In the dark-screen world—
Aerodactyl cautiously nudged the can Ash had tossed over.
When it popped open, a rich smell drifted out.
Aerodactyl sniffed once, and its eyes instantly lit up.
Its long tongue flicked out, and it gulped down the can of Pokémon food in one go.
After swallowing everything in a single bite, Aerodactyl stared at Ash,
eyes clearly asking:
…Got any more?
"Oh, there's more," Ash said lightly. "But… you can't just eat for free, right? How about becoming my Pokémon?"
"Rraaah? Rrah?"
You're trying to buy me off with just a snack? Dream on.
"Didn't I just say it?" Ash continued. "Fight me. If you win, you become my Pokémon."
Aerodactyl glanced at Charmeleon with open disdain,
then looked Ash up and down with pure contempt.
"RRAH! RRAAAH!!"
In its eyes, the meaning was clear:
Weak little human wants to be my master? You're twenty thousand years too early!
And that weakling next to you could never beat me!
"Rraaah?!"
Charmeleon's temper flared immediately.
He couldn't stand that kind of provocation.
He roared and blasted a stream of Flamethrower on the spot.
Aerodactyl snapped its wings wide and dodged in an instant,
then glared down with a savage grin.
So that's how it is? You want to start a fight?
In that case—no holding back.
Aerodactyl roared and dove straight down,
its huge jaws opening wide, ready to bite into Charmeleon.
In the next second, Ash suddenly stepped in front of Charmeleon.
Charmeleon, already about to counter with another Flamethrower, froze in shock.
Then his expression changed drastically.
That stinking dragon was annoying, sure, but its strength was undeniable.
He'd seen it in how easily it dodged his flames.
If his Trainer stood in front of that attack, he'd be torn in half.
Aerodactyl's face changed too as it hurtled down.
It hurriedly snapped its jaws shut and tried desperately to slow down.
Ash had just fed it a can of food—
it couldn't just rip him in two.
But it had dived too fast to stop.
Just as Aerodactyl thought this human was about to be shredded—
Ash raised one hand.
BOOM!!
To Aerodactyl, it felt like slamming headfirst into a wall of steel.
The world spun, sky and earth flipping end over end,
and it lost all sense of direction.
Aerodactyl crashed to the ground, knocked silly by the Aura barrier Ash had conjured.
Ash smiled down at it.
"Didn't you just say weak humans aren't worthy to command you?"
"In that case… I'll be your opponent for this battle."
"Come on—get up, and attack me."
Behind him, Charmeleon stared blankly at his Trainer.
He'd long known his Trainer trained alongside them.
But he never imagined Ash would be so confident
that he'd fight a Pokémon hand-to-hand.
Even if Ash had that strange power,
could he really match a monster like Aerodactyl?
As a fellow dragon-like Pokémon, Charmeleon could feel it clearly—
an intense, bloody killing intent radiating from Aerodactyl's body.
That thing had definitely torn enemies apart with those jaws.
Charmeleon, by comparison, had only seen small scraps.
"Don't worry, Charmeleon. Leave this to me," Ash said, grinning.
"You just handle the lighting."
He flexed his hands and walked toward Aerodactyl.
Aerodactyl shook its head and hauled itself back into the air.
Now it understood.
This human wasn't some weak prey—
he was a terrifying opponent.
"RRAAAH!!"
Then don't blame me if someone dies!
"Come on," Ash replied calmly. "If someone dies, that's fate."
No fear, no hesitation—
he clasped one hand behind his back and beckoned with the other.
Aerodactyl roared to the cavern ceiling,
then plunged down again.
This time, its body erupted with power.
A spiraling shell of purple energy wrapped around it—
its signature Normal-type finisher: Giga Impact.
Aerodactyl held nothing back,
opening with its strongest move.
In Ash's eyes, two blue lights flared.
Aura flowed over both his hands.
Suddenly, Aerodactyl's every motion slowed—
every muscle twitch visible, every shift of its wings crystal clear.
Aura wasn't just a power-up for Pokémon—
it also greatly enhanced a human's perception and reaction speed.
Those who could control Aura could read an opponent's movements with uncanny precision.
It was the same principle as when Aura-fused Pikachu
could track the lightning currents in storm clouds.
At the instant Aerodactyl was about to slam into him,
Ash shifted his body slightly, dodging the Giga Impact by a hair's breadth—
then chopped downward with a glowing palm.
Blue Aura shattered the energy shell of Giga Impact,
and Ash's hand slammed hard into Aerodactyl's neck.
BOOM!!
A thunderous crash echoed through the cavern.
