"Groudon?
Groudon??"
In the Viridian Gym backyard, Giovanni heard Groudon's cries for help and hurried over.
When he arrived, he saw the backyard was empty.
The ground was scattered with Pokéblocks and Pokémon snacks.
Groudon vanished?
Giovanni frowned.
He looked at the ground, but there were no traces of Dig.
And in the sky—there was no way it could be possible either.
Who could grab a monster as heavy as Groudon and fly it away?
Giovanni wasn't flustered.
Instead, he used the power of Viridian to communicate with a Dugtrio not far away.
"Was it taken away by that surprise arrival Gold ring?"
Giovanni got the surprised answer.
What the—
Giovanni fell into thought.
He really didn't know what that "Gold ring" was.
But his all-knowing son might.
Giovanni took out his phone to message Damian, asking.
Then he went back inside the Gym, preparing to investigate the surveillance.
He believed Groudon couldn't have betrayed him.
After all, his relationship with Groudon was really good.
They got along comfortably.
But lately—at least in Giovanni's eyes—Groudon's personality had been getting more and more abstract.
And it kept talking about using his ashes to soak in magma after Giovanni died.
But… what if that was also a kind of sincere recognition of Giovanni?
Yeah.
Even though Giovanni was pretty resistant to what Groudon said, he still basically wanted to get buried underground safely and peacefully.
Using ashes for "soaking/bathing"—that was just too far beyond Giovanni's mental limits.
He really couldn't take in this kind of thick affection.
...
Damian's expression was incredibly creepy.
He never, ever expected that after picking and picking, Hoopa Unbound would end up picking a Groudon that couldn't fly.
No.
Even Zacian is better than Groudon that couldn't fly, right? Or even Zamazenta?
And wasn't Groudon already caught by Giovanni?
Hoopa's spatial transmission can't transmit Pokémon inside an Ultra Ball.
Damian had confirmed this with Mischief Hoopa, which was why he had brought Giratina over by putting it into an Ultra Ball in the first place.
So it meant—
Giovanni "freely released" Groudon.
That's what allowed Hoopa Unbound to teleport Groudon over.
But the real question was—
was Groudon actually useful in a battlefield like this?
Damian's expression looked a bit odd.
It wasn't that the Primal Reversion Groudon down there was completely useless.
It was just that—
Groudon can't fly.
With no flight, in a battle of this tier—this kind of legendary big battle—what role could Primal Groudon possibly play?
It could only stare at the ground and throw out long-range attacks.
You couldn't really have Groudon jump up and use Aerial Ace.
That would be too abstract.
And besides, even though Primal Groudon's special attack power wasn't weak…
its best at was still close-range combat physical attacks.
And most importantly—
if after the fight Hoopa didn't send it back…
wouldn't it have to walk all the way back to Kanto step by step?
Oh, right.
It could Dig out from underground too.
Once Damian thought of that, he found it hard to keep a straight face.
Dragon Kyurem glanced once at the newly Appeared Primal Groudon.
Then it lowered its dragon eyes back onto Hoopa Unbound.
Obviously, Dragon Kyurem didn't take Primal Groudon seriously at all.
After all, it had fought before.
So what abilities did this Groudon have that it didn't know already?
No real threat.
"Kyurem, don't use long-range energy-style attacks on this Hoopa Unbound.
Its Gold ring can swallow energy."
Damian reminded Dragon Kyurem.
This was another thing about Hoopa Unbound that was extremely bugged.
Everything depended on Spatial rings.
Energy-form attacks would all be "swallowed" by the Spatial rings!
And Hoopa Unbound didn't just swallow.
It could also turn the tables, using its Gold ring to send the "absorbed" energy back out.
So when battling Hoopa Unbound, close-range melee talent for effective hits worked.
Unless there were a huge number of Pokémon around that wanted to attack Hoopa Unbound—
otherwise, in most normal circumstances, surrounding it still wouldn't really be able to do anything to Hoopa Unbound.
Its own brutal combat power, plus that bug-like Gold ring, made Hoopa Unbound extremely strong in battle.
Dragon Kyurem's cold, emotionless dragon eyes rippled slightly…
but the next instant—
"Roar—!!"
Dragon Kyurem's draconic bellow shook the air.
Its massive dragon body shimmered with blue lightning.
It charged straight at Hoopa Unbound.
Fusion Bolt!
Since long-range attacks couldn't be used…
then just push straight through face-to-face!
