"It hasn't reached the Quasi-Elite level? Does he have another plan?"
Harvey was also doubtful.
Ethan had four Pokémon known to be at that level: Charizard, Cacturne, Vibrava, and Litwick.
Any of them seemed like a better option than this Slowking.
"No matter what your plan is, I'll resolve it quickly. Dragonite, use Extreme Speed!"
"Dragg!"
Dragonite beat its wings and suddenly disappeared.
In an instant it appeared in front of Slowking and launched the Dragon Tail move.
It was too fast; by the time the audience reacted, the tail had already struck.
"It hit!"
The crowd exclaimed.
But just when everyone thought the battle had ended, Slowking's body faded away.
"It's... Teleport!"
When they located it again, they saw that it had already launched the Psychic move, releasing a terrifying wave of energy.
Dragonite sensed the danger behind it and responded by unleashing the Thunderbolt move with all its might, sweeping the field with electricity.
Boom!
In the air, the Psychic move and the Thunderbolt move collided head-on.
Without any surprise, the Psychic move was overwhelmed and shattered under the impact of the Thunderbolt move.
"Even if it masters Teleport, it still lacks a bit in brute strength."
The spectators kept shaking their heads. Although Slowking's maneuver to dodge the Extreme Speed move with the Teleport move had been impressive, defeating Dragonite with that alone was unrealistic. In a certain sense, a Dragonite that has mastered the Extreme Speed move is not much slower than Slowking.
Boom, boom, boom!
In the exchanges that followed, Slowking devoted itself to maneuvering around Dragonite by continuously using the Teleport move.
"Consecutive Teleports... Isn't that Slowking's mastery of that move a bit too high?"
Seeing that Dragonite could not knock it down, the spectators frowned.
"Using Extreme Speed also consumes quite a bit of energy. That Slowking really looks like it could wear Dragonite down!"
Some began to show strange expressions. Could that Slowking really exhaust Dragonite?
"Dragonite, faster!"
Seeing the situation, Harvey's face also changed.
Dragonite was clearly irritated.
Normally, almost all of its opponents were toyed with by its speed.
But this time, not even the Extreme Speed move could touch its opponent!
"Dragg!"
Accompanied by dragon roars, Dragonite's body became wrapped in violent winds and its speed surged again.
Immediately, the field filled with thunderous sounds; it was impossible to follow the action with the naked eye.
Dragonite turned into a gust of wind; the spectators could not capture its silhouette.
Meanwhile, Slowking continued chaining the Teleport move, keeping Dragonite unable to keep up.
"How many times has it used Teleport already? Why doesn't it seem tired at all?"
Watching it use the Teleport move as if it consumed no mental energy confused the audience once again.
From the beginning, the battle had been extremely strange.
That was Harvey's Dragonite! Its use of the Extreme Speed move could be considered the fastest of all, and yet it still could not touch Slowking!
"It's that move again. The state from the Calm Mind move can continuously restore psychic energy."
"As long as Slowking maintains that state during battle, its mental energy will be practically inexhaustible. Moreover, its ability must be Regenerator, which also allows it to recover part of its physical and mental energy."
"Fighting while recovering... that's far too strong! With Teleport and Psychic, even a Dragonite that merges with the wind using Extreme Speed is being suppressed."
Seeing this, Adrian sighed.
After his Alakazam was defeated by Slowking, he had paid a high price to evolve a Slowpoke into Slowking.
However, despite long investigations, his family had not discovered the secret. They had only formulated a bold hypothesis: that the Shellder on Slowking's head also possessed autonomous combat capability, allowing Slowking to fight by relying on the power of its symbiotic partner.
After all, the strength of Slowking and Slowbro came from Shellder releasing a toxin that influenced Slowpoke. If it could affect it that way, it could also influence its mental state.
If the hypothesis was correct, Slowking could make Shellder enter the Calm Mind move and, through their connection, maintain itself in that state constantly.
"Wait... Don't you notice that Slowking's Psychic move is getting stronger and stronger?"
