"Boom!"
Venusaur's enormous body slammed into the ground with a deafening crash. The entire clearing trembled.
For a moment, Venusaur was completely dazed. 'Why?!'
Why couldn't his six Vine Whips even graze the opponent, yet Bulbasaur's four vines so easily bound him and sent him flying?
The strength difference was absurd.
Now, sprawled flat on his back, Venusaur's head spun. His thoughts scattered, and the vines he'd extended instinctively retracted.
Ash, of course, wasn't about to waste such a golden opportunity.
"Sludge Bomb!"
Bulbasaur obeyed instantly. A burst of purple toxin shot from the seed on his back and struck the fallen Venusaur squarely.
Even though Venusaur's natural resistance made him immune to poison and powder-based status effects, the corrosive energy still burned fiercely across his hide.
If it weren't for that resistance, Bulbasaur would've already sealed the fight long ago. But even as things stood, victory was within reach.
"Bulba!"
The cry came from the surrounding Ivysaurs. They couldn't stand still any longer. Venusaur wasn't just their leader, he was their benefactor, the one who had guided them to evolve.
How could they watch him get beaten down right in front of them?
They roared angrily at Ash and Bulbasaur, the air vibrating with hostility.
Ash, just about to order the finishing blow, froze.
Because in that instant, the Ivysaurs made it very clear: if he kept attacking, they would all charge.
His smile faltered. Seriously? You can't win one-on-one, so now you gang up?
The Ivysaurs slowly began to close in, eyes glowing, surrounding the battered battlefield.
But before they could move further, several Poké Balls burst open in flashes of white light.
"Rhyhorn! Dratini! Starmie! Golem--go!"
Misty and Brock stepped up beside Ash, their Pokémon landing with heavy thuds around him, forming a protective wall.
"What are you doing?" Misty shouted, glaring at the Ivysaurs."Venusaur agreed to a one-on-one! Are you trying to go back on your word now that you're losing?"
Brock crossed his arms, his expression dark. "This was an unfair match from the start. Venusaur already had the advantage fighting Bulbasaur. Now that he's about to lose, you try to pile on? That's going too far."
Although Brock loved Pokémon deeply, he wasn't the type to stay silent when his friend was being treated unjustly.
None of the Ivysaurs had spoken up when Venusaur had been winning. But now that he was losing, they suddenly wanted to "protect" him. It was loyalty, sure, but it was also hypocritical.
Their growls grew softer as they sized up the opposition.Misty and Brock's Pokémon weren't just numerous, they were strong.
The momentary standoff gave Venusaur the time he needed to roll back onto his feet. But he was in bad shape, his body bore burns and bruises from three Sludge Bombs and one Body Slam.
Bulbasaur's Special Attack stat had reached S-rank, and under Ash's Aura enhancement, that stat scaled perfectly with his boosted level. Every hit he landed carried almost Gym-tier power.
Three direct hits were more than enough to drain Venusaur's stamina to critical levels.
If those Ivysaurs hadn't interfered, two more Sludge Bombs would have finished the fight.
Now that Venusaur had managed to stand, though, the situation grew tricky.
If he used Synthesis to heal, the fight could drag on again, and the momentum might shift.
Ash tensed, ready to act.
"Venusaur…"
Venusaur's deep voice suddenly broke the tension.
"I lost."
Ash blinked. "Huh?"
Bulbasaur, still poised to attack, stumbled slightly at the sudden words.
Venusaur had… surrendered?
"You're really giving up?" Ash asked, surprised. "You don't want to keep fighting? You still have a chance to..."
Venusaur shook his head firmly, the petals on his back swaying.
"Venusaur". "There's no point. You dodge every one of my attacks… I can't dodge any of yours. Our strengths are too close now, continuing would be meaningless."
He sighed, his heavy frame lowering slightly.
If Bulbasaur had been as weak as Venusaur had first assumed, he could've stood there for ten minutes taking hits without losing.
But in the span of one battle, Bulbasaur's strength had surged so dramatically it defied logic.
The power of his attacks even exceeded his own. It wasn't a fight anymore, it was a farce.
So he admitted defeat.
As Venusaur lowered his head, the Ivysaurs around them fell silent. Their battle cries faded, and the hostility in their eyes dimmed.
Misty and Brock kept their Pokémon in front, just in case, but the danger had passed.
Ash exhaled softly, relief washing over him. He turned to Bulbasaur with a grin.
"That was amazing, Bulbasaur!" he said, kneeling beside his partner and giving him an affectionate pat.
"Bulba, Bulbasaur." "It's because you commanded well, Ash," Bulbasaur replied proudly. "And with your power backing me up, I couldn't lose."
Ash chuckled. "Heh, yeah, I did pretty great, huh? So tell me, how'd I do compared to the Fuchsia Gym battle?"
Bulbasaur paused, looking thoughtful. Then he shook his head slowly.
"Bulba, Bulba, Bulbasaur." Compared to that time, it's still a bit worse. Back then, your power felt different, stronger. Even I could barely recognize you.
Ash froze mid-laugh, his grin stiffening.
'Do you have to be so honest?'
Although what Bulbasaur said was true, comparing himself to Champion Ash was hardly fair.
That Ash had already stood at the very peak of the world, how could anyone expect to match that?
Ash, however, seemed to forget that he was the one who'd asked Bulbasaur to compare him to his past self in the first place.
