Although Akazam and Mismagius were both at the peak Elite level, the differen their power was being clear. After several rounds, Akazam was gaining the upper hand over Mismagius.

  Julian had never spared any resources on Akazam, his personal protector. Even though it was limited to the peak Elite-level due its potential, preventing it from reag pseudo-Champion rank, its foundation was stantly increasing.

  Meanwhile, Mega Metagross was in a stalemate with the Elite Geist.

  At the same time, Mega Steelix and Dragonite were jointly holding back the third Elite Zebstrika.

  "e on, show me if you have a fourth Elite-level Pokémon," Julian taunted coldly.

  Alex froze momentarily. If he had a fourth, he would have already used it. He never expected Julian to be able to withstand three Elite-level Pokémon.

  "Don't get too cocky"

  Alex shrowing out several Poké Balls.

  With a series of pops, four Electrode appeared on the field.

  "Electrode, use Explosion on those two!" Alex anded maniacally.

  The four Electrode, all pseudo-Elites, would definitely incapacitate both Mega Steelix and Dragonite if they unleashed Explosion.

  In an instant, Alex recalled Zebstrika to its Poké Ball.

  The four Electrode began to glow with a blinding white light, ready to explode, threatening to fttehing within a few kilometers, with the nearby Pokémon fag the brunt of it.

  Mismagius and Geist were taken aback, realizing Alex was willing to sacrifice them too.

  And Alex was already preparing to escape, sending out his own Akazam to Teleport him away.

  As long as Julian was killed, his mission would be plete, though he would lose several of these Pokémon.

  "Metagross!"

  Julian called, activating the Elite-level peak experience card he'd earned from the system as a reward.

  With the experience card, and boosted by Mega Evolutioagross's power surged to the pseudo-Champion level.

  The Electrode, on the brink of explosion, suddenly felt an immense force suppressing their detonation energy, uo release it.

  "Take them down first," Julian ordered.

  Reizing the explosive risk posed by the Electrode, Mega Metagross leaped into a, smming its four cws down with crushing force, annihiting the four Electrode.

  Then, in a blink, Metagross Teleported to Geist, delivering a devastatieor Mash, knog it unscious.

  The pap between pseudo-Champion ae was massive, with an even wider gap betweee and pseudo-Elite.

  Seeing the sudden surge iagross's strength, Mismagius panicked, giving Akazam an opening to finish it off with a Psybeam.

  From the moment Julian activated the Elite-level experience card to the current se, only three seds had passed.

  In those three seds, Alex had already been teleported away by his Akazam.

  "Why didn't they explode?"

  Reappearing about seven ht kilometers from the battle, Alex noticed the absence of any explosion sounds, and a sense of dread filled him.

  But he dismissed it as unlikely; with four pseudo-Elite Electrode using Explosion, the bst's power would be multiplied expoially.

  Ohey began the move, stopping it should've been impossible—even they couldn't cel it if they tried.

  "Metagross, bring that guy bae," Julian anded coldly.

  Within ten seds, Metagross disappeared and reappeared, dragging a barely alive Alex back to Julian.

  As for Alex's Akazam, his brain ierced by Metagross, and now its body was still hanging oagross's arm.

  The Metagross species was naturally brutal, but due to their highly developed brains, they restraiheir violent instincts.

  This time, however, that savage nature had e to the forefront, leaving Akazam's lifeless body as proof.

  Juliarieved the Poké Balls from Alex's belongings, returning Mismagius and Geist while log all other Poké Balls to prevent any actal releases.

  Seeing this, Alex went pale, opening his mouth to beg for mercy, but Julian didn't give him the ce.

  "Gastly, use Hypnosis, then Dream Eater," Julian ordered.

  A white Gastly suddenly appeared before Julian, its eyes glowing with an eerie light. In moments, Alex was overe with drowsiness and fell asleep, fear frozen on his face.

  Had Julian not needed him alive to uhe families targeting him, he would have sent Gastly to kill Alex long ago, without giving him the ce to deploy his three Elite-level Pokémon.

  This was the only reason Alex had sted this long.

  Under Dream Eater's effects, Alex's face twisted with disfort as his dreams pyed out in Julian's mind with Gastly' help.

  While Julian didn't uhe specifidividuals behind this, he learhat several Steel-type families were involved, though the details were still unclear.

  They had only sent intermediaries to tact Alex.

  Before long, Juliaified one of these Steel-type families. Alex wasn't a fool; he had secretly followed his tacts using his Akazam's abilities, disc one of the families iion.

  With a family name in hand, the rest would be straightforward.

  Before Julian could delve further, the vision abruptly ended.

  He opened his eyes to find Alex foaming at the mouth, his limbs twitg untrolbly.

  When a Pokémon's Hypnosis move is used on a human, it industant sleep.

  However, if bined with Dream Eater htmare, it inflict severe mental damage due to the fragility of the human mind.

  In mild cases, it might lead to memory loss; in severe cases, it could cause perma brain damage, turning the person into a vegetable or, in the worst case, leading to death.

  Gastly showed no mercy, using Dream Eater ohe fact that Alex survived ure luck, but his future seemed grim—he was likely to remain in a vegetative state for the rest of his life.

  "Finish him"

  As soon as he finished speaking, Metagross delivered a powerful punch, leaving another headless body in its wake, blood spttering onto Julian.

  "Smack"

  Julian spped Metagross's head in frustration.

  "ime, could you just break their neck? Don't be so brutal. Or at least warn me beforehand, alright?"

  Wiping his face, Julian's hand came away covered in a sticky white substance, and a wave of nausea hit him. Just now I… seem to have licked it?

  He shot a gre at Metagross, his irritation rising.

  But Metagross seemed oblivious, dragging Alex's body along with Akazam's to a er and tinuing its corpse abuse.

  To Metagross, anyone who dared harm Julian deserved a fate worse thah.

  Uanding its mi, Julia be.

  He tried vomiting a few times but u anything up.