Subvenue No. 2 – Water Field
"Disperse."
A mature-looking male Trainer commanded the Pokémon on the field.
"Bzz~"
The Electric-type Magnezone hovered in the air. It calmly separated its three Magnemite components for a brief distance, avoiding the Golduck's Water Gun from below.
"Psychic—don't let it combine again."
The opposing Trainer clearly understood Magnezone's unique ability and its weakness.
If the three Magnemite units failed to recombine within a short time, Magnezone's stamina and energy would drop drastically for a while. Even a Pokémon at the quasi-Elite level would fall to Advance level after such a weakening.
The mature-looking Trainer, however, remained completely calm.
Magnezone's special ability indeed came with heavy restrictions, and the side effects of a failed fusion were severe—but preventing that fusion required one thing: overwhelming strength.
Stopping the three Magnemite from reuniting through magnetic attraction was, quite simply, an incredibly difficult feat.
"How boring. No tactics, just brute force," Yezo complained from his seat.
Beside him sat Silas.
"Yeah, I can't see any distinctive battle style here at all," Silas replied, watching the match with faint disinterest.
For an Advance-level Golduck to try preventing a quasi-Elite Magnezone from recombining was an ambitious idea—but far too optimistic.
The magnetic pull among the three Magnemite was explosively strong.
Quite literally—explosive.
When Magnezone appears, its intense magnetic field can cause precision machinery to malfunction or even explode. In nearly every modern city, if a Trainer releases a Magnezone outside its Poké Ball, local Officer Jenny would issue a warning; in serious cases, it could even violate regional laws and result in penalties.
Of course, one only dared do this when their strength far exceeded their opponent's.
If that Golduck had also been quasi-Elite level, the Magnezone's Trainer likely wouldn't dare risk using this ability at all.
That's exactly why both Silas and Yezo found the battle dull,since moves that the opponent would never use against them had no analytical value.
Watching Magnezone forcibly recombine under Golduck's Psychic attack, then immediately release a high-voltage Thunderbolt that overwhelmed the confused Golduck, Silas stood up.
"Forget it—let's go somewhere else. This opponent's too weak; we won't learn anything."
Yezo nodded and followed him out.
"Doesn't seem like any of the top-ranked Trainers have a match today."
Silas checked the Pokémon League's official schedule displayed on his wrist device.
There were thirty-two total matches in the first half-day. By the time his own battle had finished, over twenty had already ended, leaving few options to watch and they'd just wasted time at that boring Water Field.
"Let's head to the Rock Field. Two Trainers ranked around a hundred are fighting there. No quasi-Elite Pokémon, but it should still be exciting."
Yezo quickly pulled up another match listing.
"Sure. I'll gather some intel for you too—you're weak enough that you might even lose to them," Silas said calmly.
"How generous of you," Yezo replied with a dry smile.
"You're welcome."
Bantering back and forth, the two made their way toward Subvenue No. 4—the Rock Field.
"Looks like it's already intense."
By the time they arrived, the battle had been going on for a while. The large screen at the edge of the arena clearly displayed the current situation—each side had already lost one Pokémon.
Both were now battling with their second Pokémon.
The two quickly sat in the reserved Trainer seating section near the stage.
Since the main competition had begun, tickets for each subvenue were nearly impossible to buy—but as registered participants, Silas and Yezo enjoyed certain privileges.
The League had specially set aside a limited number of seats for them.
Still, these were few, so most Trainers preferred watching the TV broadcast from their rooms. The difference in viewing wasn't significant, and the broadcast camera angles often provided a clearer look, sparing them from worrying about visibility.
Later, in the Main Stadium, things would be different, seats for all sixty-four advancing Trainers would be arranged clearly, ensuring every participant could watch the battles live.
Moreover, because appearing on the televised main event helped build their reputation, and because they could observe battle tactics up close, nearly all Trainers chose to attend in person, unless they were a seeded Champion candidate who lost embarrassingly early in the top 64 to top 32 round.
In such cases, they might skip attendance out of shame.
"Mud Shot!"
On the field, the red-side Trainer commanded his Rhydon to attack.
"Ascend!"
The blue-side Trainer frowned briefly but decided to have his Crobat evade the attack.
From a damage perspective, a Poison/Flying-type Pokémon like Crobat would naturally be immune to Ground-type moves such as Mud Shot.
However, Mud Shot had an additional effect—it always lowers the opponent's Speed to some extent (depending on level difference; the closer the levels, the stronger the effect).
With nearly equal levels, being struck multiple times would erase Crobat's speed advantage completely.
That was fatal for a Pokémon whose entire strategy relied on speed.
Thus, the blue-side Trainer had no choice but to order his Pokémon to dodge.
