[Sea Crown: Grants the ability to summon puppet constructs and amplifies the user's physical power by a factor of fifty. Origin: created by the Corpse Eaters.]
Ash's jaw tightened. Fifty times base output wasn't a joke, even if it was purely physical scaling. That alone put Archer somewhere around second-tier Legendary strength.
[Corpse Eaters: an ancient race that consumed the flesh of deceased Pokémon. Shared origin with the Flesh Eaters.]
"You're telling me cannibalistic Pokémon-eating ancient races are real now too," Ash muttered. He'd seen reports hinting at things like this in passing. Confirmation was still unsettling.
No time to dwell on it. Pikachu was buckling under the weight of nonstop attrition, and the rest of his team wasn't far behind.
...
"Level One."
The Cursed Seal spread across Ash's skin in branching black markings, and his Chakra reserves surged to capacity, the seal's stored energy flooding in behind it.
His hands moved through seals.
"Sage Art. Wood Release, World of Trees."
The ground tore open. Massive roots punched upward through the streets and canals of Alto Mare, trunks thickening as they rose, branches unfurling overhead until half the city sat beneath a fresh canopy.
Pikachu felt it the moment his paws touched root-laced ground, vitality pouring up through the bark and into his legs. The fatigue dragging at his limbs eased instantly.
"Pika!" Lightning crackled along his cheeks, sharper now, and he surged back into the fight. Gardevoir, Pidgeot, Bayleef, Croconaw, Rhydon, and Ninetales all felt the same restoration ripple through them and pressed the advantage, the canopy overhead doubling as cover from the wheeling Aerodactyl above.
...
"Woooo!"
Latios and Latias arrived at speed, twin streaks of blue and white cutting low over the canal rooftops before pulling up sharply beside Ash.
"Dragon Breath. Both of you."
Green energy gathered and released in a coordinated wave, slamming into the cluster of Team Rocket grunts who'd been caught between their own summoned monsters and Archer's indifference.
"Boss, help!"
"Boss, we're still down here!"
Archer didn't so much as glance their way. His attention stayed locked on Ash.
"Latios, Latias, get the civilians clear," Ash called out. "We've got this side covered."
Both Pokémon hesitated half a second, then nodded and peeled off toward the panicking crowds still streaming through the canal streets, ferrying people toward higher, safer ground with practiced urgency.
...
The moment they were gone, Archer closed the distance and drove a fist into Ash's abdomen.
Ash's eyes went cold. His right hand snapped up and caught Archer across the cheek hard enough to send him skidding backward across the rooftop.
His hands sealed.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu."
Thousands of clones bloomed into existence around him, spreading instantly across the canal district where Archer's puppet army had already claimed nearly half the city.
"Go."
"Ooooh!!!" The clones surged forward as one, each carrying roughly a third of Ash's full strength, more than enough to handle elite-tier Kabutops and Aerodactyl in even numbers.
The pressure on Pikachu's team dropped immediately.
...
"Damn it." Archer hauled himself up from the rubble, wiping blood from his split lip, and raised the Crown again.
"Same trick won't work twice." Ash had been watching for exactly this. "Banshō Ten'in."
A gravitational pull yanked Archer off his feet and sent him hurtling through the air.
"Not finished." Lightning gathered around Ash's left hand, crackling and shrieking. "Raikiri."
The Lightning Cutter, the refined evolution of Chidori, far sharper, far more penetrating.
"Rinnegan." His right eye shifted into the rippling purple pattern while his left held the Sharingan's three tomoe steady, a dual-pupil state he'd only recently learned to maintain, costly but devastating in short bursts.
A spatial vortex opened beside the airborne Archer. Ash stepped through it and reappeared directly behind him, the Raikiri already driving forward.
"Shaaak."
It punched clean through Archer's chest.
"GAAAAH!"
Archer screamed, but he didn't die. Didn't even go fully limp. He hit the ground hard and stayed conscious, breathing ragged through a hole where his heart had been.
Ash landed beside him, wary, unwilling to drop his guard even with a pierced heart staring back at him.
"You think that stops me." Archer's voice came out wet and furious, but steady. "I'm going to rule this world. You're still so far behind."
He raised the Sea Crown again.