Complete Victory

The moment the explosion hurled him through the air, Baimu opened a Poké Ball in his right hand. A massive figure leaped out in a flash of silver, caught him, carried him clear of the flying lava, and landed against the nearby cliff wall with a boom.

"Rrgh..."

Steelix swung his tail and slowly rotated his horizontal steel segments. His copper-red eyes swept over the smoke-filled battlefield and the chunks of lava scattered everywhere, blackened but still dotted with sparks.

They had called him out in a hurry to deal with some powerful wild Pokémon...

What kind of wild Pokémon was this terrifying?

"Blow away the smoke! Find Mawile!"

Using the rotation of Steelix's steel segments to help himself up, Baimu climbed onto his head and gave the order with some difficulty.

He drew several deep, ragged breaths and pulled off his tattered coat. By the time Steelix spun his segments faster and blew away the billowing dust over the gravel path, Baimu's breathing had steadied.

The gravel path was gone.

In its place lay a semicircular crater. Camerupt, back to his normal form, lay at its center, smoke rising from his entire body—especially his mouth and the two false craters on his back.

Courtney still stood where she had been. Apart from a little dust on her clothes, she showed no sign of injury.

Clearly, her outfit had absorbed most of the force from Explosion. Baimu couldn't help envying that piece of advanced tech.

"Thanks for the effort..."

When Baimu saw Courtney recall Camerupt and reach for Mightyena's Poké Ball, tension gripped him again.

Mawile... There she was.

He spotted her behind a fallen tree. Her Giant Jaw was coated dark gray with smoke and soot, so she had probably used it to shield herself from Explosion at the