Faced with May's request, Ash was stunned for less than a second before he nodded.
"Sure. Let's go."
This time it was May's turn to blink. She'd known him for less than half a day. He could have at least asked why, surely. Instead Ash had just agreed without a moment's hesitation.
"Between Trainers, just eye contact is signal enough for a duel. I could tell you wanted to fight me from the start, so I was already braced for it. Come on, May. There's a battle arena nearby." Ash caught her surprise and shrugged.
From the moment he'd first seen her, he'd picked up on the fighting spirit hidden in her eyes. The girl wasn't just pretty. She had a powerful drive to win in battle, and you could see it all over her bearing. So when she'd asked him to fight, the only reflex was a half-second of surprise before agreeing.
"Right. Then let's go." Ash didn't keep her waiting.
The rest of the group was a little lost. May had been the one who issued the challenge, yet somehow Ash already looked like the one driving the match.
The party left the tea shop and headed for the battle arena near the Pokémon Center. The arena, normally quiet, was packed with people today. Like Ash had said, Trainers only needed a meeting of eyes to set off a fight.
In a town this swollen with traffic, Trainers rolled in like a tide. Even strangers, the moment one released a Pokémon and the other felt a spark, could throw down a challenge on the spot. Add some friendly betting and the energy of the crowd, and the line of contenders never really ended.
Ash and May arrived later, so they had to queue. New Bark Town had recently added eight more battle arenas, putting the planned total at ten, and every single one of them was occupied. They were all generously sized too.
The League and the architects had thought about whether Pokémon moves might affect bystanders or adjacent matches, so the arenas were wide. The perimeters had no full fences, but boundary lines were marked on all four sides to keep spectators at a safe distance.
Ash and May waited in line for about thirty minutes before their turn came up.
"How about we settle this in a single round?" Ash suggested.
"Sure. A multi-Pokémon match would take a long time, and we still need to recover before heading to Violet City." May agreed easily. She also wanted a one-on-one. Sample her opponent's strength without burning the whole day on it.
"Hey, isn't that Ash over there in the arena?"
"Ash? The Ash who took on the Elite Four?"
"Is that really Ash, the one with the Legendary on his team? It is. Let's go, let's go watch this!"
Ash was recognized almost the instant he stepped into the arena. The moment the chatter caught, the surrounding crowd flooded toward his ring, and the entire battlefield was rimmed by a thick wall of spectators within seconds.
Behind Ash, Serena stared at the packed scene, the sea of faces, and shrank back a little despite herself.
"This is way too many people!"
It was obviously just a casual sideline match. Why did the crowd feel even more dense than the one at Ash's exhibition against the Orange League Head Trainer?
"That's Ash's reputation for you. With this many eyes on you, Ash, don't go embarrassing yourself." Misty called out.
"Don't worry. I won't tarnish the name. Which is why I'm using him. Go, Venusaur!" Ash hurled a Poké Ball. In a flash of light, a sturdy Venusaur appeared on the field.
"Vena!"
Venusaur hadn't been on the field in a while, and now that he finally had his moment, he let out an excited roar.
"Venusaur, one of Kanto's starters. In that case, I'll send out mine. Go, Blaziken!" May took out her own Poké Ball.
A flash of light, and a striking figure took the field. A Pokémon with a head of white feathers and a V-shaped crest, blue eyes, bandaged wrists, and powerful, athletic legs.
Ash read its profile and found that this Blaziken had already reached Peak Level. Its stat spread was strong too. Defense and stamina sat at A, while speed and attack hit S. This Blaziken had genuine Champion potential.
He hadn't expected to bump into a random Trainer outside the Pokémon Center and have her turn out to be Norman's daughter, and not only that, but a Trainer in her own right with that much raw strength. By the look of her, she was around his own age. How did someone this young already have a Peak Level Pokémon?
"How about it? My Blaziken is cool, right?" May caught Ash's stunned look and assumed he was admiring her starter.
When she'd first met Blaziken, she'd been won over by the look of it. By her eye, Blaziken's good looks were undeniable. Among all the Pokémon out there, his appearance could hold its own against entire crowds. Who wouldn't love a Pokémon that handsome, that strong, and that full of promise?
"Yeah. Pretty handsome. But my Charizard is still a notch better looking." Ash nodded, acknowledging Blaziken's appeal while not forgetting to put a thumb on the scale for his own Charizard.
Blaziken was good-looking, sure. But Kanto's Fire-type starter was every bit his equal, and arguably the most striking of any region's Fire starter.
This was actually Ash's first time seeing a Blaziken in person. He'd read up on the species and knew the profile by heart. As one of the Hoenn starter trio, Blaziken not only carried the looks but also serious combat ability.
Within its tier, it was practically untouchable, on the strength of its powerful, agile build. Often, the matchup ended before the opponent could even close the distance. For raw agility, possibly only Infernape could match a Blaziken.
"What? Blaziken is way more handsome!"
"No, Charizard is more handsome!"
"Blaziken!"
"Charizard!"
The two combatants were now arguing loudly over which Pokémon was better looking, while the spectators, popcorn and snacks already in hand, blinked at each other in mild confusion. Were they actually going to fight or not? Because if not, dinner was waiting.
May was the first to crack and laugh. They were in the middle of an arena, and the two of them were going at each other over irrelevant aesthetics.
Blaziken and Venusaur, who had been braced to attack, let their stances ease and exchanged slightly helpless looks. Their Trainers hadn't given any orders, so they couldn't move on each other on their own. They had to wait out the argument.
