Chapter 92: A Miracle of Life

However.

No matter what happened in the studio and the audience seats.

It could not affect the two Pokémon and two trainers battling in the field.

Sharen slowed the pace of her attacks, striving for precision to take down Golem in a single strike. Golem, meanwhile, kept a constant wary eye on the Claydol's movements, and with Baimu's added guidance, dodged attacks time and again through a mix of proactive offense and evasion — each time barely scraping by.

It fully displayed just how tenacious it was, and how tremendous the power it could unleash when pushed to the brink.

Even though only a few minutes had passed.

Every time it dodged one.

Sharen could not help but show an expression of disbelief.

How on earth was it doing this? What kind of force was driving it forward?

The answer was actually quite obvious, and Sharen, who had traveled through other regions, understood the reason perfectly well.

Pokémon are lives that embody miracles; nothing that happens to them is strange, so long as they hold onto belief, so long as there is a voice ceaselessly guiding the direction they should move toward.

What he could not comprehend was that such a trainer existed even in Iron Town.

Of course.

Golem was not lucky enough every time to fully evade the Claydol's attacks — glancing blows, shockwaves, tremors, and the like were unavoidable.

But each time, Golem steadied itself in time and kept on charging.

Its stamina drained bit by bit, its breathing grew heavy and coarse, like a bellows being pulled to its very limit. Its running speed inevitably slowed, its energy gradually exhausted, like an old jalopy still running on fumes long after its tank should have run dry — yet it still did not stop.

Golem knew it had not yet reached its limit.

Even if it reached its limit, it should surpass that so-called limit.

This persistence, second by second, was for nothing else — only for that single ray of light.

And that light, it could not see, nor could anyone else; only its trainer, only the trainer it trusted with one hundred percent of its heart, could glimpse that dawn of victory and guide it to touch that moment.

Finally.

A hum rang in its ears — the trainer's shout.

"Now! Right here! Use Rock Tomb on the ground beneath you! Jump up!"

It understood: the moment had come.

"Goe!"

Golem bellowed, channeling its energy into the ground beneath it, heedless of the blinding light already seeping from cracks that had split open ahead of time, and leaped with all its might!

《The Undying Emperor》

Countless massive boulders burst from the earth, paying no heed to the fact that Golem itself was the one who had released them, ruthlessly slamming into its body — yet also, as if lifting it, channeling the force upward into the spot where the Claydol had predicted the earth-power attack would come.

The next moment.

Ground-type energy surged forth and crashed violently into the yellowish-brown boulders; the two streams of energy, like black powder igniting at a spark, instantly released a dazzling flash of fire, and a billowing cloud of dust swallowed everything around them whole.

But for the audience, none of that was the point they were focused on.

Because the instant the firelight dimmed, a white light as brilliant as the blazing sun suddenly burst from the smoke and shot at tremendous speed toward the Claydol hovering in midair!

Because the dust cloud covered far too vast an area and the energy field was in chaos, even the Claydol — a Psychic-type with six eyes — failed to spot this sudden ball of light in time.

And even if it had spotted it in time, it probably would not have believed that a Pokémon weighing over a hundred kilograms with no wings had actually taken to the sky!

And at such speed!

The commentator was so shocked he forgot to call the match, the panel of guests all stood up one after another, craning their necks to peer down, and the audience suddenly fell silent, watching all of this in mute stillness.

"Take Down!"

Baimu's shout echoed across the field.

Right behind it came Sharen's voice, no quieter than his: "Dodge—!

In fact.

The moment it first saw Golem, the Claydol had already tried to evade — but, just as Baimu had hoped, the mental fatigue from chasing Golem down for so long caused its reaction to lag by a single instant.

It was that single, brief instant that kept it from dodging completely.

Thud!

Golem, transformed into a ball of light, still managed to slam into the small half of the Claydol's head that stuck out, sending the latter spinning as it tumbled to the ground together with Golem.

Boom-boom!

The two heavy bodies kicked up a spray of dust and sand.

After a few ragged breaths, the Claydol was the first to shake its head and float back up.

Judging by the way it wobbled back and forth, it had clearly been knocked senseless by Golem's collision and had fallen into a near-confused, dizzy state — though its stamina still looked relatively healthy.

Which proved Golem had not taken it down with that Take Down.

Compared to that, Golem not far away was in far worse shape: the proud, gleaming silver armor it once wore was blackened on one side, faint, dream-like murmurs slipped unbidden from its mouth, and its pupils could barely focus into a single point.

