Pokemon: Reborn as a Pokemon 32. Xatu

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The empty battle chamber felt colder than before.

rg stood in the sa spot as earlier, his expression hard. With a sharp flick, he hurled a Poké Ball forward.

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A burst of red light arced through the air, materializing into a strange, green bird Pokémon that hovered silently above the arena.

Its erald feathers were patterned with red-and-gold markings, its round, vulture-like head crowned with deep black eyes bottomless and unblinking. Its white wings were folded across its chest in an unnatural position, their red-and-black tips glinting faintly.

The Xatu floated effortlessly, held aloft by sheer psychic force, staring down at Kael with a detached, almost disdainful look.

Most people thought Xatu's expression was always emotionless, but that wasn't true.

In its own mind, it was seething.

Kirlia, the youngest in rg's team, had been badly injured in the earlier fight. She was cute, obedient, and adored by Xatu, who saw her as a little sister.

And now?

That Flaaffy had left her scorched and unconscious.

Xatu's mind was made up. It would punish Kael for what he'd done.

Kael eyed rg's all-too-familiar face and smirked faintly. "So... beat the little one, and now the big one shows up?"

The air between them snapped and cracked as Kael's magnetic field clashed with Xatu's psychic aura, the collisions ringing out like breaking glass.

"...Huh. This Xatu's not ordinary."

Kael's gaze sharpened. The overconfidence from his easy win over Kirlia evaporated, replaced with focus.

High above, Xatu's body glimred with a faint blue light, floating still, as if daring Kael to make the first move.

He thought it through quickly fighting from the ground was a disadvantage, especially with Xatu hovering overhead and looking down on him with that cold, judging gaze. And Kael... hated that look.

So, he smiled.

Electricity crackled over his body, mingling with his magnetic field until his hooves began to lift from the floor.

Bzzzt...

Kael rose steadily until he was eye-level with Xatu, the two now facing each other in the air.

"Much better."

On the sidelines, rg's hands clenched.

"...You can do that too?"

Rynce nodded, her eyes narrowing.

"[Magnet Rise]. This Flaaffy's moveset just keeps getting deeper."

Kael narrowed his eyes at Xatu's unchanging stare, irritation bubbling beneath the surface.

"Che..."

Lightning surged from his wool, forming into a blinding bolt that lanced toward Xatu.

CRACK!

The air popped as the attack tore forward only for Xatu's black eyes to flare with an eerie blue glow.

A massive, invisible psychic hand twisted the bolt aside mid-flight, sending it crashing into the arena floor, gouging a smoking crater.

"Grrrrrrr!!!"

Kael's lips pulled into a grimace. This was no ordinary opponent. But that cold, dismissive face still lit a spark of anger in his chest.

He let it loose.

Electric arcs scread around him, gathering into his right foreleg until his hoof shone like molten steel.

He pushed his magnetic control to the limit, accelerating forward in an explosive burst.

[Thunder Punch] [Magnet Rise] [Charge] a lightning-boosted strike that blurred through the air.

In the blink of an eye, Kael's fist was at Xatu's beak. The charge in the air alone made the psychic bird's forehead tingle.

Xatu's eyes widened a fraction it hadn't expected such speed.

As a high-offense, low-defense Pokémon, it knew that taking this hit head-on would likely end the fight.

Its mind went into overdrive. Calculations flashed faster than thought, straining its psychic circuits to the brink.

The glowing fist was almost touching—

"[Teleport]!"

A surge of psychic energy pulsed, and Xatu vanished.

Kael's instincts scread. Behind him—!

"[Night Shade]!"

A beam of pure shadow energy shot toward where his back had been. Kael twisted, diverting his punch mid-swing, but his montum sent him crashing diagonally toward the floor.

BOOM!

The impact shook the entire room, arcs of electricity spraying across the walls.

Behind him, the shadow beam struck empty space, searing a black scorch mark into the floor where he would have been. Kael's heart pounded.

"...Close."

He wiped the sweat from his brow, eyes narrowing as he floated back into position. This Xatu wasn't just strong it was dangerous.

Brute force wouldn't win this. He'd have to be clever.

Kael steadied himself, drawing the scattered static back into his body.

"[Charge]!"

Sparks drifted in from every direction, clinging to his wool like tiny yellow stars. The glow intensified until Kael hovered like a miniature sun in the arena.

Above, Xatu felt the warning buzz in its mind. It knew Kael was preparing sothing devastating but its earlier overclocked calculations had left a throbbing ache in its psychic core. Every attempt to focus sent needle-like pain through its skull.

It could only bide its ti and recover.

Kael's eyes remained shut, focusing on shaping the power. Cotton spores puffed from his fleece, each one infused with a deadly charge [Cotton Spore], but weaponized, each spark dancing like a firefly in the night.

His eyes opened, a faint crackle flickering in them as he glared at the Xatu above.

The real fight was about to start.

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