"All right. We'll settle it after the battle." Ash and May returned to combat mode at the same time. Blaziken and Venusaur reignited their own fighting spirits as well. Flames burst from Blaziken's wrists.
The more fiercely the flames burned, the higher Blaziken's fighting spirit ran, and the more power it could draw on.
"Strike first, Blaziken. Blaze Kick!" May waved a pale hand, sending her starter in first.
Blaziken took a quick step and was instantly in the air. The power packed into its legs let it leap so explosively that it might as well have been flying.
In mid-air, one of Blaziken's legs ignited into raging flame, the temperature of the entire arena spiking in a single beat.
"Frenzy Plant!" Ash didn't waste an instant against a Fire-type attack and called for Venusaur's ultimate Grass move.
"Vena!"
Venusaur stomped on the ground the moment Ash's word landed, and the entire arena shook. Dozens of arm-thick, dark green vines burst out of the soil, turning the whole field into a dense forest.
"Now!" In mid-air, Blaziken didn't hesitate and dove straight at Venusaur, its feet burning, the heat dragging a roaring wind behind it. The temperature of the flame distorted the air around it, and its body fell like a meteor.
Just as Blaziken was about to land, a wall of hardened vines wove themselves densely in front of Venusaur into a thick green shield.
A heavy crack rolled across the arena as flame met reinforced vine. Dazzling sparks scattered in every direction, and the heat wave pushed outward through the crowd. The onlookers flinched back half a step on instinct, gasps running through the line. The aftershock from this match was far stronger than they'd anticipated, and anyone standing too close was going to feel it.
Blaziken's fire carried real power. None of it moved the vines. Flame simply wasn't doing much to wood that had grown this dense. Blaziken's strike, both in raw force and in temperature, was the kind of heat that could melt a steel bar held in front of it.
Anything else should have shattered or dissolved under that pressure. But Venusaur's Frenzy Plant was harder than steel. Was this really a plant?
In mid-air, Blaziken's expression sharpened, and the fire on its feet swelled, trying to burn through. Pour on as much heat as it wanted, though, the vines only blackened slightly at the surface. Burning through them was out of reach.
"Blaziken, back off and regroup!" May's voice cut across the arena.
She'd realized this Venusaur was above Blaziken's tier. Blaziken sat at Peak. For Venusaur to outclass it meant Venusaur was already at Elite level. On top of that, this wasn't just any Elite Four-level Pokémon either. Its Grass moves seemed to be resistant to fire burning them in a way they shouldn't be.
Otherwise, even a Frenzy Plant from a normal Elite Four-level Venusaur shouldn't have been able to weather Blaziken's flame attack like this.
Just as Blaziken started to follow May's order and retreat, the Frenzy Plant struck. The vines that had stopped its kick coiled around Blaziken's feet. The flames around its legs guttered out under the sudden contact, and the thick roots, agile as enormous serpents, lashed up around both of its ankles in a heartbeat.
The next instant, Blaziken's entire body was sealed inside the hardened plants.
Even if Blaziken wanted to escape now, it couldn't. Suspended in midair, locked in vines, it let out a furious cry and thrashed its arms and legs, but the iron-tough roots wouldn't give a millimeter.
"Giga Drain!" Ash called.
In an instant, the vines wrapped around Blaziken glowed green. Blaziken felt its strength, and even its life force, draining away the moment the light flared up.
Giga Drain was the strongest absorption move on the Grass-type side, but on a Fire-type like Blaziken its effect wasn't supposed to be especially strong. Even so, Blaziken could clearly feel its stamina and life force being pulled out of it at an alarming rate. If it had only been stamina, that would have been manageable. Losing essence was a different kind of damage, and the pain was severe.
On top of that, the hardened plants kept squeezing in on it. Two effects compounding at once meant that even a Fire-type wasn't going to hold out for long.
"Blaziken, Flare Blitz! Burn out!" Seeing the pain on Blaziken's face, May didn't bother trying to figure out why a Grass move was dealing this much damage. The immediate problem was getting Blaziken free of the vines.
"Hraah!"
Blaziken poured everything into its body, and crimson flames burst out of it. The temperature climbed so high that the spectators in the front rows felt as if a small sun were hanging next to them.
Under that kind of heat, even sealed inside Blaziken's own body, the hardened plants began to ignite, finally turning the same red as the flames roaring off Blaziken itself. Blaziken pushed off with all four limbs at once, breaking through the now-charred vines, and rolled clear onto the ground.
"Frenzy Plant is wild. Even fire couldn't shift it. But Venusaur's locked up in its recovery window now. It's our turn to attack. Blaziken, Flare Blitz!" May didn't let the failure shake her. She adjusted on the fly and called the next attack at once.
Frenzy Plant carried a built-in recoil window. After using it, the user couldn't move for a stretch. During that stretch, she had to land a strike on Venusaur. She wasn't about to believe Venusaur's body itself could harden like the plant it had just summoned.
"Hraah!"
Blaziken's legs burst into flame, it stomped off the ground, and its body shot up before plunging down in a flaming dive.
"Is that so? My Venusaur is a little different. Venusaur, Earth Power!" Ash smirked and called the counter.
Under May's stunned eyes, Venusaur lifted a front leg high and brought it crashing down. A thick, heavy force erupted from the ground and surged up to meet the descending Blaziken.