He was the Champion, everyone's hope, the "undefeated" one.
But in front of power that was basically god-tier, his "undefeated" title was a joke.
Just then, a pink tendril lightly patted his shoulder.
Leon looked up.
At some point, Jason had walked up behind him.
The Ditto still wore that calm, almost bored expression, as if that world-ending blast just now had nothing to do with him.
"Alright, Champion."
Jason's voice was very even. There was no mockery in it—just a cold statement of fact.
"You've done enough. Take your Charizard and get off the stage. This isn't a fight you can interfere in anymore."
Leon stared at him, lips trembling. "But—if I don't stop it—"
"You can't stop it," Jason cut him off. "This isn't about you at all. That thing's stats are absolutely busted."
He pointed up at Eternatus.
"That thing's total base stats are beyond what you even have a frame of reference for. Even if your Charizard were max level and then some, it's not breaking that thing's defenses."
Jason turned around and stepped in front of Leon.
"Time for you to sub out for a bit."
The aura around him began to shift.
The once floppy blob firmed up. A calm that only true monsters have rolled off him naturally.
"Next up is a high-rank match."
Leon stared at Jason's back, stunned for a moment. He had no idea where this Ditto's confidence came from, but right now he could clearly feel a pressure from him that was stronger than his own.
Up above, Eternatus seemed to have grown tired of the bugs buzzing around beneath it.
It stopped absorbing particles.
Its massive body wheeled once in midair, then every bone in its frame lit up with blinding violet.
Space around it began to warp.
The red clouds were forcefully pushed aside and replaced by a sea of purple energy.
It opened its jaws. Countless violet beams gathered before its maw, weaving together into a massive net of energy.
Full-screen attack.
It was going to wipe the entire rooftop out in one go, everything on it included.
"Danger!" Leon's pupils shrank. "Get out of the way! The area's too big!"
He tried to grab Charizard's ball, but his hands were shaking, too slow to keep up with how fast that attack was charging.
Jason didn't move.
Iron Valiant didn't move either.
"Gast," Jason called once.
"Here!"
There wasn't a hint of fear in Gengar's voice—instead, there was a sort of crazy, scalp-tingling excitement.
Facing the rain of light that was about to come down, she didn't choose to dodge.
She dashed straight in front of Jason and Leon.
"I've been wanting to try this move for ages!"
Gast suddenly stomped both feet onto the ground.
She might be a Ghost type, but right then she drove all her power into her lower body, force-forcing herself into having real weight.
She took a deep breath. Her normally round body swelled a notch.
Arms crossed in front of her.
The next second—
RUMBLE—!
The purple energy cascade smashed down.
The entire rooftop was swallowed by light in an instant. The roar was so loud it was like the end of the world had fallen on their heads.
Leon flinched, eyes squeezed shut, throwing his body over Charizard to shield it on instinct.
He was sure he was dead.
But the expected pain never came.
A few seconds later, the roaring slowly faded.
Leon cautiously opened his eyes.
The scene before him made him suck in a sharp breath.
Five meters in front of him, that purple silhouette was still standing.
Gast was still there.
The alloy floor beneath her feet had been gouged with two deep trenches where she'd skidded backward under the impact.
Smoke curled off her body. Her once smooth, glossy purple skin was marred by a few black scorch marks, but overall she was fine.
She had tanked that full-screen blast.
Not just tanked it—she'd taken all of it.
Jason, Leon, even the shards of rubble behind them hadn't taken a scratch.
"Pfft."
Gast spat out a little puff of sooty spit.
She slowly uncrossed her arms, turned her head and flashed Jason a grin.
It was three parts insane, seven parts smug.
"Not bad power," she said, shaking the numbness out of her hands. "Almost blew my hairstyle off."
Leon stared at the Gengar, utterly floored.
This was… really a Gengar?
Since when could Gengar stand there and tank a god's ultimate to the face?
That wasn't scientific.
"Nice work," Jason walked up and ruffled her head.
Then he lifted his gaze toward the colossal shape in the sky.
Even Eternatus seemed surprised.
Its attack had been blocked.
That, it did not appreciate.
It roared again, the energy around it flaring even more violently, clearly charging something even stronger.
"Looks like it's feeling salty," Jason said, twisting his nonexistent neck with a wet crackling sound.
"If it wants to play, we'll play."
He turned to look at Leon, who was still half sitting on the ground.
"Hey, Champion Leon."
Jason extended a tendril.
"Lend me a little tool, yeah?"
Leon was still reeling from what he'd just seen, brain a step behind. "What?"
"The Dynamax Band," Jason pointed at the big white bracelet on Leon's wrist. "I know you have one."
Leon reflexively touched his wrist.
That was the Galar League's special Dynamax Band, built to withstand ridiculous energy loads.
"What do you need that for?" Leon frowned. "Even if you get big, you still might not beat it—"
"Less talking," Jason cut him off impatiently, beckoning. "Just give it here. Keep dawdling and this tower's coming down."
Leon stared at those determined eyes.
On some impulse he didn't quite understand, he slipped the band off.
"Catch!"
He flung the wristband hard.
The white ring arced through the air.
Jason timed it perfectly, body springing up.
A single tentacle shot out, snatching the band mid-air even though it was huge compared to his current size.
He landed.
His body flowed like liquid over the device, swallowing it whole.
Pink slime surged around the band.
A few seconds later, the white bracelet was embedded right into the middle of Jason's body.
Vrrrrr—
The moment it settled, Jason's body flared with deep red light.
Not normal red.
A dark crimson glow, thick with destruction.
Inside him, the [Rusty Sword] and [Rusty Shield] stirred violently, resonating as they unleashed the power of Zacian and Zamazenta.
