"A bunch of small fry."
Corona gave a cold snort, took a step forward, and flicked his wrist to throw out two Poké Balls.
"Roar!"
Amidst a world-shaking dragon's roar, a Charizard, far larger than its kin, spread its wings and soared into the sky. The flame on its tail burned like a miniature sun, raising the surrounding temperature by several degrees.
Another red light hit the ground, and the slender form of a Blaziken struck a fighting stance, its eyes as sharp as blades.
"Burn them all, Charizard! Heat Wave!"
Charizard took a deep breath, its chest swelling high, before suddenly exhaling a searing, visible wave of orange-red air.
The Heat Wave swept through the entire forest like a tsunami.
Vegetation carbonized instantly, and dry leaves were ignited, turning into sparks dancing across the sky.
The flames greedily licked at everything combustible, and in the blink of an eye, an impassable wall of fire stood between the group and the beast tide.
The Gyarados and Ursaring charging at the very front slammed headlong into the sea of fire, letting out shrill, miserable wails.
They struggled and rolled frantically, trying to extinguish the flames on their bodies, but only succeeded in carrying the fire deeper into the woods.
The entire forest was transformed into a massive Inferno.
"Go, Blaziken!"
Blaziken's figure moved.
It turned into a red afterimage, charging fearlessly into the sea of fire.
To it, this sea of fire was not an obstacle, but rather the perfect home field.
An Ursaring with charred, split skin roared as it lunged at it. Blaziken lowered its body, sliding past at an incredible angle, and delivered a knee strike packed with terrifying force precisely to the Ursaring's jaw.
Crack!
The crisp sound of bone shattering echoed.
The Ursaring's massive body flew back, slamming heavily onto the ground, never to move again.
Blaziken's movements were as smooth as flowing water, without a single pause.
It darted through the sea of fire, every kick accompanied by the dull thud of breaking bones.
Blaze Kick, High Jump Kick, Brick Break... every one of its attacks was fast, precise, and ruthless, like a highly efficient executioner harvesting the lives struggling in agony within the flames.
Corona watched all this, a look of satisfaction appearing on his face. This was his style: using absolute power to crush everything.
On the other side, Viper also released her pokémon.
A massive Drapion, its purple-black carapace shimmering with a metallic luster under the firelight;
A Scolipede, its scythe-like forelegs rubbing together to produce a tooth-grinding sound;
And an Arbok coiled around her arm, its cold tongue flicking in and out.
She didn't cause large-scale destruction like Corona.
"Go, give them a little gift."
She spoke softly to the Drapion.
Drapion understood, its poisonous tail stinger tilting high before being whipped violently toward the ground.
Puff, puff, puff!
Countless purple, diamond-shaped spikes emerged from the ground, densely carpeting the other side of the forest.
Toxic Spikes.
The pokémon trying to bypass the fire wall and flee from the flanks stepped right onto them.
The sharp Toxic Spikes instantly pierced their paws, and purple-black venom was injected into their bodies through the wounds.
At first, it was just brief paralysis, but soon, intense agony swept through their entire bodies.
A Gyarados rolled on the ground in pain, its body starting to twitch uncontrollably as white foam gushed from its mouth. Large purple blotches appeared beneath its bright red scales. Its struggling grew weaker and weaker until it finally stiffened on the ground, completely devoid of the breath of life.
One, two, three...
Every pokémon that stepped on the Toxic Spikes repeated the same death process. They died in extreme agony, killed by exceptionally cruel means.
Scolipede, meanwhile, was like a true killing machine, crashing through the woods at startling speed. Every swing of its sharp forelegs and the horn on its head left a deep, bone-deep wound on a pokémon.
It didn't care if its opponent was already poisoned; it enjoyed the process of tearing flesh apart.
Just then, an Ursaring that had luckily avoided the sea of fire and the Toxic Spikes roared and charged toward Viper herself.
Viper didn't even move.
The Arbok coiled around her arm shot out like an arrow from a bow, arriving first despite starting later, and accurately coiled around the Ursaring's neck.
The Ursaring struggled frantically, its sharp claws scraping sparks off the Arbok's body, but it couldn't budge that steel-like constriction.
Arbok's body tightened further and further. A "gurgle" sound came from the Ursaring's throat, and its eyeballs bulged out from lack of oxygen.
Finally, with a soft snap of a dislocated neck bone, the Ursaring's body went limp.
Arbok released it, slithering elegantly back to Viper's side and recoiling around her arm.
Viper reached out her finger, gently stroking Arbok's head, a sickly smile curling at the corners of her mouth.
In the shadows of the battlefield, Dar's Froslass was like a true ghost.
It made no sound, merely weaving silently between the shadows of the trees.
The pokémon burned by fire or dying from the torment of toxins were completely unable to Detect its presence.
A cold breath blew past, and a wailing Gyarados stiffened. Frost instantly condensed on its wounds, and its life force dissipated along with it.
A patch of shadow rippled, and Froslass emerged from it, a slender finger touching the forehead of a twitching Ursaring. A Shadow Ball merged into it soundlessly, ending its pain.
Dar's task was to deliver the finishing blows.
Using the most efficient method to clear out the remaining lives, leaving not a single survivor.
His methods were clean and efficient, forming a sharp contrast with Corona's violence and Viper's cruelty.
Ariel had stood in place from beginning to end, watching the massacre with cold eyes.
He was in no hurry to act.
His gaze didn't linger on any of the dying pokémon; instead, he was rapidly analyzing the entire battlefield.
While Corona's fire attack was grand in scale, it forced some of the Water-type Gyarados back into the river.
Viper's Toxic Spikes blocked the flanks, but also made the beast tide's escape route more singular.
They were being herded, converging toward the nearly dried-up riverbed to the east.
That place would be their grave.
Ariel's eyes were as calm as a mirror with not a single ripple; he had seen through it all and was prepared to exploit it.
"Krookodile."
He called out softly.