"Not bad."
Luo Mu raised an eyebrow and assessed Heatran's attack.
Although Arcanine was still warming up, a momentary suppression did not mean much.
But judging by Heatran's condition, it clearly still had some strength left.
Yet this was not because it could still weigh the situation while in a berserk state. It was more like its remaining sanity was desperately restraining its power?
That was rather interesting.
Even with the Flame Plate's boost, Heatran had managed to gain the upper hand in its first exchange with Arcanine while resisting that berserk power.
It seemed that even before stealing the Island King's Plate, this Heatran had already been quite formidable.
With Arcanine's current strength, it would have to go all out to gain an advantage.
"—Then, begin!"
As Luo Mu's concise, decisive command fell, Arcanine shook out its fur, and its aura abruptly changed!
The blazing flames of Flare Blitz that had covered Arcanine's body suddenly contracted inward, as though compressed to the utmost limit by some invisible force.
Then, a power far deeper and more scorching than before erupted explosively from within its body!
"Awooo—!!"
Accompanied by a long, powerful howl, the fur on Arcanine's body seemed to transform into flowing dark-red magma. Scorching crimson patterns lit up across its body.
The ground beneath Arcanine's paws and the volcanic rocks around it visibly reddened and softened, while the air warped under the intense heat.
This was the power Arcanine had mastered after Moltres painstakingly guided it through its evolution within magma.
—Magma Mode!
In the past, Arcanine had needed Victini's V-create to raise the temperature of its flames high enough to assume this form.
But now, with strength utterly incomparable to before, Arcanine could enter this state through its own power alone.
In Magma Mode, merely ramming into an