Scizor's cry came through the steam, strong and steady. The rain had cooled its overheated armor, but The Crimson Streak was still very much in the fight.
"Scizor, keep using Metal Claw!"
"Rhydon, more Stealth Rock! Focus on defense!"
Rhydon answered from somewhere inside the white haze. Rain had never bothered it much anyway; a Pokémon willing to Surf was hardly going to panic over getting wet.
A sharp rush of air cut through the steam, followed almost immediately by the scrape of metal against stone. Scizor was moving too quickly for Rhydon to track, so Rhydon planted its feet, guarded its head and chest, and trusted the Rock Armor to absorb what it could.
Metal Claw struck again and again. The repeated impacts gradually blew the steam apart, revealing Scizor circling Rhydon in flashes of red while Rhydon scattered more Stealth Rocks whenever it found an opening.
Every attempt to catch Scizor directly failed. Rocks slammed into empty space or crashed back around Rhydon, while The Crimson Streak slipped between them and kept carving deeper marks into the armor.
Whenever the Stealth Rocks became dense enough to restrict its movement, Scizor used Swords Dance to pull the loose stones into another vortex and clear itself some room. Rhydon immediately answered with Flamethrower, letting the spinning air feed the flames until the trapped rocks glowed red, then brought the rain down again to cool everything off.
The same pattern repeated several times.
Shingo still could not see the point. Whatever Reiji was trying to accomplish, Scizor kept fighting while Rhydon was the one taking more damage with every exchange.
Eventually, Rhydon reached its limit.
Another Metal Claw tore across the battered Rock Armor, and the impact finally brought the huge Pokémon down. By then, the grass field barely looked like grass anymore; most of it had been burned away, crushed beneath stone, or blasted into uneven pits.
"Rhydon is unable to battle!" the commentator announced. "The Crimson Streak finally brings it down! But Reiji kept repeating that strange combination of fire and rain right to the end. Was there really a reason for it?"
Shingo was wondering the same thing. Reiji had spent an entire Pokémon heating Scizor up and cooling it down, yet his ace was still standing.
Reiji offered no explanation.
"Go, Magmar!"
Magmar appeared on the ruined field.
[Magmar]
[Type: Fire]
[Gender: Male]
[Potential: 77.75%]
[Level: 51.19%]
[Ability: Flame Body / 49.23%]
Level fifty-one was nowhere near Scizor's tier, but Reiji clearly had something other than a straight fight in mind.
"Magmar, burn the whole field. I want fire everywhere."
Magmar immediately turned up the heat. Flame Body pushed the temperature higher as it moved across the field, and the remaining grass began to char while broken patches of ground softened beneath its feet.
Even the Stealth Rocks Rhydon had left suspended around the battlefield began glowing red. One after another, they softened and dropped as thick blobs of molten stone.
"The entire battlefield is changing!" the commentator shouted. "Magmar is melting the ground itself! How is Scizor supposed to move in this?"
Shingo was quickly running out of answers.
Scizor backed away as Magmar advanced, because every stretch of ground the Fire type crossed became too hot to stand on. Magma bubbled through the ruined field, steadily eating away at the few safe places Scizor still had.
"Scizor, get airborne!"
Scizor beat its wings and lifted away from the molten ground, but that only bought time. Its wings were too small for sustained flight, and hovering did nothing to protect it from the heat rising beneath its body.
Reiji pushed the environment even further.
"Magmar, Sunny Day!"
Light shot toward the sky, and the sunlight over the stadium intensified. With the sun beating down from above and molten ground radiating heat from below, even the Trainers and referee were sweating behind the protective barrier.
Scizor eventually had to land near the edge of the field, where a few solid patches remained.
Shingo could not let Magmar keep dictating the environment.
"Scizor, Air Slash!"
Several blades of compressed air tore across the field. Magmar answered with Fire Blast, and the attacks exploded between them in another wave of heat.
Reiji pulled off his jacket.
"Keep going, Magmar! Fire Blast!"
By now Shingo was certain that Reiji cared more about the temperature than the damage. Scizor had endured everything so far, yet Reiji kept making the battlefield hotter instead of trying to land one decisive Fire-type hit.
He could worry about the reason later.
"Scizor, finish it! Bug Buzz, Tailwind, Agility—then Giga Impact!"
Bug Buzz ripped across the field and forced Magmar to cover its ears. Tailwind gathered behind Scizor, Agility pushed its speed even higher, and the red figure vanished through the smoke before Magmar could properly follow it.
"Protect! Then get into the magma!"
Magmar fought through the noise and barely raised Protect in time.
Giga Impact smashed into the barrier and still carried enough force to launch Magmar across the field and into the protective wall. The hit hurt badly, but Magmar stayed conscious.
Scizor had stopped where Magmar had been standing, right above one of the hottest sections of molten ground. Giga Impact left it unable to move immediately, giving Magmar the opening it needed.
Flamethrower poured across the field.
Scizor could not dodge, so it forced up a one-handed Protect and endured the attack behind the barrier. The shield kept the direct flames away, but it did nothing about the magma beneath Scizor's feet or the heat surrounding it from every direction.
