"Boom!"
Before Jason and the others could react, a colossal catfish the size of an ancient whale burst out of the water beneath their feet!
It was the apex predator of this lake—the Dondozo.
With jaws wide enough to swallow a skiff, it let out a thunderous roar and, in one bite, gulped down the Tatsugiri together with the entire strip of island it was standing on!
The sudden turn of events scared the show-boating Gast half to death. Thankfully she reacted fast—just before those massive jaws snapped shut, she teleported and reappeared at Jason's side, narrowly avoiding being swallowed too.
Even back by Jason, she was trembling. Patting her nonexistent chest, she stammered, "That… that scared me to death! What was that thing?!"
Jason's expression hardened like never before. Staring at the Dondozo—which had completely changed aura after swallowing the Tatsugiri—he warned in a low voice:
"Get ready. This guy in front of us is the real False Dragon Titan."
"What?" Iron Valiant and Gast were both stunned.
Tatsugiri's Ability was Commander. Once it entered Dondozo's mouth, it could issue precise orders from absolute safety—and Dondozo was the enforcer that carried them out.
Together, they made up the true "False Dragon Titan."
Worse still, the moment Tatsugiri slid into Dondozo's mouth, every stat Dondozo had except HP—Attack, Defense, Speed, Sp. Atk, Sp. Def—skyrocketed.
"So we were being played from the very start!" Gast finally realized.
By now the hulking Dondozo had Tatsugiri fully lodged in its maw. With the little commander's orders and buffs, its once-dopey eyes turned razor-sharp and battle-hungry. Its giant body flicked through the water, heaving up a towering wave more than ten meters high that came crashing toward Jason and the others like a moving wall!
Jason's pupils shrank. He could smell the heavy fishy reek in the surge and feel the crushing pressure barreling down on them.
They couldn't take that head-on.
In a flash of light, Jason transformed—not into anything speed-based, but into a menacing ancient Paradox Pokémon: Brute Bonnet. It looked like an Amoonguss, but the Poké Ball-patterned cap was bigger, a raw, rugged green. Its "feet" were really two thick, rootlike tendrils.
"Rrrh!"
Jason rumbled, driving both legs down into the earth.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
Countless thick, tough vines burst from the ground beneath him, weaving and surging at a speed you could see. In a heartbeat they formed an incredibly dense vine bulwark in front of him and Iron Valiant.
Crack-KWOOM!
Almost the instant the barrier took shape, the ten-meter wave slammed into it with irresistible force. The whole islet shook. The vines groaned under the strain, some of the thinner ones snapping outright—but the wall held.
When the water finally sheared off, Jason and Iron Valiant stood untouched behind the barrier, while Brute Bonnet panted faintly from the effort.
"This thing hits harder than the last two Titans combined. No wonder Bombirdier was so scared of it." Jason was rattled, but there was no time to dwell on it. He snapped an order to the ally at his side:
"Iron Valiant—see the Tatsugiri in its mouth? Find a way to yank it out!"
The plan was simple and ruthless. Dondozo's absurd power came from the commander in its mouth. Take the controller out, and the big scary brute becomes… just a big, not-too-bright catfish.
"Got it!"
Iron Valiant tapped off the slick ground and shot forward like an arrow, skimming the receding water straight at the giant Dondozo.
But the fight was tougher than they'd guessed. Dondozo was massive, yet under Tatsugiri's command it moved with uncanny precision. As Iron Valiant closed in, Dondozo didn't even look back—its huge tail just flicked, tossing up another perfect water wall that dropped right into Iron Valiant's path and killed its charge on the spot.
Before Iron Valiant could reset, Dondozo turned, opened wide, and—on Tatsugiri's signal—hurled a crushing Muddy Water straight at it. Iron Valiant tumbled aside in a scramble, distance opening up again.
A stalemate.
Brute Bonnet kept leaning on Grass-vs-Water advantage, throwing out Giga Drains to chip at Dondozo's stamina and top up its own. But with Tatsugiri's buff, Dondozo's bulk and defenses were monstrous. The little bit Jason could sap was a drop in the ocean, while even a casual water-type blast from Dondozo forced him to turtle up and spend more than he could recover.
Meanwhile Iron Valiant was completely pinned. Every angle, every approach—Dondozo read it in advance and shut it down with the simplest, cleanest counter. Getting anywhere near that mouth was impossible.
At this rate, they'd be worn down to nothing.
"Damn it…" Jason grit his teeth and pinned his last hope on the quivering shadow that had been hiding at the back since the fight began.
"Gast—your turn!"
"Geh?"
