"Grraaawrr!"
The Salamence dropped from the sky like a falling meteor, already at top speed. Its whole body was wrapped in visible Dragon-type energy, which trailed behind it as a long, deep-purple streak of light cutting through the air.
It slammed straight into the monster ahead of it, like a comet striking the surface of the moon. Salamence gave the creature no chance to dodge — or rather, it never intended to dodge at all. This was a full-power Dragon Rush.
"BOOM!"
But the monster's raw strength was clearly beyond what Salamence alone could overcome. Even a direct hit only forced it back a few steps. Just a few steps, nothing more. Thanks to its frightening regenerative power, the deep crater the Dragon Rush had carved into its body began closing up again before anyone could even get a proper look at the damage.
Standing this close to it now, the group could sense something disturbing — a flicker of what almost seemed like amusement coming from the twisted creature.
"Swish, swish..."
Once it had steadied itself, dozens of thick tentacles shot out from around its body, weaving together into a net meant to trap Salamence. At the same moment, several gaping mouths embedded across its torso opened wide, as if ready to swallow their prey whole.
Just as a fisherman uses a harpoon and net once the fish has already taken the bait, in the monster's eyes, Salamence was nothing more than a catch it had already reeled in.
Presley understood exactly what could go wrong here. But he also knew that if the fight dragged on any longer, he would collapse before backup ever arrived. Rather than let that happen, he chose to trust his nephew and take the gamble. Presley knew David's character well enough — he wasn't the type to say something so serious without being fairly confident in it.
David wouldn't have spoken like that unless he had a real plan.
So all of these things lined up together to create this exact moment — a perfect opening.
As the old saying goes, the mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole lurking behind it. While the fused monster treated Salamence as a fish already caught, it had no idea that it, too, had become someone else's prey.
"Now!"
Suddenly, the Alakazam that had vanished moments earlier reappeared. Seizing the opening, it relied on Teleport, a move that had become second nature to it ever since its days as an Abra.
It appeared instantly beside the massive, stitched-together monster. With its attention completely fixed elsewhere, the creature had no way to respond to such a sudden change.
The moment it arrived, Alakazam hurled several glass vials it had been carrying without any hesitation. Six test tubes shattered at once, and before the monster could react, the liquid inside was drawn straight into its body through its own open mouths.
To make sure it worked, David had handed Alakazam every unstable potion he had. Given the monster's enormous size, using too little might mean it wouldn't work at all — and if the creature simply endured it, that would be the end of them. At a moment this critical, David wasn't about to hold anything back.
One second. Two seconds. Three seconds. Everyone held their breath. If this plan failed and the monster broke free, there would be no saving anyone.
"GRAAAAAWW—"
"Hooo!"
At last, the monster let out a long, agonized howl, and everyone's hearts, which had been caught in their throats, finally settled.
The tentacles that had been woven into a trap now lay scattered and limp across the ground, as though every ounce of strength had drained out of them. The monster's twisted body, once dozens of meters tall, now sagged like a melting wax sculpture, collapsing into a heap of shapeless matter.
Salamence, freed from the net, seized the chance to break away and soar back into the sky.
"Grraaawrr!"
"Grraaawrr!"
The monster that had been throwing its weight around only moments before now seemed to lose all strength in an instant. It had gone from predator to helpless prey.
The overwhelming pain drew out mournful cries even from a creature that barely had a mind of its own anymore.
The effect of the Warehouse Potion was so strong that even David found it hard to believe. The gene-disintegrating properties seemed to hit this particular monster especially hard, since it had originally been born from genetic modification experiments and was already dangerously unstable to begin with.
David wasn't the only one caught off guard — Presley and the others were equally stunned by how fast and effective it was.
Still, the sheer instinct to survive kept the monster struggling even now. Sadly, even without David's intervention, it likely wouldn't have lasted much longer anyway. Whatever the End Church cultists had done to create it, the process clearly hadn't gone as planned. A being this deformed was never built to last — it had only been holding itself together by feeding on the massive amounts of life force and destructive energy it had absorbed.
Now, David's potion was the final blow, stripping away any chance the monster had of continuing to exist.
Its body kept coming apart. Flesh twisted and writhed as severed limbs and broken pieces kept dropping from its enormous frame. The whole scene looked like something out of a horrifying, stomach-turning film.
It was too much for anyone to keep watching, and everyone instinctively looked away.
Feeling sick, they turned their heads and covered their noses with their hands. Out of the corner of his eye, David noticed that Miles and Luke had both gone pale.
Clearly, his two companions weren't handling the sight well either. For Trainers this new to the world, a scene like this was enough to leave anyone shaken.
Only Presley managed to keep his composure on the surface. But the faint trembling at the corner of his mouth told David that even his uncle wasn't nearly as calm as he looked.
Within about ten seconds, the massive monster that had, only moments earlier, looked ready to level all of Magic City, had been reduced to a shapeless puddle.
If not for the twitching remains scattered across the shore and the wreckage left behind from the battle, David might have believed the entire fight had simply been some kind of dream.
"Is it... actually over?" Miles asked, still looking a little dazed.
The group exchanged glances, none of them quite able to believe it.
"Ahem, ahem!"
Finally, Presley cleared his throat and spoke, confirming that it was indeed finished.
"Alright, everything here is handled. You kids should head out now."
"Leave the rest to us. We'll let you know about the rewards later."
"And David — don't forget to call your sister later, alright?"
The battle was over. Presley looked at the pale, shaken faces of the young Trainers and decided this place wasn't somewhere they should linger. Even he found the sight difficult to stomach, so he could only imagine how much harder it must be for these inexperienced kids.
So he told them plainly to leave. The cleanup here would be handled by the Alliance's own trained personnel.
As for himself, this was far from finished. He had no intention of letting those cultists get away with what they had done.