Torrential rain crashed down as monstrous waves surged forward.
A massive Psychic Blade slashed through the air, splitting the towering wave cleanly in two.
But Milotic's assault didn't stop there.
After a brief charge-up, a high-powered Hydro Pump blasted straight toward Mega Gardevoir.
One of the defining traits of Psychic-type Pokémon was their unpredictability.
Mega Gardevoir teleported instantly, vanishing from its original position, then fired a Psychic attack at Milotic.
A semi-transparent Light Screen shimmered in front of Milotic and vanished together with the incoming attack.
If Mega Gardevoir focused solely on evasion, Milotic's chances of landing a hit would be extremely low. Meanwhile, Mega Gardevoir could continuously harass it with attacks.
Milotic knew that once the Mega Evolution time limit expired, Gardevoir would revert—but winning by stalling wasn't acceptable to her.
Proud as she was, Milotic refused to claim victory that way.
Even against this form, she would win head-on.
Ancient patterns began to surface along Milotic's creamy, serpentine body, radiating a primitive, archaic aura.
The storm seemed to freeze for a moment, as if bowing in submission—
then the rain intensified even further.
In the downpour, visibility dropped to near zero. Each raindrop felt as though it had come alive, brimming with vitality.
Yet strangely, the rain avoided Oliver, Garchomp, and the two Celebi entirely.
Under normal circumstances, poor visibility meant little to Psychic-type Pokémon—they could rely on psychic perception.
But after that ancient aura was introduced, the rain itself became abnormal.
Even Mega Gardevoir—wearing Lugia's Feather—found its psychic perception heavily suppressed. Its detection range shrank drastically; an ordinary Psychic-type Pokémon wouldn't even be able to project psychic senses outward at all.
Suddenly, Mega Gardevoir was struck by a Water Gun from an unknown direction.
Fortunately, its power was limited—just enough to cause slight pain.
"Using that move already, huh…" Oliver murmured.
"Looks like Milotic wants to end this spar."
Beside him, Garchomp gazed at the battling Pokémon with admiration, wondering when it might reach such a level.
A full month had passed since Gardevoir's first Mega Evolution.
During this time, Garchomp had advanced to Advanced High Stage, yet the growth of Gardevoir and Milotic was even more dramatic.
Back on the battlefield—
Mega Gardevoir felt confused. That Water Gun hadn't seemed like Milotic's direct attack. If Milotic had fired it herself, the power would have been far greater.
Then, within its limited perception range, the falling raindrops suddenly began transforming—
each drop condensing into a miniature Water Gun, firing downward at astonishing speed.
This was true rain of bullets.
Imagine every raindrop in a storm turning into a sharp projectile.
The sky was filled with countless tiny Water Guns, raining down relentlessly.
Each individual shot wasn't very strong—but their numbers were overwhelming.
It was a sight that inspired despair at first glance.
And with such wide coverage, even teleportation couldn't guarantee escape.
Mega Gardevoir had no choice but to pour its full power into constructing a Light Screen overhead.
The moment it formed, a continuous clattering echoed out as innumerable water shots struck the barrier, rapidly wearing it down at a visible pace.
"That's enough. Stop, Milotic," Oliver said after checking the time.
As his voice fell, the ancient patterns on Milotic's body faded. The rain-borne Water Guns reverted to ordinary raindrops, and the sky gradually cleared.
At the same time, white light flared around Mega Gardevoir as it exited Mega Evolution.
This had been a sparring match between Gardevoir and Milotic.
Over the past month, similar battles had occurred many times—
To help Gardevoir grow accustomed to Mega Evolution,
and to allow everyone to put newly learned techniques into real combat.
Through training, Gardevoir had extended Mega Evolution to five minutes and was already brushing against the Veteran Mid Stage bottleneck.
Milotic, meanwhile, focused on excavating her own potential. After absorbing Primordial Water, her earlier growth had been immense, leaving little room for immediate level increases.
The technique of converting rain into miniature Water Guns was the latest result of joint research by Oliver and Milotic—
devastating in group combat.
And its future applications were vast.
Water Gun could evolve into Muddy Water, or even Hydro Pump.
Imagine every raindrop becoming a Hydro Pump.
At that point, Milotic alone could obliterate an entire Pokémon army.
More importantly, they had finally begun to glimpse the concept of Natural Energy.
For the Primordial Water within Milotic to grow stronger, it had to absorb Natural Energy—but until recently, they didn't even know what Natural Energy truly was.
Then one day, while reviewing battle footage, Oliver noticed a move called Nature Power.
It was a fascinating technique.
Depending on the environment, it transformed into different moves:
Volcano → Lava Plume
Graveyard → Shadow Ball
Water → Hydro Pump
Ice field → Ice Beam
One key detail stood out.
In the past, Nature Power had once been translated as "Natural Force."
That discovery made Oliver connect the dots.
As a result, Milotic now focused not only on developing Primordial Water, but also on learning Nature Power from Celebi.
Oliver himself didn't slack off either.
Aside from continuing Mega Evolution research, he also infused Aura Power into the Pokémon Egg every night before sleeping.
After such sustained infusion, his connection with the life inside the egg grew ever stronger. He could even vaguely sense that the Pokémon within was bear-like in shape.
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