Gary already knew Ash's Pikachu wasn't normal, but seeing this in person was on a completely different level.
Flying was one thing. Using a move like Extreme Speed was another.
But now Pikachu was summoning waves of water out of thin air?
Where did that massive tidal wave even come from?!
Gary stared at Misty and Brock.
While they were slightly surprised, both looked like they had seen this a hundred times.
"Hey!" Gary shouted, voice cracking. "How are you not shocked?! Pikachu just used Surf! Surf! Pikachu aren't even supposed to learn this move!"
Misty blinked.
"You're saying Pikachu flying is normal, then?"
Gary: …
She continued calmly, "If Pikachu can fly, then surfing shouldn't surprise you either."
Gary's brain short-circuited.
'How is flying related to surfing?! Neither is normal!'
Brock patted Gary's shoulder sympathetically.
"We've been traveling with Ash for a long time. You get used to it. Pikachu seems unreasonable, but that's because Ash himself is unreasonable. He breaks every rule the world has."
Gary stared at them like they were all insane.
The old Ash he knew did weird things sometimes, but they were always within human comprehension.
Ever since Ash started traveling, though?
Nothing made sense anymore.
Pikachu's sudden jumps in strength, Mega Evolution, summoning water, boosting power by wearing a hat.
What part of this belonged in the normal Pokémon world?!
If every Pokémon fought like this, then all the "decades of experience" Elite and Champion trainers relied on would become useless overnight.
How was anyone supposed to prepare for a Trainer like this?
On the battlefield, Pikachu landed neatly after his attack, and the two massive waves he created had cooled the volcanic ground so much that the arena now felt almost chilly.
When the steam cleared, Arcanine appeared, soaked, battered, and barely standing.
Even a high-level Arcanine struggled after taking two powerful Water attacks in a row.
Blaine's confident smile was gone. He finally understood Koga's pain.
Nothing about Pikachu was normal. And even with all the information Blaine gathered beforehand, he still ended up completely blindsided.
"Arcanine, can you keep fighting?"
"Rrrr…"
Arcanine forced himself upright, trembling but determined. If he wasn't knocked out yet, he still had a chance.
"Good. Use Sunny Day!"
The moment Blaine called this, it became obvious, he was already preparing the field for his next Pokémon.
Under Sunny Day, combined with the natural heat of the volcano, Fire-type moves would be nearly doubled in power. Even without Flash Fire, Ninetales would hit like a truck when she returned.
And if Arcanine landed even one boosted Fire attack on Pikachu, Pikachu would be cooked.
"Pikachu, Volt Tackle! Stop him!"
Ash moved instantly. He knew how dangerous letting Sunny Day activate would be.
A streak of gold flashed across the field.
Pikachu shot forward like lightning and crashed into Arcanine before he could react.
Arcanine skidded back more than ten meters, yet he still roaredand a glowing aura flared around him.
Sunny Day activated.
Ash narrowed his eyes.
"He tanked Volt Tackle on purpose… because he knew it wouldn't knock him out."
Blaine had clearly analyzed Pikachu well.
Volt Tackle was fast, but its raw power wasn't enough to stop Arcanine outright. With Arcanine's endurance, he could afford to take one hit to set up the field.
And it was exactly as Ash suspected, Arcanine was unbelievably tough.
Even with Pikachu's attack weakened by Intimidate, Volt Tackle always hit a vital point, ignoring any stat changes on both sides.
In other words, Arcanine had taken a full-power Volt Tackle head-on.
Ash was just about to consider how to deal with Sunny Day when the sunlight above suddenly flickered out.
Arcanine let out a strained whine, its legs trembling, faint golden sparks crawling across its fur.
Both sides froze.
Ash reacted first.
"Paralysis!"
Paralysis dropped a Pokémon's speed dramatically, and worse, it sometimes stopped movement altogether.
Pikachu's tidal-wave move and his own Electrostatic ability could inflict paralysis, but Ash hadn't seen any electric arcs when the water attacks connected.
That meant…
It must've triggered when Pikachu made direct contact through Volt Tackle.
Electrostatic finally activated.
Ash almost cried.
Since getting Pikachu, they had fought thousands of battles.Electrostatic had triggered maybe… five times total.
The ability was supposed to have a thirty-percent chance of activating.
His Pikachu's felt closer to three percent, if that.
Maybe that was the price of Pikachu being so abnormal in every other way.
"Paralysis landed, perfect! Pikachu, Surf, again!"
Pikachu leaped upward, and another massive wave surged from under his feet.
Blaine's face darkened almost comically.
To get paralyzed right now of all times, what kind of cursed luck was this?!
"Arcanine, Fire Blast!"
Dodging was impossible.
Surf covered nearly the entire battlefield; unless Arcanine could sprout wings, he wasn't escaping.
All he could do was counter.
Arcanine roared and blasted out a massive, flaming Fire Blast.Despite paralysis, he managed to release it, barely.
