Theo raised two fingers to his lips, whistling a long signal in short rhythms toward Al flying overhead. The little Pidgey immediately understood the intent from Theo's training. It spread its wings wide, flying higher and higher, quickly entering the new tactical mode.
Instantly, Al had become the Eyes of God, a strategic satellite in Theo's hands. With its supreme 7.4 km vision that could penetrate obstacles, Al could gather and transmit all detailed information about terrain and the pursuit team's position. Its astonishing image processing speed allowed Theo to even control Al with hand signals or the smallest body movements while maintaining running speed.
Thanks to Al, the escape was no longer merely a physical race, but an information battle with absolute advantage tilted in his favor.
Now, this playing field belonged to Theo.
While running, Theo synthesized all intelligence information in his head. He calculated tactics opponents might use, based on the combat characteristics of team members just heard. He understood that even with Al providing excellent reconnaissance intelligence, he still needed caution before an elite team.
Without hesitation, Theo called G in his mind:
"G, analyze the probability of tactics Night Hawks might use, based on data about their skills!"
A series of scenarios appeared in Theo's left eye. Tactics with percentages were listed by G on a simple yet clear virtual 3D analysis board, completely without affecting his movement ability.
Theo quickly scanned the surface, focusing on the two most likely tactics:
- First, Split Team (62% probability): They would divide into two teams. One team would pursue to create pressure and push the two to exhaustion; the remaining team would ambush for a precise finishing blow when both were completely drained.
- Second, Tail Chase (51% probability): Members with the best tracking skills and speed would pin them down. Then the entire team would catch up and finish, completing the test.
Honestly, never mind the full team—just half of those eight people, Theo had no confidence in escaping. This was a complete disparity in force, speed, skill, and experience. An absolutely overwhelming power against two 14-year-old boys from peaceful Oakhaven land.
Pressure weighed heavily on Theo's shoulders. His forehead beaded with sweat, not from exhaustion but because his mind felt squeezed under strategic burden. He kept muttering to himself:
"Think, Theo, think, there's a way. You can do this."
Each second passed heavily. He still couldn't think of any way to counter that overwhelming force. His face gradually reddened from overload activity, his footsteps becoming somewhat unsteady with each beat.
Liam still accelerated through the treetops, clearing the way while observing surroundings. He noticed Theo's abnormality: stumbling steps and soulless eyes. Liam immediately understood what Theo faced—a relapse from childhood: each time facing overwhelming challenges, Theo got caught in analysis paralysis.
Liam spoke up, still maintaining speed, head not turning back, as if talking to himself:
"Theo, stop thinking if you can't figure it out. Trust your instinct for once. I already guided you, didn't I? Take a deep breath, let your body perform what you want. Don't care about success or risk, don't care about us, throw it aside, because... we'll face it together."
After Liam finished that last sentence, he suddenly stopped, standing on the treetop looking down at Theo. His eyes were strong, full of will. The absolute steadiness on the swaying branch bearing Liam's inertia made Theo feel somewhat unfamiliar with this close friend. Liam had matured very fast and very much.
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Theo looked up at Liam, then suddenly burst into refreshing laughter, the sound ringing through the green forest, dispelling all accumulated pressure from the past three days—from the invitation, the wager, to Night Hawks team's absolute oppression.
"That's right, trust instinct for once," he whispered to himself.
Theo closed his eyes, listening to guidance from pure heart and bodily instinct. A few seconds later, he opened his eyes. Hesitation had vanished, obsession with analyzing absolute oppression had no place left. Instead, in his eyes blazed pure belligerent instinct, a smoldering fire hidden deep in his marrow.
Both Liam and Theo knew well: beneath the shell of maturity and strategic mind, Theo was also a suppressed soul yearning for battle. That was also why, despite completely different personalities, they fit together strangely: one was an unrestrained explosive spear (Liam), the other was a silently hidden arrow deep in the canopy (Theo).
Now, that soul had once again achieved freedom.
If he'd chosen counterattack, he quickly assembled all advantages he had. First, both Theo and Liam clearly understood terrain and dangers here better than Night Hawks. Second, he had Al—an indecipherable reconnaissance satellite. And finally, it was...
Theo looked once more at G's analysis board, determining the final strategic advantage.
If I were Vesper, an experienced mercenary who believed in pragmatism, who always believed in absolute result control...
Theo's eyes glanced again at the first option: Split Team (62%).
"That's it!" Theo affirmed. Vesper would be the ambusher, the finisher ending all prey resistance under the gaze of a fierce, cunning predator.
Yes, the final advantage he now held was determining the enemy's tactics.
Theo pondered a moment then asked Liam:
"Liam, whose territory is near here?"
Liam didn't need to think:
"Monarch's, the Southern Guardian."
Theo's eyes gradually brightened, a mischievous smile blooming on his lips:
"If it's Monarch... maybe there's a chance. Liam, head toward the edge of Monarch's territory."
Liam didn't doubt or ask more. He explosively powered both feet, continuing to pioneer the way, gliding swiftly through the treetops. Theo chased right behind, maintaining the old rhythm to avoid making the pursuit group suspicious.
Before long, the two kids reached the area Theo requested, stopping to rest a few seconds. Yes, this place would be their ambush front to cut off the pursuit group's tail.
Theo clearly recognized: with a distance of 10 Leagues (about 50 km), the two kids would need about 8 to 10 hours running through oak forest, including rest and avoiding dangerous beast territories. During this escape process, having to guard against the pursuit group behind was beyond both their capabilities. This would lead to a vicious cycle of exhaustion—escape—exhaustion, and finally end at Vesper's ambush team.
He didn't want to completely lose the initiative. At minimum, these two kids would stab that Hawk once—even if not fatal, it would hurt like hell.
Looking at the sky, Theo summarized once more:
- Heaven's timing: None.
- Terrain advantage: Already have. (Theo looked at the area ahead.)
- Human harmony: Will have. (Once again looking deep into Monarch's territory.)
He quickly took out a smoke bomb, dismantled its structure and extracted the inner bark pollen powder. He burned them to create a compound that masked scent and deceived smell, mixing in a bit of refined odorless oak oil to adhere to skin. Theo gave the mixture to Liam to apply to scent-dispersing areas like neck, wrists, chest...
This would be their concealment weapon before Monarch's keen sense of smell—a gigantic magical beast black panther with size reaching 1.5 m tall and 4.2 m long. Monarch was one of the forest's magical beasts with extremely high territorial awareness in the Southern forest. Fortunately, its activity area was quite small, usually only 20 km2, so its existence didn't affect Oakhaven residents' livelihood and even prevented some dangerous animals from the South.
Theo wasn't 100% certain the bark pollen mixture would evade Monarch's sense of smell, but compared to the Night Hawks pursuit group... he smirked.
Perfecting tactics, Theo looked up at the sky, making the final signal to Al. The little Pidgey, with transcendent vision from the high sky layer, immediately understood his intent.
It spread its wings circling, beginning to monitor all dangers within the vast surrounding range to timely notify Theo. When detecting threats, Al only needed to change flight trajectory according to signals Theo had instructed. Just by that, Theo completely understood and controlled all surrounding intelligence.
This tactic was still rudimentary with many details needing development and supplementation, but it partly demonstrated its formidability and mystery—a combination of advanced intelligence and Pokémon's innate potential, designed with the name Theo created: Eyes of God—it represented Theo's expectation after perfecting this tactic.