"Mega Charizard X. The Pokémon that defeated Lorelei's main ace. Today I finally get to see his face for myself." Even Norman felt a flash of admiration at the sight of Mega Charizard X.
The Mega-Evolved Charizard's bearing was undeniable, and its strength was just as formidable. That kind of presence captivated men, women, old, and young alike. Even Norman, a fellow specialist in the same field, found himself wishing he had one of his own.
Matching that striking appearance was Mega Charizard X's exceptional combat power. Setting aside the rest of Ash's roster, Pikachu and Charizard were absolutely the two Pokémon people remembered first.
Pikachu's impact didn't need explanation. An ordinary, common-as-grass Electric mouse, trained into a creature of this caliber, was a feat that practically demanded attention. As for Charizard, his name had broken into the world during that single battle against Lorelei. Before that, he'd had a decent reputation.
After it, almost everyone who knew Ash also knew his Charizard. In the eyes of outsiders, Charizard was Ash's absolute trump card. Pikachu, strong as he was, was treated as Ash's signature, not yet his ultimate ace. At least, that was the framing from the outside looking in.
So when Ash brought out his trump card, Charizard, Norman's expression turned several degrees more serious. His Blissey was the top-ranked Pokémon in his hand, the hardest one in his entire team to handle. Charizard's all-out attack against Blissey's maximum HP, it wasn't immediately clear who would come out on top.
"Here we come, Mr. Norman. Charizard, Flamethrower!" Ash raised a hand, sending Charizard into the opening attack.
Charizard pulled in a deep breath, lifted his jaws, and exhaled a stream of scorching flame. A dense torrent of deep blue fire rushed toward Blissey. Without a trace of panic, Norman called out.
"Blissey, Light Screen!"
"Blisse."
Blissey lifted both hands, and a translucent wall sprang up in front of her. The flame hit the screen just as it formed, tore through it in a blink, and reached Blissey. Once it passed through, though, the heat had been cut to less than half. The fire that struck Blissey's body left only a superficial scorch mark.
Blissey's defense was thin as paper on the physical side, but she was particularly good at special defense. With Light Screen layered on top, the damage from Charizard's Flamethrower was reduced to almost nothing.
"Light Screen, huh? Then we'll switch to a contact move. Charizard, Dragon Claw!" Light Screen could halve special move damage, but it couldn't block physical strikes. Charizard's strongest suit wasn't long-range attacks anyway. His best work was up close.
"Roar!"
Charizard let out a long cry, claws lighting up with blue-green energy, his razor talons looking sharp enough to cut steel. A heartbeat later, his wings beat once, and his body shot forward like a streak of black lightning. He appeared right in front of Blissey, claws swinging down in a heavy arc.
"Blissey, Minimize!" Norman's voice stayed calm.
The instant Blissey received the order, her body emitted a dazzling white light, and her plump form shrank by several sizes. Charizard's claw, on a perfect line to hit her body, swept down on what should have been the target and caught nothing but empty air. The strike landed in a clean miss.
After successfully dodging Charizard's attack, Norman immediately ordered Blissey to counter on the spot.
"Hyper Voice!"
Blissey's physical attack wasn't anything special, but her special attack was decent. Not on the level of her ace abilities, but compared to her physical side, it was night and day.
"Blisse!"
Unlike her earlier soft cry, this time Blissey's voice came out almost piercingly sharp, and an enormous amount of energy rode it. The sound waves were visible to the naked eye, rippling against Charizard's body. Charizard, who'd been preparing to follow up with another attack, was hurled back dozens of meters by the blast, finally beating his wings to halt himself in mid-air.
"What an attack from a single Blissey!"
"Can an attack really be this powerful? Looks like I still had the old stereotype of the Chansey-line stuck in my head." Misty lightly covered her lips, a stunned look on her face.
It wasn't just her. Almost everyone's impression of Blissey, and of the Chansey-line Pokémon in general, was as healers. Who would have imagined that a Blissey could carry this kind of violent side, sending a Charizard like Ash's flying over ten meters with a single shout?
Max, seeing his father gain the upper hand, lit up like a flower in bloom. He couldn't keep his mouth shut.
Even Ash himself acknowledged that Charizard had eaten a hard hit from Blissey. If his father brought out his ace next, wasn't this basically wrapped? Even if Blissey couldn't defeat Charizard outright, as long as she did enough damage, his father's ace would step in and finish the job. Victory was practically guaranteed.
May, watching, kept her expectations more measured. Whether the battle actually turned out the way Max imagined was a different question entirely.
"Charizard, Flare Blitz!" Ash ordered, this time pulling out Charizard's strongest move to date.
In the normal range of moves, Flare Blitz was already an ultimate ability, capable of recoil damage on the user. On top of that, Charizard had the Tough Claws ability, which boosted Flare Blitz's damage by an additional thirty percent.
In raw power, even top-shelf Fire moves like Eruption and Overheat couldn't match Flare Blitz in his hands. Then there was the extra factor. When Charizard used Flare Blitz now, he could draw on his Amaterasu Flames, fully fused Sacred Fire that pushed the attack's effectiveness higher still. For Charizard, this had become a true finisher, surpassing even the strongest standard Fire-type moves.
