Chapter 70: At Worst, We Die Together!

"What do we do...? There are just too many of them, and my Pokémon are completely out of energy..."

The deep blue-haired girl's face was pale. She had only brought four Pokémon with her on this trek, and aside from Prinplup, none of the others were particularly strong.

Faced with such an overwhelming swarm of Team Plasma opponents, even her Alpha-tier Prinplup was now heavily battered and swaying on its feet. If it weren't pushing past its absolute limits to protect its Trainer, it would have collapsed long ago, a sight that tore at the blue-haired girl's heart.

If she was struggling this much against barely a third of the enemy force, N was simultaneously fending off over two-thirds of them entirely on his own. The pressure he faced was exponentially higher! The thought filled her with immense guilt; it was her clumsy blunder that had dragged him into this death trap in the first place.

"..."

N's expression remained unchanged, his posture maintaining an absolute, unshakeable calm.

Mechanically speaking, a path to victory still existed, but he needed to spot an immediate variable to tilt the battlefield. At the absolute worst, he still held a few hidden trump cards that could guarantee a swift extraction for both himself and the girl.

Boom!!

Just as his mind began calculating options at high speed, a section of the cavern wall nearby violently erupted. Jagged stone fragments sprayed through the air as a thick, choking cloud of dust bloomed across the dim chamber.

Countless pairs of glowing, blood-red eyes materialized within the shadows of the dust cloud. As a chorus of guttural, beast-like growls echoed through the cavern, everyone present felt their chests tighten with instinctual dread.

Seeing this, N knew his variable had arrived.

SkREEECH!!

With a deafening, metallic roar, a massive tide of Pokémon surged through the ruptured wall. The overwhelming sea of dark silhouettes formed a terrifying stampede, violently plowing right through everything in its path and instantly shattering Team Plasma's defensive blockade into splinters.

The emerging Pokémon possessed spherical, slate-gray bodies with underbellies and legs encased in stark white, iron-like armor plating. N recognized them at a single glance as one of the most common native species in these caves.

Aron!

This was Steel-Rock Cavern, a subterranean environment incredibly rich in iron ore resources. It was only natural for a wild colony of Aron, which sustained themselves entirely on iron and metal ore, to nest here.

Right now, this massive colony of Aron looked completely enraged, executing a frenzied stampede that tore directly into the Team Plasma grunts without hesitation.

"...What is happening?!"

"Team Plasma has been strip-mining Steel-Rock Cavern and severely disrupting the local ecosystem. Naturally, the native Pokémon living here are going to lash out in blind fury."

N explained calmly to the bewildered girl beside him. He had anticipated this variable the moment he stepped foot inside the cavern, but he hadn't expected the native denizens to not only retaliate, but to mobilize their entire colony for a full-scale counter-offensive!

Putting oneself in their shoes, it made perfect sense. If a group of complete strangers suddenly barged into your home in the dead of summer, raided your freezer, devoured every single ice pop you stored away to survive the heat, and then proceeded to smash your air conditioner and refrigerator, you would be absolutely furious too.

The Aron colony felt exactly the same way. Previously, Team Plasma had deployed specialized high-tech machinery to drive the wild Pokémon away, forcing them to abandon their native territory. However, the chaotic commotion generated by this battle had drawn them right back to their home turf.

Wild Aron were inherently stubborn, aggressive Pokémon by nature. With Team Plasma so ruthlessly pillaging their ecosystem, they had been harboring an immense amount of suppressed rage with nowhere to vent it. Now that they had caught the perpetrators red-handed, they were fully prepared to fight to the bitter end.

"However, they are in an indiscriminate attacking state right now. It would be best if you recalled your Pokémon immediately."

As N spoke, he smoothly recalled his active Pokémon back into their Poké Balls, leaving only Zorua out to project a seamless illusion around them. The red-eyed, stampeding Aron completely ignored their corner, perceiving them as nothing more than empty cave walls.

"Lord Rood?!"

The moment she spotted the massive swarm of Aron, Aldith's face twisted in horror. She hadn't anticipated such a catastrophic failure occurring at the absolute worst possible moment!

During the heat of the crossfire, the specialized jamming device they used to repel wild Pokémon and block external communication signals had been smashed, allowing the native colony to pinpoint their exact coordinates. The Aron were only the first wave; if this dragged out any longer, every single wild colony nesting in this cavern system would descend upon them in a frenzied mob!

"Retreat. Abandon the remaining fossils."

"But Lord Rood!! If we abandon them now..."

Aldith was incredibly reluctant to give up. They had successfully excavated the fossilized remains of Genesect; having to leave behind whatever chunks they hadn't managed to pack yet felt like a physical stab to her heart.

"Obey the order. Compared to Genesect, I have secured far more valuable data today."

The elder named Rood delivered the command with an absolute, unyielding gravity, and Aldith didn't dare voice another word of dissent. The elderly man standing before her was one of the Seven Sages, the premier elite commanders of Team Plasma, answerable only to the future 'King' himself. As a subordinate, she had to submit entirely to his judgment, all for the sake of Team Plasma's grand ideal.

Still, what could possibly be more important than the ultimate hunter?

Suppressing the question in her mind, Aldith prioritized executing the evacuation. She turned and bellowed at the remaining Team Plasma grunts, "All units, fall back! Abandon whatever hasn't been secured yet! Full retreat, now!!"

"Steelix!"

Rood smoothly flicked his wrist, releasing a Poké Ball from his long sleeve. A massive Steelix boasting a brilliant, metallic sheen materialized within the chamber. A Pokémon of such immense scale caused the entire cave system to shudder slightly from its sheer weight. With a single, sweeping Iron Tail, it effortlessly swatted away the encroaching Aron.

Before stepping away, Rood cast one final, deeply piercing look in N's direction before turning to make his exit.

"Dig!!"

Steelix rapidly tunneled into the cavern wall, carving out a massive escape shaft in a matter of seconds. The remaining Team Plasma grunts scrambled frantically into the hole to escape, a sight that sent the Lairon leading the native charge into a state of absolute fury.

"That's..."

N's eyes locked onto a specific Lairon within the charging ranks whose physical proportions far exceeded those of its peers; it was clearly the Alpha leader of this colony.

The heavy, tensed posture it was adopting as it coiled its weight was a mechanic N was all too familiar with, and his expression grew incredibly grim as he realized its intent.

It's going to use Earthquake inside an enclosed underground cavern?!

A healthy, standard Lairon weighed well over a three hundred pounds. The Alpha leader before them, visibly broader and denser than any ordinary specimen, looked closer to five hundred pounds in N's estimation!

An Earthquake unleashed with that level of raw, concentrated mass was more than enough to completely shatter the fragile structural integrity of Steel-Rock Cavern. Yet, in its blind, primordial rage, the wild Pokémon didn't care about the consequences in the slightest, executing the move without a moment's hesitation.

RUMBLE—!!

In an instant, a violent shockwave ripped through the subterranean chamber. The unstable ceiling immediately began to fracture and cave in, while the structural collapse completely sealed off the original exit paths with a cascade of massive boulders.

"Whoa—?!"

The ground beneath the blue-haired girl suddenly gave way as the ledge she was standing on splintered apart. With a sharp gasp, she began falling backward, tumbling straight toward the darkening abyss of the lower cavern levels.

N's expression shifted instantly. Moving like a streak of lightning, he lunged forward, catching her securely in his arms while rapidly flinging up his own kinetic psychic barrier to shield them from the falling debris.