Since this place was home to both Kabutops and Omastar colonies, naturally there would also be an Aerodactyl colony. Red wouldn't be foolish enough to think there was only one ordinary Aerodactyl like in the original story.
Through the exploration of his Aura power, Red and Charizard arrived at the habitat of the Aerodactyl colony. Because they had existed at the top of the food chain in ancient times and were known as the Sky Kings of their era, the Aerodactyl colony's territory was three times larger than the combined territories of the previous two colonies—this was the class distinction brought about by differences in strength.
Aerodactyl's body was gray with purple parts on its wings. Its form resembled Cretaceous pterosaurs, and it had four sharp claws. Its teeth were serrated, making it easier to tear apart prey.
After observing and comparing for a while, Red set his sights on an Aerodactyl that was clearly the leader. This Aerodactyl stood 2.5 meters tall, a full 0.7 meters taller than ordinary Aerodactyls.
What was noteworthy was that this Aerodactyl had an obvious scar on its right cheek. However, this scar didn't detract from Aerodactyl's appearance—instead, it added to the leader's intimidating presence, making enemies who dared to challenge it feel panic.
"Charizard, this guy should be fine as your opponent, right?" Red said casually.
Upon hearing Red's words, Charizard's eyes widened. Didn't Red know his own strength?
Thinking this, Charizard's mouth burned with flames, angry enough to want to defeat Aerodactyl in one move. Fortunately, Red saw through Charizard's thoughts and quickly stopped him.
Red had only wanted to simply motivate Charizard's fighting spirit, but had unexpectedly triggered Charizard's competitive nature completely.
"Charizard, you wouldn't want to take advantage of someone when they're down, would you? Defeating an Aerodactyl with no stamina wouldn't be something worth remembering," Red teased, having Charizard do warm-up exercises first while waiting for Red to wake up and restore Aerodactyl before preparing for battle.
"Viridian Power!"
Green energy emanated from Red's body, concentrating on the Aerodactyl before him. Driven by bodily instinct, Aerodactyl subconsciously absorbed the natural power granted by the Viridian Force.
Aerodactyl drowsily opened its eyes, yawning and rubbing them.
As consciousness gradually returned, Aerodactyl looked around in surprise at everything. This was completely different from its memories of being the Sky King—it remembered soaring through the blue sky and clouds before falling asleep, never expecting to now be confined to this narrow underground space.
Aerodactyl struggled to flap its wings and leave, but due to long-term slumber, its body was severely malnourished, and it nearly collapsed.
"Do you want to witness the vastness of the outside world? I can fulfill your wish—soar through the clouds with me!"
Red looked at Aerodactyl with burning eyes, extending his right hand in invitation.
After hearing Red's words, Aerodactyl finally focused on this red-hatted boy. But after carefully observing Red, its mouth inexplicably trembled, as if standing before some prehistoric beast.
'How can this be? A mere human can make my body feel such fear?!'
"You must be very hungry. Here, eat some canned food to fill your stomach first."
With that, Red took out canned meat from his backpack and placed it in front of Aerodactyl.
Aerodactyl first smelled the canned meat, and only after finding nothing suspicious did it dare to open its mouth and swallow. Perhaps due to prolonged hunger, the canned meat Red provided was completely devoured by the starving Aerodactyl before it had been on the ground for even a minute.
"Looks like you have quite an appetite," Red teased. Seeing Aerodactyl's longing eyes, he understood it wasn't full—probably hadn't even reached half-full.
After Red consecutively took out three more cans of meat from his backpack, the fed Aerodactyl finally managed a satisfied burp, licking its teeth with its tongue, happily squinting its eyes and nuzzling Red's cheek.
'Seems like there's no need for battle after all?' Red thought helplessly as he stroked Aerodactyl's forehead—this Sky King seemed unexpectedly cute and docile.
"Aerodactyl, come have a match with Charizard. I'm also looking forward to seeing your current strength," Red said.
After hearing this, Aerodactyl reluctantly nodded, then flapped its wings to fly into the air, looking down at Charizard with fighting intent.
'What incredible speed!' This was Charizard's first impression of Aerodactyl, and he looked forward to an exciting battle with this Sky King from ancient times.
Charizard roared a few times at Red, indicating he could fight independently and for Red to stand back and wait for his victory, and then also flapped his wings to take to the air.
Due to the terrain constraints, both Charizard and Aerodactyl were in mid-air, deciding to first test each other's strength with ranged attacks.
Scorching flames shot from Charizard's mouth, forming a pillar of fire that rushed toward Aerodactyl.
Sharp stone blades floated around Aerodactyl, then, under its control, quickly pierced through the incoming fire pillar.
With speed too fast for the naked eye to catch, Aerodactyl instantly appeared behind Charizard, its claws covered in green light striking Charizard's back with Dragon Claw.
"Clang clang clang..."
Hit by this attack, Charizard couldn't help but frown. Although he didn't take much damage, the defensive effect of his Multiscale ability had been consumed by Aerodactyl's Dragon Claw.
The displeased Charizard spread his massive wings, releasing silver light and using Steel Wing to knock back the Aerodactyl behind him.
'So you really do possess a pure dragon bloodline,' Aerodactyl said with slight surprise. What was meant to be a simple test revealed that this Charizard actually had Dragon typing.
'There's much more that will surprise you!'
As soon as the words fell, purple-gold dragon killing intent possessed Charizard's body, forming an energy dragon radiating a murderous aura. The dragon then flapped its wings toward Aerodactyl, its open mouth seeming ready to devour the ancient Pokémon.
Rather than rashly counterattacking, Aerodactyl used Agility to dodge the Dragon Rush attack. When Charizard was adjusting his flight direction, it quickly opened its mouth and used Supersonic.
Due to the environment, Aerodactyl's Supersonic echoed off the surrounding sharp stones. With the reverberating sound waves, Charizard was forced to cover his ears and suffer the effects of Supersonic.
"This Aerodactyl not only overwhelms Charizard in speed but also knows how to use environmental advantages. Truly worthy of being the former Sky King," Red nodded in praise, becoming increasingly satisfied with the Aerodactyl before him. After all, Aerodactyl also possessed its own Mega Evolution form.
In his confused state, Charizard mistook a nearby stone pillar for Aerodactyl. His massive wings released silver light as he used Steel Wing on the pillar, shattering the thick stone column in one strike.
Aerodactyl watched the confused Charizard with amusement, but sensing Charizard was about to recover, quickly used Rock Slide to attack.
Hard rocks continuously pelted Charizard's body. The pain from the rock impacts immediately snapped Charizard out of his confused state.
Learning that he had just been toyed with by Aerodactyl, Charizard's pride was wounded. His eyes filled with angry flames as he prepared to give this ancient Pokémon a bone-deep lesson, showing it who the real powerhouse was.
[Chapter Complete]
***
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