After all, Blaziken had consud a Blaze Stone, an Ultimate Fire-type treasure, which doubled the power of its Flathrower. Combined with the fact that it was already Champion-level…
tagross’s Protect finally shattered under the relentless Flathrower, and its body was instantly engulfed in flas.
"Yes!"
One of the Pannar officials couldn't help but exclaim upon seeing this.
Naturally, he wanted their Champion to win, so when he saw tagross get hit by the Flathrower, he couldn't contain his excitent.
But then it occurred to him—if their Champion defeated Julian, wouldn't that an Julian wasn't as strong as their Champion? And if that were the case, how would he handle the secret realm riot?
So… did he want their Champion to win or lose?
He was conflicted.
"ta!"
A surge of powerful psychic energy erupted from tagross, dispersing the flas and revealing its body, now slightly reddened from the heat.
The Flathrower, enhanced by the Blaze Stone, wasn't just twice as powerful—the temperature itself had beco far more extre.
"Ken?"
Blaziken stared at tagross in surprise. It had expected the opponent to show at least so signs of injury after being hit by that Flathrower.
But now, aside from being slightly discolored by the heat, tagross didn't seem hurt at all.
If the Flathrower had lasted just a bit longer, it might have dealt significant damage.
"Steel Beam!"
A silver-white beam of light tore through the air, streaking toward Blaziken.
BOOM!!
Blaziken failed to dodge in ti and was sent flying by the attack. The intense pain made its vision blur.
"ta!"
tagross instantly vanished with Teleport.
Blaziken caught the movent out of the corner of its eye and imdiately began darting rapidly across the battlefield, trying to make it impossible for tagross to lock onto its position.
"Earthquake!" Julian commanded.
Faced with an Earthquake, Blaziken's first instinct was to leap into the air.
Just as it jumped, tagross landed, and the battlefield began to shake violently.
Within seconds, the entire arena was reduced to rubble.
"Brave Bird!" Omar shouted.
Blaziken, still in mid-air, beca enveloped in a fiery, fla-like energy, its aura roaring as the air cracked apart. And Blaziken transford into a soaring crimson bird, sowhat reminiscent of Moltres.
"Hamr Arm!"
tagross charged forward to et the Brave Bird head-on, its massive arm glowing with brilliant white light.
BOOM!!!
tagross's left arm blocked the Brave Bird with Hamr Arm, the impact driving its body into the ground. But that didn't stop it from using Hamr Arm with its other hand.
Since the ground had already been shattered by tagross's earlier Earthquake, the impact of the Brave Bird was minimized.
Seeing this, Omar couldn’t help but sigh in realization—he had been outplayed.
At first, he thought Julian had ordered tagross to use Earthquake rely to disrupt Blaziken’s movents. If that were the only goal, there were plenty of other, less costly moves that could have done the sa—like Psychic or tal Sound. Using Earthquake seed like an overkill.
But now it was clear: Julian had used Earthquake to destroy the battlefield, anticipating that Blaziken would jump into the air to avoid the tremors, and that Omar would seize the opportunity to have it use Brave Bird.
And so, here they were.
tagross’s right arm ca crashing down with a brutal Hamr Arm.
With a deafening boom, Blaziken—transford into the fiery bird—was smashed into the ground.
tagross was about to follow up with another Hamr Arm, but Julian's voice rang out:
"That's enough, tagross."
tagross halted, glancing back at Julian in confusion—as if asking, 'Aren't we going to finish it?'
Since tagross didn't press the attack, Blaziken managed to leap out from the crater. It was clearly injured from the Hamr Arm, but still in decent condition.
"Blaziken, stand down as well," Omar said.
The two trainers had called off the battle, leaving one Pannar official confused: "Why did they stop? The outco hasn't been decided yet."
"You want them to keep fighting?" another official clutched his chest, groaning. "If this continues, our funds for the next half of year will be completely drained."
So much funding burned away in a single sparring match—funds that could have built miles of railways and highways.
"This was only a spar. If tagross and Blaziken truly fought to the end, one of them would inevitably end up gravely injured."
Ambassador David explained calmly, with a faint smile on his face. Although he was an ambassador, he was also an early-stage Elite trainer himself.
"And tagross and Blaziken are the ace Pokémon of Julian and Omar. They can’t afford to be injured when there are greater tasks ahead."
His instincts were sharp, and he could tell that tagross was stronger than Blaziken.
This match wasn’t about deciding victory or defeat—it was Julian displaying his strength.
And besides, no one would truly benefit if a winner was forced.
"…Ah, I see," the confused official replied, finally understanding.
The other Pannar officials, however, looked at him as if he were a fool. Did he really think the two intended to fight to the bitter end?
How had soone with this level of poor judgnt even risen to their rank?
With the spar concluded, the protective barrier was deactivated.
tagross and Blaziken both returned to the sides of their respective trainers.
"How was it?" Julian asked.
"ta~"
tagross: "Its strength is decent."
From what Blaziken had shown so far, tagross was confident it could defeat it—though it might take a bit of ti. Content originally cos from noveⅼfire
On the other side, Omar was asking Blaziken the sa question.
Blaziken: "Where did you find this monster? If it hadn’t pulled back just now, one more Hamr Arm and I’d probably be done for."
Omar had long since developed a bond with Blaziken, enough that even without psychic abilities he could understand its words.
For a so-called mid-stage Pseudo-Champion, to be stronger than itself—a full-fledged Champion… it had completely shattered Blaziken's understanding of what a Pseudo-Champion was capable of.
"John's grandson. That tagross is the offspring of that old guy's tagross."
Blaziken suddenly recalled the scene of it being hamred into the ground by that very tagross decades ago. The corner of its mouth twitched involuntarily.
'Damn, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree—this one's even more of a monster than that guy.'
Although there had been no clear winner, Omar knew perfectly well that if the battle continued, Blaziken would have most likely lost.
He sighed inwardly at Julian’s overwhelming power despite his youth—but at the sa ti, he felt relieved. After all, if Julian wasn’t this strong, how could he possibly help them resolve the Secret Realm riot?
Blaziken: "That one really hurt…"
It rubbed its chest as it spoke.
It was genuinely injured—whether tagross had suffered any real damage though, remained unknown.
tagross simply remarked that aside from feeling a bit overheated from the earlier Flathrower, it was otherwise perfectly fine.
*****
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