Chapter 475: Let the Golden Flames Burn

Aaron had no idea that the four spectators off to the side were still arguing among themselves. His attention was already back on the battlefield, where Mega Charizard Y and the mutated Avalugg faced each other across the shattered glacier.

"AVALUGG!"

The giant Pokémon raised its head and roared. Ever since it had claimed this cavern as its territory, no Pokémon had dared challenge it. T

oday, apparently, one had. As far as Avalugg was concerned, anything foolish enough to provoke it could die here.

Ice-blue energy surged across its massive body, then shot upward past Mega Charizard Y. The air above Charizard suddenly erupted as tons of snow and ice came crashing down from the ceiling like a collapsing mountainside.

Avalanche!

Aaron's eyes narrowed as the white mass swallowed the space overhead. "Charizard—Super Fire Dragon King's Roar!"

"GRAAAZARD!"

Fire blazed in Mega Charizard Y's eyes. It opened its jaws, and a massive sphere of flame erupted from its mouth, blazing like a miniature sun as it shot straight toward the descending avalanche.

Fire and ice collided with a deafening explosion.

BOOOOM!

The entire cavern shook.

Chunks of ancient ice broke loose from the ceiling and rained across the battlefield, while a huge cloud of steam burst outward from the point of impact. For several seconds, the cavern vanished behind white vapor.

When the steam finally began to thin, the avalanche was gone.

Mega Charizard Y had burned straight through it.

...

"That's ridiculous..." one of the technicians muttered as he stared upward. "So this is Aaron's Charizard."

The other looked almost jealous. "Forget the strength. I'd settle for having a Charizard that looks half that cool."

Grant snorted beside them. "Keep dreaming. Aaron's a freak, and apparently his Pokémon decided to follow his example."

The two men turned toward him at once.

"We'd take that deal."

Grant blinked.

"If becoming a freak gets us Pokémon like that, sign us up," one of them added, dead serious.

Ryan folded his arms. "To be fair, I'd take that deal too."

Grant looked from one man to the next and sighed. "You're all hopeless."

...

A powerful beat of Mega Charizard Y's wings tore through the lingering steam.

"ZAAARD!"

Below, Avalugg stared upward in disbelief. Its attack had been destroyed head-on, and that only made it angrier.

"AVALUGG!"

Gray energy surged around its head, coating its massive skull. Then the four-meter Pokémon charged, barreling forward like a living glacier.

Skull Bash!

"Charizard, dodge. Then use Super Flamethrower."

"ZARD!"

Mega Charizard Y swept sideways with a powerful flap of its wings. Avalugg thundered straight past.

Its strength was enormous. Its maneuverability was not.

With a body that massive, once Avalugg committed to the charge, changing direction was nearly impossible. If it had a Trainer commanding it, no competent one would have chosen Skull Bash against a flying opponent that could simply move out of the way.

Unfortunately for Avalugg, it did not have a Trainer.

It did, however, have an iceberg directly in front of it.

BOOM!

Avalugg slammed into it headfirst. The impact shook the chamber, and cracks instantly raced across the frozen structure before the whole formation gave way in a cascade of shattered ice.

Slow or not, Avalugg's raw power was no joke.

But Charizard was already above it.

"GRAAAZARD!"

Mega Charizard Y opened its jaws as golden flames gathered deep in its throat. A heartbeat later, a torrent of brilliant fire poured down over Avalugg.

Super Flamethrower!

Avalugg had no time to evade. Even if it had, its enormous body was hardly built for dodging.

The golden flames struck head-on.

BOOOOM!

Fire exploded across the glacier.

"AVALUUUUGG!"

Avalugg screamed as golden fire rolled across its enormous body, clinging to its crystalline armor while the surrounding ice hissed into steam. Its body trembled violently beneath the flames.

Ice Stone Body was powerful. Any damage Avalugg took was reduced by forty percent, which would have made its already absurd durability a nightmare for most opponents.

Mega Charizard Y, however, was stacking advantage upon advantage.

Its Crown of the Fire Dragon King increased the power of Fire-type moves by fifty percent. Its Super Fire Dragon Slayer passive added another fifty percent.

Super Dragon Constitution raised its Special Attack by three stages, while the usual same-type bonus added yet another fifty percent.

And on top of all that, Super Flamethrower had already reached max proficiency.

At that point, even Aaron had stopped trying to calculate exactly how powerful the attack had become.

He knew only one thing.

It hit ridiculously hard.

"AVALUUUUGG!"

Avalugg howled again from inside the golden inferno, and that alone told Aaron everything he needed to know. Even with its monstrous durability and forty-percent damage reduction, the mutated Avalugg could not simply shrug off Charizard's flames.

Then a gray-white glow spread across its body.

Aaron recognized the move immediately.

Recover!

The scorched sections of Avalugg's frozen body began repairing themselves beneath the light, undoing part of the damage the golden flames had inflicted.

The battle was not over yet.