Jolted by her name, Gast flinched. Peeking out, she saw the mountain-sized beast whipping up waves with every tail flick, and she went so pale she was nearly transparent.
"Geh-geh-geh… N-no way, Jason! It's too big! I… I'm scared!"
Her cry was pure terror. Last time with Klawf she'd only sprung into action because she'd been cornered. Now she was fully aware—and that made the fear worse.
But Jason's voice came steady and unarguable through the din.
"I know you're scared, but only you can do this."
Holding the vine wall against another assault, he spoke calmly to Gast: "Remember how you beat that giant Klawf? You're a Ghost-type—you can pass through things. Slip straight into its mouth, pull Tatsugiri out, or hit it inside the mouth and knock it out."
Jason could have become a Haunter or a Gengar and done the decapitation strike himself. But then no one would be left to hold the line, and Dondozo would flatten Iron Valiant before he ever made it back. The most critical—and most dangerous—job had to be Gast's.
Gast's trembling eased a little. She looked at Iron Valiant battling the surge out on the water's skin, then at Jason watching her with total trust. Something welled up from the core of her ghostly body.
Right. Every time it got dangerous, Jason and Iron Valiant stood in front. She just shivered behind them. Last time she'd finally worked up the nerve, helped out, and Jason had praised her—and fed her a delicious sandwich.
Was she really going to turn back into a dead weight again?
No!
She shot one last look at her struggling friend, then clenched her teeth like she'd made up her mind. Shutting her eyes so she wouldn't have to see the thing that terrified her, she blurred into a violet afterimage and streaked straight at the enormous Dondozo.
Dondozo, locked in with Iron Valiant, noticed the tiny intruder right away. On Tatsugiri's cue, it didn't even bother with a big move—just cracked its jaws and fired a compressed Hydro Pump straight at her to blast the little pest into the stratosphere.
What happened next broke its slow-working brain.
That purple blur turned hazy and transparent at the last instant. The roaring Hydro Pump passed right through her incorporeal body—no damage at all.
It missed!
Gast slipped the shot and dove into Dondozo's open mouth in one unbroken streak.
Inside was a different world: a huge tongue, soft and slick like a fleshy platform. Tatsugiri stood on it like a general at his command post, barking orders out into the open water.
Seeing Gast suddenly appear, it froze, clearly not expecting anyone to breach its "fortress."
That single heartbeat of shock was Gast's chance.
"Geh!"
Mustering the bravest she'd ever been, Gast fired Mean Look. Two black rings shot from her eyes and locked Tatsugiri in place, cutting off escape.
Then she drew a deep breath, gathered every scrap of ghostly power in her body—and used her most desperate, do-or-die move:
Destiny Bond.
A sinister violet tether lashed her to Tatsugiri.
Immediately she attacked from within, sending shock through the mouth. Dondozo, feeling something very wrong, tried to flood its own mouth with crushing water to smash the intruder.
Tatsugiri, in the middle of issuing the next command, suddenly felt its life force being dragged out by an irresistible pull. Its vision went black; eyes rolled up; it collapsed on the spot.
Outside, in the thick of the fight with Iron Valiant, Dondozo seized up. It could feel it—its "commander" had gone silent.
A tidal wave of pain and emptiness surged through it. Uncontrolled, it gaped and spat both the white-eyed, unconscious Tatsugiri and the equally drained, limp Gast onto the shore.
With Tatsugiri gone, the Commander effect vanished. Dondozo's inflated power deflated like a punctured balloon, slumping back to normal. The hard glint in its eyes dulled back to that slow, vacant look.
Jason and Iron Valiant struck at the exact instant that would decide everything.
"Rrrh!"
Jason snapped into his majestic Garchomp form, dragon energy blazing along both claws.
"Dragon Claw!"
"Psycho Cut!"
Left and right, two streaks of light carved across the lake giant before it even knew what was happening.
"Muuur!"
Dondozo shrieked, and its bulk, hammered from both sides, finally gave way. It rolled belly-up and bobbed to the surface, completely unable to battle.
The battle was over.
Jason dropped his transformation and sprinted to the bank, scooping up Gast before her weakened body could slip back into the water. He pulled out the biggest, juiciest energy-restoring berry from his pack and fed it to her bit by bit.
Leaning weakly against his chest, Gast nibbled the fruit. She was still trembling a little from the fright, but there was something new in her eyes—confidence.
She glanced at the Tatsugiri and Dondozo flopped on the shore, both gulping air, and realized those huge, terrifying monsters weren't so unbeatable after all.
Just listen to Jason's orders. Nothing to be afraid of.
~~~
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