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The next day.
Seventh round.
With fewer than fifty participants remaining, the quality of the battles skyrocketed.
Those who had made it this far were, without exception, considered prodigies. They could easily be compared laterally to the reserve members of other universities.
But this situation was rather unfavorable for the young trainers who had come from the Youth Training Camp.
There was only one Li Xiang in the world.
They were talented, truly one-in-ten-thousand geniuses who had received early, excellent training, but without the candies, they couldn't bridge such a large gap in time and experience.
At this point, only four from the Youth Training Camp remained in the top fifty: Li Xiang's trio, and Lu Yi, one of the Lu sisters who specialized in Normal types.
Just those four.
All the others had been eliminated, including Wu Ruoxue, without exception.
But regardless, the trainers from the Youth Training Camp had proven their strength, especially Song Jie and Gong Xu.
In the past, the spotlight had always been on Li Xiang, causing the other two to be mentioned very little, almost as if they were forgotten.
Until now.
The students of Mist City University finally realized that Li Xiang wasn't the only monster; the other two closely associated with him were pretty monstrous too.
First-year students brutally defeating sixth-year students made the older students' faces burn with shame.
'Embarrassing!'
This also led to Gong Xu, the Double Battle maniac, earning a spot among Mist City University's 'Four Great Villains'.
As for Song Jie?
The white-haired guy was now the school heartthrob, a male idol cherished by many senior sisters; derogatory nicknames basically didn't touch him.
Of course, "Mist City University School Hearthrob" itself carried a bit of a teasing connotation.
In the eyes of many male students, it was a term with mixed praise and criticism.
In short, for the Mist City University students who had lost their hope of advancement, only gossiping about others could relieve their loneliness.
And the subjects of the gossip continued their vigorous march towards the peak.
This round's opponent specialized in Fire types but didn't focus on weather. Instead, they employed some flashy tactics.
Such as—
[Magma Tide].
Under the intense sunlight, Li Xiang looked at the constantly boiling magma lake before him, radiating scorching heat, and the term unconsciously flashed through his mind.
The opponent was a Magcargo, a Pokémon with a snail shell, a body made of magma, and a quadruple weakness to Water and Ground.
Its Ability, Flame Body, could burn opponents upon contact.
Its surface temperature was extremely high; even if not as exaggerated as ten thousand degrees, it was enough to severely burn anyone who touched it.
For Pokémon making contact with it, it was a form of continuous damage no less potent than a move.
Therefore, this peculiar power, in the minds of clever trainers, became a strategy to overcome enemies.
— [Recover].
This move, typically used only to restore HP, when deliberately trained and combined with Magcargo's unique bodily structure, became a skill that could cause its body tissue to expand.
Proliferating its magma-formed body, it created a terrifying magma tide, occupying every corner of the battlefield.
Even though the target became larger upon expansion, its attack range also increased accordingly.
By now, most of the field was in a state where there was no safe place to stand.
And the Smog used by Magcargo in this form, enhanced by the Sunny Day, was terrifying enough to cover every corner of the field.
Li Xiang even had to withdraw outside the field's boundaries to command his Pokémon from there.
"Does elemental energy just cost nothing? Is it a fight to the death? This kind of strategy is all too common."
He silently complained. Fortunately, the intelligence reports had already detailed this opponent's tactics, so the one currently facing Magcargo was the Wash Rotom flying in the air.
The interesting part of this strategy was that hitting the proliferated parts didn't cause full damage, much like hitting a person's arm versus their finger—it hurt but wasn't fatal.
To truly inflict significant damage, one had to find its main body.
As for where its main body was...
It was soaking in the magma.
Its snail shell had sunk beneath the surface, completely out of sight. Finding a pair of bright yellow eyes in the gurgling, steam-emitting magma was futile.
The most crucial point was... Wash Rotom knew Water Pulse but not Surf. If it knew Surf, it wouldn't have to torment itself like this.
It could use Discharge, but its penetration through magma was insufficient, and its magma-formed main body couldn't be paralyzed by Electric-type energy.
The paralysis status could be inflicted, but overall, it was high energy cost for little damage, yielding minimal results.
The opponent also seemed to rely on this point to employ the Magma Tide strategy.
However, to be honest, the longer time dragged on, the more advantageous it was for Li Xiang's side.
Magcargo clearly couldn't sustain such a massive body for long; every second was agony for it, draining both stamina and elemental energy.
So, it was not stinting in using attacking moves.
Crimson smoke continued to rise, eroding upwards.
Smog had a relatively long duration, similar to other smoke-based moves, and could linger on the field for a while.
Correspondingly, Magcargo could also use this opportunity to employ some other moves.
Rock Tomb.
This move, which could negate the Levitate Ability.
Right now, Rotom was like playing a bullet hell game, dodging Magcargo's rock attacks while searching for its main body.
