The corridor was quiet, and David moved quickly through it. Concealed beneath Zorua's illusion, he pressed toward his destination — the main hall of the temple, dedicated to Lugia.
To make moving undetected easier, he had returned all his other Pokémon to their Poké Balls. Only Zorua remained out to sustain the disguise, and Dragapult lingered somewhere in the shadows just ahead.
"Dragapult — I'm going to need you soon."
He murmured it quietly as they reached the main entrance.
David was clear-eyed about his own limits. The black-clad man was well beyond what he could handle in a direct fight right now. Without Dragapult, he wouldn't even be considering going inside.
"Dragapult~!" — Leave it to me.
Reassured, David slipped through the gap in the already-open doors and eased inside.
At the same time, he quietly brought his Aura to its full reach, spreading it outward through the space around him, alert to anything that might catch him off guard.
Moving carefully deeper into the hall, he felt it — the unmistakable fluctuation of an ongoing battle somewhere ahead. He climbed silently to the top of a nearby wall and looked out over the plaza that opened before the inner sanctum.
What he saw stopped him.
The black-clad man had not, as David had assumed, already claimed whatever treasure lay within the temple. He was standing just short of it — and he was fighting someone.
What's going on? Is there another group involved?
David was genuinely puzzled for a moment, then a thought surfaced: the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind it. Someone else had followed the trail.
He knew the only people swept into the whirlpool had been members of the Supreme Organization, himself, and the innocent participants of the fishing competition. The latter were just unlucky civilians — people who had shown up for a pleasant day on the water and ended up caught in the middle of something far worse.
But David didn't move to intervene. Not yet. He stayed where he was and kept watching. If the moment came, he was perfectly willing to be the hunter.
Down in the plaza, the black-clad man's Obstagoon was covered in frost-laced wounds, a thin layer of ice clinging to its fur — it had taken significant damage. Across from it, a Feraligatr was faring only marginally better, body heaving with laboured breaths, scorch marks across its torso from what had clearly been Obstagoon's Thunder Punch. Even as it steadied itself, a faint tremor ran through its limbs.
David's Pokédex swept over it automatically.
Name: Feraligatr | Type: Water | Energy Level: 60 | Aptitude: Deep Purple
Elite-level. That explained how it had pushed Obstagoon this far.
The two had clearly been at it for a while. It was fortunate, David thought, that Lugia's temple seemed to be held together by something beyond ordinary means — a full exchange between two Elite-level Pokémon should by rights have brought the whole structure down around them.
Beyond those two, several other Pokémon were engaged across the plaza. The black-clad man's side was varied: Gyarados, Drapion, Bisharp, Honchkrow — a broad spread of types, consistent with what he'd claimed earlier about deploying every Elite-level Pokémon at his disposal. These ones weren't under his direct command in the same way Obstagoon was; they moved more autonomously, likely bred and trained within the Supreme Organization itself.
The opposing side had fewer: Lapras, Blastoise, Golduck — Water-types, all of them. The numerical gap and a slight disadvantage in overall strength had pushed them onto the back foot, with Blastoise's durability doing most of the work to keep them in the fight.
"What exactly is it you want?" the black-clad man snapped, his patience visibly fraying. "You came all this way, put your lives on the line — just to stop me?"
He was furious. He was one step away, and this opponent who had appeared from nowhere had kept him pinned here far longer than he could afford. Every second lost now narrowed the window for their retreat. If things dragged on much further, the Pillar of the Sea would arrive only to find the Alliance already closing in — and then neither the treasure nor the team would make it out.
"Here's what I'll offer," he said, shifting his tone. "Whatever brought you here — we can sort that out later. Help me secure the Sea God's treasure first. I'll hand it to you directly, and we divide it once we're clear of this place."
He had no intention of honouring that, of course. The other party didn't know about the Pillar-level reinforcement on its way. Once they were outside and facing the Alliance's response, taking back whatever had been handed over would be a trivial matter. But right now, a generous promise cost him nothing.
"You shameless thieves." The trainer opposite — younger-looking, dressed in a plain blue outfit — didn't hesitate for a second. "Blasphemers. This is the Sea God's temple. What gives people like you the right to set foot here? Our Sea Clan would never lower itself to deal with gutter rats like you."
His voice carried something beyond simple anger — a sense of personal stake, as though the temple itself was something he had a claim to.
"As long as I can still stand, I will not let you through."
David, watching from above, felt a grin spread across his face.
Sea Clan.
If he was remembering correctly, the last time that name had appeared in any significant public record was well over a hundred years ago. He hadn't expected to run into them here, of all places. That also explained the all-Water lineup neatly.
He was even less inclined to rush in now. He wanted to hear more.
"Sea Clan?" The black-clad man let out a short, contemptuous laugh. "There is no Sea Clan anymore. You're nothing but sinners who abandoned your own god. Don't stand there acting righteous in his house."
The brief lull in the battle evaporated. Both sides tensed again.
David, still perched on the wall above it all, gave a quiet, approving nod. Keep going, he thought. This is getting very interesting.
He settled in and waited, content to let events unfold — and ready to step into the role of hunter the moment the timing was right.