The secondary effects of moves were quite fascinating—they didn't rely on the attack causing damage.
This was different from the game mechanics of Silas's past life:
In the games, if a move's type had "no effect" against the opponent, no damage or secondary effect would occur because the attack wasn't calculated as a hit.
However, in real-world Pokémon battles, contact and secondary effects occur simultaneously—there's no sequential calculation.
Meaning, even if you used a Ground-type attack against a Flying-type Pokémon, as long as the move hit, it might still trigger stat-lowering or status-related effects, despite dealing no damage.
If that status or stat change succeeded, it would still apply—even if only slightly.
This principle was similar to that of status moves (like Growl or Tail Whip).
Against opponents of similar strength, status or stat-change moves could only influence ability values after multiple accumulations, gradually impacting the battle's outcome.
You would never see a Level 1 Pokémon's status move dramatically weakening a Level 100 Pokémon in one turn.
Multiple Pokémon using the same status move could stack effects, but quality outweighs quantity in most cases, "power" cancels out the influence of "numbers."
If a Standard-level Pokémon wanted to significantly weaken a Champion-level Pokémon with stat-reducing moves, it would take far more than just a few dozen to make a difference.
In Silas's earlier match, Nora Summers had used Shadow Ball—a Ghost-type move—against his then Normal-type Pidgeot during Roost, for the same reason.
Shadow Ball had roughly a 20% chance of lowering the target's Special Defense, providing a potential opening for her next Pokémon.
Since Pidgeot was recovering HP via Roost and temporarily lost its Flying type, it was only Normal-type. Instead of dealing minimal chip damage with weak moves, it made more sense for her to set up for her next Pokémon.
Powder moves like Stun Spore couldn't reach Pidgeot anyway, as the wind pressure from Air Slash's preparation created an air vortex that blocked them.
Only semi-physical projectiles like Shadow Ball could make contact.
Had that single Shadow Ball succeeded in lowering Pidgeot's Special Defense, her second Pokémon—Vileplume—might have been able to land a powerful Grass-type move to drain a large portion of Pidgeot's stamina.
That would've improved her odds slightly; even if it ended in a three-for-one loss, it would've been better than being swept outright.
Unfortunately, luck wasn't on her side.
Additionally, "secondary effects" here mainly referred to stat changes, which were unaffected by type immunity.
However, status conditions like Paralysis, Poison, and others still followed type immunity rules.
For instance, Electric-type Pokémon still couldn't be paralyzed by Thunderbolt, and Steel-types couldn't be poisoned by Toxic unless the user had the Corrosion Ability.
Likewise, certain status moves ignored type immunity altogether—such as Perish Song, a Normal-type move that still affected Ghost-type Pokémon.
Type immunity only negated damage, not status or stat changes.
Perish Song directly induces a fainting countdown rather than inflicting HP-based damage, hence it bypasses that immunity.
Similarly, Toxic fails on Steel-types because they are immune to the Poisoned status, not because Poison-type moves deal no damage to them.
Other Poison-type status moves—like Gastro Acid, which suppresses a target's Ability—do work on Steel-types.
One of the few exceptions is Thunder Wave, which fails to affect Pokémon whose types are immune to it.
For instance, Thunder Wave usually doesn't affect Ground-type Pokémon, and if a Pokémon with the Ability Normalize uses Thunder Wave, it won't work on Ghost-type Pokémon.
When using a damaging move that also has a chance to inflict a status condition, it's treated as if two separate moves — one that deals damage and one that can inflict status are being used simultaneously. These two effects don't interfere with each other.
That's why sometimes even seemingly useless moves can produce surprising results, and battles between Trainers often become more unpredictable because of these underlying world rules.
On the battlefield, Crobat moved with dazzling agility, deftly dodging every attack from Rhydon and occasionally struck back with Absorb to sap its opponent's energy and restore its own HP.
Although Ground- and Rock-type Rhydon should, on paper, counter a Poison- and Flying-type Crobat, battles aren't decided by type matchups alone.
Crobat excelled at using Absorb and Mega Drain—both Grass-type moves and since Rhydon had virtually no resistance to Grass-type attacks, even these normally weak moves dealt super effective damage, practically hitting as hard as type-advantaged moves.
Combined with Crobat's superior mobility, the Rhydon found itself momentarily suppressed.
Of course, that was only in terms of appearances. Given Rhydon's overwhelming Attack power, even a single direct hit from a Rock-type move—double super effective against Crobat—would undoubtedly knock it out instantly.
At best, Crobat might be left with a sliver of HP but that would hardly make a difference.
Crobat couldn't use moves like Destiny Bond or Explosion to drag its opponent down with it either.
