Elf: Who told him to be an investigator!

Chapter 241 Either Submit or Melt

The leader, Nianmei'er, with all her experience, never imagined that such a thing would happen to her!

With its massive size and its naturally large and heavy steel snail shell, the boss, Niumier, uses a rolling motion of curling into its shell and then making a heavy impact, which is its invincible offensive tactic.

But now...

Does this human even know what they've done?!

He pulled his own rapidly rolling body out of the snail's shell, then, by rotating his waist and abdomen, counteracted its forward momentum.

It spun around in a perfect 180-degree arc!

The leader, Nianmei'er, felt a sharp pain in her neck as it was being pulled!

When it came to its senses, it realized that it had been flung into the air.

He also met the hateful gaze of another human on the ground.

"Wow, what a huge steel snail shell!"

"Yeah, it looks like it's going to... hit me!"

Higana stared wide-eyed, her head spinning, at the leader, Numei, hurtling closer and closer in the air, and the snail shell on its back that gleamed with a heavy, iron-like luster in the sunlight.

A huge steel tire came crashing down.

It's unlikely that this can be avoided in the short term...

"I'm going to get flattened and turned into a 'Higana pancake'!!"

She panicked, remembering Ze Shu's previous teachings, and hurriedly threw out the Poké Balls from her waist without restraint. Five Pokémon appeared instantly: Salamence, Roaring Moon, Goodra, Noivern, and Altaria.

"Help! Help! Help! Use Guard One—"

But in the rush, the light that was preserved had not yet had a chance to shine.

There was a heavy thud!

Centered on where Hiljuna was, the steel snail shell fell down, exploding into a cloud of mud and smoke. Hiljuna and the five Pokémon that were gathered together were suddenly thrown several meters away by the impact!

Fortunately, there were several Pokémon acting as meat shields.

Higana got up in disgust. She only had scratches on her body, but she was covered in mud and dust, looking like a dusty mess.

Why is this happening...?

She complained, then glared angrily at the "steel snail" that had sent them flying!

"You nasty Pokémon that looks like a shelled Goodra attacked us! Well, we'll fight back!"

Higana puffed out her cheeks in anger, released the last remaining Tyrannosaurus Rex beside her, and then shouted angrily:

"Men, let's attack together! Let's beat it together!"

"To paraphrase Sawaki..."

"We don't need to talk about 'battle ethics' with this bad Pokémon, because this is called a righteous gang-up!"

Then, just as the leader, Nianmeier, recovered from the dizziness of the "plane crash," she saw six pairs of glaring eyes.

The leader, Nianmei'er, was shocked: "Nian?!"

On the other side, a major battle is taking place between the Sticky Meadow tribe and the Moon Bear tribe.

After casually tossing the leader, Nianmei'er, far away, Ze Shu shook his slightly hot palms. After all, it was a bit difficult to shake off the large steel snail shell.

"Mr. Ze, Mr. Ze..."

After Ze Shu pulled the Goomei Dragon's true form out of the snail shell, Huo Xia remained dumbfounded, feeling as if her entire worldview was about to be shattered by this scene.

This is...this is blatant cheating!

No human being could do something like that!

"Are you alright?" Ze Shu turned to ask her, since the battlefield where these two Pokémon were fighting was quite dangerous.

"N-nothing..." Huo Xia and the bronze mirror monster she had summoned beside her shook their heads together.

Ze Shu understood, so he ignored her stunned expression and instead looked around at the entire "Bear Arena". It was now in complete chaos. The haystacks were blown away by the aftershocks of the battle, and the bear cubs hidden inside ran to his feet with tears in their eyes and hugged him in fear.

Although Ursaring is a Normal-type, it is also adept at using Fighting and Ground-type moves.

These moves give Goodra, a pseudo-legendary Pokémon with the Steel type, a significant advantage in combat.

However, on the surface, Xi Cui and Nian Mei'er's side had the upper hand.

The reason is simple: the number of these "snails" far exceeds the number of Circle Bears. In particular, the three strongest and most robust Circle Bears were injured by Ze Shu's Moon Bears before, and Moon Bears' injuries have not yet recovered.

But now Ze Shu has thrown the leader, Nian Mei'er, into the air.

The leaderless Niumi tribe became somewhat panicked, and the battle gradually became more even—this was before the Heyue Bear had even joined the battle.

Seeing Xiao Lan's rare anger, he even summoned his crawling wings and used "brute force" to blast a sticky creature away.

Ze Shu also let He Yue Xiong join the battle, in exchange for a circle bear that had been bumped several times by Nian Mei'er and had also spat out several clumps of mud, which came down to ask him questions.

