"Come back, Krookodile."
The Poké Ball wobbled twice in his palm, then fell silent with a "ding."
Ariel backhanded the ball into his belt.
The movement was extremely natural.
His soles struck the metal grid floor, making a crisp clacking sound.
His goal was clear, aimed straight at the towering magnetic cage ahead.
Ariel's pace was neither fast nor slow, with the distance of every step perfectly consistent.
This steady rhythm echoed through the empty basement, drumming against the observer's eardrums.
Yuki stood in the back.
She watched Ariel's back. It wasn't broad, yet it exuded a kind of incomprehensible madness.
"Lord Ruth!"
Yuki finally couldn't help but speak. She hurried forward, blocking the space between Ariel and the cage. A cold wind blew against the hem of her clothes.
"You don't need to risk your life for a Pseudo-Legendary. This is too crazy. This Tyranitar will kill you, one hundred percent."
Yuki's words were hurried.
She knew the destructive power of that giant beast all too well.
Even with a high-tech magnetic barrier in between, the sense of oppression stemming from the top of the food chain remained.
It was not a pet, but an enraged wild beast, still carrying its young in its belly.
Maternal instinct would make it tear apart any living thing that approached.
Betting one's life on the sanity of a vicious beast was an extremely foolish act.
In Yuki's cognitive framework, human flesh was no better than a piece of wet paper when faced with the claws and fangs of a Tyranitar.
Ariel stopped walking.
He looked at Yuki.
No extra explanation.
No long-winded talk.
"Stand down."
Two words, the volume steady, yet carrying an air that brooked no argument.
Yuki bit her lower lip.
She wanted to persuade him further, but upon meeting Ariel's eyes, which were fixed straight ahead, those words got stuck in her throat.
They were eyes without emotional fluctuations, frighteningly rational.
She could only step aside and retreat behind the safety line, her hand subconsciously pressing against the Poké Ball at her waist.
Her palms were oozing cold, sticky sweat.
Ariel continued forward.
The control panel was right on the right side of the cage.
His finger hovered above the red main control button.
He pressed it.
The humming sound stopped abruptly.
The magnetic barrier surrounding the Tyranitar flickered twice and disappeared completely.
The metal pillars, having lost their energy supply, dimmed.
High-voltage charges lingered in the air for a few seconds, emitting a faint crackling sound.
The smell of ozone in the air slowly dissipated.
The restraints were released.
Inside the cage, the Tyranitar's previously lowered head lifted.
It moved its thick neck.
Its bones rubbed together, emitting a crisp clicking sound.
Its rough, dark green scales gleamed with a chilling texture under the lights.
Each scale was larger than an adult's palm, with sharp edges, covered in scratches and old scars from battles.
It took a step forward.
As its foot landed, the entire basement floor trembled.
The alloy floor let out an unbearable groan.
Without the barrier blocking it, this vibration was transmitted to the soles of Ariel's feet without reservation.
One human, one beast, less than five meters apart.
The Tyranitar towered over him.
Its massive, three-meter-tall body cast a shadow that completely enveloped Ariel.
Those scarlet vertical pupils stared fixedly at the tiny human before it.
The hot breath it exhaled, mixed with the smell of soil and blood, rushed into his face.
A sharp pain shot through the depths of Ariel's brain.
That was the side effect of forcibly establishing a Psychic connection.
The mental power of high-level Pokémon far exceeds that of ordinary people. While normal communication is not burdensome, forcing one's own mental power to press forward is an extremely unpleasant feeling.
Then, a coarse, violent voice rang out in his mind.
"Human! You are too arrogant!"
"Do you truly think I dare not kill you?"
"Or are you naive enough to think that I would hand over my child to a despicable creature like you?"
The Tyranitar's anger reached Ariel's consciousness directly through Psychic fluctuations.
This anger was not just directed at the organization that imprisoned it, but at all humans who attempted to lay their hands on its bloodline.
It would rather perish together.
It had had enough of betrayal, deception, and endless torture.
Before the voice faded, the attack arrived!
No charging, no warning.
The Tyranitar swung its right arm.
The thick arm stirred up a gust of wind, and three sharp claws pointed straight at Ariel's face.
The speed was too fast.
The air was sliced open, emitting a sharp whistling sound.
The wind pressure arrived first, blowing Ariel's hair back wildly and causing his collar to flap loudly.
Yuki's pupils constricted in the back.
"Lord Ruth!"
She reached for the Poké Ball at her waist.
Her fingers touched the cold metal casing.
But it was too late.
Human nerve response speed was pitifully slow in the face of a Pseudo-Legendary's enraged strike.
She could only watch helplessly as that giant claw, capable of crushing an armored vehicle, descended upon Ariel with the momentum of destruction.
Ariel stood where he was.
Not dodging.
Not blinking.
Not even blinking an eye.
Expressionless.
Not the dullness of being scared witless.
This was a sense of complete control.
He looked directly into the Tyranitar's eyes.
He saw the madness, anger, and determination in those scarlet vertical pupils clearly.
The gale stopped suddenly.
The sharp fingertips stopped just in front of Ariel's nose.
The distance, one centimeter.
He could even feel the extremely low temperature coming from the tips of the claws.
They were still stained with dried blood and debris of soil.
If the Tyranitar's arm had advanced even a fraction, Ariel's head would have shattered.
But it stopped.
It stopped abruptly in mid-air.
Its massive body trembled slightly from the force of the abrupt stop.
The powerful inertia caused the alloy floor beneath its feet to cave in significantly.
The Tyranitar looked at the human before it.
It didn't understand.
In its understanding, humans were fragile, cunning, and cowardly.
Faced with the threat of death, they would scream, run away, and show ugly fear.
But this person did not.
There wasn't even an instinctive retreat.
In those calm eyes, there was no fear, only a composure that felt foreign to it.
What kind of mindset was this?
A human who wouldn't even blink when facing death?
Looking at the giant claw suspended in front of him, Ariel smiled.
A very light laugh.
Facing the giant claw that stopped one centimeter from his nose, Ariel still had the leisure in his mind to analyze the Tyranitar's muscle structure.
Forcibly stopping an attack of this tonnage would cause significant physical strain on its own muscle fibers.
It would rather bear the backlash itself than actually strike down.
This showed that it was even more rational than expected.
At this moment, maternal instinct overcame beastly nature.
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