Umbreon and Tropius immediately began preparing their next moves.
Alex, hearing Winona issue a command to her Pokémon, immediately realized that she had changed her tactics.
Although he didn't know what her new plan was, he was certain that Tropius would no longer be preparing Growth.
Umbreon finished preparing her move but didn't use it immediately.Instead, she patiently waited for Tropius to make the first move.
Unlike Umbreon, Tropius didn't hesitate. He immediately used Sunny Day, raising the temperature throughout the arena as Fire-type energy spread across the battlefield.
Seeing that Tropius had chosen a non-damaging move, Umbreon reluctantly used Payback anyway, even though its power wouldn't receive its usual boost.
In the games, Payback becomes stronger as long as the opponent moves first, even if they don't use a attack move.
In this world, however, the move only gains its increased power if the user has actually been damaged by an opponent's attack.
Tropius still lost a significant amount of HP from the strike and was left with less than seventy percent of his health.
Although he was badly poisoned and continued taking damage every second, the constant healing provided by Leech Seed kept the poison's effects relatively manageable for the time being.
Poison damage, as in the game, is not strong at the beginning and only starts to inflict real damage after a while.
Tropius immediately began preparing another move while flying away from Umbreon with his newly increased speed.
Thanks to Chlorophyll, he was now considerably faster than Umbreon.
Umbreon started preparing her own move only a moment later and chased after Tropius as he attempted to widen the gap.
Alex maintained a calm expression as he watched Tropius steadily pull farther away.
Normally, a Pokémon like Tropius—with its impressive speed under sunlight and access to Synthesis—would be an incredibly annoying opponent, much like his Crobat.
Fortunately, Tropius was already suffering from Umbreon's Toxic, which completely changed the nature of the battle.
Synthesis became far more effective under intense sunlight, but every second Tropius spent healing also allowed the poison to grow stronger.
Leech Seed, by contrast, didn't become more effective over time. Its healing remained constant from beginning to end.
In a prolonged battle, the advantage therefore belonged to Umbreon, not Tropius.
The only reason Umbreon continued chasing Tropius was to mislead both Tropius and Winona about his true objective.
Tropius finished preparing his move and immediately used Synthesis, restoring his injuries as sunlight poured down over the battlefield.
Watching nearly all of Tropius's wounds disappear, Alex realized that Synthesis is more powerfull in this world than it was in the games.
In the games, the move restored exactly fifty percent of the user's maximum HP during Sunny Day, just like Roost.
Here, however, the amount recovered wasn't fixed. No healing move restored so much as fifty percent, but Synthesis came much closer to that benchmark than Roost did.
Umbreon finished preparing her move and used Work Up.
Tropius immediately began preparing another move while simultaneously ending his retreat. Instead of continuing to fly away, he turned around and headed straight toward Umbreon.
Umbreon also began preparing her next move but remained completely still.
Winona immediately noticed that Umbreon wasn't moving despite preparing an move and Something felt wrong.
However, she didn't have enough time to carefully analyze the situation and had to decide immediately whether to change her plan.
In the end, she chose not to.
Tropius finished preparing his move and immediately unleashed Solar Beam.
A brilliant beam of concentrated energy shot toward Umbreon at incredible speed.
Ordinarily, there would have been no chance for her to dodge such an attack. However, Umbreon instantly used the move she had been preparing.
She activated Quick Attack, accelerating her body in an instant and narrowly avoiding the incoming beam.
Alex smiled slightly as he watched Umbreon successfully evade the attack.
Quick Attack was an excellent tool for dodging, but that certainly didn't mean it could avoid every move.
Large-area attacks like Earthquake, or tracking moves such as Psychic and Aerial Ace, would still connect regardless of how quickly Umbreon accelerated.
Alex had only chosen Quick Attack because he believed there was an extremely high chance that Tropius would use Solar Beam instead of Earthquake.
Winona know like most elite trainers that, like Protect, Quick Attack couldn't be used repeatedly in rapid succession. Because of that, she had no intention of changing her strategy.
As far as she was concerned, Tropius had lost only a small amount of time. with is bad for her Pokemon but not fetal.
Both Pokémon immediately began preparing their next moves. This time, neither of them moved from their positions.
Tropius completed his move and unleashed another Solar Beam.
Umbreon attempted to dodge again, but she failed. The brilliant beam struck her squarely in the head.
A critical hit.
Umbreon, which had already suffered relatively good damage (25%) from Leech Seed, immediately had no HP left.
Even so, the attack fell just short of knocking her unconscious. She remained standing through sheer determination.
Without wasting even a fraction of a second, Umbreon unleashed Payback.
Dark-type energy surged through her body, propelling her forward at tremendous speed toward Tropius.
Tropius attempted to dodge the incoming strike as Umbreon leaped into the air but was not fast enough.
Umbreon landed the hit cleanly. Tropius suffered heavy damage and was left with less than one-quarter of his remaining HP.
Alex reacted instantly.
Without hesitation, he reached for Umbreon's Poké Ball and recalled her.
With no life enegie (Hp) left, Umbreon was now vulnerable to suffering real serious injuries if she remained on the battlefield.
Alex had no intention of taking that risk.
As Umbreon disappeared into the Poké Ball, the Leech Seed attached to her body immediately withered away, no longer able to draw energy from its target.
The referee raised his voice and announced, "Due to the actions of Participant 3, Umbreon is now unable to battle and is officially declared defeated."
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