Chapter 635: The Blue Flames Blanketed the Sky
By the time the entire collective's physical condition fully recovered, it was already the following day.
Kazuya personally led the vanguard to set out, choosing to deploy exclusively the two adult Charizards, the Altaria flock, and the newly subjugated Aerodactyl clan. There was absolutely zero operational necessity to mobilize their landlocked forces. When a war broke out across the skyward sectors, the landlocked troops could contribute virtually nothing outside of utilizing long-range trajectory attacks to offer a fraction of localized disruption.
And regarding that disruption... it wouldn't necessarily only compromise the enemy. In any case, Kazuya held very little trust in the accuracy and precision commanded by his ground-based partners.
Furthermore, within their landlocked forces, outside of the Cyclizar clan who commanded exceptional velocity, the speed parameters of the remaining two tribes were remarkably worrying. Coupled with a precipitously steep environment like the Rocky Mountains, the Kommo-o line was the only group capable of successfully utilizing their razor claws to anchor their bodies onto the craggy topsoil.
Vertical progression remained a monumental bottleneck. And whether the thunderous noise generated along their march would inadvertently invite unnecessary, chaotic entanglements from the neighboring mountain peaks was similarly a massive dilemma.
Therefore, Kazuya had zero intentions of dragging an excessive volume of dragons into the warzone.
The combined force of the Aerodactyl and Altaria vanguards held over forty individual specimens whose levels breached the Lv. 50 threshold. Factoring in the trio of Elite Four-tier Charizards led by Kazuya, their raw combat numbers certainly wouldn't be inferior to the Archeops flock; in all likelihood, they would hold a clear numerical superiority.
In Kazuya's estimation, it was mathematically impossible for the native wildlife of the Rocky Mountain range to refrain from testing the martial grit of these newly arrived Archeops. One had to realize that back when Kazuya and his two core siblings had merely cast a passing glance from the outer perimeter of these rocky peaks, they had been relentlessly hunted and hounded by a single Aerodactyl squad. For a colossal flock of Archeops to march through these airspaces with such a conspicuous, massive presence, they had to have been ruthlessly checked and battered at least three or four times along their trajectory.
Whether their remaining numbers even breached forty right now was highly debatable. Once the actual clash officially sparked, the definitive pivot of the battle would rest almost entirely upon the singular duel between Kazuya and the Alpha Archeops.
He preserved a flawless memory of that Alpha Archeops from their previous encounter—hovering right on the baseline threshold of the Champion level. Whether he firmly commanded the Champion echelon was hard to verify. But despite being burdened under a five-level math disadvantage, Kazuya could see absolutely zero scenarios where he would write a script of defeat.
Because an Archeops at Lv. 80 was fundamentally distinct from any other Pokémon species sitting at Lv. 80. As the singular species across all creation burdened under the fatal Defeatist disposition, their biological standing was naturally unique. The Champion-level parameters commanded by their Alpha could exclusively be sustained across the opening half of his biological engine.
To put it simply: the absolute second Kazuya managed to strike psychological terror into the Archeops leader, the titan would be no different from a biologically dead asset on the field.
Along their flight trajectory.
"Al-ta!" The Altaria patriarch vocalized a sharp call to offer a timely reminder to Kazuya.
Directly ahead lay the final forested peak of the range. These specific coordinates mapped exceptionally close to the geographic boundary of the northern snowfields. Once they ploughed past this final forested peak, venturing a mere few hundred meters further out would allow them to tangibly lay eyes on the frozen, icy crust of the earth.
"They should be holed up precisely within that sector," Kazuya rumbled with absolute serenity.
Along their grueling pursuit, they had failed to immediately locate the exact coordinates of the Archeops flock. However, they harbored zero worry or frustration regarding this delay. After all, they had unearthed an abundance of scattered Archeops plumage along the path. It was precisely by systematically tracking these dropped feathers that they had ploughed their vanguard all the way to this final choke point.
Just as he had calculated, the Archeops flock had indeed engaged in a fierce, chaotic clash against some local resident Pokémon midway through their flight.
"Roar..." Thick sparks of heat were already aggressively bubbling from brother-kun's jaws. His entire soul was completely saturated with a suffocating cocktail of internal pressure and pure hatred, desperately waiting for this exact day to completely unleash his fury.
"Do not allow a single one of them to execute a clean escape," Kazuya rumbled in a low, chilling tone, slowly flattening his massive wings to maximize his aerodynamics.
The entire airborne vanguard smoothly mirrored his action, their collective velocity instantly multiplying.
On the other side of the field, atop the forested peak situated closest to the snowfields.
The Archeops flock was currently indulging in a ravenous feast. This specific mountain peak had originally been the sovereign territory of a resident Sawsbuck clan. However, the demographic numbers of the Sawsbuck were sparse, and their baseline combat viability couldn't be called formidable.
Facing a desperate flock of Archeops who were the absolute masters at bullying weaker species, the deer were completely, text-book powerless to offer a shred of active resistance. Consequently, this forested peak had officially been claimed as the new territory of the Archeops flock, while the Sawsbuck were systematically transformed into sustenance to sate their starvation.
