"My Ariados's toxic silk contains over a hundred different poisons. The moment they touch an open flame, they release a specific volatile gas," Hanzo Shura's raspy voice echoed through the chamber. "Your Ninetales has already inhaled it. This is a high-intensity compound toxin; standard antidotes are useless. Watch as your precious fox melts into a puddle of black sludge."
Hanzo sneered. This mixture was his masterpiece, designed even to penetrate psychic barriers. In his mind, the Ninetales was already dead.
"A compound toxin? Child's play," Feng Che replied dismissively.
In the presence of a Mythical Pokémon like Shaymin, no poison—no matter how complex—could remain potent. While Feng Che hadn't revealed Shaymin to the World League when Koga was poisoned, he had long ago secured a "Seed Flare Blessing" for his own team, granting them near-total immunity to toxic status effects.
Feng Che had spent the last few minutes gauging the mutant Ariados's patterns. Its dual maws fired both reinforced metallic silk and toxic threads, while its eight legs were sharp enough to pierce solid bedrock.
"Ariados, Venoshock!"
The mutant opened its maws. One head spat a yellowish corrosive fluid, while the other exhaled a concentrated purple venom. The two liquids collided in mid-air, reacting to form a swirling black mist that began eating away at the cave walls, leaving hissing, pitted scars in the stone.
"Ninetales, Flamethrower!"
Ninetales took a deep breath, and a torrent of fire surged from its throat, slamming into the black mist. The mist, seemingly possessed of a life of its own, didn't dissipate; instead, it stained the flames black and continued to expand, threatening to pin Ninetales against the jagged rock wall.
"Ninetales, Fire Spin!"
A spiraling vortex of flame erupted, sucking the mist into its center. The entire cavern was soon filled with a dense, dark haze.
"Foolish. That fire only accelerates the toxin's spread. Your Ninetales is finished," Hanzo Shura laughed, now standing high above the Poison Sanctuary. From his vantage point, nothing—not even a human—should survive that corrosive cloud.
If the Ninetales tried to use Dig to escape, the high concentration of toxins in the sanctuary's soil would only kill it faster.
However, as the mist cleared, Feng Che stood there with a calm smile, his Ninetales unscathed.
"Impossible... that mist was specifically tuned to interfere with psychic energy and dissolve biological matter. How are you still standing?" Hanzo's playfulness vanished, replaced by cold wariness.
"Enough games. Go, Scolipede, Drapion!" Hanzo stripped off his outer robe, revealing a high-tech ninja suit beneath. "Naganadel is almost awake. I'll entertain you personally until then."
A Shiny Crobat materialized behind Hanzo, its wings glowing with a toxic sheen.
"Scolipede, Steamroller! Drapion, Pin Missile! Ariados, cover them!"
The three-meter-tall Scolipede curled into a massive, armored wheel, hurtling toward Feng Che like a juggernaut. Simultaneously, Drapion fired a volley of purple toxic needles from its claws.
"Go, Incineroar!"
The heel Pokémon burst from its ball, instantly wreathed in a magma-like aura. It caught the charging Scolipede with glowing, lava-hot hands. The smell of scorched chitin filled the air as the Scolipede shrieked in pain, desperately rolling away to extinguish the flames on its shell.
With a powerful stomp, Incineroar triggered a pillar of molten rock that knocked the Drapion into the ceiling, pinning it briefly as rocks crumbled around it.
Meanwhile, Ninetales moved with a lethal elegance toward the Ariados. Every step left a burning, molten pawprint on the stone. Its tails brushed against the Ariados's webs, turning the entire network into a roaring inferno.
The Ariados tried to flee via a ceiling-tethered silk line, but Ninetales snapped a precise Ember at the thread, igniting it. The spider plummeted, its rear on fire as it scurried frantically toward the Poison Sanctuary's lake to douse the flames.
As it dove into the toxic liquid, the Ariados suddenly froze. A thunderous, predatory roar vibrated through the cavern—a pressure so immense it made the mutant spider shiver in primal fear.
"You're finally awake... Naganadel!" Hanzo shouted in triumph.
But his joy was short-lived. He frowned, sensing something was off. "Wait... you should have broken through to the next level. The energy of the Dragon Scale should have been enough..."
While Hanzo had been focused on the battle, a small, slime-like Pokémon (Ditto) had slipped into the lake. Simultaneously, Feng Che's Poipole had settled onto the awakening Naganadel.
The Naganadel beat its wings, rising from the lake. Thousands of liters of glowing venom dripped from its abdomen. Dozens of wild Poipole followed it into the air, firing a collective Dragon Pulse.
Incineroar slammed its foot down once more, raising a massive wall of volcanic rock that neutralized the golden energy.
Suddenly, a brilliant light engulfed the Poipole. Violet-red energy surged from the Poison Sanctuary, wrapping the Poipole in a dense, pulsing cocoon. Feng Che watched as the silhouette within the "heart" of the cocoon began to shift and grow, its form elongating into the jagged, majestic shape of Naganadel.