A growing wave of red-eyed shadows crashed through the darkness toward Alex and his Pokémon, surrounding them like a churning sea of black bodies. They were a lone boat fighting against the tide, struggling to maintain the small pocket of space they controlled as the swarm threatened to overwhelm them.
Then, multicolored lights ripped through the darkness as powerful area-of-effect attacks erupted from their formation. The battlefield was bathed in oppressive energy, knocking out or outright killing the Alolan Raticate in droves as the relentless wave was repeatedly pushed back.
Dazzling Gleam proved the most devastating. Its brilliant light seared the eyes and fur of the oncoming wave, stopping them in their tracks. Heat Wave followed, its oppressive heat cooking them alive across broad swathes of the battlefield. Earthquakes rippled beneath them and outward, preventing any from approaching with Dig by burying them beneath churning rubble before they could even reach the group.
Surf from Alex's Water types and a few other Pokémon pushed back the tide, ensuring they had all the space they needed to continue the one-sided slaughter. Breaking Swipe and Brutal Swing from the attack team helped as well, launching back the Alolan Raticate that managed to close the distance with Quick Attack. Any ranged attacks thrown their way were simply overwhelmed and swallowed by the sweeping bombardment.
Overall, the battle was completely one-sided, requiring barely any extra effort from Alex's Pokémon as they maintained a multidirectional triple bombardment without even bothering to use Protect. Despite forgoing their defenses, they hadn't suffered a single hit from the swarm of Alolan Raticate. Their relentless barrage was all-encompassing, alternating, and powerful enough to keep the swarm and their attacks from ever breaking through.
They even attacked at carefully chosen angles, creating a swirling vortex of energy that naturally rotated around them like a hurricane. The storm pushed back the swarm before the attacks themselves even struck, scattering the Alolan Raticate and denying them any chance to overwhelm the formation. It was one of many formations Alex had taught Gardevoir to maximize the team's safety when completely surrounded and outnumbered, using the excess energy from overlapping attacks to continuously damage and repel their enemies.
"Rotom, how does it look?" Alex asked, relying on the drones overhead for a better view of the battlefield.
"Their numbers continue to increase as the disturbance propagates through the surrounding area, attracting additional swarms from the numerous burrows detected nearby. Current estimated population count has exceeded one million Pokémon," Rotom reported.
"Gardevoir, slow the bombardment. This is officially a battle of stamina rather than strength."
"Gardevoir," she acknowledged, steadily reducing the rate of fire while maintaining their airtight defense.
The adjustment allowed the Pokémon to conserve their energy while keeping the swarm at bay, extending their endurance for what was shaping up to be a prolonged battle. It also gave them enough leeway to take brief rests, allowing them to consume Elixirs to replenish their energy and continue fighting.
Not that they needed to do so at the moment, but if the battle continued for much longer, having that option would prove invaluable.
The extra time between attacks proved to be twice as effective, as the swarm of Alolan Raticate used the opportunity to gather the corpses of their fallen before retreating underground with Dig. They appeared to be planning on cannibalizing their own kind, desperate for any source of sustenance they could find.
It was a grim and heartbreaking reality, a clear indication of just how desperate these Pokémon had become. They were willing to consume even their own in order to survive, clinging to any scrap of food they could obtain.
ROAR!
Guzzlord roared in anger, watching as its food was retrieved before it had the chance to consume it. It wanted to charge forward immediately and stop its meal from escaping, but Alex held it back.
"You gluttonous thing," Alex said, slapping Guzzlord's back. "Finish the food in front of you before demanding more. Even if you run out of corpses to consume, there are still mountains all around us. Don't worry, we won't leave this dimension until you're full."
Guzzlord pouted but eventually relented, turning its attention back to the battle before it. It opened its maw and inhaled the rushing Alolan Raticate, dragging them into its stomach before crushing them with its immense gravitational forces. Slowly, its hunger began to fade as its satiety filled.
A few hours later, little had changed aside from the solar eclipse rising in the distance. The oppressive darkness still blanketed the area, though it had weakened considerably as the eclipse's light began filtering through, replacing the absolute blackness with a dim, eerie twilight.
