Chapter 510 - 508
Iron Valiant suddenly swung its light blade forward!
A particle steel blade fired at extreme speed, striking twice in a row. The attack was guaranteed to hit!
Tachyon Cutter!
The Steel-type radiance made Flutter Mane wary. She hurriedly rose higher into the air, but those two flashes seemed to have locked onto her, making a ninety-degree turn mid-flight!
The Titan Flutter Mane's pupils trembled violently. She was hit dead-on by Tachyon Cutter, slammed to the ground, and started shaking all over, then felt some kind of power on her body disappear.
A little bit of it disappeared!
"Hah?!"
How could this be? I trained for so long! I thought this time would be effortless!
Ugh. How are you this strong?! And that power effect that appeared on you, what even is it?
[Iron Valiant's Soul-Heart.]
[Whenever a Pokémon on the field is knocked out, its Sp. Atk rises by 1 stage!]
[Iron Valiant's Sp. Atk is already at maximum. It cannot rise any further!]
"Tachyon Cutter looks like a physical slash, but it's actually a special move."
Hikaru looked at the bratty Flutter Mane who was now sweating cold: "What a shame. Even though this reunion moves me, to resolve the situation here, could you please take a little nap?"
"I'm only borrowing Soul-Heart's power temporarily, but we already stacked it to the limit during the battles outside!"
[Losers should exit the stage.] There was a subtle emotion in Iron Valiant's pixel-like eyes.
"Hababababa." Flutter Mane tried to use Haze, but she simply couldn't hold on anymore.
Wah. Wahhh. Today's humiliation. You trash.
With a pop, she went down in disgrace.
With Flutter Mane reduced to spiral eyes and Brute Bonnet hard-controlled in place by Serene Grace Rock Slide, the Battle Program was panicking now, but she still barked over the loudspeakers:
[The situation is developing within my predictions. Sorry, your chances of victory are zero!]
Hikaru: "The Professor's mouth is really stubborn. Are you not going to start the Paradise Defense Program?"
Back when he played through this part of the story, it was the same. After saying this, she threw out a Roaring Moon. Did she really think Roaring Moon alone could flip the table?
If you brought a Fairy-type Pokémon, wouldn't it just explode on the spot? A four-times weak-to-Fairy monster daring to say the protagonist's odds are zero?
[Roaring Moon, Sandy Shocks. Drive them back!]
"Falinks, High Horsepower!"
The Sandy Shocks "chief," just like before, got grabbed by Falinks the instant it hit the ground!
Huh. You're three individuals?
Falinks blinked, then flared with aggression.
But we are the Sons of Rome. Six as one. Twice your number!
As for Roaring Moon.
That evil dragon hovered in the air, locking eyes with Armarouge.
The flames in the crimson knight's eyes started to leap.
From a typing standpoint, Armarouge's Fire plus Psychic STAB was resisted and nullified by Roaring Moon's Dark and Dragon typing.
So no matter how you looked at it, Armarouge had no way to beat that evil dragon, because the one truly meant to face it was Iron Valiant with its Fairy typing.
The legendary dragon-slaying knight was Iron Valiant, not Armarouge.
Still, Armarouge felt it couldn't be stated that absolutely.
Falinks already had credit for striking down the dragon.
There was no way it could be missing from that list.
Roaring Moon roared, its sharp fangs wrapped in Dark-type energy and surging pressure as it lunged straight at Armarouge!
Battle Program: [Roaring Moon, use Jaw Lock!]
Jaw Lock. Until one side faints, neither side can switch out. If either side leaves the field, the effect ends.
But switching out?
Armarouge had no intention of changing.
The flames in its eyes flickered as a stat-boosting effect appeared around its body.
Calm Mind.
Focus the spirit, raising Sp. Atk and Sp. Def!
The golden spear in its hand swung violently.
A fierce aura projectile blasted out, tearing toward Roaring Moon with crushing force!
A 120-power Fighting-type finisher.
Focus Blast!
