After the initial surprise, Cynthia quickly regained her composure. Rather than the already familiar gigantic size, she was more concerned with the appearance of the Electrode in front of her.
"So this is the Electrode from the Hisui Region... The whole body is shrouded in a golden light, but purely looking at the outline, it doesn't seem much different from the Electrode of our era."
The Hisuian Growlithe and other region-specific forms encountered earlier had obvious differences even when wrapped in unusual golden light.
But a Pokemon like an Electrode, which is essentially a big ball, makes it difficult to spot the differences at a glance.
Ash studied the gigantic golden ball for a while and quickly noticed a rather obvious issue.
"Sis, look at the Electrode's mouth. The Electrodes we've seen before all have their mouth corners turned upwards, but this one's mouth corners are turned downwards."
"If the Electrodes from our era always looked like they were smiling, the Electrodes from this era look like they're perpetually angry."
With Ash's reminder, Cynthia also noticed the strikingly white teeth still visible through the golden light and the distinctly downturned mouth corners.
Paired with those two glistening black eyes, although it was currently in a dangerous rampaging state, it somehow appeared slightly amusing.
"It's completely reversed."
"Thunder—!!"
Just after they finished studying its appearance, the Electrode that had been quietly standing at the center of Moonview Arena suddenly let out an earth-shattering roar!
The giant body, previously slightly tilted, straightened up, its black eyes locking sharply onto the two intruders of the arena.
"Has it detected us?"
"It seems so, but after releasing Thunder for such a long time this morning, the Electrode's power has already been greatly depleted. Melli was right to suggest we come in at noon."
Ash nodded gently, then patted his shoulder.
"In that case, it's your turn, Pikachu!"
"Pika!"
Pikachu leaped off Ash's shoulder, landing steadily on the rocky ground ahead.
The small body formed an exaggerated size contrast with the enormous Electrode.
Cynthia originally intended to step forward too, but as she saw Ash and Pikachu already in battle stance, she slowly halted.
Thinking it over, since Pikachu truly participated in these King battles, it seemed she rarely needed to take the forefront.
This feeling was somewhat unfamiliar to a Champion used to judging situations alone and often standing in front of others.
Yet at this moment, Cynthia felt no discomfort. Instead, she thought it wasn't bad to have someone naturally stand ahead of her.
So she didn't continue forward, but instead, naturally took a few steps back, standing quietly behind Ash.
One doesn't always have to fight for the most dangerous position, nor think that being strong means you must handle everything personally.
Sometimes, like now, trusting the boy and his partner in front, and leaving her back safely to them, Cynthia found she unexpectedly enjoyed this feeling of being protected.
A soft warmth silently emerged in her silvery-gray eyes. Even she hadn't noticed that her mouth had unknowingly lifted slightly.
Ash was completely unaware of the changes in Cynthia behind him.
His full attention was on the Electrode, and just as his right hand was raised and about to give the first attack command, the King in front suddenly rose again, letting out a more terrifying roar than before.
"Thunder——!!!"
Bang!!
The thundering sound echoed throughout Moonview Arena, and Ash felt the rocky ground beneath him begin to tremble violently, with small stones around bouncing incessantly.
"Wh-What's happening?"
This couldn't be the result of a mere roar; the entire Moonview Arena felt as though it was truly experiencing an earthquake!
Ash instinctively extended a hand to shield Cynthia, while quickly surveying the surroundings, soon realizing the light overhead had suddenly dimmed.
Numerous reddish-brown spheres had appeared above the arena, descending rapidly from different positions!
"Pika!"
One of them was heading directly towards Pikachu's position, but Pikachu hesitated little. Its lightning-shaped tail instantly shone with a metallic luster, spinning its body, and delivering an Iron Tail strike to the oncoming sphere.
Bang!!
Just as Iron Tail connected with it, the reddish-brown sphere burst into an intensely blinding white light.
Pikachu's pupils suddenly contracted.
Boom——!!!
A fierce explosion erupted right in front of Pikachu, with billowing fire and dense smoke rapidly spreading around, quickly enveloping the previously visible yellow figure.
"Pikachu!!!"
Ash's face changed immediately.
The explosion had happened so suddenly, he hadn't even identified what kind of Pokemon was falling from the sky.
Though Pikachu's strength now reached Champion Level, it still relied on high Speed and high output, never being about tanking direct hits.
If Pikachu took such a close-range explosion head-on, even now it wouldn't come out unscathed.
Thankfully, Ash's worry didn't last long.
"Pika!"
Out of the thick smoke shot a golden figure, Pikachu flipping several times mid-air before landing steadily front of Ash.
Ash felt a substantial weight lift off his chest.
"Are you okay?"
"Pika!"
Pikachu shook its slightly messy fur, its body now bearing a few minor injuries, but both its mobility and mental state showed no obvious impairment.
In the final moments as the explosion spread towards it, Pikachu had rapidly released a large amount of electricity to protect itself, using its Electric Attribute power to block most of the direct impact.
Otherwise, it wouldn't be just a few scratches.
Once Ash was certain Pikachu was okay, he refocused his attention on the numerous reddish-brown spheres still falling from the sky.
"What exactly was that just now?"
"Voltorbs, and just like Electrode, they belong to a special form found only in the Hisui Region, which is why you didn't recognize them initially."
Cynthia quickly identified the spherical Pokemon.
Ash took a closer look and finally realized that the Pokemon continuously falling from the sky were indeed strikingly similar to Voltorbs in shape.
However, modern Voltorbs have a red upper half and a white lower half.
The Voltorbs from this era had a lower half displaying a distinct brown, looking more like wood.
The biggest distinction beyond that between the two types of Voltorbs also lies in their eyes.
Modern Voltorbs, although lacking a mouth, often display a rather stern and angry expression in their sharply defined eyes.
In contrast, the Hisuian Voltorbs have a more gentle gaze, almost giving the impression of a smile.
Ash's expression gradually turned perplexed.
"Voltorbs are smiling while their evolved form, Electrode, seems perpetually angry. Isn't that the opposite of the way our era's Pokemon are?"
"Indeed, but now's not the time to ponder this, Ash. They're coming!"
Cynthia's warning pulled Ash's focus back onto the battleground.
The roughly ten Voltorbs that had fallen from the sky, with one already rendered unable to battle by Pikachu's Iron Tail, lay dormant not far away, but the remaining Voltorbs, upon hitting the ground, all started to Rollout.
"Voltorbs!"
One round body after another quickly adjusted direction, bouncing straight towards where Ash and Cynthia stood!
Even more troubling, the surfaces of these Voltorbs had begun to radiate increasingly bright white lights.
Ash's eyelid twitched hard.
"Aren't these Voltorbs about to Self-Destruct as they approach?"
"Not about to, they're already prepared to Self-Destruct!"