"There's no way around it, this Pokemon is just too powerful."
"No kidding. This Pokemon doesn't even appear in the World Legend Pokedex. I have no idea how John even recognized it."
The spectators watching John's battle against Lysandre began losing their enthusiasm.
It was hard not to feel deflated. John's previous momentum had been incredible, consecutive victories, crushing numerous Legendary Pokemon. Most people had already elevated John to mythical, unbeatable status. Now he was actually losing!
This also made many trainers breathe a sigh of relief.
John could still be defeated after all.
If John truly never lost a single match, it would be like staring at an endless, boundless sky, beyond sighing, there would only be fear and awe.
But now that John had been beaten, it proved there was still potential to surpass him. For example... by capturing that very Pokemon that defeated John's team.
Zygarde!
Though nobody had ever heard of this Pokemon before, so where exactly were they supposed to catch one...
That Pokemon looked vaguely familiar somehow, but also different from anything they'd seen before...
Even Mega Aggron's devastating Guillotine technique hadn't been enough to take it down.
Though using that move would've been pointless anyway, Zygarde's massive size was purely its natural form, not some Dynamax transformation.
Looked like Mega Tyranitar and Mega Aggron still had a very long road ahead before reaching Zygarde's level of power.
No big deal though.
Just two Pokemon losing their battle capability. John still had four Pokemon left in his rotation.
Mega Tyranitar and Mega Aggron had been John's chosen counters for Xerneas and Yveltal. Now that Lysandre had deployed his third Legendary Pokemon, John naturally needed to switch his targeting as well.
However, as John had analyzed the moment Zygarde entered the battlefield, he didn't have any Pokemon with type advantages against it, nor any with comparable combat strength.
That being the case, the upcoming battle couldn't rely on type superiority.
Which meant only one option remained: direct confrontation.
John's hand moved again, throwing another Pokeball.
Silver light flickered through time itself, and a black-and-white furred humanoid bear stood silently before John.
[Urshifu LV100]
Because, barring any surprises, after dealing with Lysandre, the next battle would be the final showdown.
Facing Rainbow Rocket's ultimate boss, Giovanni.
Giovanni's Pokemon was Mewtwo. John couldn't send his Fighting-type Urshifu to get demolished by Psychic attacks.
So John's original plan had been: if Mega Aggron couldn't defeat Yveltal, he'd send out Urshifu instead.
The current situation worked out fine too. Yveltal had fallen, replaced by Zygarde.
Compared to Yveltal, Zygarde's level was high enough and its strength powerful enough to force Urshifu to display its full power!
Zygarde sensed the hidden but potent aura flowing through this small creature before it. Unlike those two idiots who'd just flexed their strength carelessly, this opponent was clearly a difficult character to deal with.
John threw another Pokeball toward the sky!
The ball opened, and Dynamax Urshifu descended!
But this wasn't the Rapid Strike Style Urshifu.
Two streams of light, red and blue, flowed simultaneously across its body. Its eyes were resolute, like a vigorous young warrior in their prime.
John suddenly thought of the tokusatsu series Ultraman Tiga.
Red represented Single Strike Style's power form. Blue represented Rapid Strike Style's speed form. Red-and-blue together, Rapid Strike Style perfectly corresponded to the balanced form.
However, Rapid Strike Style didn't follow the balanced path.
It walked the road of gathering every school's strengths, then developing them beyond their limits.
Rapid Strike Urshifu surpassed Single Strike in single strikes, and exceeded Rapid Strike in rapid strikes!
Seeing this small opponent suddenly transform into a colossal monster matching its own size, Zygarde was quite satisfied.
Zygarde immediately launched its assault. Its right foot stomped hard, launching its body skyward. Mid-air, it flipped and dove, transforming into a living missile once again!
"Dragon Rush!"
Naturally, Urshifu wouldn't lose face either!
Urshifu immediately assumed its fighting stance!
Aura energy, activate!
An invisible force began converging toward Urshifu.
The convergence method was subtle and internal. Ordinary Pokemon fundamentally couldn't detect it, they could only assume Urshifu was making preparatory movements.
And in the next second, Rapid Strike Urshifu suddenly vanished from existence.
When it reappeared, it was already mid-air, intercepting Zygarde's diagonal descent with a flying roundhouse kick!
In that instant, crimson flames erupted like a geyser, enveloping and wrapping around its body, almost condensing into a massive spiral of fire!