Suddenly, a spectator frowned. In the most recent exchange, the Psychic move had managed to neutralize Dragonite's Thunderbolt move.
At the beginning, the Psychic move had clearly been overwhelmed. But as the battle progressed, it started to dominate the Thunderbolt move.
According to logic, after so many attacks and uses of the Teleport move, Slowking should have been weakening. But the opposite was happening: it seemed to know no fatigue. After fighting for so long, its condition was getting stronger and stronger!
"Dragonite is being suppressed!" another shout erupted.
On the field, Dragonite was wrapped in a blue light: the energy of the Confusion move.
Slowking, concentrating all its strength, had immobilized it.
"Finish it, use Psychic!"
While Slowking held it in place, the Shellder on its head suddenly opened its eyes.
From the red gem on its body burst a terrifying psychic power that struck the Dragonite suspended in the air, sending it flying backward.
After receiving several direct hits from the Psychic move, Dragonite was decisively defeated and fell heavily to the ground.
"Hey... is this a joke? That's Dragonite!"
The audience was stunned.
At the beginning, Slowking clearly had not been at the Quasi-Elite level.
But now it had not only reached that level—it had even forcefully defeated Dragonite!
"That Slowking... wasn't acting, was it?"
The suggestion left everyone stunned.
Had it been pretending from the beginning?
It seemed possible.
But why?
Wouldn't it have been better to crush Dragonite from the start?
If it had not been pretending, no one understood how its strength had increased so much.
And the most terrifying thing was that after such a long battle, it showed no signs of fatigue!
It had used the Teleport move dozens of times, not to mention the many uses of the Psychic move in between.
Was that acting too?
Or was it really exhausted on the inside?
"What the hell is this?"
Harvey was on the verge of despair.
He stared fixedly at Slowking, trying to detect any trace of fatigue.
He failed.
Slowking's expression was far too calm.
"I'll leave the rest to you, Dragalge."
With the flash of the Poké Ball, Dragalge appeared.
It had purple skin, surrounded by dried seaweed that gave it an appearance similar to a seahorse. On its head was a red cross-shaped leaf.
From it extended two dried seaweeds like horns; behind it, two more like tentacles; and at the sides, petal-shaped appendages.
After thinking carefully, Harvey sent out this Poison/Dragon-type Pokémon to begin a battle of attrition with its poison.
"Poison-type?"
"Under normal circumstances, Meltan would be the most suitable against it. But in this situation... it's better if you continue."
Ethan smiled and kept Slowking in battle.
"Yadon!"
Slowking nodded with its usual absent-minded air; the Shellder closed its eyes again.
"Dragalge, use Sludge Wave!"
Poison-type energy burst from its body, transforming into a torrent of poisonous sludge that spread across the entire field.
In an instant, the ground turned into a toxic swamp. Dragalge submerged itself within it, transforming it into its territory.
"Poison... It's really troublesome."
Ethan frowned as Slowking teleported into the air and floated using its psychic powers.
Stabilized in the air, it launched the Psychic move against Dragalge, taking advantage of the type advantage.
Dragalge knew this.
A blue flash shone in its eyes and a tornado rose from the ground, dragging the poisonous swamp and forming a toxic cyclone that blocked the attack.
Boom!
The tornado was shattered by the Psychic move; poison splattered everywhere.
Boom, boom, boom!
The two exchanged attacks in an intense battle.
"It can still maintain a battle of this intensity?"
"That Slowking really doesn't get tired?"
"Dragalge is also being suppressed!"
"That Slowking is going against the heavens!"
Sighs filled the stadium.
Who would have imagined this when Slowking first appeared?
"Is it going to end like this?"
A spectator spoke bitterly.
If they won, the representatives of the Federal League would meet in the final.
But Ethan was simply too strong.
"Wait, look at Slowking!"
Suddenly, someone shouted excitedly.
Everyone looked.
A sickly purple hue appeared on Slowking's body.
At some point, it had been poisoned. And now, the potent poison inside it had begun to take effect.
(End of chapter)