"What exactly is the grudge between your two clans?"

This circled bear was one of the three strong bears, as it was the first to be knocked down.

Zeshu tentatively named it "Xiong San".

And this matter was brought up.

Xiong San looked furious.

It roared angrily, hurling insults like "circle bear swearing."

"Roar roar roar!!!"

"Speak properly! Have some manners."

But after Ze Shu hit Xiong San on the head with a branch, Xiong San's angry roar suddenly stopped. It shrank its neck and after a while, it squeezed out a "less violent" roar from its neck.

Ze Shu sighed helplessly, "Behave yourself and tell me why you started fighting like this. Is there some kind of conflict?"

Xiong San then let out a few aggrieved roars and obediently told Ze Shu about the grudge.

But setting aside the subjective "embellishments" made about Noodle in its narrative, Ze Shu gradually understands why the two races fought by reconstructing the original facts from the angry expressions of the Circle Bear.

There were no major conflicts, just friction accumulated over the years.

Originally, the Pokémon Goodra was more somber and withdrawn than the normal Goodra that didn't have the "snail shell" in later generations.

As for the Moon Bear clan...

Kumamoto is known for its irritability and anger.

And the bear cub is a Pokémon that truly lives up to its name as a "mischievous child," a very "naughty" troublemaker who frequently steals berries, honey, bud petals, and even the heads of grass and turtle saplings.

It's normal for people to break through the mucus covering the sticky toy out of curiosity.

Although it was the little bear cub's fault, this matter can be salvaged by having Sticky Baby "repair" the membrane in the mud; and by having the little bear cub return the favor with a tearful apology gift—honey—the conflict can be resolved.

The measures taken by the sticky-beautiful clan in this regard:

It directly escalates the conflict.

It escalated into a full-scale war between all races!

They rolled their entire clan's "steel tires" straight toward the bear cubs' home! How could the irritable circle bears stand for that? They immediately decided to fight.

Thus began the long-standing friction and battles between the two most powerful Pokémon groups at the southern end of the Crimson Wetlands.

Both sides think the other is an idiot!

Zeki: "...—"

What kind of nonsense is this....

"Roar roar roar!!!"

As the conversation reached its end, Xiong San's anger surged again, and he started cursing "circle bear filth," before opening his thick bear paws and joining the battle against Xi Cui Nian Mei Er!

Ze Shu didn't stop it, but instead noticed what Xiong San said when he swore at the end.

"It says that these clingy girls have been acting very ungratefully lately. They used to fight once a month, but starting half a month ago, they've been fighting every three days, and every five days, it's a big fight..."

Huo Xia, who was listening in, was very sensitive to the time frame of "half a month":

She paused for a moment, then quickly said to Ze Shu:

"This is the time for the raging 'Queen' to unleash her scales!"

Ze Shu picked up the sticky Mei'er that had rolled over from beside his feet, then turned to her and said, "Tell me in detail."

Huo Xia took a breath: "Half a month ago, the 'Mountain Path Queen' of Crimson Wetlands appeared on the northern mountain path and scattered golden scales from her body. Pokémon that come into contact with the scales will suffer from the 'Queen's' symptoms, losing their minds and going berserk..."

"Ze Shu, the Moon Bear you defeated before was on the northern mountain path, and it was stained with scales!"

"Many Pokémon in the northern part of Crimson Wetlands were also infected, causing a lot of chaos. Diamond—our Team Kong leader..."

This is also extremely distressing for me.

"And now this sticky-female ethnic group...::"

"They might have caught it too!"

She turned to look at Nianmei'er, who was somewhat frantic but not quite, on the battlefield, and a question lingered in her mind:

"But their symptoms..."

"It seems a bit mild, not at all like the symptoms of the Moon Bear that you treated, Ze Shu."

Ze Shu analyzed, "The so-called 'Queen' was scattered from the northern end of the Crimson Lotus Wetlands, and it's common for the effect to weaken by the time the scales reach the southern end."

Huo Xia: "But why don't these bear cubs, the circle turtles... um, and other groups around here show any signs of infection, like the grass turtles I've seen, the grass on the trees..."

"But these sticky girls have caught it?"

She originally intended to talk about the Circle Bears, but upon hearing their angry roars during the battle, which seemed exactly like the symptoms of being tainted with the Queen's Scale Powder, she shut up and instead spoke about the situation of the surrounding tribes, expressing her inner bewilderment.

Ze Shu: "It's a river."

Huo Xia was taken aback: "What?"

Ze Shu explained, "Scales are difficult to float from the northern end of the Red Lotus Wetland to the southern end in the air, but rivers can bring them."

