The next day, Veilstone Arena was packed to bursting. Tens of thousands of spectators filled the stands, and even the aisles were crammed with men and women eager to witness the match. It was as if every available Trainer in the entire city had gathered here.
Not even the grand opening of the Arena had seen such a spectacle.
"Whoa, there are so many people!"
"I thought today would be quiet, but it's packed! Lucky I came early."
"Is there some special event? Why's the crowd this huge?"
"You don't know?"
"Why should I know? I just like dropping by to watch whatever battles are happening."
"The Champion's back—Sinnoh's strongest Trainer, Paul has returned!"
"What?! Really?! Paul's my idol!"
"Of course it's true. The Arena announced last night: last year's runner-up Tobias, is battling Paul today. No wonder it's standing room only!"
"Tobias, huh? That Trainer with all the Legendaries… Paul didn't beat him easily last time. This is going to be good."
The crowd buzzed with excitement, anticipation crackling through the air.
The arena lights shifted. From opposite entrances, Paul and Tobias walked out at an unhurried pace, stepping calmly into their designated positions.
Their eyes met—not with blazing rivalry, but with a cool, steady calm.
"I've been waiting for this match for a long time. Are you ready?" Tobias asked with a smile.
Paul's response was blunt: "What are the rules?"
Though tens of thousands of fans watched, this was still a reserved rental match, not a sanctioned League battle. The format was theirs to decide.
"Three Pokémon each. Switching allowed at will. The match ends when one side's team is entirely unable to battle. Any recognized battle system is valid."
Tobias confirmed, "Is that acceptable?"
A 3 vs. 3 was the cleanest way to test strength. From this, Tobias could judge whether a 6 vs. 6 would be within his reach.
"No problem."
Paul nodded. Without wasting words, he acted first. As Champion, he allowed Tobias as challenger to respond second.
"Go—Infernape!"
"Waa-chaa!"
A blast of searing heat swept across the field as Infernape's muscular frame landed.
The crowd erupted.
"It's Infernape!"
"That little Chimchar he once used in battles… it's evolved all the way to Infernape!"
"Looks so strong now! What will Tobias send out to face it?"
Many in Veilstone still remembered how Paul once trained and tested his Chimchar in countless ranked matches, gaining both victories and defeats. Infernape had left a deep impression on the city's Trainers.
"That last Chimchar you caught…? Go, Darkrai!"
Tobias released his signature partner. Darkrai wasn't his strongest, but it was his first companion, and no less formidable.
"Darkrai, Dark Void!"
Shadows pooled in Darkrai's hands, multiplying into countless void spheres that rained down on Infernape in a blanket bombardment.
"Blaze—Rage Power!"
"Waa-chaa!!"
Infernape roared skyward, eyes blazing crimson. Flames surged from its crown, engulfing its entire body. Its aura skyrocketed—ten times greater than before.
Standing firm, Infernape let the void projectiles fall. Yet before they could touch its body, the black energy evaporated, burned away by its fiery aura.
"It can… burn Dark Void itself?"
Tobias' pupils contracted. He could imagine Infernape shrugging off Dark Void with Safeguard, but burning shadows away with fire? Unbelievable.
For the first time, he felt like Paul had once felt: that to win, he would need every ounce of strength.
"Darkrai—Nasty Plot! Then Rock Tomb!"
Darkrai dispersed the shadows in its hands. Raising its arms, it summoned a storm of boulders crashing from above, then melted into the darkness, vanishing among the falling stones.
"Useless."
Paul shook his head lightly.
Infernape didn't flinch. Flames surged higher, vaporizing the descending rocks. Then, openly and without fear, it began gathering strength—charging a devastating and indiscriminate attack.
"Thunder Wave!"
Dozens of electric pulses arced through the air latching onto Infernape, aiming to paralyze it.
But Blaze flared faster, incinerating the energy before it could bind.
Paralysis—failed!
