The next thing is the final showdown. There's no need to say much about Brandon's side; the last one he has must be that final Divine Pillar, Regice.
Although Regice has undergone a battle with Paul, it has had virtually no effect on its physical strength.
To put it bluntly, Paul was defeated without Regice even exerting effort.
So Regice's physical strength is still at its peak, and it still possesses the solid strength of a Champion Advanced Level.
On the other hand, his last Pokemon...
Ash looked down at Pikachu: "Pikachu, the final battle is up to you."
"Pika Pika!!" Pikachu nodded firmly, knowing that Ash always entrusts him with the tough final battles. No matter how strong the opponent, Ash believes in him.
So Pikachu will never let Ash down!
"Pikachu, is it? I've long heard you have a magical Pikachu on your team, and now I finally get to see it for myself," Brandon said, retrieving Regirock into its Pokeball.
Regirock's defeat was a blow to him, but his quality as a Trainer is not to be underestimated.
A mere ripple can't make him lose composure; it's just a loss, albeit unexpected, but it won't make him lose focus for long.
He'll quickly get back on track to face the coming match.
"You know who my last one is, right, Ash? Go, Regice." Brandon threw out a Pokeball, and the Divine Pillar Regice reappeared on the battlefield.
Its overwhelming presence remains extremely strong.
Ash has already seen all the information on Regice. In terms of ability value, Regice is stronger than the other two Divine Pillars. Although they're all Champion Advanced Level, there are still differences within Champion Level.
Regice can be considered the strongest entity among Brandon's Three Divine Pillars.
But Pikachu, although making the grand entrance, is the weakest among the trio...
Currently, Pikachu has reached the Elite Four Peak Level, and purely from the perspective of Pikachu's upgrade speed, it's unprecedented and likely will never be surpassed.
Yet compared to Charizard and Gardevoir—those monstrosities—this level is still a bit lacking.
Those two monsters have already reached Champion Level, while Pikachu doesn't even know where the path to Champion Level is yet.
Plus, once he advances to Champion Level, he'll hit a bottleneck again, needing another Rebirth to break through to above Champion Junior Level.
At first glance, it seems Pikachu might never surpass Gardevoir and Charizard, but that's not the case.
If Pikachu undergoes another Rebirth, his upgrade speed should be able to outpace those two Pokemon, but that's for the future.
Not to mention, Pikachu's Rebirth requires luck in a draw. Even if he undergoes Rebirth, it has no relevance to the current dire situation.
"It's decided, Pikachu!" Ash waved his hand, and Pikachu sprang onto the battle-ravaged field.
As the most trusted and final trump card of Ash, he stakes his dignity on this battle; losing is not an option!
"Here!" Ash took off his cap and tossed it into the field, and Pikachu caught it and wore it on his head with ease.
[Category: Pikachu (Second Transformation) Partnership Form]
[Gender: Male]
[Attribute: Electric Type]
[Level: Champion Junior Level]
[Ability: Static]
[Item: Light Ball]
[Skills: Thunderbolt, Volt Tackle, Thunder, Electric Terrain…]
[Six-dimensional Ability: Physical Attack S+ (S) Special Attack S+ (S) Defense A+ (A) Special Defense A+ (A) Physical Strength S (S) Speed S+ (S)]
This is Pikachu's current peak state, in the third transformation of the Partnership Form, directly allowing Pikachu's dual attacks and speed to surpass extreme standards!
In all the Pokemon Ash has seen before, including the legendary Tier One Gods Ho-Oh and Lugia, no Pokemon could surpass S-Class extreme ability values.
However, Pikachu is special.
His surpassing extreme ability values can basically be said to be set in stone. Currently, he's only in the second transformation, and once he reaches the third transformation, his ability value will naturally break through to the extreme level.
However, even without the third transformation, under the influence of the Partnership Form, Pikachu can still break through his current ability values' limits!
The biggest difference between the Partnership Form and MEGA Evolution is that while MEGA Evolution can slightly enhance a Pokemon's power and increase its extreme species values, the ability values actually decrease after evolution.
Even at the Champion Level, using MEGA Evolution doesn't elevate a Pokemon up a level unless it's already close to reaching its limit at the current level.
If in such a state, using MEGA Evolution can raise a Pokemon's level rating by one grade.
Like Charizard and Gardevoir, existences that have just reached Champion Level, even with MEGA Evolution, can't break through to Champion Intermediate Level.
The small level differences within Champion Level are exponentially larger compared to before!
The leap in combat ability through MEGA Evolution becomes increasingly futile as the level gets higher.
However, the Partnership Form is not like this; no matter what level Pikachu is at or what his ability values are, just entering the Partnership Form ensures all ability values increase by one grade, and his level increases by one grade.
After entering the Partnership Form, Pikachu's attack power and speed are even stronger than those of Charizard and Gardevoir.
On the surface, Pikachu is indeed the weakest of the three giants, but once it's in partner form, that's a different story.
"Wearing a hat? Interesting, the whole Pokemon's aura is different now. It seems this is how your Pikachu gets stronger," Brandon instantly understood once he saw Pikachu in the hat.
Although he knew Ash's Pikachu was special, he never paid attention to Pikachu's partner form, so this was the first time he saw it.
However, he speculated the change in Pikachu's aura, and after wearing the hat, Ash's Pikachu probably underwent strengthening similar to other Pokemon undergoing MEGA Evolution.
Once Pikachu wore the hat, its strength qualitatively changed, and perhaps earlier, it couldn't threaten Regice, but now, it might.
"We're going in, Mr. Brandon, Pikachu, use Zippy Zap!"
"What's that?" Brandon frowned slightly, clearly unfamiliar with this skill.
