It was a Crobat with considerable strength.

Level 61, at the Initial Elite level.

But the data scanned by the system didn't stop there.

There was also information like its age and physical condition, all inferred through scanning and analysis.

There could be a margin of error, but it usually wasn't far off from reality.

And this Crobat... was no more than twenty years old!

It's important to note that with a Light Blue quality, reaching Elite level was only a theoretical possibility. It required a vast amount of time and resources.

If it were a trainer's Crobat, it would still be understandable.

But this one was wild.

Which raised the questions:

What has been constantly providing it with energy?

And why is that energy also sustaining the entire colony of Zubat in this place?

When this Crobat appeared, Cain's Slowking immediately got excited.

Now that it had reached the pinnacle of the Quasi-Elite level, it had two paths to advance to the next level.

One was like Altaria's, who gradually accumulated energy in her body until reaching the physical limit of what she could bear.

The other was to advance through battle, facing equally strong or even more powerful opponents, and pushing past its own limits to reach the Elite level.

That was the most likely hypothesis from Cain's perspective.

After all, he had already surpassed the achievements of his past life, and the road ahead had to be explored on his own.

Sensing the fighting spirit emanating from Slowking, and seeing that other Pokémon were also eager to fight, Cain knew that this time the opponents were enough for everyone.

"Chhaaa!"

"Swammmppp!"

The most excited were Drapion and Swampert.

Both rushed forward without hesitation.

Each chose a Quasi-Elite level Golbat as their opponent.

Honchkrow, Weavile, and Gengar also selected their rivals, but confident in their abilities, chose to face two enemies each.

As long as Honchkrow could stack boosts from its Moxie ability, it wouldn't have trouble taking them down.

Additionally, Gengar could use Role Play combined with Skill Swap, allowing that ability to be distributed to other Pokémon.

Meanwhile, Politoed, Pupitar, Lairon, and Blaziken handled the Advanced-level Golbat.

Florges remained by Cain's side, healing Pokémon with supportive moves while attacking with Energy Ball.

Cain had complete faith in his Pokémon's battle capabilities.

So he focused entirely on using telepathy to direct the battle between Slowking and the giant Crobat.

"Slowking, activate Trick Room directly!" Cain ordered.

Both Pokémon broke away from the group, initiating a battle in a separate area.

Even though the level 59 Slowking was facing a level 61 Crobat, and the two-level gap seemed small, this was a battle between different tiers.

It wasn't just a simple level difference.

The only clear advantage Slowking had was its Psychic type, which was doubly effective against Crobat's Poison type.

And that was precisely its specialty.

Even so, the battle was still unfavorable for Slowking.

Cain was already prepared: if Slowking couldn't hold out, Florges would step in.

Though that could interrupt Slowking's progress toward the Elite level, it wasn't worth risking so much just for a level-up.

Cain didn't want to see that happen.

His Pokémon could reach that level through a safer, more gradual process. Besides, he no longer revered the Elite level as much as before.

For Cain, reaching it was only a matter of time, not an impossible goal.

And since Slowking had a Light Purple quality, it even had the potential to reach Champion level, so it wouldn't be held back by the Elite threshold.

Obeying the command, Slowking opened its eyes wide, and a strange dark red cube-shaped space appeared, encompassing both it and Crobat.

Crobat's greatest asset was its speed.

At full movement, its speed was truly terrifying.

Fortunately, Slowking was used to facing faster opponents, so it had a lot of experience fighting under such a disadvantage.

Inside the Trick Room effect zone, its chance of victory increased significantly.

"KREEEK!"

The red-eyed Crobat looked around in confusion, noticing that its body felt slower.

That was the weakness of wild Pokémon: without enough battle experience, they didn't know how to respond to strange move effects like this.

But instead of wasting time, Crobat charged straight at Slowking, ignoring everything else.

Despite the Trick Room effect, it was still fast, and the poisonous fangs in its massive mouth glowed with toxicity.

It wasn't clear why, but the Crobat and Zubat in this place handled Poison-type energy much better than their other affinity, Flying.

"Slowking, use Nasty Plot first, then launch an Illusory Psychic Blade, and prepare to dodge with Teleport!" Cain commanded.

Slowking's eyes glowed faintly, and small orbs of dark energy appeared around it.

Under its control, the orbs transformed into floating blades, coated with psychic energy.

This move was a custom combination of Psychic, enhanced with Slowking's own mental energy to imitate the cutting effect of Psycho Cut.

Cain called it: Illusory Psychic Blade — a combined move even more powerful than Psycho Cut.

The blades were launched at high speed toward the approaching Crobat.

Though its speed had been reduced by Trick Room, its horizontal evasion capabilities were still very high.

Crobat managed to dodge four of the six blades by twisting its body with agility.

But two of them hit their mark.

The damage was noticeable: Crobat let out a cry of pain.

However, Cain frowned.

He wasn't surprised that Crobat was hit by two blades. What concerned him was that within Trick Room's effect zone, Crobat didn't seem as affected as it should have been.

Its speed, though reduced, still far exceeded Slowking's.

Which meant the tactical effect of Trick Room wasn't as effective as expected.

If not for the initial damage from the blades, which temporarily slowed Crobat's assault, it was likely that Slowking wouldn't even have had time to dodge with Teleport.