Chapter 158: The End of the Battle

Chapter 5: Battle's End

Eerie, dark purple mist drifted across Lu Yun's skin, casting a hallucinatory, shimmering hue over his otherwise pitch-black silhouette.

Much like a true Ghost-type Pokémon, a bizarre transparency gradually emerged on his body as the mist expanded.

Golisopod charged forward at a breakneck pace on its thick, powerful legs, its battle-scarred, silvery-gray body streaked with bluish-green blood as it closed in on Lu Yun with feral fury.

Its six sharp claws, wreathed in bluish-green Bug-type energy, flashed with a menacing gleam and pierced through the air with a piercing shriek straight toward Lu Yun.

Lu Yun’s crystal-red eyes, almost devoid of pupil outlines, reflected the towering figure of the approaching Golisopod, yet not a shred of panic flickered within them.

The next second,

The sharp claws stabbed downward!

In Golisopod’s crazed eyes, a subtle glint of savage gratification surfaced.

It felt as though, in the very next instant, it would experience the flesh of the creature before it tearing apart beneath its talons.

Unfortunately, the cruel reality always differs from imagination.

The tips of the claws pierced through nothingness as if stabbing into thin air, meeting zero resistance as they passed straight through Lu Yun’s illusory form.

"What?!"

A look of shock and disbelief surfaced in Golisopod’s dark pupils.

Suddenly, a dense aura of death, accompanied by an intensely chilling sensation, emerged at the back of its head.

"Phantom Force!"

Leaving an illusory afterimage behind in its original spot as if it had teleported, Lu Yun materialized abruptly behind Golisopod.

With fingers pressed together, gloomy Ghost-type energy hovered, spiraled, and condensed between his fingertips, transforming into a spiral-shaped, flat conical object.

The sharp tip of the cone resembled a needle point, hovering amidst Ghost-type mist as the doom of mortality swirled around it.

Putting muscle into his elbow, Lu Yun thrust forward directly along the gaps in the armor at the back of Golisopod’s head.

The moment the dark purple mist swirling around the spiral cone touched Golisopod’s silvery-gray shell, its potent corrosive power softened the hardness of the armor, allowing the cone to pierce into it with ease.

A sound resembling an electric drill boring into bone suddenly erupted in the air, making anyone who heard it's hair stand on end.

The hard shell was drilled apart, and flesh and blood were effortlessly churned into a messy pulp, exposing the pale vertebrae within.

"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!"

Golisopod’s cervical spine, which led up to its brain from its back, along with the nerves inside, was effortlessly pulverized. The highly corrosive Ghost-type energy raged wildly inside its body.

Without stopping,

The dark purple drill cone drove all the way upward, following the grain of the flesh directly into the back of Golisopod’s head, instantly churning its fragile brain core into a slushy ruin.

"Plop."

The insectoid eyes lost their luster.

Golisopod’s massive silvery-gray body lunged forward a few more steps on momentum before collapsing sideways into the turbid, muddy water.

Meanwhile, Lu Yun pushed off lightly against the forward-lunging body of Golisopod, landing backward onto the ground.

With a sharp flick of his right arm,

The dark purple drill cone, along with the ghostly mist clinging to his skin, slowly dissipated into the air.

This move, "Phantom Force," was the newest skill Lu Yun had learned upon leveling up after his surgery.

Its effect allowed the user to enter a different dimension for a short period, thereby dodging enemy attacks.

Additionally, using the release point as a center, the user could select a nearby location within a short distance for spatial relocation, functioning similarly to teleportation.

Finally, the next attack executed after unleashing "Phantom Force" carried a special piercing effect, ignoring the target's defensive skills.

Just hearing the description was enough to tell that this was a powerful skill combining evasion, rushing, and damage.

Though slightly different from its effects in the video games of his past life,

Lu Yun was quite satisfied with its actual combat performance.

Although its energy consumption was enormous and the burden on his body was not insignificant,

Used as a hidden trump card at a critical moment in battle, it was undoubtedly an exceptional tool to turn the tables and snatch victory.

"Ding!"

"Experience +35"

Naturally,

With the defeat and demise of a formidable enemy, the system in Lu Yun’s mind predictably popped up a notification message regarding experience acquisition.

Lu Yun opened his stats panel and glanced at it casually out of habit.

……

Species: Machop

Level: 24

Ability: Steadfast

Moves: Low Sweep, Leer, Focus Energy, Confuse Ray, Payback, Spite, Low Kick, Knock Off, Scary Face, Shadow Punch, Circle Throw, Phantom Force

Evaluation: A peculiar Machop possessing the Ghost-type attribute

Held Items: [Cobalion’s City-Shattering Pauldrons], [Zamazenta’s Heart]

……

Capitalizing on the convenience of the system, Lu Yun had advanced from level 20—when he first left the base—to level 24 over the span of just a few days by accumulating a massive amount of experience through high-intensity battles.

While stepping closer to evolving into Machoke at level 2, he had also mastered two new moves: "Circle Throw" and "Phantom Force."

The allocation was quite balanced—one Fighting-type move and one Ghost-type move.

The power and utility of "Phantom Force" had already been witnessed in the previous battle; it was exceptionally good and well-suited for Lu Yun at this stage.

In comparison, "Circle Throw" seemed rather mediocre.

Its effect was somewhat akin to leveraging softness to overcome hardness, bearing a resemblance to the "Payback" move Lu Yun had previously used in that it also dealt counter-damage to opponents.

However, its execution range had certain limitations, as it only produced effects against physical attacks from enemies.

Moreover, while the damage he himself took was lower than that of "Payback," the retaliatory damage dealt in return was also much lower.

Under normal circumstances, compared to other moves, "Circle Throw" appeared somewhat lackluster.

At any rate, Lu Yun had no intention of building a tactical focus around it.

Of course, perhaps in certain specific situations in the future, this move might come in handy, but that was a discussion for another day.

Deep in Lu Yun's heart, rather than acquiring new moves,

What he truly anticipated was his impending evolution.

Evolving from Machop to Machoke was only a first-stage evolution, but the leap in strength it brought about would likely be far greater than the boost other Pokémon experienced when evolving into their final forms.

To put it in colloquial terms,

If a Machop was a frail child of eleven or twelve years old, then a Machoke was a veteran military king standing at the pinnacle of human combat prowess.

While this analogy might not be entirely appropriate, it accurately reflected the massive shift in power following Machop’s evolution.

Even now, with all his various bonuses, Lu Yun had already enabled Machop, still in its juvenile developmental stage, to possess extraordinary strength far surpassing ordinary Pokémon.

If he were to evolve into Machoke, the qualitative transformation that followed would be beyond even his own imagination.

By then, clichés carrying exaggerated connotations like "lifting mountains and rivers"

Would no longer be illusory for Lu Yun; they would become reality.

Suddenly,

"Tingle-ling-ling..."

A crisp, melodious silver bell sound rippled softly through the air, interrupting Lu Yun’s train of thought.

He turned his head and looked toward the people in the convoy behind him.