CHAPTER 371: DARK MENACE

The addition of Latios and Latias brought the battle at the Pokemon Center entrance to a swift conclusion. Even Shadow Pokemon weren’t a match for legendary Pokemon.

But the Shadow Pokemon that had invaded Altomare weren’t limited to the dozen or so at the Pokemon Center. A large number of corrupted creatures were attacking other buildings and civilians throughout the water capital. Latios and Latias rushed off to provide support elsewhere.

Watching the two siblings depart, John recalled his Shiny Aggron to its Pokeball and sent out his own team. Three Pokemon appeared in sequence: Blaziken, Garchomp, and his Totem Salamence.

"Go clean up the Shadow Pokemon attacking Altomare," John instructed Blaziken and Garchomp. The two Pokemon nodded enthusiastically, splitting up and charging toward the sounds of distant battles.

"Grumble!" "Roar!"

John leaped onto Salamence’s back while Gardevoir followed closely behind. The Totem Salamence spread its wings and took flight, soaring after the legendary duo.

Ben Gray watched from the ground, his face etched with shock. He’d never imagined John was such a powerful trainer.

Once airborne, John immediately spotted numerous dark clouds drifting through the sky. These were Shadow Altaria, their normally pristine white cloud wings now stained black by the corrupting darkness.

"Have to admit, they’re strangely beautiful," John muttered.

"Salamence, Draco Meteor!" No matter how aesthetically striking Shadow Pokemon might be, when they attacked with those glowing red eyes, they had to be stopped.

"Salamence!" The Totem Salamence bellowed, launching a massive dark green fireball skyward. When the orb reached its apex, it exploded into countless smaller meteors. In an instant, Altomare seemed to be experiencing a hellish meteor shower!

"Control it carefully, don’t cause unnecessary damage," John warned.

This served as precision training for his Totem Salamence. The last thing they needed was to defeat a few Altaria only to reduce Altomare to rubble in the process.

Following John’s command, the Totem Salamence carefully guided each "shooting star" through the air, making them pursue the Shadow Altaria like heat-seeking missiles. This level of control was the result of extensive training.

The Shadow Altaria attempting to attack John and his Salamence immediately suffered devastating casualties. Without Mega Evolution, Altaria remained purely Flying/Dragon type - meaning they took double damage from Dragon-type moves. Combined with being outleveled by ten to fifteen levels, they couldn’t withstand even a single blow from the Totem Salamence.

"Garde!" Gardevoir suddenly alerted John, having sensed something through Future Sight.

The Totem Salamence and John immediately teleported a hundred meters away.

In the next instant, a black meteor streaked through their previous position. There was a thunderous crash as the projectile collided with something near Altomare’s main square, Latios, who had actively intercepted the attack.

The legendary Pokemon was slammed directly into the ground by the meteor’s impact. The earth cracked and split, with seawater bubbling up through the fissures.

Only then did John clearly see the source of that black meteor.

It was a Shadow Dragonite, and the level indicator floating above its head showed a terrifying [LV89]! John had only seen such a level once before, on a Zapdos in the Thunder and Lightning game region.

Boom!

Boom!

The Shadow Dragonite was already pummeling Latios with its fists. Black mist emanated from each strike, the cold aura indicating this was likely an Ice-type move corrupted into a Shadow attack. Latios was so overwhelmed he could barely mount a counterattack.

"This Shadow Dragonite is that strong? It’s beating Latios!" John was stunned.

Even with the Shadow Dragonite’s fourteen-level advantage, the gap between legendary Pokemon and pseudo-legendaries was typically enormous. Even a Champion-trained level 89 Dragonite shouldn’t be able to dominate a level 75 Latios like this.

John could only attribute the Shadow Dragonite’s overwhelming power to the enhancement provided by Shadow corruption.

"Latias!" Seeing her big brother in distress, Latias transformed into a blue-green dragon silhouette and rushed toward the Shadow Dragonite with Dragon Rush.

But the Shadow Dragonite barely acknowledged her presence, casually swatting its hand to create a dark Hurricane. Latias tried to dodge but was caught directly in the vortex and swept away.

With Latios at level 75 getting beaten, a level 60 Latias really wasn’t qualified to catch its attention.

"Looks like I have to step in," John said, immediately throwing a Pokeball.

"Greninja, Ultimate Water Shuriken!"

Greninja emerged from the Pokeball, water erupting around it as it immediately transformed to resemble John through its Battle Bond ability. Raising its hands skyward, it combined a golden Water Shuriken with a spiraling Aura Sphere and hurled the fusion technique toward the Shadow Dragonite.

The Shadow Dragonite, still pounding Latios, sensed the sneak attack from behind and casually swatted upward, creating multiple dark Hurricanes to send John’s Pokemon the same way as Latias.

Its attitude seemed to say: "Get lost and play somewhere else! I’ll deal with you after I’m done with this legendary!"

What the Shadow Dragonite didn’t expect was that its Shadow Storm wasn’t powerful enough to counter Greninja’s Ultimat Water Shuriken. The golden shuriken collided with the dark storm and exploded, while the inner spiraling Aura Sphere pierced through the storm and smoke with devastating penetration, approaching the Shadow Dragonite.

The Shadow Dragonite still showed no intention of dodging, throwing another punch infused with Shadow Ice to destroy the spiraling attack.

BOOM!

The explosion echoed throughout Altomare. The violent impact caused the ground within ten meters to collapse, with seawater flooding up from below to create an impromptu swimming pool. Billowing black smoke rose into the air.

Soon a strong wind cleared the smoke, revealing the Shadow Dragonite inside. It had taken no damage whatsoever. It looked down, intending to quickly finish off Latios so it could deal with John personally, but found that Latios had already vanished.