Me, trapped in the pit, only heard Xia Hu Nao's scream and had no idea what had happened. When she shone her flashlight upwards, she only saw Xia Hu Nao's legs dangling on the stone wall. As for his upper body, by Me's estimation, it had likely crashed directly onto the ground.
"Are you okay!"
Me shouted several times, but Xia Hu Nao showed no reaction. His legs remained motionless. Me started to panic, unsure of what to do. After shouting a few times, there was still no response from the Shelmet. Me thought, if he was ambushed by some mechanism when he went up, then both he and the Shelmet must be in a bad state and needed to be rescued quickly.
However, what Me didn't know was that although Xia Hu Nao's lower legs were dangling on the stone wall, he hadn't been knocked to the ground by any strange mechanism. He was sitting on the ground, waving towards the opposite side of the pit.
Seeing Xia Hu Nao like this, Feng and Mushi Shui immediately understood that Xia Hu Nao had been faking it, pretending to be hit by a strange mechanism. It had to be said, Xia Hu Nao truly acted with essence. Not only was Me fooled by his acting, but even Mushi Shui and Feng were momentarily stunned. Feng, having been here before, was the first to react, realizing there were no special mechanisms in this place.
As for why Me didn't call out to Shelmet, it was because Xia Hu Nao was holding Shelmet tightly in his arms, refusing to let it fly up.
Xia Hu Nao made a shushing gesture, pointing at Me in the pit. Feng nodded, understanding Xia Hu Nao's intention. He had already put pressure on Me, and the specific outcome depended on Me.
Me called out a few times, realizing that without Xia Hu Nao and Shelmet, she could only rely on herself. However, Xia Hu Nao did leave Me a fallback: although he had come up, Froakie had not come up with him. Xia Hu Nao had left it below to see if it could help Me escape.
Me watched as Xia Hu Nao's Froakie and her own Marill started to think of a solution. The method she came up with was a human pyramid: stacking them all together and then launching Marill like a multi-stage rocket.
This method was feasible. Froakie wasn't very heavy, and Marill was even lighter, with the two combined weighing only seventeen kilograms. Although Me was a girl, she was a trained ninja and lifting about thirty catties wasn't difficult for her. The problem, however, was that Me was only one meter sixty tall, and Froakie and Marill together were only one meter. A height of two point six meters seemed a bit troublesome.
Even with arm span added to this plan, the combined height of the three wouldn't exceed four meters, leaving two meters short of an escape.
But anything was worth a try. Me squatted down, letting Froakie ride on her back, and then picked up Marill. Me steadied herself slightly and climbed onto the rope net, lifting Froakie by its feet. Froakie, in turn, lifted Marill in the same way.
Me gently stepped on the rope net and jumped up, "Froakie, launch!"
Due to the sudden addition of thirty-odd catties of weight and the resulting shift in her center of gravity, Me's jump wasn't very high. However, Froakie had amazing jumping power. By the time it jumped, it was very close to the exit. After jumping, Froakie tried its best to throw Marill. Marill successfully cleared the pit, but just like Xia Hu Nao earlier, it let out a scream and stopped responding.
Hearing Marill's scream, Me became extremely panicked. But no matter how much she called, Marill didn't respond, making Me even more flustered.
So, what exactly happened? Just as Froakie threw Marill, it coincidentally landed right in Xia Hu Nao's arms. The moment Marill saw Xia Hu Nao, it panicked. But before it could react, Xia Hu Nao quickly grabbed it and squeezed its ear hard. This was the scream Me heard from Marill.
Marill was a very delicate Pokémon. After its ear was squeezed so hard, Marill looked at Xia Hu Nao with teary eyes, on the verge of crying. Xia Hu Nao quickly covered Marill's mouth and began to pet the cute Marill.
Xia Hu Nao's petting technique was quite skillful. Under Xia Hu Nao's handling, although Marill was still angry that this bad guy had pinched its ear so hard earlier, it found the petting extremely comfortable.
Marill lay comfortably in Xia Hu Nao's arms. When it heard Me's calls, it wanted to jump out of Xia Hu Nao's embrace. However, Xia Hu Nao slightly increased the strength of his arms, and Marill stopped moving. Xia Hu Nao leaned close to Marill's ear and whispered, "This is to help your master."
Hearing Xia Hu Nao say it was to help its master, Marill obediently nestled in Xia Hu Nao's arms, allowing him to continue petting it.
After successfully pacifying Marill, Xia Hu Nao gave Feng a thumbs-up. Feng, watching from the side, was stunned. What was this? Me's Pokémon had been easily dealt with by Xia Hu Nao?
