Facing Pikachu, whose entire demeanor had changed drastically, Brandon's expression also shifted. In the past few decades, he had never seen a Pokémon like this.
The aura around it was unpredictable. He couldn't even determine what level or strength it had reached. But even through the distance, Brandon could feel a destructive pressure.
Inside its Poké Ball, Mewtwo's expression also became serious. In this state, Pikachu was making even Mewtwo feel a hint of threat. After all, Mewtwo was now Mid god level, almost infinitely close to High god level.
With this level of strength, let alone a Champion Beginner, even a Champion Peak Pokémon wouldn't be able to make it feel any threat. But Pikachu, even from a distance and through the Poké Ball, was triggering that instinct. Which clearly indicated that Pikachu's power had surged to at least god level.
Although it was incredibly hard to believe, Mewtwo still followed its instincts and increased its psychic output to the maximum, making the surrounding barrier incredibly solid.
Right now, Ash certainly wouldn't be paying attention to that. He was already like Pikachu, bringing all of his focus to this battle. Protecting everyone around them could only be entrusted to Mewtwo. This was also why Ash trusted it, which was why he could focus everything on the arena.
"Pika-chuuuu!"
A dark yellow lightning bolt exploded across Pikachu's body, and the entire atmosphere within the pyramid seemed to freeze. This wasn't ordinary lightning, but a profound, almost twisted beam of light, as if an entire thunderstorm had been compressed into the tiny electric mouse's body.
Pikachu's fur stood on end, the electric pouches on its face erupted with dazzling dark arcs of electricity, its eyes had completely turned golden, its pupils reflecting nothing but Regice.
At this moment, Pikachu had only one thought.
Defeat Regice.
A second later, Pikachu's figure vanished, and time and space at that moment seemed to be torn apart. No one could clearly see Pikachu's movements.
At this critical moment, Regice awoke.
A core icy blue light emanated from its chest, flashing out from the dimmed lights, instantly emitting a dazzling radiance. Rest's effect, while not completely restoring it, had at least recovered three-quarters of its strength. Although the damaged areas remained, its icy body once again radiated a terrifying aura.
The moment it awoke, Regice sensed the approaching, destructive dark golden lightning bolt. Without Brandon's command, Regice knew exactly what to do. Defend. It was definitely defense. Without defense, being hit by an attack like this, even a Legendary Pokémon would surely be obliterated instantly.
"Aurora Veil!"
Brandon's roar echoed almost the moment Regice awoke, and a green shield in front of Regice instantly solidified. That energy barrier was far more solid and impenetrable than any Regice had ever used before.
This was the first time Regice had channeled all of its energy into a single defensive move. This caused a huge drain on its stamina. The strength that had just been restored by Rest was depleted again.
However, the appearance of the Aurora Veil reassured both Brandon and Regice somewhat. Having this level of shield in front of them at least gave them some measure of comfort.
But then.
The dark yellow lightning struck the Aurora Veil, and a deafening roar echoed throughout the Battle Pyramid. In just a blink of an eye, the Aurora Veil, said to be able to block any attack, instantly cracked. The cracks spread wildly in all directions from the point of impact, like a spider's web. The entire barrier was covered in fractures.
A cross-shaped light flickered wildly on Regice's chest. The scene before it had clearly exceeded its expectations.
"Increase power, channel everything into this. Hold firm!" Brandon had already abandoned all restraint. If this attack simply broke through the shield and struck, it wouldn't just be a matter of losing its fighting ability. If things went wrong, his Regice might disappear from the world entirely.
Who could have imagined that a simple challenge match could lead to a situation this extreme, serious enough that a Legendary Pokémon could be directly killed? But there was no way around it.
Ash's Pikachu seemed to have lost its reason, its only target being Regice. Pikachu was able to unleash this power because of its overwhelming obsession, so now they only had one choice: block this attack. Even if they couldn't fully block it, they had to reduce its power as much as possible. Otherwise, when Ash and Pikachu regained their senses, they would only see a pile of rubble.
Regice's cross-shaped light flickered to its extreme limit, and it poured all its remaining energy into the collapsing Aurora Veil. The green light shone again, repairing the cracks, but before Brandon and Regice could feel relief, another crack appeared on the shield. The repair had lasted less than a second.
After holding on for a few seconds, the crystal-like shield completely shattered, scattering into countless green specks of light floating in mid-air. While those specks of light were still drifting, the 10,000,000 Volt Thunderbolt had already firmly struck Regice.
This explosion was more violent than any before. The entire pyramid shook. Although Mewtwo's shield blocked the shockwaves from reaching the spectators, the tremors still radiated outward, causing the entire structure to quake and threaten to collapse.
If the outside was like this, imagine the destruction inside the barrier. The violent shockwaves spread in all directions, lightning exploding throughout the entire arena, striking everything that wasn't shielded.
And it had also struck the shield above.
A tiny crack appeared on Mewtwo's barrier.
In the stands, Misty's pupils suddenly narrowed. Before she could even recover from the shock of Pikachu's terrifying power, the crisp sound startled her, almost stopping her heart.
Mewtwo's shield had actually cracked? This was Mewtwo, a Mid god-level Pokémon. Even a Champion Peak Pokémon's full-force attack wouldn't be able to shake it. And now, the aftershock of Pikachu's attack had caused cracks to appear in this shield?
The cracks spread in all directions at a speed visible to the naked eye, like a spider's web, racing across the entire face of the barrier.
Inside the Poké Ball, Mewtwo's expression changed.
No way. What kind of nonsense is this? Even my barrier can't hold?
