Pokémon: I just became a Gym Leader, and Cynthia proposed to me.

A-Zhe stood in a clearing deep in the withered forest, his back to them.

He held a black dagger in his right hand.

A-Shou spoke sternly, "A-Zhe, return the Hidden Shadow Baki at once!"

In A Zhe's hands, the short sword transformed into a long sword. The blade was as black as ink, with a dark purple halo around the edges. Wherever the sword's energy reached, the air emitted a faint hissing sound.

He turned around, a gloomy smile on his face.

"If you want it, come and take it back yourself!"

He didn't say another word.

With a horizontal slash of the longsword, a dark blade aura, like a crescent-shaped black curtain, swept towards the four people, skimming the ground.

"Prince Bo, Bubble Ray!"

"Lucky Cat, Thunder Fang!"

"Hercules, Pin Missile!"

The three of them, A-Shou, gave the order at the same time.

Prince Bo's bubbles, Luke's lightning, and Heracross's missile pins converged into a mixed attack to meet the blade's energy.

But the Shadow Blade Aura was like a red-hot iron knife cutting into butter, evaporating the foam, devouring the lightning, crushing the missile pins, and still striking the three Pokémon with undiminished force.

Prince Bo was slashed and sent flying, the water film on his wings shattering.

The Leccat's lightning teeth bit into the blade's energy, but it felt like biting into a piece of red-hot iron, and it flinched away with a scream.

Hercules used his horn to force his way through, cutting a deep, bone-revealing crack in his carapace.

All three Pokémon fell to the ground at the same time.

Ashou's face was deathly pale, and his voice was trembling.

"This isn't the power that Haunted Baki possesses!"

A-Zhe looked down at the long sword in his hand, the shadow energy pulsating on the blade like breathing.

He looked up, and Ah Shou's terrified face was reflected in his dark purple pupils.

"This is the power bestowed upon me by the God of Shadows, which has strengthened the Hidden Shadow Fang in my hand."

He raised the knife, the tip pointing at Xiao Zhao.

"Prepare to die."

Xiao Zhao didn't move.

Her gaze swept back and forth between A-Zhe's knife and his footsteps twice.

Then she bent down and picked up a branch that was about three feet long from the ground.

A-Shou's eyes widened.

"You're going to use a tree branch... to hit that knife?"

Xiao Zhao did not answer.

She stepped forward, a tree branch lying across her front, her steps unsteady, her center of gravity slightly lowered.

A Zhe smiled.

He charged forward, raised his long sword high, and delivered a powerful cleavage.

The shadowy blade energy tore through the air, emitting a sharp whistling sound.

Xiao Zhao turned to the side, using a branch to prop up the blade at an angle, and with a deft and skillful maneuver, guided the blade to one side.

The blade grazed the branch, shaving off a layer of skin from her fingertips.

The second strike was a horizontal slash.

Xiao Zhao took a half step back, and the tree branch blocked his way.

The blade struck the tree branch, causing it to bend violently but not break.

Xiao Zhao used the elasticity of the bend to slide backward, absorbing most of the impact.

The third strike is a diagonal slash.

Xiao Zhao stepped forward, and the branch slid in along the blade, striking A Zhe's wrist.

But A-Zhe reacted faster than she expected. He flipped his wrist, turned the blade, and slashed at Xiao-Zhao's fingers.

Xiao Zhao stopped, the branch retracted, and the blade struck the branch again.

This time, the branch broke.

Half a tree branch flew out and spun in the air.

A-Zhe's attention instinctively followed the flying branch.

It was only a fraction of a second. But that was exactly what Xiao Zhao was waiting for.

She threw the broken branch in her hand at A-Zhe's face.

A-Zhe tilted his head to dodge.

Xiao Zhao's feet had already pushed off the ground, his true energy erupted, and his body shot out like an arrow released from a bow.

Her right hand, palm facing up like a knife, concentrated wave power at the edge of her palm, and from bottom to top, precisely chopped the inside of A-Zhe's wrist as he held the knife.

"Snapped!"

The Shadow Blade flew out of his hand, tumbled twice in the air, and stuck in the ground ten steps away.

The shadow energy rapidly dissipated from the blade, and the long sword retracted into the short sword.

Before A-Zhe could react, Xiao-Zhao's left foot had already kicked out.

A hook kick from below landed precisely on Ah Zhe's chin with the instep.

A-Zhe's head snapped back, and he flew into the air, somersaulted, and crashed heavily to the ground.

But the moment he landed, his body began to emit black energy.

The black mist gushed from his mouth, nose, ears, and even the pores of his skin, thick as ink, carrying a pungent, rotten sweet smell.

