"That's bizarre... Why did Armaldo come out? I distinctly pressed the button for Flygon!"
Poison Dragon's lackey broke into a cold sweat of sheer panic.
If Poison Dragon lost this match, the two of them would be hurled straight into the Pool of Ten Thousand Dragons, torn apart and devoured by an onslaught of tens of thousands of enraged Dragon-type Pokémon. There wouldn't even be enough left of them to bury.
"It must be a system glitch!" the other whispered frantically. "Don't panic. As long as we force out a Pokémon that gives Lord Poison Dragon the upper hand for his next matchup, we'll be fine. Besides, Lord Poison Dragon explicitly told us not to make the rigging too obvious. Technically, this aligns with his orders! We'll just recalibrate the sequence for the next round. Right now, we need to troubleshoot the console—we can't afford another blunder."
Having devised what seemed like a foolproof way to redeem themselves, the second lackey nodded firmly.
"Right. Let's do that."
The two exchanged guilty, uneasy glances, their hearts pounding in their throats. All they could do was pray that Poison Dragon would somehow claim victory in this round, sparing them from his wrath.
"Mega Sceptile, use Leaf Blade!" Poison Dragon barked across the field.
With a sharp flick of its wrists, two massive, luminescent green blades extended from Mega Sceptile's forearms. It kicked off the earth, surging forward to cleave down mercilessly upon Armaldo.
"Armaldo, catch it!" Feng Che commanded loudly.
Armaldo raised its massive claws, crossing them firmly before its chest.
Mega Sceptile's emerald blades slammed squarely against Armaldo's armored forearms. With a sudden, explosive thrust outward, Armaldo unleashed terrifying brute force, sending Mega Sceptile ricocheting backward through the air.
Twisting mid-flight, Mega Sceptile stabilized its posture as an arc of emerald light traced its trajectory.
Boom!
A deafening roar erupted as the ground cratered beneath the impact, carving a chasm dozens of meters wide amid a billowing tempest of shattered rock and dust.
Armaldo's deep, ancient eyes watched Mega Sceptile with chilling composure, the gleaming white energy around its claws only just beginning to fade. In that split second of contact, it had unleashed Metal Claw to knock Leaf Blade clean off course.
Having missed its mark, Mega Sceptile showed not a shred of hesitation. Its predatory gaze locked onto Armaldo once more, and its twin arm-blades vibrated violently.
A barrage of Razor Leaf tore free from its foliage, whistling through the air like spinning crescent scythes.
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!
In an instant, thousands of viridian-and-gold leaves surged forward in a relentless tempest, slicing through the air toward Armaldo with lethal precision!
"Armaldo, Metal Claw!"
Armaldo's heavy claws extended, flashing in a flurry of rapid, blinding strikes.
The incoming razor leaves shredded against its steel-infused claws like flimsy parchment, scattering as harmless green debris beneath its feet. The rare leaf that breached the claw barrier bounced uselessly off its rock-solid armor.
"Mega Sceptile, Seed Bomb!"
Mega Sceptile snapped its tail forward, launching a volley of massive, pinecone-like green seeds hurtling straight at Armaldo.
"Armaldo, X-Scissor!"
Fresh off its defensive strikes, Armaldo's claws surged with radiant silver energy. Crossing its appendages, it slashed outward, carving luminous twin arcs that split the flying seeds cleanly down their seams.
Boom! Boom!
The bisected seeds detonated mid-air, bursting into brilliant emerald fireworks.
Yet as the smoke cleared, the air grew heavy with drifting, golden pollen—the hidden trap Mega Sceptile had concealed within the barrage: Stun Spore.
"Armaldo, blow it away with Hurricane!"
Armaldo flared its wing-like appendages, whipping up a violent gale that swept the glittering cloud of golden spores across the arena—straight toward the ringside spectators.
"Ow! My limbs are going numb!"
"Damn it, I can't move!"
"Did we just catch stray fire from their battle?!"
Those struck by the drifting pollen collapsed, their speech slurring as paralysis locked their muscles. Medical staff from the Dragon Clan rushed in, carrying the afflicted spectators away on stretchers in a frenzy of emergency treatment.
"Mega Sceptile, Bullet Seed!"
A relentless downpour of jade seeds descended from above like a hail of iron rivets. Many burrowed deep into the earth, disappearing beneath the surface, while others were cleaved in two by Armaldo's waiting claws.
Suddenly, thick, thorny vines erupted from the shattered soil, writhing like colossal serpents to bind Armaldo. The earth ruptured in violent bursts as more and more tendrils clawed their way into the open air, lunging forward with bared fangs.
Armaldo unfurled its appendages once more, lifting into the air to summon swirling gusts of wind.
"Armaldo, Bug Buzz!"
Flapping rapidly, Armaldo unleashed a series of piercing, harmonic shockwaves. The screeching sonic onslaught shattered the subterranean vines to splinters before they could reach it.
"Armaldo, Guillotine!"
Armaldo spread its colossal pincers wide. Distorted ripples cut through the air in the shape of a massive, shearing blade, snapping shut directly toward Mega Sceptile.
"Mega Sceptile, Slash!"
A flash of sharp white energy sliced outward from Mega Sceptile's forearm, parrying the crushing pressure of the Guillotine and knocking the wave off course.
Rumble—!
The deflected blast plowed directly into the battlefield, tearing open a massive fissure that sent geysers of earth and dust into the sky.
"Armaldo, Draco Meteor!"
Hovering aloft, Armaldo threw open its maw and fired a blinding sphere of golden energy skyward.
The golden orb detonated at the apex of its ascent, raining an apocalyptic shower of flaming meteors upon the arena. Engulfed in raging fire, the celestial barrage promised catastrophic injury to anything caught in its blast zone.
"Mega Sceptile, evade!"
Mega Sceptile's silhouette blurred, darting across the earth at blinding speed.
Meteors slammed into the arena in relentless succession, unleashing an endless cascade of thunderous impacts. Within seconds, the entire battlefield was blasted into a scorched, crater-riddled wasteland.
"What's going on?! Why is the ground shaking like this?!"
"Look! Meteors are raining down on Field Four!"
"Those impacts are causing the whole arena to quake!"
Murmurs and gasps rippled through the onlookers as the immense shockwaves drew ever-larger crowds of Dragon Clan members toward the arena.
"Victor," Drayden said, turning his gaze toward the trainer beside him, "what do you make of this challenger who calls himself Tyrant Dragon? He's actually trading blows evenly with Poison Dragon's Mega Sceptile."
"I cannot say for certain," Victor replied honestly. "He is exceptionally strong. Even my Pokémon were bested by his."
"That is only because you held back your true aces," Drayden remarked, casting a searching, meaningful look at Victor. "Had you deployed your Hydreigon or your Kommo-o, defeating you would have been no simple task for him."