Join my p@treon for more chapters
[email protected]/Tempest_29
During these past few days, Zorua had been receiving careful guidance from Gallade. Probably thanks to its ridiculously strong Psychic power, in just a few days, Zorua's Hypnosis had already become quite proficient.
David, who had overslept and ended up sleeping for almost an entire day after being hit by Zorua's Hypnosis due to staying up too late, could personally attest to its five-star effectiveness.
Besides learning Hypnosis, Zorua also made significant progress with its illusions, beginning to condense detached illusions separate from itself, much like Zoroark in the movies.
To enable Zorua to create terrifying illusions for people and Pokémon in the future, David not only found many horror movies for it to watch—yes, there were horror movies in the Pokémon world too, starring Ghost-type Pokémon like Gastly, Duskull, and Cofagrigus—but he also recounted many ghost stories he'd seen before, from his previous world.
Stories like the vengeful spirits and cursed videos served as an intensive crash course in frightening imagery for Zorua, whose species was already naturally inclined toward mischief.
In any case, the few days passed quickly, and today was the day of David's and Emma's quarterfinal matches.
Having arranged to meet a day in advance, David and Emma arrived at the Central Grand Arena early in the morning. Since it was still early, they waited quietly in the players' exclusive rest area. Before the matches began, they still needed to draw lots to determine their opponents.
As for Miles and the others, they were already waiting in the stands to cheer them on.
Soon, as the contestants gradually arrived, the hour hand on the large clock in the center of the venue reached exactly eight o'clock, and the drawing ceremony was about to begin.
On the large screen suspended in mid-air, the avatars of the eight players began to scroll. With the host pressing the pause button, the battle order for the quarterfinals was finally officially revealed.
Morning Matches:
First Match: Josephine VS Alice
Second Match: Emma VS Walker
David's match, however, was scheduled for the afternoon.
Afternoon Matches:
First Match: Josiah VS Leonardo
Second Match: David VS Christopher
The winners of the morning and afternoon matches would then face each other in the semifinals.
David's match was placed last, against the eccentric youth he had encountered in the qualifiers. It seemed his luck wasn't particularly good—at least he thought so—as this arrangement would significantly delay his schedule.
Looking at the draw results, David clicked his tongue in disappointment. What a pity. He had originally intended to get some revenge for Willow, but Christopher wasn't a bad alternative either. If he remembered correctly, wasn't Christopher the one Miles had told him to get payback on earlier?
It didn't matter who his opponent was. Encountering him was simply bad luck for them. As for Aaron, David hoped he could advance to the next round—he still wanted to face him personally.
The first match of the morning started quickly. As David expected, Josephine's Umbreon was indeed very strong, at level 21, second only to David's Zorua among the Top 8.
However, Alice's Abra was roughly on par with Willow's Grovyle, being only a level 19 Pokémon. Just as David thought the situation would be one-sided, something unexpected happened.
Alice was actually a Psychic! As the match began, a light purple glow lit up in her eyes, and at the same time, the same glow appeared in Abra's eyes.
Then, under David's system scan, Abra's level suddenly rose to 20, reaching Veteran level.
It was mental synchronization between a Psychic and a Psychic-type Pokémon, where the Pokémon drew upon the Trainer's psychic power. Their psychic abilities merged, allowing Abra to break through its limits in a 1+1 greater than 2 fashion.
David was initially surprised but quickly calmed down. It wasn't uncommon for Psychics to use their psychic abilities to boost their Pokémon's strength. For example, Gym Leader Sabrina of Saffron City and Elite Four member Caitlin of the Unova region had both demonstrated this ability.
Moreover, the use of special abilities during Pokémon battles was not prohibited, so Alice's approach was completely within the rules.
From the player viewing area, David observed Alice and Abra on stage with great interest. While Psychics could directly boost a Pokémon's strength, there were limitations. First, the boosted Pokémon could only be Psychic-type, and second, enhancing a Pokémon required a very high level of psychic ability from the Psychic themselves.
For Abra to break through to Veteran level like this, Alice's psychic power should be close to the level of an ordinary Psychic-type Pokémon—of course, referring to Novice-level Psychic-type Pokémon.
Unconsciously, an azure light flickered in his eyes. With the help of his Aura abilities, the invisible synchronization between Abra and its Trainer was fully revealed to him. He planned to study this method to see if he could replicate it with himself and Riolu later.
After all, he was also a special ability user!
Besides himself, this was the first time he had witnessed another special ability user in battle. David had used Aura telepathy in battle before, but Aria hadn't used her Dragon Force during their previous match.
Although Abra's strength was quite impressive after breaking through to Veteran level, and it managed to exchange several blows with Umbreon despite the type disadvantage by relying on its signature move Teleport, it ultimately lost to the Dark-type.
Umbreon, relying on its advantageous Special Defense stat, endured two hits from Hidden Power, then seized the moment of vulnerability after Abra used Teleport and finished the battle with a clean Dark Pulse.
In the second match, Emma's Togepi faced a Scyther that was already in its final evolutionary form. Although Togepi had a type advantage, the battle was still extremely difficult, even with David's suggestion to add a powerful attacking move like Overheat to its moveset.
But Scyther was simply too agile, making it very challenging for Togepi at its current stage to handle. After a long, drawn-out battle, Togepi eventually fell to Scyther's razor-sharp scythes.
However, the opponent had only won by a narrow margin.
Togepi truly lived up to the nickname "Lucky Emperor" that David had given it. Before collapsing, with its last ounce of stamina, it used Metronome and randomly generated Fire Blast, hitting Scyther directly in the face. David looked at the Scyther, whose wings were now scorched black, and could only silently hope it would be alright.
However, Emma was already quite satisfied with this result. She knew very well that if it hadn't been for Togepi's incredible luck last time, she would have already been eliminated in the qualifiers. Reaching the Top 8 was already quite fulfilling for her.
So she quickly composed herself, helped Togepi recover some stamina at the medical station, and then happily went with David and the others for lunch.