harleyscars Chapter 11 The Oriole Appears Again
Chapter 11 The Oriole Appears Again
"Boss! Boss! Put me down! I can walk by myself, no, I can float by myself!"
"You're welcome. You're badly injured, so I'll carry you to make it faster. Just give me directions."
"Boss, you're still a gentle human! I just don't understand why you were able to grab my phantom form so easily before."
"Because I was worried about your injuries! See, that's the power of love—it can transcend the boundaries of body and soul."
The pumpkin spirit was on the verge of tears, yet half-believing and half-doubting, when in the next moment it sensed the roar of a fierce battle coming from ahead, accompanied by the smell of withered leaves and rotten branches.
"We've arrived, it's over there~~"
Before the pumpkin spirit could finish speaking, Lin Ye tossed it behind him and said without turning around:
"Thanks for leading the way, stay hidden!"
"Hey~, boss, why did you throw me away? Where's my love? Wasn't it supposed to transcend body and soul?"
"Fool! There's a kind of love called letting go. The situation is chaotic right now; throwing you far away is the best way to protect you."
"So that's how it is. The boss is truly boundless in his love. Pumpkin, I'm crying my eyes out." The pumpkin spirit's voice faded into the distance.
Lin Ye tried to use a basic spirit-concealing spell to envelop himself and Zoroya, then cautiously approached with his body bent over. Zoroya lay down on his forelegs and followed closely behind with his rear end sticking out.
As they approached, they discovered two groups of Pokémon locked in a fierce battle within a mist-shrouded grove.
On one side were dozens of Pokémon resembling floating wooden stakes, fighting bravely under the leadership of a Woodpecker about 1.5 meters tall with a hideous ghost face in the middle of its trunk.
On the other side were a similar number of pumpkin spirits, varying in size, with the leader being an exceptionally large pumpkin spirit.
Generally speaking, the size of a pumpkin depends on the pumpkin that the spirit inhabits. It can be roughly divided into small, ordinary, large, and special sizes, but the differences are not too great. The largest and smallest sizes can differ by more than two times.
The pumpkin spirit before them hadn't evolved, but its size far exceeded that of a typical extra-large pumpkin monster; it could practically be called a giant pumpkin spirit.
Logically speaking, the size difference between pumpkin spirits should not affect their strength much; it is usually determined by the level of energy they contain.
However, due to the sheer size of the giant pumpkin, it had a slight advantage in weight!
As the saying goes, great strength is never a disadvantage; the commotion caused by each close-quarters collision will certainly be more intense than that of an ordinary pumpkin spirit.
However, no matter how well it develops, it is difficult to truly contend with the Wood Demon, whose life level and physical attributes are all superior to its own.
At this moment, the battles on the periphery were basically evenly matched, but in the duel between the leaders, the giant pumpkin spirit was completely suppressed.
The evolved Wood Sprite gained a pair of powerful wooden claws and learned the "Shadow Claw" technique, quickly smashing the giant pumpkin spirit to the brink of death.
It's just that the giant pumpkin spirit is too big and has more stamina than others of the same level, otherwise it would have been defeated long ago!
Furthermore, this Wood Demon's strength is not overwhelming; as its evolved form, it is only at the peak of the "Excellent" level.
This is definitely stronger than the current Zorya, but only by a limited margin, and it doesn't represent a major leap in power. This greatly increased Lin Ye's confidence.
He estimated that before discovering the "Miracle Seed," this rotten wood spirit was probably just a small wood spirit with ordinary talent and strength, and its foundation was not yet stable.
It was all by luck that the energy contained in the "miracle seed" happened to break its own genetic shackles and complete its evolution, but it didn't even reach the "professional" level.
The reason it was able to suppress the giant pumpkin spirit at this time was because of its absolute value after evolution.
Seeing that the strength of the Wood Demon was not as good as he had expected, Lin Ye immediately sent a telepathic message to Zoroya, instructing it to make its move when the opportunity arose.
The opportunity soon presented itself. The giant pumpkin spirit, which had been retreating steadily, finally exhausted its last hope. Enveloped in a layer of black light, it crashed straight into the rotten wood spirit.
The latter was both surprised and delighted. Its strongest ability after evolution was melee combat, but it was slow to move.
If the pumpkin spirit continued to move and fight, it would take more effort to entangle it. But now that the opponent had taken the initiative to get close, it suited its needs perfectly.
However, just as the Wood Demon condensed a "Shadow Claw" to crush the giant pumpkin spirit in front of it, a faint shadow energy suddenly appeared on the latter's body and disappeared into the Wood Demon in the blink of an eye.
"It's 'Shared Fate'! I never expected the pumpkin spirit to have this trick up its sleeve! It seems this is the source of its confidence to challenge the rotten wood demon to a duel!"
If it could truly trade one for one with the Wood Demon, then the outcome of this battle between clans would be truly uncertain.
As soon as the Wood Demon was possessed by the eerie black shadow, the ghost faces on its torso immediately became panicked, but the "Shadow Claws" that were already slamming down were hard to stop.
"Bang!"
The "Shadow Claw" struck the giant pumpkin spirit as expected, slamming it to the ground and rendering it completely unconscious.
But the Wood Demon felt no joy at the victory, for in the next moment, a strange black mist exploded on the Wood Demon's body as the Pumpkin Spirit was defeated. The latter felt a strong drowsiness and his eyelids began to droop.
After a brief resistance, he was still unable to stop his increasingly blurred vision and soon collapsed.
The little wood spirit and the pumpkin spirit did not stop fighting after seeing their tribal leaders fall one after another; the struggle over the survival of their tribe had made them bloodthirsty.
Various "frights," "strange lights," and "shadow attacks"... came and went, and pumpkin spirits or little wood spirits were constantly losing their fighting ability.
"Gurgle~"
Soroya telepathically asked Lin Ye if he should take action. Lin Ye wanted to give the order, but his cautious nature, honed from years of living in the magical world, made him instinctively scan the area with his mental energy to make sure there was no one else around.
However, when his mental energy probed a place several hundred meters away from the battlefield, his expression suddenly tightened, because there was someone else approaching from there.
Normally, given his spiritual power as a novice monk, he wouldn't be able to detect movements hundreds of meters away.
However, because they were currently in the ghostly mist, their perception, enhanced by practicing necromancy, was actually heightened, which allowed them to make the keen discovery.
He immediately sent a message to Zoroya through the soul contract: "Don't move yet, there are people on the other side, and they look like they're also trying to take advantage of the situation."
We'll assess the situation and act accordingly. Do not reveal yourself without my signal.
"Gurgle~~"
Zorua understood immediately, a sly glint in his eyes, as he lowered his body even further, almost blending into the shadows on the ground.
Lin Ye also pushed the Shadow Magic to its limit, and with the cover of the thick fog, he was confident that ordinary people and even elves would never be able to detect him.
Sure enough, after a while, when the little wood spirits and pumpkin spirits on the battlefield had exhausted each other, a man who looked to be in his thirties and was wearing a gray mountaineering suit appeared out of the black mist.
"Hehe~, what a pleasant surprise! It actually turned into a draw. When luck comes, no one can stop it."
Upon hearing the man's commotion, the few remaining wood spirits and pumpkin spirits immediately stopped fighting each other, looked at the man warily, and let out a whimpering warning.
However, the next moment, a shadow flew out from the shadow beneath the man's feet, circled once, and transformed into an ordinary rag doll with a zipper hanging from its mouth, making a strange "quack" sound. It was the evolved form of the Shadow Doll - the Cursed Doll!
…………