"Impossible! How can my Raikou have lost!"
After the referee's announcement there were people below shouting that it was impossible. That lightning, so majestic, like a king of thunder — how could it lose!
"This is pure fantasy. These days a Slaking can beat a Legendary Pokémon? What's going on?"
"Here, the League betting counter, isn't it? Let me just ask — can I change my bet........."
"It's a fix. I want my money back, my money back!!"
The effect of Slaking's victory was explosive.
Raikou had lost before this too, but lost to layer upon layer of arrangement by Aurelian and Elspeth, with every method they had exhausted.
Piled up out of Pokémon, that had been. And now Slaking had settled it just like that?
"Steady, steady, lads. You there changing your bet, and that brother wanting his money back, don't be in a hurry. The best of it is still to come. The Darkrai is coming out at the end, and it will certainly win — sweeping all five is nothing at all to it. Steady."
"That's right, I nearly forgot. We still have the Legendary Darkrai, and it fears no Pokémon at all."
Aurelian and Elspeth, meanwhile, were watching Vance with complicated expressions.
"Will he beat Darkrai the same way?"
"He should, shouldn't he?"
Elspeth was not altogether sure, but in the face of one dazzling result after another from Vance, she did not deny it either.
"A dark horse. I used to think that Vance must be beneath me, and it was rash of me. On this showing from the Slaking, my Dragonite is not certain of a clean win over it either."
Up on the high stand, Lance and the others watching the match wore thoughtful looks as well.
"Ha ha ha, what a delightful surprise. You were right, Steven — this Vance really does bring surprises with him."
Lance said it with pleasure. If somebody could beat Wren and take the championship, so much the better.
And Vance's coming forward fitted exactly.
"That Slaking has been raised to something very near perfection. As I recall, Norman of Hoenn has a Slaking too, and it is raised very nearly to perfection as well, able to strike several times in succession without being affected by the Truant Ability. In the raising of Slaking, this Vance may well have caught him up already."
Agatha said it in recollection.
Norman of Hoenn had no small name among the Leagues, and all of it came from his own particular methods of raising, which could produce a Slaking that controlled the Truant Ability and was not hampered by it, so that Slaking's full strength could be brought out within a short space of time.
And Slaking's showing here, in Agatha's view, was much like Norman's Slaking.
"I knew my feeling about it was not wrong."
Bruno spoke up. He had thought so before Vance had ever taken the field, and it had come out exactly as he expected.
He had said his instincts were very good.
On the field, Wren picked up a Poké Ball and took Raikou back.
"Useless thing!"
He cursed it under his breath, and then picked up the other Poké Ball, the one that held the Darkrai — his greatest assurance.
"Come out, Darkrai!"
Darkrai appeared on the field in its drifting way, its deep blue eyes not moving at all.
It stood there quietly and did nothing else.
"Roar, roar. Here it comes, here it comes."
Slaking pulled itself together. So the Darkrai was out at last; it was from this one that it felt any sense of threat.
From Raikou there had been a little of it before the breakthrough to Elite-Four, but after the breakthrough there had been none at all.
Just then, though, Vance's voice came from behind it.
"Come back, Slaking. Let Gyarados take the field. It hasn't been out yet, and it's asking hard for the fight."
"Roar—"
Slaking was a little unwilling again. It looked at the Darkrai, and then looked back at Vance, and in the end decided to go back.
It was as he said: Gyarados had not been out yet, so let it come.
If things went on like this, Gyarados would very likely get no fight at all.
So Slaking could only withdraw, regretting it, and leave the field to Gyarados.
At the same time it was thinking that if Gyarados lost, it would have its chance to show what it could do; it would come out then and settle this Darkrai, and afterwards it could use that to laugh at Gyarados.
Mm, yes, just so. Not a bad idea at all.
"Come back, Slaking."
Taking Slaking back, Vance picked up Gyarados's Poké Ball and threw it.
"Roar—"
Gyarados came out and looked at that Darkrai.
A Legendary Pokémon, was it? Worth taking seriously, then; there was a sense of threat about it, and one careless moment could mean losing.
Just then the force of presence about it changed and climbed by steps.
"Boom—"
An Elite-Four-class pressure came out of its body.
Gyarados had entered Elite-Four-class as well!
Gyarados had been at an energy level of 60 to begin with, and the polishing of its own power had reached a certain height; breaking through now came as naturally as water running downhill.
"Rooaar—"
Gyarados roared once, and its fierce power showed itself.
"Congratulations, Gyarados. This bout was given up to you by Slaking, so mind you do well with it."
"Roar, roar—"
Gyarados answered him. Of course it would be serious about it — if it lost, would it not be laughed at by Slaking?
In the eyes of outsiders Darkrai was formidable, and yet here with Vance it was no more than a whetstone of an opponent for Gyarados and Slaking to squabble over.
To be so confident came naturally from strength of their own.
Vance had been very sure of it to begin with: even at the last moment he could send out the Alakazam, and however it was fought he could not lose!
Still more so now that he had command of the Master-class Viridian Power.
With the Master-class Viridian Power in hand, it was an overwhelming advantage against Darkrai.
The one who ought to be afraid was Wren.
Only he did not know it, and was pinning his hopes on Darkrai sweeping all five, which was not impossible.
Newly into Elite-Four-class was still no match for Darkrai.
"Dark Pulse!"
"Surf!"
"Splooosh—"
A wave of water tens of metres high rose on the field; Gyarados rode it forward, covering the ground from end to end, and came crashing down towards where Darkrai stood.
Since entering Elite-Four-class the reach of its moves had grown a good deal as well.
The Dark Pulse came in and thundered into the wave, clearing a great stretch of it away, but it did not touch the sweeping force of Gyarados's advance.
"Dark Void!"
A Dark Void rose out of the space around it, and Gyarados's wave swept across and was swallowed whole into it, doing it no harm.
Above the wave, points of starlight appeared all at once at Gyarados's mouth, a Hyper Beam gathered and formed, and it tore through the air and grappled with that Dark Void.
"Hhhh—"
Darkrai held the Dark Void, and every attack of Gyarados's was drawn into it and did not hurt it in the least.
As strong as that!
Gyarados gathered itself again and raised another attack.
There had to be an end to what this Dark Void could hold. It could not be that it would not break.