Ariel's gaze fell upon the arena, like the most critical craftsman scrutinizing his painstaking masterpiece.
The Krookodile before him was the result of his investment of that precious enhancement potion.
It was precisely as expected, even surpassing his anticipations.
The core effect of the potion was to specifically enhance physical attack, but what manifested before him was far more than just an improvement in numerical data.
It was a transformation that emanated from the very bones, born solely for slaughter.
Its body's silhouette hadn't exaggeratedly expanded, yet every contour of its muscle was just right, brimming with explosive beauty.
The color of its dark red scales had settled like dried blood, their edges refracting a hard, metallic luster under the cold light.
The most significant change lay in its claws and fangs.
Not only had their sharpness increased, but their shape and length had also been enhanced!
Ariel understood clearly that this was the weapon he sought.
This confidence gave him the capital to disregard so-called conventional tactics... In the observation room, the air was almost frozen solid.
"He's insane!"
A young staff member lowered his voice, yet couldn't conceal the horror in his words,
"The assessment panel stated: use all means necessary. That means you can deploy all Pokémon simultaneously. This is common sense! What on earth is he doing?"
No one answered him.
Everyone's eyes were locked onto the surveillance screen, on that man who had released only one Pokémon, and that Krookodile.
The detection equipment clearly displayed Krookodile's level: 40.
In this battle, there was no level suppression.
"Big Boss!! Look at the rules!"
Yuki was so anxious she was about to jump up, her hands slapping against the thick soundproof glass, emitting dull thuds.
Unfortunately, it was all in vain.
To ensure absolute fairness and safety during the assessment, sound transmission in the observation room was one-way.
Through the detection equipment, they could clearly hear every roar of the Tyranitar in the arena, every thunderous stomp on the ground, but their own voices couldn't be transmitted in at all.
In Yuki's view, the Big Boss's behavior was like a top student voluntarily only answering half the questions on an exam, and the hardest half at that.
This was no longer confidence; this was joking with his own life.
"Beep— Beep—"
The adjacent vital signs monitoring device emitted a faint warning sound. On the screen, the data point representing Krookodile appeared pitifully small before the massive light cluster representing Tyranitar.
"Level 40, energy fluctuation... Wait, why is its physical attack index so high?"
The staff member responsible for data monitoring frowned deeply, repeatedly confirming the instrument readings.
That value had far exceeded the expected range for a Level 40 Krookodile, even approaching that of some Superior-level Pokémon.
But so what?
The opponent was a Tyranitar, a Sandstorm Tyrant in a "Berserk" state!
"Team Leader,"
the Data Operator looked up at the middle-aged man in charge,
"The energy disparity is too great. The win rate... is theoretically zero."
The Team Leader's face was so dark it seemed water could drip from it.
He had overseen hundreds of assessments here and had seen all kinds of people.
Some played their opponents with tactics, some overwhelmed their targets with sheer numbers of Pokémon, and there were fools whose tactical mistakes got themselves killed.
The guy before him, in his view, was the last kind.
"This is too reckless."
He finally spoke, his voice carrying uncontrollable anger and a hint of weariness,
"Team Rocket needs talents who can create value, not reckless fools who get themselves pointlessly buried here."
The cost of training talent was enormous.
In such a completely foreseeable accident, if he didn't do something, he couldn't shoulder the responsibility when accountability came later.
"Prepare the Tranquilizer Gun."
He issued the command, his tone brooking no argument,
"Aim at the Tyranitar. The moment it attacks the assessee himself, fire immediately. Adjust the dose to maximum; ensure it incapacitates it in one shot."
"Yes!"
A subordinate immediately retrieved a precisely crafted, specialized long gun from the wall's weapon cabinet and began calibrating the parameters.
The atmosphere in the observation room instantly dropped to freezing point.
The assessment had, in effect, been preemptively terminated by them.
On the battlefield, Ariel was completely unaware of everything happening in the observation room.
He didn't even lift an eyelid, just stood there quietly, as if the colossal creature stirring up dust and charging toward him was nothing more than an insignificant breeze.
Tyranitar's target was clear.
In its crimson eyes, there was only that tiny human figure.
In its chaotic mind, the sole thought was to crush this creature that dared to provoke it.
"ROAR—!"
Amidst the deafening roar, Tyranitar's massive body, like an out-of-control heavy truck, drew closer and closer to Ariel!
Fifty meters!
Thirty meters!
Ten meters!
In the observation room, the Team Leader's hand shot up, about to issue the "fire" command.
At the critical moment!
The Krookodile, which had been standing motionless, moved.
Its speed exceeded everyone's visual capture ability, leaving only a dark red afterimage in its original spot.
It didn't go to intercept the Tyranitar; instead, it instantly shifted sideways at an incredible angle, placing itself in front of Ariel, forming a solid barrier.
Immediately after, that tail, thicker and harder than steel, carrying a shriek that tore through the air, swept upward in a brutally unreasonable arc.
No flashy techniques, no surge of energy.
There was only the purest, most primitive, most violent physical force!
"CRACK!!!"
A crisp sound, louder than all of Tyranitar's roars and the thunder of its charge.
That sound didn't resemble the collision of flesh and blood; it was more like the deafening crash of two high-speed trains colliding head-on, the sound of metal twisting and snapping!
The next second, a scene that plunged the entire observation room into dead silence occurred.
That Tyranitar, weighing over a thousand pounds and full of ferocious momentum, seemed to be grabbed by the throat by an invisible giant hand mid-air; its forward charge came to an abrupt halt.
Its entire body bent sideways at a bizarre angle, and then... it was sent flying by sheer force!
"BOOM—!!!"
Tyranitar's massive body tumbled several times in the air before crashing heavily into the alloy wall over ten meters away, producing an earth-shattering roar.
Countrous, ferocious cracks instantly spider-webbed across the sturdy wall surface.
One strike.
Just one strike.
The entire world fell silent.
In the observation room, the staff member holding the Tranquilizer Gun froze, the barrel still aimed at the battlefield, but his finger couldn't press the trigger.
Yuki's mouth hung open, her eyes wide as saucers; the exclamation stuck in her throat became a meaningless "Uh..." sound.
"Stop—!!!"
The Team Leader almost roared the word.
His voice had grown somewhat hoarse from excessive shock, and his raised arm trembled slightly.
He stared fixedly at the center of the screen, at that Krookodile which, after sending the Berserk Tyranitar flying with a single strike, slowly retracted its tail and repositioned itself protectively in front of Ariel.
Its gaze remained icy cold.
The Team Leader's Adam's apple bobbed up and down as he swallowed with difficulty.
He muttered to himself, his voice so soft only he could hear it.
"What on earth... is this thing...