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"GRAAAAH!"
The moment Charizard spotted the enormous pit, its eyes flashed with fierce determination. It roared furiously, tilted its head back slightly, opened its powerful jaws, and unleashed a torrent of flames directly toward the hole.
WHOOOOSH!
The massive Flamethrower attack erupted downward in a thick column of fire, instantly illuminating the entire valley with brilliant orange light. Under Charizard's precise control, the flames poured directly into the opening in the ground.
The intense heat caused the rock surrounding the cave entrance to gradually glow red-hot. This blazing assault continued for several minutes without pause.
RUMBLE RUMBLE RUMBLE!
Suddenly, the entire ground began shaking violently. Charizard's expression shifted slightly at this development, and it immediately ceased its Flamethrower attack. In the next instant, the area surrounding the dark pit began collapsing inward.
"ROOOAAAR!"
As the rock gave way, an enormous dark shadow burst forth from underground. The creature released a deep, thunderous roar, its eyes completely bloodshot—whether from being disturbed from rest or from some other source of rage was unclear.
The cross-shaped scar on its face was unmistakable. This was definitely the same Onix that had nearly attacked Ash earlier during the day.
Charizard narrowed its eyes and landed gracefully on a nearby cliff. Onix naturally noticed Charizard's presence immediately—the burning flame on the Fire-type's tail was particularly conspicuous in the darkness.
Onix, who was already extremely irritable to begin with, had just been violently attacked while resting peacefully at night. This naturally made the massive Rock Snake Pokémon even more furious than before.
Its gigantic body reared upright. Even though Charizard stood perched on a high cliff at that moment, when Onix raised itself to its full height, it could still face Charizard at eye level.
"GRAAAH!"
Charizard roared back at Onix defiantly, meeting the Rock Snake's fury without the slightest trace of fear.
Although Charizard was certainly large for its species, it still appeared dwarfed by the massive Onix looming before it. However, despite this huge size difference, there was absolutely no fear visible in Charizard's fierce eyes.
"ROOOOAR!"
Sensing Charizard's taunting challenge, the already volatile Onix released another furious roar. Then it surged forward with its enormous body, driving its head directly toward Charizard in a devastating ramming attack.
CRASH!
Charizard rapidly beat its wings and took off just in time. Onix's attack missed its target completely, and the Rock-type's massive head slammed directly into the cliff face instead.
The entire cliff collapsed instantly. Rocks flew in every direction as thick clouds of dust filled the air. Charizard soared upward, successfully dodging the attack, and immediately released another Flamethrower assault while airborne.
Onix withdrew its head from the cloud of smoke and debris, shaking itself slightly to clear the dust from its rocky body. It watched the flames racing toward it through the darkness.
The Rock Snake twisted its serpentine body and swung its massive tail forward. The enormous tail acted like a protective barrier, and the flames were instantly blocked by Onix's rocky appendage.
Fire-type moves had almost no effect on the Rock-and-Ground-type Pokémon. Because its body was so tremendously large, when it whipped its tail with force, the displaced air current alone was astonishing.
In an instant, the tremendous power generated by the tail strike scattered the flames completely. Onix then released another low roar as white light began shining in the sky above.
Within that light, enormous boulders materialized and began raining down from above one after another. It was the Rock-type move Rock Tomb.
Seeing this attack incoming, Charizard beat its wings powerfully and continuously dodged the scattered Rock projectiles through aerial maneuvers.
The rocks kept hammering into the ground, and the valley floor echoed with constant collision sounds. Although Rock Tomb covered a wide area, Charizard was agile enough in the air to evade.
After dodging multiple consecutive attacks, Charizard extended both claws as green energy began glowing around them. The energy condensed into a pair of enlarged, razor-sharp claws covering Charizard's natural talons.
Having successfully avoided the Rock Tomb barrage, Charizard dove directly toward Onix at high speed.
SLASH!
"ROOOAAR!"
Charizard shot past Onix's body as green light flashed brilliantly. An explosion erupted across Onix's rocky hide as Charizard passed by and positioned itself behind the Onix.
Smoke rose from Onix's body where it had been struck by the Dragon Claw attack, causing the massive Pokémon to release a genuine scream of pain.
"GRAAAH!"
Having positioned itself behind Onix, Charizard released another Flamethrower attack from the rear. However, although Dragon-type moves were significantly more effective against Onix than Fire-type moves, this particular Onix hadn't grown to such an enormous size without reason.
Its endurance and physical stamina were extraordinary to support such tremendous growth.
The larger a Pokémon's body became, the greater the energy required to sustain it. Any creature capable of supporting such a massive frame definitely couldn't be defeated easily.
As Charizard fired its Flamethrower, Onix suddenly whipped its head around. A fierce, light-green energy began condensing in its massive jaws.
BOOM! CRASH!
This energy blast shot toward Charizard's position. The two attacks collided mid-air, and the dark valley was momentarily illuminated by the explosive energy clash. An astonishing detonation occurred at the point of impact.
Powerful air currents spread outward in all directions. Simultaneously, the explosive sounds echoed throughout the valley of Mount Hideaway.
Because the area was sparsely populated and contained within a valley, the sounds reverberated from the mountain peaks. Various wild Pokémon who had been resting peacefully in the surrounding forests were startled awake.
"Mmm!"
Back at the camp inside the wooden cabin, Ash suddenly opened his eyes. Not only Ash—Bruno, who had been sleeping on the opposite side, also opened his eyes abruptly.
After both awakened, they looked at each other meaningfully. They could still hear faint vibrations echoing in their ears. Misty and Brock seemed to sense something as well and slowly began stirring.
"What was that sound?!"
Ash didn't waste time with explanations, vaguely sensing what might be happening. He quickly extricated himself from his sleeping bag and went outside, discovering that several of his Pokémon had also awakened. However, when he looked around carefully, he realized that Charizard was nowhere to be seen.
"Charizard...?"
In the Valley
At that moment, the battle was still raging in the mountain valley. The technique Onix had just used was Dragon Breath—a move typically associated with Dragon-type Pokémon. Just as Charizard could learn Dragon Claw despite not being a Dragon-type, Onix could similarly learn Dragon-type techniques despite being Rock-and-Ground-type.
The collision of the two special moves had caused a tremendous explosion. Large amounts of smoke filled the air, temporarily blocking the line of sight for both Charizard and Onix.
However, Charizard remained vigilant and alert. It scanned its surroundings carefully and soon detected movement through the haze. Sensing a rush of displaced air coming toward it, Charizard watched as the smoke directly ahead was suddenly swept away.