According to the online encyclopedia, this species of Pokémon naturally emits a fragrance that easily attracts predators, like the Pidgey from earlier.
Sometimes humans even mistake them for food and eat them. In short, they are fragile and struggle to survive in the wild, making them one of the most common domesticated Pokémon.
The Pokémon in this world were more realistic. Without Poké Balls, many were unsuitable for keeping at home. Only a few gentle types could be raised as pets.
To use Pokémon for battle, you had to become a Battle Trainer. Otherwise, their immense power easily became uncontrollable.
For example, in the anime, Pikachu electrocuted Ash every few days, and Charizard constantly breathed fire at him, yet Ash remained lively and unharmed—audiences jokingly called him "Superhuman Newcomer."
But try that in reality? A single thunderbolt would turn you to charcoal.
Truly battle-ready, valuable Pokémon were extremely expensive, requiring adventures into the wild to capture or professional institutions to carefully breed.
Common roadside finds like Bounsweet were like N-cards in gacha games—most Battle Trainers didn't want them.
Of course, expensive didn't just mean strong fighters. Some cute-looking Pokémon were also pricey, kept as pets by the upper class.
Like Alcremie, Lilligant, Ninetales, Ponyta, and others. Ponyta especially was mentioned as currently the most popular and expensive pet-type Pokémon.
Extremely rare, and because its appearance declined after evolution, many owners fed it an Everstone to prevent evolution.
Kaito remembered this. He had bought Shield because Ponyta looked so beautiful. He hadn't expected it to be so precious in this world.
But none of this mattered much to him. His main goal was becoming a Battle Trainer, though he didn't know if his talent was sufficient.
At this moment, the TV commentators suddenly exclaimed, "My goodness! Despite being a newcomer, Rei completely matches Cloud Emperor Lance! Both seem to be fighting seriously—are they about to use their ultimate moves?"
"Here it comes! Lance strikes first! His Battle Mark is glowing—Dynamax! Snorlax is growing!"
Hmm? Hearing "Dynamax," Kaito immediately looked up. The term was both unfamiliar and familiar.
Unfamiliar because he didn't understand it well. Familiar because Dynamax was the biggest selling point of Pokémon Sword and Shield.
He had never even seen Dynamax in the game, yet here he was witnessing real-life Dynamax after transmigrating.
Snorlax decomposed into countless pixels again, retracting into Lance's Battle Mark. Lance swung his arm dramatically, striking a cool pose.
A brilliant purple light shot from the Battle Mark on his hand, illuminating the entire arena.
When the light faded, residual purple clouds hung in the sky. Beneath them lay an impossibly massive Snorlax, lying on its back with grass and a large tree growing on its belly, looking completely fused with nature.
Just as Kaito thought this was Dynamax, the commentators exclaimed: "Wait, why does Snorlax look like that? Isn't Dynamax just making Pokémon bigger? Lance's Dynamax seems strange."
The expert commentator speculated: "I've heard various teams have been researching a transformation beyond Dynamax. They call it 'Gigantamax.' Perhaps this Snorlax's change is Gigantamax."
"Gigantamax? My god, this match is incredible!"
While the commentators discussed, the competitors didn't wait. Rei also activated Dynamax on his side, though his was more normal—Corviknight simply grew much larger.
The two clashed again. After Dynamax, their combat styles changed significantly.
Snorlax simply lay there, casually slapping the ground with its left paw. The distant earth cracked open, and a golden beam erupted from the fissure, shooting toward Corviknight.
Corviknight flapped its wings, creating a massive silver tornado that surged like a dragon toward Snorlax.
Corviknight flew agilely in the air. Despite its enormous size, it dodged the golden light from below.
Snorlax, having become sluggish, could only take the hit. But its thick hide was remarkable—that tornado was large enough to destroy ten parking lots, yet it only blew off a few leaves.
The commentator explained: "After Dynamax, both sides' combat power has increased significantly. Short-term victory seems unlikely. In professional matches, competitors usually choose to stall since this state doesn't last long. The moment a Pokémon returns to normal is when victory is decided."
"Of course, that's the general rule. If you can find opportunities to deal massive damage to the opponent's Pokémon, you can also shorten their Dynamax duration."
At this point, not just the live audience and commentators, but Kenji and Kaito in front of the TV also watched the battle nervously.
Corviknight was agile, its armor providing extremely powerful defense. It seemed well-rounded.
But according to the commentators, it wasn't Rei's main Pokémon. Its base form Rookidee was too common, and common meant mediocre.
Most people used them as transportation.
Kaito disagreed. Even a low-tier card could sometimes be very useful. Like the rabbit in Onmyoji.
If Pokémon of the same species had identical abilities, why bother battling? Just make them into fixed-stat cards and play card games instead.
Rei's Corviknight was clearly not comparable to those taxi drivers' birds outside. It fought ferociously. Despite Snorlax's thick hide, it still tore multiple wounds with its sharp claws.
However, the difference between Gigantamax and normal Dynamax finally showed. Snorlax slapped Corviknight away again, and a fruit actually fell from the tree on its belly. Snorlax performed a kip-up—not quite standing, but catching the fruit mid-air with its mouth.
Eating the fruit, its wounds began healing at visible speed. The commentators were stunned: "How many times has it eaten that berry? Damn, doesn't frequent consumption cause resistance?"
Pokémon could use items to assist in battle, but generally, due to Pokémon physiology, they could only resonate with one type of item in the short term. Reusing consumable items or suddenly switching items could cause effects to fail.
So auxiliary items usually served as trump cards. Like Nina's Power Herb earlier—if that strike hadn't knocked out Exeggutor, she couldn't have fed her Pidgeot a second one. She would have had to wait for the Pokémon's energy to settle.
This Snorlax's berry was the same type. Normally, it could only eat one per battle. Eating another should have no effect. Yet before everyone's eyes, it ate another, and the effect was excellent. The commentators couldn't help but be shocked.
The other commentator guessed: "Could this be Gigantamax's special characteristic?"
While they speculated, Corviknight in the arena had no such leisure. Seeing Snorlax recovering, it immediately attacked. Otherwise, it would have to end Dynamax first, and then things would get difficult.
But Snorlax was waiting for this opportunity. Its left paw ignited with flame effects, its right paw with frost effects, unleashing a Nine Suns Divine Fist—okay, that was just Kaito's imagination. Actually, Snorlax used Fire Punch and Ice Punch.
Snorlax used two moves simultaneously. Corviknight only had time to block one side, ultimately getting hit by Fire Punch. Fire was super effective against Steel. Corviknight took massive damage, its body rapidly shrinking in mid-air.
Its Dynamax time had reached its limit. It returned to normal size.
But Lance, who had been standing behind Snorlax, suddenly changed expression. He had always assumed Rei was hidden inside Corviknight's armor. But now that Corviknight had shrunk, where was Rei?
Where was he?