c43: Are You a Devil?
As the radiant Solgaleo descended onto the battlefield, the crowd stirred with a mixture of awe and disbelief.
"Wow! So majestic… Incredible!"
A young woman nicknamed "Mushroom Cool," notorious for her fangirl outbursts, fixated on Solgaleo's shimmering chrome limbs, her face flushed, voice trembling. She practically lost control of her senses.
"What kind of Pokémon is that?"
Asked a more grounded audience member, puzzled by Solgaleo's presence.
"Is there even such a majestic Pokémon? Why haven't I heard of it before?"
A fashionably offbeat trainer from the Johto region glanced at his Arcanine, once proud of its grandeur, now suddenly feeling less impressive in comparison.
"It must be an undiscovered Legendary. Can it hover like that? Is it Flying-type? That crackling aura Electric too? Flying/Electric, maybe?"
A middle-aged man with thick glasses and a Rotom Phone slung around his neck clearly a researcher, possibly affiliated with the Sinnoh Contest Committee muttered to himself while misinterpreting the scene. The presence of Solgaleo had even seasoned observers baffled.
Zhang Guoxiong, the seasoned Gym Leader of Shantou City, had once battled Chen Xiaoxiao when she first arrived, disguised in the chaos of a city-wide blackout caused by a rogue Electivire.
Their paths had crossed again during the Alliance's S-Rank criminal investigation, and though no words were exchanged, Zhang already knew this girl was the prodigy whispered about across Kanto and Hoenn: the youngest-ever Elite-ranked trainer in League history.
"That's Chen Xiaoxiao! And… that Pokémon? Solgaleo?! It's unbelievably powerful!"
Zhang's initial tension melted into a mixture of relief and deep admiration as he recognized the Togekiss in the sky, descending with graceful flaps before its trainer landed.
And then Solgaleo emerged from its Poké Ball.
The instant Solgaleo let out its roar, a seismic pressure burst forth across the field.
Spectators, even those hundreds of meters away, felt a pulse of primal awe strike their spines.
To most, it was just the visual majesty the towering frame, the celestial mane, the radiant energy but to Zhang Guoxiong, it was something far deeper.
This wasn't visual intimidation. This was true presence.
Even if Solgaleo had taken the shape of a Pikachu, the sheer aura emitted by its level, experience, and raw power would still overwhelm the unprepared.
Aura this tangible isn't an illusion. It's the manifestation of dominance. Not even the Pokémon his own father trained an Ex-Champion from Sinnoh had evoked such an atmosphere. And Solgaleo's pressure was perceptible from kilometers away.
Zhang stood frozen, his mind racing.
What is your real limit, Chen Xiaoxiao?
The first time we met, she defeated my ace a fully trained Hydreigon at just sixteen.
The second time, I confirmed the rumors: she truly was the youngest Elite in League history.
Now… this? She calls on Solgaleo like it's routine.
If she could hear my thoughts, she'd probably roll her eyes and mutter, "Bro, are you UC?"
Meanwhile, the camera shifted back to the present battlefield.
After Solgaleo roared a lion king descending from the heavens the atmosphere changed drastically.
The Gyarados horde, which had just shifted the climate with Rain Dance, were suddenly paralyzed not physically, but mentally by the oppressive aura of Solgaleo.
Though Gyarados possess Intimidate, and Solgaleo has no formal Pressure or Intimidate Ability in this reality, this wasn't a simulation. This wasn't the turn-based logic of the game. This was raw reality.
And in reality, power manifests fear.
Even Leng Shenjian, the commanding trainer of the Gyarados group and a known Top-32 ranked battler in Kalos, could only grit his teeth.
"Thunder!" Chen Xiaoxiao ordered, her voice cutting through the rain.
"Leo!"
With a thunderous roar, Solgaleo's body shimmered, arcs of golden lightning lacing across its mane. Sparks coiled around him like mythical serpents. His whole form became a lightning conduit, glowing with saffron brilliance.
The roar that followed was no ordinary cry it was like tectonic plates grinding against each other, like stormclouds at war. Then, all at once, it unleashed:
A celestial column of lightning, ten meters wide, descended from the heavens like divine judgment.
Boom!
Thanks to the Rain Dance's conductive environment, the electric energy intensified mid-descent. The field, soaked and reflective, became a deadly amplifier.
In a single flash.strike!
Every Gyarados in range was hit. The electrical wave spread instantly across the rain-soaked sea, striking dozens of the serpentine beasts with full force.
A symphony of howls echoed out a mix of thunder, anguish, and elemental collapse. The air itself crackled with residual voltage.
Gyarados after Gyarados, their bodies charred and steaming, crashed into the waves below. Their massive forms twitched, incapacitated, unable to rise again.
An overwhelming one-shot defeat.
Even the nearby spectators veteran trainers, journalists, and officials stumbled back, shielding their faces from the burst of light.
Zhang Guosheng, Chen Xiaoxiao's long-time League liaison and confidant, gasped audibly, unable to mask his shock.
"This… This is the power of a Legendary Pokémon under the command of a true Elite..."
