He conferred quietly with Garchomp for a while.
"The battle can continue."
Baimu brought it back to the original side of the field, its fighting spirit blazing.
Following close behind, Ying Ma's expression was full of admiration mixed with a trace of jealousy—Garchomp had never treated him this well. As its real Trainer, it was hard not to feel complicated.
But.
With such a short time to mesh, how much of its strength could Baimu actually draw out?
Ying Ma was full of anticipation.
The others had the same "let's watch the show" mindset: relying on just fifteen minutes to get familiar with a Pokémon, then using it to fight Kendall, the arena's second-in-command.
However you looked at it, the chance of winning wasn't high, right?
It was practically like someone used to firing rocket cannons suddenly picking up a submachine gun he wasn't good with, then going head‑to‑head against a guy holding an automatic rifle. Just bizarre.
Otsuka and the rest trusted Baimu blindly, ready to cheer him on at any moment.
Kendall glanced at Ying Yuan, then walked to the designated Trainer's box with a Pokeball in hand. Having received instructions, he didn't need to worry about whether beating Baimu would hurt his boss's pride—he just had to focus on the battle.
"Let's hope you don't disappoint me."
He took a deep breath and hurled the Pokeball high.
Bang!
Light flared.
"Moo!!"
A short‑snouted mammoth with brown fur like a small hill landed, kicking up dust. Then it raised its forelegs, its loud bellow echoing through the empty arena.
Garchomp leapt into the field, refusing to be outdone as it roared:
"Gaaaar——!!"
Even though the opponent had the Ice Attribute that restrained it, as a proud Dragon-type Pokémon, no matter what kind of foe it faced, it would never fall behind in momentum.
Ayana frowned, thinking Kendall had brought out yet another Pokémon with a counter Attribute. He really didn't leave any room.
What kind of tactics could possibly break through so many disadvantages right now?
Her curiosity grew, and she tried to put herself into that situation—
Only to draw a complete blank.
First, she would never use an unfamiliar Pokémon to battle someone. Second, even if she did have that idea, unruly Dragon-type Pokémon wouldn't be on her list.
She would only consider Dragon-type Pokémon that had the Water Attribute.
Because that was the Attribute she understood best.
While Ayana pondered, both sides in the arena gave their orders.
"Frozen Fang!"
"Jump up and cover the field with Sandstorm!"
"Moo!"
Mamoswine charged at Garchomp with a bellow, its massive weight making the ground violently tremble with every step forward.
Its pair of huge Ivory tusks turned from jade‑white to icy blue in an instant, as if forged from solid ice, continuously venting a white, mist‑like, terrifying Frozen Qi.
"Gaaaar!"
Garchomp leapt, spreading its wide fin‑blades like a great roc spreading its wings, and visible yellow sand sprayed down from its body, surging out toward all directions like a terrifying tsunami!
Rumble!
Mamoswine acted as if it hadn't heard a thing, plunging straight into the overwhelming Sandstorm, its ferocious charge not slowing in the slightest.
The people around were puzzled by this sight.
"Using Sandstorm against a Pokémon with the Ground Attribute… what's he trying to do?"
"Did he use the wrong Technique?"
Before they could talk it through, Mamoswine raised its Frozen Fang high like a heavy cavalryman lifting a lance and charging. But just as it drew close, Garchomp mysteriously vanished.
Mamoswine froze on the spot. "Moo?"
Kendall was taken aback and quickly shifted his gaze around the field to search for Garchomp's silhouette, but the arena wasn't that big, and he still couldn't find it.
A Pokémon that big, suddenly gone without a trace?
How was that possible!
An outside Trainer cried out, "It's the Sand Concealment Trait! Garchomp used its Trait to hide in the Sandstorm!"
"Nonsense! Since when does Sand Concealment have such freaky effects!"
"That's just you being ignorant!"
Flying sand and swirling stones stung the eyes.
The sky‑filling sand and dust, like a Tornado, howled and spun, locked tightly within the field, and with its highly dense coverage, it blocked every searching gaze.
But that did nothing to dampen everyone's enthusiasm for looking for Garchomp.
Ying Ma rarely treated Sandstorm as a serious Weather Skill. He basically saw it as a damage Technique like Quicksand Hell. Now, seeing Garchomp practically disappear, his eyes couldn't help but light up.
As for where it would be…
Ying Ma, Ying Yuan, and Kendall—who finally caught on—simultaneously looked up at the sky, and immediately spotted Garchomp's faint silhouette hidden in the wind and sand.
The others gradually noticed it too, exclamations ringing out one after another.
"Use Quicksand Hell around Mamoswine!"
Baimu shook his head as he gave the order. Trainers with relatively more professional experience, upon seeing Garchomp disappear because of its Trait, would definitely not forget to check the sky when searching, because the fact that Garchomp can fly is hardly obscure trivia.
Kendall didn't know much about Garchomp; he probably hadn't paid much attention to Ying Ma and his Pokémon over the past six months, so he missed the airspace at the critical first moment.
Even though only about ten seconds passed between losing sight of the target and tracking Garchomp down again, most of the time, opportunities exist only within a few seconds, or even just a single second.
"Gaaaar!"
Garchomp roared, whipping up an even larger quicksand cyclone as it dove toward Mamoswine on the ground!
Kendall shouted urgently, "Blizzard!"
"Moo!"
Mamoswine lifted its head and opened its mouth, spewing out white, billowing wind and snow, like an inexhaustible torrent that slammed brutally into the descending quicksand cyclone!
Boom!
A deafening rumble!
The two raging gusts, laced with sand and snow, crashed and ground against each other in the center of the field. At a glance, they actually looked evenly matched.
But soon.
Blizzard, with its higher base power, gradually began to push Quicksand Hell back bit by bit, making Ying Ma, who was tense enough to clench his fists, grow increasingly anxious.