Pokémon, Ash is going to become a perfect man from now on.

(Great, the flaw is about to be revealed~)

Although Charmeleon's attack was powerful and even made Victoire cower, Rika remained confident.

"Cauliflower, lure it to the nearest point... then dodge!"

Charmeleon was enveloped in intense dragon-shaped energy, but just as it was about to collide with Victoire's body, the latter suddenly twisted its body at the last second, narrowly missing Charmeleon!

Charmeleon, unable to stop in time, staggered forward several steps and almost fell over due to its unstable center of gravity!

"Now's the time! Unleash the full power of the Sludge Bomb!" Taking this opportunity, Rika finally felt confident enough to let Victreebel attack with all its might!

"Miss Rika, please don't be too angry later... Dance the dragon dance!"

"what?!"

Lijia froze on the spot. She saw Charmeleon change its clumsy behavior from before and actually do a backflip, dodging Victoire's attack while performing a powerful dragon dance!

"Big Explosion!" And as it flipped onto the top of the giant carnivore's head, a blazing flame slammed down without mercy!

"Hurry and protect them..."

boom!

Dust filled the entire area, and Lijia was unsure whether her instructions had been timely, let alone the current state of the giant flower.

However, Charmeleon's offensive did not stop there!

"Dragon Charge!"

Bang!

The moment it landed, Charizard stomped on the ground with one foot and charged forward like a mecha launching itself. The huge impact even cracked the ground!

By the time Rika realized what was happening, Charmeleon had already crashed headfirst into Victoire, carrying it forward with it!

Charizard's series of attacks were executed flawlessly, without any sign of slowing down, and Dragon Charge required no charging at all!

"Final strike, Dragon Claw!" "Roar!"

A massive, dark green claw flashed past, sending the giant carnivore flying high into the air. Upon landing, it was completely incapacitated...

“Victoire…” Rika stared blankly at her Pokémon lying unconscious on the ground, barely able to process the outcome.

"You...you lied to me again?!"

The incredulous question was tinged with obvious grievance; Lijia even forgot to add her self-reference.

His Charizard was ridiculously agile, and it even had the Dragon Dance move that boosted both attack speed and agility!

"I am extremely sorry for deceiving Miss Rika... but even a battle is a battle, and all's fair in war."

Xiao Zhi held one hand up in front of him, smiling slightly as if to apologize, but his words contained no trace of remorse.

As he said, even a battle of formulas is a battle.

Even with limitations, within the bounds of the rules, any means are permissible in a battle!

Chapter Ninety-Four: An Unexpected Situation, An Unfinished Battle

The essence of combat is to protect oneself and strike the enemy; therefore, besides special moves, acting skills can also be used as a weapon.

Lijia was clearly tricked and was standing there in a daze, even forgetting that she was supposed to send out a third one.

"Ugh~" Charmeleon turned around and gave someone a disdainful look.

Bah~

To resort to such tricks in a battle, does he have no shame at all?

I almost gave myself away several times just now...

"Phew... I'm so sorry, Mr. Ash. I lost my composure just now... You're right, that's how battles should be."

As expected of a young lady from an excellent family, Rika quickly regained her composure and elegance after taking a few deep breaths, and also apologized to Satoshi.

This made Xiaozhi a little embarrassed.

"Charmeleon, come back to me." Ash called back Charmeleon, while simultaneously rolling his eyes at it with feigned disdain. "Your acting is still terrible, nowhere near as good as Pikachu's~"

Charmeleon isn't Pikachu, after all; its performance just now had obvious flaws.

If it were Pikachu, they could probably make it seem like the character really got a level cap reset!

"Ugh..." Charmeleon gritted its teeth.

If it weren't afraid of being unable to beat this thing, it would definitely have smashed it right in the face!

Someone as tall and strong as me, yet he insists on holding back his strength and acting like this, and he still has the nerve to say that?!

"Mr. Ash, what's going on..." Rika was also very puzzled, as Charmeleon clearly had a great advantage.

"Charmeleon will not participate in the battles that follow; it has already completed its training objectives."

The reason for sending out Charmeleon was not only to break Rika's Sunny Day tactic, but also to train it to control its power.

