Listening to his friends' words, Charizard snorted out two streams of white air from his nostrils, straightened his chest, and strode onto the battlefield.
"The battle begins!"
With Kakashi's shout to start, both Charizard and Lucario rapidly gathered chakra to unleash their respective moves.
'Smoke Screen!'
While quickly flapping his wings to take off, Charizard gathered chakra in his mouth and spat out a black-gray smoke screen.
It had watched the previous battles, knowing that Lucario's combat techniques were mostly close-range Taijutsu, and its flying advantage could greatly limit the effectiveness of Lucario's Taijutsu.
Plus, with the smoke screen covering the line of sight, Lucario couldn't figure out its position to launch a ranged attack.
'Quick Attack!'
Lucario gathered all his strength and charged out swiftly, but failed to hit Charizard before it took off.
At this point, the black-gray smoke screen continuously spewed by Charizard shrouded the open space, making it hard to see the specifics inside.
"It seems Obito and Charizard still don't know it has perception ability." Kakashi shook his head at the sight.
There is Ninjutsu that can hinder perceptual abilities, like the Hidden Mist Jutsu of the Mist, but Charizard's smoke screen clearly does not belong to that category of Ninjutsu.
However, Kakashi could understand this. Charizard hadn't fought against Lucario before, and Lucario's usual training was quite similar to Might Guy's, focusing on various physical exercises, making it indeed difficult to detect any perceptual ability.
Had Kakashi not been well-informed about Lycanroc's shadow clones and thoroughly observed the previous battle, he might have missed this piece of information too.
'Aura Missile!'
Having lost his vision, Lucario simply closed his eyes, feeling the Aura Power.
Lucario concentrated aura on his paws while sensing Charizard's aura.
Perceiving Charizard's intention to attack, Lucario dodged the incoming pillar of fire with his eyes closed and launched an Aura Missile towards the sky.
Bang!
The Aura Missile hit Charizard, causing Charizard's flight to become unstable.
As Charizard ceased using the smoke screen, the gray mist dispersed, revealing a somewhat disheveled Charizard.
"Roar?" Charizard was a bit surprised, both at being hit and at the power of the Aura Missile.
It saw Lycanroc being knocked out by a single Aura Missile and thought it was powerful, but it wasn't that painful.
"Seems like I'm really strong!" Charizard felt even more confident.
It figured it could withstand even two more Aura Missiles without falling.
Rounding it up, isn't that equivalent to being able to take on three Lycanrocs?
The confident Charizard regrouped, flapping its wings swiftly as it circled around Lucario, looking for an opportunity to strike.
'Aura Missile!'
Lucario continued to gather Aura Power with an expressionless demeanor.
If one Aura Missile can't bring Charizard down, then two, three, or four will!
No way Charizard could dodge an Aura Missile by flying.
'Flamethrower!'
Seeing Lucario aiming another Aura Missile at it, Charizard opened its mouth and spewed flames at the incoming Aura Missile.
Though it wouldn't cause severe injuries, getting hit by an Aura Missile would still hurt.
Rumble!!
The deep, massive pillar of fire engulfed the blue energy bullet. As the explosion sounded, the Aura Missile disappeared, and the pillar of fire dissipated in the air.
"Roar!" Charizard raised his head and let out a dragon's roar.
The Aura Missile that defeated Lycanroc was nothing much; offense is the best defense!
'Air Blade!'
Charizard gathered a large amount of chakra onto his claws and unleashed several wind blades towards Lucario in one go.
Whoosh whoosh!!
The wind blades moved swiftly, and since Charizard launched them while flying around Lucario, they locked Lucario's dodging space from multiple angles.
Lucario maintained his previous calm demeanor, swiftly extending his paw, followed by a metallic sheen appearing over it.
'Metal Claw!'
Lucario swung the metallic-covered paw and forcibly scattered the incoming wind blades.
Hoo hoo!!
Charizard's attack didn't end there, as another wave of heat accompanied by flames rushed towards Lucario.
'Hot Wind!'
This time, Lucario couldn't perfectly evade, a trace of scorch marks appeared on his chest fur.
Although it had foreseen the incoming attack, the range of Hot Wind was far broader than the previous techniques, so it couldn't fully dodge.
'Flamethrower!'
Charizard pressed its advantage relentlessly, again spewing a large pillar of fire towards Lucario.
Lucario knew he couldn't withstand it head-on and immediately activated all his power to dodge.
Charizard's expression became smug.
Knowing Lycanroc was bested by Lucario and now Lucario is being overpowered by it proves it stronger than Lucario and Lucario stronger than Lycanroc.
Now Charizard only wanted to say, Lucario, you're merely a challenger.
No matter the intelligence disadvantage, even with an extra hindrance like Obito, it couldn't be defeated.
Once Charizard realized it had the upper hand, it wanted to conclude the battle in one bold move.
Just like Lucario defeated Lycanroc.
Charizard could already imagine the admiring look from Milotic. After all, it would surely look impressive then.
To make its attack easier to hit Lucario, Charizard lowered its flight altitude.
While higher flying allowed Charizard to avoid worry about Lucario's Taijutsu attacks, it also made its attacks harder to land.
Charizard gathered a large amount of chakra in his throat and spewed out a fire column larger than before.