In the first match of the final tournament of the Ever Grande Conference, the six-on-six all-member battle between Ash and the "Cool Beauty" Katie was still going on.
Ash commanded his Torkoal to easily defeat Katie's Golduck and managed to push her into a desperate corner, all going along with his plan. Facing arguably the strongest Trainer in the tournament in Ash, Katie sent out her Ace Walrein with the dual Water/Ice-types.
This Walrein was her Starter Pokémon and also her strongest Pokémon, so in order to defeat Torkoal, she was forced to send it out at the beginning of the battle despite planning on using it as her final Pokémon.
At this moment, Torkoal had been hit by a Hydro Pump and so was a little injured. This was her best chance to attack and turn the tables. Not only types, but coupled with Walrein's powerful Thick Fat ability, she had a major advantage against the pure Fire-type Torkoal, "Walrein, use Ice Beam to make it can't use any moves to escape!"
This was the fourth time that Ash has faced a Walrein. Of course, the strongest one was still the one used by Glacia, which was still not the one normally used but her second lineup one, but the one Katie is using in front of him is still behind.
For that win, he had to use his newly reached Bonds Evolutions Manectric.
"Lava Plume!"
The tacit understanding between Ash and his Torkoal is only getting stronger and stronger. The scorching lava was already enough to resist a Water-type attack, not to mention able to resist the Ice-type Ice Beam. The attacks continued to go on for a few seconds but quickly cooled down and turned into little bits of bright starlight and scattered into the wind as both sides came to a stop.
"So beautiful!" May's eyes lit up, Ash using his opponents skills to improve his own one is a common thing he does, and it works especially well in Pokémon Contests because it can deduct a lot of points from the opponent without them being able to stop it.
"Yeah, I have seen something like this in his battle against one of his opponents in a Pokémon Contest," Winona hugged her fluffy partner Altaria and cheered on her lover.
"Damn it!" Seeing Ash's ability, Katie gritted her teeth, "Walrein, use Hail!"
Despite her wanting to use another powerful Water-type attack now, she knew it would be useless as Torkoal could match its power and maybe even hit her, so she needed to chip at its health slowly.
After hearing the order, Walrein roared into the sky and it slowly started to hail over the entire area. Although the audience were safe from the actual hail under the stadium's barriers, they could still feel the cold so they wrapped up into their clothes even more tightly, so Togetic and Altaria used their Safeguard to help the people near them resist the cold wind.
"Wow, you two are so awesome!" Molly jumped into Altaria's soft, white feathers alongside Togetic.
Taking advantage of the ongoing heavy hail curtain, Katie launched another attack, "Walrein, use Brine!"
This move had an incredible secondary damage bonus, since it is already a Water-type attack, and Torkoal's injury was sufficient enough to be able to use this under the Hail weather conditions, so now this move was twice as powerful.
Torkoal fired a Flamethrower to try and beat it, but it seemed that Walrein's control over Hail was very advanced, so it didn't manage to hold up for any longer.
Ash lost his first Pokemon in the battle.
"Awww, now they both lost a Pokémon, it's equal again!" Katie sighed.
However, Gary laughed out loud and said like a true experienced Pokémon Trainer, "Molly, if you want to be a Pokémon Trainer, you need to make sure that you always pay attention to the things around you, which includes this battle."
"This battle is not equal at all, Ash still holds the real advantage," Gary continued with the same expression, "he still has 5 Pokémon that have not appeared yet, but his opponent has already sent out three of theirs!"
This style in a six-on-six full battle was anything but simple.
The Trainer has to choose six Pokémon from the many Pokémon they have on hand to form a compatible team to fight opponents, and especially how to take advantage of each other and make up for each other to do better damage. The order in which these six Pokémon will need to appear and what tactics are needed to be formulated also need to be carefully considered for each opponent.
In the battle with Gary during the Johto Region Silver Conference, Ash used this to push and build a team of six Pokémon that heavily countered Gary's Pokémon's and won himself the battle pretty easily.
Now, Katie's three Pokémon had to work one after another to only manage to defeat Ash's Torkoal, and that was still only his first of six Pokémon. All of her carefully made layouts and planned tactics were now mostly sitting there in ashes.
"Stand up for battle, Manectric!"
Ash sent out his Manectric, which was able to battle and pretty much beat Glacia's Walrein.
At that time, Manectric had only evolved and could only have such combat prowess because it was using Bonds Evolutions.
But now, Manectric didn't take that fat sea lion seriously enough to have to choose to use Bonds Evolution, not to mention this one.
However, Katie took Walrein back at this moment, "Dugtrio, it's your turn to battle!"
Among the six Pokémon Katie decided to use for this before, there was the Ground-type Dugtrio, which she added to counter and defeat any annoying Electric-type Pokémon she has to face and to also make up for the weakness of her Water-types in Golduck and Walrein.
However, Ash would naturally not let her get her wish so easily, "Roar!"
