Inside the Pummelo Stadium, two draconic Pokémon, one yellow and one red, were flapping their wings, facing off in the air.
The yellow Pokémon was, of course, Drake's Dragonite.
In terms of appearance, Dragonite had a large belly and a plump, rounded build. Its expression was rather gentle. And because it was rare and also a guardian deity, its popularity had always remained high, loved by young and old in the Orange League.
As for the other red one, although its appearance and demeanor were more in line with people's idea of a dragon, it surprisingly didn't have the Dragon type. Needless to say, it was Natsui's Charizard.
Compared to Dragonite, Charizard was much leaner. It had a fierce face, sharp fangs and claws, and a tail that burned with a blazing flame, making it look extremely ferocious.
As their eyes met, fierce sparks flew between the two Pokémon. Both could feel the strong battle intent from the other.
At this moment, in the trainer's boxes below them, both Natsui and Drake had grave expressions, not daring to be distracted for a moment, showing just how important this match was to them.
In fact, it wasn't just the tense atmosphere on the battlefield; even in the spectator stands, the noise had subsided. Whether they were supporters of Drake or the few spectators rooting for Natsui, everyone's hearts were in their throats, anticipating the imminent great battle.
After all, everyone knew that if Natsui won this match, he would be able to lift the Winner's Cup directly, continuing his undefeated streak while knocking their Orange League's pride, Drake, off his pedestal.
And if Drake were to win this round, although he would still need to defeat Natsui's other five Pokémon who were in great condition—a daunting prospect—the prestige and honor he would gain would be unprecedented. At the very least, he would be able to hold his head high in front of the Indigo Conference audience in the future.
Now, it all came down to who would have the last laugh.
However, looking at the two Pokémon, some of the more knowledgeable spectators had already keenly sensed that in terms of typing alone, Natsui's Charizard did not seem to have the advantage in this battle.
The announcer also noticed this and said in a puzzled tone, "Strange, looking at the two Pokémon's types, Dragonite is Flying/Dragon, while Charizard is Flying/Fire. Although Dragon doesn't resist Fire, Fire-type moves will have their power halved when attacking a Dragon-type. This is the first time Natsui has actively sent a Pokémon with a type disadvantage into battle. It's truly surprising! I really don't know why he would do this. Could there be some special intention?"
Hearing him say this, the ordinary spectators who rarely watched matches finally understood.
So Charizard is at a disadvantage against Dragonite.
But their view was similar to the announcer's. From the previous matches, they didn't think this was an oversight on Natsui's part. And seeing Natsui's calm expression, with no sign of panic or urgency, they believed there must be a special reason for sending out Charizard.
However, what they didn't know was that Natsui hadn't thought that far ahead at all.
With the battle having reached this point, what other tactics did he have left? He could only win through sheer strength.
The reason he sent out Charizard was simply because he had a limited number of Pokémon and didn't want to use the same one twice. Besides, since Dragonite could fly, he needed to counter that advantage, which was why he chose Charizard. He never expected people to over-interpret it so much.
It couldn't be helped. Sometimes, an unintentional small action could trigger endless speculation from others.
Even Drake was constantly guessing why Natsui would give up the type advantage.
But even when the referee announced the start of the match, Drake still couldn't figure out Natsui's intention. So, he stopped wracking his brain, went all in, and was the first to attack.
"Dragonite, use Water Gun!"
As a Pokémon with an extremely wide movepool, Dragonite could use many different types of moves, whether it was Dragon, Flying, Normal, Water, Fire, Ice, Electric, or even Psychic. This often caught opponents who were facing it for the first time completely off guard.
But this time, it was facing Natsui, who naturally wouldn't be unprepared.
"Charizard, dodge it quickly!"
Hearing Natsui's command, the Charizard in the air did a sideways flip, very gracefully dodging the Water Gun.
And Dragonite took the opportunity to close the distance. At the same time, its claws began to sparkle with electricity as it swung them fiercely at Charizard.
Thunder Punch…
So he wants to decide this with a close-quarters battle?
"Charizard, don't lose to it! Use Dragon Claw!"
Charizard's claws glowed blue as it calmly met the attack. The two Pokémon became entangled in the air, a punch for a claw, exchanging dozens of blows in a few seconds. The sound of their battle was a whoosh, and they moved so fast it was as if they were leaving afterimages.
Such an exciting scene naturally made the audience cheer wildly.
Dragonite's valiant performance was a bright spot for them, and this was the first time they could watch without the憋屈feeling of the previous five battles.
At this point, both Pokémon had taken a few hits each.
From the looks of it, although both were injured, neither had gotten the upper hand.
Although Thunder Punch dealt double damage to Charizard, Dragon Claw was also super-effective against Dragonite's Dragon type.
BOOM!
Finally, as their two massive tails collided, the two Pokémon separated again, panting heavily.
Drake was focused on a relentless, stormy offense. So, before Natsui could speak, he had already shouted again, "Dragonite, use Thunderbolt!"
From the two long antennae on Dragonite's head, a dazzling electric current erupted, rapidly spreading out to envelop Charizard.
This Thunderbolt was very powerful and was an area-of-effect attack. Charizard had no effective way to resist it, so Natsui naturally wouldn't have it meet it head-on.
"Charizard, get to the ground!"
Charizard plummeted towards the ground, managing to dodge the Thunderbolt just before the electricity could envelop it.
Crackle, crackle…
The yellow sparks slowly dissipated in the air, not landing on Charizard.
The dense grass on the field, with its roots deep underground, wouldn't conduct electricity, which greatly reduced the range and power of Dragonite's Electric-type moves.
As long as it stood here, it couldn't be said that it was completely immune to damage, but at least Dragonite's Electric-type moves had been cut in half.
So tough…
Seeing that after so long, neither had gained an advantage, both Natsui and Drake sighed inwardly, both feeling that their opponent was formidable.
But looking at this Dragonite, Natsui suddenly remembered something about it.
He remembered that in the anime, what was most impressive about this Dragonite was that it knew more than ten different types of moves and had displayed the powerful ability to sweep three of Ash's Pokémon in a row. It was only in the final battle against Pikachu that it lost due to exhaustion.
Based on its performance at that time, if Drake's other Pokémon were at the level of the Indigo Conference's Top 4, then this Dragonite definitely had the strength of a champion.
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