Chapter 93: Dark World
“Doublade! Chop Ronan’s pendant! Pikachu! Dual colors together! Use Thunderbolt!”
Single Sword and Martial Staff clashed head-on, while the other sword slashed toward Ronan’s pendant!
“——Ding~~” The sword tip touched the Key Stone embedded in the pendant, and the Sacred Sword empowered by Revenge did not leave a mark on the Key Stone. Instead, the pendant’s chain broke off due to the power of the Sacred Sword.
Zuo Hang did not know what material the Evolution Key Stone was made of, but its toughness was absolutely rare in the world.
The Mega Stone on the Gardevoir Ring had accompanied her through countless battles, and up to now, it had not a single scratch. It could withstand the massive energy produced by Mega Evolution, so the Mega Stone itself must be exceptionally hard, and the corresponding Key Stone was the same.
Zuo Hang had Doublade chop the Evolution Stone just to give it a try; his killing move was still Pikachu’s Dual Volt.
Originally, it was dual swords against the Martial Staff, but now it had become Single Sword, and Ronan immediately regained the initiative in the battle.
The Long Staff swept horizontally, immediately sending Single Sword flying. Ronan rolled on the ground and snatched the Evolution Key Stone that had fallen to the ground.
At the same time, dual-colored thunder light shone on Lucario.
The Mega Stone and Key Stone completed the link.
—Lucario evolved in the thunder light!
The energy formed when the Key Stone and Mega Stone linked actually isolated the dual-colored electric light.
Mega Lucario gained many black stripes on its body. The single conical bone spikes on the backs of its hands and feet turned into one large and one small inverted triangular bone spikes, and the original blue long tail became a large cluster of fluffy yellow tail.
The arrogant look in its eyes disappeared, replaced by a trace of more human-like calm.
The fact that Mega Evolution light forms a barrier was beyond Zuo Hang’s expectations, and the killing move Dual Volt missed.
Extreme Speed’s Flowing Light hid within the evolution light, and the moment evolution completed, Lucario rushed in front of Pikachu.
“Comet Punch!”
“Iron Tail!”
Flame and Steel collided, a few sparks falling onto the Battle Arena. Ronan’s Martial Staff went straight for Zuo Hang’s face, and Doublade timely defended, placing the shield face horizontally in front of Zuo Hang.
“Power Trick!”
The damaged wounds on Doublade’s shield face seemed to suddenly heal, appearing even more solid than before.
It easily blocked the heavy blow of the Martial Staff. At that moment, the dual swords also returned to defense: one slashed toward Ronan’s neck, while the other hovered behind Zuo Hang as a precaution against special situations.
—Power Trick: Psychic Type change, using Psychic Type power to swap its own Defense and Attack.
Doublade, which had just used Swords Dance to max out its Physical Attack, swapped the two, turning the maxed Attack into Defense, so easily blocking Ronan’s Martial Staff strike was naturally no problem.
Zuo Hang took a step back, keeping a safe distance from Ronan at all times.
“Lucario! Drain Punch!” Ronan was entangled by Doublade and could not break free; breaking through one shield and one Single Sword would take a long time.
He finally seemed to remember that he was a Trainer as well as a martial artist. The battle rhythm between him and Lucario had originally been disrupted, but Zuo Hang’s step back allowed him to regain his battle rhythm.
—Drain Punch: Fighting Type Physical Attack, honing itself while punching, and upon hitting, it raises its own Physical Attack.
The Numbness effect was still there and had not been removed by Mega Evolution. Lucario’s movements looked quite stiff, but far more fluid than a few seconds ago. The Numbness effect should last at most half a minute, and within that half minute, in a hard close-quarters fight, Pikachu was not afraid!
“Don’t think about close combat! Quick Attack to gain distance! Prepare Thunder, use Thunderbolt to kite!” Before Numbness, Lucario could use Extreme Speed to tightly bite onto Pikachu, with no chance to kite at a distance, but during this period of Lucario’s Numbness, it was just the time for Pikachu to leverage its high Special Attack.
Most Pokémon are quite combative deep down; even the Electric Mouse that acts cute daily has a heart for close combat, and in the heat of battle, it starts trading Iron Tails with the opponent.
