"Luxray, Thunder Shock!" Jay's voice echoed in the Gym.
Luxray raised its head and roared, and dazzling golden lightning erupted from its body, spreading outward like a massive electric net that shrouded the entire field.
"Moonblast."
A ball of pink-white light instantly condensed in her palm, and she gently pushed it forward. The thunder and lightning across the field, the moment it touched Moonblast, vanished like darkness swallowed by light.
Jay wanted to order a dodge, but it was too late. The sphere of light imprinted gently on Luxray's chest, and its sturdy body flew backward like an arrow, skimming past Jay's side, kicking up a gust of wind, and crashing solidly into the metal wall of the Gym.
A muffled crash. Luxray slid down from the wall, its limbs sprawled, the fur on its chest singed with a faint scorch mark, and its eyes had already turned into swirls.
Another one-hit KO.
Jay stared blankly at Luxray lying by the wall, and it took him a while to snap back. He lowered his head, looked at the Poké Ball in his hand, and silently recalled Luxray.
From the first Electabuzz falling to the last Luxray losing its ability to battle, the whole thing took less than two minutes. And that included recall time, throwing out the next Pokémon, and those few seconds Jay spent dazed between rounds. The actual battle time, added together, was probably not even a minute.
One minute to sweep a Trainer comparable to a real Gym Leader. This was Ash's true strength. All the previous Gym battles where he'd been sparring and racking his brains to win had been purely to train and improve his other Pokémon. When he actually went all out, this was the normal result.
Ash wouldn't usually battle like this. Constant one-hit KOs didn't help anyone grow. But this time was different. Since Volkner chose to let students screen his challengers, Ash could only respond by showing his full power and forcing Volkner to take the field himself.
Ash raised his head, his gaze crossing the field and falling on the blonde young man at the referee's stand. "Am I qualified to battle you?"
Volkner didn't answer immediately. He stood at the referee's stand, his gaze slowly withdrawing from Gardevoir. After a few breaths of silence, he raised both hands and began to clap. The applause sounded exceptionally clear in the quiet Gym.
"Champion-level Gardevoir."
Although Volkner's voice was even, those three words hit Jay like a thunderclap. This Gardevoir was Champion-level? He'd just fought a Champion-level Pokémon?
After processing it, the complex emotions in Jay's heart actually smoothed out, replaced by a kind of relief. Since the opponent was Champion-level, his defeat wasn't shameful.
"A Trainer who owns a Champion-level Pokémon can't be a nobody." Volkner walked onto the field, studying Ash as he approached. "But you look way too young. How old are you?"
He was genuinely curious. He basically knew the famous Trainers of the current generation. Cynthia, Lance, Steven Stone. They were generally around twenty-five. Cynthia was the exceptional case, only in her early twenties, and she'd reached Champion in just five years, which was unprecedented.
But this kid in front of him was clearly younger than all of them.
"I'll be sixteen in two months." Ash said it casually, like he was mentioning what he had for dinner.
Volkner's expression cracked.
Sixteen in two months? That meant fifteen. Hadn't even been on his journey for a year. Having a Champion-level Pokémon before your first year was up was beyond exaggerated.
As for whether Gardevoir was handed down from a mentor, Volkner had already ruled that out. If Gardevoir wasn't personally raised by Ash, the two of them wouldn't have that level of unspoken coordination. Ash wouldn't command Gardevoir so calmly, as if they'd been partners for a decade.
So Gardevoir was inevitably a Pokémon Ash cultivated himself. Raising a Champion-level Pokémon in under a year couldn't be called genius anymore. It was just freakish.
Jay also had his mouth hanging open, unable to close it. He was twenty-two this year, with six Elite-level Pokémon. He'd been fairly satisfied with his own talent. Even if he couldn't compare with the Champion-tier prodigies, he was at least gifted by normal standards.
Compared to Ash, though, he'd been reduced to dust. A fifteen-year-old with a Champion-level Pokémon. What even was that?
Fifteen and twenty-five might only differ by ten years on paper, but calculated by actual journey time, that was one year versus ten. A tenfold gap.
Volkner took a deep breath. The excitement was hard to suppress no matter how he tried.
Outsiders called him a genius too. He'd been crowned with that title since childhood. After becoming Sunyshore Gym Leader, his growth was rapid. Elite Four level by twenty. A Champion-level Pokémon by twenty-four. His talent wasn't weaker than any Champion's.
The problem was that during his years running the Gym, he'd stopped meeting anyone worth fighting. His passion as a Trainer had been ground down, and eventually his strength stagnated along with it.
