"Aside from there, is there anywhere else you'd like to see?" Since the strongest Charizard's territory was clearly off-limits, Liza tried to bring the topic back, asking if there was anywhere else they wanted to visit.
Both Ash and Charizard shook their heads. Ash spoke up. "Miss Liza, we want to go and challenge that strongest Charizard. Is there a way to do that?"
Liza nodded. "I knew you'd say that. There's a way to challenge that Charizard, but the conditions are simple. The difficulty is hellish. To date, apart from Lance, no one has been able to meet those conditions."
Lance. That had to be the dragon-tamer Champion, the Champion of Johto and Kanto, the Dragon Master. The rumor was that Lance's Charizard had also trained here once and had even dominated Charicific Valley. Liza had just confirmed it. Lance's Charizard really had beaten all the Charizards in the valley.
"But did Lance's Charizard ultimately defeat that strongest Charizard?" Misty blinked her bright eyes, asking with real curiosity.
"No."
Everyone's expressions shifted sharply. Lance's Charizard had still failed to defeat the strongest Charizard in the valley? Was that Charizard at Champion level too?
"After defeating the rest of Charicific Valley's Charizards, Lance's Charizard only reached Champion Intermediate at that point. It's been almost a year since then. What level the strongest Charizard has reached after another year, who knows." Liza let slip some details. The strongest Charizard had been holding the valley back when Lance's Charizard had cleared everyone else and still couldn't break that final wall. You could imagine how powerful that one Charizard truly was.
To challenge that Charizard, you first had to defeat every other Charizard in Charicific Valley. That was the prerequisite. In theory, every other Charizard in the valley combined was still no match for him. The title of strongest was earned in every sense.
"Miss Liza, I want to challenge that Charizard too! What's the process? Can you tell me a little about it?" Ash's voice rose, excited.
Challenging all of Charicific Valley, and then challenging the strongest Charizard inside it. Just thinking about it had him fired up.
"Are you sure, Ash? Challenging every Charizard in Charicific Valley is genuinely dangerous. I'll admit your Charizard is strong, and at his current level, he's a near-perfect specimen, but the perfection is limited to his current level. Do you understand what I mean?" Liza's face had turned serious.
Liza was completely passionate about Charizards. With other Pokémon, she couldn't accurately discern an opponent's level on sight, but with Charizards it was different. Even standing still, she could read a Charizard's level and physical condition.
Ash's Charizard's physical conditioning might be considered perfect within Elite Four, but that perfection was limited to that tier. Every tier above Elite Four was on a different scale. Trying to fight at Champion level with Elite Four strength was simply a pipe dream.
"Miss Liza, you must know about Ash, and you're clearly interested in Charizards, so you must have seen Ash's signature Charizard battle, right?" Brock stepped forward and spoke seriously. He was a flirt, but when it came to his close friend, he could be plenty grave when needed.
Liza had clearly assumed that Charizard's current level was insufficient for the valley's trial. But how could Ash's Charizard be judged by his face-value level?
"I know. That Charizard has defeated the main ace of an Elite Four member before, which means he must have erupted with power comparable to a Mid Champion level. That eruption was through Mega Evolution and the special power of yours, Ash."
Liza's response left Brock momentarily stunned. So Liza did know Ash's Charizard could fight above his weight class. If she knew, why was she still saying Charizard wasn't suitable for the trial?
Liza glanced at the bewildered faces around her and slowly began to explain.
"I want to walk you through the actual process of challenging the strongest Charizard in Charicific Valley, and what the reward is for clearing it."
A reward, on top of everything? The thought rose in everyone's heads. Where there was a challenge, there was usually a reward. That was a perfectly reasonable rule for competitions organized by the authorities.
The reason institutions set up rewards was to attract people to take on the challenges, and to profit from them. The economic boost brought in by competitors, the fame of powerful Trainers, all kinds of secondary benefits. Only when those benefits flowed in did the institution then put rewards and honors on the line. It was a mutually beneficial arrangement, so seeing rewards attached to a challenge was completely normal.
But Charicific Valley's rewards were a bit strange. This place was already famous in its own right. Trainers who came to raise their Charizards here had to wait in line, and the valley screened them, not the other way around. Charicific Valley chose its participants; the participants never chose the valley. In that situation, the valley didn't need to set up rewards at all. Yet they did. Was it just out of sheer abundance?
Liza ignored the puzzled expressions and continued. "To challenge the strongest Charizard, you first have to defeat every Charizard in Charicific Valley. The format is one-on-one, but this isn't a 'one match per day with rest in between' situation. You have to defeat every Charizard in the valley, one-on-one, in a single day."
"What?"
"No rest? That's too brutal!"
"Is it really that harsh, Miss Liza? There are at least a hundred Charizards in this whole valley. Even if you finished one a minute, it would still take a minimum of two hours straight. And against Charizards this strong, finishing one in a minute is obviously impossible. Plus, the cumulative physical drain. How could anyone complete a challenge like that?"
