As Magmortar lost the ability to battle, Paul recalled it. Unlike Ash, he offered no words of encouragement. He simply took out his next Poké Ball in silence.
"Aren't you going to say anything to Magmortar? He gave everything in that fight."
"A loss is a loss. His strength wasn't enough. That's all there is to it."
Ash frowned. "I thought you'd changed a little. Guess not."
He had wanted to believe that Paul's concern for Infernape earlier meant something had shifted. But watching him recall Magmortar without a word made it clear. When it came to his own Pokémon, Paul was exactly the same as he had always been.
Paul didn't respond. "Aggron, let's go."
A massive creature materialized on the field. Ash had faced an Aggron before, one of the heavyweights on Conway's Trick Room team, and it had been formidable.
Paul's was on another level entirely. It outclassed Conway's in every measurable way.
Facing that, Ash made his call.
"Venusaur, I choose you!"
The large Grass-type appeared on the field with a roar. It was the first time Venusaur had seen action during the entire Indigo Plateau Conference.
Paul's eyes narrowed as he took in the Pokémon. Without another word he recalled Aggron and threw his next ball.
"Froslass, let's go."
A Pokémon drifted onto the field, pale and still, wrapped in something that resembled a flowing white kimono.
Her face was covered by a mask that looked carved from ice, and beneath it her purple skin was faintly visible. She moved like something out of a ghost story, the kind of figure old folklore described appearing alone in a snowfield at dusk.
Ash recognized her immediately. Froslass was a Sinnoh Pokémon, evolved from a female Snorunt using a Dawn Stone. The swap made sense.
Aggron carried no direct type disadvantage against Venusaur, but it was a slow, heavy Pokémon that struggled to dodge, and it was sitting at a level disadvantage besides. Eating hits at a disadvantage was not a trade Paul would make. Froslass had the type edge and the mobility. The decision was obvious.
The announcer's voice filled the stadium.
"Ash's second Pokémon is a Venusaur we haven't seen before in this tournament, evolved from the very Bulbasaur that defeated Elite Four member Koga! Paul has recalled Aggron and brought in the Ice-type Froslass for the type advantage. How will Ash respond?"
The announcer had taken some credibility hits in the previous match, though it was hard to blame him. Nobody could have predicted that Infernape would use Flare Blitz three times at critical health and still be standing.
That defied every reasonable expectation. His confidence, however, remained intact.
Ash had no intention of switching out just because the matchup looked unfavorable. Type disadvantages had never stopped him before.
"Venusaur, Razor Leaf!"
Venusaur roared and launched a volley of spinning razor-edged leaves from the flower on its back. They cut through the air in a tight spread heading straight for Froslass.
Paul's expression didn't change. "Froslass, Snowscape."
Froslass raised both arms skyward. The Razor Leaf connected before she could finish, slicing several gashes across her kimono-like body. She took the hit without flinching.
At the same moment, the move completed. Snowflakes began falling across the entire field and a cold wind swept through the arena. Froslass's outline blurred and dissolved into the weather.
Paul had made a calculated trade. Razor Leaf was too fast for Froslass to dodge cleanly, so eating the damage to set up the snow was simply the correct call. Her Hidden Ability, Snow Cloak, allowed her to conceal herself within snowy conditions and avoid incoming attacks. The temporary hit was worth it.
"Snowscape is active! Heavy snow is falling across the field and Froslass has vanished into it. What does Ash do now?"
Ash didn't hesitate. "Venusaur, Frenzy Plant!"
Hiding in the snow was not going to help against a move that blanketed the entire field. Venusaur slammed both feet into the ground and the earth responded immediately. Thick, thorny vines erupted in every direction, surging upward until the entire arena resembled a dense overgrown forest.
Froslass, concealed somewhere in the snowfall, had no answer for an attack that came from directly beneath her feet.
Snow Cloak hid her form. It did not make her untouchable. The moment an area-of-effect move large enough to cover the whole field was used, the ability's advantage evaporated entirely.
Froslass took the full force of Frenzy Plant and was hurled into the air. With her form now exposed, there was nowhere left to hide.
"Finish it!"