Right now, the Crobat on the blue side looked as if it were dancing on the edge of a blade — every dodge was a brush with death.
"Who says Crobat rules only in the night? It can dance gracefully under the sunlight too! What a breathtaking display of flight!"
A different commentator's voice rang out different in tone, but with a similar energetic style.
As a commentator, his grasp of the battlefield situation was quite sharp at least sharper than most of the audience, who couldn't always tell what the Trainers and Pokémon were doing.
Thanks to his explanation, the spectators began to understand just how difficult Crobat's maneuvers really were.
Otherwise, watching Rhydon throw rocks and Crobat dodge them would have felt like watching a game of dodgeball — maybe with some green Absorb particles as decoration not exactly thrilling entertainment.
After all, they'd spent money and time to watch a proper match, not hide-and-seek.
Silas and Yezo, both strong Trainers, could see much more than the average viewer.
"This Crobat's control over its Supersonic is incredible it predicts every rock's trajectory in advance," Yezo remarked, amazed at how the Crobat narrowly avoided each incoming attack at the last possible moment.
As a Trainer who also owned a Crobat, he had the authority to make that judgment in fact, his own Crobat was even stronger than the one in the match.
"Yeah, and its temperament is really well-trained. All those bad wild instincts have been corrected," Silas added.
He had more expertise in Pokémon breeding and training.
There's a clear difference between wild Pokémon and those raised from birth especially for aggressive species like Crobat. Silas could easily tell that this one was originally wild, not raised from an Egg.
That made its performance even more impressive.
Wild Crobat are extremely greedy once they latch onto prey, they drain blood relentlessly until they become too heavy to fly. It's a common problem among them.
But this Crobat, every time it used Absorb, withdrew right after contact — never overindulging, like a true assassin of the night.
Even well-trained Crobat raised from Eggs rarely show that kind of discipline.
"Agreed," Yezo nodded. "Even my Crobat sometimes gets carried away during feeding frenzies. It's obedient, sure, but it can lose its cool."
That wasn't necessarily bad a frenzied Crobat hit harder but in serious battles, staying calm was far more important. Best to avoid that state if possible.
Then again, his Crobat was still young. Once it matured more, those issues would probably fade.
"The Rhydon's been trained pretty well too. I noticed that several times when Crobat approached, it actually reacted, but didn't strike. I think it's pretending — waiting for the perfect moment to land a decisive blow," Silas analyzed after observing closely.
The battle was indeed captivating. Silas couldn't help but imagine how he would handle the same situation a common habit among experienced Trainers.
Coincidentally, Silas owned a Rhydon, and Yaezo had a Crobat both at the peak of the Advance level so the two started mentally simulating their own hypothetical match.
As time passed, the situation on the field began to settle.
Boom!
Rhydon's massive body crashed to the ground, eyes swirling it was unable to continue battling.
Across the field, Crobat didn't look much better. One of its wings drooped lifelessly, barely able to flap, while the other was covered in scars — just enough to keep it aloft.
It was a double knockout situation.
The blue-side Trainer clearly wouldn't switch out, but given Crobat's current state, the moment the red-side Trainer sent out their next Pokémon, it would be taken down instantly.
Silas and Yaezo reached the same conclusion.
And indeed, the red-side Trainer sent out their third Pokémon a Crawdaunt. One simple Water Gun was enough to finish Crobat off.
The blue-side Trainer then sent out their final Pokémon Sceptile, a Grass-type.
Looks like this Trainer was from the Hoenn region.
The red-side Trainer's face darkened; he'd expected this, but a Water-type Crawdaunt against a Grass-type Sceptile was a nightmare matchup.
Five minutes later—
"Crawdaunt is unable to battle! Sceptile wins!" the referee announced the result.
Both Trainers stepped down from their platforms, shook hands, and even exchanged a brief hug.
The audience responded with loud applause and so did Silas and Yezo.
To be honest, this kind of match was far more enjoyable to watch than most others. Only Silas's own intense 3-vs-1 sweeps could compare.
At the very least, the audience definitely preferred these evenly matched battles.
One-sided fights were exciting, sure but they got boring fast. Otherwise, people could just watch the Elite Four crushing rookie Trainers all day.
"When's your match tomorrow again? I'll see if I can make time to watch it," Silas said in his usual teasing tone.
Yezo was long used to it. "Second match in the morning. I checked none of the other arenas have any Pseudo–Elite-level Pokémon competing."
"Alright then, guess you're the only one worth— hey! Why are you kicking me?! You bastard! Don't you dare run!"
Before Silas could finish, Yezo kicked him from behind.
Enraged, Silas immediately chased after him.
Under the setting sun, the Trainer Village looked especially beautiful still full of youthful energy and spirit.
....
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