Yezo corrected Silas's slightly off interpretation, though the difference was minor.
"Wait—you can actually read ancient script?"
His voice was full of surprise.
"Hah! What gave you the illusion that I couldn't?" Silas burst out laughing in anger.
At that moment, he truly wanted to slap this guy in front of him.
He immediately regretted his earlier thought. Now he realized that only because Yezo was Agatha's grandson did people tolerate his personality at all.
No wonder he had no friends.
"Eh, fine, I guess it saves us the trouble of cramming a crash course for you. I was worried you wouldn't learn it in two or three days anyway," Yezo added, as if pouring oil on the fire.
Perfect. Next time I accept any invitation from this guy, I'm a dog, Silas swore inwardly. He even clenched his teeth and promised himself that if he met Yezo in the Indigo League, he'd teach him a lesson.
Beat him into the ground.
"Oh, right. If you happen to get a reward that's the material I need, I'll buy it off you—thirty percent over market price. How about it?" Yezo suddenly added, as if just remembering.
Arcanine! In his head, Silas barked like the Growlithe evolution he'd seen yesterday—no reason, he just liked Arcanine.
What a kind soul (and such a sucker), Silas thought. People like this didn't come often.
Truly admirable, what boldness.
But what Yezo read from Silas's expression was entirely different.
"How many groups are there in total?"
As they sipped tea and admired the snowy scenery, the two began discussing the details of the tournament.
"About ten teams, give or take. That's how it was last year. This year there's one more—some kid who just came of age. Not worth worrying about, he won't be that strong," Yezo explained.
Not a lot, really. After all, take Pewter Gym's Brock—his family alone had ten children, including his younger brother Forrest. That didn't even count the rest of his three brothers and two sisters' descendants.
"So basically eleven teams competing for three slots. I thought there'd be twenty or more."
Silas was speechless. "You big families really know how to play games."
"Well, Grandma's the one who decided the rules. Nothing we can do."
Yezo gave a helpless smile. "Also, the Pokémon we use have to have been caught within the last three years. That's no problem for us.
"The upper age limit is twenty-five."
"Oh, that's fine then," Silas replied, completely dismissive of the older competitors.
For ordinary people, the older you were, the more experience you had in raising Pokémon. Even if everyone only had three years with their Pokémon, the older Trainers usually came out stronger.
But that didn't apply to Silas and Yezo.
"For doubles, we should probably practice, right? We've never fought side by side. I've only beaten your Golbat before," Silas said casually, almost as if by accident.
Yezo's hand trembled as he set down his teacup. "Yeah… though Golbat's not really an option right now. I've only been raising it five or six months. It's strong, but only at the Advance level."
"Pfft. My Gigalith's the same. Barely four months of training, only just broke into Advance. Probably not enough to fight for the top three."
Silas smirked. "But still, Ground and Flying would've made a nice combo."
"Guess we'll just have to use our aces. Too bad my Pawniard only just broke into Elite. Probably still a level or two away from evolving." Yezo quickly shifted the subject—at least in terms of aces, Silas couldn't outshine him.
"That's true. My Pidgeot is still stuck at level 49. No clue when it'll finally break through."
Silas spoke lazily, but that didn't mean he was conceding. Yezo's face was clearly no better for it.
Silas was seventeen, Yezo nineteen—only about a year and a half apart in age. Even so, the level gap between Silas's Pidgeot and Yezo's Pawniard wasn't large.
Sure, Silas had started earlier. But so had Yezo.
"Hmph."
"Hmph."
The two snorted at each other at the same time.
"How's your Blaziken? If it's good to go, then pairing it with Pawniard might work better than pairing with Pidgeot. At least their styles fit better."
Of course, neither of them lingered on the earlier rivalry. Yezo quickly turned the conversation back to doubles synergy.
"Uh… should be fine. They're both close-range fighters. No real synergy, but at least neither will drag the other down."
Silas sounded uncertain.
Doubles battles touched on his blind spot—or really, most Trainers' blind spots. Few people had much concept of doubles strategy.
"How'd you do last year?" Silas asked.
"What do you think? Last year my strongest Pawniard was barely in its thirties. I had to partner with a classmate. We got destroyed. Forget synergy—we couldn't even keep up," Yezo said with a helpless sigh.
That was also why he said the newly adult kid this year wasn't worth worrying about.
Under the tournament restrictions, doubles battles didn't allow for a "carry one weakling with one powerhouse" setup.
Unless you could raise a Pokémon to Champion level in just three years—then it'd be a different story.
But Yezo was already the most talented of his generation. Even he didn't dare boast that in six months his Pawniard would evolve into Bisharp and break through to Champion.
His best hope was for it to reach the cusp, and then break through maybe half a year later.
That would already be outstanding.
Few Trainers at age twenty could raise their first Champion-level Pokémon.
"I think it'll be fine. Even my older cousins don't seem to care much about synergy with their partners," Yezo said uncertainly.
"Should we… practice?" Silas asked, looking at him hesitantly.
"Sure. Grandma Bertha has indoor battlefields here. I'll call in a couple sparring partners."
Yezo nodded.
Ten minutes later.
Inside a standard indoor battlefield—
Silas and Yezo stood side by side. Across from them were two bodyguard-looking Trainers.
"Alright, let's start. Release your Pokémon at the same time. We'll be red side. Then we'll let the computer decide who gets the first move," Yezo instructed.
"Go, Blaziken!" Silas shouted.
"You too, Pawniard!" Yezo added.
"Machamp, let's go!" one guard called.
"Sandslash, go!" the other commanded.
Four Pokémon of different shapes and colors appeared on the field.
The referee raised his flags. "The computer will now randomly determine which side attacks first!"