A second later, Mewtwo emerged from the Poké Ball, stretching out its arms, unleashing all its strength without reservation. The shield covering the field finally stopped cracking. Seeing this, Mewtwo breathed a quiet sigh of relief.
The passive shield it had formed using background psychic abilities was incomparable to the barrier it could create at full power after coming out. Just one full-force attack from a Low god-level entity could crack the passive shield, and a casual blow from a Mid god-level entity could shatter it.
Pikachu's current output was probably no less than Mewtwo's own. What exactly was going on? Why had Pikachu's strength suddenly surged to such a terrifying level?
However, now was not the time to think about such things. The most important thing was to do everything possible to maintain the shield. Otherwise, not only would there be problems inside the arena, but the entire city outside would be in trouble too.
The dark yellow lightning in the center of the arena lasted for a full three seconds before slowly dissipating. After the light faded, everyone could finally see the scene clearly.
Pikachu stood in the center of the crater with all four limbs on the ground, his body still trembling slightly. Yellow electrical arcs lingered around him, occasionally emitting a crackling sound. His hat was askew, revealing sweat-soaked fur underneath. His chest heaved violently, each breath like a struggle for survival.
It was clear that Pikachu was now like a dying candle in the wind. If Regice had withstood that attack, the winner of this battle would have been obvious.
But what had become of Regice?
In front of Pikachu, Regice was lying in a massive pit. Its entire body was unrecognizable from its original form. The cross-shaped mark on its chest had become dull and lifeless, its icy blue light flickering like a candle in a storm, threatening to be extinguished at any moment.
The ice that formed its body had almost completely shattered, with only a few fragments barely clinging together, maintaining its final shape.
Undoubtedly, Regice had lost its fighting ability. And not just that. It had entered a near-death state. If a Pokémon in this condition wasn't immediately taken to a Pokémon Center for treatment, it would soon die.
However, Regice was, after all, a Legendary Pokémon with incredibly tenacious life force. As long as it still had a breath left, death wouldn't claim it.
Even so, Regice being reduced to this state was something even Brandon had never experienced before. He had been a Trainer for decades, experienced countless battles, campaigns of every scale, and had even faced Champion-level Trainers. But he had never once encountered a Pokémon as abnormal as Ash's Pikachu. Not even once.
What was this? An Elite Four Peak Pikachu had instantly defeated a Legendary with almost full stamina, the Legendary Regice, in a single blow? Did this make sense? Was this right?
"Pikachu." Misty's voice trembled slightly. She tightened her grip on Togepi, her arms straining. This amount of force wasn't much for Togepi, but it made Togepi turn its head in confusion, wondering why Misty had suddenly squeezed so hard.
The reason was Pikachu's dire state. Although Regice was on the verge of death, Pikachu's condition looked equally poor. While fighting above its level and unleashing power far exceeding its own was commonplace for Pikachu and Ash, this time was clearly different.
The power Pikachu had unleashed had even shaken Mewtwo's shield, demonstrating just how far beyond its own level Pikachu had reached. That small electric mouse, theoretically, shouldn't be able to produce output like this. Now, miraculously, it had. But what kind of damage had that inflicted on its body?
On the other hand, Ash's condition wasn't much better. He knelt on one knee, breathing heavily. Although he hadn't actually performed Aura fusion, the energy in his body felt as if it had been completely drained.
Only now did Ash recover from the recent battle, and even he himself didn't understand how Pikachu had unleashed that power. During the crucial stage of the fight, he clearly couldn't use his Aura Sight to observe Pikachu's physical condition. So he hadn't known that Pikachu had used that miraculous power.
"Pikachu... pika..." Ash half-opened his eyes and looked at Pikachu, a blurry message appearing before him.
Pikachu (Third Rebirth)...
This was the last thought that flashed through Ash's mind, and a second later, Ash lost consciousness. Pikachu also fell to the ground.
"Ash!"
After an unknown amount of time, Ash calmly woke up. His eyes met Misty's worried face hovering above him. Ash turned his head and found himself resting his head on Misty's lap.
"You're awake, Ash! You scared me to death! Do you know how worried we were?" Seeing Ash wake up, Misty said anxiously, her face still showing signs of fear. When Ash had fallen just now, her heart had almost stopped. It was the first time she'd seen Ash collapse during a battle.
"Don't worry, I'm fine. Just a little exhausted. By the way, where's Pikachu?"
"Pika pika." As Ash's voice faded, Pikachu responded from Serena's arms, completely drained of energy.
Seeing Pikachu safe and sound, Ash breathed a sigh of relief.
"It's good that you're alright. I'm sorry, Mr. Brandon. Something unexpected happened." Ash propped himself up on the ground, moved away from Misty's lap, and apologized to Brandon standing nearby. The Trainer and his Pokémon had both lost consciousness mid-battle. This was probably the first time in so many battles that Brandon had encountered something like this.
"It's good that you're alright, young man. You won this battle."
"Really? I think Pikachu fell down too."
"That's right, Pikachu fell. But you still have Gardevoir and Charizard. Those two remaining Pokémon are still ready for battle. So this battle is yours." Brandon nodded, speaking frankly without reservation. Ash's remaining two Pokémon were merely powerless, not unconscious, while Brandon's three Pokémon had completely lost their fighting ability. Even with Ash losing consciousness as a backdrop, the winner of this battle was still Ash.
"Did you hear that, Pikachu? We won!" Ash excitedly tried to wave at Pikachu, but found it incredibly difficult to even lift his hand. His stamina had been depleted far more than he had imagined.
...
STONES 💎
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