"Kiba Rock Slide!"
The air cracked as six Pokémon launched their attacks all at once. Stones whipped through the air, glowing with kinetic energy. Machoke lunged in low, powerful legs pounding the ground. Ember sparks flew from Fletchinder's wings, painting fiery streaks through the sky. A puff of golden spores drifted from Gloom like dust caught in moonlight, and a high-pressure stream of water spiraled from Psyduck's beak.
Kiba leapt forward with a sharp howl, forepaws stomping the polished arena stone. Jagged boulders erupted from beneath Haxorus, the ground rumbling with raw force.
Six attacks. Different angles. Simultaneous.
All targeting one Pokémon.
Wade stood unmoving, one hand still in his coat pocket, the other lazily raised mid-yawn.
Then he snapped his fingers.
The sound cut through the noise.
Haxorus didn't roar. It didn't charge.
It shifted a flicker of movement almost too fast to track.
Its tail glowed violet, coated in psychic-dragon energy. With a savage twist, it sliced through the air behind it in a wide, downward arc.
Breaking Swipe.
The force didn't just knock the attacks away it shattered them.
Machoke's lunge was thrown wide mid-leap as a wave of compressed wind slammed into it. Graveler's Rock Blast exploded mid-flight, fragments spiraling harmlessly into the walls. Fletchinder's ember fire scattered like leaves caught in a gale. Gloom's spores were dispersed completely sucked into a spinning vortex and blown apart.
Even Kiba's Rock Slide cracked, splintered, and disintegrated in the crosswind.
The wave didn't touch the trainers, but it hit them all the same pressure slamming into their bodies like a physical blow. Lena stumbled back, shielding her eyes. Bran growled and dropped into a crouch, barely able to stay on his feet.
Shion flinched as the shock tore through the air. Dust bit at his cheeks. The force of it wasn't even aimed at him, and yet his body tensed like it remembered the Ursaring. That same oppressive dread. That same sense of a predator far beyond what they could handle.
But this wasn't like the Ursaring.
This was worse.
That beast had been wild. This one was trained.
And controlled by someone utterly relaxed.
"You're kidding me…" Bran muttered, eyes wide. "He blocked everything…"
"Not blocked," Lena whispered. "Erased."
Shion's heart pounded.
This is a different level.
The arena was still for a moment. A soft breeze stirred the broken stone dust.
Then Wade yawned again.
"You guys finished warming up?"
His tone wasn't mocking. It was worse.
Bored.
Bran clenched his fists. "You son of a—"
He didn't finish.
Because Haxorus growled a low, thunderous noise like tectonic plates grinding beneath the earth.
Wade waved his hand lazily.
"Outrage."
The moment the command dropped, everything changed.
Haxorus moved.
It didn't walk it tore across the field, a blur of teeth and scale and muscle.
Machoke barely turned its head before Haxorus's tail caught it across the ribs, launching it across the arena like a ragdoll. The thud echoed through the chamber as it skidded across stone and slammed into the wall.
Graveler rolled forward in a desperate attempt to meet the charge, but Haxorus was already mid-air, claws slashing downward. Sparks flew as its scythe-like arms scraped across the boulder Pokémon's shell carving deep lines before flipping over its back and driving both feet into Graveler's center.
Graveler collapsed, stunned and motionless.
"Fletchinder, dodge!"
Too slow.
The flying-type squawked and veered sharply, but a single upward tusk caught it mid-air. The firebird screamed and spiraled to the ground in a smoking heap, feathers singed.
Gloom had no time to act.
The dragon was there.
A burst of red light caught it across the face a claw, enhanced with dragon energy, striking it clean across the center mass. It was thrown like a leaf in a storm, unmoving by the time it hit the ground.
Psyduck tried to run.
Didn't make it two steps.
One sharp stomp not even an attack, just a motion cracked the ground near its feet, tripping the water-type into unconsciousness.
Silence.
Then the air stirred with the aftershocks.
Cracks webbed across the arena floor. Dust floated lazily.
Bran's mouth opened but no words came. He staggered back, eyes locked on his fallen Pokémon. One by one, he returned them to their Poké Balls with shaking hands.
He looked at Wade.
Then back at Haxorus.
Then ran.
Didn't say a word. Didn't look back.
He bolted for the side gate and vanished up the stairs, heavy boots slapping stone.
