Join my p@treon for more chapters
p@treon.com/Tempest_29
Nathaniel had not expected Noibat to use such a cunning strategy. The Sound-type Pokemon released provocative sound waves that directly disrupted Kingdra's Rain Dance, preventing the weather-changing move from taking effect.
"Kingdra, use Ice Beam!" Nathaniel commanded without hesitation.
Rather than letting the interruption of his weather strategy discourage him, Nathaniel quickly adapted his approach. Since Rain Dance was no longer an option, he would rely on Ice Beam to handle the troublesome Noibat instead. Nathaniel maintained complete confidence in his Kingdra's abilities—after all, unwavering confidence was an essential trait that every successful trainer needed to possess.
Kingdra's elongated, tube-like snout began gathering frigid energy. Within moments, it released a brilliant beam of ice that shot toward Noibat like a laser!
"Dodge it, Noibat! Use Tailwind!" Jacob called out.
Having endured countless hours of intensive evasion training, Noibat felt no pressure when facing Kingdra's Ice Beam attack. With an effortless and graceful aerial maneuver, it avoided the freezing assault with remarkable ease.
Simultaneously, Noibat opened its mouth again, and Flying-type energy spread outward along with its ultrasonic waves, blanketing the entire battlefield. Under the influence of this Flying-type energy, wind began to sweep across the arena. For the next several turns, the speed of Jacob's Pokemon would receive a significant boost from the power of these tailwinds.
Nathaniel observed the agile Noibat and felt genuinely challenged for the first time in this battle. It was becoming clear that Kingdra could only maneuver within the confines of the pool area, making it extremely difficult to land any direct attacks on Noibat as it soared freely through the air above.
"Kingdra, compress your energy and use Ice Beam!" Nathaniel ordered with fierce determination.
Nathaniel had earned his reputation as the strongest lord-level trainer in the entire Drakehold Dragon Secret Realm, so he definitely possessed considerable tactical skill. Kingdra began continuously compressing ice energy within its elongated snout, carefully building up power. When the ice energy had been compressed to its absolute maximum capacity, it suddenly unleashed the attack!
The compressed Ice Beam moved with incredible velocity, resembling a precision sniper shot as it sent a concentrated beam of ice energy flying directly toward Noibat's position.
"Noibat, use Protect!" Jacob shouted urgently.
Faced with the compressed Ice Beam's enhanced speed and power, Jacob didn't dare gamble on whether Noibat could successfully avoid such a precisely aimed attack. Instead, he chose the safer approach and had Noibat employ a defensive technique to completely block Kingdra's assault.
"Noibat, use U-turn!" Jacob's voice rang out again immediately.
After successfully defending against the attack with Protect, Jacob's voice sounded once more. Noibat's entire body became wrapped in Bug-type energy. Taking full advantage of the speed enhancement created by the Tailwind move, it crashed into Kingdra like a bolt of lightning, dealing moderate damage before quickly retreating back into its Poke Ball.
U-turn was widely considered one of the few truly exceptional moves among Bug-type attacks. Not only did it pack considerable power, but it also possessed the unique effect of allowing Pokemon switching, enabling the user to retreat without being affected by restrictive moves like Ingrain, Bind, or Shadow Tag.
Naturally, because of this move's remarkable versatility, its price was also quite steep. Noibat had only been able to learn this valuable technique because Nina had thoughtfully brought the U-turn TM just the previous night.
Thinking about this generous gesture, Jacob couldn't help but want to search for Nina's graceful figure somewhere in the audience, but since he was currently engaged in the middle of an intense battle, he couldn't afford to let his attention wander!
Jacob could only suppress this distracting thought and took out another Poke Ball, releasing his powerful Charizard onto the battlefield!
"Roar!" Charizard announced its dramatic entrance with a mighty, intimidating cry.
After using Taunt and Tailwind to create the perfect offensive environment for Charizard's arrival, Noibat had strategically used U-turn to bring the Fire-type Pokemon onto the battlefield at exactly the right moment.
This had been precisely the carefully planned strategy Jacob had intended to execute.
"Charizard, use Dragon Pulse!" Jacob commanded with authority.
Jacob chose to have Charizard employ Dragon Pulse at this crucial moment, not only because Kingdra possessed a quadruple resistance to Fire-type moves, but more importantly, all of Nathaniel's Pokemon team members were doubly weak to Dragon-type attacks due to their typing.
Charizard, empowered by its Solar Power ability which enhanced its special attacks in harsh sunlight, could unleash a Dragon Pulse attack that would definitely make solid contact with Kingdra!
"Kingdra, dive underwater immediately!" Nathaniel reacted with lightning-quick reflexes.
Nathaniel's battlefield instincts were remarkably sharp and well-honed, and he immediately chose to have Kingdra retreat beneath the water's protective surface, using the liquid barrier to absorb and reduce the devastating power of the incoming Dragon Pulse.
Kingdra quickly submerged itself completely beneath the surface, successfully avoiding Charizard's Dragon Pulse attack entirely!
Looking at Kingdra now hiding safely beneath the water, Jacob also found this tactical situation quite challenging to handle effectively. If he wanted to defeat Kingdra decisively, he would first need to force it out of its underwater sanctuary.
