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"Dusknoir, Z-Move—Never-Ending Nightmare!"
As soon as the battle started, Roy immediately pulled out a Z-Crystal and pressed it against his wrist.
Dark purple energy immediately surrounded Roy, and as he raised his hand, it condensed into a shockwave that shot into Dusknoir's body.
In an instant, with Dusknoir at the center, purple-black light spread across the ground and expanded outward, as if trying to dye the entire island in dark purple.
No—to be more precise, this spreading darkness was like a giant mouth opening wide, swallowing everything around them.
Standing on the island, the ocean and forests that had surrounded them vanished, replaced by an eerie purple-black landscape. In the distance, shadowy trees and ghostly towns could be vaguely seen.
It seemed they had been transported to some suburb of the spirit world.
Chris waited a few seconds, but the endless ghost hands that usually emerged from the ground during Never-Ending Nightmare didn't appear.
Instead, Roy called out his next command: "Shadow Force!"
"Dus! Noir!" The large mouth on Dusknoir's belly opened wide, and its hands spread as if to embrace everything around it.
A black shadow appeared behind the Ghost-type Pokémon and quickly expanded.
In the blink of an eye, a massive black giant materialized on the battlefield.
Chris had seen this move when Roy had battled Tate earlier.
However, the Shadow Force summoned by Dusknoir was somewhat different from the shadow created by Roy's ace Pokémon, Gengar.
Gengar's shadow had been a warrior holding a blade, while Dusknoir's creation was a muscular figure with a bare upper body, built like solid rock. Strangely, it had a pair of horns on its head and two thick arms that looked like massive pillars—very intimidating!
It looked like a minotaur!
"Are the shadows different for each Pokémon? Or does it only depend on the individual Pokémon's mastery of Night Shade moves?" Chris wondered.
The bull-headed shadow raised its fist and struck directly at Chris's Gengar.
"Dodge, then use Shadow Ball!" Chris commanded quickly.
Don't let Gengar's appearance as a chubby purple creature fool you—their speed and base stats were actually quite high. They were surprisingly agile for their round shape.
With a slight turn, Gengar easily avoided the minotaur shadow's attack.
"Boom!" The fist crashed into the open ground, causing an explosion that made the entire battlefield shake.
Chris had to admit that Roy was incredibly talented. Night Shade was normally a special-type move that worked by frightening opponents and dealing psychological damage, but Roy had developed it into a physical attack with real destructive power—and quite impressive power at that!
Gengar, having dodged the attack, quickly launched a counterattack. Placing its chubby little hands together against its chest, more than twenty football-sized Shadow Balls appeared behind it in a dense formation. Pointing forward, the Shadow Balls immediately shot in the direction Gengar indicated.
"Rock Tomb," Roy calmly commanded.
Dusknoir crossed its arms in front of its chest, and immediately the space above its head shimmered darkly. Several massive rocks, two or three meters high, fell down, blocking all of the Shadow Balls' attack paths.
Using Rock Tomb as a defensive move—Chris had not only seen this before, he used the same tactic himself.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The sounds of explosions echoed one after another across the battlefield.
Just as Chris was considering what move to use for his next attack, the minotaur shadow behind Dusknoir moved again, swinging sideways at Gengar.
Chris's eye twitched.
Good grief!
Since when could Night Shade act like a substitute and continue attacking independently?
Roy had developed what was normally a one-time attack move into a true "summoning" technique.
"Dodge!" Chris shouted urgently.
The purple creature fled hastily.
"Shadow Sneak," Roy commanded at the perfect moment.
Dusknoir, positioned behind the Rock Tomb barrier, immediately crouched down and slapped both hands against the ground. The moment its gloved palms sank into the soil, they reappeared in the shadow beneath Gengar, grabbing the Ghost-type Pokémon.
Once caught, the minotaur shadow's attack would connect perfectly!
"Teleport!" Chris had to play one of his trump cards early.
Gengar, caught between the shadow creature and Dusknoir's lock-on, instantly vanished.
"Boom!" Immediately after, there was a massive crash as the Rock Tomb that Dusknoir had used for defense was blasted apart from the inside out!
Dusknoir flew backward from the explosion.
Gengar appeared holding a Shadow Ball in one hand, using it like a spiraling energy sphere and pressing it against the back of Dusknoir's head while flying forward with it. Gengar had always envied Greninja for knowing Aura Sphere, so it had created its own version using Shadow Ball.
It seemed Gengar had teleported directly behind Dusknoir.
Dusknoir hadn't expected this and couldn't react in time, caught completely off guard.
"Teleport?" Roy frowned slightly. Was this a move that Gengar could actually learn? Why couldn't his own Gengar use it?
He raised his hand to give another command.
"Dusknoir, use Imprison!"
Dusknoir's single eye glowed slightly as it twisted around in mid-air with the Shadow Ball still pressed against it, immediately reaching out with its gloved palm to grab Gengar, who was right beside it, attempting to seal it with the move.
This could be trouble.
Imprison was a Ghost-type move that, once it hit an opponent, prevented them from using any moves they had in common with the user.
This technique was specifically designed to counter opponents of the same type in actual combat.
If Gengar was hit by Imprison, it wouldn't be able to use most of its Ghost-type moves, and its combat effectiveness would be cut by at least half.
But just as Dusknoir was about to grab Gengar, it disappeared again.
Another Teleport.
The distance wasn't far this time, but the positioning was the same.
Behind Dusknoir.
Gengar pressed forward with one hand, and five Shadow Balls struck Dusknoir's back simultaneously.
Now it looked like Gengar had given Dusknoir its own version of a "five-point palm attack."
"Boom!" Dusknoir's body flew backward again, crashing into the rocks from Rock Tomb and causing another explosion.
"Pop!" There was a crisp sound, like a balloon bursting.
It was Dusknoir's minotaur shadow collapsing like smoke—when its creator, Dusknoir, fell unconscious with swirling eyes, the shadow technique ended.
The mechanical referee announced at the appropriate moment: "Dusknoir is unable to battle! Gengar wins!"