Chapter 325: Total Victory

At the moment he was blasted away by the shockwave of the explosion.

All Baimu's right hand had already opened the Poké Ball; under a flash of silver light a massive shadow leapt out, carrying his body past the flying streams of lava and landing with a boom against the rock face beside them.

"Roar~"

Steelix swung its tail, slowly rotating its horizontal steel body, its copper-red eyes sweeping across the smoke-choked battlefield and the scattered fragments of lava that had turned black but still glimmered with embers.

Calling me over in such a rush, saying it was to deal with some powerful wild Pokémon…

What wild Pokémon is this terrifying?

"Blow away the smoke and find Mawile!"

Baimu used the force of the rotating horizontal steel body to climb onto Steelix's head, speaking with some effort.

He took several deep, ragged breaths and stripped off his already tattered coat; only when Steelix accelerated the rotation of its steel body and scattered the rolling dust of the nearby gravel path did his breathing finally steady.

The original gravel path was already gone.

In its place was a semicircular deep crater, with the restored Camerupt collapsed at its center, smoke rising from its entire body… especially from its mouth and the two pseudo-volcanoes on its back.

Lingdian.

Captain Huoyan remained where she was, showing no injuries apart from a little ash on her body.

Clearly the clothes she wore had softened the impact of the massive explosion to the greatest extent possible — that bit of black technology was truly enviable.

"Good work…"

Seeing Captain Huoyan recall Camerupt and about to send out Houndoom in turn, Baimu's heart tightened slightly.

Mawile… found.

He spotted its figure behind a toppled great tree; judging from its massive jaws completely coated in dark grey ash, it had most likely used them to block the explosion at the last critical moment, which was indeed far better than taking the blast head-on with its body.

"Are you okay!"

To confirm its condition, Baimu shouted from a distance.

"Chee, chee-doh!"

Hearing its trainer's voice, Mawile quickly responded.

Fortunately, as a Steel-type Pokémon, it not only had respectable physical defense but also resistance to Normal-type moves, so the power of the explosion was somewhat discounted against it.

By comparison.

As the trainer, he was actually the more disheveled one.

Luckily his constitution was decent, and the raw materials of this outfit contained shock-absorbing components, reducing the damage his body took. So although he had been very close to the explosion, Baimu hadn't suffered much harm.

Furthermore, although Self-Destruct clearly wasn't a STAB move for Mega Camerupt, its power felt as though it surpassed Flamethrower and Earth Power.

Why?

Was it because the energy hadn't dispersed but gathered to a single point before detonating?

Speaking of which, Hyper Beam is also a Normal-type ultimate move, and it too often produces extraordinary destructive power.

Baimu watched Houndoom land, but no Stealth Rock appeared to blow it up — a look of disappointment crossed his face.

What a shame.

The Stealth Rock originally scattered across the gravel path had presumably been blown away by the explosion.

After all, that thing is only invisible, not truly vanished into another dimension; with the explosion's range so vast, there was simply no way for it to remain.

"Roar…"

Captain Huoyan's command made Baimu pause in surprise for a moment.

A forced switch at a time like this? Shouldn't she press the advantage and take down the weakened Mawile?

He pondered in his heart while hurriedly calling out:

"Baton Pass!"

"Roar——!"

The command and the sound wave from Houndoom's mouth surged toward Mawile together; the latter immediately raised its right fist, attempting to pass down the remaining boost effects on its body!

In an instant.

Mawile turned into a streak of white light.

The Poké Ball in Baimu's other hand opened, and Aggron returned to the ground.

When the red glow of stat boosts appeared, he felt a measure of relief.

It inherited them!

In the end Mawile's Baton Pass was a step faster than Houndoom's Roar — at this point things were basically settled.

Seeing Houndoom's pained expression and the purple bubbles at the corner of its mouth, he felt somewhat reassured.

"Roar…"

Aggron looked at the opponent it faced for the second time, white smoke puffing from its mouth.

The Toxic status made Houndoom's head droop, but upon seeing Aggron it still grit its teeth and let out a low growl, forcibly triggering its Intimidate ability on its own to lower the opponent's Attack as much as possible.

Roar didn't succeed, so she deliberately saved Intimidate to lower Attack?

Having it voluntarily activate like that is really hard to deal with.

Baimu jumped onto a nearby rock and recalled Steelix.

Houndoom had already given its all, but unfortunately it couldn't intimidate Aggron to begin with, and now the intimidation effect was further diminished — it barely had any impact at all.

Of course.

Aggron didn't underestimate Houndoom either.

Having often come back from desperate situations, it knew exactly how much power a Pokémon could unleash at the brink of defeat — so what it needed to do could be summed up in two words: "play it safe."

Give Houndoom no chance at a comeback!

"Sand Tomb!"

"Pursuit…"

"Roar!"

Aggron's right claw slammed the ground, kicking up a huge cloud of dust that blew toward Houndoom!

"Ao!"

Houndoom got a slightly slower start, but its speed was far greater than the former's; like an afterimage, it flashed through the raging sandstorm and in an instant circled behind Aggron to lash out with its claws.

Boom!

A puff of smoke burst open.

Pursuit hit!

But just as Houndoom was about to retreat backward, Aggron's tail swung like a nimble long snake, and as if it had eyes of its own, it swiftly coiled around Houndoom.

The latter had not at all expected that thick, sturdy tail to be so agile.

Little did it know this was entirely a flaw All Baimu had deliberately let Aggron show, all to lure Houndoom close so he could seize this nimble fellow.

"Whine!"

Houndoom tried to struggle, but in its badly poisoned state, how could it still have such strong spirit?

"Roar…"

Aggron turned its head; its ferocious face and deep-blue eyes formed an invisible pressure, making the latter, weak in stamina, tremble within.

"Iron Tail!"

"Roar!"

It violently swung its gleaming silver great tail—two consecutive hits from behind had landed, how could it possibly let you walk away so easily!

Boom!

Gravel flew in all directions; Houndoom's body slammed heavily onto the ground!

After the drifting dust cleared, it had already fainted; with its tongue lolling out, quite a few purple bubbles also slowly drifted out.

"Roar!

Aggron raised its head and let out a victorious great roar.

All Baimu finally let out a long breath; the three-on-three wilderness match against Magma Team executive Captain Huoyan ended with his one-sided complete victory.

The opponent certainly possessed the power of Mega Evolution, yet failed to expand that advantage—its moves were limited to making each technique as powerful as possible, and there was basically no synergy among the three Pokémon…

Was it because Crobat was taken down too quickly?

In any case, Mega Camerupt is very frightening; it's just that Captain Huoyan still cannot bring out its full strength one hundred percent.

All Baimu looked at this Magma Team executive, having expected that she would show at least a little frustration on her face, but the result was that not only was she not dejected, she was smiling?

Him: "?"