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"How could this happen?!"
Homura stared at what had moments ago been a guaranteed victory, only for Kadabra to forcefully reverse the situation. His mind failed to process it, and he let out an unwilling roar.
At the same time, Sato—who had enabled Kadabra to turn the tables through Teleport and telekinesis—had a flash of blue light in his eyes. In an instant, he and all the Pokémon around him vanished from where they stood.
The Team Magma members behind Homura finally understood what was happening—but unfortunately, those kept in the dark by Homura couldn't react nearly as quickly as Sato. They didn't even have time to release their Pokémon for defense.
Helplessly, they either dove for cover or threw themselves to the ground, scrambling to avoid the blast. At the same time, they hurriedly pulled out special protective gear from their spatial backpacks and put it on, trying to minimize the damage from the impending explosion.
Just as Sato used Teleport to escape the cave with his Pokémon—
Boom!!!
A deafening explosion erupted from within. A massive fire dragon burst out from the cave entrance, surging into the night sky before rapidly dissipating.
The unstable Fire-type energy stone contained astonishing power. Its detonation was devastating. By the time the flames settled, the cave had been reduced to scorched earth, the temperature still terrifyingly high.
"Harm others, harm yourself."
Sato stared grimly at the cave still radiating heat waves. While shocked by the stone's power, he also felt a surge of hatred at Homura's ruthlessness.
If he hadn't possessed detection abilities, he might truly have died in there. The lesson was clear—never casually touch something handed over by a stranger. Otherwise, you might not even know how you died.
Once the cave's temperature dropped to a survivable level, Sato prepared to head inside. He estimated that the explosion likely hadn't killed the Team Magma members.
After all, they were experts in fire. Carrying powerful fire-resistant equipment was only natural. Even if they hadn't died, they were surely severely injured.
All he needed to do now was clean up the battlefield.
As for Homura—Sato would never let him go. Alive or dead, he would confirm it himself. Since the man had tried to kill him, Sato would return the favor. Letting a tiger return to the mountains was not something he would ever do.
And indeed, just as Sato had predicted, none of the Team Magma members had died in the explosion. Even Homura, who had been closest to the blast, had suffered only moderate burns.
At the critical moment, his Torkoal had acted—slamming into him with a forceful Take Down to knock him away from the blast center, then using Protect to shield the others from most of the explosion's power.
However, the temperature generated by the unstable Fire-type stone was too extreme. Aside from Homura, who had been pushed away in time, the others were left severely burned—even though they had deployed advanced heat-resistant cloaks developed by their organization.
As soon as Sato entered the cave, he immediately spotted his enemy.
Homura's simple-looking face was now scorched. Most of his clothes had burned away, exposing large patches of blistered skin. His hair was completely gone. Yet despite his injuries, he hadn't fainted. He was struggling to rise to his feet.
"Pikachu, use Thunderbolt."
When enemies meet, hatred burns bright. The moment Sato recognized Homura, killing intent flashed coldly in his eyes. He immediately ordered Pikachu to strike without mercy.
Pikachu responded at once, unleashing a powerful surge of electricity at Homura.
"Now! Do it!"
Facing Sato's attack, Homura remained strangely calm. A twisted smile appeared on his burned face as he shouted.
In the next second, a level 62 Camerupt burst up from the ground in front of him, blocking Pikachu's attack. Immediately after, it unleashed a massive pillar of fire toward Sato.
At the same time, what appeared to be an ordinary rock to Sato's right suddenly oozed crimson lava. A level 59 Magcargo shed its disguise and also spat out a towering column of flames.
Clearly, Homura had anticipated that Sato wouldn't spare him. He had deliberately used himself as bait to set this trap.
Unfortunately for him, such a trap might have worked against ordinary Trainers—but his opponent was Sato, a Psychic with formidable self-preservation abilities.
The instant Sato sensed something wrong, blue light flashed in his eyes again. He and his surrounding Pokémon vanished from their positions. Camerupt and Magcargo's ambush was effortlessly nullified.
When Sato reappeared with his Pokémon, they were already more than two meters away.
"Damn it! Cursed Psychic! Camerupt, Magcargo—kill him!"
Seeing Sato once again evade perfectly with Teleport, Homura's burned face twisted into something even more grotesque. He screamed madly for his Pokémon to attack.
"Hmph. Pointless struggle. Come out, Nidoking. Use Earth Power—send them off."
Sato would not give Homura another opportunity. He immediately released his strongest combat force—his level 56 Nidoking—and issued the attack command.
In the next moment, Nidoking's massive body stepped in front of Sato. The instant it appeared, it slammed both hands into the ground. A massive ochre-colored energy barrier surged up before it, blocking most of Camerupt and Magcargo's incoming fire attacks.
Then, two enormous earthen energy pillars burst upward beneath Camerupt and Magcargo, precisely enveloping them in the crushing force of Earth Power, dealing sustained Ground-type damage.
Neither Camerupt nor Magcargo possessed high Special Defense. Now struck by a powerful move that exploited their type weaknesses, they suffered tremendous damage.
Especially Magcargo—quadruple weak to Ground-type attacks. It couldn't even endure until the Earth Power pillars subsided before collapsing from the overwhelming force.
As for Camerupt, it lasted only slightly longer. In the end, it too fell, unable to withstand Nidoking's devastating output.