Chapter 385: Giovanni vs. Lance! Dragons Are Sacred, Legendary Creatures!
"Let's give him a thunderous round of applause!"
The announcer's voice, loud and fired up, rang through nearly every corner of the Indigo Stadium.
"The strongest man in Kanto! The Dragon Master: LANCE!!!"
"OHHH~!!"
As the announcer finished, the whole venue erupted in deafening cheers and applause.
From the tunnel, a young man with blood-red hair and a cape strode slowly out. Beneath that red hair, his handsome, cold, proud face held a pair of sharp, intensely intimidating eyes.
The head of the Kanto Elite Four, the Dragon Master Lance!
"AAAAAH! LANCE!!"
"Lance is the real unbeatable one! Dragons are the strongest creatures in the world!"
"Hsss! NOW this is gonna be good!"
"Hype! This is SO hype! Giovanni versus Lance, this is the battle I wanted to see!"
"Fight, fight! I wanna see it NOW!"
The whole venue was boiling over. Close to eighty percent of the crowd was screaming Lance's name in a frenzy.
Kanto's Champion, Lance, was the very definition of "strongest" in Kanto.
And the people of Kanto had crowned him the strongest Champion.
Because Lance really was that strong!
"Such insane popularity!"
The cheering was so loud that Platinum's and Serena's ears were ringing.
Their ears were actually buzzing.
Seeing the fans in the rows behind them red-faced and screaming, Platinum couldn't help swallowing. It was a little scary.
So this is what fans are like?
"It's not an exaggeration. In this land of Kanto, the name of Lance of the Dragon Clan carries enormous weight."
Mammon chuckled, looking at the blood-red-haired young man on the field, all sharp edges.
"Born in Viridian Forest and blessed with its gift, his life is a flawless epic in its own right."
That's right. In this world, Lance possessed the Power of Viridian!
He was a man who had come out of Viridian Forest, naturally blessed by it. He bore the Dragon Clan's name,
but from his first rise to fame all the way to the top of Kanto, Lance had never received any help from the Dragon Clan.
He had climbed to the peak on his talent alone.
That was why, despite carrying the Dragon Clan's name, he was simply known as Lance.
In truth, he had little real connection to the Dragon Clan. After Lance became Kanto's Champion, he did make contact with the clan and more or less acknowledged that he was one of them.
But strictly speaking, it wasn't that the Dragon Clan had recognized him. It was that he had grudgingly recognized the Dragon Clan.
Since his debut, Lance had never met his match. He was a genuine genius.
"The Power of Viridian..."
Caitlin's beautiful eyes narrowed slightly. The Power of Viridian: a power Mammon had once wielded.
As far as Caitlin knew, the known wielders of the Power of Viridian were Mammon, Giovanni, and this Dragon Master Lance.
I wonder how strong this Lance actually is.
Caitlin naturally didn't believe the hype of the general public. Take Wallace, the former Hoenn Champion.
His fans would of course tell you how strong Wallace was, but having fought him, Caitlin thought he was... just okay?
But this Lance in front of her was probably the real deal!
"No need to doubt it. No one chosen by Viridian Forest is weak. Lance is one of the very top trainers in this world."
Mammon said it with complete certainty.
Because he knew this Lance was the Adventures manga's Lance!
If it had been the anime's G-Man Lance... wasn't that guy pure comic relief?
The anime's Lance was the most laughable version of all. In Generation Eight, his Dragonite still ran Hyper Beam, and he even tried to hit a Mega Gardevoir with Max Wyrmwind.
Mammon seriously doubted the anime staff had ever played the Pokémon games. Or was whoever wrote that battle just a Lance hater?
In the anime's previous World Coronation Series final, Lance had been perfectly normal. His shiny Gyarados had even overpowered Leon's regular Charizard before finally losing to Gigantamax Charizard.
That battle still wasn't all that exciting, but Lance losing by a hair at least lived up to his runner-up title.
But by Ash's generation, it was like Lance had personally offended the writers. Terrible movesets, garbage commands. As Kanto Champion, did he not even know that Fairy types were immune to Dragon?
Lance losing to Diantha was purely the writers handing her the win.
Mammon couldn't understand what the anime staff were thinking. Was it because the previous final had been Lance versus Leon, and they didn't want a repeat matchup, so they forced Lance into being Diantha's stepping stone?
Fine, if you want to make him a stepping stone, couldn't you at least make the battle make sense? You turned anime Lance into a pure clown who can't even read a type chart. And this guy's supposed to be one of the Masters Eight?
"Watch this battle carefully. It's going to be good."
Mammon shifted into a comfortable position, ready to enjoy the battle between Giovanni and Lance.
