Pokemon: Bounty Hunter Alex

Chapter 570: Chapter 570. The Third Master Ranked Pokemon

A few days had passed since Alex and his Pokémon began making their way south of the city. Along the way, they had been drawn into several battles, usually against small groups of three to a dozen Master ranked Pokémon at a time. The Paradox Pokémon seemed to share an unspoken understanding, naturally maintaining their distance from one another and roaming freely without claiming or defending any territory. As a result, Alex encountered scattered groups like these rather than massive hordes sweeping through the city.

”Alright, good job, everyone,” Alex said after another small skirmish. ”Start cleaning up, establish a perimeter, and get ready for dinner.”

Alex released his portable home in the middle of a relatively undamaged stretch of the wide street, then began preparing dinner for his Pokémon. Thanks to Vera and Lina, he had an ample supply of prepared meals ready to serve, so he simply distributed them across the ground, sorting them according to each Pokémon’s preferences.

Meat was the most common, as many of his Pokémon were animalistic carnivores, including Raticate, Arcanine, Kommo-o, and Grim, the Roaring Moon. Others had more specialized diets. Frosmoth, Togekiss, and Lopunny preferred plant-based food, while Ghost types such as Ceruledge and Dusknoir fed on condensed life force. This was produced by a spiritualist ritual that involved placing an entire corpse within a ritual circle and condensing the lingering life force released as it decayed into a concentrated portion of the body, creating a meal that Ghost types found particularly nourishing.

Some Pokémon required entirely different forms of sustenance. Rotom needed electricity to replenish its energy, while Tsareena required a carefully prepared fertilizer made from blended meat, nutrient-rich soil, and water, which she absorbed while basking in sunlight. Finally, there were Pokémon that could subsist on little more than metal and rock, particularly Rhyperior, Urshifu, Lucario, and Knight, his Iron Valiant.

Of course, these were ultimately just dietary preferences. Any Pokémon could consume the body or energy of another Pokémon regardless of its physical form, since all Pokémon ultimately converted matter into energy.

The problem was efficiency and preference. Food outside a Pokémon’s preferred diet was less efficiently processed, could provide less nourishment, and might taste absolutely terrible, but it was still perfectly viable as a source of sustenance.

This was why Pokémon Pellets were the standard choice for most domesticated Pokémon. They were easy to produce, reasonably palatable to any species, nutritionally balanced, and cheap to purchase in bulk.

Alex’s Pokémon, however, were hardly ordinary pets. They were his partners, warriors, and companions, and he believed they deserved nothing but the best. As such, he spared no expense when it came to their food, providing each of them with meals tailored to their individual preferences and nutritional needs.

Raticate preferred junk food such as burgers, hot dogs, and pizza, all made with Master ranked ingredients. He would pick them up with his tiny paws and sit upright while eating, almost like a human. It was a habit he had likely picked up during his earlier years in the slums.

Arcanine, Grim, Kommo-o, Hydreigon, and Altaria preferred their meat bloody and raw. They either tore into it like savages or used their fire breath to cook it to their liking. Arcanine, in particular, would place a paw on the meat and grill it with his natural body heat before biting off mouthfuls, chewing them properly before swallowing. It was likely a human habit Arcanine had picked up when he was young, having spent years watching Alex, Raticate, Jenny, and her Pokémon do the same during meals.

As Alex made his rounds, placing food for each of his Pokémon on the ground, he noticed that one of them was missing. He made his way out of the house and searched for it, without bothering Gardevoir, who was enjoying her salad, until he found it staring down at a corpse that hadn’t been cleaned up.

”What’s wrong, Knight?” Alex asked the stoic Pokémon, who simply stood there staring at one of its own kind.

It was the corpse of an Iron Valiant, nearly identical to Knight. Knight’s metallic features made its expression impossible to read, leaving Alex with no indication of what was going through its mind.

Alex thought about it and realized this was likely the first time Knight had ever encountered one of his own kind. Knight had been quite the loner back in Area Zero, deep within the Great Crater of Paldea. Even after coming to this world, it had never gotten the chance to encounter another Iron Valiant, as they were always taken down by someone else and their corpses collected right after. Even the first Iron Valiant they encountered in this world had been defeated by the attack team, with Raticate, Lucario, and Urshifu leading their respective groups, while Knight and the other three groups had been sent to intercept the approaching Pokémon.

Suddenly, Alex received a telepathic reply to his question.

”Really?” Alex asked in shock. ”Are you sure? It might be dangerous because of the virus that Rotom has been trying to learn how to fight since we got here.”

Knight looked up at the dark, cloudy sky, almost as if deep in thought, before finally turning toward Alex and giving him a firm, determined nod.

”Alright. Wait here. I’ll go get the other corpses.”

Alex headed back to the house, grabbed the backpack, and released half a dozen Iron Valiant corpses in front of Knight. Some were little more than tattered heaps of metal, others remained almost completely intact, while a few bore massive gouges across their chest or head that had likely caused their deaths. If Alex were being honest, it looked less like a collection of corpses and more like a mound of discarded robot parts. They were, after all, entirely mechanical in nature.

Knight spread its psychic force through the heap and began selecting the most intact components. The glaive was the easiest to find, with half a dozen relatively undamaged pieces scattered across the pile. After that came the individual components of the body, including the limbs, torso, head, and cloak.