As for the difference in strength… the last time, he'd relied on an external possession, a power from beyond this world. This time, it was entirely his own strength. Of course there would be a gap.
Soon, Ash brushed the thought aside. He led Bulbasaur over to Venusaur and spoke seriously:
"Since we won, Venusaur, can we take half of the Life force?"
Venusaur hesitated, his expression complicated, but finally nodded.
Pokémon were straightforward creatures, defeat was defeat. He had made the promise and would honor it.
Originally, Venusaur had thought he could exploit a loophole and bully the weak, but in the end, it was he who'd been overpowered.
What he'd thought was an easy mark turned out to be an iron wall.
Now, half of the miraculous treasure he'd guarded for years was about to be taken.
Still, it could've been worse. He was lucky the human was content with only half.
In the wild, the strong took everything, the weak were left with nothing. That this human would willingly leave him the other half was already a mercy.
Ash approached the ancient tree towering in the garden. Its trunk was thick with vibrant flowers of every hue, but hidden among them was one peculiar branch that glowed faintly with a multicolored light.
The branch was concealed deep within the blossoms, as if deliberately hiding itself from view.
Ash had noticed it earlier. When the great tree had bloomed, his keen eyes had caught the faint shimmer of rainbow light from that single branch.
The tree's renewed vitality had all come from that luminous bough.
"This must be the power Champion Ash mentioned, the power of Xerneas," he murmured to himself.
He reached out and snapped the branch free.
The moment he did, the entire garden shuddered. The once-glorious tree began to fade before their eyes, its vibrant petals curling and falling, until the entire canopy withered back into lifeless gray.
The divine energy had been severed, and the great tree, now without Xerneas's life force, returned to what it once was.
Ash studied the branch in his hands. It was shaped like a deer's antler, its surface gleaming faintly in seven colors.
He had seen this before, online, while researching rumors about the "Incredible Garden." The images of Xerneas's horns were nearly identical.
It seemed this was a fragment of it's power, much like Ho-Oh's Rainbow Feather, a shard split from the original divine being.
Legends said Xerneas could grant others eternal life, but upon doing so, he himself would become a great tree, sleeping for a thousand years before reviving again.
That was the essence of the God of Life, a power wholly different from Ho-Oh's.
The life energy sealed within this antler fragment was immense, far greater than anything contained in the Rainbow Feather.
And this was after much of its power had already been spent. If it had still been at full capacity, Ash couldn't even imagine how much life force it might hold.
The reason the garden only bloomed once per year now made sense. This sacred branch required a full year to absorb the essence of nature and condense it into life energy before releasing it again to nourish the world, whether trees, Pokémon, or soil itself.
All this, of course, was still speculation. Ash couldn't be sure of the details. He only knew one thing, he needed half of this branch's energy for Bulbasaur.
That was the purpose of this entire journey.
Except now he had a problem.
How exactly was he supposed to separate half of the life force?
He'd confidently told Venusaur earlier that he only needed half, but now that he was holding it, he realized he had no idea how to actually divide it.
Wasn't that just embarrassing?
Sighing helplessly, Ash opened his group chat and messaged the seniors. Fortunately, the chat was always active.
Almost immediately, Champion Ash replied.
"Just break it in half. Simple."
Ash froze.
What the heck? Break it in half?!
That was the advice? This was a divine artifact, not a tree branch from the backyard!
Wouldn't breaking it cause some kind of irreversible damage?
He voiced his doubts in the chat.
The Champion's response came back instantly:
"Relax. It's fine."
Xerneas was unlike any other divine being. His power was pure life force, untainted by elements of destruction or control.
And because of that, the life branch that had split from his body shared the same qualities, overflowing with vitality and regeneration.
Even if broken apart, it would eventually heal itself, given enough time.
As for how long that took, according to Champion Ash's understanding of Xerneas, it would take no more than three years for the life branch to fully recover.
In other words, a single branch could regenerate into two within just three years!
Ash blinked at the message. 'Wait… so this thing can literally duplicate itself? One becomes two?!'
Ahem, of course, that was impossible.
Even if this fragment contained divine energy, it wasn't some infinitely self-replicating relic. Its power had limits; the branch could only divide once. Any further separation would exceed its capacity to sustain life.
Otherwise, if Xerneas's life energy were truly infinite, wouldn't that make him equal to the Creator God itself?
Ash didn't really grasp all the divine metaphysics, but he understood the important part: he could just break it in half, and it would regenerate in three years instead of the five he'd originally estimated.
At first, Ash hadn't planned to take the branch at all. He only wanted to draw out part of the life energy and transfer it to Bulbasaur.
But when he tried to extract the energy, even his seemingly all-powerful Aura couldn't do it.
Fortunately, the "just break it in half" method solved that problem, though it felt absurdly reckless.
If this trick hadn't worked, he wouldn't have taken the branch away. Even claiming half already made him feel a little guilty; taking the whole thing would have made him no different from Team Rocket.
Reassured by the Champion's answer, Ash returned to reality, gripping the glowing antler-shaped branch tightly with both hands.
"Alright," he muttered. "Here goes nothing."
Under the watchful eyes of Bulbasaur, Venusaur, and his friends, Ash took a deep breath, and pulled.
"Crack!"
The life branch split cleanly into two halves.
...
stones PLzz
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