The remaining Charizards stepped forward to challenge Ash's Charizard, ranging from the weakest to the strongest.
In truth, the most powerful among them actually preferred to face Ash's Charizard earlier in the lineup; they had no desire to take advantage of his depleted stamina, preferring instead to battle him while he was still in peak condition.
However, it couldn't be helped; such were the established rules. While the initial free-for-all required no specific protocol, the later stages demanded strict adherence: the stronger a Charizard was, the later in the sequence it was required to make its appearance.
Thus, the next round of battles saw the entry of Charizards ranked at the "Elite Four—High" tier.
These Charizards possessed a higher level than Ash's Charizard did prior to Mega Evolution; yet, in terms of raw base stats, Ash's Charizard—even without Mega Evolution—still held a distinct advantage over them.
But that referred only to the previous version of Ash's Charizard. The Charizard standing there now had grown even stronger!
Having defeated over two hundred Charizards in succession—even though most were instantly knocked out and ranked lower than he was—these battles had nonetheless provided Ash's Charizard with a truly substantial amount of experience.
Ash's Charizard was no longer ranked at the "Elite Four—Mid" tier; he had ascended to the rank of... "Elite Four—High"!
This level-up also served to replenish a portion of his stamina. Although his current energy reserves could not compare to his absolute peak, he still retained more than a third of his total strength.
Furthermore, with his increased level, he felt even more fluid and confident in battle.
Facing a Charizard of equal rank—even without the aid of Ash's Aura power—he was confident he could take it down within three minutes!
However, he was not currently facing just a single "Elite Four—High" Charizard; he was up against a group of seven Charizards, all ranked at the "Elite Four—High" tier or higher.
If he were to rely solely on his own strength to fight them all, even if he ultimately emerged victorious, he would likely be left with no energy whatsoever to stand before the ultimate Charizard—the strongest of them all.
Therefore, he would have to...
"My Aura is within my heart!"
Ash's Aura power surged once again into his Charizard's body. This time, there was no need to withdraw the Aura; for these specific Charizards represented the final hurdle.
Once they were defeated, the path would be clear to face the strongest Charizard of all.
"Roar!"
The High-Tier King-level Charizard let out a furious roar, violently flapping its wings as streaks of glowing white energy blades slashed forth.
Bearing down upon Ash-Charizard came a Flying-type move: Air Slash!
Faced with that dense barrage of blades, Ash-Charizard still chose to employ his most frequently used technique—Dragon Claw!
Sharp, emerald-green claws extended from his hands; immediately thereafter, Ash-Charizard flapped his wings and shot forward like a streak of black lightning.
As he sped along his flight path, his emerald Dragon Claws slashed out, shattering the incoming Air Slashes one by one!
Through this aggressive, head-on approach to closing the distance, Ash-Charizard arrived directly in front of the Elite Four-level Charizard in the blink of an eye.
Then, he brought a Dragon Claw slashing down!
Once again, the sound of flesh being torn open rang out, and the Elite Four-level Charizard—who had entered the arena with such an air of invincibility just moments before—toppled over, falling stiffly to the ground.
It was yet another one-hit knockout—no different from his very first opponent, the initial Charizard.
Aside from the brief moments required to deal with a few speed-oriented Charizards, he had defeated every other opponent with a single move—and even the Elite Four-level Charizards were no exception.
After all, empowered by the Aura—the "Aura Link"—Ash-Charizard's strength had now reached a level bordering on the absolute pinnacle of the Champion tier!
Let alone a high-tier Elite Four opponent, even a peak-tier Elite Four Charizard would be unable to withstand a single strike from Ash-Charizard's Dragon Claw in his current state.
Had this trial not been a "gauntlet" format—a series of one-on-one duels—but rather a true "group battle," Ash and Ash-Charizard could have unleashed their full power and resolved the entire conflict within ten minutes.
In the face of absolute power statistics, all tactics and numerical advantages become futile; no matter how varied or ingenious your strategies may be, they are no match for a single Dragon Claw!
However, the Charizard Valley authorities likely anticipated precisely this scenario, which is why they chose not to structure the trial as a true group battle, opting instead for a gauntlet format to serve as their collective challenge.
No matter how powerful a Pokémon may be, unleashing a move inevitably incurs a minimum stamina cost. When moves are executed in rapid succession—even by a Champion-tier Pokémon—fatigue is an unavoidable consequence.
In truth, this type of battle is far more unfair than the Champion Title Matches held by the Pokémon League.
After all, in a Champion Title Match, a trainer is permitted to swap out their Pokémon; even if six of your Pokémon are completely exhausted, you can simply bring in another six to continue the fight.
In other words, provided you possess a sufficiently deep roster of Pokémon, you would never find yourself facing a true "gauntlet" scenario like this one. However, this trial in Charicific Valley was different; here, one truly had to clear the challenge relying on a single Pokémon alone!
