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Frost bloomed across Kael's left arm.
Moisture in the air crystallized instantly, forming delicate snowflakes that drifted downward in slow spirals.
"Ice Punch."
At the same time, his right fist ignited.
Brilliant blue-violet light surged and churned around his knuckles, compressed dragon-aligned energy roaring like an unseen wyrm coiled beneath his skin.
"Dual Chop."
Ice-type and Dragon-type energy.
Two attributes that strongly countered Guzzlord's existence.
Kael unleashed both without hesitation, pouring everything he had into a single, decisive assault.
In his past life, even while buried under work and responsibility, he had never stopped being a Pokémon fan.
He had watched every official anime episode he could find.
Guzzlord's appearances were brief, but unforgettable.
An Ultra Beast defined by endless hunger.
A creature that devoured worlds.
He remembered clearly how it had been defeated before.
Not by ordinary strength.
One, it had taken the intervention of legendary Pokémon.
Two, its weakness had been exposed.
Yes.
Even an Ultra Beast from Ultra Space, boasting near-peerless destructive power and absurd durability enhanced by hardened flesh and a black-hole-like maw, was not without flaw.
Its weakness lay in contrast.
Compared to its colossal body, Guzzlord's head was disturbingly small.
That narrow, conical skull served as the control center for the entire mass.
If enough damage could be dealt there, the whole body would shut down.
Guzzlord knew this.
Through countless cycles of devouring and evolution, it had grown sharp, horn-like protrusions around its head to protect that fatal point.
Against most opponents, that was more than enough.
But against someone who knew where to strike and possessed the strength to reach it, those defenses were little more than a delay.
Kael stood on the edge of that threshold.
He had the knowledge.
What he lacked was certainty.
Could his current strength break through?
There was no answer yet.
Only motion.
His massive arms bulged as muscle surged to its limit.
Dragon-type energy roared around his right fist.
Bitter cold condensed over the bones of his left.
Violence and frost intertwined, braided together by sheer physical power.
The combined force descended as Kael's fists fell toward Guzzlord's head, carrying enough pressure to tear the ground apart.
If the blow landed cleanly, it might carve out a single chance at survival.
But Guzzlord was already a god-class existence.
Nothing was ever that simple.
No.
It was not.
The air exploded.
A violent pressure wave tore through the space around them.
From the corner of Kael's vision, a black blur surged forward.
"What—"
He had no time to think.
A suffocating sense of death flooded his instincts.
I'll die.
At the last possible instant, Guzzlord finally revealed the full extent of its power.
Its grotesque maw split wider, and from within surged massive black tongues, thick and muscular, lashing out like twin abyssal serpents.
They struck with terrifying speed.
Kael's crimson eyes flashed as experience took over.
If his fists continued downward, he would wound Guzzlord.
But the counterattack would shred him apart.
Trading his life for an injury that would heal in days was meaningless.
But he was airborne.
With no foothold.
No leverage.
No room to change course.
"What do I do?"
Was he really going to die here, just to slow this monster for a few days?
The black tongues were already upon him.
Razor-sharp wind pressure sliced across his face, pain blooming as the air screamed and burst around him.
The malice radiating from Guzzlord's body overwhelmed his senses.
His thoughts tangled, slowed, collapsed.
Death closed in.
Then—
Something deep within him reacted.
A sudden, violent clarity.
Dark, Ghost-type energy erupted through Kael's body.
It surged like a flood through veins and muscle, far faster than his frame could safely handle.
Pain tore through him.
Blood seeped from his pores as his body strained under the overload.
A dark-purple haze ignited around him, half smoke, half flame, wrapping him in something unreal.
For a fleeting instant, Kael looked less like flesh and more like a wandering spirit.
"Phantom Force."
A pitch-black shadow bloomed behind him, swallowing his form entirely.
The space he had occupied collapsed a heartbeat later as Guzzlord's tongues struck, detonating the air itself.
Ten meters away, the atmosphere twisted.
Shadow unraveled.
Kael crashed onto the pavement, skidding across broken concrete before slamming hard into the ground.
He coughed.
Hot blood spilled from his mouth, splashing against the asphalt.
In that instant of desperation, he had forcibly reversed Dragon and Ice energy mid-transfer, converting it into Ghost-type power.
The maneuver had saved his life.
But the internal backlash was brutal.
His internal pathways screamed under the strain, leaving him with serious internal injuries.
"Damn it."
Kael pushed himself up, breathing hard.
His crimson eyes locked onto Guzzlord, burning with frustration.
"The gap between me and something like you… Is it really this wide?"
Heavy footsteps thundered closer.
Guzzlord advanced, its massive black tongues writhing through the air as it closed in.
A flicker of unease stirred within it.
That had been close.
Too close.
It would not allow another mistake.
This prey would die now.
Thick, foul saliva dripped from its jagged teeth, sizzling faintly as it hit the ground.
Its silver-blue eyes glimmered with raw greed as it stared at Kael's battered form.
Neither of them noticed—
High above the ruins.
Far beyond the shattered skyscrapers and drifting smoke.
A blinding arc of lightning tore through the sky.
Brighter than the sun.
A dazzling electric gleam appeared.
And the battlefield was about to change.
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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