Cloyster crashed into the transparent barrier at the edge of the field with a thunderous impact. The crowd went completely silent.
Nobody had expected Charizard X to send Cloyster flying through a Protect.
Protect was as close to an absolute defense as the move pool had to offer. At equal levels, piercing it was considered nearly impossible, and the gap had to be enormous before a higher-ranked opponent could even think about breaking through it cleanly.
The move's only real weaknesses were its inability to be used back to back without risking failure and the precision of timing it demanded. Outside of those limitations, it was as close to flawless defense as anything in the game.
Lorelei already knew the truth, though. Charizard hadn't overpowered Protect with raw strength. It had exploited the mechanic underneath it.
Protect wasn't static. After absorbing a hit, it entered a brief weakening phase. The barrier could still be held, but its defensive output dropped sharply in that window.
Charizard and Ash had read that exactly right. The first Dragon Claw was never meant to break through. It was spent deliberately, burning down the barrier's energy.
The moment the recoil pushed that claw back, the second claw was already coming, landing on a Protect that was a shadow of what it had been a second earlier.
It sounded straightforward in theory. In practice, Protect also generated a forced interruption on contact, a brief stiffness that reset the attacker and prevented any continuous pressure. That was by design. Without it, any sustained attack could simply outlast the move's duration and drain it empty.
Protect's counterforce was what made it a true defensive technique rather than just a timer.
What Charizard had done was bypass that entirely. Two separate claws, two separate strikes, fast enough that the interruption from the first didn't stop the second from landing before the barrier could recover.
That required a level of raw power and speed that very few Pokémon could bring to bear.
Lorelei watched Cloyster steady itself at the edge of the field and spoke without taking her eyes off Charizard. "After evolving, Dragon Claw's power increased by at least double, possibly triple the original. On top of the stat boost from Mega Evolution, Charizard has gained the Dragon type and an ability that amplifies physical moves. Am I reading that correctly, Ash?"
Ash blinked, then let out a short laugh. "I shouldn't be surprised, but that's impressive, Miss Lorelei. You pulled all of that from one exchange."
That was the Elite Four. The title wasn't decoration. The ability to read a completely unknown opponent in real time, to strip out the relevant information from a single move and construct an accurate picture of what you were facing, that was a skill most trainers spent careers trying to develop and never fully reached.
Lorelei had mapped seventy to eighty percent of Charizard X's profile from a handful of seconds of footage.
"The Dragon type improvement was too obvious to miss," Lorelei said. "A stat boost alone wouldn't account for that difference. Before you evolved, Dragon Claw left faint marks on Cloyster's shell. Scratches. The kind of damage that registers but doesn't matter.
This time, through a Protect that was still partially active, you left three deep gashes. That kind of jump only makes sense if Charizard gained the Dragon type outright."
She had already worked through the rest of it in her head. Charizard had been Fire and Flying before. It almost certainly still carried the Fire type. That meant Flying had been replaced, and the new combination was Fire and Dragon.
The implications were irritating. Dragon's weakness to Ice had just become a non-issue with Fire providing the coverage. More pressing, the Rock type matchup that used to deal four times damage to Charizard was now only double. Still a meaningful advantage, but far less of one than it had been a minute ago.
"Cloyster, Rock Blast!"
Double effectiveness was still effectiveness. Cloyster's shell opened wide and a boulder took shape in front of it, launching toward Charizard with force.
Under Cloyster's Skill Link ability, Rock Blast wouldn't stop at one. It would hit five times in a row, maximum strikes, every time.
"Dragon Claw!" Ash called back without hesitation.
Emerald energy lit up across Charizard's claws. Its arms swung out with the force of a splitting axe and the first incoming rock burst apart into fragments mid-air.
Charizard didn't stop. It beat its wings and closed the distance to Cloyster while the next rocks were still forming. They came one after another, condensing and launching in rapid succession, and Charizard cut through every single one.
Left claw, right claw, sharp arcs flashing under the sunlight. Each rock shattered like it had been struck by something far heavier than a fist. Stone rained across the field. The crowd watched in stunned silence, then erupted.
By the time the fifth rock was dust, Charizard was already through.
Lorelei's expression had gone tight. Protect was off the table. She had seen what happened the last time she used it, and she wasn't going to hand Charizard the same opening twice.
"Cloyster, Hydro Pump!"
At this range, there was nowhere to dodge. A massive sphere of water condensed in front of Cloyster and erupted into a surging column, the azure stream filling Charizard's field of vision entirely.
"Dragon Rush!"
Charizard had been in motion the whole time. It didn't need to wind up. Dense Dragon-type energy enveloped its body from head to tail in an instant, its wings folded tight against its sides, and it drove straight into the heart of the water column.
The collision was violent and brief. Dragon-type energy tore through the Hydro Pump like a wedge splitting timber, scattering it in every direction. Water exploded outward in a curtain of mist, and Charizard punched through the other side without a single scale dampened.
Lorelei's eyes went wide.
She had understood immediately. That kind of piercing force, that kind of output on a contact move, had to be Tough Claws at work. The ability amplified physical contact moves across the board, and Dragon Rush qualified.
Under that bonus, a move that was already devastating had climbed into the territory of finishing moves like Blast Burn. Paired with Charizard's current strength sitting above Cloyster's own level, the Hydro Pump hadn't stood a chance.
Cloyster barely had time to register what had happened before Charizard was on top of it.
The impact was like a meteor strike. Dragon-type energy and raw momentum detonated against Cloyster's shell simultaneously. A piercing crack rang out across the arena and Cloyster was launched toward the spectator stands. The audience on that side threw their arms up and braced.
Nothing reached them.
Cloyster hit something invisible just short of the stands and dropped to the ground, still inside the field. The audience slowly lowered their arms and looked at each other.
The barrier had been there the entire time. Most of them simply hadn't noticed until now, too caught up in the battle to register that none of the shockwaves had reached them. One look at the field told the rest of the story.
The ground had been torn apart, cratered and scarred across nearly the entire surface.
"Charizard, Flare Blitz! Finish it!"
Charizard opened its wings and its body ignited. Not orange, not red. Every color of the spectrum blazed across its frame simultaneously, so hot that the air immediately around it bent and warped with an audible hiss.
Under Tough Claws, Flare Blitz hit harder than Blast Burn. That was the move now surging through Charizard's body as it folded its wings and dove.
"Protect." Lorelei's voice was flat and controlled.
Cloyster forced its eyes open and pulled together whatever energy it had left. A thin blue barrier materialized in front of it. Thin, but Protect was Protect. Whatever hit it, it would hold.
Charizard slammed into the barrier and the field detonated.
A visible shockwave rolled outward across the ground. Sand, stone, and scorching heat tore through every corner of the arena inside the invisible boundary. 'Outside it, the audience felt nothing, not even a breath of wind, and every eye was fixed on the field.
The Flare Blitz pressed down against the Protect barrier. Multicolored flames scattered and deflected along its surface, but Charizard at the center didn't move. It bore down, hard and relentless, and the stalemate held.
Ten seconds. Twenty. Thirty.
The crowd had forgotten to breathe.
Then the barrier began to dim.
It went slowly at first, the light pulling back at the edges, and then all at once the whole thing came apart with a sound like shattering glass.
Charizard roared. The flames on its body surged higher, and in the heart of that multicolored blaze, something caught Ash's eye for just a fraction of a second. A single point of black light, rising quietly inside the fire.
Before he could process it, the flames had already swallowed Cloyster whole.
The arena became a sea of fire.