A low rumble echoed.
In the end, Urshifu still collapsed.
"Urshifu is unable to battle. Contestant Mustard, please send out your next Pokémon."
"Urshifu, you did well. Urshifu, I choose you!"
Mustard recalled Urshifu, then sent out another one.
Compared to the flowing, waterlike grace of the Rapid Strike Style Urshifu, this one felt far more fierce and forceful.
Its fur bristled upward, and the gusts from its punches carried a heavy, crushing power.
[Pokémon: Urshifu, Single Strike Style]
[Type: Fighting/Dark]
[Level: 77]
[Ability: Unseen Fist]
[Move: Wicked Blow, others omitted.]
This Single Strike Style Urshifu was the same level as the previous Rapid Strike Style Urshifu. Other than its moves and typing changing, everything else was mostly the same.
The two Urshifu were basically twin Pokémon, hatched at the same time, trained together under Mustard, and eventually raised to this level.
Urshifu casually pointed at Zekrom, then turned its thumbs-down gesture toward it. "So this is Zekrom? The aura's not bad."
Zekrom just laughed. "Oh? Just a little bear, and you dare act this insolently, showing no respect to a dragon god?"
It wanted to see exactly what kind of tricks Urshifu had.
"Zekrom, Fusion Bolt."
The second battle began, and N opened with an all-out attack again.
Crossed lightning crackled between Zekrom's claws, and its wings spread wide behind it. As they beat, countless bolts of heavenly thunder gathered from the storm clouds above.
"Detect!"
To Urshifu, the flashing lightning in its vision seemed to slow to a stop. It burst forward in an instant, avoiding bolt after bolt, until only an arm's length remained between it and Zekrom.
N frowned.
Zekrom had already used Dragon Dance once. Under normal circumstances, even with Detect, Urshifu should not have been able to dodge that completely.
This Urshifu's physical ability had gone far beyond his expectations.
Still, the lightning from that Fusion Bolt had only been the opening act. The real killing blow was what came next.
Zekrom roared for the first time. Its black arm bent slightly, drawing in the arcs of lightning that had scattered across the ground.
Brilliant blue currents surged wildly in every direction.
At that moment, Urshifu crossed its arms in front of its chest, taking on the posture of a defensive guard.
"Protect?"
N raised a brow. He knew that motion well enough. That was the windup stance for Protect, wasn't it?
"It's not. Urshifu, Bulk Up!"
The moment Mustard gave the order, the muscles in Urshifu's arms swelled, and its whole body began to grow visibly denser and more powerful.
Its pupils filled with blinding lightning, and every hair on its body stood on end from the static.
With its arms crossed in a defensive posture, Urshifu took the full force of the lightning bolt, a strike powerful enough to split a mountain.
Crackle!
Electric current raced madly over its skin, and Urshifu's feet gouged two deep trenches into the ground.
When the lightning finally faded, it had only been forced back half a step.
The ground beneath its feet had already shattered apart.
Bulk Up raised a Pokémon's Attack and Defense.
Since Single Strike Style Urshifu was not resisted or overwhelmed by Electric typing the way the other one had been by comparison, it managed to take Zekrom's lightning attack head-on.
"As expected, experience really does matter! Even facing a powerhouse like Zekrom, Senior Mustard found an answer almost immediately! That Bulk Up just now was absolutely a command born from total trust in his partner!"
Commentator Slowking smacked his thigh and shouted in delight.
That incredibly cool resistance was broadcast to the public through Grey's livestream.
[Whoa! Senior Mustard's Urshifu is really that good? If it were one of my Pokémon, it probably wouldn't even be able to breathe under Zekrom's pressure once it stepped onto the field.]
[A veteran really is a veteran. Not only was he not afraid of a top-tier legendary, he actually still has the power to fight back!]
[Urshifu, go, go, go! From today on, I'm officially an Urshifu fan! Bear buddy, charge!]
