"Yes!" exclaimed one of the Sinnoh Elite Three.
Others' pain is their delight~
Hehe... they naturally don't think Fang Yuan will lose.
Even if Fang Yuan eventually becomes the champion of the tournament, they wouldn't be surprised.
In the past few days, they had developed quite a shadow over Fang Yuan.
They guessed that even if Hirona's Garchomp with Mega Evolution at full power and Danti's Gigantamax Charizard were to battle, they wouldn't be able to stop Fang Yuan's abnormal Pokémon...
...
...
Shallowtown.
An ordinary town in the Sinnoh Region.
The busiest it gets is probably when the dazzling contests are held here.
"I heard on the internet that Tobias came here to challenge someone, that's why he came here."
"What was the name... Marina?"
"She's a top female Coordinating Trainer, I can't believe a Coordinating Trainer made it into the top 100 of the championship; isn't that even more impressive than Miss Melissa?"
"What's wrong with a Coordinating Trainer, didn't Mikkeli become one of the Eight Masters anyway?"
Fang Yuan listened to Ohba, Aliu, and Wusong chatting behind him, a vein throbbing in his forehead.
"Weren't you guys supposed to go back? Why did you follow me here?"
Moments ago, they had all wanted to leave Alamos Town more than anything, hoping never to see him again—so why, upon hearing that he was challenging Tobias, did they follow with such eagerness???
"Ah? Did we..."
"Haha... We just came to see how the battle goes," Aliu and the others said with a chuckle and a scratch of their heads.
They were just curious... curious what Pokémon Fang Yuan would use to beat Tobias.
Curious whether Tobias, upon facing a top-class Trainer like Fang Yuan, would bring out even stronger Pokémon.
"You guys were just talking about... Marina?" Fang Yuan asked.
"Yes, Miss Marina is a top Coordinating Trainer who's here in town for a public performance battle."
"She's very strong, ranked 90th in the championship, so Tobias probably came to Shallowtown to challenge her after her performance ends."
Wusong's information gathering was quite good.
A Trainer with a championship ranking of 90... means that even if she doesn't have a full team at King Level, she's not far off.
And besides, she is a Coordinating Trainer.
Knowing her name, Fang Yuan felt reassured.
"If it's her, then there's no mistake about her strength," he said.
In the games, the player-controlled protagonists almost always end up as the champions of the League.
In the animations, however, these characters hardly appear, replaced by all-new figures adapted for animation.
For example, the legendary Trainer Red became the silly fellow Xiaozhi in the animation.
The protagonists of other versions almost always have their equivalents, such as the male protagonist Akio from "Gold/Silver" in the games who appears as "Kenta" in the "Raikou: Legend of Thunder" special edition of the animation,
while Marina is modeled after Kris, the female protagonist from the "Crystal" version of the game.
She also appeared in the DP animation with the identity of a top Coordinating Trainer and model.
As the dazzling contest spans four regions, having only the Master Mikkeli surely isn't enough; Marina and other top Coordinating Trainers are the foremost powerful figures apart from Mikkeli.
In the top 100 of the championship, there are not only the Four Heavenly Kings and Museum Owners, but also representatives of other professions like Marina.
"What, do you know her?" Ohba asked.
"I've heard of her..." Fang Yuan said, "Alright, Tobias is at the public battle arena, right?..."
"But if we go there now, he might not accept the challenge."
......
In wait for Marina, Tobias has been accepting challenges from passersby at the largest public battle arena in town, killing time.
News of his appearance in Shallowtown spread just like that.
Unknowingly, Fang Yuan and his three companions arrived at Shallowtown's public battle arena.
They arrived just in time to see Tobias, clad in a red cloak with grey wavy curls, commanding Darkrai to defeat a challenger in mere seconds, causing the challenger to spiral into despair.
The difference in strength between them was simply on different dimensions.
"So, so strong."
The challenger painfully recalled his Pokémon, looking at the man before him who smiled faintly.
All around the arena, exclamations could be heard.
"That's outrageous, his 37th consecutive win."
"No matter who challenges him, they're instantly defeated by Darkrai."
"After all, he's a Trainer ranked within the top 50 of the championship, said to have strength rivaling the Four Heavenly Kings."
"But why would such a person be here accepting challenges from just anybody?"
Fang Yuan and his group settled down at the edge of a set of stands where many Trainers were engaged in heated discussions.
Hearing the spectators' confusion, Fang Yuan looked over, thinking it must be for the purpose of training his Darkrai,
strengthening it through a relentless cycle of Hypnosis, Dream Eating, Hypnosis, Dream Eating.
After all, for the Dream God, Dream Energy is the best way to grow stronger.
"King Level..." Fang Yuan quickly gauged the strength of the opposing Darkrai.
Very strong, in comparison to ordinary Trainers.
Very weak, in comparison to him, since even the lowest of the Darkrai summoned by Hoopa are at King Level.
"Mom, if Miss Marina and he were to fight, who would win?"
As Fang Yuan, Ohba, Aliu, and Wusong observed the situation on the field, a mother and daughter sat in the row in front of them.
At that moment, the daughter, wearing a white knitted hat and a pink skirt, curiously asked the lady sitting next to her.