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Under the effect of Quick Attack, combined with its bright red armor, Scizor truly lived up to its nickname as the "Red Bullet."
Although Quick Attack wasn't very powerful on its own, it was incredibly fast. After evolving into Scizor, this move had become indispensable for the Bug-Steel type Pokemon.
For a Pokemon like Scizor with the Technician ability, moves with moderate base power were actually the most effective techniques it could use.
Seeing Scizor's approach, Charizard immediately flapped its powerful wings and took to the air, soaring upward to avoid the incoming attack.
The red streak shot forward, passing right through the spot where Charizard had been hovering just moments before. The attack missed, but Scizor quickly adapted to the situation.
Without stopping its momentum, Scizor planted its feet firmly on the ground and launched itself directly into the air, still glowing with that distinctive red flash as it pursued Charizard into the sky.
Although Scizor's body had become much heavier after evolution, its seemingly slender legs were packed with explosive power. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to support such a top-heavy physique.
This also gave Scizor tremendous jumping ability. As it rocketed up toward Charizard, Scizor opened its massive pincers wide.
The pair of pincers snapped shut tightly, like two enormous hammers. With the power of its jump behind it, a blue light began to shine around both pincers.
As Scizor charged toward Charizard, it swung directly at the Fire-Flying type, its attack looking incredibly menacing from below.
"ROAAAAAR!" Charizard growled in response.
Charizard wasn't afraid of a head-on confrontation. It clenched one of its claws, and electricity suddenly crackled around it as it prepared Thunder Punch.
CRASH!
High in the sky, fist and pincers collided with tremendous force. The moment of impact sent out shockwaves in all directions, and both Pokemon's arms trembled slightly from the collision.
Scizor's eyes narrowed with slight frustration. Even after evolving, it still couldn't gain a clear advantage over Charizard in terms of raw power.
While Scizor was momentarily distracted by this realization, it noticed that Charizard had already raised its other claw, with violent lightning crackling around it as well.
Charizard struck while Scizor was off-guard. Because Scizor had been too focused on analyzing their power difference, when Charizard's Thunder Punch came down, Scizor had no time to block it with its other pincer.
However, Scizor wasn't one to sit still and accept defeat. As Charizard's fist descended, Scizor's body shimmered slightly. When Charizard's electrified fist swept through the air with violent thunder and the sound of rushing wind, Scizor's figure completely disappeared from in front of the attack.
Then, multiple copies of Scizor appeared scattered throughout the air around them.
"Double Team?" Ash observed from below, stroking his chin analytically.
Even if its short-distance speed was slower than before, the effectiveness of Double Team combined with Quick Attack wasn't significantly reduced. This was the same fighting style that had been effective when it was still a Scyther.
"Sci!" all the Scizor copies called out simultaneously.
At that moment, all the Scizor figures landed on the ground, planted their feet firmly, and launched themselves back into the air as one unit. Red light began to glow around all the giant pincers of the clones at the same time.
WHAM!
Confused by the numerous clones, Charizard was struck solidly by Scizor's Bug Bite attack.
Bug Bite's power exceeded the enhancement range that Technician could provide, but it was quite powerful in its own right.
However, since it was a Bug-type move, and Charizard resisted Bug-type attacks with both its Fire and Flying typing, the Bug-type technique had minimal effect on the dragon-like Pokemon.
The only thing that could really hurt Charizard was Scizor's own physical strength, but this alone wasn't enough to defeat the powerful Fire-type.
Charizard swung its tail, preparing to sweep Scizor away, but saw that Scizor had already dropped from the air on its own, avoiding Charizard's counterattack. The surrounding clones didn't dissipate either.
Under these circumstances, Charizard still couldn't distinguish which one was real. Charizard's expression grew more serious, no longer showing any trace of contempt. It suddenly took a deep breath, opened its mouth wide, and released searing flames.
Flamethrower poured down from the sky, directly striking several of Scizor's figures, but without question, they were all just illusions.
As Scizor's clones disappeared from the flame attack, it continued using Double Team to create even more copies, keeping itself perfectly hidden among the duplicates and leaving Charizard at a complete disadvantage.
After dodging the fire attack, Scizor launched itself into the air again to continue its assault. Because all the clones attacked together, Charizard couldn't completely pinpoint Scizor's actual location.
Due to Ash's earlier instructions about not going overboard, Charizard wasn't taking the fight too seriously. Otherwise, it would have already used Heat Wave to bomb a large area by now.
However, if Scizor's true location was never discovered and these attacks continued, there was no guarantee that Charizard wouldn't lose its temper and escalate things.
Ash watched the aerial battle as Scizor continued its assault with Bullet Punch and Bug Bite. Although these moves didn't deal significant damage to Charizard, the constant chipping away would eventually add up.
Pikachu and Venusaur were also watching with fascination. Actually, from Pidgeotto's aerial perspective, it could clearly see Scizor's true form among the clones, but it wasn't fighting in this battle itself.
"Charizard, if you can calm down and focus, you'll definitely be able to find Scizor's real body. It just depends on whether you can figure it out or not," Ash murmured quietly to himself.
Ash didn't command either side or help either Pokemon. He simply watched the battle between his two Pokemon from the sidelines as their trainer.
From a trainer's analytical perspective, Scizor was completely at a type disadvantage and didn't have the power to defeat Charizard in a single decisive blow.
However, as a Bug and Steel-type combination, there weren't many types that could effectively counter Scizor. But Fire-type moves were super effective against both Bug and Steel types, meaning Scizor took quadruple damage from fire attacks.
Therefore, once Charizard managed to land a solid hit on Scizor's real body, the Pincer Pokemon would be in serious danger. The key was cracking Scizor's Double Team strategy.
Of course, Ash could see the flaw in Scizor's technique, because there was a significant difference between Scizor and its pre-evolution Scyther. This was actually a rare weakness that appeared after Scyther evolved.
When the original Scyther had used Double Team, even Ash couldn't tell the difference and could only rely on wide-range attacks to solve the problem. However, now that it had become Scizor, this move had a distinct flaw.
But Ash didn't remind Charizard about it - this was meant to be a fair battle between them, so it was up to the Pokemon themselves to discover the solution.
"Pika pika?" Pikachu questioned curiously.
Pikachu had heard Ash's quiet murmur and tilted its head with a puzzled expression. Like the others watching, it was so dazzled by all the copies that it couldn't tell which one was the real Scizor either.