And yet, Chen Xiaoxiao stood there, expression calm, as if this overwhelming display was simply routine.
Witnessing the overwhelming scene before he could even react, Zhang Guoxiong's pupils dilated. He instinctively blurted out in stunned disbelief.
At that same moment, a wave of bitterness crept up from within him, and he spiraled into self-doubt.
"What… what even is this? I've been struggling with these Gyarados for so long, running around like a dancing Aipom and she takes them out with just one move?"
Yes, it was nearly a clean sweep.
It qualified as a spike in competitive terms a decisive, near-instant wipe but not a complete one.
Three Elite-class Gyarados still remained, albeit visibly injured and shaken, struggling to hover in the air.
The same shock extended to the thousands gathered on the shoreline. It was as though Chen Xiaoxiao had just unleashed Silence Fruit from Pokémon Mystery Dungeon, suppressing all voices in an area-of-effect field.
Not a soul spoke. No cheers, no commentary. Thousands stood frozen. Their mouths hung open, their eyes widened in collective disbelief.
Of course, Chen Xiaoxiao remained unaware of Zhang's internal crisis or the stunned silence of the spectators.
And even if she had known, she would've likely smirked to herself and thought, "Perfect. Just the effect I wanted."
All she heard from Zhang was a single word, involuntarily spoken.
"What…"
Chen Xiaoxiao turned, meeting the Gym Leader's disbelieving gaze. With her right hand half-raised, she casually extended a slender index finger in his direction.
"There's nothing a single Thunder can't fix," she said, coolly and confidently. "And if there is"
She raised another finger.
"Then just hit it again."
Boom!
As if reacting to her declaration, Solgaleo let loose another Thunder attack!
Though this second Thunder lacked the dramatic fanfare of the first, it struck with frightening speed and precision. The moment Chen Xiaoxiao's command landed, the heavens answered.
A second column of golden lightning shot downward directly targeting the three remaining Elite-level Gyarados still barely hanging on.
The electricity crackled violently in the rain-soaked air. The lightning cleaved through the storm clouds and tore into the remaining Gyarados with terrifying accuracy.
Their roars turned into pained, dissonant shrieks. As before, their massive bodies blackened from the intense energy. With violent twitches, they too crashed into the ocean below motionless, utterly defeated.
The silence deepened.
To an uninformed bystander, it might seem absurd: taking down three Elite Pokémon and over ten quasi-Elites in two attacks? Impossible.
But that assumption doesn't account for one factor: who was commanding.
Solgaleo was no ordinary Pokémon. It had reached Level 84, placing it firmly in the early Champion-tier bracket.
In addition, Solgaleo enjoyed full stage suppression—an advantage that came from both its level gap and mythic-tier pressure.
Even though the Thunder move hadn't received a natural type bonus from Solgaleo (which is a Steel/Psychic type), Chen Xiaoxiao had previously used an Ability Modification Card on it. The result: Solgaleo's Thunder was now augmented by the psionic energy of Ultra Necrozma's brain core.
The modified move came with a passive 25% bonus to moves that target a type disadvantage.
So, instead of a base 120 power move, Thunder now struck with 148 base power.nearly equivalent to Hyper Beam's destructive force (150), but with type effectiveness included.
And let's not forget Gyarados is Water/Flying type, making it 4× weak to Electric-type attacks.
It wasn't just type advantage.
It was complete and utter domination.
A small, amused "Heh" escaped Chen Xiaoxiao's lips.
She quickly opened her system panel to check the aftermath and was instantly pleased with the results:
---
Chen Xiaoxiao
Gender: ♀
Age: 16
Special Ability: Advanced Psychic Communication (Can comprehend and mentally link with Pokémon speech and emotions)
Current Pokémon Roster:
Solgaleo Lv. 84 (Champion-tier Initiate)
Gardevoir Lv. 78 (Elite-tier Peak)
Sunflora (Mutation Variant) Lv. 74 (Elite-tier Advanced)
Metagross Lv. 72 (Elite-tier Advanced)
Meowstic (♀) Lv. 65 (Elite-tier Primary)
Togekiss Lv. 65 (Elite-tier Primary)
Lapras Lv. 51 (Quasi-Elite Advanced)
System Points: 20,109
---
Thanks to Solgaleo's near-evolutionary cusp, its shared experience absorption during this major battle resulted in a level increase.
Meowstic and Togekiss, being in the 60s, each gained one level due to overflow experience.
Lapras, due to its lower base level, gained two full levels, finally crossing the threshold into the quasi-Elite tier.
Total point gain from this victory? Nearly 7,000 system points.
Could Chen Xiaoxiao not be happy?
But even in the midst of her quiet celebration, a strange silence still hung over the battlefield.
Zhang Guoxiong stared at the scorched corpses of the defeated Gyarados, then at Chen Xiaoxiao's beaming expression cheeks lifted, eyes sparkling.
His heart, once brimming with admiration, now quivered with fear and awe.
And he couldn't help but think:
"…Are you a devil?"
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