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At that moment, Evan had changed out of his earlier bare-chested, casual look and put on a sleeveless T-shirt.
Even so, the powerful arms crossed over his chest, each as thick as an ordinary person's thigh, still made his muscular physique obvious.
His deep eyes stared at the Sobble on the field ahead. His face showed no obvious expression, giving him a slightly cold appearance.
After seeing Kael's battle video online earlier, Evan had immediately contacted his connections in Azure Bay's official circles. Through several layers of effort, he had brought this troublesome Sobble back to the Gym.
Of course, Kael, who had only just arrived at the Gym, could not immediately take up a position and replace the Gym's Pokémon in handling Trainer challenges.
Evan first had to test his true battle strength.
Only after gaining a basic understanding of Kael's level could he reasonably assign him a place within the Gym.
The Swampert standing before him like a giant statue was no ordinary Pokémon.
This Swampert was the real deal, one of the core ace Pokémon in Evan's own team.
More than ten years ago, when Evan had first set out on his journey, this Swampert had still been a Mudkip, and it had already been by his side.
Under Evan's careful training, its strength had now reached the Elite level.
Even though its opponent was only a weak young Sobble, Evan had no intention of holding back.
Because Evan clearly understood that, against a wild little Pokémon like this Sobble, only the pressure of death itself could force out its true potential.
"Rock Smash."
Without hesitation, Evan gave the order to Swampert.
"Voom."
...
Kael paid close attention to the man standing behind Swampert.
One reason was the sharp contrast between the man's powerful body and his strikingly feminine face.
The other reason was that this man was Swampert's Trainer.
From the confident aura unique to a powerful Trainer, as well as the Mega Bracelet on his wrist set with a multicolored Key Stone, Kael could easily reach that conclusion.
After his initial shock and fear faded, Kael's emotions gradually returned to calm.
After all, he had seen plenty of Legendary Pokémon before. Even with Swampert's overwhelming strength far above his own, it was still impossible to truly shake his mind.
His trembling earlier had only been caused by Sobble's bodily instincts.
Once his heart calmed, his thoughts naturally became more active.
After only a brief moment of thinking, Kael understood something.
He had probably been saved.
If the marine park's management truly wanted him to pay with his life, there were plenty of ways to do it.
Some methods might be cruel. Some might be quick.
However, none of them would waste manpower and resources in this manner.
What he had done might have been somewhat serious from a human perspective, but at the end of the day, he was still only a tiny Sobble.
If they wanted to deal with him, no matter how stupid or incompetent the park's higher-ups were, they would not send out a powerful Swampert above level 60.
So, although the current situation was still a little unclear, Kael could determine one thing for certain.
He was not going to die.
The reason he had appeared in this battle arena-like place definitely had some other purpose behind it.
Thinking of this, his originally tense heart relaxed slightly.
Points were hard to earn.
He had finally managed to gather a few points back in the Machamp world. If they were wasted just like that, he really would feel the loss.
Letting out a breath, Kael tentatively took a step toward Swampert.
Standing around like an idiot was not going to solve anything. At the very least, he needed to figure out why he had been brought here.
And it was right then that a neutral voice, neither clearly male nor female, came from behind Swampert.
"Rock Smash."
Immediately after that came a violent tremor, as though an earthquake had struck.
Roar!
The Swampert that had been standing motionless in front of Kael suddenly let out a heaven-shaking roar.
The sound was so explosive that invisible waves seemed to ripple through the air.
Boom.
Voom.
Swampert drove one thick, heavily muscled forelimb deep into the ground. Web-like cracks spread outward from the point of impact.
As though drawing power from the earth itself, dense yellow-brown light rose from the ground when Swampert's arm pierced into it, wrapping around and covering its thick right arm.
Kael's heart shook violently.
A dense aura of death rushed toward him with the wind.
There was no time to think.
Relying purely on instinct, his legs sprang back, and he dodged sharply behind him.
The agility boost brought by Deoxys's Cosmic DNA was pushed to its fullest under the threat of death.
Kael almost burst out with the fastest speed he had shown since being born into this world.
In the blink of an eye, he flashed across the field like lightning, reaching the far side of the arena away from Swampert.
The next second, a hard fist far larger than his round head swept past the place where he had been, glowing with heavy yellow light.
Then it smashed down.
Boom!
A massive roar erupted inside the indoor arena.
The damp soil was crushed with ease. Under the exaggerated impact, like an explosion, mud splashed high into the air, as though a rain of earth had fallen across the field.
The wind generated by Swampert's punch was like a storm, tearing the tender grass ahead into tiny fragments that scattered through the air.
"Hah. Hah."
Kael crouched in the corner of the field, staring at Swampert across from him with lingering fear.
For the first time, he began to doubt his own judgment.
"That punch was definitely meant to kill me, right?"
"Definitely."
Thinking back to the terrifying punch Swampert had swung at him just now, Kael asked himself what would have happened if he had failed to dodge in time.
With his tiny body, he probably would have been smashed into paste on the spot.
Could it be that the people from the park really had found an Elite-level Swampert specifically to deal with him?
Kael could not help showing a bitter smile.
They really thought highly of him.
He stopped overthinking.
His clear blue eyes stared at the enormous figure before him, whose aura was as vast and oppressive as a mountain. Gradually, his gaze became cold and sharp.
Surrendering just because he faced an enemy he could not overpower was not his style.
"Aqua Ring."
With a thought, large amounts of glowing blue Water-type energy seeped out from the surface of his skin, forming rings of clean water around his body. Like satellites, they revolved around him, scattering moisture across his skin.
Nourished by the flowing water, his body gradually became transparent.
Environmental camouflage mode.
Activated.
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~Support with 200 PowerStones = 1 Bonus Chapter
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For early access to advanced chapters on P-atreon:
P-atreon/iamxeno
(Just remove the - hyphen to access normally)
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