"Slowking — beaten, just like that??"
Ronan was stunned. His Elite-Four-class Pokémon, beaten just like that?
And this was without the other man amplifying it, and still it could not be matched — never mind what it would have been with the Viridian Power behind it.
Looking at that Slaking lolling on the field, Ronan felt his scalp crawl. The grace of those punches, one after another, carried a presence that stopped the breath.
How was a Pokémon like that to be fought?
If his strongest, Slowking, could not hold, the rest were only going out to be served up.
"That's it. This is as far as I go."
Ronan murmured it, took up a Poké Ball and drew Slowking back, then threw out another with no spirit in him at all and called out a second Pokémon, a Gym-class Quagsire.
"Bang—"
One more punch from the Slaking, and Quagsire fell over stiff and did not stir.
"Quagsire is unable to battle. The victory goes to Slaking."
"As expected."
Ronan's face was dejected. He sent out another Pokémon, and there was hardly any commanding to be done: the match began and the Slaking threw one punch.
His Pokémon went down, and then it was unable to battle.
A steamrollering of a battle, moves made out of sheer absolute strength. Against that, no tactics were of any use at all.
"There it is. This Vance has an Elite-Four-class fighter too, and it's that Slaking."
Aurelian, who had been following the battle on the field, said it aloud.
"How would that Slaking do? If you came up against it."
Elspeth said it, looking over at him.
"It shouldn't be able to beat my Dragonite. Roughly a match for my Salamence and the others."
A few seconds later, Aurelian gave his answer.
His Dragonite had been Elite-Four-class for a long while now, and Dragon types as a rule fight above their tier; even against an equal they are formidable.
For him to say such a thing was to rate this Slaking very highly.
"Mind yourself when you come up against that Wren shortly. The Raticate is easy enough to handle — it's the Raikou that's the trouble."
"I know."
Elspeth answered. The next round was hers against Wren.
She had prepared herself for it as well. The further this went, the more certain it was that the few of them would meet.
"Here, what do you make of this Vance? If he came up against Wren, would there be anything worth watching in it?"
The thought came to Elspeth all of a sudden.
"This Vance."
Aurelian thought it over carefully, and then said:
"His own abilities aren't weak — he carries two kinds of power. Only it isn't enough. So far only that Slaking has Elite-Four-class fighting strength, and if that's all there is, he is no match whatever for that Wren. A Raikou is not a Slowking."
Aurelian shook his head, and his tone left no room for doubt.
"I rather think he still has a card he hasn't shown."
Elspeth said it instead, watching Vance make his way down. She smiled slightly, then set off up the steps.
This time it was her battle against Wren, and she would need to be careful.
"Now this will be worth watching."
Vance said it with a laugh, taking a seat beside Ambrose and Emery.
Neither of the two out there was any simple matter — one of them connected with Agatha of the Elite Four, the other with the Godbeast Gang — and a clash between the two of them was something he was glad to see.
It was a high-level match as well, and worth studying properly.
He reached over for a bag of crisps the "trio" had sent up and settled down to watch, taking in the whole business purely from a spectator's point of view.
The two on the field took their places and sent out their Pokémon together.
A Mismagius and a Raticate.
Both Gym-class Pokémon.
"Mismagius against Raticate — that will be the Mismagius, I should think."
One glance and Vance knew how it would end.
And it ended as he had supposed. After a few exchanges the Raticate fell to the Mismagius.
"Come back, Raticate."
Wren said it flatly, drew the Raticate back, and then sent out Raikou.
"Roar—"
A snarl came like a tiger's or a leopard's, and Raikou came on to the field, gold all over and covered in lightning.
"Raikou, is it. Then let me see what it's made of."
A Poké Ball was thrown, and a Gengar far smaller than others of its kind appeared on the field, a powerful presence showing out of that small body.
"Sss-heh—"
The Gengar laughed its sinister laugh, and then, seeing Raikou, put the laugh away. It knew the other one would not be easy.
She had no intention of feeling her way in. She put straight out her trump card, the Gengar which had not once been on the field since the tournament began.
"That Gengar can't be a simple one."
Vance gave his judgement. A Pokémon as unlike its own kind as that was either far too weak or far too strong.
Given the circumstances, it was certainly the latter.
He looked with the system and had the Gengar's details: Champion-class aptitude, energy level 65.
Raikou was Champion-class aptitude, energy level 66.
The two looked evenly matched.
"Roar—"
An air of majesty came off Raikou, and the force in that part of the field ran about unsettled, with fine arcs of electricity filling the place.
"Sss-heh—"
The Gengar was not afraid. Black vapour rose off it, swallowing the light around it, and all of it went dark.
"Thunderbolt!"
Over on the other side, Wren spoke, opening the attack.
As far as the eye could see, lightning filled the air and came straight down.
And in that dark stretch a pair of blood-red eyes appeared, and split open in the middle like a mouth opening, and ate the Thunderbolt down.
"Thunder! Let's see you hold that!"
"Boom—"
A dozen and more bolts of lightning came down, ploughing the ground as they went.
The Gengar had not yet moved when a cold, pitch-black mist of power was seen rising off Elspeth herself, working on the Gengar somehow.
The black shadows churned and gathered themselves into a Gengar of enormous size.
From that presence Vance seemed to catch a scent of great antiquity.
*Some power out of deep antiquity? So she has a power of her own as well — a Ghost-type one?*
Vance guessed at it. The Pokémon world was vast, and besides the mainstream psychic powers and the Viridian Power and the like, there were "minority" powers as well.
There were others too, such as the Transcendent Power and the Dragon Power, more out of the way, the kind one did not ordinarily come near.
And hers was one of those, a Ghost-type power.
Out on the field a giant Gengar had appeared, a good dozen metres tall by the look of it, with Raikou at its feet looking tiny.
"Devour!"
Elspeth shouted it. There was no telling what means she was using, but her face had gone somewhat pale.
"Sss-heh—"
Waves of spatial force appeared through the Gengar's body, and it drew the oncoming Thunder in.
"Agatha's people are out of the common run after all. But that isn't enough. Raikou, use Extreme Speed, get in close, Thunder at full strength."
Wren gave the order. There was force enough in that move of the Gengar's, but there is always a limit to how much energy a thing can take in, and he did not believe otherwise.
"I knew you'd do that. Gengar, spread the field wider — then Shadow Punch!"
The shadows around the Gengar spread outwards. Across that field of shadow, one huge shadow fist after another rose up.
The moment Raikou came close, fists past counting came smashing in.
Lightning struck out and swept the ground around it clean.
Raikou came down, and it was already ringed about with black shadow.
There was danger hidden in those shadows.
"Wild Charge!"
"Shadow Sneak."
"Boom, boom, boom—"
The dark region covering the greater part of the field shook without stopping. Inside it, lightning past counting came off and tangled with the power of the Ghost type, energy colliding with energy, giving off a presence that appalled.
The intensity of the energy was high enough to trip the arena's safety mechanisms. Some of the standard protective measures came up, and a squad of "arena guard Pokémon" made up of Psychic types appeared in front of the spectators' stands.