Pokémon Detective Case Files

Chapter 255 Gathering Firewood - The Eye of the Grass Seedling Turtle

Chapter 257 Gathering Firewood - The Eye of the Grass Seedling Turtle

"Frozen Beam."

Without a second thought, Adek gave his partner the order.

The perfect teamwork between the champion and his partner was on full display once again. Without needing any further explanation, frost instantly spewed from the two enormous mouths of Double Ice, leaving two parallel ice slides in the spiraling wetlands.

"Alright! Let's go for it!"

Awareness and courage don't spring from the mind; they emerge from the soles of one's feet. The Unified Champion, abandoning his previous unwavering composure, waved his robe and leaped onto the ice.

The mud and ice completely filled the rugged steps, so moving over them was not limited by the "wetland terrain" slowing down your speed.

Wearing thick-soled sandals, Adek, like a not-so-professional ice skater, glided down the slope with a whistling sound as the soles of his shoes rubbed together.

Seeing the champion's reaction, the two small figures guarding the bottom of the three-story staircase also reacted, vigorously shaking the leaves on their heads, releasing Grass-type energy. Their daily training paid off; despite the distance, the vines in the wetlands grew successfully, silently forming several small, round grass knots on the slide. If Alder continued sliding down like this, he would inevitably trip over these insidious grass rings.

However, even though the champion saw the grass trap, his speed in the gliding attack did not decrease at all.

Upon seeing the "tie the grass," Adek stomped hard on the ice and leaped into the air on the spiral staircase with its extreme elevation difference.

At the same time, Bogarman unleashed his fully charged "Water Cannon" attack.

Unlike the skills used under the detective's orders, this time Bogarman's water-type moves were both precise and powerful, heading straight for the Ardek Champion's face with tremendous force.

However, the resistance of the two beginner Pokémon still seemed too crude and clumsy in the face of the Unova champion.

"Go, Knight Snail!"

The moment Alder jumped, a red and white Poké Ball had already been launched. As if its trajectory had been precisely calculated, the Poké Ball flew into the air and met Piplup's "Hydro Pump" move head-on.

The Poké Ball containing the Pokémon popped open, and a giant Bug-type Pokémon appeared in front of its trainer, using its sturdy body to block the damage from the opponent's attack.

This Pokémon is covered in hard armor, and its large red horns show the knight's bravery. It swings its two long spears with great momentum, determined to defeat the enemy in front of it—it is another Bug-type Pokémon from Alder, Escavalier.

Piplup's all-out attack couldn't shake the Pokémon at all; "Water Cannon" merely wet Escavalier's body, as if it had only given the Pokémon a bath.

"Well done."

The champion gave a shout of praise, and as he leaped into the air, he used the momentum to grab his partner's shoulders, then braced himself with both hands and exerted force. With agility that didn't seem like that of an elderly person, he performed a vaulting motion, using the drop in the stairwell to flip over and land on the Knight Snail.

The snail, carrying too much weight, crashed onto the ice, shattering the ice into pieces.

However, this Pokémon was not confined to the wetland terrain.

The Knight Devil isn't a true snail; beneath its shell isn't a soft, slimy body, but rather a biting Pokémon originally called Slug. This incredibly tough snail armor actually comes from another equally amazing Bug-type Pokémon—the one that can evolve into agile Bug, the Vanilloid.

Therefore, although the Knight Snail lost its ability to move quickly after evolution, it still retains the potential for rapid movement in certain structures of its armor—for example, a sharp, crescent-shaped horn grows on the part of the Knight Snail that contacts the ground.

At this moment, the sharp point pierced into the ice, like a sharpened ice blade.

The melting point of ice decreases as pressure increases. Under the blade, the solid ice melts into liquid water, forming a water film that wraps around the part of the Knight Snail that is in contact with the ground, acting just like lubricant.

As Adek rode the Knight Snail, he glided across the ice as if surfing, even increasing his speed further. Ignoring the grass knots cut and crushed by the ice blades, he sped relentlessly toward the third floor of the dark Tower of Heaven.

On the fourth floor, the little Chimchar's performance left a deep impression on Adek. Due to a slight hesitation at the beginning, the incredibly weak little Chimchar managed to move the power inside the tower that was thousands of times stronger than itself, causing the old craftsman and the red-faced dragon to fight a bitter battle and even suffer casualties.

Having learned from past mistakes, such errors will absolutely not be repeated in this battle!