Fusion Bolt's lightning turned into a circle, fully enclosing Dragon Kyurem.
Hoopa Unbound roared at Dragon Kyurem.
Spatial rings appeared in midair one after another.
At the same time—
below, Primal Groudon lifted its head.
Dense flames condensed in its mouth.
Huge fireballs blasted out one after another, smashing toward Dragon Kyurem.
Fire type Eruption!
Worth noting is—
Primal Groudon didn't open Desolate Land's Extremely Harsh Sunlight weather.
Either it hadn't activated the Ability…
or it was because Stellar Form Terapagos' Teraform Zero was still in the middle of starting up.
Primal Groudon kept blasting fire into Fusion Bolt.
Burning flames burst again and again.
Light filled the sky.
The raging flames burned the sky red.
But the flamethrower couldn't affect Dragon Kyurem at all.
It kept charging toward Hoopa Unbound.
Seeing this, Hoopa Unbound also stopped holding back.
Six huge fists fired out from the Spatial rings, smashing heavily into Dragon Kyurem.
Hyperspace Fury!
Boom!
Hyperspace Fury and Fusion Bolt collided hard.
A massive, heavy shockwave kept trembling and shaking.
Airwaves surged with ferocious winds, howling wild.
And at the same time, Stellar Form Terapagos sprinted fast toward Yveltal's direction.
"Back up."
Damian didn't hesitate at all.
He gave the order.
This Terapagos was way too strong.
He couldn't let Yveltal clash with it directly.
Yveltal flapped back.
It kept its distance from Stellar Form Terapagos.
It seemed Hoopa Unbound had noticed the problem too.
Its expression became even more ferocious with terror.
It let out an unwilling, furious roar again.
In the end, Hyperspace Fury and Fusion Bolt were evenly matched and both got shoved back—
but the next second, Kyurem charged forward again like nothing happened.
Hoopa Unbound got furious.
It fired a Dark Pulse straight out.
It hit Dragon Kyurem as it was closing in.
Another violent blast rang out.
Smoke and dust filled the area.
But a huge shadow emerged from the dust.
Dragon Kyurem bulldozed through the Dark Pulse and arrived right in front of Hoopa Unbound.
Sharp claws wrapped in teal light slashed at Hoopa Unbound—
Dragon type Dragon Claw!
Hoopa Unbound didn't fear it at all.
One Demon god severed arms flew in.
Throat Chop!
Tear!
Dragon Kyurem's Dragon Claw chopped hard into Hoopa Unbound's chest.
Hoopa Unbound roared in pain again.
But at the same time, Hoopa Unbound's Throat Chop also pierced Dragon Kyurem hard.
Dragon Kyurem forced through it.
With the three-in-one after all, Kyurem's body was extremely tough.
"Ice Beam!"
It opened its jaws wide.
At point-blank range, Dragon Kyurem released an icy glow.
The icy glow struck Hoopa Unbound directly.
Along with the sharp, crackling freezing sound…
Hoopa Unbound's body was instantly frozen—half of it at once!
Even though Hoopa Unbound's Gold ring naturally beat all attacks in energy form—
as long as you didn't give it the chance to use the Gold ring absorbed attack…
then it could be prevented.
And at such close range, with that sudden icy glow—
Hoopa Unbound didn't have time to control the Gold ring.
"Disappear!
Disappear!!!"
Chilling terror crazily invaded the body.
The pain pushed Hoopa Unbound even further into madness.
Its six Demon god severed arms flew wildly and smashed straight down at Dragon Kyurem.
Throat Chop ×6!
Hoopa Unbound's body structure was just too perfect for battle.
Six flexible, sturdy arms meant it had way more possible attack patterns than most Pokémon.
Take Dragon Kyurem as an example.
It was basically a Western dragon-type Pokémon.
The two claws, fangs, and tail were its battle methods.
It could shoot off energy attacks with its mouth…
but those overlapped with its fangs.
Meanwhile, Hoopa Unbound had six arms alone.
Its chest's emptiness could also condense energy attacks.
And its thick tail was also a kind of attack method.
That was the unique battle advantage it had.
Like right now—
it could control all six arms to attack at the same time!
"Freeze Shock!"
Damian continued to give the order.
Dragon Kyurem's tail turbines spun crazily.
Vicious cold air surged in.
Blue-purple energy kept condensing.
Ice type Freeze Shock!
Boom! Boom!