The shadows on the ground began to writhe, converging on A Zhe like living creatures.

The shadows rose from beneath his feet, entangling his calves, thighs, waist, and chest, like a mouth closing shut.

A-Zhe's eyes widened, fear surging from his dark purple pupils.

"No...no! I haven't—"

The shadow closed in, swallowing him whole.

Then, the shadow began to expand.

It rose from the ground like a black hill, growing higher and wider.

Two enormous arms, formed from shadows, stretched out from the shadows and braced themselves on the ground.

A huge, round head rose from the shadows, with a scarlet lamp burning with shadow fire atop it.

Its body is in the form of a Night Demon, but it is much larger than any normal Night Demon, standing over four meters tall, with its arms outstretched like a pair of black wings.

Its scarlet eyes opened, unleashing a massive amount of shadow power.

The surrounding withered trees bent and broke under the impact of the shadow energy.

The stones on the ground were crushed into powder.

Ah Shou's legs went weak, and his voice was trembling with tears.

"Should we run away quickly... this guy is clearly someone we can't handle!"

Xiao Zhao clenched his fist.

"Turning around and running away is the mindset of a weak person."

She stared at the Night Demon, her gaze calm.

"Although this Night Demon's power is strong, its source is very complex: the blessing of the Shadow God, the life force absorbed from the surrounding plants and Pokémon, and A-Zhe's own life force."

"Moreover, because it is dominated by A-Zhe, it cannot control this seemingly powerful body very well."

She looked at the owl.

"go."

The owl flapped its wings and took flight, shooting towards the Night Demon like an arrow released from a bow.

It made a provocative roll in front of the Night Demon.

Enraged, the Night Demon raised its right arm and brought down its Shadow Fist.

The force of that punch was terrifying; the wind from the punch created a crater two meters in diameter in the ground.

But it moves too slowly.

The owl had already left its original position a moment before its fist landed.

The second punch, the third punch.

The Night Demon's every punch carried enough power to shatter rocks, but every punch missed.

The owl weaves through the shadows of its fists, like a sprite toying with a giant.

Air blades shot out continuously from between its wings, striking the Night Demon's body. Each hit caused the massive creature to let out a scream.

Xiao Zhao bounced all the Poké Balls away.

"Everyone, it's time to go!"

The cat monster and the little fire horse attacked from the left and right flanks, using lightning bolts and flames to distract the Night Demon.

Zubat and Float harassed from above, while Shadow Balls slammed into Dusknoir's head one after another.

Stardust and Golduck are facing each other, with Stardust's Air Blade and Golduck's Water Gun creating a crossfire.

The owl circled at the highest point, waiting for the opportune moment to deliver the final blow.

The Night Demon's rhythm was completely disrupted.

Its power is indeed formidable, but as Xiao Zhao said, it cannot fully control this body.

The shadow energy within its body was not flowing smoothly, and it would leak out from its joints from time to time, forming clumps of useless black mist.

"Feathered Owl, Brave Bird, Charge!"

The Winged Owl folded its wings and swooped down, its body enveloped in a blue-white radiance of a brave bird, like a shooting star crashing down on the head of the Night Demon.

The blow caused the Night Demon's head to slump downwards, and shadow flames erupted from its lamps.

"Goldfish, water cannon!"

Golduck clasped its hands together, and a high-pressure jet of water as thick as a bucket shot out from its palms, accurately hitting Night Demon in the chest.

The water jets struck the shadowy body like boiling water dousing snow, causing the shadowy matter to rapidly disintegrate, peel off, and dissipate under the water pressure.

The Night Demon's body began to disintegrate from its chest.

Cracks spread outward from the point where the water cannon landed, and pieces of shadowy matter peeled off, like weathered rock.

Its arms hung limply, and the shadowy flames on its head gradually dimmed.

Finally, the entire body collapsed like a sandcastle, turning into a cloud of black mist that slowly dissipated into the air.

A-Zhe fell from the black mist.

He fell to the ground, his face as pale as a sheet of paper, his lips purple, and the purple light in his eyes completely gone.

His right hand was still in the grip of the knife, but the knife was gone. His body was trembling, whether from the cold or from fear, it was hard to tell.

"hateful……"

His voice was hoarse and weak.

"My power... I... how could I have failed?!"

Xiao Zhao walked up to him and squatted down.

Her right hand was scraped and bleeding from the fight, but her expression was calm as if nothing had happened.

"Your power is not yours."

she says.

"You're just borrowing it; what comes must be returned sooner or later."

Ah Shou and the other two stared wide-eyed, dumbfounded and speechless.

"What?! How...how could they...actually win?"