Chapter 31: Into the Inferno

"All right, Quaxwell," Kai spoke as his attackers began to circle him. "If I remember your Pokédex entry, you like dancing, right?"

The cornered trainer's eyes darted back and forth, watching his several opponents' every move.

Three trainers came to rush Kai, who grinned before tossing his rapier into the air. He used his now free hands to punch the first attacker in the gut, kick the next attacker on their face, and grab the third by their head and slamming them onto his knee. Seeing that his rapier was falling back toward him, Kai caught his blade, swung it and threw it at the crowd behind him. The blade created a whirlwind of water around it as it flew and sent everyone in its way flying like a bowling ball hitting bowling pins.

Kai spun around as he heard footsteps coming from behind him and caught a punch that flew his way.

Without knowing it, Kai had activated Flow, and His eyes began to glow blue. He uppercutted the grunt whose fist he held and sent her flying. He then Elbowed the grunt trying to approach him from behind in the face. Then, Kai ran toward a team star member that was running at him and jumped, landing directly on the grunt's face and using it as a platform to leap higher into the air.

With a flick of his wrist, Kai's rapier flew back toward him like an arrow, and he caught it.

"All right!" Kai cried. "Time to be graceful!" Kai took the time to pose like a ballerina mid back-flip. Quaxwell's weapon began to shine the moment he did this.

"Wait-" Aeon said, "Quaxwell's power level just spiked. What happened?"

"Quaxly's a Quaxwell now," Arven said. "If Kai takes the time to do special poses, then Quaxwell will respond, making Kai more powerful."

"Float like a butterfly..!" Kai's body did a full U turn as he pointed his blade at the crowd below him. "Sting like a Bee! Aqua jet!" Kai began to dive toward his audience blade-first after surging with water-type energy. Kai became like a aquatic arrow, tearing through the massive crowd of team star members and several other Pokémon as he began to twirl mid-flight. Kai's momentum faded, and he rolled onto the ground before flipping back to his feet, which slid as he stood facing the amount of enemies he had beaten.

There were still some remnants of enemies yet to be defeated rushing his way. Kai grinned as he aimed his rapier at his opponents. The combined footsteps of trainers and their Pokémon sounded like a Turos stampede. The earth even began to tremble. Kai couldn't tell how many trainers were left.

But his smile wasn't gone, and neither was his power boost given to him by Flow.

The moment the crowd came close, Kai lunged and darted back and forth, slashing and cutting down every trainer he saw. He used his brand new Rapier like it was an extension of his arm, waving and slashing rapidly. He swung with the strength of a Pyroar and the precision of a surgeon. Kai fought furiously, ducking and weaving over punches and kicks, sliding on his knees and lowering his upper body to dodge flamethrowers. Kai leapt onto another trainer and used their shoulders as platforms to leap into the air again.

"Air slash!" He cried, slashing at the air to rain down waves of wind at his opponents. Explosion after explosion followed.

Mela, who was watching from afar, widened her eyes in shock. The body of a team grunt member who was sent flying slid right over to Mela's feet. Mela looked down at the team member who groaned in pain and raised a weakened hand.

"Boss… Help…us…" The team grunt member's hand fell to the ground before he went unconscious. Mela clenched her fists before looking up, glaring as Kai landed on the ground with a crouch among the sea of defeated trainers. Kai's eyes stopped glowing as his rapier turned into an orb before landing in front of Kai and transforming back into Quaxwell. Kai returned his water-type Pokémon into his Pokéball, all while locking eyes with Mela-who was absolutely furious.

Mela grit her teeth, then motioned with her head for Kai to come with her. Kai nodded, walking over the defeated team star members.

Aeon and Arven exchanged looks before following the two trainers who were now walking side by side.

A shadow loomed over Mela's eyes as she and Kai walked side by side, away from the fallen grunts.

The two wordlessly understood that their battle would need a lot more space, much more than the team star Grunts could give. Kai and Mela kept walking until they were relatively far from the team star base. The forest that was around the area was razed to the ground from their previous fight, and so there was nothing but tree stumps and grass around them.

Mela continued walking side by side with Kai as she raised her arm to her chest and activated her invoker on her wrist. The girl's body began to shine as Kai, who still had his invoker armor on, pulled his Pokeball from his pocket.

Mela and Kai tossed their Pokeballs at the same time. Kai had chosen to use Pawmo, and as for Mela, she chose her only Pokémon: Torkol.

The two trainers went back-to-back as they pulled their Tera orbs and walked closer to their respective Pokémon. Then, they crushed their Tera Orbs at the exact same time.

Two pillars of light exploded in the distance, all for Aeon and Arven to see. Intense wind blew against the two brothers, causing them both to use their arms to block the light.

