As soon as Blaziken landed, Lucario used Extreme 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.
"Flamethrower!"
Right after dodging Lucario's Bullet Punch, Blaziken unleashed a stream of searing flames from its mouth. At such close range, Lucario had no time to dodge.
Of course, Lucario never intended to. Instead, it gathered an Aura Sphere in its hands.
The Flamethrower struck Lucario, but at the same time, it launched the Aura Spherestraight 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 meters.
Meanwhile, Lucario, having just been hit by the Flamethrower, didn't immediately pursue.
"Blaziken, Swords Dance!" Scott commanded.
Whether it was the initial Mega Punch or the recent Flamethrower, 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 shameless.' 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 shameless 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 meters of Lucario, its long leg ignited with raging flames.
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 immediately unleashed a relentless barrage of attacks. The bone staff became 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 overwhelmed, even though their levels weren't far apart.
The flames 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, something unexpected happened—Blaziken, which had been taking hits this entire time, 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 slammed 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 meters away one moment—then right in front of Lucario the next. It closed the distance in a flash.
Just as the flames of Fire Blast dissipated, Lucario was met with a Flare Blitz at nearly point-blank range. The distance between them was less than ten meters.
BOOM!!
A pillar of fire erupted, the impact shaking the entire protective dome. The deafening blast left the battlefield shrouded in smoke, obscuring everyone's view.
"Lucario's probably done for," someone in the crowd muttered.
After taking both Fire Blast and Flare Blitz—two extremely powerful Fire-type moves—the damage to Lucario, who was doubly weak to Fire, should've been immense.
Many spectators nodded in agreement, convinced Lucario had lost.
But as soon as those words were spoken, a figure was sent flying out of the smoke—Blaziken.
Immediately 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 emerged from the fading smoke, walking forward with steady steps.
"How… is that possible?!"
Aside from some 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 meant its resistance to damage was also three times 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 Mega Evolution on his Charizard earlier. In official matches, trainers could only Mega Evolve once.
And even if a second use was allowed, he no longer had the mental strength to do it again—the first Mega 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 times 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 measure 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—sometimes even entire tiers, in battle.
In those cases, levels alone were no longer a reliable measure 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 member of Julian's team.
It was his second Pokémon.
Recalling Lucario, Julian sent out his fifth Pokémon.
Boom!
As the Poké Ball burst open, the ground trembled slightly with the Pokémon's arrival.
An enormous, silver-armored, and fierce-looking behemoth appeared on the battlefield.
---
Pokémon: Aggron (Steel/Rock)
Level: 75
Potential: Blue
Ability: Heavy Metal
Held Item: Metal Coat
Gender: Male
Moves: Roar, Tackle, Harden, Headbutt, Protect, Iron Head, Metal Burst, Rock Tomb, Metal Claw, Earth Power, Take Down, Iron Defense, Double-Edge, Metal Sound, Autotomize
TMs: Earthquake, Sandstorm, Dig, Shock Wave, Rock Slide, Rock Smash, Water Pulse, Dragon Claw, Focus Punch, Iron Tail, Thunderbolt, Flamethrower, Mega Punch, Mega Kick, Fire Punch, Ice Punch, Thunder Punch, Stone Edge, Wide Guard, Reckless, Hyper Beam, Giga Impact, Sand Tomb, Bulldoze, Hydro Pump, Stomping Tantrum, Body Press, High Horsepower
Egg Moves: Stomp, Heavy Slam, Endeavor, Dragon Rush
Note: Has become a Totem Pokémon after absorbing the Soul of Totem.
Note: After absorbing the Blacklight Core, the Pokémon continuously absorbs sunlight to restore its stamina (limited to Steel- and Rock-types)
---
The steel titan Aggron stood tall, its seven-meter-tall frame inspiring both awe and an unshakable sense of invincibility. Just looking at it gave off an oppressive feeling of impenetrable defense.
Scott's expression darkened. Even without battling, it was obvious just how absurdly durable this Aggron was.
Worse yet, Aggron's Rock typing negated Fire's usual advantage, meaning Fire-type moves would deal neutral damage.
However, Fighting- and Ground-type attacks would deal 4x damage, and even Water-types would do 2x.
Unfortunately, Scott was a pure Fire-type specialist. He hadn't trained any Pokémon with secondary types—every member on his team was Fire-type.
And if Aggron were to Mega Evolve, its ability would change to Filter, which reduces the damage taken from super-effective moves by 25%. And it would also become a pure Steel-type.
Which meant aside from Electric, Dark, Water, and Ghost moves, which would still deal normal (1x) damage, all the super-effective moves would be reduced to 1.5x damage. Plus all its other natural resistances.
This kind of absurd, almost broken damage reduction made Mega Aggron the most defensively formidable non-Legendary Pokémon in existence.
