2:00 PM.
Silas stepped onto the stage right on time!
His opponent for the semifinals, the battle for a spot in the final two, was Conrad Stone. Thanks to a prearranged heads-up with his father, none of the top five Trainers marked by Lorelei could face him before this round. So apart from the three who'd already been eliminated by Silas, both Conrad Stone and Soma made it to the semifinals!
Conrad was only two or three years older than Silas looked on paper, with pale blue hair and matching eyes. But he seemed to have a shy nature—even after clawing his way to the semifinals, he still looked nervously bashful in the face of the roaring crowd.
"H-hi!" Staring at Silas across the battlefield, Conrad stammered his greeting awkwardly, "My… My name is Conrad Stone. P-please go easy on me."
The lack of confidence in his voice made Silas want to laugh and cry at the same time. Seriously, what kind of enormous faith must the Stone family have to send such a timid member in to face him? Still, since Conrad greeted him, Silas couldn't be rude. He replied with a lukewarm, "Let's do our best."
Silas was then amazed by what happened next. Despite the obvious small talk, Conrad answered with an utterly sincere, "Yes!"
With Silas's helpless smile and the heated atmosphere, the referees and commentator took their places.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" As soon as the commentator entered, he began hyping up the crowd, "Welcome to the Indigo Tournament! Up next, it's the semifinals, the final four duking it out for a ticket to the championship match! This promises to be a truly outstanding showdown!"
"First, let me introduce our red-side contestant! This guy's no joke—Conrad Stone! I'm sure everyone here knows that last name: that's right, it's the same Stone as Hoenn's former Champion! Conrad Stone is the younger brother of the Hoenn Region's previous Champion, now one of the top Trainers in the world—Steven Stone!"
"And Conrad lives up to his famous brother's reputation! During this Indigo Tournament, he's pulled off feats like 1v3s, even 1v6 matches—battles most Trainers can only dream of!"
"What's more, throughout the entire tournament, none of his Pokémon have suffered a single injury!"
That bombshell sent the audience into a frenzy.
"Holy crap… Steven's real little brother? This tournament's stacked, man."
"I can't believe just how competitive this Indigo Tournament is. First, we get the monster that is Silas, then the former Indigo Champion Sasaki Ono and the crazy strong Teppei from over a decade ago with Elite Four skills, and now Steven's brother pops up? Any one of these guys could take the Champion title in a regular year!"
"Seriously! To have a whole crowd of future Champions appear together like this… It's unbelievable, almost like they planned it together, all crashing the Indigo League tournament at once. What's their real goal?"
As the crowd buzzed, the commentator turned the spotlight.
"And now our blue-side contestant! I doubt there's anyone here who doesn't know him—give it up for Silas Oak!"
"Silas may not have a Champion for a big brother, but he's got a famous Professor for a grandpa—plus a Legendary Pokémon!"
"And while Silas hasn't gone completely unscathed, he's pulled off 1v3, even 1v6 wipes himself! He even took down the former Indigo Champion from six years ago, not to mention Teppei, who reached Elite Four heights over a decade ago!"
In just a few lines, the commentator pulled the crowd's talk right back to Silas. While most people knew Silas was strong, very few were aware his last name was 'Oak'. The only time his status as Professor Oak's grandson had come out was during the Top 128 round, but that had a fraction of today's audience. Now? The revelation sent shockwaves everywhere.
"Wow, no way—Silas is from the Kanto Oak family?"
"Doesn't really matter if he's from the Oaks, he's incredible all on his own. The Oaks couldn't have just caught him a Legendary Pokémon anyway, right? If they really had that kind of power, they wouldn't have waited until now to reveal it!"
"Don't be stupid, just cheer for Silas already. Anyone with a clue knows you can't control a powerhouse Pokémon if your own Trainer level isn't up there. The family might've helped out, sure, but Silas is the real deal!"
As the crowd chattered, the referees entered the field.
"The Indigo Tournament semifinals now begin! Standard rules—6v6 full team battle, both Trainers can freely switch Pokémon. The first side to have all Pokémon lose the ability to fight loses. Understood?"
"Understood," Silas and Conrad both answered.
"In that case… begin!"
With the nod from both competitors, the referees waved their flags and stepped off the field.
As soon as the refs left, Conrad picked up his Poké Ball—and in that instant, his whole demeanor changed!
If earlier Conrad had seemed like a sheep, now he was a tiger out of its cage. That timid look completely vanished, replaced by utter seriousness.
"Silas!" This time, Conrad's voice was rock-steady and full of excitement. "I've known about you for two years already—and ever since then, I've wanted to battle you. Now I finally get the chance. Give me everything you've got!"
Two years ago?
Conrad's words confused Silas a bit—he had no memory of this guy. But instead of asking, he just picked up his Master Ball. "Let's go."
