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"Extreme Speed!"
"Agility!"
"Quick Attack!" Marvin commanded repeatedly, his voice rising with urgency.
His scalp tingled when he saw Lugia positioned directly above Raikou.
How had Lugia moved so quickly over such a short distance with such a massive body?
Raikou shared its trainer's alarm. The Legendary Beast trembled, its fur standing on end as every hair on its body bristled upward. Even its pores seemed to crackle with escaping electrical energy, reflecting its near-panic.
Extreme Speed, Agility, Quick Attack—Raikou didn't even have time to properly execute Marvin's commands. All it could do in that critical moment was use every ounce of strength it possessed to dodge!
As a Legendary Pokémon and one of Ho-Oh's sacred messengers, its innate danger sense screamed a warning. If that attack connected, it would be knocked out instantly—100% guaranteed. There would be no room for recovery whatsoever.
Above the ocean surface, Raikou's form blurred into motion like a tiny spark drawing a streamlined arc through the air.
The movement was erratic and unpredictable, but it worked. Raikou managed to evade the attack.
Watching from a distance, Chris had to suppress a laugh.
Lugia had simply thrown out a basic attack, and Raikou had burned through all its best evasive techniques in response.
As for how Lugia could move so quickly over such a short distance... that was thanks to the Lustrous Orb given to him by his mentor.
Although Lugia was a Psychic-type Pokémon, it normally didn't know Teleport. However, with the Lustrous Orb's assistance, aside from Palkia's exclusive signature move Spacial Rend, Lugia could now learn virtually any Psychic-type move related to spatial manipulation almost instantly.
The massive wing-palm barely missed Raikou's figure as it fell, striking the ocean once more and sending shockwaves rippling endlessly across the water!
"Raikou, Charge!" Marvin commanded, but he didn't order an immediate counterattack.
He understood perfectly well that there was a significant gap in power between Raikou and Lugia. Any low-powered attacks would simply be brushed aside effortlessly by the guardian of the seas.
But he wasn't completely without a chance of victory.
His only hope lay in Lugia's type disadvantage against Electric attacks.
Raikou's damage potential had been significantly increased!
Therefore, what he needed to do was concentrate all of Raikou's power into a single devastating attack and try to defeat Lugia in one strike.
Otherwise, there was no way Chris—who looked young but possessed remarkably sophisticated training and battle command skills—would give him another opportunity.
Having narrowly avoided the attack, Raikou immediately began gathering electrical energy in mid-air.
The Charge move activated, and electrical current from the surrounding atmosphere penetrated into Raikou's body. Golden lightning flashed and surged violently around it, as if the Legendary Beast had been cloaked in a brilliant golden coat. It looked mighty and domineering.
Chris observed Raikou from above.
He didn't know exactly what this "Imperial Thunder Domain" technique was, but it likely wasn't the legendary King's Domain that had supposedly existed among the ten ancient kings. Setting aside whether such beings even existed in his world, even if they had, they would have lived long before Raikou's birth.
The legend of the three Legendary Beasts' creation had only been circulating in this world for less than a thousand years.
Therefore, this Imperial Thunder Domain was probably a developed enhancement of the standard Electric Terrain move.
Electric Terrain plus Charge?
Chris immediately understood what Marvin was planning.
The corners of his mouth curved upward slightly, and he folded his arms across his chest, watching Marvin with obvious interest.
"All right then. Let me see what Raikou's ultimate attack looks like."
If it's impressive enough, I might just steal the idea!
It could give me some inspiration for developing Zeraora's exclusive techniques!
"Lugia, Calm Mind."
Noticing that Chris hadn't launched an immediate attack, Marvin seized the opportunity to stack additional boosts.
"Raikou, use Nasty Plot!"
Marvin had been carefully watching Chris's expression. From that playful smile, he could tell the younger trainer had already figured out his strategy.
But Chris wasn't stopping him, which suggested he had nothing to worry about. That was a form of pride—perhaps even arrogance.
Marvin hoped to exploit Chris's pride and overconfidence. That might give him a real chance at victory.
Both Lugia and Raikou obediently began setting up Calm Mind and Nasty Plot respectively, hovering in mid-air.
The battlefield had been explosive just moments ago, but now both sides had called an immediate, peaceful truce to activate their stat boosts. This puzzled the viewers watching the live broadcast.
However, Roy, Victor, and the others suddenly changed their expressions and retreated several thousand meters farther back, taking the broadcast equipment and personnel with them. They understood all too well that this seemingly quiet, peaceful moment on the battlefield likely meant both sides were brewing a terrifying finishing move.
Five seconds passed—a very brief period of calm.
Then Lugia's and Raikou's eyes flashed with fierce intensity simultaneously.
Marvin acted first. He took out Raikou's Poké Ball, recalled the Legendary Beast, then released it again after returning it to normal size.
A golden tiger king now stood upon the ocean surface.
Then Marvin pulled out an Electrium Z crystal and pressed it into the Z-Power Ring on his wrist.
Suddenly, Marvin brought both hands together at his waist in a gathering motion.
For the first time, he was performing the full Z-Move dance!
The movements required for Z-Moves looked somewhat like dancing, and many found them embarrassing to perform. Usually, only beginners who were still learning Z-Moves needed to use the full choreography to enhance their concentration.
Yet here was Marvin, a Champion, performing the complete Z-Move dance.
No one would think he was unfamiliar with Electric-type Z-Moves.
That left only one conclusion: he was treating this move as his absolute final technique, pouring all his mental and spiritual power into it!
A layer of light blue energy became visible around Marvin's body with the naked eye.
That was Aura power.
But it was quickly covered by a layer of saffron-colored sparks—the power contained within the Z-Crystal.
In the blink of an eye, the Aura power was absorbed completely, and all of it fused into a concentrated sphere of energy that flew into Raikou's body.
"ROAR!"
Having received power directly from its Trainer, the now-gigantic Raikou threw its head back and released a earth-shaking cry, just as it had when first appearing on the battlefield.
The clouds that Lugia had forcibly dispersed reappeared in the blink of an eye. Within a single breath, they filled the entire sky, covering tens of kilometers in every direction in gold and radiance.
This time they weren't dark storm clouds, but golden thunderclouds.
Every cloud was saturated with electrical power that belonged exclusively to Raikou—so dense it seemed ready to overflow at any moment.
Among them, the thundercloud directly above Lugia's head was the most solid and concentrated. It no longer resembled a cloud at all, but rather a mountain of compressed lightning about to come crashing down.
In the distance, Marvin stretched out his hand, pointed directly at Lugia, and shouted his command with a roaring voice.
"Z-Move: Resplendent Thunder—Raikou's Fury!"
"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"
Thunder shook the heavens.
In an instant, all the golden clouds burst open simultaneously, and countless streams of golden lightning poured forth from within them!