A wall of fire rolled across the arena, lighting up the entire indoor facility in an instant — hot, blinding, and vast enough to feel like it could swallow the room whole.
Charizard's Flamethrower was something else.
Jacob watched with a quiet, satisfied smile. Charizard could be a handful on a good day, but the training had never once slipped. He sought out extra sessions on his own, pushed himself consistently, and it showed. Over the past six months, his special attack output had grown sharply — and unlike the rest of the team, Charizard had leaned into that specialisation completely, letting his other stats develop at a slower pace in exchange for raw offensive power.
The result was on display right now. The Flamethrower Charizard was throwing in his base form had the same weight behind it as what he'd been putting out under Mega Evolution six months ago.
Jacob found himself wondering — what would a Mega Evolved Charizard's special attack look like now?
The flames surged across the sky toward Noivern, expanding like a detonating fireball.
"Protect!"
Noivern's shield snapped into place at the last moment. He knew better than to test Charizard's Flamethrower with a two-times resistance and call it manageable — even that wouldn't be enough to make it comfortable. The light barrier held, and the flames broke against it.
The moment the barrier faded, Noivern lifted his head. His expression was focused, resolved. For the past month, he had been working on one move specifically — and this was the moment to use it.
Boomburst.
A piercing burst of sound erupted from Noivern's body, radiating outward in visible waves. As one of the strongest special attack moves available, Boomburst hit everything in its path with no exceptions.
Charizard's response caught Jacob off guard. He didn't use Protect. He took it.
The sound hit hard. Charizard's expression tightened with the impact, pain clear on his face — but his eyes were steady. Calm, even. He had made a deliberate choice: this was his first time facing Boomburst, and the most direct way to understand a sound-based move's true power was to feel it. No amount of observation from the sideline would tell him what he'd learned from that single hit.
He let out a low, strained roar. Fire-type energy surged back through his body, and he drew a long breath, flames already building in his throat.
Heat Wave.
The move spread outward in every direction at once — rolling, heated air carrying fire across the width of the field, leaving Noivern nowhere to step aside.
Noivern met it head-on. Normal-type energy surged through his body, and Boomburst fired again.
The two attacks clashed in the middle of the arena.
Boom.
Piercing sound and explosive heat collided, the resulting blast nearly catching the sidelines. Jacob felt his pulse jump — and then Iron Valiant was already there, stepping in front of the gathered Pokémon and absorbing the edge of the shockwave without being asked.
Neither Noivern nor Charizard was holding anything back.
That was the thing about Charizard — he could come across as carefree and unbothered most of the time, but in a battle that actually mattered to him, that fell away entirely. Noivern had always been his rival. This was a match he was not going to take lightly.
Noivern felt exactly the same way. There was no version of this fight where either of them was satisfied walking away having given less than everything.
They had both been through the High School Cup. They had both stood on a stage while a crowd cheered until they were hoarse. That kind of experience changes the way a Pokémon understands competition — what it means to really show up, what it means to honour the opponent in front of you by refusing to coast.
Once you step onto a battle arena, there is only forward.
The flames and smoke cleared slowly, revealing both Pokémon still in the air.
The exchange had gone slightly in Charizard's favour. Boomburst without Same-Type Attack Bonus technically carried more base power than Heat Wave with it — but Charizard's Special Attack stat was high enough to close that gap and nudge past it.
Only just, though.
Noivern shook off the disadvantage and immediately pressed forward again. This time he didn't go back to Boomburst — he went for something with Same-Type Attack Bonus behind it.
Hurricane.
Flying-type energy surged from his wings as they beat powerfully against the air. A howling storm built over the battlefield in seconds, condensing into a swirling column of wind that drove straight at Charizard. Hurricane was one of Noivern's strongest moves — a high-power Flying-type special attack with a chance to leave the target confused — though its accuracy was a genuine weakness outside of rain.
Charizard watched it come. He looked exhilarated.
It had been a long time since he'd had a battle where he could simply cut loose. He reached for his hardest move.
Blast Burn.
Fire surged through Charizard's entire body — deep orange-red, almost blinding up close. The heat warped the air above the arena, and Jacob's view blurred into a shimmering wash of red and gold. Charizard circled above it all, lit from within, too bright to look at directly.
He roared.
The flames responded as if they'd been waiting for the signal — erupting outward from every direction at once, consuming the incoming Hurricane and turning the swirling winds into a column of fire that drove straight up from the arena floor into the ceiling above. For a moment the entire facility was bright as midday.
Outside, the site manager paused mid-cigarette.
"Boss — that Fire-type energy is stronger than our city's Gym Leader." One of the workers had stopped what he was doing to stare at the glow coming from the building. "Is Dr. Jacob really that strong?"
"He won the last High School Cup." The site manager gave the worker a flat look. "Someone like that is going to reach Heavenly King level at minimum, and Charizard is his ace. What do you think?" He let the silence hang for a moment, then added: "And not a word of this leaves the site. Today didn't happen. Anyone I hear talking about it won't like the conversation we'll have afterward."
"Understood, boss. Lips are sealed."