"This is..."
Emmanuel was stunned.
He was a battle-hardened Pokémon trainer, so of course he understood what this meant.
There was no mistaking it: this was Trick Room!
But how was that possible?
A Slowpoke, pulling off a status move as advanced as Trick Room?
It was simply unbelievable!
And more to the point, wasn't Slowpoke still paralyzed?
In practice, the current that caused paralysis inside a Pokémon's body didn't just slow it down. It also interfered with how that Pokémon executed its moves.
Even under those conditions, Slowpoke had still managed to pull off Trick Room?
"Phew, made it just in time!"
Just then, Caster heard Slowpoke's voice ring out in his mind, light and cheerful.
There was no question that Helping Hand was the key to this turnaround.
Helping Hand had cured Slowpoke's paralysis and boosted its Special Attack and Special Defense.
If that Special Defense hadn't gone up a stage, Slowpoke would never have been able to withstand Jolteon's second Thunder.
And the boost to Special Attack was what let Slowpoke set up Trick Room faster and more cleanly in actual combat.
That was how this situation had come about.
Slowpoke's stamina was nearly at rock bottom, but its spirits, right now, couldn't have been higher.
"You're fast, huh? Fat lot of good that does you! In this business, it's moves that matter."
Watching Jolteon move as slow as a sloth, Slowpoke couldn't help sneering. "You're that fast, and I've opened up a Trick Room? Aren't you about to blow a gasket?"
Caster's lips twitched as he watched Slowpoke get more and more full of itself, its mouth running faster by the second.
"Slowpoke, quit talking!"
Seeing Jolteon, not far off, unleash another thick bolt of lightning, Caster hurried to warn Slowpoke through their mental link. "Watch out for the Thunder!"
"Relax, my psychic senses have it covered!"
Slowpoke grinned and swung its stubby little legs, dodging in a hurry.
Under the special effect of Trick Room, Slowpoke, whose legs were normally so short and stubby, moved as fast as lightning. A single stride carried it dozens of meters, right up in front of Jolteon.
As for Jolteon's Thunder, it naturally missed entirely.
"Yaaah~"
A surge of psychic power poured out from inside Slowpoke's mind, gathering into a powerful wave of psychic force that slammed into Jolteon again and again, sending it flying.
Jolteon tried to fight back, unleashing one Electric-type move after another.
But inside Trick Room, its movements were simply far too slow, while Slowpoke's speed had been pushed to the absolute extreme. Dodging was practically effortless.
The situation had completely reversed: Slowpoke, once unable to land a hit on Jolteon, now held the advantage.
"Jolteon is unable to battle. The winner of this match is: challenger Caster!"
As the referee raised the little flag to announce the result, Caster had finally cleared the seventh floor of the Trainer Tower.
Now all that remained was for Caster to make his final push toward the eighth floor, the very top.
Down in the first-floor lobby.
Watching the scene unfold, Albert quickly bowed toward Lorelei in apology. "Elite Four Member Lorelei, I'm afraid I'll have to excuse myself for a while."
Albert was the administrator of the Trainer Tower, and also the gatekeeper of the eighth floor at its summit.
He was Caster's final opponent.
"Albert, would you mind if I came up to the eighth floor with you?"
Lorelei pushed the metal frames of her glasses up her nose, her eyes bright with interest. "I have a feeling this is going to be an exceptional battle. Only by being there in person can I really get a proper feel for it."
"That... of course, no problem at all!"
Albert didn't hesitate for a moment before agreeing.
Under normal circumstances, the Trainer Tower's battle arena was off-limits, and everyone else could only watch on the television screens down in the first-floor lobby.
But Lorelei was, after all, a member of the Elite Four. There was no way Albert would refuse such a small request from her.
And so the crowd watched as Albert and Lorelei stepped into the elevator off to the side and rode it straight up to the eighth floor, the tower's summit.
As for everyone else, they obviously weren't granted the same privilege. They had no choice but to keep waiting in the first-floor lobby.
"Caster, he's not really going to clear the entire Trainer Tower, is he? He's only eighteen!"
"Shouldn't be possible! Mr. Albert may not be a Gym Leader, but in terms of raw strength, he's stronger than plenty of Gym Leaders out there."
