The instant the battle began, Kapu-Lias Caesar stopped charging forward; instead he drove his claws straight into the ground.
Quicksand Abyss!
The earth disintegrated in a heartbeat, countless grains of sand whirling like a maelstrom directly beneath Venusaur's feet.
He wanted to force out the opponent's Ingrain! Strip Venusaur of its first-phase mobility!
Yet the opposing Venusaur didn't panic in the least.
It didn't even try to pull its legs free of the quicksand.
Head high, it roared!
A blazing sphere of light shot skyward.
Sunny Day!
Scorching sunlight flooded the space again, the air temperature spiking in an instant.
"Heh…"
A cunning, almost human glint flashed in Venusaur's cloudy eyes. The enormous blossom on its back snapped open—not to drink in the sun, but to aim straight at the ground—
"Boom!"
A Solar Beam that needed no charge at all blasted the earth!
The thing wasn't attacking Kapu-Lias Caesar!
It… it was rocket-jumping!
The colossal recoil, coupled with its terrifying leg strength, hurled several tons of bulk sideways through the air in an impossible mid-air drift!
"What? That's how you use the physics engine?!"
Kapu-Lias Caesar's eyes nearly popped out of his skull.
Which twisted genius programmed this AI? Using Solar Beam as a movement skill—how is that legal!
With that single maneuver Venusaur slipped free of the Quicksand Abyss's edge.
Kapu-Lias Caesar's carefully prepared opener had been broken in the most nonsensical way imaginable.
Before he could recover from the shock, countless green-glowing petals drifted down from the sky.
Homing missiles—
Magical Leaf!
The leaves didn't fly straight like ordinary Razor Leaf; they curved through the air as if they had eyes, skirting boulders, skirting the quicksand, doggedly locking onto Kapu-Lias Caesar's position.
Kapu-Lias Caesar could only tumble frantically back and forth across the field, dodging the endless harassment.
"Enough already!"
Kapu-Lias Caesar snarled, ready to eat the damage and lock Venusaur's location with sonar, then hose it down with Dragon Breath.
But just then the Magical Leaves hovering in the air all began to vibrate at high speed.
Scritch-scritch-scritch—!
The high-pitched hiss of countless leaves rubbing together flooded the entire space.
The shrill noise bored straight into Kapu-Lias Caesar's skull; he couldn't hear a thing, and the sonar-generated image in his mind dissolved into chaotic static.
This green toad actually knew how to use Magical Leaf for full-spectrum jamming?!
The instant Kapu-Lias Caesar lost his sight.
A wave of heat so terrible it stung his skin surged straight at him from ahead.
He didn't need to see, didn't need to hear.
That apocalyptic energy signature was burned into his memory forever.
Solar Beam!
Powered by the harsh sunlight, the move was almost instantaneous.
Boom—!
A white column twice his own girth blasted across the field.
Kapu-Lias Caesar barely managed to cross his foreclaws in front of his chest.
The impact felt like a speeding train. Even with draconic scales, he felt the skin on his forearms char and split, flesh vaporized by the heat.
The whole Young Dragon was flung like a rag-doll, smashing into the white spatial barrier.
"Cough… urgh…"
Kapu-Lias Caesar spat a mouthful of scalding dragon-blood laced with scraps of viscera.
He lifted his head with difficulty, staring at the unharmed green toad in the distance.
This time he hadn't even forced out the opponent's second phase?
Ridiculous.
Kapu-Lias Caesar struggled to his feet, intending to counter with Dragon Breath.
But Venusaur was too fast.
Relying on Chlorophyll's doubled speed, it sauntered in a circle around him, always maintaining a teasing distance—just outside Heavy Stomp range, yet perfectly within its own firing arc.
Classic kite tactics.
The moment Kapu-Lias Caesar paused, even for a fraction of a second, preparing to exhale Dragon Breath—
Boom—!
Another instant Solar Beam would lance over without mercy.
I, a proud Young Dragon, the Overlord of sonic speed, am being walked like a dog by a grass-type toad…?
Kapu-Lias Caesar felt a fire trapped in his chest.
He couldn't land a hit, couldn't catch up, couldn't escape.
This wasn't a battle; it was one-sided imprisonment…
[Cut] Real world.
The campfire in the cave had died.
Only a few embers still glowed.
Cecilia stopped humming. She looked at the sleeping Kapu-Lias Caesar, brows knit.
The Young Dragon's sleep was restless. His body twitched from time to time, low growls rumbling in his throat, as if caught in some painful dream.
"Having a nightmare?"
Cecilia prodded his cheek with the tip of her tail.
No response.
She poked his nose.
Still nothing—his muttering grew louder.
"How boring."
Cecilia withdrew her tail.
A cold wind blew into the cave and she shivered.
True Dragons feel the cold too—especially in her juvenile stage, her thermoregulation isn't as good as an adult's.
She glanced at the chilly ground, then at the warm-scaled Young Earth Dragon.
"…"
Three seconds of hesitation.
Dignity was worthless against the cold.
Cecilia inched her rear end bit by bit—
Shuffle.
Another shuffle.
Until her entire dragon body pressed against his back.
Mm, so warm.
Young Earth Dragons are ectothermic, yet Kapu-Lias Caesar felt like a giant stove, radiating astonishing heat.
That furnace-like warmth flowed into her.
Cecilia narrowed her eyes contentedly. She rested her chin on his shark-fin tail, the only soft spot he had.
After a moment she slipped her own tail under his head, as payment.
That way he couldn't scold her later.
The two Young Dragons huddled in the cold cave, their breathing synchronizing with a faint pulse of energy…
Dream world.
Kapu-Lias Caesar felt like cursing the heavens.
Countless Magical Leaves blotted the sky, sealing his sight completely. Their rubbing produced a grating rustle that jammed his sonar into useless static.
He was blind and deaf.
"Roooar—!"
A muffled roar sounded ahead.
That was the sound of a charge-up.
Venusaur had stopped. Knowing Kapu-Lias Caesar could no longer dodge, it prepared to deliver the final blow at leisure.
Terrifying heat gathered ahead; even sightless, Kapu-Lias Caesar could feel the suffocating pressure.
This Solar Beam would vaporize him.
Was it going to end like this?
Another nauseating [Challenge Failed]?
No.
Kapu-Lias Caesar's eyes snapped open, golden vertical pupils burning without retreat.
All or nothing!
You want to charge? Then let's clash beams!
He jerked his head up, jaws dripping blood.
The dormant draconic factor inside him, the one labeled "Dragon," was fully awakened by the threat of death. Blood roared through his veins like a river.
Deep in his throat an unprecedented energy was gathering—!
This wasn't Dragon Breath.
It was a purer, wilder force closer to the Dragon Clan's very Origin!
Not merely exhaling breath, but compressing, collapsing the entirety of his dragon-type energy, then detonating it at a single point!
At that instant a faint yet pure warmth flowed from his back, the final catalyst pouring into the volcano about to erupt!
[⊹System notice: "dragon-type" factor in vicinity hyper-active…]
[⊹Prerequisite skill Dragon Breath mastery maxed!]
EVOLUTION!
(Skill sublimation!)
[|Advanced ✣ skill learned — Dragon Pulse!!!]
Kapu-Lias Caesar's pupils shrank to slits.
No thought required—his body instinctively channeled the newborn, savage force.
Facing the onrushing Solar Beam, he screamed with everything he had.
"GET… REKT!!!"
Boom—!!!
A spiraling, deep-violet shockwave erupted from his jaws!