The battle began quickly.
Crispin lightly stroked the Poké Ball in his hand, his face full of excitement.
He dared to say, even if he wasn't the strongest among Blueberry's Elite Four, he was definitely the one who understood Axel's usual battle Pokémon the best.
To make his name known far and wide, to let Flint see his efforts, today was the day.
Crispin had even already pictured the scene: Flint, after learning that he had defeated three of Axel's Pokémon, couldn't help but exclaim "the younger generation is truly fearsome."
Given Flint's love of battling, it was even possible that he might invite him, after graduation, to directly follow him to Sinnoh as his assistant.
Just thinking about such a scene, Crispin couldn't help the corners of his mouth lifting, almost bursting out into laughter.
"Come out, Blaziken!"
With a flash of light, Crispin's Blaziken appeared on one side of the arena, flames dancing around its body.
This Blaziken had been raised by Crispin quite well. Its body was a size larger than a normal Blaziken, with bulging muscles along its frame.
Clearly, this Blaziken, much like Infernape, was a physically offensive type.
Seeing Blaziken appear, confidence instantly lit up Crispin's eyes.
This was the moment, the chance to make his name.
"Axel, please release your Pokémon."
Crispin wasn't worried about Axel changing tactics after seeing his Blaziken, because the order of the lead Pokémon had already been locked in at the second registration.
Which meant, Axel's first Pokémon was absolutely going to be Nihilego.
Axel smiled brightly and nodded, "Then I won't hold back."
Crispin also nodded, emphasizing heavily, "You mustn't hold back!"
Axel raised an eyebrow, "You said that yourself?"
"I said it!"
"Good," Axel said no more and threw out a Poké Ball, Dragonair's.
A flash of light, and the pink-and-white Dragonair appeared opposite Blaziken.
Crispin's confident expression instantly collapsed into confusion.
'What the hell is this?'
'Your poison-stall team is so powerful, and yet at the key moment you don't use it?'
'How is that reasonable?'
The spectators below all stared at the battle in shock.
Especially Carmine, who had managed previous matches. Her mouth hung wide open.
'This too… is a tactic?'
'This man is terrifying…'
At first he let Dragonair and the others show up, then suddenly swapped to stall mid-battle.
Now, when all of Blueberry thought stall was his ace, at the Elite Four challenge he switched back again to the dragon team.
This move, no matter who was sent out, would leave them completely dumbfounded.
"Elite Crispin's face looks so pitiful, he was so high-spirited before, now his mouth won't even close."
"Damn, someone close by hurry and shut Crispin's mouth, I can't hold back my shy Machamp anymore."
"Crispin really has it rough, I wonder if Boss Gholdengo will even give him a consolation prize after this beating."
"Blaziken against Dragonair, if it can win this, I'll let my Machamp be someone's bed-warmer!"
"Eh, you're asking for a reward?"
The Machamp trainer was speechless,b"No brothers, I'm serious, stop laughing. My Machamp's a male I brought over from Johto!"
"Huh?"
———
"Elite Crispin, don't just stand there."
Axel smiled cheerfully at him, "I'm in a bit of a hurry, after all, you've still got four left."
"Oh, right!", Urged by Axel, Crispin finally snapped awake.
"Blaziken, use Quick Attack to get close!"
Blaziken gave a firm nod, stomped its right leg hard against the ground, and shot forward like a bullet.
"Useless," Axel didn't take the Blaziken's offensive seriously at all.
Though Blaziken's base stats were higher than Dragonair's, as a pseudo-legendary, Dragonair naturally had extremely strong innate potential.
Compared with Raihan, called the "Child of Weather," who could summon multiple weathers alone, Dragonair was the true king of weather.
In fact, Kanto's Lance even kept two Dragonair unevolved, precisely to retain the free manipulation of weather.
Halfway through Blaziken's rush, a sudden gale swept the arena, howling against its body.
Its feathers bristled, friction with the air increased, and its speed visibly slowed.
By the time it neared, Dragonair had already flown into the sky.
"Blaziken, use Brave Bird to knock her down!"
"Dragon Rush!"
Axel didn't hesitate at all, having Dragonair choose to clash head-on.
Though Dragonair's stats were weaker, its level and training were higher.
More importantly, it had the powerful Dragon's Might trait, cutting the opponent's damage in half.
In such a head-on collision, there was no way it would lose to Blaziken.
At their trainers' commands, both Pokémon's bodies flared with energy.
Beside Blaziken, Flying-type power nearly condensed into solid form.
As one of the strongest Flying moves, Brave Bird was all-out, with no holding back, reckless and relentless.
After use, it even inflicted recoil on the user.
Whistling winds exploded outward with Blaziken at the center, forming a vortex that locked onto Dragonair's figure, leaving it nowhere to dodge.
Dragonair too refused to yield, Dragon-type energy surging endlessly around it.
This energy wasn't focused, instead dispersing evenly, forming a huge dragon-shaped phantom around Dragonair.
Just in momentum alone, Dragonair suppressed Blaziken.
Blue and violet energies collided at the center, bursting and roaring in terrifying detonations.
The two Pokémon drew closer and closer, the center of the field erupting with crushing wind pressure from the clash of energies.
Briar and Crispin hurriedly retreated, ducking into safety.
Other students hastily packed up their sunflower seeds, peanuts, and mineral water, ready to bolt at any moment.
The practiced smoothness of it was heartbreaking.
BOOM!
Finally, Blaziken and Dragonair slammed into each other.
At the instant of impact, a terrifying shockwave erupted midair.
Dragonair's dragon cry and Blaziken's roar rang out from the explosion's core, and Crispin's heart sank.
'Not good!'
Sure enough, before the explosion's energy even dispersed, Blaziken's body was already falling hard from the center, its descent even faster than its ascent had been.
In contrast, Dragonair looked completely unbothered, grinning down at the Blaziken on the ground.
Crispin instinctively clenched his fists, his whole being sinking into dazed disbelief.
'How could this be?'
'It is just a Dragonair!'
His Blaziken had already evolved to its final form, its level wasn't low either, how could it be suppressed like this?
"Dragon Dance," Axel didn't bother explaining, nor did he have Dragonair press the attack, instead choosing to take the chance to set up with a Dragon Dance.
Dragonair's battle sense was very high, and its conditions were excellent.
As long as no mistakes were made, it could absolutely sweep the team with ease.
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