"Boom!"
The sound of an explosion rang out. Within the light of the flames, Scizor retreated repeatedly. Looking at the people surrounding it, a flicker of despair flashed in King's eyes.
"Surrender," Tony said slowly, stepping forward. Behind him, Magmortar stood ready to strike again.
"Heh!"
"Don't embarrass yourself with such boring nonsense. You talk as if you've already won; who wins and who loses is yet to be decided!"
"Go, Scizor! Giga Impact!"
At King's command, Scizor launched another charge. Seeing this, Tony spoke no further and immediately ordered his Magmortar to counter-attack with Blast Burn. Under the shroud of raging flames, Scizor simply could not break through. In fact, if not for its powerful Champion Rank combat strength, Scizor would have been crushed long ago by the Magmortar that countered its typing.
Staring intently at King, the surrounding trainers were also looking for an opening. After all, if they could eliminate the trainer directly, the battle would undoubtedly end much more easily. However, King was a seasoned veteran; he kept himself shielded by his Elite Rank Pokémon, leaving not a single opening.
Once the flames dissipated, Scizor launched a fearless assault, like a heroic member of a suicide squad. Suddenly, a strange ripple spread, and Gu Yuan appeared behind King along with Mega Charizard Y. The moment King's attention was diverted, Alakazam appeared next, using Ally Switch to pull King out of the protective circle of his Pokémon.
Immediately following this, Annihilape emerged from a different dimension and knocked King unconscious. The sequence of events happened so fast that even the Champion Rank Scizor failed to react. The rest was simple; with the restraint of Poké Balls, Gu Yuan quickly assisted the Champion Rank expert in recalling all of King's Pokémon, including Scizor, into their spheres.
"You must be Gu Yuan. You performed excellently, as expected."
"Now, take me to the other Champion Rank battlefield first. We must resolve these two Champion Rank trainers as quickly as possible to ensure our operation has no flaws," Tony said, his expression becoming serious after the brief praise.
"Yes! I understand."
Nodding, Gu Yuan had Alakazam use Teleport to take both himself and Tony away. With Tony and Gu Yuan joining the fray, the balance was completely shattered. Soon, the battle in Vermilion City came to a close. As the leader of the Sharp Blade squad, Gu Yuan now found himself with nothing to do, merely gazing at the moonlight while waiting for news from other locations.
"What happened!?"
A knock at the door startled Gaius from his sleep. He wasn't angry; instead, he asked for the reason immediately. He knew Yule's style—unless it was something urgent, he would never disturb him at this hour.
"Patriarch, the Elite Four have launched a sudden raid."
"Currently, except for Sunny City, all of our forces in other cities have been hit, even our underground influence."
As Yule's voice came through, it felt as if a thunderclap had exploded in Gaius's mind. Forcing himself to calm down quickly, Gaius leaped out of bed. At this moment, he didn't even have time to dress; he only wanted to stabilize the situation as quickly as possible, otherwise, the Cotton family might truly face total destruction.
While Gaius was trying to find a way to stabilize the situation, the Elite Four were already beginning to collect the spoils of war. For this raid, the Elite Four had made thorough plans, ensuring no loopholes remained that might give the Cotton family a chance to recover. By dawn, the raid officially concluded.
Evidence of the crimes committed by these enterprises and companies had been uploaded as soon as the fighting ended, and public opinion was firmly controlled by the Elite Four. Dawn did not mark the moment for Gaius to sound the counter-attack; rather, it represented the finality of the situation.
Simultaneously, Gu Yuan's name once again echoed throughout the Kanto region. Utilizing his well-known titles as the Indigo League Champion and the Regional Battle Tournament Captain, Gu Yuan's influence was massive. After this offensive, all of the Cotton family's external wings were clipped, leaving only the power within Sunny City.
In this assault, the Cotton family lost over twenty Elite Rank trainers and five Champion Rank trainers. Putting the Champion Rank trainers aside, the loss of Elite Rank trainers alone accounted for more than half of their total number. Now, what the Cotton family needed to do was not counter-attack, but find ways to stop the losses while guarding against potential annexation by the Kurata and Kobe families.
While the results were brilliant, the League paid a significant price as well. In terms of Ace Rank and Leader Rank casualties, the League lost one-fourth compared to the Cotton family's losses; at the Elite Rank, it was one-sixth; at the Champion Rank, it was zero. These results were enough to satisfy the Elite Four. After all, the opponent's trainers were not a bunch of amateurs; even with the advantage of intelligence and surprise, the enemy would find ways to fight back.
As for Gu Yuan's Sharp Blade squad, they lost three Ace Rank trainers and one Leader Rank trainer. This operation allowed the other families to witness once again how terrifying the power held by the Elite Four truly was. At the same time, they were shocked by Gu Yuan's growth speed. In just about a year, Gu Yuan had become a lethal threat to them. Not every family was as large as the Cotton family; if the Elite Four's target had been them, they might have already vanished.
Logically, when the other families felt a sense of crisis, it should have been the time for the three major families to hold a meeting and unite their strength. However, the Cotton family was currently busy with damage control, while the Kurata and Kobe families were thinking about tearing a few more pieces of meat off the Cotton family to completely kick them out of the ranks of top families. This was exactly what the League had anticipated when they decided not to completely destroy the Cotton family initially.
In the meeting room, Gaius finally made a decision: to recover the Cotton family's losses by "blood-sucking." This so-called blood-sucking meant turning against the families that had sought refuge with the Cotton family, seizing their resources and industries, and poaching the trainers they had recruited.
With this move, Gaius successfully turned the tide, using overwhelming strength to deter the Kurata and Kobe families from further annexation and stabilizing his status as a top family. What Gaius didn't know was that this decision was already expected by the League. In this way, they used Gaius's hand to destroy several smaller families, ensured Gaius couldn't fully recover his losses, and created an unbridgeable rift between the Cotton family and the other two major houses—killing three birds with one stone.
Finally, several days later, the families managed to gather and convene a meeting.