"MANROAR!"
Manectric has also been training with Growlithe under Entei and Raikou, so it was only natural that his roar was going to be powerful.
Being inside of Roar's range and being able to use a move like Protect, Dugtrio was forced to turn into red light and return to its Poké Ball in confusion. Then another red light showed up, and it was the same Venomoth that was taken back before it was able to be dealt with.
It was already seriously injured in its battle against Torkoal, and now before it could even react to the idea that he was called out again, it stared blankly at the golden super saiyan Manectric in front of it.
"Thunder!"
Before Katie could give Venomoth a command to use Protect, the golden Thunder hit Venomoth hard into the solid ground below, now it was really crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, something even the Fire-type Torkoal didn't get the chance to do.
"Venomoth loses its ability to fight, Manectric wins this battle!"
For a moment, the whole audience went from carefully looking to cheering wildly.
"Ash's Pokémon are simply too powerful for any tactics to work properly. Katie has already lost two of her Pokémon and her other revealed Pokémon, Walrein, has also sustained some injuries!" The commentator was of course very excited to be able to commentate one of Ash's battles, especially one of these where he was so easily able to switch things around.
"Damn it!" Katie took her defeated Venomoth back and looked at Ash grimly, his handsome face morphing into something else, "Please, Dugtrio!"
She then sent out her Dugtrio to fight again, and hopefully not let something like what happened before to happen again, "Dugtrio, use Sand Tomb to trap Manectric!"
A huge quicksand pit appeared on the battlefield below them, spreading straight towards where Manectric was at.
"Come back, Manectric!" Ash took Manectric back. Although stronger than Dugtrio by a good chunk, most of its skills were of the Electric-type and had little to no effect on Dugtrio. Additionally, even though Ash was confident in his and Manectric's prowess in dealing with Dugtrio without much issues, why would he waste his time on that when he could use it to train some of his other Pokémon?
"Stand by for battle, Phanpy!"
Ash's plan was simple—have no plan, just a Ground-type against another Ground-type.
In situations like these, he liked to use Pokémon with the same type as the opponent to fight. Not to mention that this was also quite effective in training Phanpy.
"It's Phanpy!" Molly cheered when she saw Phanpy.
She and Phanpy were great friends, always playing with each other.
Molly had always loved Phanpy, so much so that she created one to fight against Ash during their first meeting at the Crystal Tower.
Before in this rocky field with uneven terrain, Phanpy's signature Rollout attack had no obvious advantage, but the current Phanpy has richer skill variations.
"Earth Power!"
The energy from the earth poured into Phanpy's feet, and the entire battle venue seemed to start to tremble, but not like the way it would if it was using the much stronger Earthquake, and Dugtrio's Sand Tomb soon collapsed as it couldn't control and dodge at the same time.
"Dugtrio, use Double Edge!"
Katie seemed to have lost her cool again and let her Dugtrio rush towards Phanpy. And since it was like a gift running to him, of course Ash would not let it go, "Take Down!"
Now was time for the famous "hand-to-hand" combat where neither side had hands.
The atmosphere of the whole place was ignited again. Although Phanpy was very cute, his power was not to be underestimated.
The moment they clashed, he knocked Dugtrio away with his trunk and rolled itself back.
Then, under the gaze of the audience at the scene and all the ones around the world who were in front of their televisions, it was enveloped in the dazzling white light of evolution.
"Oh my Arkoos, Phanpy has evolved! Ash's Phanpy actually evolved at such a moment!" The commentator cheered loudly, and everyone stopped moving, looking forward to this moment of evolution in surprise and excitement
Not counting his Togetic that he hatched together with his Kanto crew back then, this was the first Pokémon that Ash hatched a Pokémon from their egg to evolve.
After evolution, Donphan was no longer as cute, but that trade was worth it as it was now much stronger. Its gray skin looked to be very thick, and regular attacks like Tackle and Quick Attack cannot even damage it anymore. The dark skin that extends from its nose to the back of the tail was even harder and tougher.
During the Rollout process, Donphan was not only able to better control its direction, it can also exert greater power because of its bigger, and stronger body.
And that still wasn't the end, it has grown the tusks that Ash has been waiting for.
These tusks will slowly grow with age. Next, Ash has to choose a biting move and teach it to it.
For example, Fire Fang, it will be a spear with two flames instead of well being in the fangs.
Of course, due to his young age, Ash's Donphan was not much larger than the average species of his. It reached a height of around 1.3 meters, but it will definitely become even bigger in the future with proper training and nutrition.
"Let's decide the winner here, right now!" Ash's and Donphan's eyes flashed simultaneously, "Earthquake!"
Katie saw Donphan lift up his thick front legs and step down hard. The shock wave spread, and it felt as if the entire stadium was about to collapse.
Dugtrio was instantly defeated as it was underground for some reason, and now Katie has lost her third Pokémon. According to the rules of the tournament, the first half is now over.