'Leon?'
Hearing these two words, the masked man's eyes instantly became clear.
Although he was strong, that depended on who he was compared to.
After being defeated by Giovanni's humanoid Pokémon yesterday, Pryce had already understood the truth that there are always people beyond people, and skies beyond skies.
As a top-ranked Champion, Leon was absolutely not to be underestimated.
"What, didn't you see that Leon is here too?", Seeing the masked man's reaction, Axel grinned, "Although your eyes are full of my cute self, this really isn't good for you."
Masked man: "..."
'What do you mean my eyes are full of you?"
'F*** off, don't disgust me!'
Realizing that Leon was indeed present, the masked man hesitated slightly, but in the end, his rage overwhelmed his reason.
Since he was already here, it wasn't too late to kill Axel and then escape.
Anyway, he had no grudge against the Galar region, so they probably wouldn't go all out to attack him.
As long as they didn't go all out at the start, he was confident he could seize the chance to kill Axel.
At the masked man's command, Delibird flapped its wings and stirred up a terrifying blizzard.
But the moment Delibird moved, a scorching presence suddenly erupted.
In the face of food being destroyed, Charizard rushed into its Poké Ball and directly unleashed its full-power Gigantamax form.
The next moment, a dazzling, massive light faded, and a thousand-meter-tall Charizard, wreathed in terrifying flames, appeared before everyone.
Its body was muscular, and every movement exuded blazing heat.
The snow covering the mountain instantly melted into streams.
Even the blizzard summoned by Delibird was mostly canceled out, forcibly withstood by Axel.
The masked man was dumbfounded.
He could accept that Charizard was strong, but how could this brat named Axel take the blizzard head-on?
'You've got to be cheating!'
After several setbacks, the masked man had become much more cautious.
Realizing he couldn't kill Axel today, he quickly flew toward Delibird with Gengar's help, planning to escape and try another day.
But Charizard had no intention of letting them flee.
With an earth-shaking dragon roar, a hundred-meter-wide blazing firebird formed above Charizard's head and violently rammed toward the masked man and his Pokémon.
"Swinub, Protect!"
Faced with battle, Leon shed his usual gentleness.
With a flick of his cape, a mocking smile tugged at the corner of his lips.
"Starting with Protect?"
"Though I don't know what you've been through, you've already lost your fighting spirit, lost the heart of a strong man."
"You are now even worse than your half-dead self from yesterday."
"Charizard, use your G-Max Wildfire and destroy him utterly!"
"ROAR!!"
Charizard let out a thunderous roar, controlling the giant firebird to smash into the masked man and his Pokémon.
CRACK!
A sound like shattering glass rang out, the Protect from Delibird was instantly torn apart by the firebird.
The surging flames instantly wrapped around Delibird, dealing massive damage.
The masked man's pupils shrank as he frantically commanded his other Pokémon to use Protect as well.
After several shields shattered, Swinub's barrier finally blocked the firebird's attack.
But by this point, the masked man had completely lost the will to fight.
He never dreamed that the Pokémon he took such pride in would be so utterly crushed.
When facing Giovanni, he could at least claim his main team wasn't present and that the opponent had a legendary Pokémon by his side.
But this strike from Leon had almost completely destroyed his confidence.
Buried memories broke through the ice in his heart, his long-dead Lapras seemed to appear here, sobbing and looking at him…
In that battle long ago, he lost Lapras. Today, he absolutely could not lose again.
Once this thought emerged, it could not be dispelled. It filled the masked man's heart completely.
"Confidence broken?", Leon's cold voice rang out from behind Charizard.
"Just because of Charizard's strength, you lose your desire and courage to fight?"
"I really don't know how you managed to train your Pokémon with a mindset like that."
"But what I want to say is… you are not worthy of being a Trainer!"
'Not worthy?', The masked man murmured, repeating the words "not worthy" over and over.
"Not worthy… yeah, I really am not worthy."
"If I were worthy, I wouldn't have lost Lapras… and I wouldn't have let Delibird fall into such danger today…"
Axel looked up at the sky, easily understanding the masked man's current state of mind.
In the Special manga series, Pryce also drastically changed after losing Lapras.
Now that history was almost repeating, his near-breakdown was completely understandable.
However, the masked man definitely wouldn't be so easily defeated.
Otherwise, he wouldn't be the Pryce who tried to overturn the world in order to revive Lapras.
Sure enough, the masked man quickly stood up from the ground and looked at Leon once again.
"I'm indeed not worthy to be a Trainer."
"But… no one can question my Pokémon!"
"Whether it's Lapras, or Delibird, or Swinub, they cannot be doubted by anyone."
"They are the strongest Pokémon in this world, and also the best Pokémon in this world."
"Swinub, show him your strength!"
"Grooo~"
Swinub nodded, its not-so-large body resolutely shielding the nearly exhausted Delibird.
Around it, snow and ice rapidly gathered, forming one Ice-type Pokémon after another, all staring steadfastly at Leon's Charizard.
Leon grinned, clenching his fist in excitement, "Now that's a worthy opponent!"
═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═❀═
patreon.com/AmbitiousTranslator
🥳Joining Patreon keeps me motivated and eager to work diligently, so please consider joining.🥰 You can access upto 20 advance chapter through Patreon.
https://discord.gg/bYAfGyp98y