"Right! And don't forget, everyone, what Albert's ace Pokémon is."
"Whoa, is Albert really going to use that Pokémon? Isn't this kid friends with Elite Four Member Lorelei?"
"What are you talking about? Does Mr. Albert seem like the type to go easy on someone?"
"So what if he doesn't go easy? Either way, I've never once seen Old Fish lose a battle. That undefeated record of his isn't something that gets broken so easily. Come on, Old Fish, go get 'em!"
Down in the lobby, the crowd that remained buzzed with chatter.
Some doubted Caster's chances, simply because he was so young.
But among Caster's fans, there was a die-hard contingent backing him without a second thought.
Trainer Tower, eighth floor.
By the time Caster made his way up and arrived, Albert and Lorelei were already waiting for him.
"Caster, you're young, and you've got real potential. Someday you might well become someone truly great. But I, Albert, will absolutely not be holding back."
Albert looked at Caster, fighting spirit blazing in his eyes. "In this battle, I'm giving it everything I've got!"
Caster merely smiled and said, loud and clear, "Bring it on, Mr. Albert. I'm ready for you!"
"This match will once again be a two-on-two battle. Pokémon may not be switched out at will during the match. Will both trainers please take your positions."
Seeing that both sides were ready, the referee promptly waved the little flag.
"Go, Dratini!"
Caster's first Pokémon out was a sturdy, thick-bodied Dratini.
Albert's first Pokémon, by contrast, was a fierce-looking creature covered head to toe in what looked like an armor-plated green shell. Jagged spikes of various sizes jutted from the back of its head, neck, and shoulders, while a ring of smaller spikes encircled the tip of its tail.
Its upper and lower jaws each bore a pair of sharp fangs, and its hands and feet each ended in three claws. Its shell had two triangular openings on either side of its chest, one at the center of its back, and one at each knee, all of them black inside. Lower down, its belly and back each bore a diamond-shaped gap, revealing patches of dark blue carapace beneath.
"Tyranitar!!!"
Caster's eyes went wide. He clearly hadn't expected Albert's chosen Pokémon to be the Desert Tyrant itself.
Caster wasn't the only one taken aback. Plenty of people watching the live broadcast of the battle were equally stunned.
A pseudo-legendary hatchling, going up against a fully evolved pseudo-legendary?
What kind of fight was this even going to be!
"Grrraaahh~"
The instant Tyranitar's feet touched the ground, it threw its head back and let out a furious roar, proclaiming its tyrant's presence for all to hear.
A fearsome current of air swirled around its body, and fine grains of sand began whipping up and gathering thick around it.
Sand Stream, activating!
"Yoo-er~"
The match hadn't officially begun yet, but Dratini could already feel the threat.
This was because Tyranitar's Rock-type energy was already spreading steadily across the field, crowding out any other type of energy trying to take hold.
Shhh, shhh~ Shhh, shhh~
With Tyranitar at its center, a sandstorm was forming and its boundary kept pushing further outward.
Dratini clearly had no intention of letting its opponent get its way.
A contest over the weather was a contest over the outcome of the match itself, even a contest over life and death. How could Dratini possibly hand that over without a fight?
"Yoo-er~"
Unlike Tyranitar's snarling roar, Dratini's cry was soft and gentle, almost like a puppy's yip, without a shred of intimidation in it.
But as the Ancient Dragon Orb inside its body activated, Dratini's ability to control the weather surged dramatically, and Dratini fought with everything it had to hold back the encroaching sandstorm.
And so everyone watching saw a truly bizarre sight unfold.
The battlefield split in two: Tyranitar's sandstorm raged on the left, while Dratini's rain hammered the right.
The two weather systems, divided by the centerline of the arena, kept pushing and shoving against each other, each trying to overwhelm the other and claim the whole field for itself.
"This Dratini actually has what it takes to contend with my Tyranitar for control of the weather? That's genuinely astonishing!"
Out on the battlefield, Albert's face was full of shock.
Even though his Tyranitar hadn't gone all out yet, the fact that a mere Dratini could hold its ground to this degree still left him thoroughly amazed.