Normally, Ruination is a move best used at the very start of a battle.

  As long as it nds, it immediately halves the oppo’s HP, giving the user a massive early advantage.

  Perhaps due to the nature of Vessel of Ruin, the turbulent air currents were ced with an ominous bck aura—like an inescapable curse, hidde perilous.

  All the Pokémon caught in its wake felt a deep-seated fear welling up from the depths of their hearts.

  Ogerpon remembered the days it once fled uhe hateful gazes of humans.

  Slowking recalled the helpless panic of searg for Uxie, only to find nothing.

  And Persian…

  Wait, why the hell did its mind suddenly fsh back to when Natsume had pi dout it in a chokehold as a kid?

  Ah, that nostalgic feeling.

  How utterly painful.

  For a brief moment, Persian’s eyes gzed over before it quickly snapped back to reality.

  pared to the fear of being dominated by Natsume as a child, this ret surge of terror was nothing.

  To put it simply—nothing in its life had been that scary.

  Aside from the occasional beatdown, everything had goively smoothly.

  —Ssh!

  A crest-shaped water bde tore through the raging currents, heading straight for the a bronze cauldron atop Ting-Lu’s head.

  But the moment it made tact, the sharp edge of the Water Bde shattered instantly, dissolving into a spray of mist.

  Something must have resurfaced in Galde’s mind, something unpleasant.

  Its expression had turned pletely dark.

  The fragile grip it had on its emotional state—already on the brink of colpse—had noed entirely.

  Emotional trol?

  What emotional trol?

  Right now, it only wao carve this tumor-braihing into pieces.

  The moment Galde felt the restraints on its body disappear, it vanished.

  When it reappeared, it was already behind Ting-Lu.

  The emerald arm bdes extending from its elbows gleamed with golden light.

  Yet, something about its movements felt… off.

  Despite the speed of its strike, there was an illusion—as if it were struggling to move through the depths of the o, exerting all its strength just to nd a single blow.

  But the instant that ssh fell—

  A blinding fsh erupted as tless sshes densed into a single, all-enpassing strike.

  “…Yadon?”

  Havireated to Natsume’s side for healing, Slowking tilted its head, gazing at Galde.

  Something about that guy felt off today.

  Beside it, Gardevoir quietly turned away, unwilling to ent.

  As its younger sister, Gardevoir knew all too well what its older brother was really like.

  To put it bluntly—he had a short fuse and was terrible at handling pressure.

  He always seemed easygoing, as if nothing fazed him.

  But the moment things started slipping beyond his expectations, or when stress piled up—

  That cheerful, friendly persona wouldn’t st.

  His frustration would rise, his aggression would skyrocket, and his urge for destru would reaew heights.

  Simply Put—It’s Seeing Red.

  "Alright, up—Persian, you're in."

  With a flick of his wrist, Natsume patted Slowking on the shoulder.

  When Ruinatioed earlier, Gardevoir had teleported Natsume away from Ting-Lu, preventing him from getting caught i.

  He was, after all, the biggest safety in this battle.

  Fet getting injured—even if one of his Pokémon was knocked out, Natsume could bring them right bato the fight.

  —"You have been revived. Now, get ba there."

  Aside from the sed-out Slowking, the rest of the Pokémon tinued exeg their strategy seamlessly.

  They stuck to their roles, maintaining steady damage output—no reckless lunges, no unnecessary hesitation. They attacked whehe opportunity arose.

  Even Corviknight kept up its stant harassment.

  Not that it expected to nd any signifit blows—mostly, it just wao remind Ting-Lu: Hey, your old man’s still alive.

  Ially, if psychological damage could be measured, Corviknight’s taunting would be topping the charts.

  "Yadon."

  Nodding, Slowking casually snapped off a brand held it like a scepter as it reehe battle.

  Not that the branch gave it any sort of power boost—

  It just felt weird haviy hands.

  Standing beside Natsume, Gardevoir narrowed its eyes.

  With growing proficy, it activated telepathy, its voice ringing clearly in Persian’s mind.

  pared to before the battle started, Gardevoir’s telepathic skills had improved noticeably.

  As expected, the best way to master an ability was through live bat.

