"What's this guy doing? Why does he look so fired up?"
At that moment, not only was Auron's opponent completely baffled—even the audience in the stands and the school leadership in the VIP box were all equally confused.
"Wait?! Is that—?!"
The commentator had just started his shift and was already facing something completely beyond his comprehension.
"Evolution light!! Charizard?? That's impossible!!"
The commentator roared in disbelief. The audience erupted.
"Charizard? It can still evolve?!"
An elderly man in the VIP box nearly tore off his own beard in shock and still couldn't wrap his head around it. Why was Charizard radiating evolution light?!
"GRAOW!!"
Mega Charizard X had arrived!
The dark blue-green Mega Charizard X flew imposingly through the air, staring excitedly at the opponent's Shiftry.
After a brief moment of stunned silence, the venue exploded into an uproar of massive proportions.
"Charizard can evolve again?!!"
"The evolved Charizard looks even cooler!"
"Charizard! You! Are! My! GOD!"
The school leadership and professors in the VIP box all wore expressions of utter disbelief.
"Why can Charizard evolve again? Aren't Pokémon supposed to have three stages of evolution at most?"
"How would I know? Ask Old Zhang—he's the professor specializing in evolution research. Professor Zhang, explain this to everyone."
Everyone turned to look at the elderly man who had nearly torn his beard off earlier.
"How the hell should I know?! This is my first time seeing this too!"
The hot-tempered Professor Zhang fired right back. If I'd seen this before, would I have nearly ripped my own beard off?
Then Professor Zhang grew excited. "This is the first time in the Dragon Nation's history—no, in world history—that a fourth-stage evolution has appeared!"
Hearing this, Dax on the side curled his lip slightly. Nonsense. This kid definitely practiced this in secret tons of times already.
Dax thought to himself, then felt a pang of bitterness. Tsk tsk... we were sleeping under the same roof last night and you didn't tell me you were pulling this stunt. Ah, if only I'd known, I could've gotten in on showing off too.
Dax felt a bit sour, but Liu Xiangjun, who was also seated in the VIP box, felt completely different. Watching her grandson standing triumphantly on the platform, her heart swelled with pride.
She'd originally thought her grandson would live an ordinary life—find some stable job and never have to worry about anything for the rest of his days.
Who could have known her grandson would turn out to be "a golden-scaled creature, not meant for the pond—when wind and clouds meet, the dragon rises"!
"Holy shit! So THIS is the big show you two were plotting?!?!"
"This is SO COOL!"
At the same time, Tim and the others below the stage went absolutely wild. Tim grabbed Jace by the collar and shook him frantically, spraying spittle all over Jace's face in his feverish excitement.
Jace: If I'd known this bastard Tim would react like this, I would've told Auron I wanted to go first!
Auron had no idea about the suffering Jace was enduring below. But he did know he was incredibly pumped right now.
"Charizard! Fire Punch!"
"Graow!"
Charizard roared toward the sky, beat his wings once, and shot toward Shiftry at high speed.
Shiftry's trainer's expression changed. "Shiftry—Leaf Blade! Block him!"
Shiftry rapidly formed a green short blade in his hands, narrowed his eyes, and locked onto Charizard.
"BANG!"
Leaf Blade clashed with Fire Punch. The two briefly locked in a stalemate.
Then—after Mega Charizard X flashed a slight smile—his left hand delivered another Fire Punch straight into Shiftry.
"One-shot knockout!!"
The commentator roared in shock.
"Although Shiftry is weak to Fire types, Mega Charizard's right-hand Fire Punch took Shiftry down in a single strike! The power is undeniable!"
After calming himself slightly, the commentator continued: "Charizard's evolved form doesn't have an official name yet, but it doesn't matter much—for now, let's just call him Mega Charizard."
"As you can see, the opponent has already sent out their second Pokémon. A Water type? Water resists Fire—it looks like this Water-type Pokémon will give us more insight into Mega Charizard's capabilities."
"Dewgong?"
Auron smiled slightly. If you're going to show off, you might as well go all the way.
"Charizard, Dragon Dance!"
"Dewgong, Aqua Tail!"
Watching Dewgong slowly move into position beside Mega Charizard X, Auron quietly spoke two words:
"Brick Break."
"BANG!"
"BOOM!"
"Mega Charizard used his tail to clash with Dewgong's tail—Dragon Tail versus Aqua Tail! They look evenly matched!"
"But Mega Charizard didn't stop when they both took a step back—what's this? Brick Break! Mega Charizard used Brick Break and struck Dewgong!"
"One-shot knockout!!"
"Another instant KO! This Mega Charizard is too powerful! Type advantage—one-shot. No type advantage—still a one-shot! Too strong! I'm a Mega Charizard fan now!"
"Dewgong has lost the ability to battle. Mega Charizard wins. The victor of this match is Auron Vale."
The name "Mega Charizard"—before any official designation appeared—seemed to have already won everyone's approval.
Auron wore the expression of an enlightened master as he recalled Mega Charizard X into his Poké Ball.
Inside the Poké Ball, where outsiders couldn't see, Mega Charizard X finally reverted to his base form.
Right after Auron's victory, the VIP box erupted into argument.
One faction believed they should summon Auron and ask him about Charizard's fourth-stage evolution.
Another faction argued that Auron was just a student—he probably didn't even know how the evolution worked. Asking him would be pointless. Better to investigate whoever was behind him.
Then there was the level-headed faction—those who hadn't been swept up in the frenzy over Charizard's fourth-stage evolution.
This included Dax and Liu Xiangjun, who knew the inside story, and the old chancellor and others who knew Auron's family background.
Beyond them, there was one clever individual who—after noticing the old chancellor and Liu Xiangjun's calm demeanors, then observing Dax's proud expression of "everyone's drunk but I alone am sober"—quietly formed his own hypothesis.
"Holy crap, that was so cool! I can't wait to get out there myself!"
The moment Auron came back, before he could even say anything, Jace was already jumping up and down with excitement.
Of course, aside from the excited Jace, everyone else was staring at Auron with distinctly unfriendly expressions—including even the normally gentle Simon.
Seeing everyone silently closing in around him, Auron panicked and quickly said:
"I get it, I get it! After this tournament ends, I'll tell you everything in full detail. It's not a good place to explain right now, and it's a long story. How's that?"
After rattling off his explanation at lightning speed, Auron looked nervously at his friends.
"Pfft~"
Serena couldn't hold it in anymore and burst out laughing.
"Jace already explained most of it to us just now. We were just wondering—do we really have such poor ability to keep secrets that you didn't tell us your plan?"
As she spoke, Serena shot Auron a playfully reproachful look.