After Pikachu defeated Arbok, Lorelei made a call, and only then did Cynthia get detailed information about Ash from her.
The other party was actually younger than she had guessed, having only debuted for two months!
Moreover, before he started traveling, he hadn't trained any Pokemon.
Although she was the youngest champion in history, in reality, she hadn't been training Pokemon for just three years.
Before she started traveling, she already had a Garchomp at the Gym Peak level, and over the next three years, she gradually raised Garchomp to the Champion level, along with a few other Pokemon reaching the Elite Level.
The year she became champion at eighteen, she didn't have a team full of champion-level Pokemon; it was just that Garchomp was too strong, so she managed to defeat the Sinnoh Champion of that year.
Now, after years of settling down, she could be considered a true champion in the truest sense.
Under her presence, the Sinnoh League had become one of the top leagues.
If there were rankings among leagues, Galar, with its strongest champion, would be the number one league, and the Sinnoh League would be second.
As for the bottom-ranked league, there was no doubt it was the Kanto League.
After all, two of the Kanto League's four Elites were from other regions, which clearly illustrated how short on resources the Kanto League was.
Plus, the Kanto League had no champion, so who else would be at the bottom?
If the Kanto League continued down this path, they might have to merge with the Johto League to remain viable.
But now, there seemed to be a turning point.
That boy named Ash on TV, if given a little more time to grow, he could undoubtedly become an Elite Level trainer, and even becoming a champion wasn't impossible.
No, he could absolutely become a champion, as long as he maintained this momentum, possibly even becoming a champion trainer younger than her.
"What will your third Pokemon be? It's really exciting," Cynthia murmured, her beautiful eyes full of interest.
...
Fuchsia Gym—
Ash picked up Pikachu and handed it over to Misty beside him.
"I'll leave Pikachu to you."
"Okay... But Ash, what will your third Pokemon be? It won't be Gardevoir, will it?" Misty asked worriedly after taking Pikachu.
If Ash used Gardevoir, to be blunt, this third battle was almost certainly lost.
Gardevoir's strength was on par with Charizard's, and even if Gardevoir had a trump card similar to Charizard's special flame, it couldn't defeat an Elite Mid-Level Pokemon.
Now Koga only had one last Pokemon left to make a mistake with, and you couldn't expect him to go easy and use an Elite Junior level Pokemon, could you? That's not realistic.
"Don't worry, I have things under control. This third battle... is a sure win!" Ash grinned, his face full of confidence.
After saying that, Ash took the hat from Pikachu's head and put it back on his own, then turned and walked toward the battle arena.
Misty and Brock looked at each other, unsure where Ash's confidence came from.
Could he have something hidden that they didn't know about?
Returning to the battlefield, the arena was once again enveloped by a transparent protective shield.
In fact, every time the barrier shattered, the surrounding machines would reallocate stored energy to repair it.
But the previous battle between Pikachu and Arbok had completely exceeded the barrier's defense threshold, causing it to be utterly destroyed before it could repair.
The barrier started to fix itself afterward, but as soon as it did so a little, it was shattered again by the aftershock.
So it wasn't until the battle ended that the barrier was fully repaired.
This type of barrier designed for Gym Level battles still fell short in an Elite Level fight.
If Ash hadn't preemptively released Aura Power around as a safeguard, the entire Fuchsia Gym might have been blown away.
Even Ash couldn't manage to protect the surroundings while fully engaged in battle.
If he and Pikachu hadn't been fully in sync, focusing on the same target, the power of Pika Papow would have diminished, and Arbok wouldn't have lost.
Thus, Koga's initial guess wasn't wrong; the one who protected the gym was Ash.
As Ash returned to the battlefield, Koga also retrieved his last Pokeball, looking at Ash with many emotions in his eyes.
Admiration, astonishment, appreciation... Ash's performance today had far exceeded his imagination, and up to this point, Ash still hadn't used the Pokemon that defeated Sabrina.
Sabrina's strength was no secret among their top Gym Leaders, as her Alakazam had strength comparable to an Elite Advanced Level Pokemon; even Lorelei couldn't defeat it one-on-one.
Ash's victory over Sabrina couldn't have been just by relying on his Charizard, which barely beat an Elite Junior level, and Pikachu, which used all its resources to win against an Elite Mid-Level.
In other words, Ash still had a trump card.
By now, he couldn't keep anything hidden anymore; for this third Pokemon, he must use his ace!
Otherwise, losing this battle would cause significant trouble!