  "Suosuo."

  At some point, Zorua had appeared at Natsume’s feet, quietly watg the fight unfold.

  A satisfied gleam fshed in its eyes.

  Most of these fighters had, at some point, learned a few tricks from Zorua.

  And so far, none of them were embarrassing it.

  If they couldn't even handle a half-awake dumb deer, Zorua would have to seriously questioher its training had goo waste.

  (Mightyena family & Yamper: ?)

  That said, it looked like there wouldn’t be any need for Zorua to step in.

  "Roar!"

  At st, Ting-Lu turs attention to the one person standing at a distance, tinuously healing his Pokémon—Natsume.

  Realizing that this human was the mastermind behind it all, Ting-Lu’s fury exploded.

  It wanted nothing more than to trample him into a bloody pulp—

  Then stomp on the remains food measure.

  And Ting-Lu didn’t just seethe—it acted.

  Ign the Galde that had nearly diced its rear end and the Ogerpon pounding away at its body, the massive beast began a full-speed charge toward Natsume.

  The otled sandstorm roared back to life.

  A t colossus surged forward, wreathed in a whirlwind of destru.

  "This… looks straight out of a disaster movie."

  Natsume murmured, uo resist the thought.

  Even the most realistic special effects wouldn’t be able to replicate the sheer, oppressive terror radiating from Ting-Lu at this moment.

  Yet, despite the behemoth barreling toward him, Natsume remained calm.

  After all, he had Gardevoir, who could teleport him away at a moment’s notice.

  He also had the little fox at his feet, eerily posed from the very beginning.

  And in front of him—Persian and the others stood ready.

  8 vs. 1.

  The advantage was clear.

  There was no sario in which they lost.

  "Yadon."

  …It’s actually running?

  Seeing Ting-Lu charge forward at surprising speed, Slowking blinked.

  Normally, massive Pokémon relied on a defensive terattack strategy or a slow, methodical advance.

  The number of behemoths that actually ran into battle was few and far between.

  What was this, Ash’s Torterra?

  A Pokémon that fought with agility in its youth but refused to adapt after evolution?

  "Yadon."

  Grass Knot.

  Raising its "scepter," Slowking activated a move it had learned on a whim to expand its arsenal.

  The trampled grass beh Ting-Lu suddenly shot upward, transf into a mass of thick vihat coiled around its limbs.

  Grass Knot was a move whose power scaled with the oppo’s weight—

  The heavier the enemy, the strohe effect.

  And Ting-Lu?

  It was both massive and heavy.

  That said, there was always a ce that Grass Knot could fail against Pokémon of immense size—especially Legendary ones like Ting-Lu.

  As expected, the moment the vines ed around its legs, they immediately began to tear.

  Slowking had anticipated this.

  On its own, Grass Knot wouldn’t be enough to take Ting-Lu down.

  But this wasn’t a duel—it was a righteous gang-up.

  Immediately following Slowking, Galde, Ogerpon, and Gardevoir all unched Grass Knot in unison.

  The battlefield, oripped bare by Ting-Lu’s destructive march, suddenly flourished with life.

  Like venomous serpents, the vines coiled around its legs, binding it in pce.

  Ting-Lu’s momentum halted.

  Yet, despite the enta, it refused to fall—it held its stah sheer brute force.

  A deadlock.

  Until—

  A shadow desded from above.

  "Cawhaha!"

  The King Desds!

  Shouting some absurd li had picked up somewhere, Corviknight unleashed its signature move for the first time in this battle—

  Brave Bird.

  A steel-pted meteor came crashing down, smming straight into Ting-Lu’s skull.

  "Boooooom!"

  The great bronze cauldron atop Ting-Lu’s head rang with ah-shaking g.

  And so did Corviknight’s head.

  For a moment, Corviknight swayed midair—

  Like a sparrow that had just flown headfirst into a gss door.

  It nearly tumbled to the ground, vision spinning.

  That o had almost made it cough up st night’s dinner.

  But the results spoke for themselves.

  The bance of the fight shifted instantly.

  Ting-Lu’s massive form began to tilt—its crimson eyes fshing with fury and defiance.

  "This isn’t tripping!

