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Although no one knew what kind of trick this mysterious Team Rocket Elite was playing, the moment he blinked ahead and flew out a long distance, the other Rocket members on the beach immediately released their flying mounts to give chase.
Every Team Rocket member who had made it to the second stage of the competition was naturally quite strong.
Except for a few who were severely specialized in certain areas, most of them had some kind of flying Pokémon mount at their disposal.
In an instant, a long line of Team Rocket members filled the sky like a soaring dragon.
Of course, in the Kanto region, seven or eight out of every ten Team Rocket members rode either a Pidgeot or a Fearow as their flying mount.
Among this airborne procession, Sato was the only one riding a Crobat—and he was also flying right at the front. Naturally, he stood out like a sore thumb.
However, Sato himself appeared utterly unfazed. With his wind goggles on, he silently commanded his Crobat to keep pace with the Team Rocket Elite ahead, who was riding a Pidgeot at the pseudo Elite Four level.
At first, the Team Rocket Elite's Pidgeot wasn't flying at an especially fast speed, so Sato and the others with flying mounts could still keep up.
But gradually, as time passed, the Pidgeot under the Rocket Elite began to speed up. The once tightly packed air formation began to stretch out, and the gaps between each rider widened more and more.
By now, aside from Sato with his Crobat, only a few others riding Pidgeots were able to stay close behind the Team Rocket Elite.
Without a doubt, Sato and those few riders made up the fastest "first echelon" of the aerial procession. The rest could only trail behind from afar.
Facing the fierce headwinds, Sato turned to glance around. Within a 300 to 400-meter radius, only a dozen or so riders remained. The rest had already fallen far behind, reduced to tiny black dots in the distance.
"Is he taking us somewhere else? But his Pidgeot is flying faster and faster… some people won't be able to keep up. So the test has already begun—this must be the first challenge."
Seeing this, Sato silently pondered the intentions of the Team Rocket Elite who had spoken only a single sentence back on the beach and remained silent ever since. This conclusion felt almost inevitable.
He inwardly thanked his luck. His Golbat had evolved into a Crobat back at the port in Pallet Town. Without this upgrade—both in terms of flight speed and endurance—he would've been left in the dust a long time ago, now languishing at the rear of the group or even unable to keep up entirely.
And for those who couldn't keep up? The consequence was simple: being unable to locate the actual rendezvous point would mean instant elimination. If Sato was right, people were already beginning to drop out.
He had carefully counted back on the beach: there had been exactly 100 Team Rocket members assembled. But if the Team Rocket Elite at the front kept pushing his Pidgeot to accelerate…
Then, aside from the dozen or so top-tier fliers in the first echelon, only a handful in the leading edge of the second echelon might barely keep up.
That meant before the real competition had even fully begun, at least half the participants would be eliminated.
Fortunately, the Team Rocket Elite didn't appear to be trying to eliminate half the field right away. Noticing how few people were still trailing him, he intentionally slowed his Pidgeot down.
Still, this reduced speed was still quite fast for those in the second or third echelon. Without pushing themselves to the limit, they risked falling behind again.
Even though the flight speed had decreased instead of increasing, the contestants now faced a new problem: endurance.
From the start of the flight to now, Sato and the other contestants had been flying for more than an hour. The distance traveled was already several hundred kilometers.
Maintaining such high-speed flight for over an hour was exhausting even for large flying Pokémon. For smaller mounts like Pidgeotto or Spearow who hadn't yet evolved into their final forms, it was even worse.
At this point, Sato could see even fewer Team Rocket members behind him—less than half of what he had seen earlier.
After another dozen minutes of this grueling endurance test, the sky finally began to darken. Just as Sato noticed his Crobat slowing due to fatigue, the Team Rocket Elite ahead—who had long widened the gap—began to descend rapidly, heading toward a small island in the middle of the sea.
"Whew… finally, a break."
Seeing the Rocket Elite finally choosing to stop, Sato let out a long breath of relief. Like the other few riders on Pidgeots, he quickly directed his Crobat to descend from high altitude.
"We'll rest here for half an hour."
Still cold and curt, the Team Rocket Elite dropped that single sentence after Sato and the other contestants landed on the island. Without explaining anything further, he simply walked off to find a place to rest.
Sato and the others were thoroughly exhausted. Seeing the man act so aloof—and having realized by now that this long-distance flight was indeed a test—they wisely chose not to disturb him and instead quickly found places to rest and recover with their Pokémon.
As the Rocket Elite rested on the island, more Team Rocket members from the tail end of the first echelon and the middle of the second echelon trickled in.
But after a few more minutes, no one else arrived. The darkening night sky remained empty.
Leaning against a coconut tree, Sato carefully counted. Excluding the Team Rocket Elite who wasn't a contestant, there were only 58 people left on the beach.
This long-distance flight had eliminated 42 contestants in one blow—a staggering 40% dropout rate.
Such a high elimination rate cast a heavy shadow over the minds of those who had barely made it through. The atmosphere on the beach was somber.
Sato had no time to worry about anyone else. Even though he was one of the few who had stayed close to the Team Rocket Elite the whole way, his condition was far from good.
Both of his shoulders were throbbing with pain. Without any kind of specialized flying gear, Crobat had flown the entire time by clutching Sato's shoulders.
This kind of passenger-carrying method was fine for a short time, but over such a long flight, even if Crobat could hold out, Sato's shoulders couldn't withstand the constant pulling and pressure.
"This is a painful reminder that I have to develop proper flying gear for Crobat in the future," Sato muttered through gritted teeth as he rubbed some high-grade medicinal ointment onto his severely bruised shoulders.
"You really did show up, Sato. I knew you wouldn't miss the rookie competition. But where've you been all this while? I haven't seen you around the base at all."
Just as Sato was finishing up with the medicine and preparing to release his Bellossom to accelerate his healing, a pleasant, melodic voice suddenly came from behind him.