"V-create!?"
Ash, sitting in the stands yet almost standing up, cried out in surprise. Another move he had never heard of!
"The Pokedex can't find any information on it either!"
Beside him, Tory was just as excited, though his small stature meant May was holding his shoulders down so he couldn't stand.
Rafe, whose eyes couldn't leave the spectacular clash between the powerful trainers, asked: "Can Miss Rebecca find anything?"
In his impression, the laptop-carrying Rebecca was like an all-knowing encyclopedia. Maybe she would know or could look it up.
Rebecca, asked by him, shook her head. "Since even the Pokedex connected to the Devon database can't find information, I probably won't find anything either.
"However—" Rebecca paused, her gaze through her glasses fixed on the laptop screen on her lap, which had its camera on. The analyzed data on it was fluctuating violently. "The flame temperature is rising extremely fast. The energy concentration is compressing at an unbelievable density—it's coming!"
When she uttered "it's coming," Rebecca's voice even changed pitch from shock.
Everyone's eyes immediately focused on the battle platform.
Against the background of the fiercely colliding Salamence and Moltres, Victini, wrapped in a golden aura called "Victory Wave" and flying toward Haxorus like a fiery meteor, had an increasingly scorching V-shaped mark on its forehead.
Its ability was called "Victory Star." In the games, it raised the accuracy of itself and its allies. But in this world, "Victory Star" clearly possessed far more power than that.
It was a Mythical Pokémon that grew on Victory Waves as nourishment. Legend said that trainers accompanied by Victini would be invincible. From another angle: the stronger the trainer and the more times they tasted victory, the more Victory Waves Victini would obtain, becoming stronger!
For Victini, the Victory Waves it had tasted in the more than half a year following Lucas far surpassed those from the thousand years it had spent in Eindoak. This had gradually allowed it to master its two signature exclusive moves—ones it could previously only use when emotions ran high.
And V-create, a move with a base power of 180 in the games—nearly the peak of ordinary moves aside from self-destruct moves, even comparable to many Z-moves. Its power here was immeasurable.
Under the strong synergy, the V on Victini's forehead burst with dazzling light. Endless golden-orange flames wrapped its body, madly burning the surrounding air and propelling Victini toward Haxorus in a suicidal charge.
The blazing flames even affected the intense aerial battle above, causing Salamence and Moltres to glance over repeatedly.
With his seasoned experience, Drake instantly sensed that Victini's move seemed a bit over the line. But now, whether changing moves to retreat or sidestepping to dodge was already too late. Instinct told Drake this move couldn't be avoided—Haxorus could only take it head-on!
"Full-power Outrage!"
Drake's forehead veins bulged. His hoarse, aged voice echoed through the space as if amplified. As a captain who had sailed the seas for years braving wind and waves, Drake naturally had such a loud voice.
"Roar!" Haxorus raised its head and howled. Its entire body surged with terrifying blood-red light waves. Its eyes were covered in red light, and its aura became heightened and frenzied!
In the Outrage state, Haxorus's already powerful bodily functions nearly doubled. Striding with powerful steps, Haxorus charged like a rampaging beast, fearlessly colliding with Victini, which had almost turned into a miniature sun!
Bang—!
A violent explosion erupted from the center of their collision. The towering flames and loud noise made the entire Battle Tower tremble. Whether audience, commentator, Lucas, or Drake—all eyes were locked on the rising thick smoke.
Who held the advantage?
Moments later, the smoke cleared. On one side was Haxorus, covered in scorch marks and half-kneeling on the ground. On the other was Victini, panting heavily. Though it had some minor injuries and blue light waves indicating lowered stats kept appearing, it still retained general mobility.
At that moment, amid a wave of audience gasps, a figure descended like a sky predator, wrapped in strong airflow, rushing straight toward Victini!
It was Salamence, using the smoke to hide its movements and planning to deliver a heavy blow to Victini while it was weakened!
Victini's pupils shrank. In its current state, it would probably find it hard to dodge Salamence's long-planned ambush.
Fortunately, another reliable figure also descended from the sky, blocking in front of Victini and taking the hit head-on! It was Moltres!
"Ti-mi!"
Victini quietly thanked Moltres. Moltres simply shook its head, signaling it to focus on the enemy.
Even as the Victory Star, everyone on the farm knew Victini wasn't good at fighting. So from the very beginning, Moltres had kept an eye on Victini, prepared to use its own durability bar to protect this little glass cannon.
