"Scale Shot!", Seeing how tanky Axel's Gabite was, Raihan completely lost any mental pressure.
Time for the signature move.
"ROOAAR!", Flygon's body shot upward rapidly.
As a Pokémon that also possessed the Ground type, even without the Sand Veil ability and without getting the Sandstorm boost, it didn't really suffer any weakening at all.
Its eyes flashed with a strange light as it quickly locked onto the Gabite hidden within the sandstorm. Several scales on its wings and forehead shimmered with an eerie purple glow before shooting out violently!
Carrying a sharp whistling sound, those scales flew like throwing knives, slamming straight toward Gabite.
Axel quickly judged the speed gap between the two and soon came to a conclusion.
No way to dodge.
Since that was the case, then don't dodge.
"Gabite, Dragon Rush!"
Axel was thinking very clearly. Since Flygon chose to pull up into the air, that meant its defenses definitely weren't outstanding.
In the Pokémon world, very few Pokémon could develop evenly across all stats.
Close combat might just be Flygon's weak point.
The moment Axel finished speaking, dense purple light burst forth around Gabite. Its not-so-large wings spread wide, and its dark-gold eyes pierced through the sandstorm, locking onto Flygon in the sky.
ROAR!
Its body shot up from the ground like a jet fighter, with no warning at all. Its speed was so fast that even the raging sandstorm behind it formed a sonic boom ring.
Puff! Puff! Puff!
Several dull sounds rang out as Flygon's Scale Shot struck Gabite midair.
After letting out a pained roar, Gabite's momentum barely slowed at all as it continued charging forward.
Flygon, however, froze again for a moment. Out of the five scales, one had been dodged by Gabite, which was actually a pretty normal result under sandstorm conditions.
The problem was the remaining four.
Three of those scales hit Gabite directly, yet they still failed to take it down.
Even more outrageous, that little shark even opened its mouth and casually swallowed one of them…
'Bro, am I really that tasty?'
And it was precisely during that moment of hesitation that Gabite's figure appeared, slamming hard into Flygon.
Under the effect of Dragon Rush, Gabite's body was like a cannonball, ramming Flygon and driving it forward at full speed.
Axel's commands came like a violent storm, giving Flygon absolutely no chance to react.
"Gabite, bite him!"
Although Little Shark hadn't yet mastered any biting-type moves, with the golden trait "Razor Sharp Fangs," it could practically bite through anything.
More importantly, Axel trusted this guy's comprehension ability. Otherwise, why would he have invested so many resources into it during this time?
Sure enough, following his command, Gabite opened its mouth again. Dense black light surged from within, the energy even solidifying into the shape of teeth.
Bite! A Dark-type biting move with a chance to make the opponent flinch.
"Protect!"
Raihan reacted just as quickly. At the critical moment, he had Flygon form a Protect barrier, cutting off Axel's offensive.
Axel noticed that the way Raihan looked at Gabite had completely changed. Now, when he looked at it, he was already treating Gabite as an opponent on the same level as Flygon.
The moment it broke free from Gabite, Flygon's body dropped rapidly downward, just like Gabite had at the start, hiding itself within the ground.
Axel couldn't help tugging at the corner of his mouth. As expected of Raihan. People who specialized in battling were never simple.
They could really fight, and they could really play dirty too.
At the very least, for now, Gabite still had no way to deal with a Flygon that used Dig.
Dig? Completely useless.
That guy's ability was absurdly overpowered, called Levitate, allowing it to carry a force field that made it immune to all Ground-type moves.
Across from Axel, Raihan finally broke into a wide grin.
"So, Axel, what do you think of my tactics?"
"Flygon, use Dragon Dance underground!"
"When you come back out, we'll let Axel see the lifelong regret of the Garchomp line. The power of Dragon Dance."
Axel: "..."
'Why don't you buy a Pokédex or something?'
'Dragon Dance? What kind of Gabite doesn't know that these days?'
"Gabite, take off first to avoid a sneak attack, and use Dragon Dance as well!"
"What?", Raihan blinked, to the point that he didn't even know where he'd pulled out an extra eye from, staring in shock at the Gabite in the sky.
He really wanted to ask if Axel had a fever and had mistaken Swords Dance for Dragon Dance.
But before he could even ask, he was stunned to see that the Gabite in the sky was also performing that vast, powerful dance.
And judging from the speed and fluidity of its movements, there was no hint of clumsiness at all. It was as if it had already engraved the use of this move deep into its bones.
At this point, the Dragon Dance of both Pokémon had become meaningless.
They were both enhancing their physical stats, effectively canceling each other out.
As for whether Trainers could still control Pokémon after they powered up to a certain degree, that kind of issue simply never appeared in battles between top-tier Trainers.
Standing in front of Axel, Raihan once again felt the unfairness of the world.
Even Garchomp could use Dragon Dance now.
Raihan took a deep breath, "Flygon, stop. Use the move we just mastered."
As he spoke, he rolled up half his sleeve, revealing a wheat-colored wrist.
On that wrist were two clearly visible wristbands.
He planted his stance firmly, both hands forming an awe-inspiring pose.
"Use… Devastating Drake!"
The instant he heard that name, Axel's pupils shrank. Raihan had actually mastered power from two different systems as well.
Only then did he realize that the reason Professor Kukui had brought Raihan over was simply because they hadn't yet fused Dynamax with Ultimate power, not because they hadn't mastered Z-Power.
With the bond between Raihan and Flygon, using Z-Power was simply too easy.
And although Axel also had a Dragon Z in his possession, he had never let Little Shark use it, because he had planned to match Little Shark with the Mega Evolution system.
But right now, Gabite clearly had no way to use Mega Evolution.
Without having learned Protect, the only possible comeback point now was for Little Shark to rely on "level suppression" to tank this attack head-on.
(Protect can reduce most of the damage from Z-Moves.)
"Use Rest. Recover as much stamina as possible."
As he finished speaking, Axel took out Gabite's Poké Ball, his spirit, focus, and energy gathering to their absolute peak.
Under the influence of Z-Power, the Poké Ball was completely unable to recall Little Shark.
As long as he could block this attack, Axel would be able to recall him and wait for the next opportunity.
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