Chapter 705: The Transforming Devil

"Dodge, now!!"

The fierce howling of the dust still could not drown out Zhengyi's shout.

The Scorpion King stared at the cold-eyed Porygon-II, its golden pupils shrinking abruptly to pinpoints. The fangs biting into its opponent loosened, and the bat-wings on its back swiftly shifted position, planning to borrow the wind that was gathering the sand and gravel back into this clearing to escape.

It was a Pokémon reputed to be able to circle the globe on even a mere breeze.

Yet as a Pokémon that relied on gliding flight, the speed of its withdrawal was, in the end, no match for those bird Pokémon whose wings could flap.

Moreover, Porygon-II's reaction speed was not so slow that, with the two so close, the other could still get away.

There is a difference between dodging and dodging!

"Pory!"

An icy-blue lightning bolt shot out from the tip of the oval tail; the light of extreme cold seemed as though it would freeze even the air along its path, and the swirling sand and gravel had long since turned snow-white, as if a sandstorm had become a blizzard.

It couldn't dodge!

The instant the Scorpion King folded its bat-wings and dove downward, Zhengyi understood that the Ice Beam would inevitably land on it.

"Roost…"

Squeak—BANG!!

After a teeth-grinding, shrill, low whine, a clump of bone-chilling white mist suddenly exploded in midair, sending a shudder through many of the onlookers.

Immediately after.

The Scorpion King, transformed into a massive block of ice, plummeted down from the wispy white mist, slammed into the ground with a thud, and shattered into a great many ice fragments.

Four-times weakness to Ice and a direct hit to boot—the Scorpion King's chances looked grim.

The juice vendor sighed. Although the sandstorm had kept him from seeing the specific changes inside the field too clearly, he also felt that the Scorpion King recklessly closing in on Porygon-II to launch a fierce attack was a brave but brainless move.

Baimu had clearly calculated for exactly this!

A wide-range Discharge to shatter the Double Team, tanking a Thunder Fang head-on to confirm the real body's location, then retaliating at close range with an Ice Beam.

Compared to Sandslash, whose claws had a limited reach, that Pokémon called Porygon-II could fire an Ice Beam across ten meters without breaking a sweat!

A great name carries no idle reputation.

Mr. Zhengyi simply could not handle Baimu's strength at all!

The vendor had thought this would be a clash of dragons and tigers—

Huh!?

The corner of his eye suddenly caught a pure-white feather. A feather? Neither the Scorpion King nor Porygon-II were furry Pokémon, were they?

"It's Roost! The Scorpion King hasn't lost its fighting ability yet!"

"Damn, it actually held on!"

"The duration of the Frozen status is so short! How the hell do I never get this kind of luck!"

The situation was so bizarre that someone blurted out vulgar language.

A pure-white feather materialized out of thin air and drifted toward the Scorpion King inside the ice block; a glimmering green light reverberated within, and in an instant the hard ice cracked, the crackling sounds impossible to conceal even through the wind and sand.

Crack!

"Raoh!"

The Scorpion King roared as it spread its bat-wings and flew into the sky, crossing paths with Porygon-II's second Ice Beam.

Zhengyi laughed heartily: "Nicely done, Scorpion King!"

"Not bad."

Even Baimu could not help but offer a word of praise.

But the reason for his praise had nothing to do with the Scorpion King's absurd durability—it was what had happened at the very instant the Ice Beam landed.

As is common knowledge, the prerequisite for using Roost is landing on the ground, folding one's wings, and resting.

So can Roost be used without having fallen to the ground?

The answer is yes.

The key point of Roost lies in resting, not in the rather vague, arguable elements like falling to the "ground" or folding one's "wings."

Pokémon are, to a certain extent, idealistic beings; even without landing anywhere, as long as they perform the action corresponding to resting, they can successfully use Roost.

On the other hand.

The effect of Roost is to lose the Flying type one possesses, in exchange for recovery of stamina.

Another question arises.

Does Roost restore stamina first, or lose the Flying type first?

Any trainer who has used it knows it is the latter.

So the situation just now was clear at a glance.

At the same moment the Scorpion King was hit by the Ice Beam, it folded its bat-wings and maintained a resting state, thereby using Roost and sacrificing its own Flying type.

With one fewer type it is weak to, its durability was raised in a side-on sense.

Although the unexpected Frozen status nearly caused it to crash, the holy feather formed from Flying-type energy ultimately appeared.

It successfully rode the momentum to break free.

"Double Team!" Zhengyi shouted for the second time.

"Raoh!"

The Scorpion King answered loudly, and countless trembling afterimages materialized beside it, turning into Scorpion Kings identical to itself.

They hid within the sandstorm, once again becoming black shadows flitting back and forth.

