"Then my choice is this one. Go!"
Ethan already had his Poké Ball ready.
The moment Gothitelle appeared, he threw it.
As the sandstorm raged, Tyranitar entered the field. Its heavy footsteps made the ground rumble.
Stefan was a Psychic-type specialist. Tyranitar, a Dark-type Pokémon, had a clear advantage.
Moreover, with its Sand Stream ability and its mastery over the sandstorm after consuming Smooth Rocks, it was an ideal choice as a lead.
With both conditions combined, Tyranitar was the perfect opener against Stefan, which gave Ethan confidence.
"Gothitelle, Shadow Tag!"
As soon as Tyranitar appeared, Gothitelle immediately activated its ability.
The ability Shadow Tag prevented the opponent from fleeing or being switched out.
This was Gothitelle's usual strategy: force a one-on-one battle right from the start.
"Tyranitar is a Dark-type!"
"And Gothitelle still uses Shadow Tag! How confident is he?"
The spectators began to comment. Under normal circumstances, they would see it as arrogance. But since it was Stefan, no one was surprised; instead, they were expecting a spectacle.
"Tyranitar, use Sandstorm!"
Without hesitation, Ethan gave the order.
"Tyran!"
Tyranitar roared. Its Sand Stream ability and the Sandstorm move activated at the same time.
The wind howled through the stadium, transforming into a dense storm of dust that covered the entire field, leaving only the two silhouettes facing each other barely visible.
"What a terrifying Sandstorm!"
"The strength of that Tyranitar is also at the Quasi-Elite level!"
Observing the violent storm on the field, the spectators couldn't help but tense their gaze.
If that was the case, among the Pokémon Ethan had revealed, there were already five that had reached the Quasi-Elite level! Among the competitors in the World Championship's youth group, he could truly be considered an expert; reaching the finals proved he had that strength.
"Gothitelle, stop it!"
On the other side of the field, Stefan's expression remained calm.
Facing the terrifying sandstorm that was sweeping everything away, Gothitelle's small hand moved gently forward.
Immediately, an invisible force expanded and directly isolated the sandstorm, as if it had created a small space of its own: no matter how furious the desert raged outside, it could not affect Gothitelle in the slightest inside it.
"Is that... Confusion?" Ethan frowned.
Gothitelle was blocking the sandstorm far too easily.
"Tyranitar, Rock Tomb!"
Seeing that the sandstorm alone couldn't harm Gothitelle, Ethan directly ordered Tyranitar to launch an attack.
With a heavy stomp from Tyranitar, the entire sandy ground began to tremble. Immediately afterward, four stone walls rose up around Gothitelle, completely surrounding it.
"It's trapped!"
Seeing this scene, the spectators from the Daleron League began to grow excited.
However, before they could celebrate too much, the four stone walls suddenly exploded, revealing the intact Gothitelle inside.
"Did it blow them apart with just Confusion?"
"Isn't this Gothitelle too terrifying?"
Witnessing that, everyone felt a chill. No wonder Stefan had reached this point with only Gothitelle: its strength was truly overwhelming!
"Gothitelle, attack!"
Stefan's commands were always concise.
Next, Gothitelle turned its gaze toward Tyranitar; a blue flash shone in its eyes.
"Here it comes... Miracle Eye!"
Seeing the blue glow in Gothitelle's eyes, Ethan narrowed his own.
On the field, Tyranitar also sensed the anomaly in its opponent's gaze. It immediately roared and adopted a charging stance.
Boom!
At that instant, Gothitelle launched its attack.
With a simple wave of its hand, a powerful Psychic move shot out, sweeping away the sandstorm and leaving a clear trail in the air.
The next moment, the attack struck Tyranitar head-on. But what was puzzling was that after receiving the Psychic move, Tyranitar didn't move even an inch!
"Did the attack miss?"
Some spectators blinked in confusion.
"What do you mean miss?"
"Psychic is a Psychic-type move. Tyranitar is a Dark-type. Isn't it normal for Dark-type Pokémon to be immune to Psychic-type moves?"
A nearby spectator spoke with confusion. Wasn't that basic knowledge?
"You don't know, but in previous battles I saw Gothitelle send a Dark-type Pokémon flying with just one use of the move Psychic. Its Psychic-type moves can hit Dark-type Pokémon!"
After hearing that, the spectator replied very seriously, still looking at the field with obvious confusion.
"Did Miracle Eye fail?"
On the stage, Stefan also frowned, clearly puzzled.
The move Miracle Eye allowed Psychic-type moves to hit Dark-type Pokémon; it was a secret passed down exclusively within his family.
But this time, the move Miracle Eye had failed on Tyranitar, causing the Psychic move to have no effect.
"He did it... he countered Miracle Eye with Dark-type energy."
Seeing that, Ethan smiled slightly and directed his gaze toward Tyranitar on the field.
At that moment, dark energy was swirling around Tyranitar's body. The move it was using was a Dark-type one: Payback.
The effect of the move Payback was to charge energy and, if the user attacked after the opponent, the power of the move would be doubled.
Tyranitar had taken advantage of this method: using the Dark-type energy that enveloped its entire body to neutralize the power of the Miracle Eye move and cause it to fail.
"Miracle Eye has been nullified!"
"This is getting interesting! Gothitelle's Psychic-type moves have been rendered useless!"
Seeing this, Lucas and the others felt a spark of hope reignite in their eyes.
"Dark Pulse!"
At the same time, Ethan ordered Tyranitar to counterattack.
Because Tyranitar had already accumulated a massive amount of Dark-type energy thanks to the Payback move, it was seen releasing all that energy at once, transforming it into a gigantic dark sphere that shot directly toward Gothitelle.
(End of chapter)