Grant stared at the fallen Skarmory, cold sweat forming along his brow.
"This thing's been holding back."
Ryan looked at him sharply.
Grant recalled Skarmory without taking his eyes off Sandslash.
"It's not just Class Champion. It's mid-stage Class Champion at the very least."
His Skarmory had already reached Gym (Late Stage). On top of that, Grant's family had spent considerable resources strengthening its natural defenses. It had even consumed rare Mystic Iron Crystals, making its steel feathers far tougher than those of an ordinary Skarmory.
Combined with the species' already excellent physical defense, it should have been able to withstand at least one direct attack from an ordinary Class Champion (Early Stage) Pokémon.
But Night Slash had taken it down instantly.
There was only one reasonable conclusion.
Sandslash had been playing with them.
It had never shown its full strength.
The realization spread through the expedition, and the brief confidence they had gained after Metagross landed its earlier hit disappeared almost immediately.
"Slash..."
Sandslash stood atop the snowy ridge and slowly raised one claw toward the sky.
The wind changed.
Ice-type energy surged through the clearing with such force that loose snow spiraled upward around everyone. The temperature seemed to drop another few degrees as frost gathered high above the battlefield.
Then the ice began to take shape.
Ryan looked up.
His expression froze.
A massive pillar was forming in the sky.
It grew wider and longer with terrifying speed until it stretched more than thirty meters across, hanging over the grove like a frozen mountain suspended above their heads.
Its shadow swallowed almost the entire battlefield.
A violent downdraft swept across the expedition. Several people had to brace themselves just to stay upright, boots sliding through the snow as the pressure and freezing wind bore down on them. Even breathing became difficult beneath the sheer force gathering overhead.
"What the hell is that...?"
"Can we even stop something that big?"
The voices from behind the defensive line had lost all their earlier confidence.
Ryan stared at the enormous pillar.
For the first time, he could not think of a single command that would make a difference.
His legs felt unsteady beneath him.
"We can't block that..."
Grant glanced at him.
Ryan did not look away from the sky.
"There's no way."
His voice dropped.
"We're finished."
The pillar above them looked less like a Pokémon move than a natural disaster waiting to happen. Against something that enormous, the Pokémon they had brought suddenly seemed frighteningly small.
Grant felt the same fear.
He simply refused to let it decide what happened next.
He dug his nails hard into his palm, using the pain to drag his thoughts back under control.
Running was impossible.
Stopping the attack might be impossible too.
But doing nothing guaranteed that everyone there would die.
Grant raised his head.
"Then we hit it with everything we have!"
He pointed upward.
"Metagross, Meteor Mash! Aggron, Iron Head! Bastiodon, Iron Head! Excadrill, Smart Strike! Bisharp, Iron Head!"
His five remaining Pokémon immediately responded.
"METAGROSS!"
"AGGRON!"
Steel-type energy erupted across the clearing as each of them prepared its strongest attack.
They were afraid too.
That did not stop them.
...
From atop the ridge, Sandslash watched their desperate preparations.
"Slash..."
There was unmistakable arrogance in its expression.
Even after everything they had seen, these humans and their Pokémon still intended to resist.
To Sandslash, the effort seemed almost laughable.
They had managed to inconvenience it once, and apparently that had been enough to make them believe they still had a chance.
It had played with them long enough.
Now it was going to end the fight.
Sandslash lowered its claw.
The ice pillar fell.
BOOM!
The air itself seemed to explode beneath its weight.
The enormous frozen mass accelerated toward the grove, generating a roaring pressure wave that sent snow blasting away beneath it.
Several people instinctively raised their arms over their heads.
Grant did not.
"NOW!"
Metagross launched itself upward first.
Silver light engulfed its forelimb as Meteor Mash drove directly toward the descending pillar.
Aggron and Bastiodon followed with Iron Head.
Excadrill shot forward with Smart Strike.
Bisharp charged behind them, its own Iron Head glowing with Steel-type energy.
Five attacks slammed into the pillar almost simultaneously.
BOOM!
The collision shook the forest.
Cracks spread across the surface of the ice, and enormous fragments broke free and crashed into the snow below.
For one brief moment, the expedition members dared to hope.
Then the pillar kept falling.
Metagross strained against it.
Aggron dug its feet into the ground.
Bastiodon lowered its head and pushed with everything it had.
It made no difference.
The difference in power was simply too great.
One by one, the five Pokémon were overwhelmed.
Metagross was thrown downward first, crashing into the snow hard enough to carve a deep trench through the ground.
Aggron and Bastiodon followed, both smashing into the frozen earth.
Excadrill and Bisharp were hurled away moments later, disappearing into clouds of powder.
The pillar had lost only a few fragments.
Its descent had barely slowed.
Grant stared upward.
Ryan stood beside him, silent.
Neither had another Pokémon ready to intercept it in time.
The shadow grew larger.
Everyone beneath it understood the same thing.
Gym-level strength was not enough.
Not against this.
What was descending toward them no longer felt like an ordinary attack. It felt like a disaster—something so far beyond their ability to stop that, for a moment, it was difficult to imagine anything on the battlefield capable of breaking it.
"It's over..."
Someone behind them whispered the words.
No one contradicted him.
The pillar continued falling.
Then a voice cut through the roar of the wind.
"Frog Boss!"
Several heads snapped toward the sound.
Grant's eyes widened.
"Aaron?"
At the edge of the grove stood the last person anyone expected—or wanted—to see right then.
Aaron had returned.
Greninja stood beside him.
"Sage Mode—Tailed Beast Cloak!"
Natural energy surged around Greninja as a dense cloak of power enveloped its body.
For half a second, relief flashed across several faces.
Then they looked back at the falling pillar.
The relief turned immediately to alarm.
No.
Aaron was eighteen.
He had already accomplished more than most Trainers managed in a lifetime, and everything they had seen from him suggested he had an extraordinary future ahead of him.
They had already accepted that they might die here.
They did not want him dying with them.
"Run!"
One of the expedition members tried to shout, but the crushing wind swallowed most of his voice.
Another forced the words out through clenched teeth.
"Aaron, get out of here!"
Others could barely speak at all beneath the pressure.
But the same thought ran through the group.
Don't come any closer.
You can still make it out.
Don't throw your life away with ours.
If anyone still had a chance to escape this secret zone, they wanted it to be him.
Aaron did not move back.
He looked up at the enormous pillar descending toward everyone below.
Then he turned to Greninja.
"Sage Art: Wind Style—Super Giant Rasenshuriken!"
Wind screamed through the grove.
A sphere of violently rotating energy formed above Greninja's hand, expanding faster and faster as compressed currents spiraled around its center.
The outer edges sharpened.
The technique grew until a massive shuriken of condensed wind howled above Greninja, tearing apart the falling snow around it.
Grant stared at the attack.
Ryan did the same.
Even Sandslash's attention shifted toward the newcomer.
Aaron raised his eyes to the descending pillar.
There was no panic on his face.
No hesitation.
"Frog Boss."
Greninja drew its arm back.
Aaron pointed upward.
"Break it."