Despite the changing atmosphere, more Alolan Raticate continued to arrive, swarming toward Alex and his formation only to be erased by the swirling wall of energy that surrounded them. Meanwhile, Alex and his Pokémon showed little sign of fatigue. They regularly trained for hours at a time, so maintaining their current relaxed bombardment placed little strain on them. If anything, the prolonged battle allowed them to practice a new aspect of energy control.
Rather than unleashing every attack at full force, they focused on using only the bare minimum necessary while conserving their stamina. This forced them to refine their control, learning to regulate and maintain their energy instead of simply concentrating it before releasing it with reckless force.
Now, they were competing with one another to see who could last the longest while sustaining the minimum amount of energy required to keep the battle going.
Alex, meanwhile, had taken out a lawn chair and settled down with a beer in hand. The oppressive dark atmosphere was surprisingly pleasant to someone with a Dark affinity, while the ongoing battle was equally relaxing to watch. To him, it felt no different from spending a leisurely day at the beach.
"Is the swarm still continuing to build?" Alex asked Rotom beside him, who had taken residence in a mobile computer station complete with a database and a satellite dish the size of a large room.
The station was a portable data processing hub equipped with powerful storage arrays, advanced processors, and communication systems designed to handle massive volumes of information. Its primary purpose was to receive and archive extensive satellite feeds, collecting data that would be handed over to Nyx once they returned.
"Population increase has begun to decline. External swarm sources are reducing their output, indicating a decrease in incoming units. Current battle duration is projected to be 2 hours. Estimated surviving population remains within the million range, with numbers gradually decreasing due to resource acquisition from available corpses reducing the need for further advancement."
"Because they're satisfied with grabbing a corpse before retreating rather than advancing?"
"Correct."
"You have to admire their tenacity in a situation like this," Alex mused.
It was a truly horrifying necessity for survival, but the results were undeniable. By retrieving the corpses left behind, they could avoid throwing away their lives against an insurmountable opponent while preserving enough of their population for their species to endure.
Compared to the countless other species that had already gone extinct, the Alolan Raticate demonstrated remarkable tenacity. Despite being considered one of the weakest Pokémon species, their determination to survive was undeniable.
Another hour passed as the solar eclipse climbed higher into the sky, approaching noon. The battle was beginning to peter out as fewer and fewer Alolan Raticate threw themselves against the swirling wall of energy. It was becoming increasingly clear that the swarm was finally beginning to slow its advance.
"This should be good enough," Alex said as he stood from his lawn chair.
"Gardevoir, scatter and exterminate. We want as many corpses as possible to feed Guzzlord. It would benefit more from consuming low-ranked Pokémon than just rocks and dirt, saving us time in this dimension."
"Gar~" she replied as the formation bloomed outward.
The attack team rushed out and began unleashing area-of-effect attacks, with Earthquake proving the most devastating. Each strike killed hundreds of Alolan Raticate at a time, rapidly filling the battlefield with additional corpses. Meanwhile, the defense team maintained their formation while expanding outward, covering more ground and ensuring even more bodies were added to the terrain.
This didn't stop the swarm from continuing its assault. If anything, it prolonged the battle, as the Alolan Raticate could no longer retrieve the corpses before retreating. Their final charges only resulted in needless deaths, leaving behind even more bodies for Guzzlord to consume later.
This continued for another hour, with Alex's Pokémon rampaging without pause and expending their energy freely, knowing they would have ample time to recover once the swarm finally ceased. Miles of the Vast Poni Canyon had been transformed into a massive graveyard, with countless corpses buried beneath the rubble and scattered across the battlefield.
Meanwhile, Guzzlord, acting as the world's largest janitor, swept through the aftermath, inhaling anything that wasn't firmly embedded in the ground. Each bite and gulp steadily cleared the battlefield, leaving behind little more than devastation and empty terrain.
Farther south of the Vast Poni Canyon, along the Ancient Poni Path, a teenage girl stepped out of her home with narrowed eyes, staring north with suspicion. Something had disturbed the devastating Raticate nest within the canyon, and whatever had caused it was powerful enough to survive. The disturbance had traveled all the way south and persisted throughout the night.
She released her Flygon, mounted it, and headed north, eager to uncover the source of the disturbance.