"Gaa..." The Alpha Archeops concluded his feast, lying flat on the grass as his heavy chest heaved with deep, exhausted breaths.
Not a single soul could comprehend how thoroughly exhausted and pathetic his existence had been over the past few days. Three or four days prior, he had led his entire clan to launch an exodus from the tropical rainforest, marching relentlessly toward the north, their high-strung nerves permanently paralyzed by profound terror along the entire trajectory.
When they breached the grassland, his primal intent had been to casually execute a sweeping hunt to sate their hunger, bullying what appeared to be non-threatening native lineages. Yet, the reality had ruthlessly bit back, costing him over a dozen of his martial elites.
The Archeops leader commanded a high level of tactical intellect, yet he simply couldn't decipher why a collection of Pokémon belonging to entirely distinct species would spontaneously huddle together to live in cooperative, symbiotic harmony. But he was too exhausted to waste his mental faculties parsing that puzzle; in any case, they would never cross paths with those grassland residents again. Agonizing over those variables was a complete waste of time and energy.
Following that, as they ploughed through the parameters of the swamp, another pair of his clansmen had unexpectedly succumbed to sudden biological failure after ingestive contact with the local poisonous flowers and herbs. This tragedy struck such intense panic into the remaining Archeops that they were forced to press forward through their accumulated trauma and starvation without a single pause.
And when they crossed paths with that gargantuan, majestic fire dragon midway through their flight, the Archeops were given an absolute, suffocating fright. Deeply terrified of being roasted alive by its presence, they had frantically scattered to give it a wide berth.
When they finally penetrated the airspace of the Rocky Mountain range, they had originally harbored the illusion that they could finally secure a brief window of psychological respite. Yet, right when they were passing immediately flanking a certain bare craggy peak, they were aggressively ambushed and hunted across multiple airfields by a resident flock of Skarmory.
Had it not been for the fact that the Archeops' baseline combat proficiency was remarkably solid—successfully channeling enough counter-pressure to force the Skarmory vanguard to gracefully break off their pursuit—they might not have possessed the residual assets required to even breach this final peak.
Fortunately, when it came to launching the ultimate offensive against these resident deer, the execution required virtually zero strenuous exertion, costing them merely four or five of their weakest, lowest-level members.
As things stood right now, his Archeops clan... counting every single available beak, could barely muster less than thirty combat-ready fighters.
However, the Alpha Archeops felt completely indifferent toward this demographic depletion. As long as his personal life was cleanly preserved, that was more than enough. Furthermore, the twenty-odd Archeops who had successfully ploughed their way through this crucible to reach this destination all commanded exceptionally powerful parameters. To survive a migration of this magnitude, there simply wasn't a single weak or non-viable asset left among his subordinates.
The Archeops leader firmly believed that relying on these hardened elites coupled with his personal Champion-level parameters, carving out a permanent existence within this freezing region—where the climate was so intensely cold that merely taking a dump threatened to freeze one's hindquarters—would hardly be a challenging task.
He maintained an absolute belief that, one day, his lineage would inevitably march back to the absolute summit of their historical glory!
"Gaa!!" The Archeops leader grew intensely, erratically ecstatic the more he processed these calculations, throwing back his head to let out a raucous, piercing shriek that rent the quiet air.
And it was precisely at this exact second.
The skyward contingent of dragons cruising the airspace abruptly frozen their momentum, their sharp eyes instantly tracking the acoustic signal to flawlessly lock onto their target coordinates.
The very next moment, the Archeops leader suddenly perceived the skyward sector transforming into an erratic tapestry of blinding radiance and deep, suffocating darkness. Simultaneously, the ambient temperature blanketing the entire quadrant began to violently, continuously skyrocket.
That physical sensation mirrored a cataclysmic anomaly... as if the sun itself had abruptly dropped closer to the earth.
The Archeops leader lifted his head to scan the skywards, his eyes squinting violently as they were pierced by a cascading mantle of brilliant, azure light.
The sun...
Is falling out of the heavens?
No, wait. The sun... wasn't supposed to be blue, was it?
When the blistering heat of roaring flames aggressively slapped against his face, and a pair of golden draconian irises materialized directly within his field of vision, the Archeops leader finally registered the reality that a devastating enemy had launched an offensive.
It was a colossal fire dragon that resembled an absolute demon from the depths of hell.
"You may officially begin your final penance."
A deep, stoic murmur resonated directly near his ears. The very next second—
Bang!
Saturated under the absolute velocity multiplier of Extreme Speed, a cataclysmic Flare Blitz cleanly smashed the Archeops leader, forcefully embedding his frame deep within a massive crater. A colossal vortex of roaring blue flames erupted straight out of the hollow, soaring into the sky. The heat was so blindingly intense that not a single soul could discern the tactical progression unfolding within the inferno.
Before the remaining Archeops across the field could even process a response, an absolute storm of razor-sharp stone pillars plummeted out of the heavens like a torrential downpour. A concentrated Stone Edge rain composed of hundreds of jagged stones cleanly pierced through the wings of countless Archeops, violently stripping away their biological capacity for skyward flight.