An incomparable aura strike. The close-range impact slammed into Roaring Moon, and it let out a pained howl. With a double weakness to Fighting, it had no way to withstand such a brutal hit!
Even so.
The Battle Program still forced the command through:
[I know every weakness of modern Pokémon! That Pokémon is Armarouge! Under normal operations, Ground, Rock, Ghost, Water, and Dark are weaknesses it cannot avoid!]
[Hydro Pump!]
Very few people know this, but Roaring Moon's movepool actually includes Hydro Pump!
As the earliest high-power Water-type move to appear, Hydro Pump has always held an important place in battles. Of course, with its infamous 80 accuracy, it often ends up sitting at the same table as Megahorn and Zap Cannon.
But thanks to how strong Water is as a type, and how Hydro Pump is a powerful special nuke that many Pokémon can learn, its presence never really goes away.
Roaring Moon beat its wings. This level 67 Roaring Moon carried a special item: Booster Energy.
By means of that special power, its Attack rose!
"Raising Attack, but using Hydro Pump?"
"Trying to use water to weaken fire? What can that base 55 Sp. Atk even do?"
Hydro Pump was just a long-range smokescreen.
But Armarouge couldn't ignore it.
Even if Roaring Moon's special attack was low, Hydro Pump's base power was real, and with the double effectiveness against Fire, Armarouge couldn't afford to treat it as nothing.
Still, Hydro Pump wasn't difficult for Armarouge to dodge.
And that was exactly what Roaring Moon had been waiting for.
[While using Hydro Pump, charge in!]
[Dragon Dance is complete!]
As Roaring Moon soared through the air, it continuously stacked Dragon Dance, finally reaching Attack plus 3 and Speed plus 3!
That bloodstained crescent moon flew with terrifying speed. Violent airflow sharpened into windblades, ready to shred the golden-armored knight into pieces!
[Watch me wipe you all out in one go. Use Earthquake!]
An Earthquake at Dragon Dance x3!
Roaring Moon's physical output was already absurd. Before it set up Dragon Dance, it was scary, but not unbeatable.
But a flyer using Earthquake.
Even though it didn't have the Flying type, while Roaring Moon was airborne, it could effectively be treated as using the move Fly!
"Using Earthquake in this room? I don't know what this room is made of, but if Earthquake cracks it…"
"Yeah, that probably won't happen."
"Are you thinking that if you can't win, you'll collapse the room, bury everyone here including yourself, and let Paradise continue to exist?"
The Battle Program didn't answer. She was fully focused on Roaring Moon's actions now!
The bloodstained dragon was exerting power.
A golden spear suddenly pierced straight through Roaring Moon's wing!
She gasped in shock:
[How is this possible?! How can Psychic-type moves affect a Dark type?!]
[Roaring Moon is glowing. What did you do?! Why isn't it in my data?!]
"It's a move Paldea doesn't have: Miracle Eye."
Hikaru shook his head. "It's precisely because you have the Champion-level data of all of Paldea that you don't know it, because those people have never seen it."
Psychic types have the most flashy, weird moves.
"No. You say it's all Champions, but how many are there really? Two? Three?"
"Look, there are moves nobody in this region has ever used, right?"
"Because of the local environment and culture, Paldea never had many trainers who specialized in competitive battling."
"And because there's no battle facility, there are very few out-of-region trainers who come here purely for battling."
"So you've never seen this move. Your data doesn't contain it."
Of course the data didn't contain it.
This move was deleted back in Generation 8.
Forget Paldea not having it.
Even Galar doesn't.
In the first place, there were never many Pokémon that could learn Miracle Eye. It was introduced in Generation 4 as a skill designed specifically to let Psychic types counter the rampant Dark type.
However, the official games never really provided a corresponding TM for it. Later, for reasons unknown, the move was removed entirely.
"But by studying the method used to 'create' the Sigilyph of Relic Castle, I obtained this psychic technique, and through move tutoring, I can teach it to any Psychic-type Pokémon."
