"Alright, now the battle between Trainer Silas and Trainer Keith has reached its most crucial stage. We can see that all three of their Pokémon have appeared.
However, compared to Silas's clear advantage, Keith's situation doesn't look so good.
As things stand, Silas's Ampharos and Togekiss have taken almost no damage from the earlier rounds, while his newly sent-out Serperior looks full of energy.
Meanwhile, Keith has only his final Pokémon left — Breloom.
Can Keith's Breloom possibly turn things around against Silas's Serperior and claim a win for its Trainer?"
Even though the commentator could already predict the outcome, he still needed to keep up the suspense.
Besides, in a one-on-one match between Serperior and Breloom, even he couldn't say for sure who would come out on top.
"Serperior, use Growth."
"Breloom, use Bulk Up."
Silas and Keith both chose moves that boosted their Pokémon's stats as an opening strategy.
In a same-type battle, self-buffing is crucial. Without any stat boosts, attacks between Pokémon of the same type deal greatly reduced damage—essentially cutting their effectiveness in half.
Across the messy grassy field, the two Grass-type Pokémon faced each other.
Serperior's body began to glow with swirling green light, seemingly growing larger.
Meanwhile, Breloom tightened its muscles, the cords of power rippling across its flexible frame.
One was increasing both Attack and Special Attack.
The other was enhancing its Attack and Defense.
Maintain distance.
Close in.
Two completely opposite strategies flashed through their Trainers' minds.
"Use Wrap, bind it down!"
"Head in, then use Mach Punch!"
"Serp—!"
Serperior hissed proudly, and two long vines shot from its sides, sliding swiftly across the ground toward Breloom.
Thanks to the grassy terrain's effect, the vines seemed to move even faster than usual.
Breloom lowered its head, the mushroom cap atop it aimed at Serperior, and kicked off the ground with explosive force.
Boom!
The ground cracked under its strength as it shot forward like a missile.
Silas wanted to keep his distance; Keith wanted close combat.
Unlike the well-rounded Serperior, Breloom — part Fighting-type — excelled in melee combat and martial technique, far more than long-range attacks.
Its physical Attack stat was much higher than its other attributes. Up close, Serperior would definitely be at a disadvantage.
But if Serperior could maintain range and keep draining or restraining it, Breloom would be in trouble instead.
This battle would come down to how they managed the distance.
Under the tense gazes of Trainers and spectators alike, Serperior's vines and Breloom's body clashed in the center of the field, tangling together.
"Ssshh!"
Serperior strained, tightening the vines in an attempt to hold Breloom still.
Breloom roared in defiance, flexing its muscles and pushing forward with brute strength.
Despite the pressure, Breloom slowly began advancing, inch by inch, overpowering the vines' restraint.
"Breloom—!"
It let out a rough growl.
As a Fighting-type, Breloom's strength didn't just lie in raw power, but in its swift footwork and elastic arms, which it used to deliver quick, controlled punches.
It was more like a skilled martial artist or boxer than a reckless brawler.
If not for Serperior's lack of physical strength, Breloom wouldn't have been able to move forward at all under the tight constriction of Wrap.
"Use Giga Drain!"
Silas wasn't going to just wait and lose ground.
With the vines already connected between the two, Giga Drain had a perfect channel to transfer energy—no delay at all.
"Use Swords Dance, pull it closer!" Keith countered quickly.
A green glow flashed across Serperior's body, spreading from its torso into the vines and flowing toward Breloom.
Breloom tried to twist and perform Swords Dance, but that was easier said than done—its movement was heavily restricted by the Wrap, making it nearly impossible to spin its arms freely.
"Breloom!"
As Giga Drain's green light reached it, Breloom's legs trembled slightly, its strength momentarily fading.
Serperior seized the opportunity, snapping its vines to fling Breloom backward.
"Use Stone Edge!"
Keith had to act quickly to break the draining cycle.
Although Giga Drain didn't deal huge damage per hit, the continuous health recovery over time would make prolonged combat disastrous.
After a brief stagger, Breloom recovered and gathered energy in its claws.
Several sharp stones materialized in its hands.
It clasped them together, then swung hard toward the vines, slashing with the jagged edges.
Shhh—!
Silas had just wanted to stop Serperior, but the Pokémon instinctively retracted its vines. Fortunately, nothing went wrong.
Silas shook his head helplessly. "Still not used to it, huh…"
Although he had already reminded Serperior before the match not to retract its vines immediately after binding a Breloom, the lack of battle experience made it an instinctive reaction to pull them back.
Normally, that reaction would be the right move — retracting the vines allows Serperior to prepare for its next attack and reposition itself, since it heavily relies on those vines for movement.
But in this case, the opposing Breloom's Ability was Effect Spore, something that had already been revealed during the preliminaries and that made this situation risky.
Effect Spore may cause the opponent that makes physical contact to become poisoned, paralyzed, or asleep. Since Serperior's Vine Whips are part of its body, wrapping them around Breloom counts as direct contact.
If Serperior hadn't retracted its vines, it would've been fine — the spores wouldn't have directly affected it.
But once the vines were pulled back into its body, the spores might have been carried along and caused a status condition.
This kind of ability is quite rare — in the Kanto region, only Paras and Parasect share Effect Spore as their primary ability. So, it was understandable that Serperior wasn't used to it.
What Silas was most worried about was poisoning. The chance of Breloom inflicting poison is significantly higher than paralysis or sleep, due to its biological traits — the seed on its tail is formed from hardened toxic spores, and its mushroom cap also releases poisonous dust.
Among all possible status effects, poisoning is by far the most troublesome.
Silas definitely didn't want Serperior's strength to be gradually worn down by poison until it lost the battle.
Serperior also seemed to realize its mistake after instinctively pulling back the vines, and glanced apologetically at Silas.
...
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