At the referee's signal, Reiji gave the order right away.
"Kingler, Ice Beam."
"Breloom, dodge it! Bullet Seed!"
"Kingler, Iron Defense. Keep using it."
"Kook." Kingler stopped firing Ice Beam as soon as Breloom slipped away. It raised its huge claw in front of itself, and a metallic sheen flashed over its shell and pincer. Bullet Seed rattled against its body with a string of sharp clacks, but it barely moved.
That defense was ridiculous. Shun felt his heart sink. Were all of Reiji-nii's Pokémon monsters? Every single one seemed absurdly hard to break through. Once Kingler maxed out its Defense, Shun had no choice but to change tactics.
"Breloom, Stun Spore. Leech Seed."
"Kook." The moment Kingler saw the Stun Spore, it dug underground and sealed the hole behind it.
With no target, the Stun Spore scattered in the wind, and Leech Seed fell uselessly to the ground.
"Come out. Rock Tomb."
Reiji saw Breloom looking around and immediately had Kingler surface.
Boom, boom, boom.
"Kook." Kingler burst out of the ground and slammed one leg down. Several huge stone pillars shot up around Breloom, trapping it in the middle.
"Not good. Breloom, jump out! Thunder Punch!"
If ranged attacks could not break through, and support moves could be dodged by Dig, then Shun had to force close combat.
"Kingler, block it with Bubble."
"Kook." Kingler opened its mouth and spat out a flood of bubbles, swallowing Breloom just as it tried to rush out.
"Breloom, Dig."
Shun had no better option. He had Breloom cancel Thunder Punch and use Dig to escape the cage of stone pillars and bubbles.
"Kingler, Stomping Tantrum."
Right back to the same answer. It wasn't Infernape this time, but shaking Breloom out worked just as well.
"Breloom, get out of there!"
Rumble.
The tremor sank through the ground. Breloom felt the danger of the tunnel collapsing and immediately broke out, but Kingler was already waiting. It raised its huge claw and fired a freezing beam straight at the target.
"Loom!" By the time Breloom saw the beam, it had already hit. It had no chance to dodge. Its eyes widened as ice spread over its body and locked it in place.
"Kingler, Agility. Knock it away."
"Breloom, break the ice!"
One side was rushing in for the finish. The other was struggling to break free. That tiny window was enough for Kingler to close the distance. Before Breloom could escape the ice, Kingler swung one claw across.
Boom.
Breloom flew backward and slammed into the wall beneath the spectator stands. Kingler had not used a move, but with its raw strength, that hardly mattered. A clean hit from that claw was more than enough to badly hurt Breloom.
"Loom…" Breloom passed out the moment it hit the wall. The poor thing had it rough. Because of its size, it had been punished by Gyarados's big move yesterday, and now Kingler had sent it flying. Both losses came down to raw power.
If it had the strength of a heavier Pokémon, breaking out of the ice would not have been hard. If it could break free fast enough, it would not be left stiff and slow afterward, and Kingler would not have finished it so easily.
Shun recalled the unconscious Breloom and quickly went over his remaining team.
His unused Pokémon were Pelipper, Heracross, and Machoke. Only those three were left.
Poliwrath and Infernape were still technically available.
But Poliwrath and Infernape had no good way to handle Kingler, and there was no reason to send out Pelipper unless it was facing Farfetch'd.
The key had been Electabuzz. Unfortunately, Forretress had already taken it out. Between Heracross and Machoke, Shun had to choose one.
"Heracross, I'm counting on you."
He chose Heracross because it was stronger than Machoke. In their arm-wrestling contests, Heracross always came first. It could easily lift objects a hundred times heavier than itself.
The average Heracross weighed fifty-four kilograms. A hundred times that was five thousand four hundred kilograms. That sounded exaggerated.
But Reiji had seen the anime. Ash's Heracross had once lifted Team Rocket's Diglett Mecha No. 2, a tracked underground drilling machine, and thrown it away. Heracross was absolutely a Pokémon with freakish strength.