Firefly found a reason why Zeki's guess was untenable: "But these bear cubs and circly bears also need to drink water from the river!"

"And almost all Pokémon need to drink water, not just Goodie! Because there's only one main river in Cinnabar Wetlands! If what you're saying is true, then all the Pokémon that need to drink water here will get contaminated!"

"Ze Shu, you probably don't understand the ecology of the Honglian Wetland."

Ze Shu shook his head and said, "I may not understand the ecology of the Crimson Lotus Wetlands, but I should understand the Pokémon Goodra—they need to stay in the mud and water for a long time to keep their bodies moist."

Huo Xia looked puzzled, still not understanding.

Ze Shu asked, "When I arrived here, I noticed that the river in the Crimson Lotus Wetlands is quite rapid, isn't it?"

Huo Xia: "Yes."

Ze Shu: "With such a swift-flowing river, the volume of water must be enormous. Before the Queen's scale powder could even take effect, it was diluted in the swift-flowing river and washed overseas."

"But... Nianmei'er isn't."

"If I'm not mistaken..." Ze Shu recalled the habitat of the Grimer in the game, "Their habitat must have been a murky pool of muddy water, or rather, stagnant water, the kind that hardly flows."

"so."

"As long as even a trace of the Queen's scale powder enters..."

"Then the scale powder can work indefinitely!"

Huo Xia: "This..."

She blinked, momentarily stunned.

Ze Shu laughed and said, "My reasoning seems pretty convincing, doesn't it? Don't believe it too much; maybe all my reasoning will ultimately prove me wrong."

Huo Xia shook her head, as if she wanted to say something.

But Ze Shu turned to the battlefield and said, "Regardless, this group of sticky-feathered people has definitely been affected to some extent, and what I need to do now, well, first, get them..."

"Hey, over there, the power of the earth!"

The moment Ze Shu saw the five sticky creatures gathering in the battlefield, he shouted directly at He Yue Xiong, who was focused on wrestling with one of the sticky creatures.

The Moon Bear was taken aback, but its reaction was quick.

As it turned in the direction Ze Shu had indicated, the bear's paw struck! The ground suddenly glowed with energy, and with a loud "whoosh," the ground collapsed, the soil rapidly arched up, and then exploded!

The five sticky creatures were instantly blasted by the "Earth Power" and lost their ability to fight in an instant!

Huoxia, the circle bears, and the sticky girls who hadn't been affected yet were all shocked and looked at Zeshu who had spoken with different eyes.

It was just a single sentence of intervention.

The fog rendered the five sticky creatures incapable of fighting...

In addition, this human just threw the leader, Numei'er, away, preventing her from returning in time...

The circled bear roared excitedly, its paws striking the steel snail's shell with even greater force.

As Nianmei'er's fighting spirit gradually waned, they, who were initially at a disadvantage due to the intervention of the crawling wings released by Heyue Bear and Xiaolan, gradually turned into wolves and foxes.

And this time.

"Wahahahaha---"

Higana's laughter, which she had recently picked up from somewhere, drifted in from the outside.

"I, Queen Higana, have returned victorious from battle!"

Higana squeezed in from the side of the battlefield, and then spotted Zeshu in the chaos, excitedly shouting to him:

"Ze Shu! Look, look! My spoils! Aren't I amazing! Aren't I amazing!"

Beside Higana.

Salamence, Tyranitar, and Goodra followed her in, struggling to carry a heavy "steel snail shell." At the opening of the "steel snail shell," a pinkish-purple, sticky head drooped limply, clearly incapacitated.

Upon seeing this, the surrounding girls, including Wu Shi, widened their eyes and were all stunned.

Isn't this the leader Nianmei'er who was thrown away by Zeshu?

There are still scratches on its neck from Ze Shu's forceful throw!

Higana laughed loudly:

"This Goodra-like creature suddenly appeared out of the sky and tried to smash me, but I, the brilliant and mighty Sigana, successfully used Protect to completely block it! And then, well, I defeated it!"

"How is it?"

"I'm awesome, aren't I!"

But judging from the mud and scars on Higana's face...

Her battle with the leader, Nianmei'er, wasn't going as smoothly as she claimed.

Ze Shu smiled and shook his head, not exposing her, only saying, "Then you're amazing."

Higana's nose practically pointed to the sky: "Hmph!"

Her face shone with an overwhelming joy.

Seeing her like this, Ze Shu shook his head helplessly. After waiting a few more seconds for her to be happy, he said:

"May I borrow your spoils for a while, Lady Higana?"

Higana was delighted and granted all his requests: "Here you go, here you go!"

Zeshu walked up to the leader, Goome, who was being held by the Pokémon Higanbana.

Just then.