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In the next moment, Blastoise's towering figure appeared on the grassy battlefield. Through its Aura power, it immediately sensed Sato's current emotions, and its expression turned extremely serious.
"Blastoise? Judging purely by its aura, its level seems even lower than Tentacruel's. Why send out a Pokémon like this to deal with my Zoroark? But looking at his expression, he doesn't seem like he's giving up…"
Seeing the last Pokémon Sato had sent out, Hughes carefully examined Blastoise and then glanced at Sato's stern expression. Confusion immediately arose in his heart.
Although puzzled, he was convinced that Blastoise defeating his Zoroark was almost impossible. Once he thought of that, the slight unease in his heart quickly faded.
Hughes was actually the son of the patriarch of the Adolf family, a powerful super-family from the Unova region. His purpose for coming to Hoenn was to collect Gym Badges and participate in next year's Hoenn League Conference.
Naturally, his goal in entering the Hoenn League Conference was to win the championship.
Because he was born later, Hughes had an older brother whose strength was equally formidable. If he wanted to inherit the position of family patriarch, he would need to hold a high-ranking position within the League—and not just any position, but one with real authority.
The only way to obtain such status was to compete in League tournaments and win at least one regional championship, then gradually climb the ladder through the Elite Four and Champion ranks.
Indeed, every Elite Four member and Champion was a powerful authority within the League. Even after retirement, they could become influential elders—or even decision-makers of an entire region.
Zoroark was a Pokémon Hughes had acquired at enormous cost. He had even equipped it with the incredibly precious item known as the Nightmare Crystal.
To exchange for that complete Nightmare Crystal from his family's treasury, Hughes had practically emptied his personal funds—over three billion—along with all the family contribution points he had accumulated over the years.
Because of that, Hughes had extremely high expectations for Zoroark. It was the powerful weapon he intended to rely on in next year's League Conference.
If it weren't for the fact that most of the Pokémon he brought tonight were lower-level ones—and that he happened to encounter someone like Sato who might cause an upset, while Alice was also present to watch his battle—he would never have been willing to let Zoroark fight. (He cared a lot about saving face.)
After all, battling would expose Zoroark's abilities, such as the moves it had mastered. If his future opponents discovered that information, it would be troublesome.
Therefore, in order to hide Zoroark's true strength as much as possible, Hughes instructed it to repeat its previous tactic: trap Blastoise in an illusion and patiently wait for it to self-destruct just like Tentacruel had.
As the referee blew the whistle, the battle resumed.
After seeing Hughes make a downward pressing gesture again, Zoroark's eyes flashed with dazzling red light. At the same time, the Nightmare Crystal hanging beneath its neck emitted a faint, eerie crimson glow.
In an instant, everyone present—except Hughes—along with their Pokémon, were once again dragged into the illusion Zoroark created.
However, while repeating the same trick, a flash of blue light suddenly appeared in Zoroark's eyes. A thread of psychic energy, so fine it was invisible to the naked eye, shot out from its forehead and quickly entered Blastoise's head.
At the exact moment the thread entered Blastoise's mind, Sato closed his eyes.
At this moment, Sato was using a new psychic technique called Mental Link. This technique allowed his mind to temporarily connect with Blastoise's, enabling them to share vision and other senses.
However, this ability consumed a huge amount of psychic power continuously.
With Sato's current psychic capacity, he could maintain the Mental Link for only three minutes, and during that time he couldn't move.
Blastoise was extremely obedient. As soon as the battle began, it quietly activated the Aura power within its body to resist the illusion cast by Zoroark.
Aura truly lived up to its reputation as a powerful spiritual force. Although Blastoise's Aura wasn't extremely strong, it was still powerful enough to break through the illusion created by Zoroark using the Nightmare Crystal's nightmare energy.
Through Blastoise's vision, Sato finally saw Zoroark's true position clearly. Joy surged through him—his attempt to break the illusion had worked.
However, instead of immediately attacking, Sato instructed Blastoise to pretend that it was still trapped in the nightmare-like illusion, acting panicked while secretly approaching Zoroark.
Clearly, Zoroark was extremely arrogant. Seeing Blastoise's frantic behavior, it revealed a smug smile and did not suspect anything as Blastoise stumbled closer.
As for Hughes, although he felt something was slightly strange, he ultimately said nothing.
After all, he didn't know what kind of illusion Blastoise was currently experiencing. From his perspective, any strange behavior from Blastoise was possible.
However, he did feel puzzled about Sato's current condition.
"What is he doing? Does he think he can break Zoroark's illusion with psychic power? That's useless. If you couldn't break it earlier, it means your psychic power isn't strong enough to resist Zoroark's illusion energy. Maybe in the future you could—but definitely not now."
Watching Sato standing there with his eyes tightly closed, Hughes wondered inwardly.
Of course, Sato had no idea what Hughes was thinking. Seeing that Zoroark had no reaction, he continued guiding Blastoise to move closer while maintaining the act.
Soon, under Sato's instructions, Blastoise staggered forward while repeatedly slapping its shell with its palm, as if panicking.
Meanwhile, Zoroark still hadn't noticed the danger approaching. It remained sitting calmly, mocking Blastoise as it wandered around in the illusion.
Finally, when Blastoise was less than one meter away from Zoroark, Sato made his move.
Blastoise's right hand suddenly glowed white. With a powerful stomp of its thick legs, it lunged forward.
Before Zoroark could react, Blastoise struck downward with a hand blade directly onto its head—successfully unleashing Brick Break.
The sudden ambush instantly stunned the completely unprepared Zoroark. Due to type disadvantage, the naturally fragile and defense-poor Zoroark took heavy damage.
Even worse, the blow landed squarely on its head. The strike nearly knocked it unconscious. Though it didn't faint immediately, it was thrown into a severe dizzy state, making Hughes' attempt to issue commands useless.
Taking advantage of this opening, Blastoise launched a rapid follow-up.
This time its left hand clenched into a fist, again empowered by Brick Break, and it smashed upward into Zoroark's jaw—sending it flying into the air.
Immediately afterward, the two massive cannons on Blastoise's shell aimed at the airborne Zoroark, which had nowhere to regain balance.
Two basketball-sized Aura Spheres blasted out simultaneously, striking Zoroark in midair with perfect accuracy.
"Aura Sphere?! It's Aura Sphere! That Blastoise actually possesses Aura power!"
Watching Zoroark get hit by the two Aura Spheres, Hughes' already grim face twisted into shock as he shouted in disbelief.