"Heracross, Megahorn!"
"Hera!" Heracross's horn lit up white. The shell on its back opened, revealing a pair of thin wings, and it shot toward Kingler.
"Kingler, block it with Protect, then grab its horn."
Reiji wanted to see which one was stronger: Heracross or Kingler. Both were arthropod-like Pokémon built for explosive power, far beyond ordinary muscle strength.
Boom.
Heracross was fast. It slammed into Kingler's Protect with a heavy crash, kicking up a cloud of dust.
When the dust cleared, Kingler's Protect had stopped Megahorn cleanly. Then Kingler raised its huge claw and grabbed Heracross by the horn. The two Pokémon started pushing against each other, turning the battle into a sumo match.
After several minutes of struggling, Kingler lost.
Heracross drove it back with its horn and sent it flying.
Heracross was using its whole body, along with two flexible arms. Kingler only had its big claw. Its smaller claw was useless in this contest.
Kingler's power was all in its pincer. To put it simply, it had crushing grip strength, not full-body strength. If the contest were cracking coconuts, Kingler would win easily, but this was different. A loss was a loss.
"After several minutes of pushing, Kingler has lost the strength contest! Heracross has the advantage in raw power. How will the battle unfold from here?"
Kingler was not happy about losing and wanted another round, but Reiji stopped it.
"Kingler, Rock Tomb again. Then Bubble."
"Heracross, fly up!"
"Damn it, I forgot this thing can fly." Reiji immediately changed plans. "Mud Shot and Water Gun. Knock it down."
"Heracross, fight back with Bullet Seed!"
The battle turned into anti-air fire against an attack plane. The two little fighters went at it across the field, and with the stone pillars as cover, they actually seemed to enjoy themselves more and more.
Bullet Seed only made clacking sounds against Kingler's shell. It did not do much.
Kingler had already maxed out its Defense, and its base Defense was strong to begin with. If Shun wanted to grind it down slowly, Reiji had no reason to rush.
Mud Shot was different. Every hit slowed Heracross down. If it took too many, that fighter jet was going to turn into a cargo plane.
As Heracross lost speed and took more hits, Shun had no choice but to bring it back down and keep wearing Kingler down with Bullet Seed.
Kingler gradually got irritated. It stopped caring about the seeds and charged straight through them, swinging its claws and smacking Heracross twice.
Heracross got mad too. It flew up, accelerated, and slammed into Kingler with Horn Attack. Kingler knocked it away. Heracross got up and charged again. Kingler knocked it away again.
The two Pokémon kept trading hits until both were panting hard.
Reiji rubbed his forehead. He couldn't watch this anymore, and there was no point giving orders. The two Pokémon had gotten too worked up to listen properly. At this point, he might as well let them fight until one of them dropped.
Under the blazing sun, Kingler gave out first. Foam spilled from its mouth as it collapsed. That was the problem with an amphibious Pokémon like Kingler. Once it lost too much water, heatstroke came quickly. In a drawn-out fight, it could not outlast Heracross.
Heracross was not much better. It collapsed as well, too exhausted to stand.
Reiji and Shun recalled their Pokémon at the same time.
After that miserable slog finally ended, they both took out their next Poké Balls and continued the match.
"Go, Infernape!"
"Go, Slowpoke!"
"What a grinding battle that was. Kingler versus Heracross ended with Kingler collapsing from dehydration. Both contestants have now sent out their next Pokémon: Shun's Infernape and Reiji's Slowpoke."
Reiji simply did not know what he wanted to use next, so he tossed out one of his Pokémon at random. Most of his team leaned Water-type anyway, so the obvious choices were his Water-type support Pokémon.
Shun had wanted to send out his sixth Pokémon, but Reiji had only revealed four. If Shun revealed his last Pokémon now, he would be playing with his whole team exposed.
The match was already hard enough without that. If Reiji knew his full lineup, it would only get worse. So Shun held his last Pokémon back.
