Jacob stared up at Hydreigon and, in the privacy of his own thoughts, had some very strong words for whoever had designed this tower.
The first two layers had been difficult — genuinely difficult — but they had been fair. The Pokémon guarding them were powerful, yes, but they were the kind of powerful that gave a challenger something to work with. A weakness to exploit. A narrow opening, if you were clever enough and fast enough, that could be turned into a win.
This was something else entirely.
A Hydreigon with Legendary potential, suppressed to Champion level, standing on a mountain peak in the clouds. Jacob was not going to pretend, even to himself, that he thought anyone could beat this. At equal strength, a Pokémon of this caliber was in a different category from anything the lower layers had offered.
The jump in difficulty made no sense. It was like a teacher who spent every lesson on the basics, then handed out an exam question on advanced engineering. At some point, the progression had simply broken down.
Jacob had no answer for that. He just had to deal with what was in front of him.
"Human — let your strongest Pokémon accept my trial!"
Hydreigon's voice shook the mountain. Somewhere behind Jacob, loose rocks shifted and tumbled off the edge of the platform.
He hesitated, but only for a moment. There really was only one option here.
Hydreigon was a Dark and Dragon-type. Dark-type moves dealt only quarter damage to Iron Valiant — the combination of Fairy and Fighting resistances stacked on top of each other made it one of the best counters available. Iron Valiant also resisted Dragon-type moves through its Fairy typing. More than that, Fairy was super effective against both of Hydreigon's types, hitting it four times as hard.
On paper, Iron Valiant was the answer.
In practice, Iron Valiant had just fought a grueling match against Relicanth and hadn't had time to rest, let alone recover properly. Sending it out now, against this, wasn't a decision Jacob felt good about.
But he didn't have a better one.
He exhaled slowly and reached for Iron Valiant's Poké Ball.
"Go, Iron Valiant."
The red light burst outward, and Iron Valiant materialized on the open platform.
Even inside the Poké Ball, it had been able to sense Hydreigon — the pressure of that aura was not something that stayed politely outside. It had filtered through regardless.
Iron Valiant raised its gaze.
Hydreigon's massive body was partially swallowed by the clouds, its full size impossible to take in at once. Only its enormous head and long neck were clearly visible, looming over the platform like something from an old myth. Its purple vertical pupils tracked Iron Valiant with an unhurried, measuring interest.
Iron Valiant was, compared to Hydreigon, very small.
It didn't look away.
Something in its chest had ignited the moment it felt Hydreigon's presence — that deep, burning pull that came whenever it stood across from a genuinely strong opponent. It wasn't recklessness. It wasn't arrogance. It was something quieter and more fundamental than either of those things.
Iron Valiant raised its blade arm slowly, pointing it directly at Hydreigon.
Jacob watched and said nothing.
"Is it you — who challenges me?!"
Hydreigon's roar rolled across the mountaintop. Dark-type and Dragon-type energy poured off its body simultaneously, the two forces coiling together like black flame, building into a pressure wave that swept outward across the platform. It hit like a physical thing — heavy, suffocating, the kind of aura that made the air feel thick.
Iron Valiant stood in the center of it and didn't move.
Its posture was straight. Its grip on its blade arm was firm. The conviction in its eyes didn't waver.
Jacob thought, not for the first time, that Iron Valiant was a remarkable Pokémon.
"The trial — begins!"
The moment Hydreigon spoke, the energy already building in its body erupted.
Dark-type energy poured out of it in a torrent — not a directed beam, not a focused strike, but a sweeping wave that covered the entire peak in an instant. It came down like a black waterfall pouring from the sky, blanket coverage with no gaps, no angles, no position on the platform left untouched.
Dark Pulse.
Not aimed at Iron Valiant specifically. Aimed at everything.
There was no direction to dodge in. There was no edge of the attack to sidestep toward. The entire mountaintop was the target.
The black energy crashed down and stained the rock beneath Jacob's feet like ink, spreading outward in every direction. Iron Valiant took the full force of it head-on — the epicenter of the attack, unable to reduce the angle or deflect any portion of it.
Even with its ×¼ resistance to Dark-type, the sheer volume of energy was overwhelming. It wasn't a matter of type advantage anymore. It was a matter of scale. Iron Valiant's legs shook. Its knees bent under the downward pressure, pushing it slowly, inexorably toward the ground.
Jacob gripped the edge of his coat. He didn't have a command that could fix this. There was no move that redirected an attack this size.
Is this what Champion-level really looks like?
He had seen strong Pokémon before. He had watched battles at high levels before. But what Hydreigon was doing now — the density of it, the completeness of the coverage — made him question whether the suppression was actually doing much.
"Iron Valiant — Moonblast!"
He didn't know if it would work. He said it anyway.
Something changed in Iron Valiant's expression.
The resignation, if there had been any, vanished.
Fairy-type energy surged from deep within it — pink and luminous, shimmering against the black torrent pressing down from above. It looked small against the scale of Hydreigon's attack. A drift of light in a dark current. But Iron Valiant pulled it inward, concentrating it, letting it build along the length of its blade until the purple edge blazed pink.
Then it swung.
One strike.
The arc of Fairy-type energy cut upward through the column of Dark Pulse — clean and precise, like moonlight through fog. The black energy didn't dissolve gradually. It scattered. The coherence of the attack broke apart, dispersing outward into formless wisps that faded before they reached the ground.
The pressure vanished.
Iron Valiant straightened.
For a moment, it just stood there breathing — chest rising and falling heavily, the hand gripping its blade trembling slightly from the effort. That single Moonblast had pulled on nearly everything it had left.
Then it looked down at its blade arm.
There was something in its expression that Jacob hadn't seen before — a quiet surprise, turned inward, like it was listening to something happening inside itself.
The energy flowing through it felt different. Steadier. More complete.
It had crossed a threshold.
Quasi-Master level.
[T/N: Quasi Master Level Means it is in between Champion and Master Level.]