The mighty Aerodactyl was smashed into the ground in a single blow,
its own momentum driving it even deeper into the rock.
The entire underground cave shook three times.
Behind Ash, Charmeleon was stunned speechless.
Is this really a Trainer?
Maybe next time the Trainer should be the one battling,
and they could sit and watch.
[Lance: HOLY—!!]
[Cynthia: That was insane!!]
[Steven: What did I just watch?!]
[Leon: That palm… was that really something a human body can do?!]
Even the usually composed Champions couldn't help shouting out,
and Leon even slipped into swearing without realizing it.
Not just them—
everyone who saw the scene said the same thing in their hearts:
This isn't normal.
[Bea: This is… literally a human boss fight.]
[Marshal: Hiss… In theory, humans shouldn't be able to reach this level physically.]
[Lorelei: Bruno, if you had to face Ash in a hand-to-hand spar, what would you do?]
[Bruno: "Do"? I'd surrender on the spot.]
[Bruno: When Ash begged me to take him as an apprentice… I turned him down. I really didn't see the gold in front of me. If I'd known, I would've taken him on in a heartbeat!]
[Ash: Uh… I already have a teacher now, and I think he can teach me more than Master Bruno could have, anyway.]
[Delia: Ash! Mind what you say. Think whatever you want inside, but don't say it out loud.]
[Bruno: …]
You could've at least kept that in your heart…
[Sabrina: I used to think Ash's Aura and my psychic power were on about the same level… but after that palm, I can't say that anymore. My psychic barriers wouldn't be able to stop a blow like that.]
[Caitlin: Calling him "Elite level" feels too modest now… Are we sure he isn't literally at Champion level in raw physical power?]
It sounded absurd—
but no one could bring themselves to argue.
By now, nobody really knew just how far Black Ash's body had gone.
The footage continued.
At this point, it barely counted as a battle anymore.
In the dark-screen world—
After Ash smashed Aerodactyl into the ground with a single palm,
the ancient dragon's mind went blank.
Who am I? Where am I? What was I just doing?
The classic three questions of existential crisis.
When Aerodactyl finally regained full awareness,
it realized what had happened.
It—the apex predator of ancient skies—
had been taken down by a human.
Not only that—
it had been slammed to the ground bare-handed.
For the first time, Aerodactyl felt pure shame.
How could it be crushed like this…
by a human?
"RRAAAHH!!"
It flapped its wings and shot back into the air,
roaring at Ash.
If its first attack had been just a skill,
this time it unleashed the full murderous aura it had forged across countless life-and-death battles.
In the savage age of the distant past, the rule was simple:
eat or be eaten.
For Aerodactyl to have survived until now,
it had not done so by showing mercy.
Even Charmeleon could feel that suffocating killing intent.
Aerodactyl flew high, then flipped and dove again,
its entire body wrapped in brilliant blue light.
The energy at its head formed a massive dragon-shaped aura,
jaws open wide as if to swallow the sky.
The Dragon-type finisher—
Dragon Rush.
Aerodactyl wasn't a Dragon-type,
but it possessed the savagery of a true dragon.
Its speed with Dragon Rush eclipsed even its earlier Giga Impact,
carrying with it every ounce of murderous intent it had ever honed.
This time, Aerodactyl truly went all-out.
The cavern trembled under the pressure of the charging dragon.
Ash still didn't move.
He didn't even blink.
Just like before.
The nearer Aerodactyl came, the more violent the energy became,
the faster its charge grew.
At the precise instant it was about to slam into him,
Ash's Aura-wrapped hand shot out like lightning,
hooking firmly under Aerodactyl's neck from below.
BOOM!!
The full power of Dragon Rush crashed into Ash.
He slid back several meters, boots carving grooves into the stone floor,
and the leftover force blasted into the rock wall behind him,
shattering it like glass.
Charmeleon, who had already dodged to the side, stared in open-mouthed disbelief.
Another miracle.
His Trainer had just caught Aerodactyl's Dragon Rush by the throat.
It was even more outrageous than the palm strike from before.
What kind of inborn monster is he?!
Charmeleon had thought that after evolving, he'd at least be second strongest on the team.
Now he realized he'd been far too naïve.
Pinned in Ash's grip, Aerodactyl's eyes bulged.
The murderous snarl on its face hadn't even faded yet—
it all happened too fast.
Its most confident strike had been taken head-on,
without so much as a sidestep.
"Got all that out of your system?" Ash asked calmly.
"Then it's my turn. This move is called… Aura Sphere."
A sapphire-like sphere of energy formed in Ash's free hand—
a ball of Aura about twice the size of a basketball,
radiating terrifying pressure.