"Dark Pulse!"
Appearing suddenly at Infernape's back, Darkrai unleashed a crushing wave of dark energy.
"Blast Burn !"
"Waa-chaa!!!"
At that instant, Infernape's charge reached its peak. It slammed its fist into the ground.
BOOM!!
The arena quaked as the floor cracked like a spiderweb. Flames erupted like a volcanic eruption, transforming the battlefield into a blazing inferno.
The world turned red.
Almost instantly, protective barriers flared up, shielding the stands from the cataclysm.
From the front row, Akari winced, memories flashing back to the painful trial at the Hall of Origin.
The rest of the audience, however, sat frozen in awe.
"What power is this?!"
"That monkey's incredible…"
"Infernape is insane!"
"…"
The greater their amazement, the grimmer Tobias' silence grew.
He knew. Against such force, how could Darkrai endure? In his entire roster, maybe two or three could withstand this blow.
Reality confirmed his fear. Dark Pulse vaporized instantly. Darkrai threw up a Protect, holding for only a few seconds—before the shield melted like wax.
Two seconds later, Darkrai collapsed amid the firestorm.
Only the scorched field and Darkrai's unconscious form testified to the devastation.
"Haaah…"
Infernape panted heavily. The move may have been just one attack, but a battlefield-wide Blast Burn demanded as much as his fiercest "Flame Power" transformation.
"Return, Darkrai."
At last, Tobias recalled his fallen partner, still rattled by the scale of the inferno.
Taking a steadying breath, he drew his second Poké Ball.
"Go—Latias!"
"Yaa~!"
With the speed of a jet fighter, Latias soared in a wide arc across the battlefield before coming to hover gracefully in front of Tobias.
"Mega Evolution—directly."
"Yaa~!"
With a sharp cry, Latias began to glow. Incredibly, she Mega Evolved without Tobias even raising a Key Stone. Her pink body shifted into a blue-violet hue, her foreclaws lengthening into larger, sharper talons.
"A self-initiated Mega Evolution… interesting."
Paul's eyes narrowed in appraisal. After a moment's thought, he withdrew his Infernape—not the best match for Latias—and sent out another Poké Ball.
"Metagross, prepare to battle!"
"Grrooo!"
The silver titan slammed down onto the scorched battlefield, instantly locking onto Latias with its piercing gaze.
"Answer my call—Key Stone! Metagross, Mega Evolve!"
Raising his left hand, Paul activated the Keystone hidden in his sleeve badge. Its light resonated with the Mega Stone embedded in Metagross.
"Rrrrroar!"
Bathed in radiant energy, Metagross transformed—its four legs folding into massive arms, and additional smaller limbs sprouting from its back. The golden cross on its face shifted to blue, and a massive horn jutted from its jaw.
Mega Metagross—enter the battle!
"So, you go straight to Mega Evolution as well… confident as ever, Paul."
Tobias smirked and issued his first command:
"Latias—Tailwind! Then Mist Ball!"
Latias' wings flared, summoning a special current of wind across the arena. Her speed doubled instantly. Riding the gale, she conjured countless pink orbs of energy, showering them down toward Metagross.
"Cosmic Power, then Meteor Mash!"
Streams of battle data flickered in Metagross' eyes. Analyzing the weakest nodes in the Mist Ball barrage, it launched forward at full speed, fist glowing like a falling star. The steel comet smashed through the incoming orbs, surging straight toward Latias.
Latias, unflustered, boosted her speed further with Dragon Dance, weaving aside with ease thanks to Tailwind's amplification.
"Dragon Pulse!"
Spinning midair, Latias opened her jaws, unleashing a beam of draconic energy like a raging cannon blast.
"Flash Cannon!"
Abandoning Meteor Mash, Metagross gathered steel power in its claws, firing a blinding silver cannon to meet the dragon's beam.
BOOM!!