"Releasing such a powerful move naturally comes with a price and heavy consumption."
Although Salamence's ambush had failed, looking at Victini panting heavily behind Moltres, Drake somehow felt a slight sense of relief. Good thing this move wasn't one that could be used infinitely. Otherwise, what would be the point of fighting?
Although Haxorus had suffered heavy damage, thanks to the strong physique forged over decades sailing with Drake on the sea and tempered by wind and waves, it still retained some fighting strength and hadn't collapsed directly.
What Drake could think of, how could Lucas not? Looking at Victini's slightly exhausted state, Lucas wasn't surprised. From the moment he had issued the "V-create" command, he had anticipated that this was a big ultimate move that consumed quite a lot from Victini itself—aside from having no recoil.
Even with theoretically infinite energy, Victini's stamina had an upper limit. If it underwent rigorous training, that limit might be raised, allowing Victini to use "V-create" freely. But that was almost impossible. Victini wasn't Lucas's main battling Pokémon to begin with. Moreover, Lucas hadn't brought it out of Eindoak to subject it to devilish hellish training—it couldn't endure that hardship either.
Both Lucas and Drake were quite tacit. Although it was a Double Battle, this exhibition match had almost abandoned most mind games and intricate plays. The lineups both sides sent out were hard-hitting types that provided excellent visual effects—closer to audiences outside the trainer world. Intense sound effects and physical collisions were what excited the audience.
"What promising youth."
Drake sighed as he looked at Lucas's face, far younger than his own, or even Wallace's and Steven's. A flash of determination shone in his eyes.
"Looks like without bringing it out, I won't be able to gain the upper hand against you."
A deep, sharp light suddenly bloomed in Drake's eyes. He removed the captain's hat from his head. Then—he flipped it to the other side! There, in the center of the underside brim, an oddly shaped round stone sat quietly embedded.
That was—a Key Stone!
"Ride the wind and waves with me, my old partner—Mega Evolution!"
Drake lightly touched the Key Stone. Dazzling, brilliant light burst forth.
This was an item Drake had accidentally obtained from ruins on a nameless small island during a recent sea voyage. After using his authority to consult Hoenn League documents and through his own exploration, he had discovered this new possibility of evolution.
Originally, Drake had planned to save this trump card for the Champion League routinely held after the upcoming Ever Grande Conference—to use against whichever Champion was at the top. But now he had changed his mind. He would use it in this spotlighted place, even if it meant exposing his trump card early.
Not worth it? No! He believed that winning this exhibition match would make him even stronger!
On Salamence's body, a similarly smooth stone emerged from within, releasing chains of light that connected to the Key Stone in Drake's hand. Under the astonished gazes of countless audience members, the strong light representing evolution enveloped Salamence.
"Salamence can evolve again!?"
In the stands, even the usually calm and mature Rebecca couldn't hold back and cried out in surprise.
Within the light, Salamence's body began changing rapidly. Its separated wings fused together into a huge crescent-shaped dragon wing. Its head, neck, torso, and tail all became more slender. The pair of triangular fins on both sides of its face grew significantly larger. Its retracted limbs made its form even more suited for flight.
"Roar—!"
Mega Salamence roared at the sky. Violent airflow exploded around it. The blood-stained crescent—the top-tier Mega hand, Mega Salamence has arrived!
Even Moltres felt itself suppressed in life level by Mega Salamence in this state. From aura alone, its strength was comprehensively inferior. From Mega Salamence, it sensed a pressure similar to Dragonite.
Honestly, Lucas was somewhat surprised. Logically, at the current stage in the Pokémon world, aside from a few families that had inherited it from the past, very few people had mastered Mega Evolution. Even Steven and Wallace hadn't mastered it yet.
Drake had given him a big surprise.
"I'm suddenly a bit regretful I didn't send out Swampert and the others. They would have enjoyed the fight more."
Muttering softly, a flash of fighting spirit also appeared in Lucas's eyes.
"I assume you won't concede in the domain of the sky either. Then let's make a big scene!"
So what if its strength was a notch lower? Hadn't he once climbed up by defeating the strong while weak? Directly admitting defeat upon sensing inferiority had never been Lucas's style.
"Brave Bird!"
"Double-Edge!"
The divine bird and giant dragon locked eyes. Wrapped in sky-blue light and flames, they collided without another word.