The livestream chat erupted in cheers. Urshifu's performance had basically shown everyone that top-tier legendaries were not completely impossible to resist.
Of course, that kind of strength was still far beyond anything they themselves could compare to.
"That was close, very close. Another little bit and it might have gone down."
Mustard stroked his white beard and smiled at Zekrom, then slowly turned to N and asked, "Young man, did you learn anything from that just now?"
"I did, Senior. Thank you for your generous guidance."
N nodded gently. He knew Mustard had been teaching him.
He did not know why Mustard was helping him, but he could feel that from beginning to end, the old man had never once held any ill will toward him.
"No need to thank me. My offer still stands. If you ever want to, you can come find this old man on the Isle of Armor."
Mustard's thoughts were simple. He just did not want to see a naturally gifted trainer bury that talent.
"All right. If I get the chance later, I'll go to the Isle of Armor."
This was the third time Mustard had tried to recruit him, and this time N accepted.
"Hahaha, good, good, good. In that case, this old man can relax. But the battle isn't over yet. The real fight begins now!"
Right in front of everyone, Mustard suddenly took up a martial stance. His bent old body straightened like a drawn bow, and he unleashed several combinations of punches in rapid succession.
"Hah!"
Every punch broke the sound barrier, and the force from his own body shattered his casual outer jacket.
Cloth fragments flew everywhere, revealing the iconic sleeveless golden shirt underneath.
And those long white eyebrows that had always drooped downward, now shot straight upward against gravity itself.
The arcs of electricity dancing at their tips proved that the old man was pushing a martial artist's ki to its absolute limit.
Before everyone's eyes, the stones on the ground around him floated upward along with the path of his fists, forming a small storm of debris around his body.
Mustard was going all out.
There was no Dynamax energy here, so he could not use Dynamax.
But the truth was that in the earliest days of battling, Dynamax had not even spread everywhere yet.
Dynamax only pushed Mustard's strength to an even higher level. Even without it, his own power was still something no one could ignore.
Both N and Zekrom understood that the next move would decide the match.
"Zekrom, use Bolt Strike at full power."
N's command fell like a judge's hammer.
Zekrom clenched one dragon claw slightly, and the lightning surrounding it shifted from brilliant blue to a pure, pitch-black color.
These dark bolts were nothing like ordinary lightning, which was loud and flashy. Instead, they flowed over its body like heavy oil, each arc so dense it seemed capable of crushing space itself.
Mustard's wind-lifted eyebrows streamed behind him as he slowly raised one arm and shouted, "Wicked Blow!"
Dark-type energy wrapped around Urshifu's right fist, and those dark ripples even formed a savage phantom face around it.
As it stepped forward and rushed in, every loose stone in its path rose into the air, as if even gravity feared the punch it had poured a lifetime of training into.
As the two ultimate attacks closed in on collision, with only three seconds left before impact, every single person watching stared without blinking.
"It's coming."
Right as the two attacks were about to hit, Grey narrowed his eyes and pulled out a pair of sunglasses, then put them on Caitlin.
The two terrifying forces collided.
Time itself seemed to freeze for a single second.
Where the pitch-black pillar of lightning met the purple-black shockwave of the punch, space first collapsed into something like a tiny black hole, then exploded outward in a shockwave that pulverized all the ground within a hundred meters into dust.
The energy armor around Urshifu's right arm cracked apart piece by piece, yet its body still held the exact same punching pose.
When the storm of energy finally faded, it was down on one knee, smashed into the ground. Dark energy still clung to the tip of its fist, tearing and snarling against the last remnants of lightning.
As for Zekrom, the great dragon looked almost completely unbothered, as though Urshifu's Wicked Blow had done little real damage.
"It's over."
Zekrom looked down on Urshifu before it and gave its arm a slight push.
Urshifu was sent flying.
"Urshifu is unable to battle! Since all of Contestant Mustard's Pokémon are unable to battle, the winner is Contestant N!"
