Just as Winona was surprised by Blaziken's presence, Xinhai had already commanded Blaziken to move.
"Blaziken, the pillars."
Blaziken immediately understood. Its legs exploded with force, and its crimson figure shot toward the nearest pillar like an arrow leaving the string!
Bang!
Its foot landed on one of the pillar's protrusions, launching its body higher again. It landed precisely on the second protrusion and charged toward the Swellow in the air.
Its movements flowed without the slightest pause—step, exert force, leap, step again—
In barely two seconds, Blaziken had used the protrusions on the pillars to close to within five meters of Swellow!
A blazing stream of fire erupted from Blaziken's mouth. Refracted by the sunlight, the flames glimmered with a faint golden-red hue—the distinctive color of highly compressed Fire-type energy!
"So fast!" Winona's pupils contracted slightly on the raised platform.
But surprise was surprise; Winona's response was not slow in the slightest.
"Swellow, Quick Attack! Open up the distance!"
"Swellow—!"
Swellow let out a piercing cry as white light suddenly flared around its body. It twisted aside to dodge Flamethrower, then violently beat its wings, shifting more than ten meters sideways as if teleporting while climbing even higher!
"This Swellow is at quite a high level, and its aerial techniques are extremely polished too." Xinhai murmured, his gaze locked tightly on the agile figure darting through the sky.
He had sensed that Swellow was high-level the moment Winona sent it out. Even compared to Blaziken's Presence, it had not been at a disadvantage.
Though Swellow's species did have a natural edge in temperament, those details still made it clear that this Swellow was likely above level 47.
"Swellow, Air Slash!"
"Swellow!"
High in the air, Swellow violently flapped both wings. Two crescent-shaped wind blades formed in midair and howled