"It's decided, Gardevoir!" In a flash of light, the long-unseen Gardevoir makes a dazzling appearance!
The last time Gardevoir had a formal battle was a long time ago, likely during the Quartz Conference...
As one of Ash's top three stalwart members, her opportunities to battle have been few; most of the time, it's either Charizard or Pikachu in the field.
This time, it's finally Gardevoir's turn.
One advantage of not appearing for a long time is that Brandon has no way of assessing Gardevoir's strength or guarding against her moves based on previous information.
Because Gardevoir's last battle was several months ago, at that time Gardevoir was still at Gym Level, and the battle data is essentially of no reference value.
So now, Brandon can only treat Gardevoir as an entirely new Pokemon, with all information about her being unknown.
Of course, even if Brandon had seen Gardevoir a month ago, now she'd still be a complete mystery to him.
After all, stimulated by Charizard, Gardevoir is now completely different from before.
"A Psychic-type Pokemon, Gardevoir, and a Shiny one at that; your Pokemon are indeed rarer and rarer." Shiny Gardevoir even made Brandon slightly surprised for a moment.
Gardevoir is already rare, not to mention a Shiny version.
While Shiny doesn't necessarily equate to strength, Shiny Pokemon appear almost as rarely as Legendary Beasts. A Shiny version of a rare Pokemon like Gardevoir might even be more precious than a Legendary Beast.
"You're too kind, Mr. Brandon, my Gardevoir is not just for looks," Ash said, wiping his nose with a proud look.
"Garde~" Gardevoir picked up the hem of her skirt and bowed gracefully to Brandon and Regirock, displaying the elegance of a queen.
Politeness first, then combat, after the courtesy, it's time to get started!
"Gardevoir, Psychic!" As usual, Ash was the first to launch the attack.
As Ash's words fell, Gardevoir quickly entered battle mode, her expression became serious, she lifted her hands, her eyes brightly shining, and a powerful Spiritual Power acted on Regirock.
"Regirock, Curse," Brandon commanded calmly.
Curse is a Ghost-type skill. If a Ghost-type Pokemon uses it, it will halve its max physical strength and then curse the opponent, causing their physical strength to deplete exponentially over time.
But if used by a Pokemon of another attribute, it becomes a buffing skill that sacrifices one level of Speed to enhance one level each of Attack and Defense.
This boost is quite formidable for Regirock; the reduced Speed is negligible, as Regirock is already slow.
The only pity is that the opponent is Gardevoir; if it were a Pokemon using physical attacks, the value of Curse would be higher.
The seven gemstones on Regirock's head lit up, a layer of dim light appeared on the surface of its body, intertwining with the light of Gardevoir's Psychic, forming a very eerie color.
The power of Psychic invaded Regirock's body without reservation, but Regirock did not show an expression of pain—because he has no expression at all.
However, from Regirock's body movements, the Psychic Power is indeed effective; Curse enhances Regirock's already excellent defensive power, without increasing its relatively weak Special Defense.
Gardevoir is precisely attacking the opponent's weak point, in some sense, this opponent is quite suitable for Gardevoir.
Unfortunately, the move 'Psystrike' taught to Gardevoir by Mewtwo cannot be used in this match.
Psystrike is a physical attack move powered by Special Attack and would be perfectly guarded by Regirock; even though it's a divine exclusive skill, the damage to Regirock would still be negligible.
But this doesn't mean Gardevoir doesn't have other ways to break through Regirock...
"Gardevoir, let your light shine, MEGA Evolution!" Ash glanced at the Key Stone; the energy for Mega Evolution had been once again replenished under the influence of Aura Power and the Power of Viridian, allowing another round of MEGA evolution.
Thus, Ash let Gardevoir MEGA evolve without hesitation, as this opponent is not one to be defeated without Mega Evolution.
As the light scattered from Gardevoir's body, her formerly white dress turned into a deep black, puffy long gown of the Night Queen!
Her hair remained blue, but her body, including her arms, had turned black, the queen of the night, MEGA Gardevoir!
"She can still MEGA evolve? Isn't MEGA evolution only possible once in a short period?" The appearance of MEGA Gardevoir left Brandon in awe again, but a new question soon followed.
He also possesses Pokemon capable of MEGA evolution and a Key Stone, and he's tried MEGA evolution before, but generally, once a Pokemon MEGA evolves, the Key Stone enters a cooldown phase.
After a period of recharging, it can MEGA evolve again.
So he believed that even if Registeel lost the first match, he was not at a significant disadvantage, as Ash had already used MEGA evolution as his trump card, leaving no way to further enhance his Pokemon in the upcoming battles.
Yet, at the start, Ash had already struck a blow to him; he could let two Pokemon MEGA evolve in one battle?! How is this possible!