On the sideline, a screen flickered between red and green lights.
A moment later, it froze on green.
"The green side attacks first. Battle, begin!"
"Machamp, Sandslash—Dig!"
The two bodyguards gave the exact same command in perfect sync, without even exchanging a glance.
Silas and Yezo looked at each other. Good, they were thinking the same thing.
"Pawniard, use Dig!"
"Blaziken, pick up Pawniard and use Bounce!"
At the sound of these completely different commands, they both turned to stare at each other in disbelief.
"Wait—Machamp and Sandslash are the ones using Dig! With Sandslash being Ground-type, it's obviously going to be way better at it than either of our Pokémon.
"And in such a cramped space, Blaziken can't even move properly! Machamp's only 1.6 meters tall—you think they'll dig a three-meter-high tunnel?" Silas was dumbfounded. What, did Yezo really intend to fight underground? Not to mention Pawniard's Dark/Steel typing was completely countered by both Machamp and Sandslash!
"What do you mean? You nodded at me—that meant going down, didn't it? Besides, Pawniard's body is perfectly suited for underground battles.
"As long as Blaziken stalls them for just a moment, given Machamp's agility down there and Sandslash's reflexes, Pawniard can easily deal with them!" Yezo shot back, equally incredulous.
His first instinct when the opponents used Dig was to meet them underground—why just sit back and take hits? That would be worse.
And to be fair, he wasn't wrong. Pawniard's build gave it an edge underground. In a one-on-one match, Pawniard's Dig could even rival many actual Ground-types.
But the real problem was the two of them couldn't agree on who should take the lead. From their words alone, it was clear—they each only cared about their own Pokémon.
The two fell silent, staring at each other.
Back on the field, Pawniard and Blaziken reacted quickly to their Trainers' commands.
Pawniard's small body darted downward, its blade-like arms carving a neat tunnel as it vanished into the earth.
Blaziken, meanwhile, crouched down and swung its arms to scoop Pawniard—but missed completely.
By the time it realized something was wrong, the spring-like power in its legs had already launched it skyward.
"Smack!"
Silas and Yezo both slapped their foreheads at the same time. What a disaster.
Still, there was no time to panic—they quickly reacted.
"Pawniard, use Screech underground!"
"Blaziken, dive straight down and force them out!"
"Machamp, Wide Guard!"
"Sandslash, Sand Tomb!"
The bodyguards' responses were equally swift.
Wide Guard nullified Pawniard's Screech. The move was like a powered-up version of Protect—the success rate didn't fall even with repeated use. It blocked not only attacks but most status moves as well.
The only drawback was that the user had to maintain the barrier's stability, making movement difficult. And it couldn't be used reactively, since spreading the barrier took time and could be interrupted.
But in doubles, those limitations barely mattered.
Underground, Pawniard's screeching echoed sharply through the tunnels—but the opponents showed no reaction.
Meanwhile, Blaziken slammed into the ground with diving force, but instead of flattening the battlefield, it found itself trapped by Sandslash's Sand Tomb.
"Sandslash, use Rapid Spin!"
At its Trainer's command, a yellow blur spun rapidly as Sandslash erupted from underground, aiming straight for the immobilized Blaziken.
"Blaziken, Aura Sphere—fire!"
Silas clenched his jaw. Even trapped, his partner was strong enough to take a head-on clash.
"Chyah!"
Blaziken's expression turned deadly serious. It crossed its claws over its chest, a blue-white sphere of energy forming between them, growing larger by the second.
On the other side—
"Machamp, Scary Face!"
As Sandslash targeted Blaziken, Machamp suddenly twisted its face into a horrifying grimace at Pawniard as it surfaced, forcing the little Steel-type to stagger back in fear.
Blaziken was heavily countered by Ground-types, while Pawniard was quadruple-weak to Fighting.
In that instant, the bodyguards had wordlessly split the targets based on type advantage—without even needing to specify.
That was how doubles battles were supposed to be played. If you had to openly discuss every move on the field, not only would you waste time, but the opponent would hear everything too.
It wasn't like they were deaf.
Doubles battles were all about wordless coordination—the kind of synergy where partners understood each other without signals or speech.
Clearly, Silas and Yezo, while somewhat in sync as friends, were nowhere near that level in battle.
"Boom!"
Blaziken's hastily-formed Aura Sphere collided with the spinning Sandslash, producing a deafening explosion.
Sandslash's hardened shell and earlier momentum gave it the upper hand, striking Blaziken and dealing damage.
But at the same time, Blaziken used the recoil from the impact to break free of Sand Tomb's grip.
"Blaziken, help Pawniard! Use Quick Attack!"
Silas's eyes darted to Pawniard, which, its Speed lowered, was barely dodging Machamp's four-armed assault. There was no time for mockery—he needed to help.
He avoided calling for a ranged move. Any misstep could give Sandslash the opening to intercept.
"Machamp, use Seismic Toss!"
"Pawniard, Night Slash!"
"Sandslash, Defense Curl into Rollout!"
The other three Trainers gave their commands simultaneously.
Blaziken, glowing white, darted forward at high speed, slamming into Machamp and staggering it, interrupting its assault on Pawniard.
But a moment later, Machamp steadied itself with sheer muscle strength.
Its lower arms grabbed Blaziken's upper body, while its top arms coiled around, and using Blaziken's own momentum, it hurled the Fire-type forward.
"Thud! Boom!"
Blaziken's face slammed into the ground with brutal force.
At that moment, Machamp's side was completely exposed to Pawniard.
Yezo had been waiting for this.
Pawniard's eyes flashed, its twin blades glowing with Dark energy. It lunged, striking viciously at the joints of Machamp's leg.
Slash!
.....
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