BOOM!
Arcanine slammed into Ting-Lu's Protect barrier with enough force to crack the ground beneath them.
Stone and dust burst outward.
But the barrier held.
Agility into Extreme Speed had failed to break through.
"Now, Ting-Lu! Ruination!"
Asher seized the opening.
"LUUU!"
Black light flashed in Ting-Lu's eyes.
A pulse of dark energy struck Arcanine at point-blank range.
"Awoo...!"
Arcanine recoiled with a pained cry.
Ruination was a strange move. Rather than dealing ordinary damage, it cut the target's remaining vitality in half.
Half its stamina, gone in an instant.
"Keep going! Fissure!"
Asher did not let up.
"LUUU!"
Ground-type energy gathered around Ting-Lu's hooves before it slammed them into the battlefield.
KRAKOOM!
The earth split open beneath Arcanine.
Still reeling from Ruination, it reacted a fraction too late and dropped straight into the chasm.
"Awooo!"
The frightened howl echoed from below.
"Arcanine!"
Blaze's expression finally shifted.
RUMBLE!
The fissure slammed shut.
Arcanine's barking vanished beneath the grinding earth as the two sides crushed together.
A moment later, the battlefield heaved again.
The ground opened just enough to force Arcanine back to the surface.
Spirals filled its eyes.
It was unable to battle.
The King of Dogs had fallen.
Fissure was an OHKO move. Its base accuracy was only thirty percent, but when it connected, that was it.
Low odds.
But once you fell in, you were cooked.
Arcanine had taken Ting-Lu's entire sequence head-on and paid for it.
"Arcanine is unable to battle! Blaze, send out your next Pokémon!"
For the first time in the match, the referee's flag pointed toward Blaze's side.
"Yes! Great job, Ting-Lu!"
Asher could not hide his excitement.
It had taken almost everything he had just to win a single round, but he had finally beaten one of Blaze's Pokémon.
Blaze recalled Arcanine and smiled.
"Not bad. You've got some skill."
"Heh... got lucky."
Asher rubbed his nose, looking almost embarrassed.
"Luck counts too."
Blaze reached for another Poké Ball and tossed it onto the field.
"Come out, Incineroar!"
Light burst outward.
A towering black-and-red tiger Pokémon appeared on two legs, flames blazing around its waist.
It was enormous.
An ordinary Incineroar stood around 1.8 meters tall. This one was at least 2.2, with a crimson, crown-like marking across its forehead that only made it look even more imposing.
Like a king among tigers.
"ROOOAR!"
Incineroar opened its jaws and roared at Ting-Lu.
The pressure alone made Ting-Lu take a step back. Its posture visibly faltered.
That looked like Intimidate.
Aaron immediately called up the System panel.
Just how much had Blaze been hiding?
[Name: Incineroar (Tiger King)]
[Gender: Male]
[Nature: Naughty]
[Type: Fire/Dark]
[Ability: Tiger King Intimidation — When Incineroar enters battle, the opposing Pokémon's Attack and Defense fall by one stage. Close-range moves gain 30% power.]
[Base Stats Total: 530]
[Level: Gym (Late Stage)]
[Potential: Champion]
[Known Moves: Darkest Lariat (Perfect), Flare Blitz (Perfect), Fire Fang (Perfect), Bulk Up (Perfect), Throat Chop (Perfect), Taunt (Master), Cross Chop (Master), Flamethrower (Master), Fake Out (Master), Fire Punch (Master), Thunder Punch (Master), Crunch (Master), Iron Head (Proficient), Drain Punch (Proficient), Mega Punch (Proficient)...]
[Description: Incineroar, the Heel Pokémon and a king among tigers. It has a domineering personality, loves causing trouble, and lives for battle.]
...
Aaron stared at the panel.
Another unique Ability.
Tiger King.
It was clearly the same kind of phenomenon as Arcanine's Dog King trait: an exceptional individual born as the natural leader of its species.
Pokémon like that would rarely appear unless the population was large enough in the first place.
And the Flame Family apparently controlled a Fire-type secret zone populated almost entirely by Fire-type Pokémon.
With a resource like that, the odds of exceptional king-class individuals emerging were naturally much higher.
That was what resources meant in this world.
Powerful families fought over secret zones for exactly that reason. So did entire countries.
Resources became strength, and strength decided who could hold on to what they already had. If a group stopped competing while everyone around it kept growing stronger, sooner or later someone would come to take those resources by force.
That competition was one of the reasons the international situation remained so tense.
No one wanted to fall behind.
In the end, a country that fell too far behind risked being swallowed by a stronger one.