As for the Smog, although its diffusion range was large, it still couldn't encroach upon too much of the sky's domain. As long as Rotom gained enough altitude, it could naturally ignore it.
The situation was deadlocked.
But the opponent was getting impatient, partly due to the temperament of Fire-type specialist trainers, and partly due to Rotom's high evasion.
He had never seen a Pokémon that could dodge so well. The rocks from Rock Tomb would explode like bombs once they reached the sky.
That golden shockwave only needed to graze Rotom a little for its Levitate to be negated.
The problem was, he couldn't hit it!
It dodged too well!
With both Double Team and Substitute, how was he supposed to hit it?
It was like playing rock-paper-scissors—first guessing if you hit a clone, then guessing if it's the real body. It was torture.
The projection techniques Magcargo had practiced for over two years seemed nonexistent.
It was truly hard to endure.
When Magcargo's stamina was nearing its limit, its elemental energy mostly depleted, and it truly didn't dare use Recover again, the opponent recalled it, leaving behind the magma that, having lost its main body's heat source, was rapidly cooling.
The Pokémon sent out next was a plump eagle with upper body plumage like flames, having long tail feathers with black edges and black-yellow stripes flowing behind it.
It was indeed a plump eagle, with a bulging chest like a well-fed hen, no visible neck, and what looked like a double chin when it lowered its head.
—A Talonflame from the sixth generation, nicknamed 'Gale Wings', with the Gale Wings Ability that increased speed when using Flying-type moves.
It was a Pokémon with decent speed but fragile defenses.
To actually send it out against Rotom was quite arrogant.
Rotom didn't hesitate in the slightest, directly charging forward with Discharge activated. The area of effect extended ten meters around it, resembling a giant electric ball magnified countless times in mid-air.
Facing such a move, Talonflame decisively used Tailwind to accelerate and flee, following up with Acrobatics after Tailwind, increasing its flight speed and maneuverability, not even getting close.
It stubbornly utilized its agile movements to dodge the terrifying mobile Discharge.
This guy was clearly thinking of just coming in to set up Tailwind and then leaving, maximizing its role as a support.
But Rotom, finally seeing this opportunity, was unwilling to let it get away. Predicting its movement path and noticing it was heading towards its trainer, Rotom directly shot a large Electroweb.
Switching? Dream on!
Talonflame was fast and agile, but it often came down to a lack of luck.
Bound by the Electroweb, it temporarily lost the ability to fly and fell helplessly from the sky.
The opponent took out a PokéBall trying to recall it but was hampered by the Electroweb not having dissipated yet.
And by the time the Electroweb disappeared, Talonflame's body had already crashed onto the scorching blackened ground, thoroughly electrocuted into unconsciousness by Rotom's follow-up Discharge.
'No Focus Sash and you dare come out so recklessly?'
'Did you really think this was a turn-based game where we take turns based on speed?'
It had to be said, the opponent made a terrible move here; he underestimated Rotom and overestimated his own Talonflame.
His feelings were understandable—he got impatient after dragging it out for so long.
But how could a trainer afford to be impatient?
No wonder he had all these flashy tactics but couldn't even make it as a reserve member.
The third Pokémon was the Ninetales that had set up Sunny Day with its Ability at the start and was immediately switched out.
This guy fought Rotom solely with Solar Beam, its nine tails converging like a cannon to fire a bright green energy beam, moving while firing, quite fast, like a prism tank.
It relied entirely on the deceased Talonflame's Tailwind.
But the uneven, hardened magma terrain hindered its free movement, making it far less agile than the flying Rotom.
After dodging one Solar Beam, Rotom hit Ninetales with an Eerie Impulse, lowering its special attack.
It then successfully tanked the next Solar Beam and shoved a Thunderbolt into Ninetales' face.
Ninetales' special defense was passable, but Rotom, who had been on the field all this time, had used Nasty Plot much earlier.
The Thunderbolt promptly took it out.
The opponent naturally only had Magcargo left.
It used Recover upon entering the field. Having rested in the ball for so long, it had recovered some elemental energy.
And Rotom, seeing such a good opportunity, used Pain Split to share HP with it.
Then, it tanked an Ancient Power and blasted it away with a Water Pulse, completing the advancement in the seventh round of the selection series.
The Magma Tide was an interesting strategy, but its flaws were obvious. It was powerless against Pokémon that could reach high altitudes and was also a test of stamina and elemental energy.
Although Magcargo could learn Rock Tomb, it was meaningless if it couldn't hit.
It really needed the move Gravity, which grounds airborne Pokémon, for coordination.
Speaking of which, this strategy was practically a standard move for Magcargo trainers. Ever since a certain Fire-type master used it, many had tried to imitate it.
It's just that in the games, masters could win effortlessly, but here, no matter how much they struggled, there were only a few true masters.