"Bang, bang, bang—"
Vance's ghostlike shape went to and fro among the Pokémon; he struck savagely, and every blow carried enormous force.
A minute later every one of the Pokémon that had ringed him lay on the ground in a wretched state.
"Crick, crack—"
With the last of them dealt with, Vance stretched himself, and his joints cracked.
It had been a long time since he had done anything himself. Without his noticing it, his own fighting strength had multiplied so far that among all these Pokémon there was not one that could give him a fight.
Perhaps it was simply that he had grown too strong, and had left these Pokémon a very long way behind.
Vance was an Elite-Four-class Psychic to begin with, and the holder of the Master-class Viridian Power besides; with the two laid one on the other, his constitution and his fighting power had reached an astonishing pitch.
Never mind a few Elite-Four-class Pokémon; let a Near-Champion come at him and Vance could give it a fight.
This was why Gyarados and the others, seeing their Trainer set upon by the enemy's Pokémon, wore such untroubled faces and were not in the least concerned.
For an ordinary Trainer and ordinary Pokémon this would have been very dangerous indeed; but that was the ordinary run of things, and Vance and his Pokémon were not in it.
"Not one of them can fight."
He tossed aside the Pokémon in his hand and clapped the dust off his palms.
Then he had his Trainer's bearing back again. He had fought a good many Pokémon and there was not a mark left on his clothes; it might have been a stroll about a courtyard.
"Vance, I have the two of them held down. It will be over soon. How are things at your end — do you want my help?"
Alakazam's words came at his ear. Vance looked up and saw that it had already crippled the Articuno and had the pair of them well under.
The old Alakazam had lived a long time and its fighting experience was rich; now, strengthened by his Viridian Power, it was restored to its best, and stronger by several degrees than its usual best at that. That it could handle two Legendaries at once was proof enough of what Alakazam was.
"No need. There's no hurry at my end. Holding the balance like this is meant to give them a hard place to fight in."
Vance answered, and explained himself to Alakazam.
From first to last this battle was in Vance's hands. So far from his being taken, he was using the thing as a grand field exercise.
There was no knowing what Elder Vayne and his people, who had put so much preparation into it, would think if they heard.
He was no longer the raw novice of a Trainer he had been then. His eye, his methods, his strength — none of them were what they had been.
Had he really thought he could not win and wanted to run, he would long since have had Alakazam carry him off; why would he stay and tangle with them?
So the battle went on with both sides believing they could win; and by the look of it at present, it was Vance's side that would.
"What do we do? What do we do?"
Once Vance had disposed of the Pokémon that had surrounded him, Gerald Farrow and Wren began to panic, and turned their eyes on Elder Vayne in front of them, asking what was to be done next.
With nothing but this human body of his, the power Vance could put out stood comparison with a Near-Champion's fighting strength.
And now that he had dealt with those Pokémon, the two of them had nothing left in hand to guard them.
They looked across just as Vance looked their way, and he gave them a smile.
To the two of them that smile was Death's own.
If he came for them, they were in danger!
As to whether he would come, he certainly would: set against a Pokémon battle held in the balance, disposing of the Trainers was the easier thing by far.
There were no rules observed here.
Judging another by themselves, in his place they would have done the same!
In an ordinary fight they would send their Pokémon to attack the other side's Trainer, let alone here.
Elder Vayne said nothing; his face was silent.
It was only when Vance came floating towards them that he stirred.
"Clap, clap, clap. Impressive. Impressive indeed."
Elder Vayne was applauding, his voice hoarse and something unaccountable in his eyes as he watched Vance come, as though he wanted to see through the skin of him and find out how he was put together.
"So young a body. I am curious — how did you bring yourself to such a pitch?"
As he spoke his frame straightened, and a powerful presence rose in him.
"Anyone with hands could do it."
Vance grinned, though his look turned careful.
To his senses the threat coming off Elder Vayne was growing fuller and fuller.
That the man had strength enough to threaten him Vance had known long ago; he had noticed it at their first meeting on the Indigo Plateau.
So now, seeing him change, he was not in the least surprised.
"Heh. Anyone with hands could do it?? I came within an inch of death more than once to master this power, and the after-effects of that power have made me what you see — and now you tell me anyone with hands could do it!!"
"Poom—"
Elder Vayne's body burst open, and the aged face and frame of him changed.
Black hair grew out over his skin, several sharp tusks pushed out of his mouth, his features drew long, uncanny black stripes covered him one after another, his ears came to points, and his skin was black in places and green in others.
His body swelled fast as well: from a little old man of about a metre seventy he turned on the spot into a monstrous human thing three metres tall, every part of him altered.
He did not look like a human being at all any more.
"Anyone with hands could do it. Let us see how anyone with hands does it now. You have forced me to act; you may die content."
With that Elder Vayne rose into the air from where he stood and shot at Vance like a cannonball.
By the presence coming off him, he fell no way short of a Near-Champion Pokémon.
"Big words. It isn't only your shape that's changed — your head isn't right either."
Vance was not afraid of him, naturally. He shifted his stance and went up alone to meet him.
"Boom!"
Where the two of them met, the blast of air swept the whole place clear in an instant, and the noise of it was greater than what Aerodactyl and Blaziken were making.
"Impossible. Your power is pure as well."
The two of them held against each other face to face, Elder Vayne's green eyes wide open, saying over and over that it was impossible.
Vance did not answer, but sent wave after wave of energy straight at his head and face.
Impossible, was it. With him it was perfectly possible.
"Bang, bang, bang—"
The battle came over in waves that swept the place as a wind sweeps ragged cloud, and Aerodactyl and Raikou, who had been fighting there, were driven to move elsewhere.
All because the backwash of the two men's fighting was more than the pair of them could well stand.
And so it went: Pokémon fighting Pokémon, and beside them two human beings fighting from the ground into the sky and from the sky back down to the ground, a scene with an order of its own inside the confusion.
Pokémon against Pokémon, and man against man.
Wren and Gerald Farrow looked at each other, feeling all the while that the two of them did not belong here at all.
And besides that — how could a human being be as formidable as this?
"How has the world changed so fast? Is it that I can't keep up?"
Gerald Farrow said it with feeling, after a look at the two fighting off in the distance and another at Gyarados and the rest in all their ferocious strength.
He had thought that once he rose to Near-Champion the world would be wide open to him; instead, here, he had been shown again what genius meant.
The proud, self-satisfied spirit in him had gone out of him under blow after blow.
What was left was fear and unease.
Because they had raised their hands against this genius; and, what mattered most, they were by no means sure of beating him.
It was as well that Elder Vayne had come up to the mark and cut loose too, letting out a great power and going straight at the man.
"Bang—"
Just as he was thinking it, a figure came flying towards them.
A hard look showed it to be Elder Vayne in his monstrous shape, green eyes and all, with scarlet blood running out at the corner of that tusked mouth.
He was hurt?
The two of them were appalled. Elder Vayne was as formidable as that, and still no match for this young man?
"Cough, cough—"
Elder Vayne coughed up some blood, and his body shook as he bent over.
"You......"
"Go on, then. Strike."
He had only just opened his mouth; Vance gave him no chance, and a huge wave of light came crashing at his face.
Elder Vayne's eyes started from his head, and he could only get his arms up to block.
A rush of blood-force burst up in him, his presence climbed sharply, and he turned himself into a streak of blood-red that drove straight into it, blasting through one layer after another until he was in front of Vance.
His hands became claws, and he raked straight at him.