There was no helping it.

Baimu and Golem's method had been far too risky — borrowing the force of the earth and the damage from the Rock Tomb explosion to launch Golem's hundred-plus-kilogram body into the air, using Take Down to ram the Claydol.

Had they succeeded?

They had — and yet they hadn't.

The Claydol had not taken the full force of the Take Down, and as for Golem…

Honestly, at this point the AI could have called Golem unable to battle at any moment.

But the red light did not come on.

Because Golem was still struggling, still trying to stand — just as it had hoped, trying to surpass its own limit.

"Guh…"

A twitch.

"Duo…"

Struggle.

Little by little, it propped its body up, little by little, relying on its own four legs, it stood once more on this field.

"Trainer Baimu's Roggenrola, Roggenrola has not yet conceded. It still intends to keep fighting. Just what kind of force is driving it to do this… this kind of thing."

The host's voice was somewhat strained; he had been shaken by Roggenrola.

After all, looking across the entire Iron Arena Tournament, there were crushes and there were comeback wins, but it was very, very rare for a Pokémon to reach this state and still refuse to give up.

The guest commentators exchanged glances and fell silent.

And from some unknown moment, scattered cheers of encouragement began to ring out from the audience, and quickly drew a response—

"Stand up!"

"Get up, quick!"

"Just a little more, stand up! Stand up!"

They shouted at the top of their lungs, drowning out the abuse, drowning out every ugly sound, simply watching that wretched figure slowly stir.

On the field.

Yamabuki stared straight at Roggenrola in silence.

And Baimu, watching Roggenrola's movements, felt his heart seized as if wrenched tight, unbearably sad. He desperately wanted to concede right then and there, to tell Roggenrola it had done wonderfully, that it didn't need to go on.

But he couldn't.

Anyone could lose faith in Roggenrola.

But he, as its trainer, must always support its decision.

Baimu also knew clearly that at this very moment, what his Pokémon most wanted to hear was not comfort, not persuasion, but a single—

"Stand up! The moment of certain victory has come! Roggenrola, we're going to win! What are you still waiting for?"

He clenched his fists and shouted with all his might, only to convey this single instant of feeling.

"My ace! Stand up—!"

The roar made the struggling Roggenrola's body tremble.

—

Give up.

It should give up now.

Roggenrola told itself this; it was completely out of strength, its type energy had been drained dry, even if it stood up it couldn't do anything.

Better to take it easy.

Just collapse right here and wait for the AI referee to declare its defeat.

So simple. Without needing to do anything, the torment that had every one of its organs screaming in agony would soon be over.

Return to its new home, return to that little cabin shared with its companions, enjoy the sweet spring water, spend the scorching summer days under the air conditioner's cool breeze, look through the window at its two trees.

How wonderful.

Baimu wouldn't blame it, and Mawile and Chansey would comfort it too.

Because it had already given everything, holding nothing back, offering up its all…

That's right.

How easy it would be to give up.

But how could it give up?

Having struggled this far, it truly couldn't accept it.

Even knowing clearly that standing up didn't guarantee a win, even knowing that even winning this round didn't guarantee winning in the end. Even knowing that the moment of defeat would bring only sorrow and loss.

It still had to persevere.

A reason?

Besides not wanting to betray its companions' efforts, besides not wanting to betray its own pride, what other reason could there be?

Baimu.

I actually heard it, you know.

I heard the real reason I was abandoned, even though you didn't want me to be hurt, didn't want me to recall the painful past, even though you made a pact with Mawile and the others not to speak of it.

But I still heard.

It's okay, it doesn't matter anymore.

After all.

From the moment you carried me out of the mine, I was given a new life.

And I have never been so content.

"Gu…"

Roggenrola finally stood upright in a dazed stupor, looking just like a walking corpse, and when its trainer's great shout reached its ears, when it heard his voice, when it felt the wave transmitted from the heart.

Its eyes blazed with an incomparable light.

What is it still waiting for?

Right, now is the very best moment!

I.

Will become a being that can make itself, that can make its companions, proud!

You are only one final kick away from that threshold!

Its trainer's voice surfaced in its heart as if divinely inspired.

The next instant.

"Gudo—!

It raised its head and let out a long howl. A power from an unknown source surfaced within its long-exhausted body, rapidly filling every part of it.

The next second.

Brilliant blue light completely enveloped Kadabra, countless fireflies swirling around it.

A miracle—

Descended!