"It's broken through!"
Slaking's breakthrough, to tell the truth, took Vance by surprise; he had never thought it could break through to Elite-Four just then.
Still, it had succeeded, and Vance was glad for it.
With everything it had built up, its fighting strength had reached Elite-Four-class long ago, and the tempering of the energy in its body had long since met the Elite-Four standard as well.
And it was the first Elite-Four-class Pokémon in the team besides.
"Ding. The achievement mission of reaching Elite-Four-class Trainer has been fulfilled. Reward granted."
At the moment Slaking entered Elite-Four-class, the long-unheard voice of the system sounded in his ear as well.
Entering Elite-Four-class had also completed an achievement — Elite-Four-class Trainer!
"Elite-Four-class, then."
Vance said it with a laugh and chose at once to open the reward, rather looking forward to what the system would give him this time.
Though as things stood now, there did not seem to be much that he needed.
"Ding. You have obtained the Master-class Viridian Power!"
"The Master-class Viridian Power!"
This time the system's reward was a rich one indeed, and he chose to claim it on the spot.
"Claim."
The system's pouring in of energy was silent and without a sign; within that one second the Master-class Viridian Power had been transferred across in full.
Every method of using the Viridian Power, every trick and technique, the whole body of knowledge of it, was delivered into his mind.
From the outside there was nothing to be seen or heard of it either.
Only Vance felt how he differed from what he had been.
With the Master-class Viridian Power settled on him, the sheer vastness of its energy was more than a hundred times what it had been before.
Vance felt that with a life force as mighty as this in him, living two hundred years would be no trouble at all — and living them still in a young man's condition, at that.
And the strengthening, healing and raising that came with the Viridian Power would naturally reach effects beyond anything before.
It went without saying: his hidden cards were up by one.
And a heavyweight of a hidden card at that.
"Roar—"
Slaking felt something out of the ordinary and looked back.
It saw Vance still as he had been, but his presence was no longer the same — deeper drawn in now, giving nothing away.
Still, his boss seemed to have changed again, and that ought to be a good thing.
It drew its attention back and put its eyes on this Raikou.
Deal with this Raikou first, and talk afterwards.
Vance put his own mind in order too and went on with the fight.
Now that Slaking had broken through to Elite-Four, what wanted dealing with at present was Raikou; before the breakthrough Vance had thought it no great difficulty, and after breaking through to Elite-Four-class, Slaking would naturally find it easier still.
As for the Master-class Viridian Power he had just obtained — to tell the truth, there was no use for it yet.
No use for it against this Raikou, at any rate.
With Slaking in its present condition, that was answer enough.
"Slaking, Focus Punch!"
Vance gave the order.
"Raikou, Raikou, Zap Cannon!"
Seeing Slaking on the move again, Wren said it hurriedly.
Facing this Slaking put him under more pressure than facing Aurelian's Pokémon had.
They were two different kinds of feeling.
Against Aurelian he had been sure of himself; even with a pseudo-legendary on the other side it made no odds. The Slaking in front of him now was a thing he could not get the measure of at all.
Before it had even broken through, the bursts of power out of it were absurd — a single punch had very nearly blown Raikou's head open. Now it had broken through and was stronger than before, and what would come of it was harder still to foresee.
The Electric-type power all around was drawn away by Raikou and gathered into it, to bring out a Zap Cannon at its greatest force!
"Whoosh—"
The Zap Cannon came straight in, and Slaking raised its fist, a bright white light breaking out on it, and without dodging or avoiding anything swung it right at the Zap Cannon.
"Roar—"
One great roar, and the Zap Cannon that had come on like a beam of light shattered in an instant, broken scraps of electric light drifting away, while the force of Slaking's Focus Punch shook through the air and carried on towards Raikou.
That galloping fist-force showed as transparent ripples in the air, with the sound of a sonic boom behind it.
"Raikou, Reflect!"