However, even some laymen could see that after Salamence completed its evolution, it had completely suppressed Moltres, which had previously been evenly matched.
Below, Haxorus and Victini weren't idle either. They not only released attacks targeting each other to gain a two-on-one advantage but also occasionally, under their trainers' commands, interfered with the opponent's Pokémon engaged in intense aerial combat.
From start to finish, this remained a two-on-two Double Battle. Even if both sides "might" not produce any outstanding 1+1>2 coordination, they couldn't neglect what could be done.
At this point, the commentator was somewhat dazed. Drake had clearly commanded Salamence to use the Normal-type "Double-Edge." Why did the energy manifestation around it look like violent airflow?
This completely entered his knowledge blind spot.
Lucas, however, knew the reason. After Mega Evolution, Salamence's ability had changed from "Intimidate" or "Overconfidence" to "Aerilate." Its manifestation was that Normal-type moves became Flying-type moves while gaining a certain power boost.
Under this ability's boost, Mega Salamence had thoroughly become one of the highest-quality Mega Evolved Pokémon.
After another intense collision, Moltres—forced back several meters before shedding the force—looked somewhat displeased. Aside from facing Dragonite, this was the first time it had suffered a setback in aerial combat.
However, compared to that time when it had almost no power to fight back, now it was no longer passive. Its long-stagnant growth progress had clearly been pushed forward a big step.
But relying solely on its current power, it was still a breath short of defeating Mega Salamence, whose strength growth after Mega Evolution was close to Swampert's. After all, previously Moltres could rely on its longer stamina and HP bar to trade blows with Salamence, but now it was somewhat difficult.
Moltres's stamina wasn't infinite—this point, which had once nearly caused its downfall, Lucas understood better than anyone.
So when its Pokémon fell into a battle disadvantage, it was up to him, the trainer, to open a path to victory through the cracks.
Watching the collisions between Moltres and Mega Salamence while remotely commanding Victini's entanglement with Haxorus, Lucas was waiting for the best opportunity. He was looking for a chance—
As an equally seasoned top trainer, Drake also understood this clearly. But the wariness rising in his heart hadn't expected that the chance Lucas was looking for would seem so crazy to him.
Under Lucas's intentional guidance, the position where Moltres and Mega Salamence collided grew closer and closer to the field below. Until, due to the confusion side effect after Outrage, the gradually exhausted Haxorus was exposed within Moltres's attack range.
"Victini, use Psychic to lock down Haxorus's movements! Moltres, Sky Attack!"
Under Lucas's command, Moltres almost completely exposed its back to Mega Salamence. But in exchange, Haxorus—struggling fiercely under Victini's Psychic restraint—was completely locked onto by Moltres.
Moltres, which had just taken another Dragon Claw from Mega Salamence, wrapped its entire body in brilliant golden flames and slammed fiercely into Haxorus!
Haxorus, which had suffered consecutive heavy blows, bit Moltres fiercely even as it struggled, but the successive heavy damage still made its vision go black. Its massive, sturdy body tilted and fell to the ground with a "thud." Its tightly closed eyes turned into swirling spirals.
"Haxorus is defeated! Lucas takes the first Pokémon from Elite Four Drake!"
The commentator's excited voice echoed throughout the Battle Tower via the loudspeakers.
"But by doing so, its back was completely exposed to Salamence!"
Hearing the commentator's seemingly regretful tone, Ash could no longer hold back. He stood up with a "whoosh" and shouted: "Oh no!"
Watching Salamence appear behind Moltres at super-fast flight speed, his heart rose into his throat. Even "Master Dodger" Ash judged that at this distance, it was too late to dodge!
"Salamence, Giga Impact!"
Even though he didn't understand why Lucas had created such a huge opening just to take out Haxorus—which would clearly lose the ability to battle first under Victini's consumption. But since he had seized the opportunity, Drake naturally wouldn't be foolish enough to let it slip away.
Sensing the crisis closing in from behind, Moltres wanted to turn and counter, but the distance made it too late. In the violent explosion, Moltres's body was instantly sent flying and slammed onto the platform with a dull thud. Its aura also dropped rapidly, almost about to follow in Haxorus's footsteps.
"Although it solved Haxorus, Moltres's condition has also fallen to rock bottom. Victini's condition isn't great either. On the other hand, Salamence is getting stronger the more it fights. Has Lucas reached his limit here—!?"