A repeat of the old trick?

The onlookers buzzed with discussion.

In the view of some, the Scorpion King had already suffered for it once and had nearly failed to take off; surely it should switch to a more reliable tactic, right?

Others believed that the Scyther King, upon losing its Flying type, could not be defeated in one hit by Porygon2, as it could fully recover its stamina through Roost, meaning the Scyther King intended to accumulate damage through this tactic.

After all, the frozen state doesn't always appear, and the Reflect Wall will eventually vanish.

Outside the arena, voices clashed continuously; inside, Baimu's gaze ran deep as he shouted:

"Angularize!"

"Pali!"

In midair, Polygar II swiftly shifted form within a flash of Bai Guang, transforming in an instant from a toy duck into a long, rod-like shape.

Polygar!?

The onlookers, forgetting their argument, stared dumbfounded at the rod-shaped Polygar II.

The Scyther King was also startled, but its trainer Zhengyi, having previously gathered relevant data, remained calm.

"Charge and strike again!"

Zhengyi shouted.

Amid the sandstorm, countless Scyther King clones moved in unison, charging at Polygar II from multiple directions, their motions identical to the previous round.

Baimu gave the same command: "Discharge."

This time, no one was surprised; everyone understood that Discharge was used because its attack range at a single moment was wide enough to scatter most shadow clones, exposing the Scyther King's true body.

Zii!

The surging current tore apart numerous approaching Scyther King clones, leaving only the true Scyther King at a distance; the electricity struck it but left no mark.

A flash of excitement crossed Zhengyi's face as he suddenly roared:

"Now! Guillotine Clamp!"

"Laiwo!"

The Scyther King suddenly opened its right claw, a blinding flash of Bai Guang enveloping the claw as terrifying energy radiated from within.

【Guillotine Clamp】— a one-hit kill move!

It shot forward to clamp the rod-shaped Polygar II; many onlookers couldn't help screaming in shock!

At that exact moment—

The middle of the rod-shaped Polygar II suddenly bent, curving like a slippery eel into a deep arc, causing the Scyther King's right claw to miss!

"Laiwo!"

The Scyther King, stunned, instinctively swung its left claw even faster.

This time, Polygar II could not dodge.

But it didn't need to.

After a flash of Bai Guang, its entire body turned a deep purple-black, yet upon closer look, seemed faintly illusory and eerie.

The Scyther King's left claw passed straight through its body—click—it snapped shut, grasping nothing.

Ghost type!

The Scyther King froze in shock.

Zhengyi gnashed his teeth in fury: "Angularize!! Texture!! Trick Room!!"

Undoubtedly—

The Scyther King could actually use Guillotine Clamp with both claws, but deliberately revealed only one to mislead the opponent's vision; if one failed, the other could continue the assault.

No one anticipated Polygar II's unexpectedly evasive maneuver.

"Bind it!"

Baimu pressed the advantage.

"Pali!"

Polygar II instantly softened, transforming from a rod into a rope that wrapped tightly around both of the Scyther King's claws.

The new patch for 【Angularize】 not only removed Polygar II's former limitation of only being able to transform into angular objects, but granted it the ability to soften.

One could say Polygar II's Angularize could no longer be called Angularize—calling it Polygar's Transformation would be more accurate.

Of course—

Polygar's Transformation was far superior to Angularize.

Texture, needless to say, had its usual lightning speed; the brief moment it took to dodge the Scyther King's right claw was enough for it to finish its Discharge aftereffect and initiate a new move.

What shattered Zhengyi most was Trick Room—he chose the Scyther King to narrow the speed gap, yet the primary reason for his tactical failure lay precisely in Trick Room.

Had Polygar II not been so fast in dodging, the Scyther King wouldn't have missed.

Details determine victory or defeat—this saying was absolutely correct.

These shifting moves were infuriating!

If only it hadn't failed to learn Taunt—

"Ice Beam!"

Baimu's command drifted faintly through the sandstorm.

Zhengyi snapped back to attention and shouted: "Use Bite!"

The Scyther King opened its blood-red mouth, glowing with dark energy, and bit fiercely at the Polygar II wrapped around its claws; Polygar II swiftly raised its "rope end," aiming straight at the mouth, and released a blue-white lightning bolt!

Two contrasting beams crossed—

Bang!

A cloud of smoke exploded in midair.

The Scyther King fell again like a cut kite, its back slamming hard onto the ground.

Pong!

Unfortunately, its frozen mouth prevented it from making any sound.

Porygon-II released the King Scorpion's twin pincers, deliberately checked its face, confirmed that the pair of golden eyes had turned into black rings, and only then withdrew.

The watching crowd fell silent for a few seconds, then erupted into fervent cheers.

