Pokemon: Spiritual Master

"Bii!"

Sharp long needles pierced through the Mega Evolution energy. The mysterious Mega Evolution symbol flashed briefly, and the transformed Mega Beedrill appeared once again in everyone's sight.

Three pairs of wings thin as cicada wings vibrated at high speed until they seemed to disappear. The originally audible wing trembling sound completely vanished at this moment, and when moving, it almost eliminated all motion and sound.

The long needles, bright as spears, changed from the original two to four, gleaming coldly.

The black and yellow coloring that already represented danger became even more vivid at this moment. Just one glance could convey the threat emanating from it.

Mega Beedrill!

"Ka-kah..."

Gengar bounced onto the field. When it saw the fierce-looking Mega Beedrill, it swallowed hard.

This is going to give me an injection...

"Ka-kaah!"

I'm not fighting!

"Beedrill, Swords Dance!" Giovanni saw the substituted Gengar and immediately commanded.

"Bii!"

Mega Beedrill's flickering form suddenly paused. Dark red aura accompanied by clanging sounds as its already terrifying presence climbed at an exaggerated rate.

Opportunity!

Seeing this, Gengar's big eyes rolled around, a flash of cunning appearing before being suppressed.

Deliberately stopping to use Swords Dance to force us to attack and reveal flaws—this is a trap!

Gengar, which had originally wanted to take action while Beedrill used Swords Dance, sensed something wrong. Johan naturally had the same feeling.

Letting the opponent strengthen with Swords Dance wasn't good, but attacking might fall into the opponent's deliberate trap...

Can't watch, can't attack, then there's only—

"Gengar, Nasty Plot!"

Let's strengthen together then!

"Ka-kaah!"

Gengar grinned wickedly, rubbing its round purple belly as its aura began climbing wildly.

Giovanni raised an eyebrow.

Didn't fall for it.

Honestly—

If the opponent weren't Johan and Johan's Gengar, having witnessed some of their strength, Giovanni wouldn't mind continuing to strengthen together with any other opponent.

When both sides' physical attack or special attack were maxed out... no Pokémon would be Beedrill's match.

But Johan and Gengar made Giovanni feel a wariness he hadn't experienced in years or even decades.

"Watch out—don't look at its eyes, don't stare at its hands too long." After quickly reminding, Giovanni commanded again: "Fury Cutter!"

When battling Gengar, one had to be careful of its unreasonable Hypnosis and Dark Void.

Even Giovanni acknowledged Johan and his Pokémon's hypnotic abilities.

"Bii!"

The dark red aura quickly converged. Mega Beedrill's crimson eyes flashed as its wings vibrated, instantly disappearing from everyone's sight again.

The next moment—

When Mega Beedrill reappeared, it was already beside Gengar.

"Ka-kaah! Σ(゚д゚lll)"

So fast!

Gengar immediately showed a terrified, frightened expression, though whether it was genuinely scared or just acting was unclear.

But quickly, ghostly blue flames appeared around Gengar as Johan's voice came, seemingly half a beat slow.

"Will-O-Wisp!"

Mega Beedrill's expression didn't change at all. Its long needles quickly swept by, creating a pale blue arc.

Fury Cutter!

Pop pop pop—

Large amounts of ghostly blue Will-O-Wisps exploded like fireworks, and "Gengar" exploded with them.

However—

Unlike before when Gengar would disappear and become hard to track, after Mega Beedrill faced the vanishing Gengar, it suddenly turned and locked onto Gengar crawling out "huffing and puffing" from a corner shadow behind it.

"Ka-kah?"

Gengar turned its head, meeting Mega Beedrill's crimson compound eyes.

"Fury Cutter!" Giovanni's voice followed.

Hum—

Mega Beedrill disappeared from its original position again.

Fury Cutter was a move that got stronger with each hit. Its initial power was only 40, but after several doublings, the final cut would reach a terrifying 160 power!

Although this move needed to hit the target for its power to double, Giovanni and his Beedrill seemed unconcerned about being unable to hit Gengar.

So facing Gengar's dodging, they weren't anxious.

As long as the final Fury Cutter strike could hit Gengar, that would be enough!

Gengar, which was known for its speed, not only lacked advantage when facing Mega Beedrill but was actually somewhat at a disadvantage.

After all—

Just from base stats, Beedrill's base speed was 75, but after Mega Evolution, its speed stat reached an exaggerated 145!

Nearly doubled!

Moreover, Giovanni's Beedrill had previously shown itself to be an extremely fast Pokémon.

Actually, Mega Evolution from a base stats perspective gave Mega-evolved Pokémon a total of 100 base stat points.

These 100 points would be distributed among physical attack, physical defense, special attack, special defense, and other attributes. Some Pokémon had rather unreasonable Mega Evolution stat distributions, most typically like... Garchomp.

But some Pokémon had quite excellent stat distribution after Mega Evolution, even describable as outstanding, like the Beedrill before them.

Beedrill itself was a Pokémon with low total base stats but reasonable distribution.

Excelling in physical attack, speed, and special defense.