The battle was over, and Mustard was not surprised by the result at all.
The next battle was probably going to be very interesting.
If this had been the N from the start, then against Grey, he would have fallen behind in only a few turns.
But things were different now.
N had improved a great deal. At the very least, his commands no longer looked like the random flailing of a child, easy for anyone to read through.
Outside the field, Grey rested both hands behind his head and looked down at Zekrom below, the corners of his mouth slowly curving upward.
"The next battle might get a little tricky."
This was exactly the kind of opponent he wanted to fight.
If everything turned into a total stomp, it would be boring.
The winner between truth and ideals would probably be decided in tomorrow's battle.
At that moment, N looked up and extended a fist toward Grey.
Grey saw it and extended his own.
The two looked at each other and bumped fists through the air.
After the battle ended, Grey strolled around Liberty Garden with both hands behind his head, wandering aimlessly alongside Victini.
"Even though it's only been three days, it somehow feels like it's been almost a week."
Grey felt like time had stretched strangely, and Victini nodded along.
"True. But once the Strongest Trainer Tournament ends, where are you planning to go? Back to Kanto, or are you staying in Unova?"
Victini was curious about Grey's current plans.
It felt like it had never heard him talk about what came next.
Or maybe it had just forgotten.
Grey thought for a moment. "I'll probably stay in Unova for a while longer."
He still had to deal with the fact that Keldeo's three masters were frozen by Kyurem, and Team Plasma was also after Kyurem now.
No matter how he looked at it, he needed to stay in Unova for a while longer.
Come to think of it, Alder still owed him a Tepig cub too.
Just because of that alone, he felt like he had every reason to stay.
And anyway, the Unova League would reimburse him for everything.
Once that thought crossed his mind, Grey felt even more certain that staying in Unova was the better option.
Victini gave him a look. "Are you sure you're not just treating the Unova League like an ATM?"
Grey waved a hand. "That's just because the Unova League has been way too enthusiastic. I really don't have any way to turn them down."
Grey had his own rules for handling things. He took the money for the kind of work he did.
And if he was going to wipe out Team Plasma later, then asking the Unova League to reimburse some expenses was perfectly reasonable, wasn't it?
No matter what anyone else thought, he personally saw no problem with it at all.
"I think there's nothing wrong with that either."
Caitlin, who had been walking beside Grey this whole time, nodded in agreement.
Lately, she had also been trying to figure out exactly where the bottom line of Grey's personal principles lay.
She was still thinking about how to give Grey a house.
Once she fully figured him out, she could gift him a big luxury apartment in Saffron City, or maybe a seaside villa in one of the coastal cities.
"See? Victini, you really shouldn't say things that hurt group harmony."
Grey rubbed Victini's head, then promised to buy it some little cookies later.
Only then did Victini finally lie down happily on Grey's shoulder.
"But still, you should be extra careful with that Team Plasma group. I used to see their ships around the waters near Liberty Garden all the time. I just don't know where they are now."
Victini thought back to what it had seen before. If Mewtwo had not been there, using its psychic power to temporarily isolate Liberty Garden from the outside world, Team Plasma really might have discovered it.
"It's fine. I think I already know where they are. Once everything's ready, I'm going to wipe them out in one shot."
Grey shoved both hands into his pockets, sounding as though everything was already under control.
At the same time, on the shore of Liberty Garden...
"N, I saw your battle. To improve this much means your talent is truly exceptional. I've failed you all these years, so please, don't resent your father."
Over the phone, Ghetsis sounded full of regret, as if he truly felt guilty for not having cared for N over the years.
"Father, I understand, and I don't blame you. But on the matter of Kyurem, I can't help you."
There was apology in N's voice as well.
Father and son were really taking direct shots at each other over the line now.
"You unfilial brat, how dare you?!"
The moment N said that, Ghetsis was furious.
