Having already defeated two of her Pokémon with ease, Zorua was still in good shape. David had no reason to swap it out, and so the Zorua would be the one to carry the final battle.
The opposing professional trainer, however, was struggling to keep her composure. She could clearly see that the Zorua standing across from her had not yet reached the professional level. And yet — how was it this strong? It had gone toe-to-toe with her, above its own level, defeated two of her Pokémon without taking serious damage, and left her almost no room to fight back. It was simply unbelievable.
"I heard the trainer of that newly discovered regional form Zorua is a rookie this year," she murmured to herself, a bitter smile crossing her face. "Did I really just run into some kind of monster rookie?"
But there was no time to dwell on it. The battle was not over. The Rotom Referee's prompt had already sounded, urging the match forward. She took a slow breath, reached for her final Poké Ball, and made her decision.
"I'm counting on you, Lapras!"
"Woo-ee~"
With a flash of light, a large blue Pokémon appeared on the field. It had a long, graceful neck and a thick grey shell arching over its back — unmistakably a Lapras.
[Name: Lapras][Type: Water / Ice][Gender: ♀][Energy Level: 48 — Professional Stage One][Ability: Hydration][Aptitude: Magenta][Held Item: Never-Melt Ice][Known Moves: Growl, Sing, Hyper Voice, Rest, Aqua Ring, Sparkling Aria, Icicle Crash, Protect, Brine, Blizzard, Rain Dance, Hydro Pump, Water Gun, Body Slam, Life Dew, Disarming Voice, Horn Drill, Ice Shard, Surf…]
A Lapras — Water and Ice type. It was exactly what David had expected.
After watching the trainer's first two Pokémon, he had already been thinking about which Ice and Water dual-type Pokémon she might have saved for last. There weren't many Pokémon with that type combination, and once he considered the options, Lapras had seemed the most likely.
Maybe her team also has a Walrein, David thought to himself. Arctovish is probably still undiscovered — buried underground somewhere. And an Iron Bundle seems unlikely for a standard competitive trainer.
Then his eyes caught something on the panel. He paused.
Sparkling Aria. That's a Primarina family move. So one of this Lapras's parents must have been a Primarina.
He nodded slightly. That was worth noting.
"Lapras, keep your distance — use Blizzard!"
The opposing trainer wasted no time. The moment Lapras set foot on the field, she gave her command. After watching two of her Pokémon lose in close quarters against Zorua, she had made her read: the little fox was completely comfortable in melee range. The smarter play was to use the field to her advantage and attack from a distance.
Lapras responded immediately. It moved back toward the far edge of the pool, then opened its mouth. A fierce, howling wind erupted from it, carrying a wall of heavy snow that swept across the entire battlefield. Zorua, confined to the central platform by the field's layout, had almost nowhere to go.
The snowy weather was still in effect — Dewgong had set it up at the start of the match, and it had held through both previous battles. In snowy conditions, Blizzard not only released far faster than normal, but its accuracy became perfect. The opposing trainer had clearly planned around this.
The Blizzard tore across the field with tremendous force. The temperature dropped sharply. Even the pool at the center of the arena began to freeze over, ice spreading steadily from the edges toward the middle.
For most Water-type Pokémon, a frozen surface would be a serious problem. It would restrict movement and cut off access to the water. But Lapras was a different case entirely. Though it typically lived in the ocean and traveled in family groups along the coast, Lapras was perfectly at home on ice. In fact, it could slide across a frozen surface at speeds that even exceeded its pace through open water. For Lapras, the ice was not a handicap — it was an advantage.
For Zorua, the opposite was true. No matter how well Zorua had adapted to the cold climate of the arena, the ice still worked against it. And even if the frozen surface had been safe to stand on, venturing out onto it would have been far too risky. If Lapras broke the ice beneath it and Zorua fell into the freezing water, the battle would be over immediately.
"Protect!"
David made the call without hesitation. There was no better option right now. Regardless of how impressive Zorua's Psychic talent was, it was still a Superior-level Pokémon at its core. A Blizzard at full power from a peak Professional Stage One Lapras, amplified further by the ongoing snow, was simply too much for Zorua to control or redirect with Psychic the way it had managed earlier in the match.
A shimmering green barrier formed around Zorua just in time. The raging storm of ice and wind crashed against it again and again, but the barrier held firm, protecting the little fox completely. Outside, the blizzard raged. Inside the Protect, there was not so much as a chill.
When the Blizzard finally faded, the entire pool had frozen solid.
Zorua let out a quiet breath. It was relieved — but it was also annoyed. That attack had been serious. The combination of weather and field advantage had given the Blizzard real pressure, more than anything it had faced today.
But the trainer across the field had no intention of giving it a moment to recover.
"Lapras, Psybeam — keep going, don't stop!"
An ice-blue beam of psychic energy shot across the field, aimed directly at Zorua before the green barrier had even fully faded.
She was pressing hard, not giving them a second to breathe.
"Zorua — Night Burst, full power!"
David's voice was calm and clear.
"Zoro! (Don't worry — just watch me!)"
Zorua had been on the defensive for too long. It had endured the storm, held its ground, and now the anger it had been holding back finally had somewhere to go. It gathered dark energy and unleashed Night Burst at full force.
The two attacks met in the air above the center of the field.
Dark waves and ice-blue light collided violently, sending shockwaves of energy rolling across the arena in every direction. The force of the impact shattered the frozen surface of the pool, and the ice that had spread so steadily across it broke apart and sank back into the water below.
The field was back to where it had started — and the battle was far from over.