Cascading right on the heels of the stone storm was a ferocious vanguard of menacing ancient pterodactyls. Their velocity was as swift as lightning, diving forward like lethal arrows to flawlessly lock onto their selected targets.
The tapestry that unfolded next was intensely bloody. Every single Archeops was instantly subjected to the multi-angled, vicious tearing of two or three Aerodactyl. A few of the lowest-level assets were completely, cleanly liquidated and devoured in a matter of seconds.
Brother-kun and his girlfriend unleashed their martial wrath without a single shred of leniency, coordinating seamlessly alongside the other three Elite Four-tier Aerodactyl to launch an absolute slaughter against the remaining six Elite Four-level Archeops across the airspace.
The Mega Aerodactyl commanded an unexampled, peerless combat efficiency, single-handedly bottlenecks two adversaries while firmly holding the absolute upper hand. He was a flawless personification of the ancient sovereign of the sky, fully reclaiming the magnificent pride and majesty that had been temporarily dismantled by Kazuya previously.
Deep within that titanic vortex of roaring blue flames.
Kazuya stood suspended in mid-air with his massive arms crossed over his chest, looking down to lock his gaze with the Archeops leader who was struggling to drag his frame out of the dirt. This was the first time in his life he had ever witnessed such a pathetic, destitute specimen of the Champion level.
Kazuya casually lifted a singular claw.
Whoosh!
A colossal fireball commanding a diameter of over ten meters smoothly materialized above his palm. The deep-blue solar sphere transformed into the absolute sun of this enclosed arena, and one could faintly discern a shifting, shimmering pattern of iridescent black pulsing deep within the blue fire.
Below him, the Archeops leader threw back his head to stare up at the skywards.
Those golden draconian irises standing above him suddenly erupted with the brilliant, pulsing light of an Aura Power that had historically shattered a temporal rift.
A peerless, suffocating layer of absolute pressure completely paralyzed the Archeops leader's heart. The light of Aura... was an absolute, EX-grade conceptual armament purpose-built to crush a cowardly disposition.
The Archeops leader swallowed hard, his eyes trembling with an uncontrollable, frantic frequency. He beat his wings with absolute desperation, yet his biological engine simply couldn't generate a single shred of lift—rendering him no different from a newly hatched nestling that hadn't learned the basic mechanics of flight.
At this exact moment, he felt he had been transformed into nothing more than a pathetic frog trapped at the absolute bottom of a dry, hollow well. Before the clash had even officially commenced... he had already succumbed to total terror.
Kazuya's lips curled into a sharp, mocking grin. He hadn't factored in the probability of defeat from the very beginning, yet he hadn't anticipated securing a victory with such casual ease either. He had originally calculated that he would be forced to endure a grueling, bloody attrition match; looking at things now, he had completely overestimated the Archeops.
When faced with an adversary they mathematically couldn't bully, the Archeops automatically transformed into a helpless target waiting to be devoured. A species of this nature...
"You had best simply adhere to the trajectory written by history, and be permanently wiped out from the face of this planet."
Kazuya casually tossed his claw forward.
The blue sun plummeted out of the heavens, racing straight toward the bottom of the crater. The Archeops leader scrambled frantically on all fours to claw his way toward the flanks; he would rather let the raging thermal vortex aggressively scorch his physical frame than submissively remain in place to wait for death.
Unfortunately, his primal desire for survival failed to override the absolute terror paralyzing his heart. The rigid, heavy lock seizing his muscles was a clear testament to the Archeops' absolute cowardice, and this precise flaw wrote the final, fatal stroke that snuffed out his biological life.
Boom!
The blue fire completely exploded. Waves of thermal energy surged outward like a cataclysmic tsunami across all four directions. The towering vortex of blue flames served as the ultimate catalyst to completely blanket this sector of the sky. Whether it was the craggy peaks of the Rocky Mountains or the frozen wastes of the snowfields, both domains were intensely illuminated by this hellish radiance.
Kazuya drifted downward from the airspace with absolute lightness. Looking down at the Archeops leader whose body still preserved a lingering shred of biological vitality as it thrashed erratically on the soil, he extended his razor claw without a single trace of expression.
Fresh blood splattered heavily onto the earth, adding a grim stroke of ink to this charred, black topsoil. The Archeops leader's skull was cleanly severed from his neck.
As evening approached, Kazuya gripped the severed head in his claw, leading the triumphant Dragon Clan vanguard to march back to the grassland.
Within that serene, small flower garden dedicated to anchoring the resting places of their departed family, a colossal, blank stone monument bearing nothing but raw claw marks stood resolutely upon the earth.
Kazuya gently placed the Archeops leader's head directly before the blank monument. Looking down at the grass beneath his feet, he extended a gentle, whisper-soft murmur that closely resembled a mother soothing her children to sleep:
"Good night... my little ones..."
The members of the Dragon Clan stood silently in a tight formation behind his silhouette. In perfect, spontaneous unison, they began to hum that ancient melody of farewell.
Saying a formal farewell to the fading day.
Saying a formal farewell to their family.
Tomorrow, they would carry the legacy of those departed souls forward, pushing themselves to live a far more magnificent, beautiful existence.
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