"Clang~!"
With a faint sound, the sphere struck the fully equipped trainer, making him stagger.
At the same time, it could be seen on the screen that the score belonging to that trainer had dropped by 7 points, which showed that the attack had quite considerable damage.
"That hurts..."
"Even though the trainer is wearing a special protective suit, it still hurts a lot."
A female trainer shivered completely, showing a worried expression on her face. Pain was precisely what she feared the most.
Fuuuu~
While the trainers continued commenting, a strong gust of wind suddenly appeared on the screen.
Before everyone's surprised gazes, a sandstorm weather condition dropped abruptly, and rolling clouds of sand began advancing from the distance.
Faced with the sudden sandstorm, the trainer being examined showed no signs of panic. Moreover, his Scyther had excellent protective awareness: it quickly positioned itself in front of the trainer and used Air Slash, raising a strong current of wind that crashed head-on into the raging storm.
Boom!
When both currents collided, the storm was directly split in two by Scyther's slash, turning into two large waves of sand that passed on either side of the trainer.
"WTF, that was awesome!"
"It looks like this Scyther has specialized in the Flying-type route. The air currents generated by swinging its scythes are its best defensive method!"
At that moment, the observing trainers also understood the true meaning of Scyther as a defensive core. They couldn't help but be astonished.
Although Scyther's defense still had some flaws, it was more than enough to pass the first phase of the Advanced-level exam.
In the end, that trainer's score settled at 75 points, successfully passing the exam. This made the others let out a small sigh of relief; they felt they wouldn't have much trouble either.
As more trainers participated, new scores continued appearing on the screen, ordered from highest to lowest.
The highest belonged to a trainer named Laura Frost, who had used a Froslass. Thanks to her outstanding control of the move Icy Wind, she managed to pass the first round with a score of 95 points.
"95 points!"
"Looks like first place is already secured."
Seeing that score, everyone drew in a sharp breath.
Except for the moment she lost her balance in the gravity field due to the gravitational pressure and fell, her performance had been practically perfect.
"That Laura Frost is way too strong!"
A trainer stared at Laura's score, dumbfounded.
"Of course she's strong. The Ice Goddess is the captain of the reserve team of Evercove City's Pokémon University!"
Gideon Crest said proudly, looking at Laura with eyes full of admiration.
"Look, Gareth's result is out! He... tss, he got 92 points!"
Suddenly, a student shouted, causing Gideon's expression to change slightly.
92 points was an incredibly high score! Second in the ranking, only 3 points below Laura.
"95 and 92 points, huh?"
Ethan touched his chin while looking at the screen.
Judging by everyone's reactions, those two scores were extremely high.
With that reference established, Ethan also roughly estimated his own result. He felt quite confident.
As time passed, Gideon entered the evaluation field. Relying on the defense of his Venusaur, he obtained a score of 91 points, one less than Gareth. This infuriated him.
"Hahaha! Looks like the top two spots will be ours and Captain Laura's."
Gareth let out a loud laugh at Gideon's score, gave him a mocking look, and then turned his attention toward Captain Laura, whom he admired.
But when his gaze landed on Laura's face, he was surprised to discover that she was looking toward a corner of the field... where there was some ordinary-looking boy.
"Who's that?" Gareth's face darkened slightly.
He had thought that this time he would finally catch Laura's attention with his performance. But not only did she not look at him even once, her full attention was fixed on that plain-looking boy.
At that moment, Ethan had no idea that someone already held a grudge against him. When he saw his name appear on the screen, he smiled and approached.
After verifying his identity with the staff, Ethan slowly entered the exam field.
Perhaps because of Laura's gaze, even though most didn't know Ethan, they still set their attention on him, wearing puzzled expressions.
"Well then, let's begin."
"Go, Vibrava."
Ethan first placed his hand on Slowking's Pokéball, but after hesitating for a few seconds, he shifted it and instead chose Vibrava's Pokéball, releasing it.
"Vibrava, my safety is in your hands."
Ethan smiled as the little one perched on his arm.
"Viiibbraa!"
Vibrava cried excitedly, fluttering in the air. It loved that feeling of being needed.
Choosing Vibrava for this evaluation was a decision Ethan made after observing the other trainers' performances.
At the beginning, the defensive core of his team was Shellder, who—with its ability Overcoat, the moves Barrier and Aqua Ring—had excellent performance.
However, after both Shellder and Slowpoke evolved into Slowking, although Slowking's defense was still very strong, losing the Overcoat ability also meant losing certain advantages, especially in sandstorm environments.
In addition, Slowking's psychic talent was so outstanding that Ethan began thinking of it more as the team's main special attacker.
That's why he considered training another defensive core. At first he wanted to capture a Pokémon with the ability Overcoat or Magic Guard.
But Vibrava's growth gave him an unexpected surprise.
With its ability Levitate and its control over wind, Vibrava could now partially influence the air currents within a sandstorm.
Especially after fully mastering Tailwind, Vibrava could create a windless zone inside the storm, isolating the sand currents in an area around the trainer.
Because of this, Ethan began training it as the new defensive core of his team.
(End of chapter)