Chapter 470: The Kamikaze Tactic
"Electivire! Thunder God's Shackles!"
"BO-QIAAAAAA!"
The golden brute skidded to a halt. It didn't punch; instead, a massive sphere
of concentrated lightning manifested between its palms. Its eyes were swallowed
by a churning, violent sea of gold as it funneled the entirety of its magnetic
reserves into the strike.
With a roar, Electivire hurled the sphere. It didn't aim for the Golem; it threw
the ball just short of the stone titan.
CRACK-Zzzzt!
The sphere detonated into a geometric lattice of high-frequency lightning. In a
heartbeat, the arcs of energy wove themselves into a localized cage, sealing the
Alolan Golem within a high-voltage box.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The multi-ton boulder slammed against the lightning bars, but the shackles
didn't budge.
Thunder God's Shackles was Kenji's newest crowd-control development, an advanced
evolution of Electroweb. It functioned as a "Grand Jail," capable of pinning any
opponent below the Master Tier. Once trapped, the target was nothing more than a
sitting duck.
Shinji Oda realized in an instant that his Golem was never going to break free.
If he couldn't reach Electivire, he would at least make the "Mainlander" bleed.
He didn't hesitate.
"Golem! EXPLOSION!"
"SHHHH-BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!"
A blinding pillar of white light erupted from the center of the Shackles, so
bright it momentarily washed out the stadium's floodlights. The spectators, now
well-practiced in Oda's "style," instinctively covered their ears and shielded
their eyes.
Kenji lowered his head, bracing himself against the shockwave.
When the smoke finally began to drift, the arena was a graveyard of scorched
stone. Golem lay in the center, its massive frame cracked and unmoving, fainted
and on the verge of death. The Shackles were gone.
But so was Electivire.
The stadium held its breath, scanning the rubble.
THOOM!
A few meters away, the earth exploded upward. Electivire lunged from the ground,
its Thunder Armor crackling with renewed intensity.
The moment the light of the Explosion had proc'd, Electivire had used the glare
as a visual cover to execute Dig. Between the dampening effect of the Thunder
God's Shackles and several meters of reinforced arena soil, the blast had done
little more than rattle the brute's teeth and dust its fur.
Oda's face went from pale to a ghostly, translucent white.
Two Pokémon. Two Explosions. And Kenji's Electivire barely had a scratch on it.
"Come back, Golem," Oda hissed through grit teeth.
He reached for his third ball. He was committed now. He had spent the last week
insulting Kenji's lineage; if he didn't at least leave a mark on one of Kenji's
Pokémon, his career was over. He was going to bite a piece out of this
"Supernova" if it cost him his entire roster.
"Go! Magnezone!"
The steel-and-magnet entity hovered into the arena, its three mechanical eyes
focusing on Electivire.
Kenji stayed silent. He could see Oda's desperation. The man was no longer
playing to win; he was playing for a "Moral Victory"—a single knockout to prove
Kenji wasn't invincible.
"Magnezone! Lock-On!"
The central red eye of the magnet flashed, a blue targeting reticle manifesting
over Electivire's chest.
"Focus Blast!" Kenji countered.
As Magnezone locked its coordinates, Electivire gathered a sphere of white-hot
fighting energy. It didn't lunge; it waited. It knew Magnezone possessed the
Sturdy ability. A one-shot was impossible.
"Supersonic!" Oda roared.
Under the effect of Lock-On, the next move was a guaranteed hit. Magnezone
emitted a high-frequency, ear-piercing screech. The sound waves bypassed the
Thunder Armor, vibrating directly into Electivire's skull.
Kenji's eyes narrowed. Normally, this would be a disaster. Confuse Ray or
Supersonic at this level of play could force a Pokémon to beat itself to death.
Electivire suddenly clutched its head. Its eyes went dull and glassy. It began
to stumble like a drunkard, let out a low, confused moan, and started aimlessly
swatting at its own ears.
It worked!
Oda felt a surge of ecstatic, hysterical triumph. The Heavens favor the Neon
League!
"NOW! Magnezone! Get in close and finish it! EXPLOSION!"
The Magnezone, already heavily damaged by a point-blank Focus Blast that had
triggered its Sturdy (leaving it with 1 HP), rocketed toward the "confused"
brute. Its body began to glow with the tell-tale incandescent white light of a
suicide charge.
Just as the magnet reached point-blank range, the "confused" look on
Electivire's face vanished.
The brute's eyes snapped into sharp, golden focus. A terrifying, jagged grin
spread across its muzzle.
It was a fake.
Magnezone froze, its mechanical logic-loops failing to process the sudden shift.
But it was too late. Its momentum was committed.
Electivire didn't use a move. It simply raised both hands—one wreathed in frost,
the other in fire—and delivered a dual-palm strike that slammed into Magnezone's
chassis.
BANG!
The magnet was launched across the arena like a kicked tin can, slamming into
the dirt with a hollow thang.
Magnezone fainted instantly, the Explosion energy fizzling out harmlessly in its
core.
Shinji Oda stared at the field, his mind going numb.
Kenji smirked. Oda was so blinded by his own nerves that he'd forgotten basic
math. Electivire had already defeated two of Oda's Pokémon. Between the
Unyielding Will Hex Core stacking and the Mithril Dawn item it was carrying,
Electivire was functionally immune to status conditions. The "Confusion" had
been a theatrical performance to lure Magnezone into a range where it couldn't
escape.
"Magnezone is unable to battle! Electivire wins!"
"Shinji Oda has lost three Pokémon! We will now have a ten-minute intermission!"
The first half had lasted less than five minutes.
As the trainers retreated to the tunnels, the global press was already tearing
Oda apart. The "Kamikaze Strategy" was being labeled a disgrace to the sport.
The World Pokémon Protection Agency issued a formal statement condemning the
"callous disregard for Pokémon life for the sake of a spiteful tactical play."
While the world cursed him, however, the ultranationalists in the Neon League
were praising him as a "Hero of the Soil," claiming he was sacrificing
everything to defend their honor.
Oda sat in the dark of his prep room, looking like a plucked rooster—shaking,
pale, and broken.
Ten minutes later, the second half began.
Kenji stepped back onto the platform, looking as casual as if he were out for a
stroll. Oda followed, but the bravado was gone. He looked drained.
"I'm sticking with my partner," Kenji said, not even looking at his belt.
Electivire stepped forward. It was visibly annoyed. The first half had been a
series of explosions and tricks; it hadn't gotten to land a single "satisfying"
punch yet. It was itching for a brawl.
Oda reached for his fourth ball. "Go... Luxray."
Kenji let out a sigh of relief. Finally, a Pokémon that wasn't a walking bomb.
But Electivire wasn't in a "friendly" mood. It didn't wait for a command. The
moment the Luxray appeared, Electivire blurred.
It was a slaughter.
Frustrated by the earlier games, Electivire vented its entire reserve of energy
on the poor lion. It didn't use lightning; it used raw, physical brutality. It
caught Luxray by the tail, swung it around like a wet rag, and slammed it into
the cratered floor.
THOOM!
The match was over in forty seconds. Luxray was embedded in the rock,
unconscious.
Kenji looked at Oda. "Two more. Let's make this quick. I'm hungry."