of it."
Vance said it with a smile in his eyes. There was enough to eat; no fear of running short.
"Oo-oo—"
"Yes, all right, Zoroark. You can go in tomorrow as well."
Vance answered.
"Hss-kek—"
The Gastly, in the middle of eating, went still, and a white light came and went over its body.
"That's it about to evolve."
One look and Vance knew the reason for it. The Gastly was going to evolve.
It was about time, when he thought about it. The Gastly had long since reached the level for it; it had simply had no occasion for evolving, and so had not.
Now, after one hard fight, the signs of it were showing.
"You see? Fighting is the best strengthener there is."
Vance said it to the Sandslash, whose face was all bitter indignation.
"Ssh-ssh."
At that, some of the indignation left the Sandslash's face.
"Pity you've no third stage to evolve into. It would be better still if you had."
"Ssh-ssh."
The indignation that had gone came straight back onto the Sandslash's face.
"You can still raise your strength, though."
Vance went on.
"Ssh-ssh. I suppose that's true."
Some more of the indignation went out of the Sandslash's look, and then it shook its head. Vance had talked it right round in circles.
"Haha."
The Gastly's evolution was still going on. The light of it, which had come and gone, had steadied now and covered the whole of it.
The Gastly's evolution had begun.
The Pokémon put down the food in their hands as well and looked over at the Gastly, watching it evolve in silence.
"Hss-kek—"
Within the light of evolution the Gastly's body changed, and the round shape it had before took on edges and angles.
"Hss—"
The light broke apart, and an entirely new dark purple Pokémon stood before Vance and all the rest of them.
This Pokémon was the Gastly's evolved form: Haunter.
As with Gastly, its types were Ghost and Poison.
Its appearance was not the same either: two clawed hands had appeared, held out in front of it.
Like Gastly, it floated clear of the ground.
"Haunter, then. Evolved after all."
Vance stroked his chin and said it mildly.
Now that it had evolved, in Haunter's form its fighting power was greater than it had been as a Gastly.