The moment the recoil from Giga Impact passed, Scizor burst through the Flamethrower and drove one pincer into Magmar.
Magmar slammed into the barrier for a second time and stayed down.
"Magmar is unable to battle! Reiji is down to his final Pokémon!" The commentator's voice rose over the crowd. "Will he finally send out Poliwrath, or is he really going to challenge an Elite Four-tier Scizor with another Pokémon below that level?"
Shingo wiped the sweat from his forehead as Scizor returned to his side of the field. Without Magmar constantly feeding heat into the stadium, the ruined terrain was already beginning to cool.
Reiji did not give it much time.
"Go, Scizor!"
A second Scizor appeared across from The Crimson Streak.
The choice immediately sent another wave of noise through the stadium.
"Scizor against Scizor! Reiji's final Pokémon hasn't reached Elite Four tier, yet he's betting his entire tournament on it against The Crimson Streak!"
Reiji had no intention of revealing Poliwrath or Electivire when Rhydon and Magmar had already done what he needed. The field only had to stay in its current state a little longer.
"Rain Dance!"
Rain began falling over the stadium.
The commentator assumed Reiji was simply cooling the field enough for his own Scizor to move safely, and Shingo saw no reason to interfere. After everything his partner had endured, the rain seemed helpful to him too.
Water struck the magma and red-hot stone, filling the battlefield with thick white steam. The sudden cooling sent cracks through the ruined ground, but between the rain, hissing steam, and noise from the stands, nobody paid much attention to the quieter sounds coming from Scizor's armor.
"Scizor, that's enough. Swords Dance!"
Reiji's Scizor crossed its arms and began to boost.
"Don't let it! Brick Break!"
The Crimson Streak shot forward with the speed it had built earlier. Reiji's Scizor heard the rush of air closing from behind, finished Swords Dance, and broke away before Brick Break could land.
The Crimson Streak chased immediately.
Two red streaks tore across the battlefield, colliding and separating before changing direction and meeting again somewhere else. Both Scizor kept folding speed boosts into their movement, and after several exchanges, it became surprisingly difficult to tell which streak belonged to the Elite Four-tier Pokémon.
"They're both moving like The Crimson Streak!" the commentator shouted. "Did these two Scizor learn the same style?"
Shingo knew they had not.
His Scizor was stronger and faster, yet Reiji's kept staying close enough to force exchange after exchange. When the two finally broke apart and returned to their Trainers, the reason became clear.
Reiji's Scizor was not truly matching The Crimson Streak's raw speed. It was using Quick Attack and Bullet Punch to bridge the gap whenever Shingo's ace threatened to pull away, while Swords Dance gave those brief clashes enough power to matter.
The tactic was exhausting both of them, but only one Scizor had already fought Rhydon and Magmar. The Crimson Streak's breathing had grown heavier, and even an Elite Four-tier Pokémon could not maintain that kind of speed forever after three consecutive battles.
Shingo understood the attrition now. Reiji had deliberately spent three Pokémon wearing down his ace.
What he still did not understand was why so much of that effort had revolved around fire and rain.
Reiji was ready to end it.
"Scizor, Giga Impact!"
Shingo hesitated for only an instant. This was Reiji's final Pokémon, so committing everything to one collision should have looked desperate, but Reiji sounded far too certain.
"Meet it head-on! Giga Impact!"
The Crimson Streak lowered itself and charged.
As it brought its pincers forward, fine black fractures finally became visible across the red armor on its claws, chest, abdomen, and legs.
There was no time to stop.
Both Scizor committed to the clash.
Giga Impact met Giga Impact in the center of the ruined field, and the collision lit up the entire protective barrier. The ground buckled beneath them as smoke and shattered stone filled the stadium, forcing the referee to call for Pidgeot to clear the haze.
Both Scizor were down on opposite sides of the crater.
Before the referee could make a call, movement returned on both sides. Shingo's Scizor pushed itself upright with one arm, and Reiji's did the same across the field.
"They're both standing!" the commentator shouted. "After that collision, neither Scizor is out yet!"
That was when Shingo finally saw the damage clearly.
Dark cracks covered The Crimson Streak's pincers and ran through the armor across its chest, abdomen, and legs. Reiji's Scizor had taken the same collision, but its shell showed nothing comparable.
Everything fell into place at once. Rhydon had repeatedly heated Scizor's armor and cooled it with rain, Magmar had pushed the temperature even higher by turning the battlefield into a furnace, and Reiji's final Rain Dance had rapidly cooled the metal one more time. He had never been trying to burn Scizor into submission; the entire plan had been to weaken its armor through repeated heating and cooling, then use Giga Impact to force those hidden fractures open.
Shingo knew exactly what continuing would mean.
His Scizor was still stronger and might very well win another exchange, but another full-power collision could turn those cracks into serious damage. If he stopped now, rest and the metal-rich diet passed down through his family should allow the armor to recover.
One more tournament round was not worth gambling his partner on.
"Come back, Scizor."
The recall beam crossed the field before most of the stadium understood what had happened.
"Shingo recalled The Crimson Streak!" the commentator exclaimed. "Is he withdrawing from the battle?"
The referee turned toward Shingo as well, waiting for his answer.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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