Chapter 870: Do I Resemble You Even a Little Now?
Thud, thud, thud!
The ponderous footfalls of Scizor echoed across the plains.
Following the grotesque mutation of his flesh, his weight had grown even heavier.
On the other side.
Shadow resembled a streak of lightning, sweeping toward Scizor from hundreds of meters away.
That velocity would make anyone's scalp tingle with sheer dread.
Boom——!!
Shadow slammed a single foot into the earth.
A torrential surge of Grass-type energy flooded into this barren, desolate soil.
The next instant.
Enormous pillars of woven grass, dozens of meters high, erupted violently from the ground, resembling the life-devouring tentacles of some legendary eldritch beast.
And the instant this grove of pillars manifested.
The silhouettes from both sides crashed straight into it in unison.
Blurring into two streaks of light—one crimson, one verdant green.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~
The sharp whistle of displaced atmosphere reverberated endlessly.
The distance between the two streaks of light rapidly closed.
And the moment those streaks converged.
The world seemed to blur, tumbling back across the span of time to that sunlit afternoon four hundred years ago.
Only.
This time was different.
Slash!
Shadow's claws grazed past Scizor's ear as he tilted his head aside to evade the strike.
And Scizor's fist slammed squarely, flawlessly into Her chest.
Bang!
The green silhouette was blasted backward through the air, crashing clean through a thick pillar of grass before finally grinding to a halt.
Master...
I used to copy you, practicing this move over and over...
After all, my dream as a youngster was to become a cool Pokémon just like you.
Watching that recoiling figure.
The shattered fragments within Scizor's eyes slowly coalesced back into focused pupils.
Though still webbed with hairline fractures, the light of his own sovereign consciousness shone through once more.
"Cough, cough... You bastard..."
Shadow coughed twice, pushing Herself up from the earth.
The strike had dealt little actual physical damage.
However.
The wound to Her pride was immense.
She never imagined.
That She would actually lose to Scizor at this specific technique.
On what grounds?!
She was Kazuya's daughter!
When She first saw this technique executed, Scizor hadn't even been born!
How could She possibly lose?!
Whoosh~
A frigid, biting wind howled across the plain.
The dark energy cloaking Shadow reignited with fury, completely swallowing Her silhouette once more.
"Scizor——!!"
Shadow's roar cut through space itself, tearing straight into Scizor's ears.
The piercing sonic wave drove into his skull like needles.
Yet his expression remained utterly unchanged, as if entirely severed from physical pain, merely murmuring under his breath: "Come to think of it, I've never beaten you once."
The outcome this time around.
Would probably be the exact same.
Even so.
He felt no fear.
Scizor flared the colossal cicada wings protruding from his back, rising steadily into the sky.
Looking ahead.
Shadow rode the surging torrent of dark energy, flying straight at him.
"I, the chief disciple of the Hero of the Leaves, come in the name of justice to strike down the evil that is you!"
"In this battle, I will not run!"
"Either you die, or I die!"
Scizor threw his arms wide, hurtling full-throttle toward that billow of encroaching darkness.
A crimson comet blazed across every corner of the Hoenn continent.
Gallantly charging headlong into that boundless abyss.
Hum~
Crimson collided with pitch-black.
Violent shockwave after shockwave surged outward in all directions.
The gaunt, crimson figure was the first to plummet toward the earth, yet he managed to arrest his momentum by a hair's breadth just before slamming into the dirt.
Shadow followed right behind.
Trailing an endless squall of black petals in Her wake.
Petals stripped of their natural hues, dyed entirely in shadow.
Petal Blizzard.
Petal after petal sliced toward Scizor like razor-sharp blades.
Scizor raised the four arms jutting from his torso, driving his fists directly into the storm of incoming petals.
Bullet Punch.
Fists like machine-gun fire hammered out in a blur, grinding every petal to dust.
Even though Scizor possessed a quadruple resistance to Grass-type moves.
He still sustained catastrophic damage.
