CH101 (715), Brutal Clash/Resolution

It had been nearly an hour since the clash had begun and while the boss battle was as predicted still ongoing without any side gaining the upper hand, the more chaotic clashes at the 12 battlefields had already resulted in quite a few casualties on both sides, though the gold stage invaders still made up the bulk of the casualties. Nonetheless, the overall situation across all battlefields was still at a stalemate as well. 

It was important to note that the casualties in this case did not refer to any ghosts dying on either side, but rather to them being unable to move/act any longer. That was not due to a lack of trying but simply because of the fact that ghost types were the hardest to kill out of any Pokemon due to their state of being, especially the "unbounded" ghosts. 

Not everyone was as unlucky as the Spiritomb that died and likely gave birth to Phantump, though even there one could likely argue that Spiritomb ended up reincarnating without its memories. Still, even as a bounded ghost, Spiritomb's death was more of the exception than the rule, as the battle in front of me was proving. The ghosts that fell during the battles simply got briefly dispersed and slowly regathered their form before remaining unconscious, or fell over inert unable to continue to move their bodies even if they managed to retain their consciousness.

That said, killing a ghost was not impossible. Even I knew of ways to do so, and I did not doubt for one moment that the clashing parties did as well. It was just that truly killing a ghost required extra time and effort, which neither side currently had seeing how they were involved in a fight where they could not spare the extra attention effort to truly kill their opponents. It was simply easier to render them incapable of continuing and move on to the next opponent.

Besides, there was the question of whether either side was truly interested in killing the other in the first place. While the two sides were no doubt hostile to each other seeing how they had diametrically opposite goals, it was a fact that both sides were ghosts, so it was possible that they saw no reason to irreversibly offend the other side by killing their members if they did not have to, at least not until an ultimate victor had been determined. 

Still, while their nature made them extremely hard to kill, it also meant that they did not have to worry about killing each other which meant that both sides could fight without worry/holding back, and that made the ongoing battle a very brutal one. I had spent the last hour or so watching as the two parties tried to destroy each other, quite literally shredding or ripping each other into pieces in some cases. 

Even for me, who had seen Gengar and some other ghosts perform kamikaze style Explosions during Pokemon battles, the brutal way some of the ghosts were incapacitated caused me to flinch a few times before I noticed that each ghost recovered their form even while they were unconscious/incapacitated. 

Mothra/Butterfree and Nyx/Umbreon also commented on how fierce the battles were. I could feel that even they felt that the brutality of the battles was a bit too much, which was quite telling since I knew for a fact that neither of them minded death or killing Pokemon if necessary. It was probably due to the visual impact rather than the actual result of the battle. After all, ripping someone's head off their shoulders and stabbing them through the heart did not have the same visual impact.

Anyway, seeing hundreds of ghosts spread around the ground, incapacitated as they were, made for a somewhat tempting picture. I had to hold myself back from capturing them while they were unable to resist. Thankfully the fact that none of the ghost knights I had been keeping an eye on were among the casualties helped me hold back. While I would be lying if I said that I was not tempted by the Lampent or Doublade, who were practically free pickings if we ignored the battles taking place everywhere, I was still able to hold back.

Compared to those, I had an easy time ignoring the native ghosts since I would be able to capture them even after the outbreak. However, I had no idea if that was true for the invading ghosts as well. I doubted that the natives kept prisoners, so it was likely that they either allowed the losers to take their beaten comrades with them or sealed them away. I doubted that they allowed them to simply roam free after all since that was even dumber than allowing the losers to bring away their comrades as they retreated. As for the possibility that they eliminated them, I chose to selectively ignore that option since I would rather assume that the natives were good ghosts.

Regardless, my self-control got seriously challenged when I noticed that one of the ghost knights finally got taken down as well. It was unmoving and its purple blade had vanished. A slight flickering of its hair/flame was the only indication that it was still alive. I was very tempted to initiate an attempt at capturing the ghost knight, but I was worried about being detected if I did so. After having seen how the two sides fought each other, I was not keen on having them turn their attention to me since they would no doubt attack me if they did, at least the invaders would.

After contemplating things for a bit and consulting Mothra as well as Nyx, I decided against acting for now. I was not in a hurry and it was not as if the ghost knight would vanish if I did not capture it straight away. It made more sense for me to continue observing things for the moment. The longer the battle went on, the more casualties happened, weakening the ghosts, and raising my chances of capturing not only a ghost knight but also a Doublade as well as a Lampent if I wanted. 

