Chapter 382: A Direct Confrontation
For the fifth round, Arthur chose to have Specter fight again, remaining on the field to accept the challenge.
The reason was simple: after securing his third point, Arthur had now gained another mid-battle switch.
This was one of the universal rules of a 12-on-6 singles battle: after scoring three points, the player gains an additional opportunity to switch Pokémon mid-battle.
This allowed him to confidently let Specter continue fighting, knowing he could switch him out when necessary.
And at this point, the opposing Leo didn't have many choices left.
He ultimately sent out his strongest ace: the origin of his "Wind King" title, the dragon of sky and wind—Noivern!
A large, bat-like Pokémon that resembles a wyvern, evolved from Noibat, with a Flying/Dragon typing.
Leo's Noivern's most skilled move is the Flying-type ultimate, Hurricane. His proficiency with it is extremely high. Both its damage and range are astonishing, and he has even managed to reduce its cooldown to under eight seconds.
And the super-strong storm this move whips up can control the enemy for three to four seconds on its own. An eight-second cooldown, visually, is no different from being able to fire it consecutively!
The only problem is—
"Captain Leo has finally sent out his ace, Noivern. Unfortunately, in this match, there are no more Pokémon that can set up rain for it."
Even the newcomer commentator could see Leo's current predicament.
His Kingdra had fainted earlier, and he hadn't managed to secure the weather, having been completely outplayed by Arthur's Little Eevee.
After two more matches, both the rain and snow on the arena had long since stopped.
And Noivern itself cannot learn Rain Dance. Without the rain boost, the wind-up for Hurricane would be a major problem. The long casting time would give the enemy ample time to react and dodge.
No matter how strong an ultimate move is, if it can't hit the enemy, it's useless.
"What will Captain Leo choose to do?"
As soon as the commentator's voice fell, the referee blew the whistle and announced the start of the match!
Leo was the first to give a command: "Noivern, ascend and use Air Slash!"
He very decisively abandoned his ultimate move, Hurricane, and chose to open with a conventional skill!
In the previous round, although Hydreigon had ultimately been unable to turn the tide due to its move slot limitations, Specter had also used up all of its own move slots in that duel, and had no more freedom.
Haze, Smog, Venoshock, Perish Song, Ice Punch, Confuse Ray.
All six move slots were now fixed.
Besides the "do-or-die" Perish Song, Specter now had no long-range attacking options.
The Gate-of-Babylon-style Sludge Bomb from before could not be used in this match.
Leo had seen this and opened by suppressing him with a long-range move.
"Specter, try to get in close!"
"Noivern, maintain suppression with Air Slash! Pin him on the other side of the field!"
In this round, Leo had learned his lesson from the previous one. He would not give his opponent a chance to enter his side of the field and set up fog.
The high-flying Noivern continuously beat its wings, and crescent-shaped slashes rained down like a torrential downpour!
One volley was a dozen or so slashes. After a few seconds of rest, another dozen crescent-moon blasts!
The Air Slash released by a captain-level Flying-type Pokémon was far superior in both quantity and quality to the effect produced by Bella's or Justin's Pokémon.
Even Specter, despite breaking through several times, found it difficult to get close.
"Use Perish Song!"
Arthur decisively changed his approach, forcing his opponent to come and fight him.
But Noivern is, after all, the master of sound waves.
"Use Boomburst!"
Leo directly unleashed the pinnacle of sound-based attacks: the ultimate move, Boomburst!
The deafening sonic boom instantly overpowered Specter's slightly raspy, baritone voice.
The intense sound waves made it impossible for him to continue his song.
Perish Song was forcibly interrupted by this brute-force method.
But Arthur had gotten what he wanted.
"Charge forward during the opponent's ultimate's cooldown! Use Ice Punch in close combat!"
Setting up fog in this round was now pointless. The opponent had no intention of using buffs. More importantly, Flying-type Pokémon generally know the move Defog, which, as the name implies, is super-effective against fog.
Specter decisively chose to use the doubly super-effective Ice-type move for direct close-range pressure!
"Maintain mobility! Don't let it get caught in a close-quarters fight!"
Leo also gave Arthur's personal style the utmost respect. Even against a Pokémon like Gengar, he did not choose to have his Noivern rashly engage in a melee brawl.
The moment its cooldown was over, he decisively commanded, "Use Psyshock to push the Gengar back!"
The Psychic-type move: Psyshock!
Launch a powerful psychic shockwave at the opponent. It could not only exploit the Psychic-type's advantage over Poison to hit Gengar's weakness but also use the force of the shockwave to push the opponent back.
"Then continue to suppress with Air Slash!"
Noivern was more comfortable using moves of its own type. After Psyshock had completed its pushback task, it immediately switched back to the "my blade is like light, cutting through all" Air Slash mode.
Seeing this, Arthur basically understood that it was impossible to take down this Noivern with just Specter.
"Use your positioning to get in close! Try to land a few more Ice Punches!"
Before fainting, Specter did its best to contribute to its teammates.
After landing a few punches, it suddenly widened its eyes and used Confuse Ray. Unfortunately, this time, its opponent was not careless.
"Avert your gaze! Sidestep and use Psyshock to push him back!"
Noivern, with a very agile turn of its head while in motion, dodged the direct beam of Confuse Ray, then immediately released a psychic shockwave to push Specter away!
He was a veteran captain, after all. Leo's reaction in this exchange was a highlight-reel-worthy performance.
Without the interference of the dense fog, the former number one player in the Kubfu Alliance's reaction and command were worthy of his reputation.
Seeing this, Arthur didn't push his luck. Specter then got in close and released a wave of Smog, forcing his opponent to use another move slot on Defog.
Then, Arthur decisively took out his Poké Ball, used his newly acquired mid-battle switch, and recalled Specter, sending out the Old Flame who had been on standby!
"ROAR!"
This time, as Old Flame took the stage, he let out a furious roar, shooting a long, thick pillar of fire into the sky.
This time, he could finally have a real fight!
The value of the mid-battle switch was undoubtedly demonstrated at this moment—if he hadn't gotten another switch, Arthur, who had to send out his Pokémon first, might have never had a chance to use his ace, Old Flame, who had been completely shut down by the Shuckle.
But now it was different!
He could switch Pokémon, and his opponent could not!
At this moment, Leo had no chance to switch in his Shuckle to stall.
The seemingly brilliant one-on-one defense from before had now collapsed on its own!
Old Flame still had some stamina left, and after resting in his Poké Ball for a long time, he had now recovered quite a bit.
More importantly, his condition was still perfect!
The Shuckle had only managed to drain his stamina; it hadn't been able to inflict any damage on him!
So now, for at least the next five minutes, Leo would have to face an unscathed, peak-power Mega Charizard X!
The commentators were exceptionally excited, their mouths moving non-stop as if they'd been waxed.
"There it is! It's finally here!! The direct confrontation between the two players' ace Pokémon!! Don't be fooled by the fact that Arthur is a newcomer. This next match could very well be the most explosive single round of this year's regular season!"
But as the commentators were happy and the audience was excited, Leo—just by looking at his expression, you could tell—was really suffering…
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