The six Throat Chop strikes stabbed crazily into Dragon Kyurem—
but all of them got blocked by the Freeze Shock energy shield that had formed.
Instead, Hoopa Unbound's six arms all got a thin layer of frost on them.
Seeing this—
Hoopa Unbound's blood-red pupils suddenly flared.
Its aura turned even more berserk, even more fierce.
How could this be?
How could it be like this?!
Thud!
But Dragon Kyurem didn't give it any more time to roar.
It slammed into Hoopa Unbound heavily.
Hoopa Unbound got hit like it was struck by lightning.
The terror cold aura of Freeze Shock instantly made Hoopa Unbound's whole body stiff, frozen solid by intense icy breath.
Hoopa Unbound's entire body dropped like a cannonball, falling backward at high speed.
It smashed heavily into the sand.
Boom!
The ground shook heavily across everything.
And that vicious chill immediately spread across the surrounding region.
You could clearly see just how powerful Dragon Kyurem was.
"Hiss!!"
Even Mischief Hoopa couldn't help gasping at the sight.
Holy—
it was Hoopa.
Of course it knew best what its own strength was.
And to be fair—
it didn't exaggerate to say that Hoopa Unbound's battle style was totally fine.
Its strength wasn't any worse than when it was at its peak.
But Dragon Kyurem was actually suppressing Hoopa Unbound this hard!
"Kyurem is seriously too strong."
Mischief Hoopa exclaimed again from the bottom of its heart.
"That's right.
In this world, the number of people who can solo defeat Dragon Kyurem—
is truly extremely rare."
Damian strongly agreed.
Hoopa Unbound's combat power was definitely top-tier legendary-level.
It was extremely capable.
Even Hoopa Unbound itself was being suppressed like this by Dragon Kyurem.
You could tell everything just by looking at that.
In the Unova battle—
it was basically already certain that even without buffs, Shiny Mega Rayquaza's combat power was still a little behind Dragon Kyurem.
Unless Arceus didn't show up.
In Damian's opinion, only Ultra Necrozma had a chance to defeat Dragon Kyurem.
But even that was still uncertain.
Because Ultra Necrozma's exact combat power—
was only known to be extremely strong.
But just how strong exactly was still unknown.
That said, with this—
this massive free-for-all battle basically had its outcome decided.
Damian glanced at the location where Hoopa Unbound had crashed down.
It was filled with smoke and dust, so you couldn't see clearly.
But with Hoopa Unbound at a disadvantage…
this big battle was already without suspense.
Damian scanned the surroundings.
Origin Forme Giratina had already beaten Origin Forme Palkia so hard it couldn't breathe properly anymore.
It would soon knock it down and render it unable to get back up.
Mega Shadow Mewtwo Y had also suppressed Shadow Rider Calyrex, taking the advantage.
As Shiny Rayquaza had said—
it was a bit stronger than Mega Rayquaza.
So the situation was still in its favor too.
Primal Kyogre also wasn't losing face.
Even without Primordial Sea channeling, it still slightly pressured Dialga.
As for Stellar Form Terapagos and Primal Groudon…
Damian didn't really put much weight on them.
They couldn't make much of a wave.
"It's basically stable.
Hoopa…
have you thought about how to deal with this Hoopa Unbound?"
"Eeem…"
Mischief Hoopa scrunched up its little face.
It was very conflicted, biting its own small paw.
How to deal with this Hoopa Unbound… that was a real headache.
Should it just kill Hoopa Unbound completely?
But what if Hoopa Unbound disappears?
Then wouldn't its power disappear too?
And it also hesitated a bit.
That Evil Shadow…
why did it hate itself this much?
Mischief Hoopa felt there had to be a reason.
Maybe it was because of the seal?
While Mischief Hoopa was thinking,
Damian's gaze shifted toward Stellar Form Terapagos.
"Tera Pokémon, Terapagos.
It has the ability to let me travel to Hisui.
This ability is extremely meaningful to Damian.
Because Damian now knew his Future daughter was undergoing trials in Hisui.
And he had also promised Akari.
He would bring her to play in this time.
As a dad, of course he had to keep his word, right?
So this Terapagos can't be let go.
And then…
Damian took out his phone.
He opened the filming files—Akari's photo, plus a few videos.
He hesitated.
These "proofs"—
should he show Dawn?
Tell her that he traveled to Hisui, met himself—
and met her Future daughter?
How should he put it?
Wouldn't this "surprise" be… way too surprising?
~~
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