Burn is a brutal status condition against physically oriented powerhouses—and as for why Mega Rayquaza is so absurdly strong…
It's because once a Rayquaza Mega Evolves, both of its offenses hit the absolute ceiling.
Physical Attack or Special Attack, Mega Rayquaza can look down on almost every Pokémon in existence.
That overwhelming offensive pressure is exactly what Mega Rayquaza prides itself on.
But once it's burned, even if Mega Rayquaza's physical moves are still strong, they're nowhere near as explosively powerful as before.
Sure, Shiny Rayquaza's Special Attack is still nasty, but its overall threat level has dropped a lot.
Raw Special Attack alone will never beat a true double‑stat monster.
"Roar!!"
Shiny Rayquaza bellowed in fury. These pests!
As the flames of Burn briefly faded from sight, a savage tornado storm exploded from Shiny Rayquaza's mouth.
A Flying‑type Hurricane!
Shiny Rayquaza understood its own condition, so it switched up its offense.
"Protect!"
Shadow Mewtwo immediately threw up a Protect barrier.
The roaring dragonstorm battered Shadow Mewtwo's Protect, the sheer force making the barrier tremble violently, looking like it might shatter at any moment.
But Protect held.
"Blizzard!"
Deoxys brought its palms together, ice‑blue energy flaring.
The next instant, a black dragon shadow streaked in like lightning and slammed full‑force into Deoxys.
Deoxys was smashed clean out of the sky, crashing into a half‑collapsed high‑rise.
Shiny Rayquaza's Extreme Speed!
Shiny Rayquaza turned its head, pure Dragon light gathering in its mouth.
Shadow Mewtwo immediately spread a deep purple psychic wall, but Shiny Rayquaza was just too fast—there was no time to dodge.
Boom!
Dragon Pulse blasted out and hammered into Shadow Mewtwo's psychic wall, blowing both wall and Shadow Mewtwo backward.
Seeing Deoxys and Shadow Mewtwo both go flying in such a short span, Damian raised a brow.
"Ho-Oh, Sky Attack!"
"Chiu～!"
Rainbow‑colored radiance was still as beautiful as ever.
Ho-Oh, already recovered quite a bit, took to the sky again.
Its vitality was ridiculous, and on top of that, those rainbow‑colored flames also had healing properties.
The Ho-Oh that had been beaten half‑dead by Mega Rayquaza just now once more soared upward.
Ho-Oh spread its wings and dove for Shiny Rayquaza, momentum surging.
However…
Shiny Rayquaza simply turned its head and spat a Dragon Pulse.
Dragon Pulse smashed straight into the Sky Attack‑prepped Ho-Oh.
With a thunderous boom, the legendary bird‑flame aura around Ho-Oh was blown apart, and Ho-Oh itself was blasted away in the explosion.
Damian clicked his tongue. Ho-Oh really couldn't stay handsome for even a full second.
"Roaaar!!!"
Shiny Rayquaza climbed high, lifting its head and roaring to the heavens, gazing down proudly at the ruined city and those subordinate losers.
Its long body coiled and twisted, golden ripples of light shimmering gorgeously along its form, that domineering Dragon aura smashing into everyone's hearts.
So what if it was burned?
It was still the invincible Rayquaza!!
The other little Rayquaza's eyes all but sparkled. Dad! So cool!!
"Tyrant of the skies… Rayquaza…"
Cynthia stared at the Shiny Rayquaza that had been fighting for so long and was still almost unscathed. Her heart sank.
Too strong. It was just too strong.
"Does a single Pokémon that can beat this Shiny Rayquaza even exist in this world?" Wallace blurted, tongue almost tied.
This was terrifying.
Primal Kyogre, Shadow Mewtwo, Deoxys, plus Ho-Oh rushing in as support—four Legendary Pokémon in total.
And even with Damian leading them, they'd still been almost completely blown through by this Shiny Rayquaza!
Aside from inflicting a burn, they'd gotten nothing for all this time.
And even with the burn, this Shiny Rayquaza's dominance was still that terrifying.
Steven and the others all fell silent. Who could say?
Nemona, on the other hand, was excited, though she tried hard to rein it in. This Shiny Rayquaza was so wild and overbearing it made her want to launch herself into the sky.
Cynthia mulled it over. She wondered if the Palkia and the others from her own region's myths could even serve as opponents for this Shiny Rayquaza.
Even Giovanni had sunk into deep thought.
Back when he'd started the Mewtwo Project, it had been to use Mewtwo's absolute power to make more money and grab control of the world…
But now, watching Shadow Mewtwo get hammered into the dirt by this Shiny Rayquaza, he suddenly felt that, just as Damian had said, this world still hid far too many "mysteries."
"I'd never imagined before that Legendary Pokémon could have this kind of power."
Leon couldn't help feeling a little grateful that his Galar Region didn't have legends this "unrestrained."
Seeing them rampage through human cities like this… was really helpless.
"Looks like Damian can't beat this Shiny Rayquaza either."
Steven spoke quietly, his heart full of both regret and relief.
He grieved for LaRousse City, left in ruins in the end.
The city might not have had a huge population, but people still lived here.
Failing to protect their homes left Steven tormented with guilt.
But he was also faintly relieved.
Damian might be strong, but he still had limits.
Which meant they weren't completely without hope.