Lena stood frozen, mouth slightly agape, her hands limp by her sides.
Then she dropped to one knee and returned her Pokémon silently. Her fingers trembled around each ball.
"I… I'm not ready," she whispered.
She turned and left the field in stunned silence.
Only one remained.
Shion.
He stared at Kiba.
The orange-furred Lycanroc was down, pressed into the stone, breathing hard.
Bruised.
Not out.
Not yet.
The room felt smaller now. The battle had taken minutes,no, seconds but everything in it was carved into Shion's bones.
Haxorus stood tall, tail twitching, energy still humming along its scales from Outrage. Its golden-lined black armor glinted in the light.
Wade tilted his head and finally looked directly at Shion.
"Not going to run? ," he muttered.
Kiba stirred.
Slowly, shakily, the Lycanroc pushed itself to its feet, legs trembling. It didn't snarl. It didn't howl.
It just stood.
Battle ready
Wade smiled just a little.
"…Interesting."
---
The arena was quiet now.
Dust still floated in the air, drifting like ashes in the dying light pouring through the high arched windows. Broken stones littered the cracked floor, faint scorch marks marking the spots where Machoke, Graveler, Gloom, and the others had fallen just moments ago.
Only two Pokémon remained standing.
Haxorus.
And lycanroc.
The orange Lycanroc stood with legs spread wide, chest heaving, eyes burning with a red light that was neither corrupted nor wild but something else.
Fury.
Shion stared at him, heart pounding. For a moment, that glowing gaze startled him.
"...Kiba?" he said, stepping forward.
The Lycanroc twitched an ear. Then barked clear, focused, determined.
He was still in control.
The red in his eyes wasn't madness. It was battle instinct.
Survival. Pride.
Shion let out the breath he'd been holding and nodded. "Okay. I'm with you."
He turned his eyes across the battlefield to the monster that had shattered the others.
Haxorus stood tall and silent, its black and gold frame unbothered, a few scuff marks on its armor but not even breathing heavily. Wade hadn't even recalled it. He stood with his hands in his pockets, head tilted.
Relaxed.
Still.
Watching.
Waiting.
I'm not supposed to win, Shion realized. That's not the point of this.
This test wasn't to beat Wade.
That would be impossible.
No...the test was to endure. To stand. To show something more than just firepower.
Maybe… to show spirit.
He thought back to the clerk's expression when she handed him the badge. That half-smile. The look in her eyes that said you're walking into something you don't understand.
And now?
Now he did.
But Kiba wouldn't be enough.
Not against that.
Shion's hand moved to his belt.
A single Poké Ball remained Rarely used .
The one he had caught in the Ternstone, in the moment everything changed.
He held it in his hand.
His thumb brushed the surface.
For all this time, he hadn't named it.
Not because he didn't care but because something about it always felt too… immense. Too ancient.
But now, facing this overwhelming pressure, Shion understood something.
Even a giant deserved a name.
He smiled.
"Let's go," he whispered. "Rune!."
He threw the ball high.
With a blast of red light, the massive form of Golurk emerged Rune now in name, not just presence.
The air rattled as the golem landed, the very ground shivering beneath its titanic weight. Its arms hung at its sides like stone columns, its eyes glowing softly with a pale blue light. The runes on its chest pulsed once ancient, unreadable.
For a heartbeat, the battlefield held its breath.
Even Haxorus tilted its head, the feral gleam in its eye flickering with curiosity.
Wade raised an eyebrow and gave a low, impressed whistle.
"...Huh..."
He finally pulled his hands from his coat pockets and rolled one shoulder.
"That's a big one."
Shion stepped forward, chest rising and falling.
He knew he couldn't win.
But he'd already decided he would not fall.
"We're not out yet," he said, his voice loud and echoing across the arena. "Not until we give everything we've got."
Rune's shoulders shifted. Kiba growled low, crouching beside him.
Wade looked at them, expression unreadable.
Then, for the first time, he moved into a ready stance feet planted, hands lowered, shoulders loose like a fighter just beginning to wake up.
His posture didn't change much.
But the air did.
The temperature dropped. The stillness changed.
And suddenly, Shion understood.
Now Wade was taking this seriously.
The Platinum-ranked adventurer looked across the battlefield and muttered just three words:
"So be it."