Sho had few options for breaking the current stalemate.
Although Darkrai was faster than Altaria, Altaria's cautious positioning made it difficult for Darkrai to land its moves.
However, this kind of tug-of-war, trading moves back and forth, offered Sho no advantage at all. He was already at a disadvantage in terms of the number of Pokémon he had available. If this continued, he would also fall behind in stamina. It would essentially be handing over the advancement spot, and it would be no different from a slow death.
Luther wasn't in a hurry. He was waiting for Sho to make a decision.
Although he didn't know Sho very well, he could tell from watching his battle with Ash that Sho was the type to take a gamble when backed into a corner.
Despite knowing that the Sing move had significant flaws and that Ash would definitely be on guard after suffering from it once before, Sho still let Kricketune use it. Ultimately, Heracross took it out.
Luther didn't have to wait long. Sho finally clenched his teeth and made his decision.
The harp strings were gently plucked as he said to Altaria, 'Dragon Dance.'
Dragon Dance was likely to be nullified by Darkrai's Haze, so Sho decided that, the instant Darkrai used Haze, Altaria would accelerate towards it and take a gamble with Dragon Breath.
Only by slowing Darkrai's movement speed could the balance of victory be tipped in his favor.
Sure enough, as Dragon Dance was activated, Darkrai raised both hands forward, clearly preparing to release Haze and waiting for Luther's command to nullify the stat boost.
"Ha..."
Just as Luther opened his mouth, Sho ordered Altaria to accelerate towards Darkrai.
If this succeeded, it would be the turning point of the match!
"Dark Void."
Sho stared at Luther in shock. At that moment, a dark sphere swirled in Darkrai's raised hand. The next second, Dark Void was casually tossed towards Altaria.
Altaria was now accelerating in a straight line and couldn't twist its body in time to dodge the incoming Dark Void.
Drowsiness struck almost instantly. Just as it reached Darkrai, Altaria collapsed mid-flight.
With its Nightmare Ability activated, Darkrai pressed its hand onto Altaria's wing.
"Ice Beam!"
This powerful, super-effective move caused the sleeping Altaria to be immediately disqualified by the referee.
Sho looked at Luther, then at Darkrai on the field, momentarily dazed.
From his observations, Luther's Darkrai had three weaknesses when using Dark Void: casting speed, concealment and accuracy.
After the match against Misaki, many of the remaining trainers had developed new ideas on how to deal with Luther's Darkrai.
Yet only a few days had passed and Darkrai's Dark Void had become more concealed and flexible.
Dark Void had directly decided the outcome of two matches in a row. While part of this was due to Sho's Pokémon being weaker than Luther's, Darkrai's rapid improvement was truly headache-inducing.
Another reason for Sho's defeat was that Luther had seen through his intentions. They had originally been trading long-range moves and engaging in all kinds of tactical exchanges. Sho changed his approach to break the deadlock, but Luther had completely anticipated this, calmly waiting and easily taking down Altaria.
It was as if he knew Sho would take that gamble. He simply waited for Dragon Dance to finish and for Altaria to approach for the "lottery" attempt before ending it with one decisive blow.
In fact, Luther wanted to switch out Darkrai... after all, Azumarill and Kirlia were eager to appear on the field too.
However, given how excited Darkrai was, Luther could only crouch down and comfort the other two.
Sho's final Pokémon was Kricketune.
From a typing perspective, it seemed to have an advantage over Darkrai, but Sho was widely considered to have no chance of winning.
Yet, as his last Pokémon entered the field, Sho calmed down.
There was no way of knowing if his skills were inferior. If Kricketune could put on a good performance in this final battle, participating in the Lily of the Valley Conference this year wouldn't have been in vain.
Of course, its ability to perform well also depended on Darkrai.
As soon as it entered the arena, Kricketune used X-Scissor and charged straight at Darkrai. It was similar to how Misaki had used Tyranitar: closing the distance, pulling the opponent into its attack range, and overwhelming them with relentless offense so they couldn't accelerate and escape.
Sho knew that Darkrai had improved. Although he didn't know what kind of training Luther had put it through, it was likely that the changes were focused only on Dark Void; there hadn't been time to train anything else.
However, when he saw this approach, Luther could only laugh.
Indeed, Misaki's Tyranitar forcing Darkrai into close combat looked easy to mimic, but that was because Tyranitar was incredibly powerful. With its overwhelming strength and speed, Tyranitar could inflict heavy damage on Darkrai with each hit.
But Kricketune...
When X-Scissor struck Darkrai, its body merely tilted slightly. There wasn't much of an expression on its face either.
It hurt; there was damage, but not enough to prevent Darkrai from using its moves.
At this distance, there was no need to aim. Enduring the continuous X-Scissors, Darkrai reached out and pressed its hand onto Kricketune's head before firing an Ice Beam point-blank.
Though stunned by the hit, Kricketune didn't collapse from the Ice Beam at such close range. However, it was now extremely difficult for it to move its arms and continue attacking.
Such a sluggish, battered target didn't require any aim. Another Ice Beam froze Kricketune and sent it flying backwards.
The referee paused for a moment, then stepped forward to check on the fallen Pokémon before raising the flag.
"Kricketune is unable to battle. All three of Sho's Pokémon are unable to battle. Therefore, the winner is Luther!"
Amid thunderous cheers, the image on the giant screen changed.
"By defeating Sho, Luther becomes the first contestant to advance to the Top 8 of this year's Lily of the Valley Conference."
Luther walked onto the field with a smile, watching Darkrai repeatedly extend and retract its hand.
"All right, all right, stop experimenting. You'll have plenty of time later to get used to releasing Dark Void. This time, Mai's Pokémon will train with you too, so there'll be no more worrying about having too few targets to practice on."
Azumarill patted its round belly, then patted Darkrai's body, nodding approvingly as though acknowledging a capable subordinate.
As Luther walked towards the Competitor's Passage with his Pokémon, he slowly turned his head back to look at his photo on the electronic screen and the bold words 'Top 8'.
A strange feeling welled up inside him.
Before he knew it, he was getting closer and closer to that goal.
It was no longer out of reach but within his grasp.
"Three more matches to go. It's all so I can slack off properly in the future."
(End of Chapter)
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