Despite having extremely high intelligence, their lack of interaction with humans and other Pokémon destined them to be deficient in social skills.
Withdrawing his gaze, Natsuhiko signaled Dragapult to fly towards Hunter S's direction.
Over there, the battle was almost coming to an end.
"Melo?"
Meloetta looked at Thundurus, who was trying hard to stop the tears while standing upside down, and couldn't help but ask curiously.
'Can standing upside down really work?'
Natsuhiko grinned slightly, "Maybe."
Meloetta bit her finger, lost in thought.
Arriving at Hunter S's side.
His situation was far from optimistic.
Even though some special means allowed Nidoking and Scolipede to unleash extraordinary strength despite being heavily injured.
But this couldn't last long after all.
He wanted a tug-of-war with Natsuhiko to seek a slim chance of survival.
But when he saw the endless Thunder stop falling, his heart sank to the bottom.
He certainly noticed Dragapult's strength too, so when he saw Natsuhiko approaching, his face turned ashen.
A hoarse voice came out from his parched throat.
Looking at Natsuhiko.
"Why?"
He didn't understand why Natsuhiko, a mere normal rank, would hide such strength.
Though he had immediately attacked viciously, he didn't think this conflict was irreconcilable.
And it wasn't worth Natsuhiko risking his life, confronting Thundurus and not giving up dealing with him.
Until now.
He still hadn't connected Natsuhiko's identity as a Hunter with his affiliation with the Alliance.
Normally, people wouldn't make such an association, right?
One was a high-ranking figure in an underground force, barely equivalent to a cadre in Rocket Team.
The other was a rising star greatly supported by the Sinnoh Alliance, a Gym Leader, a renowned new researcher, with a bright future seen even by fools. Why would the Alliance let him get involved in this?
Even now.
He still thought Natsuhiko was Hunter N, just with a certain disguise.
Natsuhiko did not respond directly to him, but instead, his gaze fell on the exhausted Nidoking and Scolipede.
"These two Pokémon took some special genetic potion, didn't they?"
Hunter S was taken aback, "You know?"
Sure enough.
"Rocket Team's? Or Tom Rokicki's?"
The situation with these Pokémon was too similar to the wild Pokémon he encountered with Lance on Severe Mountain.
The difference was, those wild Pokémon only ingested a little, whereas these probably took a large amount.
But without exception.
They were all things that leaked out from the gene bank that was blown up by the Alliance.
Hunter S gritted his teeth and said nothing.
Natsuhiko mused, "It doesn't matter if you don't speak, I can still guess a few things."
Saying so.
He slowly bent down.
"Do you want me to help, or will you do it yourself?"
Bang!!
Nidoking, covered in wounds, finally couldn't hold on anymore under Hydreigon's attack and fell heavily to the ground.
Scolipede fared no better.
Being even more injured than Nidoking, it soon lost its fighting ability under the joint siege of Beedrill and others.
Hunter S stared at Natsuhiko, as if engraving his image into his soul.
He was a proud person, and since Natsuhiko had said that, there wasn't much point in struggling anymore.
This was the last bit of dignity.
With a crisp sound from his mouth.
His pallid complexion suddenly flushed with an eerie red.
"No matter if you...are doing it for the top rank...or for the interests of the Unova Region...it won't be that easy."
Leaving these final disjointed words, he collapsed onto the ground.
"Of course."
Natsuhiko softly agreed, not caring whether he heard or not.
Plop.
Leaping down from Dragapult's back.
Holding Meloetta, who had covered her eyes from the beginning upon his reminder, walked to Hunter S's corpse.
"But actually, what I want isn't as complicated as you imagine."
Saying this, he removed a storage device from Hunter S and poured out everything inside.
Among them were quite a few items of considerable value.
The most valuable was definitely his bank card, but for Natsuhiko, this was the least useful thing.
Sometimes, he wondered.
The Alliance really knew how to make money, producing these anonymous bank cards; every year, who knows how many people deposit money into them and never withdraw it.
Someone with Hunter S's identity and status likely had quite a few small goals in the card.
Just went like that.
Natsuhiko clicked his tongue.
During his search, he found several wooden boxes.
He opened them one by one.
The first had a piece of aged, yellowed bone.
Natsuhiko tossed it aside without a second thought.
"Marowak's bone, treating it as treasure."
The second was a pure golden mask, entwined with wisps of black mist, seemingly possessing a frightening capability.
"Crying Mask's mask, also useless."
The third.
Was an ancient slab engraved with special and unknown characters, unlike any writing Natsuhiko had seen before.
"Ancient slab, maybe the content on it holds some value, could be worth keeping."
The fourth.
Yet another bone, but compared to Marowak's slender bone staff, this bone was larger and more complex, not showing a dark yellow color, but rather with a hint of crystal.
"Baluya?" Dragapult couldn't help but speak up.
Natsuhiko nodded, closed the box, "It's a piece of Dragonite bone, just a part of it, holds some value but not much."
Dragonite's bone?