The commentator's questioning words were almost equivalent to declaring Drake's victory for many audience members supporting him. Some people were already about to pop the champagne.
Not being disturbed by external voices was a captain's basic skill. Even though victory seemed near, Drake remained fully focused on everything happening on the platform.
He noticed that, under Lucas's command, Victini had come to Moltres's side. The reason Lucas did this flashed through Drake's mind in several possibilities. Heal? Help defend? Or planning to join forces for one last desperate effort?
No matter what, there was only one thing he needed to do.
While recalling Haxorus with a wave of his hand, Drake shouted loudly: "Finish them! Final Giga Impact!"
"Roar—!" Mega Salamence roared at the sky. Sky-blue airflow continuously swirled around its front body. Its blood-stained crescent-like dragon wings sliced through the air as if about to split the entire space in two. Wherever it passed, countless sharp winds cut scattered rubble on the ground into powder!
Drake's trump card at full power—Aerilate Giga Impact! This was also the confidence he planned to use when challenging the Champion League again!
With Moltres and Victini's current conditions, this move probably had no chance of being withstood. But that was only if they fought separately.
Double Battles were never about Pokémon fighting individually. Between Moltres and Victini, there were new possibilities.
This was a slightly cheating ability. Originally, Lucas hadn't planned to use it. But since Drake had already brought out Mega Evolution, there was no burden in using it himself.
Why had Lucas risked heavily injuring Moltres just to send Haxorus off first and free up Victini? The answer was revealed here.
"Victini, use Helping Hand on Moltres. Moltres—Sacred Fire!"
Lucas's command rang out like thunder on flat ground.
Under countless gazes, Victini—sitting on the back of the barely re-flying Moltres—placed its small hands on it. The fleeting golden aura from when it used "V-create" rose. Victory Waves surged around Victini, then all poured into Moltres's body!
"Ti-mi!" (You've been strengthened—go!)
As if it had become the trainer, Victini pointed its finger at Mega Salamence! Fighting and killing really didn't suit it. This was the correct way to use its "Victory Star"!
At this moment, the colorful fire seed inside Moltres that it couldn't control was like a traveler who had walked in the desert for a long time—thirstily absorbing infinite energy to strengthen itself.
After several months of effort, Moltres had also built a good relationship with this fire seed. Although it sounded a bit strange, in the fire seed's "pleased" state, Moltres could now convert its own flames into a higher existence with the fire seed's help.
Accompanied by Moltres's high cry, the bright flames burning on its wings gained an iridescent sheen. Iridescent flames erupted like a volcanic explosion. The divine flames that healed wounds and delivered judgment turned into a huge flaming divine bird that directly swallowed Mega Salamence!
Light that seemed capable of burning everything exploded. Amid rumbling booms, the entire Battle Tower shook violently.
The audience watched in shock. Drake's face showed astonishment. Where had the flame-like Moltres, which had looked like a candle in the wind, gotten the power to unleash such a powerful attack!?
Moments later, the iridescent blazing flames disappeared, revealing an almost carbonized battle platform—and the figure of Salamence, which had exited Mega Evolution and lost consciousness.
The injuries accumulated from the earlier intense aerial battle, plus this "nuclear blast" of super-reinforced Helping Hand · Sacred Fire—even Mega Salamence had gone all out but couldn't withstand it.
Just like that, in the second after it was about to secure victory, it frustratingly lost the ability to battle.
And against the backdrop of the scattering iridescent flames, Moltres—with most of its injuries healed—looked like an undying phoenix reborn through flames. Its sacred posture left many audience members dazzled and enchanted!
"This—"
Even Drake, a man who remained composed even if Mount Everest collapsed before him, was shocked. He lifted the brim of his captain's hat, his widened eyes repeatedly confirming the scene before him.
No way—you turned it around, one-shot me, and nearly full-healed yourself!?
The commentator also snapped out of his brief shock and immediately went live on mic.
"Ooooooh, an earth-shattering reversal! The combination move released jointly by Victini and Moltres actually defeated the unstoppable Salamence!
"If so, the winner of this exhibition match is already obvious. After an intense battle, the winner of this special Larousse City Battle Tower exhibition match is— Lucas & the Moltres and Victini combination!"
After a brief silence, cheers that nearly flipped the Battle Tower's roof rang out one after another.
Moltres and Victini raised their heads, enjoying this hard-won victory. Especially Victini—Victory Waves flooded in instantly, directly making it puff out its little belly!