At the standard of level 60, by the weight of presence it gave off, it was already not much behind some Elite-Four-class Pokémon.
"Giga Impact!"
The Giga Impact came down on the ground. Raikou did not take it head-on but turned aside out of the way, and then wave after wave of lightning rushed out and collided with that supersonic wave, with a great crash of sound.
"Roar, roar—"
The Aerodactyl flew out of the ball of smoke, both wings full of the sheen of steel, folding them in and beating them hard.
"Electro Ball!"
A dozen and more balls of electricity gathered themselves and all rushed at it together.
It dodged left and right, and still three of the balls came smashing in at its face.
"Boom—"
The Electro Balls thundered into the ground, and the Aerodactyl's position had already jumped forward to right in front of Raikou. A Teleport.
That piece of work was Vance's doing, naturally.
"Raikou, Thunder!"
The black cloud in the sky rolled over, and lightning came down, and the place it came down on was the patch of ground where Raikou stood.
The Aerodactyl had no choice but to fall back, vanishing from where it was.
When it appeared again a Rock Slide came smashing in, and while Raikou was striking back the Aerodactyl's figure, borrowing Vance's power, went Teleporting about the field at will.
"This is a nuisance."
Wren's brows drew together. More than ten exchanges had gone by in no time and he had still not taken this Aerodactyl down, and that record made him wild with irritation.
At this rate it could not be called beating the other side cleanly, and how was he to prove his strength that way?
Raikou against Aerodactyl, with the type advantage besides, and still it could not be taken down. With Vance's Teleport behind it the Aerodactyl could avoid a great many attacks, and it had Elite-Four standard of its own on top of that, so that for the moment Raikou could not finish it.
The look he turned on Vance had a coldness in it now.
An opportunist, a cheat, using a Psychic's Teleport to damage his good name!
If attacking a Trainer had not been forbidden on the field, he would have liked to do it.
"Bang—"
Raikou's figure was buried under jagged stone; the light of electricity flared, and the rock turned to fragments in an instant, and Raikou walked slowly out.
"Rock Tomb!"
Face after face of hard, enormous rock rose out of the ground and sealed it in, and the next moment Raikou broke out of them again.
That, too, was a thing Vance had foreseen.
At the moment it showed itself, the Aerodactyl's Hyper Beam came down on it at the same time.
"Boooom—"
A cloud of black smoke covered the field.
"Roar, roar—"
Out of the black smoke came Raikou's low, heavy roar, and a terrible presence broke out all at once; from the black cloud in the sky bolt after bolt of lightning slashed down, far past the earlier ones in scale and in force alike.
Vance knew it. This Raikou and Wren had both been made angry.
And so it was. To Wren's mind this had been a match to walk straight through, and it had come to this instead.
His standing in the minds of the crowd was bound to suffer for it.
Lightning poured down in a frenzy and covered the whole field.
Even with Vance's help, the Aerodactyl took several of the attacks.
"Fight with everything you have. Take hold of the power of the surroundings and shut his psychic power out."
Wren gave the order.
Raikou did as it was told, and under the full play of its power the field became a lightning zone, wild, blazing thunder filling every part of it.
The power of the Electric type seethed and would not be still, and the magnetic field of force through that area was stirred up and turned unstable.
But that psychic power which belonged to Vance was there throughout, and Raikou's Electric-type interference could not do a thing against it.
While Raikou was pounding at the Aerodactyl with all it had, the Aerodactyl came in front of it again, raised a shockwave and drove forward.
"Roar, roar—"
Raikou saw it too, gathered its power into a point and sent it thundering ahead.
Just then the Aerodactyl's figure vanished once more, appeared behind it, and struck it without the smallest error.
Raikou was knocked clean off its feet and came down seven or eight metres away.
"There's a great deal to be said for being a Psychic. His tactics are very flexible, too. Only with an Aerodactyl I fear he still cannot take that Raikou down."
Aurelian gave his verdict.
Aurelian and Elspeth, both beaten by Wren, were watching the fight on the field as well.
"That Vance's psychic power has its limits too, and the Aerodactyl's attacking force is not enough, it can't move Raikou. If it catches an opening, it will very likely take him out in one wave."
Aurelian explained it again, and yet for all that there was approval on his face; to fight it out this far was not bad at all.
