The intense heat directly melted the flying stones into liquid magma, which dripped heavily onto the ground. Simultaneously, the shallow wounds scoring Arcanine's hide were rapidly repaired and sealed by its radiant, white-hot flames.
It appears this Arcanine has fully inherited Entei's Flame of Life, allowing it to systematically regenerate its tissue through raw thermal energy, Feng Che analyzed silently.
This Arcanine stands as a perfectly matched adversary for Ninetales.
Arcanine:Damn it! I was almost disfigured. My remarkably handsome face was nearly ruined by those flying pebbles!
Arcanine:That wretched fox... I will have my revenge!
Baring its teeth with pure internal irritation, Arcanine's travel velocity spiked exponentially. It was already a naturally swift species, but the moment it steeled its focus, the spectators caught only a blazing crimson blur tearing across the battlefield.
Arcanine deployed a massive legion of afterimages, executing high-speed, dynamic leaps to effortlessly dodge Ninetales's zoning vectors.
Fortunately, we managed to successfully interrupt its Swords Dance layout earlier, Feng Che thought, feeling a trace of relief. Had its raw attack parameters scaled further, the match dynamics would have become exceptionally unfavorable for Ninetales.
"Superb. Arcanine, use Crunch!" N directed.
N was highly satisfied with Arcanine's current output loop. This modified partner commanded terrifying parameters, but its temperament was notoriously lazy; on standard occasions, he could barely get this stubborn dog to follow basic instructions. Now that it had finally committed its focus to a proper engagement, N smoothly handed down his next tactical sequence.
"The exact millisecond your Crunch registers, execute a high-speed leap to claim Ninetales's rear. Maintain absolute focus on its tail movements to dodge any immediate Iron Tail counters."
N possessed a highly unique, innate capability: he could intuitively anticipate a Pokémon's subsequent operational movements before they even materialized. This specialized sensory tracking was the absolute cornerstone that allowed him to reign as the King of Team Plasma.
Naturally, this exact gift made Ghetsis profoundly wary of him; Ghetsis viewed N as nothing short of a literal monster—a factor that heavily contributed to his deep-seated distaste for his adoptive son.
Right on cue, Ninetales abruptly swung its tails to execute a silver-grey Iron Tail, heavy kinetic blades slashing down toward the precise vector Arcanine was occupying mid-Crunch.
An exceptionally rare capability... To cleanly anticipate Ninetales's mechanical loops mid-transit without any physical visual cues, Mewtwo murmured telepathically to Feng Che. It closely mirrors the cognitive properties of the Psychic move Future Sight, yet its underlying sensory mechanics are subtly distinct.
[He is remarkably strong. If I can successfully rewrite his alignment and pull N under my sovereign hand, our shadow empire's capabilities will scale to an even grander tier,] Feng Che responded smoothly.
"Ninetales, use Wrap!"
Ninetales's nine flowing tails were exceptionally fluid and multi-functional. Beyond translating into rigid metallic clubs, they could operate as hyper-tensile constricting coils.
With a seamless snap of its plumage, Ninetales securely wrapped its tails around Arcanine's heavy frame. The massive beast let out a sharp whimper as the iron-hard constraints locked it in an inescapable embrace. Catastrophic torrents of fire violently erupted from Arcanine's body in response, yet Ninetales seamlessly channelled its Flash Fire logic to safely absorb the escaping heat. Within seconds, the Fox Pokémon was bathed in the radiant glow of a setting sun, its entire vessel shimmering with a brilliant golden aura.
[Ninetales, use Toxic.]
Feng Che transmitted the directive strictly via the telepathic bridge. A specialized status condition layout like this had to be executed with absolute secrecy, ensuring N's analytical capabilities remained entirely blind to the shift. This stood as another hidden optimization loop Feng Che had meticulously drilled into Ninetales's arsenal.
A highly concentrated, deep-purple venom quietly seeped out from the tips of Ninetales's constricting tails, seamlessly injecting itself into Arcanine's skin.
Though the micro-punctures were instantly flash-healed and rendered perfect under the relentless burning of the Flame of Life, the high-lethal toxin had already cleared the physical barrier. The baseline volume of Toxic injected wasn't massive, but the specialized compound was engineered to systematically seep into the bloodstream, piggybacking off the target's natural circulation to permeate its entire biological matrix.
This layout was exceptionally lethal against a target relying on hyper-velocity parameters. The exact second Arcanine initiated an Extreme Speed loop, the high-intensity physical exertion would violently accelerate its cardiovascular cycle, forcing the neurotoxins to spread at a terminal rate. Once the poison blanketed its core systems, its velocity loops would suffer severe statistical decay, culminating in acute vertigo and total systemic collapse.