Once the light faded, the two brothers lowered their arms to see Mela and Kai both completely transformed. Kai had his electric gauntlets filled to the brim with Fighting type energy as Mela's fire boots began to sparkle with Fire-type Tera energy.

Both trainers turned around to face one another. A gust of wind began to blow against them, their hair rode it lightly.

For a while, neither of them said a word, they just kept their eyes locked on one another.

Kai's fists clenched, his legs began to bend, and he started to sprint. Mela swung her leg to launch a flaming projectile. Kai twirled as he dodged under the blast, closing the distance and throwing an uppercut. Mela stepped back quickly to dodge as Kai began swinging his fists rapidly. Mela dodged punch after punch, then grabbed Kai's fist as it flew past her cheek and held it tight. Using her free arm, she shot her hand directly at Kai's face, and for a moment, the boy froze.

Then his eyes began to shine blue. Bending his head backwards, Kai dodged the oncoming blast of flame that came from Mela's palm. Lifting his upper body back up, Kai spun and swung the back of his fist at Mela, who ducked under it and ran around the boy. Mela raised her leg over her head and swung it down as Kai spun, and with one arm he blocked and pushed her away. Mela stumbled and regained her footing as Kai dashed in throwing more punches. Mela used her hands to defend and redirect against every attack- her defense was strong, but she wasn't prepared for Kai to grab her face, which he did swiftly. Electricity burst out of Kai's gauntlets and shocked Mela's face until she screamed. Her screaming stopped as she gritted her teeth and fired a blast of flame out of her hand directly onto Kai's face. Kai stumbled back before being tackled to the ground. Mela wasted no time, throwing punch after punch at Kai who defended himself.

"Stay..!" Mela raised one fist that erupted with flames. Kai's eyes widened as he threw a punch of his own at Mela to stop her. "DOOOWN!" Mela threw her punch with all of her might and struck Kai faster, creating a pillar of flame where he lay, and several others that exploded around them. An explosion rang out, causing Aeon and Arven to brace themselves once again.

The smoke cleared, and Mela was seconds away from lifting her fist off of Kai's face before her wrist was grabbed. The fire specialist gasped in fear before Kai punched Mela with all of his might, right onto her gut. A thunderbolt escaped through Mela's back as spit flew out of her open mouth. The Team star boss flew a considerable distance away from her opponent before falling onto her back. After a bit of time passed, the two trainers flipped back onto their feet.

Both trainers screamed at the very top of their lungs. An aura of flame wrapped around Mela and an aura of lightning wrapped around Kai.

Kai moved first again, a trail of lightning followed him as he zipped behind Mela and threw a kick. Mela blocked it with her arm, opened her mouth, and released a torrent of flame at her enemy, who dashed away. Kai was like a bolt of lightning, running in circles around Mela, who spun her body around trying to strike him down with her Flamethrower. The grass fields around them burst into flames, and smoke quickly began to fill the air.

Kai leapt into the air. He raised his fist and prepared to punch down with alll of his might. "THUNDER!" He cried, swinging his fist down at Mela who leapt away from the oncoming thunder strike that left a crater behind. Mela shut her mouth to stop her flamethrower and swung her legs, kicking out blasts of flame as Kai leapt to give chase, dodging and moving over the projectiles closing the distance. Kai swung his fist and Mela swung her leg. Both of their attacks clashed with each other at the same time, creating a huge explosion of lightning and fire.

Both Arven and Aeon had to dart their eyes back and forth to keep up with them, the two combatants were beginning to move with such speed that their bodies dipped in and out of visibility.

As they fought, Mela and Kai began to trade blows. Kai landed a punch onto Mela's gut before they both disappeared out of sight- Then when they re-appeared, Mela had landed a kick onto Kai's face before they disappeared again.

Aeon's robotic eyes began to adjust to the speeds, and in his point of view, he could see the two of them moving like shooting stars. Kai was coated in lightning, and Mela was coated in flame. The two were moving in straight lines before curving toward each other and clashing. They then separated curved back into each other again and clashed once again.

They did this over and over again until the two trainers quickly dove toward the ground. To Arven, the two had just suddenly teleported to the grassy floor with their hands to the ground. Both trainers' heavy breathing was in sync, sweat dripped from their faces.

"Think that's good enough for a warm up?" Kai asked, putting his hands out. Kai's gloves shone white before turning into an orb and then transforming back into Pawmo. Kai returned the Electric/Fighting type as Mela smirked.

"I guess so," Mela said, cracking her knuckles and stretching her neck.

Kai pulled out his Pokeball, and out of it came Tinkatuff, who leapt into the air with joy. Then, Kai pulled his Tera Orb out.

"All right then," Kai said. Kai crushed the ball, and a pillar of light shone below his feet- and once it faded, Tinkatuff had transformed into Kai's pink sledgehammer, which he wielded with both hands.

"Let's do this," The two of them said at the same time.