The collision erupted in an explosion, shockwaves forcing both combatants back several meters.
"Aura Sphere!"
Without missing a beat, Latias conjured wave after wave of Aura Spheres in her claws, hurling them in irregular arcs to hem Metagross in from all directions.
Aura Sphere was inescapable, its homing nature made prediction useless.
But neither Paul nor Metagross intended to dodge.
"Psychic!"
Metagross' eyes flared blue, seizing several Aura Spheres in mid-flight. Calculating perfectly, it redirected them to collide with others, detonating them prematurely in a wave-against-wave interception.
"Agility, then Bullet Punch!"
Propelled by electromagnetism, Metagross surged forward at blinding speed, its four claws snapping out like bullets.
"Agility—Dragon Claw!"
Not to be outdone, Latias blurred with even greater velocity, Tailwind amplifying her movements to near-teleportation. Appearing above Metagross' head, her claws glowed green as she slashed downward.
CRASH!
Metagross had sensed the strike but couldn't react in time, taking the double claw strike and crashing into the ground.
"Aura Sphere!"
Strike while the enemy is weak.
Latias rapidly formed dozens of Aura Spheres and hurled them down, following up with another Dragon Pulse from her maw.
KA-BOOM!!
Metagross vanished in the storm of explosions.
Yet Paul remained calm.
As expected, a wave of psychic energy blew the smoke aside, revealing Metagross within a shimmering barrier of Protec.
Latias' speed was formidable—perhaps even beyond Metagross, but Paul had prepared for fast airborne opponents.
Speed too high? Then strip it away.
"Gravity!"
At Paul's command, invisible waves pulsed out from Metagross. The battlefield's gravity intensified in an instant, pressing Latias down until she could barely hover above the ground.
"Icy Wind!"
With her flight curtailed, Metagross exhaled a frigid blast across the arena. Latias, robbed of altitude, had no way to avoid the freezing wind.
"Psychic, then Role Play!"
Tobias countered swiftly. Latias shielded herself with psychic force, then shimmered with white light, copying Metagross' Steel/Psychic typing to bolster her resistance.
"Rock Tomb!"
Maintaining the storm, Metagross summoned a rain of massive boulders, sealing the field in an indiscriminate bombardment.
"Whirlpool, then Dragon Pulse!"
Reading Paul's intent, Tobias ordered Latias to unleash a water vortex that swallowed the incoming rocks and icy wind. She followed with another Dragon Pulse, sweeping the debris away to regain maneuvering space.
Paul's expression remained unchanged.
"And so what if you've seen through me? Gravity—Psychic!"
Throughout the clash, Metagross had been quietly stacking Cosmic Power. Now its strength was overwhelming. Gravity bore down harder, Latias' body pinned to the ground. Even a Legendary Dragon could barely move under the twin shackles of gravity and psychic suppression.
"Earthquake!"
Metagross slammed the ground, shockwaves erupting in all directions.
Tobias' face tightened. With Role Play, Latias now shared Metagross' Steel/Psychic typing. Strong against many elements, but doubly weak to Ground.
"Laaatias!"
The tremor struck full force, and Latias crying out in pain.
"It's over."
Pinned by gravity from above, crushed by seismic force below, Latias had no escape. Within moments, she collapsed to the battlefield.
"...Hah. Truly formidable."
Tobias exhaled heavily.
Even Latias' relentless offense had failed to break through. Paul's mastery of Protect and Gravity turned the tide with ruthless precision.
Was this the gulf between them?
"Paul, your strength is incredible. It seems I still have much room to grow. This next Pokémon, I captured it only recently. It's the strongest partner I have at the moment. Please, judge its worth!"
With solemn respect, Tobias recalled Latias. Then, retrieving a high-grade Poké Ball, he threw it forward.
Paul's eyes gleamed with renewed interest.
(End of Chapter)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you want to access the complete chapters, please visit: patreon.com / PMadz_23