It served as a monumental test of a Pokémon's stamina, willpower, and sheer strength.
After the Charizard of Elite Four rank was instantly knocked out, subsequent Charizard stepped up to challenge one after another; yet, without exception, every single one was knocked unconscious by a single swipe of Ash's Charizard's claw.
It wasn't until a Charizard of Rookie Champion rank entered the fray that it managed to exchange a few blows with Ash's Charizard.
This was the strongest Charizard in the valley—aside from the valley's resident guardian—and it wasn't a Pokémon left in the care of the valley by a Trainer, but rather one that had been born and raised within Charicific Valley itself.
Its innate talent, therefore, went without saying.
Yet, even before Ash's Charizard, it still proved no match; within a mere three minutes, it lay sprawled on the ground, unable to rise again.
With that, every single Charizard in Charicific Valley had been taken down by Ash's Charizard—save for Charla, Liza's's own Charizard.
Charla's absence from the battles wasn't due to any favoritism on Liza's's part—a desire to spare Charla from injury—but rather because Charla had been assigned the task of transporting the fallen Charizard.
And truth be told, that transport duty was no less strenuous than battling itself; simply hauling those Charizard, one by one, to the valley's healing station had left Charla utterly exhausted.
As for battling?
Given her depleted stamina, that was simply out of the question.
As the final Charizard fell in defeat, Liza couldn't help but burst into applause.
"Truly, the new waves of the River push the old waves forward! Ash, the record you and your Charizard have set here beats the one Lance left behind by over an hour. I sincerely apologize for underestimating you and your Charizard at the start."
As she spoke, Liza bowed deeply toward Ash and his Charizard.
She felt a genuine sense of remorse; she realized that her initial dismissal of Ash and his companions had been a case of truly looking down on others with a snobbish eye.
She had jumped to conclusions based solely on her own understanding of Charizard; it turned out that the truly arrogant one wasn't Ash, but herself.
By now, she had come to a profound realization of just how powerful Ash and his Charizard truly were; the word "absurd" was practically written right across the faces of both trainer and Pokémon.
Who could have imagined that, one day, the Charizard Valley would be completely swept clean by a single High-Tier Elite Four-level Charizard?
Oh—wait, to be precise, not long ago this very Charizard was merely a Mid-Tier Elite Four level Pokémon. It was utterly preposterous—the kind of absurdity that defies all logic!
Even though Liza had her suspicions regarding the power boost Ash could grant his Pokémon, that power still far exceeded her wildest imagination. With that boost, Charizard was capable of one-shotting every opponent it faced!
Only the Champion-level Charizards managed to hold out against Ash's Charizard for a little while longer—but that was the extent of their resistance.
Liza could sense that Ash's Charizard wasn't even fighting at full capacity yet; it was deliberately conserving energy to save its strength for the inevitable showdown against the Valley's strongest Charizard.
Setting stamina aside for a moment, the power Ash's Charizard wielded after the boost was—by an immeasurable margin—far superior to that of Lance's Charizard back in the day!
However, stamina—that most critical of factors—could not simply be cast aside.
The power boost Ash provided to his Charizard clearly came with significant side effects; despite Ash and Charizard's best efforts to conserve their energy, Charizard was already panting heavily, its stamina likely depleted to less than a third of its total capacity.
In this regard, Lance's Charizard had fared much better than Ash's.
After completing the first phase of the trial, Lance's Charizard still retained at least half of its stamina.
This was partly because Lance prioritized energy conservation during battles—which explained why his trial had taken so long—and partly because Lance's Charizard relied entirely on its own innate strength.
Compared to external enhancements, the greatest advantage of relying on one's own inherent power is the significantly lower drain on stamina.
To put it plainly: if a High-Tier Elite Four level Pokémon attempts to unleash the power of a High-Tier Champion—setting all other factors aside—the resulting stamina drain is bound to be absolutely staggering.
That is precisely why Ash and his Charizard chose not to adopt Lance's strategy of a slow, drawn-out battle, but opted instead for a swift, decisive victory! During battle, Lance's Charizard possessed the ability to gradually recover its stamina through a process of slow attrition; consequently, by the time it faced the Elite Four-level Charizard later in the trials, its stamina was nearly at full capacity.
It was only upon confronting that Elite Four-level Charizard that Lance's Charizard's stamina finally began to deplete.
Ash's Charizard, however, was a different story. The longer the battle dragged on, the more disadvantageous it became for him, as the rate of stamina consumption far exceeded the rate of recovery; attempting to employ Lance's strategy of slowly wearing down the opponent over time simply would not work.
Even so, Liza had never truly expected Ash and his Charizard to successfully clear the first trial.
Now that they had achieved that objective—despite having only one-third of their stamina remaining—they had already far exceeded Liza's expectations.
