"It's already over?" Ash looked at the scene on the field with disappointment. He had run over here full of excitement, only to see nothing.
"Ash, you're here too!" Brock's voice suddenly rang out from the side.
"Brock! Are you here to watch his match too?" Ash turned around, happy to see his traveling companion.
Brock stood with his arms crossed, rubbing his chin with a heavy expression. "I was just passing by, so I stayed to watch one round. Ash, you need to be careful. This Hisoka is no ordinary trainer. To you, his strength is nothing short of terrifying. You need to be mentally prepared."
"Is it really that exaggerated?" Ash asked, taken aback by how serious Brock sounded.
"I'm not joking, and I'm not trying to undermine your confidence," Brock said, looking Ash in the eye. "I saw the entire process of that last match. That Tauros lasted less than two seconds from the moment it came out. It was taken down by a single Brick Break. Do you realize what that means?"
"Not really!" At this stage, Ash relied mostly on hot-blooded passion and occasional flashes of intuition; asking him to analyze the deeper implications of a battle was a bit of a stretch for his current intellect.
Brock gave him a look that said I knew you'd say that and smiled bitterly. "From my professional perspective as a Pokémon Breeder, that Tauros was well-raisedbetter than most of its kind, in fact. Its linear charge speed was quite impressive. Yet, that Weavile dodged its Horn Attack with a simple side-step and countered with Brick Break.
Weavile isn't a Fighting type, yet even without the attribute bonus, it managed a one-hit KO. That proves one thing: Weavile's Attack power has reached a terrifying level, at least far beyond what an average trainer can handle..."
"What do you mean 'average trainer'? I'm going to be a Pokémon Master!" Ash protested. "Besides, I won't know how strong he is until we actually fight. Even if he's really tough, I'm not afraid."
Sometimes, being a hot-blooded idiot is a blessing. When an ordinary person encounters an opponent vastly superior to them, they worry, they hesitate, and they think too muchthey might even give up.
But Ash, driven by pure adrenaline, didn't care about any of that. He felt no fear, only a burning desire to fight a strong opponent. It was one of his few virtues. As the saying goes, a newborn calf does not fear the tiger. Ash was the calf, and Hisoka was the young tiger.
...
The clock struck 11:30 AM, time for lunch. The morning phase of the tournament had come to an end. A total of 256 trainers had been eliminated, and the remaining contestants had each gone through six rounds of elimination matches.
The afternoon session would begin at 1:00 PM and end at 8:00 PM. Seven hours from now, the champion of this Pokémon event would be decided.
Over his six morning matches, Hisoka's average time from the start of the match to the opponent's Pokémon fainting was under four seconds. Because of this, his name spread like wildfire through the S.S. Anne.
Spectators marveled that such a powerful trainer was on board, while the remaining contestants were on edge. No one wanted to be eliminated, and this guy was ending matches in an instant. He probably hadn't even used a third of his strength yet; who knew how scary he would be when he went all out?
...
Monitoring Room.
Looking at the dominant figure on the video screen, Kurama's grin was so wide it looked like his face might split. He couldn't help but shout, "How about it, Boss? The subordinate I picked is pretty effective, right? I didn't realize it before, but even I'm a little scared of how he handles that Weavile."
"Your subordinate?" Baijie's eyes narrowed into two thin slits, returning to his usual fox-like demeanor.
"Ahem, a slip of the tongue. Partner. He's a partner."
Baijie turned to the silent, white-bearded man next to him. "Captain Tiexin, what do you think of this boy?"
"Hiring bounty hunters for external security was your idea," Captain Tiexin said in a low voice. "Any accidents that happen are on your head. Are you certain this kid isn't a Team Rocket undercover? Of the four bounty hunters we hired, three were moles. I don't trust him."
Hearing this, Kurama rolled his eyes. What did he mean, "three were moles"? Kurama was a Pokémon G-Man; when an investigator did it, it wasn't called being a mole.
"If anything goes wrong, I will take full responsibility!" Baijie's voice was always gentle, but those words carried a sharp edge of decisiveness.
"Kurama!" Baijie barked.
"Sir!" The formerly lounging Kurama immediately straightened his posture, standing in a standard military salute.
"Notify the men. Get everything in place tonight and double-check the nets. Tomorrow night is when we haul in the big fish."
"No problem, Boss!" Kurama grinned mischievously once again.
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