The Adventures Lance was no clown like the anime Lance. As one of Kanto's three great bosses, he had gone head-to-head with Palkia of Sinnoh's Creation Trio at the Sinjoh Ruins, his ace Dragonite carrying him through the late stages of the fight.
Lance was undoubtedly at the level of a top-tier Champion.
On the field.
"Kanto's Champion, Lance~"
Looking across at the cold, proud Lance, the corners of Giovanni's mouth couldn't help rising a little.
Giovanni had been thinking about Lance for a very, very long time.
Before Mammon took over Team Rocket, the two thorns in Team Rocket's side had been those two lunatics, Lance and Lorelei.
Both Lance and Lorelei hated Team Rocket with a deep passion, especially Lance.
As a result, Lance had hunted down every member of Team Rocket like a rabid dog. Whenever he saw anyone from Team Rocket, he attacked, without caring whether they lived or died.
Many Rocket members had died at Lance's hands.
So naturally, Giovanni's opinion of Lance was none too good.
Of course, things were different now.
With Mammon in charge, Team Rocket had begun to transform, and Lance's attitude toward Team Rocket was no longer as extreme as it once was.
Lance stood with his arms folded, his cold, proud gaze as sharp and piercing as a blade, staring straight at Giovanni.
The referee entered.
"The Champion Challenge between the challenger Giovanni and the Champion Lance will now begin!"
"This will be a full six-on-six battle! Champion Lance will send out first. When all six of one side's Pokémon are unable to battle, the other side wins!"
"Begin!"
The referee announced the rules, bowed to the two on the field, and slowly withdrew from the battlefield.
The whole venue gradually grew quiet. Every pair of eyes was full of excitement.
A Champion Challenge!!
In any region, this was extremely rare. A region's Champion was always whoever was strongest: as long as you had the strength, you could become Champion.
But actually becoming Champion was anything but easy.
The Elite Four challenge was incredibly difficult. You had to defeat all four members consecutively, then win the Champion Challenge and defeat the Champion before you could take his place.
And now, the Kanto region's Champion Challenge was underway once again!
Of course, the whispers and stares of the outside world didn't touch the two on the field.
Lance kept his arms folded and held Giovanni's gaze. Then he spoke flatly.
"Giovanni. Not bad at all."
Defeating Lorelei, Bruno, and Agatha in a row already proved Giovanni's strength, and he'd done it losing only one Pokémon, Nidoqueen.
"You've also received Viridian Forest's gift, haven't you? I'll allow you to use the Power of Viridian to restore your Pokémon."
Lance said calmly.
"That's not in the rules." Giovanni chuckled.
"My rules are the rules. Since you are my challenger, this battle ought to be fair."
Lance's tone remained calm, a calm full of absolute certainty.
"How arrogant, Champion Lance."
Giovanni couldn't help laughing. Of course. That supremely self-assured Dragon Master would never take advantage of an opponent.
To Lance, Lorelei and the other two were merely the preliminary test to see whether a challenger was worth his personal attention.
Only those who defeated Lorelei, Bruno, and Agatha in a row had the right to stand before him.
Lance said nothing more, just watched Giovanni in silence.
Giovanni didn't stand on ceremony. The green glow of the Power of Viridian lit up in his hand, healing Nidoking and his other Pokémon's injuries.
When they were mostly restored, Giovanni looked up at Lance.
"I hope you won't regret that decision."
Giovanni's lips slowly spread into a smile thick with malice.
He meant, of course, Lance letting him restore his Pokémon. Only Nidoqueen had been knocked out,
but Nidoking and the others had been hurt and below full strength. A Pokémon at full strength and one hanging on with low HP were two completely different things.
"Regret?" Lance sneered and lifted his chin proudly. He swept his cape aside with his right hand, his blood-red hair flying.
"Dragons never regret!"
The Dragon Master's wild, untamed voice echoed through the stadium.
His expression was proud and supremely confident as he looked down on the strongest Gym Leader in Kanto across from him.
"Giovanni, did you know? Dragons are sacred, legendary creatures!"
"They're hard to catch, but raised properly, their power is unmatched in all the world!!"
That's right! The power of dragons was the strongest!
That was Lance's creed, and his will as a Champion!
At some point, Lance had raised his right hand, an Ultra Ball gripped in it and pointed at Giovanni.
All blade, no sheath!
Untamed!!
It was a wildness that came from his very bones!
Lance was exactly that kind of untamed, arrogant man.
His confidence, his pride, his self-assurance all came from the dragons with which he had conquered Kanto!
"Now then, are you ready? It's about time we started, Giovanni."
Lance flashed an arrogant grin, his gleaming white teeth sending a chill straight to the heart.
"Come and feel it for yourself: my Dragon Legion!!"
Kanto Champion, Dragon Master Lance, would like to battle!
☆☆☆
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