However, if N caught a single shred of forensic evidence detailing this play, he would instantly direct Arcanine to leverage the absolute purification metrics of the Flame of Life to forcefully purge the toxin from its body.
"Ninetales, maintain the press with Iron Tail!" Feng Che commanded out loud, ensuring N's suspicions remained entirely unaroused.
To the outside spectators, it appeared as though Arcanine's violent thashing had simply forced Ninetales to loosen its constricting grip.
Ninetales's nine tails shifted concurrently back into a sleek, silver-grey sheen. Instead of driving a single centralized blow, it unleashed a sequential wave of sweeping strikes, mapping a dense kinetic grid that systematically barred every single one of Arcanine's immediate escape vectors.
"Arcanine, break containment with Extreme Speed!" N directed coolly.
Watching the heavy Iron Tails smash cleanly through what was merely an illusionary afterimage of Arcanine, a cold, triumphant smile played on Feng Che's lips.
The high-lethal Toxic had officially begun its full-scale expansion within the beast's pathways.
Arcanine suddenly buckled mid-stride, its powerful limbs feeling unaccountably soft and heavy as its balance faltered slightly.
Arcanine:Fascinating... Why on earth are my joints experiencing a sudden wave of acute fatigue?
Yet, the exact millisecond its gaze locked onto Ninetales's highly provocative, mocking eyes, the beast's stubborn pride violently flared, forcing its system to override the warning signs.
Arcanine:Hmph. I must have overextended my baseline muscular parameters during that initial Extreme Speed rush.
The massive hound merely shook its crown to clear its head. Driven entirely by its aggressive canine temperament, Arcanine had completely misdiagnosed the data block, causing N to miss the absolute finest window to unmask the trap.
"Ninetales, use Night Slash!" Feng Che bellowed loudly.
Ninetales bared its razor-sharp claws, its silhouette dissolving into a high-speed dash as it lunged straight toward Arcanine. Its extended talons sliced across the airspace, producing a sharp, whistling gust of wind.
"Arcanine, intercept with Fake Out to skew its vector!"
At this juncture, N was fully aware that standard Fire-type payloads yielded zero structural returns against Ninetales. The colossally massive arena had been entirely converted into a churning lake of boiling liquid magma, yet Ninetales navigated the molten terrain as smoothly as if it were treading over open grass. Wherever its paws touched, the liquid fire was systematically drained into its core, leaving behind tracks of glossy, solid black volcanic stone.
A dense shroud of dark energy wreathed Ninetales's claws, but its downward transit was instantly anchored by Arcanine's high-velocity Fake Out strike.
The two Champion-tier assets locked frames in a brutal display of raw physical friction, their kinetic outputs deadlocked in perfect equilibrium.
Arcanine:Curse it... How can a fragile fox command a raw muscular coefficient of this scale? I can't even override its frame through direct brawling.
Ninetales:A brainless, overgrown mutt... It seems every ounce of its premium nutrient fluid was converted strictly into empty mass.
Ninetales silently mocked the hound's strength. Yet, juxtaposed against Arcanine's build, Ninetales's definitive tactical advantage rested entirely within the dynamic versatility of its nine independent tails.
Under Feng Che's rigorous training, every single tail operated as an autonomous casting node, capable of independently discharging Fire, Ghost, or Dark-type techniques concurrently. This stood as its absolute, terrifying hallmark.
"Ninetales, use Shadow Ball!"
Ninetales's nine tails stood perfectly erect. A rapid-fire volley of hyper-compressed Shadow Balls launched continuously from the tips of its plumage.
Sensing the incoming spatial trauma, Arcanine instantly released its grip, leveraging Aerial Ace to execute a high-speed vault that beautifully claimed Ninetales's rear hemisphere.
Yet, Ninetales's tails behaved as though they held independent sensory arrays. Without a single micro-second of hesitation, it drove a sweeping Iron Tail ruthlessly into the stone floor right beneath its blind spot.
Arcanine was forced to siphon its remaining reserves to initiate another high-speed Extreme Speed loop to clear the impact zone. Every single burst of acceleration only served to violently accelerate the expansion of the neurotoxins within its body.
"Ninetales, transition into Psybeam!"
An endless, torrential storm of psychedelic, multi-colored energy beams erupted continuously from Ninetales's tails, transforming the Fox Pokémon into an absolute mobile artillery turret.
Faced with the relentless barrage, N could only track his partner struggling heavily, its movements looking increasingly battered as it desperately scrambled to dodge the zoning lasers.