Crack! Crack! Crack!
The swirling grit shattered into fine dust the instant it collided with the incoming Dragon Pulse. Yet the impact took a heavy toll on the draconic blast, shearing away a massive portion of its momentum.
"Flygon, Dragon Claw!"
Flygon raised both claws and swept them down in a vicious cross-slash against the weakened Dragon Pulse. Two earthen-yellow arcs flashed across the air, instantly cleaving the draconic energy into drifting motes of light.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The residual shockwaves blasted into the dunes, kicking up dense plumes of golden dust. The arena turned a hazy, suffocating gray, forcing the surrounding spectators to cover their noses and mouths against the choking airborne sand.
"Haxorus, use Scale Shot!" Iris commanded sharply.
The heavy plating on Haxorus's body ground together violently, letting out a sharp, metallic clatter. Dozens of its scales ripped free from its hide, rocketing through the air toward Flygon like a salvo of armor-piercing rounds. Piercing sonic booms whistled across the field as the golden scales blurred into searing streaks of light.
"Sand Shield!"
Flygon commanded the sea of shifting sand to surge upward, wrapping around its body to form a rapidly spinning golden sphere. The orb swelled larger with every passing second, drawing in more and more grit to bleed off the ferocious kinetic force of the Scale Shot. Long before the radiant projectiles could penetrate the inner barrier, their momentum was completely snuffed out by the swirling vortex. The scales tumbled helplessly from the sky like withered autumn petals.
Damn it! This Flygon is as tough as a cockroach! It just stays airborne out of reach of Haxorus's melee attacks and bombards it from a distance!
Iris's gaze lingered on Haxorus. Her partner had already burned through a notable amount of stamina. If this war of attrition dragged on, Haxorus might collapse from sheer exhaustion before it could lay a single claw on Flygon.
I wanted to hold my Dragon Force in reserve for the final match, but there's no choice now.
Haxorus is my ace—I can't let it fall here!
A surge of brilliant, silver-white Dragon Force erupted from within Iris. The radiant energy uncoiled into countless silvery tendrils of light, pouring straight into Haxorus's body.
In an instant, Haxorus's depleted stamina was fully replenished. Iris's Dragon Force coalesced around its frame like a shimmering suit of draconic battle armor, lending the imposing beast an even more majestic and intimidating presence.
Its physical form began to undergo a subtle metamorphosis. A pair of meter-long, razor-sharp axe-blades sprouted from its forearms, while additional jagged crescents jutted from its spine and the tip of its tail.
At this moment, Haxorus had transcended its limits, stepping into an entirely new state—a Mega Haxorus form.
"Haxorus, Slash!"
Blinding silver arcs erupted from Haxorus's gleaming tusks. Feng Che noticed immediately that its raw offensive power had multiplied several times over; where Slash had once unleashed a twin burst of energy, it now tore through the air in an eightfold cross-hatch of destructive white crescents.
Feng Che, this method of amplifying combat power can't last long, Mewtwo transmitted mentally, providing crucial analysis as its telepathic web swept silently across the entirety of the Dragon Village, monitoring every move of the Second Elder's faction. Even though Haxorus has transformed, its muscles are trembling faintly. Channeling that much raw Dragon Force places an immense physical burden on its body.
Be careful, Mewtwo. Don't let your psychic aura be detected—we don't want to alert our snakes before they strike, Feng Che cautioned inwardly. He raised an eyebrow, shifting his attention back to Flygon as it maneuvered around Haxorus's relentless onslaught.
Empowered by this explosive surge, Haxorus's eightfold Slash tore through the Sand Shield with brute force, sundering the defensive sphere into eight pieces and scattering a cloud of loose sand across the sky.
Pushed to the defensive, Flygon exhaled a dense, earthen-yellow orb from its maw. This was a signature fusion technique—Ancient Power combined with Draco Meteor—designed to prime the prehistoric energy for an aerial airburst.
The earthen sphere swelled rapidly before detonating overhead like a brilliant firework. Dense fragments rained down toward the earth, bombarding the entire battlefield like a cataclysmic meteor shower.
Amid the chaos, Feng Che caught sight of that Latias once again. This time, she had disguised herself as a Mr. Mime, clutching a broom and clumsily pretending to sweep the sidelines.
Latias: It's confirmed. That guy definitely carries the scent of the Soul Dew.
Feng Che smirked inwardly. The Soul Dew was the ultimate bait, and the fish was nibbling right on cue.
"Flygon, Rock Blast!"
Having weathered Haxorus's furious barrage, Flygon had already adapted to its opponent's attack patterns. With a casual sweep of its tail, it commanded the shifting dunes to form thick whips of living sand, lashing out to bind Haxorus's limbs.
"Haxorus, Dragon Pulse!" Iris countered.
A beam of Dragon Pulse, twice the diameter of the previous one, roared out from Haxorus's jaws, homing straight in on Flygon's coordinates with overwhelming destructive force.
"Every true scion of the Dragon Clan wields the Dragon Force," Iris taunted, trying to disrupt Feng Che's focus. "Yet I haven't seen you use it once. Could it be that you aren't a member of our clan after all?"
"Since you're so eager to see my Dragon Force, feast your eyes."
A brilliant, golden aura of Dragon Force erupted from Feng Che's frame—an energy so refined and radiant it bordered on absolute purity. As this immense power surged into Flygon, a dormant ancestral link snapped open deep within the desert dragon's psyche. It felt a primordial call echoing from the distant dawn of time.
The phantom visage of an ancient, primordial Flygon flashed across its mind.
Before the eyes of the stunned crowd, Flygon's body swelled in size at a visible rate. Shifting sands condensed around its back, forging two pairs of colossal, crystalline sand wings. The ruby-like goggle-lenses over its eyes lengthened into sleek, predatory visors, and the diamond tassels adorning its tail multiplied from three to five.
"Is that... the primal form of an ancient Flygon?!"
"Unbelievable! Dragon Force can actually trigger an evolution like this?!"
"I've never heard of a Flygon possessing a further evolutionary stage!"
A wave of astonished murmurs rippled through the spectators.
"Victor... did you see that? He actually knows the art of Draconic Evolution?!" Drayden's voice tightened with suppressed shock. "Using pure Dragon Force to stimulate a Dragon-type's physical morphology and awaken its primordial bloodline... That is a technique unique to the Dragon Clan, fully rivaling Mega Evolution itself!"
"It is a secret art passed down exclusively among the clan's true direct line!"
Drayden's conviction regarding Feng Che's heritage solidified, yet the suspicion eating at his mind grew even sharper.
Direct bloodline plus pure Dragon Force... He has to be Feng Lu!
Anyone witnessing Feng Che channel Dragon Force of that caliber would naturally assume he was Feng Lu. Draconic Evolution was a closely guarded heritage among the main branch of the Dragon Clan, evolved over generations into diverse, specialized disciplines. Even Zera, of the Pokémon League Headquarters, possessed a Dragon Force so formidable that it could not only trigger Mega Evolution in Dragon types, but even push them into Gigantamax states.