Poliwrath had spent too much energy to fight. Heracross had just finished its battle and was in no shape to continue. That left Infernape, which was still in decent condition.
Infernape had a bad matchup against Slowpoke. Slowpoke's Water and Psychic typing covered it from both sides. As for speed, that advantage did not exist here.
"Slowpoke, Trick Room."
"Slow?" This was Slowpoke's first time on the field. It was not used to the noise of the crowd, and it liked the dry air even less. It did not use the move right away.
It was not being slow. Infernape had not attacked yet, so there was no need to set Trick Room.
"Infernape, Thunder Punch!"
Against a slow Pokémon like Slowpoke, Shun had Infernape rush in with Thunder Punch. One hit should be enough to take it down.
He was thinking too simply.
Hum.
The moment Infernape charged, Psychic power spread across the field. Trick Room formed at once, covering the whole battlefield. Infernape froze for a split second, startled by something it had never seen before.
In that moment, Slowpoke slipped behind it and spat out a ball of water.
"Feer!" Infernape took the hit square in the back. Hydro Pump drenched it from head to toe.
"Infernape, Thunder Punch!"
"Nape!" Infernape heard Shun's order and stood up. The water on its body had already steamed away. It clenched its fist with crackling electricity and rushed Slowpoke again.
"Slow." Slowpoke opened its mouth in a huge yawn, sending a lazy bubble drifting toward Infernape.
Infernape dodged the slow bubble. Trick Room let slower Pokémon move first, but it did not make their moves faster. Dodging it was nothing strange.
But when Infernape rushed in and swung Thunder Punch, Slowpoke had already moved away. Its fist passed through an afterimage.
"How?" Shun could not understand it. Slowpoke's base Speed was only fifteen. How was it moving faster than Infernape?
"Trick Room reverses the order of movement. Inside Trick Room, slower Pokémon act first. How will Contestant Shun break through it?"
"So this is Trick Room?" Shun looked at the blue barrier around the battlefield, and the answer finally clicked. He had not faced this kind of niche strategy before. Now he had seen it for himself.
If slower Pokémon moved first, then the clean answer was to switch Infernape for something even slower than Slowpoke.
But he did not have a Pokémon that slow. Every Pokémon he had left was faster than twenty.
There was another way to break Trick Room: overwhelm the field itself with raw power. Bug-, Ghost-, and Dark-type power could all punch through it.
In simple terms, Trick Room was still a field effect. Break the field, take control of it, or remove it. That was all there was to it.
Boom, boom, boom.
Against a Slowpoke that now moved before it, and the Hydro Pump shots dropping one after another, Infernape could only dodge. It could not catch Slowpoke at all. Every time it got close, Slowpoke moved away first and kept out of reach.
What do I do? Do I just wait for Trick Room to end?
Shun gripped the rail of his platform. He had no switch that could break Trick Room, and for the moment, he had no good way to deal with it. All he could do was watch Infernape get pushed around.
One moment, Hydro Pump was blasting across the field. The next, Yawn bubbles were drifting everywhere. Dig did not help either. Whenever Infernape hid underground, Slowpoke poured water into the tunnel and froze it. If Infernape did not want to be trapped in ice, it had to scramble back out.
But as soon as Infernape came out, it ran into one of the huge blue bubbles floating around the field and fell asleep.
Slowpoke followed with Ice Beam, freezing it solid, then kept thickening the ice so it had no chance to wake up.
As for Blaze, forget it. Infernape had been frozen, then washed into one of the two craters Poliwhirl had blasted open earlier. The crater was already full of water. If it wanted to trigger Blaze, it could go ahead and do it in the pool.
Shun recalled Infernape, which meant it was out. Trick Room was still active, and Slowpoke had defeated Infernape.
With Infernape eliminated, Shun had lost three Pokémon. The match entered its mid-battle break and would continue in five minutes.
[End of chapter]
[100 Power Stones = Extra Chapter]
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