After Mega Evolution, not only did physical attack rise from 90 to 150, speed from 75 to 145, but even the already low 45 special attack actually decreased by 25 points, "redistributed" to physical attack or speed.

The excellence of this "distribution" was the pinnacle of Mega Evolution!

This gave Giovanni's already formidable Beedrill an exaggerated boost.

Approaching Gengar again—

"Bii!"

The blue cutting light reappeared.

Gengar ducked low to dodge and disappeared again.

"Continue!" Giovanni's unhurried voice came once more.

And this time—

Gengar had just emerged from a shadow on the field's edge when it saw Mega Beedrill's third Fury Cutter already slashing down!

"Ka-kaah!"

Gengar startled and quickly lowered its head.

Oh no! I'm going to be split open!

It hurriedly reached to touch the spike on its head, as if one section had already turned to shadow and dissipated.

"Bii?"

Mega Beedrill looked at its third slash that had missed, tilting its head slightly with some confusion in its eyes.

Dodged it?

How did it dodge?

By logic... it shouldn't have been possible.

It had clearly calculated Gengar's position, distance, slash angle, force, and Gengar's reaction speed. It shouldn't have been able to dodge.

Meanwhile—

The nearly missed final Fury Cutter slash passed over Gengar and struck the Dynamax barrier behind it.

The next second—

Bang—

The Dynamax barrier trembled, and a huge crack appeared on the barrier!

The audience gasped.

The Dynamax barrier was split open?

The event staff panicked and hurriedly worked to repair it.

On the field—

"Ka-kah..."

Gengar touched its head, its expression becoming serious.

You can break my head, spill my blood, but touching my hairstyle—

"That's enough, Gengar."

At this moment, Johan finally spoke.

Gengar looked over.

Human and Pokémon stared at each other for half a second.

The next moment—

They almost simultaneously took a slight breath, their eyes sharpening together.

Johan called out again:

"Gengar!"

"Ka-kaah!!"

Suddenly, brilliant rainbow light burst from Gengar's body—light identical to Mega Evolution.

The audience, who had just been shocked by Mega Beedrill splitting open the Dynamax barrier, saw this scene and cried out in surprise.

"Cheating! Referee, Teacher Johan is cheating! He clearly already used that unreasonable exclusive Z-Move!"

"Did Teacher Johan forget he already used a Z-Move?"

"Wait! It seems Teacher Johan isn't using a Key Stone? And Gengar doesn't have a Mega Stone glowing either..."

"What does this mean? Don't tell me Teacher Johan and Gengar are doing Mega Evolution without Mega Stones this time?"

"It's hard to say if this is even Mega Evolution..."

For a moment, the audience was in an uproar.

After the referee confirmed multiple times that Johan and Gengar hadn't used a Key Stone or Mega Stone... they hurriedly consulted the event organizers.

But the organizers... were also stumped.

Without using Key Stone and Mega Stone, theoretically it wasn't against regulations...

Would they have to modify rules again because of Teacher Johan?

Would Teacher Johan get another nickname—"Rule Changer"?

On the field—

When Giovanni saw Johan and Gengar's Bond Evolution, he also showed some surprise.

However, compared to the audience's shock and confusion, Giovanni quickly understood that this was using the bond between trainer and Pokémon to forcibly unlock evolution similar to Mega Evolution.

After all, Mega Evolution was fundamentally about converting the bond between trainer and Pokémon into substantial power enhancement.

"Ka! Kaah!"

The brilliant evolution light faded, and Gengar, identical to Mega Gengar, opened the golden eye on its forehead and grinned wickedly at Mega Beedrill.

Hum—

Rolling black mist spread rapidly from Gengar's feet, covering the entire field.

Faintly, horse neighing could be heard from within the shadows.

"Beedrill!" Giovanni frowned and said sternly: "Pursuit!"

Although the earlier Fury Cutter had almost been dodged by Gengar, it was still "almost"—Gengar had taken some damage, triggering Pursuit's double power mechanism.

"Bii!"

Facing the current Gengar, Mega Beedrill felt strong crisis awareness.

But Beedrill showed no sign of retreat, and under Giovanni's command showed no hesitation or pause.

How many times had it and Giovanni faced danger before?

This was just a battle arena—back then they had faced life and death crises.

So the threat Gengar brought not only didn't frighten Beedrill but made the blood in its body that thrilled at dancing on knife's edge boil!

Mega Beedrill's speed actually increased another notch!

Black shadows flashed, long needles like spears thrust forward!

If this strike hit Gengar, even with Bond Evolution, even if Gengar's strength had increased, with Mega Beedrill's current explosive power... Gengar would be one-shotted.

Both Giovanni and Beedrill had this confidence.

Swish!

Mega Beedrill flew around the field and attacked Gengar's front again.

But this time—

What greeted it was Gengar's wickedly grinning face, eerie golden eyes, and... a black hole opened before it.

Dark Void!

So fast!

Gengar's reaction speed had obviously improved by at least one level!

"Beedrill!"

"Bii!"

Mega Beedrill actually managed to stop its movement and avoid the Dark Void coming from the front.