Immediately, before Brandon could react, Pikachu had already vanished from the field, leaving only a faint electric glow in its place.
Brandon's pupils suddenly constricted; this speed was nearly comparable to using Extreme Speed. He couldn't even capture Pikachu's silhouette!
"Bang!!!"
A dull crashing sound exploded inside the pyramid, lightning scattered freely!
Regice's stout body seemed like it was hit by a heavy hammer, flying backward and crashing into Mewtwo's transparent barrier!
"Boom!!!"
The barrier rippled violently but wasn't damaged; instead, Regice slid off, half-kneeled, with its chest ice layer visibly damaged.
This hit directly struck Regice's weak spot, inflicting significant damage.
"Regice!" Brandon's voice finally carried a hint of astonishment.
It slowly stood up, the chest damage disappearing with the ice refreeze, but Brandon could tell the hit inflicted more harm than expected on Regice.
Although Regice's special defense was remarkable, it didn't mean its physical defense was weak; none of the Three Divine Pillars had weak defenses.
From the explosive aura Pikachu showed prior, it ranked at most at the Elite Four Peak level. The power boost from wearing the hat might reach Champion Junior Level, but only just.
A Champion Junior Level encounter resulted in nearly a fifth of Regice's health being taken down, even without attribute restraint...
Ash's third Pokemon is exceptionally outrageous, surpassing even the previous two Pokemon!
"Zippy Zap..." Brandon murmured the skill's name, eyes on the small yellow silhouette on the field.
Pikachu landed smoothly, its body under the hat sparkling with golden lightning, its cheek electric sacs crackling.
"Another unseen skill," Brandon looked up at Ash, "Its speed even rivals Extreme Speed, a skill Pikachu shouldn't normally learn, right?"
Ash nodded and smiled, "Indeed, ordinary Pikachu can't learn this skill, but my Pikachu is special; it's the only one like this in the world!"
"Unique, indeed, deserving of that title," Brandon took a deep breath, suppressing his disbelief, "Regice, Ice Beam!"
"Pikachu, dodge!" Ash decisively directed Pikachu to evade Brandon's counterattack.
Without the support of locking skills, Regice's slow attacks were basically impossible to hit Pikachu.
Pikachu leaped up as Regice raised its arms, shooting the ice-blue beam from its palms, targeting not Pikachu but the entire battle field!
"What?" Ash frowned.
Ice Beam swept across the ground, leaving shattered rocks and cracked floors, all covered by a thick layer of ice.
In less than a second, the entire battle field transformed into an ice plain! Coldness permeated the air, causing Misty and others in the audience to shiver.
"With this, Pikachu can't utilize its speed," Brandon remarked in a deep voice.
Pikachu stood on the ice, slipping several times, nearly falling.
After all, it's not an ice-type Pokemon; walking on slippery ice is difficult enough, let alone moving at high speed.
"Ash..." Serena looked worriedly at the field, Misty and Brock also furrowed their brows.
Brandon's response was too decisive, seeing Pikachu's speed advantage, he immediately restricted it with the field, thus sealing Pikachu's greatest weapon.
Compared to trainers Ash fought before, Brandon's strategy and reflexes undoubtedly stand at the highest tier.
What will Ash do next?
But that's not all.
"Regice, Snow Scene!" Brandon's voice resounded again.
Regice's chest core emitted ice-blue brilliance, further dropping the temperature inside the pyramid.
Heavy clouds formed overhead, fine snowflakes fell from the clouds, and within moments, the battle field was enveloped in heavy snow.
Snowflakes falling on Pikachu made it shiver.
Snow Scene skill alters the weather to snowy state, but snow and hail are two different weather states; the latter continuously drains health from non-ice attribute Pokemon, while the former does not.
In snowy weather, ice attribute Pokemon's defense increases by fifty percent, Blizzard becomes one hundred percent accurate, and some Pokemon can use notably op skills like Aurora Veil, effectively halving all damage received.
These advantages are significant enough for ice-type Pokemon, but for Regice, it's even more.
Ash gritted his teeth, that Regice has a hidden ability, Ice Body.
In snowy weather, Regice can periodically restore a portion of its health, recovery based on percentage health, practically a cheat for legendary Pokemon.
"Regice, Blizzard!" Brandon waved his hand grandly.
Regice's chest core burst with a dazzling blue glow, dropping the pyramid's temperature below freezing!
Gusts whipped sharp ice shards towards Pikachu, with surprising density, nearly covering the entire field!
The range is too wide, and coupled with Snow Scene's boost, Blizzard's coverage expanded by a whole circle.
Even normal Pikachu finds dodging this move challenging, let alone now with the field covered in ice.
"Pikachu, Thunderbolt!" Ash had no choice but to withstand it.
Pikachu strained to stand on the ice layer, emitting brilliant golden lightning, shooting a thick bolt towards the Blizzard's center!
"Boom——!!!"
Golden lightning clashed with ice-blue Blizzard in mid-air, in terms of ATK, Pikachu won't lose to Regice, yet Thunderbolt remains a single-target attack and Blizzard a broad coverage.
Lightning tore a gap but couldn't stop the whole Blizzard, numerous ice shards bypassing the bolt's sides, hitting Pikachu solidly!
"Pika---!!"
Pikachu let out a scream, the whole body was blown away by Blizzard, spinning in air several times before crashing onto the ice, and sliding over ten meters before stopping.
It struggled to stand up, but its body was already frozen stiff, covered in wounds from the ice shards.
This hit nearly depleted half of Pikachu's health, whereas Regice's health keeps replenishing due to the snow.
Brock and the others couldn't help but sweat for Ash; in the three matches, this was the closest Ash got to a predicament!
With time, terrain, and conditions not favoring Ash, how can he win?
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