The three of them spoke up one after another. Ash stayed quiet, expression thoughtful, his mind running.
Liza gestured for everyone to settle down. Once they fell silent, she continued.
"The challenge is genuinely demanding. But how do you think the strongest Charizard in this valley got that title?"
"You can't mean," Serena thought for a moment, then her face shifted into a look of disbelief. If her guess was right, just how powerful was that strongest Charizard?
"That's right. Exactly what you're thinking. The strongest Charizard in Charicific Valley is the Charizard who defeated everyone in the valley using the method I just described."
However.
"Miss Liza, I have to ask about the actual rules. After clearing every Charizard in Charicific Valley, do you challenge that strongest Charizard right away? Or do you get a rest period after the rest of the valley, with full recovery, and only then take on the final one?" Brock asked, his expression serious.
If it was the latter, this wouldn't be a joke at all. The valley was packed with Charizards. There was no way Ash's Charizard, no matter how strong, could clear every one of them in a single push and still have anything left.
How strong was Ash's Charizard really? After clearing them one by one and revealing they were each formidable in their own right, even with a victory in hand, Charizard would be close to spent. No one knew this better than Ash's companions, who'd watched him work. They also knew the cost Ash paid every time he boosted his Pokémon's strength.
It wasn't only Ash's own energy that drained. Pushing a Pokémon's power up like that also took a heavy toll on the Pokémon's stamina. Every time Ash boosted Charizard's speed and attack, Charizard's physical exertion also doubled.
Under those conditions, when Ash pushed a Pokémon up to fight, his Pokémon usually didn't lose. But after each battle, they were almost completely spent. Every time Ash challenged a higher-tier opponent, he was dancing on the edge of a knife. One miscalculation and the whole match was over.
Don't be fooled by the fact that Ash always seemed to win with stamina to spare. Most of the time, his Pokémon were already at their absolute limit. Pushing them further would have turned them into cannon fodder while draining whatever stamina was left.
So if Ash wanted his Charizard to defeat every Charizard in the valley, and then continue on to challenge the strongest one immediately afterward, the result was easy to predict.
"Why don't you think about it for a moment? What's the prerequisite for challenging a regional League Champion? After defeating the regional Elite Four, what's the next step?" Liza asked with a small smile.
"After defeating the Elite Four, you have to duel the Champion immediately. Otherwise the challenge resets. Other paths to becoming Champion are much harder." Misty picked up the thread.
Becoming a League Champion wasn't only a matter of defeating the Elite Four and the current Champion. There were the League's prearranged paths, the question of who was the strongest of the Elite Four, the necessary approval of both the Elite Four and the League itself. The hardest way to become Champion was to challenge the sitting Champion before they retired.
That meant defeating the entire Elite Four and the sitting Champion in sequence. Trainers who became Champion through that route were considered the strongest in their region's history.
The reason the rules were so strict was to prevent arbitrary changes at the top. The League was effectively saying that as long as the current Champion didn't step down voluntarily, there was no need to put the title up for grabs. If you insisted on becoming Champion under those conditions, that was the only path forward.
"In theory, it works the same way here. After clearing every Charizard in the valley, you have to challenge the strongest one immediately afterward. These challenge conditions are absurd. There probably aren't many who can even reach the final stage." Misty couldn't help but say it. Why set such strict rules? Could it really be for that unknown reward? What kind of reward would justify these conditions?
"Exactly. So, Ash, are you sure you still want to take this on?" Liza nodded, her blue eyes fixed on Ash, asking the question one more time.
Even if Liza didn't know the specific side effects of Ash's boost, Ash himself had to know them intimately. She was laying out the challenge process now to prepare him. Based on the realities of the trial, Ash could choose to push forward, or he could choose to pretend he'd never asked. No one here would mock him for backing off. After all, an Elite Four-level Charizard, no matter how well-trained, would still find it brutally hard to break through the entire valley. This was Charicific Valley, not some roadside Gym.
Under everyone's watching eyes, Ash and Charizard nodded firmly together.
"We're taking the challenge. We'll be in your care, Miss Liza."
"A newborn calf really doesn't fear the tiger. Maybe too much success has made you forget what failure feels like, and a reminder is overdue. When do you plan to start?" Liza shook her head helplessly.
Ash was going to fail. Sometimes retreat wasn't failure. It was simply a strategic move toward something better. Ash clearly didn't grasp that yet. Probably he'd been on too smooth a road lately, which meant he no longer recognized when stepping back was the right call. If that was the case, then let him experience what real failure tasted like.
"We can start now. Charizard and I are both ready to fight."
"Roar!"
Charizard let out a long roar, breathing out a stream of scorching flame. Its dark eyes burned with the same fire.
"Then we'll begin." Liza walked over to a side door, picked up a huge trumpet, and after taking a deep breath, blew it with all her strength.
"Wooo "