"Metagross, Mega Evolution!"
"Pidgeot, Mega Evolution!"
"Salamence, Mega Evolution!"
"Alakazam, Mega Evolution!"
"Charizard! Mega Evolution!"
Five voices rang out simultaneously. Adding Jace and his Charizard who'd just arrived, five Pokémon on the field simultaneously radiated milky-white evolution light.
The four cardinals looked at the five Pokémon glowing with evolution light, their expressions grave. Though they weren't in Dragon Nation, they'd heard about the huge news Dragon Nation had made—Mega Evolution.
"What do we do?"
"What can we do? We've already engaged. What do you expect? Mercy? Fight!"
After the lead cardinal spoke coldly, he recalled his three Pokémon who'd lost their ability to battle, then threw out his remaining three Poké Balls.
"Go, Gyarados, Altaria, Meowstic!"
"Gyarados, Hyper Beam! Altaria, Moonblast! Meowstic, Charm!"
The lead cardinal's three newly deployed Pokémon instantly attacked Haxorus. In team battles, you eliminate the opponent's strongest point first.
But coincidentally, the opponent thought the same—they'd just eliminated his three Pokémon first, and this attack was also targeting him.
Mega Charizard Y took the field. The weather changed to Harsh Sunlight.
At the same time, Mega Pidgeot activated Tailwind. Mega Metagross used Bullet Punch to quickly dash to Meowstic, then struck with Fire Punch.
The instant damage knocked Meowstic's eyes swirly. Then, before the opponent could react, Metagross quickly used Ally Switch to swap positions with Haxorus.
The position-swapped Mega Metagross blocked Gyarados's Hyper Beam and Altaria's Moonblast, while the swapped Haxorus went in for close-range damage.
Normal-type Hyper Beam and Fairy-type Moonblast could deal massive damage to Haxorus—could even take him out directly.
But Normal-type Hyper Beam and Fairy-type Moonblast were undoubtedly tickle-level attacks against Steel-type Mega Metagross.
After Mega Metagross blocked these two moves, the Ally Switch-swapped Haxorus was already face-to-face with Gyarados and Altaria.
Haxorus showed a vicious smile and directly activated Outrage, taking down Altaria. Then, risking a second Outrage hit combined with Mega Salamence's, Mega Alakazam's, and Mega Charizard Y's Flamethrowers, he also took down Gyarados.
Because Altaria hadn't Mega Evolved, it didn't have the Fairy typing that would grant Dragon immunity. Instead, it still had Dragon typing that was doubly weak to Dragon moves.
The deep-penetrating Haxorus was also struck down by the counterattacking Pinsir, Ursaring, and Houndoom.
Because he'd entered Confusion status after Outrage, he couldn't even stomp out a final Earthquake—otherwise he might have traded for one or two more.
"Go, Arcanine—Flare Blitz!"
Seeing all the lead cardinal's Pokémon fall, Su Qianyan also showed an excited smile, then released Arcanine to continue expanding their advantage.
Seeing Su Qianyan's Arcanine appear on the battlefield, Ashen and Liu Xiangjun's eyes lit up. They directly commanded Mega Salamence and Mega Alakazam to use Flamethrower on Arcanine.
Two Flamethrowers wrapped around the rapidly charging Arcanine. The flames from Arcanine's Flare Blitz burned even more fiercely.
Watching the majestic Arcanine, Jace's eyes lit up. The Flash Fire ability can be used like this?
"Ursaring, Scrafty—Earthquake to block him!"
Seeing Arcanine like this, the opponent immediately panicked and hurriedly signaled their Pokémon to use Earthquake to obstruct.
"BOOM!"
The two Pokémon had just lifted their feet and hadn't stomped down yet when they were blasted away by a suddenly appearing Dark Pulse.
The sudden change made everyone on both sides look toward where Dark Pulse came from.
"Darkrai!?"
"Darkrai!?"
"Little Ze?"
Everyone exclaimed seeing Auron—smiling and unharmed—with Darkrai beside him, cold-faced.
Dax and Jace cared about Darkrai's appearance, while Ashen and Liu Xiangjun cared about the unharmed Auron.
But their exclamations made the lead cardinal's expression even uglier. From Darkrai's actions just now and the Dragon Nation people's reactions, he knew Darkrai belonged to the Dragon Nation camp. This already-disadvantaged situation, plus one legendary Pokémon—now they definitely couldn't win.
"Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Dax, Brother Su—how did you all get here?" Auron smiled and greeted them.
Only because Darkrai's appearance had stunned everyone present—people and Pokémon alike—did Auron have time to greet them like this.
"Hey hey, I'm here too! How did you suddenly disappear? You had us searching everywhere."
Seeing Auron greet everyone else but omit only him, Jace spoke to Auron with displeasure.
"Long story. I'll explain later. Shouldn't we deal with these people first?"
Auron smiled at Jace, then turned around and sneered at the four cardinals and the various green-robed and blue-robed Church personnel lying on the ground.
Seeing Auron completely unharmed, Ashen smiled and nodded. "Right. Let's deal with them first. Salamence, full assault!"
"Full assault!"
Following Mega Salamence's Flamethrower, other Pokémon also directly used Flamethrower on the opposing camp.
The Harsh Sunlight boost—use it or lose it. Unless the Pokémon hadn't learned Fire-type moves, they all directly used Fire-type techniques. Unfortunately, Darkrai couldn't learn Flamethrower, so he could only use Dark Pulse.
Worth mentioning—Auron and Darkrai had actually arrived earlier than when they appeared and had already had Darkrai use Nasty Plot twice.
If not for seeing Ursaring and Scrafty preparing to block Arcanine, Auron had planned to have Darkrai use Nasty Plot three times to max out his Special Attack before appearing.
Darkrai's Dark Pulse at +4 Special Attack stages blasted wherever it swept. Combined with Flamethrower under Harsh Sunlight, so many Pokémon's Flamethrowers didn't need to consider type resistance—just sweeping across burned them into losing their ability to battle.
Seeing things going badly, the lead cardinal turned and ran.
His running triggered his three subordinate cardinals and other Church members to also start fleeing. Now they could resist Auron and the others' assault even less.