"It's over!"
Joaquin let out a sigh.
At that moment, it felt as though every ounce of strength had been drained from his body.
His legs gave way, and he collapsed to his knees.
He stared at the yellow dragon Pokémon beating its wings in the sky and sighed inwardly.
So this was the power of a pseudo-legendary?
It was far too strong.
Conkeldurr had already reached the Quasi-Elite Four level, while Dragonite was only at the Elite Four level.
Logically speaking, the difference between them should not have been an insurmountable chasm.
Defeat might have been inevitable, but Conkeldurr should at least have been able to withstand a couple of moves.
And yet, when facing an Elite Four-level Dragonite, his Conkeldurr had been completely incapable of resisting.
It had been effortlessly defeated in the blink of an eye.
Worse still, it had lost during a direct confrontation—the kind of battle Conkeldurr was best at.
It had been knocked out instantly.
A profound sense of helplessness welled up inside Joaquin.
The difference between them was simply too great.
Even someone as optimistic and determined as him could not help falling into despair.
"Haah…"
He released a long sigh and shook his head.
Without saying a word, Joaquin took the Poké Ball from his waist and recalled Conkeldurr.
He then hurried off the stage to have his Pokémon's injuries treated.
Conkeldurr's defeat also signaled Shiko's victory.
It was another clean three-Pokémon sweep.
Another completely one-sided match.
The spectators erupted into thunderous cheers and applause after witnessing such an intense and exhilarating visual spectacle.
Shiko's latest dominant performance earned him countless new fans.
Excited shouts rose and fell throughout the venue.
Amid the deafening noise, Shiko slowly walked off the stage and disappeared from view.
Meanwhile, inside the VIP suite, the senior officials who had been closely observing Shiko finally breathed sighs of relief.
Nothing unexpected had happened this time either.
They could finally relax a little.
Shiko's match had ended, but the remaining matches in the round continued.
Several days later, the entire round finally came to an end.
Half of the five hundred competitors had been eliminated, leaving only two hundred and fifty.
Those remaining competitors participated in another drawing.
After one day of rest, the next round of battles would begin.
By this point, Shiko had already surged into the top ten on the prediction rankings published by several bookmakers.
That was right.
He had only used two Pokémon and had yet to reveal any of the others, but he had already ranked among the top ten competitors in the entire tournament.
There was no other reason for it.
His performances during the previous two rounds had simply been too astonishing and attention-grabbing.
His overwhelming victories possessed an incredible visual impact and had won over an enormous number of spectators.
Furthermore, his Dragon-type pseudo-legendary was powerful enough to possess Elite Four-level strength.
That was why Shiko's ranking had risen so high.
However, despite displaying such overwhelming power, Shiko had only barely managed to enter the top ten.
Naturally, none of the competitors ranked above him were ordinary.
All nine of them were Elite Four-level Trainers.
Moreover, each of their six main Pokémon had reached the Elite Four level.
That degree of strength was already sufficient to earn a senior position within an Alliance.
The top three competitors had even reached the higher stages of the Elite Four level.
They were only one step away from reaching the Champion level.
Within any Alliance, people possessing such strength would unquestionably be considered among its finest experts.
However, Shiko did not care about any of that.
He was merely considering which Pokémon he should send out during the next round.
Before coming to participate in the tournament, he had gone directly to Dragon Valley and captured the leaders of six different Pokémon clans to fill out his roster.
Two of them had already appeared.
Four had yet to enter the arena.
Forget it.
There was no point agonizing over the decision.
He would simply choose one at random.
With that thought in mind, Shiko soon arrived at the next round of the competition.
Just like before, his match had once again been scheduled for the evening.
The moment Shiko stepped onto the stage, he instantly drew the attention of every spectator in the venue.
(End of Chapter)
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