When the Aura Sphere reached the middle of the battlefield, Cameron finally spotted it.
"What is that?" he muttered.
"An Aura Sphere? But... why is it so much larger than normal?" Cameron signaled to his Psychic-type Slowking to use Teleport.
The massive Spiral Aura Sphere immediately adjusted course, tracking to Cameron's new position after teleportation.
There was no doubt now, it was indeed an Aura Sphere, one of the rare moves with perfect tracking capabilities.
Against an Aura Sphere, there was only one viable strategy: resistance. Whether through offensive collision or defensive counteraction, one had to face it head-on.
Cameron quickly released another Pokeball. "Electivire! Hyper Beam!"
A humanoid Pokémon with yellow and black stripes materialized, immediately gathering terrifying energy in its mouth before unleashing a devastating beam directly at the approaching Spiral Aura Sphere.
The dazzling aurora of energy erupted with destructive power as it collided with John's attack.
A thunderous explosion followed.
But before Cameron could breathe a sigh of relief, he watched in shock as the massive Aura Sphere emerged through the smoke, virtually unaffected. It struck Electivire squarely in the chest and continued its trajectory toward Cameron himself.
"Is this really an Aura Sphere?" Cameron had never seen such an anomalous version of the attack.
After absorbing a direct hit from Hyper Beam, one of the most powerful moves in existence, the sphere hadn't exploded. Instead, it had pierced straight through and struck Electivire with seemingly undiminished power.
"Teleport!" Cameron urgently commanded Slowking, as the Aura Sphere was now mere feet away.
Cameron vanished and reappeared at a distance, but the sphere drew a graceful arc in midair, flinging the helpless Electivire before it.
The Electric-type Pokémon crashed against the arena wall and slumped to the ground, unconscious.
Murmurs of astonishment rippled through the audience.
"The Aura Sphere absorbed a Hyper Beam without exploding, and it still took down Electivire, a Pokémon not even weak to Fighting-type moves! How devastatingly powerful is this attack?"
Cameron was even more stunned than the spectators. He'd never expected his Electivire to fall to a single hit, regardless of the attack.
"Talonflame, Flamethrower!" he called, hastily releasing his third Pokémon.
The moment the avian Pokémon appeared, it unleashed a torrent of flames at the approaching Aura Sphere.
This time, there wasn't even an explosion. Instead, a strange phenomenon occurred, the Aura Sphere seemed to stand firm against the Flamethrower, obliterating and penetrating the flames without resistance.
Then it slammed heavily into Talonflame's body, just as it had with Electivire, and continued toward Cameron with the bird Pokémon pushed before it.
"Is this thing unstoppable?" Cameron gritted his teeth in disbelief. "No, I refuse to accept that!"
"Slowking, use Light Screen!"
Cameron finally stopped retreating. He chose to confront this monstrous Aura Sphere head-on.
Slowking teleported directly in front of Cameron and made a sweeping gesture with its hands, teleporting away the Talonflame that was being carried by the sphere's momentum.
The teleported Talonflame appeared elsewhere in the arena, already unconscious from the impact.
Immediately afterward, Slowking crossed its arms across its chest, and a shimmering barrier materialized before them both, like an iridescent wall standing between them and certain defeat.
In the next moment, the Spiral Aura Sphere made contact with the Light Screen.
The sound was reminiscent of a razor-sharp circular saw cutting through glass, the barrier visibly warped and strained under the pressure.
BOOM!
A sudden, catastrophic explosion rocked the entire arena.
The unleashed power erupted instantly, sending out violent shockwaves that shattered Slowking's Light Screen completely and sent both the Pokémon and Cameron flying backward. Trees within twenty meters were severed by the impact, their trunks cleanly sliced through.
When the dust settled, Slowking lay motionless on the ground, unconscious. Cameron himself was sprawled nearby, knocked out cold by the concussive force.
"Good heavens..."
Several Gym Leaders rose to their feet in shock.
That colossal Aura Sphere had been utterly unprecedented. It had plowed through Electivire and its Hyper Beam, then Talonflame and its Flamethrower, and finally Slowking's Light Screen. After all that, its explosion had still carried enough force to knock out both Slowking and Cameron instantly.
No one doubted Cameron's strength as a veteran Gym Leader. He was a regular competitor in the Ranking Tournament, and many present had faced him in battle before.
Yet this respected Gym Leader had been defeated by a single attack from John's Hariyama.
It was almost beyond belief.
Even John hadn't fully anticipated such a devastating outcome.
During training at home, Hariyama had performed the Spiral Aura Sphere just once before. After penetrating all objects within a hundred meters, it had exploded underground, excavating soil in a hundred-meter radius and creating a crater large enough to serve as a swimming pool if filled with water.
But the truly remarkable aspect wasn't just the raw power, it was the penetration capability.
The outer structure of Hariyama's Spiral Aura Sphere had demonstrated unexpected stability.
By conventional wisdom, a standard Aura Sphere would naturally explode upon collision with solid objects or energy fields. A Spiral Aura Sphere should have been even more volatile, as the irregularly spiraling aura energy would typically be highly unstable, that was the source of its tremendous destructive potential.
After careful consideration, John could reach only one conclusion.
When Hariyama formed the Spiral Aura Sphere, it had reinforced the outer structure to prevent disintegration from the irregular spiral rotation during flight. For the Hyper Spiral variant, this reinforcement was even more critical.
The final explosion had occurred only when the outer structure of the Spiral Aura Sphere was finally compromised, releasing the chaotic, rotating aura energy contained within.
This unique construction gave the attack both penetrating and explosive capabilities. Combined with the Fighting-type's natural effectiveness against certain Pokémon...
The extraordinary power now made perfect sense.
This was a specialized Aura Sphere that Hariyama had developed independently, a genuine innovation.
John made a mental note to conduct further testing once they returned home to confirm his theory.
The medical specialist who had been observing the match rushed forward to check on Cameron's condition.
After confirming that he was merely stunned by the shockwave rather than seriously injured, the medic signaled to the referee.
The referee promptly made his announcement:
"Cameron West of Stormridge Gym is unable to battle. The victory goes to John of Grassmere Gym!"