The flaming character slammed into the approaching wave, causing water to shriek into steam.
Under normal circumstances, Water beat Fire, but here, with the volcanic energy boosting flame attacks, Fire Blast actually held its ground, pushing against the massive wave.
But Ash didn't expect that wave to win anyway.
Because the wave wasn't the real attack.
"Surf was a feint. Pikachu, Thunder!!"
High above the battlefield, Pikachu leapt from the crest of the wave,rising nearly thirty meters into the air.
Then;
His small body erupted into violent black-gold lightning.
It was so late and so dark that Blaine hadn't noticed the sky had gathered thick storm clouds overhead.
As Pikachu's lightning burst out, the clouds responded, towering bolts of lightning crackled within them.
And then;
The sky answered Pikachu's power.
A colossal spear of lightning plunged downward from the heavens, merging perfectly into Pikachu's body.
The world lit up in blinding black-gold radiance.
In that instant, Pikachu looked like a Thunder God descended.
"Go!!"
"PIKA-CHUUUU!!!"
With the roar of Trainer and Pokémon together, and Blaine staring up wide-eyed, the sky itself split open.
A lightning pillar as thick as a tree trunk crashed downward, wrapped entirely in violent, black-gold electricity.
The moment that lightning struck, the very air sizzled, as if burned from the inside out.
An Electric-type move had somehow produced a Fire-type reaction.
BOOM!!
Arcanine, still stiff from paralysis and having just fired a Fire Blast, had absolutely no chance to dodge.
The thunderbolt slammed into the battlefield like a divine hammer, lightning spreading in every direction.
The ground split apart in spiderweb cracks, chunks of volcanic rock blasting outward.
The entire mountaintop seemed to shake.
A shimmering blue barrier suddenly appeared in front of Ash, Blaine, Gary, and the others, protecting them from the shockwave that could've easily blown them straight off the volcano.
Blaine, who'd been scowling a moment ago, froze. His expression slowly shifted from shock into curiosity.
This shield…this had to be Ash's power, right?
It resembled Psychic energy, but not quite, it felt deeper, closer to life-force than to pure mind power.
When the shockwave finally faded, the blue barrier dissolved. Everyone could now see Arcanine clearly.
Or rather, what was left of him.
Arcanine lay collapsed on the scorched ground, his fur burned completely black, his whole body looking like a charred statue. Only his silhouette made him recognizable.
"Arcanine!!" Blaine rushed forward, panic finally overtaking him.That move had been overwhelmingly strong, almost comparable to the finishing blow of a top-tier Pokémon.
His Arcanine, already exhausted, had taken it head-on.
"Relax," Ash said gently, "Arcanine's only fainted. Pikachu and I held back."
Blaine exhaled sharply, relief washing over him.
But then he looked at Ash again, this time with an expression mixed with disbelief and… a little fear.
Held back? That massive thunderstrike was holding back?
If that wasn't full power, then what did full power look like?
"Return, Arcanine…" Blaine recalled his partner with a quiet sigh.
"You fought well. It's not that you weren't strong enough… your opponent is just insane."
And who could argue with that?
A high-tier Arcanine, overwhelmed by a Pikachu that technically shouldn't have even been on the same playing field?
If anyone heard this story, they'd call it impossible.
But that was the truth.
The real problem was how unpredictable Pikachu was.
No one expects a Pikachu to summon giant tidal waves, let alone drop thunderbolts like a deity. And once paralysis took hold, Arcanine's fate was already sealed, because any major status condition cuts a Pokémon's fighting ability in half.
Only confusion can be removed by switching out. Everything else sticks.
After Arcanine was paralyzed, victory had already begun shifting toward Ash.
"Good work, Pikachu. Return."
Ash called Pikachu back. The continuous, overpowered attacks had pushed Pikachu to his physical limit.
Even now, Pikachu was hunched over, panting heavily. His cheeks flickered weakly; his breathing came in short bursts.
That was the other side of Ash's Aura boosts, his Pokémon gained tremendous power, but no extra stamina.
Every move drained them like crazy.
If Thunder hadn't ended the fight, Pikachu probably would've collapsed next.
People saw Ash dominate these above-level battles, but in truth, every one of them was walking a tightrope.
After hearing the recall command, Pikachu hopped wearily across the ground and returned to Ash's feet, collapsing against his leg.
Blaine watched him for a long moment.
"What an unbelievable Pokémon. I've never seen lightning like that in my entire life."
Ash chuckled. "Heh. My Pikachu's kind of special."
"I can tell," Blaine grumbled.
"A Pikachu that can fly, summon tsunamis, and call lightning from the skies? Special doesn't even begin to cover it!"
Honestly, no matter who fought Pikachu… win or lose, they'd walk away feeling emotionally destroyed.
...
Read chapters ahead @keepsmiling 818 p@reon