There was no doubt that I would be able to resist them better if the strong ones were hurt/exhausted and their numbers were reduced. I was referring to both the number of ghosts in general and the number of leaders/subleaders here. Hence, Mothra, Nyx, and I continued to watch the messy war, trying to keep track of all 13 battlefields, central boss battle included.

I observed as one of the strongest Gengar around, aside from the platinum stage subleaders, who had been fighting against an Aegislash pushed said ghost back after losing an arm and rushed into the enemy ranks before going out in an Explosion, causing damage to the invaders that had to bear the brunt of the kamikaze attack. Gengar's fellow defenders took advantage of Gengar's sacrifice to swiftly take down the hurt invaders before the Aegislash stabilized the situation and returned the favor by increasing the pressure on the defenders thanks to the loss of a very strong defender/Gengar.

The situation eventually returned to a tentative balance once a Mismagius and Banette teamed up to engage Aegislash, though the total loss during that "brief" clash escalation reached nearly a hundred, which was not a small number considering that we were talking about gold and dark gold stage Pokemon here and not weak ones.

Not long after that, we witnessed a Dusknoir on another battlefield nearly shattering the coffin of a Cofagrigus, which indicated that its loss was near. Cofagrigus probably aware of that chose to ignore Dusknoir and followed Gengar's example, though it did not use Explosion. Cofagrigus rushed past Dusknoir, leaving its back open to an attack, and interfered in four high-stakes battles using its four arms to momentarily restrain its fellow invader's opponents, giving them a chance to take advantage of their opponents.

While Cofagrigus' action shifted all 4 battles to its fellow's advantage, it also led to its unprotected back being hit by Dusknoir's attack, ultimately shattering its coffin, resulting in its incapacitation. Scenes like that were not uncommon during this war, and seeing so many on both sides go that far really illustrated how seriously both sides took this clash/invasion. Frankly, despite how tenacious I knew ghosts to be I could not help but wonder if some of the ghosts that appeared to have been taken down had actually died after all. That was how ferocious some of the battles and their outcomes were.

After seeing yet another ghost being torn apart, this time it was Sableye that had teamed up with a Banette to face a Runerigus, I could not help but once again consider if I should continue streaming the war or not. There were quite a few young ones in Utopia after all that had not seen anything nearly as brutal as the current conflict, but I once again decided against it. It was simply too late for that now. 

Besides, both Mothra and Nyx had said that it was better for them to see it now than witness it later since it could serve as a warning and a motivator for them to get stronger. They also assured me that the responsible older ones would ensure that those who were too young/immature even according to their standards would not watch the livestream. From what my tertiary thought stream could see while keeping an eye on Utopia, they were right.

Anyway, I noticed a second ghost knight falling and noted the area where it fell. Honestly, I was not sure if it was because of the opponents they were facing or if they were just that strong, but these ghost knights certainly left a strong impression, or maybe I was being influenced by their awesome looks. Still, it was a fact that only two ghost knights had fallen so far, so they were definitely strong. 

Admittedly, none of the Dusknoir had fallen yet, so according to that standard that made them even more impressive, but compared to the 4 Dusknoir the number of ghost knights was higher as well. Not to mention that the 3 Dusknoir subleaders were at the platinum stage and the guardian was at the palladium stage so their not losing was not all that surprising.

After that not-so-fair comparison, I resumed silently watching the incursion attempt, and the third hour of the conflict passed by along with the fourth. During this time I made sure to remember the positions of another 7 ghost knights who got beaten down, along with the positions of some Chandelure and Aegislash who fell as well, going their prevolutions on the list of ongoing casualties.

By now nearly a fourth of the defenders lay on the ground, along with a bit less than 40% of the invaders, though the gold stage ghosts made up a considerable portion of them, leaving the two sides somewhat evenly matched. Still, despite that being the case, I did notice that the natives were at a slight advantage which was a relief.

Over the last 4 hours, I had come to the resolution to interfere in the conflict if it looked like our side, that of the natives, was losing. Thankfully, it appeared that that would not be necessary, though I would remain vigilant until the end. To that end, I informed not only Mothra and Nyx of my decision to interfere if necessary but also everyone at or above the gold stage inside Utopia. I made use of thought stream no 3 for that. 

Due to the live stream, they were all aware of the ongoing clash/invasion and they all agreed that acting as reinforcement if necessary was the right choice since they all, like me, were worried about whatever was being sealed by the seal. We all agreed that it was in everyone's best interest if that seal remained unbroken if the native ghosts were this adamant about protecting it.

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