Gengar faced off against Toxicroak, Umbreon against Skuntank. Only now did the young boss finally have time to get a good look at the person who had ambushed him.
"I recognize you… you're that 'Dark King', Sato!" The young boss's expression shifted as his mind raced furiously.
Then, without even a pause, he shouted, "I have no grudge against you… WHY WOULD YOU AMBUSH ME?
Just because you're with the League… does that give you the right to do whatever you want? To command your Pokémon to attack a human?"
Many of the onlookers now recognized this infamous, troublemaking genius Trainer, and the way they looked at Sato began to change.
'…Commanding Pokémon to attack a human?'
Whether it was true or not, the crowd could no longer stay calm. They all took several steps back in alarm.
But Sato had no interest in arguing about something so pointless. To avoid further complications, it was best to take down the true culprit as soon as possible.
"Gengar, close-range Shadow Punch, Umbreon, Dig." Sato commanded while quietly linking to Ralts, instructing it to use Imprison on Claydol, to seal its ability to use Teleport.
Gengar went invisible, and the moment Toxicroak stopped spinning, it appeared right in front of it.
Shadow Punch launched instantly!
Meanwhile, Umbreon leapt nimbly and dove underground. Under the effects of Dig, the restaurant's tiled floor crumbled like paper.
Skuntank watched its surroundings cautiously, but now the very tiles covering the floor were helping mask Umbreon's underground movement.
Dig surprise attack!
Shadow Punch landed!
Once Sato got serious, the advantage immediately swung in his favor. The young boss was just about to send out another Pokémon when, as if remembering something, he suddenly placed his hand on Claydol.
"We're leaving. Teleport!"
"Gengar, Psychic, Umbreon, Hidden Power."
Sato acted as if he hadn't heard the young boss's attempt to flee, giving his command to Gengar and Umbreon as calmly as ever.
A flicker of doubt crossed the young boss's face. The moment he saw it was Sato, he had planned to sacrifice Toxicroak and Skuntank to guarantee his own escape.
A flash of white light. The young boss felt a moment of disorientation.
He blinked!
…Only to find he was still standing in the same place.
"Dol"
Claydol blinked its ring of eyes and gave the young boss a very innocent look.
Whoosh~
Another flash of white light as Claydol attempted a second desperate escape!
But Teleport failed once again.
On the other side, Toxicroak, four times weak to Psychic, was completely locked down by Gengar's overwhelming psychic force.
Toxicroak struggled in panic and fury. Who knew a Gengar could possess such powerful Psychic abilities!
And without orders from its Trainer, Skuntank wasn't doing much better.
Umbreon, whose attack power had recently increased significantly, was beating it back with ease, and Skuntank couldn't even land a hit.
Even a fool could now tell that Sato had already dealt with Claydol behind the scenes, cutting off the man's escape route.
"I didn't want to go down with you… but do you really think I'm afraid of some so-called Darth King!?"
'…Darth?'
As he spoke, the young boss threw out two more Poké Balls. With flashes of red light, two more Poison-type Pokémon appeared.
Low Ace, Arbok!
Mid Ace, Drapion!
Sato frowned. The young boss's strength was a bit beyond expectations, and more importantly, he kept an extremely low profile. In his past life, Sato had never even heard of this person.
"Houndoom."
Even so, Sato only added one more Pokémon to the field, since Toxicroak was already nearly down, and Skuntank was barely able to fight.
Of course, since the young boss had decided to stop relying on Teleport and go all in, Claydol naturally became part of the fight.
3v5!
The young boss's face darkened again.
This was blatant disrespect!
Sato didn't care what his opponent thought. He simply commanded Houndoom, Gengar, and Umbreon to charge forward.
First, they focused fire on Toxicroak. Gengar once again used Psychic to lock it down precisely, while Houndoom followed up with a close-range Fire Blast.
Toxicroak was defeated without suspense.
But the young boss had clearly expected this and gave up on saving it, choosing instead to concentrate all attacks on Umbreon!
"Cross Poison, Night Slash, Poison Fang, Ancient Power!"
Drapion, Skuntank, Arbok, and Claydol launched a coordinated assault. Umbreon looked doomed, but Sato didn't seem the least bit worried.
Umbreon might've looked tiny compared to Drapion and the others, but it was built for defense; one of the rare Dark-types specialized in defensive counters.
No Protect used!
As the barrage of attacks came down, Umbreon closed its eyes.
Rest!
Unlike regular sleep, the move Rest instantly restored all of Umbreon's lost health/stamina.
Rest was used right after the opponents' attacks, allowing it to recover while taking damage, making it nearly impossible to be one-shot.
The next moment, its Ability, Synchronize, activated!
Synchronize transferred any abnormal status conditions to the attacker.
And just now… Drapion, Arbok, Skuntank, and Claydol had all landed attacks on Umbreon.
So when Synchronize activated, all four were registered as its attackers.
Which meant: they all fell asleep!
Unlike Umbreon's intentional Rest, Drapion and the others were passively forced into sleep, and wouldn't recover any stamina from it.
Umbreon collapsed, and then Drapion and the others fell one after another. The battlefield instantly went quiet.
The young boss was stunned!
The surrounding spectators were stunned!
Who could explain what had just happened?
How did a 4v1 suddenly end with all of them collapsing?
Only Sato clearly understood what had just happened. Even he had been caught off guard by Umbreon's sudden outburst.
He had expected Umbreon to use the ever-reliable Protect to defend against the four-pronged assault… but Umbreon clearly had more than a small supporting role in mind.
It wanted to shine, to decide the outcome with its own power, to defeat its enemies and achieve a breakthrough!
So Umbreon chose to take a risk. In a situation where it could've been one-shot, it timed Rest perfectly, then leveraged Synchronize to put all its attackers to sleep.
Keep in mind: after Dark-types, Poison-type moves are among the most painful.
But in contrast, Rest requires the body to fully relax to be used.
Two completely contradictory sensations occurring at once. Sato couldn't even imagine how Umbreon had managed to hit the timing for an instant sleep.
'Maybe… this was the power of love? Or perhaps… Umbreon just didn't want to mooch?'
In that brief moment of distraction, Sato had many thoughts; but more than anything, he didn't want to waste the overwhelming advantage Umbreon had just fought so hard for.
"Gengar, use Dream Eater."