With the strength of the Unova Champion and his partner, as long as they can overcome this insignificant distance between themselves and their opponent, they can immediately subdue the two starter Pokémon left behind by Detective Hugo with swift and decisive action, leaving no chance for the opponent to set a trap.

Unfortunately, in this distorted and chaotic competition, there was no shortage of unexpected changes and surprises.

"Oh no! Stop immediately! Everyone on standby!"

Adek's shocked voice suddenly echoed throughout the entire corridor.

Upon hearing its master's command, the Knight Snail immediately plunged its javelins into the mud beside the snow track, abruptly halting its full-speed sprint.

"Double Ice, use the 'Sleep' move. There's still a tough battle ahead, let's recover our stamina first."

Another command was issued, and although Double Ice hesitated for a moment, it still carried out the order.

Despite instinctively sensing something was wrong, both Pokémon obeyed Alder's commands without hesitation, out of trust in their trainer.

However, the trainer who issued the command ended up in a bad situation.

Perhaps due to old age and senility, Adek seemed completely unprepared for the consequences of his command. He lost his balance the moment the Knight Snail slowed down and fell forward like a cannonball.

Although he managed to grab the Knight Snail's armored crown at the last moment, preventing him from falling and getting injured, half of his body still tumbled into the mud.

Even after they had reached this point, Aldak still gave his partner orders again while they were in the mud.

The voice, clear and unmistakable, rang out from the champion's location: "Knight Snail, prepare for attack, use 'Metal Blast'!"

"Hey! That's enough!"

Adek interrupted himself, the command and rebuke merging together in an instant.

"Stop imitating my voice! Knight Snail, Double Extra Ice, listen up! I didn't give any orders at all! Someone is impersonating me with a similar voice!"

At this moment, Double Ice has fallen into a "sleep" state to recover its stamina and cannot be woken up by the trainer's calls; while the Knight Snail is in a state of confusion and bewilderment.

Unconditional trust can also be a curse, a curse that binds you like chains.

Bound to the champion's main Pokémon—this is the original meaning of Hugo's so-called "bonds".

Alder frowned deeply: Even if it was an impersonation, the opponent's voice was far too similar to his own; no wonder the Pokémon under his control couldn't tell the difference. But why did the fake command voice happen to be right where he was?

Suddenly, the champion had an idea. He looked around and saw a broken clump of grass in the wet ground at his feet. So he bent down and pulled up the clump of wild grass that had grown from the Grass Turtle's "Grass Knot" move.

Twisting and untying the tangled knotted grass rope, a wireless speaker the size of a die slipped out.

It was the same kind that Detective Hugo had used in both the fifth and fourth floors.

The dice in my palm suddenly started to vibrate.

"Ahem, here is a pre-prepared recording. If Mr. Adek hears this audio, it means that you have seen through this obvious trick, right? Congratulations."

Hugo's nonchalant tone slipped through Adek's fingers. The speaker was small, but the recording it played was deafeningly loud, making it quite noisy.

"Although I've learned a little bit about vocal cord simulation, it's really too difficult to perfectly imitate another person's voice and intonation. So, in preparing for this battle, I chose another way to confuse the audience."

The detective in the recording explained.

"As the champion of the Unova region, Mr. Alderk naturally has a large number of videos of him commanding his Pokémon in battles. By cutting out and extracting the commands from those videos and putting them into a remotely controlled wireless speaker, we can achieve the effect we see right now." Of course, since I'm not currently on the battlefield, I can't possibly pinpoint the exact time to play the recordings.

Therefore, for the sake of rationality, I entrusted all these audio recordings to a certain Pokémon who was present at the scene. And now that Mr. Alder has seen through Grass Knot's true secret, there's no longer any need to hide this Pokémon's identity.

Alder looked up and his gaze locked onto a Pokémon at the bottom of the spiral staircase.

In the darkness, the grass turtle revealed a meaningful smile, its black pupils gleaming.

According to the recording, the wireless speaker was now entirely controlled by this Grass-type beginner Pokémon.

In other words, it was the Grasshopper Turtle who played the recording left by Detective Hugo, revealing the identity of the mastermind to Aldeck.

What arrogance and self-confidence!

The tender green leaves overhead swayed from side to side, causing all the plants in the wetland to wiggle slightly as if they had their own independent consciousness.

"Attack freely! Ignore my next commands!"

"Do not act for now! Listen carefully to my actual orders!"

As if demonstrating contradictory meanings, two completely opposite commands were issued simultaneously from Adek's mouth.