At first, Moltres still had the idea of playing around a bit with Cain, but now it no longer had any desire to do so.
Although Cain's Pokémon did not seem like a real threat to it, once the battle began, it discovered that they were unbearably annoying.
All kinds of small, disgusting moves were constantly being thrown straight at its face. They did not cause intense pain, but rather a continuous irritation, one after another.
Every time it tried to attack those little pests first to force them into behaving themselves, several of the Pokémon that actually inspired it with some caution would always appear in front of it, blocking its path and preventing it from getting distracted to deal with the others.
The battle had already lasted five minutes. Cain was using telepathy to command twenty Pokémon at the same time, while also maintaining extremely precise coordination among them, something that was almost unimaginable for most trainers.
For an ordinary trainer, commanding a single Pokémon and achieving a smooth, mistake-free battle was already a very difficult task.
Some stronger trainers, with superior command ability, could direct two Pokémon at the same time, and even three, in group battles. This required the Pokémon to have good teamwork and cooperation. Trainers capable of reaching this level were usually not weak, and most of those who reached the Elite Four level could do this to some extent.
Even more powerful trainers were capable of directing six Pokémon in a group battle, what is known as a full team battle.
Why does the League limit the maximum number of Pokémon a trainer can carry to six? Did they not know that the more Pokémon one has, the greater the tactical variability in battle, and that, generally speaking, more Pokémon imply an increase in strength?
Part of the reason is that, in the League's eyes, a trainer's energy and experience are limited. This rule serves to allow trainers to better focus on training their own Pokémon: those who try to do too much end up doing little; better a few excellent ones than many mediocre ones.
But the main reason is that, after many years of testing and research, and by gathering the experience of numerous powerful trainers, the League discovered that six Pokémon is the maximum number that an ordinary trainer can perfectly control.
It is not that seven or eight Pokémon cannot be directed, but rather that the more Pokémon there are, the more things the trainer must consider. Achieving perfect, seamless coordination among all of them becomes almost impossible, in addition to placing an enormous mental burden on the trainer.
In short, six Pokémon is the quantity with the best cost–benefit ratio for a trainer. Perfectly commanding six Pokémon is not necessarily worse than imperfectly commanding seven or eight.
Moreover, as trainers optimized the combinations and connections between their Pokémon's moves, tactics such as single-core and multi-core formations emerged, which require a high degree of synchronization between the trainer and their Pokémon, as well as among the Pokémon themselves.
That is why the League established from the very beginning the rule that a trainer may only carry six Pokémon, setting them on a clear path.
And now, Cain was simultaneously directing twenty Pokémon in battle. One could imagine the enormous mental load this represented. On top of that, Mega Gengar and Mega Tyranitar, during Mega Evolution, were constantly transmitting their thoughts and sensations into Cain's mind, which was also a tremendous pressure on him.
At that moment, the psychic energy spreading from Cain's body had practically isolated him from the Pokémon world. Spatial cracks were everywhere around him. If any wild Pokémon of average strength attempted to attack him now, it would be cut apart by those cracks before it could even get close.
Although the rain was not falling on his body, Cain's head was already soaked.
His face was completely red, and not just his face: his ears as well, from his forehead down to his neck.
Bead-sized drops of sweat ran endlessly down his forehead. His eyes, however, remained locked onto Moltres as it flew up and down. Every cell in his brain was active, directing the battle while desperately searching for an opening in his opponent.
If he could not land a devastating blow on Moltres today, he likely would not be able to retreat unscathed.
Although he had reached this point largely due to a hot-blooded impulse upon seeing Tyranitar sent flying, the truth was that all the Pokémon present were companions in Cain's eyes.
He did not deny that he might favor some of them a bit more, or even have certain preferences, but all of them were his companions.
Before, in the past, he could allow his Pokémon to be humiliated in order to survive. But not anymore!
Even if the opponent were Arceus itself, he had to tear off at least a piece of flesh.
At that moment, Moltres was also truly furious. Moreover, it sensed the madness burning in Cain's heart and had already labeled him a lunatic.
But having reached this point, it was impossible to simply leave the battle like this. Otherwise, where would the pride of a legendary Pokémon be?
"KRASHIAR!!!"
Moltres let out a long cry to vent the oppression it felt in its chest.
"This is the moment!"
Just as it shouted, Cain's eyes, narrowed by sweat, suddenly opened wide. He let the sweat seep into his eyes from the corners, causing a sharp pain that was almost unbearable. But he could not, nor did he want to, close his eyes at that instant.
The opportunity he had been waiting for for so long... had finally arrived.
Under Cain's command, the fine strands of psychic energy that Slowking and Gardevoir had spread across the battlefield since the start of the fight suddenly tightened, like a closing net, trapping Moltres in midair.
To Moltres, that was nothing more than a net it could tear apart with a single flap of its wings, something completely insignificant.
But what greeted it next was an overwhelming rain of attacks.
The Precipice Blades move that Tyranitar had accumulated over a long time!
The Draco Meteor move from Kommo-o!
The Throat Chop move from Darkrai!
The giant Shadow Ball move from Gengar!
In fact, they had been accumulating energy for quite some time already. They were merely waiting for the optimal moment designated by Cain. Now that it had finally arrived, they unleashed all their moves without any restraint, directly onto Moltres's face.
At the instant Moltres paused slightly due to its own cry, it had already fallen into Cain's trap.
Aside from a few moves that, due to their interactions, were not launched at exactly the same time but with a slight delay, the rest of the attacks struck Moltres with less than half a second between them.
Their combat positions, both in angle and distance, had been designed in advance by Cain.
All possible delays in launching the moves, which attacks should be chained and which should be separated... everything had been calculated in his mind.
If the one who had received this attack had been that Shiny Ninetales, it would probably have been reduced directly to ashes, because this was not simply one plus one.
BOOOOM!!!
Even the explosion produced when all the attacks struck Moltres sounded like a single detonation!
(End of chapter)