First Battle vs the White Elephant Alliance—Lucario's Clean Triple KO!!**
Victor Stone's voice wasn't loud.
Yet every word carried absolute confidence—and unquestionable dominance.
As his words fell, Svaraj—who moments ago had been trying to bully the weak while fearing the strong—fell completely silent.
It wasn't that he didn't want to speak.
He simply didn't know what to say.
Accept the challenge?
Against Victor Stone's Champion-tier Charizard, he'd be beaten half to death.
Refuse?
That would publicly admit cowardice—an unforgivable stain on the White Elephant Alliance's dignity.
After weighing it all, Svaraj chose silence.
Losing face was one thing.
Losing his life was another.
Still, the disbelief in his eyes as he stared at Victor only grew stronger.
Victor Stone—Champion of Donghuang.
Only forty-three years old.
Globally ranked third among all trainers.
The only two ranked above him were:
Zolotov, age fifty-fiveClayton, age fifty-one
Victor had reached this level far earlier than either of them.
And now—
His once-weakest Champion candidate, Charizard, had officially stepped into Champion rank.
That meant Victor now possessed four Champion-tier Pokémon.
He had caught up to Zolotov.
And more terrifyingly—
Charizard had never been his strongest ace.
The implications made every high-ranking observer's scalp prickle.
At this pace…
Five years.
At most.
Victor Stone could very well become the world's strongest trainer.
A future the Western alliances absolutely did not want to see.
But Victor himself couldn't care less about their thoughts.
He turned to Ethan instead.
"Ethan. Are you alright?"
Ethan smiled calmly.
"I'm fine, Dad."
Only then did Victor relax slightly.
He looked back at Svaraj.
"My son wasn't harmed, so we'll let this end here."
"But if Ethan had suffered even the slightest injury…"
"You know exactly what I would've done."
With that, Victor didn't spare anyone else another glance.
Father and son left the dessert hall together.
Only after they departed did the immobilized security finally regain their strength and scramble to their feet.
None of them dared meet Svaraj's gaze.
They all knew—
they had made a catastrophic mistake.
But before Svaraj could even vent his anger, Nirmala shouted furiously:
"Father! You're really letting them leave?!"
"This is the White Elephant Alliance, not Donghuang!"
"How can they act so arrogantly on our land?!"
Smack!
Svaraj backhanded him without hesitation.
"Shut up!"
"Do you even know who you provoked?!"
"That man is the Donghuang Champion!"
"That Charizard is Champion-tier!"
"If he truly decided to make trouble—
we'd all die right here!"
Years of suppressed humiliation exploded out of him.
Nirmala instantly wilted, clutching his face, too afraid to speak again.
Only now did the weight of reality sink in.
The man he'd provoked…
was a Champion.
And the boy he'd insulted…
Was the Champion's son.
Steel plate.
Straight into it.
Still, swallowing this humiliation burned like poison.
"…So we're just letting them go?" Nirmala muttered bitterly.
Svaraj stared at the retreating figures of Victor and Ethan, then spoke coldly to his translator:
"Find out who Donghuang has sent to this exchange."
"If I can't reclaim my dignity from Victor Stone…"
"Then I'll make Donghuang lose face on the global stage."
Ethan Under the Spotlight
The dessert-hall incident spread like wildfire.
Global alliances began digging into Ethan's identity.
And what they found shocked them.
Ethan Stone.
Age: 18.
Profession: Five-Star Trainer.
Eighteen.
Even under the loosest systems, that was unthinkable.
Only alliances friendly to Donghuang—like the Polar, Persian, and Central Sand Alliances—accepted it.
The rest?
They immediately cried fraud.
"Donghuang's system could never produce someone this young.""He's the Champion's son—obviously manufactured.""A fake genius."
The lack of any information about Ethan on Donghuang's public networks only reinforced their suspicions.
To them, this silence wasn't protection—
It was evidence.
Svaraj laughed when he heard the rumors.
"So that's it?"
"A fake prodigy propped up by his father?"
"Perfect."
"I'll crush him publicly."
The Exchange Begins
Three days later—
The International Newly Promoted Five-Star Trainer Exchange officially began.
Format: Single-elimination knockout.
Officially random draws.
Unofficially?
Svaraj rigged Ethan's first opponent.
Ilam, White Elephant Alliance's newly promoted Five-Star Trainer.
Age forty.
Peak Pokémon: Early Overlord-tier.
When Ilam learned he'd be fighting an "eighteen-year-old backdoor candidate," he nearly laughed himself breathless.
Three days later, on the arena floor—
Ethan noticed a White Elephant middle-aged man staring at him with blatant disdain.
Then the draw results were announced.
Their names were paired.
So that's how it was.
Battle Begins
"Donghuang brat!" Ilam sneered as they entered the arena.
"Being defeated by me will be your honor!"
He immediately threw his Poké Ball.
A Late Commander-tier Skuntank appeared.
Ethan blinked.
This… is a Five-Star exchange?
No Champion.
No Overlord.
Just this?
Still, Ethan remained serious.
Originally, he'd planned to send out Entei or Garchomp.
But after seeing the opponent's lineup—
He chose Lucario.
Lucario paused, slightly surprised.
Me?
But the moment he stepped forward, his fighting spirit ignited.
Ilam's jealousy exploded the instant he saw Lucario.
"Damn it! A Lucario?!"
"You've got no skill—yet you get rare Pokémon like this?!"
"Skuntank! Take them down—Headbutt!"
BOOM.
Before the command even finished—
Skuntank collapsed.
One punch.
Lucario stared at his fist, confused.
…Since when did I hit this hard?
Ilam's brain short-circuited.
"No—no way."
"Just luck."
"That's all."
Panicking, he recalled Skuntank and sent out a Commander-peak Liepard.
Fast.
But not fast enough.
Another Aura Sphere–boosted punch.
Down.
Now Ilam was sweating.
He sent out his final ace—
An Early Overlord-tier Crawdaunt.
This one at least survived a hit.
But only one.
The second punch shattered its armor completely.
Triple KO.
Lucario stood there, blinking.
…This is what they call "elite"?
The referee was stunned.
The crowd was stunned.
And the world finally realized—
This "fake prodigy"…
Was very, very real.
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