But—

When Mega Beedrill turned around, it discovered—

Hm?

When did it get behind me?

No, that's not right!

Mega Beedrill looked around in horror.

In four directions of the field, there were... four Gengars!

Giovanni, seeing this scene, recalled Gengar's seemingly evasive actions as it repeatedly hid in shadows to dodge Mega Beedrill's Fury Cutter.

He immediately understood.

When it was grinning playfully and seemingly dodging Beedrill, it was actually—

Planting shadow seeds?

Night Shade!

Johan's face showed a smile similar to Gengar's, with a hint of mischief.

He raised his hand.

"Gengar, Shadow Ball!"

"Ka-kaah!" ×4

The next second—

Countless Shadow Balls immediately rained down like droplets toward the surrounded Mega Beedrill.

"Four against one?"

"This evolution is already ridiculous enough, and Gengar is cheating too?"

"Drug test! Must do a drug test!"

The audience watched the missile-like bombardment scene, their recently subsided shock returning.

Four Gengars—three must be fake, but with the entire field covered in Gengar's black mist, who could determine which Gengar was real and which were fake?

More importantly—

Those falling Shadow Balls didn't look fake at all.

"Bii!"

Mega Beedrill used its speed to constantly flicker around the field, avoiding Gengar's Shadow Ball barrage.

But—

Constant defense leads to eventual failure, and was Beedrill a Pokémon that only knew how to dodge?

Giovanni made a decisive decision.

"Beedrill, Pin Missile!"

"Bii!"

Countless flying needles shot from Beedrill's body in all directions, intercepting most of the Shadow Balls midway while mainly targeting the Gengars in four directions.

Pop pop pop—

"Found you!"

Giovanni and Mega Beedrill's bodies faintly glowed with pale green light.

"Beedrill!"

"Bii!!"

Mega Beedrill screeched as abundant Bug-type energy burst from its body.

Swarm?

Johan was confused.

That's not right!

You've already Mega Evolved—Mega Beedrill's ability is "Adaptability."

Moreover—

"Swarm" only triggered when HP dropped below one-third. What's the difference between this and Flint manually activating "Blaze"?

Cheating?

"X-Scissor!"

"Bii—"

The air trembled lightly.

Mega Beedrill's voice dispersed like foam, and when it reappeared, cross-shaped needles were already before Gengar.

Gengar felt completely locked onto, as if in a vast forest where being targeted by Beedrill made escape nearly impossible—that feeling of prey being marked by a predator.

Johan, whose mind was connected to Gengar, felt the same.

But he quickly found the reason.

Viridian Power!

Can't avoid it.

Then don't avoid it!

We have quadruple resistance to Bug-type moves—even in a direct confrontation—

Hum—

The black mist covering the entire field rapidly converged.

In less than the blink of an eye, that abundant black mist transformed into a Shadow Ball in Gengar's hands.

Not large.

But it seemed to contain stars within—in the black sphere, starlight dotted throughout.

"Shadow Ball!"

"Ka-kaah!"

Facing Mega Beedrill directly, Gengar hurled the black sphere.

The next second—

Boom—

After a terrifying roar, the world seemed to return to complete silence.

One second, two seconds, three seconds...

The staff working hard to maintain the Dynamax barrier at the field's edge paled.

BOOM!!!

The entire Wyndon Stadium's Dynamax barrier exploded open.

The Dynamax barrier exploded?!

Terrifying aftershocks swept outward.

Fortunately—

The event staff's professional training was good. They immediately summoned large numbers of Pokémon to construct transparent Light Screens and Reflect barriers.

Luckily, after breaking through the Dynamax barrier, the impact's power had weakened tremendously and was finally blocked.

When the terrified audience looked toward the field again—

The referee, nearly buried in debris, emerged from the ruins under Aegislash's protection.

Referee: For the rest of my life! I'm only officiating "Baby Cups," I swear!

On the field—

Or what could be called the field, since the battlefield had become a vague concept.

Beedrill had already lost its Mega Evolution, half-suspended in air, its form trembling and looking quite disheveled.

Gengar had also lost its Bond power, constantly going "ptui ptui ptui," spitting out sand from its mouth.

The difference in their conditions was obvious at a glance!

Giovanni's shocked expression slowly faded.

Why... did he even feel that Johan and Gengar hadn't used their full power yet?

"Ka-kaah!"

Gengar pointed at the heavily breathing Beedrill and nodded solemnly.

Johan wiped sweat from his forehead, his expression becoming strange.

Giovanni seemed to sense something and couldn't help asking: "It said..."

Johan coughed lightly: "It said Beedrill is very good, and its poison needle tastes even better."

Giovanni: "..."

And "better"?

Red light flashed in Beedrill's compound eyes. After gasping heavily several more times, its gaze shifted and fell to the ground.

Kill the person, destroy the heart!

People who play psychology really have dirty hearts!

"Be-Beedrill is unable to battle!" The referee, crawling out from the ruins, disheveledly announced the result.

With Beedrill's defeat, the outcome of this battle would hardly see any major surprises.

After a brief silence—

The entire venue erupted in incredibly intense cheers once again.