"Scep-tile!"
Sceptile pressed both palms to the ground.
RUMBLE!
The earth shook. Seeds burst from the soil and grew at impossible speed, turning into towering trees seven or eight meters tall. Bright red flowers bloomed across the branches, releasing a faint, alluring fragrance into the rain.
Within moments, the area around the Corestone facility had become a dense, flourishing forest.
"Scep-tile!"
The markings around Sceptile's eyes tightened, and an even stronger surge of green energy erupted from its body.
CRACK!
The ground split open, and a colossal wooden golem hauled itself out of the fissure.
"ROOOAR!"
The giant stood fifteen meters tall, with a massive wooden dragon coiled around its waist. It opened its mouth and let out a deep, resonant roar that shook the air.
Then it strode toward the mountain road and planted itself directly in the Pokémon army's path, blocking the route to Tidefall.
"ROOOAR!"
The golem raised its head and roared toward the storm before swinging its colossal fist down into the army below.
BOOM! THUD! CRASH!
Early and mid-stage Gym-level Pokémon were crushed beneath a single punch. The wooden dragon around its waist snapped forward, caught another Pokémon in its jaws, and crushed it in half.
It became a living barricade, holding the road by itself.
"SNOOOR-LAX!"
A booming cry rang out nearby.
Snorlax appeared in front of the Pokémon army, towering nearly ten meters tall. White flames curled around its huge body, and pitch-black Conqueror's Haki wrapped around both fists.
Its enormous rubber arms stretched back, then blurred into a storm of punches.
Gum-Gum Gatling.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Snorlax's fists hammered into the enemy ranks like artillery fire, sending Pokémon flying in every direction. Anything that took the barrage head-on was crushed flat.
On the other side, Charizard rained down electrified flames, burning through the berserk Pokémon and forcing agonized cries from their throats.
Infernape had turned into a blazing one-punch wrecking crew. Every Fire Punch dropped another Pokémon, and anything that tried to break through the line was met with a flaming fist to the face.
Then there was Mega Beedrill.
The Black Shinigami was worse.
It never stayed in sight long enough to be targeted. One moment it was gone; the next, Twinneedle had already pierced through a Pokémon from behind.
In barely ten seconds, more than ten Pokémon had fallen under its stingers, including several Champion-class opponents.
It was terrifying.
Mega Beedrill had no interest in a fair fight, and it clearly enjoyed proving that.
BOOM!
CRACK!
KABOOM!
The battle had reached its peak.
Moves tore through the rain. Fire, thunder, wind, roots, fists, and blades ripped across the mountainside as explosions and agonized cries blended into the roar of the storm.
Every second, more Pokémon fell.
Every second, the ground was torn open again.
It looked less like a battle and more like a war zone.
...
Meanwhile, Jian had led the Pokémon Police into the sky on their Pidgeot, stopping not far from the battlefield.
The moment they saw what was happening ahead, their formation almost faltered.
"Chief..."
"What the hell is going on?"
The officer flying beside Jian stared at the battlefield, his voice caught between shock and disbelief.
The other officers were no better. They hovered in the rain, speechless, staring at a scene none of them knew how to process.
Even Jian had to force himself to breathe.
The giant dragon in the sky had been shocking from a distance.
Up close, it was unreal.
And that was only one part of the battlefield.
On the ground stood a fifteen-meter wooden golem blocking the road like a fortress. Beside it, a ten-meter Snorlax was flattening enemy Pokémon with rubber fists wrapped in black Haki.
A cloaked Greninja moved through the battlefield like a blur, cutting down Champion-class Pokémon before they could react. A pitch-black Beedrill disappeared and reappeared like an assassin. A golden-flamed Infernape punched through anything in its path. Charizard flew overhead, spewing fire and lightning across the battlefield.
And in the rear, Sceptile stood among the trees with strange black markings around its eyes, controlling the entire forest like it was part of its body.
Jian's brain almost stopped working.
He recognized the species.
But at the same time, he felt as if he did not recognize a single one of them.
Only a handful of Pokémon were holding back an entire berserk army and forcing it away from Tidefall.
In the sky, Mega Gyarados coiled through the storm, controlling devastating lightning as it launched aerial strikes against the enemy below.
Some Champion-class Pokémon managed to land attacks on Snorlax and the wooden golem, leaving wounds on both.
Snorlax ignored them completely.
Its rubber body and absurd durability let it keep punching through the pain, turning it into a walking tank with the offensive power of a siege engine.
The wooden golem was different. When its body cracked or splintered, the damage repaired itself before long, with Sceptile feeding energy into it from the forest behind the line.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The fighting was brutal.
Pokémon died every passing second, yet Aaron's Pokémon still held their ground.
Some of them moved so fast the berserk army could barely touch them. All the enemy could do was watch as their numbers were cut down one after another.
They were reapers on the battlefield.
"What exactly... are these Pokémon?"
Jian stared at the scene, shaken to his core.
"Chief, look!"
"There's someone standing on that dragon's head!"
At that moment, one of the officers pointed toward the enormous dragon-shaped Pokémon in the sky and shouted.
"What? Someone?"
Jian froze, then looked toward the top of Mega Gyarados's head.
The instant he saw the figure standing there, his eyes widened.
"Holy shit... Aaron!?"
...