The opponent's abilities in hosting completely overwhelmed him, especially in terms of special effects production, which was an area he couldn't compete in. Although he could produce some projection machines in advance, the gap compared to fruit abilities was too vast.
Hosting programs was his personal hobby, and if he lost the host's qualification because of this, it wouldn't be fun at all.
"So how about it, Brother Queen, isn't this girl's ability quite impressive?"
Tesoro had somehow appeared beside Queen, still praising Ann's ability.
"Tch, impressive, my foot. Did you bring her here to steal my spot?"
"I just brought her to get acclimated. Don't worry, Brother Queen; she's nowhere near as experienced as you in this field. Give the newcomer some chances. Her stage won't be limited to Ghost Island in the future."
Tesoro knew long ago how to adapt his words to different people, so a few sentences got Queen to overlook the matter. After all, Queen wasn't a professional entertainer; he was just momentarily being stubborn.
"For your sake, I'll let this little girl give it a try."
This also served as a way for him to save face. Being replaced indicated that Arceus had already agreed, and he wouldn't dare to challenge Kaidou or Arceus even with borrowed courage; he hadn't lived enough yet.
He could resist when fighting others, but Kaidou and Arceus could basically kill him in seconds.
"Next, let's welcome the three newly endowed Divine Favorers. After today, we will have three new Divine Favorers.
First up is "Flame Disaster" Lord King's deputy - Francis Drake! Followed by Lady Shaina's deputy - Delatorre Emmalyn! And lastly, Mandfeish's deputy - Drew Pierman!"
Drake, Emmalyn, and Pierman are the newly promoted Divine Favorers. The ability granting ceremony was completed yesterday, and today, as usual, they are holding a commendation ceremony.
The position of the phantoms created by Ann corresponds to their positions, with Drake standing in Luxray's spot, Emmalyn with Lurantis's ability, and Pierman granted Corsola's ability.
This time, all three have been endowed with abilities that don't fear seawater, so all three possess the ability to swim.
...
"The power of Lord Arceus is really fascinating."
Drake looked at the lightning flickering in her hand, smiling even as the scar on her face twitched a bit, but she didn't care about that scar at all.
She was once a pirate captain too, like Sasaki, admiring the power of the Hundred Beasts and willingly defecting, advocating courage, overcoming, plundering, and then prospering.
She had little interest in hoarding money; most of her assets were distributed to her underlings, making her the generous big sister in their eyes, greatly enjoying the pleasure of spending money.
The price was having to regularly hang out at the Hundred Beasts' free cafeteria; otherwise, she'd eventually starve to death.
Soon after, Drake's muscles wriggled, blue skin sheathing her original limbs, with most of her body covered in fluffy black fur.
A star-ended tail grew behind her, and the mane on her body was slightly shorter than that of an average male lion, marking her as a female Luxray.
Although it's called a cat, Luxray is similar to Persian, except one looks like a leopard and the other like a lion.
But Luxray's most special ability is not in its body, but in its eyes.
Upon entering beast form, Drake's sclera turned blood-red, and her pupils became yellow. As the electric energy gathered in her eyes, the wall in front of her gradually became transparent, finally disappearing altogether.
This is Luxray's X-ray vision. Wild Luxrays use these x-ray capable eyes to hunt prey, but using X-ray vision consumes a lot of electric energy, posing a considerable energy drain on the ability user themselves.
"This ability... really is strong.."
Drake licked her lips, the electric flash at the edge of her vision betraying her less-than-noble thoughts.
"Hey, Emmalyn, since we've both gotten new abilities, why don't we have a match too?"
Emmalyn's rank is NO.9, while Drake's is NO.10. Single-digit ranks are the ultimate goal for most Numberers. Although 10 is quite a forward position, it still isn't in the first tier.
Though they are both just Endowers, within Hundred Beasts, there are far more Endowers than Divine Favorers. The number increase over the years has been mostly Endowers rather than Divine Favorers.
There haven't been any large-scale battles these years, so they've slowly accumulated merits over time.
"Sure, let's start just like that. Pierman, ladies first, please step aside."
Seeing this, Pierman tactfully moved out of the way. Despite also ascending to the Divine Favorer status, he originally ranked beyond 20 and couldn't participate in the battle between Drake and Emmalyn.
As the host, Ann also noticed the commotion below. It didn't match her rehearsal script, but as a host, the ability to adapt is essential.
After a slight panic, she quickly grasped the situation and promptly announced the start of the swap battle.
...
"Do you need more time to get familiar with your ability?"
"No need. After gaining the ability bestowed by Lord Arceus yesterday, I've already got the hang of it. Don't say I didn't warn you; this ability suits me quite well."
Emmalyn obtained Lurantis's ability, and she initially had the skill Leaf Blade, both converging paths. The fighting styles of Lurantis and Leaf Blade are very similar.
Though it's a Grass-type Pokemon, Lurantis is more like a combination of a mantis and a plant. Its overall color is pink and white, and due to its brilliant colors and elegant poses, Lurantis is hailed as the most glamorous Grass-type Pokemon.
The patterns on its body resemble petals, with some of its limbs colored green.
Like a mantis, Lurantis's "arms" end in a pair of large red scythes, with a streak of white along the base edge, and the front of the scythes has green claws.
However, they're not insect limbs but extremely sharp petals and buds.
Judging Lurantis's strength is straightforward: the more vibrant the coloration, the better developed the Lurantis.
At this moment, Emmalyn was enveloped in pink and had already posed for attack.
"NO.10 Drake challenges NO.9 Emmalyn, swap battle, now begins!"
With Ann's command, Emmalyn was already moving. The scythes on her arms began to glow, and the power of the sun was gradually absorbed into them.
Solar Blade, a move that, like Solar Beam, absorbs the power of sunlight. Lurantis, being the sole Pokemon able to self-learn Solar Blade, almost has it as a signature skill...
```