"You don't believe us? So what?"
Anglian Trainer E grinned, wearing the expression of someone who had their prey firmly in hand.
In terms of both strength and numbers, they clearly had the upper hand—how could they possibly lose?
Wyvernia's Trainer C casually tossed more firewood into the campfire and said with a calm expression, "If you had attacked earlier, the three of us might not have stood a chance."
"But now? Things are different."
The five Anglian trainers froze, then suddenly burst out laughing.
"Hahaha! Have you lost your minds? The only way you could win is if the island's guardian suddenly sided with you!"
Wyvernia's Trainer B hurled his unfinished meal straight at Anglian Trainer B's face.
Furious, the latter tried to stand—only to collapse as a wave of weakness crashed over him.
The other four immediately sensed something was wrong, but their bodies, too, were suddenly wracked with dizziness and fatigue.
"What the hell—?"
"You… you did this!"
Anglian Trainer A stared in disbelief at the three smirking Wyvernia trainers.
"Yup." Trainer B from Wyvernia nodded.
"That's Soulburn Wood—how the hell did you get your hands on it?!"
Trainer C's eyes darted to the firewood they'd been using. Only now did he notice the smoke from the fire drifting directly toward them.
There had been no wind earlier—but at some point, a faint northern breeze had picked up.
And hidden in that fire was Soulburn Wood.
[Soulburn Wood: Nearly indistinguishable from ordinary firewood. Often mistaken and used for regular fires. But when burned, its smoke induces weakness and dizziness in both humans and Pokémon.]
To prevent any tricks, the Anglian trainers had thoroughly searched the Wyvernia trio's bags multiple times, even confiscating any decent medicine they found. There had been no trace of Soulburn Wood.
And the three had been under constant surveillance.
Wait—
Anglian Trainer A suddenly remembered—the Wyvernia team had been gathering firewood daily to cook. Although someone followed them each time, Soulburn Wood looks too similar to regular wood to be noticed.
Had they secretly collected some… and even recognized what it was?
Seeing all five opponents and their Pokémon collapse from the smoke, Trainer A from Wyvernia quickly put out the fire.
They had to avoid getting caught by a shift in the wind.
"Guess luck just wasn't on your side. I happened to pick up some Soulburn Wood yesterday. My family runs a traditional medicine business—Soulburn Wood is actually used as an herbal ingredient."
"So I recognized it at a glance. It wasn't normal wood at all."
"If not for the lack of wind yesterday, you five would never have lived to see today's sun."
"I thought there'd be no wind again today, but just now, the wind picked up. And you were right in its path. Seems even the heavens want you dead."
Wyvernia's Trainer C's gloomy expression vanished, replaced by triumph.
Now the tables had turned. They were in charge.
Soulburn Wood's effects were extremely potent—once afflicted, there was no antidote. It wasn't lethal, but for a full hour, victims would remain paralyzed in a state of extreme weakness and dizziness.
An hour was more than enough time for the three of them to kill the five Anglian trainers a hundred times over.
They stepped forward, cold stares fixed on their fallen foes.
Behind them, the fire pile they had just extinguished—unnoticed by anyone, the half-burned Soulburn Wood within it vanished without a trace.
If anyone ever wanted a textbook case of 'a last-minute reversal', this was it.
Had the Anglian team struck earlier, the Wyvernia trio would've been doomed.
But on the very day they planned to act, fate handed their enemies the perfect tool to turn the tide—and they struck first.
It flipped the situation from total advantage… to the five now lying helpless, waiting for slaughter.
Even the Pokémon guarding them had collapsed alongside their trainers.
Faced with the three who now wore murderous expressions, the five Anglian trainers finally panicked.
Anglian Trainer A uttered quickly, "You can't kill m—"
But before he could finish, Wyvernia's Trainer A gave the signal. His Samurott drove the blade-like horn on its head straight through man's chest.
The remaining four tried to plead for their lives, but they too were all killed one by one by Samurott.
"Indecisive fools. People like this aren't fit to be trainers," Trainer A from Wyvernia sneered.
"Don't say that. It's thanks to their indecisiveness that we're still alive," Trainer B chuckled.
"Even if they hadn't planned to kill us, we still would've figured out a way to take them out first."
The moment this island ceased to hold any threats for them, their so-called alliance had already shattered.
Given the way Wyvernia operated, in this kind of situation, they absolutely would have turned on Anglia eventually.
It's just that Anglia struck first—yet despite their overwhelming advantage, they ended up being counter-killed instead. Now that was truly ironic.
One by one, they locked the five trainers' Poké Balls and recalled their immobilized Pokémon.
"What are you looking at? From now on, you'll be my Pokémon," said Trainer B from Wyvernia with a burning gaze, staring at the late-stage Elite Infernape before him.
The Infernape, however, glared back with pure hatred.
'You killed my trainer, and now you want me to be your Pokémon?'
'Keep dreaming.'
Without suffering a single loss, the three Wyvernia trainers had turned the tables on the five Anglian trainers, seizing all their Pokémon and resources.
It was a textbook example of a perfect counterattack.
The three of them stripped the Anglian team of everything they had.
Trainers A and B looked like they were dreaming—the whole sequence of events had been so surreal, they could hardly believe it had just happened.
But in the very next second, something even more unbelievable occurred.
"Ghk—!"
Wyvernia's Trainer B gasped as a blade pierced straight through his chest from behind.
Disbelief filled his eyes as he tried to turn and see which backstabbing bastard had struck—but his body no longer had the strength to do so.
Beside him, Wyvernia's Trainer A stared in horror at the attacker.
"Thane?! Have you lost your damn mind?!"
"You're next," Thane sneered coldly.
"Samurott—!"
Trainer A cried out desperately.
But the next second—thud—his Samurott collapsed to the ground, its entire body stained purple.
It had been poisoned.
"You… when did you—?!"
"Shouldn't have let it eat so carelessly," Thane smirked.
With a wave of his hand, a Cofagrigus emerged, its coffin lid creaking open before swallowing Trainer A whole.
A second later, the coffin spat him back out.
But the man was already dead, his face frozen in terror.
Eight were gathered. Now seven were dead.
And now, Thane stood as the sole victor.
"Don't worry. When I get out, I'll tell everyone you all died fighting the Anglian team," he muttered coldly, wiping his blade.
He wanted everything—no sharing, no compromises.
So the only option was to eliminate the other two.
*****
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