Chapter 365: The Battle of the Elites
Rainey Chang was undeniably powerful, but Li Xisheng was no amateur. In their previous encounter during the last "Championship Road," Li had only narrowly lost to her. He had spent the last three years obsessing over this rematch.
The battle was a grueling back-and-forth. By the end of the first half, Rainey had been the first to lose three Pokémon.
On Li Xisheng's side, he had only lost one partner so far. However, his second Pokémon was currently red-lined on stamina, barely capable of standing. Despite the fatigue, he still held a one-Pokémon lead as the second half began.
Rainey didn't look worried. She sent out her Alolan Ninetales first to trigger Snow Warning, blanketed the arena in a thick, freezing blizzard. Once the weather was set, she immediately swapped it out for her primary heavy hitter: Beartic.
Beartic possessed the Slush Rush ability. Under the cover of the artificial snow, its normally sluggish movement speed was doubled. It dropped to all fours, charging across the frozen floor toward Li's Machamp like a runaway freight train.
Machamp stood its ground, its four massive arms tensed. It met the charging bear head-on.
Both Pokémon were close-quarters specialists. As the distance closed, Beartic suddenly slammed its paws into the ground, letting out a roar that chilled the very air.
"BEAR-TIC!!!! —"
The moisture in the air flash-froze. Within a fraction of a second, several massive, jagged ice pillars materialized in mid-air above Machamp.
Icicle Crash!!!
BOOM BOOM BOOM!!!! —
Under Rainey's command, the ice spikes rocketed downward.
The timing was impeccable. Beartic had launched the attack at a "dead angle," leaving Machamp with almost zero room to maneuver. It was forced to intercept.
Machamp's training was evident. Its four arms erupted with white energy as it unleashed a barrage of lightning-fast strikes.
Machant Punch!!! (Mach Punch)
"GUAILIIII!!!! —"
BANG BANG BANG!!!! —
A series of explosions filled the air. Armored fist met reinforced ice. One by one, the massive pillars were pulverized into shimmering dust under the weight of Machamp's punches.
As the ice shattered, it created a secondary "screen" of frozen shards, drifting through the air.
"BEAR-TIC!!!! —"
Using the chaos of the falling ice and the blizzard for cover, Beartic vanished into the white-out, reappearing inches from Machamp's face. It raised a massive paw, wreathed in freezing energy.
Ice Punch!!! —
"GUAILIIIII!!!! —"
Facing the ambush, Machamp's instincts flared. It threw a counter-Mach Punch to meet the Ice Punch head-on.
THUD!!!! —
A heavy, vibrating sound echoed through the stadium. Machamp was the one pushed back. Its massive feet plowed deep furrows into the snow-covered floor as it skidded nearly ten meters before arresting its momentum.
In terms of base power, Ice Punch outclassed Mach Punch, and Machamp had been forced to react without proper footing.
From the VIP box, Kenji watched with fascination. This was elite-level combat. Every move was a chess piece; every second carried the risk of a total collapse. The precision required to execute these counters in a split second was something very few trainers could ever master.
"Guaili..."
Machamp looked down at its fist. The knuckles were covered in a thin layer of frost—a minor frostbite from the impact. Even for a Fighting-type, a Champion-level Ice Punch was nothing to sneeze at.
Beartic gave its opponent no time to adjust. It surged forward again, initiating another round of high-intensity melee.
Cautious after the initial trade, Machamp became more calculated. Its four arms worked in perfect pairs: one pair focused on the offensive, while the other remained in a tight guard, ready to parry Beartic's sudden bursts.
The two traded blows, their movements stirring the blizzard into a chaotic vortex. The intensity of the fight was starting to wear on them; the rapid-fire exchange of high-level moves was a massive drain on their stamina.
Slowly, the tempo of the fight shifted from a frantic blitz to a tense, conservative standoff. Both Pokémon circled, eyes locked, waiting for the one mistake that would end the match.
"Sheer Cold!"
"BEAR-TIC!!!"
Beartic let out a bone-shaking roar. The temperature around its body plummeted instantly, reaching a theoretical absolute zero.
Machamp's pupils shrank. A sense of primal, existential dread washed over it. It didn't wait for a command; it leaped backward with everything it had.
Sheer Cold. A one-hit KO move. It creates a localized zone of absolute zero that flash-freezes the target's very cells. If it lands, the match is over instantly.
However, generating such an extreme state was difficult. Even for a master's Beartic, the "kill zone" was limited to a small radius around its body.
Machamp escaped the zone a millisecond before the move completed.
But Rainey hadn't expected it to hit. It was a setup.
"Aqua Jet!!! —"
"BEAR-TIC!!!! —"
As the Sheer Cold faded, Beartic lunged. A veil of water erupted around its body as it performed a high-speed dash toward Machamp.
But because the Sheer Cold energy was still lingering in the air, the water veil was instantly frozen into a jagged, hyper-hard shell of ice.
It was a Frozen Jet—a high-speed, 100% accurate projectile wreathed in lethal cold.
"Machamp!!! Explosive World-Ending Punch!!!! —"
"GUAILIIII!!!! —"
Machamp's muscles bulged to the point of tearing. Facing the frozen meteor, it pulled all four arms back.
The first fist crackled with electricity. The second burned with fire. The third radiated a freezing mist. And the fourth... the fourth glowed with the violent, unstable energy of a Dynamic Punch.
The four arms converged into a single point of impact, aimed directly at the incoming bear.
KRA-KOOM!!!! —
The four moves collided with the ** Frozen Jet**. The resulting explosion was catastrophic, a blinding flash of elemental energy that turned the arena into a white void.
BANG!!! —
In the epicenter of the blast, Beartic was launched backward. Machamp followed a millisecond later, thrown across the field by the kinetic feedback.
Explosive World-Ending Punch: A custom combo of the three Elemental Punches and Dynamic Punch. Under the catalyst of the latter, the three elements triggered a violent chemical reaction, resulting in massive damage.
But the move was a double-edged sword. The "World-Ending" part applied to the user, too—the recoil and the localized explosion dealt massive damage to Machamp's own physical form.
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