After all, the sheer disparity in raw base stats was an unbridgeable gulf.
Seizing the opening while Scizor was pinned down.
Shadow materialized behind his back.
A claw slashed out.
Night Slash.
Razor-sharp talons raked across Scizor's back.
Gouging deep trenches into that rigid scarlet steel carapace.
Followed instantly by a vicious kick to drive the blow home.
Spite.
Bang!
Scizor spat out a mouthful of blood, rocketing forward like an artillery shell.
A cruel smirk played on Shadow's lips as She kicked off, staying right on his tail.
In the blink of an eye.
Her silhouette appeared right above Scizor.
A foot stomped downward.
Rumble——!!
The earth convulsed.
The entire Hoenn continent seemed to sink an inch into the sea.
With this single stomp.
Yet another crater spanning over a kilometer wide was blasted into this scarred, battered land.
Looking into the depths of the pit.
One of the mutated arms across Scizor's frame had been stomped completely flat.
A corner of the fractured pupils in his eyes shattered away.
Then, with a sudden surge, he forced himself upright.
Rip!
Tearing the pinned arm free with brute force.
Scizor swung his remaining limbs, carving a slash toward Shadow.
Caught off guard by Scizor's sheer savagery, She took an X-Scissor squarely across Her body.
Just how devastating a quadruple-effective Bug-type move was against a Meowscarada.
Shadow already knew all too well from Her memories.
In Her youth.
She had utterly despised being struck by Scizor's Bug-type techniques.
And now.
Even though Her raw power surpassed Scizor's by leagues.
She still registered the searing, agonizing bite of the strike.
This sent Shadow into a fit of unbridled rage.
It had been so long since She last felt pain, yet today She had been wounded time and again.
Facing the fist Scizor swung once more.
Shadow met it with a Brick Break and a Shadow Claw, the twin cleaves cleanly shearing away the rest of Scizor's arms.
Immediately, She manifested a wooden sprig between Her claws, thrusting it forward.
Squelch!
The slender branch punched clean through Scizor's chest.
Splitting his pupils clean down the middle.
His jaws moved, seemingly murmuring faint, unintelligible words.
A second later.
Instead of retreating.
Scizor stepped forward, allowing the branch to pierce completely through his heart, and lunged in to sink his teeth viciously into Shadow's neck.
Bug Bite.
"Aaargh!"
Shadow clamped Her claws around Scizor's head, yanking backward with violent force.
Tearing skin and sinew.
Scizor tore away an entire chunk of flesh from Shadow's neck.
Pitch-black blood dripped down from his jaws, spattering onto the earth.
He casually spat the tainted flesh aside.
And drove his forehead forward in another strike.
Iron Head.
"Get off me!"
Shadow shrieked, driving a savage kick outward.
Throat Chop!
Bang!
Scizor was sent hurtling hundreds of meters away in an instant.
The battered, broken scarlet figure tumbled across the earth, coming to a halt only after carving through the dirt.
Struggling, he forced himself to stand once more, drawing in ragged, wheezing breaths.
Then, slowly, he tilted his head up.
Gazing through shattered, hollow eyes at the sky that remained smothered in dark fog:
"Master."
"The me right now."
"Do I resemble you even a little?"
"Did I become a cool Pokémon?"
In the distance, terror flickered within Shadow's gaze.
Staring at Scizor standing upright yet again.
Her comprehension of life was shattered once more.
Whether it was Lucario.
Or Scizor.
In Shadow's eyes, these individuals were nothing short of monsters.
"Kazuya, you truly raised a pack of terrifying, mad dogs."
Shadow spat out a curse through gritted teeth.
Stomping the ground.
She charged straight at Scizor.
Yet just as Her claws were poised to slice across Scizor's throat.
Shadow's movements froze dead in their tracks.
Staring at the upright figure before Her, whose life force had already extinguished completely, yet who remained standing as an immovable monolith.
She silently pulled Her claws back.
Turning around, She walked away:
"I concede."
"You resemble him far more than I do."
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