Those three kinds of energy tangled together with the infinite flexibility of Ditto's own genes.
Jason felt a power he'd never known flood his whole body.
It was so vast he genuinely thought he might explode—but that was exactly what he'd been aiming for.
He raised his head, meeting the gaze of the skeletal dragon above.
Eternatus stared back.
Their eyes crossed in midair.
One was an apocalypse beast blotting out the sky.
The other, a pink blob barely tens of centimeters tall.
But in terms of presence, Jason did not lose.
He took a long breath. His body began to swell as the energy poured in.
"Hey! Eternatus!"
His shout rolled through the clouds like thunder now.
"You enjoying yourself up there?"
"Acting tough just because you've got bloated HP and cracked stats, huh?"
The red light around him intensified, stones around his feet rising into the air against gravity.
"Today, I'll show you something."
"What a real—"
Jason's tiny bead eyes narrowed to slits, his mouth stretching into an absurdly wide grin.
"Stat monster looks like!"
Wind screamed over the tower, whipping a storm of red dust into the air.
Jason stood on the shattered edge, Eternatus looming above, devouring Galar's energy without pause.
That high-tier predator pressure made the air itself feel heavy and sticky.
But he didn't back down an inch.
The Dynamax Band he'd borrowed from Leon was now fully fused into his pink core.
"Gast, get Leon out of here," Jason said, voice low and steady, the calm before a storm.
"It's gonna get a bit loud. Don't let him get caught up in it."
As much as Gast liked to goof around, she knew this wasn't the time.
She shot Jason a long look, then zipped to Leon's side, grabbing the exhausted Champion and dragging him toward the tower's lower shelter.
"W–wait! What are you going to do?" Leon struggled, trying to see what Jason was about to pull.
By then, Jason was already putting on his show.
He thought for a moment, then picked a good form.
Baxcalibur.
At his signal, the pink gel that was his body began to throb and swell.
Cells divided and multiplied at insane speed.
His soft surface rapidly hardened into thick, dark grey scales.
Bones lengthened, muscles rewove themselves.
In seconds, the Ditto was gone.
In its place stood a towering beast.
Dark grey armor-like skin, a massive red axe-shaped fin rising from its back—the heat sink and energy core of its body.
A heavy tail lashed behind it, casually smashing the remaining concrete railing.
Baxcalibur.
Dragon/Ice.
Dragon moves hit dragons super effectively; Ice moves are dragons' absolute kryptonite.
On the type chart, this was one of the most optimal counters to Eternatus you could ask for.
But still not enough.
The size gap was absurd.
Even now, at just over two meters, Jason looked like a toy next to that hundred-meter skeleton in the sky.
"Just one more step."
He lifted his thick arm and pressed the glowing core of the Dynamax Band in his chest.
"Dynamax, start."
The dark red glow erupted.
The Dynamax particles churning above like a bloody storm cloud snapped toward Jason as if pulled by a magnet, flooding into him.
The clouds began to spin, forming a massive eye of the storm.
Under that torrent of energy, Jason's body went wild.
Five meters.
Ten meters.
Fifty.
A hundred.
The visual impact was insane. The dragon that had just been standing on the tower top turned into a moving mountain right before their eyes.
The dark red Dynamax aura wrapped around him. Above his head, three cloud-like crimson markings appeared and began to orbit.
Now, in raw size, he no longer lost to Eternatus at all.
"ROOOAR!"
Jason opened his maws and roared, the sound punching straight through the clouds.
It was Baxcalibur's Dynamax warcry. Ice cracked inside the sound itself, and the scorching air around them plunged toward freezing.
High above, Eternatus finally paused mid-feeding.
It lowered its head, hollow gaze fixing on the newly-arrived giant.
It felt… threatened.
This big red thing radiated a chill it really didn't like.
"What are you looking at?"
Jason's voice boomed, every word like a rolling thunderclap.
"Never seen a dragon this big?"
He didn't give Eternatus time to think.
In a Dynamax fight, time is life.
Normally, Dynamax only lasts three turns, and while his unique makeup and the band might let him stretch that, he had no intention of wasting any of it.
"Let's cool you off first!"
His massive legs dug into the tower.
The top of Hammerlocke's power plant crumpled under the recoil in an instant.
Steel and concrete rained down.
Using that force, Jason's enormous body launched skyward.
He didn't bother with fancy ranged beams. He picked the oldest, dumbest option.
Get in there and swing.
His ice-armored claw drew back, then shot forward with all his weight behind it, straight for Eternatus' skull.
Icicle Crash.
In Dynamax form, that became an even nastier G-Max Ice attack.
Moisture in the air froze in an instant. Huge spears of ice formed out of nothing, wrapping around his fist to form a colossal drill of frost and stone.
THOOM!
The blow landed square on Eternatus' forehead.
The impact shook the sky, even drowning out the sirens below.
Ice exploded everywhere.
Those seemingly unbreakable ice pillars shattered, spraying glittering crystals through the air.
Eternatus let out a pained scream, its long frame rocked back. The smooth spiral of its flight broke, vertebrae twisting at an ugly angle.
Super effective.
"We're not done!"
Jason pressed the advantage.
Using the recoil, he twisted mid-air, his massive tail whipping around with a hurricane's howl like a steel beam swung by a titan, and slammed into Eternatus' side.
CRACK!
Eternatus was sent flying, crashing through a nearby floating platform.
Down below, Leon could only stare.
He'd seen Dynamax battles, hell, Galar lives on Dynamax battles.
But he'd never seen this.
Two titanic monsters trading blows at over a kilometer altitude.
This… was this even a Pokémon battle anymore?
Was this legal?