Ignoring Feng's reaction, Xia Hu Nao continued to pay attention to Me's situation. After losing Marill, Me looked at Froakie and asked, "Froakie, can you get out? By using foam to get yourself out?"
Froakie looked at the surrounding walls and jumped a couple of times tentatively. After estimating its success rate, Froakie nodded, indicating it could try.
Seeing Froakie's reaction, Me commanded, "Froakie, go!"
Froakie directly sprayed foam onto the surrounding stone walls and climbed upwards, stepping directly on the foam. It continuously used the walls for leverage, quickly surpassing half the height of the wall. Hearing Me cheering from below, Xia Hu Nao was slightly taken aback, then paused his petting of Marill.
Froakie quickly rushed out of the pit, executing a stylish turn in the air. However, as soon as Froakie emerged, it saw Xia Hu Nao holding Marill and smiling at him. Xia Hu Nao raised his right hand and made a beheading gesture with two fingers across his neck. Froakie understood immediately. After landing on the ground, it let out a cry and came behind Xia Hu Nao, joining him in playing with Marill.
Feng seemed a bit bewildered by Froakie's behavior. He whispered to Mushi Shui, "Are his Pokémon always like this?"
"You'll get used to it. He's a very interesting trainer."
Their hushed conversation, translated by Rotom with headphones, was not heard by Me in the pit. Without Marill, and then without Froakie's help, Me found herself in dire straits.
Xia Hu Nao pointed at the pit and asked Feng if he wanted to go down to rescue her. But Feng made no move, and Xia Hu Nao remained seated by the pit. To be honest, Xia Hu Nao was a bit uncomfortable now. He had to maintain a state of unconsciousness, so he couldn't move his legs. Xia Hu Nao wasn't sure if Me could see his feet, so he endured it, and his legs had already gone numb.
Me, still in the pit, thought for a while longer and finally set her sights on the rope below her. If she could secure herself from falling further, she might be able to remove a few ropes from the net and fashion a loop to climb up. However, there was a problem: where should she loop it? The only place Me could see to hook a loop was Xia Hu Nao's foot.
After much deliberation, Me, still in the pit, managed to remove a few ropes and successfully made a loop, which she threw upwards. Me, having undergone special training, succeeded in looping it around Xia Hu Nao's leg after only a few tries.
Seeing the loop was successful, Me pulled hard, tightening the rope around Xia Hu Nao's leg. Xia Hu Nao petted Marill's ear and pointed to a spot not far away, telling it to play dead there. Marill was very obedient, immediately lying on the ground and feigning unconsciousness. Froakie and Shelmet also played dead under Xia Hu Nao's command. As for Xia Hu Nao, when he felt the force pulling him down from below, he decisively fell to the ground and pretended to be unconscious.
Me's movements were swift. Before she could even pull Xia Hu Nao down, Me had already climbed out of the pit. Escaping the pit, Me immediately sprawled on the ground, cautiously surveying her surroundings. She feared being hit by some mysterious mechanism and knocked unconscious herself.
After waiting on the ground for a while without triggering any mysterious mechanisms, Me got up and cautiously approached the seemingly "unconscious" Xia Hu Nao.
"Wake up, please wake up."
Under Me's anxious calls, Xia Hu Nao slowly woke up. Seeing Me's anxious face, Xia Hu Nao asked, "Me? You, you're out."
"Yes, I'm out. How are you?"
Xia Hu Nao rubbed his head as if in pain, "I'm not sure. I only know that after the Shelmet and I came up, a black shadow flashed past, and then I felt dizzy and fell down. My head still hurts."
Speaking of Shelmet, Xia Hu Nao looked around and saw Froakie and Shelmet also lying on the ground. "Froakie, Shelmet, are you guys okay!"
The two of them woke up their respective Pokémon. Me, while comforting Marill, which was acting a bit sulky with her, asked Xia Hu Nao, "Why wasn't I hit by that black shadow?"
Xia Hu Nao had already prepared an answer for this question. "There might be a limit on the number of targets. One black shadow knocked out the Shelmet and me. Based on what you said, it even dealt with Froakie and Marill. Such a powerful mechanism probably wouldn't have too many of them."
Me nodded after hearing this, "Indeed, such a powerful thing is truly unheard of."
As soon as she said this, Xia Hu Nao, Feng, and Mushi Shui almost burst out laughing. This was all Xia Hu Nao's doing, so of course it was unheard of and unseen.
Xia Hu Nao pointed to the opened door. "Let's continue inside. They should still be waiting for you."