"Come on, I'll take you over there to meet that Charizard—the strongest one of all," Liza said, waving her hand before mounting Charla, who had just returned.
From the very moment the horn had sounded, that particular Charizard had emerged from the harsh training environment within the valley and had been waiting patiently at the entrance for quite some time. Thus, by heading over there now, they would be able to meet the strongest Charizard face-to-face!
Ash, too, promptly hopped onto Charizard's back; at the same time, he released his Gardevoir, instructing her to use her Psychic powers to levitate Misty and the others across.
Following Charla's flight path, in less than two minutes, the group arrived at the entrance of the valley—a place often spoken of as a forbidden zone.
The closer they drew to the valley, the more acutely the group realized just how extreme the "harsh environment" Liza had described truly was. They hadn't even stepped inside yet, but they were already drenched in sweat, feeling as though their very bodies were on the verge of melting away.
Fortunately, Gardevoir sensed the abnormality in the surrounding environment and immediately utilized her psychic powers to create a barrier, shielding the group from the intense heat; only then did Misty and the others begin to feel some relief.
"We're here," Liza announced, patting Charla beneath her. Charla executed a steep dive toward the ground below, with Ash following close behind.
Before they had even touched down, Ash and Charizard's expressions had already turned grave.
As a natural reaction to the presence of a powerful being, they could clearly sense that, down on the ground, there lurked an incredibly formidable entity!
As the two Charizard landed, Ash finally caught his first true glimpse of the "Strongest Charizard."
In terms of sheer size, this Charizard was a full size larger than his own!
Moreover, its body was covered in a multitude of shocking scars.
Although the wounds had long since scabbed over and healed, the marks they left behind still served as stark evidence of just how severe the injuries this Charizard had previously sustained truly were.
Scars were a common sight on the Charizard residing in Charizard Valley. This was because, following their battles within the valley, they would invariably retreat into the molten lava pools deep inside, relying on the intense heat and flames to heal their bodies.
As long as an injury did not strike at the very core of their life force, the natural lava was usually sufficient to ensure a complete recovery. However, in the absence of proper medical treatment, the wounds inflicted during their struggles naturally hardened into permanent scars.
Even by those standards, the scars covering this particular Charizard's body were the most numerous Ash had ever seen on any Charizard!
Each individual scar bore witness to a battle this Charizard had endured—and served as a testament to the sheer ferocity with which it fought.
There was, indeed, a very good reason why this Charizard reigned supreme as the strongest in the entire valley.
"Roar!"
The Strongest Charizard cast a glance at Ash and his companions, then let out a roar directed at Liza. Of everyone present, only Liza—and Ash—could understand the meaning behind that cry.
'Is this the challenger for this round? He has a rather impressive Charizard.'
"Nice to meet you. I'm Ash, from Pallet Town. This is my partner—and I really appreciate your acknowledgment of his strength."
Ash hopped down from Charizard's back, gave the Pokémon's broad, sturdy frame an affectionate pat, and smiled as he addressed the other Charizard.
"Roar?"
"Of course. I can understand what all Pokémon say." Responding to the Strongest Charizard's look of inquiry, Ash nodded and gave a confident, affirmative answer.
"Roar!!"
"Remarkable human—while it may seem a tad unfair, such are the rules. Let us begin now: the final showdown."
"There is no such thing as 'fair' or 'unfair.' In this world, no contest is ever truly absolutely fair. My partner and I stand here today solely because of our absolute strength. We will not lose this battle!"
Upon hearing this, the King of the Charizards cast a deep, penetrating gaze at Ash. Then, with a flick of his claw, he turned and strode into the depths of the valley.
"The decisive battlefield for the ultimate Charizard duel lies deep within the Valley of Inferno—yes, the very place where the valley's strongest Charizard resides. When Lance's Charizard challenged him previously, Lance himself did not follow them inside; that environment is simply not one in which a human can survive. Had Lance been able to stay and issue commands, perhaps the final outcome would have been different."
Charla offered this explanation to the bewildered onlookers, clarifying the King of the Charizards' actions. The King's gesture was a signal for Ash's Charizard to follow him inside to commence their duel.
This, too, was one of the rules.
From start to finish, this trial was heavily stacked in favor of the King of the Charizard Valley.
Theoretically speaking—so long as the reigning King has not voluntarily abdicated—it is utterly impossible to usurp his throne.
The timing, the terrain, and the human (or rather, Charizard) factors—everything stood on the King's side.
Even a Charizard at the absolute pinnacle of Champion-level power would be put through the wringer—stripped of three layers of hide, so to speak—if faced with such a set of rules.
"It's fine; the environment in there won't affect me much. I'm heading in now. Misty, you guys just wait out here for a bit. I'll be back with good news in no time!"
Flashing a bright, sunny smile at his companions, Ash—without a moment's hesitation—followed his Charizard deep into the Valley of Inferno.