Al sat cross-legged in the ruined clearing where he had spent the past few hours. The ground was scarred with deep trenches, scorched marks, and one massive crater that still leaked faint wisps of unstable energy.
A half-eaten pile of berries lay beside him, and in his lap rested a battered notebook filled with messy sketches and move names.
"Yeah… note to self," Al muttered, scribbling. "Never use {Black Hole Eclipse} in a sparring match."
He glanced toward the crater—so deep the water trickling into it looked like a distant stream.
"That thing actually made a black hole… and if I hadn't deprived it of mana at the last second, it would've just kept expanding."
The thought sent a chill down his spine. He'd seen the swirling void form right in front of him, reality bending and dragging everything inward. Even with {Fly}, he had barely escaped being swallowed.
Al shut his notebook with a snap and let out a long breath.
"Damn. The cannon Pokémon really are monsters."
He stared at his own hands, flexing them as if they belonged to someone else.
"A black hole… and you're telling me a {Gardevoir} could just rip that out of her emotions and survive? Nah. That's… that's too busted. Pokémon can't be that overpowered."
The words came out half in disbelief, half in awe.
His magic was down—about twenty percent drained from chaining Z-Moves—but he could already feel them slowly regenerating, like a tide creeping back in.
---
Moments later, Al stood in the middle of the devastated clearing, tugging at his collar until a splinter of wood lodged in it dropped to the ground with a dull thud.
He rolled his shoulders and stretched."Alright. Time to start."
With a flash, his body expanded and reshaped, sprouting thick limbs and a massive flower on his back. In seconds, a towering {Venusaur} loomed twenty meters tall, its weight sinking the ground beneath it. Red storm clouds spiraled above his head as the Dynamax energy took hold.
Al blinked and twisted his head to look at his own bulk."Vena… saur?"
Something was off. No oversized petals. No wild, glowing vines. Just a giant Venusaur.
"Hey—where's my thicc vines and the giant, blooming flower?"
Pocket's calm voice echoed in his mind.
[Correction: Sir, this is Dynamax. The Gigantamax variant is a separate skill—stronger, rarer, and currently unavailable to you.]
Al sat on his massive haunches and smacked his forehead with a leafy paw."Vena… saur."
"Right. Forgot."
He huffed and decided to focus.'Okay… let's at least test the moves.'
The frog planted his front legs, then slammed them down with thunderous force. A surge of green light flared outward, and an enormous translucent barrier shimmered into being before him—{Max Guard}.
"Not bad," Al muttered, lumbering closer. He lifted a massive foot and pressed it against the wall of energy. At his touch, the barrier glowed brighter, solidifying with a crystalline gleam before fading back to near-invisible.
The sheer durability hummed through his body, reassuring but also a little terrifying.
"This… is defense on a whole new level."
---
In the base Al had been calling home the longest, the young man was busy humming a light rhythm while scrubbing dishes. The open cabin echoed with the clink of bowls and the swish of water. His grin said everything—mundane chores had their own peace.
But when he glanced out the wide opening, the view was anything but mundane.
Towering over the treetops was the colossal figure of the {Dynamax Venusaur}, its massive frame glowing faintly under the swirl of red clouds.
Al chuckled under his breath."Man… even doing dishes feels like I'm in some anime filler episode."
He finished the last plate with a satisfied clink, wiped his hands, and pulled a chilled coconut from the makeshift fridge he'd built out of packed ice and monster parts.
Cracking it open, he settled onto a simple chair just outside the cabin, sipping the sweet juice straight from the shell. His gaze lingered on the behemoth frog basking in its own summoned storm.
For a moment, everything slowed down—just a guy enjoying coconut juice chilled like a lawn ornament in another world.
"…Yeah," Al muttered with a smile, "this is the good life."
---
On the other side of the forest, another Al lingered in the shadows, his body still cloaked in the form of a {Gengar}. His glowing eyes were fixed on the goblin village.
The goblins, however, were far too distracted to notice him—every last one of them was gawking at the titanic frog with the blooming flower on its back, whose looming silhouette dominated the treeline.
The Gengar's grin widened.'They're staring at the show… time to give them their own.'
His body melted into the ground, only for his shadow to surge forward and spring up right in front of the crowd. The goblins froze. Some screamed. One, braver than the rest, threw a spear—only to watch it pass harmlessly through the phantom's body.
The shadow peeled away, and Al stepped out in his human form, eyes narrowed, voice cold.
"This training…" he said, his tone low and deliberate, "…will be hell."
The goblins exchanged fearful glances, realizing too late that their new "General Solis" wasn't here to play babysitter. They had no idea what kind of nightmare drills were about to begin.