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BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Another earthquake struck, centered on Giovanni's position and radiating several kilometers outward.
With Snorlax's Z-Move, Saffron City was rocked once again.
Fortunately, thanks to a similar experience moments before, the number of casualties this time was greatly reduced.
However, while this tremor was shorter in duration, its intensity exceeded the previous one.
Every building that had survived the earlier Earthquake now began to collapse.
Even the sturdy Silph Co. building was shaken to its foundation and started slowly toppling over.
On the upper floors of Silph Co., Sabrina rode atop the legendary birds and escaped from the crumbling structure.
Behind her, Ash and his companions also used their own Pokémon to flee the collapsing building, pursuing Sabrina as they flew.
However, Eddie didn't have time to concern himself with their situation.
His confrontation with Giovanni was far from over, and Eddie couldn't spare the attention for anyone else.
"Well done, Snorlax. Return and rest."
After using its Z-Move, Snorlax had become noticeably weakened.
In this kind of battle, Eddie didn't dare use the Power of Viridian to heal his Pokémon in front of Giovanni, so he recalled Snorlax immediately.
As for Eddie himself—while he should only be able to use a Z-Move once before needing bed rest, perhaps due to his aura or psychic powers, though he felt somewhat drained, he could still continue fighting.
"Giovanni won't go down that easily. I need to fall back, just in case."
With that thought, Eddie leaped backward and landed on the back of Mega Charizard X, who was nearby.
Naturally, when facing Giovanni—a specialist in Ground-types—Eddie retreated while commanding Mega Charizard X to gain altitude.
"Although Giovanni had Nidoking and Nidoqueen use Protect, Z-Moves can forcibly break through Protect shields. That means in this unprepared situation, at least two or three of Giovanni's Pokémon should have taken severe damage."
"However, Giovanni wouldn't be taken out so easily. He must be hiding somewhere right now. I need to find him first."
While Eddie pondered this silently, he used his aura and psychic abilities to sense and search for Giovanni's location.
Of course, he wasn't searching alone. Mega Gardevoir, Mega Lucario, and Espeon were also scanning the area using their own abilities.
As for his other Pokémon, they'd all gathered at Eddie's side and were now on high alert, guarding against Giovanni's sneak attacks.
However, even after Eddie and his Pokémon searched for nearly five minutes, they still couldn't locate Giovanni.
"Nothing on the ground or underground. Is there some method blocking my perception? Or..."
In Eddie's perception, there were only himself and his Pokémon in this area—virtually no other life signs.
"Wait! Could it be?!"
Eddie suddenly realized something. His expression changed as he looked sharply toward the sky above.
At that moment, a figure in the sky suddenly plummeted downward.
"That's Mewtwo! It was shot down by Beedrill?!"
The falling figure was Mewtwo! Not only was it covered in wounds, but it had actually been knocked from the sky!
Eddie! Move! That man is in the air!
Mewtwo naturally sensed Eddie as well. During its descent, rather than worrying about itself, it reported Giovanni's whereabouts to Eddie telepathically.
"Everyone, scatter! Mega Gardevoir and Espeon—use Psychic to catch Mewtwo!"
Upon hearing this, Eddie made a split-second decision. First, he ordered his Pokémon to disperse to prevent them from being hit by area-of-effect attacks, then commanded his Psychic-types to catch the falling Mewtwo.
The instant after Eddie gave his order, he finally sensed Giovanni's presence in the sky.
At that moment, though Giovanni's suit was somewhat dusty, he appeared virtually unharmed overall.
Behind him was an oversized Crobat, gripping Giovanni's shoulders with its claws and keeping him airborne.
Of course, Giovanni's strongest Pokémon—Mega Beedrill—accompanied him as well.
Although Giovanni was uninjured and had even been commanding Mega Beedrill from the air to shoot down Mewtwo, his face showed no joy. Instead, his expression was grave.
"That was close. I didn't expect you to have a trump card like that."
Just moments ago, at the critical juncture, Giovanni had quickly released his seventh main Pokémon—Rhyhorn.
Immediately after releasing Rhyhorn, without hesitation, he'd ordered it to use Explosion directly outside the Protect barrier.
A Champion-level Rhyhorn using Explosion possessed nearly as much destructive power as the Earthquake Giovanni's five Pokémon had unleashed together earlier.
By using Explosion outside the Protect barrier, Giovanni and his Pokémon wouldn't be caught in the blast, and the shockwave from Explosion could counteract Snorlax's Z-Move.
Though it had only bought a few seconds, that was enough time for Giovanni to recall his Pokémon and release Crobat to carry him away from that location instantly.
After taking to the air, Giovanni hadn't launched a sneak attack on the vigilant Eddie. Instead, he'd flown directly to the battlefield between Mega Beedrill and Mewtwo, exploiting the fact that Mewtwo had no trainer directing it. Giovanni had employed various tactics, allowing Mega Beedrill to injure Mewtwo severely and ultimately shoot it down.
Although Mewtwo's natural recovery abilities would allow it to heal and return to full vitality soon, all of this was consuming Mewtwo's energy. After all, it was an artificially created Legendary that hadn't yet fully mastered its own power.
"However, I'll only be caught off-guard by such an unexpected attack once. And I can tell that such a devastating technique must have severe drawbacks—I could see it from the fact that you recalled Snorlax."
Giovanni was Giovanni, after all. The moment he saw Snorlax being recalled by Eddie, he immediately deduced the weakness of Z-Moves.
"True, there are serious side effects after using that move. But I have plenty of Pokémon. I'd like to see how many times you can withstand it!"
Eddie began his bluff. Z-Moves required Z-Crystals to use. Currently, he only possessed exclusive crystals for Snorlax, Pikachu, and Eevee, as well as the Psychium Z on Mewtwo and the Dragonium Z on Charizard.
Snorlax had already used its Z-Move, while Eevee's was more of a support-based attack (designed primarily for buffing, though it included an offensive component to justify being called a Z-Move—but its power wasn't particularly impressive).
That left only Pikachu, Mewtwo, and Mega Charizard X—just three Z-Moves remaining. And these three Z-Moves needed to be saved for the most critical moments.
But Giovanni didn't know any of this. He knew nothing about Z-Moves. So even though he suspected Eddie might be bluffing, he couldn't determine how many times Eddie could actually use these devastating techniques.
"Tch. This is troublesome. I'll have to change my tactics."
Indeed, once Giovanni couldn't confirm how many times Eddie's trump card could be deployed, he had to adjust his battle strategy. During combat, he'd also need to constantly consider whether Eddie might suddenly unleash another attack like before.
Giovanni was under far more pressure than Eddie due to all these concerns during battle.
It was precisely for this reason that Eddie had decided to use a Z-Move shortly after the battle began—to impose a psychological debuff called "apprehension" on Giovanni, thereby increasing his own chances of victory.