"Good job, Zeraora."
Su Bai didn't even bother sparing Amino a glance.
Instead, he patted Zeraora on the head. Electricity crackled across Zeraora's entire body, and when Su Bai's fingers brushed against its fur, tiny sparks popped and snapped, leaving his fingertips tingling.
Just moments ago, Zeraora had sent Amino flying with an ordinary Quick Attack, interrupting the Apostle just as he was about to deliver the killing blow.
Su Bai turned his head and gave Rock a thumbs-up.
Rock stood there with his mouth hanging open, his expression utterly stunned. Even his normally narrowed eyes were struggling to open as wide as possible.
"As expected of the Snake of the Twelve Zodiacs."
"You've got some backbone!"
Su Bai walked over and reached down, pulling Rock to his feet.
"How are you feeling? Can you still walk?"
Rock rubbed his eyes with considerable effort.
After finally confirming that the person standing before him really was the legendary Pokemon Tamer, the owner of the Pokémon Center, Su Bai, Rock was left speechless.
The information Kyoto had received described Su Bai as an extraordinarily powerful individual—someone capable of standing his ground against the strongest among the Sub-Beasts.
And, after paying a certain price, he could even summon terrifying creatures like Groudon, a being that resembled a god of the earth.
But even after seeing Zeraora directly slam an Apostle in his true form flying through the air, Rock still couldn't quite believe his eyes.
That was an Apostle!
Even one of the Twelve Zodiacs could only be at an absolute disadvantage against an Apostle.
And yet…
He had just been knocked flying by a Pokémon that small?
The sight was so absurd that it felt like watching a toy car ram a heavy-duty truck and send it flying.
It was completely ridiculous!
If it had been the Groudon described in the intelligence reports, Rock wouldn't have been nearly as surprised.
But Zeraora?
It just looked like an incredibly cool giant cat!
Sure, a one-and-a-half-meter-tall cat was certainly enormous by feline standards.
But honestly…
Standing before Amino, it had looked like a mouse facing an elephant.
"So Pokémon really can't be judged by their size…"
Rock finally managed to straighten himself.
Then he suddenly gave Su Bai a strange look.
"You…"
"How long have you been watching from the sidelines?"
The fact that Su Bai had seamlessly followed up on Amino's boast was enough to prove that he hadn't just arrived.
Huh…
Is this guy really that sharp?
Su Bai's expression became slightly awkward.
Was he really supposed to admit that he had been hiding nearby from the very beginning because he wanted to learn more about the secrets of the Twelve Zodiacs?
Rock had already vomited enough blood to fill several hundred milliliters.
At this point, you'd need a pretty large bottle to hold it all.
Just as Su Bai was struggling to figure out what to say—
A spike far denser and more solid than the ones Amino had used against ROCK earlier silently appeared in the air.
It shot straight toward the back of Su Bai's head!
At the same time, Amino's furious voice came from behind him.
"You two…"
"Are you seriously acting like I don't exist?"
Clearly, Su Bai's complete disregard for the Sub-Beast had finally gotten under Amino's skin.
And after the humiliation of being blasted away by Zeraora, this Sub-Beast—who had already decided to use everything he had—was no longer willing to stand around and watch.
"ROAR!"
A thunderous roar suddenly erupted beside Su Bai, completely drowning out Amino's shout.
Charizard, who had been crouching beside Su Bai the entire time, raised a claw and cleanly sliced through the incoming spike.
Su Bai slowly turned his head.
His face was filled with disgust.
"Didn't your mother ever teach you not to interrupt when other people are talking?"
"Seriously, what terrible manners…"
"Wait."
"Do Sub-Beasts even have mothers?"
Su Bai's words made Amino's already ugly expression turn an even deeper shade of livid.
But before he could react, the enormous Charizard that had just destroyed his sneak attack suddenly opened its jaws.
A sudden sense of danger gripped Amino's heart.
He immediately crossed all seven arms in front of himself.
"BOOM!"
Terrifying flames erupted from Charizard's mouth, forming a blazing pillar of fire that engulfed Amino's enormous body!
The flames roared.
Inside them came the crackling sound of burning fur.
Su Bai didn't even turn his head.
He grabbed the dumbfounded Rock and placed him onto Charizard's back.
By then, Charizard had already finished using Flamethrower.
It smacked its lips, sending a few sparks drifting from its mouth.
Su Bai smiled.
"Good work, Charizard."
"Rock, take some distance with him."
"From here on…"
"Zeraora and I will handle it."
He said this as he slowly turned his head.
At that moment, Amino stood with all seven of his arms crossed before him.
A shield formed from highly condensed death aura firmly protected his entire body.
But as Su Bai spoke, cracks spread across the shield.
Crack.
Crack-crack.
Then—
BOOM!
The shield shattered completely.
Su Bai looked at Amino's miserable appearance.
Then he casually rolled his wrist.
"This bastard really is asking for it."
"A piece of trash this shameless…"
"It'd be a waste not to slap him a few times."
Amino's pupils contracted sharply.
He could actually smell the charred odor coming from the countless fine hairs burning across his body.
The hastily condensed death-energy shield had been unable to protect him completely from Charizard's Flamethrower.
At this point, he even felt like he was about to be cooked alive.
"You…"
Amino opened his mouth.
But before he could say another word—
Su Bai's figure had already vanished.
A huge crater was left where he had been standing.
In the brief instant Amino had been distracted by his injuries, he had already lost sight of that strange man.
Then—
A palm came sweeping in from the side.
"So fast!"
Amino's heart shook violently.
He desperately moved his limbs, trying to evade.
But speed had never been Amino's strength.
The slap landed squarely on his bizarre face, a strange mixture of his usual honest-looking features and his current savage expression.
SMACK!
The resounding slap echoed across the power station.
Half of Amino's face was violently twisted to the side.
His seemingly rock-solid body was knocked flat onto the ground.
Then—
A foot came down heavily.
It crushed Amino's head into the earth, leaving half his face buried in the dirt.
Su Bai's mocking face appeared within Amino's dazed field of vision.
"Your face…"
"Sure is thick."
"You…"
Amino's exposed eye widened in disbelief.
"You're Su Bai?"
"The Pokemon Tamer?"
"How can a summoning-type profession…"
"Have physical combat skills this strong?!"
The Sub-Beasts' intelligence network within human society was nowhere near as extensive as humanity's own.
The fact that Amino even knew Su Bai's identity as a Pokemon Tamer was largely because Su Bai had never gone out of his way to hide it.
In fact, he had deliberately allowed the public to know that much in order to conceal the existence of the system.
And because of this identity, people often overlooked Su Bai's own physical strength.
So even someone like Rock, a member of the Twelve Zodiacs, was deeply shocked by what Su Bai had just demonstrated.
How much more so a Sub-Beast that barely paid attention to humanity's power structure?
To most people, Su Bai was simply someone capable of physically fighting an S-rank Death Beast.
That level of strength was already terrifying to ordinary humans.
But at the level of an Apostle…
It wasn't even enough to qualify as an entry point.
"I'm allowed to…"
"Get stronger too, you know."
Su Bai chuckled.
He lifted his foot.
Then—
He brought it down hard.
BOOM!
The other half of Amino's face was driven straight into the dirt.