"Incredible, incredible! I never expected our esteemed Red's ace fighter in the second round to be the ancient-era Kabutops!"
"Originally, Kabutops was already regarded by some Pokémon professors as an ancient Pokémon that had long gone extinct. Fortunately, the League officials discovered numerous surviving ancient Pokémon in Great Canyon in time and designated Great Canyon as a protected area for ancient Pokémon."
"Of course, trainers who have made contributions to the Kanto League are still allowed to capture one ancient Pokémon they fancy from the ancient Pokémon reserve. And the discoverer of the Great Canyon reserve is none other than our very own Red!"
The announcer excitedly explained, practically wanting to reveal every detail about Red.
However, the announcer still barely maintained his rationality. Setting aside the complexity of Red's background information, excessively introducing Red's history in public was basically a direct way of offending people. The announcer had no desire to have someone as influential as Red remember him personally.
Moreover, in order to preserve some of Red's mysterious image to the public and prevent the audience's anticipation for Red's future matches from decreasing, the announcer wisely shut his mouth and stopped revealing any more information.
The moment it appeared, Kabutops fixed its fierce gaze on every corner of Nidorino's body, as if searching for weaknesses.
Kabutops rubbed together the sickles on its arms. The friction produced a faintly sharp screeching sound, causing the nearby Nidorino to feel uncomfortable.
As a predator from the ancient era, Kabutops emitted a bone-piercing killing aura that indirectly affected the originally battle-ready Nidorino.
This was Nidorino's first time facing an enemy like Kabutops, whose instinctive reactions naturally radiated such terrifying killing intent. Feeling uneasy inside was inevitable.
"Nidorino, don't let Kabutops' presence affect you. Calm yourself and charge in with Horn Attack!"
Standing at the command platform, A.J. decisively ordered. At first, even A.J. himself had been affected by Kabutops' chilling killing aura, but he quickly overcame it and encouraged Nidorino to cast aside its fear of Kabutops as much as possible.
"Kabutops, use Aqua Jet!"
Seeing how much A.J. had grown, and out of respect for him, Red chose not to let Kabutops fight autonomously and instead gave it direct battle commands.
Wrapped in flowing water, Kabutops immediately sprang into action. With lightning-fast speed, it arrived before Nidorino in an instant and slammed fiercely into its body under Nidorino's shocked gaze, dealing considerable damage.
Fortunately, Nidorino had not yet evolved into Nidoking. Otherwise, it would have suffered double-effective damage from Aqua Jet.
"Nidorino, pull yourself together! Are you alright?!"
Seeing Nidorino injured, A.J. asked worriedly.
Nidorino quickly stood back up, shaking its head repeatedly before letting out several low growls toward A.J., signaling that it was fine.
"Good! Keep that spirit going and use Fury Attack!"
After hearing A.J.'s command, Nidorino immediately rushed toward Kabutops and repeatedly thrust the poisonous horn on its forehead at Kabutops.
"Clang—"
Kabutops chose not to dodge and instead continuously blocked Nidorino's Fury Attack using the sickles on its arms.
"Metal Sound," Red said calmly.
After skillfully evading another of Nidorino's thrusts, Kabutops crossed the sickles on its arms and scraped them together, producing a piercing metallic screech.
"Zzzzzz..."
The unbearable Metal Sound continuously tortured Nidorino's hearing while greatly lowering its Special Defense.
Seeing Nidorino shut its eyes due to the agonizing noise, Kabutops seized the opening without hesitation and charged forward with Razor Shell. Its sharp sickles slashed across Nidorino's body, sending it flying several meters away.
"Finish it with Water Pulse!"
Water gathered within Kabutops' arms and quickly formed into a vibrating sphere of water.
Under Kabutops' control, the Water Pulse immediately rushed toward Nidorino and struck its body head-on moments later, knocking it to the ground.
"Nidorino is unable to battle!"
Seeing this, the referee skillfully announced the result of the match while casually pulling out his pocket watch to check the duration of the round.
(As expected, it didn't even last two minutes...)
Perhaps because he wanted to temper A.J.'s abilities, Red did not instruct Kabutops to launch relentless overwhelming attacks, which was why this round lasted longer than the first round's single minute.
"So strong!" ×5
Ash's group of three, Gary, and Leaf all exclaimed in shock at Kabutops' outstanding performance.
Although Ash and the others had fought against Kabutops before, that memory was already from two months ago and had become somewhat vague.
Besides, after undergoing two months of training under Red, Kabutops' strength had obviously reached an entirely new level.
"I didn't expect that Kabutops to be this fast. As expected of brother's Pokémon!" Ash exclaimed emotionally.
"Not only that, Kabutops didn't even suffer any damage. Otherwise, its [Weak Armor] Ability would've definitely activated."
Gary analyzed carefully while observing Kabutops' condition on the grassy battlefield, noticing that it wasn't even slightly out of breath.
"These two only ever become this synchronized and quiet when researching Red's battle tactics..."
Seeing this scene, Leaf helplessly shook her head and complained.
"Since it's a Water-type Pokémon, then I'll leave it to you, Parasect!"
After initially determining that Kabutops was likely a Water-type Pokémon, A.J. immediately sent out Parasect, which specialized in countering that attribute.
Parasect was a Pokémon formed from a combination of an insect-like creature and mushrooms. The lower half, which functioned as the bug portion, was entirely orange. After evolving, its eyes turned blank white, it possessed three pairs of legs, and its front pair transformed into giant pincers.
Its original mouthparts could no longer be seen, while the yellow-spotted red mushroom on its back had grown larger than the host body itself and completely controlled the Pokémon's consciousness.
(How should I put this... honestly, this Pokémon's evolution method is pretty tragic. Evolving is basically the same as dying...)
Seeing Parasect's dry skin, Red guessed the reason A.J. had chosen it. But to confirm his suspicion, Red decisively ordered Kabutops to use a light Water Pulse in order to verify Parasect's Ability.
As expected, when Parasect was hit by Water Pulse, its body showed no signs of injury. Instead, its dry skin became moisturized, and Parasect even revealed a delighted smile.
"As expected, it's the [Dry Skin] Ability," Red said leisurely.
(Dry Skin: Pokémon with this Ability are unaffected by Water-type moves. When hit by a Water-type move, they recover 1/4 of their maximum HP.
During rain or heavy rain weather, Pokémon with this Ability recover 1/8 of their maximum HP every turn.
If a Pokémon with this Ability is hit by a Fire-type move, it receives 1.25× damage.
During harsh sunlight or extremely sunny weather, Pokémon with this Ability lose 1/8 of their maximum HP every turn.)
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