"Sylveon, use Swift!"
Inside the pink Mist, Sylveon was completely unaffected—moving as if the haze were her natural terrain. As soon as she closed the distance to about three meters from Heracross, golden star-shaped projectiles burst from her mouth, shooting forward like a hailstorm.
"Heracross, get airborne!"
Miwako snapped back to focus the instant she heard Ash's command.
"Hera!"
Heracross's carapace split open at the back, revealing the thin, translucent wings hidden beneath. With a sharp buzz, it shot upward, escaping the Mist in an instant. Sylveon's Swift barrage cut through the haze but failed to hit its airborne target.
"So she chose to fly…" Ash murmured. "Heracross hides its wings inside the carapace, so it's easy to forget it can use Flight. Same tactic she used in her match against Lamport—basic, but effective."
Ash narrowed his eyes.
"But I'm not the same person I was before entering the Naruto world. Life-and-death battles force you to stay sharp, no matter how small the match."
Heracross hovered, but only barely. It was a power-type Pokémon, built for strength, not long-term flight. The weight of its heavy exoskeleton made prolonged hovering impossible.
Sure enough, as Ash predicted, Heracross began drifting downward and finally landed on the thick branch of a nearby tree.
"Draining Kiss!"
Sylveon appeared beneath the tree trunk the moment Heracross perched on it—perfectly timed. A playful smirk flashed across her face as a glowing heart-shaped energy construct formed in front of her chest before shooting upward.
"Hera—!"
The heart struck Heracross head-on.
Instantly, nearly half of its stamina was drained, siphoned through the glowing tether and returning to Sylveon in a swirl of soft pink light.
Sylveon's wounds closed one after another—her energy restored significantly.
Draining Kiss, a Fairy-type technique, absorbed the target's stamina and returned it to the user. The stronger the Pokémon performing it—and the closer the range—the greater the absorption.
"Damn it… she's completely reading me."
Miwako gritted her teeth. Heracross was already breathing heavily, and she hadn't found a counterattack window.
"Fairy Wind!"
A pink whirlwind erupted from Sylveon's position and spiraled upward toward Heracross.
"Heracross, dodge!"
With no way to counter head-on, Miwako resorted to retreat tactics.
"Hera!"
Heracross darted from branch to branch, wings buzzing lightly. Despite being a power Pokémon, its mobility was superb. Sylveon's Fairy Wind chased it, but Heracross's agile movements allowed it to avoid taking damage.
Ash nodded slightly.
"Good flexibility. As a power-type Pokémon, Heracross isn't as strong as Tyranitar, but its agility is far superior. Every Pokémon has its advantages."
Ash's eyes sharpened. His Sharingan-trained observation dissected every movement Heracross made—every twitch, glide, landing angle. What he saw was pure, unfiltered data.
"Alright… Sylveon—Swift, at three o'clock!"
"Eh?!"
Miwako froze, confused by the directional command.
But then she understood.
Sylveon fired a second wave of Swift toward the three-o'clock direction—not toward Heracross's current location…
…but toward where Heracross's evasive pattern would inevitably lead.
Heracross dodged Fairy Wind again—
And landed exactly in the trajectory of Ash's predicted strike.
BOOM!!!
The exploding barrage of golden stars struck Heracross dead-on.
"Hera!!!"
Heracross crashed down, the earlier Swift barrage striking its knee the moment it landed. Its stance collapsed, balance completely broken. At that exact moment, the lingering pink Fairy Wind swept in and lifted Heracross off its feet again, slamming the beetle Pokémon violently into the ground.
"This guy… he predicted exactly where Heracross would land."
Miwako stared in disbelief. "Even as Heracross's trainer, I can't read his landing points that precisely. Is that the difference… between a Champion-tier trainer and a mere Elite?"
Heracross lay groaning, unable to rise. After losing half its stamina to Draining Kiss—and taking repeated technical hits—it was a miracle it had lasted this long. Only the durability of its hardened carapace had kept it on its feet until now.
"Heracross is unable to battle! Sylveon wins! Please have your Pokémon undergo training at the Gym before your next challenge," Abi declared reluctantly from the referee's stand.
"Return, Heracross…"
Miwako recalled her Pokémon with a heavy heart. Sylveon stood gracefully, barely harmed, while Heracross had been pushed to exhaustion. They were the same species of battlers—fully trained, dedicated, loyal—but the gap between them felt like a vast river.
"Go—my trump card! Fraxure!"
This was Miwako's final Pokémon—Fraxure, raised from childhood, standing at the absolute peak of Elite rank. Her true pride.
"Come on, Sis! Your ace can definitely beat that idiot's team this time!"
Abi huffed. Miwako's two losses in a row had clearly soured her opinion of Ash. To her, it must've looked like pure type advantage—nothing impressive. After all, Abi was only at the high-end Elite level herself; she couldn't see the deeper layers.
"Sylveon, return."
Ash withdrew Sylveon immediately. Though Sylveon wasn't visibly injured, her life-energy reserves—enhanced through Mokuton—were nearly depleted. Continuing the fight would risk harm.
A golden Master Ball at Ash's waist clicked open on its own.
"Kirlia."
A Kirlia appeared in front of Fraxure—dressed in a white combat-styled jumpsuit, posture calm and composed. Unlike the typical delicate Kirlia, this one radiated focus, discipline, and astonishing pressure.
The real fight was about to begin.