High above the battlefield, Charizard and Gyarados faced each other after two Dragon Dances apiece, their Attack and Speed already raised by two stages.
One red, one blue.
Neither looked willing to give the other an inch.
"Gyarados, Aqua Tail!"
Asher finally stopped boosting.
The smile on Blaze's face had been bothering him for a while now.
On paper, Gyarados had the better matchup. Water gave it a clear advantage against Charizard, so if both sides kept stacking the same boosts, Asher should still come out ahead.
Yet Blaze looked far too comfortable.
Better to strike first.
"GYAAAAR!"
Water surged around Gyarados's massive tail as it twisted through the air and swung toward Charizard.
"Charizard, Blazing Dragon Claw!"
Blaze did not even blink.
"RRAAAH!"
Dragon-type energy flared around Charizard's right claw, followed almost immediately by a layer of roaring flame.
Then it met Aqua Tail head-on.
BOOM!
HSSSSSS!
Fire and water exploded against each other, filling the air with a cloud of boiling steam.
Blaze saw the opening immediately.
"Fire Fang!"
Charizard burst through the steam before Gyarados could pull away. Flames gathered around its fangs as it opened its jaws and bit down hard.
"GYAR—!"
Gyarados bellowed in pain.
It resisted Fire-type attacks, but that did not make the hit harmless. Charizard's Attack had already risen by two stages, Blazing Flame boosted its Fire-type moves by another fifty percent, and Fire Fang still received STAB.
Even through the resistance, there was plenty of force behind the bite.
"Gyarados, bite back! Crunch!"
Dark energy flooded Gyarados's jaws as it twisted its body around and clamped down on Charizard in return.
CHOMP!
For a moment, the two fake dragons hung in midair with their jaws locked onto each other, looking less like trained Pokémon and more like two oversized beasts that had decided to settle things the old-fashioned way.
Blaze remained perfectly calm.
"Charizard, Flame Charge!"
"RRAAH!"
Fire erupted around Charizard's entire body.
BOOM!
It slammed into Gyarados at point-blank range, ripping itself free and sending the enormous Water-type tumbling backward through the air.
"GYAAAAR!"
Gyarados let out a pained roar as it spun away.
Blaze's eyes sharpened.
There it was.
"It's over. Blazing Dragon Claw!"
Charizard beat its wings hard.
Flames and Dragon-type energy wrapped around its right claw as its body shot forward like a streak of crimson light.
After two Dragon Dances and one Flame Charge, Charizard's Speed had risen by three stages.
Gyarados had no chance to reset its position.
"Gyarados, dodge!"
Asher's voice sharpened, but his Pokémon was still trying to recover from the previous hit.
Too late.
KRAKOOOM!
Blazing Dragon Claw struck cleanly.
"GYAAAR—!"
Gyarados was knocked straight out of the air and plummeted toward the battlefield.
BOOM!
Its massive body slammed into the ground hard enough to tear open a deep crater, sending dust and shattered stone flying in every direction.
When the cloud finally settled, Gyarados lay motionless at the bottom with swirls in its eyes.
It was unable to battle.
Charizard had now taken down two of Asher's Pokémon by itself.
"Gyarados is unable to battle!" the referee announced, raising his flag. "Asher, send out your next Pokémon!"
Asher's face had gone completely grim.
...
The stands immediately erupted into argument.
"Damn, can Asher even handle this? Blaze has already taken down two of his Pokémon with the same Charizard. He's making Imperial Elite look bad."
"Shh! Keep your voice down. You want someone from the Cassian Family hearing you?"
"You can't put all of this on Asher. He's from one of the branch families. Blaze grew up with the full backing of the Flame Family."
"Exactly. And that Charizard is Blaze's ace. Of course it's a monster."
"At this rate, Asher might as well surrender before this gets any uglier."
"Forget Asher. Just wait until Kellan gets his turn. He's the real prodigy of the Cassian Family."
The students from Imperial Elite were becoming increasingly unimpressed.
To them, Asher losing two Pokémon in a row to the same Charizard was not merely his own embarrassment.
He was representing their university too.
...
Back in Crown University's preparation area, Gage stared up at Charizard and let out a quiet sigh.
"That thing is seriously strong. Even my Grapploct might not be able to beat it."
Aaron rubbed his chin.
"If Blaze doesn't use his superpower, I'd give you maybe a twenty percent chance."
"Twenty percent?!"
Gage's shoulders sagged.
"That low, huh..."
He looked back toward the battlefield.
"Guys like Blaze really do start way ahead of people like me."
There was no bitterness in his voice so much as frustration.
"I've worked my ass off just to get this far, and sometimes it still feels like I'm trying to close a gap that was there before I was even born."
Aaron glanced at him.
"Sure. Blaze started with advantages you didn't have."
Gage looked over.
"But so what?"
Aaron nodded toward the field.
"You found Grapploct. That part might've been luck."
Then he looked back at Gage.
"Turning that luck into what we just saw out there wasn't."
Gage went quiet.
"You trained it. You got strong enough to make it into Crown University. You earned a spot on this team, came here, and won your first match."
Aaron shrugged.
"Plenty of people get handed good opportunities and still waste them."
For a moment, Gage said nothing.
Then he looked back toward the battlefield.
He had left the mountains with almost nothing.
Now he was standing here, representing one of Hualis's top universities on a stage most Trainers his age would never even reach.
Maybe comparing himself to someone born into a family like Blaze's was pointless.
He had his own path.
And he was already much farther down it than he had ever imagined.
"Yeah..."
Gage scratched the back of his head and smiled.
"You're right."
His expression relaxed.
"Thanks, Aaron."
Aaron smiled back.