And Julian's Aggron? It was essentially an upgraded version of an already monstrous species.
After all, this was a Pokémon that had already tanked Champion-level attacks.
Every time Jake saw this Totem Aggron, his expression turned odd. After all, he'd been the one to give Julian this Pokémon when it was just a little Aron.
Back then, it definitely wasn't a Totem-class Pokémon. So how had it become one under his son's care?
If this wasn't his own son, Jake would've long since dug out the secret behind its transformation.
Meanwhile, Scott also sent out his fifth Pokémon.
---
Pokémon: Typhlosion (Fire)
Level: 78
Potential: Cyan
Ability: Blaze
Held Item: Charcoal
Gender: Female
Moves: Tackle, Gyro Ball, Leer, Smokescreen, Ember, Eruption, Quick Attack, Flame Wheel, Defense Curl, Flame Charge, Lava Plume, Flamethrower, Inferno, Rollout, Overheat
TMs: Protect, Fire Fang, Fire Spin, Body Slam, Fire Punch, Endure, Fire Blast, Fire Pledge, Earthquake, Incinerate, Heavy Slam, Blast Burn, Focus Blast
Egg Moves: Extrasensory, Double Kick, Will-O-Wisp, Swift
---
Typhlosion made a grand entrance—flames swirling, posture fierce—but its under-two-meter frame paled in comparison to the seven-meter steel colossus looming before it.
The moment Typhlosion laid eyes on Aggron, it froze.
Typhlosion: "What the heck have you been eating to get that big?"
It had fought Aggrons before, but none this massive.
Aggron: "Three meals a day. Plenty of naps."
Typhlosion: (⊙﹏⊙)
Feeling like it was being mocked, Typhlosion instantly launched a Flamethrower straight at Aggron.
Flames engulfed the motionless steel titan in an instant.
Typhlosion: "Let's see you burn to ashes!"
But half a minute later, the flames dissipated—revealing Aggron utterly untouched, not even a scorch mark on its armor.
Unwilling to give up, Typhlosion launched another Flamethrower but the result was exactly the same—zero damage.
Aggron had once taken a direct Champion-level hit from Tapu Bulu, which dented its abdominal armor.
But as the saying goes: 'what doesn't break you makes you stronger'. After recovering from that injury, Aggron's defense had risen to an entirely new level.
At this point, even Metagross would need serious effort to break through that iron wall.
Typhlosion thinking it could scratch it with Flamethrower? Laughable.
All the flames did was maybe make Aggron feel a little warm.
"Typhlosion, Earthquake!"
Scott finally stopped Typhlosion from wasting any more energy.
Earthquake was a Ground-type nuke—no way Aggron could just tank it.
Julian: 'It could tank it… but why bother?'
"Earthquake!"
Julian gave the same command.
But even though both sides used Earthquake, in terms of strength and sheer body mass, the two weren't remotely comparable.
Typhlosion's quake barely made a ripple, while Aggron's Earthquake tore the battlefield apart.
The ground shattered, cracks split across the arena, and debris flew everywhere. With just one move, Aggron had completely demolished the battlefield.
As for Typhlosion—caught in the quake like a tiny boat in a raging sea—it didn't fall over, but was left stumbling all over the place.
By the time the tremors stopped, Typhlosion was heavily injured, panting and struggling to stay on its feet.
Seeing the situation, Scott honestly wanted to just forfeit on the spot. But as the examiner, he didn't have the right to surrender—only the person being evaluated had that privilege.
And which now seemed... absolute bullshit.
"Typhlosion, Focus Blast!"
"Metal Sound."
Scott's face froze immediately.
Julian had predicted his move.
Under the screeching distortion of Metal Sound, Typhlosion's Focus Blast fizzled out, its face twisting in discomfort as its Special Defense dropped sharply.
Predicting Scott's move was simple.
Since the Ground-type attack didn't work against Aggron, so Fighting-type was the only option—and Focus Blast was the strongest Fighting move Typhlosion had.
"Hyper Beam."
A searing gold beam lanced across the battlefield, hurling Typhlosion backward. By the time it hit the ground, it was out cold.
And the entire time? Aggron hadn't moved a single step.
It wasn't that it refused to move—it's just that its opponent never gave it a reason to.
Besides, given Aggron's less-than-stellar Speed, why move if you don't need to?
Recalling Typhlosion with a resigned sigh, Scott—now having lost five battles in a row—had finally calmed down.
'Today was just going to be humiliating. Whatever.'
Aggron turned to Julian, its expression almost disappointed, as if to say: 'That's it? It's already over? I haven't even warmed up yet.'
"How about another round?"
Julian's response was to silently raise its Poké Ball.
Off to the side, several spectators gaped. Aggron's performance had completely redefined their concept of defense.
If it were them, even sending out all their ace Pokémon—they still might not be able to crack through that thing's armor.