Moltres Gets Hung Up and Beaten

Cynthia's interest in Arcanine grew even stronger.

In terms of strength alone, it was merely comparable to Looker and the others' main teams.

Yet in that battle just now, Arcanine had achieved results that their Pokémon would likely struggle to accomplish even if they gave it everything they had.

Was that incredibly high-temperature power something all Hisuian Arcanine from ancient Sinnoh possessed?

Cynthia was very interested in investigating that question.

But the priority right now was treating the burns on Garchomp's arm. The flames Arcanine had released had actually broken through the highly concentrated energy around Garchomp's Dragon Claw.

They had even left burn marks on Garchomp's arm without it noticing.

It was just like seemingly harmless flowing lava that concealed danger beneath the surface.

The flames Arcanine had ignited with Flare Blitz had clearly been so wild and flamboyant.

Yet beneath them lurked a danger with properties much like lava. And there was also the time it had used Double-Edge to break through Draco Meteor.

Could it be that Hisuian Arcanine was Fire- and Rock Type?

As she considered the conclusions drawn from her observations, Cynthia gave the burns on Garchomp's arm some simple treatment.

Fortunately, Garchomp's defenses were not so fragile. Most of the scorch marks and signs of melting were on the fine layer of Dragon Scale covering its surface, which had characteristics similar to sharkskin.

The skin beneath the scales was mostly intact, at worst a little reddened.

This meant that Arcanine had indeed posed a threat to Garchomp, but it still had a long way to go before Garchomp would need to face it with its full attention.

"Unexpected, but not overly unexpected."

Cynthia silently gave Arcanine a fair assessment that amounted to praise.

Once things here were mostly settled, Cynthia had intended to turn