"At the end of the day, Miracle Eye is simply a way to use psychic power. Kadabra was the first Pokémon to benefit from it. In theory, if it can learn it, then other Pokémon of the same type should be able to learn it through tutoring as well!"
"In the past they couldn't learn it only because there was no tutor who could teach it!"
Armarouge's eyes glowed. Under Miracle Eye's effect, Psychic-type damage against Dark types went from the symbolic immunity of zero to the normal multiplier of one!
Only one-times.
But for Armarouge, that was already enough!
"Use Psych Up on Falinks!"
Hikaru issued the command. The Battle Program, and even Iron Boulder, who was fighting Iron Crown and the others and looking rather battered, were both confused. But the latter quickly jolted in alarm!
[Those tiny Pokémon. Their stats are wrong!]
Falinks beat down Sandy Shocks and humiliated it into losing the ability to battle. High Horsepower's power was high and it was super effective against Sandy Shocks, but for Falinks, it wasn't a same-type move, so the damage should have dropped off heavily.
Yet these little guys, who looked weak, were somehow firing off moves with absurd power!
That wasn't normal.
Unless they had been boosted, and not just a normal boost. Because Sandy Shocks's counterattacks hadn't done anything at all!
Thunderbolt? Like a tickle.
Tri Attack? No effect.
Earth Power? So-so.
The Battle Program panicked: [Where is the problem?!]
Hikaru: "Problem? From the moment we walked in, my Falinks had already stacked No Retreat to the max."
Battle Program: [No Retreat? That move can't be used repeatedly!]
Hikaru: "See? This is what happens when a trainer's battle data is incomplete."
"Paldea doesn't have a Fighting-type master, so naturally you wouldn't know the secret behind that move. But I have no obligation to explain it to you."
"What I can tell you now is this."
"Psych Up copies all of a Pokémon's stat boosts. So once Armarouge raises every stat to the maximum, what move will it use?"
"And this is another move that has never existed in this region. Its name is…"
"Stored Power!"
Not many people realize Stored Power is a Generation 5 move. If you want to talk about regional move culture, it's practically a signature technique mastered by Unova Pokémon.
And Hikaru's Stored Power came from Sabrina.
"This move becomes stronger the more you boost yourself. It's an extremely powerful Psychic-type finisher!"
"Don't say I'm bragging."
"Feel it yourself, and you'll understand."
Hikaru deliberately copied a bit of Sabrina's speaking style.
Stored Power. Base power 20.
It deals damage to the target.
But for every stage of positive stat changes the user has, the move's power increases by 20.
At the same time, stat drops do not affect Stored Power's power.
This move counts boosts across all stats. Which means, in the current state.
Hikaru: "When the five core battle stats, Attack, Sp. Atk, Defense, Sp. Def, and Speed, are all raised to the maximum, its power becomes 620!"
"If you also include the six-stage boosts to accuracy and evasion, then the maximum power can reach 860!"
"For ordinary trainers, if they say something like that, nobody would understand."
"But for a perfect electronic AI like you, a brain humans can't catch up to, you should be able to grasp how terrifying those numbers are, right?"
"Then, with STAB on top of that, how much higher does the move's power go?"
A massive, swelling light gathered around Armarouge!
One strike. A perfect hit. Light erupted!
Battle Program: [How, how can there be a move like that?! How is that possibleeeee!]
Her scream rang out at the same time as Roaring Moon crashed to the floor after being blasted down!
The evil dragon soaring through the air was smashed out of the sky by the violent beam of Stored Power, exactly as Armarouge had been thinking earlier.
After Miracle Eye, the type interaction became a normal one-times.
Only one-times. Not super effective, not resisted.
"Guren."
The crimson knight, gripping its golden spear, spoke with calm reflection.
But if I can one-shot you, that's enough, right?
Do you even have enough HP left in the tank? From the looks of it, you're overwhelmingly short.
"Guren."
Armarouge glanced at the fallen Roaring Moon.
May sunlight redeem your soul.
An evil dragon brought down by psychic light. That is a true miracle.
(End of Chapter)
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