Having heard Drayden out, Victor kept his silence. Words would have been useless anyway—Drayden would never have believed him.
"Mega Sceptile, Solar Beam!" Poison Dragon snarled through clenched teeth, his bloodshot eyes boring hatefully into Armaldo. If glares could be forged into daggers, Armaldo would have been shredded a thousand times over already.
Yet high above, Armaldo glided through the air with silent, effortless grace. It moved far too quickly for Mega Sceptile, a dedicated close-quarters combatant, to land a clean hit and inflict meaningful damage. Poison Dragon had no choice but to rely on Solar Beam to force it back down to earth.
Four brilliant golden lances erupted from Mega Sceptile's back, searing through the sky directly toward Armaldo.
As the blinding beams bore down on it, Armaldo snapped its twin claws across its chest. Its wings beat furiously, whipping up gale-force gusts as the Solar Beam slammed squarely into its guard.
With sharp, resilient claws, Armaldo ground the onslaught of energy into showers of golden embers. Before long, its claws glowed a scorching red under the sheer friction and heat, thick white vapor hissing from its body as it vented the brunt of the absorbed attack.
When the blast finally died away, Armaldo hung in the sky completely unfazed.
It was as if Mega Sceptile's Solar Beam had been nothing more than a passing breeze.
"How is that even possible? Armaldo didn't take a scratch!"
"Wait, look closely at its wing—there's a slight tear. It probably tore from the sheer strain."
"Look! The tear is already knitting back together right before our eyes!"
"Unbelievable... Its Dragon bloodline must be ridiculously pure."
The spectators erupted into an uproar.
Right then, a thicket of vines erupted from the earth, coiling and knotting together until they took the shape of a ferocious, writhing dragon. Mega Sceptile leapt atop the wooden beast's head, commandeering the serpentine mass of flora to strike down Armaldo.
"Armaldo, Air Cutter."
Countless blades of compressed wind, thin and sheer as cicada wings, rained upon the writhing construct. Sap sprayed violently in all directions as the vines were sheared apart, yet the gashes healed over almost instantaneously.
"Armaldo, combine Dragon Rush with Giga Impact!"
Armaldo soared higher into the stratosphere, exuding a dense, suffocating aura of draconic energy. The surging Dragon aura stimulated the armor plating across its frame, solidifying into a radiant mantle of draconic armor.
With a sharp downward beat of its wings, Armaldo plummeted in a sheer ninety-degree dive straight toward the vine dragon.
Crossing its scythe-like claws, it unleashed X-Scissor.
A golden vortex slammed deep into the maw of the vine dragon. Prismatic flashes of blinding radiance bled out through the cracks of the tangled beast before it detonated into splinters. The concussive blast caught Mega Sceptile dead-on, tossing it helplessly into the sky, flailing with nowhere to find footing.
"Mega Sceptile, hold on!" Poison Dragon shouted, his sharp instincts kicking in. "Use the falling debris to find your footing!"
Guided by its trainer's command, Mega Sceptile sought to kick off the scattering vine fragments to stabilize its descent.
Just then, a pillar of incandescent golden light obliterated the sky, driving straight for Mega Sceptile.
"Armaldo can still fire a Hyper Beam?!"
Poison Dragon froze in horror. Stranded in midair, Mega Sceptile had no way to evade.
The devastating light swallowed the Grass-type whole.
A blinding flash forced everyone in the arena to shield their eyes.
THUD!
A charred, smoking Mega Sceptile plummeted from the heavens, crashing heavily onto the stone arena. Its breath was faint and ragged, completely knocked out cold.
"Damn it! Damn it, damn it!"
Poison Dragon was seething with rage, yet the bitter taste of defeat was undeniable.
"Return, Mega Sceptile," he muttered, recalling his fallen partner through gritted teeth.
Reaching down, Poison Dragon keyed his device, and another Poké Ball popped into his palm.
"Next up is this one."
He hurled the ball forward, calling forth his next Pokémon.
A giant, snow-white Mega Gyarados materialized.
The sheer scale of this Mega Gyarados was staggering; the moment it emerged, it hovered suspended in midair. A pair of massive dorsal fins swept back from its spine, spanning a full third of its colossal body. Violent gales coiled around its form, washing over the entire arena with cutting gusts of wind.
"Splendid. Let's see what you do now," Poison Dragon sneered, a wicked grin spreading across his face.
He knew he had tampered with the device. Any Pokémon Feng Che summoned was supposed to be in an unevolved state.
"And for my next one," Feng Che said calmly, pressing the release button, "let's go with this."
From the red light, a formidable, imposing Rampardos charged onto the battlefield.
"We're dead. We're completely dead..."
Poison Dragon's two lackeys clung to each other, trembling like leaves in a tempest.
"I don't get it... I rigged it to force out a Dreepy! Why did it summon a Rampardos instead?!" Minion A cried, on the verge of tears.
"Right?! Master Poison Dragon already dropped a match. If he loses another, our lives are forfeit!" Minion B shuddered violently, his mind already conjuring the gruesome fates that awaited them. "Is he going to feed us to the pit of the Ten Thousand Dragons Den, or chain iron weights to our ankles and chuck us into Sharpedo-infested waters?"
Despair swallowed the pair whole.
A Rock-and-Dragon-type Rampardos?! What on earth are those two useless idiots doing? Poison Dragon thought, his expression darkening into a cruel, venomous grimace. They can't even handle a simple sabotage. If I lose this, I'll flay them alive. I'll drop them straight into a frenzy of Sharpedo out at sea.
Even though the opponent had brought out a Rampardos with a type advantage, Poison Dragon remained utterly unbothered. This Mega Gyarados was his absolute trump card.
It was the pinnacle variant bred across generations of Gyarados carrying pure draconic heritage, granting it dominion over tempests. Because its Dragon bloodline was so extraordinarily concentrated, upon evolving, it bypassed ordinary biological limits to undergo an atavistic regression—achieving Mega Evolution entirely through primal ancestry.
"Behold the true might of my Mega Gyarados!" Poison Dragon roared. "Mega Gyarados, Hurricane!"
Towering pillars of pale white wind erupted across the arena floor. The gale wailed and howled like a pack of starving beasts, throwing the atmospheric currents of the entire stadium into complete chaos.
"It's here! That's Poison Dragon's Mega Gyarados's signature technique—the power to manipulate storms!"
"Does that mean his research actually worked? I thought it was just a madman's fantasy, but he actually pulled it off!"
"After hoarding all those Magikarp, he finally bred a supreme Gyarados!"
The crowd buzzed with breathless chatter, squinting against the fierce wind that lashed against their cheeks like razor-sharp blades.