Mega Lucario’s Drain Punch would only get stronger the more it fought; in the end, Pikachu would definitely lose. Moreover, Lucario had Revival and Counter, the signature comeback moves of Fighting Type Pokémon, so trading Physical Attacks with it was absolutely suicidal.
Pikachu might get carried away in the heat of battle, but Zuo Hang would not!
The golden mad thunder itself carried a certain Numbness effect, and combined with the Numbness chance from Thunderbolt, Lucario fell into Numbness before the previous one even ended.
After the golden, cyan electric light followed closely. With Pikachu’s attribute mastery, switching back and forth between the two thunders was truly effortless for him.
Mega Lucario fought very uncomfortably: it couldn’t catch up when chasing due to paralyzed limbs, couldn’t dodge when evading, and its body felt like it was trapped in a quagmire—the more it struggled, the deeper it sank.
“Lucario! Dew of Life! Healing Pulse!” shouted Ronan, who was trading blows with Doublade.
Two recovery skills.
They were also Lucario’s only two recovery moves. In terms of recovery effect alone, they were decent, but using recovery moves at this point was already a bit late.
If it had used Dew of Life and Healing Pulse from the start, Lucario might have had a chance against Pikachu.
The reason it couldn’t now was that the black clouds above the Weather Ball had already fully gathered.
Pikachu and Zuo Hang stood still at the same time.
The dual-colored Kirin in the black clouds roared through the air!
The moment they stood still, the scene on the field seemed to suddenly change, and Ronan felt a strange sensation rise in his heart.
Sealeo, lying on the ground pretending to be dead, shamefully covered its face. It had already foreseen what was about to happen next.
A certain pretty boy confident of his victory suddenly began to chant.
“—Proud Electric Light Above the Storm, Dual Mad Thunder of Suffocation and Despair, the strongest Electric attribute manipulator descends here to bring annihilation!—Roar! Pika Kirin!”
“Pika~~~! Chu!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Doublade quickly retreated.
Without Gardevoir, Pikachu could not become the core of the Kirin, but the power of the dual-colored Kirin alone was enough to end this battle.
Lucario raised its hand, trying to block the dazzling electric light from the sky.
He had never seen a skill with such overwhelming momentum.
Ronan looked at the Thunder Kirin in the sky, his hands suddenly dropping powerlessly, and a relieved expression appeared in Lucario’s eyes.
This was very abnormal.
Lucario with the “Steadfast” Ability was famously tough among Fighting Type Pokémon; it would absolutely not give up until the very last moment.
Even facing this near-desperate storm thunder, Lucario should have charged forward with Comet Punch.
However.
Zuo Hang was now witnessing the complete opposite.
The Thunder Kirin fell in just a brief half-breath, yet both lost the will to resist at the same time.
Bound by the Deathmatch Arena, facing challengers from below day after day, constantly battling, winning then battling again, winning again.
Possessing great martial prowess yet living a mechanized life.
The majestic, dignified Thunder Kirin filled with various senses of violent beauty dove down!
The electric light pierced through Lucario’s chest. Ronan’s human body directly disintegrated in the electric light. The specially made Armguard fell off his arm onto a pile of unrecognizable black residue. The red iron chain pattern on the screen turned green, with the English word “open” written on it.
Zuo Hang looked at his own Armguard, which had the English word “Close”, translated as “sealed”.
Mega Lucario, eyes tightly closed, knelt before Zuo Hang, with an irregular cavity opened in its chest.
“Pika~” Pikachu folded its ears and looked at Zuo Hang.
An indescribable discomfort in his heart.
Cheers erupted from the Deathmatch Arena.
The old king fell, the new king ascended.
Zuo Hang was experiencing this battle—which he might originally have lost—from Reta’s perspective.
He could feel the joy coming from this body.
As Reta, he was happy and exhilarated about his victory, but as Zuo Hang, what he saw was the fall of an Elite Four from another world.
With Ronan’s strength, in Zuo Hang’s World, he could crush most Elite Four and regional Champions, but here.
He was just a fighter locked in a cage for spectators, not worthy of being called an Elite Four Trainer, let alone a martial arts master.