"Crack—"
There was a sound like something breaking, and that defence was broken through.
"Extreme Speed!"
At the last Raikou, trailing electric light, shifted from where it stood, and the next moment cracks like fine threads of spiderweb appeared all at once in the place it had been, forming a pit some ten metres across.
"Still not resting!!"
After Raikou had dodged, Wren thought his chance had come, that it was his turn to counter-attack — and then Slaking did not lie down and rest at all, but stood on the ground as before, both eyes fixed on the Raikou that had shifted position with Extreme Speed, fists clenched, ready to move at any moment.
How many times had it struck out already, and it still would not rest. Was this the idle Slaking at all?
"Slaking, keep on."
Vance's cool, clear voice came again at Slaking's ear.
Slaking moved once more, its figure like a ghost's, showing and vanishing by turns; and the terrible part of it was that the bursts of power out of it were still enormous.
Wren's nerves were drawn tight, and he was throwing out every method he had to answer it.
"Bang—"
Raikou dropped to the ground, got up again quickly, and turned itself into lightning to go on grappling with Slaking.
On the field the situation between the two Pokémon had reversed: the Raikou everyone had pinned such hopes on was actually being chased about and beaten by a Slaking.
The people were all dazed, and doubted whether they were seeing it wrongly.
What in the world was this?
A Slaking, an ordinary kind of Pokémon, a Pokémon not even the equal of a starter or a pseudo-legendary for rarity, was now chasing a Legendary Pokémon about and beating it?
How had the world turned so fantastical? They rubbed their eyes — no, it was right enough: a Slaking chasing a Legendary Pokémon about and beating it.
A fist went out, and Raikou dodged this way and that and still could not get clear of it, and was knocked to the ground.
"Am I imagining it? Is this real?"
Someone put the question. Was it true or was it not?
"This Slaking is well over the limit."
"Might it be on something? Oh, right, I think the tournament allows that. Nothing in it, then."
"Does it have to be this absurd? A proper Legendary Pokémon, beaten about like that by a Slaking — is that allowed?"
The situation on the field had reversed, gone away from the scene people had imagined. This was not the right script.
Raikou should have beaten Slaking cleanly and had it carried off, and at the very most Vance would beat Raikou after a hard, struggling effort.
That was the direction the story ought to have gone in.
Had it not gone exactly so with Aurelian and Elspeth?
How was it that when it came to you, Vance, the whole style of the thing turned out different?
Did he have any idea that they had gone all in, every penny they owned, on Wren?
Still, a Legendary Pokémon was a Legendary Pokémon, and could take a beating better than an ordinary Pokémon; in no time the Slaking that had broken through had traded more than ten exchanges with Raikou, and the Raikou was on the field throughout, fighting bitterly.
Its state was a sorry one, to be sure, fist-marks all over it and one of its teeth broken off, but it still had strength enough left to tangle with Slaking.
"Come on, Raikou, you can do it, get up!"
Knocked down once more, the spectators below called out one after another, cheering Raikou on.
The crowd simply could not accept it; but that was the reality of it and nothing could be done, and with every penny they owned staked on it, all they could do was cheer for it.
That cheering had been meant for Slaking to begin with, and now it was being spent on Raikou.
No matter, though. So long as it got used.
In no time the level of the spectators' hopes had changed as well.
From a crushing win at the start to an even match, and now to holding on.
"Raikou, you hold on, curse it, I've got every penny I own on you, come on, knock that Slaking down!!"
"Bang—"
Slaking appeared again, drove out its fist, broke the defensive power apart, reached the body itself and blew it through the air.
Then it showed itself in mid-air, fist braced, and drove Raikou straight down at the ground.
"Boom—"
The ground shook several times over, and even the spectators felt it.
"Roar, roar—"
Slaking walked slowly out of the dust and smoke, and in the great pit behind it lay a Raikou that had already lost consciousness.
"Raikou is unable to battle. Slaking wins!"