"Charizard, use Heat Wave on the water surface!" Jacob called out with determination.
Following Jacob's strategic command, scorching breath poured forth from Charizard's mouth, covering the entire water surface area and continuously heating up the temperature of the pool!
This limitation existed because Charizard wasn't quite powerful enough yet. If it were at the Gym Leader level or Heavenly King level, a single concentrated Fire-type attack could directly evaporate all the surface water completely, rather than simply heating it up gradually.
Observing Charizard's heating tactics, Nathaniel understood that he had to have Kingdra fight back aggressively at this crucial moment.
"Kingdra, compress your water energy and use Hydro Pump!" Nathaniel commanded firmly.
As the water temperature continued to rise steadily, and following Nathaniel's urgent order, Kingdra suddenly thrust its head above the surface, bravely enduring the scorching heat of the Heat Wave attack, and fired a powerful Hydro Pump from its cannon-like mouth. A beam of brilliant blue energy flew straight toward Charizard like a high-powered water laser.
"Charizard, Dragon Pulse!" Jacob countered immediately.
The compressed Hydro Pump fired at tremendous speed, colliding violently with the dragon energy emanating from Charizard's mouth, causing a massive explosion that sent shockwaves across the battlefield. Water droplets splashed everywhere, falling all around the arena like artificial rainfall.
"Charizard, full power Dragon Pulse!" Jacob shouted with absolute determination.
Jacob couldn't worry about anything else at this critical moment. He really couldn't think of any other effective strategies that might work. Additionally, the Taunt move that Noibat had used earlier wouldn't maintain its effect much longer, so he could only have Charizard use its maximum available strength to perform Dragon Pulse and provide overwhelming offensive firepower.
"Roar!" Charizard responded with fierce determination and fighting spirit.
"Kingdra, maximum power Hydro Pump!" Nathaniel found himself with no other viable choice either.
If it weren't for Noibat's Taunt move still being in effect and preventing status moves, Nathaniel would have been able to have Kingdra use Rain Dance to enhance its Water-type attacks, but now he could only rely completely on Kingdra's most powerful Hydro Pump assault.
Two Pokemon—a rainy day special attacker and a sunny day special attacker—were now engaging in the most straightforward and honest type of battle: a pure contest of raw power!
The massive Hydro Pump collided head-on with the concentrated Dragon Pulse, their opposing energies intertwining and forming the most basic kind of energy clash imaginable. This had become a complete test of raw offensive power!
"This is absolutely incredible!" someone in the gathered crowd exclaimed with excitement.
"It's a pure energy contest! There's no advanced technique involved whatsoever. It's simply a competition to see whose Pokemon has superior control over their elemental energy!" another fascinated spectator observed.
"Nathaniel and Jacob are truly evenly matched in skill! The first round has been absolutely thrilling to watch!" yet another enthusiastic voice called out from the stands.
Both Jacob and Nathaniel were concentrating intensely on the dramatic competition unfolding before their eyes.
They both clearly understood that this crucial exchange might very well determine the final outcome of the first battle. Charizard and Kingdra were both releasing their accumulated energy with everything they possessed, and the violent collision of their opposing powers was becoming increasingly unstable and dangerous.
"BOOM!"
A tremendous explosion echoed across the entire battlefield, and the collision of opposing energies created an enormous cloud of thick smoke while sending water splashing dramatically in every direction.
When the smoke finally cleared completely, it revealed Charizard lying motionless on the solid ground and Kingdra floating unconscious in the pool. Both Charizard and Kingdra had lost their ability to continue battling, resulting in a draw for the first round.
"It's a draw!" Delilah announced from the commentary booth with evident surprise in her voice.
"No one expected the first battle to end in a tie!" Leon added with an impressed smile. "But to be completely honest, Jacob's Charizard performed better overall during the exchange."
"Why do you say that?" Delilah asked with genuine curiosity.
"Although Jacob's Charizard has its Solar Power ability activated which boosts its special attacks, it was using Dragon Pulse, which isn't a same-type attack bonus move and therefore isn't as naturally powerful as Nathaniel's Water-type Hydro Pump which receives the same-type attack bonus."
"Furthermore, Jacob's Charizard only evolved just last week, so it's still some considerable distance away from reaching the Overlord level of power, while Nathaniel's Kingdra is very close to breaking through to the Overlord level. After taking all these important factors into consideration, I believe that if Charizard is given more time to develop and train, Jacob's Charizard will definitely become the stronger of the two Pokemon."
"But the first battle alone was so exciting and well-fought that it makes me look forward to the remaining matches even more!" Leon continued his detailed analysis.
"After losing his ace Pokemon Charizard, Jacob now has only a Sceptile and a Noibat that hasn't evolved yet remaining in his active roster. Meanwhile, Nathaniel still has his Altaria with its quadruple resistance to Grass-type moves and his Tyrantrum with its extremely powerful close-combat abilities and deceptive appearance. It's fair to say that the current situation looks quite advantageous for Nathaniel moving forward," Leon analyzed thoroughly and objectively.
"So Mr. Leon, are you saying that Jacob will lose this match?" Delilah pressed for a more definitive prediction.
"I didn't say that at all," Leon replied diplomatically, naturally unable to make such a definitive judgment so casually during live commentary.