As soon as Blaziken landed, Lucario used Extre Speed to close the distance, throwing a glowing white Bullet Punch in a flash, but Blaziken reacted quickly—it narrowly dodged the attack despite the surprise.
“Flathrower!”
Right after dodging Lucario's Bullet Punch, Blaziken unleashed a stream of searing flas from its mouth. At such close range, Lucario had no ti to dodge.
Of course, Lucario never intended to. Instead, it gathered an Aura Sphere in its hands.
The Flathrower struck Lucario, but at the sa ti, it launched the Aura Sphere straight at Blaziken.
"Ken!"
Blaziken cried out in pain as the Aura Sphere exploded on impact, the force of the blast sending it flying back dozens of ters.
anwhile, Lucario, having just been hit by the Flathrower, didn’t imdiately pursue.
"Blaziken, Swords Dance!" Scott commanded.
Whether it was the initial ga Punch or the recent Flathrower, neither of Blaziken’s moves had dealt significant damage to Lucario. So it needed an attack boost.
Swords Dance was successfully executed.
"Continue with Swords Dance!"
Julian glanced at Scott, a bit speechless—'Now that’s just shaless.' Out of respect for Scott being his elder, he hadn't interrupted the first Swords Dance with Lucario to spare him an embarrassing defeat. But now he was stacking it again?
Swords Dance enhanced a Pokémon’s attack power, and if the Pokémon’s body was strong enough, it could even perform multiple Swords Dances in succession.
Outside the battlefield, Jake muttered, "This guy’s just as shaless as he was back in university..."
The second Swords Dance completed, and Blaziken, now feeling invigorated, kicked off the ground, charging at Lucario with renewed confidence.
Blaze Kick!!
When it got within five or six ters of Lucario, its long leg ignited with raging flas.
Lucario spread its arms wide, summoning a bone staff into its grip. With a horizontal block, it intercepted the Blaze Kick.
Even with two Swords Dances boosting its strength, Blaziken still wasn’t powerful enough to overpower Lucario in terms of raw force.
Bone Rush!
After blocking the Blaze Kick, Lucario imdiately unleashed a relentless barrage of attacks. The bone staff beca a blur, striking Blaziken like a storm of blows, one after another.
Blaziken was forced back repeatedly, with Lucario pressing forward, leaving it no room to counter or evade.
"Ken...!"
Never before had Blaziken felt such despair. Despite giving its all, it was still being overwheld, even though their levels weren’t far apart.
The flas around Blaziken's wrists didn’t weaken during the onslaught of Bone Rush—on the contrary, they began to surge even stronger.
Lucario could also sense the rising intensity of Blaziken's aura.
As the final blow of Bone Rush jabbed toward Blaziken’s chest, sothing unexpected happened—Blaziken, which had been taking hits this entire ti, suddenly grabbed the staff with its claws.
Fire Blast!
Caught off guard, Lucario was struck head-on by the searing explosion. The force of the attack sent it skidding backward until it slamd against the battlefield's protective barrier.
"Blaziken, Flare Blitz!" Scott called out, sensing a real chance to defeat Lucario.
Thanks to its Speed Boost ability, Blaziken had grown significantly faster over the course of the battle.
Three hundred ters away one mont—then right in front of Lucario the next. It closed the distance in a flash.
Just as the flas of Fire Blast dissipated, Lucario was t with a Flare Blitz at nearly point-blank range. The distance between them was less than ten ters.
BOOM!!
A pillar of fire erupted, the impact shaking the entire protective do. The deafening blast left the battlefield shrouded in smoke, obscuring everyone’s view.
"Lucario’s probably done for," soone in the crowd muttered.
After taking both Fire Blast and Flare Blitz—two extrely powerful Fire-type moves—the damage to Lucario, who was doubly weak to Fire, should’ve been imnse.
Many spectators nodded in agreent, convinced Lucario had lost.
But as soon as those words were spoken, a figure was sent flying out of the smoke—Blaziken.
Imdiately after, a blue Aura Sphere shot out from the haze, slamming into the airborne Blaziken and smashing it hard against the protective barrier with a bang.
Finally, Lucario erged from the fading smoke, walking forward with steady steps.
"How… is that possible?!"
Aside from so singed fur, Lucario showed no visible signs of injury—its stance was firm, like nothing even happened.
Thanks to the Ultimate Fighting-type treasure, Spirit of Combat, Lucario’s overall physical stats had been tripled.
And the treasure’s energy wasn’t even fully depleted yet. There was still potential for a fourfold increase in the future.
A threefold boost to its durability ant its resistance to damage was also three tis greater. Combined with its Steel typing, which already gave it high defense.
So, even though Fire-type moves were super effective, Blaziken’s current strength was nowhere near enough to bring it down.
Plus, Scott had already used his one permitted ga Evolution on his Charizard earlier. In official matches, trainers could only ga Evolve once.
And even if a second use was allowed, he no longer had the ntal strength to do it again—the first ga Evolution had already drained him dry.
Sliding down the protective barrier, Blaziken barely managed to open its eyes. It stared at Lucario, who was slowly approaching, its heart filled with unwillingness and frustration. Its trembling hands tried to push itself up again and again...
But no matter how many tis it tried, it couldn't rise.
Right now, its body felt as heavy as a mountain.
And then, with one final Bullet Punch from Lucario, Blaziken collapsed completely.
Blaziken was undoubtedly exceptional—even at level 78, it could have easily gone toe-to-toe with most early-stage pseudo-Champion Pokémon.
Unfortunately, its opponent was Lucario—Julian’s Lucario.
Empowered by an Ultimate Fighting-type treasure and honed by Julian’s relentless training and system-enhanced resources, defeating this Lucario would require nothing short of a mid-to-late stage pseudo-Champion-level opponent.
The outside world often liked to use levels to asure a Pokémon’s strength—and usually, that worked. In most cases, a Pokémon’s level did reflect its overall battle capability.
But there were exceptions—the truly exceptional, monstrous ones.
Pokémon like these could leap multiple levels—sotis even entire tiers, in battle.
In those cases, levels alone were no longer a reliable asure of strength.
Recalling Blaziken back into its Poké Ball, Scott looked at the vibrant Lucario standing tall in the arena and couldn't help but feel... defeated.
Even if he sent out his remaining two Pokémon, he doubted he could take this one down.
Lucario’s strength clearly surpassed that of Julian’s previous three Pokémon—that much was obvious to him now.
And he wasn’t wrong.
Because Lucario was stronger—after all, it wasn’t just any mber of Julian’s team.
It was his second Pokémon.
*****
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