"And this Vance has two abilities in him. It really is enviable."
Elspeth spoke up.
"It is. Psychic power, the Viridian Power — which of them isn't first-rate? A pity, though, he isn't very strong yet. If he were Elite-Four-class......"
He got that far and then went dumb.
He stared blankly at the field, disbelief all over his face, with the look of a man who has seen a ghost.
Because the strong ripple of power Vance had let show was the presence of Elite-Four-class!!
There was no possibility that he had felt it wrongly. Only an Elite-Four-class psychic power carried that kind of weight.
"An Elite-Four-class psychic presence — heavens, how has he done it?"
Elspeth was as shaken by it as he was.
The same age, and the man had already broken through to Elite-Four-class, and had not fallen behind in raising his Pokémon either.
What sort of freak was this?
For the first time she felt the distance there could be between one person and another.
Were there really people born gifted beyond others? And did she belong to that "ordinary" kind?
All her life she had been the child other parents held up as an example, with gifts and ability far beyond others of her age, a prodigy herself.
Set against him now, he was the prodigy and she was the ordinary one.
Just as she was when set against those others.
"Quite remarkable. To think the young people of today have someone so fine among them."
Agatha said it with a chuckle, in a kindly tone.
"They have. It is only a question of time; their catching us up is bound to come sooner or later. It makes me ashamed of myself."
Lorelei took up the thread.
Lance, unexpectedly, did not contradict her for once, but nodded with agreement all over his face.
He hoped as well that this Trainer Vance would beat Wren.
The others, Steven and Cynthia among them, all gave him high praise too.
So young, and already at the level of an Elite-Four-class Psychic — that was enough, enough to earn their praise.
This was nothing like Wren, whose strength was cobbled together out of those Legendary Pokémon.
Wren, facing Vance across the field, was dazed as well.
What Vance had just done had shaken him quite enough; this familiar sensation was one he was on the receiving end of this time.
That Vance was a Psychic he knew. That he had both the Viridian Power and psychic power gathered in the one man, he knew that too.
What he had not known was that the man was an Elite-Four-class Psychic!
Because the thing was beyond belief, he had never turned his thoughts that way.
And it was the same for everyone else.
At that age, Gym-class already made you a prodigy.
People would not think of it without meaning to.
So the shock it brought can well be imagined.
"Roar, roar. Hit it, boss, hit it."
The Aerodactyl flapped its charred black wings in excitement. Vance's move just now had been to protect it.
Raikou's attacks came too hard and too fast; even with a Teleport to help, it still took hits.
The blackened, burnt marks on its body had been left just then, and it was because things had been going badly for it that Vance had chosen to act.
"Roar, roar—"
The Aerodactyl stood on the ground. Its wings were hurt and flying was very uncomfortable, so it simply stopped flying.
On the ground it used the rest of its moves — Rock Slide, Ancient Power, Stone Edge — hurling the lot of them at Raikou.
"Wild Charge."
Raikou came charging straight in, its target the Aerodactyl on the ground; and Vance, hemmed in as he was, could not take the field in his own person and could only fight with psychic power, unable to bring out his full strength, unable to hold down a Raikou fighting at full strength.
So he could only move the Aerodactyl from one place to another, several times over.
After all that trouble, he still took the Aerodactyl back. This time he conceded of his own accord.
The first exchange ended with his defeat.
If it went on any longer, the Aerodactyl's condition would only keep sinking, and Raikou was no ordinary Pokémon and not easy to handle.
Even with Vance's assistance, certain restrictions meant he could not take the field in his own person and go all out; and besides, he had to think about the Darkrai he would be facing shortly and could not put all his strength into this.
So he brought the Aerodactyl off the field. The rest he would leave to his companions.
In this new team of his, the other lads were no worse than the Aerodactyl.
"Slaking, it's over to you."
The Poké Ball was thrown, and Slaking's great burly shape appeared on the field.
Only just now there was not the least trace of weary idleness on its face; it was full of energy instead.
It raised its fists and made a few motions at Raikou.
A Legendary Pokémon, was it?
How many of its punches could it stand?
Thinking that, its heart beat faster, and the will to fight in its eyes grew hot by degrees; on its body a terrible force of presence appeared all at once, and Raikou was the first to react, looking at it gravely.
This Slaking was dangerous!