Pokémon: Raising Abandoned Pokémon into Legends

Chapter 113: Four Heroes vs. Raikou

Rio twisted the ancient Poké Ball and released Gengar.

Primeape, the moment it appeared, landed on the Red Gyarados’s head. Assuming it was supposed to beat up the Gyarados, it was about to punch itself to get started—but Rio called out just in time.

"Hey! No! The opponent is down there!"

"Pu-cha~" Primeape looked down from its perch, spotted Raikou below, and leaped fearlessly. Midair, it punched itself twice, and its rage visibly surged in an instant.

Its actions didn’t draw much attention from the hunters—they were all fixated on the Red Gyarados.

"Oh my god—a flying Gyarados! And it’s shiny! Am I seeing this right?!"

"Where did H catch that?! I’ve never even seen a shiny Gyarados before!"

"Damn—how is he this lucky? A shiny Charizard, a shiny Gengar, and now a shiny Red Gyarados that can fly? And he just got a shiny Froakie from the black market a few days ago—is that Froakie special too?"

Hearing someone mention the shiny Froakie, Hunter C, whose hand had been chopped off by Rio, darkened. I was the one who sold that to the black market. If H trains it up and it becomes a powerhouse, I’ll lose my mind.

For some reason, he found himself hoping that all of H’s Pokémon would be defeated by Raikou—even if it meant walking away from this mission empty-handed.

BOOM!

Suddenly, the ground shook violently. Hunter C turned to look—and saw Primeape, which he’d momentarily forgotten about, now on the ground below. With one punch—just one—it struck the earth at its feet, sending tremors through the ground and creating a crater nearly five zhang wide and two meters deep.

Hunter C and the other hunters were left dumbfounded, mouths agape in disbelief. They’d thought they had a decent grasp of Primeape’s strength after it one-shot Scizor—but now they realized they’d barely scratched the surface. Was this level of destruction something a normal Fighting-type Pokémon could do?!

On the other side, Raikou looked down at Primeape in the crater, a flicker of surprise crossing its face. It also silently thanked its luck that Primeape hadn’t swung that fist directly at it—otherwise, its counter would have been Thunder Fang, and the result might have been a lost tooth or a loose one. It made up its mind: keep that monkey at a distance. Ranged combat only.

"Pu-cha~" Primeape leaped out of the crater and charged at Raikou, its massive fist raised and face twisted in fury.

Raikou’s expression hardened, its dark purple thundercloud cape flickering. The next second, lightning bolts rained down from the sky, striking the path ahead of Primeape.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Primeape dodged the first two, then tanked the third with its fist, its advance momentarily halted. A fourth bolt aimed straight for its head—

But just as it was about to strike, a Shadow Ball and a Hyper Beam intercepted the lightning, blocking it. Recovered, Primeape resumed its charge.

Raikou looked up and saw the human on Charizard’s back, arms crossed, looking down at it.

"Raikou—the real battle starts now!"

"Charizard—unleash your true potential!"

"Roaar~" The stone on the human’s chest began to glow. Charizard responded, its body transforming in the blink of an eye into a vivid green.

This change drew gasps from the hunters below—and even Raikou was taken aback. But it had no time to stare—Primeape was almost upon it. It charged a Zap Cannon in its mouth, ready to intercept.

Whoosh— The Zap Cannon shot out. Just as it was about to sweep Primeape, the newly evolved Charizard flew in low above Primeape’s head, unleashing purple Sacred Fire at the same time.

This time, Sacred Fire won. The purple flames advanced visibly, compressing the Zap Cannon’s range, until they reached Raikou—and so did Primeape.

BAM—

Primeape’s furious fist slammed into Raikou’s chest, sending it flying dozens of meters into a cliff face.

"Gengar, Shadow Ball!"

"Gyarados, Hyper Beam!"

"Charizard, Sacred Fire!"

Rio seized the opening and pressed the attack—he knew one punch wouldn’t take Raikou down. He had to keep up the pressure and not give it a moment to recover.

The three Pokémon obeyed, their attacks converging on Raikou, drawing pained roars from the legendary beast.

The watching hunters were stunned. They never expected to see Raikou being pushed back like this.

"Damn it—why didn’t H just release all four of his Pokémon from the start?! Especially that Charizard—it can re-evolve! Why didn’t he just do that earlier?"

"Yeah—then our Pokémon wouldn’t have been taken out!"

"He did that on purpose, didn’t he?"

The hunters muttered among themselves until Hunter A snapped: "Enough! Don’t say things that divide us. He’s our only chance to complete this mission now."

Atop the mountain, Saurion was equally dumbfounded. He couldn’t believe the Charizard trainer was this powerful—four Pokémon working together, and Raikou was on the back foot. It was almost unbelievable.

"Come on, Raikou—you’re one of the legendary beasts! You can’t lose to some dirty Pokémon hunter!" Saurion clenched his fists, unable to bear watching any longer.

Even more importantly—if Raikou falls now, we might not be able to take on that bastard’s four Pokémon. We can’t just watch anymore—we have to go down and help Raikou.

He turned to his companions, ready to order a descent. Their original plan had been: if the hunters couldn’t beat Raikou, they’d swoop in after Raikou took them out; if Raikou was caught but the hunters were exhausted, they’d strike then; or if Raikou was caught and the hunters were still in good shape, Aria would cause infighting, and they’d move in when both sides were weakened.

But now—unexpectedly—Raikou was being overwhelmed, and only one hunter remained. On paper, it looked like both sides were worn out, but in reality, that one hunter was the one dominating Raikou. The other hunters had been useless—they might as well not have been there. Once Raikou was caught, they’d have no way to cause infighting. They’d have to face this hunter directly.

So, they might as well go down now and help Raikou share the burden.

"Wait—that guy’s about to throw a Poké Ball!" one of his companions exclaimed just as Saurion was about to speak.

"What?! Already?!" Saurion grabbed his binoculars again.

Below, Hunter H had pulled out a Poké Ball and thrown it. With a flash of light, Raikou—just knocked down by a combo attack—was drawn inside.

Saurion’s eyes widened. The ball shook once—his lips moved in a frantic prayer: "Fail, fail, fail, fail, fail..."

The ball shook twice—his eyes reddened, and he changed his chant: "Get out, get out, get out, get out..."

The ball shook three times—

POP! With a flash of light, Raikou burst free.

The first capture attempt had failed.