Bang!!
The Sneasel slammed into the wall after being struck by the pillar of fire. Amid the scattering flames, several emerald-green barriers shattered one after another in front of its body.
Thanks to Protect, Sneasel survived the terrifying blow.
But the alarm bells screaming in its mind only grew louder.
Danger.
Every hair on its body stood on end. It barely had time to cross its claws in front of itself before colliding head-on with a fireball nearly two meters tall.
Boom!
The explosion shook the air. With most of its body swallowed by flames, Sneasel was launched skyward once again.
As the blazing sphere dimmed and Sneasel crashed back to the ground, the lifeform wrapped in fire finally revealed itself.
Luke pulled his arm back and stared at his left hand.
Uninjured.
He flexed his fingers several times, disbelief flickering across his face.
Like the Sneasel he had just sent flying, Luke had no idea what state he was currently in. But compared to figuring out what had happened to his body, there was something far more important to do right now.
Punch it.
Hard.
The cat-and-mouse game resumed after its brief intermission.
Only this time, the roles had been violently reversed.
The mouse that had been chased through the streets moments ago had suddenly turned into a Dynamaxed Raticate, spinning around and sinking its teeth into the two-legged black cat instead.
Thud!
Wrapped in fury and flame, Luke's fist tore through the firestorm, smashing everything in its path. Whether due to elemental disadvantage or sheer panic under Luke's relentless assault, Sneasel was forced entirely onto the defensive. It bore no resemblance to the predator that had hunted Luke earlier.
Thud!
Fire crashed into the wall. Amid shattered stone and thick smoke, Sneasel, its forepaws singed black, attempted to use the chaos to widen the distance between them.
It failed.
Inside the smoke, Luke moved as if nothing obstructed him. Before Sneasel could react, the furious flaming fist descended once more.
Thud!!
After Luke's third punch was barely blocked by Sneasel's crossed arms, the release of rage finally allowed his thoughts to catch up.
First, his body.
Even ignoring the years of overtime that had reduced his stamina to embarrassing levels, Sneasel had very clearly turned his back into a canvas of blood earlier. And yet now, not only did his back and previously ruined left arm feel no pain at all, but every punch he threw left massive holes in the surrounding walls.
This was not something a normal human could do.
Then again, normal humans could not throw flaming punches either.
Knocking Sneasel back once more, Luke drew a deep breath.
Not only did his body feel fine, but even the air that should have been choking with smoke felt completely harmless. It almost felt fresh.
His eyes flicked across the surroundings.
The smoke that should have blocked his vision might as well not have existed. He could see clearly into every corner shrouded in black haze.
No, not just the smoke.
Fire.
Every flame burning throughout the town responded to his awareness, as if waiting for his call.
A spark of insight struck.
Luke stopped his relentless assault and brought his arm to a halt in front of him.
Ignoring the Sneasel that seized the moment to flee, Luke closed his eyes and raised his arm high.
Whoosh.
A faint breeze brushed across Sneasel's face, stopping it in its tracks. The Pokémon trembled as it turned back in disbelief.
Fire rose.
Every flame still burning throughout the town surged upward, rushing toward Luke as if driven mad. Though the flames had no consciousness, as they gathered into a terrifying inferno, Sneasel felt as though it was being watched.
It could not understand.
It could not comprehend.
No matter how deeply it searched its memory, Sneasel could not recall a single Fire-type Pokémon capable of this level of power.
Protect? No.
This was far beyond anything Protect could withstand.
The fire continued to gather. The temperature rose at a terrifying rate, climbing higher with every passing second. Even before the attack was unleashed, Sneasel knew the truth.
Once locked on by this human, escape was impossible.
Substitute. Agility. Endure.
Sneasel desperately cycled through every move it knew, searching for a path to survival.
There was none.
Other than death, Sneasel could find no outcome where it lived.
The flames moved.
In the final seconds before the inferno descended, Sneasel hastily pulled out a spoon and slashed it in two with a claw.
Boom!
The roar of fire echoed across half the town.
Every Pokémon still present witnessed the spectacle.
A massive torrent of flame swallowed buildings whole. An oval-shaped fire column surged along the ground, annihilating everything in its path until it finally crashed into the small hill outside the town and ground to a halt.
The connection to the flames was severed.
The intangible sensation faded. Luke opened his eyes to a landscape of scorched ruins.
Because the flames throughout the town had been drawn into that single attack, everything left behind was reduced to blackened remains and blistering heat.
The world fell silent.
"Wah?! Hot, hot, hot!"
The sudden cry snapped Luke out of his thoughts.
Turning his head, he saw a Brionne hopping frantically in place. It looked painful, but for a Pokémon, unless directly countered, even standing in fire would only cause minor damage. And as a Water-type with resistance to fire, Brionne was even less affected.
After all, a mere sea of flames was nothing compared to a Fire Spin.
Leaving aside certain unfortunate Pokémon that had fainted in towers, and ignoring early-era inconsistencies, if a Water-type dog could get caught in a net in the anime, this was hardly surprising.
As Luke expected, Brionne suffered no burns at all. Its fins were not even red. After hopping a few times, it found a cooler spot and stopped, patting dust from its hands.
When it looked up at Luke, now wearing an orange-red jacket, its wide eyes shrank into tiny dots.
"Huh? You are… huh?"
"…You got stronger."
Unlike the stunned Brionne, Kirlia appeared in a flash of light. Looking up at Luke, it clearly sensed the difference between him now and before.
After a brief moment, a smile bloomed across its face.
"You are not hurt. That is good."
No. He was hurt. Very badly.
Just minutes ago, his left arm had been torn open and his back mangled beyond recognition. Without this inexplicable transformation, Luke would already be a corpse in the fire.
"I feel like, Lulu, you should be more worried about the Pokémon that was chasing the human…"
Thinking back to the terrifying horizontal fire column from moments earlier, Brionne's tail was still trembling. It had heard that a few humans could rival Pokémon in strength, but even for Pokémon, that level of power was extreme.
"He was so miserable at first. Could his ability be like Torrent or Blaze, where real strength only comes out after stamina drops low enough?"
Hearing Brionne's speculation, Kirlia's smile shifted into a thoughtful expression.
Watching the two Pokémon analyze him like a battle specimen, Luke felt a strange sense of dissonance.
As a lifelong Pokémon player, he never imagined the day would come when humans were the ones being discussed in terms of abilities and power levels.
Then again, in a world where all Pokémon could speak, humans who could speak were apparently rare.
That realization made the sense of being transported feel disturbingly real.
The days ahead were not going to be peaceful. His head hurt just thinking about it.
Out of habit, Luke pressed his right hand to his forehead. Only then did he notice that the white wristband on his wrist had turned crimson. Even the previously dull screen now displayed a faint pattern.
Before he could make out what was on the thumbnail-sized display, he noticed something else.
This headache was not imaginary.
Thud.