  "You’re just dragging me down!"

  If Ting-Lu had read a moderbook, it might have had a term for its current predit—

  Quartered.

  When its colossal body hit the ground, the impact mimicked a small-scale earthquake.

  Dust and debris erupted into the air, obsg the battlefield.

  But Slowking and the others showed no mercy.

  A relentless barrage of attacks rained down upon the fallen titan, all locked onto their target via psychic precision.

  Even Persian, who had been about to pounce, hesitated.

  Yeah, nope.

  Jumping in there right now would just meaing hit by everything.

  When the dust finally settled, Ting-Lu remained barely upright, gasping for breath.

  The sound it made was that of a ered beast, one prepared to unch a desperate final attack.

  This was its st stand.

  One more hit—just one—

  And this harbinger of camity would fall.

  —Whoosh!

  A sleek figure darted through the forest, leaping from branch to branch before nding gracefully.

  As it touched down, its entire body ignited with radiant energy—

  Like an arrow loosed from a drawn bow, Persian uself forward.

  Giga Impact!

  As a Normal-type Pokémon, Persian’s move pool covered a wide range of types.

  But against Ting-Lu, it cked any major super-effective moves—

  So, for a finishing blow, it had to rely on Normal-type powerhouses:

  Giga Impad Hyper Beam.

  Against Ting-Lu’s massive frame, Persian looked tiny.

  Almost delicate.

  Yet, that small frame crashed into the colossus with devastating force.

  "BOOM!"

  As the explosion of impact faded, Persian nded lightly, abs the recoil with only a slight tremor in its legs.

  For a brief moment—silence.

  Only the sound of Ting-Lu’s ragged breathing filled the air.

  Its crimson eyes locked onto Persian—then onto Natsume.

  As if trying to burn their images into its mind forever.

  At st, in that moment, Ting-Lu's bored breathing suddenly came to a halt.

  Its eyes rolled back, and its massive body slowly colpsed with a thunderous crash.

  If the initial impact had sighe start of battle, then this sound marked its clusion.

  The legendary Pokémon, Ting-Lu, had met its defeat.

  Even after it fell, the Pokémon remained on high alert.

  Galde cautiously stepped forward and sshed at it twice, testing for aion.

  Only after Gardevoir and Slowking firmed that Ting-Lu had truly lost the ability to fight and fallen unscious did the team finally lower their guard.

  "Woomah."

  It's over.

  Clutg its chest, Ogerpon's face showed a look of relief, as if a great weight had been lifted.

  Only it knew how much pressure it had been under.

  This was its first time battling an oppo of this caliber.

  Throughout the fight, Ogerpon had been treading carefully, afraid that a single mistake could render everyone's efforts meaningless.

  Even more so, it worried that Natsume might get hurt.

  "Caw-caw!"

  Damn it! Kill steal!

  Corviknight swooped down from the sky, visibly disgruntled, and instinctively started pig a fight with Persian.

  No reason, really—just sheer habit.

  Persian, who had just been sidering categorizing Corviknight as a "normal Pokémon," g it sideways, then silently kicked it bato the "plete lunatic" category in its mind.

  At this moment, there was no doubt—Corviknight's fidence must have been through the roof.

  It robably already pnning its 800th challenge against Persian.

  To date, Corviknight had never won a sich against it.

  But hey, gotta admire the persistence.

  "Garde!"

  "Gall—uh…"

  With the battle alde's emotional trol system rebooted, leaving it a little awkward as it looked at its younger sister.

  Refleg on its earlier outburst, it wondered if maybe—just maybe—it had been a little too aggressive.

  But holy, it wasn't like it could trol it that well.

  Galde muttered to itself in a low voice.

  Managiions is something everyone knows they should do, but few actually master.

  A mental breakdown only takes a split sed—for both humans and Pokémon alike.

  "Yadon."

  Slowking casually phe branch it had been using as a makeshift staff into the ground, then silently walked fazing down at the fallen Ting-Lu, lost in thought.

  "Alright, now we o figure out what to do with this massive headache."

  Holding Zorua in his arms, Natsume frow Ting-Lu.

  This thing was a real hot potato.

  In every sense of the word.

  Gcell