Before Aerodactyl could react,
Ash released its neck, then thrust the Aura Sphere forward.
BOOOOOM!!
The Aura Sphere smashed straight into Aerodactyl,
blasting it dozens of meters away and slamming it into the cavern wall.
The entire cave shook again like an earthquake.
Aerodactyl was embedded deep in the stone, eyes rolled back, completely unconscious.
Even in that last instant,
it still hadn't figured out what kind of monster it was dealing with.
Weren't humans supposed to be fragile little creatures
with no physical power to speak of?
[Korrina: A-Aura Sphere?! What the—! Black Ash can use Aura Sphere himself?!]
[Riley: That was definitely Aura Sphere. And not a weak one, either… it's far stronger than the Aura Sphere my Lucario can fire. I wouldn't dare take that head-on. I'd die.]
[Bruno: I'm not exaggerating—if that Aura Sphere hit me, I'd be on my knees begging him to let me live.]
[Lance: If even Bruno says that, then that Aura Sphere is seriously no joke.]
[Bea: "No joke"? It's broken! Among humans, who could fight Black Ash now? If someone beats him in a fair fight, I'll change my surname to Ketchum!]
[Bea: I've trained martial arts for over ten years. I thought even if I hadn't reached the pinnacle, I was close.]
[Bea: After seeing Black Ash… I'm not even close to the foot of the mountain. I haven't even touched the first step.]
Bea was on the verge of an existential crisis.
She'd been convinced she had reached something close to the peak.
Then a single livestream showed her someone who blew the entire concept of "peak" apart.
How many years had Black Ash even been training?
At this rate, he might end up trading blows with Legendary Pokémon someday.
[Ash: Aura Sphere…? That's a move? A Pokémon move?]
[Korrina: Yup. As the name suggests, it's a projectile made of Aura. Because it's infused with Aura, it can actually track its target—so in theory, it never misses.]
[Korrina: Very few Pokémon can learn it. Lucario is the signature Aura Sphere user.]
Ash read Korrina's explanation and his eyes widened.
So his other self could use something like that…
That meant…
he might be able to learn it too.
If he could master Aura Sphere himself…
just imagining that was exciting.
In the dark-screen world—
After blasting Aerodactyl into the wall,
Ash quickly ran over and pulled it free,
then sprayed its body with healing medicine from his bag.
After a while, Aerodactyl slowly opened its eyes.
The first thing it saw was Ash's face—
gentle, a little worried.
Aerodactyl's expression instantly turned into pure terror,
as if it were looking at a ghost.
"Looks like you're okay," Ash said with a smile.
"The battle's over. You lost."
"And according to our deal, that means you'll be my Pokémon from now on. We're partners."
At those words, the fear on Aerodactyl's face eased a little.
That's right… it had lost, fair and square—
crushed by that terrifying Aura Sphere.
When the attack hit, it had felt like all the bones in its body were shattering at once.
If it weren't for its Flying-type resilience,
that one hit might have sent it straight to the afterlife.
"Sorry about that, Aerodactyl—I held back poorly," Ash added, scratching his cheek.
"I've never seriously fought a Pokémon before. I'm still not great at controlling my strength, so I usually avoid going all-out against them."
Charmeleon: …
Aerodactyl: …
"I don't usually fight Pokémon."
Listen to yourself.
What kind of ordinary human says that?!
Who else besides this lunatic would go full-contact against Pokémon like this?
Aerodactyl felt cheated again.
If it had fought Charmeleon, it might've had a chance.
Fighting this human…
It had basically thrown away its only path to victory.
"Rrrr…"
Aerodactyl lowered its head and rubbed Ash's palm gently.
That was its answer:
it acknowledged him.
A loss was a loss.
It had said it would become Ash's Pokémon if it lost, and it would keep that promise.
As an ancient apex predator, it still had its pride.
And honestly… following this Trainer didn't seem like a bad deal at all.
Good food, good care—
and a Trainer strong enough to beat it with his bare hands.
That meant he'd only get stronger under this Trainer's guidance.
"Huh?! You're accepting me? That's awesome! Hahaha!!"
Ash laughed loudly, pulled out a Poké Ball, and tapped it gently against Aerodactyl.
The ball clicked shut without a single shake,
and a crisp chime signaled success.
"I caught Aerodactyl!"
"Raaah…"
Charmeleon let out a weak roar in response.
He hadn't done anything in that fight except provide lighting.
But as a very loyal audience member, he could at least shout a supportive "666" in his heart.
With Aerodactyl caught, Ash started heading back toward the place where Misty and Brock were waiting…
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