"Amazing!"

"So Mr. Zhengyi repeated the tactic to set up Guillotine!"

"Guillotine actually got dodged! How ridiculous!"

"Sigh, if he'd used Guillotine the first time, would it not have been dodged? Repeating the same trick was too obvious — basically announcing 'I've got something new'!"

"Bullshit! Just now you were spouting your damage-stacking theory, and now you're saying repeating the trick is the problem?"

"You! You fucking picking a fight for no reason, huh!"

"Picking on you, so what! Got the guts to step outside and go one-on-one!"

"Let's go!"

The martial-virtue-abundant citizens of Silicon Beryllium City grabbed each other by the collars and went outside to brawl.

But the crowd was still immersed in the exchange that had taken place in less than half a minute, and countless people felt a pang of regret for Zhengyi, just like that person earlier, believing that using Guillotine the first time would surely have taken out Porygon-II.

Why not use it the first time?

Of course it was to mislead All Baimu's eyes, to make him think King Scorpion didn't know Guillotine.

Zhengyi knew full well that bringing it out the first time wouldn't have worked either — he could tell from an opponent's outward behavior what move they were using, waiting for the other side to strike first before acting.

Would All Baimu not?

Impossible!

He was certain All Baimu had seen the flickering electric light on King Scorpion's fangs, which was why he let Porygon-II tank the hit head-on — otherwise he would never have countered after the fact.

But Zhengyi realized he had ultimately underestimated All Baimu's caution.

The other side had never dropped his guard against Guillotine, even though King Scorpion's energy level might not necessarily be higher than Porygon-II's, and Guillotine had a high chance of failing.

"On par with Master Bartras… no, perhaps even above the master…"

Zhengyi rubbed his sore cheeks.

He prided himself on having, after many days of consecutive challenges against Bartras, a certain understanding of that one's strength, and he had to admit that person was a figure he could hardly match.

And yet the power All Baimu had just displayed seemed to be above Bartras's.

Why?

Because All Baimu's truly powerful Pokémon had yet to take the field!

Zhengyi was well aware that whether it was Blissey or Porygon-II, strictly speaking, neither could be counted as the extreme level possessed by the young man before him.

Only Mawile and Aggron could represent his full strength.

"…Good work, King Scorpion."

Zhengyi recalled King Scorpion, looked toward All Baimu across the field, and said loudly: "Young man All Baimu… no, Master All Baimu, may I have the chance to witness Mega Evolution?"

Master?

"I don't dare accept the title of master — I don't yet deserve that address — but if you want to, of course." All Baimu shook his head, declining the title.

Generally speaking, the outside world bestowed the title of master upon regional Champions, or certain especially powerful trainers.

And in regions that held a Champion League, the Champion's full title was Champion League Master.

That was the goal he was striving for.

All Baimu took out his phone and recalled the reluctant Porygon-II; the toy duck, compared to stomping noobs, preferred battling trainers of Zhengyi's caliber, because it helped its growth.

Unfortunately, there were too many companions on the team, so it could only fight one round at a time.

When could it sweep an opponent's whole team?

Porygon-II in the phone thought longingly.

In reality.

All Baimu thought for a moment, tossed a Poké Ball, and said: "You go up again!"

Pop!

"Gugou!"

Aggron landed, kicking up a great cloud of dust and sand.

Actually, compared to Aggron, All Baimu would rather have sent Mawile out to finish it quickly, but a sandstorm was still raging in the field.

Although Steel-type Pokémon aren't afraid of sandstorm—

But it had just had its hair done! Just got its bangs trimmed! Just got its jawline buffed!

The beauty salon visit wasted!

Money spent for nothing!

Don't you feel for it!?

The thought of Mawile's big, watery eyes staring at him, full of accusation and reproach in its gaze as it turned, forced All Baimu to give up sending it out.

"Wastefulness is shameful."

All Baimu nodded, took out the Mega Stone from his chest, and looked toward Zhengyi, who had released Sandslash across the field.

Then.

"Mega… Evolve!"

Amid the delighted cries of the surrounding crowd, Aggron's whole body burst forth with brilliant blue light; thick chains of the spirit linked together, completing an all-around metamorphosis at top speed.

All Baimu deliberately glanced at the reactions of the people around him.

Not bad.

Everyone's enthusiasm for seeing Mega Evolution was running high!

Although the show effect certainly couldn't compare to Dynamaxed monsters brawling, it was still better than having no show effect at all.

Looks like popularizing Mega Evolution Waves has great potential!

"Surf!"

He thought this as he gave the order.

Mega Blastoise raised its right hand, and astonishing blue light exploded in its palm, transforming under Zhengyi's shocked gaze into a tidal wave surging toward Sandslash!

Boom—!