If even this Shiny Rayquaza couldn't beat Damian, Steven honestly wouldn't know how to defeat Damian at all.
"Ooo～!"
Right then, a low, ancient‑beast call rolled across the sky again.
Primal Kyogre.
"Done."
Damian grinned, watching the now even more imposing Primal Kyogre.
Six Calm Minds—complete.
Primal Kyogre's golden beast‑eyes were regal and indifferent as it felt the flood of power pouring through its body now, so overwhelming it almost couldn't help but want to let it all roar out.
Right now, it felt terrifyingly strong.
Damn—so all it had ever needed was to buff up, and it could reach this level?
Only now did Primal Kyogre realize how stupid it'd been before.
If it'd had the sense to stack Calm Minds before going to brawl with that stupid lizard, couldn't it have just strung that lizard up and beaten it like a punching bag?
Shiny Rayquaza's dragon eyes narrowed slightly as it looked at the now awe‑inspiring Primal Kyogre.
Buffs complete? This stupid fish was getting a little full of itself.
Shiny Rayquaza could clearly feel Primal Kyogre itching to go. Its gaze turned frosty.
"Kyogre, Blizzard!"
Damian gave the order straight to Primal Kyogre.
"Ooo～!"
Primal Kyogre's low call echoed endlessly across the sky as a deluge of ice and snowstorm winds burst out, sweeping toward Shiny Rayquaza.
An Ice‑type Blizzard!
Shiny Rayquaza roared angrily, unleashing a savage tornado storm to meet the Blizzard head‑on—a Flying‑type Hurricane!
Boom!
The dragonstorm and the ice blizzard crashed together violently in mid‑air, white winds and ice‑blue Blizzard slamming fiercely against one another.
The entire sky changed color; wild winds howled across heaven and earth.
Even though Steven and the others were quite far away, they felt like they could barely keep their balance, on the verge of being blown away.
Primal Kyogre poured energy into Blizzard like mad, but even so, all it could manage was a slight edge over Shiny Rayquaza's Hurricane. It couldn't completely blow it away.
Damn it! How could this black‑coal Rayquaza be this strong?!
Primal Kyogre was shaken to the core.
It could feel its own buffed‑up power perfectly clearly—that was a massive increase.
And yet even after all that, it could only just barely press down on an un‑buffed Shiny Rayquaza. What kind of joke was that?!
Worse, as Shiny Rayquaza's fury surged and it ruthlessly squeezed its own inner energy, the Hurricane slowly clawed its way back to parity with Blizzard.
"Ho-Oh! Mewtwo! Use Helping Hand on Kyogre!"
Seeing this, Damian grinned. He'd expected exactly this.
Ho-Oh and Shadow Mewtwo appeared behind Primal Kyogre, mysterious pulses of energy flooding into its body.
A Normal‑type Helping Hand.
As for why Deoxys wasn't lending a Helping Hand too—Deoxys didn't know that move.
And Deoxys was the one with the worst injuries; Shiny Rayquaza had given it special attention.
With Ho-Oh and Shadow Mewtwo's Helping Hand behind it, Primal Kyogre suddenly felt its whole body brim with power.
Blizzard's momentum surged sharply, instantly overpowering Hurricane.
This is impossible!!
Shiny Rayquaza's pupils contracted.
It stared in disbelief at the raging Blizzard roaring toward it.
How could this be happening?!
Losing in a direct clash?
It was Rayquaza—the invincible Rayquaza!
The rampaging blizzard tore through the sky like a howling gale, completely swallowing Shiny Rayquaza, whose whole worldview was suddenly in question.
The terrifying Blizzard ripped past like a storm front, covering even the city below in whiteout winds and snow, the air temperature plummeting crazily.
This Blizzard's power was insane.
Shiny Rayquaza's entire body was consumed by the raging ice and snow, thick frost crusting over it as chilling cold and pain crashed through every inch of it.
Its body dropped out of the sky, completely out of its control, smashing heavily into the frost‑covered ground.
This was the first time Shiny Rayquaza had been knocked from the sky.
"Father!!"
The Rayquaza watching from afar was shocked.
Ignoring the brutal cold now blasting across the sky, it used Extreme Speed to dash for Shiny Rayquaza's location.
"Hahahaha～ I actually knocked that Shiny Rayquaza out of the sky in one hit!! Stupid lizard, you see that? I, Kyogre, am the strongest!!"
The fat‑headed fish was cackling uncontrollably via Telepathy.
It was practically high out of its mind.
So爽!!
How long had it been under Rayquaza's thumb?
It couldn't even remember.
It had never imagined that today, it would actually bring Rayquaza down in a single move.
And not just that—
It had beaten Rayquaza in a direct clash, knocked it out of the sky head‑on.
And this was a Shiny Mega Rayquaza this powerful on top of that.
Damn, how could this feel anything but amazing?!
The fat‑headed fish had already decided on its "lines" for when Shiny Rayquaza climbed back up again.
"Rayquaza, have you ever tasted defeat?"
Just picturing the humiliation in Shiny Rayquaza's eyes made the fat‑headed fish so excited it almost sprayed water on the spot.
Hahahaha～ what a shame, what a shame.
That stupid lizard couldn't see Primal Kyogre putting on a show like this.
Such a pity.
Listening to Primal Kyogre's Telepathy in his mind, Damian clicked his tongue twice.
This fat‑headed fish… had pretty much gone feral.
~~~
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