He'd released the news that he was Sinnoh's strongest Gym Leader and hadn't lost in years. Not out of arrogance, but to attract someone, anyone, who could give him a real fight. Nobody came. The Trainers who could beat him were all Elite Four Peak or Champion-level, and they had no reason to challenge a Gym Leader. Everyone else was simply no match.
Coming to Johto, he'd been full of expectation. The Silver Conference was supposed to draw strong challengers. Instead, the result was worse than Sunyshore. All kinds of half-baked Trainers flooded in, making his battles less and less interesting, until he finally handed the gatekeeper role to Jay and stepped aside to referee.
The outside evaluations of him kept getting worse. Volkner didn't care. He just wanted one real fight.
And today, one finally walked in.
"Ash. I've remembered your name. I feel like I've heard it somewhere before and forgot, but that doesn't matter anymore." Volkner's voice carried a sharpness it hadn't had all morning. "Now, let's begin."
He walked over to Jay's side and patted him on the shoulder. Jay understood instantly. He trotted over to the referee's stand, taking Volkner's original position. His Pokémon had all lost their ability to battle, but they hadn't suffered serious injuries, just stamina exhaustion. The Pokémon Center could wait. Right now, he just wanted to watch this.
Volkner took out a palm-sized remote control from his pocket and pressed the button. The ground at the four corners of the field opened simultaneously, and four silver-gray metal pillars rose silently. Each pillar top was embedded with a light blue crystal, glowing cold under the lights.
When all four pillars were fully raised, the crystals lit up simultaneously, forming a translucent light blue barrier that enveloped the entire battle field.
League-issued protective equipment, capable of withstanding shockwaves of Elite Four Peak level. Volkner rarely used it. After all, challengers who could force him above Elite Four level were hardly encountered a few times a year.
Jay stood at the referee's stand, took a deep breath, and tried to make his voice sound steady. "Three-on-three. Gym side sends first. Challenger can freely switch. Battle, start!"
Volkner took a Poké Ball from his waist and threw it high. A flash of light, and a blue-and-yellow quadrupedal Pokémon landed steadily in the center of the field. Manectric. Same species as Jay's, but the strength was worlds apart.
Elite Four High. Through Aura Sight, Ash saw through Manectric's true level at a glance. Sinnoh's strongest Gym Leader did have the capital to be proud. The information Ash had checked on his phone the night before listed Manectric between Elite Four Mid and Elite Four High. Clearly outdated. Volkner had gotten stronger since that data was recorded.
Volkner crossed his arms, his gaze falling on Ash, waiting.
Ash casually threw a Poké Ball. As the light dissipated, a round, massive body appeared in the center of the field.
Snorlax.
Ever since catching it, Ash had almost never sent Snorlax out to battle. It ate and slept every day at Professor Oak's lab, but its strength had grown at a terrifying rate regardless. Part of that was raw talent. Snorlax was one of those rare species that could increase its strength just by eating and sleeping, with the rate depending on sleep quality, food quality, and innate talent.
And part of it was Venusaur's Tree of Life power enriching the berries in Oak's backyard.
Ash's Snorlax had top-tier talent, ate premium berries daily, and slept like a king. Originally, Ash had planned to use Snorlax against Volkner's supposedly Elite Four Mid Pokémon, but the intel was off. The weakest Pokémon in Volkner's lineup was already Elite Four High. Not that it mattered.
Snorlax sat on the ground, its snow-white belly rising and falling with its breath, squinted eyes looking around blankly, seemingly not yet grasping the situation. But when it turned its head and saw Ash, its face lit up with unmistakable joy.
Although they hadn't seen each other for a while, Snorlax's feelings toward Ash only grew stronger. Compared to its wandering days before, life at Oak's lab was paradise, and all of that was thanks to Ash.
On the other side, Volkner's brow furrowed. He could see the Snorlax was well-nurtured. Glossy fur, body a size larger than average. But that was all. Its aura definitely hadn't broken through Elite Four level. Sending a Snorlax against his Elite Four High Manectric?
"What's this supposed to mean?" Volkner's voice carried obvious displeasure.
Ash looked at him. "Relax. I won't make my Pokémon fight a battle they can't win."
Aura fusion, activate.
With the infusion of Aura Power, an imposing presence erupted from Snorlax's round body. That aura instantly surged past the Elite Four threshold.
Volkner's eyes went wide. The expression on his face was more shocked than anything he'd shown all day.
What did Ash just do to that Snorlax? In Volkner's observation, Snorlax's aura now almost exactly matched his Manectric's. How could something like that exist?