Serena helplessly curled her lip and finally silently recalled the already-defeated Cloyster into her Poké Ball.
"Hmph!"
Though she accepted the result, Serena was still very displeased when she walked past Jace.
She wasn't stupid. She could clearly see that Jace's choice to evolve Charizard into a different form was specifically to counter her.
"Tch!"
Jace also turned his head away haughtily. "Hmph what hmph—I won fair and square!"
Of course, that last sentence was just Jace muttering quietly to himself. He didn't dare let Serena hear it.
After the battle ended, the two had already separated. Serena headed off the field while Jace remained on stage waiting for the next round's draw.
The final draw definitely couldn't be rigged, so the drawing method was for each contestant to come up and draw themselves.
One box with five small balls—two yellow, two blue, one red.
Yellow matched with yellow for one battle, blue matched with blue for another battle. Red got a bye and advanced directly to the next round.
Soon, Auron, Sikong Ling, Zoroark's trainer Zhang Xiaoqing, and Lucario's trainer Lu Zhengjie—all five stood on stage.
"Prepare for the draw."
In front of the professors, chancellor, and Elite Four Dax on the platform, the referee brought up a box, shook it, and placed it in front of Auron and the others.
"I'll go first."
Sikong Ling grinned and stepped forward first, pulling a ball from the box.
"Ha! Pleasant surprise!"
Everyone froze. Sikong Ling also froze, but quickly recovered. He hadn't expected to draw the red ball representing the bye on his very first try.
"Sweet!"
After shouting in delight, Sikong Ling happily took the red ball and stepped back.
After seeing the only red ball had been drawn, Zhang Xiaoqing smiled helplessly and stepped forward.
"I'll go second then. The grand prize is already gone anyway—what's left doesn't matter."
As he spoke, he pulled out a yellow ball from the box.
"True enough."
Jace tilted his head and also stepped forward to pull out a blue ball.
"Just us two left." Lu Zhengjie looked at Auron with an expressionless face.
"Doesn't matter—whether you go first or I go first is the same."
"Then I'll go first."
Lu Zhengjie spoke and also pulled a ball from the box.
"Blue. Looks like my opponent is you." Lu Zhengjie looked at Jace, still with a deadpan expression.
Jace forced a smile and nodded without saying much. He didn't have the habit of offering warmth to a cold face.
"Then my opponent is you." Auron didn't need to draw a ball—only a yellow ball remained in the box now, and the opponent was already clear.
Zhang Xiaoqing smiled and nodded at Auron. "Please take care of me."
Now everyone's opponents were determined.
First match: Auron vs. Zhang Xiaoqing
Second match: Jace vs. Lu Zhengjie
Sikong Ling: Bye
After a brief rest and lunch, the matches soon began again.
It had to be said—this world's Pokémon healing abilities were vastly superior to the anime's healing capabilities.
Though it couldn't match the games where you just placed Poké Balls on a machine and Pokémon were instantly healed, it was still far better than the anime.
For battle-related stamina depletion and external injuries like these, just about half an hour was enough to recover almost completely.
Though mental fatigue couldn't be recovered, supporting three or four matches a day was no big problem. After all, these weren't life-or-death battles, so recovery was quite fast.
"Both contestants, release your Pokémon!"
"Go, Charizard!"
"Go, Lampent!"
"Ha, Lampent?" Auron smiled slightly. The Pokémon's information instantly appeared in his vision.
Pokémon: Lampent
Gender: Female
Type: Ghost / Fire
Ability: Effect Spore (Pokémon that make contact with this ability in battle have a 30% chance of being afflicted with paralysis, poison, or sleep.)
Aptitude: Purple
Basic Moves: Ingrain, Confuse Ray, Absorb, Astonish, Mega Drain, Sleep Powder, Moonlight, Strength Sap, Giga Drain, Dazzling Gleam, Seed Bomb, Energy Ball
Inherited Moves: Stun Spore, Poison Powder, Growth
"Swish!"
The flag dropped. The battle began.
"Charizard! Mega Evolution!"
"Graow!"
Charizard was immediately enveloped in milky-white evolution light.
His opponent wasn't surprised and made no movements.
Zhang Xiaoqing had researched Auron. He knew that after Auron's Charizard evolved, he excelled at close combat. So he'd lead with Lampent and just wait for Charizard to close in.
But just waiting like that obviously wasn't the right move—it looked a bit foolish. So Zhang Xiaoqing directly commanded Lampent:
"Stun Spore coverage."
There was no helping it. The distance between them wasn't enough for Lampent's Stun Spore to reach Charizard. He could only seal off some routes first.
Just as the Stun Spore scattered, Charizard had also completed his evolution.
The Drought ability activated. The field weather changed to sunny.
Everyone showed expressions of surprise. They hadn't expected this Charizard could also evolve into another form.
That's right—for this match, Charizard's evolution direction was Mega Charizard Y.
From the moment the matchup results came out, Auron had already decided.
So Auron had directly swapped the Mega Stone Charizard was carrying, changing it to Charizardite Y.
After all, Y-Zard had an excellent matchup against Lampent with Effect Spore ability. As long as he could KO Lampent before the opponent reacted, with only Zoroark left, he couldn't make any big waves.
No sooner thought than done. The moment Charizard completed his evolution, he beat his wings once. A visibly orange-red storm charged toward Lampent.
"Heat Wave!!"
The instant Heat Wave touched Lampent, she couldn't take it and collapsed to the ground, eyes going swirly, losing her ability to battle.
"??? He's not afraid this might be Zoroark?"
The moment Lampent fell, Zhang Xiaoqing frantically rubbed his hair in frustration.
"Why? I don't understand!"
Of course Zhang Xiaoqing couldn't know that Auron could see Pokémon information.
Forget Zoroark's illusions—even when Mew had transformed into Fearow back then, it hadn't escaped Auron's eyes.
"Lampent has lost the ability to battle! Contestant, please send out your next Pokémon. Failure to do so within the time limit results in a forfeit."
In the end, under the referee's words, Zhang Xiaoqing still switched out the swirly-eyed Lampent with confusion.
"Go, Zoroark!"
The Zoroark who appeared—because the only other team member had lost the ability to battle—appeared directly in Zoroark's true form.