"This Dynamax Copperajah versus Dynamax Lugia battle is way too hype!"
Peonia was incredibly excited right now. For someone who loved Legendary Pokémon, being able to see Lugia battle with her own eyes was already thrilling enough.
Not to mention the one battling Lugia was her old dad!
It really had her whole body buzzing and shaking with excitement.
"A Dynamax battle."
Dawn and Serena were also very eager to see how this battle would play out.
After all, they had never experienced a buff system with such huge visual impact as Dynamax before.
Sure, they had seen Dynamax battles online, but that was only on video.
Still, Damian felt the two of them might be a little disappointed, because compared to Mega Evolution and Terastal, Dynamax didn't have nearly as much flashy stuff going on.
The strength of Dynamax was pure stat power.
After all, once a Pokémon Dynamaxed, its body size became absurdly huge, making it extremely hard to show off fancy tactics or anything like that.
The real charm of Dynamax was simply crushing the opponent with the boosted stats.
Because after Dynamaxing, all of a Pokémon's moves became powerful Dynamax Moves, and with their enormous attack range, Dynamax Moves were almost impossible to dodge.
And worth noting was that Dynamax Moves could pierce Protect.
That meant even Protect, the so-called "absolute defense," couldn't fully block Dynamax Moves.
Unless it was the Normal-type Dynamax Move Max Guard, which could completely block Dynamax Moves.
Otherwise, Protect could only reduce part of the damage, not fully resist Dynamax Moves.
"Copperajah! Max Steelsurge!"
Peony gave the order to his Dynamax Copperajah first. He was already fully pumped up now.
Dynamax Copperajah roared, and a metallic sheen gathered in front of it.
The Steel-type Max Steelsurge!
This was Copperajah's exclusive Max Steelsurge, and it was one of the biggest differences between Dynamax and normal Dynamax.
Every Dynamax Pokémon had its own unique Max Steelsurge.
"Max Geyser!" Caitlin was very calm. She had already studied the Dynamax Moves of each type in detail before.
So she knew exactly what effects each type's Dynamax Move had.
Dynamax Lugia cried out, and a blue watery glow condensed in front of it.
Max Geyser, transformed from Hydro Pump!
The massive water column from Max Geyser and the incoming Max Steelsurge collided hard in midair.
Boom!
The next moment, a fierce surge of energy exploded outward. The two Dynamax Moves slammed into each other wildly, and then, with a thunderous blast, both shattered.
Water light turned into waves of air scattering in all directions. Black rain clouds gathered overhead, and the next moment, heavy rain poured down.
That was Max Geyser's effect: changing the weather to rain.
That was also the tactical strength of Dynamax Moves. Every type of Dynamax Move was not only powerful, but also came with useful secondary effects.
At the same time, when Max Steelsurge exploded, sharp metal spikes covered the field on Lugia's side and even pierced Dynamax Lugia's body.
Dynamax Lugia let out a faint cry of pain, but the spikes hadn't gone in very deep, so it didn't take them too seriously.
"Max Lightning!"
"Max Rockfall!"
The next moment, Caitlin and Peony gave their orders again.
Dynamax Lugia raised its head and cried out. Golden lightning crackled continuously, and a huge bolt of lightning came crashing down.
The Electric-type Max Lightning!
At the same time, Dynamax Copperajah lifted its huge trunk, and a massive rock rose from the ground before crashing down toward Dynamax Lugia.
The Rock-type Max Rockfall!
Boom! Boom!
Two more violent explosions erupted. Fierce shockwaves and air currents roared outward. Dynamax Copperajah gave a pained groan. Its Special Defense wasn't very high, though its stamina was huge.
That Max Lightning had dealt it a pretty solid blow.
At the same time, Dynamax Lugia also let out a pained cry. The Max Rockfall it took wasn't light either, but...
Lugia's defenses were very high!
The residual lightning from Max Lightning scattered everywhere. The entire battlefield crackled with electricity as Electric Terrain took shape.
Meanwhile, the rain clouds overhead were dispersed, and fierce sand began to fill the field as Max Rockfall's effect created sandstorm weather.
"Max Lightning!"
"Max Rockfall!"
Two more powerful Dynamax Moves formed again, with lightning and boulders striking Dynamax Copperajah and Dynamax Lugia respectively.
Boom!
After the violent blast, the vortex in the sky gradually dissipated, and Copperajah and Lugia rapidly shrank back down in size.
The duration of Dynamax had ended, and the two Pokémon returned to their original body size.
"Emmm..."
Dawn looked at Copperajah and Lugia facing off, and couldn't help falling into thought.
"This is Dynamax? This isn't..."
Serena also fell into thought. She suddenly realized Dynamax was a little different from what she had imagined.
She had thought Dynamax was a battle between two huge "monsters," but at least from this Dynamax battle, both sides were just using Dynamax Moves to trade blows. There was nothing flashy at all; it was completely a contest of raw numbers.
"Dynamax is like that. Because the body size gets so big, it's very hard to pull off anything especially flashy."
Damian said with a smile. Since Dynamax itself had a time limit, the best strategy within that limited time was to deal as much serious damage to the opponent as possible.
Worth noting was that in the games, Dynamax only lasted three turns, but in reality, it was tied to a vague duration. If you were fast enough, you actually had a chance to fire off four Dynamax Moves.
Damian remembered something like that appearing in the anime.
Though that was difficult.
"So that's how it is. In that case, Dynamax really is about choosing the right goals."
Dawn said thoughtfully. Even if it seemed like it was just about stat-based trading, it had to be said that Dynamax stats really were high.