At Ash's command, Charizard's body burst into scorching flame, and the flame quickly shifted from red to blue. The Amaterasu black flame was the strongest fire Charizard could currently use, but each use of that level of flame meant it was effectively the last move he could throw in the battle. Even one Amaterasu Flame burst placed a heavy strain on Charizard's stamina. At full health, with his current strength, he could only manage it twice.
The azure fire burned hotter, wrapped tightly around Charizard's body. The air around him distorted with the heat, and a world-ending pressure spread across the arena. Even Misty and the others on the sidelines unconsciously held their breath. The composure on Norman's face slipped at last.
With sharp, eagle-like focus, Norman stared at the rapidly approaching Charizard and gave the order in a low voice.
"Blissey, Minimize!"
Blissey caught the command instantly. A dazzling white light shone on her body again. This time the light was even more concentrated than the last. Her form, which had already shrunk by two sizes, contracted further still. Blissey was now only the size of three Pikachus stacked together, a completely different scale from her original frame.
Minimize let Blissey dodge incoming attacks much more easily. Even with Charizard locked onto her, shrinking still gave her the agility to slip out of his attack line. Almost the instant Blissey finished shrinking, Charizard, wrapped in blue flame and barreling forward like an uncontrolled fiery meteor, slammed into the spot where she had been standing.
The ground was instantly scorched, leaving a large, blackened crater. Debris and hot air sprayed in every direction, and the blue fire spread across the dirt, swallowing the area in a blazing inferno. The temperature inside the arena climbed sharply. Yet none of the spectators could move from their spots either. Mewtwo's barrier still kept the battle's energy locked inside.
The surrounding children's eyes went wide, mouths slightly open, faces filled with shock. This kind of terrifying battle scene was something they'd never seen in person. They'd watched powerful Trainer battles on TV, sure, but the scale of those clashes was nothing next to what Ash and Norman were producing.
"Whoa, that's amazing! Is this what a duel between powerful Trainers looks like? I want to become a Trainer this strong someday!" one of the children shouted.
"Ash and Mr. Norman are both so amazing. Can we become like them someday? And these flames are so strange. Why don't they reach the field outside? We can't see what's happening inside." A little girl asked, a little timidly.
The flames had completely walled off the view. The children couldn't see what was happening in the arena now. But going by a Fire-type attack that fierce, even if Blissey had shrunk to dodge, she was probably in serious trouble.
"I know. Ash also started out as an ordinary Trainer, and he climbed step by step to where he is now. As long as you keep a brave heart and never stop pushing forward, all of you can become extraordinary Trainers too." Misty patted the little girl on the head with a smile.
Meanwhile, Max didn't have the headspace to worry about anyone else. He'd been delighted when his father gained the upper hand, but then Ash had unleashed that massive Fire attack. Even shrunken, Blissey had likely taken serious damage. He couldn't tell what the situation in the arena actually was right now.
After about ten seconds, the flames in the field slowly died down, revealing the true state of the arena.
The entire field was charred black. A pitch-black Charizard stood upright at the center. From the scorched patches across his own body, you could tell that he had also caught part of his own Flare Blitz, recoil damage thrown back at the user.
For Charizard, the recoil wasn't a major problem. But not far from him, Blissey was sprawled half-collapsed on the ground, her shrunken body half-burned black, looking like a charred half of an egg.
Minimize had let Blissey dodge the dragon's direct hit, yes, but the explosion radius from Flare Blitz had still washed over her. Blissey's physical defense was effectively paper, and Light Screen had no effect on physical attacks. The shockwave and flame from Flare Blitz had landed on Blissey's body all the same.
Norman's expression turned graver still. He'd spent enough time with Blissey to know her state at a glance. Her stamina was already down to about half. Just the aftershock of Flare Blitz's explosion was capable of doing this much damage.
The attack power of Ash's Charizard could only be described as terrifying. If Blissey had taken a direct hit, even if she didn't lose her ability to battle outright, she'd be down to her last sliver of stamina.
"Blissey, Soft-Boiled!"
Blissey's stamina was at about half, but Norman didn't panic. He immediately had her use her healing move. Soft-Boiled was a signature move of the Chansey line. Once it went off successfully, it restored half of the user's stamina. The effect was the same as Psychic-type Recover moves, just with faster recovery, though the cooldown was a little longer.
"Charizard, Flare Blitz, again!" Ash called the moment he heard Norman's command.
If Blissey landed the heal, all the damage Charizard had just sweated to put on her would be wiped clean. Worse, Charizard's recoil damage from the same attack couldn't be undone the same way. They absolutely had to put Blissey down here.
Blissey, on Norman's order, drew an egg from her pouch. Then somehow, without anyone catching the motion, the egg disappeared from her hands and into her mouth.
At that exact moment, the blazing blue-flamed Charizard arrived in front of her. This time Blissey didn't use Minimize. Even though she had shrunk down small enough to make Charizard miss, as long as her position didn't change in time, Charizard could lock onto her without any problem.
The deafening roar of impact rolled across the arena again. Charizard, wrapped in blistering blue fire, collided directly with Blissey, who was still mid-cast on Soft-Boiled. The full power of Flare Blitz, like a volcanic eruption, poured down onto Blissey's small body.
The visible blue waves of flame engulfed her in an instant, and her tiny frame was hurled aside and slammed into the blackened ground, raising another spray of scorched debris.
The flames swallowed her completely.