The thorned vines responded instantly, whipping around and coiling tight around Froslass's arms and body. The thorns drove deep into her skin and a surge of Grass-type energy poured into her, relentless and overwhelming.
Froslass cried out. A few seconds later the vines released her and she dropped, hitting the ground with a heavy thud. Dust rose from the impact.
The battle was over.
One Razor Leaf and one Frenzy Plant. That was all it had taken.
The contrast with the previous fight was stark. The Infernape battle had been a grinding, back-and-forth war that stretched past ten minutes, with Infernape looking finished multiple times before refusing to stay down. This one had barely lasted a minute from start to finish.
If the first fight had left some viewers wondering whether Ash had simply gotten lucky, this one answered that question plainly. In the Infernape fight, Ash had been holding back. This was what he looked like when he wasn't.
The referee stood frozen for a moment before calling the result. Paul recalled Froslass without a word. The speed of it had exceeded even his own expectations. Froslass had not been weak. Venusaur was simply on another level.
He had watched the recording of Venusaur's battle against Koga back when it was still a Bulbasaur. The power it had displayed there barely seemed like something a normal Pokémon should be capable of.
Paul had concluded, however, that it could not have been its true baseline strength. A rookie trainer producing a Bulbasaur at that level made no sense on its face, and the Bulbasaur line simply should not be able to reach that realm naturally.
Some kind of temporary boost had to be involved, one that clearly could not be used freely. If it could, Ash would not be competing at the Indigo Plateau Conference. He would be challenging the Elite Four.
What Venusaur had just demonstrated was something different and more concerning. Even without that extraordinary power, it could still dominate comfortably within the High tier. A mid HighLevel Froslass had been one-shotted. That put Venusaur's offensive output at Elite Four Level, regardless of what its overall level actually read.
"Another Pokémon that fights above its level." Paul reached for his next ball.
"Torterra, let's go."
His third Pokémon and his strongest, without exception. His starter.
Ash activated his Eye of Insight and paused. Yesterday Torterra had read as Peak Level. Today the number had changed.
Elite Four Level.
That was the trump card Paul had been holding in reserve for this match. Training a Pokémon to Elite Four Level within a year and a half put him in a category of his own. A future Champion candidate was not an exaggeration.
"Venusaur, are you still good to go?"
Venusaur answered by stomping both feet into the ground hard enough to make the field shake.
Ash had been planning to rotate in a fresh Pokémon, not out of any concern about Venusaur's chances but simply to give his other Pokémon time on the field. But with Torterra across from them, Venusaur had its own reasons to stay in.
Both were massive Grass-types, the kind of Pokémon that moved like mountains and hit like avalanches. A mirror matchup between two Grass-type heavyweights was not something Venusaur was going to step away from willingly. Ash could read that clearly enough, and he let it stay.
"Razor Leaf," Paul called.
A probe. Razor Leaf was quadruple resisted by Venusaur and both of them knew it. Torterra stepped forward and launched a tight spread of spinning blades across the field.
"Ignore it. Sunny Day."
The hail from Froslass's Snowscape was still active, and while it hurt both sides equally, Ash preferred fighting in weather that suited him. It would also set things up for whoever came next.
Venusaur tilted its head back and the flower on its back blazed with light. The beam shot skyward and swept the hail clean out of the air. The grey, snow-filled sky cleared in an instant, replaced by hard sunlight. Ice and snow on the field quietly began to melt.
Torterra's Razor Leaf landed somewhere in the middle of all that. Against Venusaur's typing it registered as barely a nuisance.
"Earthquake."
Paul was not interested in the weather. Sunny Day helped Torterra too, and Ground-type moves dealt normal damage to Venusaur regardless of its typing. With STAB behind it, a clean hit would hurt.
"Absorb the Earthquake. Then Frenzy Plant."
Paul stopped.
Absorb the Earthquake? What did that mean? Ignoring Ground-type damage was not something Pokémon did. Flying-types and those with Levitate were the only exceptions. Venusaur was neither.
Torterra reared up slightly and drove itself into the ground. A visible shockwave radiated outward from its body and the entire field buckled. A surge of Ground-type energy tore through the earth beneath Venusaur and erupted directly under it.
Venusaur did not move.
Paul stared.
He really could ignore Earthquake.