And you could use Dynamax Moves to boost abilities, change the weather, create terrain, and so on.
Dynamax was still an extremely powerful buff system.
On the field, Dynamax disappeared, and both sides returned to normal as the battle continued. But at this point, the weather on the field was a sandstorm, which wasn't very favorable for Lugia.
However, Caitlin only smiled faintly.
"Lugia."
"Uww~!"
Lugia's cries echoed through the sky. As Lugia spread its wings, black rain clouds gathered overhead.
Drizzle~
Rain poured down, instantly swallowing the sandstorm.
"What is this?"
Peony froze, staring tightly at the heavy rain.
That wasn't right. Lugia hadn't used Rain Dance just now, had it? No, it hadn't.
"This is Lugia's innate ability. It can call up a storm whenever it wants."
Caitlin explained with a light smile.
That's right, Lugia had the power to whip up a three-day, three-night storm just by flapping its wings, so for Lugia, making it rain was easy.
"I see."
Peony finally understood, but that only made things trickier.
Heavy rain and the Electric Terrain on the ground were obviously beneficial to Lugia, after all, Lugia could use Thunder.
And Copperajah had no flying ability, while its movement speed was also rather slow. If it wanted to hit Lugia, it could only rely on long-range moves like Stone Edge.
But how hard would it be to actually land a hit on Lugia like that?
And although both Max Rockfall attacks had hit Dynamax Lugia, from what they could see, Lugia didn't seem to be badly injured.
Was Lugia's defense really that high? That was Max Rockfall we were talking about! And it was even Copperajah's attack, Peony's ace.
Even though he knew the upcoming battle would be difficult, Peony had no intention of giving up. Getting discouraged wasn't his style.
The battle went on, but the rest of it really held no suspense.
With Lugia controlling the air, Thunder flew at Copperajah like it cost nothing.
Though Thunder didn't beat Copperajah, Copperajah's Special Defense wasn't high, and it had basically become a target dummy.
Before long, Copperajah lost the ability to fight under Thunder, and before it went down, Copperajah only managed to land one Rock Slide on Lugia.
That was only because Caitlin deliberately didn't let Lugia dodge and instead traded damage directly.
"Copperajah loses the ability to fight, Lugia wins."
"Peony's five Pokémon all lost the ability to fight, Caitlin wins."
Dawn stepped in and announced the result of the battle.
"..."
Peony recalled Copperajah and looked at the Poké Ball in his hand, silent.
He lost...
And it could be said that he had lost pretty badly. After all, in this 5v5 battle, Caitlin still had three main roster Pokémon in pretty good shape.
But he had all five of his Pokémon lose the ability to fight.
Peonia clicked her tongue as she looked at Caitlin. This was really too strong—she'd actually beaten her dad like that.
"Thank you for your guidance."
Caitlin walked over slowly with elegant steps, smiling softly as she gave Peony a graceful bow.
She was still just as elegant and beautiful as ever.
At the sound of her voice, Peony looked at Caitlin and stared at the gorgeous, moving girl before him for a long time. In the end, he could only let out a soft sigh.
"I lost. I'm convinced."
Peony set aside his pride. He really wasn't as good as this gorgeous girl, but for a moment, he couldn't even imagine it.
If Caitlin was already this strong, then just how strong was Damian, the boss of Team Rocket?
"It looks like Caitlin's strength has won you over too. So, what's your choice now, Mr. Peony?"
Damian also walked over, smiling broadly.
"...A bet's a bet. I'm joining Team Rocket."
This time, Peony didn't say anything else and answered directly.
Originally, the point of this battle was to see Team Rocket's strength, but from what he'd seen so far, he couldn't even beat one Team Rocket top-tier Admin.
As expected, was this what a Team Rocket top-tier Admin was like?
"I'm sure you won't regret this decision, Mr. Peony."
Damian's smile deepened. He was in a very good mood now, after all—the organization's seventh top-tier Admin had appeared.
And Damian was very confident that Team Rocket would soon gain quite a few more top-tier Admins.
For example, Rosa and Dawn, as well as others like Hilda. They were all very close to fully stepping into Champion-tier.
Becoming a top-tier Admin was only a matter of time.
"Hopefully." Peony didn't deny it.
Everyone returned to the guesthouse inn in Freezington.
"Peony, I heard you've been adventuring in the Crown Tundra because there are Legendary Pokémon here, right?"
Damian asked Peony while making tea.
Peony froze, then didn't hide it.
"That's right. I found some info about Legendary Pokémon in the Crown Tundra, and there's even a rumor that someone inside the Crown Tundra has seen the bird trio appear."
Mentioning Legendary Pokémon instantly got Peony fired up.
Because right now, he really was paying close attention to Legendary Pokémon, and Peonia had specially come to the Crown Tundra to assist him.
"The bird trio?"
At that, Dawn and Serena's eyes lit up. The legendary bird trio of the Kanto Region?
Actually, Team Rocket's app currently still had Moltres available for merit redemption, but Dawn and the others weren't all that interested in Moltres.
But they were very interested in Articuno!
Articuno looked great, and it could be used as an Ice-type main roster. After all, there really weren't many Ice-type main roster Pokémon that could actually fight.
"That's right. And from what I know, there should also be Legendary giants sealed somewhere in the Crown Tundra."
Peony nodded, then revealed another piece of news.
Legendary giants was the umbrella term for Regirock and the others, but to be honest, Dawn and the others weren't very interested.
Team Rocket's app already had things to exchange for anyway.
Compared to the "giants," they were still more interested in the legendary birds.
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