"Yeah!" Conrad grinned, then tossed his Poké Ball: "Empoleon!"
"Dragonite!"
Bang! Bang!
Two flashes of light appeared nearly simultaneously.
One big, one small—the contrast couldn't have been clearer. The larger was Silas's Dragonite; the smaller, Conrad's Empoleon!
Of course, you couldn't really call Conrad's Empoleon 'small'; a regular Empoleon was 1.8 meters tall, but his was a whopping 2.5 meters!
Still, Dragonite was a behemoth: even having shrunk himself, he was still around six or seven meters long. So even with Empoleon's impressive size, in front of Dragonite, he just looked like a child.
With both Pokémon revealed, the commentator jumped right in: "Wow! Both Trainers have led off with their star Pokémon! Conrad's Empoleon isn't common in Kanto, but it's super popular in Sinnoh, being the final form of one of the original Sinnoh Region starters, Piplup!"
"And Silas, for the first time after Pikachu, Legendary Mewtwo, Gengar, Charizard, and Tyranitar, is revealing his sixth Pokémon—our Kanto pseudo-legendary, the guardian of the seas… Dragonite! And this guy's at least three times the size of a normal one!"
Seeing the monster-sized Dragonite, Conrad's face went a shade paler.
He'd figured Silas wouldn't run Mewtwo back-to-back and was expecting either Gengar, Tyranitar, or Charizard. Empoleon wasn't perfect against Gengar, but it could counter Fire-type Charizard and the Ground-type Tyranitar—giving him a 2 out of 3 chance. But he'd forgotten about Silas's sixth Pokémon!
Then again, it was hard to blame him. Silas's other five were already so intimidating that nobody would expect him to have a sixth monster up his sleeve.
With Dragonite out, Conrad's whole game plan was thrown off.
But now, there was no way he could recall Empoleon. In a battle at this level, withdrawing your Pokémon could cause serious psychological scars; after this, the Pokémon might never progress.
While Conrad was stressed, Silas wasted no time: "Thunderbolt!"
'Dragonite~'
Dragonite let out a mighty roar. The two antennae on his head crackled with electricity, and a roaring dragon-shaped bolt formed in midair, striking straight at Empoleon!
"Dodge!"
Seeing the incoming Thunder Dragon, Conrad snapped out of it and ordered, "Then target Dragonite's head—Bubble Beam!"
'Empoleon!'
Empoleon leaped skyward with penguin-like agility. But as it jumped, Silas called out: "Take it down!"
Dragonite abruptly stopped Thunderbolt mid-attack, and with a sudden pivot, threw a massive punch right at Empoleon!
Seeing Dragonite shut off Thunderbolt and throw that punch, Conrad could hardly believe his eyes. "Empoleon—use Water Gun!"
Water Gun?
Not Bubble Beam?
Empoleon was a bit confused—it was only peak Elite Four, after all, not a genius.
But then it saw Dragonite's enormous golden fist hurtling toward it and instantly got it. Sensing the crisis, Empoleon snapped its beak open and blasted a thick Water Gun, using the recoil to narrowly dodge the punch!
"Thunderbolt!" Silas called again.
'Dragonite~'
Dragonite let out a low growl, and the sky split open as a thunderbolt came crashing down!
The bolt looked as if it descended from the heavens—a strike of divine lightning—smashing down on Empoleon before anyone could react.
'Empoleon!'
Caught in the Thunderbolt, Empoleon let out a piercing cry!
When the lightning faded, so did the scream—and Empoleon was down for the count.
So strong!
Watching Silas pull off three seamless moves in seconds and one-shot Empoleon, Conrad couldn't hide his shock.
"O-One hit KO…" Conrad stammered, and even the commentator's voice betrayed amazement: "Here we go again—another instant KO! From the round of 16, to the quarterfinals, to this semifinal, Silas keeps showing off overwhelming power and instantly KO'd his opponent yet again! Are all his Pokémon monsters?!"
Not just Conrad and the commentator—the entire audience was reeling, and then exploded into hushed discussions.
"Whoa, instant KO again? Is he going to sweep this semifinal like he did this morning?"
"No way, right? This is the semifinals, and Conrad's Steven's little brother—even if he's not at Steven's level, there's no way Silas could just one-shot all six, right?"
"Yeah, I want to see Silas roll over Conrad too, but as Steven's brother, he's gotta have some Champion skills. Steven must've taught him some secret moves. Even if Conrad loses, there's no way he'd let himself get swept, right? If Silas really just sweeps him, he's gonna ruin Steven's reputation!"
"Come back!" As the crowd murmured, Conrad recalled Empoleon, then summoned another Poké Ball: "Show your true power—Aggron!"
'Aggron!'
With a flash of white light, an armored Pokémon with a metal head and stone-plated body stormed out onto the stage. As it appeared, Silas narrowed his eyes, sizing up the new challenger.
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