Chapter 299: The Halo Shatters

The single-headed dragon certainly couldn't see the fireworks.

But just from the sound alone it could tell the move hadn't landed, let alone with its trainer's reminder.

After a simple assessment, Baimu decided not to engage Piplup in long-range combat—this little penguin was far too shameless at range.

In the anime, it had relied on ranged strikes and plot armor to pull off several come-from-behind victories.

"Dragon Rush!"

"Mo nao!"

The single-headed dragon let out a fierce low roar, its head enveloped in azure light as tremendous energy rapidly spread across its whole body, transforming into a giant, clawing dragon's head as it charged forward.

The wind howled like a dragon's wrath, and even a battle-hardened Piplup couldn't help being startled.

But its counterattack came swiftly.

"Whirlpool!"

"Po ja—ma!"

Piplup raised its little wings to create an enormous pale-blue water vortex, then hurled it fiercely at the single-headed dragon!

In an instant—

Boom!

The single-headed dragon, wrapped in the dragon's head, charged into the Whirlpool, where the powerful twisting force and surging currents continuously wore down its power.

It could be swept away at any moment.

"Break through it! You can do it!"

Baimu shouted at the top of his lungs, and the single-headed dragon let out a hoarse cry in response. The dragon flames clinging to its body burned fiercer alongside its soaring fighting spirit, and the energy dragon's head, which had kept its jaws shut tight, suddenly wrenched them open!

"Roar—!

"

Water mingled with dragon-type energy, and a true thunderous roar rang out!

Finally—

The single-headed dragon, through its own strength alone, broke free of the water's cage and, riding the clawing giant dragon's head, successfully closed in on Piplup.

But the latter had long been waiting for it.

"Ice Beam!"

"Po ja!"

Under Xiaoguang's command, Piplup swiftly fired an icy-blue bolt of lightning at the single-headed dragon. The latter charged in without the slightest fear, and dragon-type energy clashed with ice-type energy in an instant!

Peng!

A hazy white mist, carrying countless shimmering pale-blue sparks, blasted outward in all directions.

Piplup had assumed the single-headed dragon would be forced back by that, but to its surprise, the dragon burst out from within, its fighting spirit soaring as it rushed right up to its face.

"Thunder Fang!"

"Drill Peck!"

Baimu and Xiaoguang gave their orders almost simultaneously!

"Mo nao!" "Po ja!"

The single-headed dragon and Piplup cried out in unison as well—the former's mouth crackling with lightning, the latter's beak instantly elongating into a cone, its body involuntarily turning into a little spinning top!

Sizzle—Peng!

Thunder and lightning!

Clouds of dust churned up from the explosion of elemental energy. Clearly, this time Piplup hadn't managed to keep the blast's power in check enough to turn it into mere fireworks.

That alone was proof enough that the single-headed dragon had pushed it to a certain limit.

"That's enough!"

Seeing there was still going to be action in the smoke—

Baimu called out at once.

Then—

The smoke from the explosion slowly dispersed, revealing the single-headed dragon sprawled on the ground, tongue lolling and panting hard, and Piplup, equally panting but clearly in much better shape.

Which one had the upper hand was obvious at a glance.

"You've still got room to grow." Baimu stepped forward and patted the single-headed dragon on the head.

Although it hadn't ultimately gained the upper hand, he was already pleasantly surprised that it had broken through Piplup's Whirlpool—that move was, after all, the one its opponent used best.

Just like Bubble Beam, it had remained a mainstay in both Contests and battles.

He opened his phone, and sure enough, the single-headed dragon had gained a level—perhaps the biggest difference between the games and the anime was that even without defeating an opponent, energy levels could still grow, and daily training produced roughly similar effects.

Evolution wasn't far off.

On the other side—

Xiaoguang also praised Piplup, which made the latter a bit full of itself. It puffed out its chest and used its peripheral vision to glance at Mawile, hoping to receive an adoring look from its "goddess."

And Mawile really was looking at it, which made Piplup quite happy—except the look in its eyes... seemed a little strange?

Within that thoroughly interested expression, was there perhaps a hint of fighting spirit mixed in?

Piplup hoped it was seeing things.

But soon—

As Baimu's other Pokémon began battling Xiaoguang—especially once Mawile took the field in person—Piplup gradually realized it hadn't been seeing things.

The "goddess" was way too violent!

Piplup stared in shock as Mawile pummeled Peng Peng wildly on top of an Ivory's massive body—the latter's huge frame hadn't been an advantage at all, but had instead turned it into an enlarged meat target!

"Po... ja..."

It goggled its eyes, and when it saw Bitey swing its massive jaws and slam the Ivory Pig into the ground, its little heart trembled along with the shaking of the earth.

So focused was it that it didn't even hear All Baimu send it out to battle Bouffalant, forcing him to send Pachirisu instead, trying to exploit the size advantage.

But Bouffalant had plenty of experience dealing with small-bodied opponents, mostly learned from battling Chansey — two Sand Tomb chained together instantly sealed off every escape route for Pachirisu.

After the bout, Pachirisu was so frustrated it kept licking its own tail.

Then there was Chansey — although it didn't know any offensive moves, its opponent was Wigglytuff, and by leveraging its excellent Special Defense and the fact that the opponent lacked Heal Bell, it tormented Wigglytuff badly with Toxic.

"As I thought, I really should learn more moves."

All Baimu realized that sometimes one trick alone doesn't eat through the whole world.

Then there was the Galarian Corsola versus Togekiss — since the latter's physical Attack was on the low side, it couldn't suck back the lost stamina with Drain, and it lost regrettably.

For the final Fire Mouse, All Baimu had originally planned to send Steelix to handle it, but on second thought decided to give Porygon a chance.

Win or lose wasn't the point.

It was a practice match to begin with — the kind where neither side tries to knock the opponent out cold.

The key thing was, with Porygon on the field and Steelix sitting out, how awkward would it be for a newly-met teammate to have battled while he himself didn't?

So Porygon went in.

And lost very smoothly.

All Baimu isn't like Ash — over all these years she never swapped out her Pokémon, still fighting with the same six all along. Even so, the combat experience she'd accumulated long-term from her dedicated pursuit of the Contest circuit, plus occasional flashes of brilliance like Ash's, was enough to give her no small amount of fighting strength.

In All Baimu's view, All Baimu's strength was roughly on par with a slightly ordinary new-generation Gym Leader — for instance, Kanto's Jasmine, Hoenn's Winona, Sinnoh's Maylene, Unova's Cilan, and so on.

Especially Piplup.

After battling Dreepy and then having another match against Steelix, it actually suppressed the latter as well — its strength really was no joke.

If Bouffalant didn't still need to practice Heavy Slam afterward, and Piplup was admittedly worn out despite holding the upper hand, he would absolutely have made it have a proper fight with Piplup.

And based on his overall assessment, if it were a full six-on-six fought with complete combat as the goal, beating All Baimu shouldn't be difficult — after all, Bouffalant, Bitey, and Steelix were overpowered in terms of combat strength, all of it accumulated through several brushes with death.

Chansey's Toxic and its shrinking-dodge ability were also disgusting enough.

But such idle fantasy really had no meaning — it had a whiff of a mental victory — so he waved a hand and let it drift away.

After that came move practice.

He didn't know if it had anything to do with the earlier battles, but Bitey gave him a small surprise that, while expected, was still worthy of the name —

It had learned Swords Dance.