He had already apologized, so how was N still throwing a tantrum?
Had this boy really reached his rebellious phase?
Ghetsis desperately wanted to say that out loud, but considering the state of their relationship, he held it back.
"N, has that brat gotten into your head?"
Ghetsis chose to dump his anger onto Grey instead.
"Father, I won't let you talk about him like that. He's genuinely different from other humans. You haven't even interacted with him, so how can you make judgments about him so casually?"
N's tone rose sharply at once.
Even Ghetsis had not expected it.
The obedient, well-behaved N who usually did whatever he said, was now shouting at him for the sake of an outsider.
"N, what kind of spell did that guy put on you for you to defend him like this?!"
At that moment, Ghetsis really wanted to explode at N, but since he still needed N and Zekrom's help with Kyurem later, he could only keep venting his rage at Grey, who had done absolutely nothing.
"No. This is all what I want to do. I think I've grown up now, and it's time for me to go out and see the world. A bird kept in a cage for too long can never spread its wings and soar. Now that I have Zekrom's help, I want to go outside and see what this world is really like."
This was the first time N had ever said such a long string of words to Ghetsis.
Ghetsis turned red with anger listening to it.
"Forget it. Do whatever you want!"
Ghetsis hung up.
Leaning on his cane, he made his way into the laboratory.
Inside, Colress was still thinking about how to make Mewtwo undergo two different Mega Evolutions.
He had already figured out one route, putting the focus entirely on psychic power.
He would maximize Mewtwo's psychic strength.
Just stack it up directly.
"No, pure psychic power alone still isn't enough. If someone gets close, it won't have enough defensive ability. I really should add some physical attack too."
Colress was adjusting the base stat distribution.
With an artificial Mega Stone like this, the process was extremely difficult. He had to work out the concept first, then slowly test it bit by bit.
Over the past few days, Colress had been constantly thinking about how to make Mewtwo stronger.
There was just one awkward problem.
It seemed that Mewtwo's base specimen could no longer be altered.
In other words, its move pool and similar fundamentals were already fixed.
So even though it looked like there was a lot of freedom, the real growth paths it could follow seemed to be only two.
And Mewtwo just happened to embody those two directions perfectly...
"Lord Mewtwo, was this your plan all along?"
Colress sucked in a cold breath and could not help feeling just how absurdly incredible Mewtwo was.
He had not expected Mewtwo to have thought this far ahead.
In that case, Mewtwo was really operating on another level entirely.
Tap, tap, tap.
The sound of Ghetsis's cane striking the floor echoed in.
Colress turned and gave a slight nod of greeting.
"Colress, how has the experiment on that artificial Pokémon been going lately?"
Ghetsis's voice was emotionless on the surface, but Colress could still sense the resentment hidden in his eyes.
The question was, why was he wearing that expression?
Colress was a very shrewd man.
He knew something about Ghetsis's mood was off, but he chose not to point it out and instead simply gave his report.
"My report, Lord Ghetsis. Progress on Mewtwo has been moving forward. We're just a little short on funding. I was wondering whether you might be able to approve some additional budget."
Colress pulled up the display. Just as he said, the shortage of funds was severe.
The money required to create Mewtwo was astronomical, and every round of funding Ghetsis had approved so far had only been a drop in the bucket. If they forced the project through at this rate, the result would just be a defective product.
That was completely different from the artificial legendary he envisioned, one that could rival a top-tier legendary.
Of course, there was a bit of personal motive mixed in there too.
"Let me think... Colress, how much more funding do you need?"
This time, Ghetsis did not refuse. The progress on the Mewtwo project was obvious to the naked eye, and for an investment with such visible returns, he was willing to spend.
"This much."
Colress raised a single finger.
Ghetsis fell silent.
"One hundred million?"
"One billion."
//Check out my P@tre0n for 30 extra chapters on all my fanfics //[email protected]/Razeil0810