After a series of intense training sessions, Charmeleon's strength has naturally improved rapidly. However, just like Ash's training in psychic abilities, there are bound to be flaws in the finer details.

For example, they might not be able to control their strength and often end up making a silly mistake like squeezing tree berries with the force of squeezing stones, resulting in the berries bursting out of the fruit.

So Ash came up with an idea: Charmeleon could deliberately hold back its strength in the early stages of a battle, and then suddenly switch modes to refine its control over its entire body's power...

Okay, all of the above is nonsense.

Xiao Zhi, that bad guy, was just being teasing; he wanted to see what the dignified young lady would do after she broke down.

And that scene of the beautiful woman playfully scolding him was truly a delight to behold…

"Since you've made your decision, let's continue the battle. I'll be using Gloom Flower as my last weapon."

Rika sent out the third Pokémon first, the one that had been with her the longest and was also her favorite!

"I'd use Riolu!"

"Riolu?" Ash's choice once again surprised Rika. "Using a Pokémon with such a keen sense of smell against Gloom will be a disaster."

"Ku~" With a silly chirp, Gloom immediately spread its yellowish-brown pollen, and the entire battlefield was instantly filled with a stench!

"Leo, shut down your senses."

"This..." Rika was taken aback. She realized that Riolu was really holding his breath and even closing his eyes, completely unconcerned about being enveloped by the stench!

“Miss Rika, you should know my identity as a Waveformer… In this battle, Riolu will not rely on its senses such as smell or sight, so the scent of Gloom will not have much effect on it.”

"In this case…"

"Miss Rika, something terrible has happened!" Just as Rika was about to start her battle, the gym staff suddenly burst in.

"Department store...something's happened to our perfume shop!!"

"What did you say? What happened?!" The sudden bad news startled Lijia, who quickly grabbed her assistant and pressed for answers.

"For some unknown reason, the department store suddenly caught fire, and our employees are trapped inside the perfume shop and can't get out!!"

"How could this be?!" Rika exclaimed, her eyes widening in disbelief.

However, she quickly realized her mistake, pulling out several bags to tie her sleeves tightly while turning apologetically to Ash: "I'm sorry, Mr. Ash, this battle..."

"I'll go with you!" Ash recalled Riolu without saying a word.

He was equally surprised and uncertain; he hadn't expected that something had actually happened in Yuhong City!

What exactly does Naza know?!

"Let's go!" The situation was urgent, and without further ado, Rika and Ash quickly headed to the department store.

...

"Everyone back off! Do not approach the fire!!"

When they arrived, there were already many police cars and fire trucks parked near the department store, and the local Officer Jenny was doing her best to disperse the crowd.

At this time, Yuhong Department Store was also surrounded by raging fire, especially the flames at the main entrance, which looked like several arrogant fire dragons!

The firefighters brought their Water-type Pokémon and kept using water guns, but they still couldn't get through the gate.

"Pikachu, Squirtle, help put out the fire!"

Ash immediately dispatched two of his little ones, directing them to simultaneously create waves that poured into the department store's main entrance from two different directions!

But soon, the flames on one side of Squirtle began to retaliate.

Even though it immediately used Shell Smash, and as a Water-type it also had the Same Type Attack bonus, the ripples it created were still a drop in the ocean compared to the raging fire...

"We can't stay here any longer! Pikachu, let's charge in together!" With the firefighting efforts stalled, Ash made a quick decision to force his way into the fire!

"Please take me with you!" Rika immediately stood next to Satoshi. "My employee was the one who got into trouble, I absolutely cannot stand idly by!"

"Okay!" Ash nodded and then turned to Squirtle. "Squirtle, you stay outside and keep the fire going in front of the building."

"Squirtle..." Squirtle hesitated, unsure if he was up to the task...

"Have some confidence!" Ash encouraged loudly. "There's already a powerful force accumulating within you; it's just a matter of whether you're willing to take that step!"

"Squirrel... Squirrel!" Squirrel was startled and nodded hastily, once again creating waves to fight against the fire snake.

It did indeed sense its lack of strength. Although it could handle gym battles with ease thanks to Ash's command, it revealed its true colors when it got serious.