Leviathan's serpentine body twisted in the gale, ballooning in size until it spanned a monstrous three hundred meters.
You want a bigger target? Then here—have one.
Zekrom descended in a storm of blazing lightning, the searing bolts hammering into Leviathan's body. The voltage scorched its flesh black and sent scales flying, nearly cleaving the beast in half.
Yet Leviathan didn't roar in agony as Zekrom had expected. Instead, the countless wings along its back shifted into gleaming golden spikes, launching from every direction to impale their assailant.
A trade of blows?
Zekrom now stood face to face with Leviathan's ruptured form, but golden spikes closed in from all sides.
A lesser combatant might have panicked—but Zekrom was no novice. A legend forged in battle, the black dragon knew this was no time to dodge. He couldn't. So he didn't.
Electricity surged across his body again, doubling in intensity.
Bolt Strike.
As the golden lances pierced downward, Zekrom ignited in a blinding torrent of golden lightning. Like a colossal drill, he tore through Leviathan's midsection and burst out its front.
"Shit…" Lucius swore under his breath. No matter how strong it is, a virus is still a virus—its resistance to electricity is trash.
Leviathan's body, split clean in two by the blast, crashed into the sea. But astonishingly, its upper half remained completely functional. From the jagged edge of its wound, flesh regrew at a speed visible to the naked eye, knitting the beast back together within seconds.
Leviathan was composed of countless viral organisms. As long as the core Emperor Strain remained intact, and with the power of tens of millions of infected hosts behind it, it could regenerate without end.
Zekrom's eyes darkened. He knew exactly how powerful his Bolt Strike was—an attack that could kill even a King-class Pokémon outright, and leave even mythical Pokémon reeling.
But this thing… hadn't even flinched.
Leviathan raised its head and let out a deafening shriek. From its maw erupted a beam of cyan-gold light that soared into the heavens.
Then came the meteor storm.
Draco Meteor.
Zekrom dove back to N's side. His arms split outward, and arcs of electricity formed a vast net—a protective dome to intercept the falling meteors.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.
Countless blazing stones hammered the sea, sending geysers of boiling water skyward.
No wonder it's considered a mythical beast… It tosses out high-tier moves like nothing.
But encasing himself in an electric net? Wasn't that just caging himself in?
Lucius made his move.
He activated Double Team, and in an instant, nine more Leviathans—each a hundred meters long—materialized in the sky.
Though technically clones, they were still composed of the same viral biomass, just marginally weaker than the original and controlled directly by the Emperor Strain.
Maintaining nine mythical-tier clones wasn't easy, but with tens of millions of infected hosts acting as batteries, it was doable.
All ten Leviathans unleashed Blizzard simultaneously.
Within seconds, the already cratered and boiling sea turned into a frozen wasteland, jagged with spires of ice. The cold pierced bone and spirit alike.
Zekrom's conical tail spun at high speed, his body crackling with energy as vapor hissed off his skin. He was using raw electricity to burn away the encroaching freeze.
Blood-red eyes stared up at the ten titanic Leviathans circling overhead, blotting out the sun. Though still unharmed, Zekrom was undeniably at a disadvantage.
Thunder rolled across the skies, and the heavens churned.
Lucius looked up.
Dark clouds were gathering. Bolts of lightning danced in the storm.
So, you're calling on the power of nature?
Just like Kyogre and Groudon, Zekrom could manipulate the weather, using it to enhance his strength. When a mythical Pokémon harmonized with the forces of nature, it became a truly terrifying force.
But Lucius wasn't about to let that happen.
Three Leviathan clones coiled into a loop like an Ouroboros, spinning rapidly in unison. Each beast spanned a hundred meters—their combined rotation summoned a towering cyclone that pierced the heavens and churned the clouds to tatters.
The remaining seven unleashed a barrage: Dragon Pulse, Thunderbolt, Flamethrower, Hyper Beam—a relentless, all-out assault.
Zekrom let out a furious roar. Electricity surged from his body, condensing into a single enormous golden sphere above his head.
The orb shimmered with unquantifiable power—so intense it warped the space around it. Every incoming attack bent midair and was drawn into the sphere, consumed by its core.
As energy continued pouring in, the sphere began to shift—becoming something far more dangerous. A nuclear storm in miniature, brimming with raw annihilation.
Even Leviathan's Emperor Strain, sovereign of the viral swarm, felt threatened.
Of course. This is the might of a mythical Pokémon.
And then, just as Zekrom prepared to unleash the orb—
The ice beneath his feet exploded.
From beneath the surface, a massive maw clamped shut like a vice, swallowing him whole.
The missing half of Leviathan.
The body Zekrom had cleaved apart had regenerated in the ocean's depths, silently waiting beneath the ice for this very moment.
"Zekrom—!" N's eyes widened with shock.
The Leviathan clone convulsed violently, its belly writhing like it had swallowed a living bomb. Sparks of electricity burst from within, riddling its body with holes.
Lucius acted swiftly.
Two clones fired Ice Beam in tandem.
Twin beams of blue-white energy struck the Leviathan's sides, freezing it solid in an instant.
The virus didn't mind the cold—but Zekrom, as a Dragon-type, did.
In those brief moments of slowed motion, Lucius hurled the ice-block-encased Leviathan straight into the golden orb Zekrom had created.
SZZZZZZZZZT—!
The sea screamed.
The ice vaporized in an instant, the Leviathan clone exploded into shards—and Zekrom was pulled into the heart of his own creation.
For a moment, his massive form trembled violently. Cracks split across his scales.
Had the orb only contained electricity, he might have withstood it—but it had absorbed Flamethrower, Hyper Beam, and more. It had evolved, become unstable.
The resulting feedback tore into Zekrom's body.
But mythical Pokémon are not so easily felled.
A radiant aura of blue and gold flared to life around him. Like a fish slipping through water, Zekrom surged from the orb, shedding its gravitational grip.
The instant he escaped, he rocketed skyward.
Lightning crackled in his wake as the black dragon extended an arm, pulled N into his grasp, and shot off across the horizon.
Lucius watched the dwindling streak of light.
His clones and original body fused back into one.
He didn't give chase.
Because this battle had already yielded what he needed.
-------
Want to read ahead of schedule? Head over to my Patreon ——— patreon(.)com/Madbot635 [remove the parentheses ( )]