Using its psychic power with meticulous precision, Knight disassembled each piece down to its smallest components before reassembling them into a complete body. Once the frame was nearly finished, Knight gathered the remaining chest pieces and used its psychic energy to link everything together, connecting each component into a single, functioning whole.

Then Knight itself joined the heap.

Its metallic body suddenly crumbled apart, its components separating and joining the body it had been constructing. For a moment, the newly assembled Iron Valiant remained suspended in the air, held together entirely by psychic force.

Then, the brilliant light of evolution engulfed the body.

Energy from the remaining chest pieces flowed into its core, merging together as the light intensified. When the radiance finally faded, Knight stood before Alex once more, its newly rebuilt metallic body complete and its eyes shining with renewed life. It was also radiating the power and aura of a Master ranked Pokémon.

Alex remained tense throughout the entire procedure. Knight had upgraded itself from Champion rank to Master rank in one fell swoop, and there had been a significant risk that its mind could be overwhelmed by the stronger Iron Valiant or that it could become infected with the virus. However, their connection remained completely intact, and Alex quickly realized he had nothing to fear. The Pokémon standing valiantly before him was undoubtedly his Knight.

”Congratulations on reaching Master rank,” Alex said. ”How do you feel?”

Knight began swinging its glaive, rotating its joints, and performing a series of basic maneuvers, all of which Alex made sure to record. Once it had finished testing its newly empowered Master ranked moves, Alex couldn’t help but smile as he checked its Pokédex entry.

Name: Iron Valiant (Knight), Master

Type: Fairy Fighting

Ability: Quark Drive

Moves:

Master:

(+200% Damage): Dazzling Gleam, Shadow Sneak, Psycho Cut, Night Slash, Leaf Blade, Close Combat, Spirit Break, X-Scissor, Fling, Throat Chop, Thunder Punch, Low Kick, Brick Break, Drain Punch, Reversal, Fire Punch, Aerial Ace, Shadow Claw, Ice Punch, False Swipe, Giga Impact, Poison Jab, Zen Headbutt, Liquidation, Fury Cutter, Feint, Knock Off, Charge Beam, Thunderbolt, Aura Sphere, Focus Blast, Vacuum Wave, Hex, Shadow Ball, Magical Leaf, Grass Knot, Energy Ball, Icy Wind, Swift, Hyper Voice, Hyper Beam, Tera Blast, Psybeam, Stored Power, Psyshock, Psychic, Expanding Force, Future Sight, Moonblast

(Effect Up +4): Taunt, Thunder Wave, Misty Terrain, Coaching, Confuse Ray, Protect, Endure, Sleep Talk, Metronome, Swords Dance, Substitute, Encore, Helping Hand, Psych Up, Agility, Reflect, Light Screen, Rest, Imprison, Skill Swap, Trick, Calm Mind, Psychic Terrain, Trick Room, Disable, Double Team, Electric Terrain, Hypnosis, Destiny Bond, Wide Guard, Quick Guard

Description: Iron Valiant, the Paradox Pokémon. Known for its elegant lethality and cold efficiency, this futuristic relative of Gardevoir and Gallade was engineered to be the ultimate combatant. It is said to have been created by a mad scientist’s pursuit of the most powerful psychic warrior, resulting in a metallic form that wields a glowing energy blade with mechanical precision.

In essence, Knight had reached Master rank and achieved complete mastery of its moves. From this point onward, any further improvement was beyond the Pokédex’s ability to comprehend, as the changes could no longer be quantified by the technology of the current era.

Still, something about it was strange. Based on Knight’s previous statistics, it should have needed at least another 5 years before achieving complete mastery.

”Did you absorb their memories and improve your move proficiency through their experiences?” Alex asked.

Knight, having finished inspecting its new body, nodded before telepathically giving Alex a rundown of what it had done and what it had gained. It had essentially taken the superior components from the other Iron Valiant and merged the remnants of their memories, which contained no lingering will of their own, into its consciousness. By doing so, it had gained enough knowledge and physical capability to reach Master rank in both body and technique.

In simpler terms, Knight had upgraded itself with superior parts and inherited knowledge, resulting in a comprehensive increase in rank.

”What’s different compared to before?”

Knight answered by covering itself in a brilliant pink aura of Fairy type energy before condensing it along the length of its glaive. It then turned toward a distant building and delivered a powerful slash.

The condensed energy flew from the glaive and vanished almost instantly, seemingly bypassing the space between Knight and its target. A moment later, the building groaned as a diagonal cut appeared across its entire width. Its upper half began to slide away from the lower section before crumbling apart and crashing to the ground with a thunderous roar.

The noise was loud enough to draw the attention of the other Pokémon, who had already finished eating and quickly gathered around to watch the spectacle.

Alex’s mouth fell open at the sheer power of the move, which looked like an upgraded version of Spirit Break. If the Iron Valiant that had ambushed him had used it against him, he would have undoubtedly died in a single hit. Such power and precision simply couldn’t be resisted by his human body.

Suddenly, information from Knight flooded into Alex’s mind, extending far beyond its own recent achievements. Knight began sharing its new memories of this world, revealing its history and recounting the events that had ultimately led to its downfall.